The Missionary Review of the World — May 1889
REVIEW OF THB
VOL. XL No. 5.-Old Serie3.–MAy.–VoL. II. No. 5.-New SerieB.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. I THE MISSION AND COMMISSION OP THE CHURCH.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] ONE of Dr. Guthrie's rules for preaching was: "Mind' the three , P's' : Proving, Painting, Persuading. In other words, address in overy discourse the reason, the imagination, and the heart."
Of the "painting" we are to be not a lIttle on our guard. The art that seeks to adorn the truth sometimes sacrifices it, by giving to it false features or tints: what may be fitting in the department of illus· tration misleads when it invades that of pure demonstration or definition. Here the one law is rigid exactness. Burke used to say that the words of a sentence are the feet on which it walks; to change one word, to shorten or lengthen it, or alter its place in the sentence, may change the whole course of the sentence itself.
In some things, accuracy is so indispensable that a hair's-breadth distinction may be vital, as in astronomical calculations the minutest fraction of an inch must be marked by the micrometer. For a soldier it is of the first importance to understand his" orders" ; and for an ambassador, both to apprehend and comprehend his "instructions." The church is a militant body and at the same time an embassy, or, as Leland would say, an embassadry. Too much pains, therefore, cannot be taken t6 get clear conceptions of the orders and instructions of our Captain and King.
In this article we propose to begin at the beginning-to go back to first principles. If there be any misconceptions of the Mission and Commission of the church, in respect to the world's evangelization, here is the point at which to make our corrections, adjust the variations of our compass, and start anew. The four Gospels, at their close, present our Lord's last command from four points of view; taken together, it is like a building presented with a four-fold projection. In some respects these various versions of our Lord's great commission agree; in others they differ, but it is like the discord of the se,venth, that leads to harmony; their differences supplement and complement each other. For convenience of comparison, we place them side by side.
THE MISSION AND COMMISSION OF THE
MA.TTHEW. MARK. LUKE. I JOHN.
Go ye therefore Go ye into all the That repentance As my Father and teach all na- world and preach and remission of hath sent me even tions.. baptizing the gospel to every sins should be so send I you. them in the name creature: preached in His! These are writof the Father and He that beHev- name among all ten that ye might of the Son and of eth and is baptized nations .. and ye believe that Jesus the Holy Ghost, shall. be saved, etc. are witnesses ofis the Christ the etc. these things. ISon of God, etc.
Our accepted version fails to convey the exact force of the original. For example, Matthew uses a peculiar word-(/la07jTeuO'a·re)-which is rendered perfectly neither by the word "teach," nor by the word " disciple;" the former means too little, the latter means too much. Another word used by our Lord, a little later in these-farewell instructions-(818aaxovTss)-is properly translated "teaching," for it refers to a fuller didactic training of those who believe and so become disciples; it contemplates the more perfect equipment of converts, their thorough knowledge of all the commands of Jesus, and their preparation for service. But that first word looks to no such didactic process. It marks a swifter movement, a briefer proclamation. Ohrist urges on his heralds-they are to sweep round the globe and trumpet forth the good news; then, when converts have been gathered, he would have them taught the way of God more perfectly.
Our mistake is fundamental and initial if we confuse and confound preaching and teaching, evangelization and indoctrination. The first thing to be done is to peal out the joyous tidings of salvation. Men areasleep, dead insin : they must be aroused, awakened. When a house is on fire, a ship is on a rock, a pestilence is raging or an avalanche is falling, we cannot wait to give minute instructions. We need the clarion blast of Gabriel's trump-" escape for thy life!" Then, when the peril is past, we can take time for whatever else is needful, to provide for other wants or guard against other risks. So the herald must precede the teacher; the evangelist prepares for the catechist; Paul first, then Priscilla and Aquila.
That word in Matthew (/laOTjn:uaaTe) is not adequately translated, "disciple," or "make disciples:" This means too much. Only He who can "forgive sins" can "make a disciple." We may "go" and "preach the gospel," we may become heralds, evangelists; but when we have done our best and utmost, we may be constrained, like the great messianic herald of old, to cry: "Lord who hath believed our r~port! And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed!"
That word we are discussing does not imply any necessary effectiveness. In classic Greek it means to give instruction such as a pupil needs; it is close of kin to another word (f.LavOavw) which means "to learn." As used by our Lord it can scarcely.be rendered" disciple," for, though we may gather disciples out of the nations, we cannot "disciple the nations" themselves. So to render obliges us to carry the same literalism further and place onr Lord in the absurd position of bidding us also to "baptize the nations!" There are some who think that this word does not refer to the first stage-preaching the gospel,-but to the second, training disciples ; and that our Lord is here commissioning his church to gather converts from all peoples, and then baptIze and fully instruct them. However this be, if we look at the four Gospels jointly, we shall see that one thought IS uppermost; we are to go into all the world and everywhere publish the tidings. If Matthew's words leave us in doubt, Mark, Luke, and John dispel It. As they report Ohrist's words. they are unequivocal. " Go !"_" proclaim the gospel "-"Repentance and remission of sins" to be "proclaimed in His name among all nations." "Even so send I you." " These things are written that ye might believe"_" and believing have life through His name." And in the opening of the Acts, Luke adds a fifth version: "Ye shall be witnesses nnto me, unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
We often carelessly say that the church is commissioned "to convert the world." The phrase is not scriptural, and we fear it is at least misleading. We may insure contact, but we cannot assure conversion; and if we are powerless to effect it, we are not responsible for it. The use of this word, convert, and its equivalents in the Bible, is very significant. Often as it occurs it is generally used passively or in- transitively. "Shall be converted," * "lest they convert" t-orturn, etc. In Acts xxvi: 18, a proper grammatical construction compels us to render intransitively, "that they may turn about," etc. James uses the word transitively, t but he refers to the reclamation of errin,t disciples; "brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him," etc. And the change of voice is especially noticeable in Psalm Ii: 13.
" Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee."
Here the very distinction is preserved which we would emphasize: we may teach transgressors, but we cannot convert them. Of course conversions have followed and will follow the proclamation of the gospel; but not even the most devoted herald can assure them. We are thus careful to lay down the platform of principles npon which we are to carryon the work of evangelization, because we dare not add to, or subtract from, the exact terms of our divine mission and commission. This is no case of a distinction without a difference. On the contrary, we are persuaded that upon our thorou,th acceptance of this Biblical basis han,ts the proper prosecution of the whole work of evan,telization. And therefore we now proceed to show seven vital relations which such a conception of evangelism bears to the believer's work for souls• • Psalm II : 13. t Isaiah vi : 10. ~ James v : 19,20. I. The limits of our commission are the limits of our authority.
Paul writes: "We are ambassadors for Christ." An ambassador is one who represents another; who acts in the st~ad of a sovereign. Within the limits of his instructions he carries all the authority of the monarch, the empire, the government, which he represents. But the moment he passes the bounds of those instructions, he transcends also the limits of his authority and may even forfeit his commission. It is therefore vital that we understand our commission in order that we may always act and speak with authority. Rere is a whole province in God's universal empire in armed rebellion. We who are believers are sent to offer to every rebel pardon and reconciliation; as though God did boseech by us, to pray them in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. Weare to declare the conditions of such reconciliation and restoration, but we cannot compel any rebel to lay down his arms and submit to God. Nor is this our province. Our authority is explicit: we are empowered to publish the good tidings throughout the world; there our authority begins and ends. So long as we confine ourselves to that, behind us, backing up our message, stands the whole Godhead! But the moment we begin to think of it as our work to "convert" men; we are tempted to tamper with the gospel, to abate its seeming severity, to make it more attractive; or even to invade the province of the Holy Spirit and seek to move directly upon the unrenewed heart and will.
It is a dangerous busine5s, this trying to induce men to consent to the gospel. Paul refers to this perhaps when he says, "Weare not as many who corrupt-(xa7r7J}.ouwres)-adulterate the word of God."* These kapeloi, or hucksters, tavern-keepers, were notorious for adulterating their commodities, for the sake of large sales and selfish gains. What a temptation to the gospel preacher to soften the severity of the terms, for the sake of winning men! "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" "An hundred measures of oil." "Take thy bill and write fifty." What a snare to the church to accommodate her spiritual standard to the natural heart and become worldly, to draw the worldly! What a temptation to count converts and justify as legitimate the means by which their number is swelled to new proportions!
Now, be it remembered that, if, even for the sake of drawing men to God, the ambassador adds to or diminishes aught from his message, he . no longer speaks with authority. Rebels may be induced to yield on our terms or their own terms; but until there· is submission on God's terms there is no reconciliation! The only way to keep out of the clutch of this subtlest satanic temptation is to keep steadily before us that our work is evangelization rather than conversion. Let us preach the gospel just as our Lord has bidden us, and jnst as he gave it to llS .2 Oor. Ii; 11. to preach; then we speak with all the authority and power of God be· hind us. But however much we may yearn over souls, we must keep to our instructions, lest passing them we not only forfeit all authority. 'but betray the souls we seek to save.
II. The limits of our commission are the limits also of our responsibility.
That word, responsibility, is lull of awe. How far are we held "ac. countable for the souls of others? When is their blood on our skirts, and when is it no longer required at our hand? To be held to answer for the final loss of one soul is a load that no believer can bear; Paul's exclamation gets thousand·fold emphasis: "Who is sufficient for these things!" But, thank God! it is not so. We need look no further than that gospel in Ezekiel to learn the law of responsibility. * Originally God alone was responsible, for he only had power to save, or even knowl· edge of salvation. When he appointed ambassadors and committed to them the message, that transferred responsibility to them. The messenger becomes a mediator: havmg the good tidings and being commissioned to stand between God and the dying souls of men. Now observe, that from the moment the gospel is fully and faithfully proclaimed, responsibility is again transferred to the hearer! In every step and stage of this process and progress, the transfer of knowledge implies the transfer of obligation. The wicked is warned; he may not be won; but the watchman is free of blame.
The moment the gospel herald becomes unduly anxious about its reception, he risks forgetting his own work and intruding upon that of the hearer, and of the Holy Ghost. Perhaps he loses courage, bold· ness, peace. He begins to doubt and distrust not himself only but God. He is mixing up his own responsibility with that of those to whom he speaks. In other words, the herald reproaches himself with the heedlessness of his hearers; the ambassador, with the perversity of his sovereign'S foes. No! blessed be God, to discharge our duty, by earnestly and lovingly preaching the gospel, is to be discharged of all further responsibility.
Paul had passion for souls-" great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart "-could wish himself "accursed from Christ, for his brethren." Surely no cold heart, no mere sense of duty, goaded him on. Yet when, at Antioch in Pisidia, those "brethren" "judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, and even raised persecution against him, he "shook off the dust of his feet," in solemn token that he shook off all responsibility for their condemnation, and departed; and at Mile· tus he said to the Ephesian el,ders, "I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I haTe not shunned to declare unto you aU the counsel of God! "
We may be as faithful as Paul, but all we can do at our best will ~ Exe>iel XYiii., xxxiii, not, of itself, insure one convert or disciple. It will still be true as of him: "Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not." Some," ever learning will never come to the full knowledge of the truth." Not a few will become gospel-hardened, which is worse than sin-hardened. But Paul's duty was done irrespective of how many believe and obey. The limits of our commission and of our responsibility must coincide; and becansfl conversion is not our commission, for conversion we are not held accountable.
III. The limits of our commission are the gauge of our success.
We are con.stantly tempted by Satan, and by our own carnal hearts, to weigh in human scales and to measure by worldly standards, the results of our work. Not only in the world, but, alas! in the church, the satanic spirit is abroad, that dares to ask that supremely selfish question: Do missions payf In this inquiry lurk! a latent heresy. It assumes that we are capable of estimating results; still worse, it implies that our estimate of results may lawfully affect our obligation. Both these premises are radically unsound. The tendency is to walk not by faith but by sight, and to judge by appearances; and, because it fosters this tendency, our whole system of statistical returns is misleading and perniciously liable to abuse. Is a minister of Christ to be judged by the-number of converts he gathers in a given year or the amount of money he secures to the Boards?
Away with such standards of success! The most important work upon the' famous Eddystone is not visible, even at low tide. For a few hours each day patient workmen labored, anchoring to the rocks those immovable blocks on which rises and rests that symmetrical cone that Smeaton built. That work was slow and is now unseen; yet, but for that work, there would be no "Laus Deo" graven on the face of that beacon which still stands, after 130 years, off Ramhead, "to give light and to save life." It wa9 not the quick explOSion at Hell Gate that cleared the channel; but the long nnder-water tojl of miners who wrought out of sight and hearing. The first fourteen years at Tahiti passed without one convert or sign of success; yet on the work of those fourteen years rose the structure of Polynesian missions r There were nearly fifty years of fruitless toil among the Telngus before the "Lone Star" atOngole blazed forth like the sun ; but then in one year there were ten thousand converts, and the Lone Star became a constellation. Isaiah's barren ministry prepared the way for Paul's fruitful evangelism. Captain Allen Gardiner's death at Tierra del Fuego was the burial of a seed that in the next generation bore such fruit that even Charles Darwin declared that he "could not have believed that all the missionaries in the world" could have wrought such results.
God leaves none of his faithful servants to spend their strength for Jlaught. Our work i~ his work; it is from him, for him~ with him, in him; and hence there can be no failure, but we must never attempt to gauge our success by appnrent results. If faithful, our reward is sure, though" all day long" we stretch forth pleading hands" to a disobedient and gainsaying people." The Master himself was H despised and rejected of men;" "he came unto his own possessions and his own people received him not." "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord." But the fact is we are incapable of measuring our own success. To estimate result;:; requires omniscience, omnipresence, eternity. In all work there are three stages: preparatory, intermediate, ultimate; the prepamtory is often the most tedious and prolonged, where the ultimate is most glorious. Man, noblest of animals, is most helpless at first and slowe;:;t to develop. The fields of the world that have yielded the greabst harvests have been longest in the preliminary tillage. God's true missionary goes where he sends him and does what he bids him; and he succeeds, though all he may do is to plow up the hard ground and gather out the stones and leave a fair field for the sower.. And in God's eyes many a man who, by the. armful or wagon-load, brings sheaves to the garner, is only reaping from others' sowing.
IV. The limits of our instructions set limits to our field and work.
Christ says: "The field is the world," and no part of it is to be left untilled and unsown. If we wait to "convert" our hearers, we shall never put our working force into the whole field. Just here has been the J!reat TI"bistake ofthe church even in her missionary era! Christ's principle is DIFFUSION; our practice is CONCENTRATION. We emphasize conversion, while he emphasizes evangelization; and so our human philosophy counsels us to convert as we J!o, and so increase the convertinJ! force. The effect is that we keep tilling a few little corners of the world-field, sowing them over and over, until the soil loses power to yield, while tracts a thousand miles square have never yet borne the tread of the sower! Even disciples are asking, "Are there not heathen enough at home, that we send the flower of our youth to the ends of the earth? "
But who was He who said, "Go ye into all the world?" There will always be heathen at home, and in our churches too-the worst sort of heathen, who have heard so long without heeding that the word will never bear fruit in their hearts. No soil in equatorial Africa is half so hard for the gospel-plow as the respectable sinners in our home congregations. London has to-day a thousand more missionaries than the whole church supports on the foreign field; and so long as we hold that our commission is to convert men rather than to preach the gospel to all men, this radical error will confront us in our methods. But so soon as we accept our mission and commission as world-wide evangelization, leaving to our Commander the time and way of th0 final world-wide victory, we shall see the folly of oui- philosophy and be guided by the wisdom of God. Then we shall spread our force over the whole field; we shall cease to compare respective fields, and mass our forces upon those which promise the quickest, largest harvests; we shall simply obey our Master and leave all the rest with him.
We' write with calm pen, when we write down the mistake of the church as radical. It is our solemn conviction that we must change our emphasis from converting men to evangelizing them. While we wait for long-tilled fields to bear fruit in converts, other fields, vast and wholly untilled, yield harvest after harvest of death. After nine- teen centuries, our labors are practically limited to perhaps one-tenth of the actual world-field. Meanwhile, generation after generation has come upon the stage of human history, and passed into the darkness of the nnknown world, in ignorance of the gospel. Since onr Lord arose 'and ascended, not less than fifty such generations, aggregating probably twenty t:mes the present population of the globe, have lived and died. And yet, there are nearly a thousand millions now living who have never heard the pure gospel. So long as the church turned all her forces into the home field, the dark ages were upon her; and when she sent forth her heralds to light up the death-shade in lands afar, her own morning began to dawn; and so the last century, which has been the missionary century, has been the century of greatest growth to Ohristendom itself. Should we multiply the force in foreign fields a hundred-fold, there would be a thousand-fold increase at home.
V. The limits of our commission set the bounds to our lawful expectation. .
If for the conversion of the world we labor and look, the present , prospect is, it must be confessed, somewhat disheartening. The Ohristian Ohurch has had nineteen centuries as her working-period, and out of 1,500,000,000 of inhabitants, has only about 30,000,000 Protestant church-members. After a century of m~dern missions, with over one hundred missionary societies, some 300 translations of the Gospels, some 6,000 missionaries in the field, arid an annual ex- penditure of over ten millions of dollars, we have but a million and a half of converts to show. T~e territory of Brahminism and Buddhism has been invaded, but never pervaded. As yet, Oonfucianism mocks our efforts, and Islamism defies us at its central strongholds. We are making very slow progress in converting the world; and even "Ohris- tian nations" do such unchristian things that they are sometimes, by their traffic in rum and opium, and in the bodies and souls of men, the chief hinderances of the missionary. Meanwhile, the increase of pop- ulation far outruns us, and leaves our proselytism and propagandism hopelessly in the rear. No wonder the" pessimists" are triumphant.
This is one way of looking at the aspect and prospect. But what if this be the wrong point of view if What if Our LQrd has only commissioned us to go everywhere and preach his gospel, and leave to him to work his wonders when, and where, and as he will? What if Our work be simply to obey his last command-to scatter broadcast, ' and in every field, the seed of the Word; nay, everywhere to bury ourselves as the good seed of the kingdom, content, if so he wills, to die'
inand so bring forth fruit when we can no longer see it? What If, "ven this" evangelistic era," the church is still making the strange mistake of not yet planning and preparing for that world-wide occupation which he enjoined nearly two millennium~ ago?
It is not enough to work, or even to work for God and for souls. Only when we work under his direction, and as he directs, do reward and blessing come. Never was mission or commission more clear and emphatic: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every ereature." "This gospel must first be preached in all the world for a witness among all nations; and then shall the end come." He who, in his impatience at the" miserable contracting lines of pessimism," says "there is no • preaching the gospel as a witness,' here;" surely forgets that these are the very words in which our Lord himself announces and defines the work of the present dispensation.
There may be disappointment, even to a disciple, whenever his expectation is based upon an unscriptural foundation. Our wish is often father, not only to our thought but to our hope. Within the limits of our instructions must we find the entire territory of our assured expectancy. When hope plants her feet upon the promises of God, her standing-place is firmer than the eternal hills; and when she plumes her wings with the promises, there is no limit to her upward flight. But only those expectations ripen into fruition which spring from some seed of his word.
VI. The limits of our commission set the limits of the Spirit's blessing.
Only in the way of perfect obedience can be found perfect blessedness. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love, joy, peace, and power, If we find that we lack confidence and courage in God, contentment in our work, passion for souls, and unction in our message, it may be well to ask, are we in the way of duty? God hath given the Holy Ghost" to them that obey him." To those who "love " him and " keep his words" Christ has promised that mysterious mward revelation of his personal indwelling. It cannot be a matter of little consequence to get a clear, full, exact apprehension of just what our Lord would have us to do.
Both the teaching of the Word and the testimony of the ages nnite in this great lesson to the church: that only so far and so fast as the working force is dispersed over the whole field, and the gospel is witnessed unto every nation and every creature, will the last and greateEt Pentecost of history be fully realized. The primary question is not one of rival fields, whether" home" or "foreign"; not of saving our great cities or saving our own land. It is primarily a matter of im~ plicit and immediate obedience to Christ. Our mission knows no limits but the limits of the command, which are the limits of the world and of time. So long as one human creature has not yet heard the message, our duty as messengers is not done, however many who have heard remain yet unconverted. Our Master stands with imperative finger pointin.t to unoccupied fields; and while one such is left, he has not been fully obeyed and the Spirit will not be fully outpoured.
We believe this and therefore we must speak. Though sadly conscious of feebly stemming a tide that with tremendous energy of movement sweeps the other way, we here record our solemn conviction that the church has yet to take up this work of missions in dead earnest. These unoccupied fields will never be taken possession of in Christ's name until the only ground of discrimination between one field and another is their comparative destitution. Whether near o!' far, those whose need is most extreme, and whose ignorance is most appalling, have the first claim. The drift of the day is toward concentration on the most hopeful, and even the nearest fields. Hence remote heathen and degraded pagan peoples are neglected; the question is soberly raised whether it be right to blast the very blossoms of our highest Christian civilization in the furnace of African fever; whether it be not waste to send such women as Harriet Newell, Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Judson, Mrs. Gordon, to Oriental pagans and South Sea cannibals; and hundreds of Christians quote with relish the sneer of Dickens, who makes Mrs. Jellyby look past the misery of her own household and neighborhood to sigh over Borioboola Gha!
For a century the Spirit has poured his fullest blessing on families, churches, and schools of the prophets, whence have gone the largest bands of laborers to fields remote. The paradox of modern church life is this: Apparent depletion ends in richest repletion; the most liberal gifts of men and money to farthest fields are the signal for the most . rapid replenishment at home. Here is the key to the paradox: the Holy Spirit rewards obedience. Should we recall the 6,000 foreign missionaries to re-en10rce the home-fields, it would bring to those very fields the curse of barrenness. Should we, on the contrary, distribute the whole force equally and impartially, with strict reference to the vast extent and awful need of the whole field, such blessing would come upon fields nearest home as never has been known. Of church life, as of individual life, it is true: " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth : And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, But it tendeth to poverty."
VII. The limits of our commission Qecome tlue bounds of our satisfaction and joy.. What is the ultimate ground of our rejoicing? There is a higher, broader basis for our serenity and satisfaction than even the number of souls'saved, viz.: that we have done the will of God. He who, to Thessalonian converts, wrote: "Ye are our glory, and joy, and crown of rejoicing," wrote also to the Corinthians: "Now thanks be unto God, who at aB times leadeth us about in triumph in Ohrist, and mak:- e~h manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of him, through us, in every place; for we are a grateful odor of Christ, unto God, both in those who are being saved and in those who are being lost," * etc.
Here is another paradox, but it contains the deepest philosophy. It is the most emphatic reminder that our joy is not confined to our success in saving souls. Paul was driven out of place after place, persecuted, scourged, imprisoned, stoned and left for dead; but just as truly where he was rejected, as where he was "received as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," he joyed in God, for he was a steward of the go·spel, and "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." Observe, "faithful," not successful. He may sow the seed and till the field but cannot assure an abundant crop, or any crop. Some seed Satan's fowls may -catch up as soon as sOWn; other seed may fall 011 shallow soil or among thorns; but however fruitful or fruitless, whether it yields nothing or an hundred-fold, the faithful sower has the same reward.
No man, whose eye is on apparent victory or seeming success, can unlock Paul's paradox. The gospel proves its divinity in this, that no hearer can be indifferent to it. It grapples with his convictions, affections, conscience. It compels consideration and decision, one way or other, and hence every gospel appeal leaves him better or worse. Those who substitute for the gospel something else, and amuse or entertain with intellectual and moral essays, may leave men very much as they find them. But every man who preaches Ohrist-who reasons of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come-either lifts men higher or sinks them lower. The gospel must prove either a lever or a load. "To hear such truth inevitably softens or hardens, saves or damns. In the vegetable world the same conditions that so favor growth where life exists-light,heat, moisture, and nutrition-also favor rapid decay where life does not exist or develop. And so the gospel either begets life or breeds death; and proves itself the power of God by the savor of death as truly as by the savor of life.
It is an awful thought but a true one: Every soul that without excuse goes at last into outer darkness, as having heard but not having heeded the gospel, is as truly a proof of the preacher's fidelity and as really a trophy of God's triumph as is a soul saved by repentance and faith. Therefore it is that as we go forth to evangelize the world we rejoice alike in victory ~n<l in <lefeat, for in both alike God is leading • ~ Cor. ii: 14-16,
THE MARVELS OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS
us in triumph in Christ. Whether men are saved and send up the fragrance of life; or whether, lost, they send up the stench of death, He will recognize and reward the fidelity of which both the saved and the lost are alike witnesses. This cry of U vi0tory" has long been Satan's device to mislead and discourage God's saints. It tempts us to press on where triumph seems to beckon, and to halt and even re- treat where defeat seems to threaten. It tempts us to "number the people" and gauge success by figures; nay, to let down the gospel stand- ard in hopes of easier and quicker victory. It leads an English Canon to set pounds sterling over against the sterling worth of souls, and, be- cause the sums expended seem large and the converts gathered seem few, to cry, like Judas, "To what purpose is this waste?" It betrays us into hopelessness and heartlessness when our words seem to avail noth- ing in winning .souls, 'and it has driven not a few workmen from the field altogether because God's blessing seemed withheld from therr work. • Let no one therefore tell us that it is a matter of indifference whether we go forth expecting to convert the world, or only to evange- lize the nations. Within the limits of our commission we are to find also the limits of whatever else is most vital. Here we find the warrant of our authority, the measure of our responsibility, the standard of our success, the definition of our field and work, the goal of our expecta- tion, the assurance of the Spirit's blessing, and the broad basis of our abiding joy. :For victory we are not to be unduly solicitous; in our seeming defeat and disaster our Lord may find his triumph and success.
We may never see victory until the Great Captain himself appears on the battle-field. All we may be able to do, and all he may give us to do, may be to seize certain strongholds and "hold the fort," till he comes to turn the tide of battle. But in the darkness and the smoke of the conflict, whichever way the issue seems to sway, we are to stand by our guns, and hold fast our flag.
On that mountain in Galilee, Christ the Lord seems still to be stand- ing, and with trumpet tones that echo down the ages, forevermore to be saying: " ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME, IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH!"
THEREFORE " Go 'lie into all the world" And pl'each the gospel to every creature; AND LO! I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE AGE."
THE MARVEL OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.
THOUGH the statement doubtless casts a serious reflection upon all other branches of the Christian Church, it is yet true that the Unitas Fratrum is a phenomenon among the most striking to he found in the modern religious world. The story off its origin and growth, and of the vicissitudes abounding in tragedy through which it has passed, read~ like the exaggerations of a wild romance. As an awakening from the fearful unbelief and" moral laxness of the eighteElnth century it antedates the more famous work of the Wesleys, to which it also imparted ideas and influences of greatest value. Certain homely and old-fashioned virtues, on which the New Testament lays great emphasis, but by hostile forces in human nature are too often grievously sinned against, in this communion from the first have stood out in bold relief. At many points, both in the corporate life and in the character of individual members, besides much that may well be closely copied, there is abundance every way worthy of careful and appreciative study because certain to kindle enthusiasm and provoke mightily to good works.
But, after all, the chief glory of the Moravian Church, her noblest achievement for the Kingdom of God on earth, is found in the attitude toward the world's evangelization taken at the very beginning, and ever since persistently maintained. It is just here that the resemblance is most perfect to the church of the first century. Herrnhut is the -yery cradle of Protestant missions. From thence the first heralds of salvation went forth to lands beyond the sea sixty years before Carey and Marshman, and eighty years before Judson and Mills. This church has commissioned a larger proportion of its members to proclaim the glad tidings to the heathen than any other, and has contributed far more money" in proportion to numerical and financial strength. It is also unique in that the fixed policy has always been to select for occupation not the most inviting and promising fields, but rather those most discouraging and desolate, and to expend lavishly ~ts ample resources of love and zeal upon races most benighted and bestial. But above all else, the work of foreign missions has nev!3r been a mere corollary, but the main proposition instead, never an adjunct, an avocation, a by-play, but the very raison d' etre, the fundamental and constitutive principle. And this chief end and aim of existence has been pursue-i so vigorously and unflinchingly that we have the unmatched spectacle of a church whose adherents in pagan lands outnumber the membership at home nearly three to one.
A few words as to how an organization came to be, which is so original at so many points, and differs so radically from all its neighbors. Its beginnings are remote, even as far back as the stormy times of Huss, though 1457 is the date of the formal setting forth. Essentially Protestant long before the Reformation, fierce persecutions befell from the Romish Church. Feeling profoundly Luther's work, the number of churches rose at length to 400, and of members to 400,000, and found mainly in Moravia, Bohemia and Poland. But after a checkered existence of nearly two centuries, during that furious and ruthless onslaught" for the suppression of heresy" known as the Anti-Reformation (1620-27), fire and sword, enforced conformity and compulsory exile, did their worst, and to all human appearance utter annihilation ensued. A feeble remnant, however, survived to worship and serve in secret, and wait for redemption. Faith and patience received trial ,most severe, for almost a century elapsed before the day of resurrection dawned.
Aud two instruments were chosen to bring life out of death. The first and lesser one was Christian David, a Moravian mechanir., born and reared a papist, but strangely brought to accept a purer faith with boundless devotion. Among other forms of service, he set himself to search out in the old sects such of the Moravians as still clung to the worship and tradition of their fathers. And when it further appeared that flight, exile and loss of all worldly goods was the price which must needs be paid for religious freedom, he sought in Protestant Germany a safe refuge, and at length received from Count Zinzendorf promise of protection and favor upon one of his estates. In 1722 a little company of three families, ten persons, ready to make the venture, left home at dead of night, and, fearing betrayal and forcible detention, not informing even their nearest relatives of their. departure. How insignificant an event and yet, how momentous! A few days later they had crossed the mountains to the south, and were safe in Saxony; and a few days later stil1, the foundations of Herrnhut were laid. Others followed in the footsteps of these heroic pioneers, but so slowly that only 300 could be counted at the end of five years, of whom two-thirds were from Moravia and the rest from various parts of Germany, and only 600 at the close of a decade.
But the real founding and fashioning of the renewed Moravian Church awaited the appearance of Zinzendorf upon the scene. Without his magnificent contribution of spiritual fervor and intellectual force it had not been. In almost every particular this body is the reproduction, or the embodiment, of his thought and purpose. For forty years he was practically the autocrat, the sole authority. This immortal builder for God was of princely lineage, and was possessed by inheritance of large landed estates. A man of unwonted original powers of mind, to these was added a thorough training in the best schools, and the further enlargement of extensive travel. If the phrase be ever allowable, upon him was bestowed besides a remarkable genius for religion. His life was distinguished by a whole-hearted consecration, seldom surpassed since Paul's day, and this in an age when princes and scholars almost to a man were wholly devoted to the god of this world, and even the churches and the clergy were well-nigh destitute of vital godliness. Under the impulse of celestial love he gladly sacrificed honor and political power, and deliberately turned his back upon companions, his equals in social station, to identify himself, heart, soul and life, with a ;handful of peasants, poverty-striken, ignorant, fanatical and despised, and though the step cost him ridicule, obloquy, ten years of exile, and eventually his entire property. Even yet the Christian world does scant justice to this man of true martyr spirit, whose just rank is among the great of the earth, and little understands how great a debt Christendom, yes, humanity, owes to him for what in days fearfully dark he so heroically undertook and so grandly achieved.
What Zinzendorf was divinely. chosen to be and to do, began to be plainly prophesied even in early childhood. For example, when he tossed from the window bits of paper addressed to the Saviour telling of his ardent affection, and when he solemly entered into this covenant with the Lord: "Be thou mine, and I will be thine. " Entering the Paedagogium at Halle when but ten, he is presently found organizing among his school-fellows the Order of the Mustard Seed (Senfkorn Orden) with these among the mottoes: "We will not live for ourselves alone," and, "We'willlove the whole human family." Notmuchlater he had attained to the idea of a spiritual fraternity of all the good (eoclesiolw in ecolesia), and had set apart his life to laborfor souls by systematic means and on a large scale. These sentences from his lips well sum up and set forth his highest ambition and deepest desire: "I would rather be despised and hated for Jesus's sake than be loved and honored for my own" ; "I am a poor sinner, a captive running by the side of his triumphal chariot"; "I have but one passion, and it is Thee, only Thee."
And now, at length, this man, so thoroughly furnished by nature aJ;ld grace, is brought face to face with his exalted mission. It was a few months after their arrival at Herrnhut that Zinzendorf received his introduction to that little band of refugees, and five years later that he took up his residence among them. And truly it was a motley company he found, a conjunction of elements most heterogeneous, a quasi cave of Adullam, into which had been gathered recusants, and dissenters, and comeouters of every description. Once when a number were receive!l to the church it was found that no two belonged to the same nationality, but Germans, and English, and Swedes, and Swiss, Poles, Hungarians, and IJivonians were represented! Of almost all the minds were narrow, while the zeal was intense and blind, and so centrifugal forces abounded, and liability to explosion was constant. It was the case of old Corinth over again. Each one determinedly hugged his idol and his ism, and each was antagonistic and destructive to all the rest. For months the scandal and curse of debate and contention, of schism and secession spread their blight. So that not even Zinzendorf's wisdom, and tact, and patience, and ability to organize and govern could have averted destruction, had not an overwhelming refreshing from on high been vouchsafed at a certain communion season. This was in 1727, and ever since August 13 has been kept as the anniversary of the spiritual birthday of the renewed church. Now that the divine flame had melted, and fused and 'unified all hearts, the way was fully prepared for toil in behalf of others. The first-fruits of new-born fervor are found in the beginning of the Diaspara Mission (1 Pet. 1 : 1. "To the strangers scattered" abroad), and which has been ever since carried on in various countries of Europe. Proselytism has never been esteemed a shining virtue in Mora-dan circles, and this branch of evangelistic labor in particular was not meant in the least to separate souls fr.om the established churches, or to build up a rival organization, and so the administration of the sacraments is not allowed to the missionaries, but they merely endeavor to seek out the godly in all communions and foster piety by gathering such for Bible study, exhortation and prayer. The number reached thus is now not far from 100,000.
A year later the horizon of desire and faith had so much enlarged as to embrace Lapland, 'rurkey, and even Ethiopia. In 1731 Zinzendorf made a most eventful visit to Copenhagen. For it was then and there that some of his attendants were brought into contact with a negro from the West Indies, who spoke with deep emotion of the lamentable condition of the slaves in those islands, while he himself conversed with two qonverted Esquimaux and heard of the forlorn estate from which they came. These facts being reported to the simple flock in Herrnhut produced so great a stir that in due season two of the brethren, Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann, the one a potter and the other a carpenter. were under appointment and on the way to St. Thomas, though with but $5 each, and though the first 600 miles must needs be made on foot. Moreover, they went fully expecting to be sold into slavery as the only means possible for reaching the bondmen to whom they were to minister, while Dober declared himself. ready to die, if only one soul could be saved. These were soon followed by others, who occupied and held for Christ, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbadoes, etc., content to face ttll manner of discomforts and perils from tornadoes, earthquakes and pestilences, as well as opposition and hatred even more trying. Though with great cost of life ever since they and their successors have held heroically ou. Next, and in less than six months after, _three more started for the Arctic regions to found a mission among the Esqnimaux of Greenland. These were Christian David, who. at the beginning had kindred faith in the first company, and led them out into liberty, and two cousins, Matthew and Christian Stach. In spite of obstacles most appalling, and though waiting long years for the first signs of good, they fainted not, but toiled and prayed until the barriers to those obdurate hearts were fairly forced. In later times a second mission was opened for the same race, though upon the opposite coast of Labrador.
And, once given air and exercise, see how desire and determination are enlarged. Where else can anything like it be found? In order fully to appreciate the marvel, it must be borne in mind that Herrnhut held but a handful as yet-not more than ate often found in the membership of a single city church, and that less than a score of years had passed since that midnight hegira from Moravia-but 10 ! we find them taking earnest counsel to carry the gospel to the ends of the' earth. Five foreign missions were started in as many years, and eighteen during the first quarter of a century. Next after the two just mentioned followed one in English and Dutch Guiana to the Arowote Indians, to the slaves, and to the bush negroes, who escaped from bondage, and largely because of wrongs endured were an aban- doned and desperate class, as well as in the lowest deeps of degradation. In 1736 missionaries were sent to the American Indians, at first to Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New York.. and later to the Delawares in Ohio and further West.· Christian history holds few if any narratives more thrilling and pathetic than those which tell of what such men as Zeisberger wrought during his sixty-three years of service (1735- 1808), thus more than Eliot earning the title of apostle to the Indians, and Heckewelder, who,se toils and achievements for forty years were almost as great.
The same year George Schmidt, just escaped from the horrors of a six years' imprisonment for conscience sake, and whose scars he wore till the day of his death, took his departure for South Africa to tell the glad tidings to the Hottentots. This was eighty years before Moffat's day, and during his entire stay he was the only missionary in the entire vast length and breadth of the dark continent. The amazing stupidity and depravity of the natives was burden sufficiently heavy, but yet not nearly so hard to endure as the abuses and contempt of the Dutch Boers, whose esteem for the poor creatures to whom this lone Moravian was making proclamation of the Cross was expressed in a "notice set over one of their church doors: "Dogs and Hottentots not 'admitted." It was not until six terrible years had passed that the first encouraging sign appeared, and when converts began to multiply the jealousy and fear of the Christian (?) whites were so excited that he was forbidden by the authorities, to baptize, and eventually was compelled to take his departure. When death came to this thoroughly Christian soul, like Livingstone he was found upon his knees pleading that Ethiopia might soon stretch forth her hands to God. In later days the mission was renewed, and another was started among the Kaffirs, including the..care of an extensive hospital for lepers.
In times comparatively recent (1850) the evangelization of the abor- . igines of Australia was undertaken, soil perhaps as barren and flinty as any to be found upon the face of the earth. To the original condition, forlorn and forbidding in the extreme, was added the presence of multitudes of escaped convicts, and the almost equal curse of the reckless gold hunters. The natives are said to be so little human, and to have been held by the Anglo-Saxons in such utter contempt, that they were sometimes shot down as food for dogs. No wonder that so unpromis- ing a mission was soon abandoned in despair. But such lack of faith was discountenanced at home, and others were soon sent t~ lead the forlorn hope. Latest of all, Herrnhut has sent its representatives to scale in Ohrist's name the tremendous heights of the Himalayas, and to plant the cross upon the pl~teau of Thibet, waiting meanwhile for an opportunity to invade Ohina from the west. Yet others have been dispatched to the Mosquito coast. The same self-sacrificing and determined spirit is manifested in connection with certain unsucces~ful attempts to gain a foothold for the gospel, for in several cases the bar- riers have been so invincible that even Moravian courage and patience could not conquer them. Thus in Lapland the missionaries were ar- rested and sent home. In vain they sought to reach the Samoy- ades upon the shores of the Arctic Ocean. They failed also in Ceylon, in the East Indies, in Algiers and Guinea. In Egypt thrice over failure was their lot, while repeated attempts (1768-1823) to reach the . Oalmucks came to nought. .
A few general suggestions, that we may get further glimpses of the glory which rightly belongs to the Moravian Church for its unequaled missionary zeal. With what exalted spirit the more than 2,000 have gone out into the by-place.s and deserts of the earth we perceive from such examples as these, which are by no means uncommon. When two were called for to lead the way to work among the Mongols in Central Asia, thirty offered themselves. Once news came to Bethlehem, Pa.
(the Herrnhut of America), that in a few weeks five of the brethren had died in St. Thomas, and in a single day eight were ready to go in their stead. Once distress and peril were so extreme that it was re- solved to appoint none who were not ready to lay down their lives, and yet there was no lack of volunteers. And convincing evidence that such utter self-abandonment was called for, and 'such leaning upon the Lord, appears in toil among the Esquimaux, who for a period wofully long gave to the gospel message not the slightest heed, seldom came near the missionaries except to beg or to steal, and not infrequently to the preaching gave this not inspiring response: " We neither hear nor understand what you say to us. Give us a pipe and some tobacco."
But yet they waited calmly for the precious fruit, and had long patience for it till the joyful harvest came at length, and even the 'Esquimaux be- gan to hunger for salvation.· Or, in the incredible sufferings and dis- couragements connected with efforts to redeem the Indians from their paganism and savagery. 'rhough utterly without cause, it was the hard lot of the early Moravians in this country to be suspected and hated by all parties,-by the whites as friends of the Indians, and by the Indians as friends of the whites; by the French as in league with the English, and by the English as emissaries of the French. Hence for . a half century and more they were compelled to face the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. In 1782 both missionaries and converts were removed.by British soldiers from their peaceful and prosperous homes upon the Tuscarawas to Upper Sandusky, and then, a few months later, in a starving condition returning to gather their own corn, were set upon by a force of AmericlJ,n militia and 96 innocents were butch- ered in cold blood! It strangely appears that in this single church zeal for the world's redemption belongs not to the few but to the many. Now, after so long a time, when the period of novelty and romance is long since passed, one in fifty of the membership are still set apart for the foreign field. And further, so closely at heart is this great matter held, that to .go to the ends of the earth to save souls, and thus to meet trials and perils, is not esteemed an act so remarkable as to call for wonder arid praise. The happy men and women who hear and heed the call are not lionized, or sent forward with' noise and display. All this is but a matter of course, the business of all, that for which they live and labor. To be indifferent and un willing, to be disobe~ient, that is the strange thing. The best and most succ"Cssful is an unprofitable servant, has but done his duty. Doubtless the church under review is far from perfect, and fails to exemplify every Christian grace. Since human vision for things divine is but partial, it need not surprise us to light upon error and failure, and divers limitations. In particular, the instruments employed and modes o~ procedure have been such as, hitherto at least, to make no impression except upon uncivilized peoples, and of course the gospel must be carried to dominant races, to the haughty Brahman, the lordly Turk, to China and Japan. But yet it is a most ungracious and unprofitable task to speak of shortcomings when the Unitas Fratrum has on the whole wrought so magnificently. And what a sublime and inspiring spectacle has been passing by before our eyes. How much poorer would the Christian world be, if this portion of history had been omitted. How exceeding- ly profitable for teachmg, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness is this humbler and more plebeian form of service. Choosing out the Hottentot, the Esquimaux, the Australian, the slave and the leper, and thus lavishing their love upon the ofIscourings of the earth and playing the Good Samaritan in their behalf, or, in downright and measureless self-abnegation and Christ-like com- passion, not counting the costliest sacrifice waste, but gladly break- ing the alabaster box and pouring forth, without stint, the precious ointment, the aroma of the deed sheds sweetness throughout the whole world. And when from Greenland and Labrador, from the West Indies and Surinam, from the Tuscarawas, Thibet and South Africa, by the ten thousand the redeemed shall come up to glory, of the little
H40 PASTOR HARMS AND HIS
Moravian church it shall be declared, Thon hast wrought more honor- ably than they all. And this shall be her joy and her crown: "Inas:"
much as ye did unto one of tht< least of these, ye did it unto me !"
And already by losing her life she has found it. Terribly tested during the" sifting period" (1745-50) when fanatical elements for.the time gained the mastery, these were yet so thoroughly expelled and outlived that no smell of fir~ was left. It is also affirmed that no case of divorce, or of capital crime has ever been known among them. And so admirable thhaes•sbeeebnretthheriernwsohrko,wanndthseomwseolvrtehsy of confidence and affection have to be, they have always made many fast friends from outside their communion, so that from this source nearly half the funds employed in carrying on missions is derived.
PASTOR HARMS AND HIS WORK.
BY REV. THOMAS LAURIE~ PROVIDENCE, R. I.
LET us cross the Atlantic to a small country town in North Germaniabout'forty-five miles south from the well-known city of Hamburg. Hermannsburg, for that is the name· of the village, lies in a sandy region where the grass is thin and the people poor. There is much wild moorland, with here and there a pleasant vale, or a field running up into the heath. The villages among the trees on the hilltops overlook the cultivated lands below. It consists of (me straggling street, witb houses separated by gardens, and the spire of the church conspicnol1., over all. 'l'he people were phlegmatic Dutchmen, whose chief activity was toil for daily bread. Worse still, German rationalism ruled the region, so that the prospect for spiritual life seemed very dark. Louis Harms: son of a clergyman, was taken there by his father in 1817, when the son was only nine years old. He studied at home till 1824, then three years at a neighboring academy (gymnasium is the name there), and from that he went to the University of Gottingen to study theology, but the rationalism there prevalent did not satisfy him; so he studied Chaldee, Syriac, and Sanscrit. But still his heart was empty, until the Lord revealed Himself to him in the study of the gospel, especially John xvi., and in the freshness of his new love, he became interested in all kinds of labor for the salvation of men at home and abroad. One wanted him to come to North America, and another wished to take him with him to India, but in 1843 he went back to be his father's assistant, and in 1848, when his father died, the people insisted on his taking his father's place.
Though himself a scholar, he counted himself one of the people, and lived among them as a father; a man of marked simplicity. he was noted most of all for childlike faith in God. He lived in fellowship with Christ, and this was the strength and beauty of his life. He became a power among men, by giving himself up to the power of God, for, beholding the glory of Christ in the mirror of the Word, he was changed into the same' image, and therefore mighty works showed themselves forth in him. It is impossible to de&cribe the force of his preaching, or the love and faith which colored all he did. He un.
folded SCripture in the plainest manner, and was content with such a set~ng -forth of God's truth as made men forget the preacher in thoughts of God.
A great chauge soon began to appear in the place, and now its equal can hardly be found among the churches in either hemisphere. No house is without its family prayer. Only sickness keeps people away from church, and almost every adult is a communicant. Meetings during the week are as well attended as on the Sabbath, and the laborers in the fields instead of songs sing the grand old German ,hymns.
Drunkards and beggars are alike unknown, and the neatness of their homes testifies to the excellence of their occupants.
Not content with the change effected at home, Pastor Harms sug- gested a mission to the heathen and his people at once entered heartily on the work. They did not, however, give to some missionary society and then never inquire what had become of their money. But in response to the" Go ye" of the master, they rose up and went, and such as could not go in person supported them that did go. So in 1849, just one year after he became their pastor, twelve members of the little church entered on a four years' course of study in preparation for the work. For as the universities were poisoned by rational- ism, the good man had to educate his missionaries before he sent them out. Then, as both he and they were poor, they engaged in daily manual labor ; for, as he told them, "This is both that you may earn your own bread and remain humble, being no more ashamed to work than Paul was ashamed of tent-making." , He proposed to send them among the Gallas, a savageraceofrobbers and murderers in Northeast Africa. Few churches would furnish twelve men to go to such a people, and fewer country pastors with a poor parish would assume the entire cost of training, sending them out, and supporting them. In this case, as in many others, the Lord se- lected a different field from that chosen by His servant. For He will not have us forget that He is the Lord of the vineyard and sends the laborers here or there as He thinks best, that we may recognize His wis- dom in placing them, and attribute the success He gives to its true source. When I was in Turkey I hardly knew one missionary out of , the scores then in that empire who was laboring in the field to which he was sent at first, and the I . ord of the vineyard sent Pastor Harms'
recruits to Southern Africa. Then the idea of a Christian colony, ani- mated·by the missionary spirit to form the center whence missionaries should go forth in all directions, was added to the other work. As many as sixty persons offered themselves, for this, but the candid~t('s were sifted down till only eight remained. You will ask, where were the means to come from for' all thIS? . Let Pastor Harms give us the answer.
"Then I knocked diligently on God's door in prayer, and since he who prays must not sit idle, I searched among the ships, but in vain. I wrote to missionaries, but my letters miscarried. Then one said to me, "Why not build a ship, and so send as often as you will?' But how could I build without money? Everybody discouraged me, and some even hinted that I was not in my right mind; but I wrestletl with God, and then I remembered that in the days of Luther, when Duke George was debating whether to intrust his soul to Chrint or the Pope, a friend told him, 'Straightforward and direct fares the best.' So I thought, I have knocked long enough at men's doors. Now I will turn to God, for the work is for Him. So I laid the whole thing in His hands, and as I rose from my knees at midnightI startled myself crying, 'Forward now in the name of God,' and suspense was ended:"
This now became his life work, and it seems as though God meant to show in him how much an obscure man, in the most unfavorable circumstances, can do for God when he sets himself to the work with his whole heart. We cannot recount all his bufIetings, but the result was that the brig Oandace was built at Harburg on the opposite shore of the Elbe from Hamburg. We may note here that even then his troubles were not over, for he was sorely tried by some of his captains, who had no sympathy with the work, and after some voyages the brig had to be sent to England and twenty feet added to her length: but we anticipate. Hermannsburg was now like a hive of bees. Everybody was at work for" our ship." The farmers brought in loads of produce, and the women and children were never idle; as fast as they finished one piece of work they commenced another, and soon all things were ready. Such a joint stock company this world has seldom seen, though the sight will not be so rare in the future as it has been in the past. Of the twelve missionaries, two had died and two more had proved unworthy, but eight were ordained after thorough examination. '1'he colonists were ready, and the crew with the cargo all on board, and after a farewell sermon in the church the sixteen men stood up together (there was not a woman among them) and sang Luther's grand old hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott ", to Luther's no less grand tune, written expressly for it. Next day they went to Hamburg, a long train of wagons bearmg through the streets at early dawn the stores provided by the villagers. Even the whole population accompanied them for some distance, singing their favorite hymns. A few, with Pastor Harms at their head, marched through the streets of Harburg, and had a service on deck before the vessel sailed.
Oct. 28, 1853, the anchor was hoisted and the good ship sailed down the Elbe and out into the sea at Caxhaven. I said there ~re no women on board. Three years later there was a great marriage feast in South Africa, when the same vessel brought out the betrothed of the missionaries. The village now seemed desolate. Children missed their. teachers, and sick ones the visitors who had spoken to them of Jesus,' but in less than three weeks twelve new candidates filled the vacant seminary. Let us shake hands with one of them. Several years before Behrens longed to be a missionary, but he was the main dependence of his aged' parents, and as they would not give him up the pastor held him back. Not long after, on his death-bed, the father felt that he had done wrong, and begged the pastor that such a thing might never take place again in his family. The early love was still burning in the heart of the son, whose wife shared his devotion to the work, and when their only child died he again offered himself to go as a missionary. The pastor told him that though heir to the estate, he must enter·the school on the same terms as the rest, and he not only agreed to that, but gave his estate also. This Mr. Harms accepted only on condition that if he ever had to leave the work it should be restored to him. So the mission' owned a farm, which by careful management supported the candidates during their studies.
But success in missions always brings greater outlay, and this work formed no exception to the rule, for the growth of the work required a periodical to keep the people at home acquainted with the work abroad. As it gives us a glimpse of the editor, let us look into its opening address : "And now I hear many a sigh, and words like these: 'So many missionary magazines already, and.here is another! What folly I' Dear friend, if you sigh over this once I do ten times, for you only read it, and when you lay it down your trouble is over. But I must write it, every month a new one, though loaded with work enough alrea.dy. B~ljeve me, I would drop it if I dared, and if you ask, Why not dare? I answer, 'T'he love of Christ constraineth me.' Ever since the work began I have been urged to this, and when I shook it off, as one shakes the rain from his cloak, it only rained the harder till I was wet through, so I publish that the rain may cease, and indeed, I would have no love fOl' Christ or for His people if I did not. So in the name of our God let it begin, and may our Blessed Lord say Amen, and grant me strength for the work."
This was in 1854, and since then it has appeared regularly. Besides narratives of missions, it contains accounts of the work at home or sermons; so the missionaries were kept posted in home affairs, and the people at home with the trials, successes, and new enterprises of the missionaries. The editor writes as though chatting in his own family, and in such a Ohristlike spirit that the reader is not only informed concerning the kingdom, but is thrilled by its influence. This may explain why its monthly circulation reached 14,000 copies, larger than that of any other German periodical, sacred or secular, save one, and that does not eiceed it. Though only a penny a number, in 1860 it yielded more than 2,000 crowns profit to the mission. This press furnishes occupation to many of the pl:'ople, and besides books for the missiom." prints Bibles, catechisms, and hymn-books for home 118e, and never re8te, As interest in foreign missions always promotes interest in other good works, so was it hero. Pastor Harms had notIced that convicts who tried to reform were met with suspicion on all sides, while former associates strove to drag them back again to crlme. A thief near him left the jail resolved to steal no more; old comrades mocked, but he persisted till they slipped a stolen purse into his pocket, and accused him to the owner. In vain he protested his innocence. He was again sent back to prison. Poor man! Vho will help him? Pastor Harms looked at his secluded village as just the place for a refuge for such men. An estate was purchased with buildings and grounds large enough to afiold work for tI. number, a house father, as the Germaus call him, was set over it, and another river of living water refreshed that thirsty soil.
But such labors were too much for endurance and the good pastor lay sick for several months; but he recovered, and pressed forward, till again strength failed him, and he died November 14, 1865.
Let us now briefly glance at the missions, while the Oandace was on her first voyage. Merchants reported that she was lost, and again that she was worm-eaten. The pastor kept nothing back, but bade his. people wait for better news, and when she returned after two years' absonce, not even the ordinary repairs were needed. As the new missionaries would not be ready for a year, she was wiselychartered meanwhile so as to pay her own expenses. In 1857 she took out twelve missionaries, fourteen colonists, and women and children enough to make the whole number forty-four. The King and Queen of Hanover attended the ordination, and next day the missionaries were invited to the palace, where the king promised them a daily remembrance in .the prayers of the household.
The seminary was filled at once with twenty-one candidates. In her fourth voyage to South Africa, in 1859, the Oandace took out four colonists with their families, and two missionaries, ore having already labored for years in Borneo, and in his family was an Indian girl from North America. In 1861 twenty~two missionaries were sent out to Africa, and in seven years from the sailing of the first missionaries, 100 settlers were located at eight stations.
At the death of Mr. Harms in 1865, there were 31 missionaries at 24 stations, reaching from the Zulus on the eastern coast to the Bechuanas in the interior, and from the Orange River in the south as far as Lake Nyami; 252 of the nativos had been baptized, and foundations had been laid for a great work in the futUre.
They have their own ships and their own press, and continue to carryon the work with one accord. Surely these- things show how large a blessing God can pour out through one man, who enters into the work of Christ WIth all his heart. Look even at the money raised. 'rhe ship cost 15,000 crowns, her outfit 4,000 more; the press 3,600;
THE MIRACBES OF
~he refuge farm 4,000. In 1856 and 1857 the annual cost was 15,000.
In 1858 31,000, and in 1859 33,000, and up to the close of that year the whole income had been more than 118,000 crowns. Where did it come from? Not all from Hermannsburg, though some peasants ther.e gave 500 crowns at a time. It came from ali quarters, some from Odessa , on the Black Sea on one side, and some from New Orleans on the other. Pastor Harms said, "It is the gift of God." He adds: "It is wonderful when one has nothing, and 10,000 crowns are laid in his hand by the dear Saviour." When he found the mission house called for so much, he said, 'tet it take, I shall receive, and I went to my God and through prayer obtained what I needed. Recently I had to pay 550 crowns with on~y 400 in hand, and when' I told the Lord, three letters brought 145, and a laborer handed me ten, so that I had five over. Once I needed a medicine chest and was just praying for it when a letter came offering one." .
What a treasure did Pastor Harms find laid up in heaven! With what feelings has he met one after another from his own flock, and African Zulus, and Bechuanas, in that abode of holiness! And this man was not an apostle. He did not live in a golden age, but he grappled with rationalism in faith, and selfishness in life, till only a few years ago. May we not be like him? If not in striking out some new mode of doing good, yet in doing with our might what our hands find to do for Christ. When we go home to meet Pastor Harms in heaven what shall we have to set over against his service to Christ, what shall we have to talk with him about of grace bestowed upon us also to promote the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ?
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.
THE STORY OF SIAM.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] IN the magic tales of missions the Land of the White Elephant has not been conspicuous. There has been no such rapid, startling, striking development of results as has marked the South Sea Islands, parts of India, Japan, and even papal lands like France and Italy. In Siam the kingdom comes without observation. Neither do men say "Lo! here, or 10, there!" as though to call attention to some amazing phenomenon. Hence by some who look. on missions with hypercritical and unsympathetic eyes silence has been taken to imply that there is nothing to be said that is encouraging as to past toils or stimulating as to the future triumphs.
For this very reason we select Siam as the subject of this next paper in our series. Here are a land and a people, among the most interesting in the Orient; 'of which little has been known until of late, and of which even now many otherwise intelligent Christian disciples have yet to be accurately informed. Owing to the native custom of numbering only the males, it is difficult to get accurate returns of the population. But probably in Siam and the Laos country there are not far from eight millions. In other words, with an area six times as great as the State of New York, Siam has a population about equal to that empire state. Its capital, Bangkok, the Venice of the Orient, contains itself probably half a million.
We smile at the homage there paid to the" strange colored" ele- phant, which ranks among the nobility, has titles, g01d bands on his tusks, is served by kneeling attendants with trays of silver, and is sprinkled with sacred water by obsequious priests, and attended by court physicians. But we must not judge the Siamese, by this hom- age to a beast, to be simply a degraded and superstitious nation of elephant worshipers; nor, by the shoe-brush top-knot, or tuft of coarse black hair on the crown of the head, must we infer that they have neither taste nor manners nor !Bsthetic notions. They are gentle, amiable, respectful·to parents and to old age, kind to children, urbane and polite to strangers, above the average in cleanliness and intelli- gence, and capable of high culture and refinement. They are un- truthful and conceited, polygamy prevails among them, gambling houses abound, and men have been known to sen their own wives and children to pay debts incurred in this fascinating" vice of risk." But not even in Ohina and India have women such freedom and intelli- gence and ability; and in few countries do wider doors to mission efforts present themselves. Buddhism is here found in its purest and most unmixed state, with its virtual atheism, and materialism, and wheel of endless transmigrations, with Nepon, like the Brahmanistic Nirvana, the goal of all desire, annihilation of all individnal being.
Idols abound everywhere. In one temple as many as 14,000 may be found; and in Bangkok alone are 200 temples with 10,000 yellow- robed lazy priests supported by charity.
The conditions were not inviting to missionary labor; and to com- plicate the question still more, the papal church had carried its cor- rupted form of Ohristianity into Muang Ti, "The Land of the Free," as early as 1662, and had lowered even the Romish standard of the gospel to a level scarce above that of heathenism itself, seeking to win converts by accommodating, if not assimilating, Ohristianity to the native prejudices and customs. It is now some seventy years ago since the first Prot03stantapproaches were made to that shrine of Buddhism; and, curiously enough, it was woman's hand, as in the zenana work in India and the evangelistic work in Mexico, that put the gospel's golden key in the door that opened into Siam. While living at Rangoon, in Burmah, Mrs. Ann Hasseltine Judson became deeply interested in the Siameee residents in that city. On the last day of April, 1818, she wrote to a friend in this country as follows: "Accompanying IS a catechism in Siamese which I hl.ve just copied for you. I have attended to the Siamese language for about a year and a half, and, with the assistance of my teacher, have translated into the Siamese tongue the Burman Catechism just prepared by Dr. Judson, a tract con. taining an abstract of Christianity, and the Gospel of Matthew."
A very simple unpretending clause in private correspondence; but how little that seraphic woman knew its full significance! In 1819 that catechism came forth from the mission press at Serampore, the first Ohristian book ever printed in Siamese. The press was to be one of God's foremost agencies for the regeneration of Siam, and to ,a woman it was given to set that agency in motion, and in so doing lead Protestant effort in Siam!
Ten years after Mrs. Judson wrote that letter, in 1828, Dr. Oarl Gutzlaff, the famous German missionary, with Rev. Mr. Tomlin, visited Bangkok, treated thousands of patients who applied for medi· cal aid, and distributed boxes of books and tracts in the Ohinese tongue; and they were so impressed with the need of Siam and the open door to the missionary, that they appealed to the churches of America to send forth laborers into this new harvest field. Mr. Tomlin's health compelled him to I'emove to Singapore; and Gutzlaff was left. alone. He was but twenty-five years old when he came to Bangkok, and was there only three years; but those years left a permanent impress on Siamese evangelization. In 1829, Dr. Gutzlaff having prepared in Siamese a tract and one Gospel, went to Singapore to print them. While there he married Maria Newell and brought her back to Siam, the first Ohristian woman that' ever labored there. She died the next year, and, mourning the loss of his devoted and efficient helper, his failing health drove him to Ohina. With what energy and devotion Dr. Gutzlaff had spent those three years may be inferred from his not only learning the language, but, with Tomlin's help, translating into Siamese the New Testament. Thus what Mrs. Judson began, Dr. Gutzlaff carried on.
In June, 1831, Rev. David Abeel, sent by the American Board, arrived in Siam, but after eighteen months was likewise forced by illness to withdraw. In 1834'came Rev. Messrs. Johnson and Robinson, and in 1835, Dr. D. B. Bradley. For thirty-eight years Dr. Bradley was permitted to labor; and when in 1873 he died, he left two daughters, Mrs. MacGilvary and Mrs. Oheek, wives of missionaries, to represent him on the field.
For brevity's sake we curtail this narrative of Siamese missions, that we may give two illustrations of God's wonder working in this land, where the eyes of so few ever turn with intelligent and absorbed interest. We select, first, a marked instance of supernatural Promd~nce; and then some equally unmistakable examples of His illumining and transforming grace.
When in 1847 Rev. Stephen Mattoon and Dr. Samuel R. House arrived at Bangkok, to represent what is, since the withdrawal of the American Board and of the. American Missionary Society, the only mission to the Siamese-that of the Presbyterians-they found scarce a foothold. The king, then on the throne, was actively, though secretly, the foe of missions; and by his subtle influence with the people he so successfully thwarted them that they could scarce get, by rental or purchase, a house in which to live, or even food to eat. That same monarch so became involved in complications with the British Government that the expulsion of the missionaries seemed inevitable in the unsettled state of the country and the excited state of the Siamese mind.
It was now 1851; a generation had passed away since Mrs. Judson made that first appl'oach to Siam, and the entire work of thirty-three years seemed threatened with defeat and disappointment, all through the inveterate hostility and obsti.nacy of the king. He was jealous of the growing influence of the missionaries and the increased "merit making" of the physicians. The native teachers had been thrown into prison, the servants of the missionaries fled, and no way seemed open but a way out of Siam, as soon as a ship should come to bear them away.
Just then-AprilS, 1851,-the kin.i died, in the very crisis of affairs. God was again" known by the judgment which He executeth." As on July 1, 1839, in Turkey, the Sultan of. the Universe, at a similar crisis in missions there, and in a similar way, removed the tyrannical Mahmud who had just ordered the missionaries out of the country; so in 1851 the Sovereign in whose hand our very breath is took away out of the path of missionary advance an otherwise insuperable obstacle, in the person of a malignant monarch.
A successor must be chosen, and the choice of the nobles fell upon the one man, who above all others, as God saw, would remove all restrictions upon the legitimate work of the missionaries. Maha Mongkut, or Prah Chaum Klow was called from monastic seclusion to sit on the throne of the" Sacred Prahbahts." His enlightened policy at once changed the whole aspect and prospect of Siamese missions. Educated, liberal, tolerant; a scholar as to attainments in language and literature, science and general intemgence; in his adoption of foreign ideas and improvements a progressive statesman; in his rule wise, humane; in his bearing toward foreign residents and visitors urbane and courteous; in his intercourse with foreign powers high-toned and conciliatory; and in his aspirations for Siam as a member of the family of nations a high-minded patriot, he had, on all Oriental thrones, no rival. Such was the man whom the Providence of God' lifted to the Siamese monarchy at the most crit.ical hour of modern missions in that land. He reigned for nearly eighteen years, from 1851 to 1868 ; and under his rule missionaries have found not only tolerance but influence, and that too not only among Siamese citlzens but at the Siamese Court. This was all the direct fruit of missions; for that Buddhist priest- . king, while a private citizen, had been the pnpil of a missionary of the American Board, Rev. J. Caswell, who taught him the languages and the sciences which prepared him for taking the reins of empire into competent hands, and whose personal influence disposed him to be liberal in his governmental policy, and friendly to all Christian mission;.. aries. He ascended the golden steps with a heart full of kindly sentiments toward them; they were invited to the royal palace, and were made to enjoy the royal bounty and favor. Their letters at this time recount how their society was courted by princes and nobles; how their exiled teachers and servants returned to their places; how throngs came to them to get books and talk of their contents; and how, free to go and come as they would, they spoke in Jesus' name with confidence, flo man forbidding, and obtained a respectful hearing._ They could no"I;V get suitable sites and erect suitable buildings for homes; and in that same year missionary ladies were admitted to teach in the palace among the women of the royal harem. From that hour to this the missionaries have been sheltered by the favor and protection of the reigning monarchs.
The following document Issued under royal sanction may give some conception of the attitude of Chaum Klow toward the servants of God : We quote in full : " Many years ago the American missionaries came -here. They came before any other Europeans, and they taught the Siamese to speak and read the English language. The American missionaries have always been just and upright men. They have never meddled in -the affairs of the government, nor created any difficulty with the Siamese. they have lived with the Siamese just as if they belonged to the nation. The Government of Siam has great love and respect for them and has no fear whatever concei'ning them. When there has been any difficulty of any kind, the missionaries have many times rendered valuable assistance. For this reason the Siamese have loved and respected them for a long time. The Americans have also taught the Siamese many things."
This change in governmental policy proved permanent. The present king, Ohulalang Korn, is the most progressive ruler in Asia, a " nursing father" to missions. In 1882 this king bought up the whole exhibit of the girls' mission school in the centennial celebration, and gave to the principals in charge a silver medal. He has made a missionary, Dr. MacFarland, head of the Royal College at Bangkok and Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1887 he visited Petchaburi, made careful inquiry as to the mission there, gave a silver medal to Dr. Thompson, the medical missionary, and with his queen sent letters of warm congratulation to our laborers, with substantial gifts from him~ self and his royal wife, amounting to some $2,500 !
We turn now to cite a few marked examples of the grace of God manifested in connection with missions in Siam. The first convert was a (Jhinese teacher, Qua Kien~, who was baptized in 1844, and after fifteen years of faithful service died in 1859.. Three of his children became disciples and one a minister of the gospel. That year of his death, 1859, saw the first Siamese convert, Xai Ohune-a curious" apostolic succession." Thirty years before, Gutzlaff had sown the first seed; twelve years before, Dr. House and Rev. Mr. Mattoon had arrived in Bangkok, the mission center ; and now the harvest had begun. Nai Ohune adorned the gospel. So anxious was he to be unhindered in serving Ohrist and souls that he steadily adhered to medical practice as the means of self-support and refused all offices, however honorable and lucrative.
But though converts have never multiplied in Siam with rapidity, there have been marked examples of the silent, pervasive work of missions and especially of the Word of God. For example Dr. Bradley died in 1873. Four years afterward, in 1877, a venerable patriarch of seventy-three years visited for medical advice the Laos Mission at Ohieng Mai. He sought hf?lp for deafness, and referred to Ohrist's miracles of healing as one who was familiar with the Bible. He was found to be chief officer of the court in the province of Lakawn. How mistaken we are when we judge the gospel's power by noisy demonstrations. Twenty years before, in 1857, while visiting Bangkok, this old man had, from Dr. Bradley, received religious books in Siamese. Though the lan~ua~e is essentially the same, the Laonese characters are so different that, in order to read them, he had to learn Siamese. .Then in his mind and heart God's light began to shine, and he came to Ohieng Mai for further instruction; he found Ohrist, and for His sake braved all peril, and to his efforts we owe the opening of a new mission in his native city, Lakawn.
Similarly, at Petchaburi, Rev. Mr. Dunlap found an old disciple, nigh unto death, who had from that same Dr.. Bradley got portions of the Word of God, and who by secret study found a Saviour in Ohrist and put away his idols. Though taught to pray by the Spirit only, he astonished the missionary by his attainments in prayer, and his progress in piety.
Numbers cannot represent results. During the last reported year, the prime minister, who has in Ratbari one of his residences, after repeatedly expressing his wish for a mission there, now offers a large brick house, free, for mission uses; and will aid in securing other necessary buildings for medical mission, school, etc. And a lady in Philadelphia has offered the $5,000 necessary to support the physician and clergyman who go to occupy this new parish of 50,000 to 75,000 souls.
Siam was not opened by gunpowder or diplomacy, but by missionary influence, and the whole aspect of the nation, and its attitude toward Ohristianity, are gradually undergoing a change ; the preaching, the
MADAGASCAR. 351'
teaching, the press and the medical missions are the four conspicuous agencies which God is now using to bring Siam to Christ. With what results, a single 'example may give a hint of the possibilities of the near future.
When the present king, by a sad accident some years since lost his wife, his brother came to the missionaries for a copy of the New Testa- ment; and gave as a reason for the request, that the king had lolft faith in his own religion; that he could find nothing in Buddhism to console him in his great grief. It might cost the king his crown, or even his life, to renounce the state religion; yet this bereaved mon- arch flies to the Christian's Bible for the solace that his pagan creed cannot supply! Siam may be much nearer to becoming a Christian nation than we think! The additional fact should be put on record that the first zenana teaching ever attempted in the East was by mis- sionary women, in 1851, among the thirty wives and royal sisters of the King of Siam.
MADAGASOAR. "A nation shall be born in a day."
BY L. P. BROCKETT, M.D., BROOKLYN, N. Y. I. ITS GEOGRAPHY, ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY TO 1818. MADAGASCAR stands third in size among the islands of the world (Australia being now reckoned as a continent), only Borneo and Papua (New Guinea) exceed it in area. It is 9'15 miles in length, and 250 to 350 miles in breadth. Its area is 230,000 square miles, or 145,838,742 square acres-about five times as large as the State of Pennsylvania. It is in the Indian Ocean, almost wholly in the Southern Tropical Zone, and is separated from the eastern . coast of Africa by the Mozambique Channel, which varies in width from 220 to 540 miles. North and north-northwest of Madagascar are several groups of islands whichare inhabited by mixed races-African, Malagasy, and Arab; eastward, or northeastward, are the two considerable islands of Mauritius, an Eng- lish colony, and Reunion, 01' Bourbon, belonging to the French. There are good harbors on the northwest and northeast, and a few on the east coast, but most of the latter are not protected from the southeast winds. The island'has: 1. Lowlands, extending from 25 to 50 miles back from the coast, generally sandy or marshy, fiat, intensely hot, and generally sickly. 2. A forest belt on the foothills, rising from 400 to 2,000 feet above the low- lands, varying in width from 20 to 40 miles; widest on the western slope, and toward the southern part of the island becoming a barren and sandy desert, with extensive lava beds. This forest is well watered, and contains much valuable timber, many of the trees being peculiar to the island. Por- tions of it, particularly the central and northern portions, form a dense and almost impenetl'able jungle, the Hanas 01' climbing plants being closely in- terwoven with the boughs of the treeii. This forest region, like most of the jungles in tropical countries, is damp and sickly, except to the natives. The temperature is less oppressive than that of the coast, but often reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and seldom falls below 45 degrees. 3. The highland region, the watershed or backbone of the island, which bears the marks of extensive upheaval and volcanic disturbance in former times. There are more than a dozen summits of varying elevation, from 6,000 to 8,200 feet above the sea, several of them having extinct craters and streams of l&va, whose surface is in some places as yet unbroken. The hills, valleys, and ta.blelands of this highland region are healthful, the climate is dehghtful, the range of the thermometer being only from 40 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The scenery is superb and the lands exceedingly fertile. There are two seasons, the rainy and the dry; in the latter the skies are mostly unclouded, but the mountain streams and lakes supply the necessary moisture, and the crops are abundant. In the more sandy plains irriga~ion, which is easily pl'acticed, gives enormous results.
The watershed is nearer to the east coast than to the west, and while the streams deicending the eastern slope of the mountains are mostly moun- tain torrents, never navigable more than from six to ten miles, those faU- ing into the Mozambique Channel from the western slope are much longer, and some of them, having a ciL'cuitous course,.are navigable from 80 to 100 miles. ..
Madagascar is very rich in mineral wealth. Gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, and iron of the best qualities; antimony, plumbago, and other metals and minerals abound. Coal, bO,th anthracite and bituminous, exists in great quantities, and diamonds have been discovered. As the government claims all minerals and metals, these have not been largely worked. Madagascar has no large or ferocious wild animals; its quadrupeds are nearly all peculiar to the island, and consist of many genera and species of lemurs (which belong to the monkey family), several species of ant and other insect-eaters, a small hippopotamus, civet cats, a number of rodents, and the aye-aye. There are many reptiles, lizards without number, one species of crocodile, iguanas and geckoes, as well as several pythons, mostly of the American or anaconda type. Birds are numerous, and for the most part are of beautiful plumage. Some of the species are fine song birds, but very few birds of prey. Thirty-three genera and more than 50 species are peculiar to the island, and a somewhat larger number are found in Africa or Polynesia also.• Fish are abundant along the coast, and in the rivers there are many peculiar fresh-water species. The domestic animals have been largely introduced. The flora of Madagascar is abundant, and there SJ,re about 700 out of 8,000 genera and species which are peculiar to the island. Many of its flowers are of wonderful beauty. The trees are largely indigenous and peculiar. Much of the timber is very valuable, and some of the products of the forest are of great commercial importance. Among these are five or six trees and vines producing caoutchouc, some of it said to be the finest in the world, the pepper and the tallow trees, the copal tree, the sago palm, the aloe, many species of figs, the pomegranate, the tamarind, quassia, sugar cane, and other shrubs; the manioc, several species of arrowroot, and many other edible roots and tubers abound, while of the cereals their rice is unsurpassed, and wheat, millet, Indian corn, and barley are largely pro- duced. Ethnology and tribal divisions. The aboriginal race, now nearly or quite extinct, came here from the African coast. They were called Vaquimba, and were probably Zulus or Kaffirs. The existing inhabitants are of two affiliated races, both from Polynesia' or Eastern Malaysia. The first migration of these, comprising most of the coast and' some of the intel'ior tribes, must have come to the island about the beginning of the Christian era. They drove the Vaquimba into the interior, but there were extensive intermarriages between them, and also with the slaves who were brought in great numbers from the East African coast. These tribes, of which the Sakalava and Bara are the principal, are dark. skinned, with curly and frizzled, but not woolly, hair; tall and vigorous, with fine forms. They are a sly, perfidious, brutal, and arrogant people, universally addicted to theft, and given to drinking, fighting, and plundering. About A.D. 1000 there came another tribe, or perhaps two, from Eastern Polynesia, who, landing on the island, soon pushed their way into the interior or mountain region, and exterminating the 17aquimba, who had fled thither from the west coast, occupied their lands, and increased very rapidly. These were the Hovas and the Betsileos. The Hovas are of much lighter color than the coast tribes, with straight black hair, fine and soft, and sometimes inclined to curl. TheIr complexion and features are much like the Malays, and are not much darker than those of the Spaniards and Italians. They are rather below the middle stature, butof erect figure, and with delicate and finely-formed limbs, and they are agile and graceful in their movements.
The Betsileos are larger, the men averaging six feet, the women from five feet seven to five feet mne inches. Their complexion is darker than that of the Hovas, and their hair more crisp and curly. As to moral character and intelligence, they are somewhat below the Hovas. The B~tanimena and Betsimisaraka resemble the Hovas much more than any of the other tribes.
There are, according to the latest authorities, 22 provinces or tribal diVISions of the territory, some of them sub-divided into districts, making a total of (so-called) provinces and sub-provinces of 28. These are occupied by fourteen tribes, some of them divided in clans, and these clans seventy years ago, and even fifty years ag'o, were often fighting each other. Wars of conquest, to obtain either territory or slaves, were constant between the tribes prior to 1820, and have not been infrequent since that time.
The great province of Imerina, occupying the central and highland portion of the island, is the largest of all the provinces; and has been occupied for several centuries by the Hovas, who are now the most numerous and intelligent of the Malagasy tribes. Sixty or seventy years ago they num_ bered but 750,000 or 800,000 souls while the Betsileo, an adjacent highland tribe, numbered 1,500,000, but owing to changes produced by wars, civilization, etc., the Hovas have now about 1,300,000; and the Betsileos only from 650,000 to 750;000. In the earlier history of Madagascar, the Hovas seem to have been unknown to those who visited the coast; the Sakalava, the largest of the coast tribes, having a population estimated at 1,200,000, the Betsileos, from 1,200,000 to 1,500,000, the Betanimena and Betsimisaraka about as many, and the Bara, a particularly savage and ferocious tribe, about 600,000. There were some smaller tribes, numbering in all, perhaps, 300,000 more. It is probable that at that period the Hovas were included among the Betanimena and Betsimisaraka, to whom they are apparently affiliate.d by race characteri,stics. The condition of all these Malagasy tribes in the first decade of the presen t century was deplorable, much lower than that of our most degraded Indian tribes, whom, nevertheless, in their habits, customs and worship, they resembled. They had no written language, and, except in the case of the Hovas, no regular form of government; their wars were constant, and ended either in butchery or enslavement of the defeated party. They were lustful, brutal and cruel; some of the tribes were reputed to be cannibals; all were treacherous, thievish and revengeful. Polygamy was general, and they had acquired ·from the foreigners who had visited them the most loathsome vices of civilization. Some of the tribes had a vague idea of a Supreme Being, but they addressed to Him no worship or adoration. The worship of ancestors, though common, was not universal; but they had rude idols and fetiches as foolish and absurd as those of the African races; sticks, stones, roots, and forms of animals. There was not a temple or idol house in all Madagascar, but there were idol-keepers, akin to the African medicine men.
They had an ordeal for detecting crime, called tangena-the decoction of a poisonous bean, indigenous to the island, which the accnsed was compelled to drink. Such were the people to whom the gospel was to come, to heal, to purify, to elevate, to educate, and to redeem.
History before 1820. Though discovered in medireval times, Madagascar was not explored, or any colony landed upon its shores, till 1506, when the Portuguese began a series of efforts to enslave and Christianize its tribes.
The Portuguese Jesuit priests landed on the northeast and northwest coasts, bearing the crucifix, and attempting to convert them, while right behind them came the Portuguese slave trader, with his comes and fetters, ready to hurry all the unarmed natives he could find on board hls ships, and sell them to the Arabs, or take them to the European markets, where they brought a good price. The Sakalava, who were the tribes most usually encountered, did not admire thls method of conversion, and after a month or two they fell upon the colonists and massacred them all. This was repeated so many times, that the Portuguese finally abandoned all further efforts to plant colonies there. In 1642 the French undertook, under a grant from the French king, to colonize Madagascar very much after the Portuguese fashion.
At first they were more successful, but presently they, too, attempted to enslave the natives, and after forty years of successive efforts to establish themselves at various points on the coast, which in every case terminated in massacre and expulsion, they surrendered their charter to the King of France from whom they had received it, and abandoned the island. For nearly fifty years (1686-1733), the French did not annoy the natives, though occasionally English and Dutch slavers picked up along the coast cargoes of slaves. In 1733, the French renewed their efforts to take possession of the island, planting their trading forts at various points on the main island, and on one or two of the small islands adjacent, and wlth much the same results as before, the deadly fevers of the coast aiding in the destruction of the colonies. From 1786 to 1807, the French had no settlement on the island, but about that time they established a small colony and trading fort at Nosy-be, an island near the northwest corner of Madagascar. In 1811 the English Government having captured Mauritius, the Isle of France, as the French had called it, claimed also its dependencies, of which Madagascar was the chief, and in February of that year took possession of Tamatave and Foule Point, two small trading forts, these being all which the French then claimed on the island of Madagascar. This capture was ratified by the two treaties with France in 1814 and 1815. • Up to this time neither the French nor any other European nation seem to have had any knowledge of the Hovas or their chief or king; but Captain Le Sage, the British agent or commissioner, who was charged with the establish- ment of English authority and trade in Madagascar, had discovered that they were a very powerful tribe, and that their King, Radama I., was the thirty- second in the line of the Kings of the Hovas; and he assembled at Port Louis in 1817 four of Radama's representatives (two of them his brothers), one of the nobles of the BetanimEma, the chief of Tamatave, two chiefs of the Betsimisaraka, and two southern chiefs; he formed with them treaties, offensive and defensive, taking the oath of blood" with them, and succeeded in abolishing the export slave trade. By a subsequent treaty, made with Mr. '
Hastie, the commissioner who had succeeded Captain Le Sage, the British Government agreed to pay Radama I., as a compensation for his loss of: revenue from the slave trade, $2,000 in gold and silver, muskets. accouter- ments, flints, uniforms, powder, etc., ;nnually, and to furnish an in- structor in military tactics. .
Radama I. had ascended the throne as King of Imerina in 1810, and had under his sway about 1,206,000 people, mostly Hovas. His father, Impoina.
had commenced a career of conquest over the other tribes on the island.
and Radama, who was ambitious and able, was desirous of completing it.
This alliance with Great Britain gave him 'the means of doing so. Mr.
Hastie, the British Commissioner, proved a wise counselor, and under his suggestions Radama became anxious to have his people educated, and to have -schools established. From these small beginnings there followed the great work of civilization and evangelization.
II. EMERGING FROM HEATHENISM.
That God does have special purposes of mercy, in regard to nations sunk in the darkness of heathpnism, seems to be proved in many cases. How deep was the degradation of,many of the tribes which inhabited Great Britain in the first century of our era. Blood-thirsty, addicted to human sacrifices, worshipers of idols, and utterly given over to cruelty, what but His special Providence could have brought England and America up to its present Christian civilization and culture?
Madagascar is another and even a more striking example of-His Providen· tial dealing. Here these tribes had lived, for a thousand years and more, barbarom., probably cannibals, with but few religious ideas. constantly engaged in wars, either with each other or with other islands and the main- land, reducing the conquered to slavery, massacring those foreigners who attempted to colollize their lands, and resisting, with an instinctive horror, the attempts of French-Jesuits to brmg them into subjection, and to fasten their faith upon them; their case seemed utterly hopeless, but .. There is a wideness in God's mercy Like the wideness of the sea,"
and in the space of seventy yeaL's these wild savages have become a Christian nation, ChrIstian not only in its Christian temples and worship, in its family altars, and its new-found zeal, but in the holy living, the gentle yet firm adherence to the gospel of Christ, the readiness to endure martyrdom for-His sake, and that sublime forgiveness of injuries and wrongs, and readi- ness to bestow kindness on their enemies, which they could only have learned from the Sermon on the Mount.
When Radama I. ascended the throne in 1810, no tribe of the Malagasy, not even the Hovas, who were in many respects the most advanced of all the tribes, had a written language; all were warhke, cruel and blood-thirsty, false, deceitful and dishonest, lustful and treacherous, suspicious and revengeful. They had no clear ideas of a Supreme Being. and no notion of a future state. There had never been Moliammedanism or any other system of false religion on the island, but simply fetichism and the worship of ancestors. Their king, at first King of the Hovas only, and not even of all of them, had, by his ambition and enterprise, and by his courage and audacity, so far subdued the numerous tribes on the island, that he was justified in assuming the title of King of Madagascar, and his right to that title was recognized by Great Britain, and later by France. He was a man of considerable ability, ahd sufficient foresight to know that It was best to form an alliance with some European power, and thus obtain for his people a written language, and, what he valued still more, arms and instruction for his army in military matters, that he might be more successful in/his schemes of conquest.
Through the influence of the British Resident, Mr. Hastie, he was induced to permit the London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches there; to reduce the language to writing, and to translate the Scriptures and other books into the Malagasy tongue; and to prohibit the foreign slave trade. He kept his promises to the English Government; but for himself, he was an uncultured barbarian and savage; his wars were marked by constant rapine and license; his government was stern and often cruel, and his priv- a.te life stained by lust and polygamy. The idol worship, a sort of fetichism, was maintained throughout his reign, the idol-keepers received their offerings, and the worship of ancestors was as active as ever. Yet it may be said to his credit, that he did not suffer the missionaries to be molested in their work during his life. .
These'missionaries of the London Missionary Society left England early in 1818, and commenced their work in Madagascar at once. There was much preliminary work to be done; the language was to be reduced to writmg, and thoroughly mastered, school-houses and churches built, the desire for education awakened, and even the first elements of the knowledge of God, as a supreme Governor and Ruler of the universe, introduced into these darkened minds; then they were to be taught the guilt and destructiveness of sin, and the need of a Redeemer, and made to comprehend that Jesus had come to be their Saviour. The work was great, and the oppositIon of the idol-keepers was intense and malignant, but in a wonderfully short time they began to see the fruits of their labors. The· Spirit of God illumined these dark heart;, and they crowded to the mission-houses to hear the Word of God, and soon a Pentecostal season was presented to the eyes of the as- tonished missio)1aries. In 1828, ten years after they left England, the ScrIp- tures of the New Testament were translated into this soft and beautiful tongue, hymns of faith and hope, such as had cheered the saints of God in other lands, were translated, set to music and sung; 100 schools had been established and 10,000 children were under il1struction; 15,000 of the people were hopefully converted and between 7,000 and 8,000 had professed their faith in the chu,rches ; already some of the most promising converts had be- gun to preach the gospel they had so lately received, and as the Malagasy are" a natIOn of orators," their preaching was attended with great and pre- ciO).lS results. The churches, "walkmg in the fear of the Lord and the com- fort of the Holy Ghost, were greatly enlarged and multiplied." But the time was soon coming, when thegenuinenes8 of this work was to be tested by the fires of persecution. .
On the 27th of July, 1828, Radama 1. died at the age of thirty-six. His suc- cessor should have been, according to Oriental custom, his nephew, the son of his sister, a very worthy young man, but Radama's second wife (he had twelve), a bigoted idol worshiper, and a woman who rivaled in hel'
crimes Catharine II. of Russia, though she' did not possess her intellectual or political ability, aided by some of the idol-keepers, intrigued for, and ob- tained the throne. No sooner was she fairly established, than she put to death every near relative of the late king, and every prominent noble who had favored Rakoto, the legitimate heir to the throne. She was crowned in 1829 as Ranavalona 1. She soon issued a decree forbidding any foreigne~s, especially Europeans, from coming into her dominions; and soon after an other, prohibiting the missionaries from teaching religion to the Malagasy, or 357 holding any meetings or societies which should be attended by them; they might teach sciences, or the mechanic arts, but not religion, and all churches must be closed. Most of the missionaries left the island in 1833. In 1834 another decree was promulgated forbidding any meeting public or private of the people to talk of reLigion, under penalty of arrest, and if found guilty, of punishment by death. Under this decree many Christians were banished and a few put to death.
In 1835 a fanatic, who had mingled some Christian doctrine with his prayers to his idols, and had approached the queen's palace to address her in regard to his creed, was seized and put to death, 'and the rage of the quep.n being roused by this incident, she issued a decree that all persons suspected of being Christians should be arrested and examined, and if they did not disavow their belief in Christ and offer worship to ta~ idols, they should be put to death. Nobly did the Christians stand this test. Some fied, but very few would deny Christ. Some ~vere beheaded, others beaten to death, others still, and a large number, were hurled from the lofty rock on which the City of Antananarivo, the capitol, is built, and fell mangled corpses at its base.
The present Prime Minister of Madagascar relates an incident in connection with this slaughter, of which his father, one of the judges, was a witness: A mother and daughter were brought for examination; the mother confessed her faith in Christ, refused to worship the idols, and was summarily thrown over the rock; then the daughter, a beautiful girl of fifteen, came forward and said: "I, too, am a Christian; throw me over." The judge said. "She is only a child, and does not know what she is saying; take her away." But the young girl was firm. "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," she said, "and I will not worship idols. Throw me over I" Once more the judge tried to save her. "My child," he said, "life is sweet to you. Only bow your head ever so slightly toward the idol, and you shan be free. I will take you to my own home." "No!" said the young maiden, "I will bow to no God but Jesus Christ. He is my Saviour. Throw me over." And throw her over, they did. More than two 'thousand were put to death at this time (1849) by this cruel queen, because they would not deny Christ, and several thousand more in the course of her reign; others were subjected to torture, and many more to the ordeal by drinking' the tangena, a poison prepared to try the guilt or innocence of suspected persons. But it was not alone against the Christiab subjects of this bloody queen that her malignant and murderous temper was manifested. On various pretenses, the most common one being that they were conspiring against her, she put to death most of the principal men in her realm; and when her son, whom she claimed as the son of Radarna, though born about a year after his death, had arrived at,his eighteenth or nineteenth year, and had shown a disposition to be more merciful than his mother, and to pity the Christians whom she persisted in slaughtering, she tried toput him to death for conspiring against her. She was, during most of her reign, constantly engaged in wars with the other tribes on the island; andas her armies were badly handled, and her treacherous management was notorious, she almost depopulated whole provinces of Imerina and the adjacent country: It was estimated that more than a million men, women, and children perished in.her wars. The French made repeated attempts to establish settlements on the coast, but were repulsed either by her ambushes or by the deadly fevers 'of the coast. At length her own people grew tired of her op_ pression, and would have dethroned her had not SICkness attacked her hitherto robust frame, and weakened her imperious WIll. She lingered for some
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
months, and finally died on the 16th of August, 1861, one of her last acts, July 3, 1861, being the ordering of a new and more terrible persecution against the Christians, of whom she had obtained a list. Many perished under this edict, but the new king, her son, proclaimed universal amnesty and the restoration oC property to all Christians. Thus died, after thirty-three years' reign, Ranavalona I., "unwept, unhonored and unsung." Her whole administration was unmarked by a single good or noble act.
(Concluded in our next number.) TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
THE Allgemeine Missions.Zeitschrijt sums up the work in East Africa thus: .. There are to-day. within the Lake Region of East Africa. extending to the coast. from Kilimanjo,ro in the nort! .to the highlands of the Shire in the south (not reckoning some little out stations) 44 Protestaut missionaries. inclUSIve of the unordained. such as physicians, a.rtisans, agriculturists, teachers, ma.le a.nd female . .A. small number,.itis true, compared with the extent of the region. which is from five to six times as large as the whole German Empire. But if we bear in mind that some 15 years back two little missionary attempts were all that was fonnd here: the little Kisulutini and the then rather inert Universities Mission on Z..nzibar Island. it is. after all. not so trifling an advance which Protestant missions have made here in a decade and a half. We must consider also the sacrifices which these achievements have cost: not in money merely. or mainly. but the sacrifice of human lives and human health. At least fifty men and several women bave given up tbeir lives for East Africa, some of them noble, highly-gifted men. In view of these facts, we are compelled into reverence for the Christian heroism which. thank God. still lives in evangelical missionary circles. There have not yet been great visible results. The time has been too short for this, especially as the unhealthiness of the climate has necessitated a frequeut change of laborers, and the languages are yet but little known. while EastAfrica has been involved in difficulties peculiar to herself. The baptisms which bave taken place (perhaps about 1800 m all) are all in the English missions. which (with the exception of the L. ni. S. on Lake Tanganyika) are tbe earliest. The German missions are not yet beyond incipiency.' , The Zeitschrijt, in a very favorable notice of the Atlas published by the Church Missionary Society, takes occasion tQ correct a few inaccuracies. Thus: it states that the Unitas Fratrum commenced its work in South Africa as late as 1792. Its continuous work dates from then, but its first missionary, George Schmidt, landed in 1737. The Basel Society is credited, on the Gold Coast, with 4,000 "adherents," while in fact it has more than 7,000 baptized members. Most of the European societies, I may remark, baptize those who. after competent instruction, are ready to break definitively with heathenism. Only a minority of these are commonly admitted to the communion. These societies, therefore, need three headings: Adherents, Baptized Members, Communicants. The Atlas, moreover, gives the whole number of Protestant Christians in Africa as about 800,000, whereas, the Zeitschrijt remarks, it should be put (inclusive of Madagascar) at fully twice that amount.
Dr. Warneck, in the preface to his work on "Missions in the Light of the Bible," remarks: "It is. to me, a peculiar happiness. that. by God's grace. peculiar acceptance is falling to the sbare, above all. of these Biblical views of missions. Unless I err. what the missionary work now needs. as first and foremost. is to be deepened. And to he deepened. it is above all needful that It should be plunged and bathedm God's word. Aud, moreover. for the first awakening of agenullle missionary life, I am. as I grow older, more and more convinced that it is the Bible which must do tbe chief work."
The Zeitschrijt in its keenly critical, and therefore more valuable,remarks on the late Missionary Conference says: .
.. In tbe various gatherings at thIS conference. both at the begiDning and throughout Its course, we were struck with the fact that prayer occupied a place of greater prominenc~ and dignity than is commonly the case with us in similar conferences, where prayer is too often treated as an official necessity which cannot be evaded, while in London it was easy to mark the spirit of earnestness and genuine fervor."
The following is a passage from a sermon 01 General Superintendent Lohr, of Kassel, Germany, reported in the Zeitsch1"ift. A superintendent in Germany is a clergyman of virtually Episcopal functions: ••• Behold, I have set before thee an open door.' These are the words in which the Lord is now addressing every missionary society. But whether there ~s energy in store, to avail themselves of this access which He has secured for them, whether missionaries will be found who will go in through the opened gates, that, beloved, depends on the inward state of the· church which supports the missions, on her self-devotion, and power in prayer. 'Where a great door is opened there, too, are always many adversaries. Paul experienced this in Ephesus, and no less does the church in her missionary work of to·day. Whether the skeptical doubts which are expressed concerning this work are recognized and rejected as futile, depends on whether there are men in every place that lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting, who know how to pray in the name of Jesus, and who, out of the riches of Hia promise, know how to draw upon heavenly assistance for th'work enjoined. As we shall do little for missions until we are thoroughly in earnest with our giving, so, still earlier, must we come to be thoroughly in earnest with our praying.
.. We must learn to pray in the name of Jesus for missions, and for this it is not enough that we do something, and give something, for them. We must enter into true and complete communion of life with Him-absolutely give up individual interest, and place ourselves wholly at His disposal. The promise that our prayer shall be heard is conjoined by the Lord Jesus with the parable of the vine and the branches. • If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what yewill, and it shall be done unto you.' It is such people that the Holy Ghost in our time is seeking-such that He is seeking to bring together out of all church communions; people who are thoroughly in earnest in their devotion to the work of the Lord, and to the Lord of the work. Where there are Christians, who present their souls for the name of the Lord Jesus, resolved for His name to do everything, for His name to suffer everything, these the Holy Spirit also introduces into the use of the name of Jesus, and brings them, through experiences of the hearing of prayer, into the attainment of a. consummate joy. There was great joy among the disciples when they saw their Jesus, risen from the dead, again in bodily presence in their midst. But yet greater joy was theirs when they discovered that to the requests which they made known before God in the name of Jesus for the success of His cause, an answer descended frolIl heaven. Whoever has experienced answers to prayer will acknowledge with me that they are the very jewels in our ..emembrances of the past. Peter names as the end of faith a joy un- speakable and full of glory. And answers to prayer bring into the heart the foretaste of such a joy. These anslVers to prayer blot out our doubts, confirm our adoption, whose privi- lege and prerogative the Father makes good to us thereby. They draw aside the curtain that hangs between our Father's house and the frail tabernacles of our pilgrimage, and give us to look into the royal law of liberty, according to whose pattern God is redeeming this world of death out of the curse resting on it, and transforming it into the glory for which it was destined and created."
The Zeitschrift has some keen remarks upon Canon Taylor's ostentatious patronage of Islam: .. I am not acquamted with the antecedents of this gentleman." [The writer is not-aware, evidently, of the philological eminence of Canon Taylor, and of his familiarity with the East. This, however, does not imply any profound knowledge of the religious worth of Mohammedanism. And whether it concerned Islam or heathenism, it IS with good reason that the German writer goes on to say:] .. O/missionary matters he knew nothing. Yet, on the strength of his general culture, he imagined himself competent, after a preparation of a few weeks, or perhaps a few months, to present a paper respecting one of the most difficult questions m the field of missions. If he had merely assumed to instruct the Church (;ongrp.ss this might have passed, as most of them probably know at least as little about the matter as himself. But he has also undertaken to instruct and to rebuke those who ha.ve at least labored in the cause as many years as he has probably spent days upon the study of It. A few facts and figures hastily thrown together" [like those by which he has converted Sir William Hunter's fifty millions of Hindu races waiting for conversion to Christianity mto half a million] .. had given him the courage to assume the air of an expert."
