The Missionary Review of the World — May 1898
SAVONAROLA
F rom a painting by FI a Bartolemmeo in Savonaro}a'8 cell ill San lIarco. M,SS,ONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOL. XXI. No. 4.-Old Series. – MAY – VOL. XI. No. 4.-New Sm·ies.
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA: THE FRIAR OF FLORENCE.-I.
BY RE'. GEORGE H. GIDDIKS, Author of "Paxton Hooo. : Preacher and Poet," "The Christ in the Canvas of Gustave Dore,"
etc. Secretary of the Evangelical Continental Society.
'1'he " City of Flowers" and. "Flower of Cities," filled., as it is, to repletion with fascinating memories, has none more fragrant, more picturesque, amI pathetic than that of Girolamo Savonarola, tlte fuu?' lWlld7'edth ullnil'ersury of wlioso martyrdom Florence oLsenes this month. The story of his stormfnl life has Leen told so often and so eloquently that to speak here and now at any length, or in any very detailed way, concel'lling his life and time is quite unnecessary; bnt on so auspicious an occasion as this, it may not Le inappropriate to sketch as briefly as possible the wond.erfnl career of this" reformer before the Heformation," this marvelous, mally-sided man, who so strangely Llended the mystical monk and the practical patriot; whose name is yet a talisman, whose influence yet lives.
A strange fascination fastens around the personalities of the great 'churchmen of the medieval age-Francis, of Assisi; Bernard, of Cl,tirvaux; ALelard in Paris, Savonarola ill Florence. As we tread the tortuous streets beneath the quaint gables of timber-fronted houses of old world cities like Houen and Antwerp, I3rugeH and Nuremberg, Bologna and Verolla, what kaleidoscopic pictures shape thell1sel yes of the dim days when freedom was first breaking from the somber shadows in which it had been envelopt so closely and so long.
In Italy. in the beginning of the fifteenth century, the awakening of the slumlJering giant was attended with more striking phenomena and significant tokens than in any other land. If for long ages doomed to it denser darkness than elsewhere, the twilight was to be of shorter duration when ollce the dawn had corne. On all hands there were mallifestations of an unwonted energy; angnries of still more stupendous change.
Two great events had conspired mainly to bring all this about.
* This periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Rule, recommended by the joiut action of the American Philological A~sociation and the Philological Socidy of England :-Change d or ed Jinal to t when so prononnced, except when the e a1l'ects u preceding souud.-PuBLlsHERs.
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA: THE FRIAR OF FLORENCE
tn the North, the invention of printing had been the signal for ,the great crusade against tyranny and darkness, under which men for long ages had been groaning; while in the East, the capture of Con- stantinople by the Turks had contributed in no small degree to that revival of letters of which Italy was destined to be the theater. This conquest, while driving learned Greeks from the old Byzantine capital, had filled the Italian cities with the glories of the ancient Attic literature, and everywhere from these two causes a thirst for light and liberty had been created, that was only to be assuaged by the most copious draughts. The inertia of the dark ages was stirred, the gross ignorance, like a sable cloud, was drifting before the freshen- ing breeze, and the dawn-glory of the Renaissance had come.
Everywhere there were glimpses of a gladder life; the air seemed palpitating with new ideas and radiant with new enthusiasms.
Learning had revived; the old, disused, and half-forgotten classics were dragged from the dust of their long oblivion. Art, with palette and pencil, chisel and mallet, lute and song, was softening asperities into new forms of beanty. The draught was a Circean one, and men seemed ill danger of being more fatally blinded by an excess of light.
Minds that had found their only pabulum in monkish legends, the grotesque presentments of the lives of saints, or the crude effigies of credulous and ecstatic artists on canvas or in stone, now found them- selves in reach of the more virile aliment of classic literature.
Things grew with startling rapidity in those early days of the great revival. Beneath its Ithuriel touch new arts sprang into lovely life, and, better still, new thinkers rose who, looking closer into things, with clearer scrutiny and no longer through smokt lenses of the priests, saw in many of them their worthlessness and hollow pretense.
The principalities and powers that the Prospero wand of designing ecclesiastics had sufficed ,to summon into existence and terrify with their portents, melted into thin air, like mists at morn. The people were awakening, and even already anticipating the famous formula of Heine: "The human spirit has its rights, which are eternal, and will not be hemmed in by dogmas or rockt to sleep by the lullaby of church bells. Men can not now be put off with promissory notes upon heaven."
Dante was the first to herald the now evangel, as he had been to ntter the anathemas which had shaken to its foundations the meretri- cious structure of the Church.
Florenoe, in spito of all its treasurea memories of painters.
sculptors, statesmen, and orators, boasts no greater names than those of its poet and prophet;-Dante, greatest of poets in all those years that witnest the auroral brightness of the Renaissance, and Savona- rola, greatest of prophets in that corrupt and skeptical age.
Florence and Savonarola are forever inseparable. The Tuscan capital and the brave Dominican friar, around whose pet'sonality is circled so strong and strange a charm, are linkt in closest of all possi- ble bands.
The old world city that throws its shadow into the ArlIO made Savonarola the interesting figure that he was, even as he, in no mean measure, left his impress on its history and molded the moods of tho men of his time. And very stirring times, ind eed, were t hose into which his troubled life was cast. When Savonarola en terod Florence, Lorenzo il Magnifico was the all-powerful rul er of Tuscany. Per- petuating the splendid traditions of his ancestor, Cosmo de Medici, the founder of the Platonic Academy and the Laurentian Library, he was the Mrecenas of men of letters, a liberal patron of art, and adding to the other qnalities of his great family, the graces of a frank and dignified add ress, a resistless eloquence, poetic ability -altho degraded to the compo- sition of the corrupt Oanti Om'- nascialeschi-and lavish expendi- ture in the embellishment of the capital, he won the warm affec- tion s of the major pOI"tion of his people, and succeeded in investing his singularly striking personality with an interest almost unique.
But the Florentines, enamored of their prince, fell beneath the spell of his enchantments, and, be- LORENZO IL MAGNIFICO. cause the links were golden, failed, From a painting In the Utllzl Galler y.
t ill the chafin g became too acn te, to recognize the fetters with which they were bonnd. Altho magnifi- cent, cou r teons, generous, and accomplisht, his rule was none the less a disastrous one. Luxury enervated the moral tone of the people, and year by year Florentine f reedom was abridged, until at length it li ved only as a tradIti on and a name.
Upon the papal throne sat Alexander VI., the infamous Roderigo Borgia, of all bad popes the worst. Bom in 143l at Valenzia, in Spain, by the purchase of votes of some of the more venal members of the Oollege of Oardinals, h e was elected pope in 1492. By an adulterous connection with a married woman, Van ezza, a noble lady of Rome, he had a daughter, the no torio ns Lucrezia Borgia-married by her father's connivance fonr times-and four sons.. one of which, the infamous Oresar Borgia, who, in spite of haTing murdered hi s sis- ter's third husband, and thrown his own brother Louis into the Tiber, became a cardinal and Duke of Valentinia. To this pope is due the establishment of the Index Expurgatori1ts, that mighty engine for the enthrallment of the Catholic world. Almost every vice with which the annals of history have been stained may be fairly attributed to this successor of St. Peter. His extravagance was only met by utmost unscrupulousness in regard to all laws, human and divine, by the sale of indulgences, and even by the stiletto or the phial and potion of the poisoner, to which the Borgias had so frequent a recourse. Profligate plays, by the most shameless prostitutes of the city, were enacted before him in his palace, and he is credited with having committed adultery with his own daughter. After a life of matchless debauchery he died August 18, 1503, having partaken in error of a poisoned dish prepared by himself and son for an obnoxious cardinal, of whom he desired to be rid.
Ulric yon Rutten said later of Rome what was preeminently true of it at the period of our sketch: " Everything there is for sale-God, the sacraments, the kingdom of heaven, and everything is there allowed, except poverty and truth, which are regarded ::;s the only two mortal sins. There are three things which Rome does not belieye in: the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and hell. There are three things which Rome trades ill: the grace of Christ, the dignities of the Church, and women." And Machiayelli said at Florence: "The greatest symptom of the approaching ruin o~ Christianity is that the nearer we approach the capital of Christendom, the less do we find of Christian spirit in the people. '1'he scandalous example and the crimes of the court of Rome haye caused Italy to lose every principle of piety and every religious sentiment. We are principally indebted to the Church and to the priest for having become impious anu profligate."
Girolamo Savonarola was born at Ferrara, September 21,1452. The ancient city is rich in memories of the illustriolls author of the "Orlando Fnrioso," Ariosto, and the still more famous Torquato Tasso, who, while winning for it imperishable renown by the printing of the "Aminta" alld the" Gerusalemme Liberata," has left in the memory of his imprisonment, in the stone cell of the hospital of Santa Anna, an eternal disgrace upon the city which was honored by giving him birth.
As we walk along the gloomy grass-grown ways of this husht old city, it is with difficulty we can conceive of it as ever having been the scene and canter of exuberant life. A hundred thousand citizens lived then within its walls. A noble university drew to it students from every town of Italy. The luxury of the reigning family of the Este knew no bounus. The court was the constant scene of riot and revel. When the Emperor Frederic III. arrived within the city walls, it was to be received upon a veritable field of cloth of gold, and when, later stilI, Silvio Piccolomini (Pius II.) came hither, the popular fetes excelled in splendor all that had ever gone before. The successor of St. Peter and follower of the lowly Nazarene entered beneath a canopy of gold; along the flower-strewn streets, rich silks and tapestries depended from every balcony, and when he stept from his gilded barge the place of landing was enricht with statues of the pagan gods.
All this was noted by the studious lad deep in the study of the Bible and Aquinas. He knew, too, that within the palace, bright with a thousand lamps, festooned with flowers, and eloquent with song, fair forms, in soft diaphanous drapery, moved in the mazes of delicious and delirious dance, and that beneath, in dungeons deep and dark, the sobs of breaking hearts and clang of iron fetters were the only sounds that broke the awful stillness of the scene. Such contrasts as these awoke within his young heart the first strains of those protests for civil and religious freedom which were to echo in the years to come in trumpet tones.
While still in Ferrara, and in his twentieth year, there shone out upon him the bright eyes of a fair Florentine girl, the daughter of the exile Strozzi. Their glance enkindled the first fires of passion in his heart. But his suit was unsuccessful. He was too poor, too studious, and too sad, and when his proferred love was spurned with something like disdain, his fate was most significantly sealed. A few years later, on a visit to Faenza, he heard a stirring sermon from an Augustinian eremite, and some strong and forceful word strnck home. By violent contrasts between the professions and practises of religion; by the harsh dissonances of gilded salon and gloomy dungeon in the fortress palace, and by the smart and disappointment of unrequited love, th~ soil had been made ready, and when the good seed fell into its furrows, it immediately took root. He returned home with new thoughts and aspirations, now vague, but daily growing into distincter light, and on the 23d of April following, while all Ferrara was busy with the festa of St. George, he left his home, journeyed to Bologna, and there sought and found admission to the Dominican convent in that city. The young enthusiast and scholar who had learned Hebrew in the Ferrara University, and was already all courant with the writings of Aquinas, was received with every manifestation of respect and cordiality by the prior and his monks, and three days after IllS admission he had assumed the monastic garb under his new name of Friar Jerome.
As a boy he appears to have eschewed the ordinary pastimes and occupations of youth, and "melancholy markt him for her own." He inherited a fine, chivalrous nature, with the added quality of a peculiarly keen sensitiveness that was to develop later into that strong sense of right and justice which urged him forward in his bold and brave career. Of studious rather than athletic tastes, he delighted to listen to the stories of ancient chivalry, or, better still, of medieval martyrs, with a strDng and strange proclivity for mystical visions and asceticisms. Nursing such fancies and indulging the vague hopes that are born of such, with a far tenderer interest in the aureole of the saint than in the lance and scarf of the knight; with an education little fitting him for the robust life of the soldier or the gay career of the courtier, small wonder is it that we find him early entering the convent, and, in its shades, endeavoring to find that rest and realization of childhood's dreams which he might not hope to attain elsewhere. He had studied the subtle dialectics of Aristotle, but had early renounced the errors of the Stagyrite for the more satisfying philosophy of Plato. Bnt Thomas Aquinas was thc favorite in these early days. From his" Commentaries on Aristotle" his own early repugnance was deepened, and his" Sum of Theology·" weaned him from philosophy to divinity in his earliest and most impressionable days.
Thus he resolves to enter a religious order, and, as he has determined to be a preacher, he chooses the order of Dominicans, the order of preaching friars par excellence. At the age of twenty-three then, on the 23d of April, 1475, he becomes a novice in the White Friars' Monastery, at Bologna, the grand and gloomy old city, with its twelve great gates, its grass-grown moat, and lichened walls, birthplace of Guido and Guercino, Francia and Domenichino. He is drawn, as we have seen, to the Dominicans, but as we read his character as the strangely-colored life unfolded it, or look into that cowl-encircled face as Fra Bartolommeo painted it, there seems to have been more of St. Francis than of St. Dominic about him. The seer's instinct allied him closely to the" seraphic saint" of Assisi. What a study is that face! A marvelous commingling of tenderness and strength, full of bravery and endurance, of heroisms and spiritualities, a far-off look that tells of pathetic yearnings; a lip that quivers with snpprest feeling and speaks of the quench t fires of passion; eyes that betoken inextinguishable ardors and unrelaxing faiths; the whole face, even in the repose of the picture and unlighted by the quick alternations of opposing passions, such as charmed the husht m llItitudes in the Duomo, evidencing a lire that had its beginnings and its ultimate developments in generous and full-souled self-surrender.
The apparition of the young neophyte in the Bologna cloister was an unwonted experience for the monks installed therein. Never was abnegation of self more complete, never were aims higher and purer, never had braver heart sought refuge here. Like Bernard of Clairvaux, he is willing, nay desirous, to become a servant; to stoop to lowliest offices while aspiring to ansterities more rigid than them all. He soon finds fame, compelling it by the winsomeness of his char- &cter &nd the palpable reality of his vocation. Within the cloister his austerities are very pronounced, his clothing of the· coarsest, his food of the plainest, and so protracted are his vigils that he sleeps but four hours in the twenty-four. When not employed in his menial ta.sks, he divides his time between prayer and fast and vigil, and the reading of St. Augustine and the Bible. He becomes lecturer to his own and neighboring convents on classical literature, and for seven long years performs his monotonous duty bravely, tho with an ever-deepening sense of sorrow in his soul. The Bible and the religious life of the monastery seem strangely at variance, and the apathy of his brother recluses is a constant cause of trouble. Before quitting his convent he abandons all other study for that of the Bible, and to the mastering of this applies his whole energy. Fired with the martial stories of the Old Testament, and inspired by the passionate poems and mystical visions of the prophet bards, he deter- mines to follow his un- doubted vocation of a preacher, and the better to aid him in this pur- pose, becomes a priest.
Quitting the monas- tery, he is sent as a preach- ing friar to Ferrara. With all the enthusiasm that is born of sincere convic- tion and consecration, and trained by his apprentice- ship oE obedience and THE CHURCH OF SAN MARCO, FLORENCE.
penance, he proclaims his message with fiery fervency and zeal; but soon the heart grew faint and the spirit sore as he found, to his intense disappointment, that his words fell upon deaf ears, and rang with no responsive echoes in hearts all filled with the business and pleasure of a purely mun- dane life. Not here, then, is his place, and so, with characteristic celerity, he turns his steps toward Florence, bright, beautiful, dis- solute, skeptical Florence, and euters the convent of San Marco. But what hope of success was there here for the dreamy anchorite, in a city where Marsilio Ficino is attracting all that is highest in mental attainment and culture to his lectures on Greek philosophy; where Agnolo Poliziano is unfolding the ancient literature of Rome, and Pico della Mirandola, the Mezzofanti of his age, is teaching an almost encyclopedic knowledge in two and twenty languages; where all who are not immersed in commerce are steept in classic lore, or all aglow with newly awakened enthusiasm for art? Not here yet is the field for his labors, and so 110 journeys away into distant villages of Lombanly, and attempts again his task of extempore exposition. The ill success that would effectually have dampt the spirit and daunted the courage of lesser men only gave fresh impetus to his enthusiasm. He quitted Florence then, bearing his" burden" to others of the Italian cities, proceeding from one to another with the same message, in many minor keys, but ever with the same refrain. The tOile of th8 mall, so strange and yet so real, his hardy persistency, his unflinchillg boldness, told in time. '['he six years of wandering brought fame, the echoes of which reacht fair and fitful Florence at length, and he was recalled thither.
It is in Brescia, the fine old city filled with glorious torsos of antiquity, that he speaks for the first time wi·th comparative freedom, and there, in apocalyptic speech, there escape from his lips words that are full and significant, that heave and pierce and burn.
In 1487 he attended a provincial chapter of Lombardian Dominicans at Reggio, in Modena, and there he gained the notice of Pico della Mirandola, who urged Lorenzo to invite him to Florence and to Cosmo di Medici's splendid convent of San Marco. Here in the cloister garden, amid the laurels and the climbing roses, he attracted immense crowds of listeners, as also in the cathedral church of Santa Maria del Fiore.
His sermons seem rugged at times, as we read them through the harsh medium of translation, or even in the mellifluous lingua 1'uscana in which they were delivered; but they are faithful words, words that glint and glow, that rush out like sparks from the anvil, that scorch .and sear. His action, too, was fervid; every gesture was THE CLOISTER GARDEN OF SAN MARCO. indicative of the fire that burned within him as he is borne along on the quick tides of his emotion. Guicciardini and Vasari, the Italian historians, dwell upon the voice of the great predicat01·e. In later days, whcm for a month he preacht evening after evening at San Marco upon the building of Noah's Ark, and prophesied the after calm when the purified Church should become an ark for faithful Florentines, the immense multitudes who thronged to hear him were spellbound by his passionate appeals, swayed by his eloquence, in turn were toucht to tears or roused to frenzy. Pico della Mirandola says of the sermon from the text, " Behold, I will bring a flood of waters npon the earth," that he shuddered as he listened. He had not long been engaged in this serious business of preaching before the thought that was uppermost in his heart found full expression from his lips, and he pronounced boldly against the tyranny of the Medici, and declaimed against the excesses and shameless vices of nobles in the state and of dignitaries in the Church.
Very soon he is chosen prior of his convent. Instinctively, " il j1fagnifico" discerns in the eloquent Dominican a possible, nay certain foe, and so is desirol1s of a"erting the threatened danger by some show of patronage. Savonarola accepts the appointment, but with characteristic independence. III accordance with the custom of the time he should have presented himself before his patron and, swearing fealty, sought with all humility the grace and protection which he knew wOl1ld not have been refused. Btl t not of such material is this man made. He has lIot learned the rl5lf. of the sycophant, and he will not go. The frati implore him, and Lorenzo, incenst at his refusal, commands his SI1bmission; but the sturdy preacher ends the matter by declaring, " God, not Lorenzo, has elected me prior."
His contemporaries have left us a very detailed portraiture of the man: Of middle stature, with ruddy face and fair hair, and with a bold, broad forehead, deeply plowed with furrows. His eyes, deep blue, were filled at times with fire. A large, aquiline nose, denoting strength, and quiverillg under lip, betokelling nervous force aud passion, held with difficulty in check. Of upright IIlien, grave, gentle, and yet with featqres sufficiently mobile as to display an endless variety of aspect and play of all the passions. A man of inflexible will, a staunch republican in politics, with an enthusiasm that readily glowed to a white heat, and which easily overleapt the barriers dividing it from sheer fanaticism. He seems to have been possest of just that ensemble of physic~l, mental, moral, and spiritual qualities that endow a man with the power of fascinating ar~d compellillg men. Whatever else he may have been, there was an ever-predominating air about him that made men instinctively to know that a real man was before them, one who believed all he said, one who saw deeper ill to the hearts of things than others, and one who was ready not only to
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
do battle for his convictions, but to die, if need be, in defense of them. Notwithstanding his popularity, but scant success of any abiding kind in those early days followed the predication Gf the prior; but knowing the tone and temper of the man as time has revealed him, it is not astonishing to hear him say, "Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine." He possest the one essential to all success-belief in the truth and ultimate triumph of his convictions; and so, in spite of disappointment, chagrin, weariness of body, and sorrow of soul, with magnificent persistency he quails not nor looks back from the plow to which he has put his hand.
(To be concluded.) SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY.- MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
When Spirit-moved men and women undertake mlSSlOn work among lepers, they reach and touch the lowest depths of human degradation, wretchedness, and hopeless misery.
Of all human maladies, leprosy is the one, unique, solitary disease, that has borne, throughout all time, the brand of peculiar curse, as "the scourge of God." Technically" it is a chronic skin disease, whose main characteristics are two: ulcerous eruptions, and succcssive desquamations of dead skin. The name is now usually restricted to elephantiasis. It is clearly hereditary, and overwhelming facts seem to show that under some circumstances it is contagious; that, at least, where there is habitual contact and association, as between parents and children, it is communicated, whereas separation prevents its development even where there is a leprous parentage.* A leper is a walking parable of guilt and death. To the Jew especially, leprosy was the sign and seal of sin, already bearing its visible judgment. A leper was unclean, and he was obliged to proclaim his own uncleanness. His touch was defilement, his garments were spotted by the flesh, and he lived apart from others, and could not even come near to the altar where sin was expiated by blood. Miriam, tho the sister of Moses and Aaron, was shut out of the camp when the leprous brand appeared on her brow, and King U zziah was shu tout * There are believed to be 500,000 lepers in India, 100,000 in China, as many more in Japan, 1,200 in the Hawaiian Isles, 27,000 in Colombia, South America, 500 in the United States, as many more in Cuba, 2,000 in Norway, etc. Isolation is the only known means of eradication. There is a growing sentiment in favor also of the separation of the sexes, that there may be no propagation of offspring that have predisposition to the taint of this horrible disease. It seems as tho no measureS were too drastic to stamp out this malady.
1898.J MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS
from his palace, and "lived in a separate house until the day of his death." Trellch, in one awful sentence, sum s up the matter: " Leprosy is nothing short of a living death, a poisoning of the springs, a corrupting of all th e humors of life ; a dissolution li ttle by little of the whole body." No lang uage can describe the horror and terror inspired by the sight of a cro wd of abject leprous beggars, as they are seen throngin g the Jaffa gate of the sac red city, and reaching out the stumps of handless arms, their faces ghastly, with sockets from which the eyes have dropt ou t, perhaps wi thout ears, and their bodies in every state and stage of actu al physical defect. The leper is the slow, sure victim of a death th at kills one member at a t im e, and severs it from the body like a dead limb, that drops off from a tree by its own rottenness. Dante, in his visits to the Inferno, never beheld any sight that so su gges ts the awful curse that follows sin to the third and fourth generation, if not the fortieth, or compares with this in indescribable repulsive- ness. Surely it is no accident that, in that eighth chapter of Matthew-Sc1'!jJtuJ'a jlfiraculosa, as Ambrose called it – the first recorded miracle is one ill which the great H ealer not only made the leper clean, but by tou ching him, thus identifying himself with his uncl eann ess and becoming A LEPER.• ceremonially himself a leper ! No wonder I sailth, foreseeing H is glory and speaking of Hiin declares, "Himself t ook our infirmities and bare our sicknesses."
We can not appreciate the Christlike self-sacrifice and passion for souls that must have moved holy men and women to approaeh a leprous community, ami even become permanen tly iuentified with their relief and salvation, unl ess we fi rst get a tru e glimpse of the actual condition in which lepers were fo und . And here again words fail. There are no terms quite equal to th e description. F or example, when Miss Ka te Marsden went on her mission of charity t o Vilil1sk, in Siberia, th e frightful state of the lepers in t he pro vince was found t o be worse cven than as set fOl' th in the report of th e medical inspectol'.
They were found dri ven in to exile in vast forests, almost nude, and closely packt in dirty YO lll'tas. So great is the dl'ead of this dis- ease that people sufferin g from other ail ments are often exiled with • From" lIawaii, Our New PossessioDs. " FUDk & WagnaJls Co.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
the lepers and forced to abide with them, through mistakes of the natives when defining leprosy; aud awful brutality is practist, under plea of banishing a leper from society, where greed is the motivesome small fortune left by a relative being thus seized by the persecutors, a leper being treated as one civilly dead, and having no right to property. A supposed child-leper was starved to death, for the sake of a few cows left him by his parents. An uncle, whose ward he was, first murdered his sister, and then persuading his neighbors that the boy was a leper, drove him into a forest in the depths of a Siberian winter, and there, with no shelter but a sort of kennel, a few sticks lightly covered with cow dung and snow, starved, half-frozen, and on the verge of madness, the boy was left to die. When found the body was but skin and .bones, with a little clay in the stomach which had been devoured in the pangs of hunger, and there was not a sign of leprosy or any other disease!
The crowding together of these outcasts in the same filthy yourta, makes physical cleanliness and moral purity alike impossible. The yourta or yurt, is often only a pen in which human beings and cattle herd together, men, women, and children, all alike. It is made of logs, covered with earth and moss, and partly sunk in the ground, one of the most primitive human habitations, and having nOlle of the qualities of a comfortable or decent dwelling. Miss Marsden fOllnd the Siberian lepers clad in cast-off garments of the Yakuts (members of the Turkish race, of the basin of the Lena, E. Siberia), these garments being generally fur-skins filled with vermin, filthy beyond words, and at best a mass of tatters.
The leper is so accustomed to being avoided and shunned that, even when approacht by the mes~engers of love and pity, he shrinks as in terror, or as tho some violence or insult was intended. He feels himself an outcast, doomed to be an exile from all clean society. One visit to the ,-ile and small huts where lepers dwell is enough to fix itself forever 011 the mind of the visitor. There is almost no light, a door so low that one can not enter without bowing, and the air is foul to suffocation with the leprous exhalati.ons, and the odors of rotten fish that are their chief diet, and which even the fire can not purify. No beds or linen, but benches, no robes but rags, and all this for years at a time. In a small horel, six men and three women were often found hllddled together. Of course, such abodes are absolutely without sanitary pro¥isions and swarm with vermin, and often the only places to sleep are rude trunks of trees covered with planks, on which these outcasts lie, packt together, the head of one opposite the feet of the next. And here they eat, cook, sleep, live, and die. It is customary for a dead body to be kept in the hovel for three days, and in a visitation of smallpox, four dead bodies were thus kept during such time in the same room with the living!
MISSION WORK .AMONG LEPERS
Mr. Guilford gives a similar account* of his own visit to the leper asylum at Tarn '1'aran (India) with its 234 wretched inmates. There he met a surging crowd of deformed, mutilated human beings, in whom all the dire effects of sin ever wrought on the human frame seemed presented in one mass before his eyes. '1'0 stay long in such a scene was impossible, but he said that until death the sight would haunt him. It was a living charnel house.
Various efforts have been made in behalf of the lepers, in which we are not surprised to find the Moravians leading us all. Always ready to dare the worst climates, and the most hopeless conditions, before the first quarter of the century had past, in 1822, they began work at Himel en Aarde (Heaven and Earth), in South Africa. Four years before, the colonial government, fearing the spread of leprosy, had built a temporary asylUlll in this valley, whose weird name suggests its isolation, far from human abodes, and so hemmed in by rocks as to be opened only to the sky. '['he hospital having been enlarged, Governor Somerset sought for a Moravian to manage the institution and to teach the inmates Christian truth. Rev. Mr. Leitner and wife took up this work, and supposing it to involve risk of contagion, they virtually entered this asylum, thenceforth to be themselves rankt as lepers.
The transformations were marvelous. Industry and intelligence and cleanliness provcd to be the handmaids of piety, and neat gardens surrounded the hospital, and an aqueduct was built to supply water. During six years Mr. Leitner baptized 95 adults, and on Easter-day, 1829, while baptizing a convert, he suddenly past to his reward. For ten years more the Moravians were in charge; and in 1846 the hospital was enlarged, improved, and removed to Robben Island, near Cape Town. '1'he duties of the missionaries were henceforth restricted to the educational and spiritual government, officials being in general charge. A school was begun, whose first teacher was a leprous young Englishman, John Taylor, who after five years of earnest work died in 1866. The Moravians continued identified with this hospital at Robben Island until 1867, when a chaplain of the Church of England was appointed to the religious oversight of the imtitution.
The Moravians have been similarly connected with the leper Home at Jerusalem, erected outside the Jaffa gate, and which owed its suggestion to Baron Von Keffenbrinck-Ascheraden's visit to the Holy Land. He and his wife saw these wretched outcasts, dependent on the alms of passers-by, lodging amid abject poverty, and dying in unsoothed agony. And again, when a small home was provided, the United Brethren gave Mr. and Mrs. F. Tappe to become father and mother to the loathsome and incurable lepers. This asylum, opened in 1867, was enlarged in 1875 and 1877, and a new and larger build- * "The Lepers in Our Indian Empire." W. C. Bailey.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THI;; HALF CENTURY
ing erected on a new site in 1887, at cost of $20,000. In 1884 Mr. Tappe's health having compelled his retirement, Fritz Muller and wife took charge. Out of about twenty MOl'avians who gave themselves to this sacrcd ministry not one has taken the disease. 1'he leper-home at Jerusalem has issued its twenty-sixth report. Since 1891 Mr. and Mrs. Schubert have been in charge. The year 1896 began with 19 patients, ten of them being men and nine women; and during the year, fifteen more were admitted, and one died. Diligent study and effort are now directed to the medical treatment of leprosy.
We can not within such limited space give the complete history of missions to lepers; but, in this great work, Wellesley O. Bailey, of Edinburgh, the well-known secretary of the Mission to Lepers in India, must have a conspicuous mention. It is now twenty-four years since, returning from mission work in India, he told Dublin friends of his efforts to help and save lepers. His tracts on the subject, half a milli on of which were circulated, united with his personal appeals, kindled such interest, that in 1878 a committee was formed in Dublin, and the work reorganized and enlarged, nine years later. No one who has been at all familiar with this grand work needs to be told that from 1875 onward, ill Ohamba, in the Sabathu asylum at Ambala, in the Punjab, in Almora., at Dehra, at Oalcutta, at Lohardngga, and Purulia, Ohota Nagpore, at Travancore, at Rurki, at Pithora, at Allahabad, at Rawal Pindi, at Madras, in Neyoor, etc., etc., this society has either built or aided asylums. A little over ten years ago the work of separating untainted children from their parents was begull, SABATHU LEPER ASYLUM, INDIA.
MISSION WORK AMONG LEPERS
and retreats were providea for such children at AJmora) Pithora; Lohardugga, Purulia, etc. 'rhe aim of this organization is twofold, philanthropic and evangelistic, its supreme aim being not only to better the temporal condition of the lepers but to save their souls.
One of the most humane results of the mission to the lepers, has been the separation of children, born of leper parents, from their original surroundings. Most medical men are now agreed that the disease i.~ undoubtedly contagious,* and that the worst condition of such contagion is where children continue to live in the leprous homes where they were born. Before reaching majority it has been found that the great bulk of such offspring develop the loathsome disease, so that of all who were born in the asylum at Tarn Tiran, during thirty years, and who were left there, only two did not become confirmed lepers. At Almora, however, for years past children have been separated from their parents, and only one child has shown signs of leprosy,t proving how much can be done to stop the spread of this scourge. No wonder Mr. Guilford pronounced it the saddest of sights to see a bright, innocent, untainted child fondled by a leper mother, and fed from hands that are a mass of corruption; and yet in India thousands of sights like this may be seen daily.
Can the souls of such wretched outcasts be reacht? Let Mr. Guilford again testify.! At one time the asylum at 'l'arn Tiran was in charge of a native doctor, whose hatred of Christianity was proverbial, and when some converted lepers sought a home in the asylum, in a rage he drove them away until they should renounce their faith. Hear their answer: "If you refuse us admission unless we deny our Lord and Master, we are content to go and sit on the highway and die." And there they sat for eight long days, with no shield from the intense sun save the trees, and with scarce a morsel of food, and this inhuman native doctor would not even allow the asylum shop to sell them food! In the asylum at Purnlia, Mr. Bailey met a bright, happy audience of Jepers, where only five out of 116 were even nominally heathen, and • This seems to be a good point at which to refer to the recent Leprosy Conference at Berlin. It was called by the first Leprologists in the world, and the following conclusions were reacht : 1. The disease is communicated by the bacillus, but its condition of life and methods of penetrating the human organism are unknown. Probably it gains entrance through the mouth or mucous membranes.
2. It is certain that mankind alone is liable to the bacillus. 8. Leprosy is contagious but not hereditary. 4. The disease has hitherto resisted all efforts to cure it. Observe, that in affirming the contagiousness of the disease, it is probably meant that it is contagious by some form of inoculation only, such as receiving into a cut or abraded surface some particle from a sore or ulcer of a leper. We must not confuse contagion and injection. Medical missionaries and others freely handle lepers and dress their wounds, yet no one has ever been known to contract the disease. Children of lepers probably have a hereditary predisposition to the disease, and if left to live in the same huts, sleep in the same beds, and eat out of the same vessels, run great risk.
t "The Lepers in Our Indian Empire." Bailey, p. 107. :I: Ibid. ~ailey, p. 10&
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
nineteen came forward for baptism in one service. What a sight to see these lepers Lowing at the communion of the Lord's supper, where the bread had to be dropt into their hands or put into their mouths, because they had no hands, and the 'cup' served to them by a spoon! "
Without the Camp states that the Mission to Lepers in India and the East works in connection with 18 societies or denominations and 40 stations in India, Burma and Ceylon, and 7 in China and Japan. Of asylums and hospitals of their own they have: 14 in India and Burma; 5 in China and Japan; with 14 homes for untainted chil- ( d1'en ; they aid 11 other insti tu tions and have 15 places open to them for Christian instruction. In all, 2,700 persons l'ecei 'e help.
Were the history of missions to the lepers fully written, it would THE LEPER S ETTLEM ENT AT MOLOKAI, HAWAII.* supply some of the most pathetic tales of heroism ever record ed even in missionary history. We all remember the interest which centered abou t "Father Damien's" work among the lepers on the island of Molokai. Tho there was thought to be some fal se glamor or halo about this man, especially after hi s death, the Prince of Wales presided over the committee formed to raise a monument to this deparLed worker, to establish leper wards in hospitals, and to send out physicians to cope with the terrible (wil and study its cure or relief.
Leprosy was brought to the Sandwich Islands by a traveler from Asia early in this century, and spread so fast that the governm ent, in 1865, decreed the banishment of every tainted man, woman, and child to the island of Molokai, alld in thirty years more than 3,000 have thus been exiled to await death ill this lonely seagirt home.
* From" Hawaii, Our New PossessJoDs." FUDk & 'Vagnalls Co.
MISSION WORK AMONG THE LEPERS
When, in 1873, Father Damien went there he found these lepers given over to every form of sloth, lawlessness, and vice. Before his death he saw very great improvement, and arollsed not only the Hawaiian government to a sense of shame and duty, but awakened all civilized peoples to a sense of sympathy for these outcasts. His own hands became so crippled by the disease that at the last he could ollly sign letters that he could no more write. Father Damien was wont to speak to the unhappy inmates of the island as "we lepers;" and when he took the disease, he told them it was God's way of bringing him and them closer together. Through his work miserable huts were exchanged for clean cabins; there is a hospital, costing $10,000, with skilled physicians.* Those who have read the heroic story of .Miss Mary Reed, will not need to be reminded of its indescribable pathos. She is an American missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India, and, her health giving way, she came home, but for a year had no suspicion of the real nature of her illness, which baffled all the seience and art of medicine. God himself, in midnight vision, revealed to her that it was leprosy, and made plain to her that she was henceforth to be a messenger of mercy to a leper community in the mountains of India. A specialist subsequently confirmed the impression of the vision, and all her suspense was over. To lessen the pain of parting, she left her father, mother, brothers, and sisters without revealing her secret, save to one sister, and on her way wrote home the terrible news. Then she went on to Pith ora, in the Himalayas, and has been finding in those mountain heights – what they mean- " heavenly halls." Here is a refined, cultl~red young woman, smitten with this awful malady, exiling herself for the sake of these outcasts. She went among them and, with hot tears, said, but without a tremor in her voice, and with a heavenborn smile: "I am n01lJ one of you." There on the heavenly heights of Chandag, 0,000 feet above the sea, she is pointing outcast lepers to the Friend of outcasts, and her heart finds joy never known before in her Christlike work. She may be found daily binding up with her own hands the wounds and sores of lepers, while she ponrs the oil of God's consolation into their souls. She was found with 73 inmates in the asylum, and 500 within ten miles radius, whom she aims to get under the same blessed shelter.t • An interesting description of this settlement is found in Jno. R. Musick's" Hawaii: Our N~w Possessions. "
t Those who would read more fully on this terrible yet fascinating theme, may find in the following books more ample information: ~. The Lepers in Our Indian Empire," "" Mission to Lepers in India and the East" and" A Glimpse at the Indian Mission-Field and Leper Asylums," etc. ,V. C. Bailey. John F.Shaw, London. "On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers. " Kate Marsden. Cassell Pub. Co. New York. " The Story of the Mission to Lepers in India." H. S. Carson. London. "European Lepers in India." Miss Lila Watt. "Without the Camp." Magazine, Lombard Street, Toronto, Canada, and Edinburgh, Scotland. "Encyclopedia of Missions." Funk & Wagnalls. "Picket Line of Missions." Eaton & Mains. New York.
THE GOSPEL IN THE NEW HEBRIDES
THE GOSPEL IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.* BY REV. JOHN G. PATON, D.D.
Pioneer Missionary in the New Hebrides.