The Berliner Missions-Berichte, at the end of the year 1888, report the finances of the Berlin Society as in a favorable state, partly in consequence of larger amounts paid in to cover the deficit, partly as the result of a great bazaar held in Berlin in March, and realizing $6,000, partly through larger receipts of the Collecting Society (Sammelverein). In these ways the deficit of April 1, 1888, namely, $30,721.76, has been reduced to $12,062.65.
The editor of the Allgemeine-]rissionszeitschrijt thinks that in the present fervor of zeal against the East African slave-trade there is likely to be a good deal of hot-headed crusading, which, like the earlier crusades, will cost a great deal and accomplish little. He is very jealous, it appears to me too jealous, of the credit which Cardinal Lavigede is acquiring. But his opinion is always well worth attention. He says: .. There are times when great and noble aims encounter stroug opposition, and only slowly and with difficulty" in the adhesion of wider circles. And there are times when there is a universal enthusiasm for them, and indeed i~ almost becomes the mode. At ~uch times there goes, as it were, a general fever of hallucination (0. mad intoxication) through the world, and people arc very sensitive over anything like a sober criticism. But these intoxicated enthusiasms are commonly a fire of straw. Some years ago it was the Coloninl fever, now it is the anti-slavery fever. In the time of the colonial fever a man ran gr oat danger of being accuserlof a want of patriotism, if he so much as endeavored to instrt a few drops of modest consideration into the boundless enthusiasm which promised itself nothing but mountains of gold. To-day he might well fear that he would be acco)lnted a defender of slavery If I,e should preach patience in regard to the removal of this great evil. and should warn against the large employment of force."
Canon Taylor, in his recent contemptuous disparagements of the present missionary activity of the Protestant churches, m~,kes great use of compu- tation, and reckons how many thousand, or scores of thousands of years, at the present rate of conversion, it would require to overtake the mcrease of the world's population in a single year. Dr. Warneck makes the following application of his principle: In the apostolic age the population of the Ro- man Empire reached about 120,000,000. Reckoning the births each year as twelve per thousand, we have an annual increase of 1,440,000. According to tolerably trustworthy estimates there were at the end of the first century- that is, about 70 yeQrs after ChrIst's public appearance, about 200,000 Chris- tians. Therefore, assuming that the population had remained stationary, it; should have reqliired 500 years to overtake the increase of a single year, and 42,000 years to convert the population. Assuming, however, that the terri- ble pestilences and other calamities of the first six centuries after Christ had l'educed it one-half, it would titill have requir~d 21,000 years to Christianize it. Yet before A. D. 600 heathenism had entirely disappeared from the em- pire. The ::tpo::;tles did not have a Canon Taylor as the keeper of their con- sciences, but the Holy Spirit of power and love, and of a sound mind, and, therefore, went on to convert the kingdoms, leaving statistics to take care of themselves. '7e wonder whether Canon Taylor has. ever heard of a law of increase called geometrical progression r "The apostles, Herr Canon," says Dr. Warneck, "wcre probably not, like yourself, great arithmeticians, but they were heroef; of faith. They believed, with full and firm conviction, what is written in the bst of Matthew concerning the omnipotent omni- presence of thoir Saviolll' with them. Therefore, they said: 'To a minority with Jesus belongs victory and the future. .' And we now see that the event has justified their faith."
The editor L f the Zeitschrift subjects Canon Taylor's assumption, that the present l·n.te of increase is the perpetual rate of increase, to the scrutiny of facts. Thus, in China, there were of native Protestant Christians (assuming communicants to be one-third of the whole) :
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
1857. 1867. 1877. 1887, abo 2,000 14,800 39,000 95,000 Moreover, in the first fifteen years the annual rate of increase was about 133, in the first decade following 1,280; the sec.ond 2,420, the third 5,600.
Accepting Canon Taylor's scornful comparison of the tortoise and the train, and assuming that this progression of the rate of increase continues in China for 100 years, the tortoise will by that time have far outstripped the train.
In Japan, assuming the same proportion of native Christians to commu- nicants in the Protestant churches, we have: 1876. 1882. 1886. 1887. abo 3,000 14,500 43,000 68,000 In five years the number had much more than tripled.
In Airica things are but in their beginning, and we can give but vague guesses. But that the same law obtains there as in China. and Japan ap- pears from two proofs derived from opposite sides of Africa. In Guinea the Basel Missionary Society, whose labors there have been sadly checked by the climate, but which has had a mission there since 1827, shows the following results. Native Christians: 1857. 1867. 1877. 1887. 367 1,509 3,607 7,495 That is, the rate of increase, instead of remaining stationary to please Canon Taylor, persisted in advancing with the age of the mission. In thirty years the number of converts had increased twenty-fold.
"In Madagascar the Protestant missionaries began their work in 1818.
After ten years there were only 50 Malagese catechumens. Then followed a generati9n of persecution, compelling the missIonaries to leave the island.
Yet, at the end of 1868, there were 37,112 Christians, and this number, in consequence of the conversion of the Queen, had, in 1878, grown to about 250,000. The increase here, therefore, was by leaps and bounds. making the talk about tortoise and train idiotic. Now, however, a check ensued because the evangelical societies would not content themselves with a mere external reception of Christianity. Accordingly.now came a time of training and sifting. In the last ten years, therefore, the increase relatively has not been important, perhaps 50,000 for all the Protestant societies, besides the 73,000, more or less, claimed by the Roman Catholics. I adduce precisely this ex- ample ( , Madagascar to illustrate the absurdity of these Taylorian 'com- putations.' When God'~ hour has struck, 'a natiol1 may be born in a day;'
and on the other hand, when such <1 draught has been taken that the nets begin to break, a long time together may be almost wholly occupied with sorting the fishes. Indeed, for a while the ~riters may be all fished out."
To return to India, which has to bear the brunt of Canon Taylor's con- temptuous incredulity as to the prosPElcts of missions, we find, of native Protestant Christians, including Ceylon: 1861. 1871. • 1881. 213,370 318,363 52~,590 The number thus has donbled in about fifteen years.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. REPORTS from 262 colleges show that 47 presidents and 31 corresponding secretaries of College Y. M. C. A.s are volunteers. The list of volunteers represents 240 colleges. Mr. R. P. Wilder reports that God is blessing his efforts greatly, and asks' the prayers of volunteers. The students in Lane Seminary propose to unite with a neighboring church in supporting a missionary. Fifty men in Lebanon, Tenn., have pledged $350 for the support of an alumnus in the foreign field. Twelve students and one professor in the R. P. Seminary, West Virgima, have pledged a like amount, and hope to get $100 more. Mr. Wilder's visits have not only awakened a deeper interest in this financial' problem, and urged the personal claim of foreign missions, but, besides, souls are being brought to Christ.
The students of the United Presbyterian Seminary at Allegheny, and those of Grove City, Westminster, and some other institutions, have combined to send out the Rev. J. H. Martin to India. The students in the seminarvat Xenia, and some others, and churches like the Third Church, Pittsbu;gh, and the Second, Fourth, and perhaps First, Allegheny, are each taking up a particular missionary. either in the field or about to go, and providing for his support. Care must be taken to see that in no case shall the raising of funds for such purpose interfere with the carrying on of the regular expenses of the missions. Thus far, in every case. such assurance has been given.
One who has lately decided to become a missionary writes: "I feel a new interest and increased zest in life. I have now a motive power which bids me waste my time no longer. I wish to go out to Japan, if I have to pay my own expenses out, and spend my life in telling of Christ and Him crucified."
Reports from the foreign mission boards, though not complete, show 103 volunteel's sent, and 16 others appointed. Nineteen have gone to Japan, 18 to China, and 16 to India; in smaller numbers, to Turkey, Syl'ia, Siam and Laos, Persia, Mexico, Korea, Burmah, Bulgaria, and Africa. Forty-nine colleges are represented, ana 12 mission boards. The Y. M. C. A. Foreign Education Committee has sent out 9. Of the 103 all'eady sailed, 66 are men and 37 women.
An English gentleman looks upon this army of volunteers as applying for positions of $1,000 a year, and does not find the fact very stimulating. He says: "I entirely concur in all the reasons you give for 'going,' only shonld not the 'word 'volnnteering' be snbstituted for' going,' tbis' going' being in so many cases still such a very remote con· tingency 1 By all means emphasize that word' going,' and ask the Lord to show you how far yoor 'going' is conditional or otherwise. • Pot your own precepts into practice l' I re-echo your 'cry, •Oh, for 500 Elijahs, each one on his Moont Carmel, crying UNTO GoD (not unto the churches). Then we should soon have the clouds bnrsting with blessing.
.. Referring again to yonr appeal as it stands, if the chnrches refuse to give you reasonable aid, it may be that the churches will be disgraced; bnt, to quote your own words, • does go mean stay' until the churches will guarantee you the comforts and luxuries they provide for others 1 As you very jnstly point out, the heathen are dying at the rate of 100,000 a day, not only while the churches hesitate abont snbscribing so large a sum for salaries, but while you are waiting for them to do 80/ Depend upon It, dear friends, that if you wonld only devote your energies as did the Cambridge Band, to enforcing on all, commencing at yourselves, the necessity of sanctification in its widest sense ;-if you would emphasize by personal example and experience and testimony the blessedness of absolute consecration to God of time and talents, of personal tast~s and inclinations, yon would find that there would be no occasion to appeal for funds.
U In conclusiob, recognizing the missionary field as probably the most honorable post in the Lord's service, it is sad to see aspirants for that noble calling throwing themselves on the churches, and on societies, Instead of throwing themselves on God. • • • ' Commit thy way untv the Lord, trust also in Him, and he will bring it to pass.' It Whatever in the above communication is worthy of consideration, no account is taken of the fact that much of the delay on the part of volunteers is due to unfinished courses of preparation, while the 103 who have already sailed is a substantial earnest of what is to be in the course of the next five or ten years. In the second place, the widespread enthusiasm displayed during the last year among students in raising funds for the support of their own representatives is practical evidence that volunteers are not waiting
1889.J BOOK
for $1,000 positions, but are both ready to go themselv~s, and also to send their brothel's as soon as prepared.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETI~G.
The first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreig:o. Missions was held in New York Feb.H. -The object of the meeting was to perfect the organization and define the work ofthe several committeesand ag-ents of the Movement• .. The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions" was adopted as the name of the organization. The Executive Committee is to have the general oversight of the work, di- recting the visitations of Mr. Wilder, securing correspondil.g members in various States, bringing volunteers before the Boards, and having charge of the finances. In addition there is to be an Advisory Committee, composed of representative men in various parts of the country and from prominent missionary organizations, who shall advise with the Executive Committee on all measures of importance and connect the Movement with the churches. Also corresponding members are to be appointed in each state and district alli- ance. These members will have a local supervision of the work, acting in line with exist- ing organizations. They are to plan the visitation of vo]unteers to the churches and in- stitutions of their state or district, and collect funds for incidental expenses. The general finances will be in charge of the Executive Committee, Wm. H. Hannum. 50 East 70th street, N. Y. City, beiDI: Treasurer. The following is an estimate of annual expenses: Office $~ Special Circulars Traveling Secretary 200 Editorial 800 25 –$1,475 This amount is to be raised by voluntary subscriptions from individuals, churches. and associations. Already over $500 has come in unsolicited. Contributions for the support of the Movement will be welcome.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
The Bible in the Pacific. By Rev. A. W. Murray, London: James Nisbet & Co. Price, $1.50. Mr. Murray is the author of" Missions in Western Polynesia," .. The Martyrs of Polynesia," and other missionary books. The specific object of the present work is to give a succinct history of missionary work in the isilinds of the Pacific-Polynesia, The New Hebrides, The Loyalty Islands, The Sandwich, Micronesia and the Marquesas,especially the work of Bible translation and distributioa. This account extends from the origin of mission work on Tahiti in 1797 to the close of the year 1887. It embraces also historical notices of the different missions on all these islands, sothat the reader can get a bird'seye view of what has been done. and the present condition of missions in that interesting portion of the world. It records a vast amount of labor by men and women whose lives were consecrated to the noblest work in which man can engage. Many of these honored workers have ceasedfrom their labors and gone to their reward, but their work lives in its blessed results. Itjs a great joy to every lover of the Bible to think of the immense amounto! work accomplished, l,Llld the progress in the vast fields now embraced by the combined efforts of the British and Foreign, and other Bible Societies, and the multitude of missionary societies which, in conjunction with these, are working together for the good of man and the glory of God.-J. M. S.
The Sailor's Magazine, vol. Ix., for 1888. American Seamen's Friend Society. It is well to put in permanent form. for ready reference, the monthly issues of our benevolent and missionary societies. The record of this soCiety is an honorable one. It has done, and is doing a most important work, not only at home among the large number of seamen in port, but to those on shipboard, by means of libraries and other agencies, and at all the chief ports of the commercial world by means of chaplains, seamen's chapels. "" Sailors' Rests,"" and the like. We do not half appreciate the necessity of converting the sailor. Wherever he goes he is a missionary of good or a missionary of evil. It Is a matter for thankfulness that a wider and deeper interest is springing up in all Christian lands in behalf of this interesting class, resulting in constantly enlarging agencies and efforts for their social and religious improvement. God bless and prosper more and more this great society I-J. M. S', Life and Letters of Wm. Fleming Stevenson, D.D. By his wife.-London, Edinburgh, and New York: N..lson&Sons. We have been looking eagerly for this exquisite pen portrait of one of tile saintliest souls that ever wrought or pleaded for missions. His precious wife is an artist, and her brush is dippea in rare colors, such as only love could mix and mingle. If any man or woman can read that volume without falling in love with the man it portrays, and the woman who with such consummate artlessness,yet witb such artistic pencil, has perfected the sketch, there must be something defective in the responsive power of the heart
8M BOOK NOTICES
of the reader. Dr. Stevenson was another Pastor Harms, iiI Rathgar, Dublin. Withastrauge enthusiasm that tl."ansfigured him, he spoke, and wrote, and wrought to spread abroad the knowledge of missions, and to iucite intelligent zeal in their behalf. No man in our gen· eration, in any pastorate, has done such service to the cause of a world's evangelization. He handled in correspondence 10,000 letters a year; he went on a tour of missions; he was the faithful, sympathetic pastor of a large city chnrch; he electrified congregations andgreat ecclesiastical assemblies with his angelic eloquence. Where shall we fiud his like or look for his successor ?-A. T. P.
Stephen Hislop, Missionary and Naturalist in India. By George Smith, LL.D., London: John Murray. Here is one more qf Dr. Smith's great contribntions to missionary litera. ture. The man who has written of Duff, and Wilson, and Carey needs no introduction to our readers. This biography betrays his scholarly and skillful pen. It tells the story of a beautiful life cut short by accidental drowning at the early age of 46, but not before he had given twenty years to the building up of tue Christian missiou aud college iu Central India which are henceforth inseparably associated with his name. May Dr. Smith be spared to write many more rich missionary biographies.-A. T. P.
The A88am Mission 0/ the American Baptist Missionary Union. Calcutta. J. W. Thomas.
This is a collection of papers and discussions at the Jubilee Conference held in 1886 in NOWgOllg. Nineteen missionaries were present, eight men and eleven women, besides two missionaries representing other societies. The conference lasted for eleven days, and the following are some of the subjects discussed: Historical sketches of various churches and missions, self-support, work for girls and women, educational work, need and supply of a native ministry, extension of work, prevailing vices, translation, etc. No one who feels interested in this great division of India will want to be without this book.-A. T. P.
John, G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. London: Hodder & Stoughton. This book we have read with b'Oundless delight and profit. Its superior we do not know in all the range of missionary biography. Whe.her in delineation of his eaTly home life, bis work as a city missionary in Glasgow, or his subsequent career in Tanua, we have met nowhere a more stimulating and inspiring book. It should be On the table of every lover of missions, and would forma rare book for reading ",loud in the family.-A. T. P. – Modern Missionsand Oulture: Their Mutual Relations. By Dr. Gustav Warneck. Translated byDr. Thomas Smith. New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham. Price, $2.50. This book has for some time been difIicult to get hold of, being out of print. The demand for.it has compelleda new edition with some few verbal amendments. It need be scarcely said that whatever Dr. -Warneck writes every student of missions wishes to read. His" History of Protestant Missions,"also translated byDr. Smith,is one of the standard works on such subjects. Dr. Warnecks- style is at once vigorous and beautiful, and the translation is so happy that in Dr. Smith's hands little if anything is lost in the transfer to another tougue. No book of which we know discusses sodiscriminatingly the relations of culture to missions. Whether judged by extent and v*riety of research, or by clearness of statement and lucidity of argument, this book stands at the head on this theme.-A. T. P.
China's Millions. Edited by J. Hudson Taylor, F. R. G. S. London: Morgan &Scott, 1888. This is the Official record of the marvelous work of the China Inland Mission Society. The origin and history of this mission are so well known and appreciated that we need not enlarge upon them here. Its success may rank among the" miracles of missions," undertaken and carried on in Simple dependence On God, making no appeal for money. its missionaries receiving no fixed salary, largely self-~npporting, and building not on other men's foundation~ but penetrating to the -interior of China and establishing missions in provinces where no missionary had gone before, its entire work carried on in the spirit of great self-denial and exalted consecration. God has Signally honored this agency and made it conspicuous. The volume before us, beautifully bound and full of illustrations, and sold for a song, is made up of the monthly issues of the society for 1888. The year 1881, which is as late a date as the official annnal reports cover, was a memorable year in its history, the income of the society being increased 50 per cent., and 100 new missionaries being sent out. The frontispiece to the volume consists of the portraits of these 100 missionaries. A finer and more intellectnal-looking company of men and women it wonld be difficnltto lind.-J. M. S.
Bright Bits for Readings in M"zssionary Societies.-A collection of Essays, Stories, Colloquies and Bible Readiugs. This small, beautiful book contains the choice gleanings of years from the lighter class of missionary literature, made by Mrs. M. S. Budlong, connected with the W. F. M. S. of the North west (Y. E. Chnrch). The work supplies a felt need, and will be welcomed by multitudes of our Woman's Missionary Branches and Banjls, as furnishing fit and varied material for anniversary exercises and other public meetings in the interest of missions.-J. M. S.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Notes from our English Oorrespondent, Rukhmabai's case iq a signal illustration of Rev. James Johnston. . one of the evils of'" blind marriage and re- fers to the existing injustice of the social I. India.-Pundita Ramabai. law, enabling the husband, as in the pres- THIS heroic lady. says a Calcutta tele- ent -instance, to marry a second wife, while gram, is actively engaged in organizing at the victim of the so-called first marriage is Bombay a home for the education of child- debarred from all possibility of domestic widows of the higher castes. The United States and Canada and other in1luential happiness. friends are generously responding to the ap- III. Patna Mission. peal for aid. During the mission, which ·has lasted two and a half years. Rs. 40.000 The latest news from Bangalore states that has been subscribed for the commencement in coneeqnence of the alleged abduction of a of the work, and an income of Rs.I0,OOOper Hindn girl by a Wesleyan Zenana Mission, for annum for a. period of ten years is guaran- the purposes of proselvtism, the Komaties of tee"d by the Committee at Boston with af- the town of Bangalore held a pnblic meetin/i:, filiated committees in other parts of the and resolved not to sQnd their girls to the mis- States and Canada for non-sectarian teach- sion schools, nnder pain of social ostracism. ing. The object is to provide Brahmin The Muhammedans are showing a similar attiwidows of high caste with an education tnde against the Christians. J ndgment in the and a home. Though not a child-widow Patna Mission case has not yet been delivered. herself the labors of RILmabai are notable fora spirit of self-abnegation. She welcomes IV. Wesleyan Foreign Missions. her unfortunate countrywomen in order to In connection with the financial year which save them from the frequently recurring closed in the last week of February it is reported miseries of despair, infamy and suicide. that the amonnt of receipts eqnals that orthe pre- By education and protection from evil it is ceding year. The total income, which last year anticipated that many of tbese sisters may was £125,000, will this year be increased by at become useful members of society, a;nd, least £5,000, the resnlt of the special effort made possibly, happy wives and intelligent moth- at Christmas. This amount is not applied to the ers. The committees are desirous of pro- reduction of the society's debt, but to the in- viding a home for those who choose to crease of the annnal income. The General Com- study medicine or be trained as nurses, mittee have resolved that henceforth in all the their instruction being obtained in hospitals foreign districts the regular expenditnre is to be and schools. It is fUrther intended to train absolutely limited to the annual grants, and that girls of all races to acquire qualification as any additional outlay must be met by special teachers of Kindergarten schools and day local efforts. The current debt will probably be schools. considerably lessened by the time the annual meetiIlll: of the society is held in May next in London.
V. Christianity among the Jews.
Professor Max Miiller writes that his" ex- At the annual meeting of the Manchester anx- cellent friend" RILmabILi requires £15,000 iliary of the London Society for the Promotion for a scheme of philanthropy which may of Christianity amongst the Jews, the Chairman save at least a few souls from a life of hu- noted with satisfaction the greater readiness miliation, disgrace, and despair. It is ap- with which the Jews were reading the Old Tes.
palling to read in .. The High Caste Hindn tament and comparing it with the .New, and like- Widow," a brilliant work by RlLmabILi on p. wise their kindly bearing toward the missiona- 109, that the number of child-widows under ries. The society was founded in 1809, at whklh nine years of age is 78,976; from 10 to 14 time all Christian bodies co-operated in the work.
years, 207,388; from 15 to 19 years, 382,736. In the year 1815 the Dissenters withdrew from II. Rukhmabai. the society, and it was reconstrncted on· purely The last mail from India announced that Church of England principles, and so it has con- the hnsband of the recent heroine of the tinued llnti! now. Replying to the taunts which famous snit for restitution of conjugal were often hurled at the expensiveness of the rights has married a second wife. Rukh- society and effecting so few conversioDs, the mabai suffered much persecution a year Chairman remarked that since the Society's in- ago becanse on reaching years of discretion auguration more than 100,000 Jews had been she refused to become the wife of her child- converted. He maintained that the society, in hnsband. With rare courage she resisted spite of great nnpopnlarity, was dOing a grand a kind of slavery which cannot be tolerated work, and was commanding much support from in any portion of the British Empire. Even Christian people. The subscriptions, which in from an Indian standpoint this form of an 1887 amounted to £36,316, were in 18d8, £33,179, infant…marriage might with justi,ce be a decrease of npward of £3,000.
styled according to Indian-law terminolo- VI. Afrioa, Beohuanaland.
gy, a rdkshasa, or devil-marriage. The In- Regarding with strong disapproval the con- dian Daily News forcibly observes that templated transfer of this territory from the Imperial Government to Cape Colony, the Wes- treatment of the palm-nuts. Trading is the leyans, who have for many years had dourishing missions in that quarter of the globe, have African's special delight, but nntil quite recently formed an inlIuential committee, consisting of the Mission House authorities, together with a the markets of Lagos were not in a prosperous number of Wesleyan members of Parliament, for the purpose of frustrating the object of the condition. Now that a British IIrm has estabcolonial authorities. They take the ground that tile people of Bechuanaland are strongly op- lished a branch at Badagry, and made the place posed to tile -change, and tllat if the policy of the Cape Government is allowed to prevail it will a market town, it is estimated that 5,000 perbe most disastrous to the interests of the natives. sons with every variety of native produce as- VII. Logos (Western). A lurid picture of the western part of this re- semble there every market day, aod in eight gion has lately beeu presented by the English district commissioner. Tlie population, which months the monthly export has increased from has been recruited for many years past by a constant inlIux of refugees from the surround- £30 to £1,878. Cocoanut planting, road making tribes, falls roughly into three divisions. These are: the Popos, chielIy engaged in ing, corn-growing, and the cessation of the drink IIshing, forestry, and farming, but averse to steady work of any sort, and much traffic appear to be the official methods for addicted to theft; the Yombas, the most enterpriSing people in the district; and the civilizing the West African negro. Hoossas, who are farmers and palm-nut gatherers. The Mohammedans among them are more VIII. What Evangelical PreachIng has enterprising and industrious than the fetich worshipers; while the Christians, tbongh few in Done for the Heathen. nnmber, form a fairly thriving community. But all are alike in "intense and obtuse con- At the recent Conference m London upon servatism, so long as they are left to their Own devices, and in a keen spirit of petty trading." Evangelical Preaching, the Rev. E. E. Jen- The sole article of their moral code is "to do to your neighbor as you hope to avoid being done kins, the distingUished missionary late of to by him." It is useless to appeal to any higher motive, and It is certain that without European India and one of the ex-Presidents of the inlIuence to nrge them on commerce must decline. Fishing is carried on wholly m the la- Wesleyan Conference, read an important goons, the people never having had the enterprise to build surf-boats, which would enable paper. A brief summary of It IS presented them to engage in sea·fishing. SOlle progress has been made in agriculture, owing to the to tbe readers of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF efforts of the Roman Catholic Mission at Badagry, the administrative center. In the Frah THE WORLD. Kingdom, also, the local Britlsh officer has succeeded in mducing the people to plant a Mr. Jenkins attribnted much of the succonsiderable area of fertile land with corn, so that villages which were almost starving two cess which had attended the labors of Protyears ago on smoked fish are now supplying large quantities of gram to the local markets. estant missions in various parts of the But this increased prosperity has only increased the drunken habits of the people, who exchange world to earnest evangelICal preaching, by for vile imported spirits the prodocts of their labor. Katamu, the Frah capital, IS rapidly which he meant the preaching of the Cross. falling into a ruinous state of dIsrepair. Every fourth or IIfth honse IS a rnm shop, and the so- The history of modern miSSIOns brought called palm-wine sheds are IIUed every night with drunken men and women. The evils of out triumphantly the message of the Cross, the drink tra1lic are so apparent to the people themselves that they have petitIoned the Gov· and witnessed to the unimpaired fascinaernor to put an end to the sale of liquor altogether. If this were done the fertile flood tion and revolutionizing power of the name lands of Frah might become a sonrce of food and person of Jesus among heathen races, snpply for the whole colony. In spite of the valuable reSources of the forests, nothing IS There was no ~tory which offered a more done to develop them save the collection and conclusive defense of evangelical preach- ing than the FijI MlsslOn_ By the mission- aries the barbarians were charmed mto a life of gentleuess, of purity, of sweet intel- ligence, and of fruitful Industry, and an..
other people was added to the CIvilized na- tions of the world. The London Mission m Madagascar formed another example of the success of evangelIcal preaching In heathen countrles, attesting to the strange power of the gospel of Jesus eqnally strlkmgly and conclusively. Was not the story of the mission m Lower Burmah another chapter in the history of evangelical preaching?
The founders of that mlssIOn had devoted themselves mamly to preachmg Jesus aud translating His words Into the language of the people. Then the love of Christ so awakened III the hearts of the converts, drew them together, and created Within them the elements of family law and communal or- ganization, brmging forth the highest vir- tues of a human sOCiety, morality. mtelh· gence, thrift, courage, public spirit, benefi- cence and philanthropy, enrIching and for- tlfymg Christian eVidence by another proof that faith in the Christ of God was the seed of a nation. The Rev. Dr. Macfarlane, of New Guinea, eloquently testllIed, by many powerful IllustratIOns, to the good which had been done 10 that Ial/knd byevangellcal preaclung. — Africa.-Mohammedan Revolution in traders are certainly not 1;he men to con- Uganda. Public attention has recently, struct or reconstruct an empire. Those who and for different reasons, been very gener- know them best see no prospect that they ally directed to Uganda, a large province of will be able by intrigue, which is their only Central Africa lying round the north shore agency, to sustain themselves in Uganda.
of Victoria Lake. The country proper con- The character and habits of the Uganda tains about 20,000 square miles; its depend- people seem to forbid their enslavement.
encies embrace about 40,000 more. Theyare the only people ln Central Africa On his first expeditIOn across Africa, Mr. that clothe themselves from head to foot.
Stanley introdueed us to Uganda, whose Thousands of Europeau weapons and imple- cruel and powerful king, Mtesa. became un- ments are found in the~r posseesion, and der ·hIS mfluence favorable to Christiauity. ready workers in iron, they immediately He received, and frequently befriended aud imitate what they import. They are apt aIded, the missionaries of the Church of linguists, and their children have rapidly England and of Rome. UntIl hIS death about acquired the French and English languages two years ago, Christianity had made re- from the mIssionaries. They have neither markable progress m Uganda, and that Idols nor fetiches. They have no affiliations kingdom was one of the most powerful in with Mohammed:tDism, and are not likely to Central AfrIca. Mtesa was succeeded by become its subjects for any considerable his son Mwanga, a weak, vain, and treach- time. There is still good reason to hope for erous man, who reversed his father's policy a better future for Uganda.-N. Yo Evan- and undoubtedly ordered the murder of gelist.
Bishop Hannlngton about one year ago. Of China.-Religions of. The old religions of '
course, rt-Iwanga was a coward as well as a Buddhism and Taouism are losing theIr hold cru~1 and blood-stained despot. Because he upon the faith and affections of the people.
made Uganda impenetrable;no direct news You may criticise and ridicule both sys- from Wadelai about the movements of Stan- tems, and the people will join m the rIdIcule.
ley or Emin Pasha could reach Zanzibar. I hear that some people ln England talk of Very naturally he was obliged to face an adopting Buddhism as their creed. China., i U>lUrrection. To save his worthless life he after centuries of trial, will make you a fled from his kingdom, and hiS older brother, present of It for nothing. She has found the Kiwewa, succeeded him. Because under his light to be darkness, and she feels the dark- rule the missionaries were agaIn in favor, ness of it to-day. Why, in the northern part Kiwewa was soon forced to abdicate before of Chma there are thousands turnmg away an insurrection incited by the A.rabs, whom from the old creeds, and formmg new creeds the pohcy of hiS brother had brought iuto and new societies. You will find men there the kingdom, and 1D which such of hls own hungering after they know not what., wan- subjects as opposed the mIssionaries cheer- dermg they know not whither, but knowing fully participated. While about a score of that they are not satisfied-human hearts mi&sionaries escaped unharmed, all mis- lOnging, and no one to brmg them to the SIOnary property was destroyed, many na- fountain of living waters where they may ti ve missionaries were murdered, the Arabs drmk and be satisfied. No doubt Confucian- became dominant m Uganda, and the king- ism stili holds Its power over people. It talks dom, it may be for- several years, 1S closed of ItS learmng and literature. It appeals to against OhristIanlty. The hving mission- na.tional prIde, and stirs up race animosities.
arIeS have quite recently been ransomed. But Confuciamsm IS only a philosophy. It What IS to be the mfluence of this new is not a religIon, and we need not fear it. It Arab kingdom m Central AfrIca 1 This, does not occupy the ground that we occupy.
WIth many, IS a pressing questien. In all- bu tIts talk IS of the earth, earthy-of the sweriU!t It we must remember that these five social relations and the five constant so-called Arabs really havt' in their veins no VIrtues. Not a word about God, not a word Arab blood. They are coast Arabs of the about the 'SOUl, not a word about eternity, lowest cla~ses, and the proud and strong sin. or salvatlOn.-Rev. George Owen.
Uganda chIefs will not submit for any con- -There is evidence that American com- sIderable length of time to the rule of any merce with Chma WIll suffer on account of such men. They may use such men; they the new Chmese exclUSIOn law that is now wlil never become theIr slaves. The coun bemg rIgIdlY mforced at alt the ports of the try IS more lIkely to be broken up into hos- United states. A Shanghai paper, the Oe- tIle sectIOns. These may wear themselves lestial Emp,re, says that there have alrea.dy out 10 wars agaInst each other, and thus been antI-AmerICan riots III Canton, and the may be reahzed the hope that the British populace feel that If Chmamen cannot go to East African Company, from their new ter- AmerIca they should exclude Americans ritory between VictOrIa Nyanza aud the from Chma. The Foochow Echo gIves SImI- coast, would push Its Influence and Its ope- lar news. and adds that the strong party in ratIOns over Uganda, and the whole lake Chma WhICh hates foreIgners has recently regIon of Central AfrIca. These Ara.!> sla.ve- • lleEln dIsplaying a. da.ngerous spirlt. The Chinese Government. which has refused to agine," said Mr. Caine," the Earl of Sefton, ratify the exclusion treaty with the United on whose estates 47,OO() people are Iivmg States, is not averse to these manifesta- but no liquor-seller, bemg called. on by the tions. There is reason to apprehend that Collector lof Liverpool to show cause why disagreeable results may be experienced by a liquor den should not be opened on hIS American traders in China, and by the estate I" Uniformity of excise administrashippers of those American goods that have tion, substitution of moral considerations been coming into use among the Chinese. for financial, m the adminIstration, and But we can bear with all this provided the local option, are the three objects before us missionaries are not Interfered with. in India. The people of India, unllke other people. only drink for the purpose of getting -A recent conflagration in a remote drunk, and if we make them drunken we de- Chinese village destroyed the anc.estral stroy them more rapidly than by war, pestihome of the family of Oonfucius, with aU Its lence and famine.-Indian Witn•••• contents, texts on stone, commentaries, carvings in jade and alabaster, jars of por- -Tpeosophists. The Buddhists are trying celain ; in short, one of the most remarkable to get Col. Olcott to go to Japan to help literary and artistic collections in the Buddhism hold its ground. They have raised world, containing as it did every extant the needed money and sent an ambassador memorial of the great teacher. after him.
-A cable dispatch from Shanghai, January -Rumors are afloat ~hat Mr. Henry B. 30, states that the imperial astrologers de- Foulke and Mr. C. Ingersoll Maurey, both of clare that the recent fire in the Emperor's Philadelphia, have gone on a pilgrimage to palace at Pekm was an evil omen, intended the shrines of Buddha, III India. They beas a warning against the approach of west_ long to the .. Krlsthena Society,)1 WhlCh ern invention. An imperial decree has, .meets on Walnut street, and addicts itself therefore, been issued prOhibitlllg the to the study of" Theosophy." of which Mafurther extension of the Tiensin RaIlway. dam Blavatsky, now in London, IS :high priestess. Some of the members, we belleve. India.-The Government of India and the avow themselves to be converts to Buddliquor traffic. Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P., in a hism, others are simply diSCIples. who, powerful_peech III the Town Hall,Calcutta, through study and instruction, hope to asserted that the Government of India is come to a more. perfect knowledge of this stlmulating the excise system for revenue old form of faith and worship. WhIle others considerations. In proof of this he showed pose wholly as stUdents of .. Comparative that the revenue from country spirits in- Religion," or, as the more skeptIcal would creased ten per cent. per annum. While the say. "Comparative Mythology." The Krlsrevenue from imported spirits had increased thena, it is said, has sent forth this deputafifty per cent. during the past eight years. tion to study Buddhism in its ancient home. Mr. Caine quoted this damaging statement Tiley are to wait on 1I1ad"'mBlavatsky m from the late financial member of the Vice- England, and thence go on ·their pilgrimage roy's Council, Mr. Westland: .. That he to the East by w~y of the pemnsular route. looked hopefully for an increase in the ex- At Aden, on the Red Sea, says a correcise system in Northern India." The con- spondent of the New York Evening Mati and trast between this statement and the ntter- Express, .. they will be met by representaances of three English chancelors of the tives of the SOCIety III India, and w!ll be forexchequer whom he had heard" congratu- mally introduced to the Oriental rites and late England on the decrease of the excise mysteries of this strange sect. The prosystem," was very painful. Mr. Caine gramme from this point will depend upon the quoted from the reports of all the provinces decision of the native brethren. The town m IndIa to show that the men who tried to of Kurachee, III Sindh. one of the seats of realize Mr. Westland's hopes were ap- the older worship, WIll be visited, and the plauded and promoted by the Government. tripwiII continue until the American Budd- The Bengal Government had sing-led ant SIX- hists reach Adair, the principal home of teen gentlemen for special honors under Buddhism in the East. Under the guidance this head. of the new conductors the two Philadel- phians hope to make a journey to tbe Hima- From the acts of indi vid ual collectors the layan Hills and ViSIt ancient SItes hItherto stimulating pollcyof Government was seen. unexplored. " The Darjeeling collector compelled a tea planter-who dId not know the law-to open Japan.-Accordmg tothe (}hristianWeekly a lIquor shop on his land, and the collector of Tokio, prohlbltory'liquor laws existed, and at Burrlsal trIed the same tactics on a were rigidly mforced in Chinail,OOOyearsago. zemindar who had closed a liquor den on his The Emperor Buo was a strict Prohibitionist land during a certain mela. The hquor- vf the modern type. He made his own.prodealer was ordered to open his shop, and the hlbitory laws, and saw that they were execollector called on the zemindar to show cuted. He didn't have any courts around cause instantly why thIS should not be done. .him to explam away tbelr meamng. A TIO- Redid so. The collector was defeated… Imla.tion of prohibitory laws was punished by has a theological school for negroes at Lin- ooln University in ·Pennsylvania, and an-. death. With some modiflcation these lawb other at Biddle University in North Caro_ lina. The Methodists have a weU-endowed were afterward introduced into Japan. seminary at Atlanta, Ga.- The Episcopa- lians propose to place a divinity hall for They were .. in full force and virtue" there oolored students in Washington, D. C., and Nashville, Tenn. The American Missionary for nearly a thousand years. There is no Association, acting for the Congregational Churches, has olasses in theology in four of reliable information that they damaged Ja- its chartered institutions in Tennessee. Alabama, Mississippi, and LOUisiana, and pan morally or politically. They passed sustains the theological department in Howard University at 'Washington. The away long ago, to the damage of the coun- last named reported last year thirty-eight students, and is the only school of theology' try. Intemperance, according to the Tokio oontrolled by the Congregationalists in the entire line of Atlantic States south of Conpaper, is now a growing and threatening nectICut. It is at present only partly en- dowed and meagerly supported, but is now evil in Japan. One single drink costs the seeking an endowment. The Rev. R. W. Eastman, of Wellesley, Mass., has underpeople $60,000,000 annually, an amount equal taken to raise an endowment• to the eutire annual expenses of the govern- -The Reformed, or Covenanter, Church (Old School) is not a large body, but it comment; and in its manufacture one-fifth of mands a wide influence. It IS aggressive in its conservatism. Its peculiar belief, relatthe annual rice crop is consumed. What is ing to the sovereign rights of Christ, awakens deep conviction. Its antagonism left affords a short allowauce for food. No to current beliefs and institutions develops a sturdy strength. The great energy which rice is exported from Japan. ' it has manifested has borne its proper fruit in a growing strength. The ministry has Mexico.-Bishop Hurst in The In- doubled since 1856, numbering now 118, and dependent on "The Periodical Lit- the increase of membership has been threeerature of Mexico," makes gratifying fold, 10,970 being repoy ted for 1888. Its mention of the Pl'otestant press: foreign missions have been richly blessed. In Syria and Asia there are nearly thirty .. We now come to the significant and stations with schools, and one has been ess'teadily-growing journals published by the tablished in Cyprus. The delegates sent to Protestants of Mexico. The invasion of visit the missions report nineteen n~tive Protestantism has been strong in numbers Christians as nearly ready for licensure. and aggressive in spirit. For the following The work ha.s reached the point at which list of Protestant periodicals I am indebted more complete local organization is necesto the Rev. John W. Butler, of the city of sary,and the organization of the Presbytery Mexico: El Faro, edited by J. M. Greene, of Asia Minor is recommended. Successful D.D., is the organ of the Presbyterians, and mission work is carried on in this country is published in Mexico. El Evangelista is among the Chinese and the Freedmen. The edited by the Rev. David Watkins, and rep- college and the theological seminary also resents the Methodist Episcopal Church, are doing a good work, both in preparing South. El Testiao is under the editorship of young men for the ministry and in general the Rev. E. M. Bissell, is published in Gua- education. dalajava, and represents the Congregationalists. LaLuz is the Baptist organ, is pub- -What does it mean? Our exchanges lished in the City of Mexico, and is edited show that there is a falling off in the conby the Rev. Albert Steelman, D.D. El Ramo tributions of the churches to a large numde Oliva is the organ of tbe Quakers, and is ber of the benevolent societies of the published in Matamoros. The organ of tae country. The America;' Home Missionary Methodist Episcopal Church is the Abogado Society reports that for the first mne Ohristiano Ilust"ado, edited by the Rev. S. months of its fiscal year the receipts have W. Siberts, Ph.D., and published in the City fallen off, as compared with the previous of Mexico. Even the International System year, $39,040, of which sum $9,892 was in doof Sunday-school teaching has invaded nations and $29,158 III legacies. This is just Mexico. Both the Presbyterian and Metho- about the same as the decrease indicat~d dist Episcopal Churches issue them. in the receipts of the American Board within /I ve months, though the de~·rease III .. Every tourist in Mexico sees at a glance the receipts of the latter was less III donathat Protestant influences are penetrating every part of the new republic. The journal has been found to be one of the cJtief factors for successful work ever since the founding of the Protestant mission in Mexico in 1870. All the periodicals are ably conducted, and bring before the people especially the great religiou~ movements of the Protestant world. All these journals encourage loyalty to the republic. The editors are iu excellent relations With the entire editorial fraternity of the country, and are most highly res;>ected, both for their ability and the cause which they represent."
United State8~The Presbyterian Church
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENOE FROM ALL PARTS
tions and larger in legacies. The Presbyte- shrinkage in va.lues within the past year, rian boards are in quite as unfortunate a yet it is undeniable that the wealth of the position. Their Home Missionary SOCiety land is increasing at an enormous rate, and is $40,000 behtnd in the first ten months of that a fair proportion of this increase is in its financial year, while the Presbyterian the hands of those who bear the name of Foreign Board shows a falling off for the Christ. There is wealth enough, if it were same period of about $35,000 in donations, consecrated. The percentage of the income and $112,000 ill legacies, or from all sources of professed Christians which is devoted to of $15t,615. It is singular. that there should missionary work at home and abroad is be such a general decrease with all boards wofully small. Wonld that pastors and in the item of legacies. But the societies others would earnestly .inquire what relawill rejoice that their friends still live, only tion this fact has to th't spiritual life within the living men must see to it that the im- their churches! .. Bring ye all the tithes perative necessities of the great work are into the storehouse, that there may be meat not forgotten. While it is true that there in my house, and prove me now herewith, has been in several directions a great saith the Lord ofhosts."-MisB. Herald.
III.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Ohina. men's associations, young women's associa- tions.women's missionary societies, indeed HIGHLYmteresting letter from our everywhere where brain workers -seek for correspondent, Dr. A. P. Happel': the materiaJs with which to replace the CANTON, JAW. 24, 1889. constant 'waste from use, and where they DUR EDlTOItS.-A copy of the Report of seek supplies for yet wider and fuller pre- the Centenary Conference of Missions has sentation of facts, principles and results in just reached me from London. It is a most the support of the great work of the church valuable outcome of the Conference to have in winning this world to Christ.
such a repository of facts and prinCiples of We say to all, get these volumes; buy them Christian missions as these volumes con- if you can, borrow them if you cannot buy- tain. The presentation of the states and read them-reproduce them in conversation, peoples among whom missions are con- in talks at mission meetings, in papers and ducted will be of the greatest interest. to all lectures, at public meetings, in sermons and who are studying the subject of the evan- in the newspapers.
geliz8otion of the world. The members of churches will be interest- The statements made by the missionaries ed in missions, give to their support, pray as to the results of different methods of for God's blessing upon them, ,give them- missionary labor will be of great assistance selves or their children to engage in them to all new missionaries, helping them to en- just in proportion 80S they know about them.
gage in that method of laboring which is Hence the importa.nce and necessityi! there adapted to the people amoDg whom he is is to be an advance all along the line, for the called to labor. The supporters of this diffusion of knowledge in regard to the workwho call never see with their own eyes aim and purpose of Christian misRions in the work in which they 80re interested, will heathen lands. This presents the great find in the statements of these volumes va.lue of these closely printed pages, packed new inspiration to labor and self-sacrifice with such reliable, interesting and valuable in increased efforts for the e"I8orging of state,ments and diseussions on every phase the plans for the conversion of the world of Christian work among the heathen.
to Christ. The statistics of the missionary work in Those who desire and are called upon to China for 1888 have been gathered up to the advocate the cause of Christian missions close of the year as far as information bad before their own congregations or general been received, They show an advance all audiences, will find these volumes a rich along the line, as folIows, viz., increase of treasure house, whence to draw materials societies represented in China,3; foreign for instruction, encouragement, appeals. men missionaries, 37; of wives of foreign and for facts and results. Thus the pub- missiona.ries, 17; single women, 39; total lication of these volumes will be of great increase of foreign miseionaries, 93. The benefitto aU the friends of missions, and wlll increase of native communicants is 2,295; beeminently useful in extendingand deepen- the whole number of native communicants ing the interest in the great cause of mis_ is 34,555. The increase of pupils in schools sions. But to accomplish these results they is 1,140, the whole number of pupils reported should be widely disseminated. A copy is 14,817. The advance in contributions is should be, in every minister's lIbrary. In $5,936, the whole amount of contributions is the libraries of Sabbath-schools, young $44,173. which is nearly $1.25 for each communicant. The increase of contributions is Turkey, greater than th.. increase of members, which is an encouraging sign in regard to LETTER from Rev. D. A. Richard-' the grace of giving. While rejoicing in this measure of increase yet we all lament son: that there has not been a greater manifestation of divine power in the conversion of ERzBOOlll, TuRKEy IN ASIA, Dec. 20, 1888. men. There has been, it is true, some unusual EDITORS MISSIONARY REVIEW Oll' THJI hinderances. In some parts of the field the WOBLD.-Reading your much prized REVIEw, It minds of the people have been diverted from strnck me that possibly your readers would like the preaching of the gospel by the calami- to hear from one of too first fruits of the stuties of floods and famine. When the bodies dents' misslonallY movement. I suppose I am are dying of starvation there is little dIS- among the first to reach the field of those whom position to seek spiritual food. In other Messrs. Forman and Wilder addressed. places there has been diversion by reason This station is called one of the hardest in of adverse political influences. But after Turkey, being on the borders of the Russian all the great hinderance is the alienation Caucasus, and a large part of our field lying over of the hearts of men from God. They will the border, which we are not allowed to visit. only be led to the reception of the gospel by However, we have much to encourage us even the Holy Spirit. This is promised by God. But here. He has said, .. For this will I be inquired of The t&ll.cher of our school for boys was arby the house of Israel to do it for thelll." rested last spring on the ridiculous charge of Let all, therefore, who long to see China being accessory to treason, and sentenced to converted join in continuous prayer for exile for life. One of his pupils wrote as an the outpouring of the Spirit upon the exercise a song which contained some severe Chinese, that the Word preached and read reflections on the Turki!h Governmeut. He may be made effectual to the conver- also called on the Armenians to rise and cast off sion of those that come to the knowledge the tyrant's yoke. The teacher glanced at it, and of it. made one or two grammatical corrections,when, discovering its seditious character, he gave It There is a wide diffusion of the truth by back with a severe reprimand, telling him the printed page and oral Instruction in to destroy it at once. This the boy failed the schools, the chapels, the streets, the to do, and some time afterward he was arrested marketplaces and the highways and hedges; and this was found among his papers, and he butitis only the life giving power ofthe Holy was thrown into 'prison, where he died. The Spirit that can change the heart. Maya teacher was arrested because of his handwriting spirit of grace and supplication be given on the paper. The marks were only a word or unto God's people thatwill secure durin!:, or two, and made with a pencil. He admitted the this year the mighty power ofGod to convert writing was his. He was condemned, after a men, that converts may be multiplied as the farce ofa trial under a section of the Code Napodrops of the morning dew. Pray for China, leon, which says: .. Anyone publishing a sedi- Christian brethren and churches, pray for tious document, or postiug it up, or making such us. Pray for this people. a speech, or is accessory to these things, Is liable to exile for life." Under this law he was found The calamities which have come upon guilty and sentenced to exile for life. He is in China during the last forty years have the common prison awaiting action on his appeal been very distressing. These have come to the Supreme Court in Constantinople. from rebellious, internal and long continued Another sad case, yet with a silver lining, war, from floods and from famines, from is that of a young man who was being trained for failure of crops through droughts and pes- work in the Russian part of the field. He was tilence. The destruction of life from these a very promising and devoted young man, and causes has, been perhaps unprecedented in we hoped he could go to his native village to the history of the world. Many of the causes preach and teach. A few weeks ago he was of distress could be lessened if not prevented seized with smallpox, and died, saying: "The by the use of the means which western King of kings is come, and calleth for me." science would supply. But this people are A happier case is that of another young man not yet ready to accept its aid, and in their in the school, whose name is fitly Arstan Lion. distress they do not cry unto t,he Lord, be- He is the one reported in The Missionary Hercause, as yet, they know Him not. If their ald a year ago as preferring to remain over ancalamities are great, the disposition to other day on half rations to working out his help the suffering is great. The Chinede road-tax on Sunday with the rest of his village. Government gave more than Beven million8 He was recently called into a shop by one of the of dollars to relieve the sufferings by Gregorian Armenians and bantered as to his the overflow of the Yellow River. May chauge of faith. He was asked what he got for the Lord soon send them His salvation which his. chauge to Protestantism, and invited to brings temporal as well as spiritual bless- preach to the company. "You know you are ings. bidden in your Testament to preach to all the heathen. Now preach to us." .. But," said Second, a dressJI18,ker and milliner, "apt to the boy, "the Protestants do not call the Grego- teach" millinery, and assist thd superin- rians heathens." Just then another person came tenilent. Surely there must be among the in who had offended the principal man present. thousands of our Methodist women two who As he entered the man greeted him with a tor- ought to respond to this call, and who are rent of profanity and vileness. After this was ready to say, •• Here am I. sena me, send me."
over and the offender had gone out the lad said Anxiously and prayerfully we wait your to the swearer: "May I be forgiven if I say but reply to this appeal. Send your name and a word more before I go!''' " Certainly." "If testimonials to Mrs. Mary C. Nind, No. 122 I may be so bold, one reason why there are Highland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn., Corre- Protestants here is to teach the Armenians not sponding Secretary Minneapolis branch.
to swear." The politeness of the boy and the Jan., 1889. keenne~s of the rebuke bronght a roar of laugh- Famine in Shantung.
ter from the company, and an acknowledgment AN appeal from Dr. Nevius: of the righteousness of the answer from the The reports of the floods in China, which have appeared in the public prints of the swearer. West, leave in the minds of readers but a Snch things as these serve to show the quality vague impression of their exact locality, extent and consequences. Most of these of Christians that are found here, and though reports are taken from newspapers in China. their standard is not equal in all points to that of While clearly understood by readers here, eminent Christians in America, yet they are so they presuppose a considerable amount of far above their surroundings that wa thank God we are placed in so glorious a work.
Japan. geographical knowledge not possessed by AN earnest appeal for the Indus- persons who have not resided in China. In- deed the phases of these misfortunes are so trial Home : . varied at present that they are only im- In the minutes of the fourth session of the perfectly comprehended, even by those who Women's Conference of the Methodist Epis- in different localities are eye-witnesses of copal Church in Japan, held at Aoyama them. ,H is, however, generally known that Tokio, Aug. 23d to Aug. 29th, 1888, we flnd the calamities which have recently ex- ihe report of the Committee on Industrial cited so much sympathy the world over, Home as follows: are the result of an inundation of the er- .. The Committee on the Industrial Home ratic Whang-ho. In less than 2,500 years can report but little progress because of this river has changed its course ten times, failure on the part of one society to secure and in a comparatively recent period three ladies during the year fltted for the work. or four times. in 131 A.D. there was a Word has come of the appointment of Miss very great innnd~tion, which it reqnired Imhoff, who is to be sent shortly. Mr. Kanzo twenty years to control.
Uchimura lately returned from the United A few decades ago all the children in States, where he made benevolent institu- home lands were taught that the Whang- tions a special study, holds himself in read- ho, the second of the large rivers of China, iness to assist in the undertakiug; but it discharged its waters into the sea in the has not been thought best to rent property central part of the eastern coast, about two until the ladies appointed arrive in Japan. degrees north of the mouth of the Yang-tse- We trust the way will open to inaugurate kiang. This was true at that time. About this important enterprise during the com- 45 years ago the Yellow River broke its ing year. M. A. SPENCER, Chairman." banks, left its bed, and, pursuing a north- The ladies at home are as anxious as the easterly direction, found its way to the sea, missionaries abroad to commence this work. principally through the Ch'i'ng-ho, or" Clear Appeals have been made to individuals and River," and disembogued into the Pechili througl;J. the church papers to the women of Bay. about 500 miles north of its old mouth.
our Methodism. Several have responded, After the Yellow River had taken possession but Miss Imhoff is the only accepted candi- of the Ch'ing-ho, and rendered its waters date, and she is now under appointment for turbid and yellow, the name of the Ch'iug-ho Nagasaki. as we had no superintendent to wa.s changed to Whang_bo,_U Yellow send to Tokio. What is our pressing need? River." As the original channel of the First, a superintendent. An intelligent wo- Ch'ing-ho had not sufilcientcapacity to hold man of mature judgment, executive and the additional waters of another river, it linancial skill, showing an ability to acquire was subject in times of heavy rains to fre- the Japanese language because she has quent overflows, inundating the whole ad- mastered some foreign tongue, witha kuowl- jacent country, destroj:ing crops, carrying edge of industrial enterprises. Above all away villages, and almost depopulating she must be a consecrated woman, with the large districts along its banks. It was evi- missionary spirit constraining her, a love dent that the silting'up process in the origi- for souls, and success in winnin~ them. nal bed of the Ch'ing-ho from the mnddy wat.ers of the Whang-ho poured into it, the whole of Shantung, the eastern part would every year increase the danger of of which had only the average rainfall; overflow, and the probability of its seeking while the extreme western end had a somewhere else a lower bed. All the ener- scarcity of rain amounting to drought.
,,"ies of the Central Chinese Government The storm crossing the central part of were exerted to prevent this, but a change the province from south to north cov- of channel soon or later was inevitable. ered a. tract of country betwlen one This change occurred two years ago a.t a and two hnndred miles wide. The streams point in the Honan province, where the rnshing down valleys overflowed their breach had previously more than once be- banks, denuding fertile fields of their sur- gun. The highartificialembankllient shook face earth, tearing up trees by their roots, and tumbled under the rnsh and pressure and in some places covering the ground with of the superincumbent flood. The alarmed sand to the depth of a foot or 1l1<)re. Rain officials in charge redoubled their efforts to feU almost continuously for ten days, until avert the impending catastrophe, but in on the 18th of August it could only be de- ~ain. The new opening was made, 'pouring scribed as a deluge. All the streams burst forth a deluge of waters, which trending their banks in many places, uniting their southward embogued iu the Yang-tse river waters in a common flood, which covered near Yang-chow. The distress and loss of the lower plains to the depth of from two life and property consequent on this new to ten feet, sweeping as one unbroken rivtJ'l'
inundation could scarcely be overstated. to the sea.
I cannot here speak at length of the vast E'I'"en the central portion of the province amount of treasure which has been spent between the extremes of drought and flood by the Chinese Government, and from pri- has hardly enough grain to support its own vate contributions of natives and foreigners population. From this comparatively favor- in the region of this new inundation; nor ed territory scarcity increases toward the of the prodigious but unavailing efforts of region of drouth On the one side, and floods the government to repair the new breach; on the other, nntil the extreme of want is nor of the opposition of the inhabitants found on the plain bordering on the Pechili along the banks of tl:le Ch'ing-ho to having Bay. The inhabitants of this region had lost the waters of the Yellow River turned back most of their wheat crop by drought, but again into that channel; nor of the gigan.. the sorghum, cotton, and millet promised tic problem which 'confronts the Chinese well, and they were rejoicing in the prospect Government now, as it has for so many of plentiful har'l'"est in the autumn. Their centuries, and confounds also foreign en- hopes were blighted. The water did not gineers, "What shall be done with the subside for days, and in some places for Yellow River?" weeks, and all further growth and develop- We have now to record another calamity, ment was stopped. When early in Novem- different in origin, character, and locality. ber last, in company with Rev. J. H. Langh- of which, in consequence of its recent liB, of the Weihein Mission, I visited this occurrence, and the fact that the public region, some portions of it were still too wet mind has been preoccupied with the inun- to plow for the autumn wheat crop, and dations of the Yellow River, very little is as other parts were covered with water. The yet known. This calamity, which affects heads of ·the millet and sorghum which had . principally the province of Shantung, orig- been gathered yielded only empty husks or inll-ted in an unequal distribution of rain- chaff, or at the best a little; s1lriveled half- fall, producing in some. places drought. in developed grain. This, however, was careothers floods. The rainy season, which fnUy proserved, and the people were ~Ian is here the months of Julyaud August, is ning to live on it through the winter, or as owing to the condensation of the moisture long as it lasted, mixing with it· the leaves suspended in the southern monsoon as it of the sweet potato, when they were so formeets the colder atmosphere of the north. tunate as to ha'l'"e them. The people liviNg During the past summer the clouds, sur- still nearer the sea were depending for snscharged with moisture, passed over a large tenance principally on the seeds and leaves tract of country south of Shantung (in- of a coarse grass or weed resembling the cluding its southerll border) which, being wild sage which grows on the alkaline left without ~ain. is now suffering from plains crossed by the Oentral Pacific rail- drought and consequent famine. Tl:le rain- road. Purchasers cannot be found for fall began in the southern central part of land, evell at only a tenth of its usual value, this province, and increased until it be- and clothing brings but a tritle at the pawn- came in the central, and especially the shops. Urlprincipled specnlators have al- northern part, a flood such as had not been ready gone in and are buying winter gar- experienced for nearly a centnry. ments,'for a mere son::, and soon the people This great rain extended still farther will be left without food, clothing or north, across the Pechili Bay, and far into sbelter.
Manchuria. It did not, however, cover The water covered the fields, reache:! the villages, entered the houses and rising to by the residents here for immediate use the heiJrht of two, and in some Instances We hope to receive further aid from the five or six feet, dissolved the mud wails, southern ports of China, and also from Engand speedily caused the buildings to fall. land and the United States. Our plan is to In some of the towns near the large streams occupy and confine ourselves to one or more the flood swept by in deep, strong currents, centers in the famine region, and enlarge the tearing down brick houses, and carrying work as the funds atour command may waraway timbers, furniture, farm-utensils, and rant, continuing the relief on the same plan, even large iron kettles and mill-stones. In and, as ",rule, to the Same individuals until the villages WhICh have suffered least the next wheat harvest, when, if God in His three or four·tenths of the houses are de- mercy gives a fruitful season, the famine stroyed, in some eight or nine-tenths. will end. The refugees who will probably About one-half of the inhabitants have return to their homes in March or April . started out from their homes to beg in the will require not only food for their susoutlying districts, and these refugees com- tenance, but seed-grain for putting in the prise, as a rule, the bone and sinew of the spring crops. We do not propose to assist country. They leave their scanty suppJy in rebuilding houses, or repairing the of provisions with the members of their banks of streams; but simply to supply the families who are aged or infirm, hoping food necessary to support life. A very themselves to return in time to pJant the small allowance of one or two cents a day spring crops. They usually take with them for an individual will effect this. As yet, the farm wheel-barrow, which is loaded so far as we can learn, the inhabitants of with bedding and clothing, a few dishes and this region have received no relief from the cooking utensils, and the little children; Chinese Government, or from private the men dj:awing and balancing the barrows, Sources. and the Women and larger chIldren following behind. Perhaps as many as 2,000 of A little money given here and there in a the inhabitants are leaving their homes promiscuous way would do but very little daily, and this stream of emigration has good, and when exhausted would leave the been flowing for nearly three months. The people just where they were before. Relief, refugees are found in almost every village to be really effective, must continue untn of the central part of the province, and next June, carrying a limited number they lead a life as comfortless and cheerless quite through the season of want. The disas can be imagined. Those fleeing from the bursement of funds in a famine-strlcken drought region On the south meetthosefrom couutry is a task both difllcult and dangerthe flooded region on the north, each party ous, but there are those on the ground who telling the other that it is useless to go far- are competent and willing to undertake it. ther. There are so many of them, and the Mr. Laughlin has already gone into the supply of food in the most favored secti6ns famine region and commenced the work of is so scanty, tlat it is difllcult to support life distribution. We must look for further aid ~o by begging; and many return to their the home lands. The help which we can get homes, disheartened and hopeless, to die_ from foreigners in China will not last long. We appeal to you who In God's merciful When six weeks ago we examined into the providence have never known want, in becondition of this famine-stricken people, half of those who, when this appeal reaches we supposed that their smail stores of food you, will for months have had no respite might last those who remained at home for from the pangs of hunger, and will be on the at least a few months; but letters recently very verge of starvation. Though we have received inform us that the extremity of refused our Mongolian neighbor a home on want has come sooner than we expected, our shores, let us not refuse· him a place in and starvation is alreadystaringtheinhab- our sympathies, or turn away from him in itants in the face. In many families the this hour of his extremity. supply of wild grass seed is exhausted, and the people have now no resource but t.o Contributions may be sent to Rev. F. F. pluck and eat the fresh blades of wheat';f Ellinwood, D.D., 53 Fifth avenne, New York, the autumn planting. It is but too evident which will be forwarded at once to the Famtha.t this food, unfitted to sustain life for ine Relief Committee in Chefoo. any length of time, even if it were plentiful, must soon fail them. JOHN L. NEVillS. CHEFOO, January 2d,1889. The spectacle which now presents itself is that of more than a million of people re- P. S.-While I write, news has come duced to the last state of destitution, most through a Chiuaman who lives in the famine of whom must perish of starvation before region that the people there have entered a nextsummer, unless relief is afforded them. complaint before the district magistrate against certain rich men who turned their At a public meeting, held in Chefoo, a cattle Into the wheat fields to graze, as in Shantung Famine Relief Committee was aD- ordinary season. They urged that under pointed, and funds have been contributed preseut circumstances the greeu wheat blades should be denied the cattle and re- served for men I The magistrate gave his verdict in favor of the people.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY J. T. GRACEY, D. D.
The Tra.nsfer of Political Power. Speaking, then, after the manner of men, speaking as one earthly A STUDY of political rule shows a king would of another, reckoning steady, silent but sure transfer of the boundary-lines of realms as parlia~ government of the world, from idola- ments or cabinets or congresses do trous and Moslem hands to those of among themselves; reporting as Christian potentates. Tiberius Cresat· would have reported to the Roman Senate of the extension Add the total population ruled by of domain by conquest; using the the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of vernacular of civil, political, and Turkey together-not Moslems only, military rulers of all the centuries, but Moslems, Armenians, Jews, Jesus Christ at this hour dictates law Copts, Christians, SlaYs, and pagans, to-rules, governs, more than half and it will be found that the Queen of England, through her India Vice- the seething and surging masses of roy. rules more Moslems in India alone than the agg'regate mixed mankind, and-what w~ have left population ruled by Shah, Sultan, ourselves no room to situ" – the and Khedive. geographical extension of His king- Statistics show that the Moslem dom is equal to more than half the population of the globe may be land surface of the globe, while" the roundly estimated at one hundred sea is His," not only because "He and seventy-five millions, but the made it," nor because He holds it "in Moslem political powers of all the the hollow of His hand," and can world do not rule more than ninety command its waves as He did the millions of people. Of the total blue waters of Galilee, but rather be- population of the globe not more than cause it has been added in bulk to one-sixteenth is under the sway of His territorial domain, is absolutely Moslem rulers, while it is easy to under the control of vice-regents of show that of the more than fourteen His throne, who at this hour seek to hundred millions, estimated popula- administer it in accordance with tion of the world, over eight hun- principles which He formuiatt'd, and di'ed millions are, politically speak- who, though sometimes unwillingly, ing, subject to the reign of Christ. and often unwittingly, yet are com- That is to say, more than half the pelled to acknowledge" from sea to population of the globe to-day is un- sea" that the "government is upon der Christian princes, kings, and His shoulders." "The KINGDOM of presidents, having been conquered God cometh not with observation,"
by Christian arms, won by Christian -but it comes!
commerce, or multiplied by the sin- Nor is this all. The relative ratio gular birth-rate which Christianity of increase of political power, within alone renders possible. They are the past hundred years, and the pro- amenable in Christian courts; their portionate momentum at present,of suits are adjudged by Christian codes; this political Christian progress, are if exercising local jurisdiction, they all in favor of, what we count, the are 'doing it under authority dele- best type of this Christian kingdom- gated or suffered by a Christian par- Protestantism. We write not theo- amount power, which not only holds logically nor ecclesiastically, butf·rom over them supreme political sway, the secular statesman's stand-point but controls their commerce, devel- only when we characterize Protes- ops their resources. and steadily tant politica.l rule, with all its imper- molds their social life to its stand- fections and faults and failures, as ards. on the whole the best the world has seen, the nearest to thp model set to Christian powers have a supremacy work by,; and hence w@ rejoice as a which enables them to enforce it, is citizen that within the last century not so much what we press at this' the extension of the Protestant ex- moment; but rather that here is the pression of Christ's political king- formulated law of a sublime authordom has more than doubled the ity born of Christianity, the concrete increase of the Roman Catholic expt'ession of an unseen Congress, type of the same, and almost quad_ the regulation of an invisible Potenrupled the territorial advance of the tate, the foreshadowing and the Greek Church. Christ's kingdom is overshadowing of a kingdom not of advancing, then, at a favorably dis- this world, which while represented proportionate rate to all other re- on many thrones is localized in no ligious kingdoms, and much more one of them, whose vast plans and than half of the propulsion comes purposes silently, almost stealthily fro'm the Protestant half of Christ's embrace them all, and, quietly as representatives in the earth. the movement of the spheres,revolves them all within its orbit. This in- What is left unsubjugated ? We ternational expression of Christ's have seen what is left to Islam. Kingdom therefore is a felt political What is left to the" light of Asia, force over all but the lowest forms Buddhism-and to Brahmanism- of human society; and the momenwhich together exert more or less tum which has carried the Kingdom religious influence over half the pop- of Christ to this political prominence ulation of the globe? We mean gives no indication of becoming a what is left to them as political fac- spent force. tors of the world? Weare indebted to Mr. James Johnston for the follow- Anti-slavery Defense. ing formula in which we answer: J.un:s STEVENSON, F.R.S.E., has "Buddhism is not the prevailing religion of any really independent just issued through James Maclehose power to-day, unless Siam be reck- a; Sons of Glasgow a pamphlet* oned one, while Brahmanism only which must awaken a good deal of exists and increases under the pro- feeling on the subject of slave hunttection of Great Britain." ing and the slave trade in Africa. The wo admirable maps, which are col- We have said nothing of the po- ored specially to show the districts litical rule exercised by Christian which have been utterly depopulated powers over non-Christian political by these Arab slave-capturers, and kingdoms, yet within certain bounds also to indicate the extent of country it has reduced them to a measure of over which slave-hunting obtains, subordination, and in some direc- and the routes along which slaves tions to semi-vassalage. There is are carried to the coast, are eloquent. a code of nations, which we call In- They rouse us like a photograph of ternational Law, which by common horrors, and awaken indigntttion election is recognized by all except and shame that make one "blush to savage and uncivilized peoples. call himself a man." China and Japan are obliged to concede to it support, and all who recog- .The quotations which the author nize the comity of nations as de- makesfrom Stanley's"Congo," while sirable or essential to common pros- graphic and powerful, are strongly perity must willingly or unwillingly supported by other testimony, E'till govern themselves by its require- more recent. Stanley wrote of a secments. tion which he said was a little greater than Ireland, inhabited by about a That this International Law is a conception of Christianity, and that *"The Arabs in Central Atrka and at Lake Nyassa." million of people. For eleven months coast of Tanganyika the entire popthe band of slave-hunters he was de- ulation has been swept away. The scribing had been on one continuous Arab traders have congregated in raid in this district. The traders ad- great force at the Nyassa end of the mitted they had "only" 2,300 cap- road from Tanganyika. These tives in the pen, after devastating thl'eaten the very existence not only 118 dllages and 43 districts. Stanley of the Scottish and other missions does some fierce ciphering, by which above these lakes but of the com- he shows that for five slaves got to paratively industrious population the market, at least a thom'and peo- amongst· whom they have made ple are slaughtered. quite. a successful beginning of civil- .. To obtain tbe~,500 slaves, out ofl18 villages they must have shot a round number of 2,500 ization. Rev. Mr. Scott, head of the people, while 1,:loo men died by the wayside through scant provisions and the intenSity of Blantyre Mission, sayR: their hopeless wretchedness. How many are wounded and die in the forest or droop to "The Arab slave trade is making frightful death through an overwhelming sense of their progress. Caravans of Arabs are pouring incalamities we do not know, but if the above lor trade? No 1 Hardly a bale of cloth goes up figures are trustworthy then the outcome from country from the east coast; it is guns and the territory with its millions of souls is 5,000 powder, uot eveu spirits. It is simply slaughtslaves obtained at the cruel expense of 33,000 er, and slanghter of thousands, and the desolives. And such slaves 1 They are females or lation of the fairest lands-lands where the young children who cannot run away, or who natives were at peace, where industry and with youthful indifference will soon forget the thrift and happiness ruled; where to get terror~ of their capture 1 Yet each of the very through one village you might start in the smallest infants has cost the life of a father, early mo~ning and not pass out of it till the sun and perhaps his three stout brothers, aud three was half-way down, journeying straight on; grown-up daughters. Au entire family of seven and these are now desolate. Fresh routes are souls have been done to death to obtain that opening up to them and the desolation is small, feeble, useless child:" spreading. It is not slaye-trade ; it is ruthless massacre of the most barbarous type." The district of which Stanley was The Roman Catholic Cardinal, writing lay to the the south of Stan- whom the London Spectator report- ed when speaking in that city, deley Falls, but in the other vast districts the horrors and cruelty and scribing these slave scenes, said: wrongs are quite the same. .. A few days of these hardships begin to tell South of Tanganyika toward Ny- even on the strongest. The weakest soon suc- cumb, and the weakest are naturally among aSEa this trade is spoken of by Mr. F. the women. But terror sometimes nerves M. Moil' in a paper which appeared even a weak frame to almost superhuman in the Scottish Geographical Maga- efforts; and the Arab slave-driver adopts a zine. He describes summary method of striking terror into the hearts of the laggards. ' In order to strike ter- "the wretched ovepburdened tied-up slaves. ror into this miserable mass of human beings, The men wllo might still have had spirit to try their conductors, armed with a wooden bar, to and escape were driven, tied two-and-two, in the economize powder. approach those who apterrible goree, or taming stick, or in gangs of pear to be the most exhansted, and deal them about a dozen each with au iron collar let into a terrible blow on the nape of the neck. The a long iron chain, many even so soon after the unfortunate victims utter a cry, and fall to the start staggering nnder their loads. grouud in the convulsions of death. The ter- rified troop immediately resumes its march. "And the women 1 I can hardly trust my- Terror has imbued eveu the weakest with new self to think or speak of them-they were strength. Each time anyone breaks down fastened to chains or thick bark ropes; very the same horrible scene is repeated.' This many in additiou to their heavy weight ot grain butchery goes on even in the, case of those and ivory carried little brown babies, dear to who manage to struggle on, as soon as the extheir hearts as a white man's child to his. The perienced eye of the slave-drivers see that double burden was almost too much, and still their streugth will not carry them to the coast. they struggled wearily on, knowing too well To save fooq, they receive a smashing blow that when they showed signs of fatigue, not from the mallet, and are left behind to a linthe slave~'s ivory, but the living child would gering death. The march sometimes extends be torn from them and thrown aside to die." over months, and such is the awful cal'Dage, •that it a traveler lost the way leading from For ninety miles along the south Equatorial Africa to the towns where slaves tlon. Is Central Africa to be given are sold, he could easily Ilnd it again by the over to the lust of the panderer and skeletons of the negroes with which it is the mercy of the sl,ave-fiend, or shall strown.' This prodigal waste of hnman life some determined effort be made to has in some districts so thinned the populati,on save It to civilization and Christianthat the slave-hnnters are obliged to nse strat- .agem to catch their prey. Their bands prowl ity? We are at least able to say that in the forests, and pounce npon the hapless this question is receIving the earnest women and children who go by. Things have thought of Christian men in Great reached such a pass near the great lakes that now, in the words of one of the cardinal's mis- Britain, and though one can read besionaries, • every woman, every child that tween the lines that with many Eurostrays ten minutes away from their village has peans there is the thought of the big no certainty of ever returning.' And the peo- market for European goods that lIes ple who are the victims of this cruel oppression are, according to the cardinal, kind, indnstri- above those lakes and beyond, or ons, amiable, and might be made, nnder hap- even the splendid territory that may, pier inflnences, the means of making those later on, supply an outlet for overparts of Africa one of the most prosperons stocked European states-while this regions or the globe. The country is very fer- is, we say, readily visible, yet the protile, and abounds in natnral resonrces. It pos- sesses three zones-first the lowlands along founder feeling and realinspiration to the sea-hoard of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, do something in the premises, lies and Indian Oceans. Toward the interior are with those who are acting under motwo plateans, one above the other, rising to ral and religious impulse, and seek- 2,000 feet and 4,000 feet respectively.'.'
Lately a band of these Arab slave ing the best interests of the African traders has even attacked one of the races. Eminent philanthropists, such British stations in NJassa-Iand, and as the Earl of 'Aberdeen, James Ste- continues to threaten them from phenson, Professor Henry Drum- stockaded villages within a few miles' mond, and others have organized distance: For a time the presence of what is termed the "Nyassa Anti- the missionaries on the lake borders Slavery and Defense Fund," with a seemed to restrain these wretches. view to placing on these trade routes But the Christian sentiment of and around these lakes and mission- Europe will not sustain missionaries, ary stations, a small but well- scarcely in forcible self-defense, for equipped military force, independ- themselves, refugees, or their native ently of all governments, to keep the Christians; and, the native slave- peace at least in that quarter. They hunter having found out that there are asking for $50,000 for the pur- is no gunpowder behind the mission- pose of organizing this sort of armed ary, is growing daily bolder and police; a comparatively small.army sweeping down on these tribes, of of such, it is said by those best able whom the missionaries have made to judge, at the head of well-dis- friends. The question is imminent- ciplined natives will be sufficient to not a question of to-morrow, but of repel these inroads on the communi- to-day-whether Central Africa IS to ties wnere the missions are estab- be left to this sort of Mohammedan lished.
civilization and up-lifting, as Canon The administration of the fund Taylor affects to call it, or whether will obtain the best advice of naval some power can come to the rescue of and military experts, as well as of these poor harmless native women civilians, whose knowledge of the and children? They need defense, country entitleB them -to speak wi'h not from any organized government, authority on African matters. Wide- but from organized banditti, who rob spread sympathy and aid is sought, and murder and ruin, and leave noth- and earnest prayer that God will mgfor anybody to rule; whose touch teach the Christian peoples how to is pollutIOn and their footstep desola- heal this" open sore of the world." General Missionary Oonference in Ohina, scientific literature; what has been done, in 1890. and what is needed; 3, Scientific terminol- WE are glad to know that the China missions have decided to hold ogy; present discrepancies and means of another General China Conference securing uniformity; 4, Centrallzation of on Missions in May, 1890. The pro- tract societies,a.nd needs of a general agent, gramme, as It appears in The Chinese Recorder of January, 1889, is as fol- a llbrary ot publication, and a descriptive lows: catalogue; 5, Christian periodical litera- F'trstday-t, Sermon, Rev. Griffith John; 2. Organization of Conference; 3, The ture; 6, Current Chinese literature; how Changed Aspect of China. far is it antagonistic to Christianity? Second day-The Scriptures: Historical snmmary of the different versions, with Ninth day-1. DIvision of the field; 2, their terminology and the feaRabiIity of securmg a single standard version in Wen· Ii Mutual co-operation; 3, Relation of Chriswith a corresponding version in the mandarin colloquial. Review of the varions tian missions to the Chinese; 4, Ancestral colloquial versions. worship and kindred obstacles to the spread Third day-t, The Missionary; his qnalifications, introduction to his work. and mode of Christianity. of life; 2, Lay Agency in Chinese Missions; to what extent desirable, and on what con- Tenth day-t, Direct results of missionary ditions ; 3, Historical Review of Missionary Methods, past and present, in China, and work III China, and statistics; 2, Indirect how far satisfactory; 4, Preaching to the heathen, in chapels, in'open air, and during results of missions; 3, Outlying nations and itineration. aboriginal tribes. Fourth day-t, General view of woman's work in China, and its results; 2, Girls, The evenings are to be devoted to sChools; 3, Best methods of reaching the women; 4, Feasibility of unmarried ladies lectures. Archdeacon Moule will engaging in general evangelistic work in new fields; 5, Best method of training Bible speak of ,< The Relation of Christian women for their work; 6. The Christian trainmg of the women of the church. Missions to Foreign Residents"; Fifth day-l. Medical work as an evangel- Rev. A. H. Smith will lecture on izing agency; 2, Medical missionary work in China by lady physiciaus ; 3, Orphanages, "How Chinese View Christianity"; asylums for the blind, deaf,.and dumb, and other <!haritable institutions; 4, Value and Rt. Rev. Bishop Burdon will speak methods of opium refuges; 5, Statistics and resolutions on the evils of'the use of opium. on "The Relation of Christianity to Sixth day-I, Methods of dealing with in- Universal Progress," and Bishop quirers, condItions of admissiou to church fellowshIP and best methods of discipline; Moule will preach on Sunday at the 2, Deepening the spiritual life, and stimulating the church to aggressive work; 3, cathedral. ' Best methods of developing self-support and voluntary effort; 4. How far should Chris. Japan Under Its Oonstitution. tians be required to abandon native CllStoms. IT almost takes one's breath, to read of the Emperor of Japan, with the Seventh daY-I, History and present con- sword, the jewel and the privy seal dition of mission schools, and what further before him, representing a reigning plans are desirable; 2, How best to adapt family whose first ruler was contem- Christian education to the present state of porary with Nebuchadnezzar, and a Chmese mind and life; 3, The best methods nation with a longer history than any of selecting and training efficient native nationintheWest, withrecordsreachassistants (preachers, school teachers, ing back to the time of Crcesus, on the etc.) ; 4. The place of the Chinese classics in 11th of February, the day on which, Christian schools and colleges. twenty-four centuries ago, the first . Eighth day-1, Report of School and Text- Emperor of Japan landed on Niphon book CommIttee; 2, Other religious and -to read, we say, that such a poten- tate did publicly, deliberately, volun- tarily,in the face of the world,change the settled habits and policy of cen- turies, and hand the scroll of a con- stitution to the Minister·President of Sta,te, and then withdrew while a hundred and one guns announced to the people of the realm that autoc- racy had ceased, and that the Em- , peror henceforth is to occupy a throne whose edicts must be countersigned by the consent of a Parliament,-to read, further,-that in a. la.nd where
THE MONTHLY CONCJi:RT OF MISSIONS
the edicts that prohibit" the evil sect when then disapproved. The Emperor appoints called Christians" have never been and dismisses the officials, and fixes their sala- withdrawn, but for 250 years have ries; he has the command of the army and read: "So long as the sun shall warm navy; power of makmg war, peace, and treaties; declares the law of siege; confers the earth, let no Christian become so titles of nobility, and so forth; orders amnes- bold as to come to Japan," that in ties, pardons and rehabilitations. The citizen, this land, without internal riot or re- on the other hand. is free to change his abode at will; cannot be arrested, searched for, or volt, without violence or subjection punished, except according to law; and is, of foreign arms, constitutional pro- within the same limits, entitled to the right of vision for religious liberty is peace- property, freedom of religious belief, of public fully inaugurated, and to recognize meeting, ofspeech and association, and has the that this has not so much been revo- right of petition. The Parliament consists of lution as evolution, and that within two houses, the Peers and the Representatives. a third of a century, is to peruse in The first are partly hereditary, partly nomi- the press of our day what is without nated by the Emperor for life, and partly elected a parallel in all the records of empire; for seven years by the highest taxpayers, with and what fairly compels in one a , the Emperor's approval. The house of Repre- statEi of suspense. It is as a "dream sentatives consists of 300 members, elected by when one awaketh." open ballot; its members must be thirty years of age, and must be paying annually fifteen yen Pending the fuller discussion of of national taxes; but army, navy, and police the features of this new constitution, officers, as well as prie~ts, are not eligible. The which is to come in the calmness fol voters must be twenty-five years of age, and lowing the first surprise that it has must be paying the same amount of taxes as really come at all; and its treatmen hose eligible; army and navy officers in active by men who are nearer to its merits .ervice cannot vote. The house sits for four and defects than we can be at this years, three months annually; but this term hour, we quote the following out- may be prolonged, or extra sessions called. line by the correspondent of the New Parliament discusses and votes the budget, and York Tribune: sanctions also all special expenditures; but from its power in this respect are excluded the imper- .. As regards the constitution, it declares with ial household and' expenditures incurred in the emphasis the inviolability of the Emperor and exercise of the powers reserved to the Emthe perpetuity of the throne. The legislative peror,' which means chiefly the salaries of the functions ofthe throne are to be exercised with officials and the expenses for army and navy. the consent of Parliament. From this the Em- When ParlIament fails to agree on the budget, peror can, when Parliament does not sit, devi- the Government has competence to carry ont ate only in case public safety demands it, but the budget of the years previous. Judges can any law so made must be submitted to Parlia- be appointed and removed by law only. The .ment at its next session, and becomes invalid Representatives and the nominated and elected Peers receive an annual salary of 800 yen each, together with their traveling expenses. to V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
THE subject for May IS Burmah, sive of the Laos people. The chief Siam and Laos and Buddhism. Com- town is Bangkok, with from 400,000 pare Vol. for 1888, pages 338, 373, to 600,000 inhabitants. All figures 387-90, etc., and Miracles of Missions are but an approximation. We take in this number. these from the best authorities we can LOWER BURMAH has an area of 87,- find, but they must be regarded as 000 square miles, with nearly 15,000 only a fair conjecture. Reliable data a: villages and towns, and population are not JBt available. The difficulty in 1881 of nearly 4,000,000. Upper is increased by the native practice of Burmah has more than twice the numbering males only.
area, about 190,000 square miles, with Siam occupies the central and larger fully 4,000,000. part of Indo-China, which lies be- SIAM has over 280,000 square miles, tween India and China, and includes and a population of 6,000,000, exclu- most of the Malayan peninsula, which runs down far into the ocean. very few changes, and those very Siam's territory almost touches the tardily. The inertia of the Siamese equator, and runs 1,350 miles toward and kindred people is due doubtless the pole, measuring 450 miles at its in part to the climate, which is enerwidest part. It is about as large as vating. They have few needs, and New England, with the four Middle these are easily supplied-but little States, or nearly as large as two such is required, either for food or cloth- States as Oregon. The Laos extends ing, and supplies are very cheap, fl'om about latitude 16 degrees to 24 rendering little labor necessary, and degrees N., and has a population esti- so tempting to laziness. Women are mated at from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000. in a comparatively free condition, Its limits are not very closely defined. the lirnitations of zenana life beIng The Mekong or Cambodia River unknown among Siamese and Lao~ traverses it, and the Saluen sepa- nese. Boats take the place of wheeled rates it from Burmah, both of them vehicles, and rivers are the roads for streams of considerable magnitUde. all lower Siam. The surface seems to be a valley intermediate between two parallel BliDDHISM has in Siam its center ranges running along the frontiers and citadel. Here this religious faith on the northeast and southwest. The is found in its purity; unmixed as in soil is fertile in vegetable products, China with Confucianism and Taoand valuable mines exist; even gold ism. Buddhism claims a remote anano precious stones may be found. tiquity, and seems to be about 2,500 The Laonese are lazy, but honest, years old. Its founder, Gautama, and much given to the study and wa.s called Buddha, the "Enlightcontrol of mag-ical arts, and in lan- ened" or "Illumined." He was unguage, manners and customs, and re- doubtedlya rare man, and his influligion resemble the people of Burmah. ence has been both widespread and marvelously permanent. For more Siam is inseparably associated with than a. thousand years Siam has had the white elephant-a variety not no other faith. And over one·half strictly white, but of a whitish of the human family it exercises an brown, bordering on a pinkish red. influence more or less despotic. The Siamese name for it is the "strange colored." Though highly It is both atheistic and materialishonored and revered, and associated tic, for it has no place in its creed for with the national flag, it can scarcely either a proper God or a real soul. be reckoned as an object of worship. Mo;;t of those who follow it have no word for God, and neither prayer nor A large proportion of the inhabi- worship in a proper sense finds room tants of Siam are foreigners-mostly in Buddhistic teaching. The craving Chinese. The Siamese are an amia- for objects of worship has to be supble race, and, like most naturally plied by importations from other amiable people, lack the energy and systems. Prayer is nothing more vigor of "sons of thunder." They than a mechanical monotonousform, are rather passive than active, very an intonation or incantation, which opinionated and somewhat deceitful. is supposed to have some mysterious Like the Chinese, they are obedient magical power, and which legitito parents and reverentia'l to the mately gives birth to the" praying aged, disposed to be peaceable and mills" used in Thibet, which, by the liberal. Mentally they are rather tUrn of a wheel on which is a magical receptive, but are not easily moved, form or formula, answers all the and do not move with rapidity even purposes of prayer as well as the when they get staded. Their civili- most laborious thought or agonizmg zation is largely fossilized,and admits speech. Although pure Buddhism !iupplies read into Buddhism, as in Arnold's no objects of worship, images of "Light of Asia." No doubt there Buddha are so common, and numer- are many lofty moral teachings in ous that one fane alone is said to Gautama's system as there were in contain and enshrine 14,000. Certain those of Epicurus and Zeno and features of Buddhism may be easily Plato. But it is obvious of them all kept in mind and memory. that they failed to uplift, redeem, save. Even the excellence of the 1. Atheism-a virtual dental of all standard does not arrest the moral propel' deity. declension of the followers.
2. Materialism-a direct denial ofall The priests, or monks, devote spirit or soul In man-and, of course, themselves to a meditative life, live of all spirituality or immortality. solely on alms, and beside all the revenue which goes to support the 3. Transmigration. All want and Siamese temples the priests use up woe in the present life may be-ac- some $25,000,000 ayear! This sum for counted for by the sins of a previous a people numbering in all less than existence; and every sin of the 8,000,000 makes an average of over present will be compensated by the $3 a year. At that rate the Ameri- wants and woes of other states and can nation would be paying annually stages of existence to follow. This $200,000,000 for the support of the may seem inconsistent with the de- clergy. Every man spends at least nial of personal immortality, but the part of his life as a priest. No won- Buddhist evades that inconsistency der that the system has a strong by the theory that, though every hold on the people and that the gos- human being ceases to be at death, pel makes slow progress in the dem- another existence begins at that in- olition of this false religion so in stant which is somehow historically contrast at every point with the gos- -and practically identical with it; in pel of Christ. a word, the death of the old and the birth of the new being are simulta- SELECTED PARAGRaPHS. neous, and there is a true succession of being thus kept up. This new THE ETHICAL VALUE OF A PAGAN RELIGION. birth may be in the form of man, beast, demon or angel. Each life THE test of ethical value in any religion is thus has both an end and a succession, the kind of character it tends to producEl. and heaven is the escape from this We will say character in two respects- succession-in the final slum bel' or average character aud ideal character. annihilation of Nepon or Nirvana. The second should be noticed first, since The highest good is no longer to live the ideal character in any religion must an individual life, but to be lost as a powerfully infiuence average character. drop in the sea. To some extent the ideal of character in a religion may be seen in that which is at- Buddhism prescribes the noble tributed to the deity that is worshiped. It path to this nirvana goal. It is by should seem that the conception allY people meditation on, life's hollowness and may have of what is best in humanity may shallowness until all desire of every always be inferred from what is regarded as sort dies out. proper to deity. The mythology of a people, in fact, indicates its apprehensions of what The proper symbol of Buddhism is belongs to the highest being. The ideal of the revolving wheel, as that of Chris- character is also seen in those whom pagan tianity is the cross, and that of Ma- teaching and pagan literature set forth as hommedanism is the crescent. Life- ideal men. This is especially the case where existence-is a revolution of the the ideal man is the teacher himself, stand- wheel, and perfect bliss is to have ing to his disciples in much the same rela- the wheel no longer revolve. tion, perhaps, as Jesus of NaZareth to those whom He taught. A conspICUOUS example Many Christian ideas have been S Buddha. Those who in these days, and in en·lightened lands, so unaccountably show a tendency to accept the founder of the Budd- hist faith as both an ideal teacher and aU ideal man, must be -1tran'gely blinded. Let Hindu Lingalll God," consisting of a chryso- us take him just as the books picture him to beryl cat's eye fixed in a topaz. and mounted us. The way in which he is represented as in a pyramidal base studded with diamonds entering upon his career illustrates the fatal and precious stones. This curious relic stood fallacy of his whole system. Does a man 2J4 inches in height. It was preserved for born to oe the ruler of a people owe nothing more than a thousand years in an ancient to them? Is not his life-work provided for temple at Delhi, where acts of devotion him in the very fact of being so born? Then were paid before it by women anxious to Buddha had other ties; ties with wife and have children. The base is of solid gold, child; ties with the father and the mother and around it are nine gem.. or charms, a whose only son and heir he was. Is it. after diamond. ruby, sapphire, chrysoberyl cat's all. such a charming thing in him that he eye, coral, pearl, hyacinthe garnet, yellow casts off all these and goes roaming over sapphire and emerald. These gems are all the world a bare-footed beggar. preaching rudely carved, and would, no doubt, by – hi.. gospel of nirvana' The story can be more scientific cuttin!" be greatly improved told in poetry so as to be very pleasing; in value. Round the apex of this gold pyra- but apply to it those tests which are af- mid is a plinth set· with diamonds. On the forded in the hard facts of human life and apex is a topaz 1 10-16 inches in length and human duty. and what does it all become? 9·16 of an inch in depth, shaped like a horse- The ideal Buddha affords in his own person shoe; in the center of the horseshoe the is one which, if it were to be used in this !,reat chrysoberyl cat's eye stands upright.
world for other. than poetical purposes, This is 15-16 of an inch in height, and dark would take men everywhere out of their brown in color, and shaped like a pear. An spheres of duty and service; would make extremely mobile opalescent light crosses all manly virtues a crime; would change the length of the stone in an obliqne direc- the world's workers into puling, whimper- tion. When Bad Shah Bahador Shah, the ing ascetics; would make religion itself a last King of Delhi, was captured and exiled mask for selfishness, and morality the car- to the Andaman Isles, his Queen secreted cass of a dead dog. Buddha's boast was, this gem, and it was never seen again until, uI am no man's servant." Jesus said, "If being distressed during the mutiny, she sold any man would be great among you, let him it to the present owner. The gem was finally be the servant of all."-Dr. J. A. Smith. knocked down at £2,450.
SIR MONIER WILLIAMS'S account of ihe devotees of Yoga, a system of ascetic prac.. TEXTS ANn THEMES.
tices which existed before Buddha. suggests DANIEL xii: 3. "And they that be teachers shall a contrast between those fanatics and the radiate brightness as the expanse, and they that ordinary Christian believer. He tells how convert the many to righteousness as the stars he saw at Allahabad one who had main- forever, " etc.
tained a sitting postnre. his feet folded un- Babylon'. clear skies stimulated Daniel's Cas- der his body. for twenty years. During the dee teachers to study astronomy and led to the mutiny, while cannon thundered and bnllets worship of the stars. To them the firmament hissed around him, nothing apparently dis- was Deity. and its radiance the splendor of the turbed his attitude of profound meditation. Supreme.
To obtain" enlightenment" these devotees Our Lord applies these words from Daniel.
practice the strangest austerities, and Compare Matt. xiii : 43.
they seem to have the clearest hope of The first clause refers to the expanse by day: thereby reaching" emancipation of heart." the second to the glory by night. Thus sunlight Sir Monier has given fresh illustration of and starlight are used as illustrations of the that concentrated will-power in Orientals glory and reward of teaching truth and convert- which our Christianity may well envy. iog sonls. • Rational aims, indeed, are qnite at a disad- Sunlight is diffnsed and refiected and so be· vantage as compared with mystical hopes, comes a revelation. The true teacher dUfnses and asceticism is, on the whole, an easier and rellects the light of God and so reveals business than wise activity ; an empty mInd trnth and God to men. Starlight has grades of can attain-the saintship of the Yoga, but glory-and so converters of sonis durer in the keen mental energy is needful in order to measnres of their service and reward.
reach" the stature of the fullness of Christ. " This text thus snge;ests the glory of teacbing Yet if our fai th is to master Buddhism in the and turning souls. We are taught here aud in East it must show marvels of devotion; Psa. li : 13 the same lesson.
thus only can it win a nation of devotees. Teaching first: instrnction is the basis of all The Christian missionary does not find the evangelization and conversion. God calls every Indian people as they are found by the believer to be a teacher and converter.
fanatic Buddhist or Siva-worshiper, drunk Success hangs on the Message, the Hethods with a mystical hope. and the Man. We confine ourselvds to the THE great attraction of a late sale of Bur- Me88aQ6.
~se and Indian curios in London was" The 1. The gospel and nothing less and nothing
EDITORIAL NOTES
else. The central theme: .. Chrillt CruCified." gospel must first be a sword opening up the hid- All preaching starts from and returns to that. deu part, then" mirror to show us our inner self. It Is nO narrow theme, but a "swivel gun" that maY'beswung in any direction aud directed 8. An aggressive gospel. The true preacher . to every practical issue of life. or teacher is not one who keeps on the defeu- sive.. In a game, the moment one is on the de. 2. Afullgospel: .. All Scripture is profitable" fensive the game is against him. So in war. The most successful ministers and missionaries Skillfnl strategy demands that the general keep have preached the whole couusel of God, espe- the enemy busy defending himself. God never cially these eight fundamental truths: The In- meant we .honld be nsing spades and throwing spired Word, Man's Depravity, Christ the only up intrenchments. Let us leave apologetics Saviour, J nstification by faith, The new Birth, and energetically carry the war into the enemies' Personal Holiness, God's Hatred of Sin, Future territory. Punishment. These are first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Heb. v : 12 to vi : 2. There 4. .A. cumulative gospe~. True preaching is a are two edges to the sword of the Spirit-an pyramid-the basis laid firm, broad, square; edge of law and one of grace; and hence one then stone upon stone, layer upon layer, all con- piercing point in which those edges meet. The verging toward a climax. Unity and continuity of impression are thus conserved.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
WE have received the report of management of the Church Mission- the" Association for the Free Dis- ary SOCiety. . The income of the tribution of the Scriptures." Office, society last year was nearly £222,000.