Geographers have arranged the South Sea islands under three divisions: Polynesia, the manyeaetern islands between 180 degrees and South America; Melanesia, the black islands, from the dark-brown color of their inhabitants-they include Fiji and all the islands west, with New Guinea; Micronesia, all the small islands north of the line from Hawaii on the east to China on the west. 'rhe Sonth Sea islands are inhabited by only two races, the Malay Polynesian and the Papuan. The Malays appear to be of Asiatic origin, and are the superior race, with well-developt, powerful persons, yellow in color, and with straight, glossy, black hair. The Papuans are so called from Papua, or New Guinea. They occupy the western islands, and are not generally so tall and handsome in person as the Malays. They are of a darkbrown color, with dark, curly hair of different shades, and appear to be allied to the negro; but have plump, pleasant features, unlike the negro and the aborigines of Australia. The Malays all speak one language, with dialectic differences, all musical and liquid, like the Italian. Every word ends in a vowel. The Papuans speak a different language on almost every island, or dialects differing, so that the natives of one island can not understand those of another; and on some islands two or eyen three dialects are spoken on the same island, so different that the inhabitants of the one district can not understand those of the other. Nearly the whole, if not the whole, population of the Sonth Sea islands were cannibals, in a state of nudity, when * Balboa, governor of Santa Maria, discovered the Southern Ocean in 1513, named it the South Sea, and took possession in the name of the king of Spain. Six years later Magellan sailed through a large portion of it, and called it the Pacific Ocean. In 1569 Mendana discovered and named the Solomon group, and in 1595 the Queen Charlotte group. The New Hebrides were discovered in 1606 by QUiros, who thought he had discovered a great southern continent, and called it the Land of the Holy Spirit. He anchored in port Philip Santo, and tried to establish a city (New Jerusalem) on the bank of the large river Yor, which runs into the bay. But the Spaniards quarreled with the natives and left it. Quiros sailed to Mexico, but Torres, the senior officer in command, sailed west, discovered and past through Torres Straits, which bear his name, between Queensland and New Guinea. Boginville discovered that itwas not a continent, but a group of islands, that Quiros had discovered, and he named them the Great Cyclades. Bent on discovering new lands, about that period many <>minent navigators sailed in the South Sea, but we hear nothing more of the New Hebrides till, in 1767, the famous Captain Cook sailed on his first voyage to observe the transit of venus at Tahiti. In 1773 Captain Cook returned, and sailed twice through the group, spending 46 days in exploring and describing every island and the natives with an accuracy scarcely yet surpast. Believing he had discovered the most westerly group in the South Sea, he gave it its present name, the New Hebrides; but 200 miles southwest he afterward discovered another large island, and called it New Caledonia. He took possession of it in the name of his sovereign, King George the Third; but in 1854, when Britain was engaged in the Crimean war, France took possession of it, and turned it into a large convict station at the door of Australia, to which, by escaped convicts, it is a source of danger and pollution.- J.G.P missionary work was begun on them, yet even there, by God's bless- ing, almost every society and chur()h engaged in the work has been used and honored in the conversion of many thousands, and now each is working on an independent portion of New Guinea for the salvation of its natives, and with encouraging success.
The New Hebrides consist of about thirty inhabited islands, with many small ones adjoining. The group lies south-southe~,st and northnorthwest, extending over 400 miles of ocean, between 21 degrees and 15 degrees south latitude, and 171 degrees and IGG degrees east longitude. The Solomon group, which is the center of the Church of England's mission, is about 200 miles northwest from the New Hebrides. New Caledonia is about 200 miles southwest, Fiji about 400 miles, Auckland about 1,000, and Sydney, Australia, 1,400 miles distant from our group. In l]er first charter to New Zealand, Britain included the New Hebrides, but, appal'ently by some mistake, they were afterward left out. Yet, except to New Zealand and Australia, the group is of little commercial value to any other country, on account of the great distances of all others from it.
As the natives have got nearly all the blessings of Christianity and civilization which they possess from British missionaries and suhjects, they unanimously plead for British anr.exation and protection, while, from their oppressive cruelty to the natives, and suppression of Protestant schools and mission work on the Loyalty group and on other groups annext, they fear and hate the French. There are other cogent reasons, for the French Senate past a resolution" to send 100,000 of France's lowest criminals to the New Hebrides, as freed men and women, to live as they could and go where they would, on the one condition that they do not return to Franca." Against this Australasia and Britain protested so decidedly that the scheme was not carried out; but the resolution to deport them was renewed, and for the present the destination is kept secret. The French have recently been sending Roman Catholic priests to the New Hebrides, apparently as political agents. A few months ago the heathen natives of one of our islands eagerly desired a Protestant missionary to settle among them, and give them the teaching of Jesus and His salvation, and when they were selling our missionaries a site for the station, two priests gave them much abuse, and told them of all the fearful calamities which would befall them if they allowed the Protestant missionaries to land on their island. They also gave the missionaries much abuse, and at last offered the natives three Sniders (rifles) and two large, fat hogs for the site, if they wonld forbid the Protestant missiollaries to settle on the island. Tho, above everything else, the heathen islanders desire Sniders and such fat pigs, yet they rejected the priests' offer, and sold the station to our missionaries. The highest French officials in these colonies have sent a man-of-war to the spot to investigate this case, and their report proves that it was correctly st:-tted by us.
In 1839 the famous John Williams and Mr. J. Harris, of the London Missionary Society, sailed to try and begin mission work on the New Hebrides, but on landing on Erromanga both were murdered by the savages, who feasted on their bodies. In 1843 Drs. Turner and Nisbet were by the London Missionary Society settled on Tanna, but about six months after, by a passing ship, they had to escape for their lives. After this Samoan and Raratongar. native teachers were again and again placed on the group, but they were either murdered by the savages, or died in the damp, unhealthy climate (compared with their own), or in sickness had to be taken home again. So no effective mission work was done on the group till in 1848 Dr. John Geddie and in 1852 Dr. John Inglis were landed on Aneityum, where God spared and used them in bringing 3,500 cannibals on that island to serve onr dear Lord Jesus Christ; and until they had translated and carried through the press the whole Bible and other books in their language. For the printing and binding of this Bible the converted natives paid the noble British and Foreign Bible Society £1,200 sterling($6,000), earned by them preparing and selling arrowroot.
In 1857 the ReI'. G. N. and Mrs. Gordon were placed on Erromanga, where Williams lost his life. By them God brought some fourteen young men and as many young women to renounce heathenism and serve Jesus, but in 1851 the savages one morning tomahawkt both to death. Their young converts wept and wailed over their loss, laid them in the grave, and vowed over it that they would conquer Erromanga for Jesus, or die, as their missionaries had died, in the effort. In 1864 the Rev. J. D. Gordon, going to convert, if possible, tlle murderers of his brother and his wife, was placed on Erromanga, and after much successful work, the heathen there killed him also with the tomahawk in 1872. The Christian party laid his body in the grave, wept and wailed over it, and renewed their vow and wrought and prayed till they ll1lve, indeed, conquered the island for Jesus Christ. Now every family there daily sings the praise of His redeeming love, and tries to serve him devotedly.
In 1858 the Revs. Joseph Copeland, J. W. and Mrs. Matheson,John G. and Mrs. Paton, and in 1859 S. P. and Mrs. Johnston were all placed on Tanna, but soon after Mr. Copeland went to Aneityum. From the first on 'l'anna, as on other islands, the native priests gave much opposition to the missionaries' teaching. This priesthood is powerful and profess to have and, by sorcery, to exercise all the powers of God. After the murder of the Gordons, a 'fanna "holy" man, prejudiced by white traders, clubbed an Aneityllm chief, a native teacher, and he died soon after, rejoicing in Jesus Christ. Also from the effects of a savage attack upon my life and hj~, Mr. Johnston never rallied, but died soon aftor, l)aving been only about four months on the island. In 1862, after much suffering, bereavement, and many attempts upon onr lives, and the loss of all earthly property, except our pocket Bibles, Mr. and Mrs. Matheson, the teachers, and I escaped by a passing ship. After reaching Aneityum Mrs. Mfltheson died in March and he died in June that year. I left for Anstralia, to get, if possible, more missionaries and a mission ship for our mission. 'rhcre the Lord, by His people, gave me £5,000. The new Dayspring* was bought with £3,000 of it, and the remaining £2,000 sent and supported more missionaries. Since that time island after island has been occupied, and the Lord has prospered our work, till we have now the large staff of 26 earnest, educated missionaries, 5 of them medical men and 5 lay helpers, besides about 3eo native teachers, all educated by our own missionaries for their work. In the mission we have a teachers' trainillg institution, with 46 students, under the care of Dr. Annand and his lay teachers, and we have a hospital under the care of Dr. Lamb and his lay helpers. By our missionaries the whole Bible has been translated into one language, and the New Testament into several. The portions of Scripture so translated, hase been printed, and are now read by the natives in over twenty languages of the group. This is a great work, which makes our mission laborious and expensive compared with others having only one language to conquer. Onr islanders had no written language when we began the Lord's work among them. A nnmber of the translations have been printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, but onr natives try to pay it for all it does for them.
As results of the work, our dear Lord Jesus has given our missionaries ab0ut 1(;,000 convertf', and the blessed work is extending among some 40,000 or 50,000 remaining cannibals on the group. In our synod year of 1895-96,1,120 savages renounced idolatry and embraced the worship and service of Christ. One missionary baptized 200 out of his communicants' class of 400, after a long and careful preparatory Scripturc training. We never baptize and teach afterward, but educate and wait till they give real evidence of consecration to Jesus Christ, and then, at their desire, baptize, and continue teaching them to observe in their life and conduct all things Jesus has commanded. Hence, we have only about 2,500 communicants, tho 10,000 attend our day and Sabbath-schools. All of our converts attend church regularly. In 1896 they contributed about £900, and last year over £1,300 by money and arrowroot, and a number of the islands now support their * The Dayspring was lost last year, and the need of a new vessel is sorely felt by the mis- sionaries, who must now depend entirely on Godless traders and vicious sailors who trade on Sabbaths, and whose contact with the natives often does incalculable harm. They supply natives freely with rum, and directly oppose the missionaries. The Presbyterian Assembly of Australia has recently voted to postpone decision as to securing another ship until next year. It is earnestly hoped that then the much·needed vessel will be furnisht.-Eo. own native teachers. Yet they have no money but what they get by selling pigs, fowls, cocoanuts, and copra to passing ships. God has gi ven four of Ollr present missionaries each from 1,'100 to 2,000 converts; alid at all onr more recently occupied stations the work is very encouraging, and enjoys the divine blessing. Our chief concern <at present is how we are to get money to keep our large staff going on, but we trust in Jesns to provide all as it is needed.
Never since J eSllS Christ gave the great commission, have so many of His servants been proclaiming the blessed Gospel, and never before in heathen lands has it shown more vitality and power in its grand results. Yet what large portions of the world are yet in heathen darkness! Oh, for a new Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit to all branches of the Church, to lead her to try to " preach the Gospel to every creature," and by the Gospel conquer the world for Jesus Christ. A small book, showing the extension and glorious fruits of Christian Protestant missions during the last half century wonld do much to silence the infidel and the enemies of Protestant missions to the heathen, enlighten the indifferent, and draw forth the united praise and prayers, and increast money support, and personal, zealous cooperation of Christians in all lands, so to conquer the world for Jesus Christ by His own appointed means. It would show that the Gospel is not only the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, high and low, of every color and of every country, but that, wherever found, it is the only real and lasting civilizer of man. Had Britain felt her responsibility, and improved her privileges by spending a twentieth part of what her present wars will cost her to snbdue her rebellious subjects, in giving them the Gospel teaching of Jesns while under her care, it might have prevented those wars, and saved her the loss of life and treasure and carnage in sn bdning her heathen revolted sn bjects, and the feelings of revenge that remain and foster in the hearts of the surviving relatives and tribes of the subdued. Armies may conquer and sweep the opprest into eternity, but Christ's teaching ell lightens the mind, influences the heart by creating it anew, and leads all so brought under its power to feel their responsibility to our God, the Supreme Judge of all. Thus it lifts them above heathen superstitions, prejudices, cruelties, and discontent, filling the heart with gratitude to God for His love and mercy in Jesus Christ, and so leading them to love their benefactors. and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Tho our New Hebridean savage cannibals, as they all were when our work began among them, have lost many thousands of lives, and suffered much oppressi ve cruelty by the sandalwood traders and by the shocking Kanaka labor traflic* • The ,. Kanaka Inter·island Labor" will form the subject of a future article by Dr< Paton. It is little better than a system of slavery, and is cruel in the extreme. Natives are brought from various islands to work under contract for traders and planters on unsupervised islands. Some of these natives have been flogged to death by theIr employers. This system calls loudly for reform.-ED.
THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
which followed, yet because of British missionaries so many of them have been brought to serve Jesus, that now the remaining population all plead for British annexation and protection. And lately, on a recently occupied island, where all under the missionaries' charge were painted savages, after several acts of kindness by the missionary, the war chief was led to hear the teaching of Jesus, and to believe in, and serve Him. He was the first man among some 3,000 or 4,000 to appear at the church and to wear clothing in public. For some reason his savage warriors wanted him to go to war, but he refused. His enemies sent a man to conceal himself by the path and shoot dead one of the chief's men, being one of their usual challenges to war, and many now urged him to fight in revenge, but he said, " I will not fight and shed blood, but leave all revenge to my J eSlls now," and he preacht the Gospel of peace and love to them, and prayed for them all. His life was threatened, but he also left that to Jesus. lIe now teaches a school among his savages, and, following his example, many have begun to wear clothing and attend school and church. The chief and twelve others are now candidates in a class for baptism and ch urchmembership, and a real work of grace seems to have begun allarounrl among the savages. Surely the Divine blessing on the sallle teaching would produce like blessed results among the heathen Sll bjects of all nations, and make them happy, industrious, loyal, loving subjectsa thing which can not be done by cOllquering armies.
THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
BY II. GRATTA5 GUINNESS, D.D., LONDON, ENGLAND.
Singapore in "the Straits," as the Straits of Malacca are popularly called, is only eighty miles north of the Equator, and forllls practically the center of communication for the East India Islands, one of the most important and populous groups of islands in the world. The Malay Archipelago is unique in climate and character. Its population equals that ~f South America,.yet there are few parts of the world less known to the ordinary traveler. All ships sailing from Europe and India to the far East must pass through" the Straits," so that Singapore has become an important stopping place; but the islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, and New Guinea being off the track are seldom visited, and the missionary work which is being done in them is little studied and understood. Its records are for the most part lockt up in the Dutch language, for the most populous islands in Malaysia are Dutch possessions.
In "the Straits," Penang and Singapore are both British possessions. They lie in the narrow strip of sea dividing the peninsula ot Malacca from Sumatra. With a warm, damp, uniform climate like that of a hothouse, their vegetation is remarkable for its tropical beauty and luxuriance. Palms and flowering trees abound, the air is often laden with the sweet odor of the blossoms, and nature is presented under some of its most attractive aspects.
The variety of races to be found in these two small islands is extraordinary. The larger part of the population is Chinese, but there are Malay, Bengalese, Parsees, Arabs, Javanese, and Jews, besides English, :French, Dutch, Germans, and Americans. In Singapore Bibles are sold in twenty-five languages. Men-of-war and trading vessels of many nations crowd round their beau tiful and extensive harbors, while Mohammedan mosques, Chinese joss houses, Hindu temples, and Christian churches are prominent in the well-kept streets and park-like spaces.
Passage from Hong Kong to Singapore can .be had on some of the best steamers for very low rates, thereby enabling thousands of Chinese to migrate from the overcrowded cities of South China year by year. Thus these cities have a decidedly Chinese aspect. Many of the Chinese merchants in Singapore are rich and prosperous, and the maJority of Chinese emigrants are industrious and successful.
'1.'he American Methodist Episcopal Church, under the supervision of Bishop Thoburn, has a school at Penang attended by 500 Chinese boys, and another at Singapore with 700 scholars on the roll. In both these schools the teaching is chiefly in English. English services are held in the building on Sundays.
At Ipoh in Perak, a native state on the Malay peninsula, under British protection, there is a church which was built by funds loeally 8ubs()ribed; a school of 100 boys (mostly Chinese), and regular services are conducted in English, Chinese, and Tamil. Two native preachers and two colpl)rteurs are working among about 100,000 people, scattered in 30 small towns.
I was interested to observe the degree to which the principle of self-support has been carried by the American M. E. Church in this extensive work under Bishop Thoburn's charge. In some regions self-supporting mission work is at present impossible, but wherever it is possible the principle should certainly be carried out in order that missionary funds may be used where most urgently needed. In Bombay, Poona, and Madras, there are congregations of Eurasians and others under Bishop Thoburn's charge, whieh are practically selfsupporting, and the important school and presswork in the Straits settlements is of the same character. Such work can only be founded and organized by laborers on the spot. No Home Committee thousands of miles away could do it. I was much imprest with the importance of adequate constant supervision of missionary enterprises. It is the testimony of primitive as well as modern times that Christian missions need visitation by wise and godly men charged with the responsibility of oversight, able to avail themselves in their conduct of the work of such knowledge and experience as can be gained only on the mission-field.
Among the larger islands in the Malay Archipelago, most important from the point of population, is Java; the rapid growth of whose population is distinctly traceable to the excellent management of the island under Dutch occupation. At the beginning of the century the population of Java was ouly about 3,500,000, and in 1826 it had advauced to 5,500,000. In 1850, when the Dutch system of cultivation had been in operation 18 years, the population was, by census, 9,500,000, an increase of 73 per cent. in 24 years. In 18;;5 it amounted to over 14,000,000, whil~ in 1894 it had reacht over 25,000,000. The island is 600 miles long, and varies from 60 to 120 miles in width. It has a rail way running half its length, and, according to the testimony of the naturalist Wallace, is "the most fertile, the most productive, and the most populous island within the tropics." The contrast as to population- and prosperity between Java and the islands of Borneo and New Guinea is most striking. The two latter, tho the largest islands in the world, have only 1,300,000 and 600,000 as their estimated populations. Borneo remains to a large extent covered with dense forest, while New Guinea is for the most part in a state of savagery.
Snmatra, also under Dutch government, has a population of 3,000,- 000; the island of Celebes 900,000, while the Philippine islands contain about 7,000,000 inhabitants.* :MISSION WORK IN THE :MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
1. In the island of JAVA, with a populatioll of about 25,000,000, five Dutch missionary societies are at work.
1. Tlte Netherlands Missionary Association was establisht in 1797. Its principal station is Mcdjowarno in East Java, where there are more than two thousand converts. Including its nine outstations, the native Christians at Modjowarno number between three and four thousand.
The story of the origin of the work is remarkable. A foreign riceseller, whose father was a Russian and his mother a Javanese, was converted about fifty years ago, and called to Christ's service by a dream. His testimony brought him into collision with the local Mohammedan teachers, whom he challenged to public discussion, with the result that many of his hearers were led to accept the Gospel. A German watchmaker living in the neighborhood, named Van Emden, assisted * Wallace, who spent eight years in the East India Islands, has shown that a line drawn in a north·easterly dir<,ction between Ceiebes and Borneo divides the Archipelago into two groups of islands contrasted in character. Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines are Indo- Malayan in their fauna, tiora, races, and languages; while Sumba, Timor, Banda, Coranl, Gilolo, and New Guinea belong to the Papuan, or Austro·Malayan group. The former are Asiatic, the latter Australian in their affimties. in the good work, and baptized the converts. When their number had increast they decided to establish a Ohristian village, and for this purpose made a clearing in the forest which superstition had left to the wild beasts. About 100 Ohristian natives there laid the founda- tion of Modjowarno. Brother Poolen, the Russio-Javanese, who had begun the work, died in 1873, at the advanced age of 105.
The .J.l£alaysia Nessage gives the following particulars as to the.
present position of the work at Modjowarno.
" Two missionaries* are now stationed there. The church is a neat, plain building with a spire and belfry, and has an average attendance of 400 adults and 460 children. A well-trained choir of natives, accompanied by an organ, leads the congregation with their sweet singing. The calm impressive Dutch Psalms are sung with remarkable pathos by these redeemed ones, drawing the heart nearer to that God whom they unitedly adore. After the service the members retire with an order which would put many European church-goers to shame. Attacht to the church there is a training-school with fourteen students, who are being prepared for the work of catechists and teachers. Behind the school is a rice storehouse for the poor, conducted by the missionaries on a self-supporting basis. There is also a savings-bank, which was opened in 1889, and a dayschool with 579 scholars, of whom the Christian boys number 215, girls 183, Mohammedan boys 164, girls 17. Facing the mission-house is a newly-built hospital with a dispensary and consulting room; medical relief was administered to 4,700 persons last year; more than 100 outpatients are in daily attendance."
In the province of Pasoeroean there is a station at Kendal-Pajakt with three outstations, and a Ohristian community of 1,400 persons.
The missionary has 21 native helpers.
The m'.ssionaries of the Netherlands Association work in two ways; some adopt the plan of fonnding Ohristian settlements free from Mohammedan influence; while others preach in the streets and offer Bibles and Ohristian books for sale.
2. The Java Oommittee in Batavia,t the capital of Java, has been forty years in existence. A seminary has been founded at Depak for educating native preachers. A number of day-schools are under the oversight of the missionaries. 3. Missions oj the R~forJlled Ohurches, representing the Reformed Missionary Association and the Ohristian Reformed Missionary Asso- ciation, has undertaken work among Eurasians and also among soldiers and sailors in Batavia. It has in addition mission stations in Snrabaya, Poerworedjo, Pekalongan, and Solo, where a hospital is soon to be erected.§ 4. The five missionaries// of The Salatiga Mission receive no fixt salary. Looking to God for the supply of their needs, funds are * Rev. J. Kruit and his son. t Under the care of Mr. J. Kreemer.
t Messrs. Geiszler and Haag are at present in charge of the station in the capital.
§ Under care of Dr. Scheurer.
U Brother Heiden, Kamp, Jungst, Zimmerbeutel, and Heller. ministered to them according to the abilities of the Association in Holland. They have small communities of Christians und er their charge in nine places.
5. The Baptist Missionary Associat'ioll,* or Mennonite Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the Dutch Colonies, was founded in 1848. 'fhere is now a ChriEtian colony at Mergared ja, and six thousand converts are connected with this mission in ceutr",l Java.
Altogether the missionaries in Java have about 1:3,000 profest converts up.der their charge. The whole Bible has been trauslatcd in the Javanese tongue, and has been printed with the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society. A large num bel' of schools are also under missionary oversight.
II. A mutiny in Borneo was the mean s of starting the SU'IATRA A SCENE IN MALAYSU.
miSSIOn. In May, 1859, heathen Dyaks incited and led by Mohammedan fanatics attackt the mission stations, killing seven mission ari es and several children, and dCRtroying the schools and churches. Four little children of the missionary Hofmeister weJe captured by the murderers and taken to th e jungle, bu t were subsequently ransomed after suffering many hardships and much cruelty. The twenty-five years' work of the Rhenish Mis81:onary Socidy was revived. As the door cont.inued closed in Borneo, the slll"vivors of the mission left Borneo for Sumatra and founded it work among the Battak people. This mission has been marvelously prospered, and in 1874 had nine • Its two first missionaries were Jans? and Schuurmans, and the son of lIfr. J~DSZ is now stationed at Mergoredjo. He is assisted by Brother Fast, who began work in 1890. stations with twelve missionaries and 2,300 baptized members. Tho the work among the heathen Battaks was by far the most successful, the conversion of the Mohammedans became more frequent year by year, and ill 1884 134 Mohammedan converts were baptized, and 340 were under instruction as applicants for baptism.
There are now nineteen missionary stations in Sumatra, in a population of 3,000,000. Twenty-two European missionaries are assisted by 104 paid and 306 unpaid native workers. Church-members number 21,779, and there are many scholars in the mission schools. Dr. Schreiber, the foreign secretary of the Rhenish Mission, says: "I do not know if there is any other part of the mission-field, with the exception of some part of Java, where such large numbers of Mohammedans have been won for Christ as among the Battaks of Sumatra."
III. In spite of the massacre of the Rhenish missionaries already referred to, Dutch missionary work is continued in BORNEO at eight stations under the care of eleven missionaries, with 19 paid and 10 unpaid helpers; there are 1,600 profest Ohristians, of whom about one-half are communicants. There is a special call for work among the Dyaks who are not yet Mohammedan, but who are in danger of becoming such through the influence of the Mohammedan Malays by whom they are surrounded. While the population of Borneo is about 1,300,000, that of British North Borneo is stated to be about 175,000, of whom 34,000 are Dusuns, 11,000 Bajows, 3,700 Sulus, 3,500 Brunei Malays, 7,000 Ohinese, 1,500 Malays, 960 Javanese, and 890 Bugis. As all these tribes speak different languages and are spread over a wide area, the work of evangelizing them 'presents many difficulties.
IV. Between Borneo and New Guinea lies the large island of OELE- BES, with an area of 42,000 miles and a population of half a million. It is a land of mountains and valleys, with a rich soil and salubrious climate, and capable of sustaining ten times its present population. Oelebes is inhabited by various tribes speaking Illany dialects. 'rhe most influential races are the Bugis, in the south, and the people of Macassar. Many of them are strict Mohammedans, others follow a hybrid religion, submitting to some of the rites of Islam, but still clingiug largely to their own superstitions. 'rhe tribes along the eastern coast and in the interior are called AUfuru, many of whom are still heathen. The seat of Dutch government is at Macassar, a place of some importance with a population of 46,000. The first to bring the Gospel to Oelebes were German missionaries, who in 1830 founded a station in the mountains, where at a height of nearly 3,000 feet they fouud a beautiful lake and plateau. Here a church was built and school establisht. Another center of work was fonnd at Langowan, six miles from the lake, and twenty miles from Tondano. The church in Tondano is the largest in Oelebes, and ceats about 2,000 people. Owing to the frequency of earthquakes it is constructed of wood. Every Lord's Day the church is fairly well filled, and at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which occurs twice a year, it is not large enough to seat the number who gather. In North Celebes, under the superintendence of the missionaries, there are 130 schools with an aggregate attendance of over 7,000 children. 'rhe entire Christian population is estimated at 130,000, and it is the testimony of Mr. Alfred Lee, from whom the above facts are gathered, that among the islands of Malaysia there is "no spot of like dimensions whose people are so well taught, so intelligent, and so well behaved, whose villages are so well ordered and clean; whose houses are so well bnilt and kept in such good repair; and whose women and children are so well cared for."
V. Want of space obliges us to group together onr notices of the remaining islands.
In Dutch NEW GUINEA a mission was establisht in 1885. Three stations are at present workt by seven missionaries connected with the Utrecht ~lIfission. 'rhere are about 230 native converts.
In the island of AMBOINA the number of Christians at the close of 1894 was 66,921, or more than one· fourth of the population, and in the TIMOR residency, 38,560. The Christians in 'l'imor form but a small proportion of the popUlation, and a desire for the Gospel has been exprest among the unevangelized native tribes.
On the island of GREAT SANGIR there are 16 churches with 16,250 adhere!1ts, of whom 857 are church members. At Tagoelandang there are 2,800 in attendance and 690 members. On the island. of NIAS at the close of 1890, there were four mission stations, six missionaries, and 770 converts. Four years later there were eight missionaries at the six stations, with 1,813 converts. Many other stations have to be past over from lack of space.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
'rhe question has been seriously agitated of late among the missionaries in Malaysia, whether the government regulations which have in view the material and intellectnal welfare of the native population are, or are not favorable to the work of missions. In a paper read at the quadrennial Missionary Conference in Java it was stated that" it is expressly stipnlated by the government that all native officials mnst be Mohammedans, and that if one of them was to become a Christian he would 00 at once removed from his post." As a result of this" the Dutch Government is hltimatelyassociated with Mohammedanism in the native mind." Christian missionaries are prohibited from worki~~ in Netherlands India without the permission of the government, while" no restriction whatever is placed on the movements of Mohammedan propagandists." « The state forbids itinerat-
PREPARATION FOR MISSIONARY SERVICE
ing missioEaries, or traveling preachers, and also open-air preaching." "Permission from the gnernment is necessary for public religious worship outside buildings and closed places," a permission seldom granted. It is feared that the government may, while assisting mission schools, be of greater help "to the Mohammedan propaganda and other forces which are opposed to Christianity, for there are already 20,000 Mohammedan schools and 350 heathen Chinese schools in Java alone." On the other hand, the number of schools under missionary influence is considerable. In the directory for the Straits Settlements and Indo-China for 1897, it is stated that there are in Netherlands India "502 government vernacular schools, and 578 pri vate vernacular schools, which gi ves instruction to upward of 117,800 pupils. 'rhe greater number of their private schools are managed by missionaries."
PREPARATION POR MISSIONARY SERVICE.* BY REV. J. C. R. EWING, D.D., LAHORE, INDIA. Principal of the Forman Christian College.
The work of winning the world for Christ is a veritable warfare with principalities and powers. The evangelizing of the nations is no light and insignificant task. :11'or its accomplishment the best gifts of the Church are demanded, and for the successful missionary certain definite qualifications are essential. He must be one who can say, not only at the outset, but every day throughout the years, "1'he love of Christ constraineth me." He is giving his life to a work which has in it vastly more of monotony than of romance, and has deliberately chosen to cast his lot amidst conditions calculated to depress rather than to stimulate. If, then, the love of Christ constrain him not, nothing else in the world can do so.
But aside from this spiritual equipment, the call of the Spirit to the work, and the indwelling of the Spirit in the worker's heartwithout which the missionary will be a disappointment to himself and to those who send him forth-is there not something else upon which emphasis ought to be laid? Is mere persOllal devotion to the Lord Jesus always sufficient to guarantee efficiency in the missionary? The obviolls reply to this is precisely the same that would be given relative to the work of Christian leadership in our own country. The thorough presentation of God's Word to the non-Christian worldthis is the work which the Church has undertaken. Side by side with our dependence upon the Holy Spirit to enlighten the dark mind, is the h1wwn side. It is ours to strive to show the reasonableness of * The substance of au address on" The Intellectual aud Practical Preparation of the Vol· ~nteer," delivered at the Student Volunteer Convention, February 24, 1898. the faith which we profess and preach, and to accomplish this, the brightest and best intellectual gifts to be found in the Church are needed.
The missionary goes to stand face to face with hoary systems of faith, some of which have not a little to say for themselves. The disciples of Confucius and Buddha and Mohammed and Laotze and Dayanand Saraswati are by no means ready to accept our statements as to the superiority of Christianity, merely because we utter them. 'fhe preacher not seldom find.; himself confronted by representatives of these faiths, whose familiarity with the doctrines of the Christian Seriptures startles him. 'fhere are also those amongst them who have become familiar with most of what has been urged against the teach- . ings of the Bible by skeptics of this and earlier ages. It is amazing how quickly anything which may seem to militate against the authen- ticity or genuineness of any portion of God's Word finds its way to non-Christian lands, and gains utterance from the lips of those who would oppose the message of the preacher in school, or college, or market-place.
The marvelous spread of the knowledge of our English tongue has made it easy for anyone who fancies that he has anything new to say against Christianity, to say it in quarters where it will meet the mIssIOnary. Western agnosticism and all forms of skeptical specula- tion have, in some quarters, encouraged a revolt against the propaga- tion of the Gospel. 'l'he Bradlaughs and Ingeisolls, the Blavatskys and OlcoUs and Besants, together with the Humes aud Voltaire sand Paines of the past, are striving, with an activity scarcely less than that of the Christian missionary, to influence great sections of the non- Christian world.
As illustrating the desirability of the best possible intellectual and educational equipment on the part of those who contemplate entering upon the work of a missionary, I would suggest: 1. Ability to master a strange awl dffficult langua.rJe is of the utmost importance. While a very imperfect acquaintance with a foreign tongne-familiarity with a few words, supplemented by vigorous gesticulation – may enable one to convey something of his thought to the patient and polite Oriental, who is all the while man- fully resisting the temptation to burst forth into laughter, neverthe- less the fact can scarcely be too strongly emphasized that the preacher or teacher of Christian doctrine falls far short of the highest efficiency who is unable to meet, on the common ground o~ familiarity with the speech of the country, those for whom he believes himself to have God's message.
As a rule, those conscious of markt inaptitude in linguistic study would do well to consider whether, after all, they are not called to sen'e Christ on home fields. A well-known missionary, when askt how long a time was required to master the language of the country in which he labored, replied: "Oh! about thirty or forty years." It is a lifetime's work. No person with less than five years' of hard study can speak to the peoples of Oriental lands as he should. True, he may begin to speak the language after a few months; but lle is almost certain frequently to share the experience of the Indian missionary who, after having discoursed for a quarter of an hour to a street audience, using what he believed to be intelligible Hindustani, was discomfited by the respectful request that he speak Hindustani, as they were not familiar with English.
Imagine a foreigner taking his stand in the market-place of one of our great American cities to preach to a waiting crowd the <1octrines of a strange religion. He hesitates, stammers, violates every rule of English grammar and idiom, and brings good old words into new alJd strange and ludicrous positions. Think of the effect UpOll his audience and of the inevitable and pitiable failure to secure for llis message the candid consideration of even the most thoughtful and earnest of the people. Something quite as ludicrous and sad as this characterizes every attempt of the missionary who fails to use, and to use well, the speech of the people amongst whom he labors.
2. A fair degree of familiarity 'With the false faiths which we aim, in Christ's name, to undermine and to overthrow, is essential. The mere mastery of a language will not suffice. The spirit or genius of the people must be understood. Their institutions, philosophy, literature, and faith we dare not ignore. These must be studied. There can be no effective and true preaching of the Gospel without such study. To pass rapidly from village to village with the announcement of certain great and precious truths, but which the inhabitants fail to undcrstand, because the preacher is unable to appreciate their attitude of mind and spirit, this, I protest, is not preaching the Gospel effectively or in such a way as to discharge our responsibility.
We must know the main currents of thought in order that we may bring the truths of the Bible to bear upon them. Pantheism, polytheism, atheism, idealism, fetishism, materialism, ill their baldest and in their subtlest forms, have to be met. Representatives of onc or, it may be, of ~ll of these, are before the preacher as he stands to deliver the formal discourse, or sits amidst the little group to talk to them of Christ. Power to understand and appreciate in very considerable measure the workings of those minds, imbued as they are with ideas which are thc product of the thinking of many generations of thinking people, is an indispelll:;able condition of real efficiency. A Hindu was beard to express himself thus: "It is an insult to our intelligence that a man should preach to us, and expect llS to accept his religion, when hc himself is unable to give allY red reason f0r supposing our religion to be inferior to his own, since he knows of our religion nothing at all."
3. Ability to reason intelligently with o~iectors, who are often honestly troubled over some of the great mysteries of OClr blessed faith, is another important qualification. Questions of the most tremendous import are often fairly hurled, one after the other, upon the missionary. For example: "Who died upon the cross? Was it God or was it man? If he was God, why did he cry out and say, 'My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' If he was man, how can we suppose that a man's death could atone for the sin of a whole world full of men? "
"Explain to me, please, the doctrine of the Trinity." "You say that the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul is not true. Will you give me any argument, outside the Christian Scriptures, to prove your position? " "Some of the greatest of the Christians say that a part of the Bible is not God's wOJ.d. "Vhich part is that, and how do you know that the remainder is inspired? " "Will you give me any reason for believing that there is a state of conscious existence after death? Of course, I want a reason outside the Bible, for that book is not with me an authority."
These are but typical of a host of the keenest inquiries which meet the missionary at every turn. No sophistry will be accepted were the preacher so foolish or so wicked as to descend to that. In some countries at least he is in constant contact with a people who can detect a flaw in an argument as readily, and who appreciate candor in discussion as highly as oursehes. Objections of every conceivable type are placed before the missionary, and if he fail to give reasonable answers to reasonable questions, it would seem wiser not to have assumed the part of a teacher, since his failure must result in almost incalculable injury to the cause which he represents.
4. Regarding the great fundamental truths qf Ohristianity, the young missionary should have definite, settled views. 'Ve can not afford to export doubt to foreign countries. Those lands have enough, and more than enough, religious speculation of their own. Faith and a system of vital truth, as opposed to doubt and profitless speculation, must be the su bstance of our message. In a very real sense must the messenger speak that which he knows, and testify of those things which he has seen. Ii it be otherwise, how pitiable is his blind attempt to lead the blind!
Missionaries should, therefore, as a rule, be thoroughly educated men and women. The best natural gifts disciplined and rlevelopt by the training of years are in demand. Let there be 110 short cuts to the mission-field. Seven years of literary and theological training seem long to those whose hearts are throbbing with enthusiasm for Ohrist, and who contemplate with horror the rapid rate at which the unevangelized millions are passing into eternitj without having heard of the world's Savior; but they must be content to wait while God is fashioning them into workmen who need not to be ashamed. Every truth mastered now will count for something by and by.
THE PRACTICAL PREPARATION OF THE MISSIONARY is, perhaps, of but little less importance than adequate intellectual eqlli pment. You are proposing to engage in spiritual work abroad. Have you ever tested your powers oJ, home? Much of your life is to be spent in personal dealing with individuals, in striving to guide men to a point where they will recognize their need of a Savior, and in pointing them to Christ as the great Physician. I believe that skill in thus dealing with men is rarely, if ever, born with ns, but is a distinct attainment. Experience in practical Christian work, in the teaching of God's IVord, personal contact with those who need help and guidance-here is a training-school for the missionary second in importance and faithfulness to no other. All would doubtless deprecate the sending forth of a missionary who himself has had no definite experience of the power of Christ to transform a human life. Second only to personal experience is the ability to guide others over the path which we have trod. The great work of life is to be that of winning souls for Christ. Those who do not succeed in showing some aptitude for this in their own country, give little promise of better success in a strange land.