No.1, Oak Hill Park, Hampstead, It il5 rumored that nearly £50,000 was L~mdon, N. W. We have no hesita- spent before any of the money was tion in commending to the sympathy paid out for mission work. This and support of our readers this ex- society was foundedatthe beginning cellent institution. Its founders and of the century. It has numerous supporters regard it as a fatal hin- missions in Western Africa, India, dranceto tbe wide spread of the Word Egypt, Persia, China, New Zealand, of God that the Bible shall only be America, the North Pacific-all over sold; and maintain that in millions the world, in fact. It has 294 stat.ions of cases persons will never possess or in all; ul'ward of 500 missionaries even read the 'Vord unless it comes in holy orders, and 3,700 European to them as a free gift. There is no and native teachers of aU sorts.
antagonism with existing Bible so- There are complaints of other mis- cieties; but the attempt is to supple. sionary societies as to extravagant menttheirworkby a free distribution home expenditure. Even tbeLondon among those whosepoverty orapathy Missionary Society, whose manage- prevent their purchasing copies. ment was regarded by Canon Taylor The names of the committee are a as contrasting favorably with that of sufficient warrant for the organiza- the Church Missionary Society, has tion. Where such men as Major-Gen- not escaped criticism; and complaint • eral Graydon, James E. Mathieson, as made in The Methodist Times that Robert Paton, etc., lead, most of us £30,000 of the income of the Wesleyare safe in following. The annual ian Society is spent at home.
number of Bibles, Testaments, etc., For ourselves we are glad to have from all existing societies reaches these matters thoroughly ferreted but 8,000,000, i. e., two million less out. If there be anything that will than the annual inCl'ease of the not bear exposure, that is w hat needs world's population.-A. T. P .. exposure. Meanwhile we put on record our confidence that it will be THE recent assaults on missions found that no work done in the way and missionary societielb have had at of benevolence will prove on the least onfl good result. For instance, whole more economically done than it is proposed that a full and search- that of missions j while at the same ing inquiry shall be made into the time we believe there might be no little improvement in administration. Mr. Moody's Training College in We believe that the time will come Chicago is especially designed toftt when for the love of the cause men for evangelistic work in great cities.
will be found who can and will give -A.T.P.
their services as secretaries and treas- THE recent decease of the Dowurers; or when special funds will be ager Lady Kinnaird in London has provided for administration so that removed from Christian and philanevery dollar contributed may go thropic work one of God's noblest directly to the mission field.-A. T. P. handmaidens. She was equally de- WE have received a number of let- voted to Home and to Foreign Mis- sions, and city evangelization. She ters of which the following may serve led in the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, the as a specimen; . Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, St. John's School, Westbourne Park, Please furnish for your r-eadersan article touching the what, the where, the when, and the how, of such a preparatory course for Foreign Mission Work as increasing , for training girls for domestic ser- hundreds are longing to get. vice, in the London Young Women's General information is desired on such Chrilltian Association, which has 140 matters as these: For what field should I prepare? What branches with 15,000 members. She should such preparation involve f Where was . in fact hundred-handed and can I best secure it? At now little cost f hundred-hearted. To the last day of In how little time f Is there, or is there to her life she, with her noble daughters be, any institution where foreign languages, and son, the Earl of Kinnaird, was taught by natives of the foreign fields, can engaged in every work that sought be acqujred by those who give themselves to snch fields f Are there any traininll' the up-lifting of man.-A. T. P.
schools the curriculum of which shall pro- vide the best special equipment for stUdents Progress in the Patna. Oase. who cannot attempt the .. full course," .. regular," etc. Fraternally, Now that the case of the Christian girl Luchmin has passed from the JAMES P. LUDLOW, To ask questions is easier than to magIstrate, Mr. Quinn, to the High answer them. But we are glad to Court in India, we are rapidly getting give what information we can. nearer to the goal which all who Rev. W. B. Osborn and Mrs. S. B. have worked for the girl have had in Osborn, formerly missionaries in view-her salvation from a life of India, are in charge ot the Bradbury immorality to which the magistrate Memorial and Missionary Training had consigned her.
Institute, cornel' Raymond and Will- The High Court at Calcutta, in January, issUfJd / oughby streets, Brooklyn, N. Y. By a rule calling upon the magistrate to show cause why his order which consigned the girl applying to this address, catalogues to an infamous life should not be set aside. and circulars may be obtained giving The case came on for argument on Monday, all needful information, They under- Feb. 18, and the High Court not only pushed .• take special training for the mission- aside the magisterial order, bnt took a step ary field, and look directly to the Lord toward recovering possession of the child, as for support. They undertake to have will be seen from the following telegram which we have received from India: the languages of foreign fields taught "BOMBAY, 20-2-89.
by native teachers, etc. " A. S. DYER to Sentinel, LoNDON. A training school of a somewhat " Rule issued on Radakissen and Mahatabo to show cause 'Why order should not be made to different character is established at restore status quo, and give back Luchmln to Springfield, Massachusetts, under mission, or other suitable order. "
charge of Rev. David Allen Reed. It will be remembered by our readers that We advise all persons who desire in- Radakissen is the man who falsely claimed to formation to apply directly to these be the husband of the girl, and Mahatabo Is parties. the girl's mother who sold her to Radakissen. They are the two to whom the, magistrate consigned her. Our chief anxiety now is lest the Says the N. Y. Evangelist on this lI:irl, who was carried off by her captors.directly same subject: they got hold of her, shall not be fouud. But with the order of the High Court before it dem- " From entirely reliable religious papers in onstrating the iniquity of Mr. Quinn's unjns- India, the Evangelist gathers some unpleasant tifiable order, the Indian Government must see facts regarding the teaching required in such of that it is bound to exert itself to the utmost to the so-called missionary schools of that country find her, that she may be set free. as received aid from the Government, and of the results of that teaching. A professedly mission- The Anglo-Indian papers have been asserting ary journal declares that because such teaching that the Government had authorized Mr. Quinn may involve political dangers, the British Govto prosecute Mr. A. S. Dyer for his determined ernment should not continue the teaching of the championship of this girl's cause. The decision Bible in subsidized misEionary schools. The oC the High Court that Mr. Quinn was wrong same Government, however, sees no danber in demonstrates that Mr. Dyer was right. We making a sacred Hindu book a textbook in snch shall therefore now hear nothing more of these schools, and keeps it in them. Missionaries suggestions of a Government prosecution, bnt teach from it for the sake of retaining a Governmay expect a Government condemnation and ment subsidy. The result is that a good educaremov"al of Mr. Qniun.-The Sentinel (March). tion and a Government appOintment are gener- -J.M.S. ally the sol~ objects of young men in some snb- sidized mission schools, who reinain heathen be- Missionary Schools in India. cause from these school the Bible is carefully excluded. This statement is confirmed by the We can scarcely credit the an- fact that when more than a dozen young men nouncement, though supported by from such schools recently appeared for examofficial statements, that the Indian ination m mental and moral philosophy, and as Government excludes the Bible from candidates for the decree of A. M. from the Uniits public schools on the pl'etext that versity of Calcutta, not one took np the papers it is "'neutral." But we are ready on the Evidences ofChristianity which had been to believe that, and a great deal selected for Utem by the authorities. Under more, when we learn that it admits these circumstances, the Free Church of Scotinto those same schools the idola- laud has decided, according to The lndian trous and idolatry-teaching" Rama- Witne88 to close its school at Poonu, and the yan " as a class-book in Hindi; and Canadian Indian College at Indore is to be closed that, in order to secure the Govern- this month."-J. M. S. ment grant, professed missionaries of Christ make this same book a part Samoa. of their teaching in what are known as the "Sixth Standards "of their There is no one island called Samoa: the missionary schools. Replying to name is applied only to the eutire grouD of ten those who, for this reason, demand islands, often called the Navigator Islands. The the extincti9I of all missonary col- great French navigator,LaPerouse, who visited leges, a prominent Indian paper, these islands in 1787, had one of his officers and The Eastern Star, very properly de- ten of his men massacred, and while bitterly clares that the true remedy for this denouncing them for their "atrocious manunnatural condition does not lie in ners," declared it •• one of the finest couutries the abandonment of the higher ed- in the universe." A similar testimony was ucation of Indian youth to the hands given by other navigators who visited these isof whatit styles" a neutral secular lands before their evaugelization. government," but in the thorough reconstruction of missionary schools But all of the islands that form the group are on a sound evangelical basis, and in now professedly Christian. The first missiona return to the old missionarymeth- aries, Williams and Barff, reached Samoa in ods and standards of Duff, Anderson, 1830, and very rapid progress was made In and Wilson. And the sooner there Christianizing the islands. Heathenism is now is, in this matter, what the Irishman a thing of the past, and there are 200 villages is saId to have called an "advance in which native pastors are supported by the backwards," the better will it be for people. Besides supporting the native pastors, the cause of Protestant missions in the native churches have contributed on an av- India, and for India. erage during the last twenty years $6,000 per anuum to the funds of the London Missionary Society, which numbers 27,000 adherents. The Wesleyan Mission have 5,000, and the French priests claim 3,000. The population of the is- lands is now 35,000, an increase since 1843. Iu seven years after the entire Bible was printed in their lauguage an edition of 10,000 copies was sold and the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety has received from sales the entire amount of its outlay, $15,571. Some years after another and is spent in the Home field. About revised edition was published, of 10,000 copies, three per cent. for the world's evanwhich is now exhausted. The natives had gelization by the most Christian na- tion in the world, in this wonderful never seen a piece of money when the mission nineteenth century. was started. Now there are English, French, G<lrman and American stores, and from $250,- Judge Tucker, of Futtepoor, served 000 to $500,000 worth of native produce goes long in India, giving to missions into the stores of these merchants in exchange $200 per month. Beingremonstrated for clothes and other necessary articles. with for his liberality, he replied: These facts lend great interest from a missionary point of view to the Samoan matter, which now occupies the joint attention of the "Here are 86,000,000 adult populathree leading governments of the world. It is tion; 5,000 die daily-every day's alllrmed that on account of rivalry for the chief- delay meaus5,000souls." Would that tainship, and feuds growing out of it, the bulk of all judges viewed the question thus. the people, and evell the chiefs, long for foreign help and protection. These islands ofthe South There are a great many promises Sea, so recently converted from savage barba- to give to the Lord's cause that are rism to Christianity by English missionaries, only evasions of present duty. A deserve the sympathy and prayers of Christen- Cambridge, England, theologue, dom. It is obvions that the triumph of the when he told the story of the Good German policy would work injury to mission- Samaritan, after reciting the good sry interests in that part of the world.-J. M. S..
Dr. HENR Y M. SCUDDER relates a man's promise to the host, "And case of orientai justice that cannot be outdone for sharp and subtle dis- when I come again I will repay criminations even by a Philadelphia jurist. thee," wound up with: "'l.'his he said, knowing he should see his face no more." , " Four men. partners in business, bought HORACE says: "Who shall forbid some cotton bales, That the rats might not me laughing to speak the truth?" destroy the cotton they purchased a cat. On the question of the growing gulf They agreed that each of the four should own a particular leg of the cat; and each between the churches and the peoadorned with beads and other ornaments ple, WP have clipped the following the leg thus apportioned to him. The cat, suggestive epigram on a fashionable by an accident, injured one of its legs. The London church, from a foreign exowner of thart member wound about It a rag soaked in oil. The cat going too near the change: , fire. set the rag on fire. and. being in great pain, rushed in among the cotton bales .. In a church which is garnished with mullion where she was accustomed, to hunt rats and gable, The cotton thereby took fire and was burned up. It was a total loss, The three other With altar and reredos, with gurgoyle and partners brought a suit to recover the value groin. of the cotton against the fourth partner who owned the particular leg of the cat. The penitents' dresses are sealskin and sable, The odor of sanctity's Eau-de·Cologne ; uThe judge examined the case, and decided thus: 'The leg that Bad the ,oil rag But snrely, if Lucifer. flying from Hades, on it was hurt: the cat could not use that Were to gaze on this crowd, with its panniers leg, in fact, it held up that leg, and ran with and paints, the other three legs •. The three unhurt legs, therefore, carried the fire to the cotton, and He wonld say, as he looked on the lords and the are alone culpaple. The injured leg is not ladies, • Ob, where is All Sinners, if this is All Saints?' "
CANON TAYLOR, who has been fig- to be blamed. The three partners who uring as the critic of methods purowned the three legs with which the cat sued' by Foreign Missionary Socieran to the cotton will pay the whole value ties, is thus dealt with by a brother of the bales to the partner who was the pro- clergyman who sent the following prietor of the injured leg.'"
to the Record (London). Its force IS FINANCIAL FACTS.-At present ful- none the less from its being ad hom- ly ninety-seven per cent. of all mon- inurn, as the Canon's criticisms have eys collected for religious purposes been of that character.
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. [MAY
Sm: Canon Taylor, in the Fortnightly Re· of the value of souls abroad, connting his friends view, judges, by comparison of expenditure the Mohammedans, and souls in SettringtOD. with results, mission effort to have failed. He The discovery is striking, and to Settrlngton counts non-Christian p~ople at 920,000,000, and folk most flattering. The heathens at J.2d. a estimates the annual outlay for their conversion head are amply provided for; at Settrlngton at 2,000,000; that is, 11. for each460, or rather they required 11. 68.1%d. to be annually supplied mOre than an annual half·penny a head. Yet for their pastoral supervision. Surely the Can· he says, "Clearly there is no lack of men or on's friends abroad may justly take umbrage means." I accept the Canon's statistics with· that their souls are estimated by him in value at out question. I shall admit one half·penny a 1-627 of the value of the folk of Settrington! head as amp:e ontlay for the conversion of the I omit, to preserve the simplicity oCthe compar· heathen. Now as to the valUe of souls at home. ison, snch other factors of the eqnations as the I find from Crockford, 1887, that the income of enormous dilllcnlty of the task of Christianiz· Canon Taylor's benefice is (net) 1,048/. and ing people ont of heathenism contrasted with house. I find also that the population of his keeping Christian a parish Christianized so parish is 802. Now, as, presumably, the Canon many ceuturies ago. It is, indeed, humiliating having so keen a sense of the wasteful expen· to enter into such statistical contention with the diture of money on modern missions; considers clergyman in question. But he has appealed 1,048/. and a house not excessive payment for to figures and statistics; to figures and statistics the spiritual care of 802 souls, we arrive at once he must go-Suo silJi gladio huncjugulo. at the difference between the Canon's estimate GEORGE ENSOR.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
Ohina Inland Mission.
STATISTICS OF THE MISSION FOR JANUARY, 1888.
MISSIONARIES. NATIVB .,; HELPKRS. . … iii ,,; iii g>" t< ., "() o:l .~ .;0:; .,; iii m $"G .. o:liii .Q iii .,; ".s::: '0 ] .~"0 .s <Ii .S iii .~c ..0c: o:l El ~ Q El .~ "" " ] ."" .0….,:;:l00-o;.;i ~ .:J Q Q) ::< El u QI 0 — — –"- — -°- — — — —- — — — Po<~0-~ -… 0 00 ';5. r'.". :8 ~ is 0 rn 15 64 65 274 61 61 59 66 2,105 18 3 5 16 — . Associate Reformed Presbyterian Ohnrch, 1888. MISSION- '0 ,,; ARIES. '0 0 .0: 0 —————– .::sj" – – -"- "..". ;" . MISSION. ~"d tti Q ,,; .,; .,; ,..,.; c .,; .0<-: iii .si OJ ~ o:l -<;I;i :" ~Z"~ o;""&Q '":: .c .8 ..~cc .'0c 00 ~ ~ .0.Q.:. El ;e .~~, -:8- '~ — ~ .'0c -00- ::< :0'"1 Q -S – Q -~ – .0: -«-i -00- U -00- -00- ME"xico ……………. 5 2 1 3 I> 206 10 7 14.~ 2 33 Amount raised by Ladies' MissIOnary Society ……………………………….. 82,969 Amount raised by Young People's Society…………………………………… 604 The effect of ~he climate seems to have been unusually depressing, almost all, both foreigners and natives, baving suffered from disease. The well-nigh universal licentiousness among the people constitutes the great obstacle. Still with prayer and faith they labor on, sure of a blessing and success at last.
Methodist Protestant Ohurch, 1888.
~ MISSIONARIES. .i.i.i … "" " ~ . "" MISSION. o:l ~ ..ci£,ii ~ -<;I;i 0p:;: iii Q iii .,; .>, . o.i ~ ~ El ~ ..Qc.. '8 '0 ~ ~ ~ ~ :;; 00 :8 .u:c:< ::< 0 .c 0… () ~ .0: u0 () Po< .:1 () 00 00 — — – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Japan……………… 3 's 7 8 279 I> 348 $16,000 $20,000 " The Board of Foreign MISSiOns IS located at Sprlllgfield, OhiO. The Wom/lon's Board at Pittsburgh, Pa. The society 18 only ten years old, but 1S pushmg Its work as best It may. The Medical Missionary Association, South American Missionary Society.
London, Tws was institutedby membersof the Chureh of England, first as the Patagonian Mission in REPORTS up to April, 1888, the receipt of 184~, but was subseqnently enlarged in its seope £1,064, and expenditure of £909, leaving a and no… inclndes missions to the Falkland balance of £155, most of which is pledged to Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Argentine Republic, certain undertakings not yet commenced. ' Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chili. Under its general auspices are medical missions at A.den, Kashmir, Rome and Tan- The list of missionaries in the service of the gier. society includes 9 ordained clergymen, 12 lay and 6 female hy missionaries and helpers; also, TheSecretary,James L. Maxwell, writes: the captain and crew of five of The Allen Gar- .. With us it is still the day of small things, diner, a F'lip constantly employed in evangelisthough we rejoice to ackilowledge the Lord's tic service, CJ well as to keep lip communicaprospering hand. Justnow we have five fir, tion betwer'l the different stations. The total fellows, who are at various stages of their disbursements during the year 1887 were £12,. four years' course in medicine before going 880; the receipts, £12,415; showing a deficit of to the foreign field, and we are busily en- £465. Thi~ seoms to have been due entirely to gaged in promoting our Fifth Medical mis- the falciug off of reeeipts from le;ucles. sion in London, the fifth in three years." The prineipal work accomplished by this The Edinburg Medical Missionary society seems to he among the seamen of the Society. different ports and the fo"reign residents, but thoy are constantly pushlr..; out among the Tum report for the year closing Nov. 1, 1888, native popnlation and meeting with gratifying shows expenditures as follows: success. Mission House, Training Institution and The Rhenish Missionary Society Dispensary ………………•……….£2,746 Support of Medical Missions at Nazareth, REl'ORTS for the year ending Easter, 1888: Receipts ………………….$8.'l,362 Damascus, Agra, aud toward other Med- Expenditures ……………. 82,985 ical Missions.,……………………. 1,942 Diffusion of information as to Medical Balance …. , ……. ..•.•….. $877 Missions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . • 153 Separate Fund for New Guinea ……$13,054 Priuting, advertising, etc……….. ..•… 287 Outlay. . .. . . . . …. .. . •…. . . •.. . .. 5,149 Total. ……………………. , ….. £5,128 Balance…………………….. $1,905. Income ……………………………. 4,702 Deficit ………………………….. £426 Missionary Board of the African Meth. There are 62. medical missionaries, formerly studeuts of this society, connected with mission odist Ohurch.
stations in all parts of the world. Four of these THIll quadrennial report of this society for the are supported by the SOCiety itself, the remain term commenCing June, 1884, aad ending April, del' are connected with one or another of the 1888, shows an interestin:; advance in the work various miSSionary societies of England and undertaken by j~ in Hayti, Sin Domingo, and Scotland. Many of these are indebted to this Sierra Leone.
society, not merely for the impulse that sent The work in the West Indies is carried on in them forth, but for s.ubstantial aid in the pur- the face cf great opposition from the Catholics, chase of medicines, etc., etc. and hence its SUCC03S is all the more encollrag- ing.
The work in Freetown, Sierra Leone, was The London Association in Aid of the commenced by Rev. J. R. Frederick in 1886, and has been enlarged by the establishment of a Moravian Missions. mission in the interior, on the Scarcies River.
Tum report shows a total of receipts for the The king of the country donated ten acres of year 1887 of £4,656. It has, of course, no statis- land to the enterprise.
tics of the work separate from those furnished Foremostamong the agencies that have helped in the Moravian Almanac. Its work is, how- on the work has been the Ladies' Missionary ever, none the less important. The peculiar Mite Society.
work accomplished by the :Moravian missions The total disbnrsements have been: needs no special words of acknowledgment, For the first year …….. , ………$3,522.27 for it is well known. It is not so generally For the second year. . .. . .. …….. 4,030.88 recognized that milch of their widespread Ilse- For the third year ……………… 4,770.76 fulness Is dne to the hearty practical SIlPPOrt of The statement for the fourth year was not earnest English Christians. complete. Statistios of the Ohurohes of the Disciples of Ohrist IN HONTANA TERRITORY FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 1. 1888.
I Af omr ' t rLaoisceadl Am't raised Am't for Home Total IJhurches. Preach's. Members. S.Schools. Schol's. Ohurch and and Foreign lor all Pur- – – – – – – S. S. Work. Missions. poses. .—- ———–,— -6291 $11,484.38 $1,103.16 $12.g58.0!l 11 7 551 9 In five and a half years the value of church 'property has risen from $1,600 to $50,310. • The average per member of the 411 disciples organized for work is $31.52. Besides tais the C. W. B. M. contributed about $5,000 for this year's work in Montana.
STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
-According to the" Baptist Year-Book for Protestant Ohurch, 123,000,000. Besides 1889" that denomination has in the United these, there are about 100 sects or smaller States 21,420 ordained ,ministers, 32,900 divisions claimiug to be' Ohristians, with churches, 2,997,7.1 members, and i,l58,502 eight million adherents. Of the nonscholars in Sunday-schools; 601 new socie- Christians, 8,000,000 are Jews, 120,000,000 are ties have been organized during the past Mohammedans. Among the heathen reli- gions, Brahminism is the most wide spread, year, and a::J churches have been dedicated. and embraces about 138,000,000 adherents, and its younger offshoot, Buddhism, em- AccOl;dlng to these figures the Baptists ded- braces 503,000,000. Other heathen religions icate nearly one new church for every day have 135,000,000 adherents. There are thus in the year, and baptize 369 persons on an yet over one thousand millions of souls who averagd each day. are not Christian I -The year!" statistics of the Baptist -Th~ missionary contributiohs of all church<:s of Great 1 ritain for 1888 show an British societies for the last year amount· increase In the membership of the denomi- ed to $6,143,795. The following were the pation. Ther" are now 2,645 churches and sources: 3,591 ch:;pols and preaching stations ill England and Wales. These provide accommo- 1. Ohurch of England, tVenty. dations for 1,180,(67 worshipers. In England three societies………………….$2,306,180 there :;rc 1,3=~ ordained ministers, and In Wales 37;;. The communicants are said to 2. Joint societies of Ohurchmen be 209,558 in England, and 75,891 In Wales. and Non·Oomformists, seven In In Scotland there are 101, and in Ireland 20 number (including Bible and tract churches. The aggregate returns for the societies). .. . .• •• . . . . . . . . . . . … .. . .. . 935,240 whole of the United Kingdom give 2,770 . 3. English and Welsh Non-Conchurch"s and 3,745 places of worship, with a formist societies, eight in 0.11…… 1,835,575 membership of very nearly 300,000. In th" Sunday-schools there are 352,167 scholars. 4. Six societies of Scotch and with 45,977 teachers. Dr. Booth, Secretary Irish Presbyterians…•…………. 1,014,700 of the Baptist Union, gives a statistical summary of 13aptist churches throughout 6. Five Roman Catholic missionthe world. These he sets down at 37,478, with ary societies in Great Britain…… 52,100 a total membership c1 3,326.542, which shows a marked illcrease on the similar summary Total. ••• .. . . . … . …………… $6,143,795 made four years ago. The total numlar of Ita1y.-Wuttke gives the following statis- Baptist ministers and missionaries, in all tics of Evangelical Ohristians among the parts of the world, is 22,150. 01 these, 1,755 Italians; There are 16,500 W",ldenses. Most re..lde in England and Wales, of whom 1,~o7 of these are found in the old churches of the are returned as members of the total absti- valleys but there are also new churches in nence society. cities, namely, one in Milan with 326 com- municants, one in Turin with 317, and two in -Tue most carefully compiled and best Florence with 325. The Free Church of Italy general statistical work is Daniel's" Lehr- has 71 churches and stations, with 1,580 buch der Geographie." The number of in- members. The Plymouth Brethren have 50 habitants on the globe is about 1,435,000,000. small congregations; the Wesleyans, 55 There are 3,064 distinct languages and dia- congregations and stations, and 1,380 memlects known. There are about 1,100 different bers; the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch, 20 religions. There does not exist a single peo- congregations and 5 stations, with 950 memple which is without a religion of some kind. bers; the Baptists have 53 stations and 870 Even the lowest on the social scale have some members. Tbere are, besides, a few small religious idea, howev"r crude. Ohristianity missions in differtlnt parts of the country. has C,~,OOO,OOO adheren ts. ":'ae Roman Catho- The statistics of the German, English, lic Church numbers 208,000,000, the Greek or American and French churches are not Oriental Orthodox Church, 83,000,000; the given. The total number of Italian com- municants in the Evangelical churches s 22,OOO.-Dr. J. H. W. Btuckenberg. By REV. H. LooMIS. No. 42 BIBLE HOUSE, YOKOHAMA.
.; – ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ .~ fg:-a9i ~ ~ ~ O§ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~ 00 ~00 ..cI a! 1lJ .t- g s i = NAME OF MISSION. 'rj C,) CIl 00 00 .oat :-== .z -aj – – -l>- -!.E:3- -:- – — -'"- -,-..-. -:-: -:-:-:-: sa! 8 Presbyterian Church in the U. S..• .j..)P-I Q) – ~ ~~C,) g ~ ~~~ oj "~'a;4tS~,.S~£r):n1"'~S~~d~).'G~J9aJ.:i.l:ZQ')0s8t)'~:i9rb::. S..~Q.lfG1d.~.I)..l·.~:~.~~..:.:~~~cr~,/..}~.§~t~£t~lc8'~'1S~~3O1,oo.~.:~1g8);p:§tts:li:;t:'.r'bC~~3~Qllo)tI8§c~~~.' " oj ~o· ~ ~ -L~ ~-. ~ ~ ~ ….. <3 rc Q3 A '~dI. ..c:; ~0 ''~0b00C0e. ).'000~b0o.O~·~.Q0~..~0.. ;;: S'" S 5 tl tl '" ~ .~.2 == § rq §…a;~~:i j : I00 ~ Q~ .~8 ~.".S~.e.. ='gQGf..)l e~rPQ-n). ~S"(0~l):o~t0~ ~ioO.~~0.o~ 0~~..~~.;..-.a~SQ~~!~aC,) :r.~:g; S~': Q ".~d~;.;~• ~ ~ A .0~ c8 f .090 ~:0 N Pl ~ ~'tl rtl al <Il (/J!il (/J ~ ~ ~ ~ 0 -::; ~'S.
–;i -222 64 "6 –;i 1 – -:-: -:-: – '5 Reformed Church in America…… …………. 10 1 5 26 4 20 …. .. …. .. .. .. .. :: .. :::::::: Union Presbyterian Church of Scotland.. , "… 2 ,. .. 4 1 4 .. .. .. United C hCuhrucrhc ho fi nCthhle' iUs tniint eJda Sptaant e(sN. .a t.i v. .e .)*. .. ,… Reformed . · 4 2 10 137 61 28 33 1,937 221 100 75 50 8,690 2;057 61 4:000 1 44 36 41 '3 '2 :W..:.3.i.ii.'i!.3. 3 148 16 719 1 15 7 7 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South)…… 4 2 4 14 2 11 … .. … . …. …. …. . … 21 •…… . Women's Union Missionary Soc'yof America., ,. 5 1 1 i04 Cumberland Presbyterian Church………….. 4 4 12 3 '5 7 202 7 '500'48 American Protestan t EpiscopalChurch…….. 9 2 9 29 7 i4 47 13 9 3 2 :j:513 280 .. 6 1…. 4 31 3 34 18 4 406 87 753 559 14 695 1 20 1 43 .. 10 1,907 22 Church Missionary Society….. …………….. 11 5 6 21 25· 2 23 383 123 89 134 294 1 27 :; 12 .. 1 1.560 02 7 1,329 210 15 Society for the Propagation of the Gospelt…. 2 6 3 13 2 6 4 .. 4 100 .. .. .. .. :j:5O() 300 2 75.. 4 2 5 .. .. 350 00 Society for Female Education in the East.. …… 2 2 1 .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. .. … 66 1 30… .. . . .. .. ,. .. …… l~!~~Itc;,hB~~fis~1iM:~~ona~YU;;i;;~::::::::::: ii~J …~ ~ ~ 875 ioo 's '9 10 iiJ :: iiJ '206 :: .'.i .. 52 200 1 '9 '4 .. :: .. i:002'si English Baptist Church……………………. ~ .. 4 1 19 2 .. 2 40 '2 175 62 1 2 '4 .. '..i ChurchofChrist…………………………… 2 8 2 3 1 . . 1 50 '5' 9 130 90 3 67 '" .. J 153 53 .. 12 67 97'66" 4 400 '1' 1 4 2 1 1500 Christian Church of America…….. ……….. 1 'n ;.;, 2 100 i .. 3645 Am, Board of Commissioners tor For. Mis ….. , 25 '" "" 79 132 2 50.. 5 3 1 :; 8 84 45 40 5 2,114 10 -B5 .. 95 7,093." 48 3,500 86 4E 64 .. .. 31,02200 Independent Native Churches……………… '1' .. .. .. .. 12 2 2 . . 25 10 .. .. ,. 150 ." 1 60.. .. 1 1 .. .. 40000 Congregationalist, U. S, A … ,……………… .. 1'4' 2 1 '7' 15'9' 15'6' .. .. … … .. … '2' 25 3'7' '3' iii American Methodist Episcopal Church……… 18 1 51 9 34 49 42 947 131 75 3,059 2,293 62 3,746 31 a:827'oi Canada Methodist Church…………………. 9 1 6 25 2 3 9 2 7 380 61 15 3 '32 1,462 450 19 1,177 1 11 5 19 .. 6 2,150 00 Evangelical Association of North America….. 3.. 3 1 2 5 .. 5 90 30 25 7 16 266 34 11 460 1 17 5 13 .. 6 3~969 51 Methodist Protestant Chnrch……. ………… 3 .i; 11 2 2 2 .. 2 4IPl' 1295 American Methodist Episcopal Ch. (South)…. 5 3 1 14 3 9 5 .. 5 55 3 2 .. .. 162 261 3 217 5.. 4 .. 1 88 6 3 6 .. 163 62 15 357 1 7 .. .. .. 1 General Evangelical Prot. (German Swiss)….. 1 1 .. 3 1 1.. 1 41.. ';' 'I' 'i 82 '1'8' 1 35 1 4 .. …. 10200 Society of Friends, America.. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . 2 .. .. 4 1 2 1 .. 1 . .. . .. '" 25 2 118 .. .. .. 2 . . . . 13 40 Unitarian…….. ………………………….. 1 .. .. 2 1 .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. .. … … .. … .. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. – – – – – – – – . u………… — . – – – – – – – – – – – – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Total, 1888 ………………. 150 27 124 443 72 324 249 92 157 6,959 728 442 365 352 25,514 9,698 295 16,634 14 287 142 257 8 70 64,454 fO 1911_~ Total, 1887…………………………… 128 20 1011 253 69 316 221 73 144 5.020 510 517 797 34419,829 7,145 24713.017 14 216 102 33 41.57170 Increase, 1888………. ………………… 32 7 21 90 3 8 28 19 13 1.939 218 ' " _.. 8 5,785 2.553 48 3,617 .. 71 40 66 '.. 37 22.888 00 NOTE.-It is impossible to get exact reports from all the churches up to Dec. 31. It is probable that complete statistics would have increased the total membership .~…
* a.bont ten per cent.-H, L, Statistics to October, 1888. t The S. P. G. Mission decline to furnish their statistics. :j: A.pproximate.
Statistics of the American Presbyterian Mission in
I. EVANGELISTIC AND GENERAL MISSIONARY "WORK.
1_~876. _ _ _ _•_ _._ _ _ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _1_ _ 1884. _ _ 1____18_85._._._.1___1_8_86_.___ . _ _18_8_7._ _ _ _ _188_8_._ _ American j Men……………………………………… . ~H 28 B}23 37 M} 38 ~H 37 ]3( 34 M} 34 Mi8sionaries 1 Women………………………………….. .. Native rO~dainedpastors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : .. . 31 3}Ifs 194 l~} 189 21f 4137 13 5 J~l Syrian 1LICensed preachers…………………………. .. 96 JI20 10 90 4}32 179 171 153 198 LabvrerB School teachers……………………………… . 8 5 19 125 Other helpers………………………………… . 5 89 30 131 13 60 19 130 12 Stations………………………………………………… .. 10 30 570938 } 1,301 5 I> 7J Out-sta.tions……………………………………………… . 24 68 87 91 5 Churches…….. : ……………………………………….. . 75 3,891 86 19 89 ~}1,207 73 19 20 Church buildings……………………………………….. .. ~~}573 3,8M 31 31· 31 84 104 63 Added on profession during the year…………………….. . 61 3,961 3,977 153 ~g} 1,493 Male church members………………………………….. .. 2,612 $6,451 ~~} 1,534 76 677655 } 1,440 Female church members……………………………. "'" 40 3,584 Regular preaching places………………………………… . 1,540 92 85 94 3,847 4,293 4,289 4,522 congregatlons …………. Average 0 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2,982 $6,302 $1.252 68 66 81 Sabbath schools………………………………………… .. 3,746 3,732 4,620 Sabbath scholars….. , …………………………………. .. Syrian Protestant Community (withm the field of the Ameri- 4,165 4.241; can Pre&byterian MIssion) ……………………………. . $6,980 $8,114 4.359 Contributions of native churches………………………… . $7,355 II. EDUCATIONAL WORK.
College (Syrian Prot.)……………..,…………………….. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Medical school…………………………………. ………. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Pupils in colle:;e (including Med. Dep't.)…….. … ………… 106 185 165 165 175 197 Theological seminary.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Pupils in do. ………………………….. ………… 7 4 4 7 6 6 Boys' boarding schools………. …………………………… 1 2 2 3 3 2 Pupils in do……………………………………. 42 68 72 151 129 110 Female seminaries……………………….. …….. ……… 3 3 3 3 3 3 ~iig~~hOof"~: ….. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~ r~ 1~ li~ It~ 1~~ 6:%,i::~~ ~~hOO~·:::::::::::::::::::::::::.:: :::::::::::::::::::::: ~~ ri~ ~5~ 3~¥ 4~i i~ Boys in do. …………………….. …… …… ………… 2,031 t 2840 5,lceo 31',1°1856 ft 4,201 Girls in do. ………………………………………….. 819!' 3, 7751 3,626 t 4,871 3,178} 4 505 ill',663393 } 5,272 1,405! 1.245! 1,327 ' Total schools……………………………………………… 80 . 144 121 125 141 .. .. .. ..=.____ __________ Total pupils………………………………………………. 136 ~VV~o=m=e=n~in~b=ib=l~e~c=l=a=ss=e~s~..=.=.~..=.=.~..=.=.~..~.~..~.~.~..=•~.~.==.~.•~.~.=~.~.==.~.= 3,509 5,881 5,065 5,344 5,391 6,199 ~=- ~1~1.~1 __________~1~:'_4.__________~230~__________~2·~IO~____~__~300~____
PRESS WORK, PRINTING A.ND DISTRIBUTION OF BIBLES, TRACTS, &0
1876. 1881. 1882. 1883, 1884. 1885.
– – – – – – – – " – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —-I—–I–·-~- 1 —— Bible House and Press Establishment :-…………………. 1 1 1 4 1 Steam presses…………… …………. ……………….. 3 3 1 6 4 1 6 Hand presses………………………………………… 2 6 3 4 1 1 3 1 Hydraulic presses……………………………………. 1 1 6 6 1 3 1 1 Lithographic presses…………… ,…………………… 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 Type foundry-Casting machines………… ,………. ,… 1 2 1 1 45 1 346 48 Electrotype apparatus……………………………….. 1 '1i 2 2 57,000 360 4i 20,085,500 100,900 Stereotype apparatus………………………………… 1 1 1 11.117,000 28.722,968 J!~:!~~g:i~:~~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1 1,671,100 18,045.000 Publications on Press Catalogue……………………… 44 '2 385,112,219 1,586.100 2 21,484 .393,835.187 44 1 2'Zil.649 26,848 50 284,450 76.198 ~2,350 Volumes printed during the year…………………………. 207 258 1268 336 38.450 47,500 87,900 72,050 Pages " . "………………………………. 13,786,980 19,235,547 27.981,600 33,284,675 Or which pages of Scriptures… , …….. ,….. ……. .. .. ,…. 4,277500 9,465,000 17,378,600 19,331,750 " " " " tracts………………………………. ,.. 232.000 451,600 1,04.~,500 1,702,500 Total pages from the beginning…… ….. …………….. …. 159,810,300 283,760,444 311.742,044 345,026,716 *Scl'iptures distributed during the year…………………. 5,641 15,953 23,576 15,571 fOther books and tracts sold and distributed…………….. 25,721 28,232 36,752 63,311.
Copies of publications of all kinds issued during year.. 372,710 IV. MEDICAL WORK AT ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL.
The physicians of the Medical Department of the Syrian Protestant College have been appointed by the Order of St. John in Berlin as the medical attendants of the "Johanniter-Hospital" in Beirut. This most interesting charity, supported by the above mentIOned Order, and served also by the Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, basreceived during- the past years: Indoor patients……. '" .' ……………………………….. 1 537 571 595 440 491 Patients treated in the Polyclinique…………………….. . 9.162 7,489 7.628 8,390 Total of days of treatment…………….. , …………….. .. 6.009 11,842 17,500 16,489 16,348 11,953 .. These fignres represent the copies of Scriptures sold and sent out from our Mission Press to private purchasers, and to our own and otber missions, and to Bible Society agencies, for further distribution.
tThe distribution has been by the various miSSIOns among Arablc·speaking peoples, and the American and British Bible and Tract Societies:
ORGANIZED MISStONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
The Jesuit Missions. of the continent; in India they have noth· ing to do with Madras, Ceylon, Central In- A RECENT issue of the Etude8 Religiemea dia, or the Northwest Provinces, and theIr cout!lins some Interesting statistics of the work in the United States is exceedingly number and distribution of the Jesuit mis- circumscribed. In such places as Japan, sionaries' abroad at the commencement of the Malay Peninsula, Siberia, Indo·China the preseut year. The numbers are those (Bnrmah, Tonquin, Siam, Annam), they are of. the various orders of the priesthood; not found at all. The great centers of priests, coadjutors, and" scolastiques," but Jesuit missionary activity on the surface of in every case the number of priests is more the globe' are the Zambesi, Syria (where than twice that of the other two orders put there are 142 French Jesuits), the Philiptogether. In the Balkan Peninsula there pine Archipelago, the Central States of the are 45 Jesuit missionaries; in Africa, and Union (here they are all German Jesuits), especially Egypt, Madagascar, and the Zam- Central America and Cuba, Ecuador and besi region, 223; in Asia, especially Armenia, Peru, Chili and Paraguay. Syria, certain parts of India, and parts of China,699. In China alono the nUJ:ab~:' b -Sur.lmary of member. and probationers 195, all of French nationality. h 'Ocoania, including the Philippines, the Malay Archi- in the China Missions of the M. E. Church pelago, Australia, and New Zealand, the number is 21'0; in America, including cer- for 1t:~: Mem- Probatain specified, States of the Union, portions of Canada, British Honduras, Br:1zil, a'1U In· Peru, 1,180; the total numb3r of Jccuih bers. tioners. Total. cr'se. scattered over the globe in purely missionary work being 2,377. These are of various Foochow….. . 2,297 1,267 3,564118 nationalities, but the vast majority are French. In the distribution great attention Central China. 305 304 609 140 is paid to nationality; thus in Illyri, Dalmatia, and Albany, they are all Venetians; North China.. 655 373 1,028 218 in Constantinople and Syria, Sicilians; in Africa, Asia Minor, and China, French; West China… 9 7 16 while no French Jesuits are to be found in any part of the American continent. In TotaL ….. 3,266 1,951 5,217 476 the Bombay and Bengal Presidencies they are Germans and Belgians respectively; in -The Congregationalists in Australia the Philippines, Spanish; in the Malay have 82 Sunday-schools, with an average Archipelago, Dutch; in Eastern Australia attendance of 7,400. The Wesleyan Methoand New Zealand, Irish; in the United dists are largely in predominance; their States Germans, Neapolitans, and Piedmon- schools number 545, with an average at- tese are found working in specified and dis- tendance of 30,264. The Church of England tinct districts; those laboring among the comes next, with 430 schools; and then in Indians of Canada are Canadians; in the order follow the Presbyterians with 392, and British West India Colonies they are Eng- the Roman Catholics with 312, etc. In all lish; in Central America, Spaniards; in there are 2,157 Sunday-schools, with a total South America, Italians, Spaniards, and average attendance of 143,766. Germans; 'the Italians and Germans having all Brazil to themselves, doubtless bec:1uE" -According to the statistical report for of the enormous Italian and Germ:>n immi- 1888 of the Evangelical Association, that gration to Brazil. It will be understood body of German Methodists numbers' 141,853 that the spheres of labor of the different members, 1,159 itinerant preachers, and orders, Jesuits, Lazarists,Franciscans,etc., 1,916 churches: indicating a gain of 4,156 are carefully laid down at Rome, no two membera, 38 preachers, and B5 churches orders,- as a rule, working in the same re- during the year. gion ; these spheres once fixed, the dIstri- bution within them is left to the head of -The yearly increase of ordained men in the particular order, whatever, it might be. the Anglica.n Chnrch is vastly in excess of In an illimitable field like China all the or- requirements. The clerical deaths last ders are represented; bnt the districts of year were 460, and there were bnt 70 new each are specified, and were re·arranged churches buHt, while there were 734 ordina- about eighteen months ago. The Kesuits tions. The unbeneficed clergy in England have Kiangsu province and the southeast- now number from 10,000 to ll,OOO.-Chri8tian ern part of Chili, the metropolitan prov- Leader. ince; they have 145 fathers in tho former and 50 in the latter. In Africa, again they Statiatios of the Ohurohes of the United touch only on the! east coast at certain points, and are represented in no other part States for 18~8.
BY REV. DANIEL DORCHESTER, D.D.
IN compliance with the request of Dr. Buckley I give the latest ecclesiastical sta- tistics for our country. They are for the year 1888, and have been gathered from the official Year·Books and Minutes. Some of the data for 1888 could not be obtained until the Y <,ar-Books for 1889 were issued. In only a few instances have the figures been estimated, and even then, so far as possible. by prominent officials in those denomina- General Baptists.. . '3,225 1.400 tions. I give the statistics in a classified United Baptists.. .. 6,329 1.000 form: Separate Baptists.. 9.015 3.500 Advent Bodies. Cum. Fr. Bap. (est.) 46.000 1.450 Chs.* Min. Com. Seventh-Day Bap .. 106 115 Orig. "Evan. Ad." 91 107 11,000 S. D. (Gr.) Bap.(est.) Adv:Christians…. 2,500 1,000 75,000 Anti-Mis. Bap.(est.) 1.800 900 Seventh-Day Adv. 787 199 22,357 Six-Prin. Baptists. 16 16 Life& Adv. Union. 100 …. 10,000 T'I brng.nameBp. 36,353 24.765 3,175.589 Age-to-Come Adv. 10.000 Kind. Bap. Bods.: Dis. (partly est.) .. . 6,859 3,388 , 645.771 Barbourites…….. 5,000 Tunkers (est.) ….. . 1,050 1,876 100,000 Winebrenna'n(est.) 30,000 Christadelphians .. 14 15 1,200 Mennonites (est.) .. 300 400 100,000 550 500 Total. .. . .. .. .. .. . 3.492 1,321 134.577 Most of the above were obtained by per- T'!Bp. & knd. bds. 45,112 30,929 4,051,360 cOonal interviews with leaders in these bodies, but they are largely estimated. Lutheran Bodies. Com.* Cbs. or Congs. Min. 159.091 ' Baptist Bodies. General Synod ….. 1.429 952 33,625 Chs.t Min. Com. United Synod…… 392 186 241,424 General Council … 1,490 846 341,987 Bap. Reg., North … 8,695 7,164 799,236 Synodical Council.. 1,743 1,233 260,843 Bap. Reg.• South… 14,874 8,0.'>7 1,115.276 Ind. Synods…….. 2,556 1,295 Bap. Reg.• Cplored.. 9,331 6,199 1,033,282 'rotal Reg. Bap ..• 32.900 21,420 2,997,794 Total Lutheran … 7,610 4,512 1,036.970 Free- Will Baptist.• 1,531 1,314 82,686 F.W.B.of N.C. oi-ig. 8,232 *Some baptized children are always in- F.W.B.• Other Ass.. 4,958 cluded in the statistics of one or two of * Mostly congregations. these bodies.
tIn some cases congregations.
Methodist Bodies. Full Total Local Mem. Com.; (,,hs.* Min. Prs.t Prob.
Methodist Episcopal Church…•.••…….• 21,361 12,802 13,436 224,788 1,929,561 2.167.151 Methodist Episcopa.l Churcb. South …….. 11,864 4,5;)0 6,192 1,096,734 1,107,456 Methodist Episcopal African, ……•….••• 3.600 2,943 4,891 47.000 390,000 43~,943 Methodist Episcopal African Zion……… 2,600 3,250 325,000 327,600 Methodist Episcopal Colored …………… 1,729 4,042 165,000 166,729 Methodist Episcopal Union American….• 50 60 50 21,000 21,060 Total Episcopal Methodist…………… 36,875 24,664 31,861 271,788 3,927,295 4,229.939 NO'rt-Episcopal Methodi8t: Protestant Methodist ……………..•…•. 2,039 1,463 1,125 4,271 141,557 147,791 Congregational Methodist………… …… ' 225 200 8:000 8,000 Independent Methodist………………… 35 30 5.000 5,000 Free Methodist…………… : ………….. 961 498 556 2,418 16,104 19.030 Wesleyan Methodist…………………… 535 260 16,197 16,732 Primitive Methodist……………………. 122 62 174 587 4,343 4,992 – – Reformed Methodist…………………… 60 50 2.000 2,000 Total bearing the name Methodist……. 40,8-52 27,247 33,698 279,064 4,120,496 4,443,484 Kindred Methodist Bodies: United Brethren ……………………….. 4,451 1,490 560 204,517 206,007 Evangelical Association……………… , .. 1,916 1,159 647 141,859 143,018 Moravians……………………………… 66 71 10,900 10,966 Bible Christians……………………….. 85 115 7,700 7,815 Total Methodist and kindred Methodist .. 47,470 30,082 34,905 279,064 4,485,472 4,801,390 * This term is unsatisfactory. In most cases it means church edifices; in som~. church organizations or societies; in others, congregations; and in some circuits which comprise several societies. Probably 50,000 societies.
tIn Methodi.t polity these are laymen and reckoned as members in full. ;Ministers, in column 2, are added into this ,column, because they are communi· cants, and not elsewhere reckoned in as with other denominatIOns. And probationers. being also communicants. are here reckoned. Only a few of the above are estimated-some of the smaller chnrches-and most of these by officials of their own body, and almost all are official statistics for 1888.
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETJIi
Presbyterian' Bodies. Denominations not nsing the same statis- 9hs. or Congs.* Min. Com. tical methods as those in the preceding 722,071 Pres. Gen. Ass.. . . .. 6.543 5.789 156.249 tables, especially ill receiving and enrolling 98,992 Pres.Gen.Assr.Sth. 2.280 1,129 151,929 members: U. P. Ch. of Nth. A. 907 759 15,000 Ministers. Parishes. 10.970 Cumberland Pres.. 2.648 1,584 New.Church ………… 113 141 Cum. Pres. (col.) … 200 Unitarian…………… 490 382 Ref. Presbyterian.. 121 116 Universalist………… 709 971 Gen. Sy.Ref.P. N.A. 47 47 6,800 The New-Church Almanac for 1889 esti- Ass.Ref.Sy.ofSouth 112 8t 7,282 mates 7,028 church members, and, including :WelshPresbytorian 175 84 9,563 isolated adherents, a total of 10,178 New- Other bodies (est.). 200 250 20,000 Churchmen in America. The UniversalIst Total Presby'n. '" 13.033 10,0-l2 1,198.856 Year-Book for 1889gives an iucompletestate- Kind. Pres. Bods.: ment of members, 38,780 and 41.474 families. Ref. (Dutch) Ch ..•• 87,015 TrueRef.D.Ch.(est.) 546 555 584 The Roman Catholics give the following Ref. (late Gr.) Ch… 13 8 190,527 differing statistics for 1889 : 1,512 823 • Sadlier's Hoffman's Year-Book. Year-BooK.
T'l Pr.& kin. bods. 15,104 l1,-l28 1,476,962 Priests …….•….. 7,996 S,118 7,424 7.353 Unclassified Bodies. Chnrches ………• Chs. Min. Com. Chapels and st·ns.• 3,133 2,170 ·Chris.,Nthn&Sthn. 1,755 1,344 142,000 Population•.•••.•.. 7,855,294 8,157.676 Christ. Union Chs.. 1,500 1,200 125,000 Aggregates. Congregational••…• 4,404 4,2ll4 457,584 Chs.. Pars., Episcopal, Protest.• 3,450 4,053 or Congs. Min. Episcopal, Ref••…. 456.729 70 87 8,000 .. Evangelical" Bodies. . . • • 131,477 90,368 Total Episcopal ..• 3,520 4,140 464,729 New-Church…….. _…….. 141 113 Friends, Orthodox.• 600 500 72,000 Unitarian….. …………. 382 490 Friends, :Wilburite.. 100 12,000 Universalist……………. 971 709 RomanCatholic…….. …• 10,557 7,996 Total Friends …•. 700 500 8MOO Ger. Evan. Ch. Un … 804 618 65;000 Populations.
Schwenkfelder Chs.. 6 10 850 Total" New-Chnrchmen ..•….•.•.• 10,178 Other bodies (est.) … 35,000 Universalists, 41,474 fams. (5 each). ~,370 Total Unclassified 12,689 12,096 1.374,163 Unitarian, no Ineans of estimat·g.• Roman Catholic (Sadher's est.)..• 7,855,294 Summary. .. Evangelical" bodies, 3~ times Chs.,Socs. Com. as many as the enrolled members 48,570,977 or Congs. Min.
Advent Bodies…… 3.492 1,3~1 134.577 The Evangelical churches have made a Baptist Bodies.. … • 45,112 30,929 4,051.360 large relative gain for 1888 as compared Lutheran Bodies…. 7,610 4,512 1,036,970 with 1886, namely, 1,744,771 members. This Methodist Bodies… 47,470 30,082 4,801,340 shows an average of about one member in Presbyterian BodIes 15,104 11,428 1,476.962 4.5-I-inhabitants,on an estimated population.
Unclassified Bodies. 12,689 12,096 1.374,163 for 1888 of 62,300.000. The Evangelical pop- Aggregate …….. 131,477 90.368 13,877.422 ulation is 77-1- per cent. of the whOle popula- … In some of the above bodies congrega· tions are reported, and In others church tion of the United States. The Roman Catholic population is 11-1- per cent. of the organIzations. – – – – – – – whole.-('''hristian Advocate.
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
A.frica.-The London Missionary Society of it. Last year they added $4.000 to the enhas received word that the disturbances along dowmeut of their Normal and Industriallnstithe African coast opposite Zanzibar have not tute affected their missions on Lake Tanganyika or at Urambo. Mr. Brooks, their missionary Central A.merica.-Plotest,mt Missions at Urambo, was killed as he was coming to the are found in but two of the five repnblics of coast. but there is said to be no need of anxiety Central America. Nicaragua and Guatemala. in regard to those who remain in the interior. Ceylon.-The Editor of The Ceylon Observer, Burmah.-A Burman Christian woman of Colombo, during the agitation against the licens- Ran'goon has promised to give a bell to the ing of sin in Ceylon, has spoken in that paper memorial chapel to Adoniram Judson in Man- with the voice of a preacher and prophet. All delay. honor to the editor of a commercial paper who. on a great and momentous occasion, in the face -The Bassein Christian Karens of Burmah of cynicism, ridicule, and all the forces of worldare running a saw mill and making a profit out liness. boldly rebukes sin, and champions the cause of righteousness. The world would be a. -The English nation continues to derive an brighter place if there were more meu with the income of some £8,000,000 from the excesses courage of the editor of The Ceylon Observer. and miseries of the richer part of the Chinese China.-The Ching-Kiang Riot. Washington, March 21. The Department of State is in receipt people; while the poorer classes of Chinese are of further detailH concerning this riot. The trouble arouse out of the stoning of the Sikh creating a demand for a cheape'r home-grown policemen of the British quarter by a crowd of boys and young men. It occnrred on the opium. And so the enslavement of the entire Chinese New Year, when business was practically suspended in the town and when the streets nation to this fatal habit appears to be inevitawere thronged with idlers. The quarrel of the boys was assumed by the men, and a general hl~ . figh ensued. A Chinaman was knocked down by the police, and the report was cnrrent that -Chinese Christians are, almost to a man, he was killed. Immediately the enraged mob ready to pray in public, to exhort one another attacked and burned the police stations. The at their meetings, and to speak for Christ to road way was thronged with 20,000 rioters. who their neighbors. Rev. Hunter Corbett bears surged toward the United States and British witness to their childlike faith in the powe~ and consulates. When the situation became alarming willingness of God to fulfill every promise, to 300 soldiers appeared upon the scene, but their their unshaken faith in prayer, their love for presence served only to excite the derision of the the Scriptures, and their honest and faithful mob. The gates orthe United States and British effort to live blameless lives. Not a few have consulates were assaulted and the British con- persevered in the study of tbe Scriptures until sulate burned, the Consul barely escaping with they repeat entire chapters and sometimes enhis life by climbing over a rear fence. With tire books, from both Testaments, and, better much difficulty the two Consuls, with their fami- yet, they are able to explain them. lies, effected their escape, and reached a mail steamer which had arrived just in time to -A narrow escape. Mr. Redfern, en T()Ute evade the fury of the rioters, who were in hot for lIan-Chung, gives in China's MillWns an expursuit. The mob made various uusuccessful citing account of a remarkable deliverance from efforts to board the vessel, but it was repulsed pirates, who landed on his boat with daggers in each instance. The arrival of a brigade of and pistols, and began appropriating everything soldiers in the evening and of a British man-of- of value. The only weapon Mr. Redfern used war the following morning had the effect of re- was prayer, which proved so powerful that the storing quiet. robbers returned their booty and departed abashed, without hurtiug anyone. The heatheu -The Chinese press is stirring up mission- boatmen were amazed, having fully expected aries to undertake medical work. The China both the robbery and the murder oCthe mission- Medical Mission J()Urnal contains articles by aries. .Dr. J. G. Keerand Rev. A. W. Douthwaite, M. D.• on the value of medical work as an aid to England.-The British and Foreign Bible evangelization. Commenting upon them, The Society has issned during the past year 4,206,- China Overland Mail says: .. We think it is 000 copies of Bibles, Testaments, and portions becoming more and more apparent to religious of the Scriptures, a larger number than ever workers in this part of the world that the before. The total income of the society fbr the masses of China cannot be reached by merely past year was £253,300. Its grand work encirpreaching to them; that their best chance of cles the WOrld, preparing the way for missionsuccess is in imitating the example of the Mas- aries and strengthening their hands. ter they serve, who inculcated lIis teaching while going about doing good. Of course one -A Mazarin Bible bronght $10,000 at a re- does not wish to see all the missionaries turned cent auction sale in London. into sick nurses, but only that they should realize that by discriminatingly helping the natives in -" Our Day" contains a painful article on their sufferings they can best reach their heart." "Pagan Idols of English Make," showing that U it is not an nncommon occurrence for an -The severity of the winter is increasing the East Indianman, from Liverpool, jnst through distress caused by the famine in Shang-Tung the Red Sea and tbe shadows of Sinai, to touch and Manchuria. It is estimated that 1,500,000 at Madras and Calcutta, then lie up at Rangoon, persons are starving. at each wharf landing a missionary from her -Shanghai advices to January 19. The famine cabin, and unloading a crate of graven images in Anhui and Kiangsu is worse. In one prov- from her hold." ince 300,000 families are starving, and alto- gether several millions are suffering from fam- -The S. P. G.has taken up missionary work ine caused by drought two years in succession. in the Nicobar Islands-a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and used as an Indian penal -Our Consul at Pekin reports that the total settlement. A hnndred years ago the last of the number of American citizens residing in China Moravian brethren retreated, after the sacrifice is 1,022, of whom 506 are miseionaries. of twenty-four of their number in nineteen years. The object iR to reach Carnicobar, a populous island of over 3,000 inhabitants, on the north of the group. The field is at preseut oc- cupied by merely one catechist-a Madras Chris- tian-who acts under the direction of the Gov- ernment chaplain of Port Blair. The plan adopt- ed is to bring relay. of the island children to Port Blair, and after the stay of a few months in the Andaman Christian Orphanage, to return present, aud was cordially greeted. aud his pres- them to their parents. euce highly prized.
-Bible Distribution. The British and For- -Twenty-three missionaries and members eign Bible Society's district secretaries from all of missionary families reached Bombay. De- parts of the country held their annual confer- cember 31st, by the Arabia. Seveuteen of the ence on :Monday. Tbere are in England 5,407 uumber come to reinforce the missions of the societies, auxiliaries, and branch associations. M. E. Church in India, Burmah and Malaysia.
Besides raising funds for the society, these The remaiuing six represent several differeut lJranch organizations distribute copies of the societies, includiug the Disciple or Christian Scriptures in the localities in which they are Missiou at Bilaspur, the North Berar Mission at situated. The society makes no profit by the Akola, the C. M. S. Missiou South of Poona, sale of the Scriptures, as they either give or and the Canadiau Presbyteriau Mission at In- sell them at cost price. To give an idea of the dore. Miss Dr. Baldwin aud Miss Dr. Merrill extent of the work it may be mentioned ·that go to Bilaspur to the Disciple Missiou, Miss they send away to different parts of the world Sinclair and Miss Scott to Indore. Miss Bates between 7,000 and 8,000 Bibles, Testaments, or casts iu her lot with the Berar Mission at Akola.
portions of Scripture every working day. or five -Bombay Guardian.
copies every minute. The society spends £70,- -The BritIsh Government sells to the high- 000 annually for printing Bibles in this country, est bidder the exclusive privilege of distilling and a considerable sum in foreign countries.- and selling alcoholic liquors withiu a certain Pall Mall Gazette. district. The holder of the liceuse increases his -Salvation Army. Marshall Booth, in re- sales regardless of. cousequences or of the re- viewing his forces at Chicago, said that withill monstrances of the better portiou of the native twelve yeal'l! 1,000,000 men and women have populatiou, with the terrible result that that been rescued from the slums and transformed population (almost entirely total abstainers 'pre- into self-supporting, sober, Christian citizens by vious to British rule in Iudia) is becoming de- its work. He is prepared to establish at once moralized and impoverished. From this iuflu- in London ten more Rescue Homes, for 300 ence even the native converts to Christiauity girls (which will enable the Army, by the help do not escape. Statistics show that while there of God, to rescue at least another thousand a . were in 1880 41 habitual aud 163 occasioual year), and also to establish ten food and shelter druukards among 29,000 professed Christians, depots, six for women and children only, and four iu 1883 the number of such drnnkards among for men, with a capacity for 1,000 beds per night 80,000 Christiaus had iucreased to 250 habituals for women, and 500 for men and 200,000 meals aud 274 occasionals. The increase is said to per week, or at the rate of 547,500 beds, and have been still more rapid during the last five 10,400,000 meals per annum. He appeals for years, and to be yet larger in proportion among $75.000 to meet the expense of fitting up and the nou-Christian portious of the people. This furnishing the said twenty buildings. mustbe a fearful couuterweight to theiufiuence of -The £IO,OOO debt of the Wesleyan Mission- English foreign missionaries.-N. Y. FJvangelist.
ary Society has been cleared away at two strokes, -,We learn from the Free Church of Scot- first by a magnificent donation of £4,000 by land Monthly that there is a great movement Henry J. Atkinson, Esq., M. P., and the re- toward the gospel in the Santal Mission of the maining £6,000 by a family collection on Christ- Free Church. The Sautal Mission, like our mas day last throughout the lIlethodist Church Darjeeling Missiou, is mainly, if indeed not iuEngland. exclUSively, coucerned with aboriginal peoples.
India.-Bishop Thoburn writes from Cal- Writiug from Pachamba in November last, cutta, Jan. 24,1889: Rev. Audrew Campbell says: "Siuce I last The Bengal Couference met at Allahabad, Jan. wrote to you I have had the great privilege of 17, and adjourned Jan. 21. The statistics showed baptizing 110 persons. We have still many ap- an increase of more than 10 per cent. in mem- plicatious, and are taking them up as we fiud bership, and of more than 4,OOOin Snnday-school opportuuity. One special feature of the pres- attendance. One young man was admitted on ent movement is that the people come in fami- trial. and two received into full connection. lies."-C:wrch of Scotland Record.
Tbree were ordained deacons, and one elder. -In one cf his letters from India Mr. (Jajue, The Conference has as yet only twenty-six M. P., gives a sickeniug account of the opium preachers on its roll, but five others were read deus at Lucknow. In one he couuted on the out as " Missionaries iu Malaysia." I inteud, if fioor down stairs alone" 117 humau swiue of spared, to go down to Singapore and organize both sexes." There were more up stairs. He the Malaysia Mission in the course of the uext had seen the giu ·palaces of East-eud Loudon ou two or three mouths. Bishop FowLr was at the Saturday nights, he had seen meu iu delirium Couference during the last two days, and added tremeus, but" never such horrible destruction very greatly 1) the interest of the occasion. He of God's image in the face of mau as in the preached on Sunday, and spoke at several of the •Government' opium dens at Luckuow."
public me".ings wi'", the sarna vigor and iucis- -The Buddhists, Brahmins, Confucians aud iveuess which distingnlsfl him at home. Dr. Mohammedaus, nnmberi~:; 700,000,000 souls, M. V. B. Knox, of New Hampshire, was also have had prohibition over a thousand years. -For the last three months of 1888, 730 bap- stations into a Presbytery, presided over by a tisms were reported from three stations of the Synod. Meanwhile Christianity is spreading Baptist Telugu Mission in India. also in the Djogjokarta district, and some 5,000 natives have accepted the truth. -More than 2,000,000 of the youth of India are to-day receiving an education in tb" English Jews.-A movement of Prof. Delitzsch, of language. Leipzig, is a wonderful step toward the conver- sion of theJews. In nine of the German univer- Japan.-Dr. Henry M. Scudder, now a sities he is starting a movementfor mission work missionary at his own charges in Japan, and amongst the Jews, and already over 300students well-known as a successful pastor in San Fran- of the universities have enrolled themselves as cisco, Brooklyn and Chicago, writes to the members of a special school for training to this Christian Mirror in hearty snpport of the end. church union movement inJapan. Heis especially strong in the conviction that it originated Madagascar.-The London Misdonary Soin Japan among the native Chrictians. It is of ciety, with only thirty English missionarios in indigenous growth, and should hence not be op- Madagascar, reports the astonishing number of posed by those without,even in distant conlltries. 828 nativo orJained ministers and 4,395 or- dained preachers, vith ~l,OOO church members -The Friends. In Japan there are forty and 280,000 .. adherents." missionaries under their care. More than $46,6CO were contributed for this work by Eng- Mexico.-An urgent plea is made by mislish Friends last year. There are stations in sionaries in Mexico for a college which shall be Constantinople, Roumania, on Mount Lebanon, for that country what Robert College has been Roumelia, and Madagascar. Three stations are in Turkey-a strong Protestant in1Iuence as in Znluland, two in India, and one in China. well as an educational center for the natives. The death oflllss Rankin removes one who for -The friends ofShige Kusida, ayoung Japanese woman who has been an efficient temper- twenty years previous to lB73hadbeen described ance worker and speaker in her own country, are planning to send her to the Untted States as .. The most prominent Protestant power in to study the American temperance movement, Mexico." Her school prepared the way for an as a further preparation for successful work agent of the Bible Society, and in 1865 Monterey amongherpeople. became the headquarters of Protest;lnt missions in Mexico. Miss Rankin anticipated the Wo- -One of the most hopefnl indications for men's Boards, and her work was in connection the. future of Christianity is the missionary with the American and Foreigu Christian character of the native Christians. They are Union. There is now a demand for a new zealous in carrying the gospel to their own translation of the Spanish Bible in MexiCO, people, and also to Korea and the islands de- adapted to the needs of all Spanish·speaking pendent upon Japan. people. The British and Foreign Bible SOCiety report t):le Scriptures translated in Six fresh -The Southern Baptist Foreign Mission languages last year, which now increases the Board has decided to start a mission in the number of tongues in which this society pubsouthwestern part of Japan. lishes the Word to 300, double the number fifty year- ago. All the great languages of the world Java.-Missionary work began 40years ago. have thus, by the successfnl efforts of the mis- Seven societies of Holland are represented by 26 sionaries, translations of the Bible. missionaries, having 25 mission stations, numM bering 12,000 native Christians. The British -The Friends in Mexico. The Friends are and Foreign Bible Society has one agent in east the last of all the sects who might be ex- Java, and will soon send another for the west. pected to make headway among the lively Not only Java, but the whole Dntch India, in- and mercnrial people of Mexico. Yet, cluding Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, has strange as it may seem, they have accoma strong claim not only .on Enrope, but on plished in their missions a remarkable suc- Christian America for the gospel. Twenty- cess. The.' have been at work for about ten seven millions of people and only 69 Christian years, chiefiy in connection with the Indimissionaries to give them the glad tidings I In ana Yearly Meeting. They established their all Malaysia, with its 35,000,000 people, there is headquarters at Matamoras, where they only one American missionary. have a $4,000 meeting-hous.. for the Mexican Friends. The Ohio Yearly Meeting has a -In the central district of Java there are mission at Escuandon, which is reported to some 5,000 native Christians in connection with .be in a prosperous condition. The Friends the Netherlands Reformed Missionary Society. have circulated extensively three or four For many years this field has been under the periodicals in Spanish, enlightening t.he exclusive care of one missionary, who is sta- Mexicans as to their doctrines. They have tioned at Poerworedjo. Recently two other sent these not only through Mexico, but missionaries have been sent to Poerbolingo, one among the people of Guatemala, Honduras of whom is to be engaged in training native and Nicaragua. The .Mexicans receive the evangelists and preachers. Still more recently Friends with much confidence. One strong a young medical missionary has been sent onto point in the success of these missions is He is to be supported by the Dntch Reformed tha,t the Me<tican ~0l'le I(I.re tired of war, Missionary Society in London. An attempt is being made to form the various chur~hes Qf and they think the pea.ce principles of the the press by the Turkish Government are Friends a.re preferable to the state of local many and oppressive. !J'he new censor of the and general belligerency which has for so press, appointed il) November last, requires long been a prominent feature of Mexican of the editors of the Zornitza, the Bulga- existence.-Evangelical Ohristendom. rian religious paper published by our mission at Constantinople, that duplicate copies 01 Russia.-Watchful for opportunities for all matter be placed in his hands two days interference in African affairs, Russia, uu- before it is given to the public. He then der the guise of a missionary movement, mutilates the articles, not merely those hav- will probably soon send a large religious ing apolitical bearing, but t;hose in the re- body into Abyssinia, the people of that coun- ligious and educational departments, on the try having expre~sed a desire for a closer ground that there may be a political interpreta- connection with the Greek Church. This tion placed upon words innocent in themselves. movement is ostensibly undertaken in com- Among the words which are uniformly stricken pliance with the expressed wishes of the King out are" union" and" freedom." In the sen- of Abyssinia, and is to be aided by a grant tence in the Suuday-school lesson, "R~th's of 3,000,000 rubles (about $2,400,000), when union with the family of Elimelech had f'l'eed rubles are counted at their par value. The her from idolatry," the words we have italicized chief of the expedition gained an unenviable were stricken out. Only after representations reputation as a zealous proselyter during made by the American Legation was the paper his long residence in Jerusalem, and will be permitted to speak of the United States oC accompanied by 40 priests and 60 monks. .A America. The absurdities of this censorship second expedition, consisting of 2,000 young are innumerable. Our brethren connected with men, will soon follow the first. This dwarfs the press at Constantinople are entitled to our our missionary enterprises. But is it really sympathies in the annoyances to which they are a missionary enterpr1se? That remains to compelled to submit.-Mi88. HeraJ.d. be seeu. Syria.-The annual meeting of the Sallloa•…:.The Samoans, regarding whom Syria Mission has just been held in so much interest is now felt, are considered Beirut. The statistics presented we the finest race among the Polynesian Is- are able to give in our Statistical De- lands. They are graceful, pleasing, of good physique, and have a soft aud musical partment, through the courtesy of . lauguage. They have been converted to Miss Mary Pierson Eddy of Beirut. Christianity and are very moral and honest. On Sunday no work is permitted on shore, In a note accompanying them she nor are natives allowed, it is said, to work says: on board ships in port. The sale of liquors is absolutely prohibited. It is to be hoped .. Notwithstanding all the efforts made to that the faith of these people in Christian thwart our work you will notice in every nations may not be wronged through department encouraging progress is re.. violation of treaties.-Illustrated Ohristian ported, and this While the laborers are few, ·Weekly. and the stations feebly manned by foreign workers. Is not the press work. viewed in Scotland.-At the Annual Meeting of the the light of the promise, • My word shall not National Bible Society, held in Edinburgh last return unto me void,' full of hope aud pro- month, the income was reported as over £;14,- mise for a rich harvest in the future?" 000, the largest ever attained. Amidst many proofs of the successful labors of the SOCiety, it United States.-Woman's MiSSion Work. was mentioned at the Annual Meeting that the We are in receipt of the nineteenth annual native chnrches of Japan, for whose benefit the report of the Woman's Foreign 1Ilissionary National Bible Society of Scotland has taken a Society of the M. E. Church, North, which share in translating the Scriptures, have re- makes a substantial book of 150 pages. The solved to institute a Bible Society of their own. summary of home work shows a total of The Religious Tract and Book Society of Scot- 5,449 organizations, with a membership of laud have just issued their Annual Report. The 127,178. The receipts for 1888were $206,308.- work of the colporteurs is referred to as a val- 69, and the appropriations for 1889 $230,401. uable agency in spreading wholesome religious literature to counteract the mischievous litera- -The twenty-two missionary societies in ture which circulates so largely to the prejudice the United States managed by women, and oC the morals of the people. It employs about whose support comes from women, support 200 colporteurs, and there is ample evidence in ';'51 missionaries, last year contributed the report that their work is meeting a real $1,038,:aJ3, and since their organization want iu the religiOUS life of the country, and has have contributed $10,335,124. The forces of upon it the divine blessing. Great Britain, Continental Europe aud the United States have an annual income of -Scotch LIberality. The 336,000 members $9,396,996; man and equip 9,550 stations; of the Free Church of Scotland must be giving support 5,431 missionaries; have the assist- at the rate of nearly $10 per head. ance of 32,015 native helpers, and missioll churches that number 588,974 communi- Turkey.-The restrictions placed upon cants and 1,875,655 adherents.
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1889
Rt. Hon. The Earl of
.MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XII. No.t.-Old Series._ _JANUARY, _ _VOL. U. No. t.-New Serle•• I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD. [EDITORIAL. ] "OUR work is practically that small portion of God's eternal work and will which is allotted to us in our little corner of space and our short minute of time."
So spake Pasteur Monod, truly and tersely, at the late Mildmay Confer- ence. It is an august conception of service, that, in God's gTand sphere, there is a little segment, bearing our name and the date of this present YE(ar. The youthful Victoria, when the Archbishop of Canterbury came to announce her father's death and her own accession as Queen of Britain, begged him first of all to pray with her that she might take the throne and weal' the crown only as the servant of a Higher Sovereign. But when we rightly. conceive of our work, however humble, it becomes invested with a divine dignity. The rudest implement 01' instrument becomes a scepter. the bench of the workman or of the magistrate alike a throne, and the blouse and ermine alike a royal robe.
A tw~lvemonth since, this REVIEW, in its present enlarged and modified form, was, with many prayers and not without some fears, launched like a bark upon strange waters. The beginning of the new year naturally sug- gests a retrospect and a prospect.
Looking back, we thank God and take courage. At every step of the way we trace providential and gracious guidance and help. We undertook the work because we heard a loud call of God amt saw a great need of man. A Jericho lay before us to be taken for Christ's crown and covenant; but, between us and success rolled a stream neither narrow nor shallow. Believ- ing that the invisible and invincible Captain of the Lord's host was leading on, we set our foot in this Jordan and have gone over on dry ground. Every difficulty, when approached, has disappeared or been surmounted. Our sub- scription list has passed our most sanguine expectations. The public press has so cordially commended our work that scarce a word has found its way into print that has been controversial or even critical. Encomiums, that seemed almost extravagant, have come from the secretaries of great Mis- sion:;try Boards and the editors of other missionary magazines. Letters by the hundred have reached the editors and publishers, referring to our endeav- ors III the kindliest and most fraternal spirit; and contributions to our pages, often gratuitous, have been sent by men and. women who stand in the front rank. of the Church of Christ.
If we rightly read the signs of the times, it has been clearly demonstrated that just such a Review of universal missions is an imperative need of our day; and that in seeking to supply this need we were simply falling into our
LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD
place in a divine plan. With the enlarged circulation and the increased excellence for which we both hope and strive, a career of increased and increasing usefulness opens before this messenger of the churches. We therefore, without hesitation, appeal to all lovers of Christ and His cause, to give us sympathetic and prayerful aid in our endeavor to furnish and diffuse missionary intelligence and in.spiration throughout the wide circle of the common Christian brotherhood.
What was said at the outset, one year ago, we now emphatically repeat, that this is with us no mere money-making scheme. Neitller of us would have considered that we had any time to give to a mere business venture however promising. One of us, besides filling the onerous position of literary editor of a large publishing house, was editing The Homiletic Review, whose ninety-six pages a month made additional editorial work by no means a sinecure. The other was pastor of a congregation where thousands of people look to him for work in pulpit and pastorate. With such tax already upon tongue and pen, such engrossing and absorbing work as this REVIEW demands would not even have been weighed in the mere balances of worldly gain. We had neither time nor money to invest in a literary enterprise, though it might promise pecuniary rewards. But we weighed the matter in God's scales, over against higher motives and compensations. The leading of God seemed singularly obvious. A network of providences entangled us as in a golden snare. A higher destiny-a divinity~shaped our ends, and we yielded to the pressure of duty, which is always also privilege. We believed strength would be given us, and it has been given.
The impression and conviction with which this enterprise was begun have only become deeper and stronger by the year's eXperience, viz.: that, in respect of missions, no greater need exists than that of the universal diffU8ion of information as to the facts of past and present missionary history. To know those facts, to be informed and keep informed and fully informed, as to the march of God and His hosts in all the earth, is, in effect, to quicken the pulse of the whole Church of Christ. In missions. Love is the skillful alchemist that turns knowledge into zeal and out of intelligence distils inspiration. If we would have more prayer we must know what to pray about and pray for; if we want more money we must know what open doors God is placing before us for the investment of consecrated capital, and what wondrous results He has wrought and is working with the merchant's millions, and even the widow's mites; if we waRt more men and women as workers, the mind and heart and conscience of disciples must be awakened from sleep and aroused from sluggishness, by the electric touch of thrilling facts. If we want more zeal, all true zeal is "according to knowledge" and consequent upon it. If we want the spirit of holy enterprise, doing and daring for God, missions must be exhibited as the enterprise of the Church, and it must be shown that no equal or proportionate investment of men, means and money ever brought returns so ample-all of which the logic of events stands ready to prove by the most overwhelming of arguments.
In a word, we believe that, if every true disciple could be continually confronted by a fresh bulletin of news from the world-wide field and kept familiar with the movements of every assaulting column now moving against Satan's citadels, all the workmen and all the money-both the per80nnel and materiel of war-would De voluntarily furnished for prosecuting this colossal campaign I To do our part of this work well-this is the absorbing question. To mix. UP the secular spirit with the Lord's work is fatal to a true and large success; and, above all other work, missions mean and demand self-sacrifice. We could no~ ask a large blessing upon any plans that had in view such gross pay as silver and gold. A Review, such as we conduct, i(not likely to be a money-making investment; if the necessary price of its production is met we are content, and any surplus would go to enrich its contents and cheapen its cost, and so enlarge its circulation and influence.
The time has come, moreover, for a Review of Missions that may take its place side by side with the ablest periodicals in the secular sphere. The gospel has found its way into Cresar's household, as well as into the jailer's family and Bethany's humble home. God is now calling the wise, the mighty, the noble, to the kingdom. Merchant princes, public leaders, statesmen, journalists, philosophers, generals, judges, sages, bow at the cradle of Christ as did the Eastern seers. Kings' daughters are among the honorable women who follow the Saviour and minister to Him of their substance, and at His right hand stands more than one queen in gold of ophir. Piety is not linked with stupidity and superstition, ignorance and imbecility. Even the infidel no longer sneers at the gospel as "fit only for women, children, and small men." The thoughtful, cultured classes of society are compelled to ask whence came that wonderful religion that illustrates the survival of the fittest because fittest to survive; that amazes the evolutionist by not being evolved at aU, but springing at once into maturity without development, and yet defies for eighteen centuries all improvement, either by addition or subtraction I And we are profoundly persuaded that a Review of Missions, properly conducted, will not only inform the ignorant and enlighten and educate the uncultivated, but may also command and compel the attention of the most intellectual and intelligent readers, and bring them into closer and more practical fellowship with mission work.
Such aims and objects necessitate no little outlay of brains and money and hard work. 'I'o these pages we invite first-class contributions, and we therefore offer propel' compensation. Culture is a costly product in the intellectual market. The pen that is dipped in liquid gold commands gold as the wages of its work and the means of refilling its magic inkstand. Literary work brings a high price because it is bought with a large sum. We cannot ask able writers to furnish us papers gratuitously, though some of them do so, unsolicited. We began this REVIEW determined that, whether it broug"ht us any compensation or not as editors, our contributors should be paid; and we have observed this rule, not only to the utmost limit of our resources, but beyond it.
There are some directions in which we need prompt and vigorous co-operation from the Christian public, and we ask every reader to give us aid.
1. First of all, we wish for our REVIEW a greatly enlarged circulation. The same cost of time and strength by which we now reach 10,000 subscribers, may as well avail for 100,000; and the larger the list of subscribers the smaller the relative cost of production, and therefore the less the price of the REVIEW. Every pastor ought to have a copy, and to secure its wide circulation in a congregation would double and treble the annual gifts to lllissions. Is there not in every church some godly man or woman who will try at least to collect enough money to supply the pastor with THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD? And with l:;Iow little labor might copy after copy find its way into the homes of leading families? The pastors are leaders, and missionary interest in any congregation seldom rises above their level. "But we greatly desire that in every family the news from the mission field may find eager readers, if not always paying subscribers. Let every subscriber, therefore, take pains to see that his copy is read outside the limits of his own home. After it has done service in his own household, let it be sent on its rounds, visiting homes where otherwise it would not find its way, to spread information and inspire interest.
If a pastor would take the trouble to suggest to his people the raising of a club and request a suitable person to take it in charge, our circulation would be trebled among them and they would get the REVIEW at a less price. Ten subscriptions for $15; or for 20 at $2 each, a large missionary map of the world, which is sold for $20 by its publishers, is given. And the map and the circulation of 20 copies of THE REVIEW for a year among his people would largely increase the interest in and the gifts to the missionary cause.
We crave help to enlarge our free list. We renew our appealfor a Review Mission Fund, by which we may furnish copies gratuitously, orat less than cost, to young men and women who are studying and preparing for work in the mission field. Whenever $1 is sent us, we add what is necessary to pay for a free copy, and place it where it will do the most good. In this way we last year put it into the hands of several hundred volunteers.
2. Secondly, we ask aid, from any quarter, in providing matter for the pages of THE REVIEW i and particularly information from all parts of the field. Accurate and prompt reports of the Lord's work in any land we cordially welcome, and if necessary will pay for. What we specially desire is, early and authentic reports from all the missionary societies of the world. If the Secretaries of these many societies will see to it that we are furnished with advance sheets of their annual reports, or a copy of the report itself when issued, we will invariably publish a careful abstract of it in the REVIEW. Many have done so, and we have, including the Woman's Boards, given the past year the latest authentic statistics of some 125 societies. We have not yet attained to the scientific form of the late Mr. Wilder's reports, but we hope in time greatly to exceed them in fullness and practical worth, if not in the element of scientific arrangement. But very much depends on the co-operation of the friends of missions, in the foreign fields and in the Boards and Societies at home. Let every reader remember that, in effect, he is one of the editors and publishers of this REVIEW; these pages are at his command to improve almost without limit. Give us a larger constituency and so a wider circulation; give us contributions from the whole field, reports of all existing societies, helpful suggestions, and in general a helping hand; and, to the last limit of our ability and resourCQS, we will make this MISSION- ARyREVIEW OF THE WORLD worthy of its name, and of the cordial place already accorded to it in the hearts of thousands of readers.
Never was the whole field of missions so inviting or the harvest so prom- ising. Never was the Church of Christ furnished with facilities so ample and abundant for the speedy and successful accomplishment of her work. Human thought and social changes move with a rapidity unknown in the lethargic ages of the past. There is a stirring of all the elements both of individual and national life; new conditions exist; new aspirations are awakened, and new developments are possible. The next decade of years will witness not only evolutions but revolutions that even now seem incredi- ble within so short a time. The Church of Christ must push all her forces' to the front, and lay a moulding hand on the plastic material of social life. The anointed tongue and the consecrated pen, the printed page and the living ep~tle, the Church and the school, the Christian family and the Chris- , tian home, must unite their witness to the power of the gospel in the eyes and ears of every creature.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AS THE ENTERPRISE OF THE CHURCH
I A word by way of apology. It has caused us no little painand.mortification that, in spite of our best endeavors, a few typographical errors have marred the pages of the REvmw hitherto. This has been owing to the fact that the printing-office which does our work has undergone, as all business establishments are liable to, frequent and radical changes during the year, resulting in more or less chaos and haste, over which we had no control. We are determined, however, that this state of things shall no longer exist.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AS THE ENTERP;EUSE OF THE CHURCH.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] To proclaim the gospel in aU the world and to every creature is, in the most emphatic sense, the one divine vocation of disciples. It is the King's business; not only as committed to us by the King Himself, and bearing the signature and seal of royal authority, but as the business which the King, first of all, Himself undertook. In all missions, the pio- , neer and exemplar, the inspiring leader and peerless worker, was and is our imperial Divine Captain. He compressed into one sentence His whole subjective biography: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." Luke likewise compressed into one sentence His whole objective history: H He went about doing good." All intelli- gent zeal in missions kindles its enthusiasm from the live coal brought from that celestial altar whereon the Lamb of God was offered in self- consuming devotion. The highest heroism is but a borrowed beauty; it only reflects luster from that face that shone with the supreme supernal glory of perfect unselfishness. The vindication and the inspiration of all missionary work are alike found in this: that He, the King of kings, emptied Himself of His divine attributes and divested' Himself of His divine glory and consented to the limitations of a human nature and an earthly life, that He might take the form of a servant and become obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
However loosely we may use that phrase, H cross-bearing," it has one, and only one, scriptural application: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Christ took up the cross. That, to Him, meant self-sacrifice jor others' salvationj and it means that, and only that, to every follower or disciple. Life's petty annoyances and vexations, the daily trials of patience and tests of temper, may be spoken of as "our crosses," and everything that " crosses" us may be construed as a cross. But the Word of God authorizes no such breadth of application or interpretation; it knows noplurality oj crosses j the plural form of that word is never once :found in Scripture~ Moreover, it is not our cross, but His cross; or ours only as it is first His. To" bear the cross" after Him is to give up our- selves to a life, or if need be a death, as He did, for the sake of saving souls. Moses anticipated such oblivious self-offering when he plead: "And now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin-;' and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." The true interpre- tation of that sublime intercession of the great Jewish 'lawgiver is not found in a desperate determinatioll to be identified with Israel even in their rejection; but, as we conceive, Moses was offering himself as a sacrifice for the sinning people with whom God was so justly incensed: "rather than not forgive them, blot me out of thy book!" Paul, long after and with far more light upon the glory of such divine altruism, said: "I could wish that myself were accursed from Ohrist for my brethren." That was bearing the cross; that was being crucified with Ohrist; that entitled the great apostle of the Gentiles to say: "From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks (u'!"IrtLa'!"a) of the Lord Jesus."
This, then, is the business to which the King gave Himself, even unto death, and which He has entrusted to all disciples. First of all, we are to get salvation, and then to give it; and to get it that we may give it. Every disciple is called to be a co-worker with God the Father) a co-sufferer with God the Son, a co-witness with God the Holy Ghost,* in the saving of souls. Whatever other pursuit may claim our attention and endeavor, this is the one business of every disciple's life. This is his vocation; all other things are but avocations. This is the one and only legitimate calling deserving to "occupy" us "till He come." Until this truth and fact be acknowledged and felt-until this obligation and privilege become real and vivid, vital and vitalizing-there can be no adequate prosecution of the work of missions. Until then the impulse and impetus are lacking: there is no adequate motiv'e to become a motor to our personal and ecclesiastical machinery. Weare building without a base, and the whole structure is unstable.
But, on the other hand, let this conception of life, duty and responsibility take tenacious hold of every believer: I am called of God to bear the cross after Ohrist, to follow the same business which He followedseeking and saving the lost. Then let a holy affection-a passion for souls-set this conception on fire with the flame of love! And, before such a conviction, transfigured into such overpowering enthusiasm, the work of missions would advance as forest fires move, with the strides of a giant and the speed of the whirlwind, sweeping or melting all obstacles in its path, rapid and resistless as the march of God! Such will be the energy of our work for God, when we rightly conceive it, and receive into our hearts the omnipotence of its appeal, and of its impulsive and propulsive and expulsive passion for souls.
But another kindred result will follow: We shall take up missions with a new spirit of enterprise. That word, enterprise, has come to have a fixed and definite meaning. It suggests an undertaking of importa~ce, an arduous endeavor, with the acceptance of hazard or * See 1 Cor. iii: 9; Col. i: 24; John xv: 26,27. risk. It admits difficulty as a factor in the problem and hardihood as the price of success.
Christian missions represent the most colossal undertaking ever presented to the mind of man. Here is a world lying in the lap of the evil one, and entangled in his seductive snares as Samson was ill the net of Delilah's wantonness. Here are fifteen hundred millions of perishing people to be overtaken with· the gospel message, if at all; within the life-time of a generation. Yet Christ says to a comparatively few disciples: "Give ye them to eat," and yet what we have seems hopelessly inadequate provision for such a vast multitude. But there is the authority of the King; He certainly will not command what is impossible or even impracticable. With proper organization and distribution of this multitude into companies; with our few barley loaves brought to Him to be blessed, broken and mnltiplied as broken; with simple faith in His power and presence, and with implicit obedience to His Word, we may not only feed all these millions, but find fragments left in abundance; for the gospel provision strangely multiplies as it is divided.
All true enterprises are earnestly prosecuted. David said to * Abimelech: "The king's business requireth haste." And prompt- ness, celerity of movement, needs to be introduced into our way of doing the King's business, as a part of our loyal obedience to His command. In the book of Esther we are furnished with an example of the haste with which a royal decree may be carried out. t First the fatal word went forth at the prompting of wicked Haman-a decree of death-unto the King's lieutenants, the provincial governors and rulers, to every -people after their language; a copy of the, writing was published unto all people, aIld the posts went out, hastened by the King's commandment. Afterwards when that counter-decree of life was issued, written in the king's name and sealed with his signet, letters were dispatched by posts on horseback and riders on mules, camels and young dromedaries. There were 127 provinces to be reached ;- the empire of Ahasuerus stretched from the Danube and the Nile on the west to the Indus and the Ganges on the east, and from the Black Sea and the Caspian on the north to the P61:sian .Gulf and the Indian Ocean on the south – its length nearly two thousand and its breadth nearly one thousand miles. It was on the three and twentieth day of the month Sivan that the king's scribes were called to put that decree in writing; it had to be translated into every language represented in those provinces from Ethiopia to India; it had to be promulg-ctted with haste, and yet without one of those modern facilities which we possess. There were no printing-presses,. postal unions or telegraphs; no railro&ds or steamships. Every copy must be transcribed by hand, and borne by mes- * 1 Sam. xxi: 8. t Estheriii.-viii. sengers who could move no faster than horses and mules, camels and dromedaries could carry them. And yet, through all those 127 provinces that decree was actually published upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar! Throughout that wide domain, to every Persian subject, that message of the king was thus born13 in less tha,n nine months I More than eighteen hundred and fifty years ago the King of kings issued a decree of salvation and bade His disciples bear the Word of life to every creature in all this world's vast empire. And now, after waiting with divine patience for nearly nineteen centuries, He sees threefourths ojthe htlman race yet without the knowledge of the good news of grace! It is plain without argument that the Ohurch of Ohrist has never yet, in any proper sense, attempted to solve this practical problem. When Dr. Duff declared that as yet we have been only" playing at missions," he meant that this world-wide work has never been seriously conducted as the enterprise of the Ohurch. We have not yet felt that the King's command is urgent and the King's business requireth haste. Were true, sound, sensible, practical business principles applied to this 'problem, no hindrance would be huge enough even to delay the prose- cution of the work solemnly committed to the Ohurch of Ohrist. And once more we record our solemn conviction that, with thorough organi- zation, sanctified resolve and practical co-operation throughout the Ohurch, the gospel may be preached as a witness, not only among all nations, but to every living creature, within the lifet'ime oj the present generation, or even before the present century closes.
In affirming this conviction we do not forget the wide extent of ter- ritory yet to be covered with gospel effort. There are unoccupied provinces, absolutely without a single missionary or mission station. Kurdistan with 3,000,000; Afghanistan with 8,000,000; Anam with 30,000,000; Africa, north of the Equator and west of the Nile basin, with 50,000,000 more; Thibet and Mongolia, virtually left to the dominion of the grand Lama; Arabia, over whose whole ex- tent floats the green flag of the False Prophet ;-these are some of the territories yet to be taken possession of in the name of Ohrist. A few years since Mr. Stevenson, of the Ohina Inland Mission, went from Bhamo, in Upper Burmah, to Ohungking in Ohuen, Ohina, a distance of over 1,000 miles, ,and for 500 miles north and south of his line of travel, only one station, K wei-Yang, then existed! Stanley in Africa, journeying from the Great Lakes in the east to the rapids of the Oongo, found not one native Ohristian in 7,000 miles of travel.
Even countries nominally fields of mission labor are not occupied. Siam, with eight or ten millions of impressible people, whose King, Ohulalangkorn, is the most intelligent and progressive ruler in Asia, and the active, generous friend and patron of the missionaries, has a few Baptists working among resident Ohinese in Bangkok, and less than a score of Presbyterians, constituting the sole working force to bring those millions to the knowledge of God; and yet Siam has single cities with 200,000 inhabitants where there is not one mission station or even evangelist; and such things as this are true after more than eighteen centuries of Christian history! – The wide area of unoccupied territory needs not dismay us. Africa and Asia together embrace less than 26,000,000 square miles, only about twelve or thirteen times as much as the Persian Empire in the days of Ahasuerus. If in those days the royal proclamation could be carried through the imperial dominions in nine months, what is to hin- der our bearing the gospel message through these two continents in nine years? With all our modern facilities and instrumentalities we could certainly cover a territory twelve times as large in a period twelve times as long!
This thought of a possible proclamation of the Word of life to every living creature before this century closes, we have sought to trumpet forth by tongue and pen for twenty years; and it has never yet been shown to be either impossible or impracticable. It can be done; it OUGHT to be done; it MUST be done. We must cross this Jordan of Selfishness and roll away this reproach of neglect at the Gilgal of a new consecration. We must resolutely marcq around Jericho and blow the gospel trumpet. Let men deride the fewness of our missionary band, and the foolishness of preaching. Let pagan priests and heathen phil- osophers ridicule the credulous faith that expects to see ancient systems fall before the peal of a Jubilee trump. God's word is pledged. "Lo, r am with you alway." The Church of Christ has but to undertake this work, in the energy of the Spirit and with the enterprise of a true consecration, and wonders will follow to which even Pentecost was but a prelude and precursor. Yes, thig- King's business requires haste. Be- hind that command, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," there stands the majesty of imperial mtthority.
Such authority is itself urgency. He obeys not the King who does not move promptly, immediately. Celerity of movement is a necessary part of loyalty and fidelity. To move tardily at the King's command is next to open treason.
The opportunUy calls for haste. God sets before the Church an open door, great and effectual. While the command rings in our ears, "Go ye"! 10, silently but suddenly the iron gates of intolerance and igno- rance, bigotry and superstition, swing open as of their own accord. Ob- stacles that for a thousand years have stood like walls of adamant quickly disappear. But what is thus our opportune; hour is also Sa· tan's, and he appreciates and improves it, if we do not. Forward into these new openings he pushes his obedient servants, with all theirvari- ous agencies and instruments of destruction. He sends his emissaries to preach his anti-gospel and carryon his crusade of infidelity and immorality and set up his printing-presses to scatter the literature of death. Satan never lacks earnestness or enterprise in his work.
Meanwhile, what are we doing? Trifling with the whole matter of a world's evangelization; trifling on a magnificent scale! Since our Lord on Calvary breathed His dying prayer, fifty successive generations of human beings have passed away. In this awful aggregate twenty-five times the present population of the globe have perished without the gospel; and as yet the entire Christian Church sends less than 6,000 laborers into the foreign field and spends less than $12,000,000 a year on the world-wide work!
Never yet have we been in haste to enter even the most conspicuously open door. That word" opportunity" is full of ethical suggestiveness: ob, over against; portus, the harbor. The gospel ship lies at the very entrance of the harbor whose wide-stretching arms and open gates invite entrance, and where millions of people wait to welcome the gospel. While God's breezes blow toward the port and we have only to spread sail and speed on ward, we lie at anchor as if becalmed, or move so slowly and sluggishly that the barges of the vain pleasureseeker and the swift gall~ys of a piratical foe sweep past us and preoccupy the openings. Where is the enthusiasm of the Christian Ohurch ! Where our zeal for God, our sympathy for a lost race, our loyalty to our Lord, our sense of duty and responsibility!
Moreover, behold the King's couriers and posts, furnished by His providence, ready to do our bidding in hastening the King's business! First, the printing-press, what a magnificent help to evangelization, ready to multiply copies of the Word in any tongue, at a trifling cost and with incredible speed! . From a single steam-press thousands of copies may be produced every month, and tracts and religious books by the million pages. Here is a doubly useful messenger in the work of evangelization. It moves like a magic shuttle, to and fro. While it multiplies and scatters afar the message of the gospel, it spreads at home information of the workabroad. This courier of the King he never sent forth until the Dark Ages were giving place to the new dawn of the Reformation, and the Church was prepared to attend to the King's business. This courier we must use, as never hitherto, to scatter information of the King's work among disciples, as well as to scatter the leaves of the tree of life among the heathen. Information is the handmaid of evangelization. Thousands of intelligent disciples are ignorant of missions. One of the foremost philanthropists of England, to whom a copy of "The Crisis of Missions" was sent, wrote to the author: "I am sorry to confess that of the bulk of the facts which you present I have hitherto been entirely ignorant." No wonder the flame of zeal burns low when no fuel feeds its fires, and no oil fills its l~mps.
Money is another of the King's couriers. Consecrated capital is not only potent, it is well-nigh omnipotent. No marvel that Mammon is treated III the Bible as a rival god to Jehovah. Wealth suggests divine attributes-omnipotence, omnipresence, immortality, transforming en- I ergy. To have and to use money well is to multiply personal power a thousand fold, nay, to multiply one's self a thousand fold. The giver is potentially wherever his gift is. Sarah Hosmer's frugal savings educated six young men to preach the gospel in Oriental lands, and where they were she had her representatives and preached through them. A man recently died in New York City whose noble benefactious had spread so far that in not less than two hundred and fifty different places he was represented by a mission Sunday-school, a church, an asylum, a hospital, a college or seminary, or some other form of beneficence: his money made him virtually omnipresent as a benefactor. Money makes the giver also immortal. It represents not what is transient, but what is permanent. The good that men do with money lives after them; it is not interred with their bones. They who use it aright hold the lever of God, and lift a whole people to a loftier planemultiplying themselves indefinitely and rendering themselves practically present wherever their donations are doing work in their behalf ; and so even when dead their works do follow them, and they survive themselves!
If the King's business requires haste, there are ready facilities to meet the requirement. Sanctijied scholarsh-ip is another royal courier, pre- ' pared to mount the swift steeds of modern civilization and bear the divine tidings to every nation in its own native tongue. When Ohrist gave His command, he addressed humble, unlettered men. Since then the gospel has found its way into Cresar's household. Here are the princes of this world, the seers and.sages, bowing at the cross. The Bible has been translated into over three hundred languages and dialects. A Ohristian literature has been created and may be reproduced in any known language 6f earth. Steam has been harnessed to the gospel chariot-nay, even lightning waits to do the Ohurch's bidding. What are we waiting for? Twenty thousand millions of dollars lie. in the coffers of the Protestant church members of Great Britain and America; 3,000 young men and women are knocking at the doors of the church asking to be sent abroad; the whole world permits and invites missionary approach; there is every preparation for such universal movement and such rapid progress as no other century ever even forecast. WHAT IS THE OHURCH OF OHRIST WAITING FOR?
The necessity and feasibility of a grand campaign for Ohrist, with reference to the immediate occupation of all unoccupied fields, and the immediate proclamation of the gospel to every living soul, are beyond dispute. After a wide discussion by the ablest writers upon the subject of missions, the conviction is only established that the present crisis imperatively demands that the entire forces of the Christian Church should be enlisted and engaged in this glorious work. A spirit.
of consecrated enterprise must apply to this giant problem the best and soundest business principles; a system must be devised which shall prevent waste of time, money, and men, and economize and administer all the available forces of the Church. The imperial clarion of our tord, as with the peal of the last trnmp, summons all His hosts for the great crusade. , Nehemiah was a model organizer. He built up the broken walls of the Holy City, and with a small, poor remnant of the people finished the work in fifty-two days. The perfection of his organization was the secret of his success, and it embraced three grand principles: first, division of labor-every man at work over against his own door; sec- ondly, co-operation-all engaged in one work and operating upon one plan; thirdly, concentration-all at the sound of the trumpet rallying to defend any weak and assaulted point. Put those three principles into practice in the work of foreign missions, and we may build the wall of gospel witness around the world in a few years; we may push the advance of our missionary hosts so rapidly and systematically, that on every hill, in every valley, from equator to pules and from sea to sea, the gospel's silver trumpet shall sound.
Fifty years ago seven humble men in a shoemaker's shop in Hamburg undertook the work of evangelization on the principle of individual responsibility. In twenty years they had organized 50 churches, gathered 10,000 converts, distributed 400,000 Bibles and 8,000,000 pages of tracts, and preached the gospel to 50,000,000 of people. As they went from place to place the work grew, and new converts in- spired with similar zeal became helpers, so that a population as great as that of the United States, or of the Congo Free State, heard the gospel within those twenty years. If any are distrustful of mere arithmetic as applied to the problem of missions, here is a practi~al proof that it is perfectly feasible so to organize the work as to reach 100,000,000 of people every year, and that, too, with only an insignificant Gideon's band. An English preacher asked some British soldiers, "If Queen Vic- toria were to issue a proclamation, and, placing it in the hands of her army and navy, were to say, 'Go ye into all the world and proclaim it to every creature,' how long do you think it would take to do it?"
One of these brave fellows, accustomed to obey orders without hesita- tion or delay and at peril of life, promptly answered, " Well, I tkink we could manage it in about eighteen months."
There are, perhaps, in round numbers, thirty millions of Protestant church me:gJ.bers in the world. Could each of that number somehow reach thirty-three of the unsaved, the whole thousand million would be eva~gelized; and could each be brought to give one cent a day, our missionary treasuries would overflow with over one hundred millions of dollars every year. Of course we cannot depend upon enlisting in this " work all church members. Nominal Protestants include millions of mere professors, members of state churches, formalists and ritU(tlists, and millions more who, while they profess to be disciples, are actually immoral and infidel. But let us suppose that there are ten 'millions of true disciples who can be brought into line, and who by systematic effort can be made to furnish men and money for this work, even 1vith this tenth part oj Ohristendom the world may be evangelized bifore the twentieth century dawns.
Weare not responsible for conversion, but we are responsible for con- tact. We cannot compel any man to decide for Christ, but we may compel every man to decide one way or the other; that is, we may so bring to eyery human being the gospel message, that the responsibility is transferred from us to him, and that we are delivered from blood- guiltiness. God will take care of the results, if we do our duty. We are to preach this gospel everywhere" for a witness "-not coldly, officially, formally, but earnestly, prayerfully, lovingly. Christian churches, schools, institutions, homes, reared in the midst of pagan communities, constitute part of this" witness" to the power of the gospel; then, whether the gospel prove a savor of life or of death, our fidelity will not fail of its reward.
We repeat, that it is our solemn and mature conviction that before the close of this century the gospel might be brought into contact with every living soul; for if we could so organize and utilize ten millions of disciples as that everyone should be the means of reaching with the good tidings one hundred other souls, during the lifetime of this gen- eration all the present population of the globe would be evangelized; or, if the sublime purpose should inspire the whole Church to do this work before this century ends, each of this ten million believer::; has only to reach between eight and nine souls every year for the twelve years that remain. .
When Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" was first published there were some who construed the fiction as fact; and they said, "But there is among these Utopians no mansion of gospel truth: let us go and tell them the good news!" Is it not high time that we re~lized that the destitute and desperate condition of a lost race is fact and not fiction; and that, having the Bread of Life, we carry to the starving millions of earth's popUlation the gospel of salvation, with the promptness and holy haste which are the only fit way to attend to the King's business?
At the beginning of this new year, let us write on the very door- posts of our churches and houses, and on our gates, this grand motto: THE WHOLE WORLD TO BE EVANGELIZED IN THE PRESENT GENERATION.
" Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." The Earl of Shaftes~ury said: "During the latter part of
HENRY MARTYN
these centuries it has been in the power of those who hold the truth, having means enough, having knowledge enough, and having opportunity enough, to evangelize the globe fifty times over." Recent testimony is given by 120 nTtssionaries in China, representatives of twenty-one Protestant societies. They say: aWe want China emancipated from the thraldom of sin £n this generation. It is possible." Our Lord has said, "According to your faith be it unto you." The Ohurch of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission. This statement comes from those who are intimately acquainted with the discouragements-who know the difficulties. And now" for the sake of the Name," that name which is above every name, "the love of Ohrist constraining us," let us go forth. Let the sublime faith and hope of such a grand result, under divine leadership, inspire our effort. Pastors, awake! Be yourselves flaming missionaries! From the lofty altitude of your own high devotion let the stream descend that shall raise every devout hearer to a higher level. Fan the slumbering embers of a smouldering missionary zeal-heap the facts like fuel on the fires. Make the coldest congregation hot with your own burning enthusiasm. Parents, bring up your children to see the dark places of the earth and the habitations of cruelty before their eyes, as Oarey's rude map confronted him on that sheet of leather in his cobbler's shop! Merchants, open your treasuries and pour out your money. Never was an altar that so consecrated the gift. Meanwhile, let the voice of prayer, as with tho mingling sound of multitudinous waves, surge against the throne of God!
HENRY MARTYN.
BY JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D., EAST ORANGE, N. J.
IN the year 1812 a lone traveler, passing through Eastern Asia Minor, died at Tokat. His dragoman even did not know his full name, but scratched something like it upon a rude slab and went his way. The grave was soon covered by the sand from a mountain stream. They who buried him thought of him only as one of the millions who every year fan into forgotten graves. But this man was missed. Though but thirty-one years of age, he had struck the chord of heroic appreciation in England and America as almost no other man had. A statesman said: "His name is the one heroic name which adorns the annals of the English Ohurch from the days of Elizabeth to our own." His grave was sought; his body removed to a more public spot; a handsome monument reared, and inscribed with his praise in four languages. Lord Macaulay, with fine appreciation of the truly great in character coming from familiarity with the heroes of all ages, who thrills us with his lines on Horatius and Harry of Navarre, was affected to reverence by the story of this young man's life and wrote this epitaph: , " Here Martyn lies! In manhood's early bloom The Christian hero found a pagan tomb; Religion, sorrowing o'er her favorite son, Points to the glorious trophies which he won.
Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, Not stained with tears by hopeless captives shed, But trophies of the cross. For that dear naJ1le Through every form of danger, death and shame, Onward he journeyed to a happier shore, Where danger, death and shame are known no more."
Henry Martyn was born in Oornwall, England, in 1781. At sixteen he entered Oambridge University. He was intensely ambitious, and was nettled because at the early examinations he took only the second position. But at twenty he graduated as Senior Wrangler, with the first honor.
He could, however, apply his mind better than control his passionate nature. Angered one day he threw a large knife at a comrade, who dodged it, and let it stick quivering in the wall, instead of in the intended victim's heart. He was self-willed even to obstinacy and surliness to his father. No natural saint was he.
His after saintliness was not due to development, but total change, point-blank conversion. Its occasio,n was the death of his father, and the thought that it was now too late to ask from those cold lips forgiveness for his undutiful conduct. He could only go to God for it. But, having once come before that throne, and felt upon his soul the shadow of God's condemnation for sin, all his pride was crushed; having felt the light of God's countenance reconciled, his soul was ever after filled with gratitude and love. From this time Martyn was another man. 'rhat strong willfulness became strong willingness, as he gave his whole being up to his Redeemer. He was ambitious still, but he had now an Over-lord, even Ohrist. His favorite text was" Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not, saith the Lord." So thoroughly did he belong to Ohrist that selfish honors no longer pleased him. When he graduated first in his class, he wrote: "I obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to find I had grasped a shadow." His energy was not lessened, rather intensified, by having higher appeals, those of conscience and service, added to natural desire; and his faculties were new-fired by his communion with the Holy Spirit. Yet he was not without tremendous temptations from his old ambition. For a while he proposed to study law, "chiefly," he says, "because I could not consent to be poor for Ohrist's sake." But he did not know his newer self when he thought that way, and when the moment of decision came he turned his back upon all prospect of secular gain, and sought the ministry. He could not restrain his impulse for Ohristian service; it came out in daily incidents of conduct. He once rebuked a fellow student for sinful trifling. Speaking on the im1ulse, he thought he had overstepped propriety; but the honesty of his manner gave such weight to his rebuke that it led to his friend's conversion, and in after years they labored together in the foreign mission field.
But that was not the day of missionary interest such as now fills the Church. Carey had gone to India, the first English missionary there; and David Brainerd had laid down his life for Christ among the A.merican Indians. Vanderkemp was in South Africa. 'l'hese and a few others were then the far-scattered stars in what has now become resplendent galaxies of missionary heroes and martyrs in many lands.
To conceive the idea of being a missionary showed independence, enter- prise, courage, and far-sighted pioneer faith not required of those who now go out to help bring in the spoil of almost a century's campaign in pagan lands.
Martyn was in spirit alone in the world when he formed the missionary purpose, almost as much as when he lay down to die at Tokat. He loved his home; hearts close to his seemed necessary to the existence of his warm, affectionate nature. Could he break these ties? He was a man of most exquisite intellectual refinement, by genius a student, with a brilliant career awaiting him in a university chair, or as leader of a refined congregation. Could he give his life to the dull monotony of teaching the most degraded people the rudiments of decency and truth'? There was no glamour about the work. It was not a roseate outlook, but one of dirt and dreariness to anyone; and especially to a man physically weak, knowing that he inherited 'a tendency to disease that needed to be counteracted by tender living. He wrote, "This is what flesh cannot endure." There was one other obstacle, such as has determined the career of many a man. He was deeply attached to a lady of rarest worth in all that a noble man would seek ina wife.
His affection was returned. But she could not accompany him to the mission field. Thus to go was to isolate himself from everything which made life worth living, looked at from the standpoint of self.
Yet he said, "I will go," though he, quite naturally under the cir- cumstances, made that great offering of himself in the very words of Christ when expiring on Calvary, and of Stephen bowing his head to martyrdom, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Why not? The man then died to the world as truly as if he had mounted a funeral pyre. ,I In 1805 Henry Martyn sailed for India. Nine months were con- sumed in the journey, which took him across to South America and then back around Cape Good Hope. Much of the time was spent in hard study, mastering the Hindustani language, varied by burning fever as the fiery conflict of his thought consumed his very flesh. He tells us that the most helpful uninspired sentence he ever heard was one that he found at this time in Milner's" History of the Church" ; "To believe, to su:ffel', and to love was the primitive state," i.e., of the early Ohristians. This he made the purpose of his life. At the Oape of Good Hope he went ashore. A furious war was raging between the English and Dutch for the possession of that point. Amid the horrors of the battle-field, bending over the fallen forms of English, Dutch, or Hottentot braves, he had his baptismal experience of a kind of duty such as the elegant and thronged churches of England never gave him.
Arriving iu Oalcutta he"was felled by fever, and his weakened body became a source of discouragement overcome only by his deathless devotion. The horrid rites of widow burning and devil worship were then practiced. He said he "shivered as standing in the neighborhood of hell." English friends urged his remaining at Oalcntta, where he would meet with countrymen and could preach as much as he wished without danger, receiving a salary as army chaplain. But :Martyn determined to go to the heathen beyond, to whom others would not go.
For weeks he pushed his way in a little boat up the Ganges, during the day translating Scripture into Bengalee by the aid of his boatmen, at night talking of Ohrist to the natives on the shore. Passing into new provinces he found new dialects to be mastered. His rare scholarly habit and genius came to his help. At Dinapore we find this in his diary of a day: ":Morning in Sanscrit; afternoon, Bahar dialect; continued late at night writing on Parables in Bengalee. The wickedness and'cruelty of wa,sting a moment when so many nations are waiting till I do my work." He finds that he has use for Arabic, too, in dealing with :Mohammedans, and thflrefore masters that tongue. Then the Persian language is studied. The mau seems to have been a mingling of :Max :Muller and Livingstone.
Through the glaring sun he traversed the sandy plains of the Ganges hundreds of miles to Oawnpore, fainting, fevered, with a terrible disease developing in his chest. He preached statedly to the soldiers in the barracks, and at times the poor natives would gather by the thousand in front of his door to receive his alms and hear his addresses. A strange fascination went out from his person to all who came in contact with him. A fellow English Ohristian, speaking of :Martyn's ill health. said: "If I could make you live longer, I would give up any child I have, and myself into the bargain."
Physical nature could not endure the strain of that intense spirit, and :Martyn's condition necessitated his return to England. But ha was not quite satisfied with the correctness of his Persian translation of the New Testament, and therefore proposed to put in an intermediate journey to Persia to perfect it. Pale, emaciated, too weak to speak except in a low voice, he seemed to live only by force of soul. They beheld him" standing on the verge of another world, and ready to take his flight," rather than about to endure another earthly journey. His thirtieth birthday found him en 1'01100 for Persia. In his journal he says: "I am now at the age when the Saviour of men began His ministry-when John the Baptist called a nation to repentance. Let me now think for myself and act with energy. Hitherto I have made my youth and insignificance an excuse for sloth and imbecility; now let me have a character and act for God."
After several months he reached Persia. He was prostrated by sunstroke. Recovering sufficient strength, he penetrated the country. The thermometer in June ranged from 120 degrees to 126 degrees. He existed only by wrapping hip1self in heavy blankets to exclude the heat, or wet blankets to temper ~t. So he traversed the plains. Then over the mountains where the cold at night was piercing, but with a fire in his head, his skin dryas a cinder, his pulse almost convulsive.
Reaching Shiraz, the Persian seat of learning, he began a new translation of the Testament with the help of some intelligent Persian gentlemen. While doing this work he debated publicly with their great men, and wrote articles in reply to their chief books. Sharp arguments were sometimes inspersed with brick-bats hurled at his head. Withinthe year his translation was completed. He would lay it before the Persian king. To accomplish this another long journey was undertaken. To its natural hardship was added the danger to his life from the bigotry of the people, as they knew his mission to introduce a foreign religion. He one day attended a reception given by the Vizier, bringing his Bible. Vizier challenged him with "You had better say, 'God is God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God.'" Martyn replied, at the risk of losing his head, "God is God, and Jesus is the Son of God." The by-standel'S cried out, "What will you say when your tongue is burnt out for such blasphemy?" They would have trampled the Bible with their feet had not Martyn rescued the manuscript from the floor.
But'what was the use of antagonizing the prejudices of the people? Had we simply the· diary of Martyn we might only be able to say that his burning zeal would not permit him to be silent. Everywhere he went he must be talking about Christ. But there was a providence in his tongue that he knew not of. Years afterward Sir Robert Ker Porter, in journeying through Persia, was met by people who asked if he knew "the man of God," some one who had made an impression upon the people like that of a brief sojourn of an angel among them. They said ~'He came here in the midst of us, sat down encircled by our wise men, and made such remarks upon our Koran as cannot be answered. We want to know more about his religion and the book he left among us." At Shlraz, long after Martyn's death, there lived an accomplished Persian, Mohamed Ratem, who confessed that for years he had been secretly a Ohristian. He had been convinced, he said, by "a beardlesl!. youth; enfe~bled by disease; who ~ave him a book," which had sinc~ been his constant companion. It was a Persian New Testament, and on a blank leaf the name Henry Martyn.
Martyn probably knew nothing of his personal influence upon these people; as little as we know the result of our lives.
But to return to our narrative. He was out of money, and would have starved but for help from a poor muleteer. Burning with fever, aching with weariness, breathing with difficulty from the progress of his disease, he reached Tabriz, where the English ambassador received him. For two months Sir Gore Ousley and his lady watched by his bedside, until temporary return of strength allowed his departure. In the meantime the ambassador himself presented the New Testament in Persian to the king, by whom it was graciously received and publicly commended; since which it has shone as a day star of hope to Ohristian missions in that part of the world. England has spent millions of money and many lives of soldiers in Persia. but the work of Henry Martyn, though his face was hardly known to its people, has accomplished a thousand fold more.
His work done, the frail man started for home. Thirteen hundred miles overland must be traversed before he could reach even Oonstantinople. With a heartless dragoman and servant he started across burning plains, dangerous rivers, under the mighty peak of Mount Ararat, through dense forests, drenching rains and thieving villages, he rushed onward, though fainting, and always with the dread fever or chill. After a month or more of this sort of life, we find the last note in his journal, Oct. 6, 1812: "No horses to be had, I had unexpected repose. I sat in an orchard and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God-in solitude my company, my friend and comforter. Oh! when shall time give place to eternity?" Ten days later he was dead. How he died no one knows, except that it was alone. There was no loving kiss of wife or sister or friend upon the chilling brow, but as they would say in the East, "God kissed him and drew out his soul."
Friends·in distant India waited for the coming of one who would never come. But the story of his work floated over the lands, and with it the story of his heroism. A thrill of missionary interest went through the Ohurch. The cause of evangelization received an impulse second to none since the early days of the English Reformation.
The story of Henry Martyn almost oppresses an ordJnary Ohristian. His spirituality was so refined that it is difficult to even appreciate it. It was like the rare atmosphere of mountain heights, hard for some to even breathe. His courage and concentration of purpose make our lives seem so weak and disconnected–like water spilled on the ground, compared with the torrent that turns a hundred factories. He was dead at thirty-two, having awakened a nation, and some of us are twice that age and have hardly begun to do anything for the great crying
IN THE LEVANT
world and Him who redeemed it. We cannot fol~ow Martyn; we are not brave enough, nor fine enough in moral fiber to take his luster. Let us, then, more deeply appreciate the lesson now carved in four languages upon his tomb in Tokat: "May travelers of all nations, as they step aside and look at this monument, be led to honor, love and serve the God and Saviour of this devoted missionary."
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT: THEIR PROBLEMS, METHODS AND RESULTS.
BY REV. EDWIN M. BLISS. [OUR printer marred the first article by some serious errors. On page 889, 6th line from top, for" American historian," read Armenian Nestorian. Again, 8th line from the bottom of same page, for" American be an American," read, an Armenian be an Armenian. And again, page 890, near middle of page, for" Misairyeh," read Nusairyeh.-EDs.] II. THEIR METHODS.
THERE has never been a time when the methods of Christian work in every department, and especially in the foreign field, have been so sharply criticised as at the present. Not a few, looking over the vast fields covered by foreign missions, have received a sudden and startling revelation as to the amount still to be done, and have leaped to the conclusion that the reason why more has not been accomplished is that wrong methods have been used. Christianity, they say, is bound to conquer. Its equipment is of the best. The trouble is that its arms are not handled wisely. The tactics are faulty. Intelligent, help- ful criticism is welcomed by no class of men more than by foreign mis- sionaries; but criticism based upon an examination of one phase of a . many-sided problem, or gained in a hasty glance over the surface, is apt to be neither just nor helpful. 'fhe charges against foreign mis- sions that have recently broken out show such phenomenal ignorance of the methods in actual use, at least in the Levant, as to make them of little or no value. Th!3y are best refuted by a simple statement of facts.
The one principle underlying mission work as carried on in the Levant is that the kingdom of Christ is built up on individual life and character. Its aim is not the destruction of one system in order to establish another. It is not that Islamism is to be overthrown, but Moslems are to be converted. Not that corrupt, degenerate churches are to be brought back to pristine, or even better than pristine, purity, but individual Bulgarians, Armenians, Copts, Maronites, Nestorians are to be helped to lead Christian lives. False systems will doubtless fall, corrupt churches give place to purer ones; but that is a re.~ult, not an end in itself. The end is the development of individual Christian character. To this end are mission methods directed; by this principle are they to be judged.
The question then comes: Is the development which is sought a natural, normal one, or is it abnormal, stunted, twisted out of all recognition, So that the convertlld MOf;llem, the evangelical Greek or Jacobite becomes, not a Ohristian Oriental, but a something half way between Asiatic and European-a sort of religious hybrid, utterly incapable of reproduction; so that the moment the supporting influence of the foreign funds is withdrawn the genus disappear?
The answer to this again will come best from the consideration of the methods in use. These are: Bible Distribution, Evangelistic Preaching, Ohurch Organization, Education, Ohristian Literature.
BIBLE DISTRIBUTION.
Taking the position that the highest development of character ill built up on a personal knowledge of the Bible, it is held to be a prime essential that the Scriptures should be in the hands of every man, woman and child; should be not merely listened to from the pulpit, but read and studied in the home.
In the countries occupied by American missions in the Levant this fundamental work is done by the American Bible Society, and has three departments: Translation, Publication and Distribution,' To the former the best of scholarship is summoned, resulting in versions unexcelled for critical accuracy and fluency of idiom. There are: the Arabic, prepared at Beyroot, but reaching to the farthest bounds of Africa and Asia; the Turkish, Armenian and Bulgarian, at Oonstantinople ; the Syriac, at Oroomiah ; the Aherzijan Turkish and Ararat dialect of the Armenian, chiefly at Tiflis; the Persian, originally the work of Henry Martyn, now revised and much ~mproved; the Koordish Testament, prepared by a Koordish Armenian pastor in the valley of the Euphrates. In this work America and England have joined hands, now aividing, now sharing; each desirous of the one end-to reach every man in his own tongue with the story of the cross and the resurrection. Then comes publication. The needs of every class are carefully studied. The peasant of the Nile Valley has his Testament in type especially suited to the eyes blurred and almost blinded with opthalmia. The inquiring Bulgarian, rendered half skeptical by the statement of his priest, that the Protestants have wandered far from the venerated Slavic, has a Testament with both ancient and modern versions in parallel columns, that he may see for himself. On the shelves at the Bible House in Oonstantinople are the Scriptures in more than thirty languages and four hundred styles of printing and binding, that no one, whether he be officer of the Sultan's household, or villager on the mountains of Kurdistan, may say, "There is no Bible for me." Thus far the preparation. Then comes the direct work of distribution. Over one hundred colporteurs are employed by the American Bible Society, but every t6acher, pastor, missionary, is an assistant. These men aim to reach every reader in every city, town, village and hamlet, with the offer of the Bible. The distribution is not, however, gratuitous. A price is set upon every book, often far below its real cost, so as to bring it within rQach of the poorest, and that price is.demandod and received • from all. Except in special and rare cases, not a Bible or Testament, not even a Gospel, is given away. This is not because American Christians are unwilling to give, but because, in the experience of all, free distribution of the sacred books cuts at the very root!! of that selfrespect and sense of the Bible's worth, without which there can be no strong Christian character developed. It is also never forced upon the attention of any. Cordially, earnestly, kindly, is it offered;' but he who takes it must do so of his own free will, under no external pressure. Undoubtedly such pressure might be used as to greatly increase the sales. Sometimes it has been used, but always with loss rather than gain.
A half century of experience has shown that, as a rule, in the Levant, the best results. are reached from planting the Bible in individual hearts, rather than by sowing it broadcast.
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING.
Sometimes preceding the colporteur, sometimes accompanying, sometimes following him, always in heartiest sympathy with him, is the preacher. Now Methodist, now Presbyterian, again Congregationalist, or sturdy descendant of the Scotch Covenanter, with various names, but one heart; differing uniforms, but 'one flag. His one purpose to show the Bible as a rule of faith, but still more a guide in life. Hence, he seeks to understand and sympathize with the life about him. This was the hardest task of the missionary when he himself was the only preacher in the early days of the work. It is no easy thing to enter into the life of a strange people, get accustomed to new habits of thought and language, learn to put old truths in new lights, and none realize it so keenly as those who have tried it. One principle has been constantly made clearer. A man, to have genuine, lasting power with men, must be himself. Just so far as an American, in dealing with Turk or Arab, Greek or Jacobite, ceases to be an American, and becomes an Orient~l, just so far he loses his power to convince, persuade, help. This is not matter of theory only, but of experience. Over and over again has the effort been made to accord the daily life of the missionary to that of the people among whom he labors, and it has ever been demonstrated to be not only impracticable, but unwise. The missionary must remain a missionary. However deep and strong his sympathy with the people, he not only cannot, but he ought not to become one of them. His best power for good depends upon his preserving his own individuality, and that must be national as well as personal. With the growth of the work the physical impossibility of the missionary's reaching all who sought to learn became increasingly apparent. Thus has arisen a great body of native preachers-men drawn from every class and walk in life-who, gathering from personal contact with tlie missionary the influence of his life and thought, assimilating it to their own national character, go forth . to the thousands of their fellow-countrymen, and with them are devel-
oping a Christianity which is far more natural, and will prove far more permanent, than could be the case were the missionary the sole bearer of the gospel message. Of not less importance is the method adopted by these preachers. Its principle is entirely in accord with that underlying the work of Bible Distribution. It is not polemical. There are times when denunciation is needed, and then they do not fear to expose fearlessly the deceit and fraud by which ecclesiastical powers would blind the eyes of an ignorant people, and hold them in subservience to their own ends. This, however, is the exception, not the rule. The Moslem, drawn by curiosity or interest to attend an evangelical service, will not turn away repelled by what are to him harsh attacks upon the faith in which he has been nurtured.. The Armenian or Copt will hear no harangue against those who have hidden from him the Word of Life and held him fast in bonds woven in the cells of monk and anchorite. It is the want and duty of every day life, the consciousness of sin, the need of forgiveness and help, alone possible through a Redeemer; the hope of a blessed immortality. These are the topics of the preacher, by the earnest personal presentation of which he seeks to emphasize men's personal relations to God, develop the sense of personal responsibility, and secure the growth of personal character.
CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
The adoption of this as a distinct method of missionary work in the Levant, except in regard to the Moslem converts, was not a part of the original plan of missions, and is not now pressed to the forefront. The aim has been, so far as members of the Oriental churches were concerned, to help them to a Christian life, whatever their church connection might be. As a matter of fact, those who were thus influenced were unwilling to remain in the old comlllunions, and the priesthood were unwilling that they should, using the sharpest means of excommunication to drive them out. The formation of evangelical churches became thus a necessity, and has proved a most valuable method, not only of stimulating individual Christian hfe among their members, but of illustrating the broader relations that the Christian must sustain to the community and nation.
Under Moslem rule, church and civil life are identical. He who leaves his church leaves his nation, and heresy is treason. How to overcome this, and show that national life is properly independent of religious rites and ceremonies, has been a great problem, and the evangelical church organizations, by keeping distinctly aloof from political entanglements, have sought to show the true position of the Christian as a citizen. The formation of evangelical churches has served also as a method for developing that self-reliance which is essential to the permanence of the work commenced by the missionary and carried on by the native preacher. It has been the constant e:lfort of
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT
the missionaries to throw upon these churches, as rapidly as possible, the whole responsibility of self-management and growth. Recognizing that mistakes are less dangerous than stagnation, they have left to them large liberty of organization, of creed and of worship, seeking not to bind, but to develop by influence rather than authority. Realizing, too, that self-support is an indispensable element of growth, they have aimed at such gradual withdrawal of foreign aid as would strengthen, without bringing too heavy a burden upon communities already overtaxed.
EDUCATION.
Over this method of missionary work there nas been very earnest discussion in every land. With little or no difference of opinion as to the necessity of some instruction, there has been a wide divergence of views in regard to the degree or amount of education that legitimately comes within the scope of a missionary society. The missionaries to the Levant found absolutely no system of education, even the most rudimentary. What instruction there was was in the hantls of the priesthood, and so warped by priestly craft as to be almost useless for the development of Ohristian character. The Ohristian teacher became thus the indispensable coadjutor of the preacher and colporteur. At first his work was simple. But with community growth developed community needs. The teacher himself had to be taught. An effort was made to confine this broader instruction to those who were themselves to go forth as instructors and leaders. The advantage, the necessity even, of the same opportunities for the people were realized to the full. It was a question not of what was wanted, but of what was possible. Mission funds and mission strength, being limited, must be concentrated upon the special objects to which they were devotedthe development of Ohristian life. The necessity of community se1£- support in order to self-development also entered mto the cousideration of the question. The result has been that the missions provide free schools only for the most pnmary education aud the training of preachers and teachers, and these are free only when absolutely necessary. Just as fast as possible the whole care and support of the lower grades of general schools are placed upon the community. Grants in aid of money, assistance in superintendence and counsel, are given cautiously, though not grudgingly. With regard to the higher education, the position that has been taken in general is that the running expenses must be met by the pupils. The missions may assist by giving the tme and labor of missionaries to the schools, but there must be such charges for tuition as may be reasonably expected to meet the actual expense of each scholar, apart from the salaries of the teachers. FOT collegiate education the Mission Boards assume no responsibIlity, except that in certain cases the American professors are enrolled among their missionaries, and occasional grants are made in consideration of ot the relief that these colleges give to the Boards in the trainmg a native ministry. The general support comes from tuition and endowments secured abroad.
There are thus four classes of what may fairly be called mission schools. 1. Those supported chiefly or entirely by the Mission Boards, for the specific purpose of religious training. 2. Those supported and controlled entirely by the native communities, for the general purposes of Christian education among the common people. 3. Schools of a higher grade, under the care of the Mission Boards, with such charges for tuition as are calculated to meet the general expenses. 4. Oolleges, independent of the Boards, yet in heartiest sympathy with them, working together to the one great end of building up Ohristian nations.
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE.
There are four lines in which foreign missions seek to meet the constantly growing needs of minds stimulated to activity by the opening up of new truths through the methods already spoken of. These are the preparation of text-books for use in schools, of books for distinctive religious instruction, general information and periodical literature. The text-books are based upon the latest advances in the science of ' education, and are a means not only of instruction to those pupils in the regular schools, but a revelation to the old communities of the wide sweep of a tnllyOhristian science. In the commentaries and books of devotion are met the questions that for centuries have stirred the intense thought and speculation of the East, mellowed and attuned to the duty of everyday life by the practical common sense of the West. The department of general l1terature has not been developed as all would desire, sImply because it is Impossible to do everything that it would be well to do. The lack here IS met in a degree by the periodical literature, cluefly in the form of weekly newspapers, that bring the newly formed growing churches and communities into contact with the activity and life of America and Europe. Steadily avoiding complications with political or religious strifes, aiming to bring forward that which is noblest and bes,t in life everywhere, these form a most vl}luable means of reaching multitudes who would stand aloof from colporteur, preacher or teacher, and serve as a bulwark against the rush of infidel publications that are to many the sole representations of the advanced intellectual life of the day.
This is but a brIef sketch of the Methods by which missionaries seek to lay the sure foundations of Ohristian life in the Levant. As a sketch it is by no means complete. There are many lines of action unmentioned. Each mission has to a degreee its own methods, adapted to Its own special needs, in accordance with its own habit of thought and life. In these general lines of action, however, all agree. Upon this principle all stand, that a permanent Ohristian church is built up on individual ChrIstian lives, that such lives .are developed only by 26 ENGLAND AND FORErGN MISSIONS. [JAN., individual personal influence. This work is slow work, but all foundation building is slow. It may be that some changes of method would be wise. If so, none will welcome advice and help more gladly than those who represent the churches of America on the foreign field. The tree is known by its frUlts; methods by their results. The results achieved through these methods by Foreign Missions in the Levant will form the subject of another paper.
ENGLAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY THE REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., ENGLAND.
THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK ON FOREIGN MISSIONS.
AT the annual meeting of the York Auxiliary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel on October 29th, the Archbishop delivered a rousing speech. He remarked that there must be something significant in the great gathering of bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and in the fact that, whereas in 1878 they mustered 100, in 1888 they mustered 145. The only wonder to him was that having in their midst such an undeniable evidence of the progress of missions they should have heard such a quantity of stuff talked about them-and, for his own part, he was quite sick of it. He could not follow the parts of the discussion into a debtor and creditor account of the amount of converts they had bought with their money, and he thought they had better forget it as soon as possible. They were in a sense obliged to those who had put them on their defense; but they could not avoid a certain measure of contempt for the turn the. discussion had taken. What did the increase in the bishops from 100 to 145 mean? It was not a mere numerical augmentation. A diocese meant ~not only a bIShop but an organization-a complete body of clergy requiring church government; and a diocese was never made before it was wanted, as far as he was aware. He thought it was quite absurd to talk about the failure of missions and the mismanagement of missions. Failures there would be. Mismanagement! There was mismanagement sometimes at home, and he did not see why the colonies and foreign parts were to be exempted from it. But, allowing for all that, there was a great and mighty progress for which they had done very lIttle; and if they had been punished for their neglect a century ago they would hardly have had much cause to complain of the chastening hand that sent that punishment. Why, since the Reformation down to the latter half of the last century, they might say that nothing at all was done for missions. A nation that for a couple of centuries neglected its duty had no rIght to complain, because when it did only a very little certain fruits were bestowed upon it, and those fruits not little, like the gifts, but great, like the love of God which sent them. They might all of them take courage. The subject of those objections had now been thoroughly consIdered, and it had done /
ENGLAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
no harm; quite the contrary, in his opinion. For good, or for less good, they could not possibly neglect missions. They confessed themselves infidel when they did so. As long as they believed the truth of the love of God they must tell other people of it-that from the nature of the case, unless they hated their brother. Therefore it was useless for them at that time of day to be haggling about the exact products of missions. Whether they had gained an abundance of fruit or not, they ought to be up and doing. It was an undeniable fact that the fruits during the past twenty years had been far beyond those given them before that time.
THE BAPTIST UNION MISSIONS IN INDIA.
At the autumnal meetings held in Huddersfield early in October, Mr. John Barron, M. P., presided. After speaking of the necessity of increased missionary effort, he said that India was the first field of Baptist missionary enterprise, and they never could forget that God had honored them in that country beyond the most sanguine expectation of those who first entered on the work. Carey, in his labor of evangelization, met with discouragements not less trying than those. which were met with by their missionaries in the present day who were laboring in new countries. He fought against great difficulties and amidst great trials, but God blessed his e:tIorts and enabled him and those who labored with him to do a work in India, in connection not only with religious teaching but of educational work, the influence and· power of which were felt far and wide throughout that great country of India. In India the,English people had great responsibilities, and he was sorry to say that as far as Parliament was concerned that responsibility was neither fully recognized nor wholly met. If it were not for the permeating influence of Christian life in India-if India were left alone to the Government of this country-he feared that our position in India would not be nearly so secure as it was at the present day. India was at the present time open to influences of good and evil, and upon what the churches in this country did in promoting missionary work in India depended the future of India and the relation of that empire to this country.
The Rev. A. McKenna, dealing with the work that had been done in India, acknowledged the great assistance which had been rendered to missionaries in India by the civil and military authorities, who were the finest body of men in the world. There was not a single. man who was not in favor of progress.
The Rev. Bower Jones, of Bengal, said he had been appalled at the darkness in which India had for ages been plunged. During eighteen centuries but little had been done. There was a popUlation of two hundred and fifty millions in that empire, but no more than half a million have embraced the cause of Christ. The gospel had, however, fairly commenced its work of emancipation, an¢!. had lIghted up
THE MmAOLES OF MisSIONS. [JAN
the harems and zenanas. The condition of women in India was being improved, and there was less opposition to the propagation of the gospel.
COMMANDER CAMERON" ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN AFRICA.
At the Oanterbury Diocesan Oonference, held on October lOth, the gallant traveler gave a stirring history of the ruinous _effects of the drink traffic upon the native races in Africa. The four great evils of that county were, he said, slavery, gin, gunpowder and land-grabbing. The Africans, as a rule, were strongly addicted to a liking for strong drink, but he had never seen any illneys or delirium tremens arising from excessive drinking in the interior. A large proportion of the cargoes of ships trading on the west coast consisted of large red boxes from Hamburg full of liquor known as gin, but containing some vile chemical material. In the English colonies or Protectorates on the west coast the revenue chiefly consisted of excise and licensing duties. and it appeared to him that anyone who could pay for it could obtain a license. Thebeens abounded in the gold-digging districts, and in some of the smaller districts they actually f(jorced native teachers, sent out with the good intention of teaching people, to give way to the ruling vice, and not only to drink the gin themselves, but to trade in it. At the Oape itself "Oape smoke and the contents of the Hamburg steamers'~ were taking the heart out of the best native races, and on the east coast a large portion of the trade was in drink. Slavery, during the last few years, had been worse than ever before-whole districts being devastated-while at one camp of lJ'ippoo Tib, no fewer than fifty right arms had been seen nailed up, and his men were amusing themselves by shooting the slaves, who were afterwards cut up to feed the cannibals in the train of slave dealers. The loss of life in this trade was calculated at two millions a year. When traveling in Africa he himself opened up many routes which slave dealers had taken advantage of. He hoped to be able to do something to reparir the mischief, and if he could not get his idea carried out he might adopt the suggestion of Gordon, and form a colony at r~ake Nyanza to fight against slavery.
THE MIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. IX.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] SIGNS of THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE GENERAL WORK.
THE Resurrection of our Lord was established" by many infallible proofs." Not less unmistakable and unanswerable are the evidences of the coming of the Holy Ghost and of the presence of a supernatural providence in human history. Most of all may we see God's hand in mISSIOns.
Thus far we have sought to illustrate and exemplify this great truth in specific cases and on special fields. It may bel well, however, to take
1889;1 c THE MIRACLES OF
a wider glance and get a glimpse of His presence and presidence in the whole field and work of missions; and more especially as during this month our eyes are turned, not to anyone land or form of false faith, but sweep round the entire circle of the continents.
When science, as nature's interpreter, would show us her greatest wonders, she points to the crystal and the cell; one the mystery of inorganic symmetry, the other the miracle of organic life. When God would reveal to us the signs of His own handiwork, and prove to ns that through all the ages His unceasing purpose r1ns, He points us to the mystery of a symmetrical and crystalline historic unity and harmony which no human foresight could have planned and no human skill have wrought out; and then He points ns to holy lives which combine the beauty of the crystal with the living energy of the cell; which shine not with a cold, imprisoned luster, but with the radiance· of a living light.
Dionysius of H(l,licarnassus said: "History is phil9sophy teaching by examples." The Ohristian believer mounts higher and declares that history is God, teaching by His providence and grace. Nature does not bear marks of a designing mind and hand as clearly as human history, and pre-eminently the history of missionary enterprise reveals the plan and presence of an infinite God. No man with eyes open, and mind open to conviction, can long resist this evidence. The history of missions not only reveals miracles, it is itself a miracle. It is a demonstration and an illustration at the same time that, high above and far behind all human actors on the stage, is a divine director and controller. He shifts the changing scenery to suit every new act inc the drama of the ages; and he shifts the positions, yea, and the persons of the actors, too. When He wills, when His work demands it, and His time has fully come, they enter and take up their part; and, as surely, when He wills it and His time has fully come, they leave the stage and give place to others. "God buries His workmen but He carries on His work," is one of the sayings of John Wesley, carved on his monument in England's great Abbey. But it is not less true that He raises up a Pharaoh and Oyrus and girds those who have not known Him, to show forth His power in them, and in spite of them carryon His eternal covenant purpose.
Those who have read that fascinating story of "Life Among the Turks," by Dr. Oyrus Hamlin, will remember one of the myriad in- stances of the providential limitation of human power and tyranny. At a critimil point in the history of Turkish missions, the Sultan Mahmud suddenly startled the whole empire by an order for the expul- sion of the missionaries. The news fell like a thunderbolt unheralded by the lightning flash~ The order was so imperious and arbitrary, and Mahmud was so unreasonable and implacable, that even Mr. Brown, the Secretary of the American Legation, and Oommodore Porter gave over the cas~ as hopeless. Commodore Porter prepared a. dispatch to the Sublime Porte, acquiescing on behalf of the missionaries, for whom he could not venture to interpose. Just then, on the first of July, 1839, the Sultan himself died, at the very hour when the missionaries were waiting in suspense for the execution of the order! And at the same time his entire fleet was betrayed into the hands of the Pasha of Egypt, and the Ottoman army of 80,000 men was almost annihilated. Well may Dr. Hamlin exclaim: "A startling series of events that struck every heart with dismay"! Man proposes, but God disposes. A higher plan swallows up the lower, as Aaron's rod swallowed all the rest. Dr. Goodell had, in the very midnight of that trial hour, and before there was the first hint of a dawn, said in his own peculiar way:" The great Sultan of the universe can change aU this," and lo! it was done. H God blew, and they were scattered." The work of the missions was resumed with new courage; the exiles came back, and the execution of Mahmud's order of expulsion was never again referred to. The silence of the grave fell on the Sultan and his tyrannical decree alike. A h~gher hand was holding the invisible scepter.
And this is what we mean by the supernatural factor in missionary history. It may not manifest itself in any two cases in precisely the same way. Evil may at times be prevented, and at other times permitted and overruled. But the overrule is there.
" Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record One death grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the world. Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne; Yet that scaffold sways the future; and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God, amid the shadow, keeping watch above His own."
It would be impracticable within the necessary limits of this article to illustrate fully this general supervision of missions by an -Almighty Wisdom and Power; but it is to the mind of the writer a fact so vivid as to be well-nigh visible; and a few examples of this divine interposition will suffice for the present purpose of this paper.
1. The removal of obstacles and the opening doors of access to the nations.
2. The sudden and unaccountable subsidence of barriers at critical periods and. points.
3. The raising up of men and women previously prepared for work, as obviously prepared for them.
4. The theology of inventions-a divine plan in the development of the race and of human discovery.
5. The direct transformation of individual character and of entire communities.
6. The indirect results in the modifications of existing evils and the elevation of the entire social level.
7. The obvious overruling of human mistakes and failures, and even of bitter hostility and persecution, 8. The supernatural ordering of human lives, and the limitations of them when God's purpose is accomplished.
9. The evidences of a divine strategy extending through the ages and embracing the whole world.
10.. The turning of the crises of the kingdom in answer to prayer, and in a marked order of development.
11. The development of new agencies, organizations and instrumentalities at the precise hour of need.
12. The prophetic element in all these divine plans, making these developments not an evolution but a revolution.
Such are afew of these signs of the supernatural mind and hand in the history of missions. Let us b~iefly advert to some of them.
1. The progress of missions would have been impossible without the intervention of a higher power. When, a century ago, the Ohurch as a body took up the work of evangelizing the world, ten great obstacles stood in her way, to human view insurmountable. They may be classed under four heads: obstacles to approach, obstacles to intercourse, obstacles to impression, obstacles to action.
The world seemed locked against the Ohurch, and the Ohurch seemed indifferent to the condition of the world. Oonverts were punished with death; missionaries were martyrs; woman was shut up in harems; some races seemed too high, others too low, to be reached by the gospel. Now all these obstacles are down. Who has done it?
2. Barriers have sometimes gone down as though a continent had sunk to let the sea overflood the land. Hawaii had burned her idols while the Thaddeus was crossing the deep with the first band of missionaries. Japan was undergoing a civil revolution while Oommodore Perry was casting anchor in the harbor of Yeddo. Over and over again the missionaries have gone expecting to find gigantic barriers confronting them and have found only prostrate walls. Who has done it?
3. Men and women have been prepared for the work and the work for them when no human foresight could have shaped either for the other. Who fitted William Goodell to begin in 1831 that wonderful work in Oonstantinople which at that very time needed just such a pioneer! Who but God knew that in 1877 a famine would overspread Southern India, and that a civil engineer would be needed to complete that canal, and so give the starving thousands work; and that the engineer must be a Ohristian missionary who would teach the workmen of Jesus? and who was it raised up Mr. Clough to go there long before he knew why he was a civil engi~eer and felt so strangely drawn to that very station at Ongole? Who was it fitted the peg to the hole when he set Eli Smith in Syria, Robert Morrison in Ohina, Fidelia Fisk in Oroomiah, Lindley among the Zulhs, Moffat among the Boers, Duncan among the Indians of British Oolumbia, and Hunter Corbett amon~ the simple converts of C~efoo? (Jan all history show a more marked adaptation of the man and the place and the hour, than Robert W. McAll and Belleville and 1872, when the French nation was reacting from clericalism and imperialism and formalism, and yearning for a simple, positive, primitive gospel? Who did all this?
4. Look at the theology of inventions. How came the mariners compass, steam as a motor, the printing-press, and all subsequent sim-' ilar inventions and discoveries, to be withheld from the race until the- ology, anthropology and soteriology had fought their battles, and sociology was coming to the front; and until the Church of the I4Jfor- mation was preparing to give the Bible to every people and the press was indispensable; and to carry the gospel to earth's limits, and the compass and steam were needful? Nay, who withheld this continent from unveiling until the pilgrims were ready to settle New England!
5. Passing by for the present many other points already briefly stated, and emphasized in previous articles, behold the crises of the kingdom turned in answer to prayer. Time was when the Church itself was asleep. And such men as Gutzlaff and Carey and Jonathan Edwards laid siege to the throne of grace and the Church woke, and missions began on a world-wide scale. Then doors seemed shut and a few con- secrated men and women prayed, and within ten years the openings defied occupation-they were so many. Then there was need of men and money. Prayer again turned the crisis. Gifts that· for amount were never before equalled began to be consecrated, and an unparal- leled number of young men and young women began to offer them- selves. The women began to organize till their Boards cover the Chris- .. tian Church with their network; and the Y. M. O. A. ~nd its kindred organizations multiplied from one in 1844 to 3,800 in 1888. And now signs appeal' above the horizon of a period of general missionary intelli- gence and activity more marked than any during the last eighteen cen- turies. These are but a minute fraction-a fragment from the vast aggregate of testimony that the work of missions is the work of God, and the march of missions the march of God.
It will-be yet three years before we reach the year which marks the complet~ century since the Warwick Association made the first Monday of each month a "Monthly Concert" of prayer for the world's evan- gelization, and that first :,Foreign Missionary Society sent out William Carey to India. The Church might have compassed the world already had the faith of disciples been equal to the grandeur of God's promises. But, nevertheless, God has led, ruled, moved, swayed all through this century. He has shown His Word to be all-powerful, and His Spirit all-subduing, and His Providence all-controlling. The whole history has been His story; full of mystery because full of a mysterious God; full of power because full of an omnipotent God. 1.'his needs no argu- ment; it needs only an open eye and an obedient heart. To our own conception it is the supreme charm of missions and the supreme argu- ment for missions. It invest's the work with an awful dignity!
lIIISSION OAMPAIGN IN AMElUOA
MESSRS. TAYLOR AND RADCLIFFE'S MISSION CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA.
BY REGINALD RADCLIFFE, ESQ., ENGLAND. DEAR EDITORS: Many of your readers doubtless know something of the Chiba Inland Mission that has its headquarters in London. It was founded about twenty years ago by the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, and he is now its Director, with a Council in London, and a Council of experienced missionaries in qhina. Mr. Taylor had previously been engaged as a missionary in China; sickness required him to return to England, and for a few years he was engaged inLondon by the British and Foreign Bible Society in translating, in conjunction with an Episcopal clergyman. While so occupied, a map of China was on view, and so he got a more comprehensive view of the vast needs of the interior of that mighty country than when engaged in China doing his own little personal work. This was so burdened upon his heart that he went round to the different missionary boards in Lonuon, endeavoring to get some one of them to take up the vast interior of China; but he did not succeed. Thus was he constrained, in fact, after much trembling and much prayer, almost forced to originate the China Inland Mission. From the first he determined, in order not to interfere and not to have the appearance of interfering with the other missionary boards, 1. That this new society should have no collections made for money at any of its meetings. 2. No collection books. 3. No one to be applied to for money for the Mission. 4. That the agents should be taken from different denominations, so that the mission should be unsectarian. God has prospered the little mission greatly; no difficulties from different denominations working happily in one great mission field have ever arisen. About three years since, the remarkable band of seven young men of the Cambridge University going out stirred the hearts of our young people, especially, as one of the band, Mr. Charles Studd, was a famous criclreter, and another, Mr. Stanley Smith, was the stroke oar of the Cambridge Eight, to row against Oxford, whilst another was a young cavalry officer, who, in answer to the question, "Why are you going out?" replied, "I read' If ye love me, keep my commandments; , I love Christ and so I am going." Some time after this Mr. Taylor was with a gathering of his missionary friends in China-they were giving a day to fasting and prayer, the next day to deliberation and examination of the wants of their enormous field, the thira day to fasting and prayer, then the next day to deliberation and examination, and so on for several days. They were also agreed that they would not override a minority by a majority; but though it might take much more time, prefer waiting till they were all of one accord. Well, one thing they were of one accord upon was that they could make accommodation to receive, in addition to their then number of about 190, 100 extra missionaries, and that there were ample openings for them. So they asked the Lord of the harvest for these 100, and that they should be dIspatched within a year, and that money to dispatch them should be sent in; for the mission as usual had none. There and then the assurance of faith was given that these requests were answered. Accordingly, within the year about 600 volunteers applied, and out of these 102 were selected and dispatched, and all the money needed was sent in without solicitation, except soliciting their Heavenly Father. It will be seen what a needful part was the money when it is stated that this mission will not go into debt to the extent of a single dollar.
Now, some little time after this a young American layman, Mr. H. W.
Frost, came over to ·London and took up his lodging close to the headquarters of the mission that he might learn its workings minutely. He tried to per- suade Mr. Hudson Taylor to visit America. But Mr. Taylor, full of his heavy work at headquarters and traveling over Britain and over China, hesitated to consent. But this young American could not be shaken off, and he and Mr. Taylor got on their knees for guidance, and thereafter Mr. Moody invited Mr. Taylor to his Conference at Northfield. Mr. Taylor then yielded to the solicitations of this young friend.
Having myself worked much together with Mr. Taylor in Britain he asked me to accompany him, and it was resolved that my wife and I should go, as well as Mr. Taylor's secretary, and his son, Mr. Howard Taylor, as also Mr.
George Studd, brother of the Mr. Charles Studd already mentioned, and also brothel' of Mr. K. Studd of London, who, about a year previously, went through a number of the American universities. At this same time Mr.
Wishard of the Y. M. C. A. came over to England and induced several Cambridge undet'graduates to cross the Atlantic to attend Mr. 1foody's Conference.
It would be hard for me just at this point to withhold recording with a grateful heart the very refreshing hospitality my wife and I have received from so many kind hosts and hostesses, both in the States and in Canada.
If my friend, Mr. Hudson Taylor, were beside me instead of being in another steamer on another ocean, I am sure most warmly would he join me. Indeed, it was his own suggestion, days before we had to part, that we should both have put our signatures to a joint letter, but the rush was so great the last few days that it was not practicable, yet the work seemed only commenced. But if we should never see your land again, we have formed friendships that are not likely ever to be forgotten.
The welcome afforded to Mr. Hudson Taylor, both in the United States and in Canada, by ministers, Young Men's Christian Associations, and private Christians, and the reception given to his novel and startling, but simple, childlike statements, have, indeed, been so gratifying as to make himself and his praying friends devoutly thankful-you way be sure that his praying friends are very many, scattered over the world. In fact, it is a great feature that at the London headquarters a crowded prayer-meeting is held from four to six every Saturday afternoon, where, by a large map and long pointer, each mission is pointed out and every missionary prayed for by name.
After leaving Mr. Moody's Convention at Northfield, from which two or three volunteered and were accepted for China by Mr. Taylor, an early place visited was a Bible Reading Convention at Niagara. Here there was a glorious response-ample scope was given for Mr. Taylor and another to plead for the heathen, and after he had left, Mr. R. P. Wilder arrived and spoke on the same subject. In conclusion, Mr. H. W. Frost had to write, telling Mr. Taylor that sufficient money had been given to support six missionaries to his China Inland Mission. The money having thus been pro- vided unasked, volunteers wet'e prayed for to consume it. It was soon found that the same Father could supply laborers as easily as he had supplied the money. I Laborers sprang up like willows by the water-courses-both men and women-especially in Canada, and not vel'Y distant from the region in which the Niagara Convention had been held. After careful consideration twenty were accepted by Mr. Taylor as associates of the China Inland Mission. Thirteen of these were ready to depart from Toronto. Mr. Taylor met with them and gave minute instructions, having arranged with Rev. Dr. Parsons of the Presbyterian Church of John Knox, in Toronto, for themselves and their frIends partaking of the Lord's Supper at nine in the evening, before their train left at eleven for Vancouver and China. Mr. Taylor could not be present with us, as he had still to give one day to Montreal, overtaking this band on the track for Vancouver. A sister from Mr. Moody's school had also to overtake the train, making the volunteers to sail across the Pacific with Mr. Taylor fourteen. After receidng the Lord's Supper there was an impressive scene at the depot, a great crowd singing hymns outside the cars and inside the cars, tender:partings; whilst outside simultaneous prayer for the departing ones and for those to follow the crowd-chiefly young men-repeating the petitions together, sentence by sentence. 'rhus at 11 P.M. the train slowly swept away for the China steamer to be met at Vancouver.
Besides these fourteen gone, and the six more accepted, one of whom is a Y. M. C. A. secretary, I have since received distinct intimation of 46 more that I believe are wishing to follow. There is little money to tempt anyone, viz., only about $250 a year for a sister, and about $50 more for a brother on account of his having to travel and live in inns more than a sister. The dressing, too, in Chinese costume cannot be a great inducement. This is not much to tempt an American or a Canadian. Yet I shall not be surprised if el'e long fully 100, including the twenty already fixed, soon follow those gone before.
Are not such men and women the best, the greatest friends, of the home churches? Can they go to real war without rousing their friends left at home to fight at home as they have never done before? Can they go without stirring up a far deeper interest in the American and Canadian Missionary Boards, not only for China, but also for India, for Africa, for the continent of America, etc.? Let them ever remember what noble missionaries these Boards have sent out, from Judson downwards, and what noble ones- perhaps not much heard of-they have now in the field. I have myself enjoyed their co-operation in Europe.
If we older men will not lead, 0, for the sake of Christ's dying wish, let these young ones lead us! 01' else, are not we older one!;! in flagrant disobedienc~? and I for one do not see how our churches in Britain may not sink lower and lower. Do speak out and show them that Christ has laid the responsibility on every converted soul to give the gospel to the heathen, and that we laymen cannot shift the responsibility 6if our shoulders upon the shoulders of ministers, or upon the shoulders of university men. Let us gladly accept settled ministers, who will lay down their charges. A vicar at Leeds, just before we left for America, laid down his charge in order to go out with the China Inland Mission. But for every such cultured man, and for every finished and cultured undergraduate, do we not need at least twenty men, who, like Spurgeon, Moody, or Carey, have never seen the inside of a col- lege, provided only they have the needed gifts, ;:tre already experienced in winning souls, are wholly surrendered to Christ as their king, and are full of the Holy Ghost?
THE Gustavus Adolphus Society of Germany, which aims specially to es- tablish Protestant churches in Roman Catholic countries, during the last fiftY-SIX years, has erected 1,398 churches and 691 school buildings. It re- ports immediate need of 314 more church buildings.
OPIUM IN CHINA
BRITISH OPIUM IN CHINA.
BY G. L. MASON, AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSION, HUCHOW, CHINA.
BRITISH Christians lead the world in beneficence. Their home charities are multiform, their foreign missions are everywhere. But the British Government, for the sake of revenue in India, persists in a course against a weaker nation which Canon Wilberforce pronounces "simply dastardly from beginning to end." John Bright and many other distinguished men express the same view. Christian opinion in China is fairly represented by a conservative Englishman, Archdeacon Monle of Shanghai, who says: "British authorities in India, fully knowing the attitude of the Chinese Government, deliberately engaged in the preparation of opium for China. with only two years intermission, continuously for sixty years." Americans, too, blush at sight of the Chinese caricature of an Englishman with a whiskey bottle in one hand and an opium ball in the other. In many ways so closely linked to Great Britain, and especially so in evangelization, it behooves American Christians also to know the facts and to labor and pray for the removal of this tremendous hindrance to missions and to honorable commerce and international good-will-a professed Christian government engaging in a trade which is a blighting curse to millions.
Since many may not have access to information, the following outline of events has been compiled, from personal study of the Chinese maritime customs' reports, from files of the Ohinese Repository, and from other trustworthy sources. As partisan statements have been made in books and newspapers, "that opium-smoking isas harmless as twiddling one's fingers," and that" Great Britain has not coerced China on account of opium," it may be well to remark that the writer is prepared to cite authority for every statement in this sketch.* Some hold that opium was first brought to China by the Arabs toward the close of the thirteenth century. But it was in small quantities, and" commonly used as a medicine before the trade with India commenced" in the eighteenth century. Previous to 1767 the trade was in the hands of Portuguese, but with an import of only about 200 chests a year, a chest being about 140 pounds. The habit of smoking was scarcely known. Even as late as 1830 large inland cities like Hangchow had no opium smOking-shops. Now that city has, approximately, 2,000. The very rapid growth of the habit and of the trade began when the East India Company regularly engaged in the business in 1773. In 1790 the importation reached 4,054 chests, twenty times the amount imported yearly previous to 1767. In 1799 it was 5,000 chests; in 1826, 9,969; about 1830, a yearly average of 16,800. In less than ten years just preceding the first Opium War the trade more than doubled, reaching 34,000 chests in 1836. In 1834 the East India Company closed its career, but other British officials continued the traffic, which has grown to 52,925 piculs in 1850 and 75,308 in 1880, a picul being 133~ pounds.
Smuggling is the proper term for this trade previous to 1860. In 1780 the British establised a depot near Macao on two vessels, a plan continued in later years, when armed vessels lay outside the ports, and delivered the opium to Chinese smugglers who had previously negotiated with American or British merchants living at the ports under consular protection. The East India Company entered upon the trade knowing it to be contraband.
* Besides the authorities named, any one desiring further information should see the Friend of China, London: Morgan & Scott; a small monthly. Also Th6 Truth .4lKrut Opium, London: Hodder", Stonghton.
BRITiSH OPIUM IN
For the Abbe Raynal (tr. i. 424) writes, as early as 1770: "The Chinese Emperors have suppressed it in their dominions, by condemning to the flames every vessel that imports this species of poison." The Emperor Kiahmg in 1796 issued an edict against it, and the prohibition was often renewed by imperial decree or high provincial authority (1799, 1809, 1820, 1836 and 1837) and the prohibition always based on moral grounds. "Severe prohibit<;>ry laws (1828) destroyed the trade temporarily and exasperated the British, who made some military demonstrations by sending armed vessels to Canton in 1831 and 1834. Meanwhile the contraband opium trade was fostered and the smugglers provided with armed ships."-American Cyclopcedia. See also British Encyclopcedia. In the penal code of 1830, strangling is the punishment for keeping an opium shop. In 1832 at Macao foreigners witnessed a case of its execution, the culprit being tied to a cross and strangled. ,_That the prohibition of 'the importation of opium or planting of the poppy was only partly successful among a heathen people is not strange. But is the fact that Chinese minor officials often connive with native and foreign smugglers any excuse whatever forthe relentless aim of the Bitish Government to thwart the often expressed and humane wish of the heathen government?
A crisis came in 1839. The Chinelie Imperial Commissioner Lin, at Canton, addressed a long letter to Queen Victoria, requesting her to interdictthe traffic. He also demanded as contraband, 20,283 chests of British opium, and by command of the emperor utterly destroyed it. This annihilation by money-loving Orientals, for the sake of a moral idea, of ten million dollars worth of salable property will shine in history as a deed of sublime heroism.
The British Encyclopedia calls it" a sufficient proof that the Mandarins were in earnest in their endeavor to suppress the trade. The few foreigners who were present were deeply impressed to witness this deliberate and solemn work of destruction, which occupied twenty days and took place in the presence of a great multitude of Chinese officials and people. Soon after this the British renewed the attempts to smuggle cargoes ashore. The merchants complained that the wholesale confiscation of the opium was sudden and unfair! a vain plea, for the storm had been gathering for years and was foreseen by all whose eyes were not blinded by gold. The seizure was the chief point of the casus belli.
In 1840 England declared war. At its close China had to cede the oppressor the island of Hongkong and pay twenty-one million dollars. Twelve millions of this were for England's war expenses, three millions for debts owed by Chinese to British merchants, and six millions partial payment for the opium destroyed. This outrageous robbery was perpetrated in the Treaty of Nankin (1842) and ratified the year following.
That the enforced opening of the five" treaty ports" to trade gave a great impulse to commerce and missions no one denies, but these benefits blind Western eyes to the cruel injustice of the war. At that time Sir H. Pottinger, British Minister, 'strove to get China to legalize the opium trade j and the Emperor Two-Kwang made answer in these pathetic and now historic words: "It is true that I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people."
During the next fourteen years the unwelcome trade flourished, until in 1857, the Arrow, a smuggling vessel bearing the British flag, was fired upon. This furnished the pretext for the British bombardment of Canton. As if this were not enough, the English and French combined the next year and made an expedition up the river Pei-ho to Tientsin: Thus the capital
OPIUM IN CHINA
was in danger and the terror-stricken government felt obliged to yield to the persuasion of Lord Elgin and legalize the importation of British opium. The import duty was fixed at the low rate of thirty taels a chest, or about thirty cents a pound, the British agreeing not to carry the opium 'inland. This political villainy was ratified in the Convention of Peace at Pekin, October, 1860. Thus oppression scored a great triumph in Asia to offset the grand advance of liberty then about to take place in America. China again paid Eng-land an indemnity of $10,800,000 in gold, one-quarter of which was paid to the foreign merchants of Canton; also $6,000,000 to France. Is it strange that patriotic but uninformed Chinese would fain have excluded all foreigners, missionaries included, regarding the opium trade as a direct plot against the life of the.nation? 'fhis treaty secured the opening of five additional ports, through which missionaries might enter with the gospel and merchants with shiploads of opium.
The second opium war only riveted faster the chains of the demoralizing habit and trade. The government, discouraged, made few serious efforts after 1860 to repress native cultivation of the poppy. According to Consul Spence, in Sichuan province, government interference with the planting ceased about 1865. Bu:t in July, 1869, the Chinese Government made a pathetic appeal to the British Government. And in October, a "Supplementary Convention" was signed at Pekin by which, in consideration of China's reducing her duty on coal exported and for other commercial advantages, England should allow China to advance the import duty on opium from thirty to fifty taels. As though China had not the right to charge what duty she chose without asking leave! But this arrangement the British Government steadily refused to ratify, lest a higher duty might check the trade and thus lessen the revenue at Calcutta.
In 1876 occurs the Chefu Convention. China by this allows four more ports to be opened to trade, in return for which the British ambassador agrees that opium shall stand on a different footing from other goods as regards transit duties,inland, so as to enable China to check the internal traffic. The clauses of this convention in favor of foreigners were soon ratified. The one clause'in China's benefit was not. At length after seven years of evasion by England, the irritation felt in China and the anti-opium agitation in England caused an opening of official correspondence on the subject (January, 1883), Earl Granville writing to Marquis Tseng, the Chinese ambassador in London. China proposes in addition to thirty taels import duty, a uniform rate of eighty taels for internal transit dues. The noble earl objects, proposes seventy taels (April, 1883), and insists that China 'must guarantee not to hinder the trade by imposing further taxes inland. 0 shameful sight! a mighty Christian nation haggling with a weaker heathen government for easier terms on which to debauch its people! Tseng Claims (September, 1884) that China may raise the tax on opium to any figure she may think proper as soon as the drug shall have passed into Chinese hands. And why not? Not until July, 1885, was the agreement finally signed, to be in force four years. It came into effect February 1, 1887, more than ten years after the Chefu Convention. The import duty remains the same, thirty taels. But the fluctuating taxes formerly levied inland (the Lekin) a!'e now fixed at a uniform rate of eighty taels, and these dues also England allows China to collect at the ports; but China stipulates that British opium may pass inbud, unlike other goods, exempt from taxes, and that local licenses to sell sllall be at the same rate as for native opium.
This new arrangement has been hastily called a "settlement" of the vexed
BRITISH OPIUM IN
question. A total revenue of about $1.10 per pound, all due at the ports,' brings a little more mon~y than formerly into the treasury at Pekin. Butit also hastens the physical and moral ruin of multitudes. Nine and three quarter million pounds were imported in 1887,- an increase of nine pel' cent. on the average yearly amount from 1882 to 1886 under the former arrangement. The trade has now clearer official sanction. The authorities provide safe and cheap storage at ports, and untaxed transit inland. And the cancer is to strike its roots deeper into the nation's heart. In proof of this, read the Customs reports for 1887, how at various ports the new rule "benefits the trade"; how the trade "acquires stability" and "increased facility" and "great benefit"; while at Pakhoi the opium partly "takes the place of silver as a circulating medium." The Shanghai commissioner reports: " Transit passes are respected and the native dealers are sending the opium to more distant markets than ever."
That missionaries do not magnify the evils of opium to excuse the slow progress of missions let Sir Thomas Wade, ex-ambassador, testify: "The habit is many times more pernicious, nationally speaking, than the gin and whiskey drinking which we deplore at home"-a strong-er statement than missionaries make; still it is hard to decide which of the two habits produces the more misery. Forty-five million dollars spent in one year (1887) for foreign opium, and half of it spent by people unable to buy both opium and good food, means a wide extent of woe. Mr. Eason, of the China Inland Mission, says that in Yunnan Province half of the women and fourfifths of the men are smokers. When Baron Rich'toven is quoted that in Si-chuan Province as much opium is used as anywhere, and that nowhere are the effects so little seen, it is not explained that the climate of the mountains is salubrious and that the people of the river valleys are wealthy. It is among the poor, who cannot buy both food and opium, that the misery is most seen. Here is the exact parallel to the drink curse,-work neglected, debts unpaid, clothes and bed ill pawn, children and aged parents half starved. There are frequent instances of wives sold tp provide opium. In some parts of HucllOW, Chikiang, opium-ruined vagabonds have been a terror to the farmers. In that part of the city of Shanghai under the municipal contl'Olof Europeans more than 1,200 opium saloons were licensed in 1887. No wonder that the number of prisoners in jail was twenty-five per cent. greater than in 1886. The opium habit often co-exists with alcoholism in the same individuals. All vices thrive within the opium dens. Especially does the opium mania burn out of the man all capacity for truth. A professional burglar would be received to church membership in China as soon as would an opium user.
Foreigners, shielded by British civil or military officials, smuggled opium into China for seventy years. After two wars and the payment of vast indemnities the traffic was legalized, as the Grand Secretary, Li Hung-chang, said in 1881, "not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse decision of arms." Yet apologists say that China's concessions have been voluntary. As well call the delivery of one's put'seto a highwayman voluntary, That the Chinese submitted at all graciously only illustrates their pt'overb "The legless man who meets a tiger might as well make a present of himself." After 1860, for twenty-five years, British influence prevented China from raising the duty even to a .partiallY prohibitory rate. Finally in 1885-7 a new arrangement was made which friends of China hoped might be somewhat of a check to the trade, but which ill the working seems to be rather a strengthening of eVIl. But it is an arrangement for four years only
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
and the question will be re-opened. Meanwhile let the Christian world con-' tinue in prayer that God may touch the conscience of all concerned. Parties to the gt'eat sin are not only opium merchants, but the Indian officials who, in Bengal, by subsidies, assist planters of the poppy, and who buy the whole opium crop and prepare it in government workshops expressly for the Chinese market. In this sin Christian England also shares; for" under the specious name of the home charges of the Indian Government, England is annually exacting a tribute of fourteen. millions sterling from India" (Friend of Ohina. April, 1888). And England's sin and England's punishment, unless she repents, more or less involve all Christendom. Our sharing of responsibility and the Chinese feeling were vividly impressed on the writer once when preaching on the street in Shashing. Hell was mentioned and a fine looking elderly man exclaimed with equal courJl.ge and severity: "Yes, there is such a place. Since you foreigners came, Ohina has become a hell!"
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
THE Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missions-Blatt says: "Can one live to be old in India f Whoever brings with him a good constitntion, and lives regnlarlyand temperately, can, by God's good providence, even in India. reach an advanced age. The old Dano-Halle Missionary Kohlhoff labored in India 53 years, his son 57. his son 60, C. F. Schwarz 47. Similar examples of long life in India and Burmah are to be found in more recent times also, though not so frequently as in the last century; our Senior Schwarz lived in India 44, Kremmer 47 years. There lately died in Kottajam in Travancore, Mrs. Baker, granddaughter of the elder Koh- 10ff, who in 1819 established a girls' school in Kottajam, and conducted it for 69 years I Mr. Rice. of the L. M. S., lived to celebrate the semi-centennial jubilee of his missionary service, and this year, on the 9th of February, the same honor arrived to the missionary bishop, Caldwell, of the S. P. E.,who may well be regarded as one of the most valuable missionaries in South India, an experienced administrator and an eminent lingnist. He has lately pnblished his remembrances in the Madras MaU, from which we extract the following: • As a youth of lour-and-twenty he landed on the 8th of January, 1838, in Madras, where he remained three and one-half years. His first business there was, of course, to study the language. He ,rapidly made himself master of the two dialects of Tamil, the classical, and the vernacular dialect, and laid an especial stress upon right pronunciation. which to an English tongue offers double difficulties. • • • His first practical work was among the native domestics of the English. Noteworthy is the missionary method which he then recognized as the true one, and which he has maintained through life: 'My plan was to make the congregation the middle point of my whole missionary activity. With the assistance of my native helpers I made it my endeavor to exhort and induce individuals to unite themselves with our congregation. As soon as we had won, instructed and baptized a proselyte. I urged him to bring to us all his relatives and friends. We hoped that in this way eacb new proselyte would become a shining light, around which others would gather. The plan succeeded beyond expectation, and soon the congregation was too nnmerous for the building.' He makes little account of stl'eet-preachings in great cities. •They do not reach the higher castes, and the direct fruit is in no proportion to tbe labor given. I never heard of a case in which any abiding blessing has resulted from this sort of effort.' In 1841 he removed to Tinnevelly. He made the journey on foot, passing throngh Tranqucbar. In his account of this journey there occurs a most unwarranted attack upon onr mission, which he accuses of proselyting efforts among the adherents of the Propagation Society. He shows, thereby. that he, too, has allowed himselfto be carried away by the intolerant spirit of this SOCiety, which is . well inclined to claim aU India as its domain. and while its missions are always ready to encroach upon other fields of labor (as, for instance, in the Kohl Mission) would not even concede' to the Tamils of Lutheran views the liberty of returning to their mother church. • . . Yet Dr. Caldwell, long ago, was one of the few English missionaries who maintained the sonndness of the principles of our mission in regard to the question of caste; a view which, in later times, has gained more and more snpport among them.
"In Tinne.elly he made Idyengudy (Shepherdhome). near Cape Comorin. the center of his resuUful activity. He gathered a great number of Christians out of the surrounding heathen. The congregations nnder his presidency have multiplied tenfold, increasing from 14 to 129, and the number of souls eightfold, from 1,201 to 8,167. The whole number of Tinnevelly Christians connected with the Propagation SOCiety had risen from 4,352. in 1841, to 39,577. To this increase the famine year, 1877-8, bas contributed not a little, for during this the number of souls of this mission, as well as of that of the C. M. S., was nearly doubled. His like-minded wife, a missionary's daughter, contributed not a little to this great success. She helped especially in the education of the girls and elevation of the female sex. She introduced into her girls' school the weaving of lace, in which her scholars attained very considerable skill. Dr. Caldwell's example shows what, in India, the right man in the right place can accomplish, when he is able to remain for a good long while, and so take root. In 1877 he, with his fellow· missionary, Sargent (of Talamcottah) was con- secrated in Calcutta as missionary bishop-hoth being suffragan~ to the Bishop of Madras. He has since then ordained 51 native pastors, and removed his residence to Tutticorin.
" He says that he was never thoronghly well. And yet he has held ont so long in one of the hottest districts of India. For it may be said of Tinnevelly that it has in the year •three months hot weather and nine months hotter.' Yet, strangely enough, he once, during a· furlough in England, had a sunstroke while driving in an open carriage. Sunstrokes are more common where the heat.
is variable. . He has had his share of trouble to bear. Especially since his appointment to the episcopate he has had so much hostility and opprobrium to undergo at the hands of the Christ- ians of his own charge, who felt themselves wounded in their caste pride by his reports, that it is no wonder if he compares himself with the tree of Jotham's parable, who was asked to reign over the other trees. But he concludes his reminiscences with the sentence: •Every year spent in God's service should be regarded as a jubilee year.' "
M. Weitzecker, describing the dedication of a Bassuto Church, writes • •• A numerous company of horsemen approaches, who, on drawing near the village, bring their horses to a walk, close up ~heir ranks, and advance singing. They are our Christians, of whom several took part five years ago in burning and plundering the neighboring village, the capital of this chief. But now no one flees at their approach, and behind this loophole wall, raised to guard against them, no one makes ready to fire upon them or to bar their entrance. On their side they carry neither guns nor assegais nor hatchets nor clubs, and they intone, not a song of war, but a hymn of peace. . . . Soon the women and young girls approach on foot, they also singing. They can, I cannot, for emotion chokes my voice when I remember how often I have seen these very ones fly trembling before the very chief whose domain they now enter with songs."
M. Coillard, of the Zambesi Mission, relates a fact respecting Lewanika, the Zambesi king, powerfully illustrating the tender mercies of the wicked. He lately sent a message to the missionary, assuring him that he had taken to heart his rebuke of him for killing people secretly, and that accordingly, finding hidden in the woods seven children of rebels, he had simply administered to them beer which had been poisoned before their eyes, and had then ordered them to be transported to an islet of the river, and left to die at their leisure! Well may M. Coillard say: "You see in what an atmosphere we live; our heaven would be of lead without the light of the countenance of God; our isolation would be insupportable without the communion ot the Saviour, and, let us add, without the communion of the saints."
The Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift says: "It is now often the fashion to speak disparagingly of the old pietists. This is, in the first place, very unthankful, for in missions, above all things, we are standing on their shoulders. The fathers of the present German missions were pietists. It is, moreover, immodest; for, looking at many of these pietistic fathers, we must say: We are not worthy to unloose their shoe-latchets. Grant that they were one-sided; but this one-sidedness consisted in an exclusive emphasis laid on" the one thing which is needfu1." We have become more broad-minded; but does there go out more virtue from us! We broad-minded people have always something to be' learning afresh from these one-sided pietists, namely, more selflimitation to the one necessary thing, more burning love of Jesus, more edifying application of the Word of God to ourselves, more zeal in prayer, a fuller victory over the world, and al80 more renunciation of the world. without, indeed, being altogether obliged to follow them in their avoidance of the world. These pietistic fathers sat at Jesus' feet, and did at the·same time zealous Martha service; they withdrew themselves from the world, and were yet a >alt of the earth and a light of the world. Therefore it is that, despite all the disparagement With which they treated the world, and despite all the one-sidedness with which they avoided the world, they have so much abiding fruit to witness to them."
The Zeitschrijt also says: "It is, indeed, a matter of great joy, and is worthy of all acknowledgment, that we are so inventive in trying ever more, ever newer, a.nd ever more expeditious ways of drawin~ larger and larger circles iuto an interest for missions; hut independently of the fact that many of these ways already draw very ·near to the bounds of a dubious secularizliotioll. tley are also only too apt to induce neglect in gathering and caring for the "little flock," to which it is the pleasure of our He",venly Father to give the kingdom, and which, there_ fore, at all times and in all places, remains the corpa d'elite, with which the missionary cause wins its victories. To gather and maintain this corps d'elite is above all things the heart of the work."
Again.: .. It is also quite to be approved, when we make it a point, not only to refute tha many ignorant prejudices against missions, and the many malicious misrepresentations which are always springing up afresh with regard to them, but when we also set before those who a.s yet do not appreciate the religious value of missions, the manifold incidental benefits which have redounded by their means to science, commerce, colonization and civilization generally. Doubtless in this way many a one can ana will be introduced more deeply into the cause and converted into a warm and vigorous friend of missions. Yet, if such efforts are prosecuted withont reference, or with only a timid reference to the religious motives and aims of missions, we forget that the deep r08ts of our strength are found only in the living obedience of faith, whose meat it is to do the will of God. If we forget this, all our tricks of persuasion are mefe cobwebs. It is the labor of Sisypus to be always pushing the hands of the clock from without."
"The lack which is made plain by the common complaint that nothing but the driver's stick will bring in collections, will not be made good by always contriving new ways: It rather sets home tous: You must make it more and more exclusively your aim to dig living weU.! And these are living wells: men who have the driver within themselves, of whom it is true that· the love of Christ constraineth' them; men of faith, whose faith brings them to obedience."
"Missionary narrative and history is excellent. It is the three measures of meal. But the leaven of this must be found in "the Word." This must be the chief thing. The sainted Lewis Harris has given the cause of missions in Hermannsburg an abiding root, because he was earnestly and powerfully bent on doing the central work in his parish, the work which was committed to the Apostle Paul among the heathen: 'To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.'"
A Lutheran missionary in South India, writing in the Leipzig Evangelisch- Lutherisches Missions-Blatt, considering the q1lf~stion how far foreign missionaries in India ought to assimilate themselves to the native ways, says: "The missionaries in Santalistan "-a district of Bengal, inhabited by an aboriginal tribe-" have accommodated themselves to the natives perhaps more perfectly than any others in India. They have, so to speak, put themselves on a footing of equality with them. This wise policy, so worthy of imitation, is, next to God's grace and blessing, a chief cause of their success. Yet we must remark, that what they could do there, among the un-Hindnized, uncivilized Santal people, they could not have done here among the Tamils with their many castes, classes, and peculiar institu· tions. Even the Tamil missionary finds no great difficulty in becoming a pariah to the pariahs, but in just the degree that he does this, he ceases to be a miSSionary to the Tamils; that is, he closes the door against himself, and robs himself of the opportnnity of drawing near to the hiaher castes, the Tamils proper, and gaining influence over them. It is, undoubtedly, very qnestionable how fa~ it is practical and judicious for us Europeans here in India;o live so entirely in the European style as is commonly the case. It may be questioned whether it would not be better to assume, at least in part, a more Indian manner of life. But even if this were done we should yet be far from becom· ing Hindus. At best we should only be Eurastans. There would therefore still be a wall of parti.
tion between the inhabitants of the land and the missionary. On this account these East Indians can never be fully served withont the ministrations of native helpers, who, belonging to the people by birth and nationality, feel, think and speak like them, and share their weal and woe, and so find the way to their heart as strangers never can."
M. P. Berthoud, writing in the Bulletin Missionaire, the missionary organ for French Switzerland, from the Portuguese town of Lourenzo-Marques, where there are also a good many Hindus, says: .. The passion for alcoholic drinks is what first strikes an observer on his arrival; and the more intimate his knowledge of the mhabitants becomes, the more thoroughly is he
ORGANi~ED; MISSIONARY WORK
obliged to admit that great as the eyil is on the surface, it is much greater still at the bottom. It is a terrible scourge and plague. .' : .. After this discovery, one makes another still more sad, that of the indescribable 'immo- rality which reigns without restraint. Not a soul cares to raise the least dike agailst its invading floods. The Hindus and the natives themselves follow the Europeans and better the example• .. Lourenzo-Marques possesses a Catholic church, served by a priest of mixed race: Except a few such mulattoes, few people, I am assured, attend the religious services.
However, the inhabitants, white or colored, are not anti-religious; they are satisfied with that which they possess, to wit, a priest, a church, the resources necessary to accomplish certain religio)ls forms of which Qne does not love to be deprived, that is to say, above all the funeral rites. They would, on the contrary, feel themselves annoyed, and perhaps harassed, if religion was more living, if it recalled with too sharp a distinctness the image of a holy God who will judge sinners."
"What a consolation," writes M. Berthoud," in the midst of this Sodom of Lourenzo- Marques, to see approaching to meet us a little serried column of native Christians chant- ing our hymn.! It was the 9th of July-twelve years, to the very day, since the founda- tion of our mission at Vald/izia-that, seated on the front ofour wagon, we saw them coming afar and followed their march with a moved and joyous heart. There were morc< than a hundred of them, al~clad becomingly and simply. The countenances of some beamed with delight, those of others were tremulous with emotion, with all the strength of feeling found vent in an explosion of song.
.. It is touching to see the cordiality which unites them, and which they reanimate in- cessantly by calling each other 'children of the Lord," children of the Father," beloved of the Lord,' etc. Their joyous piety has a certain self-communicating power which may well be one of the causes of the rapid propagation of the gospel. We cannot but perceive a great difference between eur Gwamba of the Spelonken and those of this region, who are in general much more vivacious. This difference may have its bad as well as its good side.
We will not judge, but note.
H I come now to another trait of the life of this church, to wit, the exaltation of the religious sentiment. It appears, first, in the ordinary language, which takes a piou" form apro_ pos of everything, even the most simple material things. Thus people cannot salute each other without making long phrases concerning the will of God and its manifestations; they no longer say of anyone that he has been sick, but that' he has been smitten of God.'
'You ask one who is taking leave when he expects to return. • It is God who knows,' is his reply, given in a peculiar unctuous tone, though' all the while he has his well-defined plans of return. Whatever work has been dose, whatever word has been pronounced, 'it is the Spirit who has shown it, has dictated it.' A person who is going to his work, will say that he IS going' to labor for the flesh,' without giving any heed to the nonsense of the expres.
sion. 'The Spirit, the flesh,' these terms occur in conversation apropos of everything. 1 can in a measure understand how a language constantly made up of pious expressions might be employed by a community of Christians who had all attained perfection. But in a church of which each member still has to strive with the old sinful nature, it be<lomes affected, and we shall soon see one of two results: either the religious sentiment will be- come exalted, or quite as probably it will become enfeebled, and pious phrases will no longer be anythmg more than pharisaical forms; or, quite as often, the former alternative will give birth to the second."
Since M. Besthoud's arrival at Lourenzo-Marques there had been more than thirty conversions, n.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Woman's Missionary Societies. of • amongst the Indians of Manitoba and the Oanada.* Northwest. I. Woma~'s Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the Presbyterian Church in SUMMARY. Canada-Western Division. Organ- ized 1876. Home Work.
Mrs. Hugh Campbell, Secretary, 194 Rich- Number of Mission Bands ….. : ……. 124 mond street, West Toronto, Ontario. Members in Mission Bands .• a,829 Auxiliary Societies … , ….. . 351 They sustain work in India, Formosa, New Members in Auxiliary Socie- Hebrides, Trinidad, and Honau, China, and ties ………………….. . 9,025 Life Members … , ……….. . 251 .. We are indebted to Mrs. Dr. J. T.Gracey Members of both Local and for this additional account of Woman's General Society……… , • 2,336 Missionary Societies in ClLnada and Great Presbyterian Societies .. , .. . 21 BritILin.-EDs. Total Membership ……………….. . 12,854 Increase in Membership …………. .. 4,291 New Presbyterian Societies………. . 3 New Auxiliaries ………………….. . 98 New Mission Bands ………………. . 49 New Life Members………………. .. 00 Finances. retary, Mrs. E. S. Strachan, 113 Hughson Contri~1;lted by Miss~C!n Bands. . . .. $5,273 25 street, North Hamilton, Canada.
Auxlhartes .. .. …. 19,856 19 The work of this Society in Canada is di- from other sources 528 00 divided into Branches, as follows: Western Branch Central, Eastern, Nova Scotia, New Total amount contributed …..$25,65754 Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island. To these Branches there are certain Districts II. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- auxiliary as follows: St. Johns East, St. ciety of the Presbyterian Church of Johns West, Winnipeg and Qu'Appelle. Canada-Eastern Division. Organ- ized 1877. The tabulated statistics are as follows: Auxiliary societies, 138; members, 4,086; Miss Edith Burns, Secretary, 18 Kent life members, 237; mission bands, 49, with street, Halifax. I,711 me~bers. For the year 1887 the amount of money raised was $14,197.51. The amount The grand total of the receipts of the So- since organization in 1881 is $46,909.46 ciety for the year ending Oct. 17, 1887, which Twelve missionaries have been sent to the is the latest report available, amounts to various fields. $5,091.77. This Society has no missionary period ical III. The Women's Baptist Foreign of their own, but edit a department in the Missionary Societies of Ontario and Outlook, a periodical of their Board. Quebec, Canada. The foreign work of the Society is III President, Mrs. J. H. Castle, Toronto, Japan, the home workthroughont the Prov- Canada. Corresponding Secretary, Miss inces. The" Crosby Home" a't Port Simp- Buchan, Toronto, Canada. son, B. C., is in a flourishing condition. Th4ilre are now 20 girls in attendance. The The work of this Soeiety is represented by McDougall Orphanage and Training Institwo sections, Eastern Ontario and Quebec tute among North American IndianS' has and the Society of Ontario. It has been in 10 boys and 8 girls. A mission school for operation over eleven years. girls (French) has been established at Actonvale with 25 pupils 14 of whom have The section of Eastern Ontario and Que- been converted during the year. bec is represented by 47 mission circles, and raised the past year the amount of $1,555.80 The girls' school in Tokyo. Japan, has while the Society of Ontario is represented been crowded to its utmost capacity, 127 by 150 circles, and money raised $4,626.74 ; or, boarders and 100 day pupils. Fifty of these the two sections, exclusive of balance of have been converted and baptized. Th.ere previous Veal'S, $6,182.54. are now 65 native Christians in the school, Much attention has been' given to evan- W9rk is carried on in India, at Akidu, Co- gelistic work, and the training of native canada, Samulcotta and Tuni, all in the .Christian women for work among their own Telugu country. people. A special donation of $1,000 was given the past year to open work in another '!'hree Eurasian women are employed, and station in Japan, and Shidzuoka was se- report more work than they can do. A ected, and a building free of rent secured &::lCces.ful girls' school is reported at Co- fo), two years. and Miss Ounningham has reo canada. Miss Alexander, of Toronto, sailed cently reached Japan to take charge of this during the veal' to recruit. the mission. A work. Arrangements were also made for Zenana House has been built at Cocanada. aiding the Chinese girls in Victoria, B. O.
IV. Woman's Baptist Missionary Women's Missionary Societies of Great Union of the Maritime Provinces,. Britain and Ireland. Organized 1870. I. Society for Promoting Female Educa- Mrs. John March, St. Johns, N. B., Cor- responding Secretary. tion in the East. Established 1834.
Its home territory includes Nova Scotia, Secretary, Miss Webb, London, England. New Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island. This SOCiety is the oldest organized Society for carrying on work amcng the women of the The Society supports its own missionaries East. It commenced with schools in India and in India and contributes to the support of China, but the work was snbsequently extended fonr of the men employed by the parent to other countries, and now Includes Ceylon, Board. With much misgiving they appro- Japan, the Straits, South and West Africa, the priated at the beginning of the year $3,500 Levant, Egypt and the Holy Land, Turkey in but rejoice at its close over an income of Europe alid Persia. As early as 1835 one of the $1,735 in excess of that, and $258.30 given to Society's missionaries gained access to a house the Home Mission Board. Total income in Calcutta. $4,493.30. The object of the Society has been and ill V. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada.
President, Mrs. James Gooderham, 166 Carlton street, Toronto; Corresponding Secstrictlyevangelistie. Recently they have estab- supports 29 schools, with about 8,000 pupils. lished medical missions in North India and the There are day and night schools, and for Holy Land. Forty European missionaries are boys and girls and women. All. are inemployed, who have charge of abont 275 structed in the Scriptures. The annual schools, attended by 19,624 scholars. Some 380 income is about $25,000. zenanas are visited, with about 3,000 pupils_ The annnal income about $35,000. V. Ladies' Association for the Support of Bible Women and Zenana Work The Society publishes The FemaU MiBBion- in Connection with the Baptist Misary Inteliigencer, a monthly magazine of some sixteen pages. sionary Society of England. Es- II. Indian Female Normal School and tablished 1868.
Instruction Society; or Zenana Bi- This Society has work in India, North- west Provinces, Bengal, Madras and the ble and Medical Mission. Estab- Punjab, which consists of schools, zenana, medical and dispensary work. lished 1852. The annual income is about $30,000. This Society was organized in Calcutta, Forty-four European female agents are emand the first work was the establishment of ployed, and 105 native workers, with the a Normal School in that city for Eurasian support of 50 schools, with over 1,600 pupils, teachers. The Society extended its opera- and over 20,000 dispensary patients. tions into three Presidencies, and added to the training of teachers, zenana visiting, VI. The Female Association for Proestablishment of female schools, employment of Bible women and medical missions. moting Christianity among the Wo- The constitution of the Society had been undenominational until 1880, when a division men of the East_ Irish Presbyterian occurred, some adhering to the old constitu- Church. Established 1873. tion, others forming a new society in connection with the Church of England. Since This organization was established through the the division the work has greatly extended, inlluence of Dr. Murray Mitchell and Rev. Nathe societies working in different parts of rayan Sheshadri. Their first missionary sailed India. Annnal income about $50,000. About for India in 1874. Now there are eight lady 27 stations are occupied, with 52 female missionaries, two of whom are medical. Three and 150 native workers. About 55 schools stations are occupied, Surat, Ahmedabad and are supported, with over 3,000 pupils. The Borsad, while girls' schools are supported in Society publishes a quarterly magazine, three other places. There are 14 schools with The Indian Female Evangeli8t. 800 pupils; Bome 30 houses visited. There are two dispensaries, one at Surat, the other at III. Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wesleyan Ahmedabad. The SOCiety employs 12 female native workers. This organization has some Missionary Society. Established 160 auxiliaries, an annual income of about $10,- 000. 1859. Woman'8 Work Is a small magazine published The prejudices against female education" by this Society, quarterly, at Belfast, Ireland. Were giving away somewhat when this Society began its work. It has work in Cey- VII. Woman's Missionary Association lon, India, China, South and West Africa. This Society is auxiliary Ito the General of the Presbyterian Church of Eng- Wesleyan Missionary Society. Their most successful work has been in Ceylon. Their land. Established 1878. annual income is about $35,000. Their work is in 48 stations, with 80 missionaries, 35 The work done by this Association is in native workers, 202 schools, with nearly five stations in China and Singapore, and 10,OOD pupils. Much of their work is super- one station in India-Rampor Bauleah. intended by the wives of missionaries. Miss Ricketts was their first missionary to China, and went out in 1878. IV. British Syrian Schools and Bible The annual income of the Society is about Mission. Founded 1860. $10,000. Thirteen female (European) and 8 native workers are employed, and 5 schools, This Society was organized soon after the with 155 scholars, supported. A quarterly fearful massacres of 1860 in and about magazine, caUed Our Sister8 in Other Lands, Damascus. The Druses put to death about is issued by this Society, published in Lon- 11,000 Christians, and their widows and don. children were turned adrift and fled to the seaport towns. Mrs. Bowen Thompson, who VIII. Church oflEngland Zenana Mishad spent much of her life in Syria, went to Beyrout and at once organized schools, and sionary Society. Established 1880. then established others in various centers. The Society has now about 28 alrents. with This Society was formed by a separation ~ male native workers and 94 female, and from the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. It works in connection with Church of England Missionary Society. At its formation it had 31 Enropean mission-
CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
aries in 17 .stations, and at the close of the XI. Ladies' Society for Female Eduseventh year it had 88 missionaries, 49 na- cation in India and South Africa, tive assistants, and 396 Bible women and of the Free Church of Scotland. native teachers in 42 mission stations. Its present fields are India, China and Japan. This SOCil"ty has done very suceessful work Income for 1887-8 about $115,000. in Southern India and Africa, and has re- centlv added medical work to its various The Society supports 181 schools with 6,928 agencies. It has a staff of 20 European and scholars.* India's Women, the organ of Eurasian helpers in India, and 120 native' this Society, is published every alternate Christian agents, with some 5,000 pupils unmonth, a magazine of 56 pages. der instruction. In Africa 12 European and 57 native Christian agents, with 1,675 pupils. IX. Zenana Medical College. Estab- A very successful boarding-school is car· lished in London, 1880. ried on at Loredale, South Africa, with over 100 pupils. About 30 missionaries' wives This is an unsectarian institution. Its object have supervision of the work. is to train Christian women for medical missionary work in the East. The ladies wl10 The income for 1887 was about $55,000. have finished their college course have been sent to Iudia, China, Ceylon, Syria, and Africa XIII. The Helping Hands Zenana by various missionary societies. The appli- Association. cants for admission have been more than could be accommodated. The income for 1887 was The object of this Association is to bring about $4,000. G. G. Griffith, M.D., Secretary. the young people of Great Britain and Colo- 'nies into active sympathy with the Protest- X. Ladies' Committee in Connection ant missionary societies working among the women of India. The Society has sup- / with the London ,MissionaryS 0- ported schools at various places in India, paid part of the expenses of a medical mis- ciety. sion,and aids in several other departments of missionary work. This Society supports 24 missionaries, 15 in India, 6 in China, and 3 in Madagascar; This Society publishes a monthly paper also 136 girls' schools, boarding schools. 20; called Indian Jewels. day schools, 116; with OVer 7,000 scholars. Over 250 Bible women are employed. It is WOMAN'S BOARD OF THE CUMBERLAND difficult to properly present this work, because of the lack of classification of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. information concerning it which obtains in the report of the Society. Recently this WE gladly correct a mistake in stat- Society has issued a magazine of woman's work called Quarterly News. ing the income of the Board last year XI. Ladies' Association for the Promo- (p. 922), which we made but $1,920.87. Rev. H. C. Bird, one of the leading tion of Female Education among the pastors of this Church, writes us: Heathen in the Missions of the So- "The figures are incorrect as you may ciety for the Propagation of the Gos- see by referring to the Assem8lv's Minutes, p. 104. The receipts of the board were $7- pel. 6.',8.44 ; and the whole amount in the trea- sury during the year was $11,212.63. I would This Society has work in India, Burmah, be glad to have you make the correction. South Africa and Japan. In India 61 mis- It is still a poor exhibit, but is a little betsionaries, and in Africa 10 are at work, ter than in your notice." with over 300 female native agents.
The Society publishes a monthly magazine called Grain 01 Mustard Seed.