The value of tactfulness in dealing with men is everywhere obvious. In treating with peoples of national or racial tastes, habits, and affinities other than onr own, practical common sense is mightily effective. One's own countrymen may overlook and forgive the most pronounced idiosyncrasy or failure to adopt oneself to special conditions. In foreign lands such lack of adaptability often stands as a barrier between the Christian and thoee whom he longs to influence.
The Church has arrived at a crisis in the progress of her work among the nations. A new condition is before her. She prayed long years for open doors and for increase in the number of workers who would enter those which were open. This missionary century is nearly gone, and lands long closed have beel! freed from every obstacle. Men and women now stand, only waiting to be sent. The fields are white, the harvest is waiting, the reapers are ready; what hilltlers? 'fhe bour has struck, but the Church is not on time. I have the confidence that the Church will not shrink and falter long. The cry of Peter the Hermit will soon be the cry of the whole Christian Church: "God wills it." – Then, filled with the Holy Spirit and thoroughly equipt for the work, larger llum bers of onr choicest men and women will go forth and carry to every dark corner of this great world the kllowledge of the world's Savior.
HINDRANCES TO INTEREST IN MISSIONS
H.-MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT.
HINDRANCES TO INTEREST IN MISSIONS. * REV. R. WARDLAW THOMPSON. Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society.
During the past one hundred years there has been a very markt change in the attitude of the Christian Church toward the great mis- sionaryenterprise. At the end of the last century, the idea of missions to the heathen was regarded only as the peculiar possession of a company of well-meaning but fanatical and foolish enthusiasts. The majority of the members of the various religious communions disapproved of the movement, and their disbelief found expression through very distin- guisht channels. To-day the dream of the enthusiasts is the creed of the Church, and organized missionary effort is a markt feature in every section of the Christian community. This is a change which speaks vol- umes for the advance of Christian life among us, and should be thank- fully accepted as an answer to the pessimism which seems inevitable in the declining years of a century which has seen the birth and progress of many movements, and which has now almost exhausted its vitality.
At the same time it is only too evident that while missions to the heathen have been accepted by the Church of Christ as one of its greatest honors and most pressing duties, the individual members of the churches are not yet all equally alive to the pressing nature of the obligation, or to their personal duty and privilege in connection with it. On the contrary, there is a very large amount of apathy still to be overcome, and there are many who on various grounds hold aloof from any share in this work.
The causes which are operating in many quarters to produce disbelief in missions to the heathen, or at least to make men lukewarm about them, are not obscure.
I. There is the mischievous ignorance of our universal knowledge. The world is so open, and the habit of travel and settlement in every country of the globe has become so common, that multitudes take holiday trips to Africa, India, China, and even to the distant islands of the sea, and multitudes settle do,vn in the midst of non-Christian peoples of the world for the purposes of trade. It is true that the traders live, as a rule, almost entirely apart from the natives of the lands to which they go; that in most cases they come in contact with them only for business purposes and in the most limited way; that in the East, especially, they know very little of their language; and that almost invariably they regard exact inquiry into their beliefs, their morals, and their social relations as being altogether outside the region of their int8rest or duty. It is true also, that the traveler, passing r'tpidly through a country and unable to speak its language, gets only a superficial view of the life of the people, and consorts entirely with the little communities of his own countrymen. But despite such disabilities, not to mention others, the traveler and the trader freely express their opinion with the fearless confidence of our race. They assure people that missions are a failure. and many believe them without question.
II. There has been a silent but very serious change of opinion in many quarters, which has necessitated looking at the whole question of lUii'?- • Reprinted from The Student Volunteer (British).
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
siom; from a new point of view, and this has in many cases produced a suspicion of the real value of mission work, even where there is not an avowed disbelief in the Expediency and duty of sending tho Gospel to the heathen. 'Vhen canons of the Church are found prepared to argue that Mohammedanism is better suited than Chrl'stianity to meet the spiritual requirements of races in Africa who are in a low stage of development, it is not altogether surprising that many others should doubt the propriety of sending the Gospel to such people. The belief in the necessity for individual conversion to God result,ing from conviction and repentance of sin, and from the revelation of God's grace in Christ through the Holy Spirit, has in many quarters apparently slipt into the background, if it has not been utterly discarded. ,,-here this is the case, enthusiasm for missions can not fail to suffer.
III. Perhaps the most distinctly prevalpnt form of objection to missions is to be found in the unsettled state of men's minds on the subject of the future state. In the early dnys of modern missions the appeals of missionnry sermons and speeches were frequently occupied with descriptions of the appalling spectacle of the myriads who die without the Gospel in heathen Innds, nnd who were pnssing away to perdition unsaved nnd hopeless. The pendulum of opinion has swung far in the other direction in more recent years. Geninl optimism has so far affected men's minds that their interest in the salvation of the world seems to hnve died nway. They ask, "Vhy increase men's responsibility by preaching to them a Gospel which every prepossession and influence of past habit leads them to resent nnd reject? ,Vhy not leave them to the slower yet certnin process of natural development, resting assured that God's great purpose of snlvation will assuredly be fulfilled in His own time and wny ?"
THE ANSWER TO OB.TECTIONS.
To my mind, the simplest and most complete answer to nIl such objections is in the plain stntement of facts. Knowledge of the facts of mission history is quite sufficient to remove nIl doubt about the success of missions.
1. The story of what the Gospel has actually nccomplisht in Greenland, in the West Indies, among the many groups of the South Sea Isinnds, and in Mndagasear, is full of wonders. But the results already achieved in the great lands of the Enst, tho not so conspicuous as those of the simpler fields, are renlly more remarknble, when the conditions under which the work has been carried on nre realized. This hns also been admitted by the people themselves in many vigorous efforts to counternct it.
II. Again the facts of the history of nations and races show how hopeless is the dream of the evolution by nntural processes into n condition of permnnent and perfect life. That the course of human life is under the control of Inw is llnmistaknbly evident, but that Inw is the Inw of progression to mnturity and then decay. Nay, more, the very factors in the chnrncter of the race which nt one period in their history are n source of strength and progress, become inevitnbly the menns of their decny after they have nchieved their growth. The only thing which can nrrest the naturnl process of decny, and make life permanently young and vigorous, is the incoming nnd influence of some moral or spiritual principle. It will surely not be disputed that there is not, nor hns there ever been, a spiritunl principle or influence known to the world, at once so elevated,
BUDDHISM AT HOME AND ABROAD
so simple, so universally effective, as that contained in the Christian revelation. The evidences which may be drawn from themission-field of the results of the incoming of Christianity to conserve and to renew are very numerous and very impressive.
III. Once more, the facts of individual life suffice very speedily to prove, that if the gracious saviug and renewing influences of the Gospel are to prove effectual, it can only be as the result of the conscious action of the individual will. Christian education, Christian environment, Christian influence, constantly sustained, will not suffice to make a man a new creature in Christ Jesus, unless he repents of sin, and seeks and accepts the grace of God in Christ, and yields to the influence of the Divine Spirit.
IV. Lastly, the effects of the world's present moral condition show such lamentable evidence of the working out of the stern law of deterioration and death, that theories of the future state are cast in the shade by the urgency of the need of present regeneration. One thing is clear: God is dishonored here and now by man's sin, and the sin of man is daily leading him further from God, and light, and goodness, each sinner destroying much good and making the path of virtue and godliness more difficult for his neigJ:1bors. Christian work becomes, therefore, not a question affecting the future condition of the world and its future relation to God, so much as its present urgent need. If you would have fountains of human life cleansed, if you would have the peoples of the world delivered from the horrible bondage of present corruption, if you would have God glorified in His works, opinions as to the law of God's dealing with men hereafter will have to be subordinated to the duty of taking the Gospel to them here and now. The world is dying in its sin, and only the Gospel of God's grace in Christ can bring to this dying world a healing and vitalizing force sufficient to arrest decay and bring humanity back to the Divine ideal.
BUDDHISM AT HOME AND ABROAD.
American and Asiatic Buddhism may seem much the same in theory, when expounded by skillful apologetes, but the real character and practical results of the doctrines can only be fully seen and studied where they have had full sway for centuries. There the fruits which reveal the true nature of the tree indicate that it is impotent to produce pure, unselfish, and powerful character, however much of truth there may be in it. A correspondent of the New York Sun thus writes, in part, of Buddhism as seen in Ceylon: People who are trying to foist Buddhism on us in the West, are like the bla.se Roman patricians of the middle empire, who went daft over the Syrian sun cultus, and the jaded French noblesse running after the mesmerist Cagliostro, in the latter days of the ancient regime. A trip to Kandy would do them good. In the vestibule of the Kandy templethe center of Buddhism-is a series of painted panels representing the condemned in the Buddhist inferno. 'Voman, as the child bearer and perpetuatrix thereby of human woe, is the chief sufferer. She is cut with knives and axes, sawn asunder, immersed in billows of flame, transfixt on stakes, crucified, torn to pieces by foul birds, eaten of reptiles. Yet there are in London, Berlin, and elsewhere societies composed almost entirely of women for the study and the propagation of the very creed which treats them with such distinguisht consideration.
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
When the Buddhist fad was preternaturally active in Boston some years ago, men and women boasting their enlightenment, and scorning effete theologies, could be seen by the hour poring over the Dhammapada and the Vinaya Pitaka. The run in the library for Max Muller's translations and for Sir Edw'in Arnold's versions of Indian poems was unprecedented. Not to know who Siddarta ~as, or what the Bhagavadgita taught, or what the Tibetan mystery of Buddha reincarnate signified, meant social ostracism. Every now and then you would see in the horse-cars pale-faced spectacled youths studying hard on Sanscrit grammars. In ~hort, Buddhism was in the air; Oriental religion was epidemic, and who might be the next victim of the contagion it was impossible to foretell.
An elderly lady, wealthy, socially prominent, and of large literary attainment, was one of the first to fall under the spell. She was so affected by the claims and injunctions of the new belief, and so convinced of the need of a pure and unadulterated Buddhism, that she determined to import from India a learned pundit who should instruct her and her friends in the esoteric mysteries of Asia. Extensive alterations were ordered in the rear of her house, and in due time a sanctum was built, which would have done honor to Agra. Wednesdays and Saturdays were the appointed days of meeting. If you had strayed into these sacred precincts on these occasions, you would have seen a tall, darkfaced Hindu, with an immense shock of hair, holding forth to a cotery of fifteen or twenty ladies, who listened with raptattention to every syllable falling from his lips. You might have said that the discourse was rhapsodical, incoherent, even nonsensical at times. But never mind; you are not initiated. The point of view from which one looks at these things affects one's judgment very seriously.
Now we all agree that religion is not for Sundays alone; and we confess with shame that so often among us Christians piety is laid aside on Monday morning. Not so with our Buddhist friend. The new creed was to permeate daily life with its peculiar vigor. J<Jverywhere and in everything it was to receive recognition. On a certain occasion, therefore, when Mrs. -_. was to give a reception, she decided to show her colors. On the invitations, in the right-hand corner, was engraved the complete symbology of Buddhism, the mystic syllable "Om," the serpents encircling the globe, and much more, which my own slight knowledge of the East could not interpret. Several hundred invitations with the enigmatic characters were sent out, one of which haJ1pened to fall into the writer's hands. Curious to know the entire significance of the hieroglyph, I handed it to a friend born in India, versed in the lore of Indian mysticism, reading Sanscrit as English. Vhat was my surprise and horror to learn that the apparently innocent engraving stood for immoralities which would bring the blush of shame to any modest person's face.
Fortunately the Buddhist fad has to a great degree subsided in America, and is not likely to reappear in force.
Rev. William Upcraft writes from Rangoon, Burma, of the "Concrete Buddhism," as seen in its practical outcome as contrasted with its theoretical teachings as to purity and unselfishness exploited in Occidental circles. He says; Adult Buddhism is in urgent need of strong remedies for internal maladies, rather than the mild exitement of fitful adulation in select circles in
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY IN MALAYSIA
the Occident. Buddhism needs to be rescued from idolatry and its associated evils. Like a nightmare this fearful system sits upon the people, feeding itself on the superstition originated by its own hand. Ability to people this world with malignant spirits, and the world to come with unspeakable horrors, release from which can only be found through priestly office, is a condition from which Buddhism needs to be rescued. From polyandry and the moral obtuseness implied in that condition, from polygamy and the oppression of woman involved in such relations, a like rescue is desirable. From the narrowness of mind, the darkness of heart, and moral inertia in which lying has become a habit, the tolerance of its followers a cloak for the defects of its priesthood, and the temple courts the resorts of gamblers and opium-smokers, Buddhism urgently needs a rescue.
'Vhere is the Buddhist conscience in respect to the illtreatment of animals? Across the hills in Western China one meets with long trains of pack animals, whose raw and fretted backs are a source of constant pain to the creatures, and shame to the men who can stand by ill criminal indifference to the suffering from which the burden bearers find no relief because there is no voice to plead for them. Why is Buddha dumb?
The condition of the women, too, in this land is not a poem. There are evils so well known that recitation of them is wearisome, and it has been reserved for white women from across the seas to voice the need and find a remedy. Again, why is Buddha dumb? There are starving thousands, there are weak and crippled tens of thousands, and crowds of others just as needy to be found in the swarming cities and hamlets of China- and Buddha has been silent save in the drawing-rooms of the West.
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY IN MALAYSIA.
An important statement concerning" The Spread of Islam in the Dutch Indies" appears in a recent number of the Malaysia Message, laying on the Dutch government much of the responsibility for the gathering of converts for the Crescent in their colonies. The report says in part: By far the greater part of the ground Mohammedanism holds at present in the Indian Archipelago it has gained since the Dutch took possession of those regions. In Sumatra, it is true, Achin and Menangkabau had become .Mohammedan before that time, and thence Islam had found its waS to Java; but on both these islands the majority of the people were still heathen when the Dutch took possession of them, and to the islands of Borneo and Celebes Mohammedanism has crept in the time of the Dutch government. At present on Java almost the whole population is Mohammedan, at least in name; a great deal of heathenism still being concealed under the surface. In Sumatra about one-fourth are still heathen. In Borneo and in the Celebes perhaps one-half-but wherever in Dutch India a heathen population is in contact with Mohammedans, Mohammedanism is advancing steadily. Even the official government reports state the progress of Mohammedanism in the Battak country and Telambang, in Sumatra, in West and Southeast Borneo, in Menado, Celebes, and in Ternate, Tidore, Bachan, and several other places.
That it is really the Dutch government itself which spreads and forwards Mohammedanism is clearly shown in the Battak country in Suma-
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
tra. The people of the Battakland have been for centuries not only in contact with the Mohammedan Malays, but several times they have been attackt, and a large portion of their land has been quite desolated by the Malays, in order to win the Battaks for Islam. But all was in vain; the Battaks kept firmly to their heathen creed until, about forty years ago, they became subjects of the Dutch government. Now almost the whole of them, as far as the Dutch government extends, have become Mohammedan, whilst hardly a Mohammedan is to be found beyond the borders of the colony. The Mohammedans of Sumatra themselves believe that Allah has given the rule to the Dutch in order that all heathen nations may be made Mohammedan. Many heathen in Sumatra are quite amazed when told that the Dutch are not Mohammedans; so much is the Dutch government and Mohammedanism one and the same thing to them.* The Dutch can not live in Malaysia without a Mohammedan appendix of lower officers, as clerks, policemen, interpreters, and tradesmen. The Malay language being (outside Java) the language of the government, and being spoken by Mohammedans only, is one of the most powerful agents of Mohammedanism. ",Vherever the Dutch government is establisht, everybody that has anything to do with it, either in court or trade, is compelled to learn the Malay language, and very seldom any one has learnt Malay without becoming Mohammedan at the same time. Very soon, therefore, all the native men of influence, become Mohammedans, and then before long the other people follow them. There are few Mohammedan missionaries in Malaysia, but the Moslems, being zealous in fulfilling their religious duties, and very ardent to propagate their creed, all of them do the work of missionaries, especially the so-called hadjis, whose number increases year by year, on account of the passage to Mecca by steamer being now very cheap and easy. In 1875 there were no less than 5,600 hadjis (pilgrims) from Malaysia.
In corroboration of and in contrast to this is an article in North Africa, by Dr. A. Schreiber, Sec. of the Rhenish Mission, describing work among the Mohammedans of Sumatra. He says in part: In Sumatra the Battak people surrounded by two fanatical Mohammedan nations, the Achinese and the Malays, were almost sure to be swallowed up by them, But things have altered veryomuch since the work of Christian missions was begun among the Battaks about forty years ago. This was done under especially favorable circumstances. There had been a very fanatical sect among the Mohammedans of the Bovenlande of Padang, called the Padries, who had driven the Malays into the holy war against all their heathen neighbors, especially against the Battaks, whose country was laid waste and depopulated to an enormous extent. For this reason some of the Battaks askt for Christian teaching, and welcomed the missionaries when they began their work among the Battaks of Angkola and Sipirok.
I t soon became clear that the heathen belief could by no means stand against the double attack of Islam and the Christian faith; it was giving way very quickly as far as the influence of the Dutch government reacht. In some districts heathenism disappeared in a few years. But by far the greater part decided for Islam and not for the Gospel. What all the * The Dutch may not wilfully propagate Mohammedanism, tho there are some infatuated men among them who, blinded by their hatred against Christianity, really and openly wish good speed to the Crescent.
ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY IN MALAYSIA
fanaticism of the Padries had been unable to do was done by the steady influence of the Dutch government.
The missionaries wisely preferred to begin their work as far as pos- sible in those parts of the land where the Dutch government had not yet come, and where the people were still heathen. The result has justified their doing so, since they have been enabled to Christianize one very im- portant region, the valley of Silindung, with a population of about 15,000 souls. In other parts of the country, where they had to work under the influence of the Dutch government, they found the increase of Islam too strong for them, and only a small portion of the population accepted the Gospel.
For almost thp first thirty years everyone that embraced the Mohammedan faith was considered lost to Christianity, altho there had been exceptional cases ip which converts had been won from Islam. But during the last few years things have altered very much in this respect; I do not know if there is any other part of the mission field, with the exception of some parts of Java, where at present such large numbers of Mohammedans have been won for Christ, as among the Battaks of Sumatra.
Several causes have workt together to bring about this happy change. It made a deep impression upon the whole people, that the entire valley of Silindung became Christian, where till recently the only change in religious matters had been their conversion to Islam. But perhaps the behavior of the Christian Battaks, living in the midst of the Mohammedans, has had a still greater influence. The people had been accustomed to have all the same religion, and when most of them had embraced Islam, and only a small portion had become Ohristians, it was quite natural that the Mohammedans considered it their duty to do all in t.heir power to win the Christians over to their faith. They expected with certainty, that the Christians could not withstand their endeavors, because they had all the important chiefs, who are at the same time the judges, on their side in the struggle. But after a time they found that the Christians, however small their number, stood their ground, and showed not the slightest inclination to change their religion for Islam; nay, even more, they were obliged to confess that the Christians knew a great deal more about their new faith than they did themselves, because Battak Mohammedans do not understand Arabic, and get a very poor religious nourishment out of the Arabic Koran. Besides, it must be difficult for a people that were accustomed to pray in their own mother tongue to their former gods, to be compelled, as Mohammedans, to pray in a quite unknown and unintelligible tongue, not knowing the meaning of what they say. The Christians were much better off, being allowed to pray in their own language.
During the last five or six years a great number of Mohammedans have exprest their wish to become Christians, and have come under the instruction of the missionaries and their native helpers. Theirnurnbel' amounted every year to several hundreds, and at present there are more than 500 of them under the care of the Rev. Schutz, of Bungabondar. Nor is that all. 'There is a vast tract of country east of Sapirok, stretching to the Straits of Malacca, called the Padang Bolak (" the wide lowland "), which I had considered as wholly lost and gone over to Islam. But I thought it well to make at least a trial, and to send a native evangelist, Markus Siregar, to visit the district, and to preach
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
the Gospel in all the scattered villages and the valleys of the Padang Bolak. This he did for several years with great zeal and perseverance, and altho he encountered much resistance from the "hadjis" (Mecca pilgrims), he found many willing ears to listen to what he told them. Thus we were encouraged to send a European missionary there, and the Rev. Irle went in 1888, and settled in a place called Sipiongot. He had for his assistants four trained native teachers and evangelists, among them Markus. Mr. Irle has been cautious in receiving people into the church, keeping them generally for several years under instruction, before he baptizes them; but, notwithstanding, he had at the end of 1894, 338 baptized, and more than 500 that wished to be, by far the greater part of whom had been formerly Mohammedans. These people are scattered over a very wide area, and are living in a great number of villages. In some of the villages, where formerly Islam was predominant, it has been expelled altogether, so that the hadjis and the Moslems have disappeared.
There are two peculiar yet hopeful signs for the future of this work. There has been a very great number of the chiefs that have embraced Christianity, among them some of the very first men in the country; and besides, new calls for the Gospel are constantly coming from distant parts of the country, so that the missionary says he ought to have at least twice as many assistants, in order to be able to supply all the wants of his district.
The greatest struggle in our Battak mission is now going on round Lake Toba, where we have planted ten mission stations within the last fifteen years, among a popUlation of about 150,000 souls, almost all still heathen, with only a few that have become Mohammedans during their stay in Delhi or Assahan, on the east coast of Sumatra. Altho the country is n<;rw under Dutch rule and influence, we hope that by far the greater part of that vast popUlation will be won for Christ. Altogether we have (1896) at work now among the Battaks twenty-four European missionaries, besides five single ladies, and more than 150 native trained assistants, of whom nineteen are ordained. The number of our Battak Christians amounts to 31,000, besides 6,600 adherents.
MEDICAL MISSIONS TO THE AFGHANS.* BY T. L. PENNELL, M.D., BANNER, PUNJAB, INDIA.
Afghanistan is one of those benighted countries where the herald of the Gospel has hitherto found his entrance barred. As far as we know, the Gospel has never been publicly proclaimed within its borders. True, some thirty-five years ago the clergyman and traveler Wolfe visited Cabul and preacht in the Armenian church there, and some fifteen years ago the native pastor of Peshawar visited the same place and ministered for a few days to the few Armenian Christians in the city; but since then harder times have come, and the Armenians, tho able to get work under the amiI', and free from persecution so long as they keep quiet, yet are unable to conduct public worship, and their small church has been destroyed.
The present amir is an astute ruler, and thoroughly comprehends * Condenst from Mercy and Truth.
1898·1 MEDtcAL MISSIONS TO THE AFGHANS
the character of the people whom he has to govern, and to what an extent they are ruled by blind religious passion; and, tho probably himself broad-minded and caring more for the affairs and pleasures of the world than the arguments and phantasies of his religion, yet he realizes the necessity of appearing a devout Moslem in the public eye, and visits with no slight punishment any tendency toward heresy or schism from the state religion. There is little reason to suppose that a convert in Afghanistan would be able to make his change of religion known and yet save his life.
The priesthood in Afghanistan are almost the only people in the country possest of any learning, and have been accustomed from countless generations to be the trm;ted advisers of chiefs and people in matters temporal as well as spiritual. They have thus attained 11 tremendous influence, and would scarcely favor any leanings toward a new religion, which would take away their livelihood and their name. Thus these priests, or mullahs, are nearly everywhere our most bitter and rancorous opponents, and not infrequently succeed in stirring up enmity against us and our work where the people were originally and naturally friendly disposed.
Another prominent feature of the people is their division into tribes, which are constantly at war with each other. It has been aptly said that the Afghans are never at peace except when they are at war, for in the face of a common enemy or invader the tribal feuds are dropt, and the bitterest of foes fight shoulder to shoulder till the common danger is averted. Then they again, with unquencht avidity, take up the cudgels against each other.
Nor does this strife end at the tribe, for within that tribe, as in Israel of old, are many distinct families or sections, each with its own grievances and bloodscore against its neighbor; and within the family too often the house is divided against the house, and a man's foes are those of his own household. I have frequently been in a village where my host could not accompany me at night to a different section of the same village, but at every few streets it has been necessary to take a new guide resident in that neighborhood, as all regard a man of a different part of the same village, visiting their street at night, as necessarily doing so for sinister purposes. Only a few days ago I was visited by an influential priest from over the border, and, in addition to the Koran under his arm, he had his rifle and a well-filled cartridge belt, a revolver in his waistband, and a short sword dangling by his side; and when I remarkt on the incongruity of his accoutrement, he said, "Oh, but these things are necessary in our country; there are few houses here which have not their own blood feud."
It can be well understood what an advantage a medical mission has among these people over any other, and no more forcible proof could be given of it than a visit to our hospital. Afghanistan is entirely devoid of anything worthy of the name of surgical or medical treatment, and consequently the area from which we draw our patients has practically no boundary whatever on Ule west; and we may say with thankfulness to God that the mission hospital is a household word in nearly every village and hamlet for a hundred miles around.
The only check on the numbers coming to us is the obligation under which they are laid of listening to the preaching of the Gospel which precedes the giving of medicine, an unwelcome obligation which undoubt-
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
edly largely keeps down the number of those availing themselves of medical relief. Still the daily number of out-patients is seldom below a hundred, and frequently rises to nearly two hundred, and often the worst cases are brought from the more distant parts of the district~ We have gradually increast our beds, till now we have thirty-one, yet not only are these all full with (mostly) operation cases, but many others, urgently requiring in-patient treatment, are kept outside. lYe feel the want of trained nU,1'ses most acutely; most of the patients have either brother or father or wife to attend them, and he or she will sleep on the floor beside the bed of their sick relation, and attend to their wants in a rough but kindly way; but the greasy garments and long unwashen skin of this dilettante nurse send many a misgiving to the heart of the surgeon, especially when he is seen to have bound some very old and dirty rags from his own person round the dressings of an aseptic joint case to make it lie more softly. Yet to dispense with these willing but uncouth, unwashen, and often blundering helpers is quite impossible, as most of the patients would refuse to stop without their friends to care for and guard them.
The same ward illustrates the geographical extent of our work, for six men come from five different tribes, and beyond the British border they could not come into such intimate contact without carrying out designs on each other's lives and effects. When they return to their homes far and neal', they will recount to their fellow-villagers, not only the benefits, the health, the kindness, received in the hospital, but a more or less intelligible account of the Gospel they have heard preacht during their time of sickness; and Christianity, instead of being associated in the minds of the hearers with heresy and strife, will be lookt on as the motive of the love displayed on them, and prejudices will first be mitigated, then softened, and finally dispelled before the purity of Christian light and love. Thus many a time has it been our experience that the presence of an old in-patient has made all the difference in the reception we have received at a village; instead of being turned away or warned off with angry looks or blank defiance, we have been welcomed as their friends, and all the Gospel we have spoken has been received with respect and attention.
The area of Afghanistan is about 20,000 square miles, and its population numbers about four million. At present the only means of reaching them is by medical missions on the border, and by the distribution of portions of the Bible and tracts which have been translated into Pashtu or Afghani. Abdul' Rahman, the present amiI', holds an important strategic position as ruler of the mountainous country lying between Russian Turkestan and the northwestern frontier of India. He is also a man of iufluence in the Mohammedan world, and his attitude in the Indian frontier wars has been of no small im.portance.