III-CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Ohina. Chinese elders. Seven of the native pastors came from Central China, and one from Pe- LETTER from our editorial corre- king. The foreign missionaries represented different stations along the coast, and in spondent, John L. Nevius, D.D. : the interior, as foHows: Two from Canton, one from Ningpo, two from Shanghai, .two CHEFOO, Oct. 5, 1888. from Hang Chow, two from Suchow, one The Synod of China connected with the from Nankin, two from Chefoo, two from American Presbyterian Church, North, Weihien,~two rom Chi-nan-fn, one from Pewhich convenes once in five years, held its king and three from Teng-CllOwfu. One of last meeting in Ling-Chow-Fu. in the Pro- the representatives from Canton was' our vince of Shantung, on the 13thofSeptember_ veteran missionary, Dr. Happer. Though It was composed of twenty foreign mission- forty-five years have passed since he first aries, eight Cbinese pastors, and twelv~ came to China, there IS very little a.ba.te- * Over 2,000 Zenanas under visitation, and ::,187 pupils regularly ta.ught. ment of his physical and mental vigor, and ganizations in the West have now their recetltainly none in his missionary enthusiasm presentatives in China, viz.: American and zeal. Presbyterians, North and Sonth; Dutch Reformed, English Presbyt.erians, Scotch All the delegates, except those who reside Presbyterians, Irish PreslJ) terians, United in the interior of Shantung, came to Chefoo Presbyterians, and Canadian Presbyterians. by steamer, and completed the journey to A committee was ·appointed to open a cor- Teng-Chow, distant about fifty-five miles, respondence with these Presbyterian bodies, in mule-litters, or on mules and donkeys. inviting them to meet us by their represent- The road lies over a rough and compara- atives at the next General Missionary Contively barren and sparsely populated coun- ference, to be held in Shanghai, in 1890, to try, presenting, however, many picturesque devise a plan of uaion. It is hoped that it views of hill and valley, while much of the will not be many years before the moveway the Pechili Bay is in full view on the ment towards organic union will overleap north. Our guests from the south of China Western denominational bounds, and incorwill have many interesting experiences to pOl'ate different families of churches mto remember connected with our rough, and one Chinese National Church. to them novel, modes of locomotion. Now the mule-patH winds round the edge of a The longest and most spirited discussion steep gorge or precipice, again we ford a during Synod, related to the use of other st,ream or fiounder through a pool of mud than grape wine in the administration of the and water. The mules and donkeys meeting Lord's Supper. In China, the manufacture on the road make the hills resound with of grape wine is unknown. There is, howtheir vociferous salutations, and sometimes, ever, a fermented wine produced from gluwhen sportive or intractable, overturn the tinous rice and millet in common useamon<:, litter, and leave the passenger to extricate the people, and believed by some of us to himself from his portable mat-shelter, and correspond in almost every respect, except the muleteers to catch the refractory ani- its origin, to grape wine in the West, and to mals, repair damages, and make a new start. be equally appropriate as a symbol. This Wheu Dr. McCarter came to this region, wine has been generally used in Shantung, about twenty-five years ago, he very aptly especially in stations in the interior. It was characterized the motions of these mule- objected to enjoining the use of grape wine litters as a constant alternation between in all cases, that such a course would be unthe motions of the" sieve" and the "pepper- necessary and burdensome; that the nse of box." Dr. Gulick, who visited us later, very grape wine is not essential to the validity of discriminatingly added the" bottle-washing the ordinance, and insisting on it would be motion." The U SIeve motion" is the result contrary not only to the intent of the ordiof the animals keeping step; that of the nance, but also to the general spirit of "pepper-box" of their breaking step; while Ohristianity; that the introduction of this the U bottle-washing motion" comes from· new wine in China would excite curio.ity the mules jumping down the rocky inequali- and a superstitious reverence for outward ties of the road, From these happy simili- and uuessential formR; and that it wonld tudes the experience of a traveler during make the Ohurch the instrument of introa journey of a day and a half, including a ducing a new beverage into Ohina, and innight in a Chinese inn, can be imagined. crease drunkenness with all its attendant evils. Differences of language form a serious difficulty in transacting business in this A resolution expressing the o;>inion of the Synod. The records of the Synod are kept Synod tha.t grape wine should be used whenin the universal written language of China. ever it could be obtained was passed by a Members speak in English and Mandarin, majority of 21 to 17. Another resolution which is the spoken language of North enjoining the exclusive nse of grape wine China. The native members from Central was negat,ived by a large majority. The China have learned to speak Mandarin, so minority entered a complaint against this that they are fairly well understood. As a. last action of Synod, and the matter will thus rule speeches are formally translated from be brought before the next General Assem- English into ~landarin, andvice-versa. Busi- bly. ness is conducted in a very orderly manner, the native members being now almost as Some of the statistics of the Synod of familiar with rules of order as the foreigners Ohina are as follows: Initiatory steps were taken toward securing the organic union of the dlfferent Pres- Number of Churches……………….. 42 byterian bodies in China. This movement .. .. Church Members added which nas been a matter of great interest to many missionaries in China for years past, since last Synod …………………. 1,981 has been much stimulated and facilitated Number of Church Members Expelled.. 560 by the action of the recent Pan-Presbyterian .. " H " Died. . . . . . . 292 Alliance. Seven distinct Presb;yt~ri1<n 01'- Total Number of Male Church Members 1,837 U Female" .~ 1,325 " ..
" ., Foreign Ministers….. 38 .. Native .. .., . . 23 .. Preachers of all Grades 85 .. Preaching Stations••• 179 Brazil. diminished. The so·called enthusiasm over the abolition of slavery in Brazil was largely dne to PERNAMBUCO, September 24, 1888. the popularity of the movement. Althougb but HOWEVER high may be th estandard of morals One case has com~ to my knowledge, I am so of the Romish Church, her practices have so well acquainted with the Brazilian character nullified her precepts that in Brazil morality that I do not hesitate to say that many people seems to form no part of religion. Morality who were not in sympathy witll the work of the separate from religion is .a frail bark on the abolitionists, and who will evade the law as 10lllt swiftly fiowing current ofsin, and religiou with. as they can, contributod to defray the expenses out morality is a vehicle for hypocrisy to ride of the public demollstmtiOllS, and decorated and in. An indication of how little moral infiuence illuminated their own houses becanse abolition is exerted by Romanism may be taken from the was popnlar and they had ltot the courage to fact that in this city of Pernambuco, the popu. appear on tbe othor side. If they shonld bEt lation of disreputable characters Is thickest called upon to justify tbeir action, they wonld right around the principal churches, where they make patriotism their shield. 'l'he Brazilian is attend mass for the purpose of display and con- very jealous of the honor of his country, and in quest as they would a theater. the abolition of slavery the thOugbt of the re- From this separation of religion and morals moval of Brazil's reproach of being the only civarises one of the chief difficulties for the gospel ilized country maintaining slavery seemR to give to overcome. Romanism answers the purposes more satisfaction than that of the right and of those who desire to be religious without in- jnstice done, or that of the oppression removed terfering with their morals; and those who dis- from so many Imman beings. This same national regard religion are not snsceptible to appeals for pride has been of great service in suppressing 190rality through religion. Hence it is that persecution whenever it has arisen against us while tbere are many people wbo have practi- missionaries. The tOlle of inflnential people who cally renounced Romanism because of its being endeavor to pl'Otect ns is: "Are we not a civil· found wanting and not because of something ized people, and sball we permit indignities such better having been presented to them, it is hard as only could be expected of barbarians? " now to make them desire religion of any kind; and since they will not see it, we mnst deVise It is somewhat of a trial for us who, methods to more fully carry ont Christ's word, through experience, have learned wba~ it " Go." We hold our services in private houses, is to be a Christian, not to be able to use the halls and small churcbes. Occasionally a passer- word" Christian" as we understand it; but by is attracted by the singing and enters shyly. in this land, the simple question" Are you He hears the Word of God read or proclaimed. a Christian? "would invariably be answered Perchance his heart is prepared by grace to re- in the affirmative. Christening is what ceive the word, and he at length becomes a makes a Christian; so we have to resort to member of tbe church. But oh ! the many who other phraseology in speaking of 01le'8 renever come to hear of Jesns. We go in private lation to Christ. Amollg the followers of to this one and that; but the masses are not Christ, the word" believer" takes the place reached. Street preaching is prohibited bylaw. of the word H Christian.n In differ~nt parts The colporteurs of varions Bible societies have of Brazil the names given to Protestants by planted the Word in many parts of the country; tbe popnlace vary according to circum-· but, except ill the principal cities, no misSionary stances attending the introduction of the Apollos has entered. work. In Rio de Janeiro, the first place in While the Romish Chnrch fails to exert a moral which the gospel was preached, they are infiuence, it has made its impress on the so~ial called "bibles," due probably to the st"ess life and cbaracter of the people. The deception laid on the use of the Bible alld the estimaengendered shows itself not only on lying lips, tion with which it was held by the first bebut in the disposition of tbe people to appear lievers_ Before the good news would be acwhat they are not. The maintenance of a good cepted, the genuineness of the evidence had reputation is of more importance than that of a to be established. In another part, the good character, and to a wonderful degree the Protestallts are called "Jesus," for that Brazilian is bound to that which is conventional name, of course, was above every name in and popular. Many people there are who regard the preaching_ In the province of Ceara, the Ro!nish Church and the various social cns- where the first missionary was a married toms out~·! J. in;; therefrom as folly and super- man, every believer, whether man or wostiiion, an" ret, rather than be thought pecnliar, man, married or single, is called a U marthey conform thereto. Others there are who are ried priest." Here in Pernambuco We arc impressed with the truth of evangelical teach- called H new sect." ings and practices who are kept by tbis false pride from frequenting our meetings, insignifi- There are. several things that lead me to cant in aspect and attended mostly by people of advocate" self-support" as the most feasilowly station. Let our cause once become popnlar in Brazil, and missionary reports will con- ble ba.si~ for missionary work in Brazil. tain large figures, but the proportion of genuine Christian character among our members will be First, it is possible. I consider that theobh- gation to support me rests 110 more upon the whole church than upon the individual members of it. of which I am one, and therefore, it being possible for me to support my- the missionary is not self.supporting, any self and serve my Master a& missionary, I am compelled to do it. To live 'on the char- convert who shows any capability for pubityof others when God puts it within my lic work expects, if he engages in it, to ~ive power to provide for myself would be incon- up his present occupation and receive a sistent and insincere. In so saying" I am salary from the missionary society. not accusing anyone who does not support himself. The question turns upon the p08si- A self-supporting mi.sionary in Brazil is bilityof supporting one's self and fulfilling bound to have the respect of the general pubone's obligations as missionary at the same time. It has been said that if a missionary lic when it would not be given to another. for has to,take time to earn his own living he two reasons; first, because his occupation cannot do as much missionary work as if he were free from all care as to his income. I brings him into constant contact with the people, will not dispute that point in this paper; and lack of respect for a missionary is in most but it must be granted that whatever mis- cases due to lack of acquaintance with him; sionary work is done by a self-supporting missionary in a foreign field is just so mnch and second, because the Brazilian looks with more than wonld be done if he stayed at snspicion upon anything that may be propaganhome for the wa.nt of a salary. Let the dism for tbe sake of the money there is in it. churches in the home lands support as many missionaries as they can-as many as need Their own experience with priestcraft and the to be supported-and let as many go forth Jesuits has made it so. Only recently a gentleas are willing to support themselves, and man who comes to our meetiugs told me that yet the laborers wiII be inadequate to the work to be done. Do some of you say you the vicar of a certain important parish in this don't see how any missionary can support city had told him that he is a priest because his himself; that yon are overworked as it is, and to attempt to earn your own living be- father had educated him for one, and although sides would be death to yon? Let me say that earning one's own living is a check he does not believe in half that Romanism against breaking down. With nothing to teaches, he remains a priest because it is his restrain you, and surrounded by so much that appeals to your sympathies, and work occupation. Is it at all unreasonable that a pouring in upon you which you did not seek, Protestant missionary, against whom Romanists how can you refuse even thongh you know that you ought to rest? Self-support puts are already prejudiced, and who lives in better you under obligations that compel you to style than their own priests, should be suspected refuse, and so takes your mind from the very work: that wears you out as to be more of being what he is for the sake of what he is beneficial than idle rest. paid? ', Moreover, there are other things to be taught'the people besides what is done un- Up to the present, the best resource for selfder the head of regular 'missionary work. Lessons of thrift aud industry are best com- support in Brazil s~ems to be that which arises prehended if exemplified by the mission- from the demand for private tutorage in varions aries themselves. With au appearance of good living: without any ell'ort on your part branches of learning, and particularly in the to obtain it, what idea can you give them of industry? You may tell them of how English language. There are always to be many hours a day you devote to study in found people of too liberal ideas to be governed order to labor ell'ectively among them; but what idea have the majority of our converts in matters of business and secular education by ';f what intellectual labor is? If they can religious prejndices, while many most unyieldsee what you do to earn your livelihood, they wiII understand better what industry ing Romanists do not hesitate to employ us means, and the ell'ort you put forth in order to live among them to preach Christ will be rather than not receive instruction on a par with a strong proof of how much you love Him that of their neighbors. In choosing this occuand them., In imitation of you, they will coutitiue to support themselves, and labor pation we are not obliged to take upon ourselves for Christ among their own people without any more work than is necessary for our supexpecting any pay therefor. This feature has been noticeable in connection with self- port, or any that interferes with our gospel supporting work in Brazil, while, on the other hand, we have observed that where work. We invite our pupils to our meetings; some of them become regular attendants and a few have been converted. Besides the indirect beneficial results of our contact with the people, there are others that the missionaries of the next generation, and even we in later yelJ.rs, will feel. God ha,tl blessed the missionary work of the past century to a wonderful degree. He has not despised the inexperience and poor methods em- ployed; yet He would have us profit thereby and improve thereon. Let the Pr.otestant churches of Europe and AmericlJ. give their millions of money; but I believe that the acme of missionary times will not be reached till there are millions of person~ going forth from those same churches into all the world, depend- ing only on God's blessing, on the labor of their hands or brain to provide them with means to live and labor among those who are dying for the want of the bread of life. God speed the day. GEORGE B. NIND, Methodist Episcopal Layman. Persia.; Islam in the village of Ula, to begin work there until It could be opened in Haft Dewan. The LETTER from Rev'. John C. Mech- first thing to do was to secure a house In that village. A man who was connected with civil lin: matters was willing to rent us his property, pro- vided we would give him big rent. But before SALMOB, May 16, 1888. the bargain was made the proposed transaction became public, and the man received such II I was one of the 2,000 young people that beatin~-bastinado-that he died from the ef- fects of it. Thus the work was begun in blood, pledged themselves for Missions a year ago. I though the man was not a martyr for our cause, bnt for money. Before long another man vengraduated from Western Seminary, Allegheny, tured to offer his place for rent. He received large money in advance for three years. As Pa., was accepted by the Presbyterian Board soon as this became known it caused an awful stir. He was fined-one-quarter of the money and sent here. bein<: taken from him-and he was also severely beaten. Afraid for his life, he fied to Tillis, Rus- Three of the seven missionaries that arrived sia. Many times his wife came to Dr. Shedd and pleaded with him to take back the money and here in October remained at Salmos-Mr. Mech- give her the paper. But though we had the right to the place, the next qnestion was to get lin and his wife, and Miss Emma Roberts of possession. The people were furious and it did not seem safe to go to our house. We had to Atlanta, Ga. Messrs. McDowell and St. Pierre appeal to the government; finally, our minister at Teheran carried the matter before the Shah, and their wives went on to Oroomioh. and a special order was sent froin the throne to the Governor of this province~ I will tell you how this station was opened, A chain of circumstances showed God's and how God's hand was seen in it. Work has providence and answer to prayer. The present Ameer was then Governor of been done in this Plain for several years by Oroo- Oroomioh, and on the death of the then Ameer, who had been unfriendly, was apmioh helpers. But frequently "they disgraced pointed to fill his place. Jnst as he left for Tabriz, he got the mandate of. the Shah. their profession by quarreling and by lying. He sent for the Governor of Khoy, who was responsible for the troubles having The missionaries felt it necessary to put a mis- gone so far, and degraded him before the people, probably more to revenge himself sionary here who could always aid and control than to punish the Governor, with whom he had a qnarrel. He also gave orders that no the helpers. As to the peoples of Salmos, five one molest us iu Salmos. Posters were put up in DHimon, the central market town, nationalities are represented here. 1. Per- wa.rning all against interfering with us. Here was the chain of providences: The sians-from whom come our rulers and many death of the Ameer, the appointment of a friendly successor, his receiving the decree business men-all, of course, Musselmen, but when he did, and the orders he left in Sal- mos. And this was not all. He r~ported the very friendly. We call On them anc1 they on us. Governor of Khoy to the authorities in Teheran and they summoned him to the Many of this class are reading the Bible. Sheik capital. He knew that if he obeyed, he would be beaten, and deg~aded from his Islam, the religious head of this Plain, is very position. So instead of going, he sent a present of seven hundred Tomans ($1,050), friendly, and a man of such infiuence that the and aU trouble passed over. As soon as Mr. Wright, who was stationed here by the mis- Governor does not meddle with his affairs. sion, could take possession, he made his home in Haft Dewan. Some of the leading Much prejudice has been broken down by the men met him and said that they would op- pose him in every way, would raise money medical treatment of Drs. Holmes and Cochran, and have their own schools, and their child- ren should not come to his. They said: whom they hold in high esteem. 2. Jews. .. Why don't you do as your Master did? If they did not want him in their city, he They are many and very friendly. We will went to another." Mr. Wright answered soon open work among them. They are here, as everywhere, a marked race, and their busi- ness is trading. 3. Nestorians. These people, among whom we have one church, belong to the Oroomioh Plain, and still cling to the Old Church. 4. Monntain Koords. They are 80 near that we may count them as belonging to the Plain. 5. The Armenians. They are the rich- est, and are either farmers or merchants, hav- ing a strong national pride. Their great hope is one day to become a separate power, but Russsia, Turkey and Persia will all resist this.
Snrroundcd by Mohammedanism, and often sorely pressed to become followers of the False Prophet, they never gave up their form of wor- shiplor their belief in Jesus as the Son of God; but they did not hold so strongly to ltJe spirit as to the letter, of the Bible. Formality took the place of heart worship, and the priests cared more for the fieece than for the sheep.
But here they remained, as if to witness for the doctrine of the Trinity; and it seems as if God had left them here, that, revived and qnickened, they might give salvation to all these peoples.
At the annual meeting in the fall of 1884 it was, therefore, resolved to open a station for work among the Armenians. Haft Dewan was chosen because it was one of the most central and in- flnential Armenian villages of the Plain.
Dr. J. H. Shedd, of Oroomioh, came that fall to Salmos, and rented a house from Sheik that he loved their souls too mueh to leave alHicted are drawn to the gospel wi~ them; he would stay. A year passed by greater interest. Since reaching the coun. and all parties became and have continued try it has been my privilege to preach two very friendly. or three times weekly. In Tarsus from 200 to 400, and in Adana from 1,200 to 1,500 per- The hostility to our mission may be easily sons were gathered each Sabbath; prayer_ accounted for. Twenty minutes ride from meetings are largely attended, and the Haft Dewan is the village of Khosroo-Shah, Sabbath-school lesson has to be given from where for nearly fifty years the Catholic the pulpit, there not being room to arrange Lazarists have had a mission. When they classes for such large numbers. came there the town was one of the richest on the Plain, partly Armenian and partly The Kenerous contributions of Christian Nestorian. To-day it is one of the worst; friends in America for the famine sufferers its lewd women and drunken men give it have proved a means of grace among everywhere a bad odor. Tke Catholics have the people. A few Sabbaths ago we had taught them to gamble and encouraged' communion in Adana, at which 54 perstrong drink by their own example. For sons united with the church on profession the first time in twenty years a man has of faith. In Tarsus the work has not been been seen in Persia dead-drunk by the road- so prosperou~ owing to the lack of a regular side. For many years these monks meddled pastor and an unsuitable place of worship. with civil affairs, securing justice only for Yet there are many to be gathered into the those that favored tbem and pnnishing churches. whom they would. They also farmed the taxes and became so obnoxious that the Gov- Another promising feature is the educaernment gave strict orders that they should tional interest among the youth. Besides let civil matters alone. They are now under the contributions for the famine sufferers, the ban. Dreadful lies had been circulated which were $2,445 last year, there was given concerning us, and these poor people of $2,400 for the scholarship fund for the poor Haft Dewan expected the worst from us. and orphan children of St. Paul's Institute. But as time showed that we did not meddle From this last amount $425 was seut with with their affairs, they became friendly and the famine money for immediate use in now wonld not wish us to leave. Though helping our poor children. On our arrival' none have come out on the Lord's side, we were surprised to learn that 75 children many seem glad to hear the Word. The had been assisted. Calling at their schools woman whose husband rented to the mis- we saw dozens of pale, sickly-looking, yet sionaries at first stole everything she could bright children, sitting on the hard fioor, get, but this sbe has ceased to do, and has their clothing patched with pieces of many been known to speak good words for Mr. colors, and worn daily for more than a year Wright. She seems in fact to be a Christ- (they stay in the house while their ollly garian. ments were washed and dried). Some had only worn-out books, which they· shared The work has thus begun; .the Bible is with others. Asking the teacher, ' Is this read and studied, and the fields are ripen- the condition of the children all the year?" ing to the harvest. Next winter I hope to the reply was: .. They are now in a better work on the Plain among the Armenians, state, as the famine is passing. Many conmany of whose villages have not been vis- tinue the school with insulHcient clothing, ited. barefooted and often hungry for days." Many lived on two or three metallics (cents) Asia Minor. daily. .. Often hungry, yet industrious; shivering with cold, burning with heat, still ST. PAUL'S INSTITUTE, TARSUS, Ang. I, 1888. most eager to make progress." Beyond the EDITORS OF lI1lSSIONARY REVIEW.-YOU will pale faces and frail bodies we saw active be glad to know of the safe arrival of our minds and souls to be loved and won for party, our expenses being paid by Col. Christ. They are entirely dependent on Elliott F. Shepard. Arriving at Mersine, benevolent friends for futher education- •Tarsus and Adaua, we were most cordially if they are properly cared for and educated, welcomed by the missionaries and hundreds what a greatblessing they will prove to this of the native friends. These three cities needy and darkened lalld J now being connected by rail are almost as one city, having a population of nearly It was God's own time for us to come while 100,000, consisting of Mohammedans, Arme- the people are so needy and eager to receive nians, Greeks and Fellaheens. The first the gospel. Our mission is to teach and thing we noticed was the exceeding poverty preach the truth. The kind interest of the of the people, owing to the recent severe missionaries and people here encourages us famine. This year's harvest is good, still in our work. Tarsus will be our head- there are thousands of sick, aged, feeble quarters, where our school will be located, women and little children who are unable yet we will worK in other cities and villages to work for their support, whose suffering throughout Asia Minor, is beyond description. The people thUS We expect to.open our school in a rented her husband was on a journey far from hOIDe. house, October 1. There are many appli- He heard a rumor of what was going on, and cations for admission, most of whom are started in a hurry for home, telling his friends orphans and poor children. The sum of $50 that if his wife had taken up with these fanatics will support a child for one year in the he and she would soon separate. Within two school. days he and his wife were found with hands joined praising and blessing God for His good- For the success of our mission we depend, ness In giving them such a blessed outpouring with God's blessing, upou the direction of of His Holy Spirit. our Board of Trustees and Managers and the benevolent support of Christian friends. Whilst the Boers were praisio!( God for His I hope you will always be interested in this goodness, it came into the hearts of some that work, and help it any way you can. It is they had a duty toward the heathen, whom they the Master's work, to whom be all the glory. had hitherto looked upon as little better tban animals, to serve them, the snperior race. In I shall be glad to correspond with -and their gatherings for prayer they brought the hear from you at any time. condition of the heathen before their heavenly Father, and SOOn they felt that they must be up Yours in Christ. and dOing. Applications for help were made to (Rev.) H. S. JENANYAN. various missiOnaries, especially to those of the, Free Church of Scotland. These appeals were Mission Work Among the Zulus in gladly responded to, and before long 'they had NataJ, Africa. several native evangelists preaching the gospel throughout the country. There are now fifteen BY REV• .TAMES SCOTT, IMPOLWENI. stations or preaching places where the heathen are gathered together to hear of Jesus and His A VERY nnexpected and interesting work has love. These stations are just the Boers' farmbeen begun amongst the Zulns in Natal. The houses. On the Sabbath the Zulus may be seen European population of the county of Umvoti, gathering in from the neighboring kraals and of which Greytown is the principal place, are villages, old and young, men and women, a few Boers, who belong to the Dntch Reformed clothed, but mostly heatheu in their blankets, or Church (Presbyterian). Their minister, the even without one. The largest shed available, Itev. James Turnbull, was a licentiate of the generally the wagon-house, has been prepared Free Church of Scotland, educated at the New for the occasion, and there the missionary or College, Edinburgh. native evangelist, or, in absence of either, the Dutch farmer, conducts a simple service in the Mr. Turnbull's congregation, like their coun- Zulu language. The writer has on some of these trymen throughont Sonth Africa, read their occasions seen as many as eighty Boers and Bibles, attended ordinances, and were ont- three or four hundred Zulus gathered together wardly good Christian people. Their Christi- to worship the one true God, the services comanity, however (except in some special cases), mencing on Saturday and being continued till did not extend so far as to caring for the salva- Monday afternOon. There was often a dearth tion of the heathen perishing around them. of preachers, but gradually this difficulty is van- Being nnder British rnle, they showed no open ishing. Most of the Dutch farmers know the hostility to mission work; probably, however, Zulu language, and are well acquainted with the same spirit was in them -as in their country- the Word of God; and though at first diffident men who burned down Livingstone's station, of their own powers, they were persuaded to who destroyed the stations of the French mis- hegin by reading a few verses of Scripture and sions in Basutoland, and who hindered the ad- offering up prayer. Now they are conducting vance of rmissions whenever they had the services more and more freely, and thus are bepower. coming bound together, black and white, in one common love to the Lord Jesns Christ. Very Three years ago God's Spirit worked in a soon God gave the blessing to this wonderfnl marvelous way amongst these people. The work. Not many months after the first attempts commencement of this outpouring of the Holy were made, over One ,hundred gave in their Ghost has been attributed to different human names as candidates for baptism, These have agencies; the Boers themselves say the chief now been formed into a native church in conagent was the reading and meditating upon nection with the Dutch Church of Greytown ; God's holy Word. many more have professed faith in Christ, and are now under instruction and being gathered in After varied experiences, one and another from time to time. Tbe work is carried on amongst them began to feel that they were new under the direction of a committee of Dutch creatures in Christ Jesus; although they had f:irmers, who, besides being themselves heartily been members and office-bearers of the Church, engaged in the work, employ three native evanyet they now for the first time felt Christ a)iv- gelists. ing power within them. No SOOner did one speak to his neighbor of the change which had Amongst thElse evangelists is one man, Petros come upon him or her than the reply came: Skosan, whOse case is a striking fulflllment of J.' Such also is my experience" ; and soon whole families were rejoicing together and praying for theil' neighbors and kinsfolk.
One case worthy of mention is that of a WOIDan who was brongbt into the light while the prophecy of Isaiah xi. This man's father government, foster a universally spread was one of the regiment of Zulu warriors who, sense of distrust and insecurity; Everyone sees a foe in his neighbor and a snare in iu 1836, at asignal from that cruel tyrant, Din- friendship. Thelife of the chiefs, great and small, is one of extortion, sensuality and gaan, fell upon and in cold blood murdered, in intrigues. Revolutions, like fever, are en- Dingaan's own palace, the Dutch leader, Retief, demic. and all his party of about seventy men. The son is now an evangelist, supported by the de- Some time ago, in London, the cloak of scendants of these same Dutch Boers to preach respectability was torn asunder, and the the gospel of peace to his heathen fellow-coun- world shuddered. Here there is no cloak trymen. The father, who still lives, is also a of respectability, no law, no public opinion member of the Church of Christ. to fear. Passions are let loose without any restraint, and the grossest bestiality goes GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. about in broad daylight, barefaced and shameless. There is no innocent childhood Central A.frica.-Themail from Europe and or family ties. National brigandage and news from our nearest neighbors, 900 miles slavery have borne their fruits, and brutalolf, reach us only once a year by occasional ized man.–The Christian (London). traders or travelers. The rest of the year We are entirely cut off from the outer world. North Africa.-Within four days' journey of I send these lines by a caravan of Portu- Britain one may land on African soil and find a guese traders returniug to Benguela. We large field-almost untouched-for Christian hope that in time communications may be labor among the natives of Algeria, the Kaopened with the West Coast through our byles. Visiting recently among these people, American brethren of the Biha. The be- and making known to them for the first time ginnings of a mission like this, far away the glad tidings of salvation, I was much struck from the great arteries of trade and immi- with the atteution given to the message. Doubtgration are expect.ed to be bard. Pioneers less the novelty of an Englishman speaking to ought to bE' giants in faith and courage. them in their own unwritten langnage and deliv- ering snch a message as a free salvation with,ont The climate is most trying to Europeans, works was sullicient of itself to caI1 forth snch and bardly less so to tbe natives. The land attention. Seated one evening in a Kabyle devoureth its own inhabitants. Independ- house I was greatly delighted with the readiness ently of that, there is much worry in set- to listen to the gospel. The wonderful story of tling in a place so difficult of access, and in the resurrection of Lazarus was being read laboring to make a wild sand-hill overlook- when my host announced that supper was ready ing marshes habitable•.Materiallife is very and when I liked I conld have it bronght up. difficult. It is a constant struggle and trial Having expressed a desire to finish the narraof faith, a daily lesson of trust and un- tive the little company of Mohammedans conreserved confidence in the loving-kindness tinned to give the ntmost attention to the words and faithfulness of -our heavenly Father. read and spoken. Snpper ended, the conversa- Far from complaining of hardships and pri- tion was renewed. One of onr company, an vations, I must say that, on the whole, they honorable Marabont or religions Mohammedan, are less th!l.n we had anticipated. who, becanse of ha'i'ing made a pilgrimage to Mecca, was called Elhadj, entertained us while Those who read our monthly, Journal des he read from an Arabian tract. The man Missions Evangelig:ues, know that when we showed us with evident pride a book in Arabic crossed the Zambesi we penetrated into one (I presume a portion of Scripture) gh'en bim of the Prince of Darkness's strongholds. two years ago in Algiers by a Christian English During '30 years of mission life I have lady who was distribnting tracts among the found nowhere the ideal heathen, so good, people. Frequently dnring that evening's con· so meek, so yearning after the things of versation my statements were met by the words, God, which some preachers at home rel'lre- "You are right," "Trnly." That night I had sent the African savages to be. But no- two sharing the sl~eping apartment with me. where have I met with a tribe so hopelessly Having seen me bow the knee in prayer, one of degraded. The Barots6 themselves say that them asked me afterwards U I had been pray· theirs is a land of murder, that no one is ing. Replying that I had. he added, "May God allowed to grow old: their soil is saturated answer yonr prayer I" How one is saddened with blood; human bones bleach every- in observing these people praying, as they proswhere in the sun. The spear, a terrible trate themselves toward the east! How the piaything in the hands of these Zambesians, longing comes up to see them worship God in does not ever get rusty. Superstition and spirit and in truth I Who will offer himself to witchcraft spread their wings of darkness help make known the gospel among them? and death over every village, hamlet, hut Those of us who are in the field wonld do more and individual. We live in the middle age", if our hands were s!rengthened by brethren at but the middle ages in savagedom. The in- home. Sometimes too much is expected of missatiable l:Teediness of these poor people, sionaries in forei&n cl/untries, where, with 11Imitheir inveterate habit of stealing and lying, the total absence of anything like justice, the utter powerlessness of the so-called lies to be looked after and no domestic help olany growth of grass covered the formerly weUreal value, and often without means to tlnd even trimmed paths. proper help, the missionary has much secillar .. As we approach the skirt of the groves we labor to perform which necesarily reduces his are strnck by the dead silence which reigns. No laughter is to be heard, no sign of a welcome tilne and strength for his proper work. Like from our old friends. The silence of death breathes over the lofty crowns of the palms, the China inland missionaries we are without slowly waving in the wind. We enter, and it gnarantee of salary. Moreover, no fixed sum is in vain we look to the right and left for the can We look for regularly. The society sends to happy homesteads and the happy old· scenes. its missionaries that which is entrusted to it, Tall grass covers everything, and a charred pole but it leaves the missionaries free to receive here and there, a few banana trees are the oilly from any source through which God may be evidences that man once dwelt here. Bleached pleased to send to the help of His servants. sknlls by the roadside, and the skeletons of Want of means often puts a drag on the chariot human hands attached to poles tell the storr, of wheels, and causes the worker not a little anxi- what has happened here since our last visit. ' ety as he finds the will present to perform more, but the wherewithal to perform lacking. May It appeare<i that the notorions Tippoo Tib had the Lord of the harvest enable all who pray that been there to " trade," and in the coorse of that laborers be thrust forth to help also in the send- process had killed all who offered resistance, ing of them on their way.-Aifred S. Lamb. carried off the women, and devastated the flelds, gardens and banana groves. Bands of destroyers -Mohammedanism and;Missions. An inter- from the same gang bad returned again and again, esting article on the influence of Arab traders and those who escaped the sword perished by the in West Central Africa, contributed by Lieuten- small-pox and famine, which the marauders left ant Wissmann to the current issue of the" Pro- in their train. The whole tribe of the Bene Ki ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," ceased to exist, and only a few remnants found throws light on the qnestion of Mohammedan- refuge in a neighboring state. ism and missions, raised by Canon Taylor at the last Church Congress. The writer's experience Snch must be counted amongst the'resillts of of Mohammedan influences upon the native Arab "trading" in Africa, and if it is at such popUlations is in direct contrast with the asser- cost that the bleSSings of Mohammedan civllzation that the creed of Islam is that best suited tion are purchased by the native races, it is no to their need.. He gives a graphic account of wonder that they are not considered a desirable two visits to Bagna Pesihi, and certaiu villages acquisition. Even if it be true that Christianity of the Bene Ri, a division of the Basonge, in is sometimes tardy of operation in its beneficent Central Africa, before and after tbe arriv/!l of effect upon the blacks, Christian missionaries a gang of Arab traders on the scene. and Christian traders can at least boast that they have never wittingly acted otherwise than On the first occasion, in 1882, he was welcomed beneficently towards them. In their case the by a prosperous and contented tribe, whose perpetration of such atrocities would be imposcondition and occupations bore ample evidence sible. With the followers of the False Prophet it to the existence of its villages for decades In is different. Their religion is merely a superstipeace and security, free from the disturbing tion, adapted to the needs of aggressive and elements of war and slave·hunts, pestilence and militant tribes, and does not profess to inculcate superstition. The huts of the natives were tenderness or humanity, mnch less the loftier roomy and clean, fitted with shady porches, and teachings ofthe:gospel of Christ. surrounded lly carefully kept fields and gardens, in which were grown all manner of nsefnl England.-" The Christian Union plants and fruits, including hemp, sugar, to- for the Severance of the Connection of bacco, sweet potatoes, maize, manioc and mil- the British Empire with the Opium let. A thicket of bananas and plantains occupied the back of each homestead, aud shady Traffic," with Sir S. A. Blackwood palm groves supplied their owners with nuts, oil, fibers and wine. Goats, sheep and fOWls as its President and Dr. Maxwell abounded, and no one seemed afraid of thieves. Honorary Secretary, gives the fol- The people all had a well-fed air, and were anxious to trade, their supplies being plentiful lowing reasons for its formation: and ell'tremely cheap. A fowl could be pur- Became as a nation we are responsible cbased for a large cowrie shell, and a goat for a yard of calico. Everywhere the visitors found through our Indian Government for a trade a cheerful, courteous and contented population, which is ruining the oodies and souls. and uncontaminated by the vices of civilization, and destroying the homes of multitudes of the yet not wholly ignorant of its arts. Chinese.
Four years later Lieutenant Wissmann Became our national connection with this chance(l to be in the same district. and after the evil traffic is peculiarly close and revolting. privations of a toilsome march through dense, The poppy is grown in Bengal alone over an inhospitable forests, rejoiced as. he drew near to . extent of more than 500.000 acres, and this the palm groves of the Bal:D& Pesihi. A dense growth is carefully fostered by the Indian Government. The OpiUIU drug is ma.nufac- tured under c.onstant Government direction and supervision. It is sold at auction by the Government, expressly and intentibn- ally for the Chinese market. Including that from the native states, about 85,000 of the vilest offenders in .. the trade," some chests, containing over 5,000 tons of opium, holding positions as office-bearers, others', are thus exported annually from India to through taeir liberality and pecuniary aid China, and a revenue of five, six, or seven to missionary and charitable institutions, millions sterling is derived by Government enjoying contentedly the admiration of from it. It is a great Government institu- their fellow-worshipers as great Ohristian tion, for which England is directly and pe- philanthropists. It is a sin and dis,,"Tace culiarly responsible. tb.a.t the representation of a Christian to a heathen mind should be the rapacious Because through many, many years this cupidity of merchants whose merchandise traffic nas been carried on in spite of the is making the unhappy peoples they trade remonstrances of the Chinese Government, amongst .. twofold more the children of hell and of the thousandfold testimony that it than themselves." It is impossible that the ministered only to debauchery, and to moral Church's foreign missionary effort can sucand social ruin. The Convention of 1885, ceed as long as she goes with a soul-saving though it has given to the Chinese the right gospel in the one hand and a soul-damnIng to put a heavier tax upon imported opium, trade in the other. May God give her minishas not altered in the slightest degree our ters grace to declare His whole mind and own relations as a country to the gross im- will in the matter, and enable her to wash morality of the trade. her hands and garments clean from all complicity therein. If her efforts in the Because while, for very shame's sake. we ensuing struggle are not to prove futile, in have done a little (only a little) to restrain deep contritioll her first step must be that the bavoc which opium was working among of self-judgment and purification. Judgour Burmese Ifellow-subjects. we have done ment must begin at the house of God. As nothi"g to check the ruin which it is work- co-workers with God all His true followers ing in Ohina among a people in friendly alli- are under a threefold obligatIon to do their ance with us. utmost. We owe this for the sake of our Lord and Master, who has commanded His Because eVJlry thoughtful and educated gospel to be preached in every part of the Ohinaman, heathen though he be, cannot world; for the sake of our missionary brethhelp denouncing the immorality and un- ren, in removing the stumbling-blocks we righteousness of the nation which has de- have placed in the way of their work; and liberately sown among his people a seed of for the sake of the poor heathen whom we ever-extending vice and degradation. have enthralled body and soul.-Christian Leader. Because in the largest mission field of the world, according to the unanimous testi- India.-We have received the report of mony of missionaries in China, our relations the Travancore District Committee of the as a country to the opium traffic form one London Missionary Society. It is a closely of the chiefest hindrances to the spread of packed little volume, and its perusal leaves the gospel. a vivid impression of unusual activity and ingenuity in all :departments. Read- Because national judgment must surely ing-rooms have always played an important follow upon national sin, and it faUs upon part in Travancore. The room at Nager- British Ohristians especially, not only to coil has now been the scene of special gathacknowledge this sin, but to lead the com- erings on Sunday afternoons for many munity in protesting against it, and in con.. months. At these meetings the people have tinuous efforts to effect its removal. produced the publications of the Hindu Tract Society, and have put forward their -The Foreign Liquor Traffic. Weare glad best men to argue the case against Ohristto hear tbat the Foreign Missionary Society ianity, while the Christians have replied of the Glasgow Y. M. O. A. are making in- forcibly and clearly. This is excellent vestigations into this subject with a view work, stirring up in the people a great exto the taking of some definite action. Brit- citement, and making them feel that Hinain has a terrible account to settle with the duism must fight if it is to continue to live. Almighty in this matter. The blold of thou- The medical mission has proved itself of sanas of natives in India and Africa is to- great value. There is a medical native day ('rying out to Heaven against her. agency, carefully trained, and doing most These dark races implore our aid in turning valuable work in the branch dispensaries, the tide of a traffic which threatens them and it is proposed to enlarge this departwith rapid ruination; but Ohurch and State ment by training a large number of young alike seem to turn a deaf ear to every ap- Christians as dressers. Classes have been peal. Why is the voice of our churches held in which domestic medicine has been silent? Oan it be that the terrible extent carefully taught to catechists who have to of the trade is not fully known? or is it that labor in the remoter parts of the districts; the Church shrinks from fear of the revela- a.nd the elements of obstetrics have been tion" which a careful search would entail Y Silence, in view of the facts which many' of her ministers and pastors do know. only increases her blood-g1liltmess. Alre.a.dy it is lmoWll that in her very bosom a.re a number ,ta.ug,ht to Bible,women similarly situated. II. They are to have in 18110 a constitutional A new dispensary has been opeued at Par- government-the first native example of it uttipalIi, and another one is being erected in Asia. at Nagercoil. Toward the latter H. H. the Maharajah of Travancore has con~ribnted 10. They have separated Shintoism and Rs. 800. The evangelistic work of the mis- Buddhism from the Government, and abolsion 'has been encouragingly su~cessful, 411 ished their administrative Bureau of Reliadults from heathenism having'beeu bap- gion. Universal toleration prevails. The tized during the year. During that period ancient faiths are considered barbaric and 593 persons were admitted from the rank of incompatible with the new career of 1;he adherents to that of church members. empire. The Government acknowledges itself to be without a religion, and is consid- Japan•..:….Progress. An interesting ering what form of Western cultus it may best adopt. letter appears in The Ohristian Advocate from Abel stevens, D.D., now 11.' They have legally recognized the in Japan. He groups together an Christian Sabbath, and it is observed as a. extraordinary chapter of events, in- day of rest by all Government offices, the dicating the rapid approach of Japan public schools, banks, etc. toward Christian civilization. -Japanese Views of Christianity. Several The following is a summary of the remarkable changes that have taken eminentpnblicists ofJapan are carrying ona very interesting discnssion just now. The object is place amongst the Japanese: to determine whether or not it is advisable for the people of Japan to embrace the Christian 1. They have abolished their old dual sov- religion. The Japan Weekly Mail, in a recent ereignty, and restored to power their an- issue, summarizes this discussion. It states cient Mikado, the representative of a that those connected with the movement say dynasty more than 2,000 years old. that Christiau dogmas are a bitter pill to swal- low, but advise that it be swall~,wed promptly 2. Theyhave thrown off the strongest sys- for the sake of the after effects. Mr. Fukuzawa, tem of fendalism that history records. a well-known writer, nrges this course, although he says he takes no personal interest whatever 3. They have established a single national in religion, and knows nothing of the teaching of army, a navy, and a general police after the Christianity; but he sees that it is the ereed Western models. All these are clothed in of the most highly civilized nations. Professor European costume and drilled in European Toyama, of the Imperial University, has pubmanner. lished a work to support his view. He holds that Chinese ethics mnst be replaced by Christ· 4. They have organized a remarkable sys- ian ethiCS, and that' the bene1lts to be derived tem of national education, which Gen. Grant from the introduction of Christianity are: (1) pronounced, when here, the hest he had the improvement of music;. (2) union of senti- Seen in his circuit of the globe. It was de- ment and feeling, leading to harmonious co·opvi~ed by an American. It comprises primary eration ; and (3) the fnrnishing of a medium of or common SChools, n..rmaland polytechnic intercourse between men and women. It is academies, and an Imperial university on argued by others that the youth of Japan, being the model ofthe German university. . free from tbe tbraldom of creeds, and free to act according to reason. are so far in advance of 5. They have established a mail system, Europeans, and instead of talking about adoptand have entered into the "Postal Union." ing " foreign religion, Japanese should go After the example of England, their postal abroad and preach their religion of reason to department includes the savings-bank sys- foreign countries. Other writers nrge the same tem, and the deposits (mostly by the poorer views. The writer in the Yokohoma newspaper classes) for last year amounted to $12,500,- says that those wbo urge the teaching of Cbrist- 000, nearly double the amount of the preced. ianity represent an in1lnential section of eduingyear. cated Japanese opinion; they are signs of the times. "To Japan, in an emphatically agnostic 6. They have esta.blished a scientific medi- mood, came Western science, with all its marcal faculty, with native physicians educated velous revelations and attractions. At the in Europe, and all the European improve- shrine of that science she is worshiping now." ments, in place of their old medical jugglery. Jews.-Dr. Dalman's statistics of the work 7. They had Ino knowledge of the public and success in Jewish evangelization must surjournal before the arrival of Perry; they prise all who have not watched the course of now have the public press, including no less events. There are no less than 47 Protestant than 500 per10dicals – dailies, weeklies, missionary societies devoted exclusively to this monthlies; political,literary, scientific. arduous vocation. These employ 377 mission- aries, laboring at 157 centers of Jewish pop- 8. They have introduced the steamboat, ulation, and have an annual income of about the telegraph, the telephone, etc., now made by native hands. Native companies navi· gate the rivers and neighboring seas with excellent steamers, quite satisfactory to foreign travelers. half a million dollars. In addition .to these very patent fact in n very plain phrase. The Proother missionary societies engage in this special testant Church has not only skeptiCism and inwork, as a branch of their general work. Eng- differentism, but also Vaticanism, to deal with, land has eight of these 47 societies, sends out and a fresh illustration of the nalTO w. persecnthlg' about two-thirds of the 377 men, and supplies and intolerant spirit ofthe Roman ChIll cli is seen about two-thirds of the money. Scotland has in the trial and imprisonment of Rev. J. M.'Vila, a five societies, Ireland one. Germany twelve, hard-working and successful Protestant pastor Switzerland one, the Netherlands three, France of Malaga, in Spain, A Roman Catholic priest one, the Scandinavian lands five, Russia (i. e. issued a violent pamphlet against him, to which the Protestant churches of,) four, North Mr. Vila replied in another pamphlet. Vila was America seven. The cities in which the larg- arraigned in the courts on charges, the chief of est number of mIssIOnaries are engaged which was that he had said that the" timber of are London, lBudapest, Constantinople, Da- the manger out of which the priest's horse fed mascus, Jerusalem, Tunis. As the total of was the same kind of wood employed by the all the Jews on the face of the globe is artificer to mannfacture an image bf the Virgin abont 6,400,000, there is one missionary of Sorrows, and that one timber had quite as for every 16,976 Jews. In addition to these the much virtue as the other." From an account Roman Catholic and the Greek Churches also just at hand in Light and Truth we learn that engage in this work. Pastor de Ie' Roi,of Bres- the trial took place in the presence of a large lin, also a reliable statistician, claims that at crowd of people. The public prosecutor asked least 100,000 Jews have confessed Christ since the Court to sen~ence the accused to six years' the beginning of the present century. Those imprisonment, a fine of 2,500 pesetas and costs. yet living of these, together with their descend- The counsel for the defense claimed that the ants, probably nnmber 250,000 children of Abra- Bible supported everything found in the pamham who havh entered upon the spiritnalinherit- phlet. ance of their father. When we recall the fact that ten years ago there were in existence only .. Then Se:'ior Vila spoke, and his simple, elo- 20 societies for the evangelization of the Jews, quent address greatly moved the people-many with only 250 laborers and an income less than of whom wept, and said, as they left the hall, half of what it is now, the marked progress in 'We are now Protestauts, also l' He said his this sphere of Christian activity. is peculiarly intention was not to make a personal attack encouraging. on the priest, but to combat the false teachings of the Roman Church. As true followers of -The existing Jewish Congregation at Mos- Christ, they did not hate or attack anyone. The soul (Mesopotamia) boasts of very ancient or;- Roman Church, on the contrary, had always opgin. When Tiglath Pileser, King of Assyria, posed the truth of the gospel; and, without apconquered the northern regions of the kingdom pealing to history or uncovering the ashes of the orIsrael, he carried captive a uumber of the il1- thousands sacrificed by the execrable Inquisihabitants, and settled them in different parts of tion, his presence in the tribunal that day was a his own dominions. At that time a Jewish con- living testimony to Romish persecution. A gregation was established at Nineveh (now large crowd followed Senor Vila from the Mossoul), and it is this congregation which has court, and expressions of lively sympathy rewithstood the vicissitudes of ages. The Jews ~011nded on every side. He teIls us that he was of Mossoul even now consider it as a special full ofjoy that he had been priYile~ed to testify favor of Providence that their ancestors became publicly beCore the tribunal concerning the truth captives before the destruction of the first Tem- of the gospel." ple, so that they were spared the great misfortune which overtook Jerusalem. They glory in "Great attempts were made to influence the the fact that their congregation is older than tribunal, and so powerful are the Roman Caththat of Babylon, and that later on, when the olic clergy in Malaga. that only one paper dared kingdom of Judea came to an end, those of the to refer to the case. At last, on April 3, the inhabitants who made their way to Assyria, magistrates pronounced sentence, and Senor were enabled to enjoy their hospitality, and to Vila was forthwith condemned to two years, receive every possible support from their breth- four months and one day's imprisonment, beren in faith already settled in that country. The sides 250 pesetas fine and payment of costs. Mossoul Jews possess two synagogues, a Beth The Spanish prisons are such abominable dens Hamedrash and a cemetery. The ancient burial of filth and iniquity that this sentence is no gronnel which was first used by the early settlers light matter. Senor Vila lias appealed to the was destroyed at the capture of Nineveh. The Supreme Court at Madrid, the sentence of present-day Jews have adopted the Sephardim which will be final. ritual as their minhag.-Jewish Chronicle. " The trial has been the means of producing a Spain.-Persecution. When (in 1883) the great awakening in :Malaga, and numbers of late ArchbiSHOp of Canterbury said .. power- persons are confessing Christ. It has also led ful influence.. are at work which are entirely many to attend for the first time Senor Vila's antagonistic to Christianity," and that .. the church, and all the services are very crowded- Church of Rome is absolutely powerless to meet even on week-nights persons are turned away. these anti-Christian movemente," he expressed a ill" The same growth is taking place at the mission IitatiftDi ill t.~ i.rreu•• villai'eli. "
INTERNATlVNAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
Mohammedanism in Ohina. Clarke in 1886. (6) A proclamation BY REV. H. V. NOYES, CANTON, CHINA. published in Peking in 1866, by a How was Mohammedanism intro- Mohammedan mandarin, and trans- duced into China? What has been lated by Professor Vassilief, a Rus- its history? What is its present sian learned in Arabic.
status? The evidence is all in favor of be- In this attempt to answer these lieving that Canton City is the place inquiries, information has been de- where Mohammedanism was first rived from the following sources: (a) established in China. 'rhe account Mainly from a work printed in Paris given in the" Annals of Kwantung"
in 1878, and written by P. Darby De seems pretty well corroborated, viz.: Thiersant,Consul General and Charge "At the commencement of the dy- d' Affaires from France to China. nasty of Tang (618 to 908) there He tells us that his book is the result came to Canton a considerable num- of investigations running through bel' of strangers, natives of the king- fifteen years, and that he got much doms of Annam, of Cambodia, of Me- information from Mohammedan dina, and of several other countries.
priests. Doubtless he was able also They worshiped heaven and had no to get much definite knowledge from statue, or idol, or image, in their Roman Catholic priests, who are temples. The kingdom of Medina is scattered so widely through the coun- near to that of India, and is where try. (b) From writers on the subject the religion of these steangers, which in the eighteen volumes of the is very different from that of Bud- "Chinese Repository." (c) From dha, originated. They do not eat Williams' "Middle Kingdom." (d) pork, nor drink wine, and regard as From writers in the Chinese Re- 'impure the flesh of every animal not corder, and the China Review. slain by themselves. HaVing asked It is generally conceded that little and obtained f,'om the emperor an information, as to their origin, can authorization to reside at Canton, be obtained from the Chinese Mo- they built magnificent houses of an hammedans of the present day. architecture different from that of What is known in regard to it, seems the country. They were very rich to have been obtained from: (1) In- and subject to a chief chosen by scriptions on tablets found at the themselves. By reason of their good mosques in or neal' Canton City. (2) fortune, they became so numerous Accounts of India. and China by two and influential that they were able Mohammedan travelers, written, to maltreat the Chinese people with one A.D. 850, and one A.D. 877, in impunity. This was carried to such Arabic, and transla:ted into French a pitch that a mandarin high in by the Abbe Eusebius Renaudot. (3) rank'was impelled to issue a procla- The Chinese annals of Kwangtung mation in the name of the emperor, (Canton province). (4) A Chinese warning these foreigners that if they work" Ui UiYuen Lvi," that IS "Ori- continued to conduct themselves so gin of Mohammedanism," "Ui Ui" badly they would be punished se- being the name given to Mohamme- verely."
dans in China. (5) A Chinese book The tablets at Canton, the Peking found in the province of Yunnan proclamation and the t~o Chinese and translated by Rev. George W. books alrE'ady mentioned all give, in somewhat different forms, the story China. The first Mohammedan temof a bright appearance in the West- ple, built afterwards in the Northern sky, connected with a singular west, at Si Ngan Fu, one of the two dream of the emperor, which the as- capitals of the empire, dates from trologers and soothsayers interpreted A.D. 742, from which we may suppose to mean that a great sage had arisen that Islam did not penetrate by land in the West, who was ruler 01 a pow- into the north of the empire until erfulcountry named Medina, and that that time. In the flourishing period it was very important, in the inter- of Kai Yuen (713-742), relates the Si ests of the empire, that friendly rela- Yu Chen, 'the barbarians of the tions be established with him; that W est arrived en masse in the Middle then the Emperor sent an embassy Kingdom, and, as by an irruption to Mohammed, who appointed three from more than a hundred kingenvoys, of whom only one lived to doms, removerl at least a thousand reach China, by way of Si Ngan Fu, leagues, bearing with them as presand afterwards settled in Canton. ents their sacred books, which were This sounds wonderfully like the received and deposited in the hall for story of the introduction of Bud- translation of sacred books and candhism, and may be taken with at least ons of the imperial palace. Starting one grain of salt. This much, how- from that epoch, the religious docever, appears to be true, that in the trines of different countries of the early part of the Tang dynasty, West spread themselves and were about A. D. 628, a maternal uncle practiced openly in the empire of of liohammed, Wahib Abi Kabcha, Tang.' came to China, was received with much favor by the Empet'or, and " The first real nucleus of Mohamestablished himself in Canton. P. medans of the West implanted in Darby de Thiersant states that" this China was a contingent of 4,000 man obtained an authorization to Arab soldiers, which the Kaliph build a mosque at Canton, and, at Abu Giafer sent, in the year 755, to the same time, the right for his co- succor the Emperor Sou Tsong, menreligionists to profess freely their aced by the rebel An-Io-chan, and worship in the empire." He then who. as a recompense for their sergoes on to say: "Wahib Abi Kabcha, vices, permitted them to establish his mission accomplished, returned themselves in the principal cities of to Arabia in 63-&, hoping to find again the empire. These soldiers, who the Prophet, but on arriving he was married Chinese wives, may be conapprised of his death, which caused sidered the first stock origin of Mohim profound grief. He rested for a hammedan Chinese." time, and when Abu Becker had. formed the Koran from the scat· The above extract contains the tered leaves left by Mohammed, he substance of what is known concerntook the holy book and set out again ing the entrance of Islam into China, for China. He ,suffered much in and the account is corroborated by returning to Canton, where he died, the fact that those who have given worn out by the fatigue of the voy- attention to the matter say that the age. He was interred in one of the Mohammedan Chinese are different suburbs of the city, where his tomb by race from other Chinese; that in remains until this day, an object of them may be clearly recognized a veneration to all believers in the ex- mixture of Arabic, Turkish and treme East. It is to him that lVlus- Chinese blood. sulmansare indebted forthe construction of the most ancient mosque in From this time, A.D. 755, or there- about, until the lattel' part of the ninth century the trade of Canton With Arabs and other people fro~ the West must have been very dians. This is the account given of flourishing. One writer says that them when Yunnan was constituted "under the dynasty of Tang the a province of the empire in 1295. ocean was fatigued with the thou- "They were true savages, without sands of ships sailing from the Orient the least trace of civilization, living to the Occident." In 1068 the em- in a state of nature, ignorant of how peror appointed a foreigner named to cultivate the soil, sustaining them-. Siu Ya To Lo to administer the gov- selves by hunting and fishing, and ernment of merchants from the burning their dead without cere~ W-est. That functionary designated mony." The emperor, Kublai Khan, quarters for the fOl'eignel's, and their appointed one of his ministers, called families continued to be inscribed on Omar by some, by others Sayid Edthe registers of the State. It is prob- jell, or Si Tien Che, to administer the able that harsh measures were after- government of the province. He wards employed against them, for a taught the people agriculture, social number emigrated to Kiungchow, obligations, and the art of writing, on the island of Hainan, whel'e they and by wise institutions succeeded in built foul' mosques which still exist. civilizing th,em. He taught them the On that island also are yet found the religion of Mohammed, and at the descendants of ancient Mohammedan same time the respect which they families. From this time the com- ought to have for Confucius, to merce of Canton with foreigners whom he erected temples, and also diminished continually, and they for built mosques in all the cities. He the most part returned to their na- gathered around him a great numbel' tive land. of Mussulman scholars and others whom he loaded with favors, and In the Yuen dynasty, commencing who established themselves in the 1280, the Arab merchants, profiting country. He governed for six years, by the influence which their co-re- and died much lamented. The people ligionists had at the court of Kublai- built fol' him a magnificent tomb, Khan, renewed on a grand scale their while the emperor erected a temple relations with China. But for thel in his honor. This man was originmost part, instead of returning to ally from Bokhara, but submitting to Canton, they betook themselves to Genghis Khan became a part of his the provinces of Fuhkien, Cheh- guard. He evidently had a large inkiang' and Kiangsu. The port of fluence over the people. Marco Polo Foochow became by this circum- says that from 1280 to 1300 the stance a grand center of commerce. whole population of Yunnan was Mohammedan. We have given a view of the course of events which brought Islam There have been several rebellions. into the provinces that lie along the One, in 1817, induced by the massacre eastern coast of China. It evidently of a number of Mohammedans by came by means of commercial inter- other Chinese, the burning of a course to a great extent, and by way mosque, and the injustice of certain of the sea. mandarins, sustained by the gov- ernor. The insurgents, after having It remains to inquire how it was defeated in several encounters the planted in the remaining provinces. imperial troops, laid siege to the capi- At thE' extreme south of the western tal of the province, where the gov- border is the province of Yunnan, ernor had shut himself up. The em- said to contain three and a half mil- peror sent at once, a large body of lion Mohammedans. In the earlier soldiers who defeated the rebels and centuries this province seems to have obliged them to take refui'e with the been inhabited by wild tribes not less savage than the North American Insavages on the frontiers. The chief all the Mohammedans in China. was made prisoner and cut into frag- And these Mohammedans came by a ments. This Insurrection continued different route from those who enabout a year. tered the eastern provinces. Those came from Arabia, by way of the sea, Another rebellion broke out on the but these from Turkey and Persia, western frontier in 1826 which was through Bokhara, and thence into ended in 1828. Another took place the province of Kansuh. THis provabout 1834, provoked by the manda- ince is therefore considered the cenrins of Chan Ning Fu, who caused tral point of the sect, in the extreme a massacre of Mohammedans at East. And the sect has had its exthe city of Mong Mien, under the istence there mainly since the genpretext that they wished to revolt. eral breaking up that took place More than 1,600 men, women and when that fearful Tartar general, children had their throats cut with- Tamerlane, swept not only through out mercy, and this horrible butchery Central Asia, but over the burning was continued until Mohammedans plains of India, and over the frozen from the neighboring towns ran to steppes of Siberia, passed beyond the their succor, and meted out terrible Caspian Sea, beyond the Black Sea reprisals. The troubles were settled to the banks of the Danube, conby a general whom the Viceroy sent quered Asia Minor and Syria, and for that purpose. even went down into Egypt, and stopped, at last, not because de- By far the most serious rebellion in feated, but only tired of conquest. this province commenced in 1855, and was not ended till 1873. It origi- The first mosque in the northwest nated in a contention about some sil- was built at Si Ngan Fu, in the provver mines, but grew until the whole ince of Shensi, A.D. '742. The Ohinese province was embroiled. Near its Repository mentions an embassy commencement a fearful massacre of sent with valuable presents, by way Mohammedans took place, encour- of Kashgar, as early as 708. From a aged and even ordered by the officers Mohmamedan writer in the same periof government.' This was followed odical we have the following: "In by eighteen years of bloody strife the reign of Wan Tsing, A.D. 842, sevculminating in the surrender of eral myriads from the tribes of the Ta Li Fu by the Mohammedans, Ui Ui (Mohammedans) petitioned to which virtually ended the rebellion. enter China, and the emperor directed After the surrender seventeen Mo- them to be settled in the various dehammedan chiefs were invited to a partments of Shensi, where they banquet, and suddenly, a precOIi- have enjoyed the support of many certed signal being given, were all sovereigns and have furnished a sucbeheaded; those who had favored cession of loyal and upright scholars the surrender as well as those who for the service of the State. These had opposed it. To the lasting dis- have maintained the pure, true faith grace of the Chinese general, within for a thousand years without defecthree days, in the city and surround- tion." The information about Kansuh villages, out of 50,000 inhabitants in these early times is very meager, 30,000 were mercilessly butchered by but we have the following in regard the soldiers acting under the com- to the country lying farther west. mand of their chief. In 713 a Moslem, Couteybe Ibu, con- quered Bokhara, and took Samar- In regard to the rest of China, it is kand. The Chinese eIt!peror was only necessary for our present pur- much alarmed at his conquestH, and pose to consider particularly the treated the ambassadors that he sent provinces of Kansuh and Shensi. They contain nearly three-fourths 'Of with the gl'eatest respect. This there by the rebels or abandoned by event is important, as from it dates the owners, who had been obliged to the establishment of Mohammedan- ism in ~houresm, where later was flee to save their lives, The Chinese founded the kingdom of Ui Ui, or militia of the neighboring districts, Mohammedan Chinese. In 1124 this kingdom gave its subjection to China learning of this, clamored for a part at Samarkand. There is not much more of importance to relate in con- of the booty, which the Mohamme- nection with these provinces, until the present dynasty. It is evident dans stubbornly refused. TheChinese that in the contentions which were did not dare to attack them, but continually occurring between the Chinese and th.e Mohammedan prov- waited an opportunity for revenge. inces on the west and in Central Asia, It came at length from quite a small the Chinese now and then conquered portions of Mohammedan territory, affair. One day a Mohammedan cut and now and then theseoutlyingprov- inces regained their independence; some bamboos from a grove neal' the that Mohammedans were more 01' village where he was. The owner, less employed as allies 01' soldiers in not a Mohammedan, ('harged him the Chinese army, became officials, with cutting them without permis- sometimes 'occupying very high po- sion, and was answered arrogantly. sitions, and that in this general mix- He then complained to the Moham- ing up along the border a large num- medanreligious chief, and not obtain- ber of Mohammedans became per- ing l'edrel>s went to the Chinese dis- manent inhabitants of the western trict magistrate. The magistrate did provinces of China. not dare to punish the offender, but plotted with the leader of the large This account would not be complete town of Chely to massacre the Mo- without some notice of the great re- hammedans. One of their villages bellion which took place in Shensi was therefore laid waste by the and Kansuh from 1861 to 1873. Like Chely militia. This was followed by all othet' Mohammedan rebellions in a general uprising of the Mohamme- China, it was not on account of relig- dans, and a sanguina,ry contest of ion. The members of this sect are three daysand three nights, in which quite as clannish as the pure Chinese, they came off victors. When the and generally go together in any mandarins sent imperia,l troops to attempt to resist what they deem op- succor the vanquished, these were pression or to gain dominion. The also obliged to bea,t a shameful outbreak of 1861, commencing in retreat. Shensi and spreading to Kansuh, originated in this way: "A Chinese "The insurrection then spread rebel chief, after having devastated throughout the provlllce and made Sz Chuen, invaded Shensi. To resist its way into Kansuh. It was kept the invasion the militia was organized up for twelve years, and cost an im- in every locality. The Mussulman mense amount of blood and h-eccsure militia, commanded by their own before it was finally and most thor- chiefs, were by their own wish kept oughly put down by that valiant . separate from the other militia. The General Tso Tsung Tang." bandits at length took the city of U Nau. The Mussulman militia took " In regard tothe central provinces back the city, in which they found of the empire, the following quota- immense treasUl'e, either brought tion will suffice: "The history of lfohammedans in these provinces is the history of the inhabitants of each province. We need not speak par- ticularly of them. We only say that since the dynasty of Yuen, 1280, a great number of them have occupied very high positions, both in the capital and in the pr.ovinces, as ministers, noting, h.owever, some facts whi"eh generals. vicer.oys .or g.overn.ors." have a bearing upon the answer.
Mention ought also to be made .of (1) Mohammedanism in China does those colonial dependencies of the not seem to have gained its numbers empire which are largely Moham. by proselytizing. The Mohammedans medan, viz.: Koko Nor on the south of to-day in general trace their deof Kansuh, and on the west all that scent, fo!' hundreds of years, from part of IIi which lies south of the Mohammedan families. They have Tien Shan Mountains, and where multiplied by a natural increase. are situated the noted eight Moham- They also add to their strength by medan cities. purchasing, in times of famine or other calamity, large numbers of The following is an approximate children, who!:n they bring up accordestimate, in round numbers, of the ing to the doctrines of their religion. present Mohammedan populati.on of They llaye been known, during a China. Dr. Williams says that. single famine, to purchase 10,000. n.orth of the Yang-tsz Kiang, there are at least 10,000,000. (2) They hold to their religion very tenaciously, by which is only meant P. Darby De Thiersantgivesan esti- that they do not easily leave their mate, more partIcularly by provinces, sect. The instances are rare where as follows: Kansuh, 8,350,000; Shen- they become Christians. On the si, 6,500,000; Yunnan, 3,500,000 to othe).' hand, they sit so loosely on their 4,000,000 (this includes the savage foundations of doctrine that they tribes who reside on the frontiers of find no difficulty in going through Burmah); Shansi, 50,000; Chihli all the forms of the Chinese ritual 250,000. Of these 100,000 are in the when they are appointed to office. neighborhood of Peking.. There are They can wOl'Rhip the tablet of the in the city eleven mosques, one near emperor, but they put the picture of the palace, vel'Y beautiful, built the Prophet hehind it. opposite the imperial pavilions, in honor of a Mohammedan queen, (3.) There does not seem to be any whom the Emperor Kien Lung es- special 'antipathy against them, on poused in 1735. Shantung. 200,000; the part of either rulers or people, Hunan and Hnpeh, 50,000; Kiang,;i, on account of their religious belief. 4,000; ~iangsu and Nganhwui, 150,- They have often held office and have 000; Kwangtung, 21,000; Kwangsi, had many favors granted them. Tho 15,000; Kweichau, 40,000; Szchuen, contests or rebellions in which they 40,000; Honan, 200.000; Chekiang have been, from time to time, conand Fuhkien, 30,000. If we add to cerned have seemed more like imthese a probable estimate of 300,000 mense clan fights than any contenfor Koko Nor and the southern part tion about religious belief. The of IIi and take the larger estimate for question has been about dominion, the province of Yunnan, we have a not about faith. This is evidentfr.om total of somewhat more than 20,- the fact that when, in one part of 000,000. the country, Mohammedans are en- gaged in a bloody rebellion, those in Having given a cursory view of other parts are not molested. Durthe introduction of Mohammedanism ing the years of rebellion in the into China and its subsequent history northwest, and also in Yunnan, Mo-' there, having given statistics to show hammeclans, under the very shadow its present strength, we wi}} not ven- of the imperial palace, lived without ture to tread the delicate ground of the least appearance of molestation. prophecy, but leave others to an- The great clan fight ahout a silver swer the question, ,Vhat in the future mine in Yunnan' could never have is likely to be its influence itl China? been dl'awn out into an eighteen N. Y., became Corresponding Secre- years' bloody contest, unless there tary. Twenty-five thousand dollars had been something more than that was estimated as necessary for pur.
silver mine at stake. So in the north- chasing and finishing buildings to ac- west, a contest about the division of commodate fifty boarders, and $5,000 spoils, or the cutting of a few . annually for its maintenance. Salubamboos, was, indeed, the match tations came to the organization which set fire to combustibles, but from England and from India. certainly did not furnish fuel for . Sir William Wedderburn, of Engcombustion to the flames of that land, lately retired from the Indian fierce contest that raged for twelve Civii Service, wrote: years, and was only quenched at last "Both Lady Wedderburn and myself are in rivers of blood. The contest was very glad to receive news of Pundita Rama- a contest for power. bai. We are both much interested in female (4) We can never be sure how education, especially in India, and it will give us much pleasure to do what we can to much the Mohammedans in China promote the Pundita's proposed normaJ are influenced from without. Dr. schooL When you have completed your Williams says that the last great plans I shall be glad to hear from you rebellion was largely fomented by again; in the meantime allowme to express Turkish sectaries. the pleasure I feel that Pundita Ramabai has found such good friends and snpporters Ramabai'a Institution for Ohild- in America." Widows. Dr. Ramakrishna Bhandarkar, pro- THE little high.caste Brahman fessor of Sanskrit in a college in widow, Ramabai, bearing the high- Poona, India, after a confet'ence with est honorary and literary degree be- several of his friends, wrote: stowed by the Brahmanic brotherhood, and known by the title" Pun- .. We are glad that you American ladies dita," invented by an English lady are going to interest yourselves actively with the amelioration of the condition of your unfortunate sisters iii India. I assure 'for convenience of foreign introduc- you we shall consider it a duty to give you tion, came among us in an unosten- all the assistance we can. I suppose the tatious way, studied our institutions details of the scheme will De settled when and organized support of a cherished Pundita Ramabai and the female teachers will arrive in India."
plan of her own for elevating and Dr. Bhandarkar and his friends educating "little widows" of high- were indol'sed by Hon. Lionel As- caste families in India, and departed bUrner, who was for thirty-six years the country as unostentatiously as in the Indian Civil Service, as "very she entered it. The organization responsible, influential men."
which she accomplished while in On the· eve of her departure from this country is entitled "The Ram- the United States we received from abai Association," which was formed her the following personal note: at Channing Hall, Boston, Dec. 13, .. VALLEY STATION, NEB., Jun" 16, 1888.
1887. It was supported by Rev. Ed- .. DEAlt BROTHER IN CHaIST : ward E. Hale, D.D., who was elected President, and Dr. Phillips Brooks, .. I received your kind letter a few weeks Miss Frances E. Willard, Rev. Geo. ago, but could not answer it through want of time. I have sent a few circulars to you already, and am sending a new one which A. Gordon, and the since ascended, has just come out. It isjust twenty months Dean Ra.chel L. Bodley, M.D., who since I have seen you when we talked about was Ramabai's patron saint all the· my work and when so little of hope seemed while she was in America. to exist, but the Heavenly Father has been with me in all that I have attempted, and A Board of Trustees was consti- my hopes are now almost realized so far as tuted for America, and an" Advisory the material assistance goes. The main Board" was appointed for India. work is y..t to be done, and I hope and pray Miss A. P. Granger, of Canandaigua, that the heavenly grace will strengthen and sustain me in my undertaking. .. Many good people seem to have a misun- religious schools. High-caste girls, derstanding about the work that I am try- she says, may be in the missionary ing to start, and are generally inclined to schools in some instances prior to discountenance my project. Their fears marriage, but not after that event, seem to have arisen from th"fact that my institution for child-widows is to be a purely either as wives or widows. She says secular one, and also from a misappr..hen- the missionary schools are open to all sion that its founder is diverting in this castes, as they should be, and are none direction the energies of Christian women of them devoted exclusively to highand funds which should properly go into missionary channels. This latter I emphati- caste women, much less to high-caste cally deny, having never, in public or pri- widows. In the circ-ular referred to vate, attempted to do such a thing which in herletter, she set forth some feawill injure the foreign missionary cause. tures of the case. The movement is truly unique, its author, talented, .. I havegood reasons for making my school purely secular. Such institutions are a necessity at present. sincere and standing in her individ- uBecause: ual capacity for what she esteems an .. The orthodox Hindu widows will notgo to important reform in her own coun- try, by what she thinks is the only anv school home if the study of Christian religion is made a condition to their admit- tance . feasible method for reachlllg and re- .. It is against their faith, and they will not lieving high-caste Hindu widows, sacrifice their conscience to worldly advantages. whose trials and deprivations she has .. Such a condition will prove a strong •experienced. It would seem that even temptation to many light-minded women, Anglo-Saxon love of fair play, not to and make hypocrites of them. say of freedom of speech and press, .. Missionaries do not reach the strictly or- would justify us, even if we disap- proved her measures, which we do thodox widows, who suffer most, and who not, in allowing her to reach those of are in the keeping of their male relatives. Some of these relatives will be glad enough to have their daughters or sisters educated our readers who may not other.wise in purely secular schools, but they will by have had the opportunity, through no means let them be instructed by mis- the following quotations from her sionaries. Such widows, if once educated own statements of the case. and become self-supporting, having all the freedom of action and thought, and un- She says: trammeled, it is hoped that they will accept .. A few Hindu parents would not mind tbeir daughters coming in contact with chil- Christ, when they realize the advantages of dren or people of inferior castes before the marriage, but this cannot continue after the His religion, which they will be requested girl has gone through the marriage cere.. mony, the only religious sacrament to to study if they choose to do so. And even which she is entitled and which is consid- ered the means of her regeneration and by if we are disappointed in our hopes fur their virtue of which she becomes a high-caste woman and a member of her husband's famconversion,.we shall at least have the com- ily. A few married high-caste girls and women are allowed to be seen and instructed fort of having done ()ur duty in relieving by foreign missionaries in the zenltnas, but not in the missionary schools. These women, their sufferings and giving "them the means it must be remembered, do not belong to the strictly orthodox families; their husbands, by which they may lift themselves out of fathers-in-law or fath~rs, in whose keeping they happen to be aR wives or widows, being the lamentable state of drndgery, and be- half skeptical, half Brabmanical, or, per- haps, partly Brahmo and partly Christian come self-respecting, self..supportin~ mem- ill belief, and all of them men who are edu- bers of society. The Bible will be placed in their hand, but we cannot make its study a condition for the above reasons. I do not ask any people to give their money to this instead of to missionary work, but I ear- nestly solicit the assistance of our friends who have it in their power to help forward more than one good cause.
•• Very truly yours, RAMABA!."
Ramabai affirms the unique char- acter of her proposed institution cated in Western ideas.
as devoted to high-caste widows-a U Even among these families the educa· class which she thinks is wholly un- tion of Women is limited to merely reading, reached and absolutely unapproach- a little writing, and at the best the four fundamental rules in arithmetic-an educa- able through missionary or other tion not so thorough as to enable them to think for themselves or to qualify young together with the pious Hindus who look widows to become teachers or to engage in upon this movement as dangerous heresy, any occupation which would make them in- may try to annihilate it. dependent of male relatives. There may be a few exceptions to this statement among "But our trust is in the Heavenly Father, the Brahmos and other non-orthodox fami- who is our st:rE'JIgth aud who~ because He is lies, but among these the necessity is not so almighty, is aole to bring us safely out of great. as widows are not put to the severest this serious difficulty." trials as in orthodox communities. Death of Mr. Ahok's Mother. .. It is strictly true of every orthodox Hindn family that women are never allowed WE say" Mr. Ahok's mother," beto be visited or instructed by a foreign mis… cause we cannot present her after sionary. I derive my knowledge of the so- our custom by her own name, and cial condition of the orthodox high-caste also because her estimable son has Hindu women neither from fables nor from become so Widely known that the the statements of half-informed persons, but mother shares in the luster of his I get it directly from what I have seen and renown, though her sterling qualiknown. I myself Was born and reared in ties merit wide recognition and rean orthodox Brahmanical honsehold, and spect. Mr. Ahok is a wealthy Chithough my parents approved of women be- nese merchant who was led to Christ ing educated they would have been the last through the agency of Rev. S. L. persons to allow their daughters nnder the Baldwin, D.D., now Recording Secinstruction of missionarjes~ retary of the Methodist Episcopal 1IIissionarySociety,and who before he .. It was not until after their death when I professed Christianity at all donated had attained my leg-al age, and then there $10,000 for the founding of an Anglobeing no male relative to control me, and Chinese College at Foo Chow. 111'. my education having enabled me to get my Ahok waR a lay delegate from the Foo independence, that I had any chancL' of see- Chow Conference to the Methodist ing the missionaries and other people not of Episcopal General Conference held my own caste, and of reading the books in New York last May, but was unwhich were antagonistic tomy ancestral re" able io come; whether alone because ligion. This is true to-day of every other he was unwilling to risk his chances household like that of my parents. of escaping the leasllPs of our ob- structive Chinese legislation, we can- "I have deduced from these facts that not sav. Ahok's mother stoutly anthe orthodox high-caste women of India tagOlized his acceptance of Chriscannot be helped by missionary societies. tianity, but later herself beC>1:{llle a An agency which is neither identical With genuine Christian with marked indinor antagonistic to these societies lllust be viduality of experience. employed in order to draw these women out of t~eir secluded homes. Purely secular in- 'Ve take from the California stitutions are the necessity of the hour in Christian Advocate the following India, institutions which will be like homes account of the funeral of Mr. Ahok's to the little widows, where their material mother: wants will be supplied, and their physical pain alleviated. The education afforded in Not long since~ at the age of eighty..six, these homes must prepare them to face the occurred the death of the mother of 1I1r. world and must pnt within their reach the Ahok. The first intimation the writer had power which will be the means of their in- of the sad event was the receipt of the fol- dependence,leaving them free at length to lowing note, written by an Eng-lish-speaking think and choose for themselves. . . . clerk in Mr. Ahok's store: .. I am sorry to inform yon that my mother left this world "As for ourselves we are convinced that at 7 o'clock this evening, and we shall pnt it is not against our Christian belief to carry her in her everlasting bed to-morrow morn- to those who need it help in any shape, even ing at 8 o'clock. Will you please notify though we may not be able to carry our others," etc. Having been requested to creed with it. It will do no harm to any of conduct the funeral exercises, we reached us to read the beautiful parable of the Mr. Ahok's residence a little before the . Good Samaritan" twice over, and try to time appointed, a,ud noticed a. coffin in II find out what our Lord Christ meant to teach by it .
.. I am aware that even after setting forth this plan in the plainest language, many Christian people may still mi.apprehend or misrepresent it without meaning to do so; and, on the other hand. all enemies of woman's_progressand freedom in Hindustan,
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
framework of a recess of the room where day until the burial; but, instead of having the services were to be held, Soon after senseless heathen ceremonies, social religious the company had assembled loud weeping meetings are held, and the gospel Is preached. was heard, aud immediately Mr. Ahok and Thus our Chinese Christians adhere to harmless his two adopted sons, together with several native customs, only substituting Christian for other ",ale relatives, slowly entered the heathen worship. recess from another room, bearing the body, encased in elegant silk, and laid it in We are informed that about five years ago the collin. The weeping continued wh~e Mr. Ahok's mother had quite a protracted the unoccupied space in the collin was struggle, deciding whether she wonld become a being filled with the pith of a certain plant, Christian or remain a Buddhist. Since his conand with bits of paper rolled into small version, Mr. Ahok has had preaching Sunday balls. After this, the assembled friends afternoons at his residence, as well as mid'- viewed the face of the deceased, when we week social meetings and family prayers. His were requested to proceed with the ser- mother used to alternate between these services vices. These consisted of the singing of a and the worship of the idol, which had for so hymn, prayer, a short address from the many years delnded her. While continning words," Blessed are the dead that die in the this practice she had a good opportunity to com- Lord." etc.• followed by another hymn and pare the two religions. One day, after attending the benediction-aU, of course. being- in Christian worship, she said to her friends: Chinese. During tJ,e services Mr. Ahok sat "You may take my idol away; hereafter your on a piece of matting on the floor, near the God shall be my God, and your Saviour my head of the collin. 'Vhen tbe benediction Saviour." And the joy which shone in her was pronounced, the friends quickly dis- countenance showed that she had indeed found persed, leaving the sorrowing relatives him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, alone with their dead. In a short time tbe Jesus of Nazareth. The idol was presented to collin was closed and hermetically sealed; Bishop Merrill when he was here in 1883. From but it has been decided that the interment the time of her conversion, this aged Chinese will not take place until the forty-ninth day lady had a bright evidence of acceptance with after the death. In this part of China the God, and became more and more firmly estabwealthy families, and many of the middle lished in the faith during her few remaining classes, begin on the seventh day after a years. Through her influence Mrs. Ahok's death a series of U meritorious" ceremo.. mother, who still survives, was also constrained nies for the repose and general benefit of the to turn from idols to the true and living God. soul of the departed, or the three souls, according to the heathen notion. In one form How encouraging all this to the missionary of or another these ceremonies are repeated the cross, who, in such a benighted land, is every seventh day from that of the death, oftentimes depres8ed by the mass of heathenism, some continuing until the forty-ninth day. which, like a moral miasma, environs him as Buddhist or Taoist priests are hired to man- does the very atmosphere I What proofs the age these exercises, which are described in conversion of these aged ones that in China, as that painstaking work, .. Social Life of the elsewhere, the gospel of Christ is "the power of Chinese," by Rev. Justus Doolittle. for four- God unto salvation to every one that believteen years a missionary here at Foochow. eth " lOur millions of dear brothers and sisters in America, who, by their prayers and money, Mr. Ahok is following the custom of having are advancing God's cause in heathen lands, his friends and relatives meet every seventh may well rejOice with us over all such triumphs of grace.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
GENERAL SURVEY. MARCH: Mexico Central America. OUR intention is during the twelve- City Evangelizati;n. month to turn the whole wheel round and bring successively to view every A PRIL: I n d'la and C eyI on. Brahpart of the world-wide circle of missionary labor. We give the scheme manism. for the year, and as far as may be the MAY: Burmah, Siam and Laos. structure of THE REVIEW will conform throughout to this plan: Buddhism. JANUARY: General Outlook. Sur- JUNE: Africa. Freedmen in North America. JULY: Islands of the Sea. Utah.
vey of the World. North American Indians.
FEBRUARY: China and Confucian- AUGUST: Italy, France, and Papal ism. Thibet. Eurqpe. SEPTEMBER: Japan, Korea. Medi- and master the languages that must cal Missions. be the vehicle of communication.
OCTOBER: Turkey, Persia. Mo- To estimate the entire number of hammedanism and Nominal Chris- converts in all foreign mission fields tian Sects. at 3,000,000 is very liberal, in fact in NOVEMBER: South America, West excess of the real number; but it Indies. Papacy. Home Missions. ~ust be remembered that these rep- DECEMBER: Syria. Jews. Educa- resent not less than 600,000 families tional Work in Missions. and 30,000 churches, mission stations As in January we propose a gen- and schools; and that out of these eral survey, it may be well, first of 3,000,000 converts, 30,000 workers all, to keep before us certain figures have gone into the field, Of' one out of and facts of world-wide significance, every 100, while Protestant Christen- even at risk of repetition. dom has sent forth but one out of There are 3,064 languages in the 5,000 !
world, and its. inhabitants profess The money annually raised for more than 1.000 religions. carrying on Protestant foreign mis- The most cat'eful computation sionsis a little short of $11,250,000, or which we have been able to make an average of 37Yz cents per year for at' find makes the present popula- each evangelical chul'ch member, or tion of the globe somewhat over leES than one tenth of a cent a day.
1,500,000,000. Of these, pagans, Accurate figures we are unable to heathens and Mohammedans con- give or get concerning either medi- stitute 1,040,000,000, and the rest cal missions or the educational work.
(460,000,000) are nominally Chris- As to the first, theil' growth is so tian, Papal, Greek and Protest- rapid that if we could present accu- ant. There are, however, not more rate returns they would be hope- than 31,500,000 Protestant church lessly in the rear before we could get members. At least one-half of this this number of THE REVIEW electro- 460,000,000 are Nothingarians and typed. For example, the Edinburgh Oonfucionists, To these more than Medical Missionary Society alone, thousand millions, Protestant Chris- which had in Hl71 only 7 students, tendom sends 6,230 messengers of the and in 1881, 16, had in 1886, 170 qual- cross, of whom 3,000 are ordained ified medical missionaries in active missionaries and 2,500 women. To service. Within ten years the in- these, in estimating the sum total of come of the society increased five- workers, we must add some 30,300 fold.
native preachers, teachers, catechists As to schools, they exist in con- and lay helpers, who have been raised nection with all missions and are up out of pag'an, heathen and Mo- often the first form of evangelistic hammedan communities as the first ageney. It is computed that for fruits of missions, making a total every fifteen church members and ad- force in the foreign field of 30,530, of herents gathered in heathen lands, which about five-sixths are converts there is one school. If so, then the from heathenism, Could these work- total number is not far feom 200,000, ers so be distributed as that the en- which, including schools of eveey tire .unevangelized po>puiation could size and grade, feom the primary to be equally divided among them, each would still have to reach, within an the collegiate, is not, we are persuad- ed, far from correct. But we hope average lifetime, at least 28,400 souls before the year closes to gather more with the gospel! And this, too, with accurate and trustworthy figures.
all thp. disadvantages of having to There are in the world 16,447,990 get to the field and get over the field, Sunday-school 'pupils, by the last figures published, The average Of the rellults of missions, w,: have membership is probably about fifty, no space to pl'esent facts, which must which gives 329,000 Sunday-schools be exhibited as the various fields pass in the world. All these figures are before us. approximate only, but they may The American Board alone occuhelp to form a general conception 9f pies 1,000 centers of evangelical in- the world's present condition and fluence, and $124,274 were contrib- needs, the comparative growth of uted last year by native converts in missions, and the outlook for the these various fields!
future. The largest body of the Prpsbyte- Certain grand facts ought to stand rian Church of our land, and in the 'boldly before us like the mountains North. has organized and sustains 34 on a landscape. miSSIOns in both hemispheres, 1. The world has been fully ex- manned by 550 foreign missionaries, plored. There remains probably no of whom 115 are ordained mi;J,sters llndis'covered territory. and 154 unmarried ladies, besides 151 2. The origin and history of every native ordained ministers, 171licen- nation have been traced; languages tiates and 804 other native helpers.
have been reduced to forms, and lit- The churches number 311, with 23,- erature created. 740 communicants, of whom 2,897 3. The present marvelous facilities were received during the past year; for rapid travel and communication in schools of all grades 23,770 pupils give easy access to all parts of the were enrolled; 80,000,000 of pages in globe. 21 languages were issued from 8 4. Commerce of the globe, espe- printing presses, and upward of 75,- cially by sea, is in the hands of Prot- 000 patients were treated in hospitals estant nations; postal and telegraph and dispensaries.
unions extend into all countries. Reports of other denomination!
5. The Bible has been translated may be found in our pages for the into more than 300 tongues-the past year, and can be traced by the press is greatly utilized. copious index appended to the De- 6. Barriers so completely removed cember issue.
-Christian missionaries under pro- Missions to the Jews are assuming tection of law in every land. new importance and meeting with 7. A native ministry is developing, new success. The professed converts and the churches gathered out of from Israel number 1,000 to 1,500 heathendom will ~on be taking care annually; and most of these are from of themselves. the educated class. Joseph Rabin- As to missionar:y societies, etc., The owitch in Bessarabia, and Rabbi Lich- Quarterly Review for July, 1886, es- enstein near Buda-Pesth, are leaders timated the total number asnot fewer in this modern movement among than 146. They must in 1889 exceed their own countrymen.
150, at the least, and more likely The destitution of the world must reach 170. In Great Britain there not be overlooked. During the cen- are from twenty-five to thirty; in tury since Carey went to India, Dr.
the United States from forty to fifty; Murray Mitchell computes that at on the continent as many more, least 200,000,000 have been added to known to exist at the beg'inning of the pagan population of the globe; the last year, while scattered through and that for every 10,000,000 added heathen and Mohammedan lands are to nominal Christendom, fully 15,- as many more; from the Hawaiian 000,000 have been added to heathen- group to Japan, and from Japan to dom.
Syria; and Madagascar round to Some countries like Thibet hav.eso Polynesia again. far been practically inaccessible to evangelism. Immense tracts, em- For thirty years his life was spent bracing a thousand iniles square and in an unwearied effort to evangelize millions of people, have not, in some the' native races, to explore the un- cases, one missionary station. Mex- discovered secrets, to abolish the des- ico is called a Christian country, yet olating slave traffic of Central Africa, Bishop Hurst of the Methodist and with his last words he wrote, , Church says that there are 8,000,000 "All I can add in my solitude is, people there who never saw a copy of the Holy Scriptures. In many papal may Heaven's rich blessing come lands St. Joseph is practically wor- down on every vne, American, En- shiped as superior to the Virgin glish, or Turk, who will help to heal Mary his wife, and Jesus Christ her this open sore of the world." Son. "And other sheep I have which SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, PAUL and Barnabas went on a and there shall be one flock and one mission tour. (Compare ~cts xiii: 2-4; xiv: 3, 27; xv: 3, 7-12.) Their shepherd." career and report to the churches at Antioch and Jerusalem typify and TEXTS AND THEMES FOR MISSIONARY prophesy the whole history of mis- sions. It has been a history of su- SERMONS. pernatural interpositions. God has given testimony unto the word of THE following is old, but worth His grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by the hands of preservation: His servants. At the London Con-' ference the modern apostles of mis- .. Go lie into aU the world, and preach the gos- – sions gathering the Church together pel to every creature." in the metropolis of the world, re- Unbelief. There are so many heathen, and so hearsed all that God had done with them and how He had opened t.he much oppositiou to the gospel, the world can door of faith unto the Gentiles, de- never he converted. claring what spiritual miracles and wonders of transformation God had THE LORD. " The God of heaven shall set up wrought among the nations by them. a kingdom which shall never he destroyed: but Every result wrought in apostolic it shall break in pieces and consume all other days has its correspondent and coun- kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Read terpart in modern days: Dan. ii : 44, 45. Psalms ii: 8, and lxxii: 8. Isa.
1. God gave testimony to the word ii: 2, 4. of His grace. Unbelief. The heathen will be saved without, 2. Opened the door of faith to the the gospel. Gentiles. St. Peter. "There is none other name [but 3. Converted the Gentiles and puri- Jesus] under heaven, given among men, fied their hearts by faith. whereby we mnst be saved." Acts iv : 12.
4. Gave them witness, imparting St. John. .. He that believeth not the Son the Holy Ghost. shall not see life,. but the wrath of God abideth on him." John iii : 36. LIVINGSTONE'S SLAB IN WESTMINSTER. Brought by faithful hands JESUS CHRIST. .. He that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi: 16. Over land and sea, here rests DAVID LIVINGSTONE, Unbelief. The gospel makes the heathen no Missionary, better. Traveler. Philanthropist, Facts. Eighteen hundred years ago, except Born March 19. 1813, the Jews, there were none but heathen; what nations are now better have been made so by at Blantyre, Lanarkshire. the gospel. Died May 1, 1873, GO, PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. a.t Chitambos Village, Ulala. Scruple. But all have not gifts to preach. St. Paul. "Having then gifts, differing ac. cording to the grace that is given to ns; whether MINISTRY, let ns wait on our minister· ing-he that GIVETH, let him do it with sim· plicity. For as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ… See Rom. xii :4-13. 1 Cor. xii: 14-22. Read 1 Cor. ix : 7, 13. Rom. x: 15. Truth. God hath made all nations of one blOOd. Eyery man is one m"mber of Ii bod.y of
PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIOKS-;)!O~THLY BULLETIN
1,500,000,000, 800,000,000 of whom are perishing, yon, 0 ye oj tittle faith?" "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Read Matt. vi : l1H34. through ignorance of the gospel and the way of Miser. Then you forbid me to providefor my life. – i'amily? "He that provideth not for his own Inquirer. As one member of this family, is worRe than an infideL" Experience. Is the best way "to provide" what ought Ito do' for your own to "rob" God and your fellow JESUS CHRIST. Have the same care for your men? Read Mal. iii : s-:.10. The very way" to provide" a curse. "Thel'e is that maketh himfellow men, as the members of the body for self'rich, yet hath nothing: there is that mak€'th every part. Place yourself in their condition, himself poor, yet hath great riches." Provo xiii : 7. See also 2 Cor. viii : 9. then in yours. .. Whatsoever ye would that Avarice, I am not able to do much. IfI had as they should do to you, do ye even so to them." much as 80me men I shouldn't value giving.
Per}Jlexity. I have a family and friends to St. Paul. "If there be tirst a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath." provide for-so many calls, I cannot attend to 2 Cor. viii: 12.
the wants of the heathen. Ignorance. I would give, but I know not what becomes of my money. Bellevolence. _Yourself in their condition, Public Prints. Read and understand. would you have them lhus treat you? "Render Pride. I am ashamed to give so little as I feel able. I must do more, Or it won't be to all their ducos." Provide for every part. thonght anytTling. THE LORD. "The pride of thy heart hath de- False Philosophy. By giving much to send ceived thee." Obad. iii. See the widow's two mites. Luke xxi: 1–1. the gospel abroad, I shall rob myself and child- Self-Indulgence. But why banter and urge a man so? What the" great hurry" of sendren, and come to want. ing the gospel to the heathen? THE LORD. "There is that scattereth, and Mercy. Heathen die as fast as Christians; yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth 15,000,000 sink into the grave every year, and go, without the gospel, to the judgment unpremore than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." pared.
" The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that Zeal. "What thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Ecc. ix : 10. watereth shall be watered also himself." Prov. GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD .ilID PREACH TIDli xi: 24. 25. GOSPEL. Selfishnes8. But I ought to lay up something beforehand, for myself FIRST.
JESUS CHRIST. "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall." Prov. xi : 28. " Seek FIRST [to promote] the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." Matt. vi : 33. "Lay not up for yourselves trea8Ures on earth."
WO'l'ldly Prudence. But if I lay not Ull some- thing against time of need, who will take care of me, when old and infirm?