As a race the Afghans are handsome and athletic, often with fair complexion and flowing beard. They are brave and warlike, hardy and lawless. While apparently frank and generous, they are really unscrupulous, treacherous, passionate, and cruel. Sohriety and hardiness characterize the people as a whole, but deep and degrading debauchery too often marks the upper classes. Sir H. Edwardes sums up their charact,er by saying, "Nothing is finer than their physique or worse than their nlorals." IlI.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Uprising of Student Volunteers. service, so that fifteen years ago not only the supply of agents for It is not onr intention to givc a foreign service was limited and report of the Third International haphazard, but the call for men Convention of the Student Volun- was spasmodic, and generally on teer Movement for Foreign Mis- very short notice. There were no sions, but rather to review the conditions that turned the minds movement in the light of the addi- of young men and women just tional information and inspiration entering upon their life-work to of that assembly. It is scarcely the foreign mission service, nor was necessary even to outline its history there any security of ultiluate emand present status. ployment in it if they did considel' it, for there was little law of selec- 'Vhen, a century ago, 'Villiam tion by the societies beyond a sort Carey said his "business was mis- of "catch-as-catch-can," within a sions," and he "carried on shoe- few months, as the demand arose. making to pay expenses," the high- This slipshod manner of securing way to the mission fields was not agents left the societies often withyet cast up, and the fields them- out the men when needed, and not selves were not so much as mapped infrequently compelled them to out. But within the century, prac- take those of poorer furnishing tically speaking, the whole world than the case required. was thrown open to the missionary enterprise. The Church's prayer It is a remarkable fact that the for open doors was answered. attempt to regulate this entire sup- ply, and to initiate any system on Two problems, at the close of the which it could be operated, did not first century of foreign missionary arise either in the missionary 0]'- effort, faced the Church: where to ganizations as such, nor in the colfind the men and where to find the leges and theological seminaries,. money to develop these great provi- nor within any establisht ecclesiasdentialopportunities. 'Vark abroad tical organizations, but like the had grown into great dimensions, missionary movement under Carey which demanded a far larger force and that under Judson and his asof missionaries than was forthcom- sociates, was inaugurated by indiing. Two causes among others viduals at :1t. Hermon, ]fass., in superinduced the lack of agents. the summer of 1886, and was not (1.) For some decades the Christian organized till 1888, since when it world had experienced unwonted has been known as the Student development of commercial and V olunteer Movement for Foreign other enterprises, and the oppor- Missions. It is distinctively a mistunities for the accumulation of sionary society, finding its field wealth attracted the most promis- among the Christian students of ing of the youth of the land, so the higher institutions of learning, that candidates even for the minis- among whom it seeks to create and try were found in insufficient num- maintain an intelligent and active bers from the best-trained grad- interest in foreign missions, to enuates of the institutions of learn- roll a sufficient number of students ing. (2.) The Church had not sys- who may volunteer for service to tematically set itself to the special meet the demands of the missionary training of men for foreign mission boards, to aid such intending mis- augmented the supply quite beyond sionaries to prepare for foreign ser- the demand of the missionary so- vice, and yet further to awaken and cieties, while before the supply was deepen the sense of responsibility not equal to the demand. of all other Christians toward foreign missions. The activity of the officers of the society as recruiting agents was Its field is definite, its object is naturally open to the charge that definite. Its results have been they pointed a way which they markt. Ithastouchteight hundred themselves did not go. That could, and thirty-nine of the institutions at any time, scarcely have been of learning, and enrolls at the more than a cavil, but even the present time about four thousand cavil has been abundantly met in men and women who purpose to the statement that of twenty-six enter foreign missionary service different volunteers who have been if permitted by their providential traveling secretaries or members of opportunity. Not all of these will the executive committee within its go abroad; some will be let by Provi- history, including those now in dence. Not all would be accepted office, fourteen have sailed for forby the boards, but the number of eign fields, four are under appointstudents who are expecting to be- ment to sail within eight months, come missionaries now in the col- and three have applied to the leges is five times as great, and in boards and are temporarily emthe seminaries is over two times as ployed by these boards at home, great as it was before the move- and the remaining five are still prement start,ed. It does not follow, paring themselves for foreign serof course, that the whole of this in- vice. crease of perwnal candidacy is to be attributed to this movement, Besides increasing the number of but the larger part of it doubtless is. candidates from which the boards Of those who have been enrolled on might select, there is no doubt this the list of Volunteers by this move- movement is entitled to credit for an ment at the close of the year 1897, improvement in the average quality 1,173 are known to have gone to the of missionary applicants, through mission field under the direction of the introduction among the stuforty-six missionary societies, em- dents of classes for systematic ployed in fifty-three countries in study of missions, which have various parts of the world. grown within four years from thirty to 267, having a present eu- It would be impossible to make rolhnent of 2,361 students; the placsuch analysis as would show what ing of $20,000 worth of missionary number of missionaries would have literature in these institutions, bebeen drawn from these institutions sides which there has been a trainwithin the same ten years irrespec- ing in giving, which has augmented tive of this movement. The growth the miSSionary contributions in the of the demands of the foreign mis- colleges and seminaries from $5,000 sions for men and women and other to $40,000. What the influence has collateral causes, would doubtless been on those who have gon,e out have made the number larger than from these institutions of learning that of any preceding decade; but who remain at home, in giving after all this has been deducted, them an intelligent interest in forthere still is a large residuum at- eign missions, it is impossible to tributable to the activities of this estimate. Altogether the Church organization. It must also be has to face the fact that to-day she borne in mind that this movement has both open doors and a volunteer force of trained recruits, which, closing meeting, sixty-two students if not equal to the opportunities present indicated their expectation abroad, is at least far and away to go to foreign service before the ahead of the financial ability of the year closes; about one-third· of boards to move to the front, and a them were women, 5 were trav- force which can be indefinitely in- eling secretaries of the Volunteer creast by still further aggressive movement, 24 of the number were action of the Movement among 10,- expecting to go to China, 13 to 000 theological students on this con- India, 6 to Africa, 5 to South tinent, 25,000 active members in America, and others to Mexico, the College Young Men's Christian Bulgaria, Arabia, Japan, and Associations, and over 10,000 active Korea. members in the College Young Women's Christian Associations, It may be an open question not more than one in fifteen of whether the greatest good is had whom has yet been brought into re- by so large a convention of stu- lation with this organized effort dents. Might a smaller number, to enroll volunteers or with this more thoroughly sifted, be handled training in mission classes. with a higher degree of ultimate influence, and allow a much larger Of the Third International Con- attendance of the public interested vention there is little need to speak, in missions? Gray's Armory was since it has been so extensively re- crowded to its capacity by the mem- ported through both the secular bers and guests of this convention, and religious press of the country. to the exclusion of multitudes who There were present registered as would have been benefited by the delegates, 1717; college presidents proceedings. On the other hand, and professors, 106; returned mis- there was a splendid influence and sionaries, 89; secretaries of foreign suggestiveness from the great num- missionary boards, 83; representa- bers officially connected with the tives of the religious press and other convention. The secular local press _organizations, 219; making a total gave large circulation in the city of of 2,214 delegates and guests. Such Cleveland to the bulk of good things a body of mature young men and said and done. The Cleveland young women, assembled with such Leader pointed out the apologetic serious purpose, was of itself worth value of such an assembly. It traveling far to see. snift at the suggestion that the Bible is losing its hold upon the Such a vast assembly magnetized educated men and women of the itself, but the mental training of times, "in the presence of this great the schools showed in the self-con- body of young searchers for knowl- trol of the body, even when the edge and wisdom, trying to stand supprest enthusiasm, under the in- in the foremost ranks of the world's spiration of magnetic orators, devotees of learning, filled with the seemed to render it impossible to enthusiasm of youth and subject, avoid an outburst of applause. Not as other men and women of their all of those present, we assume, years, to youth's love of change and were specifically enrolled as volun- friendliness to all that is new and teers, but it would seem difficult untried, standing by the religion of that any should return from that Christ, not as a matter of form, with convention without seriously ask- cold hearts, but as ardent cham- ing what was his individual duty pions of the faith they profess." in regard to enrollment for service. It called attention to the effect such an object lesson must have upon the It was enough to "high-spirit" the Church at large when, at the youth of a country in which educa- may not have created the condition, tion and learning enjoy such pres- but it has hecome a part of their tige as in the United States. It de- environment, as it is an outgrowth clared that the effect must be to of the long and patient, tho irregu- "confirm in their religious princi- lar, development of the missionary ples many wavering believers, to impulse in the churches themselves. shake skeptics, and arouse the in- The movement puts them face to different to the demands of religion, face with a new condition. The when it could thus sway the minds men are wanted abroad; the men and shape the lives of many thou- are ready to go. To turn them back sands of enthusiastic students." It in the face of the storm of energy pointed out, hesides, that the in- out of which they have come to fluence of this Student Movement stand at the door of the missionary in the colleges must be to furnish societies, is not only to fail to meet a strong defense against miscon- emergencies ahroad, but to create a duct and misfortune in the trying new emergency at home. If they days of youth. It said: "Before the are turned back the paralysis of world this great league of students their enthusiasm must needs be in the service of the Christian relig- very great, and the reaction must ion stands as an impressive witness tell on the missionary zeal of the to the power of the Bible and the churches themselves. churches in the institutions of learning, which are often confidently The Student Volunteers stand claimed by skeptics as strongholds ready to do their part in grappling of unbelief." with this problem. It is proposed: 1. That they inaugurate a system The extension of this movement of vacation " campaigning," by into other lands demands special which the enrolled Volunteers shall mention. Within the last nine be systematically directed for the years it has been organized in most spread of missionary intelligence of the countries of western Europe, among the young people's organizain South Africa, in Australasia, tions of the Church, and thus the _ China, India, and Ceylon, not only forces be brought up to the standnational organizations being de- ard-bearers, and not the leaders revelopt, but the incipient organiza- legated back to the forces. It is tion of a 'Vorld's Federation of very easy to see that this scheme Christian Students having been needs the same masterful direction completed. .Mr. Thornton, the dele- that has, up to date, been given to gate from the Student Volunteers every other activity of this Moveof Great Britain, reported that in ment. It must not be done without England they number 1,640, of the cooperation of the local pastors whom 1,000 are making a syste- in every case. It ought not to be matic study of missions in course, done except under some joint cenmore of these Volunteers being tral administration of the missionfound in the medical than in the ary societies and the officers of the theological colleges. movement. Anticipating some infelicities and excrescences, it The Next Problem. seems entirely within the compass of this general leadership to de- There is simply no other way but velop it into at least a temporary that the great missionary force or- subsidiary force for the advocacy ganized and trained, and yet to be of missions. trained through the great Student Volunteer Movement, must be II. It is also proposed that men moved to the front. The churches and women who are deterred from appointment because of the lack of that no part of the same shall be funds, shall seek, among friends got from sources which already supand others, to raise a sum of money ply the current, income of the sociesufficient to place them on the ties. It must be extra and entirely field. supplemental to existing income of the societies. (4.) It is probable that (1.) But no such persons should be a careful oversight of this departallowed to thus solicit aid from ment may require an increase in the their relatives or churches until in administrative force both of the every case they have become ap- movement and of the missionary proved candidates of the society societies; but if it is to go on with into whose field they are to be sent. any considerable momentum, it will (2.) It is equally important that the be absolutely necessary that it come amount of money which is neces- under intelligent and wise direcsary for advancing them to the tion. front shall in each case be well determined. There are demands for In suggesting all this there is not men and women in places where the slightest intention to intimate only enough money to pay for their that the enthusiasm and conoutgoing is needed. In other cases viction out of which the proposal this must be supplemented by has sprung should receive the enough to provide for their housing slightest check. In truth, some of and other contingent expenses. In the missionary societies have alstill other cases even this is not ready, themselves, taken the initiaenough, but the annual cost of tive, and have sought to localize their salary and equipment must the support of missionaries with be provided for. In many cases individual churches, while, in some the placing of a new man on the instances, the candidates themfield involves expenditures for selves have been so situated that school-houses, hospitals, teachers, they could tend€!' their services to preachers, and what not, render- the missionary societies, meeting ing it, on the average, necessary to all of their own personal expenses, furnish an amount equal at least to as is the case with a large number twice that of the personal support ill the service of the Church of of the missionary. Perhaps, from England Missionary Society, and a very rough estimate, it might be with individuals from America now said that the support of a success- scattered over many fields. The ful missionary should not be put Church of England Missionary Sodown at less than $2,000 a year, ciety reports 59 such "honorary" where it is needful to supply the missionaries, besides 19 that are full cost of the work. It can be partly "honorary." It has also 225 readily seen that the integers of missionaries supported by special this sum must vary with the con- gifts from individuals, bands of ditions of the several societies and friends, parishes, and the like. their treasuries, and the endless va- Doubtless among the churches of rietyof the providential niches to America quite a number of "honorbe filled on the several fields. There ary" missionaries could he thus should, ther!!fore, be no loose work, enrolled, especially for a limited by even accepted candidates, in de- term of years. termining what amount of money is necessary to send them forward. III. Still another and, perhaps, (3.) It is also important that all these more radical proposition toward proposed supplemental sums shall mobilizing this force, is that the be raised by methods so restricted societies generally should follow the example of the Church Missionary Society in itself, taking the respons- adopt this policy, certainly it has ibility of leadership in sending these been accompanied with correspond- applicants forward. The principle ing increase in income of the soand the results from its application ciety, as will be seen from the folin the case of the Church Mission- lowing statements of advance by ary Society, was forcibly set forth decades in the March number of the by Mr. Douglas Thornton, secretary Church Missionary Intelligence-r of the Student Volunteer Move- for the current year. In 1887 its ment in Great Britain, who was total income "for use," as stated delegated by them to the conven- by Mr. Thornton, was £207,793; in tion in Cleveland. In the year 1897, it was £297,626; in 1887 (gen- 1887 that society adopted the policy eral), £207,745; 1897, £237,268. The of refusing no candidates on finan- Appropriated [Trust] Funds in 1897 cial grounds. Up to that time it were £59,937; in income from Gleanhad sent out 900 missionaries; in er's Unions advanced from £48 to the ten years since it has added £419; the special funds from £26,- nearly 700 to the roll. Even after 846 to £43,769. This was not availdeducting deaths and retirements, able for ordinary purposes. The the ordained missionaries have in Trust Funds included receipts from ten years increast from 247 to 376; two special funds. the laymen from 40 to 1l0; the women, not including wives, from It would scarcely be fair to attrib- 22 to 244; total from 309 to 730. The ute all this advance to the inspirareport of that society shows aston- tion gained by the adoption of this ishing increase in particular fields "Faith" policy, for it is quite cerwithin the last decade: In West tain that it was seconded by extra- Africa, from II to 44; in Eastern ordinary efforts to increase organ- Equatorial Africa, from 26 to 83; in ized operations in the churches at the Mohammedan lands (Egypt, home. A great and special rally Palestine, and Persia), from 17 to 77; was made to increase the missionin India, from 133 to 244; in China, ary energy of the churches by what from 30 to Ill; in Japan, from 14 to is known as the T. Y. E., or Three 63. The native agency has been cor- Years' Enterprise, which resulted respondingly advanced from bish- in a great advance in the number ops, 1 to 2; clergy, 255 to 341; of missionary unions and bands, agents, male and female, from 3,505 the aggregate advance of which, to 5,319; mission stations, from 260 including 730 Gleaner's Union to 483; mission fields, from 29 to 31. branches, was from 2 unions in The increase in the number of offers 1887 to 894 in 1897. A special correfor service was from 82 in 1887 to sponding cause and result was the 200 in 1897. The acceptances in great increase in the dissemination 1887, 34; in 1897, 156. In 1809 the of information through missionary society enrolled 5 European labor- periodicals. In ten years the ers. It sent out during the next Church Missionary Intell-igencer ten years, 46; the following ten advanced its circulation from 25,- years, 86; the next following, 144; 843 to 48,800; the Gleaner from the next, ll9; the next, 154; the 402,816 to 882,000; the Child1'en's next, 187; and the next (1889), 265. World from 346,272 to 612,000; the In the eight years following they Quarte'rly Pape1' had advanced from sent out 600. In 1889 they enrolled 77,343 to 80,000; A Quarterly Token a force of Europeans on the field of from 751,000 to 874,000. The enor- 310; in 1897 they enrolled 720. mous aggregate of over 3,000,000 copies of periodicals has peen If it required large "faith" to reacht! It appears thus to have been a general advance in faith and The Second Great Requisite. works which justified the continu- ance of this policy. BY THE REV. OHARLES B. OHAPIN, D.D., NEW YORK. While this entire advance is not to be attributed to this zealous There are two great requisites in policy, beca,use it is reasonable to the matter of the evangelization of suppose that some large increase the world. would have been made had no such policy been declared, it must be The first one the Editor-in-chief conceded that a large increment of has been calling attention to in a this advance can be accounted for recent series of articles in THE MIS- only as a result of the adoption of SIONARY REVIEW. Very clearly this policy, tho it is not quite cer- and forcibly has he been pointing tain that the policy has past yet an out, both by precept and illustra- experimental state. tion, the supremely important place the Holy Spirit occupies in Inissions, The challenge is boldly made to and the crying need of the Church the Christian churches to at least to receive more of God's Spirit, that give such a policy a fair trial. If it may become a truly missionary all these men and women of the Church. Student Volunteer forces, as well as those coming from other sources, One is reminded by these articles qualified so as to warrant accep- of an incident told in connection tance of the boards, shall be sent to with Bishop Simpson, of the M. E. the fields, trusting to the churches, Church. Some years ago the bishop and with great faith in God, it is was preaching in Memorial Hall, possible that this plan or policy may London. After speaking for half furnish the solution of what we an hour very quietly, without ges- have designated "The next Prob- ticulation or uplifting of his voice, lem," which is scarcely the next, but he began to picture the Son of God the impending one. 'Ve must go bearing our sins in His own body forward or die in the trenches! on the tree. Then, as if Himself laden with an immeasurable bur- Bishop Dudley's word at the con- den, he stopt, and rising to his full vention is but an oracular utter- height, he seemed to throw it from ance sustained by history: "The him, crying: "How far? As far as principle of foreign missions is the the East is from the West, so far principle that has determined the hath He removed our transgressions course of human history and prog- from us." ress. Every man whom Christ called to be an apostle thought that The effect upon the congregation he had already made other arrange- was electrical. As if moved by an ments for his life-work." Bishop irresistible impulse, all rose, re- Baldwin, of the Province of Onta- mained standing for a second or rio, formulated the spirit of conse- two, and then all sank back into cration for this work in, "God their seats. A professor of elocu- wants the man who has come to the tion, who was present, and who had end of himself," and young Brother come to criticise, was afterward – Volunteer Brockman flung the askt by a friend what he thought of leader's banner to the breeze with the bishop's elocution. the bugle call, "If the Lord calls, and the Boards can not send you, " Elocution?" said he; "that He will raise up someone to provide man doesn't want elocution, he's the means, and, if not, the ravens got the Holy Ghost! " are not all dead yet." Equally true is it of a Church. If it has the Holy Ghost, there will be no need of constant appeals to give, or go, or send. And the Spirit- history of this one great work from filled believer is from the very the times of the apostles until our nature of the case an enthusiast in own. missions. Our third and last proposition re- But there is a second great requi- lates to the manner of increasing site, coming, indeed, after the first, this information. And here the but almost equal to it in impor- writer can speak frOIn some expetance, i.e., information. riE'nce. At the suggestion, he be- lieves, of the Holy Spirit, there ClUlle Dean Vaughan has well said: into his mind a very simple method that for three years has workt so "Know and you will feel. Know well in his own church that he feels and you will pray. Know and you constrained to pass it along to will help. You will be ashamed of others; for it has past its tentative the sluggishness, of the isolation, stage, and is a work that has come of the selfishness which has made to stay. And it is especially adapted you think only of your own people to young Christians, for it is almost and your father's house. Facts are impossible to interest in missions the fuel which feeds the fire of mis- older believers who have never been sions." trained in a foreign missionary at- mosphere. Briefly stated, it is to Why are so many professing secure a good missionary library, Christians indifferent to and, in and to see to it that it is rE'ad; but some cases, antagonistic toward this latter is not always easy. foreign missions? Largely beca use they do not know about them, for An excellent missionary library information always leads to inter- was purchast from the proceeds of est. This is our first proposition, a missionary stereopticon lecture and it needs no further enlarge- on China, the slides and much of ment. It is almost a self-evidE'nt the information of which were seonE'. cured in the Presbyterian Board rooms, now at 156 Fifth Avenue, Our second proposition is that New York. such widespread ignorance as exists ir. the Church to-day is a disgrace. Then the' question was how to Sometime since a young missionary get the books read. A" missionaskt a good-sized audience to indi- ary reading club" was suggested, cate by uplifted hands how many to consist of all who were willing missionary books had been read by to pledge themselves to read fifteen them. He started with some twenty minutes a day, not counJing Sunor more, and not a single hand was days and no ma.king up of lost days. raised_ Then coming down by suc- Then at the. end of the month a roll cessive questions to two books in of honor was to be posted on the number, only two or three raised Christian Endeavor bulletin Doard, their hands, as we remember the containing the names of those who occasion. had not mist a day in the reading, and at the end of the reading year 'Vhat a commentary upon the re- (from October to May, inclusive) ligious intelligence, or ignorance another roll of honor for the entire rather, of that audience! Not one year. The only officer of the club among them but would have been was to be a librarian, herself an enashamed to acknowledge a similar thusiast on missions, who would ignorance of the history of his own not only keep an account of the land. But the one tDO'I'k of God's books taken, but also continually Church is to bring the world to try to increase the membership of Jesus and Jesus to the world. It is a crying shame, therefore, that the majority of God's children are almost altogether ignorant of the the club. These suggestions were suggestion, now has a monthly mis- heartily adopted at once by some sionary meeting, as the young peo- ple feel that they can not wait for twenty-five or thirty young peo- the bi-monthly m eeting provided ple, and the dub, now in its third for in the Christia n Endeavor prayer-meeting topic book. And year, is more prosperous than it these missionary meetings are the fullest and the best meetings of the has ever been before. month. Then frequently in the The writer has always taken the other meetings, t elling missionary illustrations are given by the speakstrong ground with his young peo- ers. 4. A willingness to give. It is, of course, found that the gifts ple that fifteen minutes a day is to missions become more spon- timeous. 5. A w'illingness to go. little enough to devote to a study Already two have definitely decided of the one supreme work of God's to go as missionaries, if the way sha ll open,. and there a re others Church in the world, and that this who would come to such a decision did their circumsta n ces and qualifitime can be found or made, if there cations permit. 6. And lastly, the pTomise of l11'issionary churches ,in is first a willing mind. One can the future for wher ever these young people will go, they will a lways find time for what he is bent carry with them their missionary on doing. enthusiasm, and the contagion can not but spread to their churches A few words in closing as to the and their children! r esults already achieved, and, perhaps, they can best be exprest If such a simple method as the in numerical order. 1. The books above, perhaps changed in some rem'e Tead. At one time, when the spects to suit changed conditions, library consisted of some fifty books, the writer went to it for were universally adopted, the misr eference, and he found four of the sionary problem would be solved, fifty books in, the remainder all being out. 2. The li bTaTY has for the coming generation of givers g1'own. Nearly thirty new books and workers would be a missionary h ave been added since it was sta rted, generation. a nd there is a constant dema nd for more. 3. The m i ss'ionar y interest has constantly increast. The Christian Endeavor Society, at its own THE CT..IFTON S?iUNGS SANITARIUM, NEW YORK. International Missionary Union. time through the kindness of Hen- ry Foster, M. D., the founder of the The International Missionary great missionary remedial institu- Union will hold its fifteenth annual tion at Clifton Springs, it has met meeting at Clifton Springs, N. Y., there substantially as his guest. June 8–14. The edit.or of the Chi- Foreign missionaries of any Evannese ReCOTdeT says: "Every mis- gelical denomination, whether now sionary on a furlough to the United in service, expecting to return to States ought to make it a point to their fields, or retired from their attend one of the annual meetings official connection with the boards, held every June at Clifton Springs, receive gratuitous entertainment. N. Y. More can be learned about No invitations are sent to missionpractical missionary work all over aries to attend these meetings, only the world,by a week at these gath- a simple notification through the THE TABERNACLE AT CLH'TON SPRINGS.
erings than in any other way press and by circular when their known to us. The friendships addresses are known. It is very formed and the interchanges of necessary that missionaries proposprayers are among the incidental ing to attend this meeting shall comblessings of these opportunities. municate with Mrs. C. C. Thayer, No one has any axes to grind, and Secretary, Clifton Springs, N. Y. it isn't often that hobby-horses are allowed the freedom of the rostrum, 'Ve present a cut of the main and then they are speedily turned building of Dr. Foster's sanitarium, out to graze." and also one of the ornate and com- modious Tabernacle, erected by This Union was organized at Ni- him for the speeial use of this Inagara Falls, Canada, in 1884, and ternational Missionary Union, in met there again in 1885, in the one of the three parks attacht to Thousand Islands in 1886–7, in 1888 the sanitarium. in Bridgeton, N. J., and in 1889 at Binghamton, N. Y. Since that J. T. GRACEY, President, Rochester, N. Y.
j,'IELD OJ,' MONTHLY SURVEY
IV. -FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Siam and Laos,* Malaysia,t Unoccupied Fields,:/: Buddhism,§ Lepers,f Missionary Comity. I BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
Siam and Laos. Siam than in the Laos mission, a Siam is in even greater dan- missionary thus writes * : ger than China of being swallowed "1. The people in the two sec- tions are different. The Siamese up by European nations. The en- are indolent, shiftless, and practicroachments of the English from cally devoid of moral backbone. Physically they are weak and Burma, on the west, and of the small, and greatly inferior to the neighboring races. The Laos, on French from Annam, on the east, the other hand, are more manly, will probably, sooner or later, leave thrifty, and industrious, and pos- sest of a good degree of moral stamthe King of Siam with little or no ina.
territory to govern. "2. The dominating religion of This is uniquely a Presbyterian the Siamese is not the chief spiritual belief of the Laos. Buddhism rules mission field, the principle of com- lower Siam, and from prince to ity having thus far been faithfully peasant few can be found whose spiritual belief and practise may observed by other denominations. ** not be summed up in the two car- Most of the aggressive and suc- dinal tenets of Buddha, viz., 'Help yourself to future bliss,' and 'No cessful work is that carried on in need to be in a hurry about it.' the Laos country, where 163 have The arch-adversary never bound any section of the human race with been added to the church on confes- stronger chains than when he sucsion during the year. Most invit- ceeded in seducing these people to a systematized belief in these two ing doors tel new fields are being doctrines. The principles underly- ing them (8elf-righteOt~sness and opened on every side. The Lord's procrastination) are likewise at the basis of most of the opposition hand was plainly manifested in the which the Church encounters in the home land. The enemy of man and opening of this land to the Gospel, God can want no better weapons against the kingdom of 'God and and in its preparation for future har- His Christ' than such as will lull men into a belief that a Savior is vests. His hand is likewise seen in entirely unnecessary, or that no alarm need be felt if they do not the direction and progress of the make much progress toward eter- nal bliss in this life, as they will have work. As to the reasons for the many more opportunities in future births. Such doctrines as these are smaller degree of success in the held tenaciously in lower Siam.
* NEW BOOKS: "Siam and the Siamese," A. "The Laos, on the contrary, while nominal Buddhists, are practically H. Leonowens. spirit worshipers, and are en- t See also pp. 627 (Aug., '97); 835 (Nov , '97); slaved by dread of spirits and de- mons to a much greater extent 343,359 (present issue). than the Siamese. Buddhism is NEW BOOKS·: ,. Java. the Garden of the secondary with the Laos, while their crude superstitions and fears East," E. R. Scidmore. of demons render them more ready RECENT ARTICLES: .. Ramazall in Malaysia," to accept such teachings as promise absolute relief from the torment Macmillan's (Dec., '97) :j: See also pp. 534, 539.540 (July, '97); 864 * Church at Home and Abroad.
(Nov., '97); 362 (present issue). RECENT ARTICLES: B In Unexplored Asia,"
McClure's (Dec., '97); H Afghanistan," Review of Reviews (Dec., '97).
§ See also p. 357 (present issue). NEW BOOKS: H Buddhismin Translations," H. C. Warren. RECENT ARTICLES: "Buddha and His Doctrinesj" Asiatic Quarterly (Nov., '97); "Buddha and Christ," Methodist Review (Jan.); II. Christianity and t Buddhism," Monist (Jan.); " Buddhism," Progress (Jan.). 'If See also p. 330 (present issue). RECENT ARTICLES: " Leprosy and the Hawaiian Annexation,~' North American Review (Nov., '97), and Cosmopolitan (Mar.); Without the Camp. (Monthly.) II See also pp. 194, 265 (March). •• The Baptists only conduct a mission for Chinese in Bankok. under which they live. It surely Closed Lands. needs no lengthy argument to make it clear that the conversion of a Are there any such, or has the soul from a crude, unorganized Church been lacking in faith,prayer, mass of superstition is far easier, and self-sacrificing z9al? Most of humanly speaking, than the conver- the countries of Asia, Africa, and sion of one from a thoroughly or- South America were once closed, ganized and shrewdly s:; stematized but were opened by God in answer form of belief such as Buddhism. to the importunate knocking of Christian emissaries of the Gospel. " A correct appreciation of the When the Lord says" Go," He will strength of the enemy will help prepare the way, tho it be made toward the final triumph of the manifest but a step at a time. Cross here. Christ is all-pow- Some lands still remain apparently erful, and His hosts will finally closed but they will be opened if we prevail, but we have an instance in but pray and go, pray and enter, the Gospels where he permitted his pray and stay. disciples to suffer mortification and defeat because they underestimated The last closed door of South the difficulty in the way of casting America has at last been opened, out a devil." and now mIssionaries of the Gospel Union of Kansas have begun to There are about five million Laos work in Ecuador.
people, only two million of whom Tibet is still besieged by mission- ary armies, and Miss Taylor has at are in Siam. They are not only last crost the boundaries and is selling Bibles among Tibetan the most receptive of Christianity peoples who are carrying them far into Tibetan territory. of all the peoples among whom the The 2,000,000 miles of unoccupied Presbyterian Church has foreign territory in Africa is gradually growing less as the picket-lines of mission work establisht, and give missions are pusht forward into the Soudan, Upper Kongo, and the largest returns for the spiritual other waiting territory.
investment; but they are so cen- AfghJtnistan still shuts out the Light of Life, but an occasional trally located among the various ray from the Sun of Righteousness penetrates even there in spite of branches of the race-family to governmental edicts. Medical mis- sions on the border are being which they belong, that they are a greatly blest.
pivotal people. Christianize them, The Philippine Islands and some other Papal possessions are still they will reach their neighbors. hostile to the truth, but one by one these countries are shaking off the God has kept them free from yoke of Rome and declaring for freedom of belief and worship. caste, as well as national pride. In Arabia, Northern India, and There is no governmental opposi- 1Vestern China some doors are either closed or there is no one to tion to Christianity, but instead, a enter. Russia prohibits active mis- sionary work except in the way of proclamation of religious tolera- Bible distribution; the Stundists, however, thrive under persecution. tion in that part which is tributary to Siam, and a welcome from Laos officials everywhere. There is no child marriage, almost no poly- gamy. The Laos have no sea-coast, hence are a stay-at-home people- the kind that attend to their own business, and do it well. They are peaceable and polite, refined and receptive, simple in their habits and for heathen, comparatively pure in their lives. All these things that God's providence has done for them help to make easier the part that we, their brothers and sisters, must do for them. The light which they now have is God's; for the darkness we are responsible.
1898.J EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. 3'i'i
V.~EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
THE FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNI- furnisht; and the average cost per VERSARY of the death of SAVONA- year of conducting them has been ROLA falls May 23d; hence the $130,000. prominence given to this heroic missionary martyr in the present This would seem enough for one issue. This scholarly article will man, but it is only one branch of be completed ill the June Dumber, that tree of life that his prayers and will amply repay careful read- made to grow in Bristol. He esing. Extensive preparations for tablisht Christian schools in Great the anniversary are being made in Britain, Europe, Asia, etc., wherein Florence, even the Roman Catholics nearly 150,000 pupils have been taking part and a Cardinal being taught; pushing the circulation the head of the committee. Thus, of the Word of God into Spain, as of old, "The children of them Italy, and other lands, he had diswhich killed the prophets trihuted over 2,000,000 copies of the build the tombs of the prophets." Holy Scriptures, in part or whole; his scriptural knowledge institu- Death of Rev. George Miiller, of Bristol. tion had scattered over 100,000,000 tracts, books, etc., in various lands March 10, 1898, is a memorable and languages; and he had exday. It was the day of Mr. Miil- pended over $1,300,000 in aid of ler's entrance into the more abun- hundreds of missionaries in foreign dant life beyond. He was in some fields. Besides all this, he himself respects the most conspicuous man traveled into 42 countries, deliverof his generation; and it may be ing his personal message, and witdoubted whether any man since nessing to the God who hears and Paul, or even since Enoch, has more answers prayer. His whole life is truly walkt with God. a modern miracle, more than an answer to all current doubts, and a Born Sept. 27,1805, he was midway demonstration of the fact that the in his 93d year. His life story must God of Elijah still lives, and that be written more at length for these the keys which unlock Heaven's pages; but at this time we briefly gates are in the hands of the discirecord this the most important ple who prays in faith, nothing entry in the necrology of a whole doubting. There is not a land decade of years. He was converted where the name of Christ is adored, at Halle, at the age of 21. There where the shadow of this bereave- Francke's orphan work imprest ment will not fall. Not even the him and ultimately led to his un- thought of the joy into which he dertaking a similar work in Bristol, has entered can prevent the sense of which, as with Francke, the main of a personal loss, to some of us befeature was absohde dependence on yond words, which the death of p1'a,yeT to God rather than appeal to such a man involves. Above perman, for all supplies. The results haps any man of modern times, have been simply stupendous. Five George Miiller was to his generamassive buildings have been prayed tion the prophet of God and the into existence, on Ashley Down, apostle of prayer. which have a total of 500 rooms and can accommodate over 2,000 or- A letter has just come to the phans with over 100 teachers and editor from his beloved personal helpers. These orphan houses cost friend, Rev. James Wright, son-inabout $600,000 when completed and law of the founder of the orphan- work in Bristol, and tho a personalletter, we venture to print it, "Suppose one who has all his life earned his bread by toil gets on to- as any details of Mr. Miiller's ward sixty, and presently will pass translation will be very precious to it. Now Satan begins to trouble him, and says, 'You are getting old a large circle of bereaved friends in now; soon there will be nothing remany lands. maining for you but the union or the workhouse.' " BRISTOL, England, Mal'eh 11, 1898. " How wretched and miserable a child of God is made by the fiery jf'Iy Beloved Brother in Christ: dart! But by using the shield of " The electric cable has, no faith he will be able to quench it.
doubt, before this, made you, and 'If my Father has cared for me many more in America, felluw- when young, surely he will conmourners with us here; as you will tinue to care for me when old and have learned that my beloved father-in-law fell asleep in Jesus sick, now as in the past. Or, as he yesterday morning, March 10. says in the Word, '" I will never "At our united prayer-meeting leave thee, nor forsake thee.'" of the Orphan House helpers, on the evening of the 9th, he had given How quickly this temptation will out the well-known hymns, begin- be quenched! I have seen many of ning God's dear children who were thus troubled. ". The countless multitude on high; , "One instance I remember disand tinctly, though it occurred many years ago. It was that of an aged " •I'll sing of the Shepherd that died.' widow, a child of God, who had " He retired to rest at his usual lived very consistently. She had hour, but yesterday morning at worked hard with her hands in seven o'clock was found lifeless. youth, and now in her old age she "Apparently the spirit had left began to say, 'I shall have to go to its frail tent about an hour before the workhouse.' She had some he was found. money which she had saved of her "During the last six or eight past earnings, and she said, 'When months he has had several attacks this is gone I can earn no more, and of heart weakness, and the recur- I shall have to go to the union.' I rence of one of these was the Lord's sought to comfort her; I reminded call into His presence. her how God had cared for her in " Only last Lord's Day he was re- the past, and how he had promised marking to a friend how mercifully never to leave her nor forsake her; he had been spared all the pains ana disabilities so frequent in ad- and that, as surely as she was a vanced age. child of God, so surelv would he care for her, and that even some of "Tho deeply feeling our loss, we triumph in the certainty of his his own children would be led to vastly added joy; and that he has assist her. 'finished his course' without being permitted to mar his testimony- " But still the temptation contina danger which the histories of ued, and what was the end of it? Hezekiah,Asa, and Solomon always seemed to make him keenly alive Her joy was marred completely for to. years; she was in deep trouble simply by this one thought. Yet "Now he is with the Lord, and the Lord is verily with us, so that see how it carne to pass at last. we do not seem far apart. And, One by one the sovereigns were better than all, the reunion, where used, and at length it carne to the there will be no more partings, is drawing nearer every day. last sovereign; one shilling of that "I am yours in our Lord, was spent when the Lord took her to JAMES WRIGHT." himself, and there was for her no such thing as the workhouse. This brief note of George ~Hiller's " But see how she was losing her departure brings to our mind one spiritual joy, and how her life and of his touching narratives as to her communion with God were marred by this one fiery dart; faith relating to temporal affairs, to whereas, if the shield of faith had which his own life and death give been used, the devil would have been confounded and her last days now a sacred emphasis: would have been in peace. There- fore let us use this shield of faith, with the revelation God has been pleased to make of himself, and we Deep as is our grief at home, the shall soon see the fiery darts of the tidings of his death will be received devil quenched, and have joy." on the mission field 'with some- thing like dismay.' A most interesting account of Mr. Miiller's funeral has reacht us "Our China Mission-in its retoo late for notice in this number. markable growth, in the wise lines It may be looked for in our June on which it is planned, in the stimnumber. ulating memories it has accumu- lated, in the devout spirit which Another death-that of Hugh M. presides over it, and in the honor- Matheson, Esq., in London, Feb. able place it holds among kindred 8th.,-.}eaves another gap not easily enterprises-is the real and lasting filled. Not only is this a loss to monument which Hugh M. Mathethe Presbyterian Church, of which son has reared for himself. By he was an intelligent and earnest it he has laid our church under supporter, and in which for over 50 deep and enduring obligation. By years he held office, but he will be it, so long as the story of the missed in the work of world-wide church is recalled, will his memory missions. Calm, sagacious, busi- be kept green in grateful recollecness-like in method, Christlike in tion." counsel and conduct and spirit, he was identified with every evangel- A Correction. ical movement, the temperance cause, social reform, etc. Principal On page 218 of the March RE- Dykes well said of him that "not a VIEW, The Church Intell'igencer, dozen men in London in his genera- from which a quotation is made, is tion have in an equal degree com- inadvertently referred to, as the bined commercial enterprise and organ of the C. M. S., which pubcapacity with such spirituality of lishes the Church MISSIONARY Inmind. City life with its mad race telligencer. The Church Intenifor wealth and power could not gencer represents a society known vulgarize or mammonize such a as the "Church Association," the man." business of which is to protest against supposed Romanizing in- The one object which, for most of novations and t,endencies in the his public life, supremely absorbed Church of England. him was foreign missions; for thirty years he was in the chair of That the effect of retrenchment the Synod's Committee for the pro- has not been wholly evil is seen motion of this great cause, and lat- from the report of the annual meetterly he bent his energies mainly ing of the Laos Mission. They to build up the China mission. It have been led to devise plans for may be well to add Dr. Dykes' own greater economy in building mis- sionary houses, and have received a words: markt stimulus in the direction of native self-support. The native "Into it he threw his whole Christians have come to see that heart. He fashioned its policy; he supplies of money from America grew intimate with its details; he are not unlimited, and like a boy watched over its expansion with paternal concern. With the mis- sent to shift for himself, are growsionaries his relations seem to have ing stronger by being compelled to been singularly beautiful. In the rely on their own resources. The selection of them he took personal church at home, however, is none pains. He made friends of them; the less to blame for withholding he corresponde'd with them on the more than is meet. field; he sent them forth from his hospitable home and welcomed One of the most beautiful examthem back to it on their furloughs. ples of heroism and self-denial on the part of missionaries and one of the most emphatic rebukes of the that would be the sad spectacle of parsimony of too many "home" a great church still apathetic, in- Christians, may be found in the different to their struggles, and irrerecent facts communicated by Dr. sponsive to this, their practical and touching appeal."
F. F. Ellinwood, of the results of the appeal made in 1897 to the mis- The Indians of Brazil. sionaries of the Presbyterian Board of the United States to join in the The readers of the REVIEW will universal effort to remove its dis- doubtless be interested in the folastrous debt. Dr. Ellinwood says: lowing extract from a report which is translated from 0 EstandaTte, "Up to Sept. 10th, one hundred of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a copy of and one names of Inissionaries which has been sent by Rev. J. Beatty Howell, of Philadelphia: (counting wives as sharers in their husbands' gifts), were entered in the list of contributors, one or two in- "On Friday, the 24th of Septem- ber last, there was held in the city stances of joint subscriptions by sta- of Pernambuco, in the prayertions not included. The hundred per- meeting room of the Evangelical sonal cont,ributions differ widely in amount, but the'i1' average is $'32,86. church, the first meeting of persons The mission fields represented are interested in the evangelization of Syria, Persia, .Mosul, Brazil, Co- our (the Brazilian) Indians. It was lombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Ca1i- resolved to issue an appeal to evanfornia, Japan, Korea, the Shantung gelical congregations in Brazil and and Central missions of China, and in foreign countries to grant spiritthe three missions in India. These ual, moral, and pecuniary aid, so embrace the fields which have suf- that the work may be set on foot, fered most from the cut, and many and that we may be enabled to help of the largest contributors are any who are already found to be at work in this direction." those who have given at least an equal amount for the crippled work.
If anyone is inclined to ask how can they give so much? the reply is (1) Our friend, Mr. George R. ""itte, that anybody can do wonders in whose appeal for the Indians of self-denial if, as Paul says, he be 'willing in himself,' and (2) most Brazil has resulted in his own set- of the subscriptions are paid by ting apart for the work of carrying small monthly instalInents. But them the Gospel, writes from Lis- who can estimate the value of this bon, Dec. 22, 1897, that he was to grand movement of our missionaries? The amount which they have leave for Para, Brazil, March 12.
already given for the debt is over After a month of preparation there, $3,000, but more important than he sets out to reach the Indians of that is the spur which their exam- Gayaz. From his letter we make ple ought to give to the Presbyterian Church. It is a challenge the following extracts: which comes up from the conti- "Dr. Graham, myself, and an- nents and islands of the heathen other will shortly (D. V.) be on the world, and goes on record as such, road to the interior of Gayaz. At to the million Christian professors times it would seem almost as if He of onr cOlllmunion. But more val- had purposely led us into strait uable still is its testimony to the places-like Israel between the sea Inoral earnestness of our mission- and Pharaoh's host-to teach us aries, their deep sympathy for that He is able to make a path those who are their children in where naturally there is none, and Christ, and their faith in the great that man's extremity is God's opwork which they have undertaken. portunity.
As to their sacrifices, they rejoice "Sta,rting out with two dona- in them if they shall lead to the re- tions from readers of the REVIEW, moval of the debt which threatens I have been kept all these months, to despoil their work again next have visited Britain, and am nnw year and the year after that. in Lisbon studying Portuguese. My There is only one thing which could wants have been wonderfully sup- fill them with despondency, and plied, even for purchase of my outfit, etc. A bout $300 will be needful Paul's sphere of missionary labor, wherewith to start from Para in- and shows that in thirteen years land. (Any who wish to help would Paul "fully preached the Gospel"
best send bank drafts on London. *)" (Rom. xv. 19) over an area (Ads xiii.-xx.) of 60,000 square miles, A correspondent calls attention with a population of 1,000,000. He next divides the 15,000,000 square to the danger arising to the mis- miles that he has assigned to the sionary cause from the hasty and Church of 1<Jngland into 500 dis- ill-advised enthusiasm of some tricts of 30,000 square miles each, young students in America and England, who seem to think that on the supposition that the popula- tion of the unevangelized portion of the earth is now twice as dense as they may accomplish the grand in Paul's day. To each of these and gigantic task of the mission 500 districts he assigns one layman and two ministers. Thus each of within a short period. He says: these little companies of 1,500 "I am now 35 years in mis- evangelists would have a parish of sionary service, and still, through 30,000 square miles and the care of God's grace, the fire of mission- 1,020,000 souls. If Paul and his ary zeal is burning in my heart. But I can assure you that the companions,. in t.hirteen years conversion of the heathen world " fully" evangelized an area of is such enormous work that it must be done with the utmost 60,000 square miles, with a populapatience, soberness, perseverance, tion of 1,000,000 souls, it would if it is to produce any lasting seem reasonable to suppose that a fruit. Nothing is more detrimental to it than an overhasty, superficial like company should now evangemanner, the presumption that we lize, in the same period of time, the can make everything, even 'make same population covering only half Jesus King.' No, He is already King of all, and we have to wait the territory. As to the cost of upon Him, and be content to be sending out and maintaining these used by His hand as His humble 1,500 laborers, filling the broken tools, for it is His work." ranks, etc., the writer shows that £150,000 ($750,000), annually, would be sufficient. This is only '/240 of what is spent by England for butter and cheese alone. If each family paying five dollars for butter and "The Evangelization of the World in cheese would at the same time give This Generation." two cents to missions, the £150,000 would be raised. An English clergyman read a paper at a missionary conference at One of our exchanges well says: Stockport, England. The writer referred to esljimates the unevange- "Those who are engaged in ex- lized popUlation of the earth at ploiting the ability and purity of 1,030,000,000, and for convenience of Buddhists and their leaders in In- dia and this country, will find it argument offsets the unevangelized population of America and Aus- tralasia by the Christian communi- difficult to explain the following ties of Asia and Africa, thus COll- statements of 'Swami Vivekanancentrating the entire 1,030,000,000 da,' made to the Buddhists in India on his recent return to that counon the two last-named continents, whose combined area is 30,000,000 square miles. Again, for mere con- try: venience of discussion, the writer " 'The great Srf Ramakrishna assigns half of this area (15,000,000 to-day is worshipt literally by thousquare miles), and half of this pop- sands in Europe and America, and ulation (515,000,000 souls), to the Church of England, assuming that to-morrow will be worshipt by the rest of evangelical Christendom thousands more. will be responsible for the other half. He then takes up the Apostle " , Before ten years elapse a vast majority of the English people will be Vedantists.