JESUS CHRIST. "Take no thou-ght for your life," etc.-" Shall he not much more clothe VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-The native boats on the Upper ciative attendance of colonists at purely mis- Congo have begun to liy the Free State liag, sionary meetings than at the public evening seswhich insures to them protection. From Stan- sions of the conference this year. We were ley Pool to Equator Station, traveling is per- thankful to see it. MiSSIOnary work among the f~ctly safe. One boat brought from Stanley natives here is not definitely understood ~mong Falls five tons of ivory. the colonists generally. They get some strange impressions of it which a very little personal -At Badza Manteke, in the Congo Mission observatiou shows them to be wrong. Wewant of the American Baptist Missionary Union, them to inform themselves. seven persons have been put to death for the testimony of Jesus. The work is steadily pro- -At Kangwe, on an island of the Ogowe, 379 gressing. candidates were recently received into the class for catechumens, and 91 persons have -REV. CHARLES W. KILBON writes entered tbe churcb. from Adam's Mission Station, Natal, -The first section. of the Trans-African South Africa, July 19, as follows: Railway from St. Paul de Loanda to Arubaca has heen finished, and the work is going on. "You will be interested to know that while This section is forty miles long, extending from the' International Missionary Union' was open- the coast to Kabiri. The road from that point ing its sessions in New Jersey the Natal Mis- turns sonth to the Coanza River, whence it is sionary Conference of our little colony was hold- to be extended directly west to Ambaca, 225 inlJ; its annual meeting at the capital, Pieter- miles from the coast. maritzburg. Your first day was our last. On that day, in our devotional exercises, your meet- ChinR.-The communicants, which were ing was spoken of, and special mention of it scarcely a score forty years since. accordwas m'lde in their prayer. ing to the report of the American Board. _"We have never had fuller and more appre- now exceed 32,000. and are increasing at the rate of 2.000 a year. Telegraph and railroad faith and as a missionary force. Now he appears Jines thread the land, a knowledge of the in an article with the title, "The Great Mission- J%iglish language is eagerly sought, and tbe ary Failure." He enters into calculations and stir of a great movement is felt in the land. comes to the conclusion that" it would take the A proclamation lately issned in many prov- Church Missionary Society 2,7!JO years to overw inces describes the missionaries as teachers take the additions made in India by birth in a of virtue, and their influence as helpful to single year." His manipulation of figures is the state,' enjoining all citizens to refrain deceptive. Sir Charles Atchison, an Englishfrom violence, and to live with them in the man in India, says that" in the Punjab, the relation of hosts and guests. Hindu and Mohammedan religions are practi- cally stationary, that of the Sikhs has declined, -After eighty years of contact with Eng- whereas the Christian religion has increased land, there are 32,000 Christians, for which 38". per cent." The quality of Canon Taylor's we may be thankful, and 150,000,000 opium intellect may be j lldged by the fact that at the smokers, for which we may hang our heads late Episcopal Congress at Manchester" he exin shame. The slave trade, the liquor traf- pressed the opinion that the bishops' physical fic, the licensing of immorality-these were pO'~'ers often g'ave way because they were corow bad enough, but the opium curse is the sum pelled to put their hands on the greasy heads of of all vilJainy.-J. Hudson Taylor. thousands of confirmation candidates." There were cries of" shame" from the audience. -The Chinese Government threatens to drive all missionaries out of Pekin and Can- Franre.-The annual report of the Societe ton in retaliation for the bill which has been du Nord says that they have now in the adopted exclndlng the Chinese from the north of France 52 pastors and 145 places of United States. worship, of which 84 are temples, and nearly 30,000 adherents. -The Baptist Missionary Magazine for December reports 260 baptisms, and news -Dr. Pierson was present and made an adhas been received of 23 recent baptisms at dress at the opening of a new station in Swatow, China, and 73 at Ongole, India. PariS, the Salle Rivole. The very name of this hall is associated in Paris with all that -The first railroad built in China with the is included in the words, .. The world, the sanction of the government was completed tieRh and the devil," and where ior .one hun w in August. It runs from Tientsin to Taku, dred years Satan has held sway. It is situfifty miles. and the trains are crowded with ated in a densely populated quarter, at the passengers. confluence of the rue St. Antoine and the rue de Rivole, abont half way between the Englnnd.-London Missionary Society. The Bastile and the Hotel de Ville. It was for- Ladies' Committee, in connection with the so- merly nsed as a ball room; then a fashionciety, does not form a separate organization, as able billiard room; later it was most notoriin the case of some of the other large societies. ous for the low dances which were held in We append the leading statistics: Mission sta- it; and since the days of the republic it tions and sub-stations, 1,.87 (1,161 in Madagas- has been the meeting-place of the Anarcar) ; foreign workers, ordained, 150; lay, 21 ; chists. This wicked den, in the very heart native workers. ordained, 1,143; lay, 5,156; of Paris, has been transformed, by the McAll communicants, betweeu eighty and ninety thou- 1iission, into a gospel temple, where every eand, of which more than sixty thousand are night the H good news" will be proclaimed. credited to Madagascar. The statistics are not Its support is furnished by the New York quite complete. Full returns would show some- Anxiliary. whst increased figures. The total income is over a htindred thousand pounds sterling. lndia.-Out of the 555 adult converts bap- tized by the English Church missionaries at -The valedictory dismissal of a band of Amritsar, India, since the establishment of forty-five missionaries in connection with the the mission in 1852, no less than 253 have Church Missionary Society took place in St. been converts from Islam. While this be- James's Hall, Piccadilly. Twenty-five of the tokens no great movement among the Momissionaries are returnin!( to the field, and hammedans toward Christianity, it shows twenty are new recruits. Already nearly twenty that Moslems can be reached and brought others have departed, chiefiy going to Africa. under the influence of the gospel. Except Bishop Crowther, who returns to the Niger, and one lady for Lagos, all the forty·five -A revival of Hinduism is taking place in taken leave of are for Asia-Palestine, Persia, Madras Presidency, India. In the past the India, China, and Japan. Eight of the new re- Hindus have looked on the efforts of the cmits are university men. Sir J. Kennaway, missionaries with contempt or indifference. Bart, M. P. (presiden t), presided over a large Now they are becoming alarmed at the gathering of friends and supporters, and on be- progrbss of Christianity, and are opposing half of the society and the meeting bade the it by every means in their power. They missionaries Godspeed. have formed U preaching societies" and u tract societies," and are fighting for Hin- -The latest outburst of "Paganism" in England is an arrai!(nment of missions as a duism by the methods which have proved "failure." Canou Taylor last year made a sen- .'tiou b111 laudatiou of Islam as a system of so effecti ve for the spread of Christianity in English missionaries, it reports the astoundthe hands of the missionaries. ing number of 838 native ordained ministerll, and 4,005 native preachers, 61,000 chur"h Japan.-The Christian converts increased members and 280,000 adh~ents. But as yet 50 per cent. last year, till they number over scarcely one-half of the population has 7,000, with more young people seeking in- been reached by the gospel. struction than ever before. Contributions of Japanese Christians the past year for lIfexico.-Mexico is a Christian conntry, educational and religious objects amount yet Bishop Hurst of the Methodist Episto over $41,000; and not only professed copal Church says that in Mexico 8,000,000 Christians give, but others who see the have never seen a copy of the Holy Scripwork in progress, especially parents, for the tures. sake of the moral culture 'obtained in our New ]lexico.-The South American Mis_ schools. Mr. Neesima reports $3i.ooo sub- sionary Society has started a new missiou in Pa.ragua.y under encouraging circum… scribed by a few Japanese gentlemen, in- stances. cluding tw ' of the highest officials of the government, toward the enlargement of the New Guinea is one of the most interesting Doshisha school into a Christian university. points in the world's missionary work at Count Okuma, minister of foreign affairs, present. A few years ago the whole people Count Inouye, late minister of foreign af- were the worst lotof cannibals known. Now fairs, but who has recently returned to the many of them are receiving the gospel, and cabinet as a minister of agriculture and a change is rapidly coming over the island. commerce, have subscribed l,OOO yen each. Viscount Aoki, vice-minister of state. gives New Zealand.-New Zealand, as a matter 500 yen, while six other prominent officials of fact, is evangelized. Christianity has and bankerc have given together 28,500 yen. not failed of success in a single island. In India and elsewhere they had to gather the -The number of converts in the Japan converts one by one, but in New Zealand a Mission of the American Board has in- movement set in, and great numbers came creased in fifteen months from 4,226 to forward; its advance was almost like a bush 7,093, a gain of 2,801. This ie. the most re- fire. The number of native clergy at presmarkable record in any mission of the ent laboring there is qnite three times what Board, except the Sandwich,Isbnds. they had previously been. These are not supported by money from home, bnt by the -Awakening. The Rev. A. B. Hntchlnson, contributions and endowments of their own C.M,S., Nagasaki, says: .. In this remote people.-Bishop Stuart, D.D., of Waiapu. corner of distant Japan there is an awakening and inquiry after the truth which have Scotland. – A recent number of The already resulted in the baptism of over 200 Scottish Geographical Magazine has papers converts, principally adults, in the northern dealing with subjects specially engaging the part of Kiushiu, which is the portion allotted attention of the friends of missions. Not to to me as my special sphere of work. Others speak of Mr. H. O. Forbes's paper on .. Atare being prepared for admission into the tempts to Reach the Owen Stanley Peak," fold of Christ. My fellow-worker on the which goes over ground occupied by the eastern side of Kiushiu, Rev. J. B. Brandram, New Guinea Mission of the London Missionanc1 our brethren of the Presbyterian and ary Society, we have notes on .. Recent Ex- American Episcopal Methodist missions, are plorations in the Territories of the African rejoicing over similar proofs that the gospel Lakes Company," by E. G. RavenBtein, is still the power of God uuto salvat,ion to F.R.G.S., with a map of the territory, at everyone that believeth. I would ask 'ear- this moment of more than usual interest, nest prayer for the workers in this land." between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa, far in advance of anything that has y+t been -According to The Ohinese Recorder the given of that region of Africa. There is need of Japan at the present moment is also a very graphic account of .. Lnkoma," 1,000 preaching missionaries. Out of 100 an island in Lake Nyassa. by Archdeacon ordained missionaries, only thirty are en- Maples, F.R.G.S., the headquarters of a gaged in preaching. Some Buddhist priests hopeful branch of the Universities Mission have taken snch titles as bishop and rever- in Central Africa. The Archdeacon,like his end, and a Professor of the Old Testament chief, Bishop Smythies, warmly commends has been engaged by the Kioto Buddhist the work of the Scottish Mis~ion~ on the college. There is a crying demand for lady Lake, referring to the members of the teachers for women of rank, and also for Established Church of Scotland at Blantyre Christian teachers for pri vate and govern- as competent translators of the Scriptures, ment schools. This is as tr..e of India as of and to the Buchanan brothers as the enter- Japan. prising missionary-colonists at Zomba. His account of the work of his own mission at Madagascar. – The London Missionary Lukoma is most instr,uctive, showing how Society continues to push its work here with the missionaries in their mission ship, increasing success, notwithstanding the political changes and the aggressive atti- OharleS Janson, rea.ch the coa.st villa.ges to tude of the Church of Rome. Witu its 30 the south, holding classes for inquirers and he was for more than thirty years superin_ preaching the gospel to the people who tendent of tbe Sabbath-school of the First come out to hear. Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Ga.
Syria.-The first volume of Dr. Eddy's -A Gift '-_ Books. The author and pub. Arabic Commentary on the New Testament, in lishersof "ThA Crisis of Missionst'~ Rev. Dr. chIding Matthew and Mark, has been published Pierson and Robert Carter & Brothers, have in a book of nearly six hundred pages. offered to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions a second thousand copies for gratu. -The Abeih field hasa force of 50 workers, 89 itousdistribution. These will be sentprompt. ly by the Board, postpaid,to all who will order being teachers and alicensed preachers. There them witb the understanding that they are to be read and loaned to others. A thousand are 4 'organized churches, with a membership copies have been offered by the same parties of 297, 24 having beeu added during the past to the American Board. year. Regular preacking services are maiutained at 18 places. There are 20 Sabbatho -'ii, M, C. A. The eleventh World's Y. schools, with 980 scholars; 43 high and com· M, Co A. Conference, at Stockholm, in mon schools enroll 1,681 scholars. The total August, showed the American continent at contributions for benevolence and education the front of this great work. The United amouuted to $2,308. States and Canada, taken togetber, report 1,240 associations and 152,721 members. -The Death of Dr. Meshaka, of the Jewish Canada organized the first association on mission in Damascus, is a great loss. Says the the American continent in Montreal on the Presbyterian Messenger, London: 9th of December, 1851. The choice is to be between Amsterdam and Paris for tbe •• He was, perhaps, the oldest Protestant twelfth World's Y. M. C. A. Convention. Christian in Syria, and exerted a powerful influence for good. He was respected by his -Christian Endeavor. The report of the townsmen of all classes and creedS, and his Seventh Annual Convention of the Society of funeral was the largest eVer Seen in Damascus. Christian Endeavor gives the very rapid growth The streets, windows and housetops were of this movement within two or three year., uncrowded all the way through the city, and eveu til it numbers over five thousand societies with outside the gate vast crowds were assembled." Over three hundred thousand members (while scores of new societies are being formed every 1'urkey.-Government opposition to all evan- week in all denominations). This indicates a gelical inlluences is manifested in restrictive widespread desire and need for that which in legislation towards the mission schools, and in in- some degree at least is met by this organization. terference with the personal liberty of native The United Society of Christian Endeavor asks teachers, and sometimes of missionaries. Mr. no allep;iance, exercises no authority, levies no Straus, the American minister at Constantino- taxes. It simply exists to give information, ple,is ably guarding the interests submitted to his aud to aid the societies, by giving them the best care, and his efforts are warmly appreciated by methods by which young people can be traiued the missions, and are worthy of hearty commen- for usefulness in the Church. Its affairs are dation. • . . Colleges at Aintab, Harpoot, managed by representatives of the evangelical and Marsovan, almost the only schools of this denominations. grade in the Turkish Empire, the great numher of boarding-schools for boys and girls.in all -Protestant Episcopal Missions. The 20th these missions, and the far greater number of annual session of the Missionary Council day-schools taught by graduates of these higher of the Protestant Episcopal Church was recentschools, are far superior to all other schools of ly held in Washington, D. C. About 250 delethe same grade in the land, and are steadily gates were present. Tbe report of the Board pervading the life of the whole people with the of Managers of the Domestic and Foreign sentiments and examples of the Christian faith. Missionary Society showed that the SOCiety The theological seminaries at Marsovan, Har- has in foreign lands 41 priucipal and 145 poot, and Marash are quietly raising their stand- ont stations, an increase of 37 since last year; ards according to the growing needs of the field that it has 133 missionaries and 227 native and the better class of candidates for the min- helpers in the field. an increase of about 60; istry furnished by the colleges.-Report to the that it has 91 day and boarding schools, an in- American Roard. crease of 12, and 3,364 pupils, an iucrease of "193. At the hospitals and dispensaries in Japan and United States.-Magnificent Gift for Freed- China 16,331 individuals were treated during the men. Securities to the amount of $1,000,- year. The treasurer's report shows a balance 894.25 ha.ve been placed in the hands of the of $53,000 to the credit of foreign missions. treasurer of the American IIlissionary Asso- The report of the Woman'8 Auxiliary to the ciation' by Mr. Daniel Hand of Ciinton, Board of Missions showed that the gifts in Conn. The interest of this munificent gift money and boxes this year amount to $276,154. is to be spent every year in the education of the colored youth of the South, and is -Inter-Seminary Alliance. The meeting given by one who for many years was in held in Boston this year was the largest of the business in the South. He has had a pur- gatherings of this association ever held. It was pose to devote his fortune to this work for the ninth convention. Five hundred young men a long time, and has fulfilled it in the clos- from the seminaries were reported to be p"esing years of bis life. He is now in the ent. The papers presented were valuable. Drs. eighty-ninth year of his age. It is said that Herrick Johnson, Phillips Brooks, A. J. Gordon and Joseph Cook stirred the bearts of these young men.
STATISTICS OF TBE WORLD'S MISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
BRITISH OONTRIBUTIONS TO FOREIGN MISSIONS, 1887.
[WE are indebted to Rev. W. A. Scott Robertson, Hon. Canon of Canterbury and Vicar of Throwley, England, for these highly interesting statistics, summarized and analyzed.-EDs.] Summary of British Contributions to Foreign Missions, 1887.
Church of England Societies (Table No. I.)•…..•…………………•..•••….••……. £461,236· Joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists (Table No. II.). ……….. … ………. 187,048 English and Welsh Nonconformist Societies (Table No. III.) ………………………… 367,115 Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Societies (Table No. IV.)…………………………….. 202,940 , – – – Roman Catholic Societies (Table No. V.)………………………………………….. 10,420 Total British Contributions for 1887………………………………………… £1,228,759 N. B.-This total does not include any fund.• derived from Rents, Dividends, or Interest, nor Balances in kand from the previ0U8 year, nor any Foreign Contributions. ANALYSIS OF THE RECEIPTS, 1887.
Table No. I. Foreign Missions of the Church of England.
Analysis of Receipts.
From Abroad British When & from In- Contri- Founded. Name of each Society, and Total Amount of Receipts for 1887. "estmeuts. butions.
1799 …. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £221,330 (in addition to £48,604 received at Mission Stations). British Contributions………………………………………… . £207,704 Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad …………. , ….•……… £1,075 Dividends, Interest, and Rents. . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . ……………..••• 12,551 No B.-This Society maintain8 the Church Missionary College at Isltngt(}n, which it founded in 1825. 1701. ••. S00IETY FOR THE PRoPAGATION OF TilE GoSPEL, £112,245. British Contributions ……………………………………….. . 9~,811 Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad………………………. . 3,388 Dividends, Interests, and Rents ………………………………. . 10,051 1808 ….LONDON SOCIli:TY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS, Brft~!~~ontributions……………………………………….. .. Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad……••..•……..••…•..••• 1,090 28,174 Dividends, Interest, etc………………………………….•…… 2,700 1880…•CHURCH OF ENGLAND ZENANA MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £23,268. British Contributions………………………………………… . '22,674 From Abroad ………………………………………………. . 594 1823….COLON[AL AND CONTINENTAL CHURCH SOCIETY, £37,673. British Contribntions ……………………… , • •……………. . 18,395 Raised and Ex-pended Abroad ……••………………….•……… 19,237 Dividends, Interest, etc•……….•……………………….•…•.• 41 1698 …. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, £33,699 (in addition to £79,000 derived from trading).
Portion paid in aid of Foreign Mission work, about …………….. . 12,000 1860…. CENTRAL AFRICAN MISSION ON THE UNIVERSITIES, £13,285. British Contributions ……………………………………….. . From Abroad ………………………………………………. . 399 12,169 Intere"t ……………………………………… ; …………. . 717 1844…. SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £12,215. British Contribntions…. . …………………………………… . Raised and Expended Abroad …………………………………• 3,470 8,745 1870…. MISSIONARY LEAVES ASSOCIATION (aiding Native Clergy of the Church MIssionary Society), £8,348.
British Contributions……………….. . …………………… . 8,315 Dividends………………………………………………….. . 33 SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE CHURCH AID SOCIETY, £4,787. British Contributions………………………………………… . From Abroad and Sales ……………………………………… . 115 4,672 1865 ….LAPrE.' ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING FEMALE EDUCATION AMONG THE HEATHEN, £:;,188 (included above in the S. P. G. total), 1860…• BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS, £4,196.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 4,010 Grants and Interest ……………………………………….. . 186 MELANESIAN MISSION, £4,703.
British Contributions …………………………………….. . 2,215 From Abroad……… ……………………….. …………….. 2,488 1841. … COLONIAL BISHOPRICS' FuND, £12,546.
British Contribution………………………………………. . 495 Dividends and Interest…………………………………….. 11,437 Grant from S. P. C. K. and S. P. G………………………… ••• 614 1869 …•"THE NET' 8" collections, £2,084. For McKenzie Memorial Mission …………………………… . 110 1,311 For other Funds …………………………………………… . 663 1883 …•CENTRAL AGENC.i FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, £1,646.
Sums not herein included in the totals of other Societies, about 385 1848….ST. AUGUSTINE'S MISSIONARY COLLEGE (exclUSive of Endowments for a Warden, a Sub-Warden and three.Fellows), £2,862.
From Missionary Studentship AssoCIations•..••.•…•..•..•••••.• 2,251 From Funded ExhibItions, ••••• , •••• , •••• , •• , .. ,., ••••• " •• , …… . 611 ,An-a_ly_sis_oJf-R_e-c-e-ip-t.s.. , From Abroad British When & from In- Contri- Fonnded. Name of each Society. and Total Amount of Receipts for 1887. ,estments. butions.
1860 ..• .CORAL MISSIONARY FUND (to aid Schools and Catechists of Church £22 £952 98~ l1i"sionary Society), £974. 69 997 British Contributions…………….. ………………………. 2,176 570 Interest……………………………………………………. 442 1840…. FOREIGN AID SOCIETY (for France, B"lgium. Italy and Spain)…….. 300 18M .. .. ANGLO-CONTINENTAL SOCIETY. about.. …………………………. 1867 …. DELBI MEDICAL MIS~ION TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN, about. ……… 437,236 1877 …. CAMBRIDGE MISSION TO DELHI………….. ……………….. …….. 1691 …. CHRISTIAN FAITH SOCIETY FOR THE WEST INDIES (Rents)…… ……. 24,000 COLUMBIA MISSION, about……………………………………….. Tot;al amount of Donations, Legacies and Annual Subscriptions from the British Isles to the Societies above named for 1887… ESTIMATED VALUE of other gifts sent direct to Mission Stations, or gathered specially for Missionary dioceses, schools or Zenana work………………………………………………
Total for Church of England Foreign Missione. 1887 …………. . £461,236 Table No. II. Foreign Missions-Joint Societies of Churchmen and Non- conformists-A. D. 1887.
1804…. BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOOIETY, £147,881 (in addition to £102,443 derived ('rom sales) Devoted to Foreign Mission Work, abont………………………. £89,000 1799 …. RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, £Z9,J40 (exclusive of £170,950 derived from 16,812 29,961 Trade). 9,883 Devoted to Foreign Mission Work…………………………….. 8,109 1866…. CHINA INLAND MISSION, £J3,717. 5,171 , British Cvntribntions ………•.•……. ;………………………. 4,626 From Abroad ……………………………………………….. £3,756 6,000 18fi2 …. INDIAN FEMALE NORMAL SOCIETY, £9,995 …………. :……………. 112 3,274 184ll…. BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE 3,100 JEWS, £~,183 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,……… 74 1,517 2;595 1834 …. S0CIETY FOR PROMOTING FEMALE EDUCATION IN TIlE EAST, £6,249 (in 7,00« addition to needlework sent abroad, valued at £.,306). £187,04~ British Coutributions……….. ………………………………
Dividend", etc., £931; Grants, £147.. .. ….. . .. .. . . . .. . . . …. . . .. . . .. 1,078 1732 …. MORAVIAN (EPISCOPAL) MISSIONS OF THE UNITED BRETHREN, £16,803.
British ContributlOns ………………. , …… ,………………..
1872 …. EAST LONDON INSTITUTE FOR HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS, £11,592.
Portion de·oted to Livingstone Mission and other Foreign Mission Work, abont ……………… , .. , ………….. ,…….. ……..
)858 …. CHRISTIAN VERNACULAR EDUCATION SOCIETY FOR INDIA, £4,742 (in addition to £4,904 received in India from sales).
British Contributions…………………………………………
Grants and Contributions in India ……………………………. '.' 1,402 Interest…………………….. .. ……………………….. …. 66 W ALDE:r{8IAN MISSIONS AID FUND.
English and Irish Contributions, about…………. ……………… TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCtEl'Y, £1,5~1 (iu addition to £456 from sales).
British Contributions ………………….. '" …………………. Interest .. _…………………………………………. _.. , ….. 4 1856.•.. TURKISH MISSIONS (FROM AMERICA) AID SOCIETy…….. ………….
ESTIMATJIlD VALUE of other contribntions in money and in needlework, &c………….. ……………. ……………. …………………
Total amount of British Contributions through Unscctarian or Joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists for 1887…… ……….
Table No. III. Foreign Missions of English and Welsh Nonconformists, 1887.
1813…. WESLEYAN MISSIC:l1ARY SOCIETY, £133,303 (in addition to £58,827, raised and expended in Mission Stations).
British Contributions … _……………………………. , …… . £119,898 From Abroad …………………………………………….. . £7,035 Dividends and IntereRt …………………………………….. . 6,370 1795 …. LoNDON MISSIONARY SoOIETY, £146,410.
British Contributions ……….. , . . 0 ………………………… . 118,554 Raised Abroad .. _ ………………………………………… .. 23,716 Dividends and Interest ……………………………………. .. 4.140 1792….BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £7;;,058.
British Contributions ……………………………………… . 56,173 Raised Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,3.31 Dividends,Interest1 etc…………………………………… . 1,534 1855 …. ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS, £13,450.
British Contributions……………………………………… . 13.400 From Abroad. etc…………………………………………. .. 50 For Women's l'lission Fund see below.
1867 …… FRIENDS" FnREIGN MISSION ASSOCIATION. £8,964.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 8,529 Dividends and Interest……………….. . ………………… . 435 1832 .••. WESLEYAN LADIES' AUXILIARY FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, £7,529.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 7.347 Interest I'nd I' Grant..• , .. , …… , ……… , …………… , … , .. . 182 Analysis o.f Receipts.
From Abroad British When & from In- Contri· Founded. Name of each Society, and Total Amonnt of Receipts for 1887. vestments. bntions. 1~56 …. UNITED ME1'HODIST FREE CHURCHES' FOREIGN MISSIONS, £17,475. British Contril:>utioDS………………………………………. £7,722 Raised Abroad. . . . . . . .. •• . . . • . . . .. •• . • . . . . .. . • .. . … . . • . . .. . . ….. £9,753 1840 .••. WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODISTS FOREIGN M,SSIONARY SOCIETY, £.,bll. British Contributions…………………………………….. . 5,118 From Abroad………………………………………………. 2,332 Interest, etc………………………………………… ……. 361 1817 …. GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £8,107. 4,735 British Contributions……………………………………… .
From Abroad…………. ………………………………….. 3,181 Interest, etc……………………………………………….. 191 METHODIST NEW CONNECTION FOREIGN MISSIONS, £3,782. British Contributions……………………………………… . 3,210 From Abroad ……………………………………………… . 464 Grants £61, Interest £47…………………………………… .. 108 1845…. EVANGELICAL CONTINENTAL SOCIETY, £2,208. British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 2,194 Interest, etc ………………………………………………. . 14 1836…. COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £6,314 ……………………………. . 6,053 British Contributions ………………………………………." . Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 190 Interest, etc ….. " ………………………………………….. , 71 1,829 h FRIENDS" MISSION IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE . ……………….. .
PRIMITIVE METHODIST COLONIA.L MISSIONS, about …….. .., … : ……. . 2,000 PRIMITIVE METHODIST AFRICAN MISSION, £2,154 ………………….. .
British Contributions………………………………………… . 2,042 F'rolD Abroad" .. .. . . ……. … . …………………………….. . 112 ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, £2,356.
British Contributions………………………………………. . 2,311 .
Interest …………………………………………………… .. 45 ESTIMATED VALUE of needlework sent to mission Stations, and other un· reported Contributions. …. ….. . …………………………. .. ~,ooo Total British Contribntions throngh English and Welsh Nonconform- ist Societies for 1887…….. …………………………………. £367,115 Table. No. IV. Foreign Missions of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians.
FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSIONS, £102,112.
, (British Contribntions .. £35,488 F orel.gn "JIU,SS.lOns ………………………. 1J SFcrohomolAFbereosaadn.d..G..r.a.n.t.s £5,465 2~,053 LInterest …………. .. 5,792 Ladies' Society for Female Edncation………………………….. . Jews' Conversion Fund ……………………………………… . 11,005 921 6,706 Continental Fund ………………………………………….. .. 130 5,116 Colonial Mission……………………………………………. . UNITIW PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISS[ONS, £57,465. 63 3,373 General Fund.. { British Contributions and Legacies…………. . 48,309 Interest, etc……………………………….. 4,077 CZeonnatinnaenMtaislsaionnd.C..o.l.o.n..i.a.L……………………………………l…………………………………. .. 931 J CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION BOARDS, £55,709. 4,148 British Contrioutions ………………….. . Foreign Missions. '1 rna{::~st~.~~~~'.~~.~~~.l. ~~~.s.'.~.~~~.t.~,. ~.t.~ .. :" 10,~: 24,481 Jewish Mission ……………………………………… , ……. . 1,131 7,165 Colonial ",nd Continental Missions………………………….. . 11 4,938 Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions… …………………. 5,721 Ladies' Association for Educating Jewish Girls…….. ……… 811 1,117 1864…. NATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, £16,077 (in addition to £16,439 500 15,266 from sales). 6,481 British Contributions …………………………………….. .. Interest …………………………………………………. .. 3,000 1841 …. EDINBURGH MEDICAL 1I1ISSIONARY SOCIETY, £6,981. 1,300 British Contributions ……………………………………. .. • 774 Interest …………………………………………………… . 3.000 W ALDENSIAN MISSIONS AID FUND, abou t …………………………. . 18.",1 .•.. LEBANON SCHOOLS, about ………………………………………. .
1,s'j'1, … OR.IGINAL SECESSION CHURCH'S INDIAN MISSION, about …… _………. .
ESTIMATED VALUE of other Scottish Contributions ……………. ..
Total Scottish Presbyterian Contributions, 1887…………… . £188,319 IRISH PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS, £18,500. 2,053 6,098 British Contributions…………… .. 285 274 3,553 Foreign Missions, £8,710 .. School Fees and Grant.s …………. . 3 2,800 { From Abroad. .. .. .. .. . .. .. … . ….. . 1,'719 Interest………………………… .. 97 288 Jevish Mission ……. o • o • o ••••••••••••••• _0 ••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••••• 1,167' 163 Ladi..s' Female Missionary Society…………………………. . Colonial Mission….. ' ………………………………………. . £202,940 Gujarat Orphanage ……………….• o •••••••••••••••• •••••••••• _ Continental Mission ………………………………………… . Mrs. Magee's Indian Education Fund (interest)……………… .
Total British Contributions through Scottish and Irish Pres- byterian Societies for 1887 ……………………………. .
NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
Table No. V. Foreign Missions of British Roman Catholics, 1887.
Founded. British Contributions. ASSDCll'rION FOR 'rHE PROPAGA'rION OF THE 'FAITH, £8,760. England …………………………………………………………….. £1,883 Ireland. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . .. . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . .. … . . . . .. .. .. .. . . . .. .. … .. .. .. .. 6.572 Scotland. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . … 30li N.B.-7'he total 'income of the Roman Propagnndafor 1887, collected fl'Ome1lery diocese in Christendom, amounted to 6,462,276francs .. i. e., about £258,491. 1870.•.•ST. JOSEPH'S FOltEIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY A,l'm COLLEGE, at Mill HIli, Hendon. 1,660 Total. …………………………………………………………… £10,420 SUMMARY FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS.
TOTAL BRITISlI CONTRffiUTIONS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.
1871 …………………………….. £855,742 1880 ……………………………. £1,108,950 )872…………………………….. 882,886 1881. ……………………………. 1,093,569 18T& …………………………….. 1.03:!,176 1874 …………………………….. 1,009,199 1882 ……………………………. 1,191,175 1875… , …………………………. 1,048,408 1883 …………………………….. 1,216,530 1876 … , …………………………. 1.018.472 18~4 …………………………….. 1,220,861 1877…………………………….. 1,100.793 1885 ……………… , ……………. 1,228.951 1878 …………………………….. 1,071 ,944 1886 …………………………….. 1,195,714 1887 …………………………….. 1,228,759 1879 …………. , .. , ….. , ………… 1,086,678 VIII.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Earl of Aberdeen. man in the House of Lords and at the same time moving as a benefac- THE Earl of Aberdeen, whose pic- tor among the common people ! We ture forms our frontispiece, was hon- are pleased to be able to put before ored by the presidency of the great our readers the "counterfeit pre- Conference of Missions in London, sentment" of a man noble in a douwhich began June 9, 1888. ble sense, perhaps the nearest to the late Earl of Shaftesbury of any of He is a man comparatively in.his the many lords of England, and youth-we judge not over thirty-five whose lady is not a whit behind him years of age-with black hail' and in true nobility of character. eyes, a slender figure, and a nervous temperament. While speaking he As president of the Conference he moves from side to side, rests on one performed the duties of the chair foot at a time, frequently crossing with much g'l'ace and manifest pleasone leg over the other; is by no ure, and right cordially welcomed means a flueut speaker 01' a great the delegates in' a brief speech. He orator. But his character and life aLso entertained the Conference at his are his standing oration. He is country seat a few miles from London. known among his countrymen as a Our readers, we are confident, will be man foremost in every good word glad to look upon his face. A. T. P. and work, a friend and patron of all benevolent societies and institu- The Slave Trade in Eastern Afrioa. tions, While other landed proprietors are using their immense estates IT begins to look as if the hour had for their own emolument, grinding struck for the suppression of this their poor tenants into more abject curse of curses! For the first time poverty, and while the wretched in history there is a coalition formed crpfter system leaves the land which of the great powers of Europe effectthe tenant has improved and e,"en ually to stop a traffic that for centhe hut he has built to revert to the turies has been the scandal of Chrislandlord when the term of the ap- tendom, and has entailed untold prenticeship expires, the Earl of Ab- miseries and horrors upon Africa. Competent witnesses testify that the erdeen is enabling his tenants to be- trade was never carried on more excome owners of their own little farms tensively than at the present time, and houses, parceling out his own nor with greater cruelty and sacrifice estates among his tenantry. What of life.
a blessing- to Britain to have such a Against this enormous and iniquitous trade the British Government prosperous, there was a disposition has waged a single-handed and al- to regard the activity of England in most useless warfare for half a cen- the same quarter with jealousy, and tury. Her vessels have pursued the there was ground to suspect that slavers wherever they have been the value of British co·operation found. She has kept' them in con- was not thought of till the A~ab stant fear and mitigated the evils of slave traders had proved more than the trade, but has not succeeded in a match for the company. breaking it up; indeed there has of late years been a revival of it. With England's support secured, Thank God, several of the other the circle of the alliance was com- European powers have now agreed pleted by assurances of assistance to assist in the good work. The first from Italy, Austria, France, Belsuggestion for a movement of this gium, Russia, Greece, and, last of character is credited to the Nor-th all, Portugal, in maintaini.ng a naval Ger-man Gazette, a paper which is blockade of the East African coast. supposed to be the mouthpiece of For a century or more Portugal Prince Bismarck. Recently an article has been the greatest European appeared in the Gazette which stated helper of the slave trade, having not tbat the Arab slave hunters werp not only not interfered with the slave only the curse of the native tribes hunters, but encouraged them by but a menace to the English, the putting difficulties in the way ofthose Belgians, and the Germans, and to who attempted to do so. For years the work of civilization carried on by England has endeavored to force a those nations. Hitherto, it was said, reversal of her policy. but Portugal's England had been the only power very weakaess has protected her. and that had made any effort to put a she has only yielded now reluctantly stop to the slave trade. The work, and when the pressure has become however, was too large for any sin- irresistible. gle people. "Only by co-operation can the. civilized nations concerned Among the methods of action sugsucceed in putting a stop to a state gested by these powers for the supof things which is a disgrace to our pression of the slave traffic, the most century, and we may confidently practicable, under the present cirhope that the German as well as the cumstances, is the establishment of English people will prove equal to a naval patrol along the coast of the the task which is here imposed upon Red Sea and as far south as the them alike by the sacred principles southern boundary of Zanzibar. This of religion and of humanity." In coast is now controlled for the most other words, Germany invited .Eng. part by England, Germany and Porland to join her in putting down tugal, and these three power;; might the slave trade-the invitation being together form a most effectual b.lockback~d up by a subsequent proposal ade against the slave ships touching which seems to suggest that the at Eastern ports. If these outlets anti-slavery crusade started by Car- are permanently closed and the slave dinal Lavigerie might be advantage- traders cut off from all their princiously used as the basis for common pal markets, the traffic must soon action. come to an end of itself. J. M. S.
What stirred up Germany to make THE refusal of the American Gov- . this proposal were the troubles lately ernment to unite with other great experienced by the German settlers powers in putting an end to the drink and traders on the East African coast. traffic, so utterly destructive of piety, So long as the affairs of the Ger- morals, human happiness and human man East" African Company were life in the Western Pacific, may well arouse all true men and women to a vigorous remonstrance. In Polynesia This evil of drink is so mighty and the native races are in danger of ex- so increasing that the most strenuous termination by the" unrestricted use exertions should be at once put forth of firearms, ammunition, dynamite, and especially intoxicating drinks." to at least prevent its fiuding new fields for its destructive and demoI,li- acal work with the countenance of u.
For the sake of the profits accruing Christian government. A. T. P from this infamous business traders The Brazilian Synod. pus!} their trade and thrust "firewater" upon these poor savages. IT is doubtless known to our read- ers that the last General Asseml,ly Then these ignorant and degraded of the Presbyterian Church appointed and half brutal people. maddened by Drs. J. Aspin wall Hodgeand Charles drink, act like madmen, and use E. Knox to assist iIi the organization murderous weapons and explosives with fearful recklessness. Is it any of the independent Union Synod of ~onder that Christian missions Brazil, representing both the Northmake but little progress among ern and- the i:::louthern Presbyterian them? What head way can the most Church. While these two branches heroic labors make when offset by a of the great Presbyterian family at home were not ready to come to- gether again as one, the mission churches of both and the missiona- diabolical intoxicant that unseats ries of both, in "Brazil, earnestly reason from her throne and turns the sought a union, which has been haphuman body into a stronghold of Satan and sets every power and pily accomplished. The occasion was one of intense and memorable inter- est, and the Union Synod will un- passion on fire of hell! Austria i doubtedly become a great power in and Germany, Russia and France, that kingdom. The delegates came and even Protestant England and America, join hands in this nefarious back full of enthusiasm, which they have imparted to several of thegr~at home synods.
traffic. To such a terrible extent has .. It is a grand truth, when one fully compre. hends and measnres it," says The Church at it gone that an effort to terminate it Home and Abroad, .. that another independent was inaugurated through the "sim- Presbyterian body las been created in the world by purely missionary work. Five months ago ultaneous and united agreement of the Presbyterian Chnrch of PerSia, also a child of missions, was taken into the fellowship of the all the powers interested." Lord Presbyterian Alliance in London. Now the Granville, the Eng-lish Foreign Secre- second, the offspring of the Presbyterian Boards North and South, is ready to be added to the tary, the prime mover in the under- Alliance; and by the time that the next quad- rennial meeting of that body shall be held in taking, received favorable answers • Toronto we hope that there may be still others from all the governments except the ready for admission."
United States, which should have Fr.om the letter of our Editorial Correspondent at Chefoo, China, Rev. been prompt to respond and to Dr. Nevius, elsewhere given, we learn second the laudable movement with- that one of the important questions out regard to the money interests of discussed by the Synod of China, at traders. Secretary Bayard has here- its recent session, was the union of tofore taken high moral grounds in his state papers, but the Christian all missions in the empire holding sentiment and conscience of the na- the Presbyterian system of doctrine and form of government. A com- mittee, consisting of A. P. Happel', tion demand a better and more posi- D.D., John L. Nevius, D.D., and Rev. George F. Fitch, with an equal numtive answer than the following, of ber of native brethren, wasappoi'lted to correspond with the representaour Secretary of State: tives of the other" consulting" mis- sionary bodies laboring in China, and "While recognizing and highly approving the to propose a meeting of delegates moral force and general propriety of the pro- from all such bodies at Shanghai in posed regnlations, and the responsibility of con- 1890 during the meeting of the Misducting such traffic nnder proper restrictions, sionary Conference already arranged the government of the trnited States does not· for. Another forward step in the feel entirely prepared to join in the international interest of union on mission ground nnderstanding proposed, and will. therefore, for the present, restrain its action to the employ- J. M. S_ ment, in the direction ontlined by the snggested arrangement, of a sonnd discretion in permitting traffic between its own citizens referred to, .and the natives of the Western Pacific Islands."
The Missionary Review of the World — July 1888
A ROMANOE OF MODERN MISSIONS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI. No. 7.-0ld Series.–]ULY._-VOL. I. No. 7.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
A ROMANOE OF MODERN MISSIONS.* BY REV. J. W. BASHFORD, PH.D., BUFFALO, N. Y.
ONE day in the winter of 1832-3, four Flathead Indians appeared upon the streets of St. Louis with a request which no white man had ever heard before. They came, they said, from the land of the setting sun. 'rhey had heard of the white man's God and they wanted thtl white man's Book of Heaven.
General Olarke, then commanding the military post at St. Louis, was a Roman Oatholic. The Roman Oatholic missionaries have per- formed heroic service for the Indians. Unfortunately, however, they have tried to give the Indians Ohristianity without :civilizatiOi,Q So . while the four Flatheads were received with the greatest hospitality, and were shown the Roman Oatholic church, the pictures of the saints, etc., yet they were steadily denied their oft repeated request for a Bible. Two of the Indians died in St. Louis from the fatigue of their long journey from Oregon. The other two, homesick and disappointed, prepared to return. Gen. Clarke made a banquet for them and bade them God speed on their journey. One of the Indians was called upon to respond. His response deserves to rank with Lincoln's Gettysburg speech as a model of eloquence and with Washington's Farewell Ad- dress in the influence it subsequently exercised. We can give no just idea of the circumstances, or of the impression it produced. We can only give the English version of the speech which, like all translations, loses much of the force of the original: "I came to you over the trail of many moons from the setting sun. You were the friend of my fathers who have all gone the long way. I came with an eye partly opened for more light for my people who sit in darkness. 1 go back with both eyes closed. How can 1 go back blind to my blind people? I made my way to you with strong arms, through many ene- mies and strange lands, that 1 might carry back much to them. 1 go back with both arms broken and empty. Two fathers came with us. They were the braves of many winters and wars. We leave them asleep here by your *Barrows' Oregon, Gray's History of Oregon, Reed's Missions of the Met.hodist Episcopal Church, Gov. Simpson's Narrative, Parkman's Oregon Trail, and per- sonal correspondence with Rev. Daniel Lee. great water and wigwam. They were tired in many moons and their mocca- sins wore out. My people sent me to get the white man's Book of Heaven. You took me where you allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the Book was not there. You took me where they worship the Great Spirit with candles, and the Book was not there. You showed me images of the good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the Book was not among them to tell us the way. I am going back the long, sad trail, to my people of the dark land. You make my feet heavy with gifts and my moc- casins will grow old in carrying them, yet the Book is not among them. When I tell my poor, blind people after one more snow in the big Council, that I did not bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men or by . our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to other hunt- ing grounds. No white man will go with them and no white man's Book to make the way plain. I have no more words."
A young man was so impressed with the address that he wrote to friends in the East some account of this strange visit and of the pa- thetic plea of the Indians for a Bible. The letter was published in The Christian Advocate in March, 1833. When President Fisk, of Wilbraham, read the thrilling story, it was like fire shut up in his bones. He issued through The Advocate a trumpet-blast, entitling it, "Hear! Rear! Who will respond to the call from beyond the Rocky Mountains?" The church was aroused. Contributions began to flow in. President Fisk at once wrote Rev. Jason Lee, who had been at the Academy in 1828, and was then waiting to engage in mis- sion work among the Indians of Canada. Jason Lee was six feet two inches high, physically strong, intellectually clear, and morally with- out a blemish. He is pronounced by the Oyclopedia oj Methodism "the peer of any man who adorns the role of modern workers in the Church of Christ." Jason Lee selected his nephew, Rev. Daniel Lee, now living at Caldwell, Kansas, to accompany him. Three laymen, Cyrus Sheppard, T. S. Edwards and P. L. Edwards, volunteered to share the danger and the labor with the ministers. These five men, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Board, joined Captain N. J. Wyeth of Cambridge, Mass., who had been West asa fur-trader, had built Fort Hall in south-eastern Idaho, and was returning West. After a journey of many months the party reached Oregon, and Jason Lee preached the first Protestant sermon on the Pacific coast at Vj:tn- couver, September 28, 1834.
Meanwhile, what had become of the two remaining Indians, and where was the tribe from which they came? After leaving St. Louis for the West in the spring of '33 the two Flatheads fell in with George Catlin, the famous Indian artist. They traveled with him for days. But with Indian reserve and stoicism they did not mention the object of their visit or their desire for the white man's Book. Upon Mr. Catlin's return to Pittsburg months afterward he saw the letter written froin St. Louis, and said it must be false. He wrote to General Olarke to learn the facts. General Clarke wrote back, "It is true. That was the only object of their visit, and it failed." It will interest you and add to the romance to learn that Catlin, without knowing that these two Indians were to be historic, yet enriched his gallery with their portraits, which are numbered 207 and 208 in his Collection. After leaving Catlin one more of the Indians died on the journey home, and only one returned to announce to the great Council the death of his companions and that the white man refused them the Book. The tribe was embittered and gave up all hope of help from the white man's God. So when our missionaries at last found these Indians, they received no welcome from them. Worse still, the tribe was small and their location poor. So that if their invincible prejudices could be overcome they offered a very limited field for missionary labor. At first the Lees were discouraged. The whole movement seemed a miserable, methodistic fiasco, in which zeal had outrun knowledge.
Did you ever think that the Bible says nothing about Paul finding in Macedonia the same man who appeared to him in his vision? But Paul found Macedonian heathen in abundance, and thus concluded that he had a mission. So Jason Lee found Indian heathen in abundance in the Willamette valley and some members of the Hudson Bay Company who had never heard the gospel. So, nothing daunted, he concluded he was sent of God, and prepared to stay. He established a Manual Labor School for the Indian children and began to teach the Indians Christianity and civilization. Now see how God was in this movement-how He aimed at and accomplished through these missionaries a far greater work than they had ever dreamed of! It was really the battle between the school-house and the Bible on the one side and the steel-trap and the rifle on the other, between American self-government and British domination, between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism upon the western coast, that these missionaries were sent to Oregon to help fight out. Nay, it was even the battle between freedom and slavery in our Republic which they providentially helped to settle. You remember that by an agreement between the United States and Great Britain, made in 1818 and renewed in 1827, the western boundary between Canada and our Republic was left undetermined. The territory remained open to settlers from both nations. Under this arrangement the Hudson Bay Fur Company, which outnumbered by far all other whites upon the coast, laid claim, under an English charter, to the territory. It broke down in succession eleven fur companies which the Americans organized; it drove from the country a man of the indomitable zeal and enterprise of John Jacob Astor; and its Governor, Sir George Simpson, practicallyexercised control over the whole territory north of California and west of the Rocky Mountains. But the Hudson Bay Company found motives loftier than money making and perseverance surpassing that of the indomitable Astor in the Methodist missionaries; and a contest between these two parties now began. When under the Methodists some of the Indians were converted and civilized, the company refused to sell them hoes and spades and ploughs. It sent to Oanada at its own ex- pense for Jesuit missionaries to teach the Indians Ohristianity without civilization, and thus at once appeal to the native indolence of the Indians and keep the country from cultivation. On the refnsal of the company to sell the Americans cattle, Lee organized an American Oompany, went to Oalifornia, and bought 600 head of cattle of the Mexicans. Four more Methodist missionaries, including two women, arrived in 1835; and in 1836 eight more, including Jason Lee's wife, sailed from Boston for Oregon. The Methodist missionaries saw at this early date that the allegiance of the country would be determined by the predominance of English or American settlers; and in the inter- ests of Ohristianity, of Protestantism, and of freedom they determined to save the land to the United States. In 1838 J ason I~ee started to the States with two Indian boys. A messenger overtook him with the sad intelligence that his wife and child had succumbed to the hardships of the frontier and were both dead. These were the first martyrs to the cause in Oregon. Broken-hearted and lonely Jason Lee pressed on and induced thirty-six persons to emigrate to Oregon in '38, and about seventy more in '39, and one hundred and twenty more under the guidance of another Methodist missionary in '42. The letters written home from Oregon began to have an influence, and other settlers fol- lowed in the next few years. On the arrival of Jason Lee in Oregon the British outnumbered the American whites ten to one. After 1840, . chiefly under Lee's management, the American population outnum- bered the British ·population, and had chosen the permanent industry . of farming while the English had chosen the temporary occupation of hunting and trapping.
But the struggle for the possession of this joint territory was not over; and it might not have ended favorably had not the missionaries of the American Board come to the assistance of the Methodists. The Board of Missions fQr the Oongregational Ohurch had been stirred by the appearance of the Flathead Indians, and planned to send two missionaries in company with the methodists to Oregon in 1834, but could not secure the men in time. So this Board sent out in 1835 Dr. Marcus Whitman and Mr. Parker who were to explore the country and return. Dr. Whitman returned and reported favorably, and in 1836 Dr. Whitman and his bride and Rev. H. H. Spaulding and his bride were sent to found a mission in Oregon. Methodist women had gone to Oregon in 1835 by ship; but these were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains-six years be- fore General Fremont the noted pathfinder disoovered the pass through which they entered Oregon. There was a marked di:8'erence between Mr. Whitman and Mr. Spaulding. Mr. Spaulding was a man of some literary tastes, but was certainly not one of wild nature's fa.- vorites. On the trip out he was shaken by the ague, kicked by a mule, pushed off a ferryboat by a cow and saved himself from drowning by clinging to her caudal appendage; while an incipient western cyclone carried off his tent and stripped him of his blankets. We do not wonder that he concluded he was not adapted to western life# and that he would have turned back had not his brave wife persisted in going forward. But Dr. Whitman was one of nature's noblemen. He was not tall but was compactly built, was a physician as well as a missionary, was keen, independent, self-willed, had the lofty courage of Sheridan and the unconquerable tenacity of General Grant.
Despite the protestations of the British agent at Fort Hall Dr. Whitman insisted upon taking his wagon through and actually took it as far as Fort Boise before he abandoned it in 1836. Later he had it brought on to Oregon and thus proved against the persistent statements of the Hudson Bay Company that a wagon road from the United States to Oregon was practicable.
In October 1842 Dr. Whitman was called to visit a sick man of,the Hudson Bay Co. at old Fort Walla Walla. While there the express rider from Canada dashed up with the mail. Dr. Whitman now learned for the first time that Governor Simpson had gone to Canada some months before, and had dispatched a body of one hundred and fifty emigrants to Oregon, to bring the English numbers above those of the American settlers; that these emigrants were only ten days behind the express-rider, and that Governor Simpson had gone on to Washington to try to arrange for the yielding of our claim to Oregon. On receiving the news the traders and the priests cheered for England and Oregon, and cried: "America is too late; the land is ours!" Dr. Whitman saw at once that the country would be lost without a most daring effort to save it. He rode back twenty-four miles to the American missions that afternoon, announced his determination to try to reach Washington, and asked for a companion. General Lovejoy of the Methodist Mission offered to go with him, and October 3d, with a guide and two pack mules, the two men set out on horseback for the United States. These two brave riders saw before them a journey of four thousand miles. The first three thousand would be across trackless wilds, and the first one thousand through mountains which were almost impassable in the summer-time. They knew they would be exposed to wild beasts. The Blackfeet Indians had been aroused to savage ferocity by the advance of the whites across the Mississippi, and their fierceness had infected many other tribes. Worst of all, these travelers saw the winter coming on. From the human standpoint it did not seem probable that a journey of three thousand miles could be made over mountains and across trackless plains in the depth of winter, with scarcely a house to shelter them. But they felt that God would help them. They were struggling for the civil and religious institutions of a region of large extent and boundless fertility, and the cause was worth their lives. To avoid the Blackfeet Indians and the cold on the northern plains, they resolved to bear southeast from their starting point- Waiilatpu, Oregon, to Fort Hall, thence almost South to Taos and Santa Fe, in New Mexico, thence east to Bent's Fort in Indian Territory, on the Arkansas River, and thence northeast across Missouri to St. Louis.
General Lovejoy's brief notes of the trip show that the winter overtook them soon after they left Fort Hall. 'l'heir progress became very slow because of heavy snows. The snow covered the familiar landmarks so that the guide became uncertain of the way. In one instance they rode a week, supposing they were going east, and came back to the camp they had left seven days before. Again they started forward, and succeeded in reaching Grand river, 600 yards wide, and frozen on either side about 200 yards, but with a swift, dangerous current in the center. The weather was biting cold, and the guide declared the stream impassable. Dr. Whitman, however, determined to risk his life; and Gen. Lovejoy and the guide pushed the horse forward with poles until the ice broke, and both horse and rider disappeared in the rapid current. They rose far below, and Dr. Whitman guided his horse to the other shore~ broke the ice with a pole for a distance, then dismounted and helped his horse out. Then the others took the fearful plunge. Their clothing was frozen before they could build a fire. Again, a few days later, they encountered a western blizzard. For ten days they were imprisoned in a canon by the storm. They kept the horses alive on the bark of cottonwood trees, while they ate the faithful dog that had followed them. It was fast becoming, not a question of reaching Washington, but a question of life or death with the heroic travelers. On the eleventh day Dr. Whitman resolved to break the barricade of the storm, and they attempted to cross the mountains. But the storm blinded men and beasts; and after riding for hours they resolved to turn back to the canon they had left in the morning. But alas! after riding back a short distance, they found that the storm had obliterated their tracks. At last the horses came to a standstill, and all were becoming rapidly chilled with cold and hunger. Dr. Whitman now gave up in despair. He dismounted, and, kneeling in the snow, commended themselves and the loved ones in Oregon and their beloved land to Almighty God. Just then the mule on which the guide sat began to prick up his ears. The guide gave him the rein. The mule started, then hesitated, and at last, by a strange instinct, started again and led the party back to the morning camp. The guide now refused to go farther east. One of the men must go back with him to the nearest friendly tribe and procure, if possible, another guide. As Gen. Lovejoy was beginning to fail, he was advised by Dr. Whit-
THE GREAT COMMISSION: FACTS AND THEm PHILOSOPHY
man to rest and recruit his strength(?), out of doors in a fearful storm in the winter, while the doctor went back after a guide. Dr. Whitman's imperious will overcame the returning guide's representation of certain death, and another guide was induced to undertake the dangerous trip.
The Doctor and the new guide reached Gen. Lovejoy seven days after Whitman had left him in the cafion. They started on and at last reached Taos, and soon after Santa Fe. Despite Gen. Lovejoy's exhaustion, he accompanied Dr. Whitman to Fort Bent, on the Arkansas. The dangerous part of the journey was now past. Dr. Whitman crossed the State of Missouri alone, and reached St. Louis Jan. 3d, just three months after they set out from Oregon; and pushed rapidly on to Washington.
[Ooncluded in next number.] THE GREAT COMMISSION : FACTS AND THEIR PHILO- SOPHY.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] THE Duke of Wellington, in the familiar phrase of war, called the last command of our Lord the "marching orders" of the Church: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." That was indeed a short but suggestive and impressive valedictory. The Son of Man, about to leave the scenes and companions of his earthly life for his heavenly throne and crown, himself in person delivers the first great missionary commission and command to the first missionary band. From the grand universal center he was to survey and supervise the whole field, while they were to disperse from the earthly center, carrying on a world-wide campaign.
These marching orders are remarkable, first of all, for their comp1'ehensiveness: "all the 10orld": "every creature." What world-wide breadth! What sublime universality! This must have sounded strangely in the ears of a Jew. The Hebrew church was not a missionary church: its policy was exclusive. The idea was inbred, if not inborn, that Israel was God's peculiar people, and all other nations had for centuries been regarded as simply so many obstacles or hindrances to the progress of the one church and the true faith, for whose speedy removal or annihilation the believer ought to pray and work. The thought of the conversion of the world to God probably never entered the Jew's mind. How sudden and startling even to those first followers must have been that grand flinging open of the doors of the church of Christ. Eyes yet blinded by Jewish prejudices, ears yet dulled by spiritual apathy as to the world's condition, could not at once take in the sublime significance of these words: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Here was the enunciation and annunciation of the peculiar law of the new church of Christ. Her gates were to stand forever open as a perpetual invitation to all to come in and share her blessings, and her walls. were to stand four-square, facing the cardinal points of the compass, as though to tell us in symbol that her bounds shall ultimately be nothing less than the North and South, the East and West, and that from every quarter believing souls shall approach and entel'.
" Into all the ~lJorld" they were to go. Not alone to classic Athens, royal Rome, elegant Ephesus; not to balmy Sicily, queenly Crete, fragrant Cyprus; not to the lovely cities and lonely isles of the Mediterranean, the coasts of Italy or Greece or Syria, but into all the world. East to the farthest Orient, the golden Indies; West to the unsailed seas which laved the sands of Britain and of France. North to the fir forests of Scandinavia, South to the confines of Cush and the Arabian Sea; wherever man had gone Christ bade them go, bearing the news of salvation. There is no possibility of honestly mistaking the breadth of the great commission. It is the first thing we are to learn, as of the love of God-its" breadth "-that it reaches even to us and to the farthest off and most hopelessly alienated from God.
"To every creature;" as though even to the dumb beast would accrue some part of the blessing attending upon the spread of the gospel, in the better treatment which might be expected from the prevalence of humane and Christian feeling. The phrase evidently means the whole family of man. Not to the rich, refined and learned only, to the Areopagus or Amphyctionic Council, the Sanhedrim of Judea or the Senate of Rome; but to every man, whatever his class, color, caste or condition, rank or residence, amid the snows of Siberia or the sands of Africa, the stormy waves of the far west or the serener seas of the remote east. They were to pass no human being by without a word of warning,. witness and invitation.
The first and fundamental truth which is the broad basis of missions is this: the Gospel is an economy of grace for a ruined race. Man was created in God's image. When the representative man fell, with him fell the whole family of man which he represented. The Hebrew name, Adham, means manj Adam's fall was man's fall. By reason of its organic unity, humanity went down in that first sin, as the oak is crushed in the acorn; and Redemption is the rescue of that fallen race.
In two senses the fall is universal. First, as a clean thing cometh not forth from an unclean one, as like begets like, a corrupt nature passed from sire to son, exposing to suffering even those who bore no actual part in the first sin; and secondly, as each human being, coming to the age of conscious moral choice and action, falls anew for himself by a voluntary course of sin, he adds to the fall of the race his own personal fall by willful transgression. The whole race is thus doubly ruined, and redemption appeals to the whole race. Had none of us ever sinned; save through the representative head, redemption would no doubt have been purely representative, and we should have been saved absolutely through Ohrist. But as we all choose to sin, the entrance of choice-that imperial endowment of a will-into our fall, makes it necessary that we entet into redemption also by voluntary choice; choice implies appeal to motive, and hence the necessity of a proclamation of redemption. Here lies the power of Paul's argument in Romans X. 14,15, where interrogation becomes the boldest form of affirmation: how, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, believe without hearing, hear without a preacher?
The necessity for a world-wide preaching of the gospel must become obvious upon the bare statement of these four facts: 1. The whole race is fallen. 2. Redemption is provided for every creature. 3. Ohoice is the condition of salvation. 4. Proclamation is necessary to choice. Fix in mind these four facts, and it becomes plain why Ohrist's last command was: "Go ye into all the world," etc. The rescue provided must be co-extensive with the ruin, and preaching is God's way to bring that rescue face to face with that ruin. The more we study the philosophy of the gospel the more do its simplicity and necessity flash upon us, as beneath a clear and sudden revelation of light, which makes us wonder we have not sooner seen the truth and felt its power. The fall is a fact, and it is not worth while to stop and discuss its philOllophy; but being a fact, the gospel is its companion and collateral fact.
Redemption is for all, though all may not be redeemed because all will not accept what is adequate for all. God's electing purpose can, in no case, impair the freedom of man's electing choice! This, however, has nothing to do with your duty and mine. We cannot foresee who will accept and who will reject, to whom the gospel will be a savor of life and to whom of death, aud so the proclamation is to be absolutely universal, and without discrimination. We are to do our whole duty, and leave results with God.
'fo the eye of God all souls are precious. If there be any discrimination, it is doubtless in favor of those whom we are prone to pass by in neglect, perhaps in contempt. He has always chosen, in a special sense, those whom man would not have chosen. The only Ohrist-like evangelism is that which loves every human soul for Jesus' sake.
The comprehensiveness of this command found illustration in the history of the New Ohurch. For fifty days after Ohrist's crucifixion, for ten days after his resurrection, the disciples remained at Jerusalem. Then Pentecost, with its reversion of the miracle at Babel, opened the door of the church to the world. At that time and place representatives of every nation under heaven were gathered, and heard, in their own tongues, the wonderful works of God. Then came the death of Stephen, and a persecution which scattered the brotherhood of believers to spread the good news. Then came Peter's vision and call to the Gentiles, and the unfolding to the church of the lesson so long and plainly taught, yet so ~lowly learned, that "God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." Finally, Paul's missionary journeys actually bore the message of redemption to every nation under heaven, and it is supposed to Gaul and Britain. To us, in these latter days, new worlds have been thrown open by the disco'veries of the explorer and the enterprise of the merchant. The area of civilization is doubled, trebled, quadrupled, and all this vast territory is crowded with the race iuvolved in the same ruin, interested in the same rescue. If to Paul and Peter Ohrist's last words came with mighty force, how shall we measure the momentum which that command has acquired in the sweep of eighteen centuries of invention, discovery and human progress? Behold the area of O1tr "world I" the extent of the race in our day 1 How shall we ever overtake the march of the centuries unless we bestir ourselves and begirt ourselves for giant strides?
This great commission also contains a Charge for every believer. Examination will show that these marching orders are not more universal as to the unbelievers theycomprehend than to the believers they commISSIOn. Ohrist appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and said unto them: "Go YE." This commission was special, but not exclusive. The whole world was dying; the grace was world-embracing; the message short and plain. It was natural and needful that every believer should have part in spreading the good neWfJ. The infant church, like an army of raw recruits, must, however, have organizers and leaders; and the eleven, commissioned directly by Ohrist, constituted those leaders; but only leaders. The rank and file were to do the work.
They were commanded and commissioned to " go" and"preach." A positive duty and responsibility was laid upon disciples, as such. To stay at Jerusalem, build a grand mother church of the world like St. Peter's at Rome-" Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum, mater et caput," though they might indeed let the gentiles in when they sought entrance, would not do. Ohrist made all believers heralds of grace, bidding them go forth and tell the good news, and compel the nations, whom they had despised as barbarians, to come in. They were to seek others and not wait for others to seek them, giving the gospel even to the unasking and unwilling 1 To lose sight of this aggress~'ve feature of evangelism is to leave out its most emphatic and distinctive characteristic. The world will never come to the church, save to corrupt it and conform it to itseJf; the church must go to the world and constrain even reluctant ears to hear. The attitude of rejection makes the word of witness no less our duty. And as in the apostolic days, so now; no class of ordained preachers can ever meet this world-wide emergency. While the church waits for such alone to do the work of preaching this gospel to the world, or for the training of a regular ministry for its official pro- clamation, whole generations perish. Christ foresaw this, and so a wider commission was given and actually made the basis of spreading this good news; and the commission was: "Let him that heareth say come! "
The divine scheme was to reach every human soul by the shortest road. Hence, (1) an oral proclamation was chosen as the method, and (2) every believer as a means. -': First, an oral proclamation. God chose to send the gospel to lost men, not by means of miracles or the agency of angels, but through natural channels and by means of those who had part in the ruin and rescue. Man could use two methods: books for the eye, the voice for the ear. Christ chose the voice! He said, "Preach." The word means, as Homer uses it, to be a public crier, herald. Oral proclama- tion then was God's chosen method. Why? Books were then written laboriously and expensively upon huge, heavy parchment' scrolls by scribes. The world could not wait to get the knowledge of salvation from books. Even had the press, which dates from the fifteenth cen- tury, been then ready as a mute but mighty messenger of grace, still no doubt the commission would still have been, Go, ye, preach / For had Bibles been so plenty as to be sown like seed broadcast over the world's field, reaching every man in his own tongue, how few among the masses could have read them! To a very late day even in enlight- ened England, the famous "privilege of clergy" indexed the ignorance of the common people even of the simplest rudiments of reading and writing; and the Magna Charta was signed June 15, 1215, by nobles who could only make their mark for a signature!
Beside this, when Christ said, Go, preach, there was no New Testa- ment. The gospel according to Matthew, the pioneer book, cannot date earlier than A. D. 38, and John did not add the fourth and last of the gospels till close to the birthhour of the second Christian century.
But had a complete New Testament been ready, how tedious and tardy the process of translation and republication; and how few could have availed themselves of it, even in their own tongue!
The grand reason, however, for an oral proclamation was the peculiar force andfltness of the voice. It has a strange magnetism, when through it thrill a true earnestness and enthusiasm, which no book has. More- over, a man can fit his methods and measures to new times, places, men and needs, as no book can; and the voice has a flexibility and fa- miliarity, compared with which the formality and stateliness of a vol- ume is a disadvantage. And so from lip to ear flew the good news, every hearer a herald; and so while a Bible society would have been translating, publishing and circulating one version, the gospel actually wheeled its first circuit round the known world! The duty and privilege of preaching was thus from the first, universal. All who had an ear, a voice, must say, Oome. To have excluded any from this simple part in heralding salvation would have been to shut up an inward fire, and the voice of a pent-up flame would have burst forth in utterance saying: "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
Whatever marks of distinction may rightly exist between the ministry and membership of the church, they should never become lines of division in the work of saving souls. Those who are set a.part for the special office of leadership, are to project the advance movement, plan the campaign, and conduct the hosts: but who must do the fighting, but the bannered hosts who come after with the whole armor of God?
And so there is a sense in which every believer is a preacher, and every hearer a herald. The whole' world is the audience, and not a soul is to be passed by; the whole church are the witnesses, and not a believer is ~o be tongue-tied with a ruined race about him, God's grace within him and a voice wherewith to make himself heard! To all, of every age and nation, pardon is to be proclaimed with its simple conditions: repentance toward God and faith in the Lord J eaus Ohrist. By the words of our Lord the missionary office is laid upon the whole church till the whole world is evangelized. Not a man or woman or child can escape or evade this responsibility. Let this be really apprehended, and wherever God locates our sphere of service, we shall be found leading essentially the life of a missionary.
Out of 1,500,000,000 who crowd the earth to-day, 1,000,000,000 have not heard the good news. Generations are sinking into an abyss or hopeless ruin, one after another. Yet forevermore ring in our ears those words of responsibility and indirect rebuke: "Go ye," etc. You and I are charged with this duty, only more imperative because neglected. Weare to help tell the good news to every creature under heaven; if we can go, in person, here is the call of God, and the condition of a lost world calls if possible more loudly. He who cannot go to the heathen in person must go by proxy. But how shall they preach except they be sent! Send the Bible with a man behind it, a man to bear it, to add to its pure precepts, its glorious messages, the inspiration and magnetism of the living voice / If you must stay here at home, still go you and preach! to your children, companions, neighbors, friends, and by your prayers and purse, help others to preach to the millions over whose very souls hangs a funeral pall! And yet we stand still, while we have one minister for every 700 of our population, and Ohina one for 2,000,000.
There is no reason, or even pretext, for the present apathy of the Ohurch of Ohrist. We can gird the globe with a zone of light in twenty years if we have men and money, both of which the church is perfectly able to furnish to-day in abundance. The awful extent of
MISSION PROBLEMS AND WORK IN
the field need not disoourage us. We can reach this thousand millions with the gospel and we can do it with surprising rapidity, if we have the will to do it in God's way. He has gone before us. He has flung the doors wide open, actually ohallenging the church to enter and take possession. He has wrought results within a half century that have constrained even unbelievers to Baf, 'This is the finger of God.' There is muoh said in these days about the amazing progress of soience and invention. Within a quarter of a century the most stupendous aohievements of the human mind seem to have reached their climax. Think of the telegraph and telephone; the photometer and audiphone; the speotrosoope and microscope; the wonders of optics and anresthetics of photograph and phonograph, of steam-printing and typewriting; and these are a part of man's ways in scientific research and ingenuity. But God always keeps pace with man. However rapid man's strides have been in letters and art, in discovery and invention, God has moved yet more rapidly in his providence and grace. The study of history shows that in the march of humanity God has always led. Even the van is always but the rear of a vaster procession. Acoordingly God has accomplished within half a century what we should have supposed it would require half a millenium to effeot. Talk of "waiting upon God?" God has been long waiting for his people. He is a thousand leagues ahead of the foremost of his missionary hosts. Japan could fully occupy ten thousand missionaries to-day. Ohina could fill the hands of ten times that number. Africa has only been explored; the first chain of stations is yet to stretch from Zanzibar to the Oongo's mouth. What are we doing? 0 for a kindling of apostolic fires on the smouldering altars of the church! We have scarcely made a beginning and we talk as though the work were almost done. Ten millions of dollars is all the entire Ohurch of God can raise to prosecute the missions of the world; while one city spends far more than that on a city hall and two others, on a suspension bridge, and there is buried in jewelry, gold and silver plate and useless ornamentation, within Ohristian homes, enough to build a fleet of fifty thousand vessels, ballast them with bibles and crowd them with missionaries, build a church in every destitute hamlet and supply every living soul with the gospel within a soore of years! only let God's fire come down and take possession of our hearts and tongues, and the gospel would wing its way like the beams of the morning and illumine the world's darkness!
MISSION PROBLEMS AND WORK IN ABYSSINIA. By PROF. GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH.D., OOLUMBUS, O.
PROBA:BLY nowhere in the wide world has this great mission cell~ury to deal with a more unique and in some respeots more diffioult problem than in the Ethiopia of history-the Abyssinia of recent centuries. All the remnants of Oriental Ohristendom, found scattered chiefly among the Moslem conquerors, the Armenians, the Syrian or Northern Nesto- rian Ohristians in the Persian Empire, the Thomas or Southern Nesto- rian Ohristians iIi India, the Oopts of Egygt, and their ecclesiastical monophysitic allies of Abyssinia, all to a greater or less extent present a more or less solid petrifaction of certain phases of Ohristian doctrinal development. Their divisions and schisms are near]yall due to the great theological and christological controversies that, from the fourth century for more than three hundred years, agitated the whole Greek Ohurch. Their individual existence over against the rest of Ohristen- dom generally originated in their maintenance of certain doctrines, which were condemned as heretical by the great Ohurch Oouncils, be- ginning with that at Nice in 325. In this way sprang up the Nesto- rian, the Monophysitic, and other branches of Eastern Ohristianity.
The source of their individual existence, namely, their peculiar doctri- nal position, was also the source of their vitality. They lived for the one object of defending their peculiar standpoint. The great charac- teristic of Oriental nations is their intense conservatism and adherence to the traditions of the fathers. These factors combined to cause these Eastern Ohristian sects gradually to solidify their idiosyncracies.
Thoroughly incrusted in the traditions of centuries and defended with their life's blood, not only over against the rest of Ohristianity, but also against the fire and the sword of the Moslem conquerors, these systems have gradually become nothing but a petrifaction of dogmas, liturgies and worship. The spir,i.tual element has long since been lost and its place has been taken by a cold and mechanical formalism. Ohristianity is not a life nor a living power, but only certain ancient dogmas and forms; , These singular factors, which make the regeneration of the stagnant Oriental churches and the infusion of the principle of evangelical Ohristianity a matter of extreme difficulty, have all existed and do yet exist in aggravated forms in Abyssinia. '1'he historical surroundings of the· introduction and early development of Ohristianity in Ethiopia were such, in connection with the natural disposition of the people, to produce that extreme case of a soulless ecclesiasticism, which has for more than twelve centuries reigned supreme in Abyssinia. Of all the strictly national Ohristian churches on the globe that of Abyssiania is the oldest. It was established already in the fourth century. Its first bishop, or abuna, received his ordination from the hands of Athenasius.
It played an important part in the dogmatic controversies that followed, being organically connected with the church of Egypt, as an import- ant element in the Oriental church at large. With the Egyptian, the Abyljlinian church adopted monophysitic doctrines concerning the person of Ohrist; and when, in 451, the Synod of Ohalcedon con- demned this doctrine, the monophysitic portion cut loose from the church general and formed a new sect. In this way the living connection between the Abyssinian church and the church universal continued for only about one century, and that was a century of intense dogmatical controversies, in which the ideals of Christianity were more and more regarded as consisting in the acceptance of certain metaphysical formulas, however true these in themselves doubtless were, to the detriment of the feeling of spiritual connection between the church or individual with Christ, as the essential requisite of true Christianity. In the interests of one phase of this general tendency of tbe times the Abyssinian, with the Egyptian church, took a standpoint hostile to the church at large, and thus voluntarily withdrew from the influence of that progressive element that controlled the development of the church, and it recognized as the object of its existence the maintenance of its doctrinal position over against any change or modification. That such forces controlling the spiritual life of a nation or a church must inevitably lead to the despiritualization and encrustation of its doctrinal teachings, is easily understood from psychological reasons, In the education of a nation such factors could lead only to such results.
What made matters in themselves bad even worse, was that the Abyssinians were called upon to defend their national and religious existence over against the Mohammedans, who, by taking Egypt and all northern Africa, completely isolated the Abyssinians from the rest of Christendom. Indeed, it is the glory of the Abyssinians that they were the only Ohristian nation of Asia or Africa that was not overwhelmed by the hordes of the false prophet of Mecca. Partly because of the character of their country, which is a high plateau accessible only through narrow defiles easily defended against invaders, but also because of the bravery and prowess of the Abyssinians, they were enabled to hurl back every attack of their Moslem foe. This complete isolation and entire separation from all people who might have had an influence in developing the national and religious chl',racteristics of the people, made the Abyssinians, who, as a Semitic people, were naturally as unprogressive as the Arabs and the Hebrews, live only for the faith and the worship of the past. Having defended the nation and the church against such enemies as heresy from within and a false religion from without, their conservative instincts led them to guard with jealous care what had been handed down as the most sacred inheritance from earlier generations.
For over one thousand years, namely, from the time when the Moslem conqueror of Egypt isolated Abyssinia, down to the end of the last century, almost the very existence of a Christian nation on the Black Continent was unknown to Western Christianity. It is indeed true that in the sixteenth century the Portuguese formed an alliance with the Abys¥– ians, and the Jesuit missionaries attempted to win the venerable Abys- sin, ian Church for the pope; but these were only passing incidents, and, if anything, only hardened this church in its traditionalism. ThE!
Jesuitic measures of the fathers won over the great king Susmejos, and he attempted to compel his people to submit to the yoke of Rome. An insurrection followed, attended with extremely bloody scenes; and finally the national party, headed by the clergy, succeeded in driving out the hated "Franks." Under the next king, Bosilides, the old faith and worship were re-established more firmly than ever.
The first attempts to revive and instill a new evangelical life into the different members of this ancient church that were made with a full appreciation of the difficult problem involved, aud with an aim rather to win them back to a genuine Christianity, and not to an ecclesiastical hierarchy merely, date from the beginning of the present century.
They belong to the first fruits of that spirit which has made the present the greatest missionary century since the apostolic era. They aimed first, indeed, at the regeneration of this old Christianity, but also at making Abyssinia the base of operations from which to operate further into the heart of Africa with the mission of the gospel and of civiliza- tion. This idea was all the more attractive because there are remnants of older Christian nations also south of Abyssinia, and at least one of the missionaries, Krapf, endeavored to penetrate further and found these at Cambat and Wolamo. The leader of this missionary band was Gobat, who first reached Abyssinia in 1829, and who died several years ago as the Bishop of the Anglo-Prussian bishopric of Jerusalem. He was sent out by the British Society, as were also several of his coadju~ tors, while the Basel Society later also sent out some men. With these the London Society for the Conversion of the Jews co-operated, because in Abyssinia are found a most peculiar class of people-the so-called Falashas, or Black Jews. How they ever got there no man knows; even their traditions are silent on the subject. They have the Old Tes- tament and observe the Mosaic ritual. They know nothing, however, of Talmudic Judaism and the latter Pharisaic phase of their religion as this is developed in the Talmuds and Midrashim and is practiced by the extreme orthodox Jews of southeastern Europe. The probabilities are that they are a portion of the great Jewish Dispersion, the" Dias- pora," but whether they found their way to Abyssinia before the days of the New Testament, or after the destruction of Jerusalem, is uncer- tain. The fact that ethnologically they could be classed as Abyssinians does not speak against their Jewish origin, since the Abyssinians them- selves are a Semitic people, and hence belong to the same family of na- tions of which the Hebrews are such prominent members. Then the hostility of centuries that has existed between them and the Christians of Abyssinia would speak for a difference of nationality. They usually live in separate villages, mostly in the province of Goodar, and are often persecuted by the ruling race. Among these peculiar people mission work was also done, and with good success. The Rev. H. Stern, a German sent out by the London Society, did some service, but was not as careful as he should have been, and contributed not a little to arouse the anger of the great king Theodorus in the sixties, which finally induced that monarch to imprison and threaten the lives of all the foreigners, especially the missionaries laboring in Abyssinia. They were only liberated through the expedition of Lord Napier in 1868. At the .same time Krapf was laboring with great success among the Falashas, and to the present day; while living on the retired list as a missionary veteran in Germany, keeps up a correspondence with the eight hundred who have been won for Ohrist, and who have braved all the dangers that have threatened to deprive them of their faith. Although for a number of years no missionaries have been allowed in Abyssinia, except from time to time, one or two in the most southern province of Shoa, and, of course, least of all among the hated and despised Falashas, these dusky children of Abraham have yet, amid all persecutions, maintained their faith and confession.
The mission work among the Ohristians of Abyssinia has been a remarkable record of successes and failures, and at present is at a standstill. Such men as Gobat, Isenberg, Krapf, Stern, Flod, and a number of others, have labored hard and long to re-evangelize Abyssinia. What the full fruits of their labor are or will be no man could presume to say. Statistically but a discouraging report could be given. But there can be no doubt that in Abyssinia, as is the case in that wonderful Ohristward movement among the Jews of southeastern Europe, there are many in whom the seed of the word is silently bearing good fruit, but whose outward profession may not be loud "for fear of the Jews." Like Nicodemus, they come to Ohrist by night. But on the subject of missionary method and a clear understanding and appreciation of the intricate problem involved much has been gained. Again and again have the missionaries been expelled from Abyssinia. Gobat and his friends were compelled to withdraw on account of the anarchy that prevailed in the land. When that talented and, in his early days, excellent prince, Theodorus, managed to secure the crown of all Ethiopia, hope revived, and a number of men were sent from Europe and were welcomed by the king. They went not merely as preachers of the gospel, but also as teachcrs, who prepared books for the instruction of the people, and translated the Bible into the dialect of the people. They took with them mechanics who aided the people in learning useful arts and learning useful trades. But a number of untoward circumstances again blasted these hopes. Theodorus became involved in wars with his lieutenants who commanded the provinces; his good genius, namely, his first wife, died, and his second wife was wilful and tyrannical; he took to drink, and rum converted him into a typical Oriental barbarian, whose cruelty delighted in cutting off his enemies' hands and feet. With his subjection by Lord Napier in 1868, and his suicide when his capital was taken, ended the flourishing period of Abyssinian mis- '
sions. .
Since then attempts have been made again and again to build up these waste places, but with poor success. The present Emperor, John, is hostile to western ideas, and is seeking a reunion with the Oriental Church, particularly: with that of Russia. The golden opportunity for Christianity and for modern civilization in historic Ethiopia would have been in 1868. If England had then, instead of leaving the conquered land upon which she had taken her vengeance to its miserable fate, to anarchy and internecine destruction, assumed so much of a protector- ate as to secure freedom and liberty for the gospel messengers, a new and encouraging era for Ethiopia's Christianity would have been inaugurated. The complications with Italy are not promising as far as the cause of the gospel in Abyssinia is concerned.
But whatever the fate of Abyssinia may be, and of Christian work in Abyssinia, certain it is that this work there will always be one of peculiar difficulties. The Abyssinian being a church with a highly developed ecclesiastical organization of bishop, priests, deacons, monks and nuns, with a fixed dogmatic system and settled and stereotyped forms and ideals of worship, it will always be a vexed problem as to the position to' be taken over against the native clergy and the native church. Are the Christian missions to co-operate with the native church, to revive the church from within, or to establish new commun- ions of renewed Christians as opposition organizations to the existing church? Heretofore the first has been the only method pursued, not .
so much from choice as from necessity. The missionaries could labor only as long as the king permitted it, and no greater danger to the king's authority could be imagined than the opposition of the native clergy, who control the minds of the people almost absolutely. For this reason none of the missionaries established new churches or entered into open opposition to priests or monks. In the case of the conversion of the Falashas these were baptized by the native clergy and made mem- bers of the national church of the land. The little bands of converted Christians were thus an eccle,~iola in ecclesia, and it was thought that they as a leaven could eventually leaven the whole lump. Whether they would have done so if the missionaries had been able to con- tinue their work, only a prophet or a prophet's sou could say. But as long as the new gospel spirit could find its way only into 'the hearts of the people, and not into the hearts of the spiritual leaders, the success of this method would seem to be doubtful. Sooner or later the con- flict would be inevitable; indeed it at some places already had com- menced when Theodorus turned against the mission enterprise. Future mission work in Abyssinia must be guided by the light of the experi- ence acquired by gospel workers in the last sixty years. The task is not hopeless, nor have all hopes bean given up. On the contrary, socia-
THE RELATIV1!: PROGRESS OF CHRISTlA.NlTY
ties and men are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to reorganize the work in Abyssinia. If this can be done, and if a firm foothold can be gained there for a living and aggressive Christianity, then one of the greatest problems in the Christianization of Africa has been solved. It is a task of peculiar difficulties, but it is one whose consummation and success will be attended with peculiar blessings.
THE RELATIVE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
BY J. T. GRACEY, D.D., BUFFALO, N. Y.
[Continued from page 411.] INCREASE OF ISLAM IN AFRICA.
Turning to Africa,where Islam is alleged to be spreading rapidly,. we touch a region again where the indefiniteness of the information preeludes more than qualified judgment, but accounts reach us that indicate an encroachment of Moslem power and some Moslem missionary advance.
Journal des Missions EvangeUques states perhaps most of the truth about this feature of Moslem advance in Northern and Central Africa when it says: "Among some of the negro tribes a missionary work, properly so called, is being carried on by the Khouan, or members of a religious order that originated in a very remarkable reformation. It was an attempted return to primitive Islam. The man who founded its powerful association was Si- Mohammed-ben-Si-Ali-ben Snoussi, born at Mostaganem, in Algeria, about 1792. He traveled much, lived a long time in Mecca, and in 1843 took up his abode in the Tripolitan district. A few years after the Djebel-el-Akhdar, where he lived, abounded hi Zaiouya, or establishments for instruction in the Koran. To all his disciples he imparted his Puritan doctrines, his gloomy and silent character. The Snoussiyas or disciples of the Sheik Snoussi are very numerous, and are going in every direction, trying to win over to their pan-Islamite notions the Mussulman Arabs and the negrpes, who know little more as yet than the prophet's name."
The Journal also thinks they are preparing the materials for one of those sudden and gigantic explosions of Islamite fanaticism, the result of which it is impossible to predict.
Dr. Blyden is a full-blooded Christian negro, born in the Danish West Indies,. now long resident in Liberia, at one time Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia to the Court of St. James, and Secretary of State for the republic in 1864. He made a journey to the East in 1866, "visiting Egypt and Syria, chiefly with the view of studying the Arabic language in order to its introduction to the curriculum of the College" of Liberia, in which he was for some time a professor. He has had large opportunities for personal knowledge along the west coast of Africa and for perhaps two hundred miles in the interior, and of learning from Moslem pilgrims and merchants what they had to say about the remoter interior. Dr. Blyden has contributed articles to Fraser's and other magazines and quarterlies during twenty years or more, and has recently collected and published these in a book entitled " Ohristianity, Islam, and the Negro Race." He says, "From Senegal to Lagos, over 2,000 miles, there is scarcely an important town where there are not at least one mosque and active representatives of Islam" ; and he speaks within touch of the facts. He further says, "A man might now travel across the continent from Sierra Leone to Oairo, or in another direction from Lagos to Tripoli, sleeping in a village every night except in the Sahara, and in every village he would find a Moslem school." The writer will perhaps never forget the thrill of emotion that passed over him when, in company with Dr. Blyden, sailing up the St. Paul River, Liberia, the distinguished author-guide pointed to some steps cut in the bank of the river and a little footpath soon lost in the forest, he said, "Do you see that path? That leads straight to Egypt."
The Methodist Recorder of London says of the character of these African conquests to Islam: " At least in Northwest Africa the Moslem missionaries win their way without assistance from any earthly power. Their advance is due both to the truth and the errors which their creed contains. The pure monotheism of their religion is an undoubted advance upon the gross idolatry of savage tribes. The semi-civilization introduced is an undoubted improvement. It is no small matter to teach these degraded tribes a measure of self-control, decency, reverence, and such virtues as Christians are glad to know Moslems both teach and practice. But it is comparatively easy to whitewash a number of tribes with a superficial religion which never changes the heart, though it may outwardly improve some habits of the life. If the Christian missionary of to-day were content with a form of baptism and a simple item or two' of his·creed, while permitting polygamy, granting social equality, and promising the certain blessings of a material Paradise, how many tens of thousands might be 'converted' in a year."
The writer of the above is too candid to desire to belittle the aggressive work of Islam in Africa, but he probably states what is about the truth over very extended districts, The extension of Islam in Africa must be conceded, and the full force of the rebuke should b~ felt that the Ohristian church so long neglected the swarmiug multitudes of this continent. Yet within the century we have planted missions all round the coast, have occupied outlying Madagascar as a base of operations, and have at least taken up the line of march" from salt sea to salt sea," and from the mouth of the Zambesi to the delta of the Nile, and a good deal of reconnoitering has been done.
We have s'aid nothing of the character of the civilization which Islam 'superimposes on that of the ruder African, because it does not come within the scope of this article. Weare not, however, ofthose who hold that it will be materially more difficult to convert these people from the rude form of Islam, which is all they have to any con- , siderable extent adopted, than from the fetish, with its most aeaden- ing and blighting superstitions. They may turn intelligently from Islam to that which is higher and better, and if they can be saved from the persecution of Moslem fanaticism, they may at once throw off its shackles; but the dreadful overshadowing superstitions represented by the fetish are ever and anon wont to burst upon the Ohristian convert in after years in the presence of calamity, and to carryall before thein. It will be another thousand years before Islam can bring the African to the cultured and lettered prejudices of Moslem, civilization, snch as bind its snbjects at Oairo, Ispahan and Delhi; and the Ohristian church has no need to be discouraged from attempting vigorous evangelism of the African Islam by just such methods as she has pur- sued in Fiji, Benares and Yokohama; and she should address herself to the duty which is now in so marked a degree providentially imposed upon her.
CAN :MOSLEMS BE REACHED?
The question whether Christianity can make inroads on Islam is quite another and very interesting one. The common assumption has been that it was much more difficult to make converts from Islam than from any other quarter, but it must be borne in mind that in no quarter of the globe has there been any attempt to convert them corre- sponding with the efforts made to reach other classes. Rev. Mr.
Wherry, American Presbyterian of North India, writing to the Missionary Intelligencer (Jan. '88), says: "The Muhammadans of India are a hopeful class for missionary ea;ort compared with the three high castes of Hinduism. I venture to assert that, so far as North India is concerned, and in proportion to the labor bestowed, five Muslims have been converted to Christianity for every Hindu convert." And at the Decennial Conference in Calcutta he saId: 'Almost every mission in North India numbers among its preachers, lay and ordained, those who were once followers of Islam. I recognize among the names of ordained missionaries and evangelists contained in Mr. Badley's Directory fifteen converts from Islam; the number of catechists and lay preachers who were convel'ts from Islam would increase this to at least fifty.' "
The "Church" missionaries say that most of their converts at both Peshawar and Krishnagar are of Muslims. The Indian Witness, noticing Canon Taylor's statement that out of 841 converts to Christian- ity last year in Central and Northern India only 17 were Moslems, says: "We know of one mission in North India where thel'e were 1,183 conversions and 1,114 baptisms last year, to 892 conversions and 584 baptisms the preceding year. Thirty of last year's converts were from Islam."
The ablest, calmest and fairest discussion of this entire subject of the missionary activity of Islam in India, the character of its converts, its accessibility to Christian effort, and the nature of its antagonism to the same, will be found in the proceedings of the Missionary Conferences held in Allahabad in 1872-73, and in Calcutta 1882-83. It requires self~restraint to refrain from making numerous quotations from tb:ese able papers and addresses. They were not spoken in the heat of the present controversy, but afford testimony the most definite and reliable on perhaps every point now raised. In a broad survey of the relative progress of Ohristianity it would be neooBSairy to deal with a vast num- ber of subjects not yet ,alluded to, but which want of space precludes our entertaining.
THE OUTLOOK.
The vast array of preparatory agencies which Mr. Johnston so ably summarizes. might easily be augmented by a "great variety of other facts. Not only, as Mr. Johnston says, does the "vital force of the native church increase in geometrical ratio; " not only have we twenty times as many languages subject to our use as were spoken on the day of Pentecost; not only have the 120 of the apostolic" upper chamber"
become 120 millions of Protestant Ohristians; not only has the Ohris- tian community of the world been augmented by double the three thousand accessions of the day of Pentecost, for each day of the past hundred years; not only have the great systems Buddhism, Brahman- ism and others been so materially modified by Ohristian influence that even if there were more Buddhists there is less Buddhism, or more Brahmans there is less Brahmanism; not only have we learned the methods of a.pproach on the inside, where these systems are weakest; but the forces of Ohristian attack are strategically distributed over the globe as are those of no other one system, and the measure of our out- posts is that of the measure of the geographical extension of our century. It is not only that there are 30,000 Ohristian communicants in Ohina, but that these are distributed at important points. Twenty-five years ago there were only five churches in Ohina, now there are enough to make one for every 25 miles along the coast, and a traveller might sleep, as Dr. BIyden would say, under a Ohristian roof each night while traversing the entire coast line of that vast country. Then, too, the spirit of evangelism is infused into these mission communities.
Fiji and other islands were not Ohristianized by Europeans, but by Ohristian natives from Tonga, and this spirit is being developed in all mission fields.
But besides all, it must ever be borne in mind that in dealing with Ohristianity we are dealing with the supernatural, and in the divine economy there is provision for far more than merely steady advance even in geometrical ratios. There is provision for leaps, for vast up- heavals, for sudden uprisings. Do we forget the six weeks in 1878 when in Nellore 8,691 heathen were baptized, and the 34,564 registered applicants for baptism the same year in Tinnevelly? Are we blind to the fact that forces are already at work which will probably, ere many decades, result in the collapse of the great systems of heathen religions?
There are epochs and revolutions, as well as reformations, in the divine economy.
lVBY DOES THB COST INOREASE'1
WHY DOES THE OOST INCREASE P By REV. JAMES F. RIGGS, BERGEN POINT, N. J.
WHAT is the reason of this constant advance in expense? Why is it that each mission is more and more costly from year to year? Ought we not to set a fixed limit to the appropriations in advance and adhere to our own rule?
A mission grows just as a healthy child grows. It has the same vital organs from year to year, but it needs more food. Growth is the evi- . dence of life. If any particular mission did not grow that would be a just cause for alarm, but the demand for a larger appropriation is a clear proof that the sums expended already have been well spent. This general law of depth and width applies to a mission just as it applies to a schoolboy. More books, and those of greater depth, better grade. A wider range of facilities and a more expensive system of defense. For in these days there is a double process in our foreign work, like that in Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah. It is not trowel only, or sword only, but both sword and trowel, and both must be paid for. It is perilous to sleep after we have aroused the enemy. The cost is the certain result of pushing on such a warfare. It is daily more absorbing and the demands more inexorable.
Mission work is generally conducted in departments, like the branches of a large business enterprise. In each of these we shall see the reasons that belong to that particular part of the work. These departments are six: viz., the evangelistic, educational, publication, medical, churchbuilding, and Sunday-school.
FIRST.-Evangelistio: The missionary is sent to preach the gospel to the poor. He makes a "tour" in the territory assigned to him. traveling at the smallest possible expense, and preaching in the villages. Such a tour is planned according to the work that must be done. It may be completed in less than a week, or it may require all the summer months. In each village the missionary talks with old friends, and draws about him some new friends. But when the trip is ended he hastens home, because much work of other kinds yet awaits him in his own place of residence. Notice how the system works. When the missionary sets out on the same tour again, three months or six months later, he is compelled to make it a little longer. Why? Because earnest entreaties are sent to him from villages not yet visited asking that he come to them also and preach. In each case he weighs the reasons, and is often obliged to decline. Time is precious, and he must hasten on. But yonder is a village only an hour's ride off his track, .and four men have come down beseeching him to give a day to their place. The fire is already kindled, and he deems it his duty to go. He is more than pleased, delighted, to find a real work of divJne grace going on in that village, and he stays two days instead of one, preaching to crowds in the coffee-shops and under the trees. But at length he leaves them, promising to come again, and such a promise must be kept. Thus each tour becomes a longer one than that preceding it, and the vital force of the missionary is taxed to the very limit of safety. In many cases he comes home after a month's tour so hoarse that it is a difficult matter for him to discharge common daily duties. In the meantime, as these trips to the villages become longer and more exacting, the other work of that station is neglected, so that matters get into confusion, and the next thing reported to headquarters will be that a new man is absolutely necessary if work is to be carried on at all. Thus the cost of the journeys is increased, and at the same time the local expense of each station is increased by reason of the absence of the man who makes the tour: For there are accounts to be kept, and books to be sold, and schools to be superintended, and candidates to be watched.
SECOND.-Educational: After work has been begun in any place, 'the kindling of a new flame is certain. A Protestant school must be started. And although the object is to keep expenses as low as possible, yet there will be some points of outlay in every instance. Even if the school should be from the beginning self-supporting in respect to tuition, there is the cost of sending a teacher to the place. And in some schools, as the high-schools for girls, and the theological schools for young men, a considerable part of the expense must always be borne by the mission. An increasing number of candidates for the ministry means increasing expense at every point-for instruction, for books, for postage, and innumerable miscellaneous items. If there be in any particular mission a bill rendered annually for the freight paid on books used, and if the number of pupils in those schools be increased ten per cent., will not that freight bill be somewhat larger?
The growth of a mission is like that of a child, not sudden, but certain: it will not be surprising, but it must be met.
THIRD.-Publication: No part of the work is more essential than this. If a soul has been saved, the work of Ohristian culture must begin, and a pure literature is absolutely a vital need. Standard religious works, such as "Pilgrim's Progress," are translated and sold (not given away), but the cost of the first publication is a large item, and every subsequent reprint involves some fresh outlay. For the book trade is not advanced in the Asiatic world to such a position that we can leave it to take care of itself. It must be fostered, and if a depot for Bibles be opened in any village, the rent of a little shop must be provided for. No money is wasted in experiments, but that which has been tried and found the very best is employed, and this arm of the service hail been greatly blessed. A modest weekly religious paper is of very great value for the cultivation of a living practical piety.
MIRA.CLES OF
FOURTH.-Medical,' If each medical missionary were sent out simply to practice medicine, as he would at home, he would then earn far, more than his salary, and so be a source of revenue to the board, instead of being an expense. But as a rule this would be a mistake in policy. For it would shut off the great mass of the popUlation from any advantage. It would be easy for an educated missionary physician to confine his labors to the wealthy portion of any people, and the men of rank are' willing to pay large fees for genuine skill. But in that case a serious loss of moral opportunities would ensue. The example of Christ himself is a better guide than modern financial policy. To go about like him "doing good" is the true wisdom of a physician on heathen ground. Much medicine is given free; many cases are treated without charge. Small hospitals are established, and sometimes the missionary in charge is able to earn enough to support his own hospital. . But as a whole, the medical branch of the work is an additional expense. And the reports of such an institution as the hospital at Aintab, Turkey, will abundantly justify both the hopes and the outlay that will be identified with such an undertaking.
It will require no argument to show in like manner that any progress in the fifth and the sixth of these departments must involve heavy cost. No church can be built at first by an unassisted native community. No large measure of success can be attained in Sunday-school work without some expense for the books circulated and the lesson helps provided.
If we believe that the expense of ploughing and of sowing is to be justified, then surely by all means we ought to provide for the expense of harvesting. If the church of God persevered in cherishing a lofty faith in His promise, when the doors of the kingdoms were ahut, shall we permit that faith to fail us in these days, when the angel' of God is leading us, and the heavy iron gates that lead to the cities are opening before us of their own accord?
MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. V.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] THE ISLES OF THE SEA. NEW ZEALAND.
IN the South Pacific, east of Tasmania, nearly midway between the capes, Good Hope and Horn, is a curious inverted boot that from end to end would measure nearly 1,000 miles, and is cut in two just above the ancle. It is New Zealand. The physicalfeatures are very interesting: the 4,000 miles of sea coast, with some of the finest harbors in the world; the highlands, with the Pumice Hills, the volcano Tongariro, 6,000 feet high, and Mount Ruapahu, 3,000 feet higher, and others rising to a height of 14,000 feet; the 'forests so dense that beasts of prey
JOBA.OLES OJ!'
are not found and sound does not penetrate; the fine rivers and boiling lake of Rota Mahana.
But we wish to trace the early triumphs of the gospel among the Maoris or aborigines of these islands of the sea. Let us get an idea of the condition of the Maoris in the days when Europe first made their acquaintance and down to a comparatively recent date.
They li~ed in very contracted dwellings, not high enough to permit a man to stand upright in them and were unfurnished, showing no orderly arrangement. Their cooking utensils, a few stones. Polygamy had no limits but the ability of a man to procure wives; every household was a. little hell, with daily strifes and deadly hatred. Extreme barbarism prevailed, in fact the lowest type of savage life. New-born babes were left in neglect to cry themselves to death. When five days old, infants were sprinkled or dipped at a stream and named, while a priest mumbled a prayer to an unknown spirit, "May this child become brave and warlike," or perhaps, "cruel, adulterous, murderous." Stones were forced down the throat to make the heart hard and pitiless.
Tabu prevailed. It set apart men from all common approachno one dared visit or converse with a tabued person; death was the penalty for being found in a canoe on a tabued day, or for a woman to eat certain articles of food, even accidentally. Tattooing with chisels or fish bones, dipped in indelible dye, was quite universal, slow, painful and prostrating. Superstitions too absurd to be soberly recorded ruled the people. A pain in the back was treated by jumping and treading on the patient. Dreams and omens were regarded infallible. The issue of a war was determined in advance by setting up sticks to represent contestants and watching which were blown down. Jugglers were their oracles, and witchcraft was the dreaded foe, to defeat whose malign designs any innocent person was liable to the most cruel death.
The Maoris were the worst cannibals. They drank the blood of enemies as it flowed on the battle-field, and then feasted on their roasted remains. Their virtues were so few, and their vices so many and appalling, that not a few Christians doubted whether there was anything left worth saving, or possible to use as a basis for the gospel. They could scarce be called idolators, for they were so low sunk in barbarism that they had not even the invention to construct a god, and had no gods nor any objects of worship. Thunder they attributed to Atua, a great spirit whom they feared as author of all calamities. They believed him to come as a lizard and prey on the vitals of the sick, and hence incantations were used, and they threatened to burn or kill and eat the demon unless he should depart. They also believed in Wiro, the Satan of the Maoris. They were virtually atheists, or, at beat,
MIRACLES OF
devil-worshippers. They had a vague belief in a future state, but, of course, it was robed in gross and sensual conceptions. When a chief died, slaves were killed to wait on him, and widows sometimes put themselves to death to rejoin their husbands.
When, at Samuel Marsden's request, the Church Missionary Society sent out three laborers in 1814, they were met at first with curiosity, then distrust and hate. The task of acquiring the language was great, but it was next to impossible even then to get a hearing. The few who came, almost nude, or in fantastic dress, would rudely leave in the midst of the service, saying aloud: "That's a lie; let's go." .
When, in 1821, Samuel Leigh and other Wesleyan missionaries went to Wangaroa, the chief Jarra bade them welcome; but Mr. Leigh and his colleagues had some hints beforehand of J arra's treacherous nature. The sailors called him "George," and he had a notorious history. He was one of those who, twelve years before, had left Port Jackson for England with a few other Maoris. Oapt. Thompson found" George" mutinous; he rebelled, refused to work, claiming to be a chief's son, and was reduced to submission only by being whipped and half starved. He brooded over his punishment, and hatched a terrible revenge. He pretended to be penitent, and so gained the captain's confidence that he put up for repairs at Wangaroa-. Once ashore, George moved his father to vengeance. With great subtlety he induced the captain and crew to land, drew them into the woods, under pretence of selecting timber, then murdered them, and, in their clothes, went to the ship, assaulted all he could find, and plundered the vessel. But a sudden retribution ·was awaiting these murderers and plunderers. George's father set a powder keg on the lower deck, and amused himself trying the muskets, a large number of New Zealanders being on board. An accidental spark caused an explosion, which blew up the npper works of the ship and killed every Maori on board. Then the natives on shore set fire to the vessel and ate every survivor.
With such a record, Jarra was not likely to be trusted; and about six weeks after they landed he began to show his tiger teeth. He threatened to burn Mr. Turner's house and eat the missionary and his wife, simply to extort a present. Other like-minded chiefs harassed the missionaries by similar threats and outrages, but were kept at bay by the remarkable Ohristian coolness and fortitude of these brave souls.
The cannibalism of the Maoris has never been exceeded in atrocity. Mr. Turner found several chiefs rollicking by a fire. On turning toward the fire he saw a human being roasting between the logs. Sick at heart, he tried to warn them of the wrath of God, to preach to them the new law of love; but to what an audience I An English missionary, while on a cruise, touched at New Zealand for fresh food, fruit and vegetables. Of these he obtained a fresh supply, and was about leaving, when a chief asked him if he would like some flesh food. Says the missionary: "Thinking that doubtless they had hogs, I said yes. He gave a quick glance around him, as if he were looking for a messenger, and singled out and, called to a fine young lad, apparently about eighteen years of age. The boy came and stood before him; and before I knew what he was about to do, and having my back turned to him, looking at the fruit, etc., I heard the sound of a heavy blow, and looking quickly around, found the still quivering body of the boy laid at my feet, with the words: 'Hevi ano te kai ? ' (Is that blood sufficient for you ?) Horror-stricken, I denounced most bitterly the deed, and, leaving all the provisions behind on the ground, returned sorrowfully on board."
The natives were very indolent. The missionaries could get no help in building mission premises, and not until 1824 were the buildings completed. But where idleness prevailed, curiosity, its kindred vice, also existed, and this led the natives to send their children to learn to read, and so many of the young Maoris were taught the catechism and learned to pray and sing; and the same curiosity led the adults to go and hear what the missionaries had to say.
'1'he work looked hopeful; but despair came. A civil war became the occasion for acts of violence; the mission houses were burned, and it was a long time before quiet was restored and houses and fences rebuilt. Ohief" George" was taken very ill. The death of a Maori chief rings the tocsin of vengeance-the quarrels and grudges of his life are then settled. The natives insulted the missionaries, stole their goods, broke down their fences, and replied to expostulation only with new threats of worse violence. George gave ominous signs that if he should die the missionaries would be held accountable for the fatal explosion on board the Boyd, when so many Maoris were killed, as the God of the OhriOitians had caused that spark to leap from the gunlock to the powder keg. Of course, with such unreasoning and insane passions no argument was possible.
The women and children were sent away to a distance, and the missionaries lived for weeks in constant apprehension. George died, charging his followers to exact vengeance for 'his wrongs. The poultry of the missionaries was stolen, and some of it offered as a sacrifice to George's father. In January, 1827, the whole party of Wesleyan laborers were compelled to embark for New South Wales, after under- going numerous exposures and barely escaping with their lives from these treacherous and cruel savages.
To one of the New Zealand chiefs, however, their departure was a matter of great regret. He, Patuone by name, had" rubbed noses" with the missionaries, and was known to be very friendly to Europeans. From him, in October, 1827, came an invitation for the exiles to return. It was an irresistible Macedonian cry; and the whole, band, in the early part of the next year, landed on the north island and settled in Patuone's province.
Two years of fruitless labor passed by. Few would hear the message. The very chief whose letter had recalled them neither attended their place of worship nor gave them any encouragement. With the strange faith, seen nowhere so richly as among missionaries, they toiled and prayed, believing "that prayers and tears in Christ Jesus can accomplish anything." In 1830 there were manifestly more attendance and attention given to the truth. But the most powerful witness was that of the lives of these godly men and women. " Ye are the light of the world." Bunsen said to his English wife, when dying, "My dear, in thy face I have seen the eternal!" And these Maoris could not but see a tremendous contrast between themselves and the heroic and unselfish souls who were risking life itself for their sakes.
The first conversions startled the whole community. Tawai and Miti, two of their greatest warriors, openly declared their allegiance to the new captain of their salvation. God's Spirit was at work. Some came forty miles in canoes to hear the gospel, and, as in one day, multitudes turned to God. The natives overflowed the chapel, and the forests and hills became sanctuaries, where the Word was preached to attentive listeners. The missionaries could now travel far and wide only to find multitudes ready both to hear and heed the gospel.
When Mr. Leigh first came to Wangaroa there was no book written or printed. The missionaries no sooner learned to talk than they began to teach spelling and reading. They sent to England and had types cut, and books were printed in the Wangaroan dialect. 1840 was the golden year, when a new religious literature was introduced into New Zealand. Within two years the press printed 5,000 scripture lessons, 3,000 spellers and readers, 6,900 catechisms, etc. ; 13 regular stations were established, 4,000 boys and girls in schools, 3,300 church members were gathered into the fold. The demand for native New Testaments greatly exceeded the supply, though 15,000 copies had been printed.
It will be remembered that in 1809 the ship Boyd had been plundered and burned .by these cannibals, who devoured every survivor of the crew. Behold the contrast, and let who will dispute the miracles of missions! A shipwreck at Kaipara Heads cast over 200 persons naked and destitute on the shore. How were they received? With humane and Christian kindness. Not to be clubbed and roasted, but snugly housed and fed in Okaro, and not one farthing would these Maoris accept in return for their hospitality. On the shores of Christian England a nobler reception could not have been awaiting shipwrecked sailors!
Most wonderful of all, these New Zealanders felt that they must send the gospel, which had brought them such blessing, to the destitute about
EGYPT SMITTEN AND HEALED
them. A grand missionary meeting was called by the Okaroans. It was a three days' meeting. One whole day was consumed in addresses on missions, fifteen or sixteen of which were made by converted natives. No wonder if all eyes wept as these regenerated cannibals told of him who had saved them, and of their passion to tell of Jesus to the lost. Poor as they were they made an offering of sixty-five dollars-an average of about thirty cents for each attending native Ohristian !
The subsequent history of New Zealand was one of large and frequent outpourings of the Spirit. They sought to water others and were watered themselves. Hundreds were converted, new churches were organized, and new buildings erected in all peopled districts; native young men were trained and sent forth as evangelists, and the isles resounded with praise to God!
We have designed only to give the early history of the New Zealand missions; but in 1860 the Wesleyan Ohurch numbered 5,000, with 200 Sunday-schools, where 7~000 children were taught. Over 12,000 were regular attendants at worship. About one generation's life time, thirtythree years, had been spent by the Wesleyans in securing such results. No Ohristian land can present any parallel in the same space of time. Even skeptics stand in mute astonishment at the results wrought by Ohristian missions, constrained with Mr. Hume to acknowledge that these are things which their infidel philosophy cannot explain in the 'Christian life.
Mr. Darwin was not regarded as a Ohristian, but he had the greatest respect for good in Ohristianity, and was great enough to acknowledge it. This is the way in which he answered some shallow critics of foreign missionaries: "They forget or will not remember that human sacrifice and the power of an idolatrous priesthood; a system of profligacy unparalleled in any other part of the world; infanticide, a consequence of that system; bloody wars, where the conquerors spared neither women nor children-that all these thing-s have been abolished, and that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have been greatly reduced by the introduction of Christianity. In a voyager to forget these things is a base ingratitude; for should he chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have extended thus far."
What a fulfilment of prophecy! "The isles afar off that have not heard my fame neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles! "
EGYPT SMITTEN AND HEALED.
By ORAS. S. ROBINSON, D.D., NEW YORK.
[The Rev. Chas. S. Robinson, D.D., of this city, recently delivered a course of Sunday evening lectures to his people on Egypt, which attracted wide attention and were received with marked interest. Few persons have studied the subject more closely, or are better prepared to discourse or write upon it than he. Egypt figures prominently in the sacred writings, as well as in profane history. Egypt occupies a conspicuous place in prophecy. Egypt has indeed been" smitten" of the Lord as scarcely any other land has been; but Dr. Robinson brings out the particular prophecies which relate to her splendid future, and weaves into his familiar but finished lectures not a little of history, incidents of travel, and matters of missionary interest. These lectures have not been published, and we have arranged with him to give those bearing on the scope of this REVIEw-about six of them-in consecutive numbers. Our readers, we are confident, will be profited by them.-EDs.] The Persians have this proverb: "God's club makes no noise; when it strikes there is no cure for the blow." This is no Christian sentiment; it is heathen and hopeless. God does sometimes smite, but never with a club. His rule of dealing with his creatures he announces: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a . moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."
So well known to spiritual believers is this fashion of his discipline that no one is surprised by the declaration contained in that passage concerning Egypt, which is familiar to all students of Isaiah's prophecies-the predictions and the history combined as they must be: "The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it : and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them." Egypt is to have a time of sorrow and smiting, so the prophet declares in this verse, but that is to be succeeded by the outpouring of blessing, and a new glory is coming upon the land. Has this in any measure become true? Certainly the discipline commenced years and years ago.
For one thing, the national integrity is vanishing. Oppressions are killing the soil and the people. Every traveler sees this the moment he becomes domesticated in anyone of the cities and looks about. Two visits, with five seasons between them, make manifest great changes which have occurred in the meantime. True oriental scenes can never be found now outside of Constantinople, or even distant Persia.
The experiences of our first day in Cairo were all so novel that my memory is hardly firm enough to range them in order here. I cannot give a connected description. of them. Grim and shadowy do all eastern outlines of things appear. Yet th~re is a decided sense of familiarity with the objects, and acquaintance with the people, which one feels he has carried over from his reminiscences of text-books in his childhood at school. You remember the pictures in the earliest geographies you ever studied, and here they are suddenly come out into reality and fact. The Nile river has erected banks for itself on either side; its level lies higher under the current than the district it runs through, .after each annual overflow; thus it rolls lazily along, muddy and solemn, pretty much as a canal might be expected to run, if at any time a freshet should render it excitable or antic. The edges of the embankment are of a dirty brown color, without any vegetation to speak of or even verdure upon their ridges. Bare and unattractive as these appear to a tourist, they are, nevertheless, in the absence of hills and forests, the only background for one entering a settled precinct, against which afar off shine the graceful minarets and towers of the city.
The train paused at the station, and immediately on alighting we seemed to be in a world of fantasy. The oddest and most picturesquely bewildering of the sights was the train itself-especially the third-class cars. These were crowded to suffocation with the aborigines belonging to the region, in all their motley costumes. The sides of the rather rough and box-like enclosures are high and close, and hence the small windows are placed on the level of the passengers' heads; thus a row of turbans alone appeared as the inmates sat while we tried to become acquainted with them from the platform. It looked like a collection of heads without shoulders, really, head-dresses without visible heads. And these were of hues so positively innumerable and of so amazingly brilliant and flaring display, as the colors of red, crimson, white, yel- low, and green, shook in the sunshine, and mingled with each other, that the entire thing seemed to me more like a crate, a gardener's market-wagon, or an animate conservatory of poppies and tulips on its travels, than like anything else my western eyes ever admired.
As we took our way to the hotel, the scene grew wilder still. A winding course with mysterious turnings carried us along thoroughfares narrow, crowded and offensive, filled with men and women gazing vacantly at the new-comers. One would imagine the inhabitants to be on a masquerade; for the habiliments are so showy, so gaudy in bold contrasts of dye, that it strikes one- as being impossible that he sees the living people in their ordinary dresses. Many of the females studi- ously conceal their faces; it was according to the ancient regime of modesty that all should do so; but this, I am prepared to say, is just an affectation now; the fear or shame of exposure hardly exists. For ladies of rank and fashion use only white gauze of the most preposter- ously transparent gossamer, which pretends to hide their features, but which, as they are very well aware, only sets-them off more finely, if one chooses to invoke their attention with an admiring stare. And the common women employ black muslin, which they twist most uncom- fortably across their countenances, but take any occasion comfortably to drop.
It is said by those who have been resident in the city that many of the customs are yielding more and more every year to the demands of the French, the Italians and the English, who frequent the place. An interesting account has just been published by an American mission- 11 ary: "Where ten years ago you saw one European costume you to-day see a hundred. Formerly, if a man heard another speak in a foreign tongue in Cairo, that tongue would be French; to-day it is English. In every street signs attract your attention to British goods, whether , dry' or 'wet.' I am sad to find so many bar-rooms; but I must say that I have seen but one intoxicated soldier among those thousands who have passed before my eyes in five weeks. Every afternoon, in Ismail Pasha's day, I saw chariots filled with the white-veiled ladies of the Khedival harem, and such vehicles were preceded by the swift-footed, picturesque-looking syces or heralds. To-day you might see English ladies driving in their pony phaetons, or riding out with their husbands, brothers, or friends, as quietly as if they were at Brighton or Saint Leonard's-by-the-sea." It is thus that the national integrity, the whole fabric of Egyptian individuality as a people, is yielding to outside pressure at every point, and ere long the oriental characteristics ' will disappear. The likelihood now is that a permanent protectorate, so-called, but in reality a constant absorbent force of occupation will be established; if so, the mastery of some European governments must greatly increase.
But note besides this disintegration of the nation by the arriving of new forces of disruption from without, there is also the unfortunate scourge of the climate, which has just begun to manifest changes most unexpected and peculiar. For ages those mummies, lately given to the world in the cave at Deir-el-Bahari, were preserved because the rains did not fall on the rocks beneath which they lay. Egypt was almost literally a land without showers. Now the skies have begun to arouse fears to which the Egyptian world has been an utter stranger. A wide illustration might be offered just here, but it serves my present purpose better to quote in full what the public prints are saying in a warning letter addressed to such as are seeking the Nile for health in the winter season. Some information may prove very valuable to all.
Under the sanction of high medical authority it is said that the prevalence of typhoid and other fQrms of malarial fever at Cairo within the last few years tends to complete the ruin. of the reputation of the Egyptian capital as a winter resort for invalids. The climate has been undergoing extensive and disadvantageous changes. Whereas, until 1878 at least, such a thing as rain was entirely unknown in that city, there is nowadays one perpetual and almost tropical downpour, commencing in November and lasting until March. Not only this, but two years ago there was actually a snowfall at Suez, on the shores of the Red Sea itself, which astounded and frightened the natives like a scourge.
Archooologists have reported that nowhere among the pictures already" copied in the illustrated volumes has there ever been found anything like an umbrella or portable shelter from showers, nor is any open gutter or eave-trough to be noticed in the ruins of ancient buildings. Evidently there was no expectation of rain, nOr any protection from it, in the plans of the architects of those olden times.
The atmospheric phenomena, which are often attributed to the existence of the Suez Canal, and of the Sweet Water Canal, are naturally causing a complete revolution in the construction of dwellings and the mode of life. The entire roofs have had to be rendered water-tight, as they are in the rest of the world. Fireplaces and stoves have already begun to make their appearance in the rooms, instead of the old-time open braziers. Even the unfortunate fellaheen are on the lookout for a material capable of resisting the weather better than the dried mud it has been hitherto traditional to use in putting up their pitiful huts.
Nor is this the worst; a much more serious result is found in an unmistakable increase of the unhealthiness of the larger towns. Cairo, as it now exists, is builded on the ruins of a dozen defunct cities, an older, and then an older town, belonging to the remote past, lying deeply sepulchred beneath the cellars and the streets. The present buildings are perched upon the summit of a sort of plateau, formed by some sixty feet of detritus of all kinds, and all unwholesome, as might be imagined. Potsherds, wicker-work cinders, scraps of metal, bits of tile, and no man can conjecture what else besides, constitute the substrata that underlie the city. And the roadways appear never to have had a sewer or a gutter for deliverance from the reek of men and beasts for ages.
As long as there was no regular fall of rain, no ill efi'eets had to be apprehended. The annual inundations of the Nile did not come up so high as the elevated towns. The waters were poured only on the depressed and arable plains. But now the heavy rain which drops day after day during the winter months eventually soaks through the terrible mass, and in fact renders it (so it is declared) nothing more nor less than a heap of wet garbage. Hence, in the warm nights, a dense mistiness of gray fog may be observed rising up from the ground, enveloping the city-this city, to which invalids are strangely sent for health!
Moreover, the moisture in conjunction with the detritus produces a sort of chemical liquor and acid vapor which saps and literally eats away the fouudations of the old buildings. In a few years the beautiful tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes, with all their delicate tracery and emblems of the most glorious period of Saracenie art, will have disappeared. It was high time for the wonderful providence of God now to interpose, and gather the inscriptions and the mummies for his use.
Thus is the Lord smiting Egypt; but he is going to heal Egypt in the better days to come. Signs of his turning are already to be found in thll>t desolate lll>nd ; they will come under our consideration next.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES. By REV. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER. MASS.
M. COILLARD, of the French Protestant Mission in South Africa, writes of the work in Africa: " Now at· never is the time for vigorous and sus- tained action. Let us be on our guard against a spasmodic zeal, subject to all the mutations of the passing caprice, as novelty may suggest. For you who give and pray, as well as for us who are at the breach, the work which is confided to us is eminently a work of patience, of perseverance and of faith j let us be ready to carry it forward through dangers however serious, disap- pointments however keen, as well as through sacrifices ho~evercostly. Let us recoil before nothing. The disasters of Dr. Holub's expedition, the mar- tyrdom of Bishop Hannington, that of a Wesleyan missionary and his wife on the west coast, the massacre of Count Porro and of M. and Madame Bar- ral, and other similar facts, clearly apprise us that it is not with impunity . that science, civilization and Christianity attack the Dark Continent, one of the principal fortresses of Satan." ___ M. COILLARD, who has gone to establish a mission on the Zambesi, writes: "The Zambesians do not know how to speak in public, nor to discuss affairs with the decorum of the Bassoutos j they love pleasantry, and among them no'One is safe from the stinging darts of mockery and sarcasm. It is hard to understand how people of so volatile a disposition can be so cruel. Alas! we cannot so much as take a walk without stumbling over some shattered skull, or some caleined fragments of human bones. Leivanika" [the king] "I'jhowed us the remnants of the fuel which but a little while since, only ten paces from here, had served to burn some sorcerers. Verily,' the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.' "
IN the Dan8k Mi88ions-Blad for April, Missionary Kofoed, of Southern India, writes: " I have often wondered that many at home suppose that these souls, gathered in from the lies and excesses of heathenism, are to be better Christians than people at home, reared in an atmosphere of civiliza- tion and domestic love, with good examples before them. No, this is not to be looked for j the higher fruits will only come with future generations. Even when baptized and weaned from devil worship, and all their other ear- lier follies of heathenism, yet their families, their friends and their fellow- laborers are so infinitely ignorant and degraded that we may be well content if, from one year to another, we are conscious of a step or two of moral advancement."
NOTWITHSTANDING the intense Protestantism of Denmark it appears that some Danish Christians grudge missionaries the joys of a family. Herr Kofoed writes: "Everything in this world must accommodate itself to facts. The notion of unmarried missionaries would never go down among the MalayaIee, for among them no man, be he white 01' black, dare speak to a woman, be she young or old, unless he is a married man."
THE Dansk Mi8sion8-Blad for April fills ten pages with a biographical sketch of Royal Gould Wilder. In it Denmark the land of sailors, and America, the land of mighty wielders of the axe, are thus incidentally con- trasted: "He who does not know how to pray should go to sea," says the proverb. The experience of Royal Wilder might have taught him to say, "He who does not know how to pray, should go into the woods;" for it was in the woods that he learned the art of praying.
THE Blad has lately given a statement of the missionary contributions of various countries proportionately to population and wealth. Denmark stands very low, but it mentions one" happy exception." This is the little town of Soeby, in upper Jutland, a place of about 1,550 inhabitants. In the Epiphany collection for foreign missions the people contributed in 1883, 181 crowns; in 1884, 384 crowns: in 1885, 452 crowns; in 1886, 571 crowns; in 1887, 81J2 crowns; and at the Epiphany offering for 1888, 1,370 crowns; besides many and liberal gifts on other occasions. The amounts are modest, answering to the probable wealth of the place, the last being $367.16. But the rapid growth shows how the cause has taken hold of hearts.
HERR JENSEN, writing in the Blad about hiring a house, incidentally mentions one of the thousand ways in which an influence radiates from a mission upon. heathenism: "The landlord was glad to secure a European family as tenants. As I am also a missionary, he knew that he should have no trouble about the regular receipt of his rent."
THE mild summer climate and many quiet beauties of Denmal'k make the change from that to the terrible heat of Southern India a self-denial greater than we, accustomed to fiercer extremes than our kinsmen of the Olde:;t England, can altogether appreciate, though for all of us it would be sufficiently felt. I have made the following extract from Mr. Jensen's letter or considerable length, as giving us an insight into the unappeasable longing with which those who go from such a home to the torrid fierceness of Lower Hindustan have to contend: ,. Though only May, we have it in the house night and day, 86°. Our little son, four years old, will often throw himself despairingly on the floor, exclaiming, '0 mother, this country is too warm, too warm; can't we go into the great ship again and sail home to Denmark?' In the morning we find no application of our Danish hymn, 'Renewed in strength by nightly rest.' The power of the hot, scorching wind is the same day and night. The water-caraffe is our constant resort. Yet we are thankfulfor general health. But we cannot help thinking how, when nature is the most withering upon us, she is opening into her fullest loveliness in Denmark. This very day letters were received from home, and all spoke of the spring, of the beeches that were ready to leave out, of wood anemones and violets, of gardens filled with Easter lilies, crocuses, hyacinths, and all the other delicate and gracious flowers which are now covering the Danish land. Nor did the letters merely speak of them; for in one there were violets, in another tender beech leaves, blue and white violets. We are fresh from seeing all this; how living it all becomes on the receipt of such letters. Involuntarily we exclaim: , The Pentecostal feast does natnre keep In robes of flowery magnificence.'
Ah I how lovely is Denmark I "
THE Missions-Blad, in answer to the contemptuous disparagement of mIssions which seems to be much more common in Denmark than it now is with us, though common enough here, subjoins: "But after all, we must not make out that worldly men are wholly in the wrong. 2,000,000 converted heathen I how few compared with 1,000,000,000 unconverted heathen! 2,700 missionaries for this thousand millions, how few! It is as if five clergymen set out to Christianize our Denmark. 27,000,000 crowns annually, how little, when Germany alone, every year, exports some 15,000,000 crowns' worth of brandy and powder to Africa. Ofithese 27,000,000, England alone gives 18,000,000. America, Germany, Holland, France, and our Scandinavia give the rest, and how little after all! And even England's missionary munificence is less than she spends in three days for wine, ale and brandy. And yet let us not lift ourselves up against her. The missionary contributions from our native country amount at most to $21,440, two-thirds of what we spend in one day for intoxicating drinks."
THE comparison of various countries as to their contributions of money and men to the foreign missionary work, published in the Blad, is as follows: Missionaries (male and female) to every 100,000 of the population: England, 48/ 10 ; France, 4'/,., Switzerland, 2"/10; the Netherlands, 2'/10; Germany, 18/ 10 ; Norway and North America, 1'/10; Sweden,~8/,o; Denmark, 6/10' This estimate includeil, we see, both Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries, of which France furnishes the most and the best.
Money, contributed pel' head of the whole population: England, 60 ore; France, 39; Switzerland, 19; the Netherlands, 179/ 10 ; North America, 15'/10; The ore is a money Norway, 9'/10; Germany, 9; Denmark, 4; Sweden, 19 10, / of account, worth 0.268 of a cent. We must remember that most of the work of church-building IS regarded in Burope as complete, and that of our vast home missionary work at the West they have nothing. The exactness of this estimate it is difficult to test completely.
THREE hundred years ago some Roman Catholic missionaries made a flying visit to the Caroline Islands. On the strength of this the" Missionsblaetter" (quoted in the Allgemeine Missionszeitschrijt) makes the following statement: "No other nation than the Spanish has brought the light of the gospel to the Caroline Islands, and what we know of the natives and their ways is derived only from the 'Catholic'missionaries." This is putting a good front upon it. But the conclusion is still more astounding: "It is, therefore, evident that the right of Spain is beyond dispute." The writer goes on to declare that of all rights to the sovereignty of a barbarous country none can be compared in cogency with the right inuring from having been the first to send the gospel to them. Of course, then, since Rome first sent the gospel to England, not only does the spiritual, but the immediate and plenary temporal sovereignty over England, and over America, as descended from her, appertain to the Pope. No doubt this course of reasoning would be quite satisfactory at Rome. The Zeitschrijt pertinently inquires; to what Roman Catholic nation Rome attributes the sovereignty of China, and to what one the sovereignty of Japan. Or are these two nations exempted as not being barbarous? One protest must be lodged before Leo XIII. is installed in Windsor Castle, namely, that the archiepiscopal province of York was converted by the Irish, and ought, therefore, to be governed from Dublin, not from Rome, which two powers at present seem not quite coincident.
The Zeitschrijt concludes its comments on this astounding doctrine thus: , "In brief: it is a most flagrant outrage against Christian Missions, aD;d against the peoples, among whom they are carried on, to deduce from the diffusion of the gospel a 'right' to the assumption of colonial sovereignty. This is in a measure intelligible as done by politicians; but it is doubly, nay, tenfold, to be deplored, when done by the man before whom the jubilee rites of apotheosis have burned incense as the' light from heaven,' as the 'kingly highpriest of mankind.' " MR. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON has disparaged Christian missions as being, from his point of view. merely an endeavor "to render the condition of barbarians a little more comfortable." It is true that his point of view would never have evoked foreign missions. Yet even from his point of view it seems to be an exaggerated disparagement which so describes, for instance, the Zenana mission. This is one of the thousap.d cruelties which it is gradually helping to abolish. "A female missionary physician is summoned to a Zenana patient down with the smallpox. The young woman lay in a little chamber into which no ray of light and no breath of air could penetrate. It was in the very middle of the hot season in Upper India, and yet there stood a dish with burning wood coals right under the bed of the patient, who lay in a burning fever, tormented with devouring thirst! But not a drop of water had anyone been allowed to give her. She died, and her clothes were -given to her attendant, a woman of lower caste, who took them home. At once the disease was propagated throughout this part of the city, where it raged fatally for weeks."
IN South Africa there is among the whites a great deal of contemptuous hatred of the Caffirs, and disposition to believe them incapable of either intellectual or moral improvement. Various travelers take occasion of this to discredit the missionary work. In answer to such opinions Mr. Charles Brownlee, who lately, on retiring from the office of Minister for the Aborigines, was granted by the Cape Parliament his whole salary as retiring pension, entirely without precedent, as a mark of esteem, says: "I once asked a heathen who complained that some goats of his were concealed in a mission station by the Christian natives, whether in fifty years he, a great man and privy cOUnCillOl", had ever known a Christian Caffir convicted of theft. He owned he had not. Had he ever known cattle-tracks traced to a mission station?" No." That is saying a good deal for a people among whom cattle-stealing seems to be the principal crime. Again:" In one of the wars 3,000 Christian militia-men camped for two years on Brownlee's station, and during this whole time it was never needful to station a single policeman there." Particular umbrage is taken that the Goverment makes grants to the mission academy of Lovedale. It is declared that the scholars, once dismissed, forthwith revert to heathenism, grease and red ochre. Mr. Brownlee says: "Baron von Hubner makes much of it that out of 2,058 scholars 15 are lmown to have reverted to heathenism. Fifteen I" "The question, says he, has been proposed: Where are the young people trained in Lovedale, and what is now their occupation? Again I refer to 'Lovedale past and present' from which I find that four have gone as missionaries to Livingstonia, of whom two have died. We find them str€wn over Natal to the farthest 'end of the Transvaal Republic, in Mashona, Bechuana, Basuto and PondoJand, and over the whole of the Cape Colony, employed as pastors, evangelists, teachers, mechanics, as policemen, justices, interpreters and clerks in the service of the Government, and of merchants and lawyers, while the greater part stay at home honestly earning their living. The most of them-excepting the fifteen returned to heathenism-exercise a wholesome influence among their countrymen, requiting the Government double and treble for the support which it has contributed out of the public funds toward their instruction."
THE Journat des Missions Evangeliques for April reports a. remarkable awakening among the pagans in the district of Thaba-Bossiore, in the Bassuto country. At the main station 110 have lately been en-
THE ADVANCE GUARD OF MISSIONS
rolled as catechumens, making the full number 210. At an out station 15 have been enrolled. At Morija 373 have been enrolled during 1887. Seven hundred at Morija have been enrolled as "desiring conversion," but not yet admitted as. catechumens. The remark is made that the churches as yet remain strangely cold, compared with the rising fervor outside. M. Jacotiet says: "Most of the converts received by me showed an .individual physiognomy of conversion, which, as all my colleagues will assure you, is by no means the most usual fact." One old woman baptized was over a hundred. At Morija "we had," says M. Mabille, "a communion service, peaceable and solemn, in the open air. Nearly or quite 600 persons approached the Lord's table."
"But all is not beautiful and satisfying. In the midst of our joys we have had the deep sorrow of learning of the shameful fall of one of our evangelists not yet a year in the service. Here, as of old, there is no lack of Pagan enemies of the Lord to blaspheme."
THE ADVANCE. GUARD OF MISSIONS.
By JOSEPH COOK.
"BECAUSE I do not believe in a Probation for men after death, therefore do I believe in sending the Gospel to all men before death I" Like a pillar of fire should we be guided by that definitive declaration that we shall be judged" according to the deeds done in the body." We know nothing about another opportunity for men in an "intermediate state," therefore will we send missionaries to them in our present state. In Pagan, as in Christian lands, now and always, our peace with God depends upon our similarity to God, hating what he hates, loving what he loves, and, everywhere and always, is there a deadly dissimilarity to God; and a dissimilarity which tends to permanence of character. Over all the world is it equally true of every man and woman that to be happy there must be salvation from that sin which is true, alas, of everyone. If I possess a Christ who alone can save from sin, and from the inevitable, invariable consequence of sin, my responsibility toward other men is simply immeasurable. Science teaches this. Nature prompts to it. Common sense ratifies it. Three hundred millions of women hold the Buddhist belief, as it is held of them, that they will reappear on earth after death as bugs and all manner of vermin; unless, indeed, they are extraordinarily good, in which case they will be born again, this time as men. The money we give to send the Gospel to these, our yearly contributions to missions, will not pay the liquor bills of the United States for three days; will not pay for the spirits drunk in the British Islands during two days I Protestants give ten millions of dollars annually to evangelize the heathen. What is ten millions in comparison to what we could do? Some one has said that this nineteenth century will seem to those coming after us an amusing century, and nothing in it will amuse our posterity more than our absurd conceit that we are doing great things for the world. It is because we have so slight a conception of the visible need of the heathen. Out of the sixty-three millions of Bengal, ten millions so utterly depend upon the current harvest that for it to fail is for them to perish; thirteen millions more do not know, except while the mangoes are ripe, what it is, the year around, to have a full stomach. In China sixty dollars a year is wealth beyond the reach of myriads. In India many a million of men has to support life, each man on less than *15 a year, multitudes of widows supporting existence on a dollar a month.
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
Their bodily poverty is but a type of their spiritual penury. If they live as upon the extreme edge in temporal, how much more in spiritual things! The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is decidedly in the lead of every other missionary association. In this, for instance, that they require their mission churches to be self-sustaining, laying it down as law that every convert should give a tenth of his income to the Lord, in which they differ from other boards. If they are charged at home with being extravagant of expenditure, everywhere in heathendom the reproach is that they are too close-fisted. The missionaries of other boards are rich in comparison to theirs, have better accommodations for guests, larger, handsomer, better adapted church buildings and school-houses. Bombay is the second most populous city in the British dominions, and at a large gathering there of missionaries it was voted, seven out of ten, that the policy of the A. B. C. F. M. in devolving the churches upon native support, is right; and everywhere in my travels around the globe I found this to be the conviction of native converts themselves-a converted Brahmin urging this view with great force upon the Bombay people. There is this difference, that Christianity is being embraced by people of the middle classes in Japan, while in China and India its suocesses are rather with the lower classes, as was true of the world at large when the gospel was first preached. There is not now one ordained missionary for a million heathen; surely there should be atleast one for every fifty thousand. Remember that the population of the world is increasing at a more rapid rate than the increase of missionary effort. It oug~t to be the law of every Christian in the world: "For every five dollars I expend upon myself I will give one dollar to the spread of the gospel." Because, bear in mind if we send the heathen the gospel, we are sending them also an English, German, American Infidelity. which is more bitterly hostile to Christ than is heathenism. What with hereditary and imported belief there, it is essential we should send as missionaries our ablest men. The longer we delay, the harder the work to be done. The more penurious we are now, the heavier will oe our expenses in Pagan lands hereafter. In the last lines written by Longfellow he expresses this sentiment: "The day is breaking everywhere, and God deliver us from dawdling at the dawn of such a day!"
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
SINCE writing the brief article on George Bowen for the June number of this REVIEW, I have been made acquainted with his own thoughts in regard to his lack of direct success in winning souls, during his long missionary ministry. It was a great sorrow to him. It weighed heavily upon his heaq all through his life in India. In a letter written not long before his death and shortly after the fall which fractured his thigh, alluding to this apparent failure, he said: "Compared to the great trial which has followed me for forty years, this physical disability is a very small thing to bear."
This is certainly suggestive. The Lord measures success in a different way from man. The greatest of the prophets threw himself under the juniper tree, bewailing the utter failure of his life, and requesting for himself only that he might die. How pathetic was the career of Jeremiah. When a mere youth called to confront the desperate depravity of a whole generation, king, priest and people against him, with never a ray of hope thrown upon the future of his ministry. Dying in Egypt without a convert! Yet the influence of these two old heroes will never die out of the world. Many
MISSIONS FOR MILLIONS
a man is never so influential as after he is dead; dying prematurely, perhaps, like Abel, but like him, though dead, still speaking.
Foreign missions afford many illustrations of such ways of God. Samuel J. Mills was buried in the ocean when his work for the heathen was only in anticipation. Harriett Newell, at nineteen years of age, died when her lips had hardly been taught a heathen syllable. Yet their brief lives are still great living forces in the work of foreign missions. David Brainerd's brief and marvelous work among the Indians won perhaps seventy heathen souls to Christ. Of the subsequent lives of these converted Indians, or their de- scendants, who can speak? But the short life of Brainerd is among the richest treasures of the Church. When he was dead he became at once a greater power than when he was alive. So he continues to be, and so he will be so long as his memoirs live in missionary annals. Good and great men and women are usually greater powers after dea.th than during life. They wait for the last of earth before the men of the earth know how great and good they were; then they begin really to live.
Among such as these, undoubtedly, Bowen will have his place. Filled with the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the mount with God, while yet among men, exerting a widening influence for Christ and holiness through India, his name will not die out of mission records; and he, too, will henceforth be greater after death than he was during life.
MADISON, N. J. ROBERT AIKMAN.
MISSIONS FOR MILLIONS.* By REV. IRA G. Ross, NEW YORK.
Air-" Marching Thruugh Georgia," arranged.
1. HARK, the sound of bugle calls from Zion's mission bands, Raise a song triumphantly o'er earth's sin-darkened lands; Legions now are speeding forth to do their Lord's commands, Planting the missions for millions. CHORUS. Hosanna! Hosanna ! We'll bring the jubilee! Hosanna! Hosanna! The Lord hath made us free! So we'll sing redemption songs o'er ev'ry land and sea, Planting the missions for millions.
2. See the gleaming signals are now flashing from on high, Watch the fiery pillar's light appearing in the sky; Forward march with fearless mien though hosts of Hell defy, Planting the missions for millions.
3. Rally at the battle cry, ye soldiers of our King, Let each church her quota full of men and money bring; Deeds of love and courage high in endless chorus sing, Planting the missions for millions.
4. Doors of hermit nations now unhinged are tumbling fast, Towering wall and buttress fall at blare of trumpet blast; Vain is heathen rage or boast, we'll crown our King at last, Planting the missions for millions.
5. Quick! the crisis-hour has come: then forward all the line, Dare not flinch or falter now, a failure would be crime; Jeweled crowns for victors wait that shall the stars outshine, Planting the missions for millions.
* Missionary Song Leaflet No.1. Copyrighted by Funk & Wagnalls.
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK
H.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian at NewcastIe-on-Tyne, 1888, shows Ohurch of England.. progress. The mission of this church holds a prominent, place among the THE work of this Society is carried various missionary bodies in China. on in China and India. The report for 1887, presented to the Synod STATISTICS OF THE MISSION FOR THE YEAR 1887.
,; '.". ~…., .~….'S~co…" ~…. ,; ~ C;; ~~l .; .. ….';"="l .1l aa","Q", 8 ,; CI A'" .S '8 .S :'"."a… g~ ,Q …;.. A'" ,:'Q.'a"" i'."", '" B ,~Q" aa" '""''i""""il' s.~~ 1sol O'"J ~ '".'".".. ,Q ~ CENTEBS. .., "g ~~ 0 r"n ~ "'"" ~.; ".: ~'" ·'s" ,Q !3 ",,,, OJ .."s ~ "" "at: ,Q~ ·!"a"a..:0.I..cw.0..o… '."… -$a~':"""a '" '"~ .~.p:.s .~ .s 0 s~ .''..""0.. '; 0" 0"" ~ C) Eo< 0 ~ ~","Q'.''~' ~ ~ ~"" 0 …. ~.~ 0 :=;! 0 Eo< – — – – – – — — — Amoy …………………… 822 56 15 21 3 5 5 14 893 69 587 36 1,516 – Swatow…………………. 942 54 7 2 8 31 4 962 47 371 80 1,413 Hak·ka …………………. 211 16 3 2 2 6 2 1 225 12 86 36 347 – Formosa· ………………. 1,317 79 – 1 11 27 33 1,348 87 937 119 2,404 – Singapore ………………. 105 9 – 20 4 7 19 100 7 43 7 150 – — — – – – – — — — Totals ………………. 3,397 214 25 44 18 50 78 33 3,528 222 2,024 278 5,830 .. * In revIsmg the Formosa r.olls, a mIstake has been discovered in the statistics for 1887 and for Bome previous years, and conseqnently there is a discrepancy between the number returned then and now. JrceiPts of the year from all source~ …………………………………………… £13,769 17 4 xpenses.. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . . .. .. .. • .. .. • .. ………. .. . .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. …. 13,473 19 2 B~ance in bank.. . .. .. .. .. .. .. • .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. • .. .. .. … …………………… £295 18 2 WOMEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
JrceiPta for 1887………………………………………………………………. £2,777142 xpenses.. • .. .. .. .. . .. .. . . .. . . • . .. .. • . . . • . …. .. .. .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. .. . . .. • … .. ……. … 2,009 18 1 Baptist Missionary Society (English), support – these and kindred facts surely give promise and pledge of THE ninety-sixth annual report, far wider conquest, and of the combearing date May 1, 1888, furnishes ing of that glad time when the evidence that this venerable society Saviour shall subdue all things unto is prosecuting its great work with himself, and the kingdoms of this ever-increasing zeal and vigor. Its world shall become the kingdoms of missions are planted in almost every our God and of his Christ." part of the broad mission field. The Committee report" continuous pro- "The balance sheet for the year gress, a larger number of conversions just closed exhibits a debt of £5,859 than for many years past, a wide- 9s. 7d. It is, however, matter for spread spirit of inquiry, a growing thankfulness that this deficiency is desire for copies of the Scriptures not due to any falling off in receipts, and Christian books, and the develop- but to a considerable increase of exment of the native Christian church penditure. The total ordinary rein aggressive earnestness and self- ceipts for the year just closed show an increase of £2,938 5s. Sd. upon Ba.ptist Sta.te Oonvention of North Oarothose of the year previous, the actual lina. figures being: THEFifty~seventh Annual Meeting 1887-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . … £61,341 5 1 was held in Durham, N. C., Nov. 16- 1886-7…………… …….. 58,402 19 5 20, 1887. The report was highly en- couraging. Increase 1887-8………. £2,988 5 8 FOREIGN MISSIONS. "In addition to this increase of £2,938 5s. 8d., £2,385 2s. 8d. has been We give the following summary: contributed for the extinction of the debt of 1886-7. Brazil-Missiouaries (native and foreign), 14; "The contributions for general churches and stations, 6; baptisms, 30; mempurposes, as compared with the year before, show an advance of £863 bers,I75. ' 9s. lld., the figures being: Mexico-Missionaries, 17; churches and sta- 1887-8………………… '" £43,625 18 1 tions, 21 ; baptisms, 100 ; members, 350; contri- – – – – – – 1886-7.. . . … .. .. . . .. . . .. . .. •.. 42,762 6 2 butions, $823. Increase 1887-8…. . . .. . . £863 11 11 Italy-Missionaries, 15 ; churches and stations, " The special gifts for the Congo Mission also exhibit an increase of 14; members, 306; baptisms, 26. £9884s. 7d., and the Calcutta Press profits and gain on exchange are also Mrica-Missionaries, 16; baptisms, 26 ; memin advance of . the year before by £1,08419s. 4d. bers, 138.
"While, however, the receipts have China-Missionaries, 54; churches and stakept in advance, the expenditure exhibits a much larger increase, the tions, 24; baptisms, 46; members, 677; COnfigures being: tributions, $699; besides a chapel built at 1887-8…………………… £67,208 14 8 1886-7…. ……. …………. 62,576 4 6 Shanghai by Deacon Wong, costing about $1,000.
Our Foreign Missionaries are 58; of whom 2{ are ministers and 34 ladies. The baptisms for one year were 238, and the contributions In mission fields, $3.012.61.
The receipts of the Foreign Mission Board were 187,830.53, the largest in its history. Of this amount North Carolina contributed $7,942.- 34. The amount contributed in this Convention during the year ending November 10, 1887, is $6,428.53.
Increase 1887-8………. £4,624 10 2 Wesleya.n Mission. in the Mysore Prov- mee. "The large deficiency is mainly due to the Congo Mission, the Forty – ninth report for the year amount charged to the account of 1887. 1886-7 having been only £5,820 8s. 3d., and for 1887-8 £9,955 9s. 5d.-an ap- " The past year has been distinctly parent increase of £4,135 Is. 2d.; one of encouragement. There has although as explained before, the been no great spasmodic outburst of real increase is only £2,192 Os. 5d., power, but there have been everythe balance in hand of the Congo where 'signs following.' In the re- Fire Fu.od(£1,943 Os. 9d.) having been ports of the various departments we credited to the previous year's ac- find reason for praise and hope. To count, as fully set forth in the bal- the country generally the year has ance sheet for 1886-7. brought prosperity. The rains were ample and timely; the crops have "With regard to the debt of been sufficient; no severe epidemic £5,859 5s. 7d., the Committee are has visited us, and the people have thankful to report that they have been comfortable. and contented. received intimation of certain lega- This state of things has found its pacies which, by the special direction rallel in the Mission. Our workers of the legators, are not to be added have, almost without exception, been to the Legacy Reserve Fund, but de- able to sustain thsir industry uninvoted to expenditure, which will terrupted; our members have been probably be sufficient to extinguish generally freed from pressinganxiety, the present burden." and in God's mercy all outward circumstances have been fairly favor- NOTE.-In this account are not included the able to the progress of our work." salaries of the missionaries, as these are paid directly to them by the treasurer of the Execu- In connection with the English churches in tive Committee. Bangalore, there has been gracious spiritual quickening aud accessions. Sixty-nine mem- Expenditnres in America, October 18, 1886 to bers were added to the nativechurches making August 26, 1887: 844 in all. There has been great advance finan- Drafts (salaries of missionaries). ….. $4,273 33 cially. English schools are growing in importance and influence. The need of additional " (general expenses).. . . .•. . . .. . . . 3,900 00 fnnds is keenly felt. Interest on loan…………………. 116 00 Mrs. L. V. Artman, on account. . •. . . . 50 00 TA"BULAB. VIEW OF MISSIONS IN THIS Salary of agent. . . . . . . ••. . •••. . .. . . . . . 75 00 Three copies of Missionary Review DISTRICT. Number of cbapels, 19; number of other and Mission Zeitschrijt ……… . 1410 preaching places, 21 ; catechists, 33; day-school Printing Cent Collection Books . …..•. 12 00 teachers, 327 ; Sabbath-school teachers, 91 ; lo- Type for printing office in India……• 2400 cal preachers, 39; number of full church mem- The Artman Memorial. ………….. . 29000 bers, 990; on probation, 101; number of Sab- Error …………………………. . 3780 bath-schools, 26 ; number of scholars, 982; number of day-schools, 117; number of scholars, Total expenditures. . . . . •. . . . . . . .. $8,792 23 7,929; total number. deducting those who at- Leaving a pretty heavy indebtedness. tend both Sabbath and week-day schools, 8,038; attendants on public worship, 2,983. Oounoil of the United Missions in Japan. Total amount of receipts, 27,819 reals. Eleventh annual report, presented Geueral Oounoil of the Evangelioal at the annual meeting, January 21, Lutheran Ohuroh, 1888 : Annual report at its meeting, Sep- CHURCH STA.TISTICS. tember 8, 1887 : Eight churches have been added to our list All our missionaries have been at work in the since the last report, making a total of fifty-eight field during the past year. churches connected with the United Church of Receipts in India from July I, 1886, Christ in Japan. During the year 1,688 adults and 199 children have been baptized. The total to June 80, 1887. . . . . . . . . . . •. •. . .. $4,903 23 church membership is 6,859. The contributions Total expenditures in India.. •. ••••••• 4,918 8l for Christian work amount to 18,553,832 yen, the equivalent of about $14,250 U. S. gold.
STATISTICAL TABLE.
e;. '" PBESBYTERIES !:l~ BAPTISMS IN MEMBERSHIP, ~ .; CZi!>il~• A>: AliD 18117. OCTOBER, 1887. Ol .; 'z" 0'" 11<"" ~ Ii! .; "… …,. .. CHUBClIES. IQ Ol 0<'lri' >:> p>.:>. ~'~" Z E< ~ E< <Xl:oIOl ~ ~ ~ '" "" ~ Oll'l fo1 A;~'" ~ ,~g c:i c:i c:i f9 -<l – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – —- — – SUMMABY.Ol:>1~-""'-l E< 0 .; S" :::I ~ II< ,.;l o – Z i~!l -~<l=0l <'l ,.;lO 0 E< ~'" 0-'" E-< ~ ~ IQE< >:> :01 ~O -:>1- ~ ~ 0 >:> 0 E-< 0 ~:>1 Z ,E-< Daiichi, To"kyo.. …. 21 2,882 704 77 781 1,491 1,089 371 2,951 9,115.385 12 2 5 Daini, 17 1,526 228 20 248 939 651 257 1,847 5,437.373 10 3 7 Chinzei. .••…… 7 449 80 18 98 223 180 132 535 523.590 4 1 7 8.4. 463 428 337 1.3. 3 898 1,286.314 205 297 439 189 628 2,191.170 Naniwa ………. 7 464 379 6- 2 5 Miyaga……….. S 331 297 – – – – – – – – – – – – — – – – 1199 Grand Totals .. 58 5,152 1,688 1,887 3,520 2,446 893 6,859 18,553.832 4834 8 29 AustraliaIl Wesleyan Missionary Sooiety. ers 2,659; local preachers 2,100; class leaders 3,761; full members 39,546; on trial 4,647 ; cate- The expenses of the Society for 1885 was £11,- chumens 11,888; communicants 20; deaths 1,156; 479 4s. 5d. Deficiency for the year, £593, 168. 1d. Sabbath-schools 1,584; Sabbath-school teachers Receipts for 1886, £11, 632 7s. 10d. Total expen- 2,812; scholars 44,840 ; day schools 1,887 ; scholditure, £12,,403 Os. 8d. Deficiency, £770 12s. lCd. ars 43,900; attendants on public worship 110,242. The deficiency in both years was paid out of the special grant fund. The work of the society is carried on in five districts: Samoa, Fiji, New SUMMABY OF GENERAL EETlffiNS. Britain, Chinese Mission in Victoria, Nnmber of churches 973; other preaching and Chinese Mission in New South places 432'1 missionaries 17; native ministers Wales. 62; catechists 66 ; teachers 1.079; school-teach- Bethlehem Hospital. station where missionaries can tarry and learn languages. Here they have 155 head We are indebted to Dr. George H. of horned cattle as mission property. (. Savage of London for his succinct Pungo Andongo is 39 miles farther on a· and valuable report as Medical Super- mountain elevation. 5. Malange is 60 miles intendent of Bethlehem Hospital. further along the same path. .. On each side There have been 560 cases treated the of this path is a continuous grave-yard 150 past year, and the number of in- miles long. The hundreds of thousands of mates at the close of 1887 was 246. slaves sold in Loanda for two hundred years There were 32 discharged improved trod this weary way amid tears and blood… and 139 recovered. Over thirty came as voluntary boarders, recognizing The objective point of this line of stations their peril on the borders of lunacy. is the Tushilange country some 1,200 miles Women are willing to sew, read and from the coast. It may be reached along paint, but men are not disposed to do Pogge and Weismann's route, and Dr. Summuch. There are 49 paying patients. mers, one of Bishop Taylor's missionaries, Heredity, anxiety and parturition has already arrived there. But it may also lead in causes. There are more be reached by going up the Congo river and unmarried than married, and the thence by the Kasai river. average a,ge of admission is 36. Most of the patients are of good education. Bishop Taylor started to reach the Tushi- Clerks and governesses form a large lange country by this Congo-Kasai routeand number. has established several stations on the Congo, and has a steam yacht in process of This hospital has a history of more transportation around Stanley Falls, for use than six centuries. Hogarth's "Rake's on the Upper Congo and Kasal. The Bishop Progress" and Shaksspeare's "King makes a very interesting statement of Afri- Lear" picture the condition of thfl can hospitality as bearing on Moslem propalunatics of Bedlam. An order of gandism, and which is equally available for monks, named "Star of Bethlehem," self-supporting Christian evangelism. He had care of the insane in olden time, says: and wore a star on their mantles as a badge. .. The king, chief or head man of each town, assisted by his wives, clears and sows Bishop William Taylor's Report. or plants a field each year for strangers. All Bishop Taylor made his Quadren- the products of that field are kept for strangers, except what may be used for the nial Report to the General Confer- chief'S head wife who has charge of it. When a stranger enters the town he goes ence of the Methodist Episcopal directly to the king, chief or head man and Church on May 12th. He says: shows himself and tells what he came for. If the king or head man is satisfied he replies, .. The productive iuterests of Liberia are 'I receive you.' Soon he will be shown into fairly prosperous. Within ten miles of Mon- one of the best houses in the town, to use as rovia, up St. Paul's River, there are ten his own indefinitely, and he not only gets his steam sugar-cane crushing mills, and during daily rations from the supply for strangers, the past year more than 600,000 pounds of but it is daily prepared for him and brought coffee have been exported from Monrovia. to him. In opening stations on the West The Bishop had superintended the regular Coast of Africa among native savage tribes work in the Liberia Conference and estab- they thus provided for me and those who lished self-supporting missions on the Ca- were with me the best houses they had, and valla River. brought thrice per day boiled rice, palm but- ter, fried chicken, good kid soup, etc. They He has made a beginning in the Congore- are good cooks, and can make more out of a gion, and Angola south of the Congo river; little than the cooks of any other country. in all 36 new stations have been opened by In every place we found it difficult to get him. with 32 mission houses, built at a cost away from their hospitality, and such peoof £20,000 and all are free from debt. The ple never begged us for a cent; but when stations in Angola are, 1. St. Paul de Lo- our people went to take possession of the anda, with a self-supporting school. 2. houses built for them, and took with them Dando, 240 miles distant from Loanda, with needed supplies-boat-Ioads of trunks, boxes, a self-supporting school also. 3. Nhangue- bales, etc., such a profusion of stores the pepo, ~ 51 miles farther inland, a receiving- natives never saw before. Their meager supplies were kept out of sight, their cupid- ity was excited, and quickly a large propor- tion of them were perverted from benefac- tors to beggars."
The Bishop says the Moslem teachers avail
CORRESPONDENOE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. [JULY
themselves of this hospitality, and their As to his organizing a missionary society heralds have consequently overrun the separate from that of the regular missionary northern half and a large part of eastern society of his church, the Bishop says it Africa. .. From the days of Moses," the was necessary, because his methods were so Bishop says, .. or earlier, the provision for diverse from their's that to try to manage the reception and support of strangers has the two from one office would be like trying kept an open door In Africa, and supplies all to run a cdal-yard and a milliner's shop in in wait~ to be utilized by God's ambassa- one office. He cannot consent to be on the dors." Still the Bishop says they must have advance picket line as a leader and be compermanent stations and training schools, as manded by men nine thOUlana miles in the well as industrial schools. rear/ lII.-CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Java. and its Missions. and every kampong or town section its punden or holy place, where is oft'ered to the spirit of [WE give with pleasure the follow- him who was the lirst man to cultivate that ingvaluable statement from the Rev. grouud. In a word, the religion of the Javanese W. Schuurmans, of Holland, concern- is a mixture or conglomeration of heterogeneing the missions on the island of ous elements of Mohammedauism and heathen- Java.-EDS.] ism, mingled together, but not united as to be- Java is one of the lsrgeet: and most fertile come one, the various parts or ingredients ever iSlsnda of the Dutch possessions in the East In- dian Arcbipeisgo. Except the two small States seen separately. Therefore it can truly be said Jogjokarta and 8oerakarta, that have their own of this people that it dwells "in tenebrIs," princes, called Sultan and 8usuhunam (though aud is in great need of the glorions" hun wholly dependent on the Dutch Government), Mundi." the island is divided into several provinces, called Residences, because administered by resi- Though in former times some ell'orts were dents. Its population at present numbers more made in order to propagate the gospel among the than eighteen millionli, besides the Dutch, the Chi- Javanese, miSSionary work, properly said, benese, the Arabians and some other Eastern people gan at work about the year 1848. At present that have taken np their abode on Java. The the following Missionary Societies or Mission natives, called Javanese on the Eastern and mid- Unions of Holland have their stations and agents dle parts of the isisnd, and Sundanese on the on the isle of Java. Western part of it, profess the Mohammedan religion, at least outwardly, for at home they 1. The Dutch Missionary Society, with stations are heathen. A Javanese, with respect to his at Semarang, Kediri, Swaru, Modjowarna, and relipon, may be compared with somebody who 5 missionaries. wears an upper garment and an under ,coat. With his upper garment, i. e., the Mohamme- 2. The Mennonite Mission-Union, with a stadan faith, he is seen in public, and he is proud of tion (better said a native Christian colony) 'at It, thongh this habit does not suit him. When Margaredjo, and 2 missiouaries. he returns home, he puts it off, and is at his ease 3. The Ermelo Mission, with stations at SaIin his undercoat, t. ~., he thinks and acts like a atiga, Wonoredjo, Klampok, Kalidjeret and Fjemeh, and 5 missionaries. heathen. For, though he confesses, "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his apos- 4. The "Java-Comite," with statious at Batatie," thongh he practices circumcision, abstains via and Sumber-Pakem, and 2 missionaries. from eating swine's tIe.h, and some of the Javanese, namely the alim, ia e., "pious people," 5. The Dutch Mission-Union, with stations at say prayers, spend alms, keep fasting or are going Meester-Cornelis, Cheribon, Indramaju, Madjafnpilgrimage to Mecca according to Mohamme- lengka, Sumedang, Sukabumi, Fjiandjur, Pangdan rites, the greatest part ofthe natives adores harepan and Buitenzorg, and 7 missionaries. any object that has something extraordinary in it, because it is belleved such objects are ani- 6. The Mission-Uuion of the Dutch Reformed, mated with good or evil spirits; for instsnce, a with stations at Pnrweredjo and Pnrbolinggo, well, a river, a tree, a Itone; also animale, as a and 3 missionaries. tiler, a crocodile, a snake, etc. Nay, even the priests and santris, or they that have received 7. The Mission of the Christian Reformed rellgious teaching in the priest-schools by the Church, with stations at Batavia and Surabaya, Mohammedan Gurus (teacher of rellgious and 2 missionaries. truths), in man, cases tollow the heathen customs or habitA. Moreover, the 25 stations and 26 missionaries .Besides the superstitions above mentioned, on J aVI! that had been mentioued above, there ~er, village has its Dahnjang, or titular deity, are.many outposts or native Christian communi- ties and several native helpers, evangelists and schoolmasters. At Depok, on the western part of the isle, is aIso a large native Christian com- munity under the care of an European Assistant preacher, snstained or paid by the Dutch Gov- ernment. Iu the neighborhood of this commnn- ity is a training-school for native evangelists or helpers with a missionary as Director, assisted by an appointed European schoolmaster. The number of native Christians on Java quite unknown. Sometimes a few boats with amounts to 12,000. heathen Eskimos trom these parts would come round the Cape Farewell to buy various articles IlA.ABLBK, M.6.Y 11, 1888. at Jnlianshaab, the southernmost colony; but every attempt to reach them having failed, the [We have received the following eastern coast was considered as inaccessible, interesting letter from Rev. V. until one of the Moravians, Mr. Brodbeck, some Holmes, Secretary of the Danish 1ears ago, made his way through Ice and other Evangelical Missionary Society, Co- impediments, I do not know how far to the north on that side of the country. In 1884 a penhagen. We gladly correct the Danish expedition, led by a lieutenant of the royal navy, succeeded in proceeding to the 66° statement made in the item to which N. Lat., and found some 600 heathen living on the coast. A mission to them is planned by the he refers, which we copied from an ·ecclesiastical government, and a young man, who has been a sharer in an explor1ug expedition exchange.-EDs.l in Greenland and during a year's stay there has learned to love the people, has offered to go GLADSAXE (NEAR COPENHAGEN), thither. He is now studying In Copenhagen, March 10, 1888. and will, when he has passed his exa.mination, be ordained and sent out to begin a mission REv. J. M. SHERWOOD, D.D. Dear Brother. among these people. -In possession of your memoraudum of Feb. 25. I bave ordered our missiouary paper Letter from Miss Grace Wilder: (DaTl8k Mi88ionsblad) to be sent to your address, and I shall not omit to give you what iu- KOLAPOOB, INDIA, Feb. 23, 1888. formatiou I cau relative to Danish missiou DBAR EDITORS: work. The January REVIEW, so rich in facts and soul- As a beginning, I beg leave to make a few re- stirring words, reached here a little before us. I marks in regard to au item on Greenland iu the rejoice that you are striving to make the RBVIIIW February number of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW one of such personal interest to missionaries. 011' THE WORLD (p. 144), as some of the state- The great thonght in enlisting missionary letments given there are iucorrect. ters is their effect on home readers ; but if old missionaries are willing to express their honest Rev. Hans Egede did not begin the missiou convictions, thoughts which are the result of of the Moravlans in 1728. He was a minister in years of experience-the RBVIEW will be a power Norway, belonging to the Danish-Norwegian among its missionary readers. You cannot Lutheran Church, and as a true member of that realize what an inspiration it is to us here to get church he began the mission in the said year. magazines from home which assure us that the This work has since that time been carried on churches are watching us and are eager to hesr by the Dauish State Church. The Moravians a word from the lIeld. went out to Greenland in 1733. I long to say a word for Kolapoor, which The Danish Mission has always been the prin- might help the young people of America to feel cipal. According to the last census, in 1880, the a per8fJnal interest iu this kingdom and mission. popnlation was 9,767. Of these 8,250 belonged The natural advantages and beautiful scenery of to the Lutheran Church, 1,517 to the Moravian. the Kolapoor State snrpass my brightest recol- From this It will be evident that nilssion service lections. The name Kolapoor is applied to a proper is not carried on in Greenland. All the plateau of some 2400 square miles, with a popinhabitants belong to either of the two bodies nlation of 800,000. Besides six chief rivers that are at home there. this region is well supplied with spring water. The hills are a chief feature, and when near I have not the last report of the Moravians at streams these hillsides are carefnlly tilled by the hand, so that I cannot compare the statements in poor hard-working farmers. THE REVIEW with those of the report, but I do not think that the extracts are quite correct. The capital, Kolapoor, is the largest city in It 1s qnlte impossible that 115 adnlts can have the Southern Marathi country. It Is nearly 1800 been baptized, as the Moravians are not Baptists. feet above the sea and Including the suburbs has I dare say that the brethren would scarcely be a circumference of 4% miles. Though we are able to find one adult who was not baptized. sixty miles east of the coast we have a strong The number of Moravian Greenlanders being sea breeze. Koiapoor is supposed to be one of some 1,500, it is quite impossible that they, in the oldest cities in India. Buddhist coins have the course of a year, should baptize 475 children been found in the city, which are believed to -so many babies cannot be found in a popnla- belong to the first century before Christ. The tion of 1,500. finding of shrines at a depth of over 15 feet; also the discovery of the bed of the chief riTer, On account of vacancies which cannot be the Panchganga (five Ganges) 70 feet above the filled up now, there are at present only six or- level of its present bed, lead to the conclusion dained ministers in the Lutheran Church of Greenland, three of whom are natives, three Danes (called missionaries). The number of catechists and teachers in 1880 was 88.
What I have stated here refers to the Danish colonies on the Western coa~t of the land. The Eastern coast has, up to our day, been almost that in the 8th century an earthquake over- ris. There is here a church of 18 members. turned many temples and buildings. During Mr. Ferris has built a chapel, a church in the the last of the 18th century, under the MarathaB, town, and is just completing a dispensary. I Kolapoor rose in importance, aud at this time its cannot understand how our mission has waited stone wall 30 feet high and 10 to 26 feet thick so long for a medical missionary. In a single was built. Outside of this was a deep wide day 60 people have come to Mr. Ferris for medicine. It makes my heart ache to look at ditch. these poor suffering creatures. This is hard, but Kolapoor is now a great religious, as well as a what can I say of the feeling that comes over me as I look out from these old towers upon trade center. Of some 250 temples in the city scoreS of villages and know that among them six are noted. The most noted and very old there is not a single Christian home? The views temple of Ambabai is visited by large numbers of pilgrims, many coming long distances. Ac- cording to tradition the cost of this temple from here remind me of the Connecticut, as seen equalled the weight of the stones in gold. Be- from the top of Mount Holyoke. The small sides contributions from pilgrims, which amount patches. under careful cultivation, turn these val- to some $2,000, the temple receives a yearly al- leys into beautiful gardens, and in some ways the lowance of £500. country is even more beautiful than our lovely Among all these temples there stands but a Connecticut. Why should this land be so differ- single Christian chapel. This stands on one of ent spiritually? Why ten and twenty church the most valuable lots in the whole city, just spires in a New England town and here in many in front is the grea.t city Bazaar, where thou- a city not one Christian to tell the people that a sands of people assemble on Sunday-the great Saviour lived I In the vaIIey east of us there market day. At half-past eight Sunday morning are some ten native Christians, but north we we have Sunday-school here. The songs of our touch no mission station until we reach Ratna- native Christians attract many, but the vague geri, some sixty miles distant, and there the wit- faraway looks of these people say plainly, .. We nesses for Jesus are a church building, a mission don't understand." Many have come from dis- bungalow, and a schoolhouse and homes for tant villages. and some have never heard the Christians-all deserted now, siuce Mr. Tedford name Jesus. A few Sundays past I was stand- has gone to Sangli. Though Ratnageri has a ing near an elderly woman. While our heads population of some 10,000, the claims of Sangli were bowed in prayer she said in a {oud earnest seem even greater. Mr. Graham tells me that voice, .. What is this?" I cannot say that the within a radius of 15 miles from SangIi there are people here are eager for the truth. They do 125 towns and viIIages. One of these, the trad- not say that they want the bread and the water ing town of Miraj, has a population of over of life, but they look it. Just now there is a 20,000. This is 30 miles northeast of Kolapoor.
very special crisis in Iudia. Government schools Some 27 miles east is another large town, Nerla.
are rapidly increasing. Kolapoor has not only a The surrounding country is densely popu- college but the Rajaram High School, attended lated with people that seem favorable to the by 375 pupils, six vernacular schools, with some gospel. Mr. Seiler has toured in this district, 760 boys, and four girls' schools with about 150 and says that some of the Nerla people lingered girls. Christianity is not allowed. The Eng- until eleven at night to talk with him. Mrs.
lish ,officials seem to guard these educational Ferris said this morning that when the band of institutions as zealously as the Canatical Mos- missionaries just about to sail shan have left, lem does the Mosque of Omar. Even the within a single year 16 missionaries and 15 mis- British president of our college says that the sionary children wiII have retired from our India present system of education, while destroying field I The railroad brings us now right into faith in HindUism, is giving nothing to take its the heart of this Southern Marathi country.
place. My pundit, a finely-educated man, Said Five weeks brought us from New York to Born to me one morniug in Marathi: "The present bay, and 18 or 20 hours more on the railroad condition of our people is fearful. They don't hrought us to Miraj, 30 miles from Kolapoor.
believe in their own religion, and they don't he- I wish the nearness of India to New York lieve in any religion." At another time he said: might lead every young man and woman to " Our people are a religiOUS people. They want think and pray very earnestly before deciding to to find God, but they don't know how. Feeling remain in America. If the dear young gIrls of their own inSufficiency in religious things, they America could walk through th~ 1,079 viIIages go to a Sudu priest." of this single State; if they could look into the The other day a young Brahmin borrowed the hungry, and stolid, and painful, and, in some January number of THE REVIEW. It is returned cases, beautiful faces of these poor women and with marks along the article" Christian and children, it seems to me there is but one ground Non-Christian Religions." I do wish that I had ou which they could hesitate to carry them the brought out with me some short pamphlets on joyful news of the gospel, and that is, the fear the central truths of Christianity. There are that they are not fit to he messeugers. I do many opportunities of lendiug a book or a realize more than ever the need of our being flned with the Holy Spirit, so that God can use us leaflet. Just now we are on the hill fort of Panhalla, for soul work. But God is wiIIing to do this.
spending the hot season with Mr. and Mrs. Fer- He even promises a daily filling. This week I have fonnd one of these preclons assurances in three months' study, and then three months in Isaiah I, 4. preaching and itinerating work. .A. member of one of our churches in the interior lately died, The facts and figures and sights and sounds all 89 years of age. He has been a devoted Chrisspeak so loudly of the needs of this land, that 1 tian about fifteen years. His triumphant death long to tell my friends about them. Yet I do has left a happy impression not only on his famhope and pray that nothing but deep, trne ily, but on all the church members. God has love Cor Jesus and souls will lead anyone to proved faithfnl to all his promises to our people india. In talks with dear father, 1 have been here again and again. helped to see that a lack of true missionary spirit is no excnse Cor us. God Is certainly will- I have, for the money you kindly sent about a ing to give us what he asks us to keep, and he year al:o, secured the services of a worthy says: "Let this mind be in yon which was in brother for six monilis to labor in a district Christ Jesns." about 200 miles in the interior, where as yet the gospel has not been fully preached, ,In some We are now pleading for three more mission- places the preacher has been kindly received aries. Can you not send twenty 1 If Gene- and he is greatly enconraged. A nnmber are ral Assembly could convene on Panhala Fort reading Christian books and a few have asked next May, it seems as if little else could be dis- to be taught to pray and what they are to do in cussed and prayed about except Jesus' last com- order to become followers of Christ. One old mand. Letters are coming assuring us that this man who heard the gospel.a. number of times Kolapoor field is being remembered by name in and professed to believe, lately died. To the family circles, and by individuals. last he said he believed Cbrlst would save him. He regretted that he had not been more diligent Letter from Rev. Hunter .Corbett in learning the trnth, and delayed a public pro- fession of faith in Chlist until too late. of China. You may be interested in knowing that one of CHEEFOO, March 9, 1888. our theological stndents who will soon have lin- ished the full course was, for several years sup- DEAR DR. PIERSON: 1 send enclosed a copy ported by the Sunday-school connected with Bethany church. He is well educated and in Chimse of the letter sent by the General As- gives promise of being an able and faithful preacher. He has been invaluable as a teacher sembly of 1886, to our Chinese Cbristians. It in our training school here, for two years after he left college. He has been my companion durhas greatly cheered our people. Some of them ing eeveral itinerating journeys and rendered efficient service both in preaching to the heathen have read it again and again, and are seeking to and in conducting services with the Christians. He understands music and has been able to live so as to be worthy oC the conftdence of God's teach our people to sing. Surely if it was known that the sum of $40 per year wonld enable a people in A.merica. young man to devote his whole time to stndy, there would be many in our home churchee who Since 1 saw you in April last, when leaving would gladly undertake the education of one or more worthy youths in China. for China, I have made a journey of three It gives us joy to welcome Rev. Mr. Goforth months, visiting our country stations, assisted in and wife from the Presbyterian Mission in Can- ada, who are to be followed by others to begin teaching our class of theological students one work in the Honon prOvince, where as yet the gospel Is scarcely known. term, and since then have had a class of 23 men Brazil Mission, Under the Superintendstudying the Scriptnres. One of the class is a enoe of Rev. Emanuel Vanorden.
man of 64 years w110 heard the truth for the " In the providence of God the province of Sao Paulo has become the headqnarters of Protestfirst time only a few months ago. He teUs me antism. Already four denominations are at work there. In the city of Sao Paulo the South that day by day he sees new beauties in the Scrip- American Missionary Society has a fine church building and a devoted chaplain; the Methodists tures and feels his heart drawn out in love to have a very flourishing school for boys and girls in Piracicaba; and the Presbyterians have a Jesus. One young man of great promise won- newly-erected chnrch, capable of holding 600 persons, a girls' and a boys' b01lrding-school, a ders how he should ever have been so blind and stndents' boarding-hall, and a day-schOOl, at- tended by a goodly number of scholars. They stupid as to have worshiped idols. His father, have taken the preliminary steps of organizing, 86, bitterly opposed his son's studying the Scrip- tures, until a few weeks ago he said he wished to be taught, and hear how Christ .could save the soul.
To-day I had a conversation with an old man.
He said he must soon die and that would be the end of all things with him. He seemed to have no ears to hear as I tried to tell him the way of salvation through Christ. He left me saying if the Heavenly Father would give him food, he wanted nothing more. I pleaded then with some young men, as we stood on the street at the market place, to live with reference to the next world. They seemed to feel that this world is all they need to be concerned with. How help- less we are without the power of the Holy Spirit I We have a very interesting class of nine theo- lOgical students near the end of their stndies.
Most of them are men of good edncatlon and of much promise. Onr plan is to have a term of in August next, the Synod of the Presbyterian will furnish a dwelling, SChool-rooms, an office, Church in Brazil, to be composed of 3 Presbyte- and in short all the room we will want for a ries, 50 churches and 32 ministers, of whom 12 long time. It is worth half as much as the are natives. The missionaries of the Presbyte- Zacatecas property, that we bought cheap at rian Churches in the United States, North and $25,000, but they do not ask 810,000, but only South, will unite in effecting this organization. $3,000, and the ground would cost us that were we to build. If we get it we will save twelve .. Thousands of emigrants continually pass per cent. on the investmeut at once in the saving throngh the capital. Already 70,000 Italians are of rent. And we can get the property at ten per scattered In the province, of whom 13,000 are in cent. of wbat it is wortb. The mission has never the city of Sao Panlo, besides thousands of Ger- had such an opportunity. May I not ask that man and Portuguese emigrants who continually you use your infiuence to help us get the prop· arrive. The Italians bring their priests with erty Y Very sincerely yours, M. E. BEALL. them, and the Germans are steadily increasing the number of their priests and sisters of charity [Will not some of our liberal givers by fresh importations. cheer the heart of this noble mission- " The priests are more afraid of our smali pam· phlets than of the Bible; for it is these silent ary and her devoted husband by a preachers which are directing the people to God's Holy Word. Many a member of the con- generous response to this reasonable gregation I have been permitted to gather in Rio call?-EDs.] Graude has been called tbrough tracts given us by the Religions Tract Society; one of them is FIGUERAS, SPAIN, April 17,1888. now supplying the pulpit during my absence. DEAR EDITORS.-LaSt autumn you kindlyin- serted in MISSIONARY REVIEW OJ!' THE WORLD .. We need help to establish printing and book- an account of the work in Vilabertran, one of binding workshops in the city of Sao Paulo. The our seven mission etations. We have since subcost Is estimated at £1,500, but they will be en- scribed and read it regularly with much interest, tirely self-supporting if not a source of income. being a link between us and fellow-workers in Our converts will thus have an opportunity to the mission field all over the world. Some time learu a useful trade, aud those who lose their em- ago we sent you a report of this mission; with ployment because they refuse to work on Sundays, yeady balance sheet. I now beg yonr kind inwUl have an opportunity of earning their living. terest in enclosed letter, with plan of Figueras, and the pressing need of a gospel hall in tbe .. General Couto Magalhres, an eminent Brazilian center of this town. Just now tbere is a bit of scholar, the day I left Sao Paulo for England, land for sale in an erocellenl; situation where 813: gave me nearly $1,000 towards opening these 8treeta meet. We are 11W8t anxious to secure it. workshops, and said, •I give you tbis money The importance of tbe step may be judged by the towards opening a Christian printing office be- following incident: Tbe other day a conference canse we most urgently need it ; tell your frieuds of priests was held in Gerona, presided over by abroad that we appreciate your labors and those the bishop. A friend of the pastor was admitted of your associates, that we need many more of in a business way, being a lawyer, and he has them, and that the workshops will be a means told us that one of the subjects discussed was of teaching our people those habits of industry tbat of the plot of gronnd in Figueras. Tbe and application in which they are so much de- resolution was passed that" something must be ficient.' He Is as yet not converted, but prayed done to prevent the Protestants making the with and prayed for; he has also given £900 to- purchase." The price is £400. Toward that wards educational work in Sao Paulo. sum we now have £132-2-6, and £100 promised. The lease of Our present han expired in Febru- .. EMANUEL VANORDEN." ary, and our landlord may turu us out at any moment. The fact that in all tbis prOvince there [We print this brief appeal, hoping is not one permanent gospel hall is a sufficient plea. Are the Romanists to trinmph by secur- that some whom the Lord has ing that plot of land for lack of £167-17-6 Y The Jesuits, those indefatigable enemies of God's blessed may find it in their hearts to troth, have ample means at tMir disposal. Surely tbe Lord's people wUl not allow the gos- respond.-EDS. ] pel to sn1fer for want of so small a sum. No wonder Romanism gains ground when Cbris- SAN LUIS POTOSI, MEXIOO, March 15, 1888. tians do so little to stop its progress, and Pro- DEAR EnITORs.-Our mission has no property testant missionaries are crippled in their efforts in San LUis PotOSi, though established here in by lack of means. .. Who will come to the help l872, and otber missions tbat have come in since of the Lord, to the help of tbe Lord against the have secured important properties. Our present mighty Y" If you will kindly aid by inserting congregation is now too large for the .. hired thIS note in your valaable REVIEW we shall be house" in which we worship, and there is no grateful. With kind regards from the paRtor prospect of getting a better in this fanatical and myself. Yours very truly, place. And now just as we are wanting some- thing better, there is offered to us a Catholic MADAlItE ElIILY LoPEZ RoDRIGUEZ. church and the part of an old convent, that is just what we need. The church is a very fine one, will seat at least four hundred people, is of dressed stone, and the rooms .that ~o with it A New Development. three to five active men, who shall have charge of detailed work. , [THE University Students' move- 2. The annual meeting of this State Committee ment is assuming every day larger and of its Executive Committee should be held at a time and place of the State Convention ot proportions. The following address the Y. M. C. A. This assumes that all the mem- bers of this Committee will be delegates from recently issued to the Colleges is so their college to the Convention. Other meet- ings of the Executive Committee may be held as Important in its possible near and the work may require.
remote results that we give it in full. S. The special work of the State Committee at its annual meeting should be to consider the -EDS.] Colleges individually, and on the two-fold basis of the nnmber of students and their approxi- The wonderful wave of missionary zeal which mate individual expenses at college, it should has swept through our American colleges dur- suggest to each college its proportiouate share ing the last eighteen months has moved about of money to be raised. 1,800 young men and 600 young women to offer their lives in service to Christ as for_ 4. The Y. M. C. A. of each college should take eign missionaries. If all these could be up the estimate suggested by the State Commitsent out and supported in the field as tee, and after public consideration the Associarapidly as their education may be completed, tion should decide npon the adoption by a vote the next ten years would witness a missionary of its members. If a favorable vote is given, advance and success such as has never been they should then pledge themselves to raise the known. The finauces of the Missionary Boards amount, pushing the cauvass to a successful in this country are already too heavily taxed to close as rapidly as possible. carry on this additional and extensive work alone. The feeling has already found expression 5. The State Executive Committee should be in a number of colleges and seminaries that they composed of young men of special ability and should not ouly furnish men, but share in the energy as well as of marked missionary enthusiduty of providing money as well. Princeton asm, selected from colleges in different sections College has raised $1,600 for this object, Rutgers of the State. It will be the dnty of each mem- $780, Hampden Sidney $6~5, University College ber of this Committee to aronse missionary in- $250 ($500 expected), Knox College $1,425, and terest in his own and in neighboring colleges by Queens about $800, (the last three are Canadian.) pnblic meetings, to be present and advocate the Knox College took the initiative in this move- report of the State Committee when presented ment. The seminaries have also made a good at these colleges. and, if necessary, help them in beginning, Princeton Seminary having raised pushing the canvass. $850, Alexandria (with about 45 students) $750, Allegheny U. P. (annually for ten years) $530, 6. An effort should be made by the State Com- Xenia (with 26 subscribers) $325 and Union $700, mittee to secure from friends of the move- (total amount in the latter for missionary pur- ment outside of the colleges a fund suffiposes $1,130). $800 is the average amount cient to cover the necessary railroad exneeded to support a missionary in the field. This penses of the Executive Committee, so that feeling that tbe colleges should support one or this extra burden may not fall upon the more of their alumni missionaries is without colleges. This money should not be nsed, howdoubt unexpressed in many of our colleges, and ever, to pay the expenses of the Committee as with proper effort could be awakened into ac- delegates to the Y. M. C. A. Convention, this tion. The few dollars which each Christian' being provided for in the usual way. student would need to give annually to effect this in his college would be but a paltry item in 7. There should also be in each college a spehis annual expenses, of which no part surely cial Missionary Committee (or if one already ex- would be better invested. Now, an organized ists the work may be placed in their hands), effort among the colleges and seminaries would whose duty it shall be to canvass for and secnre accomplish vastly more than mere scattered and pledges for the full amount at the beginning of local action. The following plan which seems each college year, make the collections, select practical is snggested, which we trust may meet the candidate to be seut ont, and whatever yonr hearty interest and approval. other matters demand attention, all their action being brought before the Association for adop- PLAN POR CO-OPERATIVE ACTION AMONG COL- tion. This Committee should consist of two men each from the senior and junior classes, and oue LEGES AND SEMINARIES POR THE SUP- each from the sophomore and freshman. In case of special departments in any college, as the Pre- PORT OP ALUlIINI MISSIONARIES. paratory for instance, such department should also be represented by a man. In the case of 1. Each State should have a State Missionary seminaries it may be lidded that the plan of hav- Committee, composed of one member from ev- ery school of learning in the State which has a ing two members from each of the three classes Y. M. C. A., (or in Seminaries some other form has been found satisfactory at Union Seminary. of organized Christian work), and which agrees to raise money for the support of a home or for- 8. Each college should of course raise its eign missionary, or a foreign Y. M. C. A. Sec- money and send out its missionary under the retary. This State Committee shonld elect from their number an Executive Committee of from auspices of the Missionary Board of the denomi- Street, New York City, at the low rate of $1.10 nation which controls the college_ The candi- a thousand.
date selected by the college as missionary will 12. Special questions, as for instance whether be snbject to the approval of this Board. In the the faculty should be asked to contribute to the case of colleges too small to support a mission- fund, or in co-educational colleges, what share ary, two schools of the same denomination in the young women should take in the movement, any State or neighboring States could unite in may be left to the discretion of the colleges.
providiug for one. When this is impracticable the money can be put Into tlte hands of the De- GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. nominational Board to be used in helping to pay the expenses of some missionary whom they are Africa.-[Mr. G. Wilmot Brooke, about to send out. who has gone up the Congo on an in- 9. If possible, the missionary to be sent out by dependent mission, sends home the any college should be a graduate of the college following dark picture of Central who is finishing a seminary or medical course. Africa. EDS.] When none such is available, the support of a graduate already in the mission field is advised. " I am now at the furthest post on the Congo, 10. The system of support should be on the ' with a vast sea of heathenism around; amaz- basis of at least four years, each student upon ingly shameless immorality, habitual lying, and entering the Freshman class pledging himself to the utmost ferocity now to be found on the give not less than a certain amount yearly while globe, shut out"the faintest hope that their con- he Is in college, The following pledge adapted sciences will excuse them in 'that day.'
from the one used in Union Seminary is sug- " Away a hundred miles or so to the south a gested. .. We the undersigned students of small island, so to speak, some four square . , ……….College, feeling that the honor of our miles, has had the gospel preached for a testi- college, the sphere of Its infiuence, and our ac- mony for a few months-I may almost say tive interest in the work of Christ in foreign weeks. Away to the east nothing but the vast lands would be greatly increased by binding our- sea of towns and villages, town. and villages, selves together for the support and encourage- • doiug evil with both hauds earnestly,' till over ment of a man who will be our special charge, 1,000 miles away to the southwest we come to a and will be known as the, …•. , .•.•• CoUege little spot of light, where Arnot is working. Mi88ionary, do pledge for his snpport not less Again the darkness is broken by some scattered than the sum of, …•. , , , …cents each week for points of light in the lake district, but 1,000 the forty college weeks, this pledge holding good miles of utter darkness is between us and for the four years of the college conrse. This them. pledge shall not be binding until amounts aggre- " Then comes another )!rilliant spot, sending gating $800 annually (or whatever the amount suggested by the State Committee may be) has light round the world, the Christians of Uganda, been subscribed." but nearly 1,000 miles of almost fiendish ferocity Is between us and them, and then the last gleam 11. Payments of subscriptions can' best be of light ends. made weekly by the systematic plan of giving. .. If I look northwest, nothing but 1,700 miles Each student upon filling a pledge to give a certain amount each week is presented with forty of utter darkness, the huts garnished with huenvelopes (one for each college week), each of man sknlls, human limbs boiling in cauldrons, these envelopes having the same special number man-hunting, and droves of wretChed women which dlstingnishes that student from the oth- and children in chains, and the desert strewn ers in the record book of the treasurer of the with human bones till we come to the Red Sea. Missionary Committee. Each student having a ditl'erent number obviates the necessity of writ- .. Away to the north the same, or rather worse in, names and amounts upon the envelopes. -crowded villages, with the fiercest cannibals; On a certain day of each week, a locked box is large vill.geA, with great walled towns, and put in some public place. into which the students drop their envelopes. If any student crowded markets and schools, and all in darktails Into arrears the treasurer sends him a note ness-away over the Sahara, with its fierce robonce in ten weeks informing him of the fact. ber tribes, 2,000 miles to the Mediterranean, but and stating the amount. In colleges of less than not a ray of light. 200 students, 135 can raise $800 annually, without anyone being too heavily burdened, If 30 "Northwest, again the same, till 2,200 miles ,will each give twenty-five cents weekly, 40 give away we see the scattered points oflight rapidly ftfteen cents and 65 give ten cents. A college spreading from the North African Mission, and which would find it qnite impossible to raise then comes bright light from the Niger and the that amount in one or four instalments will be Cameroons, but from the latter we are separated sure to find this system an easy and a practicable by 500 miles of the very fiercest and most deone. Sultable envelopes already numbered can graded cannibals. belt.d from Goodenough &Woglom, 122 Nassau " I wish the churches at home would pray over these facts. I think that some of them would have their eyes opened to see new things."
-Church Miss. Gkaner.
-Writing from Lake Nyassa, in the northeastern portion of Southern Upper Burma.h, within sight of the Africa, a correspondent of the Man- prison pens of Ava and Oung-penla. chester (England) Guardian gives a very interesting account of one of the China. – Urgent Appeal. In view of the grea.t need for more missioncauses, and probably the main cause, aries in the province of Shantung, of the revival of that Mohammedan or Sha.ntung Presbytery has made an Arab influence in Central Africa, of urgent appea.l to the Presbyteria.n which so much has recently been Boa.rd of Foraign Missions for an adsa.id in England a.)'ld in this country. dition to the working force of ten ordained ministers, two physicians Until 1883 the blockade of the eastern coast of and three unmarried ladies. Dr. Africa by English cruisers was so efficient as to Nevius writes to the New York Obmake the slave trade unprofitable. ThiS, and server from Chefoo : the immigration of Europeans into the lake regious, seemed to make it probable that the "This province, containing abont 21,000,000 forces of a European civilization would be al- inhabitants, was entered by our missionaries in lowed to operate efficiently in that country. The short-sighted withdrawal'of the cruisers in 1883 1861. There was not a single convert and the seemed to the vigilant slave-trader au indication language had to be learned before direct mission of a return to the old slave-trading era, and as work could be begun. We have now seventeen the Congo Free State was closed against them, ordained missionaries; fourteen wives of misthey begau to drift acrOSS the country northward to Lake-Tanganyika. ,There, taking prompt ad- sionaries; five nnmarried female missionaries; vantage of an opportunity given tbem by a quarrel with one of the native races, which they one ordained native minister; twenty-nine unpromptly subjugated, they have continued to ordained helpers; 2,203 communicants, and 871 grow stronger and more audacious, and are put.. tlng forth all their efforts in a very successfUl pupils in Christian schools, and in the interior way for au early conquest of the whole country. more than one hundred stations and sub-ststions, Their success presents to us the important question whether Mohammedan or Christian in- including fifteen organized churches. Four fluence is to be dominant for many years in central Africa. boarding·schools (one the high school or college at Tung Chowfu, having about seventy students), -The Livingstonia Mission on the East Ceutral African lakes is a memorial or Dr. liv- absorb a considerable proportion of our working ingstone, founded by admirers of this great man. force. Some of the younger missionaries are as It is not strictly a denominational enterprise, though it is a mission of the Free Church of yet only prepariug for work by the study of the Scotland and receives support from the United language, and others will soon be obliged to Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It was plan- leave in consequence of impaired health or other ned and has been prosecuted as an evangelistic miSSion, linked with an industrial settlement causes. Our country stations are snJl'ering for for the introdnction of Christian oivilization by want of sulllcient supervision. In the capitsl of commerce and indnstrial arts. "The African Lake's Company" was organized as an ally of this prOvince, Chinanfu, where there is an unthe Livingstonia. The African Times says it usually hopefnl opening for chapel preaching and was intended "partly to supply mission material needs, but mainly to introduce legitimate tralllc for work in the country in every direction, we with the natives. The company was founded on broad commercial principles, but with the im have at present ouly three ordained missionaries portant provisO, thoroughly carried ont, of supplyiug no intoxicants to the natives. The (iucluding one principally occupied in the study financial basis of the company remains with of the language) and one physician. This torce the wealthy Glasgow capitalists, who rather for philanthropy than gain began the undertak- is wholly inadequate to attend effectively to the ing and who alone still direct and control it." work required in that city alone." Burmah.-The one hundredth an- niversary of the birth of Adoniram [AMONG the delegates to the great Methodist Conference now in liIession Judson occurs August 9, 1888. In in this city is the Rev. Sia Sek Ong, commemoration of this event it is from China. We give the substance of a brief address he made at a mis- proposed to erect a Judson memorial sionary meeting on the evening of Ma.y 9.-EDs.] church in Mandalay, the capital of "Fathers, brothers and sisters in the gospel, with deepest gratitude and highest respect I come here to greet yon.
"In speaking of the miisionary work in China, I would ask you to look back into the condition of China in the past, and then glance at the present.
"For generations China had little dealings with other nations. No other country was regarded her equal. From the emperor on the throne, down through all classes of society, they re- garded China, with her sages and her clasSics, as com.plete within hel'Slll'f. When western na- tions wanted to come in, they objected, and re- sisted with violence. .. These old custoDlS and sentiments were Dot productive of moral or mental growth to the na- bigoted a Hindu as can be found in tion. They were like the great forests in Amer- Northern India. The name Newal ica that shut out the sunlight and dews of Kishon is derived from the Sanskrit, and Mohammedans do not go to that heaven, and the earth produces no fruit.
.. But now there is a change. The Government language fo'r their words, much leSS of China is seeking friendly relations with West- for their family names. The first ern nations, and coming in contact with these word, Newal, means weasel or ferret, nations, we realize more and more the deficien- and the second, Kishon, youth or cies in our own civilization. son, so the shrewd old publisher might "Now China is erecting various grades of be the "son of a weasel." Any com- schools and colleges, seeking to acquire your mon cooly in the streets of Lucknow arts and sciences and language. Schools of or anywhere else in India could have medicine and mining after Western systems, told the "nodding" bishop that the railroads and telegraphs, have been introduced. name was that of a Hindu and not of "It is a remarkable fact that while for ages a Mohammedan.
past the study of the Confucian classics was the -British rule in India has not reonly preparation for the competitive examina sulted in the removal of the hateful tions, now the stndy of mathematics and some customs which prevail in reference ot your Western sciences are admitted. Look- to marriage. Parents continue to ing at the past and the present, is it not like that forest now cleared away and the fertile soil contract marriages for their children.
appearing f One bad feature of such marriages is illustrated by the story of two sisters " Do you ask, what has this to do with preach- In a zenana school at Serapore.
ing the gospel r Very much indeed. Forty years ago your missionary toilers entered China, morally a dark forest. Much of their time was These girls resemble each other, but spent in felling the trees and clearing the one has ugly scars on her face, which ground before sowing the seed. Now the soil disfigure her. It is said that the lies open to the sun and the dews of heaven, and father intends to repeat Laban's the seed they have sown brings forth this won- fraud on Jacob. The expectant bridederful change. groom will be told by his parents " Where once there was opposition, and every that the bride is all he can desire eWort to introduce the gospel was rejected, now (they will have seen the scarless we hear the people say, The' Jesus doctrine' sister) ; but when the marriage is very good, and followers of the Jesus doctrine actually takes place the disfigured are good men.' " girl, duly veiled, will be seated at India.- Bishop Hurst wrote an the lad's side, and not till too late to • article in Harper's Magazine on "A draw back will he see her face. Of Mohammedan Publisher in India," course, as Leah was hated, so will this Hindu girl be when she becomes Manshi Newal Kishon. He says of a wife. No government, however him: "He is a Mohammedan and paternal, can succeed in insuring makes no secret of it. But with the happy marriages, but the wrong we publisher's instinct he keeps his reli- have instanced ought not to have gionin thebackground. Heneverputs the semblance of the sanction of his faith on the top of hisbillheads. He British law.
is a broad man-broad in everything -A Hindu Husband's Creed.-The Hindu idea of marriage is curious. except Christianity, and it is noLlikely A man both day and night must keep that the gospel has a more vigorous hater in the whole Gangetic valley than this wily man. He is no big-ot- his wife so much in subjection that ed professional. Bitter hater as he is she by no means be mistress of her of Hinduism and of all the numerous own actions. If the wife have her non-Mohammedan faiths, he seems own free will, notwithstanding she is as ready to publish books for the J?ro- motion of Brahmanism and its rlval of superior caste, she will go amiss.
faith Buddhism as to issue apologies A woman shall never go out of her and text-books in behalf of Islam." house without the consent of her hus- This, to use the mildest words, is band, and shall pay proper respect to a strange and unaccountable blunder her husband's father, the spiritual for a man in Bishop Hurst's position guide and her guests, and shall not to make in such a prominent maga- eat until she has first served them zine. In the first place the man is a with victuals (If it is medicine, she Hindu of the Hindus, and has a num- may take it before they eat); a wo- ber of priests to do pooja or idol-wor- man shall never go to a stranger's ship several times a day, and is as house, and shall not stand at the door, and must never look out of the useful as a native preacher; while window. If a woman, following her the first native minister ordained by own inclinations, goes whithersoever the Church Missionary Society-a. she chooses and does not regard the convert of Henry Martyn's-was in- words of her master, such a woman strumental in getting some sixty shall be turned away. If a man goes soulE! into the fold of Christ.-Mison a journey, his wife shall not di- sionary Outlook. vert herself by play, nor see any public show, nor laugh, nor dress herself -THE work done for India. by mis- with jewels or fine clothes, nor see sionaries, as viewed by Sir W. Hundancing, nor hear music, nor sit at ter, is matter for amazement and the window, nor ride, nor behold any- gratitude. He speaks of two distinct thing rarE' or choice, but shall fasten periods of missionary work-private well the house-door and remain pri- effort and organized effort. The vate; and shall not eat any dainty private effort, conducted by those victuals, and shall not view herself solitary workers who first came and in a mirror; she shall not exercise had to seek refuge from English op. herself in any agreeable employment position behind the Danish fort walls during the absence of her husband. of Serampur, was wonderful: -In the eloquent words of Dr. "They created a prose vernacular Hterature Stevenson: for Bengal; they set up lhe lIrst steam-engine in India; with its help tbey introduced the modern " It is just three centuries ago since English manufacture of paper on a large scale; in ten adventurers, traveling in pursuit of commerce, years they translated and printed the Bible, or bronght back from India such reports of the parts thereof, into 81 languages. Altbough they splendor of Its princes and the solidity and mag- received help from their Baptist friends in Engnillcence of its government, that they llred the land, yet the mail.. part of their fuuds they heart of England, and became the unconscious earned by their own heads aud hands. They founders of the English rule. built a college which still ranks among tbe most splendid educational edifices in India. As one "Is It unlikely that travelers of no remote contemplates its maguidcent pillared facade date will bring DB back from the same East overlooking the broad Hooghli river, or mounts tales of another and greater splendor, not, as its costly staircase of cut brass (the gift of the they might to-day, of an Indian ruled by Cbris- King of Denmark), one is lost in admiration at tian men, but of a Hindu population that from the faith of three poor men who dared to build the Himalaya to Cape Comorin has accepted on so noble a scale."-Indian Witneu. Christ' " -Sacrifice.-The heathen sacrifice To-day the Christian church is more than money. Miss Grace Wilder asked at a Woman's Meeting in India working in India as the people worked in days gone by at those how many had given up friends for superb palaces a)ld tombs which, al- Christ. Many arose, and the story though in ruins, still dominate the of their sacrifices was pathetic. This towns and cities of the Mohammedan one's mother had not recognized her conquest. Far down into the foun- since her conversion; anothel" one's dations they sunk-with what infi- sister had refused to speak to her; while still another had been cast off nite patience we may imagine-vast by her whole family as a " despised masses of dull red sand-stone, and Christian." Miss Wilder says, "how built it up in mighty walls that only hard it is to preach sacrifice to people lose their gloom when glowing in who live it." the setting sun; but on the summit they placed, as if to last forever, -Says the Indian Witness: some structure of fair, white, pierced and fretted stone, so fitting and beau- " The high court of the native State oflndore tiful, so airy and delicate, that it has decided that child-marriage is not always to seems like a marble dream. be confirmed." The Hindu judge declared: "That the appellant should not be compelled to go and Let us be patient and persevering, live with her husband, and that the framers of pouring into the foundations of this the section of the code never intended or meant that it should be used as an engine of torture to Christian India true hearts and noble compel young innocent wives into submission to lives, the named and the nameless together, until there shall arise on those foundations-once the dream, but then the fair and stately fact-of a Christian India, a fragment, yet complete in itself, of that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from God, and where the nations of the saved walk in the light of His glory.