• Remittances may be made by drafts on " I helpt on the tide of Vedanta, London to William R. Ronald, 24 Mulgrave which is flooding the world. street, Liverpool, England, or to Rev. John H. Oertel', D.D., No. Z18 West 40th street, " 'In the United States scarcely New York. is there a happy home. There may be some, but the number of un- put no obstacle in MI'. Reid's way, happy homes and marriages is so but we have a fear lest the project large that it passes all description. prove too broad, too secular, too purely educative to be really a " , Scarcely could I go to a meet- Christianizing scheme. The Chiing or a society but I found tbree- nese Rccorder and mission boards, quarters of the women present had we have understood, express disturned out their husbands and trust of MI'. Reid's plan. vVe wait children. It is so here, there, and and watch to see whether in the everywhere.' nineteenth century God blesses a met,hod that had no place in apos- "The audacity and falseness of tolic times. As Rev. Gilbert Reid these assertions should fill his co- was a graduate of Hamilton College religionists with shame." in 1879, the alumni have taken up the cause and propose to enlist in- ",Ve venture to add that they are terest of other colleges in this incapable of explanation, except "educational" movement. on the basis that when Swami Vivekananda was in this country Book Notices. he kept very bad company! The most notable volume that The editor has received a copy of has come into our hands this past "The International Institute of month for review is the first volume China," a pamphlet by Rev. Gilbert of a proposed series of The BacT'ed Reid, who, it will be remembered, Books of the East, edited by Prof. has undertaken a mission among Max Mliller, whose name is itself a the higher classes in China. We sufficient warrant for the care and confess to have had from the outset accuracy with which the series has grave doubts about the script11ral been prepared. The whole collecsanction for a mission that seems tion will embrace twenty-four volto move along lines so exactly con- umes, bound in twelve books, and trary to the principles laid down the price has been reduced more in I Cor. i. 26-31. But we are open than fifty per cent. -the entire to conviction. We know of no series now costing but $30.00 inwork directed to the upper classes stead of $65.50. in heathen lands, that has had any such blessing as may conspicuously The text is that of the edition be traced among' the lower castes, of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, as in the South Seas, Africa, and and the translators are various India. MI'. Reid's "prospectus" well-known Oriental scholars. proposes the establishment in Peking of an International Institute, The Christian Literature Comwith museum, library, class-rooms, pany, 13 Astor Place, New York, and a reception hall, large audito- issues these fine volumes, and the rium, etc. He proposes thus an first volume embraces Part I. of the " intellectual center for diffusion of Upanishads. The Sacred Laws enlightening and liberal influences of the Aryas, the Sacred Books among the mandarins and educated of China, The Zend Avesta, Pahclasses." The project receives much iavi Texts, The Qo'ran, The Insanction from princes and minis- stitutes of Vishnu, The Bhagaters of foreign affairs, and Li Hung vadgita, etc., The Dhammapada, Chang also gives a personal letter of Buddhist Suttas, The Satapatha testimonials. Many of the mission- Brahmana, The Fo-sho-hing-tsanary body in Peking and Shanghai king (Life of Budhha), The Sadcommend the work. MI'. Reid is dharma-pundarika, The Gainaseeking to gather some $75,000 to complete his scheme. We would Sutras, will aJI be included; and, translations are truthful, wherein besides Professor Muller, George nothing is supprest – or varnisht Buhler, James Legge, James Dar- over, however hard it seemed some- mesteter, E. W. West, E. H. times even to write it down. Palmer, Julius Jolly, and other famons Orientalists take part in the Prof. Muller's preface covers translation. The publication of fifty-five pages, and is itself worth the whole series will depend on the the price of the book. One feels receipt of at least 1,500 orders. after reading it that the whole work, therein forecast, is under Prof. Muller in his preface fore- hands not only competent but warns the reader that a careful reverent; and that in this exhibireading of these volumes will be tion of the sacred books of the disappointing, if one has been wont East, neither will any undue par- to think the Vedas, the A vesta, tiality be shown to the Oriental the Buddhist Tripitaka, the Kings faiths, nor any direct or indirect of Confucius and the Koran, to be violence done to that one Sacred fountains of primeval wisdom and Book, of which Prof. Muller has ideal morals; and he declares it elsewhere said that it stands at an high time to dispel such illusions incomparable distance from all the and show these ancient faiths as rest in being the one book that does they are. He acknowledges with not teach Salvation by Works. commendable frankness the temptation too many have yielded to, On the Threshold of Centml to exhibit the gems which the Africa, is a record of twenty years Oriental sacred books contain, and pioneering among the Banyai and conceal, or at least ignore, the refuse Barotsi, publisht by Hodder & and rubbish out of which these Stoughton, of London. A book of gems may be gathered. Much mis- 650 pp., with instantaneous photochief has been done, and the in- graphic views, forty-four in numterests of truth have been sacri- ber, taken by the author, and some ficed, through the enthusiasm of of them of localities explored by a too partial praise. himself.
There is no doubt that these To those who personally know sacred writings contain much that and love, as we do, the writeris not only absurd and unmean- FranQois Coillard-one of the most ing, but too bad for free transla- delightful and Christlike of French tion. This Christian scholar who evangelical missionaries-the book edits these volumes will not consent will need no other introduction or to any varnishing of the facts. As commendation. M. Coillard and he says in his manly preface, "We his now departed wife and colawant to know not their wisdom borer, Madame Christina Mackinonly but their folly also; and while tosh Coillard, stood in the front we must learn to look up to their rank of devoted Christian workers highest points, we must not shrink in the Dark Continent, and the from looking down into their stony letters he wrote to the J 01L1'nal tracts, their dark abysses, their des Missions Evangeliques, proved muddy moraines, in order to com- of such interest and value, that prehend both the height and depth their preservation in this permaof the human mind in its searchings nent form was the natural result.. after the Infinite." A man whose own missionary career extends over forty years, Prof. Muller then adds, both in and whose unpretending work has his own behalf and that of his cola- attracted unstinted praise even borers in translation, that these from the most carping critics and the fact that we are not to measure life or work by figures on a deal, unfriendly observers, is the man but by aims and achievements. Dr. Good has been aptly compared to from whom all lovers of missions Bishop Hannington, and the com- parison is justified. The two were want to hear; and not the less be- alike in natural gifts and traits. Both went to Africa in 1882, and cause his own modesty is embar- both died at 38. Both had the same filial love, fondness for rast by the sense of his own nature, great courage for exploits, love of fun, contempt for cant, "awkwardness and shortcomings." promptness of decision, and innate heroism. Dr. Good excelled in Those who read the introduction caution, demonstration, organizing talent, tact in administration, and will not stop there. It is full of capacity for a missionary pioneer. He was free from fanatical zeal, wisdom and sagacity and the spirit economical of money and strength, and while he burned with holy deof a calm and holy enthusiasm. M. votion for hiR work, evinced in everything a peculiar equipoise of Coillard there explicitly gives his character. One melancholy im- pression this book leaves upon the opinion that if ever Africa is evan- reader; had Dr. Good had prompt and ample help in the matter of regelized it must be by he?' own chU- inf07'cements, one of the most valu- able lives ever sacrificed in Africa dren, and that, to secure and hasten might have been prolonged. And here is a most conspicuous sin this result, the Church ernust send chargeable against the Church of God: men and women are thrust out missionaries. These pages are to the front where the work and war are the most desperately trya sort of sketch of the humble ing to body and soul, and are not supported. Just as they get ready effort to develop an aggressively to conquer they die, because we at home do not keep up "the line of active native chu1'Ch in Africa. communication," and so leave then1 without adequate recruits to hold The Banyai expedition, which led the strategic positions gained, or to take fortresses just ready for occu- . to the founding of the Barotsi mis- pancy. Vhen will the Church learn to keep pushing her volunsion, was not only undertaken but teers to the front. for the relief of the overburdened heroes who are proposed and planned by native face to face with a heathen world?
Christian converts of Basutoland. Donations Aoknowledged.
This one fact both interprets No, 113. Cuban ReJieL ________________ $10,50 and illumines M. Coillard's narra- " 113. McAuley Mission______________ 1.00 tive. So fascinating is this story " 114. "The Greatest Need" ___ 00 ____ 700 that we shall take the liberty to H 115. McAuley Mission ______ . ___ . __ 10.00 reproduce it hereafter, as one of the B 116. McAuley Missioll _____________ 5.00 miracles of missions. . HELP THE STARVING CUBANS 1 How full this book is of heavenly Books Received.
wisdom let one sentence suffice to B Persian Women,'"' Isaac Yonan 8vo, pp. 224. Illustrated. $1.50, Cumberland Presshow: "Consecration, a true and byterian Publishing House. Nashville.
full consecrat'ion, is not a mere .. The Inventor of the Numeral Type for China," Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming. Glasdoctrine, nor yet a single isolated gow.
act, but the fabric, the very princi- "The Traveller's Guide from Death to Llfe," Edited by Mrs. Stephen Menzie", 8vo, pp. ple of life." 160,25 cents. S. W. Partridge &; Co. London.
Miss Mackintosh has done grand service in her superb translation of M. Coillard's work.
A Life in Afr'ica, by Ellen C.
Parsons, is a sketch of the brief but most useful life of Rev. Adol- phus C. Good, Missionary in Equa- toria,l Africa. Fleming H. Revell Co., N. Y.
We knew Dr. Good, and a very uncommon man and missionary he was. When he died in 1894, he was but 38 years old, and had been twelve years in the field. But that brief period of service illustrates
1898.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
VI.- GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign How much did they know? What Periodicals. judgment did they form? Or were they, indeed, too happy to wait for BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK. the morrow to frame questions and give judgment of bankruptcy? DUTCH EAST INDIES. What a lesson for those who sit in missionary committees! ' M. Lion Cachet, a Netherlands clergyman deeply interested in "Then, in fine, let us add to all missions, has been visiting the is- this-can we say by way of ex- land of Java to inquire why the planation ?-the barriers which the Gospel makes such slow progress government of a Protestant coun- among its 22,000,000 of people. It try opposes to the evangelization is not the want of susceptibility, of the 22,000,000 of Javanese. Those for under the auspices of a Madame barriers are set up under various Philips, the wife of a resident offi- pretexts, in reality in order for the cial, several thousands have been better exploitation of the Javanese, baptized in the central provinces. whose emancipation is dreaded, Unhappily, after her death, the who are governed by intimidation, work fell under the control of one access to whom is forbidden to all of her helpers (she was herself in foreign missionaries, except to a part of Javanese blood), who has few Germans. Let us then pass in set himself up as a kind of divine review the labyrinth of denominaemanation. The missionaries seem tions into which Dutch Christians to have no power to resist him, as are divided, of doctrinal and eccledescribed by Prof. Kruger in the siastical factions. The end can Journal des Missions, and this only be deep emotions of symhopeful beginning seems likely to pathy. We withdraw into ourrun out in deformed fanaticism. selves and breathe forth: 'Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, and-help us.' " Prof. Kruger says in M. Cachet's book*: "When we see defiling Pastor Cachet gives a remarkable before us this series of mission- penetrating view into the profound aries, who are only such after a difference between the Western and manner, or not at all, despite the the Oriental habit of mind. He excellent intentions of some-aIrong says: them; when we consider the train of errors committed by ignorance, "In the preaching of the Gospel by want of tact, by incapacity, but a doctrine is brought to the Javainvolving, aswe soon perceive, none nese which is directly opposite to the less strange falsities and abom· that which this people, from generainable consequences, we remain tion to generation, have held for overwhelmed under this accumula· truth; requirements are propounded tion of irregularities, of preoccupa- to him, promises given, etc., for tions aside from the true end of which, in his language, there are missions, of material cares, of no terms, such as have a widely puerile quarrels over property. At different, often exactly opposite last we exclaim: 'Pray, what have application. This preaching adthe responsible directors of this dresses itself as well to the undermission been doing all this while? standing as to the heart; it involves processes of demonstration. Yet * "Een Yaar op Reis!in Dienst der Zendig." the Asiatic, the Oriental, draws his
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
conclusions in a wholly different tion, resurrection from the dead, way from the Occidental. What are expressions which he is accus- the latter accounts as logical de- tomed to hear and to use. monstration, supported by proofs, which lead to conclusions, is, " If now he hears the Word of God in the eyes of the former, unin- proclaimed, if he hears about the telligible, perhaps confused, un- incarnation of Christ, about sin tenable; while, on the other and redemption, condemnation hand, the Oriental manner of pre- and grace, about regeneration, con- sentation, elucidation, demonstra- version, sanctification, eternal life, tion, conclusion is decried by the he understands the words in the European as longwinded, repeti- meaning which they had for him tious, diffuse, irrelevant. The men before. To him the preacher is of the West are not content with someone who has a new ngelmu a demonstration which lacks a (science), which may very well be ac- sharply-defined and exprest 'conse- cepted alongside of that previously quently,' while often the Asiatic acquired. And so he becomes a does not express that' consequent- 'Kristen,' receives baptism, is a ly,' inasmuch as in his view the final member of the church without result to which one should come having really ceast to- be, in point is clearly set forth by the cause of of religion, what he was before. It proof and the figurative language is not conscious dishonesty that accompanying it. Therefore, to has been the ground of his transi- convince the Javanese of the truth tion to Christianity, but misun- of the Christian doctrine so that he derstanding, a misunderstanding, will understand, de1nonstration, nevertheless, that has the saddest indeed, is necessary, but so con- consequences. Preacher and hear- ducted that he can comprehend it. ers used the same words, indeed, Yet the Javanese language is so but did not apply them in the same excessively complicated and diffi- sense. The preacher said one thing, cult, that not unfrequently a sup- and the hearers heard another. So posed acceptance of Christianity vital is it that the missionary turns out in the end to have rested should master not merely the body on misunderstanding." of the Javanese speech, but the Javanese course of thought."- Pastor Cachet dwells on the Missions- und Heidenbote. strange manner in which layer after layer of religious opinion has MISCELLANEOUS. been superimposed upon the Java- nese, all the earlier layers still re- -" A Catholic guide was askt by mammg. He calls the present the traveler whom he was ef.cort- Javanese an Animist-Hinduist- ing: 'Why is there not a saint Buddhist-Mohammedan. "As a standing on yonder pedestal as Mohammedan he has much to say usual, but the Lord Jesus Himself? ' of Allah, the one God, and along- The guide answered: 'Only see that side of him of a so-called Trimurthi, place is too dangerous, it is too hard a tug for the saints; in such a dani. e., a Trinity in the sense of 'ger as this, no one but the Lord Christ Himself will suffice.'" We Brahmanism: Brahma, Vishnu, may well say that of our age.- Siva. The incarnation of" gods' Berliner Missions-Berichte. is not strange to him; sin, sacrifice, .expiation, conversion, sanctifica- -Der Christliche Apologete of tion, puni.shment, grace, hell, in- Jan. 6 gives an account of the scan- .tercession, paradise, retribution, dalous and persecuting restrictions , election, divine council, regenera- 'which Protestant Saxony still.lays
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
upon the Baptists. It is humiliat- What gentleman would think of ing for all Christians and all Pro- standing upon such trifles, after testants. having experienced the exquisite courtesy which, as everyone as- -Rev. H. H.Clark, D.D., chaplain sures us, reaches its summit of per- U. S. N., in a sermon reported in fection in this regal race, and its the Sailo1'8' Magazine, says of the incomparable embodiment in its late Admiral Worden: "Admiral regal head? Worden believed in religion, and he believed in it for the navy. He We see it stated that this Dr. took care that it was respected on Andrews excuses the Armenian board his ships. To him the Cross massacres on the ground of the imwas a flag that streamed out of the measurable inferiority of the Arhighest heavens and floated above menians to the Turks. This is eviall. He believed in the providence dentlya gross distortion of his lanof God. He saw that God did not guage. We remember, indeed, intend that this splendid people, that at the time of the Bulgarian North and South, should come to massacres some English hangers-on separation. They were too great of the aristocracy declared that and good to live under two flags; such dirty fellows did not deserve the world had too much need of to have anyone interfere in their their magnificent union. and behalf. But this man, perhaps, did brotherhood for God to allow them not even pretend to be a Christian, to be sundered, defeating their and certainly was not a Christian common mission on the earth. So minister. Dr. Andrews professes he believed it was the God of bat- to be both. He may possibly have tles who delayed the orders that said that the Armenians richly dewould have kept him longer in serve extermination, and that if New York, who guided his little they are to be exterminated, they vessel through the perils of the ought to esteem themselves highly deep, and directed him in his action honored to receive their merited on that memorable Sunday in doom at the hands of so magnificent Hampton Roads." a race as the Turks. Weare cer- tain that his language can not have -We see citations from a certain gone a hair's breadth beyond this Rev. Dr. Andrews, whoever he may point, and we doubt whether it be, that has lately been visiting went even so far. Turkey and come back greatly enchanted with the Turks. This is Weare sorry to see that some not strange. The Turks are a race have carelessly identified this Dr. of kings. One has but to listen to Andrews with President Andrews, a few sentences of their majestic of Brown University. Andrews is language to discover that. Like a common name, and doctors of kings, moreover, they have always divinity are not rare in the land. counted their subjects as made for There may easily have been some them, not themselves for their sub- back-country divine, say on the jects. What are fifty or a hundred borders of the Indian Territory, thousand massacres, if their royal that, having vaguely heard of pleasure inclines to the occasional Armenian missions in Turkey, diversion of a wholesale butchery? naturally supposed them directed As Cowper says of the Bastile, to the Mohammedans, and hearing of thousands of mem bers in their " That monarchs have supplied from age to churches, supposed these to be, of age course, Turks turned Christians. 'Ve ourselves remember to have With music such as suits their sovereign ears, The sighs and groans oCmiserable men."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
once greatly astonisht a minister, Said an Armenian friend to us lateand that not on the Red River, but ly: "Centuries of oppression have in New York City, by explaining made us tricky and equivocating, the actual facts to him. To be but in point of chastity we stand sure, he was not a doctor of above the Americans, and out of divinity, but then he was perfectly sight of the Turks. A Turkish willing to be made one, and, be- gentleman, notwithstanding his sides, he had just returned from social superiority, feels flattered to Turkey, in the same blissful ignor- be askt to visit one of our houseance in which he went out. But holds. He knows that he would such an ignoramus had no prospect not dare to ask one of our men to of being chosen president of Brown enter his house, and that our women University. Pre8ident Andrews, would not dare to cross his threshof course, has always known that old." the Koran punishes apostasy with death, and that the Turkish govern- President Andrews is likely to be ment carries out this penalty re- tempted to wish that he had anle~tlessly wherever it dares, in the other name before he disentangles face of a nodding Europe. Of himself from this unlucky identificourse, he has not been ignorant cation with his unknown namesake all his days of the famous American of the Texas Panhandle. missions in Turkey, which Disraeli, thirty years ago, extolled in Parlia- English Notes. ment. He has known that the missionaries, being forbidden to BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A. address the Moslem, have applied themselves to the enlightenment The following brief sketch was and spiritual revival of the ancient written at my request by one of the Christian churches of Turkey. To Harley students of the "welcome suppose that he did not know the home" to Dr. Harry Guinness: elementary facts of the religious history of his own country, until he "Seldom has Harley College went to Turkey to find them out, lookt brighter than on Wednesday would be to work right into the morning last, Feb. 9, when it welhands of those that have wisht to comed back its honored director, remove him from his presidency, Dr. Harry Guinness. Dr. Guinness or, of course, are accused of wish- has been absent from the college for ing this. There has been some un- eight months, during which time happy confusion of personalities, or he has paid a missionary visit to some complete misapprehension of South America, touching at many language. of the great centers of Christian work in the States by t.he way. This Dr. Andrews, of undetermined identity, is reported as say- " The 'welcome home' took the ing that the Turks are not only a form of a united breakfast in the nobler race than the Armenians, large hall of the college. Around but a more moral race. This is the tables were gathered the 'large astonishing, indeed. It requires an family' connected with Harley extraordinary genius to discover in House-students, deaconesses from a single visit to Turkey a fact which Doric Lodge, nurses from Brommost Americans living in Turkey ley Hall, and the office-staff. Altoall their lives have not only not dis- gether over a hundred assembled covered, but suppose themselves to for breakfast. have discovered the exact opposite. "After breakfast Rev. Silas Mead, the principal, spoke a few words of welcome. Words of greeting fol- lowed from Rev. James Douglas, Mr. C. C. Brown, Mr. Hayward, spread Thy Gospel among heathen the pastor of Berger Hall, and Mr. nations; Accompl,ny the word of Dodge, one of the students. their testimony concerning Thy atonement with demonstration of "Dr. Harry, on rising to reply, the Spirit and of power; Bless our received an ovation. Taking as his congregations gathered from theme, 'What God hath wrought,' among the heathen; Keep them as he gave a vivid and intensely inter- the apple of Thine eye; Have meresting account of his travels. cy on Thy ancient covenant-people, the Jews; Deliver them from their "The doctor has lookt into the blindness; And bring all nations to problem of the evangelization of the saving knowledge of Thee; Let South America very thoroughly. the seed of Israel praise the Lord; He has traveled thousands of miles Yea, let all the nations praise Him; over the country, interviewing and Give to Thy people open doors to consulting the leading men of the preach the Gospel, and set them to country, and taking the oppor- Thy praise on earth. Amen." tunity of preaching the old, old story by the way. -See how all the ends of the earth are brought together in these "He finds that there will be three days! The editor of The Indian distinct spheres of work in Peru. Witness notes in a recent issue that he took down his lamp made "1. The Spanish peopled coast in Germany, with its chimney line, i.e., from the coast to the made in Japan, filled it with oil foot of the Andes. made in Batoum, and lit it with a Japanese match. Then, taking a "2. Work among the Indians, pad of German paper, he took his the remnant of the old kingdom of American fountain pen and began the Incas, who are scattered here to write on the manufacturing and and there on the Punas, or table- commercial supremacy of Great lands of the Andes. Britain!
"3. Work among the savage -It is told of Thomas Ii Kempis tribes eastward of the Andes, living that once during his student days on the fertile plains of the upper his teacher askt the class, "What sources of the mighty Amazon. passage of Scripture conveys the sweetest description of heaven?" "None of these are in any sense One answered, "There shall be no easy fields of labor. The first is more sorrow there." Another, the pope's parish, the second is not "There shall be no more death." free from his sway, whilst the In- Another, "They shall see His dian dialects are exceedingly diffi- face." But Thomas, who was the cult to learn; and as for the work youngest of all, said: "And His among the savage inland tribes, the servants shall serve Him." difficulties there are almost overwhelming. ' Nevertheless,' the -Samuel Pearce, of Birmingdoctor said, 'they are God's crea- ham, so communicated to his peotures, and we owe them the ple his own zeal for the evangeli- Gospel.' " zation of the heathen that he could say: "At our monthly prayer THE KINGDOM. meetings, both stated and occa- sional, I should be as much sur- -This missionary prayer is prised at the case of the heathen found in the litany of the Moravi- being omitted in any prayer as at an Church, and is used every Sunday in the morning service: "Thou Light and Desire of all nations, Watch over Thy messengers both by land and sea; Prosper the endeavors of all Thy servants to an omission of the name and merits -These are truly mighty words of Jesus." which Bishop Thoburn utters con- cerning the wisdom of trusting the -The mistakes of good men, ability and enlightenment of nalacking in tact and executive abil- tive pastors, and of putting them ity, are always costly, and nowhere on an equality with missionaries: more so than in the mission field. " We have been almost alone," he Horace Mann was wont to say remarks, "among all the missionthat "the dearest thing on God's ary bodies operating in India, in earth is a cheap schoolmaster." receiving among us without hesita- How much more true is this of the tion our ordained native preachers missionary, who is called to Jay the upon precisely the same ecclesiasfoundations of Christian institu- tical footing as that occupied by the tions for the welfare of millions.- foreign missionaries. Y ears ago, Rev. N. G. CLARK. at a time when it was clearly fore- seen that the foreigners must soon -Europe has no less than 3,500,- be placed in a minority, our mis- 000 men under arms, beginning sionaries in Northern India delibwith Russia, 896,000, and others erately adopted the policy of adfollowing thus: Germany, 580,000, mitting Indian preachers. without France, 570,000, Austria, 360,000, any limitations upon their rights Italy, 240,000, Great Britain, 200,000, and privileges, to full membership etc. And these are all " Christian" in the annual conferences. In donations, forsooth! ! ing this, the American missionary placed his character and his eccle- -These words of Rev. N. D. siastical standing absolutely in the hands of his Indian brethren. It Hillis are pertinent to the present was considered a hazardous experi- ment, but the unhesitating confisituation: "If this nation is dence which was reposed by the foreigner in his Indian brother has Christian, it believes in Christ, never in the slightest degree been abused." who did away with the motto, -An impressive moral lies in 'An eye for an eye, and a ship these words of Pundita Ramabai, now in this country, to secure funds for a ship.' . If the sword for her work, and worthy to take rank with Frances ,:Villard and must be drawn from the scabbard, Lady Somer'set: "I have learned that in onr country we have many let its edge be sharpened to cut the lecturers, but few workers. When I felt the impulse to do something bonds of oppression. If the fires of for child widows, I received plenty of advice, but no money, Then I war must be kindled, let them be went to England, and came after- ward to America. I told my friends kindled only for destroying fetters. what I needed. I said I should require $75,000 to carryon work America's mission is to heal for ten years. The friends were so kind that I received the $75,000, wounds, not produce them; to and $8,000 more."
quench wars and not kindle them. -Rev. G. F. Verbeck, one of the And happy shall this people be if through arbitration and peaceable methods it is given to us to open the door of the prison-house, to give liberty to the captive. But if into our hands for the curing of the na- tions God gives a cup bitter and fierce, to be poured out as medi- cine, as in the olden day, so now 'may the iron hand be stretcht forth from a kindly heart,' and may it be a medicine administered by justice, not vengeance; by kind- ness, not fury; by love, and not wrath." first missionaries to enter Japan, AMERICA. and one of the most useful, died in Tokyo, March 9, aged sixty-eight. United States. – There is money Born and educated in Holland, he enough to sustain every good cause; came to this country in early man- the only trouble is that so slight a hood, and in 1859 was commissioned proportion is consecrated and put by the Reformed (Dutch) Church. to the highest uses. The Review of It was his privilege to perform Reviews figures out that not less valuahle services to the Japanese than $60,000,000 will be expended government, and to render excel- by the 100,000 people who will push lent assistance in translating the toward the Klondike this spring. Scriptures. A fuller notice of this Of this sum it is estimated that the able and honored missionary will railroads will get for transporta- appear later in our pages. tion to the coast $5,000,000; the city of Seattle in various ways, $25,000- WOMAN'S WORK. 000; other coast cities, $5,000,000; transportation companies to Alas- -Miss Hamilton, a young Eng- ka, $10,000,000; transportation in lishwoman, studied medicine in Alaska, $15,000,000. All this $60,- Brussels, and then went to Oalcutta 000,000, it is said, will be necessary to practise, hut later she was chos- for actual needs in the way of pro- en to he medical adviser to the visions, equipment, transporta- Amir of Afghanistan. As evidence tion, etc. that her influence is already felt, this ruler has instituted compulsory -The American Baptist Publicavaccination throughout his realm. tion Society is having built the fifth chapel car, 75 women contrib- – The Woman's Missionary uting $100 each. The railroads Friend (Methodist) is twenty-eight haul these mission cars free of all years old, and is so highly appre- cost, and give them place on sideciated as to pay expenses, and, in tracks wherever desired. The soaddition, during the last fifteen ciety considers these cars for the years has been able to contribute distribution of literature about as $30,000 for missionary literature. important as their use for the hold- The society of which it is the or- ing of meetings. A great number gan has 175 missionaries in the of remote stations are reacht, givforeign field, 24 of them being phy- ing meetings and literature to the sicians; 400 day-schools with 12,000 destitute country around. pupils, 50 boarding-schools with 4,000, and 14 hospitals and dispen- -Are missionaries successful? saries. In the schools of the American Board there are to-day studying -Abo~t 1861 Bihle women were for Ohristian leadership among first emploYf'd in Ohina, but were their own people more pupils than soon dispenst with. In 1882 two are now connected with all of the were again set to work, the next 41 Congregational colleges and uniyear 11, and a year later still, 21. versities and the large number of And, behold, in 1897 the Methodists academies in the United States and alone employed 80 in Foochow and Oanada. Hinghua.
-Dr. Mary Stone, of Kiukiang, -The American Missionary As- Ohina, recently treated 414 patients sociation has church and school while on a month's tour, and in a work among the freedmen and single day dispenst medicine to 114- mountain whites of the South, women and children. among the Indians, and among the Chinese on the Pacific coast, of legacy of $250,000 from Mrs. Van- which this is the general summary ~ derbilt. The disbursements for ob- jects within the parish have been Schools ______ ______ __________ 120 $371,149, and for objects outside Pupils ______________________14,064 $77,785. There is a men's club num- Missionaries_ _________ ______ 666 bering 397, a chapter of the Broth- Churches ______ ______ ________ 241 <:lrhood of St. Andrew, and a boys' Church-members ____________ 12,288 club. The men have a gymnasium, a library, a social room, billiard – -The Presbytery of Alaska was room, a debating club, a glee club, organized and held its first meet- and a chess and checker club; also ing September 14, 1884. In 1897 it a baseball team, and a bicycle secreported to the General Assembly tion, while gymnastic and athletic '8 churches, 840 communicants, and contests are held under the direc- 735 Sunday-school scholars. tion of the physical trainer of both the men and the boys. Fifty per -About a year since a mission- cent. of the boys are Romanists, 40 school was opened in " Chinatown," per tent. are members of the parish, Philadelphia. Soon 14 Christian while Italians. Jews, and Armeni- Chinese askt for a room in which ans make up the balance; threeto organize a Y. M. C. A. They quarters are schoolboys, the others met every Sunday, and now, in- are from offices, stores, and factorcluding associate members, there ies. The girls' club is so large that are 165. it is divided into three sections.
–The seventh annual meeting of -Metropolitan Temple in New the Tuskegee Negro Conference York reports over 1,000 members, was held February 23, at which 11 where three years ago there were southern and 5 northern states not 200, and 920 were received durwere represented by delegates, of ing two years and eight months. whom about 2,000 were farmers. Altho the church is near Four- Booker T. Washington, in his open- teenth street, its audiences are ing address, insisted on the follow- large, and the Sunday-night coning points: "Get land;" "Get a gregation is probably the largest decent home;" "Raise something Protestant audience in the city, and to eat;" "Improve your school- people are often turned away. The houses." And he told this story: organizations connected with the One day a lame black woman, sev- church include a musical bureau, enty years old, who was born in kindergarten, Frcebel normal instislavery, hobbled into his office, tute, council, Sunday afternoon holding something in her patcht conference, two large choirs, Brothapron. "Mr. Washington," she erhood of Andrew and Philip, Epsaid, "I'se ignorant and poor, but worth League, reading rooms, ath- I know you is tryin' to make better letic association, literary club, men and women at dis school. I Chautauqua circle, bureau of help, knows you is trying to make a bet- sewing school, and millinery and ter country for us. Mr. Washing- dressmaking class. Fifty services ton, I aint got no money, but I are held every week in the various want you to take dese six eggs, departments. The total contribuand put 'em into de eddication of tions this year will exceed $16,000. one 0' dese boys or girls." Well, this reads wondrously like the story of the widow's two mites.
-In St. Bartholomew's parish, Canada.-The foreign missionary New York, the receipts for last societies in Canada report 89 prinyear were $686,649, including a cipal stations, 227 outstations, 242 missionaries, 506 native laborers, tist ministers in Great Britain and 112 churches, with 9,141 communi- Ireland, 1,556 are reported to be cants, of whom 1,040 were added total abstainers. Out of 2,847 Con- last year. The native contributions gregational ministers in England were $32,339, and the contributions and Wales, 2,364 abstain from in Canada, $283,706. strong drink. In some of the -The Church of England through Methodist bodies the percentage the" C. M. S." is expending $100,000 of total abstainers is still larger."
a year for British Columbia and -The London Times has been Rupert's Land. The total spent by calling attention to the great work the society last year in Manitoba, done by the Bible Society. The the North-West, and British Co- Queen of England is a great lover lumbia was $84,364, and $13,075 was of the Book, and in her jubilee spent in England on outfit grants, year, 1887, selected and wrote out passages, etc. Of the above amount a passage of Scripture to be repro- $34,848 went to the salaries of 3 duced in facsimile in an edition of missionary bishops, about 40 clergy, the New Testament to be circu- and a large number of teachers and lated as a gift am.)ng the scholars catechists. The society is gradu- in the secular state schools of Aus- ally withdrawing its aid, and thus tralasia. The inscription was, "On giving scope for the liberality of earth peace, good will toward men.
churchmen in the older provinces. Windsor Castle, March 8, 1887.
-Among the Chinese in Montreal Victoria, R. I."
there are 16 Sabbath-schools. The -The Society for Promoting average size of these schools is 25 Christian Knowledge (known as scholars and 22 teachers. The con- S. P. C. K.), was organized in 1698, tributions of the schools for the and celebrated its bi-centenary, past year for Presbyterian foreign March 8. Tho known now only mission work were $464. Besides as a publishing house, yet for a this there were other sums given century after 1718 it supported the directly in connection with the Danish mission in India. It has mission and in consequence of it, endowed sees, paid the salaries of amounting to $792, making a total agents, etc. For some years past of $1,156. it has done much to foster medical – The work of the Canadian missions, particularly in the direc- Methodist women in Japan is rep- tion of assisting the education of resented by 15 missionaries. Board- women who wish to become mediing-schools have been establisht in cal missionaries. Tokyo, Shidzuoka, and Kofu, and orphanages in Tokyo and Kana- -The Society for the Propagazawa, while 2 industrial schools are tion of the Gospel (S. P. G.), only establisht in the Kawakami and three years younger than the organ- Daijime districts, each performing ization above mentioned, rejoices excellent work. over an increase of £183,996 over the receipts of 1896. And even when the great Mariott bequest of EUROPE. £177,464 is deducted, the increase Great Britain.-I t might be worse, is £6,532.
hut it ought to be far better. Let -There has been a distinct for- our British brethren make haste to eign mission advance in the Church forge forward and overtake Amer- of Scotland. The General Assem- ican saints in the matter of tem- blies of 1896 and 1897 unanimously perance. For read: "Of 1,955 Bap- and strongly recommended the plan of quarterly collections in accept, but the statistical facts to every congregation, and a special which he refers are absolutely committee of business-men recom- true." mended the formation of local associations in every parish. The -There are 44 deaconess mother- result so far is seen in an income houses in Germany, which have increast by more than £5,000, and 9,714 sisters in active service on in a greater supply of candidates 3,642 stations. Of these" stations" for the field. 1,509 are parishes, 685 hospitals, 237 old people's homes, 28 asylums The Continent.-It is said that a for epileptics and idiots, 725 spirit of restlessness prevails schools, 136 manual training among the priests of Italy as well schools, 66 houses of refuge for as among those of France, and that females, 7 insane asylums, 7 peni- some in both countries are turning tentiaries, 12 asylums for cripples, their faces toward Protestantism. 15 young girls' institutions, 72 or- "Whether that be so or not, some phanages, 12 health resorts, 36 day- statements made in the current nurseries, 9 children's health re- Voice f~'om Italy seem to counte- sorts, 35 homes for servant girls, nance the idea that there is going 51 divers institutions. The oldest on a certain drift from Rome. of the mother-houses is at Kaisers- Statistics are given in that publi- werth, dating from 1836; 5 are in cation showing the membership of Berlin. the Waldensian congregation in 5 of the chief Italian cities; and from -The railway commissioner of these we learn that, while 226 com- Russia has reported to the czar municants in all are Protestants that the Trans-Siberian Railway by birth, as many as 1,331 are Ro- will be finisht throughout its en- man CathoUc conve1·ts. These are tire length to the Pacific Ocean, remarkable figures, and prove that "next summer." It is calculated the Church of the Valleys acted that when this road is opened, a wisely in undertaking aggressive person can go around the world by work in the plains of Italy.-Free the regular lines of travel in 36 Church Monthly. days; and by special trains and fastest steamships in only 28 days. -The Metho&ist Times, London, Starting from St. Petersburg, the thus calls attention to an impor- journey would be: St. Petersburg tant concession of the Pope: '" In to Vladivostok, 10 days; Vladivos- regard to numbers,' continues the tok to San Francisco, 10 days; San pope, 'believing Christians are on Francisco to New York, 4% days; the decrease, .our ranks are being New York to Bremen, 7 days; thinned, the increasing race leaves Bremen to St. Petersburg, 1% days. us fewer recruits and companions in battle, while great crowds are -Thomas G. Allen, Jr., who led into the unbelievers' camp, and traveled across Asia on a bicycle, place themselves under the banner furnishes evidence in the March of the anti-Christ.' Of course, by Ladies' Home Journal, that we , Christians' and 'believing Christ- hold many erroneous ideas regard- ians' Pius IX. meant RDman Cath- ing Siberia and her people. There olics. All those who do not 'owe are fashions and fashionable people allegiance' to the pope are huddled even in Siberia, and, according to together' under the banner of anti- Mr. Allen, one meets as well-drest Christ.' Pope Pius IX. uses expres- women in Siberia as are to be found sions that only his adherents can in any European city. The social forms that exist in the large cities of Russia are observed in Siberia. -There are no fewer than 12 dis- Mr. Allen's pictorial article pre- tinct Presbyterian bodies in that sents an attractive picture of a great country: 1. The Establisht land which the public mind has Church of Scotland; 2. The Free always associated with sterility, Church; 3. The United Presbyterian perpetual cold, and unrelieved hu- Church; 4. The Associate Synod of man suffering. Original Seceders ; 5. The Presbyte- rian Church of England; 6. The Cal- ASIA. vinistic Methodists of Wales; 7. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland; 8. India.-One who reads the papers The Presbyterian Church in Canaof India, including those that are da; 9. The Presbyterian Church of pronounced defenders of Hinduism, the United States of America; 10. will be imprest with the fact that The United Presbyterian Church of they are distinctly apologetic in North America; 11. The Reformed their tone, and that they are advo- Presbyterian Church of Americi; cating doctrines and practises and 12. The Reformed Church in which are entirely at variance America, Reformed (Dutch)Church. with what has been known as or- All these are represented in the thodox Hinduism. They are free council of the Indian Presbyterian to admit that the popular faith is Alliance, which meets triennially.] degenerate, and can not stand in the light of modern times, and they -Cuddapah is the name of a large propose to go back to their earlier district of the Madras Presidency, scriptures, in which, as they claim, a county of that district, and also a the puerilities and obscenities town of nearly 19,000 inhabitants. abounding in their Puranas are not Upward of seventy years ago the found. This change is not toward London Missionary S~lCiety began Christianity, but is clearly the re- work in Cuddapah, and the work suit of Christian teaching.· The has increast in a very wonderful ideas prevailing throughout Chris- way, especially during the last ten tendom are permeating India in years. Before that time there were some good degree, and the new only 203 communicants, now there Hinduism now presented to the are 881. The adherents have more people, in place of their corrupt and than doubled in this decade, while corrupting faiths, is offered them the schools have increast from 29 with the distinct thought that it to 97. But perhaps the most gratiwill prevent the adoption of Chris- fying result of all is that the numtianity. This counter effort is a ber of evangelists, teachers, and significant proof of the widespread catechists has risen from 44 to 126. influence of the Gospel in India. If it were not potent it would not -The bishop of Tinnevelly has be so opposed.-Mi88ionar·y Herald. confirmed more than 2,000 native Indian converts during the past -Rev. J. P. Haythornthwaite, year. Step by step the evangelizaof Agra, in the Intelligencer, esti- tion of India goes on. mates that the recent famine was attended by a financial loss of not -The Indian W'itne88 gives a less than £23,000,000 in food sup- list of Indian missionaries who plies in the Northwest Provinces have reacht a long term of service alone. At one time 1,381,337 per- in that land. It gives the names of sons were employed on relief works, 81 missionaries who have served while 315,385 more were in receipt from 30 to 61 years, the average of of gratuitous relief. the whole being 38~. There were 7 who had been there 50 years or the corpse, one with the ancestral over,8 between 45 and 50, and 11 tablet, and one goes into the spirit from 40 to 45. world. When a member of the family is very ill they think one -The Rev. D. L. Brayton is the soul has left the body. They then oldest missionary in Burma. He go out and wail, loudly and pithas been 70 years in the country, eously pleading for the spirit to and is now in his 90th year. He come back, at the same time, if at was for 13 years a companion to night, holding a lantern to show it Judson, the first missionary to how to return. These mournful Burma; yet he is bright and active, cries are often heard in the night, rising at 4 o'clock every morning of and are really heartrending. One his life. Among other works he tells of the children in one family has translated the entire Bible into going out and begging a little the Pwo Karen language. vVe brother to return, crying, "Little should imagine that Mr. Brayton b-r-o-th-er! little b-r-o-th-er ! " until is the oldest missionary in the others were moved to tears. world.-Freeman (London).