-CAREY'S first Hindu convert built· a chapel at Serampore entirely at his own expense, and ws:s himself very husbauds who were deformed or uoobletomain- home and to those laboring in other tain them, although it has been their misfortune fields. to be mamed in their infancy when their wishes -Rev. Mr. Fyson, in an address could not have been consnlted or paid attention to by their parents." before the British and Foreign Bible -The" Harvest Field," published Society,refers to the willing reception in South India, says it could mention of the Scriptures by the people of twenty or thirty places in which Japan, and says tha,t they are ready to pay for the copies which are Brahmans have formed themselves brought them. He says: "I once found the Scriptures being sold where into societies for the sole purpose of I never should have expected it. I came across a little book stall near studying the Bible. No missionaries one of the Buddhist temples in the heart of the country. This stall was are admitted to their meetings; but standing on the temple grounds, and I noticed Scriptures and other Christhey occasionally submit questions to tian books on the stall. I was sur- prised, and said to the stall keeper, missionaries by messenger, and the 'Do the priests allow you to sell these books?' The man replied, 'They buy am,wers are reported back to the them themselves; they are some of my best customet·s.' I went into the meetings of the societies. A writer temple and talked with the priest. He was quite willing to hear what I says, "Even in the monasteries of had to say, and to buy some books of me." this land, and by some of the high- -The Japanese Gazette rt'grets priests of Hinduism, the Sanskrit " to say that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, and that Christianity Bible is to-day a book anxiously stud- must finally prevail throughout all Japan. Japanese Buddhism and ied." Western sciences cannot stand to- gether. They are inconsistent the Japan.-The type of Christianity one with the other." The Buddhists coniinue to make a most vigorous now growing up in Japan is intensely effort to counteraCt the spread of Christianity in Japan, and the HomIsSIOnary. In almost every indi- ganji sect was never so busy., One school in Kioto alone is to be rebuilt vidual church the members combine at a cost of twelve thousand dollars, and other Buddhistic seminaries and to carry the gospel to their uncon- colleges are being started in various parts of the country. verted friends and neighbors. Many -A Chinese official recently disof the churches have regular preach- covered in Japan a copy of Hwang ing places in the localities lying out- Kan's "Confucian ARalects," over side their own congregational limits. 1,200 years old, with all the ancient Already numerous home missionary commentator notes. This work has boards and societies have been organized and are in full operation. This disappeared in China for 700 or 800 missionary spirit must soon make itself felt abroad. Indeetl, attempts years, and, as the whole history of have been made already to organize foreign missionary socicties, but the present copy is known, the Chithey have failed because of the great pressure upon the church from the nese Government has directed its necessities of the work at home; and no doubt this will be the caS6l for minister in Japan to borrow it, in many years to come. The Japanese church will be so much occupied with order that a carefully corrected copy the work at home that it cannot give much attention to foreign work. It may be taken. i1l probably true also that, in case Japanese missionaries should be sent -That the Jews largely despair of to China, their influence would not be so great as that of missionaries finding the Messiah in the future and coming from countries that have been Christian for a lop.g time, but it can- begin to look for him in the past is evinot be doubted that, if Japan should become thoroughly Christianized, the dent from the present success of misfact would have a great influence in favor of Christianity in China. The sions among them, and from the fact mere fact that a great nation like Japan. s.hould ~ecome practically a that 100,000 Jews have been baptized ChrIstian natIon as a result of missionary effort would prove a great stimulus both to the churches at 1888.] CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 587 by Protestants during the present ising, and a great movement toward the Christian faith on the part of century. The oldest society organ- Russian Israelites seemed just at hand. Shall it be hindered by the ized for Jewish missionary work is the interference of anti-Christian rulers?
London Society for Promoting Mis- Madagascar.-Canon Farrar, in sionary Work Among the Jews,which writing of the liquor traffic in East- was organized in 1808 and has ex- ern Africa, says: tended its work over all Europe and .. Turning to Eastern Africa, we are faced by the tragic story of Madagascar-a story which parts of Asia and Africa, and notably the Rev. H. W. Little, once a missionary on the island, calls 'without parallel for pathos and in Jerusalem and Abyssinia. When consuming interest in the history of the world.' this society began its work there In 1800 the Malagasy were a nation of idolaters; now, thanks in great measure to the London werE' only about fifty baptized Jews Missionary Society, they are a nation of Chrisin England. There are now more tians. They loved, they almost adored, the than 3,000. This society has 35 sta- English, who had done so mnch for them. Untions and 145 agents, and for more happily, however, Mauritius became a sugarthan seventy years it has sustained in producing colony, and rnm was made from the London a church for Jewish converts, refuse of the sngar mills. What was to be done a workshop for teaching themtrades, with it f It was not good enough for Enropean a school for the education of their markets, and Madagascar' was made the recepchildren, and a Hebrew college for tacle for the damaged spirit of the colony.' They the education of missionaries to the received the curse in their simplicity, and it pro- Hebrews. A dozen or more societies dnced frightful havoc. 'The crime Q/ the iBland of various denominations are doing rOle in one &lwrt year by leaps and liounds to a excellent work in Europe. The work height too fearful to record.' The native govern l of the German Lutheran Societies in ment was seized with consternation, and the Southern Russia, under the control of able and courageous king, Radama I., paid the Prof. Delitzsch, is perhaps the most dnty, and ordered every cask of rnm to be promising of them all. staved in on the shore, except those that went to the governni ent stores. -The Longevity of Jews.-Dr. Ben- "The merchants of Manritins complained, the jamin Richardson, the leading sani- Engli8h officials interfered, and from that day the ' cursed 8tuJ!' has had free course, and t1iltary authority of England, delivered uged the land with miBery and C'l'ime."
a lecture recently before the Jews of -The government ofM adagascar lately London upon the "Vitality of the passed a law declaring that any Malagasy women Jews and the Mosaic Sanitary Code." who lived in concnbinage with a foreigner shonld After giving some interesting statIs- forfeit all property held by rights peculiar to the tics as to the large proportion of native of the conntry. This law having come Jews who reach old age, Dr. Richard- into operation last month, many foreigners have son took up the causes of this lon- appeared before the Home Minister for foreign gevity, chief among which was the affairs, and expressed their willingness to conobservance of the laws of Moses. Its form to the new law by marrying the native woprovisions, he said, form a marvelous men with whom they lived. :British subjects collection of sanitary rules. The rest who took this line were referred to Her Majupon the seventh day is a most im- esty's Vice·Consul. According to the Madagasportant provision for health, which, car Times, Mr. Pickersgill said to them: "I if strictly obeyed, would insurE'! to any cannot marry the woman to you without, at the nation an extra term of life. The same time, marrying yon to the woman, and if cleansing of the house, vessels and you are married here, yon cannot unloose the persons which is enjoined, aud the bonds again." The great majority of the appliabstaining from the flesh of animals cants shrank from the responsibility of placing which feed upon garbage, are great themselves under the marriage laws of England. checks upon the spread of disease. In order to secure the enjoyment of the lands or In addition to these are the control of other property which their native concnbines the passions and the special care of possessed, they were willing to recognize them the aged enforced in the Command- as wives under the Malagasy law, and to allow ments.-Hebrew Christian. them to be registered as such in the government -Joseph Rabinowitz, the Christian booka ; but they would not, if they could help it, bring the contract within the jnrisdiction of reformer among the Jews, has re- the British courts. The British Counsellor aucently been warned by the Russian thorities in Madagascar have made it known government to cease from his mis- sionary labors among his brethren in the south and west of Russia. The work he had begun was most prom- 538 INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. [JULY"
that they do not Intend to be parties to the eva- and prince, which was very bitter at the comaion of the Malagasy marriage laws in order to mencement of the mission, and also In the opporenable British subjecta to coutrol the lands or tunity which it affords the doctor and his helpers the slaves of native womeu. to refer to the needs of the sonl while attending to those of the body, and giving access to places Siam. Friends' Syrian Mission.- otherwise closed against mission effort. A new This mission is situated at Brumana, meeting-house has recently been erected to hold on the heights of Mount Lebanon, 300 persons, and the message of life and salvaoverlooking Beyrout, and is under tion throngh the Lord Jesus Christ Is faithfully the joint management of the Society preached to an attentive congregation, which of Friends in Great Britain, Ireland usually fills the building. There are twenty-six and the United States. There is a persons working in connection with the mission, training home for boys, with thirty seven of whom are Europeans. inmates, and for girls, with twenty, and a well-ordered hospital with fif- At Ramallah, near J ernsalem, the Friends teen beds, besides a dispensary, open have another mission, which is dOing a good five days a week. The mission has work among the inhabitants of that dark region. the charge of various day-schools for both sexes in several surrounding vil- -Miss M. L. Cort writes from lages, in which more than 300 chil- Petchaburee, Siam, for the Herald dren are under instruction; it also and Presbyter: employs a colporteur and several Bible-women. There are also two " A Japanese prince has been in Bangkok this mothers' meetings, which in earlier month, and some Siamese ladies were invited to days had sometimes to be short- one of the dinner parties given In hiB honor, and ened because of fights among the they actually sat down and ate with their royal women, but which now are com- husbands for the first time in the history of this posed of large numbers who delight little kingdom. to learn texts of Scripture, and be read to, rather than give vent to evil pas- " The old foreign minister dined with us lately. sion. Althongh he is not a Christian, he Is great friend to us and our work, and he told one of us that he All these agencies have been prodnctlve of prayed every day to the Creator that the condimuch good In the district, and even over a wider tion of his poor people might be improved, slavarea. Many of the pupils of the training homes ery abolished, and opium,. liquor and gambling have gone to their various villages imbued with be prohibited by law. He says, •Siam need true Christian principles, and several boys have never expect to be recognized among civilized taken In1I.nential positions. In the medical de- nations till she throws away her Idols and Budpartment also the work has been much blessed, ftrstly in largely disarming oppositiou from priest dhism.' " The Siamese newspaper lately started pub- lished a very good article abont Japan, and a splendid one on the abolition of slavery which, if carried into effect, will set free thousands of these wretched, debt-bound boys and girls, who were sold by their parents before they had sense enough to object, and whUe they were too young to know",hat slavery meant."
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
The NeoeB8ity and Rule for the Oome- successes of the gospel in heathen, Mohammedan and papal lands. oration of Property to Ohnst.* Many illustrations have been related of the removal by the Almighty hand BY REV. WILLIAM SPEER, D.D., WASH- of the obstacles which for ages had seemed to be insuperable to the ad- INGTON, PA. vancement of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been Dear orethren and sisters in lifted up to higher faith and courage Christ: We have come to the last by proofs of the awakening through hour of this most refreshing and in- the Holy Spirit of some classes of structive series of meetings. Many those who possess the knowledge of wonderful testimonies have been borne in them, of the power and the *Address before International Missionary Union, 1887.
INTERNATIONAL
the truth to the dl,lties which these religious blessings such as no otliel" things impose upon them; such, es- land on earth possesses; blessings in pecially, as the enlistment of women so many forms, blessings in such and children in distinct efforts in be- boundless profusion. Second, that half of the heathen, and as the spon- He has heaped upon this natioll taneous uprising of thousands of the wealth, agricultural wealth, mineral young men and women in our col- wealth, commercial wealth, the stat- leges and schools, and their avowal istics of which are appalling; wealth of their willingness to go forth to so distributed, wealth so within the teach the gospel to the nations in reach of the toiling and poor classes, darkness, if only the churches are that, as many of us can testify, the willing to send and maintain them. rich in Asiatic and some European Now our minds turn to the momen- countries do not enjoy the comforts tous inquiry: What more is needed and luxuries of the common laborers in order that salvation may be pub- here. The horrible want and suffer- lished to the perishing millions in ut. ings, and degradation and helpless- tel' ignorance of it? To answer this ness of the poor in those lands, peo- should be the consummating aim of ple brought up here do not know and these meetings. It should be the could not conceive. And third, that consummate end of the prayers and these incalculable and overflowing thoughts and efforts of the entire riches are mostly spent in self-indul- Church at this time. gence, in uses of vanity, or in acts and employments which create and Is it not evident that the Church foster crime or are made necessary to has come to the borders of the great the repression and punishment of final movement in behalf of the king- crime. Itis ounces of holy and wise dom of her Lord? Does she not now prevention; tons of ineffectual cure. confront the crowning duty, the last It is grains and straws for the glory and most difficult requirement, of of God and the welfare of mankind; her long and desperate. warfare with huge mountains of outlay and waste sin in the world? Is it not that of for the world, the flesh and the engaging the whole body of his fol- devil. lowers in the provision of the pecuniary means which the employment See how we fling down thousands of earthly instrumentalities, accord- of millions of dollars for war I how ing to God's sovereign plan, makes we cover land and sea with thousands an indispensable necessity? of millions of dollars' worth of the agencies of trade I We pour out in The greatest of all practical ques- every passing year hundreds of milltions now before Christendom is: ions of dollars for liquid poisons; Or How shall the prOfessed believer in for articles craved to pamper the ap- Jesus Christ be aroused to consecrate petite and uselessly adorn the body; to his service the money and prop- or for palatial houses and luxurious erty without which sin and evil can- churches. But oh I how we toil and not be overcome, without which the groan to wring out of some great degifts purchased by his blood cannot nomination, numbering hundreds of by any possibility be conveyed to thousands of assumed followers of men dying of hunger and thirst, the Christ, and several millions of adherhunger and thirst of the immortal ents and worshipers, possibly one palsoul? try million of dollars a year for any oneof.its general organs to employ in The paramount need now is, plain distributing through the nation or and earnest instruction in duty. through the famishing world a few crumbs of the benefits which fall from These are awful facts in the sight of heaven and hell: First, that God has loaded Christian America with
DBPARTlIBNT
these peoples' tables and are swept acceptance· by the Judge on the from about their feet! throne, will be the reward of him who has been faithful in this heaven- The existence of such facts as these ly stewardship. " Ye have done it means judgment. Judgment upon unto Me," shall the King of glory the nation. Weare warned by the himself say. "Ye have done it unto wrath which has turned countries Me!" "He shall walk with Me in that formerly rejected the warnings white." " To hIm will I give to eat of God into barren wildernesses, and of the tree of life, which is in the which left not in Jerusalem one stone midst of the Paradise of God." upon another; which removed their candlestick from Antioch and Alexan- Oh, how vast is the range and varidriaandEphesus, and Constantinople ety of subjects which the glorious and Rome; which has given up theme of "the kingdom of Christ" Greec~ and Spain and France to idol- opens before the mind-the revelaatry and unbelief, spiritual blindness, tions of the Scriptures,the providences a blight upon all their former honor of God-the condition of the church, and power, a decay withering all or of the nation, or of the world-the their prosperity, outbursts of crime, opportunities in the different contirivers of blood. And such beyond nents and nations-the operations of question will be the doom in its turn the various agencies of good-the hisof our nation, if it repent not, and do tory of the past, the prospects of the works meet for repentance. Judg- future-the duties of men, and of ment upon every man and family women, and of children at this juncthat shares in God's spiritual and ture-the recompences and the pentemporal benefits to it and in its un- alties, for time and for eternity! If paralleled opportunities; everlasting only looked into, and thought upon, punishment to unbelieving and sloth- and plainly and earnestly presented, ful professors; a sword of wrath to accompanied with the prayers of minmany a slumbering watchman, who isters and people forthe influences of has not warned them of their evil the Holy Spirit, how would they kinways, and let them die in their in- dle in young and old, in male and feiquity. We dare not shut our eyes to male; yea, in all classes of people, the plain declarations of the eternal in the few who could give millions Word in respect to the account to be and in the multitude who can give given for all these things. mites, aglow of interest which would lead them to consecrate life, and time, "He that withholdeth corn, the and means of every kind, to the adpeople shall curse him; but blessing vancement of the cause of their Reshall be upon the l)ead of him that deemer and Lord with a zeal which seneth it." Upon him that with- would work wonders in themselves, holdeth the bread of life, the true and in the churches, and in the bread from heaven, the bread which spread of the knowledge of Christ givethlife unto the world, the bread throughout the world. which if a man eat he shall live forever, from immortal souls, the The parallel momentous need of curses of nations, the curses of the the present time is, that the ministry assembled universe, the curse of God shall teach professing Christians their forever, the wrath of the Lamb whose obligations to obey God's word, and agonies and blood of atonement to follow God's rule, in respect to matsave haye been made ineffectual ters of money and property. through his wickedness and sloth, will in the last day be poured without It appears self-evident that those measure. But blessing, glory, riches, whom Christ has set to be teachers honor, the rejoicings of angels, the of his people should instruct them that they are to be guided by the
INTJmNATIONAL DBPARTMBNT
principles and inculcations of God's Consider the rule: "UPON THB word in this as in other duties, and FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK LET EVERY that they should follow in thE.'ir em- ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE AS ployment of their material means in GOD HATH PROSPERED HIM."
his service the definite, practical and This is an inspired "order." It is all sufficient rule which God, by his given in Omniscient wisdom; to Holy Spirit, has given. And yet how further the Divinepurposes of mercy little are the lessons which stand out to mankind through Christ. It so massively in the commands and teaches us the Christian use of money admonitions and history and typical and property.
appointments of the Old Testament, I. Universal responsibility. "Every and in the teachings and promises one" must give. All are created by and warnings of the Lord Jesus and God, dependent upon God, can only his Apostles, pointed out in our pul- be saved through Christ, must give pits. How wonderful in itself, and account in the judgment; those of in its relations and influence is this every age, sex, condition.
divine rule I-brief as one of the ten II. From Ohristian motives. Re- commandments; the complement, lated to "the first day of the week."
we might almost say, of the peti- From love to the risen Lord. For the tions of the Lord's prayer; vital to advancement of his cause among the fiscal success of the kingdom that men. In harmony with the aims is to come; the neglect of which has and efforts of his church. With been the woe of the Church, and the prayer and thanksgiving. Looking ruin of her children, and the means chiefly to the recompenses of the of withholding the bread of life, final day.
Christian truth, Christian agencies III. As a personal transaction with of mercy, Christian forces of civiliza- God. "Laying by him in store. "
tion, from the hundreds of millions With private prayer, intelligent in- of our brethren and sisters of the hu- quiry, business calculation. Employ- man family now living, and from the ing care and with sense of responsi- thousands, oh, the thousands and bility for what belongs to God. A thousands, of millions in the genera- part to add effect to personal labors, tions which have passed beyond the charitable and religious. A part to dread bourne of such opportunities. be distributed to general claims as How astonishing, before earth, and they are providentially presented.
heaven and hell, that this rule is not IV. In definite measure, and in ceaselessly and commensurately with the ratio of increasing ability. A its importance to the King's revenue, lower proportion when poorer, a .explained and urged in sermons, larger proportion as means in- taught to the young, inculcated in crease. Bestowing thank-offerings families, enforced by personal ex- for special and unexpected beneflts.
ample, represented in inscriptions Guided by the standards of holy con- and pictures, commented upon and secration exhibited in the ancient illustrated in nlany ways by religious saints; but recognizing the higher periodicals, insisted upon in ecclesi- light and privileges, aims and prom- astical proceedings, as must be done ises, and duties and opportunities, of to accomplish a reformation in Chris- this dispensation and above all of tianity, to effect the promised open- these "last days."
ing of the windows of heaven and the Here is a rule which is perfect as a outpouring of its celestial blessings, financial measure. Its divinity grows and to introduce a new era, the res- upon one with the contemplation of toration of more than its first para- it, and with his efforts to apply it in dise, to our sinful world. practice. It is evaded by many; human "plans" are·substituted for it home· was at Norway-House, 400 in church work. Those who heed miles north of Winnipeg, and on the little Christ's command to ., preagh the gospel to every creature," will lake of that name. His circuit was be indifferent to the method by which he instructs his followers to 350 by 550 miles, the temperature fallregulate their earnings and their gifts. His precept should be taught ing sometimes as low as 550 below especially to the rising generation, zero. Mr. Young told the following story: and to the young men and women .. At Norway-House, on a certain occasion, a who are to be its ministry and guides. number of Indians came into my room, noise- When its principles shall have been lessly, after their fashion, so that the room was put widely into operation, according filled with them before I knew it. When I be- came aware of their presence I asked whence to its full scope and design, the king- they were. 'From a journey of fourteen nights,' they replied ; for they reckon distance by the dom of heaven will be advanced with number of nights they are delayed to sleep. 'We majestic strides and the arm of the have got the Keesenaychen [the Great Book], Lord will awake to wonders of sal- but we don't understand it, although we can vation. read it.' I thought they were joking, for the In- dians cannot read unless some one has· taught The Voluntary Demand for the Gospel them, and I knew from their account that they Among Hea.then. must live far away from any missionary; but I asked them: ' From what missionary did you ONE of the most interesting hours learn l' 'We nevel'saw a missionary nor a of the International Missionary Union teacher I ' I took down from my shelf our meetings in 1887 was the one devoted Bible, printed In the beautiful syllabic character to testimony from personal experi- for the Cree Janguage, and opened to Genesis; ence of the call directly and spontan- they read It with ease and correctness. I turned eously from heathen, both individ- the pages and they read in many places. I uals and communities, for the Gospel. was amazed, and asked them again where they Rev. W. H. Belden to.ok notes of the lived. They described It to me ; it was far away conversations and narratives, and north of Hudson's Bay, hundreds of mUes from collated from other sources subse- any mIssIonary. Their hunting-grounds, it quently, more testimony of the same seems, adjoin those of some Christian Indians- kind. He published selections from they cover great distances in hunting-and, con- these for use in the November Sim- tinued my visitors, 'We visited your Indians ultaneous Meetings, held in New Jer- and fonnd that they had the KeeBerta'Vchen. We sey, last year. It has been our pur- got them to read it and then to teach it to us ; pose for some time to yield to the de- and we wel:e so pleased with It that we all learn- mand for the publication of some ed to read it during the winter.' Every soul In of these recitals in the more perma- a village of three hundred popnlation had thus nent form of this REvmw. We can actually learned to read the Bible without ever now only give a few samples. The having seen any white teacher; and having Editor of this Department will be providentially come Into possession of Bome grateful for further illustrations of copies that happened to be in the hands of the this" feeling after God" among non- Hndson's Bay Company's agent, these heathen Christian peoples. Let missionaries Indians had journeyed throngh the snows four-' on all fields favor us with such nar- teen nights' distance that to them might be ratives and we will promise to make given instruction In the Book they had thus the best possible use of them. learned to love.
At the Thousand Island meeting, Another response came from J. L. the first to speak was the Rev. Eger- ton R. Young of Canada, for nine Phillips, M.D., D.D., at present act- years a missionary amongst the In- ing as chaplain of State institutions dians Qf the far North-land. His at Howard, R. I., while waiting to return to his (Free Baptist) Mission in India. He said: "A little mission station two mUes trom us had, almost every week, companies of men coming in from the jnngle, some of them travel- Ing many mUes to reach a native evangelist. Among the Santhala aronnd me, one day a native helper came to say: A man ont here has just asked me, 'Are there any Christians here? for I have Been a black Christian and a neighbor of received some benefit, but hia great gain was to mine once saw a white one; tell your Christians his soul. A deep impression was made on him that tbere are some of ns who want Christianity.' by the worship and the kindness in thehospltaJ. So we went away to where this stranger lived. After he returned to his home he went about An old man came and prostrated himseU on the from "Village to "Village telling what he had grass before us. He brought out a little book earned and pleading with all to accept Christ as printed by the English Baptists at Cuttack, Oris- their Saviour. Many scoffed, but some believed, sa [India]. It was not even a chapter of the and these sent a request to the missionaries to Bible; it was some Scripture truth metrically send some one to teach them more fully. A written, and these people had been singing it teacher was sent, and the missionary subsewith their lips not only, but with their hearts. quently baptized thirty inquirers." • A man,' said one of them, • went to a Sunday market and would not let some whites who were Miss Mary L. Cort, of the Presbythere preach; but they lert some books. One terian Mission in Siam, author of day I heard my neighbor reading in one of these and I aaked him, as I found he cared nothing for " Siam, the Heart of Farther India," it, to give it to me; and I brought it home. I wrote: believe it, and my wife; the priest and his wife, and my son and his wife.' So [continued Dr. .. In April last, while making a mission tour to Phillips] we found eight souls, now ready for Ratburee, I met an old nobleman from KRnbuwhalevcr Christianity should require of them." ree, a large city fifty miles further up the river who begged us to visit his city, for, he said, he Among those who wrote to Mr. had never before heard of a • Jiving' God and of forgiveness of sin I " Belden was Rev. J. B. Porter of Kan- Rev. J. L. Nevius, D.D., of Chefoo, azawa, Japan, who said: China, wrote: .. It has become 80 common in this part of Japan for heathen to make known voluntarily .. In the Spring oflB85, while itinerating In a their own desire to have the gospel brought to them or to their people, that at this station we region about 260 miles from here, previously uthave adopted the following for our' out-station' work: WMreaa, the invitations are 80 numer- visited, I was by providenti~l circumstances OU8 from towns and villages to give them the drawn aside from the road I was traveling, and gospel, and preachers are so scarce, Resolved, a person whom I should not bave met in the that we, 8S far as possible, will open new preach- proposed course of my journey, waa providening stations only at those towns and villages tially drawn from his home to meet me. While where people have expressad a desire to have the crowds with whom I met in the marketthem; and we call upon those persons who send town where I was stopping sought me out and invitations to become responsible for at least the listened to me from mere curiosity, this manexpense of the preaching place from the begin- listened with intense interest to all I said. Arter ning." listening for some time he introduced himself and addressed me as follows: •This is what I Rev. T. C. Winn, of the same sta- have been waiting for, for twenty years. I have been earnestly seeking for light and guidance, tion in Japan, says: but without success. This is the very truth I want.' This man-his name is Yang-yiu·shin- .. On a visit to the city. of Tayama, in 1881, we received and embraced the truth at once, as a were visited by an old gentleman, in our hotel, person prepared and called. He has been an who said, • I have long held an important posi- earnest and successfol student of the Bible ever tion in one of the temples here; but I have lost since, and he has been God's instrnment in es- faith in the religions of Japan. I am an old man tablishing three churches in and about his home. and must soon die. But my religion gives me I have met with no similar caae in my experi- no hope for the future. I find no consolation in ence." it. For some time I have been thinking that there must be some other and true religion. The Church Missionary Society of From what yon have said I believe that you have England has published numerous ac- at last brought it to me. Please teach me all about this true religion.' This man became a counts similar to the foregoing; we Christian. " give one as a sample: In sympathy also with these letters, .. One who had been a heathen red mau," says Bishop Whipple of the American Episcopalians, the Rev. Dr. Hunter Corbett wrote whose missionary labors in the diocese of Min- nesota have made him illustrious on both sides from Chefoo, China: the Atlantic, .. came 60S miles to visit me. As he came into the door he knelt at my feet, say- .. Our hearts are constantly made sad by the ing: •I kneel to tell you of my gratitude, that supreme indift"erence of the masses to the claims yon pitied the red man.' He then told this sim- of the gospel, but occasionally the clouds lift ple, artless story: •I was a wild man living be- and light appears to cheer our weak faith. A man yond the Tnrtle Mountains. I knew that my from a certain district in Manchuria, where the people were perishing; I never looked in the United Presbyterians of Scotland are engaged, face Of mf child tbllt my heart was not sick. went to a millsionary Jlhfsician for llls efes. He My lathers told me there was a Great Spirit, and its educational course, the first of its I hllve often gone to the woods and tried to ask Him for help, and I only got the sound of my kind in the country, having under voice.' And then he looked in my face in that instruction over a hundred girls. artless way and said, 'You do not know what I mel'n. You never stood in the dark lind reached In one of the mission schools in out your hand and took hold of nothing. One this city one of the civil officers (a day an Indian came to my wigwam. He said to Mahommedan) said to the missionary, me he had heard you tell a wonderful story at Red Lake: that you said the Great Spirit's Son "You can teach your Bible as much had come down to earth to save all the people as you like, only give just a little th~t needed help; that the reason that the white while to the Koran." man was so much more blessed than the red man, was because he had the true religion of One writing from another part of ' the Son of the Great Spirit; and I said I must India says ': see that man. They told me you would be at the Red Lake crossing. I came 200 miles. I " The work among the Mahommedans is inasked for you and they said you were sick, and creasing very mUCh, and I am asked constantly then I said, 'Where can I see a Missionary 1' to go and preach to them. In trying to explain I came 150 miles more, and I found the Mission- to some that Christ died for all, one asked, 'Did ary was a red man like myself. My father, I he die for the Mahommedans, too 1' And when have been with him three moons. I have the I replied, ' Him that cometh to me, I wiJI in nostory in my heart. It is no longer dark. It wise cast out,' they said, 'Then we can come, laughs all the while.' And he turned to me and too.' " said,' WiJI you notigive me a Missionary l' " A lady writing from another point Oan Moslems be Reached? says: BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY, BUFFALO, N. Y. "A Mahommedan moulvie has opened his house to us. He said to me, 'You know it is FROM the discussions which have considered a disgrace amongst us to let our' recently attracted the attention of women and girls learn, but I now think that nothe Christian public, one might sup- tion foolish, and I want mine taught.' He is the pose Christianity had in Islam an first one here who has had the courage to send unconquerable foe. But even the his daughter to us." Mahommedans cannot accept what Canon Taylor said. His Wolver- .another writes,: hampton address was printed by them in Constantinople, in Damascus and .. There is an increasing desire among the :Mein Beyrout. One Moslem editor calls hommedans to read the Scripture. They often upon the faithful to hear what the ask for the gospels, and sometimes buy the "English Monk" says about them. whole Bible. Where the Canon describes Islam as a brotherhood, the editor says, •• An intelligent Mahommedan girl, very bigot_ " Would to God it were so !" ed, was reading the story of Christ's entry Into Jerusalem. She asked: But there are facts showing that many of these followers of the false … Why did Jesus ride on an ass 1' prophet are seeking for light. In " 'Because in old times among the Jews king'. the province of Mysore, India, which sons and judges rode on them.' contains half a ~illion of Mahom-, " , But he was not a king's son.' medans, there is no distinctiveLy mis- " , Oh, yes; he is the Son of the KIng of kings. sion work among them. Yet, in the He Is God's Son.' city of Bangalore, one of the largest " She then said, thoughtfully: •It says In our in the province, there is a great awak- Koran that Jesus rode on an ass, and' I never ening among the Mahommedan popu- knew what it meant, but I understand It now.' .. lation, and particularly are they stirred on the sub~ect of female edu- Another writes: cation. They have here a "female educational institution," with its " A special bleSSing seems to rest just now on committee of native gentlemen, and work amongst Mahommedans. In one mission alone eight of them are nnder instruction for baptism."
The Mahommedan Educational Congress held in Lucknow, not long since, decided, by a vote of 200 to 20, that weak and inefficient schools were better than no schools at all; that missionary schools, where the Bible was taught, were better than schools where nothing religious was incul- cated, and that the Koran was not taught as much as formerly, and this fact was eonsidered as a national dis- 'I am a Slav [Slahv], but I am a captain II: the Tnrkish army. I want to ask you when Enggrace. land is going to give us liberty . • • r Be- These facts are all suggestive. cause, if there was any freedom, I should become a Christian, and here in these provinces (Euro- There are many of this class, not pean,Turkey) out ofour 4,000,000 Mahommedans, only In India but elsewhere, who one-fourth would embrace Christianity.' I reare earnestly seeking for" the way, plied: 'What are your reasons for such an opin- ion l' He said: 'Don't you know that tbere are the truth, the life." a great many of us who are not really Turks at The following incident is only one all t And to this day, when a Mahommedan fatber has a son born to him, it often happens illustration of many: that he takes him into a dark room and puts The son of a very influential and water on him and says certain words-tbat Is a remnant of Christianity. A Turk will never do famous Afghan has been baptized in that 1 And I said to my colonel: 'I wish there Amritsur. The young man is him- was liberty to profess Christianity l' 'Tush,' self a moulvie (teacher). He says: said my colonel, 'don't say that, for I feel just so, and you know what the consequences would .. From my earliest years I have been care- be." fully taught in the Mahommedan faith. Three years ago I began to have great doubts, which Archdeacon Farlar is stationed at wonld not Jet me rest. The consciousness of Magila, East Africa, engaged in the sin crushed me, but I could see no salvation Universities Mission. He says: anywhere. I wanted to get,the Bible, to see if it could help me, but I did not_kr.ow where to .. I cannot speak for tribes, as no tribe in East get it. The weariness ,and misery of my heart Central Africa has ever accepted Islam; but I God alone knew. At last, one day, I heard a can speak from personal experience as to the Christian was in our village. I found it was a fact that many Mahommedans relapse into lady preaching about Christ. I got a Testament paganism, and that many Mahommedans become from her, and very soon Christ gave me rest." Christians. Last week a Mahommedan Mualim was baptized by our bishop in one of the sub- The lad suffered persecution, and stations. Yesterday I baptized a young man, finally had to leave home, hoping to tbe dying son of a Mahommedan, at his father's be baptized. His father offered $100 earnest request. I am now preparing for bap- tism another Mahommedan Mualim and two reward to anyone who would bring Mabommedan master tradesmen. I have this him his son's head. A number of Ma- day received into our school a young Arab, or hommedans asked him why he for- Mussulman Hindi lad, born in Zanzibar, who sook th~ religion of his fathers, and made his way to Magila, wishing to be taught. his answer was as simple as it was Three of our most promising teachers, two of whom are preparing for holy orders, are Mahombeautiful, "Because there is no soul- medan converts.
rest in it." .. I am speaking uow only of the results of our work in one tribe; there are many other in- At the International Union Mis- stances of couversions from Islam; but as these sionary meeting, August, 1887, the are just taking place as I write, I mention them especially. Rev. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, founder and first president of Robert College, Con- .. In a number of villages in the neighborhood stantinople, Turkey, arose and said: of this station, where I remember seeing a mosque a few years ago, there is now a school .. There is certainly a suppressed demand chapel, while the mosqnes have fallen down, for the gospel among Mohammedans in the and no one rebuilds them. Many a young man Turkish empire. They do not hate Cbrist; that I used to see at his ablutions, preparing for they honor him; it is Christianity that they the Sala-ya-Gioni at sunset, is now a worshiper hate, from the false examples of it seen around in the Christian church." them in the corrupt Oriental churches. Among the great Mahommedan population in the three Notes. empires of Turkey, Persia and India (150,000.000 to 200,000,000 of souls) there is a suppressed de- -Three monthly periodicals of one mand for the word of God and for freedom to hear of Christ. Years ago, before the founding missionary society of England had of the present mission (American Board's) to the Bulgarians, I was in Philippopolis (350 miles a circulation in 1886 of over 900,000 west of Constantinople), now the capital of Eastern Roumelia, or, as it is just now called, copies. Many of these were distrib- Southern Bulgaria. A military man called upon me, who I at once saw belonged to the Slavic uted gratuitously, but the public race, of which the Bulgarians are a part. I said to him: 'You are not a Turk?' 'No,' said he, bought over $13,000 worth of them. -Murray's Magazine for August, 1887, has an article on "The Church of the British Empire" which treats and these Christian Japanese conlargely of foreign missionary work. tributed $160 toward starting the The National Review, for June, 1887, Hawaiian Mission. has a lengthy article on" The Foreign Missions of the Church of England." -A number of Dundee gentlemen The Nineteenth Oentury for Novem- have purchased a barque to be sent ber, 1887, had a long article on "Brit- on a commercial and missionary exish Missions in Africa." pedition next July into the Arctic seas about Pond's Bay to Christian- -Books of travel through non- izE' the natives. If thE' report is favor- Christian countries almost all now- able from this expedition a Polar adays treat favorably or unfavora- mission will be carried out. bly of Christian missions in those lands; vide "Journal of A. R. Mar- -" Moslem prayers are rarely supgary," p. 71; Mr. Charles Darwin's plications for blessings. It has been "Journal of Researches" in Tahiti stated that among the 10,000 verses and New Zealand, 2d edition, pp. 414, of the Quran, there are not as many 425, 428, 505; "At Home in Fiji," by petitions as are in the Lord's Prayer." Miss Gordon Cumming; "Wande)'- ings South and East," Mr. Walter -The Bengal Methodist Episcopal. Coote, in Fiji, Loyalty and Sandwich Conference, reports last year's pap- Islands. Almost every author of tisms as being, from Hinduism 46, travels treats missions as one of the from Muhammedanism 21. This foremost topics of popular interest. large proportion of Moslem baptisms is significant. The inflexibility of the -Governments take cognizance of Moslem too often means that no SPE'- missions in our times in official re- cial effort has been made by Chrisports and in Parliamentary and Con- tians to reach him. gressional debates: e. g. " Report of the Secretary of State and Council -In a history of the London Misof India for 1871-72," ordered printed sionary Society in South Africa, pubby the House of Commons April lished in London, Mr. John McKen- 1873; "Report of Madras Census for zie, for twenty-five years missionary 1874;" Report of the Indian Education in Bechuanaland, discourses of the Commission, 1884, p. 535; Reports of prevalent impression that the introseveral Secretaries of State for India. duction of Christian civilization has a tendency to seal the doom of native -Eminent men are connpcted of- races. Mr. Mackenzie cites the case ficially with the conduct of mission- of the Gariepine people at the Cape, ary boards. Before us lies a list of Hottentots, Bushmen, Korannas, those of the Chnrch Missionary So- who were once so degraded as to be ciety, alone having one duke, ten hardly accepted as human, and who earls, 6everal lords, one major-gen- at the commencement of the century eral, three generals, three colonels, were "fast dying out.'· Not only one admiral, five members of Parlia- has decrease in their numbers been ment, and eight men knighted for arrested, but a steady increase has valor or worth. been going on, so that the 15,000 Hot- tentots increased to 98,561 in 1875 -Rei Kanichi Miyama, a Japanese and the race there are now all prowith his wife, left San Francisco on fessing Christianity. March 8 to commence a self-supporting mission among Japanese in the -"Missions are so characteristic a Sandwich Islands. He had previous- feature of our church, so essentially ly made a visit of inspection to the a part of her functions, that, even locality. He has been connected had they not yet sprung into existwith the Methodist Episcopal mis- ence, their commencement could not . sion to Japanese in San Francisco, but be daily expected."-Baron Von Schrautenbach, Moravian Historian.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS. M7
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
[THE month of July we have given to the At the request of the chief, he Islands of the Sea and the Indians, Chinese and chose Raratea as his first center. It Japanese in America, together with Utah and was the largest of the Society group, Alaska. We shall devote our space to such se- politically supreme, and the stronglections and snggestions as may cover these hold of idolatry-the "Ephesus of various interesting themes.-EDs.] that portion of Polynesia." Thence he bore the gospel in succession to I. THE ISLANDS OF THE SEA. the Hervey and the Samoan clusters, and to over 300,000 souls. The story of the gospel in the South Sea Islands reads like a ro- He found that a ship, at his own mance. John Williams was the disposal, was indispensable to the pioneer messenger to so many of prosecution of his work; without it, those jewels of the deep, and his "what prison-wall had been so strong "narrative of missionary enter- as that white and wailing fringe of prises" seems almost incredible, but sea?" And he set about making one every word can be verified by the with his own hands, with some help testimony of successive visitors to from the wondering natives. Marthose beautiful islands. His work of velous is the account of the making marvelous adventure, transcendent of his own machinery and the buildsuccess and sudden martyrdom should ing of his ship at Raratonga, where be studied by every lover of missions. he spent a year. He had to sacrifice three out of his four goats to secure John Williams was born near Lon- leather for a pair of bellows, and, to don in 1796, and murdered by the na- his dismay, when they were comtives at Dillon's Bay, in Eromango pleted, ready, as he hoped, to blow Island, New Hebrides, in 1839, at the the fire that should melt his iron, age of 43. Yet what usefulness was every particle of goat-skin was eaten crowded into that short life! off them in a single night by the hordes of rats. Seventy-five years ago this ironmonger's apprentice stood at the cor- Discouraged by no hindrances or ner of a street in London one Sunday difficulties, in less than four months evening, waiting for some wild com- the Messenger of Peace was companions. That was the man with pleted, and bore him four thouwhom the destinies of thousands of sands of miles to hundreds of thousavage South Sea Islanders were sands of heathens, whom he found mysteriously linked. His master's sunk in idolatry, superstition and wife, going to worship, observed the nameless pollution, practising polad, and, with difficulty, persuaded lygamyand infanticide, sluggish in him t.o go to church with her, where intellect, and, when not at war, living he heard the words by which he was in indolence. It would be difficult to saved. find a people over whom a feeble faith or a mere human philanthropy His early love for practical and would have been more ready to bend mechanical work developed, in after in mingled pity, disgust and despair. years, into skill so many-sided as to greatly increase his influence over Believing that Christianity not the simple-hearted natives that only emancipates man from his vices, crowded around him in wondering but most effectually awakens the admiration. torpid intellect, he looked to God for His blessing on the ministry of the In 1817 he sailed, with his wife, Word, preached the gospel faithfor the Pacific, and in exactly one fully, and used all prudent secuyear cast anchor in the beautiful lagoon of Eimeo. Ten mvnths later he was preaching to the people in their own tongue. lar measures. He built himself a 1821, and left there two native preach- .tasteful house, with due regard to ers. He found the natives very noisy ventilation, neatness and comfort. and wild savages; some tattooed Outside were vine-shaded verandas, from head to foot, others fantasticalgardens and poultry-yards. Soon ly painted or smeared with charcoal, the natives began to rear houses after dancing, shouting and madly gesticuthe same models; then a house of lating. They were cannibals, killing worship, holding three thousand, and eating one another. Eighteen with an ornamented pulpit and ten· months after, he again visited the chandeliers of turned wood, holding island; and as he approached, canoes cocoanut shells for lamps. Gradually, met his boat with Christian salutathe wliole aspect of the people was tions: "Good is the word of the changed; all the idols were cast Lord! it is now well at Aituaki! away; multitudes became Christians The good Word r.as taken root !' in heart and life. A code of written laws was formed, and trial by jury On landing he found chief and peoestablished, so that within three ple had embraced the Gospel, and years, Raratea became a Christian had built a church 180 feet x 30, in island, its sea-beach studded with which he preached to about 2,000 white cottages, with their own people from J no. iii, 16. One such an schooner lying at anchor. example is an irrefragable proof of the Divine sanction upon foreign· Williams' mechanical gifts, his missions. rare ingenuity and fertility of resources, made him a missionary of a FIJI GROUP. thousand. God had brought about a wonderful juncture in the history IN 1874 Sir Arthur Hamilton Gorof missions, and had raised up the don was sent out by the British Govman to meet it. Even his joyful, ernment as the first Governor of Fiji. hoping spirit, contributed largely to The Fiji Island group, consisting of his success. "Like the sunny islands about 250 islands, of which eighty or among which he sailed, his soul lived ninety are inhabited, and two of in a perpetual summer." He used to which are about t!e size of Long say, "There are two words in our Island, was voluntarily placed under language that I always admire, the sceptre of Queen Victoria by Trust and Try. You know not what King Thokambau and his chiefs. you can or cannot effect until you The reason for this step given by try, and if you meet your trials in the Thokambau, who had been converted exercise of trust in God, mountains of some years before by Wesleyan misimaginary difficulties will vanish as sionaries, was that foreign advenyou approach them, and facilities will turers had become so troublesome in arise which you never anticipated." their unprincipled efforts to instigate This was the golden motto of his war between the chiefs, that he whole missionary life. feared the total extinction of the tribes, and the destruction of every- His short, bright, beautiful career, thing that was good on the islands. closed in mid-splendor of his usefulness. Faith could only be silent It was a singular spectacle which when the bitter tidings arrived- these chiefs, headed by their king, that John Williams had received presented, when the great war-club, from the hand of his God the double the emblem of Fijian power, was crown of missionary and martyr. handed over to the representativlls of the British throne, and an island em- His whole career furnishes another pire was made over without bloodspecimen of' Gospel power, John shed or any other means of conquest Williams went to Aituaki island in than those which had been used by a handful of faithful missionaries. It was to them that this wonderful way they do. You may now PIISS from isle to transformation was due; it was by isle, certain everywhere to find the same cordial their influence that the auspices of reception hy kindly men and women. Every village on the eighty inhabited isles has built British rule had been estimated and for itself a tidy church, and a good house for its teacher or native minister, for whom the village coveted. also provides food and clothing. Can yO'U real- ize that there are 900 Wesleyan churches in Fiji, at everyone of which the frequent services are crowded by devout congregations; that the A niece of Governor Gordon, Miss schools are well attended, and that the first sound which greets your ear at dawn and the C. S. Gordon Cummings, went to last at night is that of hymn singing, alld most Fiji as a member of his household. fervent worship rising from each dwelling at the In a well-written book entitled" At hour of family prayer? '
Home in Fiji," she has much to say .. Strange indeed is the change that has come of the wonderful transformations over these isles since first Messrs. Cargill and wrought by Wesleyan missions Cross,Wesleyan miSSionaries, landed here in the among a people known to have been year 1835, resolved at the hazard of their lives to bring the light of Christianity to these ferocious the worst of all known cannibal tribes cannibals. Imagine the faith and courage of the two white men, without any visible protecupon the globe. Living for eight tion, landing in the midst of these bloodthirsty years in the country, not as a mission- hordes, whose unknown language they had in ary nor in the missionary circle, nor the first instance to master; and day after day witnessing such scenes as chill one's blood even even belonging to the same body of to hear about. Many such have be,en described to me hy eye witnesses. Christians as the missionaries, she may be considered an entirely disin- .. Slow and disheartening was their labor for many years, yet so well has that little leaven terested witness. She speaks as fol- worked that, with the exception of the Rai lows: Shobes, the wild highlanders who still hold ont in their mountain fastnesses, the eighty inhah- H I often wish that some of the cavillers who ited isles have all abjured cannibalism and other are forever sneering at Christian missions could frightful cnstoms, and have lotered (embraced see something of their results in these isles. Christianity) in such good earnest as may well But first they would have to recall the Fiji of put to shame many more civilized nations." ten years ago when every man's hand was against his neighbor, and the land had no rest n.-N. A. INDIANS. 'from barbarous intertribal wars, in which the REV. DR. TIMOTHY HILL, in his last foe, without respect of age or sex, were looked upon only in the light of so much beef, the pris- report, said of the Indian Territory: oners deliberately fattened for the slaughter, dead bodies dug up that had been buried ten or .. There are something over thirty tribes and twelve days, and could only be cooked in the portions of tribes, varying in the widest exform of puddings, limbs cut off from living men tremes from each other. There are remnants and women, and cooked and eaten in the pres- from the far East, descendants of men who ence of the victim, who had previously been heard David Brainerd preach. There are Mocompelled to dig the oven and cut the firewood docs from the lava heds of the Pacific coast; for the purpose; and this not omy L time of others from far North, and from Mexico and war, when such atrocity might be deemed less Texas on the South. They differ as widely as inexcusable, bnt in time of peace, to gratify the possible; on the one hand a painted savage, caprice or appetite of the moment. a blanket Indian, dependent on government rations, the extremity of human ignorance, " Think of the sick buried alive; the array of degradation and general worthlessness; on the widows who were deliherately strangled on the other we may see an Allen Wright, the gradu- ,death of any great man; the living victims who ate of Union College and our own Union were buried beside every post of a chief's new Seminary-the governor of his tribe by official house, and must needs stand clasping it, while election, the pastor of large churches, the earth was gradually heaped over their devoted heads; or those who were hound hand .. There are five civilized tribes who have a reg- and foot and laid on the ground to act as rollers ularly organized government of their own. They when a chief launched a new canoe, and thus are the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws. doomed to a death of excruciating Mony; a Creeks and Seminoles. time when there was not the slightest security for life or property, and no man knew how .. These five tribes may be justly called civi- quickly his own hour of doom might come; lized. A considerable portion of them speak when whole villages were depopulated simply to and read and write the English language. Each supply their neighbors with fresh meat. of these tribes is, within narrow limits, a nation, H Just think of all this and of the change that has been wrought, and then just imagine white men who can sneer at missionary work in the electing its own officers, making and executing Episcopalians have' 856 communicants in eight / their own laws. They have a regnlar system of mission5. The American Missionary Association schools, which are taught in English. has in Dakota and Nebraska four churches with 274 members. We do not undertake to verifX "In religion these tribes have ceased to be the entire 30,000, for we suppose it wonld be pagans; they all profess some form of Christian necessary to embrace the reports from Roman faith. But the standard of morals among these Catholic missions. civilized rndians is low. There are still 4.0,000 wild Indians in this " Other tribes and bands occupy more than country, 12,000 in government and mission half of the conntry. What shall be done for schools, 28,000 to whom no school opens, no their moral elevation and religiOUS welfare? missionary comes; 60 whole tribes npon whose The first thing we need there is a large increase darkness no ray of gospel light has ever fallen, as of educated men.for the ministry. There are to- pagan and as savage as were their ancestors when day in the new synod, living in the Territory, the tlrst white man landed upon these shores. twenty-eight ordained ministers and four licentiates. Earnest efforts should be made to carry THE annual report of the Indian the gospel to all these people as quickly and as Bureau shows the past year one of fully as we can. distinct advancement, on the part of the Indians, in education, industry "There is a favorable opening for us among and other lines of civilization. The the Indians of the five tribes, ariSing from the good effects of the severalty act are great r~spect that is felt for the old missionaries. already apparent. Under this act The names of Worcester, Butler, Kingsbnry, many of the Indians have acquired Byington, Wright and others, are spoken of their own lands and homes, and with great respect. An old missionary is al- started upon the way to independways remembered with respect, and we are ent citizenship. According to the considered as coming in their places; and report about thirty-three pel' cent. as they were benefactors, so they expect us to of the Indians on the reservations be. The field is white for the harvest for ns wear the clothes of civilization; there, and wherever faithful labor has been about 2a,OOO speak English intelliseen, large results have followed. gibly; 10,000 of their children are in schools. More than 31,000 families .. They clamor for schools; it comes to them are engaged in industrial pursuits. cheap; bnt with us all the schools must be but There are cultivated more than 238,- the scaffolding by which we may build the sanc- 000 acres of land, on which have tuary of the Church of God. been raised 750,000 bushels of wheat, 950,000 bushels of corn, 402,000 bush- .. It is plain that we cannot nndertake to edu- els of oats, 68,000 bushels of barley cate the whole population, nor would it be wise and rye, 514,000 bushels of vegetables, to attempt it with our limited means. Bnt we and 83,000 pounds of butter. They can have a few schools of a high character, have built houses, fences and sawed where the Bible shall be a daily stndy, where lumber. They own cattle, horses prayer and a deep religions inbnence can be a and other stock, their sheep reachpresent thing which silently bnt effectually ing the number of 1,120,000. shapes all who come under its influence. The schools should be religiOUS first 9f all ; the end III.-CHINESE IN NORTH AMERICA. held in view above all others shonld be bringing the gospel before the pupils in all its beauty and THE absurdity of the outcry against power. There shonld be no teacher employed the "Mongolian Invasion,"-as the who is not considered a Christian; the teacher .arrival of a few thousand Chinese in shonld always be a missionary. California was called-is more ap- parent every day. In 37 counties of "What is to be done must be done quickly; that State, not including San Franthe race is passing away, bnt a remnant can be cisco, there were, according to the saved." late census, 350,000 people, of whom only 26,000, or less than 8 per cent., The present religious statistics published by are Chinese, while of the population the Government give the following: "Number in these counties fully one-third is of missionaries-male, 77; female, 27; total, composed of foreigners. 104 ; number of Indian church members-male, 14,550; female, 15,994; total, 30,544; number of church buildings, 155." Where are these 30,000 church members? The Southern Baptists have an association in the Indian Territory, embracing 81 churches. "that may be nnderstood as composed of aboriginal members," and these number 4,263. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has a conference in the same territory with 5,394 Indian members. The Cumberland Presbyterians have there two Presbyteries, including nine native ministers and 37 congregations. In the diocese of South Dakota alone the The celebration of the Chinese welcomed at their shrines. A brief New Year took place in San Fran- acquaintance with these deluded recisco with great rejoicing. The ligionists is sufficient to at'ouse the principal ceremonies were on Satur- missionary zeal of all who know the day, Feb. 11, and the pageantry was superiority of a pure monotheistic continued in a less degree for several faith. days. The festival in " Chinatown" was ushered in with fire-crackers SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. and noisy discords, which form the prevailing strains in Oriental music. Universal evangelization. – The The Chinese stores, restaurants and matter is primarily one of simple theatres were gaily decorated, and obedience to ollr Lord's Jast comall the celestials were in their best mand. Here are our marching attire. At the several joss houses orders. A true soldier does not hesithe priests of Buddha adorned their tate, parley, or even delay to ask a hideous idols with robes of costly question. brocaded silk. The number of incense sticks was doubled, and in front Secondly. It is a matter of love to of the i ma~es were placed offerings of man as well as loyalty to Christ. rice and other articles of food. Sup- Every motive of humanity and piety pliants with written petitions, at- unite to constrain us to give the gostached to little bamboo sticks, pros- pel to the world. Huber, the blind trated themselves before the sense- naturalist, observed that a wasp will less deities. H"ere, as in Christian not stop to eat a precious morsel by churches, the majority of the wor- himself. He goes to the nest and shippers were women, and the value leads others forth to the feast. He of their votive gifts was proportion- that withholdeth corn, the people ately large. The need of Christian "shall curse him. No monopoly is so ladies as missionaries in this West- inexcusable and monstrous as that el"n metropolis is painfully apparent. in the Bread of Life.
An impetus was given to the hea- There is nothingeither impossibleor then ceremonies this year, by the impracticable in the immediate evanopening of a new and gorgeous joss gelization of the world. We need. house at No.9 Brooklyn Place, near the most thickly settled portion of 1. To accept the principle of Evanthe Chinese quader. This temple gelism-that every believer is a herof degraded Buddhism is under the ald, responsible for his proportion of auspices of the Hong Yen Gi, and the unsaved world; bound to do the idols were recently imported from directly his share of bearing the good China by the Lung Gong Gung Com- tidings. The curse of the church is pany. The uncouth images are the dependence on proxies. known as the supreme god, the god of wealth, the god of agriculture. the 2. We need a spirit of Enterprise. god of medicine, and the god of war. Men of the world, simply to serve In the centre of the group is the chief worldly interests, have made it posdeity, resplendent with lavish orna- sible to go round the world in three ments. On his right is the god of months, to reach by the mails the wealth, monopolizing a large share remotest quarters inside of six weeks, of worship. Next in Oriental esti- and by telegram all great centers mation is the god of medicine, regard- inside of an hour. What might not ed as the impersonation of wisdom. a little enterprise do for God!
The Pagan priests are very polite, 3. We need a holy Earnestness, an and American visitors are cordially enthusiasm for God. This is the inspiring soul of all Christian effort. It makes one man chase a thousand, etc. ; it makes him a hammer to break the hardest; a fire to burn and melt away; a sword to pierce.
PROGRE!'lS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
4. We need the divine Enduement, 2. The disciples going into all the The power that converts cannot be described any more than the frag- world. rance or tinting of-a rose; but it may be fQlt. Faith and prayer are the 3. Particulady into the byways, conditions of this enduement. The means will always be inadequate. hedges, etc. Our salvation lies in being in straits. The work cannot be done on a 4. Encouraged by the promise, "La mathematical basis. We must attempt great things for God, while I am with you alway," etc. expecting great things from God; and then the victory will come. The proof that God is with us : TEXTS AND THEMES. 1. The providential opening of WHEN Bishop Hannington preached doors. his farewell sermon at Hurst, before departing for Central Africa, his text 2. The gracious transformations of was 1 Samuel xxx. 24: "As his share is that goeth down to the battle, so individuals Rnd of society by the shall his share be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall share alike." gospel.
God's plan is : 3. The exalted character of the 1. The gospel preached everywhere as a witness. consecrated laborers.
Weare debtors!
Thrice, thrice are we the debtors of the heathen world. Debtors-for we possess what they have not.
Debtors-for we have kept back for centuries what should have been given them with generous hand.
Debtors-for instead of a loaf we have given a stone; instead of a fish a serpent. • VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-To-day 34 Missionary So- tance of fifty miles for the building of cieties aloe at work in Africa, and all a chapel. Most of the men have its 200,000,000 souls are practically made the journey three, and some within the reach of Christian mis- four times. bringing loads on their sions. Thirty-three societies have heads. To do this requires a walk of begun work in China, and all its 350,- three or four hundred miles, and it 000,000 souls may be visited with the is well asked, "How many hypocrites would do that?" The women have message of the gospel. More than hired carriers, and thus have done fifty societies have entered India, and their part. The boys, too, have the light is dawning upon its 250,- brought half loads. This disposition 000,000. Turkey and Persia and Japan to labor for Christ is the best sign are filling with misi;ion churches and that the Christian professions of the people are sincere. mission schools. Practically, the whole world is open, and the grand- -At a recent meeting of the Presest day of opportunity for the king- bytery of New York, a committee dom of God that the earth has ever seen has fully dawned. was appointed to prepare an overture -The Mission of the American Bap- to the General Assembly with regard tists sends further reports of the re- to the rum traffic in the Free Congo vival at Banza Manteke. About 200 State. The whole business is a shame to our civilization, to say not a word have been baptized and enrolled as relative to its character, as carried on church members. More are asking from seaports whence Christian misfor baptism. There is much persecution in some parts, and in December sionaries go out and come in! three persons were killed for profess- -The Romish Church is pushing ing to be Christians. In the towns about Banza Manteke there are peo- for the open regions of the upper ple who are anxious to hear the gos- Congo. Two Portugese steamers repel. An interesting incident is given cently carried from twenty to thirty Jesuit priests and nuns to labor in showing the zeal of the converts in Africa for the propagation of their transporting timber and iron a dis- faith. -It is stated that a nephew of the ing in numbers and improving in late King Cetewayo, after six years moral and religious life. The 15,000 in Sweden in theological and other hottentots of that region have grown studies, has gone back to carryon to 98,561 in 1875. The gospel has put mission work in his native land. physical and mental vigor into them as well as moral. Central Soudan.-The last letters Alaska. – From Alaska come tidand journals received from .~fr. Gra- ings of progress. Sitka, which is the central and most important mission, ham Brooke are from Equator Sta- has been freed from the outside op- pressions of last year, and has made tion, on the Upper Congo, where he rapid progress in good work and fa- vor with all who see and know it. stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Banks and The workers are much the same- Rev. Mr. Austin as minister, Mr. Mr. Murphy. He writes from the Kelly as superintendent, and Mrs. Austin, Mrs. Winan and the Misses Equator Station, December 5, 1887 : KelRey, Rodgers, Palde and others. Mrs. McFarland has the Hydah mis- " The diJference is very striking np here be- sion and labors with Mr. and Mrs. Gould. New building-s have been tween the natives of this country and those erected, and a boarding-school of 20 scholars begun. Mr. and Mrs. Wildown river. Those are degraded, sqnalid and lard are at present laboring among the Chilkats and other tribes who puny; these are warlike, proud-looking and center at Juneau to get employment at the mills. Mr. and Mrs. J. W. prompt in action." "December S.-Time slip- McFarland are at Hoonyah, laboring 'ping by, and nothing heard from the chief. He at some disadvantage because of the cannot get the men, I suppose. The great Arab migratory habits of the tribe; but ~ettlement of Ali Kobo is the most southern they still report a large school and hopeful worJi:. Rev. S. Hall Young known, and that is what they at present hope to is at Fort Wrangell, where a church of 54 members is reported, some of reach, and then begin itinerating work. Of whom are bright examples of the power of the Christian faith. course, there are the two dangers of passing SUMMARY. through savages and being ill-received by the Ministers. . . . . . . . . . . 1886. 1887. Arabs. v?e ought to hear from them once more 30 31 Native ……….. _.. 8 17 from Equatorville before plunging into the in- Churches. . . . . . . . . . . 48 59 Church members… 2,001 terior."-Reg.ions Beyond. Teachers. . . . . . . . . … 63 2,306 Schools ………… , 20 95 Western Africa.-New version of 26 the Scriptures. Mr. Heli Chatelain, Scholars………… 1,134 till recently a member of Bishop 1,607 Taylor's American Episcopal Methodist Mission, on· the West Coast of Britisb America.-A recent num- Africa, has labored at Malange, in- ber of the Gleaner contains an hisland from Loanda, among people of the same race as those described by torical sketch of the work of the Livingstone, and he is visiting England and America to obtain the means Church Missionary Society among for providing the Scriptures for "those studious, industrious and the Indians in BritIsh America. The progressive natives." He reports that in Angola there are plenty of following extract shows how remarknative scholars able and willing to be of use to the man who sets to work able has been the growth of the translating the Scriptures into the principal dialects, only they cannot work: afford to give their services without payment. The Committee of the "In 1887, from an area of 'thirty-five miles on British and Foreign Bible Society each side Qf the river,' the '.York has spread over have expressed to Mr. Chatelain their most of 2,373,490 square miles, from Rupert's readiness to undertake the work he House and Fort George on the eastern shores of desires, as soon as they have sufficient .ames bay, away to the Rocky mountains, and preliminary evidence that the trans- over them to Queen Charlotte's islands in the lations will be correct and satisfac- North PaCific oceau, and from Fort Francis in tory.-Bible Society Reporter. about 48° north latitude, to Rampart House on -The Gariepine people, at the Cape the Porcupine river, more than 2,000 miles -Hottentots, Bushmen, Korannas- north from Red river. There are nine huge sunk to the deepest degradation, were dioceses, six on the eastern, and three on the fast becoming extin~t at the begin- western side of the Rocky mountains. In the ning of the present century. Mr. five dioceses of Mool'lOnee, Rupert's Land, Sas_ John Mackenzie, laboring in connec- katchewan, Athabasca and Mackenzie, and in. tion with the London Missionary that of Caledonia, are 14,687 Christian adher- Socie~y for 25 years in South Africa, states that, instead of dying out, these native races are now multiplyof ents connected with the Church Missionary So- westerly province bordering on Bur- mah, there are two Mission stations. ciety. The Bishops Moosonee, Athabasca, It is hoped that a highway will soon Mackenzie river and Caledonia are all mission- be opened between Burmah and this province. From Kwei-chau there arics of our society. There are about 80,000 are cheering accounts. Itinerating work has been carried on in Hunan, red men with whom our work has to do." though there is no station 'at present. Burmah.-Rev. G. Holbeck writes from Burmah that thero is a gl'eat In Hu-peh the work among the movement Christianwards in Man- women is particularly encouraging. dalay and district; many persons In Gan-hwey there are more openhave been baptized. He concludes ings than cau be filled. This provhis letter by a statement that the ince has been selected to found the people are ripe for religious teach- training home for young men before ing, and an appeal for help. going into the far interior; while the -The Church of England has a mis- training home for young women is sion in U ppel' Burmah under the lead of six priests, two English, one Tamil in the province I,)f Kiang-su. In and three Karen. Fifty villages are Shan-tung are thl'ee stations. At reached; there are 1,237 communi- Chefoo thirteen persons were bapcants and 597 scholars. tized in the summer. The name of Jesus is widely known in Cheh- -The Burmah Baptist Missionary Convention held its 13th annual kiang. Showers of blessing from on meeting at Moulmein, November 5-7. high are wanted to quicken the seed The convention represents about sown by the workers of the Mission. 500 churches and more than 26,000 communicants. Its meetings were -In China there are among the difharmonious and profitable. The dis- ferent Protestant denominations 79 turbed condition of the country has prevented its missionary work from persons who devote themselves chiefly being as extensive as usual. Itsfields to medical work. Twenty-seven are of labor are the Karens of Northern Siam, the Red Karens and the Chins. women. There has been issued by The reports from the different fields their Medical Missionary Association showed a goodly numberof baptisms. The convention is the Foreign Mis- the first number of a medical journal, sionary Society of the Churches in whose columns contain valuable pa- Burmah. None of its money is used pers from native and foreign physiin the old fields, where each associa- cians of high standing. 1.'he articles tion is supposed to care for home mission work, of which much is done by the Chinese doctors, 1.hemselves by the associations. Christians, in the Chinese language, will have a wide influence among China.-Progress has been made their countrymen in removing the III the work of the China Inland prejudice against foreign physiciaml. Mission during the year 1887. The -Presbyterian Journal. greatest success has been in Shan-si where in April 200 converts were -The Ningpo Presbytery recently baptized, largely through Native met in the city of Hangchow. There agency. Opium refuges, which are are 9 pastors, 26 elders, 9 deacuns. almost self-supporting, have been 7 evangelists, 6 licentiates, and 6 greatly used. There has been a con- theological students. The additions siderable development of women's to the several churches during the work. Three distinct stations in year were 68; children baptized, 21; Shan-si are occupied by two foreign deaths, 31; expelled, 5; the whole ladies each. The same plan is pursued in Kiang-si. Honan has been number of communicants, 719; coneventful, not only from the inunda- tributions, $991. . Of this $73 was for tion of the YeHow river. but from the formation of a Native church in education, $60 for home missions, connection with the Mission. In $20 for foreign missions, $712 for Shensi there has been development pastors' salaries, the remainder for and consolidation. At Hang Chung, sundry expenses in connection with the Natives take entire charge of the church work, and for the care of the service!!. In Kan-suh four impor- poor. tant centers are occupied; and in Si-ch'uen there has been decided im- -Recent statistics show a total of provement. In Yun-nan, the most about 500 church members within the walls of Peking, connected with the five Protestant missions in that city.
-Mr. Stanley Smith, of the China Inland Mission, reports 210 baptisms in Central China, at one time. An- other missionary states that he has been preaching to immense audiences, sometimes numbering as many year $165 towards the extension of as 4,000. Some of the most influen- Christ's kingdom. The total amount tial men in the Empire have em- paid last year by natives for all purbraced Christianity. poses, church schools, books, Sab- bath-schools and zenana work, was -Chinese in America.-The New $29,188, an average of $14 for each York Chinese mission has between professing Christian. Dr. Lansing 4,000 and 5,000 Celestials in its reports that 53 of the congregational Sunday-schools. About sixty have schools are entirely supported by the joined the various churches. The natives, as well as over two-thirds of the salaries of the nine natiye pastors first Sunday-school for these people being paid by the people whom they was founded in New York 18 years serve. ago. England.-More than twenty can- Columbia.-There is an established didates have offered themselves for agency at Bogota, the capital of work under the Universities' Mission Columbia, for the burning of Bibles and are awaiting Bishop Smithies' and Protestant books. Columbia is answer. It is feared that lack of probably more undel' the power of funds wiil keep many of them back. the priesthood than any Roman Cath- To bring the income of the Mission for general purposes up to £10,000. it olic country in the world. is proposed to appoint correspondents in each rural deanery, The increase Ciscuucasiu.-The first portion of in the figures of the Mission are thus the word of God ever printed in given: 1n.1874 the income for genethe language of the Kumuks is now ral purposes was 2,9921. ; other funds, on the eve of publication. The peo- 448l. ; gross income, 3,440; European ple live on the western shore of the missionaries, 5. In 1887, General Fund, 8,713l.; other funds, 6,9001.; Caspian sea, northeast of the Cauca- total, 15,600l. ; missionaries, 63. sus Range, near Kisliar and the rivel' Terek. The Gospel of St. Matthew Fiji Islands.-Of the 17,743 Fijians inhabiting the Fiji Islands more has been translated for them by than nine-tenths attend church Khasan Bey, a young MoHah, and with fair regularity; where, fifty his work has been carefully revised. years since, there was not a single The printing has been done in Ger- Christian, to-day there is not a single many. The difficulties to be sur- avowed heathen; all the Fiji chilmounted in securing a reliable ver- dren are in the schools; the schools sion have been great, and the labor and churches have wholly displaced has extended over some six or seven the heathen temples.
years. [From a speech by Rev. A. G. Egypt.-A most remarkable his- Webb at Melbourne in November tory attaches itself to the mission work in Egypt, since its very begin- last, we give the following account of ning. Along the valley of the Nile, from Alexandria to the first cataract, his work in Fiji.-EDS.]: are 79 regularly established mission … Now, the great work that has been done stations and 70 Sabbath – schools, numbering 4,017 scholars. The 65 in Fiji has been touched upon by others, and day and boarding – schools number over 5,200 scholars. A recent Amer- manystories have been told of the terrible doings ican traveler, after looking into the faces of the 327 native students of of the Fijians when heathens. But I am not Asyoot Training School, said: "This going to tell you those stories to-night; I prefer is the grandest sight I have seen in all the East!" The steady growth to tell you a story that is a Christian story. I in the evangelistic and educational departments is almost without prece- think that Christian people ought to be far more dent. The opportunity for such work is to-day greater than ever before, interested in that than in the doings of a race and never in the history of Egypt of wild cannibals. All traces of their ancient has there been such a demand for the Bible. . During the past year heathenish practices have been cleared away, 9,651 copies of Scriptures, 8,993 vol- and visitors now cannot imagine tbat this people, umes of religious books, and 19,179 v()lumes of educational books were with their almost Parisian manners and their sold by colporteurs and shopmen. Four women's missionary societies meliftuous speech, were the cannibals of ancient have been organized among the na- times. tives, with a membership of 217. These fOUl' societies contributed last .. I have the latest Government returns, show- ing the present state of the people, bnt they only partially represent it. The true character of the work cannot be estimated by figures, bnt by the inner lives of the people. There are at present in Fiji-Fijians, 111,743; Europeans, 3,567; half-castes, 796; AsiatiCS, 4,230; Polynesians, 5,664 ; Rotumans,4,214-total, 128,414. Of these India.-Sir William Hunter gives 111,743 Fijians, 100,154 are attendants atonr own very encouraging figures as to the pnblic worship-a very large proportion indeed. progress of Christianity. In the nine years preceding 1881, while the gen- " I may say, that where fifty years ago there eral population of Bengal increased was not a single Christian, to-day there Is not an 10.89 per cent., the Mohammedan avowed heathen. There may be heathens, but population at the rate of lQ.96 per If so, they don't stand up and say so. When I cent., and the Hindu population at went to Fiji there were thousands of them. In less than 13.64 per cent., the Chrismy first circuit of Rewa there were more heath- tians of all races, the natives exens than in any other-men who would stand up cluded, increased at the rate of 40.71 :lDd avow It proudly, too. I well remember one per cent., and the native Christians 'Wild young fellow of an immense size (some at the rate of 64.07 per cent. Fijians are very fine looking men), and with a head of hair standing out on all sides, which -" They have in Bombay a special fund of added to the wildness of his appearance, coming right in front of me, and looking me boldly in 16,000 rupees for the support of new converts to the face, saying, 'I'm a heathen, and I'm going to be.. heathen,' as if it were something to be Islam; a house bought for 6,000 rupees, whose prond of. Bnt there is none of that now. Instead of it, we have as many people worshiping in rent aids in supporting such converts; and in Fiji as you have in Victoria; we have as many people whose names are on the class-books in Lahore, about fifty rupees are collected each Fiji as yon have in Victoria, and those whose names are on the class-books are not conspicu- month for the support of open-air preachers of ons by their absence. Islam. These Mohammedans have their eyes .. We have at present 53 native ministers, 44 open to all that is goin~ on around them. They catechists, 1,877 local preachers, 3.192 class leaders, 27,421 members of the church, 4,121 on trial, preach against Christianity in the bazars of 2,795 catechumens, 1,019 teachers, as well as day and Sabbath-schools with their teachers, for all nearly every important city and town in India; the children of Fiji are educated in the mission schools. It is diJllcuit to believe that in a place they reply promptly to nearly everything of imwhich fifty years ago was studded with heathen temples-where the first parsonage was a canoe portance written against Mohammedanism; and honse, open at both ends, in which the Rev. David Cargill and his noble wife were glad to they have five papers, all of which are ably take shelter-there is not to-day a single heathen temple; in 1,255 places of worship God's Word edited, and are devoted to the defense of the was preached yesterday (Sunday), and will be preached again next Sunday."- ltZUB. Miss. claims of Islam. 'In addition to all this they New8. publish works claiming to point out serious dis- Home Missions. – The American Baptist Home Mission Society received the past year crepancies In the Christian Scriptures; a work $551,596, of which $145,603 was received by contributions for general purposes, $41,579 for in which they are greatly aided by European schools and buildings, and $39,629 for church extension. The receipts from legacies were Unitarians and infidels." $245,485. "It is also a singular fact that, since the The annual report of the Board of Home Missions of the United Presbyterian Church gives bloody mutiny of 1857, the adherents of Islam the total receipts of the year as $53,ll96.61; total expenditures, $51.696.09. have written no single book against Hinduism, Foreign Missions.-The Presbyterian Board and that the five special organs of the former did not get the $1,000,000, but it had $901,180.89 when its books closed May 3. say nothing of any importance against the latter, The receipts of the M.E. Church for last year and do not urge Hindus to embrace Islam. In for missionary work were upwards of $1,000,000. fact the efforts of Islam seem at present to be Total receipts of the American Baptist MissloRary Union for the year ending March 31, almost entirely directed in India to securing 1838, were $411,385.39. converts from Europeans and native Christians, The annual report of the American Tract Society shows that the receipts for the year were and to meet with a very limited success in both $459,858, and the expenses $448,504. One hundred and ninety-four colporteurs have been em- directions. " ployed in the United States during the past year. -The Presbyterian women of India raised last year, in their missionary societies and Boards, in cash and missionary boxes, nearly $8,000 for home missions.
Japan.-Mrs. Rhees, an American missionary at Kobe, Japan, writes: "There is so much written about Japan and the desire of the young people to study English that I need not write about it. But there was a convention of Japanese physi- cians held in Yokohama a few months ago. that to me seems of great importance. The object of the meeting was to consider what could be done to prevent the diseases that cause so much weakness and suffering among the people. The decision reached by the meeting was that they recommend the placing of the daughters of the people in Christian schools. It seems to me a great gain when really educated physicians ac- knowledge sin to be the cause of many of their diseases and Christianity the remedy. All the boarding-schools among the mission- aries are enlarging their accommodations to meet the constantly-increasing demand." -Spirit oj Missions.
STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S HISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
JEWISH MISSION STATISTICS. SCOTLAND. 122,910 State Church Mission …..•. 23 Ii 117,000 [These valuable statistics were Free Church Mission ……. 43 8 Scottish Home Mission ….. 2 2 6,720 translated and arrangad for us by Edinbur~h Emig't Mission .. 1 1 6,000 United resbyt. Mission …. 2 1 Prof. Chas. H. Schodde, Ph. D. EDS. Total ………………….. 71 17 252,630 IT is not generally known that our 72,680 own day and generation has witness- IRELAND. ed a growth of mission interest in the welfare of the once chosen people of Irish Presbyt. Mission …… 27 9 God, which can compare favorably with the miracle of missionary activ- Totalfor the British Isles. 312 81 1,513,180 ity that we see before our eyes in heathen lands. In the " Supple- GERMANY. 20,440 ment," which Dr. Dalman has been 1,840 publishing for the past two years Edzard Endowment……… – 2,310 to the quarterly called Saat auf BerlinSociety… ………… 3 1,710 Hoffnung, edited by that zealous Berlin Proselyte Society… – 11,000 and veteran friend of Israel, the Saxon Society…………… – 3,200 translator of the classical Hebrew Bavarian Society……….. – version of the New Testament, Pro- Central Society (at Leipzig) Ii 1 21,600 fessor Franz Delitzsch, of Leipzig, Wurthemberl§ Society….. 1 1 1,410 in the interests of Jewish missions, Mecklenburg ociety……. -_ the former has collected the statistics Rhenish Society.. . . . . . . . . .. 4 3 260 of Christian work in this field, which Lubeck Friends of Israel. .. — are doubtless the most complete ever StrassburgFriends ofIsrael – published. As a result of extensive correspondence and reading, Dalman Tota!. ………………… 13 6 63,780 has learned that there are 47 Protest- ant Mission Societies devoted exclu- SWITZERLAND. 10,350 sively to this work, laboring at 135 Basel Friends of Israel. …. 1 3,260 stations with 377 men and expending 11,090 each year 1,800,000 marks (1 mark NETHERLANDS. 3,400 equal to 24 cents). In 1881 C. F. He- Netherland Aid Society…. – 17,750 man had published similar statistics, NetherlaDd Israel Society.. 2 1 1,200 but reported only 20 societies with Christian Reformed Society 1 1 270 laborers and an anIJUal income of I 1,400,000 marks. In other words, in Total for the Netherlands 3 2 scarcely half a dozen years the activ- FRANCE. ity in this arduous field has literally been doubled. And this does not in- Mission of Pasteur Krueger – clude the other societies who engagtl in the work in addition to other mis- SCANDINAVIA. sion enterprises, such as the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Amm'i- Norwegian Central Society – 22,810 ean Tract Society, and others. Swedish Israel Society….. 4 2 31,220 Evangel. Fatherland Assoc. – 2,020 Swedish Mission Associat'n 2 2 1,570 Danish Israel Society……. – Totalfor Scandinavia…. 6 4 57,626 e., RUSSIA (i. the non-orthodox churches).
St. Petersburg Mission….. 2 1 3,800 Baltic Mission………….. 2 1 5,000 Pastvr Faltin's Mission…. 3 2 20,000 J. Rabinow;tch's Mission… 1 1 Dalman's summary of this work Total for Russia………. 8 5 28,800 is given in the following table, and 113,000 NORTH AMERICA. the whole is translated for THE MIS- Episcopal. ……………… 2.5 25 6lO SIONARY REVIEW of THE WORLD. Hebrew Christian work…. 3 2 Missouri Lutberan ………. 1 1 ~i~ns SOci<cty:" …………. 2 2 Chlcago Mlsslon ………. , . 1 1 J1ethodist Mission………. 1 1 Wesleyan Society………. 1 1 ENGLAND. Total for North America. 34 33 113,610 Of these, the oldest is the Edzard endow- Mission.. Sta- Income ment (in Hamburg), established in 1667. aries. t'ns. (in M'ks.) This had no imitators until in 1808, when the great London Society was organized. Other London Society…. . . . . . . .. 135 29 733,280 societies were established in 1822 (two), 1830, British Society…….. ….. 31 20 206,880 1835, 1836, l841 (two), 1842 (two), 1843, 1844 Mildmay Mission.. ……… 31 1 189,690 (three),1849, 1860,1861,1870, 1871 (two), (1874 London Cit.y Mission……. 6 1 (two), 1875, 1876 (two), 1878, 1879 (two), 1880, Parochial Mission… …… 6 1 18,630 1882,1883 (two),1884, 1885 (five), 1886 (three) . English Presbyt. Mission.. 3 2 23,500 •Jewish Emig't Aid Soe'ty.. – 5,860 The missionaries labor wherever BarbicanMission…. ……. 2 10,030 the chief centers of Jewish popula- Total …………………. 216 55 1,187,870 tion are found. In London there are fied that these figures are substantial- 58 at work, in Budapest 14, in Con- ly correct. Of course this includes stantinople 33, in Damascus 31, in also those who have been won by the Jerusalem 28. In other places from agents of the Roman Catholic and 1 to 5 men labor in this cause. The the Greek Orthodox churches, both total number of Jews on the earth is of which are also active in this work, about 6,400,000. Accordingly, there but not as much so as are the Protesis one missionary for every 16,976 tant Societies, especially those of New England. Dalman's articles, of Jews. Concerning the success of the which we give here only a bare skelework, no complete statistics can be ton, are full of interesting details collected. However, as good an au- concerning this important though thority as the Jewish convert and little known, and, unfortunately, ofmissionary de la Roi says that at least 100,000 Jews have been con- ten little loved field of Christian misverted since the beginning of the sion activity. present century, and Dalman is satis- Foreign Missionary Sooieties of Germany, they covel' nothing more recent than the reports of the years 1883 and DR. R. GRUNDEMANN published in 1884. In response to a request for . several numbers of the Allgemeine information, Dr. Grundemann now kindly sends us in manuscript a sta- Mi88ion8 – Zeit8chrijt for 1885 elabo- tistioal table of German societiescov- rate statistical reports of evangelical ering the year 1887, and we gladly missions throughout the world. Those tables were remarkably complete, but give the table here: STATISTICS OF GERMAN EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETIES FOR THE YEARI887.
SOCIETIES.
———-,— — ——— — —-. — Moravian …………………………. 107 147 83,052 29,283 590 208 17,407 $101,261 Basel, Evangelicallllission…… .. . . . .. .. 42 120 19,187 9,497 1,057 208 7,486 199,507 Berlin, Evangelical lIIis8ion…………. 48 60 17,764 8,400 1,225 53* 3,377 71,611 Rhenish Mission (Barmen)…………. 53 66 29,125 9,666 1,100 66* 5,370 E8,440' North German, (Bremen)…… ….. ….. 4 8 556 325 114 5 199 20,389 Gossner Mission…………………… 13 19 34 000 11,868 1,775 80t 1,685 42,431 Evangelical Lutheran, Leipzig.. ,……. 23 22 14,014 4,500* 7g6 129 3,993 67.5g6 Herrmannsburg .. ………………. … 61 71 11,196 5.000* …….. 63· 2.000* 63,713 St. Chrischona tOo………. ………… 1 15 4CO J ernsalems-Verein.. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. .. .. 3 2 150 20 5 1* 120 8.132 40* …. .. . . 4* 200 6.585 Brecklum (Schleswig-Holstein)………. 4 8……… ….. .. …. ,. 21 * * 43 14.914 Berlin Woman's Mission for China.. .. .. 1 40 3.778 1 81.. .. . .. . 17 New Church Mission………………. 5 5 305 80* 77 3* 74 2,523 East African Verein <Berlin).. ………. 1 2 …….. …….. …….. ….. …….. 3,239 Bavarian Verein for East Africa… ….. 11 2………. …. .. …….. …… …….. 3,000 ms50 Oen'! Prot. Miss. Verein (for Japan.)… 1 220* …….. …….. …… 2 3,COO , Totals ……… ' .. . …………… ~ '3681550 ~ 6.756 823- 4l.994 $700,1i4 *Estimated. t2Statistics ofSyrian Orphan Home only.-MI8sionary Herald.
The M. E. Ohuroh in India.
The statistics of this Church for 1887, as compiled from the Annual Minutes of the Conferences, show a marvelous growth in the past twenty years.
North India, South India. Bengal. Total. For 1867. 28 32 86 18 Foreign Missionaries………… 26 4 4 46 5 Native Do………… ,….. 38 28 Zenana Do.. .. . .. .. .. .. …. . 3 5 338 20 4.450 Members………….. … ……. 3.121 563 766 3,523 212 151 473 10.180 500 Probationers……….. ………. 2.899 6.484 400 Native Christians.. .. .. .. .. … . . 9.226 163 771 62 133 531 515 2.563 Da.. Communicants……….. 5.!l2O 4 23 16.515 62 Schools………. …………….. 488 752 Scholars…. ………………… 15.298 212 1.005 689 15 36 39 23.146 20 Sunday Schools.. .. .. . …. . …. .. 594 2.204 2.029 Scholars……………………. 23.913 109 Churches…………………… 19 14 54 76 9 5 Parsonages………………… , iO • Protestant Missions in Africa.
(THE following report was made January 7,1888, by Mr. Wm. Coppinger, Secretary of the American Colonization Society for Africa.) The British and American Missionary Societies operating in Africa, with the statistics of their work, are given in the following table: MISSIONARIES. i j 8 – – – – – – – – – – – -8 – BRITISH SOOIETIES.
Chnrch :….., .. :. …………………………… 17 12 4 277 4,164 UniverSitIes MIssions……………………… 26 23 14 218 … 5;00." 12 Society for Propagation of the Gospel. . . . . . . . . . . . 122 London ………. …. … ……… ….. …….. … 48 1 6,052 United Free Methodist.. . .. .. .. .. . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . 10 Primitive Methodist.. . . . . . . …. . . .. . . .. .. . . .. . . . . 2 233 14 3,035 Church of Scotland…….. ….. ……. ………. 2 5 1 Free Chnrch 0, Scotland………………….. 15 …. laij" 181 15 n Baptists. .. . . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. . .. 20 5 Wesleyan Methodists…….. . … .. . … .. .. .. .. . 33 2 30 "'i,427'" 8,280 United Presbyterian Church of Scotland…….. 17 9 Moravians……………………………….. 58 …. ·7 .. 69 "i:,,',io7"
336 2,073 Friends…………………………………. . …2.0…. ………. 2,828 Bible Society.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . 6 3,509 AlIIERlOAN SOCIETIES.
American Board. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. …………….. 17 1 25 11 866 Baptist Missionary Union……….. …………. 12 7 429 2 12 22 Presbyterian.. .. . …. ……………………… 9 868 ~ 5 8 125 Sonthern Baptist …………………………. '. 5 3 United Brethren………………………….. . i 53 3,929 Protestant Episcopal.. .. …… .. .. .. ……… . . . . 42 640 African Methodist………………………… . Methodist Episcopal……………………….. .. ..ii… iii'" 76 … 2;400"
Bishop Taylor Mission…………………….. . l 22 1 1 .0.0. Lntheran.. ……………………………….. i Free Methodist…………………………… . 4 16 _._…_.2.1._ 9..-.-'-._…..i_;.S..4_.3.". United Presbyterian………. …. .. .. … . .. .. .. . Western Colored Baptist……………….._._,,_._.' -_ _1 – -_ _ _- '-_ _ _'
Foreign Sunday-School Association, Countries. S. Schools. Teacher•• Scholar•• DURING the twenty-flve years' work Italy. .. .. …. .. . .. .. . 200 850 12,560 of this society it has introduced Sun- France …………… 1,100 4,500 115,000 day-schools, as a specialty, into Ger- Belgium…. ……… 57 many, and aided in their establish- Switzerland ……… 1,590 160 2,350 ment, until now there are in that Spain……………. 100 6,522 97,890 country over 3,000 schools, with 30,- Portugal………… 30 8,009 !l00 teachers and 300,000 scholars. Holland!…………. 1,291 400 1.000 "The work is now spread all over Bohemia.. . . . . . . . . . . . 90 100 141,640 Germany," writes Mr. Brockelmann, Moravia.. .. .. ….. .. 38 3,800 2,875 its great Sunday-school worker, Sweden.. …. …….. 500 260 1,423 "and all clergymen who are not Denmark………… 300 60 200,000 rationalists have Sunday-schools." Russia (among the 18,000 25-;lO,000 The association has also aided and 2,000 established Sunday-schools in Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, German popuiat'n) 23 428 6,017 Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Swe- Brazil…… ………. 21 35 518 den, Russia, Hungary, Bohemia,Mo- Chili…………….. 255 ravia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Turkey, In- Uraguay…….. ….. 11 40-45 dia, China, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, 700-900 San Domingo, Guatemala, U. S. of Colnmbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chili, American Sunday·School Union.-The last Uraguay and Southern Africa. three annual reports of the American Sun- day-School Union show that since 1884 it has The following table gives the fig- brought 185,034 ohildren into 4,947 new Sunures, as nearly as can be ascertained day-schools, a number equal to 5,000 more at the present time: than one-half of all the increase reported as having been secured by this and all other a~enoies during these three years. The Union aided 4,825 other schools, which have 46,774 teachers and 515,714 scholars, so that in these three years it reached 9.872 com- munities and Sunday-schools and 700,748 chil- dren and youth, and then re-aided and re- visited these sc.hools 11,245 times, hesides making 92,584 visits to families, supplying 45,019 destitute persons with the ScrIptures, and holding 27,247 religious meetings. . Sunda.y-School Sta.tistios-1881~87. [The subjoined statistioal table is given by Rev. B. H. Badley, D.D. of Lucknow, in the Indian Evangelical Review (April). It was prepared'ror the recent Sunday-school Convention held at Cawnpore, India.-EDS.] FOR lE81. FOB 1~87. ~ .; .Sg NAME OF CHUBCH. .; …;. Date. ~-§ ~ "0 rl ..C:: '"0 ''c0" ~ ,,<11 os S ..:: "0 -"- "" -""- – – -"" – – – – ————— r.J:J Q '"r.J:J " <.> ~"
-<11- <11 – – – – – r.J:J I Baptist Miss'y Socy ………………. . 26 730 15 942 Oct. 1, 1886 1,966 Burma 2 London do. do.. ……………… . 17~ 6,670 44 2,206 May 1, 18b6 23,311 is in- 3 American Bd., Marathi Miss. If ' 76 2,339 Jan. 1, 1887 Do. Madura do. …… . 105 3,999 2,523 eluded 123 3,337 u " 5,019 in these 4 Church of England……………….. . 640 11,299 640 11,299 Jllly 1, 1887 47,089 stati"- 5 Socy. for Propagation of Gospel. …… . 126 2,447 126 2,447 (1881) 21,329 tics. 6 Wesleyan Miss'y Socy ……………. . 50 2,113 124 5,983 Jan. 1, 1887 10,772 7 General Baptist do ……………… . 676 Mar. 1, 1887 531 7 347 (f) 8 Church of Scotland ………………. . 12 821) 12 825 (1881) 6,507 9 Free do do L..u.d.i.a.n.a..I. . … . . … . 55 3,172 55 3,172 (1881) 11,156 10 Am. Pres. Church. Do. 24 2,437IJan. 1, 1886 6,637 Rothapur ( ……… . 16 2,523 8 584 Jan. 1, 1885 578 Do. Farruckahad ) (?) 1,095 Nov. 1, 1886 1,990 11 Basel Miss'y Socy ………………… . 7 330 7 409 Jan. 1. 1887 4,696 12 Am. Bapt. Miss'y Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 4385 131 5,348 Jan. 1, 1885 16,549 13 Am. Free Baptist Mission …………. . 3i 1:532 (1) 2,672 Apr. 1, 1887 3,628 14 Gossner's Lutheran do……………. . 1 20 1 20 (lH81) 2,045 15 Leipzig Miss'y Socy ………………. . 16 Irish Pres. Mission ……………… . •• I (1881) 2,788 17 Welsh Cal. Meth. do ……………… . 8 '3141 5 235 Jan. 1, 1887 8,042 56 2,682 (1) 4,290" 8,141 H 18 Am. Evan. Lutheran Miss ………… . 65 3,145 65 3,145 (1881) 2,087 19 Am Reformed Church……………. . 36 1,074 (?) 1,074 Jan. 1, 1887 2,~ 20.Episoopal Moravian Mission. '" ……. . "11 940 .. (1881) 8,260 15,298 I 21~Am. Un. Pres. Church… ……. …… (f) 1,473 Jan. 1, 1887 591 23,913 Nov. 1, 188~ 2~ Meth. Epis. Ch. North India B~: ~~~~~fndia . . . . . . . . 226 13,566 34 1,973" u (?) 39 2,029" " (f) 23 Un. Pres. Church of Scotland."……… 27 1,313 27 1,313 (1881) 3,726 24 Danish Ev. Luth. Mission …………. . (1881) 10 12 25lpres. Church of England………….. . 10 (1881) 282 26 Hermannsburg Mission …………… . .. t1881) 160 27IFriends do. .. …………. . ] 36 1 3" (1881) 56 28iIndian Home do. . …………. [ 8 280 8 2801 (1881) 745 329OIA,Cman. aGdI;eann. EvaI?-' do. . ………… . 2 70 1 8.'5 Jan. 1, 1887 171 Baptist do. . ………….. . 7 177 7 177 (1881) 603 31,Scotch Epis. Church …………….. .. ..' 32,Orig. Secession Church of Scotland … . 1 30 1 80 ., (i881) 208 33 canadian Pres. Mission. . . . . . .. . ….. . 3 120 3 120 (1881) 348 (1881) 34 Swedish Evan. do.. .' .. " …….. . 1 69 1 69 124 35 Am. Free Methodist Mission………. . I 36 do. . …. . 37 tDOitshceirpsl.e.s. . … . . ….. .. .. 5 500 NOV. 1, 1887 (1) … . …… 2,690 _1~ 2,690 _ (1881) . .. . . . . . . . . . . . ~ 11,498 Total… … . . .. .. .. . ….. …. . . . … 1,992 65,728 2,337 89,2331_.:.:_'_._ 216,447 I .. 345 23,505 .. Increase………… , .. .. … .. .. . .. . . .. ..
Sunday.Schools of 111. E. Chnrch.-The nn- nates who have gone out as missionaries, to merical statistical summaries presented in the end of 1887. Of these,Ill went for C.M.S. i the Quadrennial Report of the corresponding secretary are as follows: 48 as chaplains, or for S.P.G., or for the DelhI Mission (this includes Henry Martyn and Number of Sunday-schools, 24,225. other East India chaplains, but the list is Number of officers and teachers, 268,391. incomplete); five for the Universities' Mis- Number of Sunday-school scholars, 2,006,- sion to Central Africa.; five· for the China 328. Inland Mission; three for the London Mis- These show a net increase during the sionarySociety. In the C.M.S.lIst 14 stand quadrennium of 2,272 Sunday-schools, 38,826 for the year 1887; only one other year (1860) officers and teachers, and 312,708 Sunday- had as many as six. Even taking all socieschool scholars. ties together, no year came up to the C.M.S. The conversions in the Sundays during 1887 list alone. The best was 1885, when the the four years reach a total of 410,224. This is an increase over the number reported five China Inland men went, with five C.M.S. during the preceding quadrennium of 112,421. and two S.P.G. Eleven on the C.M.S. list were Ridley Hall men. The report expresses Uuiversity lIIissions.-The last report of the the hope that the increase last year" is but Cambridge University Church Missionary the earnest of a still larger increase, and Union gives a list of 172 Cambridge grad- that the number mav never fall again to its former low standard'."