China.-There are now upward of -A correspondent of the Chicago 1,000 schools for natives in China Record reports a new movement of under foreigners. They range from progressive Chinese women. Three the village day-school up to high native young women, educated at schools and colleges. In this .em- the University of Michigan, perpire there are no schools for girls, suaded 10 Chinese women, the wives except those founded by the mis- of mandarins of the highest rank, sionaries. to invite 50 foreign women, the wives of consuls, merchants, and -Are any Chinese women's feet missionaries, to be their guests at unbound in consequence of the ex- luncheon at a restaurant in the ertions of the foreigners? Yes. suburbs of Shanghai, mostly fre- But no more than European ladies quented by foreigners. The purare they going to walk barefoot pose was to discuss ways and means through the streets to convince for the establishment of a school in doubters. And what is far more im- that city in which the daughters of portant, numbers upon numbers of the nobility may obtain a modern little girls are remaining unbound education. At the close of the in missionary schools at Amoy, luncheon, which was served in Eu- Hangchow, and all up and down ropean style, the company listened the river; and at parties, ladies to what is believed to be the first who, as far as we know, are un- public speech ever deli vered by a toucht. by Christian influences, yet Chinese woman of rank. She askt show with pride their soft-footed for the cooperation of the women little girls, saying, "MyoId people of the foreign colony in the estabbound my feet, but I will never lishment of a school in the native bind hers." It is the upper circles section of Shanghai, similar to the of China who are giving up bind- school for peeresses establisht at ing. The man on the streets yet 'fokyo by the Empress of Japan. binds, and loves bound feet, just as in Singapore all the Straits-born -Rev. Dr. Ross, of Manchuria, Chinese have cast off binding, if it writes thus of a recent tour: "This be not the very poorest of the poor. concluded my visitations of the sta- -North China Herald. tions around Moukden, within a radius of 35 miles. I have still to -The Chinese believe that a man go to the remote East Sinping-pu, has three souls-one remains with etc., which, if all's well, I intend to sociable-(bump!)-two of usdo in December. I notice that dur- (bump!)-so much more so thaning the months of September, Oc- (bump and knock on the head!)- tober, and the first half of Novem- the lonely-(bump! bump! Oh!)- ber, I have been privileged to bap- sedan chair-(knock on the knee). tize 613 men, 109 women, and 26 This is awful-(bump! bump! in a infants. Adherents connected with specially ancient rut)-it is enough these who are not baptized at least to kill you poor-(bump over a equal this number, while the num- stone) – missionaries – (bump! ber of applicants for baptism or bump!)-I give it up-(bump!) I catechumens is very large, not less prefer the lonely sedan chair.' The than 2,500. half cannot be told, for while try- ing to defend one's total number of -A Chinaman living near Shang- joints frolI simultaneous dislocahai has been interviewed by the tion, and flying to pieces all at once, Frankfurter Zeitung, and, among by holding on to the posts of the other things, says concerning the cover with both hands, the unex- " barbarian" Europeans: " They pected jolts force your mouth open certainly do not know how to with cries of dismay, and then you amuse themselves. You never see want a third hand to hold a handthem enjoy themselves by sitting kerchief over mouth and nose to quietly upon their ancestors' avoid being stifled with dust and graves. They jump around and odors." kick li/tlls as if they were paid to do it. Again, you will find them Korea.-W. H. Grant, of the making long tramps into the Presbyterian Board, has recently country; but that is probably a re- visited Korea, and writes thus of ligious duty, for when they tramp the advantages which that country they wave sticks in the air, nobody offers as a mission field: "Korea knows why. They have no sense offers a clean field for missionary of dignity, for they may be found enterprise, unembarrassed by a walking with women. They even quarter of a century of paid agents. sit down at the same table with It is a delightful experience to get women, and the latter are served into a mission where self-support first. Yet the women are to be does not have to be advocated, and pitied, too. On festive occasions where the native workers are volthey are compelled to appear unteers, or supported by their own almost naked before every man people." who likes to look at them, and they are dragged around a room to the -Three things conspire to make accompaniment of the most hellish Korea one of the most inviting of music." mission-fields. One is the way the people live, not so much in large -Mrs. S. L. Baldwin, while cities, but in villages, rendering traveling in North China, enjoyed them more easy of access and more the luxury of a ride with a mission- susceptible of being influenced. ary in a Peking cart, and sends Another is the disposition the peohome the following account of her ple have to help themselves. The sensations: " I set out for my first third is, as compared with other experience of riding in a native Orientals, their comparative friendcart, on the broad avenues of the liness. Instead of calling the for- Imperial City of the potentate eigner "foreign devil," as the Chiwhose subjects call him the Son of nese do, they look up to him with Heaven. I began to say: 'How respect, and call him" Tai-in"- great man. At first a little timid these people perhaps get only a and offish, by a little kindness they dollar's wages for a month's work. are easily won to friendship. Almost as soon as work is begun in a Japan.-The New York Tribune new place, it begins to open up, calls attention to the fact that while results begin to appear.-Dr. at the time of Trafalgar Japan was Chester. of no more account in the world than the Fiji Islands, and was hut -The Presbyterians are in re- recently reckoned as a semi-barbarceipt of this good news: "Graham ous country, she is now swiftly Lee has just returned from 2 coun- coming to the fore as one of the try trips, visited 45 places where great military powers, and at the Christians meet on the Sabbath, present rate of progress will in a baptized 151 persons, and received few years rank as the second naval 455 catechumens. At 29 of these 45 power in the world. Japan's inplaces the people have bought or debtedness to Christianity for her erected church buildings." present position, is thus exprest by the Interior: "The empire of the -The American Bible Society Rising Sun, as we see it to-day, has received a report from its mis- could not have existed except for sionaries and colporteurs in Seoul, the ingrafting of new motives and stating that last fall the discovery the supplying of new aims, which was made of many people in the Christianity effected through its southern part of the province of Christian missions." Kiongi who profest Christianity. These people requested a visit from -There has been so much tonceit a missionary. The Rev. Mr. Miller and self-assertion among the Japanand two Korean helpers responded. ese who boast a liberal education, The report states that in one village acquired during the last few years, 140 Koreans enrolled themselves as that the case of Mr. Tokutomi is desirous to become Christians. refreshing. This gentleman, who The magistrate of the city around has just returned from an extena group of visited villages was sive tour abroad, is a graduate of found to be a professing Chris- the Doshisha, and holds an honortian tho he has not joined the able and trusted position under his church. No foreign missionary government. While in Russia he whatever had ever visited any of had an interview with Count Tolthose places. The work seems to stoi. The latter having askt Mr. have grown up entirely through Tokutomi what the ideals of his Christian visitors and books. nation were, he replied: "Rever- ence of the emperor and love of -A Korean paper made an appeal country." To this it is said the old for the India famine fund, and re- count answered: "Too low! too ceived a response from a poor little low! There is no hope for a nanative church, with a membership tion which does not love God, and of about 100, in a country place that has not religion for its ideal." where no missionary resides regularly. Some of the women, for -Every newspaper in Japan has want of money, gave silver pins what is called a "dummy editor," and rings. The whole offering whose only duty is to go to jail amounted to $80. The paper com- whenever the paper is censured and mented on the fact that from other supprest for offending the emperor. Koreans well able to give it had The genuine editor stays at his not received a cent, while many of post, gives the paper a new name, and goes on publishing it. -Mrs. Bainbridge gives us this Catholics. The great majority are description of a meal at a Japanese Copts, who have considerably in- restaurant: "In this land of the creast under British rule. Cairo Rising Sun, the cooking is done has 570,000 inhabitants; Alexan- next the street; this restaurant par- dria, 320,000. Great Britain is lor overlooks a pretty garden in the represented in the country by rear. Call the waiter now. 'Hai! 19,500 persons, but that number in- hai !' Say it quick and sharp, and cludes 6,500 Maltese and 5,000 men slap the palms of your hands to- composing the army of occupation.
gether. Here he comes in stock- -A band of 7 young men, including feet, and bowing most politely. ing J. Martin Cleaver, solicitor, are First in our bill of fare will be a lac- going out from Ireland to Egypt in quer bowl of steaming, fluffy rice. order to devote themselves to mis- Next tea, but do not think of ask- sion work among the Greeks, Maling for milk; fish, perfectly raw tese, and Moslems in the country. fish, and soy, a spicy gravy; and They intend to make Alexandria then soup made of fishes and eggs, for the present their headquarters, and the fish are not cleaned at all; and from thence they expect to and we will try some stewed bam- branch out as the Lord opens up boo sprouts, also a big radish,: and the way. Theyarenotgoingunder you will enjoy the tiny oranges. the auspices of any existing mis- The common Japanese 'Yorking sionary society, and they have class can not live in such elegance been led to give themselves to this as this, for most of them must bring work through special good received their living within five to eight at the Keswick Convention and by cents per day, and hence their prin- coming in contact with the Rev. cipal food is rice and tea. Dried Chas. Inwood. shark meat is considered a delicacy."-King's Messengers. -There are at present 86 mission- -Mrs. L. H. Pierson gives this aries, men and women, laboring account of her last year's work: for Mohammedans in Morocco, Al- "My personal meetings in Y oko- giers, Tunis, and Tripoli. hama and vicinity have numbered 312, but there can be no estimate -The Church Missionary Intelmade, even approximately, of those ligencer gives some interesting deheld at distant stations. There have tails regarding work in the Kongo been 1,144 Bible classes under my Free State: "Since the establishinstruction, that is, 22 during each ment of Protestant missions, week. My evangelistic trips have twenty years ago, 10 Protestant numbered 7, in which 13 towns have denominations have successively "been visited, some of them 2 or 3 created mission posts in the Free times. We have now 15 stations, State. These number 56 in all, and 3 of them having been recently are occupied by 221 agents of both opened." , sexes; the buildings attacht are constructed with skill, and charac- AFRICA. terized by a comfort essentially Britannic. The preachers are -The census, taken in June last, usually zealous, desirous of" well- shows that in Egypt there is a pop- doing, and in certain parts of the ulation of nearly 10,000,000. Of Lower Kongo, towards which gen- these, nearly 9,000,000 are Moslems, eral effort has converged, several 700,000 are Christians, and 25,000 thousands of Kongolese have sub- are Jews. Only a very small pro- mitted to their influence. In addi- portion are Protestants or Roman tion to various literary efforts, a printing press has been set up, and it was with the earnest desire to be from it is issued one journal in a native tongue. Instruction is a foreign missionary. But the given in schools, and English is universally taught. Three steam- needs of the white population were ers on the Upper Kongo are owned by the Reformed Societies. so great that he could not pass them -Dr. Schreiber, of the Barmen over. Yet he made a magnificent Mission, speaks in his annual report of a new undertaking in connection contribution to the mission field, with its African mission. "We have come to the conviction," he for no less than 7 of his grandchilwrites, "that we must ourselves set our hands to make the land dren are missionaries under the which is about to be given to the natives as inalienable property use- Dutch Church, and at least 11 are ful to them; that is, we must ourselves see to the regulating of the student volunteers.-Rev. Donald water supply, the boring of wells, the construction of ponds, and we Fraser. must also teach the people agriculture. This is quite a new task for -When Dr. Prentice was on the us, for which we shall need new powers, and for which we shall Tanganyika Plateau in 1896, one need, in the first place, an engineer who thoroughly understands such day, after a long march, he was matters." The mission has decided to send out a competent person.- resting under a tree along with his Deutsche Kalanialzeitung. boys. Two of them were telling – Most mistaken views are abroad about the missionary spirit of the how the Awemba had raided the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. It is true that in the hills, and the villages were burned, Transvaal and in the Orange Free State there is great prejudice and the cattle stolen, and the peoagainst missions, but in the colony there is both enthusiasm and much ple killed, till men were afraid to missionary activity. Almostevery strong church has its mission for live there. Then the consul ca,me colored people, and good work is also carried on in Mashonaland, in with his soldiers, and the Awemba Bechuanaland, in Natal, and in Nyassaland by the Dutch mission- had ceast their raiding, because aries. In the missionary institute at Wellington from 12 to 20 students they feared the white man's guns. are in training for work either among the colored people or in the Then they turned to an Angoni, who mission field. A great deal of this new interest is directly traceable to was with them, and said: "Who the influence of the Murray family. stopt war down your way?" "The When old Mr. Murray went to doctor," he replied. "How?" they South Africa early in the century, askt. "He came to us with the Word of God, and he told us what they had to say, and now we are living in peace." All the fighting has not stopt, but large parts of the country are completely settled, and the awful and destructive raids on the lake people have altogether ceast.-Rev. Donald Fraser.
-The largest diamond in the world was discovered last year in the Orange Free State, and is on sale in London for $5,000,000. It is three inches long by two and a-half at its thickest part; has a beautiful blue- white color, in shape and brilliancy resembles the most sparkling of icicles, and is one of the most daz- zling objects ever beheld. It is known as the Jaeger-Fontien dia- mond, as it was found at the mine of that name. Its discoverer was a negro truckman, who, the morn- ing before the mine past into the possession of a purchasing syndi- cate, saw the stone, put his foot over it, pickt it up as soon as he could do so without observation, carried it to the house of the man- ager, and delivered it into his hands.
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1898
EXTRAXCE TO THE GREAT BURMESE PAGODA AT
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOl•. XXI. No. 4.-0ld &ries.- APRIL -VOL. XI. No.4.-New &ries.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF OENTURY.- INDIVIDUAL LINKS BETWEEN GIVERS AND 'rUE MISSION FIELD.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
No practical problem, now occupying the wisest and best minds, is more engrossing than this: how to secure, from cheerful givers at home, a hearty and unfailing support for workers abroad, or on the borders of civilization in the home land. Great as is the need of a larger force in the field, the question pressing just now, with tremendous weight, is how to keep the laborers already in the field, and prevent disastrous retrenchment in the work already begun. On every side, and in every direction, the grand undertakings of the Church are at risk. Debts so enormous as almos~ to wreck boards representing home and foreign missions, and deficiencies so crippling to all aggressive action as to compel retrenchment instead of advance, have caused a chronic alarm and .apprehension that are paralyzing to all hopeful enterprise. It is only great faith in God that dares take one step forward and onward when the work presents such an aspect and prospect.
Devout souls stand in the presence of such a crisis in missions, with the deep conviction that it is both needless and shameful. 1'here is money enough, yea and piety enough, to remedy all these evils and supply all these deficiencies, were the money and the piety only made available. In nature, power and energy have always been present, but' have not al ways been properly applied. And so the cOllllPcting Jinks seem somehow wanting between Ohristians at home and the work and workers abroau. Dr. Thomas O. Upham has saiu,t that there is in every comrnonweatb, "a conservative hody of men who, in their freedom from passion, call estimate the just claims of tI'U th, and, in the strength of moral amI religious principle, will at all hazards do what is right." And hence," when great constitutional and moral ques- ':. This periodical ailopts the Ol'thcr;raphy of the folloiYing Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philolo,;;cal Association and the Philological Society of England :-Change d or ed final to t when ~() lll'ollonnced, except when the e affects a preceding sound.-PuBLISHERS.
t Life of Faith. 300 p.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
tions are at stake, the results have generally been favorable to law and truth, in consequence of the accession at the precise moment of danger of those of all denominations of persons, wro, in their devotion to rectitude of principle, have declined to recognize the coercions of party discipline, and who constitute the genuine' Imperial Guard' or 'Macedonian Phalanx,' who strike only at the moment of imminent hazard, and whose moral strength renders them inYincible."
The Church of God is the hope of all good ellterprises, and within its sacred inclosure are the very" Body-guanl of the King." There is on the earth a vast company of prayerful, intelligent, consecrated men and women, amply sufficient ill lllllllbcr, amply ellieient ill faculty, and not at all deficiellt ill either sympathy for holy activity or in self-sacrifice for its promotion; and, if this Lody of God's dcar saints could Lc brought illto yital touch with the work of lIIissiotls, money and workers would bc continually forthcoming; there would be alike men in tIle field and" III pat in God's bOllse." It is the link of connection that is lacking. The majority of Cllrist's disciples know little. of the Wf1nts of the world-tield, and lmve never cOllie to feel the needs and claims of the work. Theil' milld" a1(1 hearts, eonsciences and sympathies, have not yet Leell really enlisted. If any impression has been made lljlOIl them, it bas been occasiollal alld incidental, and hence tllC respollse has beell spasmodic alld illlplllEil'e. But in them lie the latent pos~il)ilities of yast increase ill all that aids the Lest enterprises of the Church-the 'lI/otOi' which lIel'<ls ollly proper lJ1achinery t() conllect it with tbe work to be dOlle.
When all)' temporal tlisaster, like plague or falllill(', llIakes its appeal, mOlley flolVs ill streams, alld' sOllictiIII PS in floods. The difference lies bere: the appeal in the latter ease is lou(] and strollg, echoed by every llcwspaper, ('mphasi7.ecl ill CH'l"}" ~crlllOll and public meetillg for relief. '1'he ealamity that is presellt or threatellillg Lecollies everywhere the cnrrellt topic of COllYersatiOlI. There is 110 eluding its clamorolls dem:LlH] for help, 11lld knowlc(]ge d fIlets kill(lles sympathy alld sympathy loosells pnrse-strings alld lwart-strings. Can 1I0t the perishing millions who know !lot the Gospel, be so brought practically into proximity with the millions of disciples who really love the Master, and are ready to respond to His command llll(l to their claims, as that a constallt stream of cons('cmted gifts may be secnl'ed beyond the risk of all this ullcertainty ?
In reference to this matter, we desire to put once wore 011 record onr OWll deliberate, calm, prayerful, alld mature jndglll8nt, that no OIW tking would do 1IIore to secure a jlI'Oll/jJt, })(JI"l)l{lIleld, (lliil altogetltm' 1tnprecedented advance in missiolls, than this samc plan, whiclJ the writer has advocated for more than twenty-tire years-and which has been steadily growing ill flLvor aml ill success-oj ~llJiJiorting individual missionaries in tlte field by individ1Wl contributions.
LINKS BETWEEN GIVERS AND THE MISSION PIELD
Nothing is more needed in all missionary aggressive enterprise than three grand conditions: Knowledge of the field ~l/Oork, sympathy with the worker, and pmyc!:ful interest in tlie work. When these are secUl·ed, gifts pour ill without special appeals and without cessation. One method of supplying all these conditions readily suggests itself. Any man or woman of a family that is immediately linkt to the missionary cause by the support of a missionary, will naturally come to know the field, to feel Ollcness with the worker, and to pray interestedly for the work and its progress. In repeated visits to Britain, having crost the sea -now seven times and back, and having spent a large part of the last ten ycars in Great Britain, the writer has been urollght into contact with hundreds of families that, as such, support olle or more ll'.issionaries, in some cases of their own number, and in others of the church or denomination to which they uelong. And in such cases there are uniformly found an illtelligence as to missions, a deep personal sympathy with missionaries, an absorbing interest in the work and in the people among whom it is done, a high standard of giving, and a high level of praying, not commonly met with under any otiter circumstances.
:For example a Scottish family-a poor family-gave one, two, three sons to missions. One of them became disabled, and his sister went and took his place, and two of the grandchildren followed – six from one house. Need it be said that in that household the standard of knowledge, zeal, prayer, and giving was very high? Another family-that of a Scottish knigbt-sent a daughter to India as a fully cquipt medical missionary; the effect Oll. the whole family life was uplifting, and tliat family became itself a little missionary society, with all the cOlluitions of success. Again a family-comparatively wealthy-resol ved to give, pound for pound, and shilling for shilling, to the snpport of missiollaries, the amollnt spent on home expenses. That house is the gathering-place of missionaries ancI' a school of missionary information. Both the husband anu wife can discourse of missions in any part of the world with intelligence and power. There is a family in Liverpool, whose son is in India in the Civil Seryice, but himself practically a missionary. Letters pass to and fro, allll in that home allY of us may learn of the condition, especially of Indian missions, and a habitual giving is there to be found, which sho's a world-wide sympathy. A family in London supports not one but many mission workers, wholly or in part, in various fields. A.fraJilcd list of subjects for daily prayer is hung up in plain sight, and, as each new clay comes, the subject for that day is conspicuous. Of course, giving is bound to go with such praying, and the husband and wife, each one the independent possessor of a fortune, have given np all hoarding of mOltey that they may ell rich others, and frugally avoid needless expense that they may have more to uestow.
'M4 SPIRITUAL· MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
'l'hat home is another missionary training-school. Another family of eleven sons and daughters are all engaged in mission work of some sort; the city of London is their field. One of them is training for the foreign field and has offered himself; and there again all the conditions are met, high intelligence, earnest prayer, fervent sympathy, and habitual giving. Such examples might be multiplied without limit. But these justify alld illustrate the principle, which is all we Jleed to do.
Before being confronted with these and like examples, the writer, in the year 1870, proposed to a church, of which he was then pastor, that the young men should form themselves into a missionary circle, and undertake to support a young man abroad. The proposal proved a seed in a congenial soil and took root. A numLer of the young men thus associated undertook the support of a young man who was just going to Japan and who spent years there as a most efficient and acceptable missionary and educator. Need it be said that the standard of knowledge, praying, and giving in that church rose to an uncommon level? In 1869 the sum total of benevolent and missionary offerings reacht about $J ,800; in 18,9 they reacht about $18,000, for that church was one of the best organized in the country in the matter of its mission bands and societies, from the" Rhea Band -, of the Sunday-school up to the adult organizations.
In 1883 I settled in Philadelphia. There was a large body of people, numbering ill all from 3,000 to 4,000, more or less closely identified with Bethany church and its great Sunday-school. After some few years of education in missiolls, taking up country after country and missionary heroes and heroines, etc., there was a band of several young people who proposed to go out to some foreign field as a colony, and lIon. J Jhn ,Vanamaker offered a thousand dollars for tlle pastor to go and prospect and locate the field for the colony. It was then 11l'obaLle that the entire support of this mission band would have been attempted by the church, as Pastor Harms' church in IIermannsLurg had done, so long before. The head of this mission band was a young Welsh licentiate and his wife, others who offered Leing simple artizl1ns and traelesmell. At th~t time tllCl'e was prOSCll teel to the presbytery a printed statement cOHring all tIle facts, aIHl askillg only for encouragement. It was most graciously l'eeei red, and referred to a committee to confer with the board; and the result was that it was deemed by the boarn. ullwise to eneonrage any such irmovation, and so the whole mattcr fell through. On eallllly reviewing the whole matter, there is no (lollht that there would have Leen a large shrinkage had the theory beell reduced to practise. Some of this proposing mission band woulll proLably ha1'e "gone back" when the actlUlI work was undertaken. ~0 don bt much of the glamor of enthusiasm woul(l IH1ye faded away, like Ephraim's goodness, the
LINKS BETWEEN GIVERS AND THE lIfISSION FIELD
morning cloud, and early dew. No doubt the conserratiYe policy of presbytery and the board had much worldly wisrlom back of it. But, after all reductions and deductions have been made, it still remains true that, had that church sent one or more missionaries direct to the fleld, it might have become, with the generous and enterprising busi- Hess man who has from the beginning been practically at its head, one of the main feeders of missions!
Take the Presbyterian Church as one example of what could be done by the individual missionary plan. The board needs, let us say, $1,000,000 for the proper prosecution of its existing missions. It has all it can do to get this sum, tho there is a membership of as many souls as it asks <1o11ars annually. Of course, if this amount could be equally and proportionately di vided; if each member would give one dollar a year, one-third of a cent a day, the whole amount would be raised without allY self-denial-tho that is a damage rather than an advantage. But this result, simple as it is, can not be secmed. The bulk even of Presbyterian church-members give nothing! '''hat if out of the whole denominationflve hundred churches could be found from Maine to California that would give $2,000 each to the support of a missionary abroad, keeping in touch with him by letters, studying his field, and praying Imbitually for his work? We should have the $1,000,000 and all the rest of the denomination left to work on for surplus amounts. Or, let us suppose 1,000 churches to give $1,000 each, the same result is accomplisht.
In this vast membership of about 1,000,000 there are believed to be not less than twenty thousand millionaires. In one church, of which the writer was pastor, there were twenty men or women, anyone of whom could without self-sacrifice have maintained a missionary in the field. There are no less than two hundred and jifty men in this one denomination that represent an average of ten million each, or an aggregate slim of $2,500,000,000. How few of us know what that sum mealls! If piled up, in five dollar gold-pieces, that aggregate wealth would reach th)'ce fhousanll five hundred miles into space! But, of course, we know that millionaires are not always or generally selfdenying givers. But can not there be foun<1 1,000 men or women in this whole Presbyterian Church that will each undertake, at the cost annually of $1,000, to support a missionary in the field? And what llllspeakable advantage to tIle givers! What increase of knowledge of the field of work! What increasingly sympathetic touch with the missionary and through him or her with all other fields aJ..d workers; and what a stimulus to prayer, t.o giving, to personal consecration! 'Vhat has been shown to be possible in this one denomination in the United States furnishes only an example of general possibilities if the Church of God were in dead earnest.
Eighteen centuries )uLve sped since 0111' Lord gave his final com-
24G SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HA":'F CENTURY
mission. To-day uhere remain at least 800,000.,000 of human beings to. he reacht with the Gospel message. And of these 2;5,000,0.00. will die during the year 1898, over 2,0.0.0,000 a month! At the present rate of mission prog:'ess the world willlleve1' be overtaken. III fact, at a time when every condition of the field demands advance and every condition of the Church justifies it, in seven out of ten of om missionary societies the decroe has gone forth for retrenchment from twenty to twenty-jive pel' cent! In other wor<1s, with the population increasing at the rate of 2,0.0.0,000 a month, and proportionately dying, the Church of Christ, that aggregates at least fifty million Protestant members with hoarded ,"oalth that defies computation, instoad of sounding the siher trumpet for the assemhling of the camps and tho forward march around the ark of the covenant, bids the ignominious drum of a worldly selfishness to heat a retreat; and wo rotire from positiolls, gained at the cost of hlood and of treasure, and of lives giyen for Christ; ,ye actually surrender frOlr one-fomth to one-fifth of our outposts and capturod fortrosses, and bid tho foo once more swoep hack npon tho territory claimed and possest for God!
And if ono nowadays raises the cry of alarm, amI thunders out a remonstrance; if one declares that missions have never beon in greater danger rf utter collapse through tltis lad,; (!f adequate giving, the answer, from somo fellow-believers, is ridicule, robuke, stigmatizing opithets, snch as "pessimist," "eroaker," ete.
Ono gravo cOllsideration should be beforo us as to individual resllonsiiJilit:,-. l~lItold disaster to Chnrch-work ~laS been entailed oy the withdrawing and withholding of offerings en tho part of those to whom the local church and the denomination have a right to 'look for finaIlCial snpport. A clmreh-mernber should hare very solid reasons-reasons ihat would stullcl not only the scrntiEy of an enlightened conscienee, but Lho searching inquiry of omniscience-who treats with lH'glect, indifferellce, or contempt tho mission work of the ehurch and donomination to which such individual member belongs.. A board, or other ropreseniatire committee, is hut [.n administrative body. It senus missionaries to the field under tho implied plod go of the church it represents, to stand oehilld it and to support them there; and to this implied covenant every church-member is a necessary party. '1'0 allow the missionary agency to be erippled hy an ompty troasury and half '1'('ckt by dobt, is something for ' hich, thereforf', overy church-momber is responsible, alHI will be held accountable by the Master of us all.
This plan of thus directly eonnecting home churehes, familios, and indivi(bal givers with the mission field hy these liying and personal ,r links, has beon growing in favor, and having increasing proof of Go,1'8 blossing, of late years. e lmve already >;een how that, ill connection with the Chureh 1fissionary Society of Britain, there are ahout 300
LINKS BETWEEN GIYERS AND THE :MISSION FIELD
missionaries maintained by special gifts of indiridual donors, without prejudice tlJ the general war!,;, which is a very important fact. The Presbyterian Board in this country is just now advocating a similar policy, encouraging indiyiduals to give to the support of special missions and missionaries, while they carefully caution such donors that they deem it unwise EoI' such gifts to be ,'imited to special objects in the mission i'leld, as it lias been found that interest is apt to decline, and support to be withdrawn, when such special object is no longer deemed auvisable or practicable.* Of comse, when gifts to missions are prompted by a truly Christ-like spirit, they will never be limited by too narrow a range of personal sympathies or individual preferences. The work is cosmopolitan, and demands a cosmopolitan soul behind it-catholic, impartial-universal sympathy, and support. When it ceases to he wise to pursue allY particular line of work, or to occupy any particular sphere of service, when allY form of effort ohviously lacks the divine sanction, consecrated gifts will not be withheld altogether, but only diyerted to some wiser, better channel; the work at large must never suffer because any local work fails to commend itself to our further approval awl cooperation. Otherwise we are moved by self-will and not the will of God.
We comlllend for consideration the foll0wing suggestions: 1. That every loar! r:ongl'egahnn shall at once organize with reference to the support of at least one f01'eigll 111 Isslona1'!J, to be associated with its own church life and work. Some congregations can do more than maintain one. Some may not feel equal to the support of even one; let such associate with themseln's Olle or Illore smaller churches. 2. Let eachfalllil.1j ask the question: Can we as a household support a missionary abroad? Many a family that lJas llever yet thought of such a thing as possible, will at once see that by a sIllall reduction of family outlay, or by consecratillg a certain precentage of family income, a missionary could represent them abroad. 3. Let every £ndividual Christian solemnly ask and answer this question: Conltl I not this year support a missionary? There is a man-known to the writer-who is alone in the world and spends at least $10,000 a year for his own kecping; another who pays $10,000 a year reut and has not a ch ild or dependent; another who spent $25,000 in one year's travel; another whose personal expenses are at least $15,000 exclu3i ~~e of house rent; another who, with one child, spends $1O,()00 anuually. 'rherc are others who retrench in eyery * A pertinent example of this method of supporting a missionary, and of enlisting the sympathies of a church is furnisht in the case of the late Dr. A. C. Good, who was sustained in his arduous work in Africa by the contributions of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, N. J. This church askt the board that they might assume his entire support and salary, and regard him as their special representative abroad. The arrangement resulted most happily. His relation to the board was unaltered thereby, and a particular benefit. accrued, not only to that church, but to the Church at large: for never before had he allowed himself to write such full, leisurely letters. The pastor, Rev. Orville Reed, testifies to the blessed influence of these letters on the church, in the real interest awakened in foreign missions~ the warm attachment to the missionary. and the increase of prayerful giving. It was as tho the church lu.J a second" pa;)/.01' in Africa. "~_", A Life for Africa," p~. 14H, 149.
SPIRITUAL M.oVEMENTS .oF THE H.iLF CENTURY
directiQn, cheerfully and habitually, in .order tQ give, like that man who supPQrts an entire mission with its six wQrkers, paying .outfit, transPQrtatiQn, _salary, etc., .out .of his o'Wn PQcket; yet that man is not a rich man, but .one .of very moderate means, but whQ dQes busi- ness and makes mQney fQr Christ.
Mr. Luther D. Wishard is abQut tQ give a year tQ a special effQrt tQ interest individuals in fQreign missiQns. He has large qualificatiQns fQr such wQrk. TQ his life-IQng interest in missiQns is added his fQur years' visitatiQn .of the fQreign field, and SQ he is thQrQughly infQrmed .on these matters. His twenty years' service, first as CQllege Secretary, and then as FQreign Secretary .of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian AssociatiQns, has kept him in tQuch with the field, and given him wide acquaintance amQng missiQnary workers at hQme, fitting him tQ enlist the cQQperatiQn .of prQminent laymen.
He is an effective speaker, and deeply appreciates and strongly empha- sizes the vital relatiQn .of missiQns tQ the spiritual life. The Presby- terian BQard may well be cQngratulated .on securing his services. He accepts this work .only tempQrarily, and his appointment invQlves no additiQn to the bQard's executive fQrce, and nQ increase .of its adminis- trative expenditure, the entire CQst, including not .only his salary and travel, but even PQstage aud statiQnery, being met by a layman, whQ already himself supPQrts tWQ fQreign missiQnaries thrQugh the bQard, and believes that many .others might be induced to cOQperate in this way, if the matter were personally presented to them.
Alas! the Church of GQd as a bQdy is still asleep, .or, if awake, criminally apathetic and lethargic. And the Master of us all will have s.ome day an awful reck.oning with us f.or wasting His g.o.ods, and neglecting His scattered sheep, and dis.obeying His c.ommand. There is bl.o.odguiltiness t.o be required .of this generati.on. Let us abandQn the wQrk .of missiolls altogether if it be nQt Goel's work and ours by His appointment. Hut if it be His wQrk, then in the name .of G.od and .of Christ, and .of the GQspel, and .of Humanity let us do it, and dQ it with sQme such enthusiasm, prayerfulness, generQsity, sacrifice, giving of money, and giving of self, as the magnitude of the trust and the field, and the magnificence .of the wQrk and the reward, and the majesty of the Diville King and Captain demand!
The one thing which the Master i8 nQW pressing upon the attentiQn of all His disciples whQ have ears tQ. hear is the absolute necessity .of remembering, as befQre GQd, their individual duty and privilege. He sQlemnly challenges every disciple tQ face three great questi.ons, as .one whQ alone is tQ gi.ve accQunt .of himself untQ GQd. HQwever we may hide here behind the mass, .or lose .ourselves in the crQwd, at the judgment-seat of Christ everyone .of us, in awful alQneness, must cQnfrQnt these tremendous questiQns: "Hast thou wasted my gQQds ?" "Hast thQU neglected a dying wQrld ? " "Hast thQU shut thine hand and purse against thy needy and perishing brQther man?" And we need tQ meet these questions, nQW, with a practical answer which will stand this scrutiny, if we are not to be "ashamed befQre Him at His cQming."
THE CONDITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA
lIINDU WOMEN OF THE ZENANA.
THE OONDITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
Strange social usages have prevailed in all ages. Some of them have had their origin in differences of religion and race, others in intellectual and physical superiority, and other8 again in pure prejudice and selfishness. Whatever their origin, they have generally wrought toward evil and oppression, ho,"ever innocent their origin or specious their aim. Of all these, there is probably not one which has had a more specious origin, endured for a longer time, extended its influence more widely, affected society more vitally, or produced as large an amount of suffering and degradation, as the low status of the Hindu women.
The main features which have given it this durable, far-reaching power are, that it assumes to be based on essentially natural distinctions, to have divine sanction, and rigidly defines what all women are morally and intellectually, and how they should be treated from the cradle to the grave. How this system originated, and the causes which led to its perpetuation, may be subsequently considered. Our first aim will be to describe the actual positioll of women early in this century, when their condition, according to native ideas, first came to be adequately understood by Europeans.
Happily now more wise and humane sentiments are beginning to prevail; but we wish to show wlwt Hinduism, when left to itself, did for the vast raee which came under its rule, to excite deeper interest and sympathy in the condition of women, and to encourage effort for their emancipation.
The deepest wish of a Hindu father has always been to have a son, since sons are an hOllor to a family, daughters a dishonor and a burden. The former alone is qualified to lead the funeral ceremonies, essential for the happy transmission of the soul. 'fhe birth of a son, therefore, was a welcome event; that of a daughter most unhappy, lowering the mother in the estimation of her family and neighbors, and possibly in her relations to her husband. Girls received no education. Even the art of reading and writing was regarded not only as unnecessary, but as positively dangerous, because likely to make women disobedient and eonceitecl, and putting in their power gifts more likely to be used for misehief and intrigue than for good purposes. Here and there a learned Brahmin taught his daughter, but such instances were rare, for ignorance was considered "the ornament of a woman," and there is no record of a school anywhEre for girls, tho education for boys was greatly valued. A quasi divine authority directed, and custom-the unchallenged despot in all Indian affairs-ruled that every girl should be married before her twelfth year of age. Probably the greater number were married much earlie~, and some when mere children of five and six. Marriage was not at these early ages followed immediately by its eonsummation, but usually-and always with those of high caste-was accompanied by three conditions: (1.) Strict seclusion in the zenana. (2.) Abject submission to the husband's authority, and the mother or sister-in-law, who ruled the zenana; and (3.) Perpetual widowhood in the event of the husband's death.
Dread of caste defilement, fear of the gods, and suspicion of women were the three ruling sentiments of all heads of families. The chastity of the women was assumed to be best secured by not allowing them freedom to walk abroad or to think or act for themselves. Even in her own family, she is not free to leave the zenana and penetrate into that side of the house exclusively given over to the use of her father-in-law, brothers-in-law, ul1cles, and male cousins.
Submission to her husband was absolute, and prest to the t):tent of abjectness. She must not sit in his presence until told to do so, 1101' begin a conversation, or eat with him, or express any opinion contrary to his. Silent submission, not only to his will, but to his reproaches, and even to his chastisement, was regarded as the duty of a wife.
H the husband died, the wife became a life-long widow. Even if they were mere children, who had never lived together, or seen each other but for a moment during the elaborate marriage ceremonies, her marriage was regarded as shameful to her and insulting to the memory of the husband and his family.
Widowhood had also to be associated with life-long austerities and humiliations. It was deemed fitting that all joy and brightness should pass forever out of her life. lIer plentiful and much-loved orna- ments and bordered attire had to be laid aside, and were often vio- lently torn from her ; her head was shaven, she had but one meal a day, and was obliged to fast for two days in the month; she was sub- ject to reproach, contempt, and abhorrence, and was forbidden to be present Oll any occasion of festivity. This was the prescribed usage, tho the poor widow might be a little child or a delicate woman.
There were bu t three escapes from this inferno: prostitution, death, and the suttee. 'l'hefirst was adopted by multitudes, and the last by many, especially in the great province of Bengal.
They sometimes adopted this course in despair, not seluom as an act eminently holy and meritorious, and frequently at the pm'sua- sion of relatives, who thus got rid of what was really an encumbrance and sup- posed to be a disgrace, which by this act was turned into a family honor.
Girls being unwelcome as a family reproach, a bur- den, and a cause of anxiety if not of shame, it is hardly surprising that infanticide was common. There is every reason to think that A LOW CA~TE HINDU WuMAN. some millions annually thus disappeared. It became a system, and was hardly held to be a disgrace. '1'he facilities for it were great. The father had only to give the sign, by a movement of the hand to say" It is nothing, take it away," when the pressure of the midwife's hand on top of the head or throat, or the pan of water, or the poisoned breast, or the adjoining jungle, or river, or tank rec:eived the unwanted one.
All these eustoms were sanctioned by public opinion, and prevailed, more or less, for many centuries among a people twi~e as numerous as now inhabit the United States, and over an area almost equal to all Europe, west of Russia. They centered into the common daily life of immense multitudes, as the following illustrations will show.
The prevalence of suttee was brought to tbe notice of the government early in the century. Careful inquiry Rhowed that while it was everywhere regarded as a most sacred and meritorious deed, it prevailed chiefly among Ragputs and in the large and populous districts near Calcutta. The Serampore Mission in 1804 sent ten agents to collect information as to its prevalence witl1in thirty miles around Calcutta. They reported that more than three hundred widows had been immolated within six months.
Subsequently government inquiry showed that in twelve years, from 1815 to 1826, 7,154 thus died in the presidency of Bengal. In eight of these years, 287 Were bUl'lled in :Madras, and in nine years 248 in Bombay. In 1818 there were at least 839 suttees in British India. Child-wives were often disposed of thns, and sometimes several women thus died at one time. In the parliamentary papers there is given a list -of 61 widows, all under eighteen years of age, who thus perisht between 1815 and 1820.
A Brahmin had married forty wives. Twenty-two died before him, but the remainder all became suttees, leaving more than forty children. In another instance a Brahmin, who had married one hundred wives, died, and twenty-two of his widows became suttees, the fire being kept burning for three days.
Infanticide was yet more common and was confined to girls. It was seldom caused by poverty and want, and was most prevalent among the Ragput and other superior classes. The blue-books abound with such evidence as the following: "The far greater part of the Sharijas in Kutch followed the practise. In Kathiawar the lowest estimate was that 1,000 were annually destroyed, and in Kutch 2,000."
In many large districts government officials malie such reports as the following: " In 157 families there were 32 daughters, but 189 sons. In 13 villages, with 654 families, 429 boys and 100 girls. Elsewhere 350 boys and 90 girls. It was admitted that in one tribe the proportions were 118 boys and 16 girls; in a second, 240 and 98; a third, 131 and 61; and a fourth, 14 and 4; a fifth, 39 and 7," etc.
It was estimated, on good authority, that in Malway 'Lnd Rajputana not less than 20,000 infants were annually destroyed.
The British Government has made this practice a penal offense and used its grcat influence with the native states for its suppression; bn t feminine life is little valued, and, as the natives say," Nothing is so eaeily destroyed as a flower." Therefore, the crime, tho abated, yet goes on, as some curious facts reveal, especially this very obvious one: the government census tables for 1891 state the entire population to be 146,727,296 males and 140,496,135 females-proportions the reverse of those which nature produces.
The early age of marriage, the cruel and repressive usage to which widows are subjected, and the stern hostility to their remarriage, are among the greatest evils of India. Usage and quasi divine authority, enjoin that if the marriage of girls is delayed beyond the age of twelve, the parents neglect a great duty and commit a great sin. There were, when the census was taken in 1891, 22,657,000 widows, almost one-sixth of the entire female population. Of these 13,870 were under four years of age, 60,040 between five and nine, 174,500 between fifteen and thirty-four. The manifold evils of this state of society may be imagined, but can not be described. It offers great temptations to vice. It burdens a large number of families. It constrains wiuowers, if they marry, to take ollild wives, for oihers are not to be had, and it is 110 unusual thing for men of thirty or even fifty years of age to have wives of eight or ten.
In such a condition of society the education of women found no place; tho highly valued for men, and carried by some very high in literature and philosophy, it was, as we have said, even in its simplest elements, regarded not only as unnecessary bnt dangerous for women. A pundit here and there taught a bright and favorite cllild, but probably not one girl in 2G,000 was over in any sense educated.
0+ This was the condition female society when England, with sur- prise, found herself mistress of this magnificent empire, and when missionaries uegan their di rine 'i'e]'].;:. Tho actual condition of things eame uut slowly to be understood, and yet more slowly to be dealt with, for their hands were fnll of prossing preliminary work. Theil' course was most difficult and dangerous, and native sentiment was snspicious, reticent, and hostile to ehange. Happily, in spite of all this, a good beginning in every direction has been made, and gives great promise for the future. It is as when the sweet and gracious inflneilcos of springtime have begull siowly to work ie, nature toward the beauty alld fruitfulness of sultlmer.
By what slow and even painful processes the missionaries tried to trach girls as well as boys; how, meeting with little success, their wives tried girls' schools. and by feminine wi tchery and all mann er of gentle devices, could only induce a few small children of the lowest castes to venture all a precarious attendance; how they tried boardingschools, and finally zenana instruction-all this can not now be told. It is a pathetic story, and one full of interest and importance; a story of quiet, persistent, unobtrusive love in which angels would delight. This on ly can here be stated. Three great factors have mainly CO Iltribl! ted to the change: 1. The usages and policy of tho English r ace as a n ohject lesson to a ;;ingularly in tellectual and observant p eople.
2. The gen eral influence of Christianity as taught by lllissionaries. 3. And above all, the highest education given in a ll tho Anglo-Indian colleges and schools to the el-ite of the upper classes and castes in a ll t h e m ost important cities of the empire.
The carly meth ods employee: fo r reachin g women up to the middle ..'. . of the cCllt ury have grad ually been elllarged in a manner surprising even to the natives them- selves, and hardly expected by the missionaries.
The moyement is n ot general, but where mis- sionaries have labored for a few years, aud the kind of schools named have been active, the condition of women has been greatly improved.
For instan ce : 1. Some of the worst usages have been abolisht, or greatly restricted. Infanticide was I If prohibited in 1802. Suttee in 1829. Female education was undertaken by the government A CHRISTIAN HINDU GIRL. in 1850. 'rhe remarriage of widows legalized in 1806. The age of consent raised in 1891.
Ou questions on which public opinion rather than legislative action mu st bri'ng abollt a change, there is a markt advance. '1'he most influen tial classes are now advocating the r estriction, if not abolition, of child marriage; the encouragemell t of female cducation, morc respect, and greater freedom for women; the humane treatment of widows anu their r emarriage, and the prohibition at least of Rulin polygamy. Each one of these steps points to a beneficent revolution affecting t he happiness of many millions of women, with reflex advan- tages to the male population.
2. It is a hopeful sign that in spite of t he force of ancient cnstoms, the suspicion and distrust so general, [mel t he r estraining influ ence of large masses of the population, there is It great desire on the part of so many to respond to Christian cffort. :For instance, common seho018for girls are better attended and are often carnestly desired. Schools of a better class are here and th ere formod. Natives spontaneously form and man 'lge girls' schools. Native Christian Bible-women and Emopean ludies usually find free access to read the Scriptures, to explain Christiull truth alike in towns and villages, and are doubly welcome if possessing medical skill.
3. The greutest sign of change is in the zenana movement. No dwellings were ever more jealously guarded. No women were ever kept in such bitter, dreary ignorance. I remember the time, even in Caleutta with its immense populution, and many thousands of welleducated alld highly intellectuulnative gentlemen, with the graciolls status of Ellglishwomen before their keen and observant eyes, when no missionary's wife could have gained access to a siugle zenana to A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AT ALLABABAD, INDIA.
instruct the ladies and teach Christian truth. N ow there and else- where 40,500 such homes aJ'e open; in many of them several women as well as children are taught. N or is this all. In a large number of similar honses missionary instruction is now given by native women, and by men to their wives.
4. The advance of education will be seen from the following figures, altho all information previous to the middle of the contu"!')' is approximate only. In 1855 the Hev. J. Fordyee, the actual founder of zenana visitation, estimated the number of girls at school through- .out India to be about 5,000 or 6,000, one in every 15,000 females! In 18'78, the number was '78,6'78; in 1887, ~li3,4~S; and in the government ce11sns roport Jor 1BD! woro (Vowell):-
THE KNIGHTS OF THE BROOM
Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 197,662 Literate……………. ……………….. ……….. 543,495 Illiterate ………………………………………. 127,726,768 The movement for the elevation of women had its origin chiefly in the exertions of the missionaries, ana they have been the leaders in every subsequent forward movement. The advance they have made in recent years will be seen in the following table; for before 1870 lady missionaries, and the zenanas open to them, were very few.
1871 1890 Foreign Female Teachers ………………… . 370 Native Christian Female Teachers ………… . 837 711 Girls' Day Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . '" 664 3,278 Day Scholars …………………………… . 24,078 1,507 Orphans………………………………… . 2905 62,414 Zenanas visited …………… , …… , " ……. . 1;300 1,784 40,513 'rhe advance thus far made is gratifying, especially if the diffieul- ties in the way of all progress be considered.
5. But how much remains to be accomplisht!
The females under instruction are 197,662, but the illiterate are 127,72(:,000. There is but one Prote~tant lady missionary to about 190,000 of her sex! Probably not one zenana in a hundred is open to Christian visitation. Not one-fourth of the 715,000 of the villages of the empire have ever been visited by a Christian lady; or one-half the entire population ever heard the Gospel message! Yet within the range of Christian beneficence no one sphere is so vast and important as the elevation of these despised and long-suffering women.
THE KNIGH'rs OF THE BROOM.* BY RE". T. J. SCOTT, D.D., llAREILI.Y, I~DLL Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Board (North).
It is creditable to the scientific and enlightened spirit of British rule in India that, from the beginning, many officers of the government, both civil and military, have devoted much time and labor to the study of the natural history, ethnology, archeology, and religions of India. Senants of the government have thus rendered valuable aid to all iuterested in this great country. Olle of the most recent examples of such research is that recorded in a pamphlet by Mr. H. 'Greeven on the origin, history, and customs of the" sweeper" caste of India. These people are especially interesting to missionaries as repreEenting a large and most hopeful field of work. They are now yielding converts by the tens of thousands.
The people of this caste, num boring about 100,000,000 in north and central Iudia, are commonly called sweepers, from the fact that, * The title of this article is the name of a fair-sized pamphlet on the sweeper caste in India by Mr. R. Greeven (Oxon), in charge of one of the civil districts of the Northwest Provinces, into which India is divided for revenue and magisterial purposes. from time immemorial to them has been relegated the sweeping of houses and street,s, and the general removal of filth. This not very genteel employment-this battle with dirt-has gained for them the facetious title of "Knights of the Broom." These sweepers are scattered over a large part of northern and central Illdia, being settled more thickly in some places, where they often constitute a ward in the city, or a large section of the town or village, while in other places only a few houses of isolated families will be found. The caste is not always confined to the traditional work of the scavenger, for in many places they are occupied in agnculture, or are the village watchmen; some even belong to the police force, or are trusty soldiers in the queen's service. Nevertheless, on account of the filthy drudgery assigned to the caste, the books of the higher classes refer to the sweeper with loathing, and the most stringent rules have been formed 00 prevent contamination by even his shadow falling upon one of higher caste.
There is generally nothing in the appearance of this people to mark them as a low, ignoble, outcaste race. One would often be puzzled to distinguish them from the proud Brahmin priest, or the lordly warrior, with many generations of heroic blood coursing through his veins. In the northwest provinces the fairest children and prettiest women in the villages and city wards belong to the sweeper's class.
Mr. Greeven found, to his surprise, that this despised caste" possesses a military organization, follows a secret and mysterious religion, interlinkt with a poesy of tradition at once sublime and pathetic."
It is still a mystery how this caste arose. They are manifestly Aryan in race, like the proud castes that claim their most menial service, while shrinking from their touch. Their folk-lore gives an account of their origin, which traces them to the best blood of the Hindu race. The story goes that early in the Hindu history certain princesses had invited their friends to a feast, but before the guests arrived, a calf fell dead within the sacred space consecrated for the banquet. In their perplexity they disputed as to who should defile himself by privily removing the carcass. The great warrior Arjun entreated the young Prince Nakul to save them from dishonor by removing it, but when the young prince had accomplisht his task, Arjun immediately withdrew from him in disgust, swearing by the Vedas and Shasters that he never again would associate with him. This led to Nakul's. separation from his caste and retirement to a forest, where he united with a wild woman, from whom descended the race of scavengers, whose work since then has been the toil of the sweeper and remover of dirt.
After the entrance of the Mohammedan conquerors into India, the sweepers, in the performance of their menial duties for Moslem masters, gradually absorbed something of the Moslem faith and traditions, from which they elaborated another version of the manner in which they became involved in their degrading service. '1'he legend, as gathered by Mr. Greeven, ran thus: "Adam and Eve, tho clothed in flesh, were innocent as yet of the grosser needs of the body. They had no wants, save to contemplate the glory of the Almighty, singing, 'There is no God, save God.' The Lord was pleased with His handiwork, and commanded all His angels to worship Adam and Eve as their masters. All the angels obeyed save Satan, who refused, saying adroitly, 'Hast thou not taught me that there is no God save God? Thee will I worship, but none other.' Then the Almighty was angered, and sternly charged Satan to kneel down before Adam on pain of everlasting punishment. Satan was afraid, and affected to submit. Nevertheless guile and rancor were in his heart as he entered Paradise, where the seraph hosts were adoring Adam. 'Give ear, ye dullards,' cried Satan; 'how long will ye be content to continue fasting? Behold the ears of corn how they ripen and grow yellow I Shall we ever despise God's bounty? Nay, rather let us eat that the ears wither not, neither fall to the ground, serving no man.' Then Satan gave the ears of corn to Adam and Eve and all the angels, and all ate. The earthly food turned to ordure in their bodies. So it was that the earth and steps of heaven were defiled."
In consequence of all this, according to the legend, the Lord created scavengers to cleanse the earth and steps of heaven.
From these legends of the sweepers the true origin of the caste may be inferred. At a very early period in the history of the Hindus the caste system was developt. Menu, the Moses of the Hindus, about SOO B. C., laid down emite niles of remarkable severity. The repugnance of the early Aryan invaders against the aborigines is seen in a social code of bitter severity against the children of marriages with the aborigines. Menu speaks of sllch as the" lowest of mortals"- "a foul race." 'rhey were to dwell apart from others, and their shadow even was held to be defiling. 'The most menial and degrading service was .~.::siglled to them. The sweeper legends indicate that the caste arose from such infringement of the social code as forever excluded the condemned to an outcast life of great severity. Untold generations have past, hut no atonement has bridged the gulf of social degradation. As outcastes the sweepers in time organized their own caste rules and customs, and acquired a belief peculiar to themselves, drawn from many sources. From their legends various stages may be traced by which the sweepers past under the influence of other religions. In the earlier days, separated from the Hindu community, they retained much of the old helief, and praetist such ceremonies as were convenient to their situation. In more recent times, as lVIr. Greeven shows, when the Mohammedans invaded India, the sweepers borrowed from them, and wove into their belief scraps suiti.ng their fancy, so far as to be recognized as proselytes, but they never have acquired any social position among Mohammedans. Still later, when the Sikh power developt, which was a kind of Hindu military movement in northwest India, a large number of sweepers joined it under Kanak Shah, the hero of a revolt against Moslem tyranny. The martial followers of the Kanak adopted the tenets of their chief, and abandoned the menial duties of sweepers.
As stated, the sweepers have an elaborate system of their own, with secret ceremonies and esoteric teaching. 'rhey have more open ceremonies for births, weddings, and deaths. The following quotation from our author will indicate some of the caste rules of this outcaste class: "Only Lalbegis and Rawats eat food left by Europeans, but all eat food left by Hindus or .M:ussulmans. The shaikh mehters (sweepers), as lfussulmans, alone circumcise, and reject pig's flesh. Each sub-caste eats uncookt food with all the others, but cookt food alone. Only Helas refuse to touch dogs. Shaikhs and Lalbegis alone admit proselytes. No sweeper touches the corpse of any other caste, nor, within his caste, of any sub-caste except his own. While to the west of Delhi they are willing, and regard as their function, to sweep streets and burn corpses, in Benares they profess, on the authority of a legend, to abandon streets to chamars (tadners) and corpses to dams. In fact, sweepers by no means indorse the humble opinion entertained with respect to them."
These people, in some places, have a remarkable clan organization, which seems to have been adopted in this form since the introduction of British power. It consists of a curious mingling of civil and military offices, with an order of procedure in clan council, and there are establisht punishments in case of offense against the rules of the tribe. Punishments consist of (a) fines, (b) dinners furnisht by the offender to the clan, (c) outcasting in case of non-compliance with the demand for fines and dinners. • Some branches of the sweepers add to their number by making proselytes. This is especially so of those who have taken on some form of the great proselyting ::'loslem faith. One tribe, the Lalbegis, or followers of the "red prince "-a semi-mythical personage-after a long ritual at night, cause the candidate to drink a goblet of sweet- ened water, toucht in such a way by each member of the brotherhood present that the fingers are wet in the finid. This is said to inspire him with lowliness and contentment in the degrading service of his life. 'rhe convert, ge~lerally an outcast from some of the Hindu clans, is entitled to sit on the tribal mat in assemblages, and smoke the common pipe. Cases are known of higher caste persons joining them for a coveted wife.
The special point of interest in this numerous class of people at the present time, is a mass-movement among them toward Christianity in many places. And this is no hasty impulse. A third of a century ago, where now tens of thousands are turning to Christ, they seemed as difficult to reach as any caste. When I first went to India, in 18G2, an earnest missionary of the English Church Mission had been working among the sweepers for years, but with small success. His thought was that surely this people, with really no caste, and socially everything to gain, could easily adopt the new religion. After years of labor the missionary retired from India in broken health and hope unrealized. I heard that, like Paul, in the deep interest of his heart, he had said, "I could wish that myself were accurst from Christ for my brethren, the sweepers." He saw it not, but the time of refreshing came, and the labors of miesionaries among this deprest class now bear wonderful fruit. Within a few years, more than a hundred thousand souls from among them have been gathered into the Christian community. Some missionaries have hesitated to push work among them, lest it might prejudice effort among the higher castes. Others, recognizing the opening, and believing that now, as of old, it is the glory of the Gospel that it is preacht to the poor, have pusht the work among these broken-hearted, socially ostracized, and imprisoned multitudes. Many churches have been organized among them and pastors raised up. And it is noteworthy that, after all, this movement does not hinder the work among other castes, for the missionaries who are seeking these poor people secure more converts among other castes than those who shun the sweepers. Able men have been raised up from among them who, as preachers and teachers, are nobly pushing evangelism, not only among people of their own clans, but among higher castes also. Others are taking their places in respectable reI?unerative secular employment.
In the days of American slavery, the songs and aspirations of the enslaved were prophetic of the great deliverance to come. It is remarkable that the sweepers, in their outcast and downtrodden condition, have adopted an ancient prophecy of the Mahabharat, the great heroic poem of the Hindus, as in some way meaning restoration to honor and position for their tribe. The passage in the Mahabharat predicts a coming millennium for the proud Brahmins, the priestly caste. A wonderful incarnation as a" blazing Brahmin of mighty intellect haying appearfld, will destroy all things," that he may prepare the way for a new order. "Surrounded by Brahmins, that Brahmin will exterminate all the rulechas (outcastes) wherever those low and despicable persolls may take refuge." But the sweeper has read into this ancient prophesy hope for himself. For centuries the llame of Jesus and something of His teaching have been known in India apart from the direct work of missionaries. There is a tradition that a sweeper was the means of restoring to life a hero of the Sikhs, Guru Goyind Sing. 'I'he hero saint immediately said: " Come thou Savior of the world, Jesus. Under Thy sway shall flowers and betel leaf fall from heaven. All men shall gather together and cry in joy: All hail thou Ruler of t.he universe, Vanquisher of foes and fosterer of the poor."
DEVOTEES-HINDU AND CHRISTIAN
In thc millennium of the sweeper, as Mr. Greeven expresses it, "The prophecy of the rule of Jesus has been fulfilled by the empire of the British. That empire has proved as gentle and kindly as the dying said foretold." But Jesus one day will appear as the final Restorer of all things. « All shall join hands in paying Him honor. When the last stain of impurity shall have been cleansed away, all shall be alike pure and holy. The distinction between clean and unclean shall disappear. All castes shall be blended. All men shall eat together." Our author then contrasts the aspiration and hope of this lowly stratum of despised Indian humanity with the idea of the Brahmin, to whom his touch is pollution: "Thus the lordly Brahmin and the despised scavenger each in his way contemplates the approach of the millennium. Which is the fairer picture, the Brahmin gloating over the subjection and the exterminaticn of all races, except his own, or the scavenger yearning for the hour when there shall be peace and good-will upon earth, and all men shall be alike, pure and holy? "
DEVOTEES – HINDU AND CHIUSTIAN.
BY LUCY E. GUINNESS, HARLEY HO"CSE, LO:-lDON. Editor of Regions Beyond, and author of "The Neglected Continent:'
The holiest place in all Bombay is the beautiful" tank," down to whose clear waters lead flights of wide shelving steps, and where bathers and little children play among reflections of the cloudless skies and picturesque masonry. To the minds of multitudes this is a sanctuary, a shrine. Round it a group of little temples rise among odd buildings, priests' houses, pilgrims' lodgings, and native homes. From time immemorial Valkeshwar has been a sacred spot. Many pilgrims have trampt through weary journeys to reach these shining wa.ters, many anxious, clouded lives have been strained to the utmost to seek what here they seek, but never find.
Four or five fakirs, covered with filth and ashes, sit at one end in the hot sun, looking almost more like beasts than men. There they sit, almost naked, on the rough ground, surrounded by the various little pots and bowls and odds and ends which they employ for life and worship. One or two are smoking a powerful drug, which partly stupefies them. One talks to us by translation, and another, the most hideous of all, an animal-looking creature, with masses of matted hair full of dust and ashes, who seems really half insane, makes us a great oration all in his unknown tongue. Louder and louder he talks, preaching at last at the top of his voice, and pausing now and then amid his eloquence to blow shrill blasts on Ii cow's horn by his side.
"Why does he do that?" we ask our boy. "Whenever the holy man is hungry he blows his horn, mem Sahib, and the people come out and bring him food."
What must bL the character of the faith whose ideal is before us? We stand beVildered in the sunshine, trying to realize that it is not a dream-that to these men, our brothers, thie filth, this degradation, this naked idleness, is the embodiment of sanctity-and our hearts go out to India, the first example of whose greatest faith meets us in such a form. 'fhis is Hinduism, hoary JIinclnism, three thonsand years old, and rnling to-day more than two lHllldred million men and women. The spectacle before us is the Oll tcome of her teachings. This is the highest life one can lead. To their minds existence is an evil; emancipation from it in this life, and in countless future lives, is the one hope. Detach yourself from earth, go without clothes; have no home, no friends, no people; do no work; take no interest in anything at all; enjoy nothing, feel nothing, hope for nothing. Detach yourselfto do this, suffer pain, sleep on spikes, starve yourself, or eat carrion and nameless abominations; hold your arms up till they wither and the nails grow through the hand; do anything and everything to get rid of your supreme curse-conscious existence.
It is difficult for us under the influence of J esns Christ to understand and grasp this Hindu theory. 1'0 those who know and follow Him, Christ makes sheer Ii ving beautiful, life on earth a pri vilege, and everlasting life beyond the gift of God to men. But to the Hindn living without Christ-as to many, alas! in our own lands who live without Him-mere existcnce seems a curse. These poor son Is THE SACRED TANK AT MADURA, INDIA. A HINDU DEVOTEE-LYING ON A BED OF SPIKEs..
believe themselves burdened with being because they are not good enough not to be. Hence they must accumulate merit, raise themselves laboriously by weary years of good works until they can at last escape existence.
"The Hindu devotee," writes Bishop Thoburn, * "flatters himself that he can, by his penances of various kinds, accumulate merit. The word penance, to his mind, conveys no idea of repentance, but solely that of a means of acquiring personal merit. In the next place, he is possest with the idea that matter is inherently evil, and that since his union with a material body is the source of most of his misfortunes, he must make war on the body in order to liberate the soul. • No doubt a large number of both sexes choose a life of asceticism because they find it the simplest and easiest way of securing their daily bread; •..
but many of them show abundant evidence that they are sincere in their purpose, and persist, through long lives of severe suffering and privation, in faithfully following the course which they have chosen.
"At nearly every great fair a number of men will be seen going through the self-inflicted torture of what is called the' five fires.' Foul'
fires are kept burning constantly around the devotee, while the sun, which makes the fifth, pours down his burning rays upon the head of the sufferer. Others, for months at a time, never allow themselves to lie down to rest, but permit themselves to be supported in a half-reclining position, or sometimes suspended upon a cushion, with their feet dangling down at a distance from the ground. Some sleep on beds made of broken stone, others on spikes, while others again seek torture for the body by abstaining frolH sleep altogether, or at least reduce their sleeping hours to the narrowest possible limits."
This nightmare dread of existence is the natural outcome of the transmigration theory-that saddest and most hopeless of all human ~ "India and Malaysia." Bishop Thoburn, pp. 124-6. See also "Hinduism, Past and Present." Murray Mitchell, R. T. S. explanations of life. Think for one moment of what it would mean to you to believe that every Ii Vil1g thing on the face of the earth was the body of some soul- birds, beasts, insects, reptiles, men – all alike son I-houses ; alld that human souls were ceaselessly shifting through countless lives, and must forever shift among these, according to their merits or demerits? rrrans~igration we call it, and dismiss the idea with it word. But to believe that idea, to think that the souls you love uest, and that death has called away, are pent up in some body-a jackal's, a cow's, it serpent's, perbaps-and will be bound there, feeling, suffering, enjoying if they can, until death smites them once again, and once again they change th ei r house and pass into some other form, as coolies, kings, or what not-to believe that idea, what must it mean? Think of the burden of it, the end- less, restless, weary round, from which is no escape; the grip of fate that holds you ano. drives you on and on; the inexorable sentence, from which is no appeal, consigning you to groveling reptile life or loathsome being. Yon may be born to-morrow it A HOLY IIAN OF INDIA. leper, an idiot, it mur- derer, anything-Karma, your fate determines what shall be, and your fate depends entirely on your merits. There is no pity anywhere, there is no forgiveness.
Trouble comes to you to-day? Ah, you earned it yesterday, back in your last body. Then you sinned, now you are punisht. This theory apparently explains everything so satisfactorily-all the crook- cdness and inequalities of life, all the strange chance of destiny.
But it is so hard, so hopeless. Eighty-six million times yon will be born and reborn, to suffer, live, and die.
What more natural than to wish to shorten the period? Become a devotee, perhaps even a fakir. By so d~ing you detach yourself.
You gradu ally escape reincarnation. You stand a faint and far off chance of sooner finding rest-the oblivion of Nirvana-" not to be."
Standing in the snnshin c, looking flown on the spectacle before ns,
1898.J BIBLE STUDY FOR NA.TIVE AGENTS
on these scarcely human creatures, in their filthiness and ashes, realize the burden of belief that makes them what they are! Let your heart go out to the 26,000,000 people living in the Bombay Presidency only, in this one strip of country along the western coast of India, a land larger than Spain. Think of the waiting harvest in this one presidency. Look on her fields. And look beyond-away across the continent of India with its 290,000,000 souls. Two hundred and eight millions of them are Hindus, living in the darkness of the faith whose devotees are before us, 60,000,000 more than the whole Protestant population of the world.
You have been thinking of the devotees of the Eastern world. Where are the devotees of the West? Thank God there are many of them toiling here for the salvation of India, and many more scattered in every heathen land, besides many who are sleeping in missionary graves, and many working bravely on at home. But had we but onehalf the devotion to Jesus Christ that the Hindu fakirs have to their gloomy faith, should we not do more to reach India's waiting millions? Should we not hasten to give Him our time, our means, our strength, ourselves-to suffer daily loss in that devotion, and to sacrifice it may be all that we hold most dear, that we may help to bring these hearts the knowledge of His love?
BIBLE STUDY FOR NATIVE AGENTS.
BY REV. ALONZO BUNKER, D.D., TOUNGOO, BL'RlfA. lIIissionaryof the American Baptist lIIissionary Union.
Since we can not depend entirely on foreign missionaries to meet the needs of the heathen world, we must lean more and more on the native helpers Hence the best method of preparing these workers for their mission is worthy of the closest study. The efficiency of their preparation will depend very largely upon their spiritual grasp and experimental knowledge of the truths which they teach. They must also have some skill in the mode of presentation, and especially must their teachings be accompanied with that patient, melting love with which Jesus always taught. The doctrines, so disliked by the natural heart, if proclaimed in any other way than with such love, even tho it be with the eloquence of an Apollos, will have very little power over heathen audiences or individual hearts.
Again, the progress of the Kingdom of Christ in these lands will depend largely on the quality of the native preachers. Besides ability to proclaim the Wor<1 with power, they must have spiritunl insight to enable them to distinguish the true from the false, and to decide on fit subjects for baptism and church membership. They will have much to do in training young men for service. '1'he church-life will also take its type from their teachings. Hence these leaders should be most carefully trailled and prepared by the missionary himself befOl'e they are entrusted with snch vast interests in the Kiugdom of Christ. It is trne that these native helpers, as well as the missionary, have the promise of the Spirit to lead them into all truth, and that He will use thern to the measure of their knowledge and consecration. But we read in the Acts that tho Apollos was" mighty in the Scriptures," yet it was necessary that he should have expounded to him "the way of God mere perfectly." How mnch more, theil, do these native brethren, recently called out of heathenism, need to have the way of God very carefully and frequently expounded Lo them to insure their highest efficiency.
In such a work of instrnction the Bible is, undoubtedly, the most powerful and important factor. General education is well, and in some directions necess&ry. The more mental discipline the worker can obtain, the better able will he be to exercise his reasor.ing powers. However, even here, our native Christians often astonish us by their wisdom in stating difficult questions, and in the simplicity and force of their illustrations. The school of life has done much for them. So we belieye that. there lies just here a great danger, not only in the preparation of workers recently redeemed from heathenism, but of the missionaries themselves before entering their work in foreign lands. lIow often we have heard experienced missionaries declare that they have been ooliged to reconstrnct their theology since reaching their fields. The mind may be very richly stockt with knowledge, but in the work of preaching Jesus to the lost ollly that knowledge which has been wrought out experimentally, and so comes from the heart, will avail in leading souls to the Savior. Knowledge is power, but in this spiritual work for the Master only that knowledge which has been gained by those who have been with Jesus will preyail.
At the first thought, it might seem that as all spiritual and experimental knowle(1ge are acquired, the oue a gift from the Holy Spirit and the other by the learner himself, under the guidance of the Spirit, the missionary has little to do with the supply of such knowledge. More careful thought, however, will show that he may and ought to ,,,ill have very much to do in this work, and that he fail in his devel- opment of a native instrumentality by so much as he fails at this point in his teaching.
The missionary may well pause here and ask how he can best aid his native brother in the acquirement of such knowledge. We may safely say that the best aid will not be found in a secular education, however helpful that may be, nor will it be found in moral and ethical teaching, nor in sacred geography or Ilistory, ]]01' in any mere intelIectual study of the Bible. It is true that all such knowledge may be among the approap,hes to the Holy of Holies, but they are not the place where God dwells, and where the soul comes into immediate COlltact with its Lord.
It is clear that the first requisite of a successful missionary teacher must be, above all things else, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, whereby he lllay have His help in teaching. Here then we should gi ve fullest recognition to the office of the Holy Spirit, as a Teacher of the things of our Lord. No part of the responsible duties of the ambassador of the Cross needs His help more than that of preparing a native agent for His work.
As Paul preacht with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, so must the missionary teach, if he wOllJd secure success. May he not boldly claim here that help which was given to the Apostle, when he spake" not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power? " How is it possible to deal with the spiritual lives of others, save as we have the enlightening influences of the Spirit in our own? 'rhis is the more necessary, if possible, in dealing with these souls recently saved from heathen ignorance and superstition. We find them (speaking now of the Karens of Burma) without any adequate apprehension of the heinousness of sin in the sight of God, even, in most cases, after their conversion; or of God's great love in Jesus Christ, or of the love of our blessed Lord for lost men in His sufferings and death on the cross. All these wonderful truths are, at first, largely a theory. They do not enter into their experience, or move their sentiments very much. It is only by repeated teaching by their missionary, and the miraculous work of the Spirit, that these verities in our faith get hold of their hearts and begin to be felt by them in their experience.
The Holy Spirit works in many channels, but one of His appointed ways is through the Holy Scriptures, and perhaps the best method of reaching the hearts and consciences of our people is in Bible exegesis. Certainly there is no other method of teaching that gives such opportunities for personal dealing with our people as does this. The Word of God is the peculiar instrument of the Spirit. "Sanctify them through Thy truth; 'rhy Word is truth." Here, if anywhere, we may come into close contact with the hearts and lives of onr pupils. In practise we have this method peculiarly adapted to the spiritual wants of the native disciples, as well as to their growth in grace. As they stmggle up out of the superstition of heathenism, along the way· of the new life, they are daily beset with troops of trials which arise f:'om want of early training, from close contact of their heathen neighbors, and from lack of such helps as abound in Christian lands.
In Bible exegesis we have a most ready instrument for encouragement or rebuke, which may be applied to any need, at any time. Here also a little experience 011 the part of a lcal'ller becomes a key, by which, under the hand of the teacher, the way Illay be opened into larger experimental knowledge. It is also a ready means of correcting any misapprehension of divine truth. For example, it is difficult for a native Christian to learn how trial and snffering can be a proof of the love of God, rather than a judgment for the punishment of sins; but the exegetical study of the twelfth of Hebrews makes it all plain to him, and his doubt is turned to certainty. The little experience he has in discipline of God's love may be used to unlock for him this mystery of human trial.
Again, the exegetical study of the life of Christ, His sufferings, temptations, and trials, His lowly life among the poor, and His wonderful teachings, discloses, as nothing else can do, the loving fellowship of Jesus, the Son of God. His life is so unlike anything they have ever seen in heathen lands, that it is almost too much for them to grasp, and too often they realize it only as a dream which one can not expect to experience or imitate in this life. Blessed, thrice blessed, is the missionary who is able so to live the Christ-life before them, as to give a practical illustration of this loving fellowship of Jesus. In this study, the native Christian is gradually to apprehend the love of God for the world, in the gift of His Son, and also that which is a never-failing source of wonder and astonishment to him-the love of Christ to His enemies.
Again, there is a strong tendency among our native Christians to worship God as do the heathen their idols. That is, they too readily adopt a form of worship without its spirit. 'l'bis may also be true of some in ChriRtian lands, but they have less excuse than those who were born and reared in superstition and ignorance. 'rhey are slow to realize that the living God, whom they are taught to worship bnt can not see, is a real prayer-hearing and prayer-answering Person. Karen Christians are especially gifted with fluency of speech, yet they are not the only ones in this fallen world who seek fine words which shall please the ear rather than a plain talk with God. Too many pray as if they were reciting a piece before an iUol. But Scripture exegesis brings the worshiper repeatedly face to face with God in the Bible. He there hears God speak and learns to realize Him as a living, loving, and interested Person, and that His worship does not consist in forms and ceremonies, however beautiful and elaborate they may be, but in reverent approach to Him in confession and petition.
Again, while almost all other forms of knowledge acquired by the disciple will fade from his memory, spiritual knowledge, which becomes more or less experimental by such practical study and teaching of God's Word, will never fail, but will increase by use and be always available. It becomes, too, the most powerful weapon, when backt by a gentle spirit, one can use in these dark lands, in dealing with heathen superstitions.
In this connection we should notice the necessity of emphasizing certain doctrines of the Bible in our training of a native ministry. The first and most important of these is the doctrine of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They are very slow to recognize the church or the body as the temple of the Spirit, or His personalty or presence with the believer. Continucd teaching on this point is necessary, but ihe marvelously added power of those who apprehend the great truth, and experience the fellowship of the Divine Comforter and Helper, compensates a thousand-fold the time and strength expended in teaching. As the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, enduing the missionary with power for service is all-important, so in an native workers; the Spirit is one for all.
Native Christians have not a little difficulty ill divesting themselves of the idea that their salvation depends much on their good deeds instead of solely on the merits of J esns. They are so accustomed to think of judgment following sin, as "the cart-wheel follows the ox," that the doctrine of grace is too often a mystery to them. Moreover, the doctrine of vicarious suffering is so foreign to all their experience, that the atonement is very hard to apprehend, tho they readily profess to understalld it. Hence the necessity of emphasizing this doctrine. The doctrine of "constraining love," also, should al ways be taught side by side with the atonement, for in this we get the true and highest motive to right thinking, acting, and living. '1'he transformation of character under the teaching of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, atonement, and constraining love, is sometimes most remarkable.
Again, there is seldom any family discipline among these Eastern peoples. Hence it is difficult for a native Christian to make the love and justice of God agree. He is always asking, "If God loves me as the Bible says, why does He let me suffer?" The strict discipline of our training-schools, and careful teaching on this point are necessary.
The pupils must learn that absolute loyalty to Christ is founded on absolute obedience to Him, not even connting their lives dear to themselves. It is a matter of constant surprise to see how many of our disciples endure hardness as good soldiers of the Cross, trials which would seriously test the faith of any missionary himself, and some even suffering martyrdom for Jesns' sake.
Finally, it is wise to keep before the native learner the joys and rewards of heaven. IVe have found the Revelation one of the most popular books of the Bible on this account. He can readily understand the triumphs of the Gospel there depicted, and as he delights in figures and symbols leading up to these trinmphs, he quickly responds to these riches of hope. He accepts these foretold victories of the Cross
THE GREAT BURMESE PAGODA
with a child-like faith, and brings them into his daily life as a comfort and support under the many trials he must meet with in his efforts to live a Christian life amidst his heathen surroundings.
In summing up what we believe to be the best method of Bible preparation for our native w.orkers we would say:- First.-The missionary can not prepare himself too carefully by daily study of the Vord of God, meditation on the portion he is to teach, and prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit, and he should assiduously teaeh his pupils to practise the same method.
Second.-Let the method of teaching be largely one of Bible exegesis. 'l'hird.-Always apply the teachings which arise in daily lessons experimentally and to specific cases, as far as possible. Fourth.-Always keep the love of Christ to the front, for love begets love, and thus the pupil may be led to love and know Him more immediately, "whom to know is life." Fifth.-Encourage the learners by all means to ask questions, and so educate by drawing out rather than by pouring in. Sixth.-Patiently meet every diffieulty presented by the pupil, however trivial. It is only a pebble that sometimes turns the beginning of a mighty river to the east or to the west. Finally.-Let the spiritual and experimental he always in advance. This is all important and indispensable to a successful worker. All other knowledge is subsidiary.
'rHE GREAT BURMESE ·PAGODA.
BY HEY. II. mUTTA~ m:rXXESS, D.])., LOXDOX, EXGLAXD. Founder of the East London Missionary Institute.
Crowning a hill near Hangoon the.Swe-Dagon Pagoda, the greatest and most venerable pagoda in Indo-China, lifts its golden pinnacles into the clear blue sky, towering to a height above that of St. Paul's Cathedral in Lonuon. A host of smaller pagouas surround it, whose walls and roofs are carved into fantastic shapes, while within them sit countless statues of Buddha, in white marhle, in gilded wood, in black metal, in glittering brass; the sitting figure being always the same in form, the legs crost beneath, the right hand recumbent, the left hand open in the lap, to receive the gifts of worshipers, with an aspect of imperturbable calm upon the countenance, the look of a heing who has reacht the rest of ~irvana.
Shaven, bare-headed, yellow-robed priests attend in every shrine of this vast pagoda; they lead the devotions, they light the taper~ they chant the prayers, they take the gifts, candles, rice, flowers, money, they supervise the ceremonies. Crowds of gaily-drest Burmese move through the wide courts, or stand aroulld the stalls, or listen to the fortune-tellers, or kneel before the statnes of Gautama Buddha,. With hands prest together they repeat their prayers, a rosary depending from their fingers; or reverently bow before the idol till the forehead touches the ground.
Statues innumerable adorn the pagoda, from the gigantic leogryphs, or dragon-like lions, which guard the entrance, to the legendary figures of Gautama on the lofty roofs and pinnacles. On this spot a nation has lavisht its wealth through long centuries, to adorn the worship of Buduha with the utmost magnificence. That wealth has built these terraces, these long ascents, these countless shrines, these glittering spires; generations of pilgrims have filled these imagehouses with their gifts; have burnt the illeense, and scattered the flowers, and chanted the prayers in a worship never intermitted day or uight. Anu this has gone on for ages. As long ago as in the time of the Maccabees and of the Babylonish captivity, a pagoda to Gautama Buduha was stanuing here. One pagoda has' followeu another; as one has decayed another has been built; larger pagodas have been built over smaller ones; shrines and statues of Buddha have been multiplied, roof has been added to roof, spire to spire, and pinnacle to pinnacle, until now this wonder of the Eastern world, containing, as it is said, not only actual relics of Gautama, but of the three Buddhas who preeeded him, stands on this spot in unrivaled splendor, attracting pilgrims from every province in Burma, from Cambodia, Siam, Korea, and Ceylon.
And yet there is about it all a look of mental and moral poverty, and even of barbarism. The carvings are grotesque. There is a wearisome sameness of idea. Buddha sits in the same posture in every shrine. There are whole rows of Buddhas, pagodas filled with nothing but statues of Buddha. On that one form all this wealth has been lavisht. To that one figure every eye, every thought has been direeted. The calm, abstracted look of a reputed saint who has attained, as the reward of personal merit, a fixt unsuffering state, rivets the gaze of worshiping thousands; the hope of etemal quietude, of a waking slumber untroubled oven by a passing dream, of a sort of living death, an existence wrapt in the stillness aIlli. silence of Nirvana, fascinates the mind of every worshiper. Gautama Buddha is the great object of their adoration and guide of their hopes. This is that ancient idolatry which holds half Asia in its grip. Day by day the cloudless sun pours its splendor on the material adjuncts of this scene of spiritual darkness. Here millions adore the dead. Here the living God is all unknown. To Him nOlle bow the knee. None fear Him, or praise Him, or proclaim His truth. His glory fills heaven and earth, but none behold it here. All bow to Buddha in this holy of holies of the Eastern world, this center of ten thousand times ten thousand pagodas lifting up to-day their spires over half the world, from the palms of Ceylon and the peaks of the Himalayas, to the rivers of Burma and Ohina" and the shores of Korea and Japan.
DAYS IX MADAGASCAR
A religion which ignores the existence of God, which denies the existence of the soul, which affirms transmigration and the reign of fate, which proclaims pain and punishment, but knows nothing of grace and pardon, which holds forth no prospect of immortality, which offers no hope for the present life, and none worthy of acceptance for the future, is still, and has been for ages, the dominant religion of Asia. Under the veil of astrology, devil worship, or witchcraft, the powers of nature are adored. The s'eli-denial of the ascetic is magnified as the highest art of virtue. The doctrine is believed that man holds himself the keys of heaven and hell; a hell of sevenfold horrors, and a heaven of sensual or dreamy delights. The golden statne of Gantama Buddha has practically been placl>d upon the throne of God, and is there to-day; not to listen to the prayers which are addrest to it, for it is deaf; not to stretch forth a helping hand to the mass of misery at its feet, for it is paralyzed; not to feel for the woes of humanity, for it is soulless and dead; but to fix the gaze of benighted millions, to direct their vain and deluded hopes, and to hide from them in life and death the character, presence, and glory of Him who alone is the Creator, the Ruler, and Redeemer of the world.
BRIGHTER DAYS IN MADAGASCAR.
BY REV. 'Y)I. C. COUSIKS, ~I.A. Missionary of the London Missionary Society at Autananarivo.
A special deputation* from the directors of the London Missionary Society has for eight weeks past (Oct. 15-Dec. 10) been engaged in a careful revision of the society's work here, in making arrallgements with the missionaries of the Paris society, and in endeavoring to convince the French authorities that the aims of the society are pm'ely religious, and not political. The visit of the deputation had long been lookt forward to, and their special mission has been the object of much prayer. Now we look back upon it with a deep feeling of thankfulness, and with a belief that all has been wisely ordered.
'rhe first nlatter demanding the efforts of the deputation was to try and remove from General GalliEmi's mind the strong prejudice he has felt against the work of the society. The men chosen as its special representatives were admirably fitted for this task. Mr. Thompson's full knowledge of all the facts, and his courteous, yet firm, manner, cou pled with Mr. Spicer's bright and hopeful spirit and evident wish to be on friendly terms with all mell, proved a most *The two members of the deputation were the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson. the well-known Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society. and Mr. Evan Spicer. a member of the London County Conncil. and a broad-minded, energetic. and earnest supporter of the general aims and work of the society. happy and successful combination. 'rhe general affirmed his belief in the loyalty of the missionaries; but said that many of the native adhercnttl of thc society regarded it as a spccial representative of British power and influence. These still hoped that through its inter- vention some help against French rule might be forthcoming. To convince the natives that Frallce is master here, he seized our build- ings and took other harsh steps. The deputation offered to issue a letter to the native Christians under our care stating clearly that such hopes were utterly groundless, that the aims of the society were entirely moral and spiritual, and that if any adherents of the society indulged in such foolish talk, they might render it impossiblc to con- tinue to work in Madagascar. Sncll a letter was issucd both in Malagasy and in French, signed by Mes3rs. Thompson and Spicer, and by all the London missionaries in and around Antananarivo.* The growth of confidencc on the part of General Gallieni has been very markt, and he has, during the last few days, given unmistakable evidence of his sincerity. He has allowed the society to reengage Hova evangelists who were banisht from Betsileo, and has given us permission to buy a house in Ambohimahasoa, from which town its missionary was evicted a year ago, simply because of his connection with the London Missionary Society. Furthermore, on Monday (Dec. 6th), he paiu a personal visit to the girls' school in Ambodin Anuohalo in order to show the people that he diu not in any way oppose our work. In his address he said that tho it had been agreed that the building was soon to pass into the hands of the French Government, he should now recommend the colonial minister to allow it to remain as a girls' school under the care of the London Missionary Society. He also said to the parents and others: "You see I am helping these missionaries and you must do the same." 'rhis visit of the general has given great delight to our many native friends, and they begin to see that the days of repression are passing away.
'rhe next important matter for the consideration of the deputation was the arrangements to be entered into with the Paris society. As a result of the conference eight large districts have been placed nnder the care of that society. These districts contained in 1895 (before the war) 550 congregations. Elementary education throughout the whole of Imerina and Betsileo remains under the care of the Paris society, altho General Gallielli told the deputation that the London Missionary Society was at perfect liberty to resume control of the schools if it desired. When, early in 1897, the schools past under the care of the Paris society, they were 438, and contained 30,955 scholars, and the number has largely increast since the transfer was made. It is thought wise to allow all thcse elementary schools to remain under Frooch care, as they will more readily understand and fall in with the views • The letter has since been reprinted by the general's order in the Journal Official. of the government. Full liberty is, at the same time, accorded to the L. M. S. missionaries in the various districts (either in person or through properly appointed representatives), to give religious instruction in the schools.
The general results of the visit of the deputation to Betsileo are eminently satisfactory. 'fwo districts (Ambosib-o and Isandra) are placed under the care of the Paris society, as well as all the elementary education. 'fhe girls' school at Fianarantsoa, which had for a time been taken over by the Paris society, will now revert to the London Missionary Society. M. Benezesch, who represents the Paris society in Betsileo, has shown great earnestness and activity, and has done much to restore confidence among our native adherents. lIe has made it clear to all that Protestants are not to be considered the enemies of France. The missions on the east coast, at Tamatave and Ambahy, will no longer be carried on by the London Missionary Society, but there is reason to hope that either the Norwegian society, or some French or Swiss society will enter into this work.
The net result of recent changes is that about half the territory formerly workt by the London Missionary SociE'ty has now been given up, and that whereas, when the last statistics were gathered, we had 1,445 congregations under our care, we now have less than 700. In this smaller area and among the 700 churches still under our care, it is believed that much good work may still be carried 011. The districts formerly under the care of individual missionaries were too extensive to allow of eflicient superintendence, and with Rmaller districts and more native helpers, it is hoped that much may be done to strengthen the churches that have been so sadly weakened by the events of the past two years. Already there are signs of returning confidence and hope. The reign of terror seems to be drawing to an end. The state of siege has been raised, and we are once more under civil rule. The Jesuits appear to have gone too far, and to have tried the patience of the government. They have evidently received some caution or check, and are far quieter than a year ago. The government has begun to see how much harm was done by stirring up religious strife all over the cOllntry. At the same time we can not shut onr eyes to the fact that the Roman Catholics are growing in number and influence. 'l'he Roman Catholic religion is regarded as the French religion, and many flock to their churches. The most distressing aspect of the question is that many Protestant children have been sent to the Roman Catholic schools for the sake of the French language. The Protestant churches of the future may be less in number and may have far smaller congregations, but we must work and pray in the hope that there may still exist a vigorous body of Protestant Christians who, by their intelligence, their religious earnestness, and the testimony of pure lives, may do much to promote the highest interests of their native land.
"THE RUIN OF INDIA" BY BRITISH RULE
II.-MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT.
"THE RUIN OF INDIA" BY BRITISH RULE. * BY S. H. KELLOGG, D.D., LL.D.
I have read with equal pain and astonishment an article by Professor Des Islets, entitled" The Ruin of India," t wherein various assertions are made which, were they justified by facts, would show this government to be one of the most pitiless tyrannies on the face of the earth. But I rejoice to be able, to the credit of our common civilization and Christianity, to assure the professor that, from whatsoever source he has derived his supposed information, he has been in this matter most egregiously deceived.
In his very first sentences the writer shows that he is under a total misapprehension of the facts regarding the riots in Calcutta and the assassinations in Poona during this last summer, which he intimates to have been due to the" frightful oppression" which India is enduring at the hands of her British rulers. In reality, however, both the riots and assassinations were occasioned, not by the ill-doing, but by the conspicuous well-doing of the government.
In the case of the riots an appeal had been taken to the High Court by a certain Bengali gentleman of rank, regarding the ownership of a certain piece of land on which stood a Mohammedan place of prayer. The High Court on reviewing the evidence sustained the appeal, and ordered the premises to be vacated by the Mohammedans. When they refused to do this, the government officer proceeded to remove their building. Hence the riot. Where in all this was the" frightful oppression ?"
In Poona and Bombay the terrible black plague has been raging for months. As the only means known to modern science of combating the pestilence with any hope of success, the government ordered the segregation of all that were stricken in speeial hospitals, either provided by government, or, wherever preferred, by the members of the different castes and religions, each for themselves. But the people generally would not let cases be known, and constantly secreted the sick in close and poisonous quarters, thereby intensifying the infection and spreading the disease. Under these circumstances the government ordered a compulsory house to house inspection of such infected cities, the compulsory cleaning of filthy houses, the removal and burial or burning of the corpses frequently found in them, the forcible removal of all in them found sick with the plague to the hospitals provided, where all who chose might have the best treatment known to modern seience. These searches were carried out by organized parties made up of native gentlemen, British soldiers, and English ladies who volunteered for the purpose. But all this, instead of moving the people to gratitude, excited a fierce tempest of angry hate, of which the deepest secret doubtless was to be found in the intense caste pride and superstition of the ,Mahratta Brahmins, who were thus compelled to admit into the sacredness of their houses these unclean foreigners, whose very shadow falling on their food is supposed to render it so unclean that it must be thrown away. Those who have been engaged in this work have been threatened with death, sometimes violently assaulted, assailed both in India and even at home, by radical members of Parliament, with the most atrocious al}d unmentionable calumnies, and * From the Presbyterian Review, Toronto, t Presbyteriqn Messenger, Sept, 30, iS97.
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
at last this culminated on the Queen's Jubilee day in the Poona assassinations, wherein the officer in charge of these plague operations was shot at night by one of these same Mahratta Brahmins, as now confest by the assassin himself.
Again Professor Des Islets makes this astounding assertion-that from the wretched millions of India" England extorts every year, without any compensation, the enormous sum of $150,000,000." * Without any compensation! How any intelligent man can say that England gives" no compensation" to the people of India for the taxes she takes, passes comprehension. In the first place, in return for these, she has given the people, from one end of India to the other, a system of government which, in so far as it is administered, not by natives, but by the members of Her Majesty's Covenanted Civil Service, stands to-day as a model to the whole world for purity and incorruptibility, and magnificent labors f,)r the help of the poverty-stricken millions of this over-crowded country. In the days of the Mohammedan rule of India, Tavernier wrote that a traveler in India" ought always to take with him twenty or thirty armed lnen." Is the present security no "compensation" for revenues taken from the people?
Again, the British rulers of India have during a comparatively short period developt a system of education which has planted schools, colleges, and universities in every part of the land. These are supported in large part by revenues taken fro~n the people. Is a great educational system like this, supervised by cultivated university men from home, no "compensation" for the taxes taken from the people?
Again, out of the revenues gathered from the people the government has constructed-to illustrate-in the Northwest Provinces alone, and within the lifetime of the present generation, 10,173 miles of irrigation canals, which last year supplied water to 11,437 villages and watered over 2,000,000 acres. Similar figures might be given for the Punjab and other parts of British India; and the government is at present planning another magnificent system of irrigation for Oudh and Rohilkhand which, when carried out, will be of even greater magnitude JCtnd irrigate over two and a quarter million acres. Except for the tens of thousands of miles of irrigation canals which have been built and are still being constructed by the British government, this last year would have witnest a famine here, in comparison with which the horrors of that now drawing to an end would have seemed insignificant and for the like of which ,ve should have to go back to the happily by-gone days of independent native rule.
To these instances of the return given to India by her British rulers for the taxes taken from the p30ple may be added many others, due exclusively to British rule, which space forbids me more than to mention. Such are e. g., a most complete postal system, with the unit of postage, to all parts of India and Burma, a half-anna, or one cent; a postal telegraph, by which a message can be wired anywhere in India or Burma for as low as sixteen cents; connected with the post-office, also, a government savings-bank by which, in any post-office in the empire, may be deposited, at interest, so small a sum as eight cents-a favorite form cf investment with thousands of the very natives who most vigorously denounce the government; hospitals and dispensaries scattered all over the land where the poorest may have enlightened European treat- * An average of fifty cents per capita a year.
"THE RUIN OF INDIA" BY BRITISH RULE. 2'i''i'
ment gratis; permanent security-no doubt, sometimes, at the expense of one of those "useless frontier wars," for which the professor blamEs the government-against the fearful Mohammedan raids and invasions by which, previous to British rule, large parts of India had been repeatedly laid desolate; magnificently graded macadamized roads, connecting all important places in India, not to speak of steamboat lines, and railways with fares so low that one can go, if he please, from Calcutta to Peshawar, near the Afghan frontier, 1,M2 miles, for about $6.00, etc., etc. This enumeration is far from complete, but it will suffice to enable the average reader to judge with how ITuch of truth and justice it is charged in the article review~ed that England" extorts" her" enormous" revenues from the Indian people" without any compensation."
Professor Des Islets strangely regards the railways of India not as works of enlightened beneficence, but" as immense siphons to drain the resources of the country toward England." The truth, again, is the exact opposite. Even with the vast irrigation system, except for the railways little could be done to mitigate famine, simply for lack of tramportation. And yet the professor can only see in the railways of India another evidence of the greedy tyranny of its British rulers, and de pite tens of thousands of miles of these railways and irrigation canals he can write: " The famine in India is a famine of which the English are the cause." But what he calls a "proof of this," is, if possible, more astounding than the original assertion; namely, that" the great native vassal states, with 50,000,000 of population, do not suffer from famine." I never heard such a statement made before, and no wonder, for it is utterly incorrect. Given the same conditions of soil and climate, the native states suffer from famine precisely as do the contiguous British districts.
It is, indeed, true that a very large proportion of the people are distressingly poor; but there is only one sense in which it can be said with unqualified truth that this is due to the British domination. India is enormously over-populated. In the Ganges valley the population ranges from 500 to 700 to the square mile. Before the British rule began almost incessant wars helpt to keep the population down, and when famine or cholera or deadly fever would sweep through the country, the native rulers as a rule did nothing to save life, millions perisht, and the congestion was relieved. But now it is different. The Pax Brit!'~nnica has now long ruled; intestine wars are at an end; cholera is checkt; famine is relieved, and mortality is otherwise diminisht. The velY excellence and beneficence of the government becomes the direct occasion of increasing that over-population which is the necessary cause of the extreme poverty of the mass of the people. In this sense only is there any truth in the statement that "the English are the cause of this famine."
I am far from maintaining that every British official is a saint, or that there have been and are no grave mistakes in government policy, and no great moral wrongs which are still unrighted. But on the whole, despite tremendous difficulties, it is probable that no existing government has ever shown such a grand example of the application of the Golden Rule to the administration of the affairs of a people as the British government in India has been exhibiting, especially during this past year of terrible disast8r and trouble. If an impartiality in justice between the various subject peoples, so absolute and colorless that it causes the government to be cordially hated by millions of the adherents of both the chief religions of the country; if the expenditure of mi!-
27$ MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
lions continually for the amelioration of poverty, th~ prevention of famine, and the spread of education, latterly under repeated threats of a bloody return for their kindness and beneficence, be Christian; if it be right and Christian to put an end to suttee, thuggism, infanticide, and-as in parts of South India-the compulsory nakedness of low-caste women; if it be a high Christian duty, in the interest alike of India and the whole world to invade, at whatsoever risk, even the sanctity of a proud Brahmin's or Mohammedan's house, rather than to allow the" Black Death" to rage unrestrained; then I may without fear avow my settled conviction, the growth of more than thirty years' intimate acquaintance with India, that notwithstanding sometimes failures and grave mistakes, and sometimes even great moral wrong, in administering or supervising the government of these 287,000,000; yet, on the whole, the present British administration of India is probably 'more practically Christian than that of any other country in the world.
RAMABAI'S FAMINE WIDOWS.
In our September (1897) number we gave some account of the rescue of child-widows carried on by Pundita Ramabai in Poona, Bombay Residency, India. Since that time the blessing of God and the generous contributions of Christians at home and abroad have caused markt progress in the work, and many of the girls and young women in Sharada Sadan have given their hearts to God. We gather the fol- lowing items of interest in regard to the work from Ramabai's re- ports and from articles in the Bom- bay GUa1'dianandlndian Witness. Ramabai is now in America, and is being warmly welcomed by those who have heard of her work for the Master. We hope soon to have a satisfactory paper on the condition of the child-widows of India a.nd what is being done for them. In her publisht report Ramabai writes as follows (Oct., 1897): "In April, 1896, I attended a camp-meeting at Lanowlee, accom- paniedby fifteen of my own girls who were believers in the Lord Jesus. My heart was full of joy and peace, and I offered thanks to the Heavenly Father for having giYen me fifteen children, and I was l'ARA. A DESTITUTE CHILD WIDOW, AS SHE by the Spirit led to pray that the Lord would be so gracious as to F.:-01'ERED RAMABAi' s HOME, 1892.
square the number of my spiritual children before the next camp-meeting takes place. Every circumstance was against the very thought. For in the first place not more than sixty or sixty-five girls at the most could be admitted in my school. Then the number of my schoolgirls was but forty-nine, and some of them were to leave during the summer holidays.
RAMABAI'S FAMI!'E WIDOWS. 2')'9
"Six months past away from that time, and our work went on as usual. There was no increase in the number of my pupils, on the con- trary, the number went down to forty-one. I knew nothing of the famine in Central India, nor that I could get any girls from that part of the country. In October I heard of the terrible famine in the Central Prov- inces, and received my call from God to go there and rescue some of the young widows who were starving to death. It was not until the last week of December that I had the courage to obey the call.
I was doubtful whether I could get any of the kind of girl widows that I could admit into my school. The chief difficulty was the want of place to shelter the girls and of money to maintain them. The Lord put it in my mind to rescue three hundred girls; and in less than ten months from the time when I began the rescue work, the Lord has given me nearly three hundred girls from the famine districts. These are my own girls, and I am free to bring them up in the fear of God; praise the Lord!
No one of them is compelled to become a Christian, and yet most of these new girls delight to attend prayer and to hear the Word of God. About ninety new girls have accepted the Lord Jesus as their TARA, A CHRISTIAN WIFE, AS SHE LEFT Savior, and I believe that before RAMABAI'S HOME, 1897.
the next camp-meeting the numher of my spiritual children will increase to 225, and my prayer to square the number fifteen will be answered.
" I had no human sources to depend upon, but the Lord raised friends for me, and money was poured into our treasury, and the blessings of the Lord came down like a shower, and His promise as recorded in Ps. lxxxii.
10 has been literally fulfilled. I must here record heartfelt gratitude and give thanks to the dear children of God who have so generously sent donations from all parts of the world. Most of the girls who had been nothing but skeletons and wild like the beasts of the jungle, are now looking fat and humanized. Many of them show great intelligence and eagerness to learn. Those who have profest faith ,in Christ are showing signs of a real change of hcart by serving and helping other girls, by their self-forgetfulness and love toward one another.
"The Lord gave me so many blessings in the shape of girls that there was 'not room enough to receive' them in our fornler schoolhouse.
So I was obliged to add a wing to our school building in Poona; to build another large house in our farm at Kedgaum, and, finding those insuf- ficient to shelter all the girls who are in my charge, I have hired another Lungalow for a period of ten months until the other large buildings now
mISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
under construction at Kedgaum are finisht. They will shelter over two hundred and fifty girls. * There we shall have primary industrial schools to train the girls according to their abilities. The most intelligent of these girls will be placed in the higher standards in our school at Poona.
" The famine relief work has been taken up as a Christian work, and it shall be so to the last. The Holy Spirit has now put it in my heart to pray for starting a Christian mission in the village where our famine girls' school is to be. I request my Christian friends to pray especially for the true conversion of my famine children and for this mission which is to be started shortly."
Rev. D. O. Fox, who has audited Ramabai's accounts, writes: "Kedgaum is thirty-four miles from Poona east on the railway. The farm joins the railway station, and has one hundred and twenty acres, all under cultivation. Three wells have been dug, which will yield abundance of water for the use of the Home and for the cultivation of the farm. Things about the farm look as if the Pundita is likely to be as good a manager of a farm as she is of the Home.
"We went through her accounts and gathered up the totals of her expenditures for eight months ending with the 9th of September. The cost of caring for an average of two hundred and fifty girls, including a few women, is a little over eight rupees per month per head. This includes all expenditures of food, clothing, salaries of teachers, and other workers in the Home, washing, cooking, and other household utensils, furniture, school books, and other expenses connected with the Home."
Miss Baird, of the American Friends' Mission, Nowgong, Central India, says: "At the beginning of our work of gathering children from the famine sufferers to send to different mission-schools and orphanages, we were met with a difficult question, namely, what shall we do with the young widows who come to us perfectly destitute? They could not be admitted into the mission-schools, and many of them were too young and pretty to be kept with safety upon our open compound. After praying for guidance Miss Fistler wrote to Pundita Ramabai, asking her if she had room for any such girls. With her usual promptness she dispatcht – , coming.' Since then she has visited Central India four times, and has taken about three hundred young famine widows to Poona and Kedgaum.
"A month ago, when I visited Poona and Kedgaum, I could but exclaim, 'What hath God wrought amongst the heathen hy the ministry of one woman!' Our starved, emaciated girls of three months before had become round and rosy beyond all recognition, and were singing hymns as lustily as tho they had always been familiar with them, many had learned to read, and there have already been thirty real heart conversions in the home at Kedgaum, where the work among the girls is thoroughly evangelical, unhampered by any promises to caste-keeping relatives.t • The annual expenses of this new establishment-where three hundred girls and workers are to be maintained – will amount to fifty thousand rupees (about sixteen thousand dollars).
t Many have askt why Ramabai estimates for more money for the support of her girls than the missionaries do for the same number of children kept in mission·schools and orphanages Ramabai makes a real home for the girls, while missionaries are usually contented to give children simply a boarding-school. She lives with her girls, and gives to each that which she considers necessary for her own health and strength.
1898.J RAMABAI'S FAMINE WIDOWS
" I think the most beautiful work of grace I have ever Been in any child's heart was the following: A few evenings ago we were late in going to have prayers with the girls, so when we got to the door we found dear little Anandi had gathered all the women and children together and was praying aloud with them and they repeating the prayer after her. How the heart of our Father God must have rejoiced as He heard such requests and thanksgiving as ascended from that room. 'Our kind heavenly Father, we do thank You for bringing us here, giving us such deal' friends, and especially for Ramabai. Oh! our kind Father, those of us who love You, we want You to keep our hearts very clean, and those who don't love You, quickly clean their hearts, and keep them clean by YOUI' Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Oh! our kind Father, take care of all us in this Home and the Poona Home to-night; bless all who look after us, and abundantly bless Ramabai and Sundrabai who take such care of us. Now, Father, we thank You for Jesus and for what Jesus promises to do for us. Take care of us to-night, and forgive us wherein we have given You pain to-day, for Jesus' sake. Amen.'''
Miss A. Parsons, of the" Poona and Indian Village Mission," gives an interesting picture of days spent with Ramabai's famine widows at Kedgaum. She says in part: "They are a sad pitiful sight when first they come! Some almost too weak to move, some throngh want of cleanliness and propel' food are covered with sores, that it is painful to look at them, others through sheer poverty have been reduced to wearing the same article of clothing for such a very long time that it is impossible to stand neal' them without feeling faint through the very unhealthy odor proceeding therefrom. Praise the Lord for what a few months in the Home have done for such! They are not only clean, and the majority of them strong and healthy, but they have wonderfully toned down through the Ohrist-influence that has been exerted over them, and now instead of quarreling and fighting, they gladly do anything for one another, or for those who are in charge of them. Some have accepted Ohrist as their Savior, and many of us who are older in the Ohristian life, might well envy them their simple faith in a God whom they believe not only has made a way of salvation from sin for them, but one who cares for them and promises to supply their every need."
Rev. 'V. 'V. Bruere held ten days' special services in the Poona Home last year, and at the close 116 women and child-widows were baptized. Later he went to Kedgaum to hold a mission. The women had been prepared for these services by constant daily religious teaching ever since they entered the Home. At the close of three !;lays' services sixty-seven had been converted. The meetings were continued, Mr. Bruere returned, and as the crowning event on November 15, the baptismal service took place. It was a rare sight when seventeen bullock carts, crowded with seven and eight women in each, started out for the Bheema River, five and a half miles distant from the farm. Songs of joy arose one after another as they slowly went along, methinks mingled themselves with the joy around the throne when sinners are converted. A tent was· pitcht on the bank of the river, which served as a dressingroom. A short service was held by Rev. W. W. Bruere, after which the haptisms took place. The happy faces and frequent expressions of praise showed that the Spirit teaches His children alike the world over, for these women had never come in contact with many Ohristians, revivals,
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
or baptismal services. One hundred and eight women and girls and one boy of twelve years of age were baptized.
The chief thing that imprest one in the meetings was the real working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the girls, producing real sorrow for sin and an earnest search for salvation. Then when the light would break in, there would be the spontaneous utterance of such notes of praise as the one Spirit alone can teach. We all know how timid the women of this country are about speaking in public, but when Jesus comes into the heart, the joy of salvation drives out fear. One after another they would rise and tell of forgiveness of sins, yet in language peculiarly their own.
On Sunday "something new" came into existence-a church of widows. Connected with the church a Sunday-school was organized, with regular officers and teachers. The older girls (those under Ramabai's care prior to the famine) have a chance to prove that salvation is not a selfish acquirement, for they are given a class in Sunday-school as well as appointed class-leaders to instruct those in their charge.
THE LIVINGSTONIA MISSION IN AFRICA. * BY RIGHT HON. LORD OVERTOUN.
Twenty-four years have past away since David Livingstone died on his knees at Ilala, near Lake Bangweolo. While his body was brought home by loving hands and laid to rest among the luighty dead in Westminster Abbey, his heart rests near the spot where, in suffering, he spent the last night of his life, among the people he loved so well.
His death rang the great bell for the evangelization of the Dark Continent, and the Livingstonia Mission, advocated by Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, Livingstone's fellow-traveler, was founded in 1874, and stands to-day a nobler monument to the great missionary than crumbling marble. The following year the Ilala steamed into Lake Nyassa, bearing a company of pioneer missionaries, headed by Dr. Laws, who for a quarter of a century has ably directed the Livingstonia Mission. During all these years a battle has been steadily waged of Light against Darkness; the Gospel against Heathenism; Liberty against Slavery; Civilization against Barbarism; Righteousness and Truth against Vice, Cruelty, and Superstition.
By God's good hand upon us the small band of 1875 now numbers 28 Scottish missionaries and 112 native evangelists, while there has been formed a native church, with seven congregations, 12 elder~ and deacons, and 291 members. There are now 85 schools, with 354 native teachers and monitors, and with a daily attendance of 11,510 pupils.
The great purpose of the Livingstonia Mission is to win Central Africa for Christ. The work is carried on on four great lines: 1. Ecl'angeHzai'ion by the direct proclamation of the Gospel at the various mission centers. At Bandawe the attendance at church on Sabbath numbers upward of 1,000, and from each center native evangelists go out every Sabbath with the Gospel message to surrounding villages, some as much as ten miles distant. The church building has become too * From The Ftee Church of Scotland Monthly.
1898·1 'tHE LJVINGSTONIA MISSION IN
small, and the session and congregation have petitioned for help to build a new church, seated for 1,400, to which they are to contribute £200, ($1,000). Not only the adults are reacht, but the children are specially cared for and taught in Sunday-schools out of God's Vord in their own tongue. They have a great talent for music, and delight in the hymns which are on the lips and hearts of our bairns at home. The printing and circulation of the Bible in the native dialects have greatly helpt the work, and the people are gladly paying for the VVord of God and Chris- tian literature, which are now spreading through the country.
2. Medical lIfissions.-As in all lands, so in Africa, this work has arrested and won the people, and given them perhaps their first idea of what Christianity is. That men better, wiser, stronger than they should come, not to destroy or rob them, but to heal and help, is a mystery beyond their comprehension. Vhen they see men and women healed and cured by those who are constrained by love of God, and learn that the Son of God lived and died on the earth to save them, is it to be wondered at that their confidence and then their hearts were won? At Bandawe alone more than 10,000 cases have been treated in the past year.
3. Educai'ion.-No thoughtful or observant man now questions the policy of educating the natives, for in the march of civilization and commerce, the demand is steadily on the increase for trained and intelligent natives, and the daily attendance at the eighty-five schools is very large. There are a large number at the elementary stages, hut many, especially at the Institute, are in the fifth and sixth standards. The diversity of tongues-nine different languages being spoken in Nyassaland-greatly increases the difficulty of school-work. Ve are feeling more and more the desirability of having a uniform language, and are trying to adopt tltt Nyanja language, enricht by such words as may be adapted from others.
4. Industrial Work.-The experience gained, and the success achieved at Lovedale under the able guiding hand of Dr. James Stewart, satisfied us at the outset of the mission that we must seek not only to take the Gospel of Christ to the people of N yassaland by direct preaching and medical missions, but also to educate them-not only in ordinary school instruction, but to train them in industrial pursuits-so that some occupation might be given which would take the place of their one occupation, warfare, and also prove beneficial to the people by training them in the arts of peace. Ve therefore, at all our stations, have more or less given instruction by Christian tradesmen in carpentery, brickmaking, agriculture, building, and latterly printing, telegraphy, and tailoring, as well as elementary ambulance work. A central training institute receives the more promising pupils, and makes them inh mechanics and tradpsmen who will do much to develop thp country. The demand for admission from all the stations is three times as great as our accommodation, staff, and funds allow us to receive.
The work of the Livingstonia :Mission is changing the country and the people. Slave-raiding, with its horrors, is almost a thing of the past. Poison-drinking is ceasing. Superstition is dying out. Fields are planted with coffee, wheat, and potatoes, and gardens with vegetables. New fruit and timber trees are being planted, and cattle are being raised and tended. All this has been wrought hy God through the Gospel, through the labors of our noble band of workers. But Africa is to be
MISSIONARY DIGEST trE]PAR1'lIfENT
won by her own sons and daughters, and for this end we are laboring. Within the last six months 285 men and women have confest their faith in Christ. The field is great, and there are openings around us, which for lack of men and money we can not yet enter, while they are calling us to come.
———- REV. PROFESSOR JAMES LEGGE, M.A., D.D., LL.D.* 1. HIS WORK IN CHINA.-The fame of Dr. Legge as a Chinese scholar of the very first rank has traveled throughout the world. He was of such a scholarly turn of mind, that he might have risen to high eminence in the university in which he was trained, but his mind, however, was set upon becoming a missionary. Accordingly, in the year 1839, t he was appointed to labor in the great empire of China.
In those early days China sternly and haughtily refused to allow foreigners free access into the country. Dr. Legge, therefore, began his missionary life at Malacca, where he became the presiding spirit in the college which had been establisht there for the higher education of Chinese young men, who, it was hoped, would play an important part in the elevation of their country.
After the conclusion of the war between England and China, and the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, by which Hongkong was ceded to the former country, Dr. Legge hastened to take up his residence there. He was not content with being able simply to acquire the spoken language of the Chinese, but determined to study the written characters in which the books are printed, Thus he would be able to read for himself the writings of the ancient sages of China. Dr. Legge was a hard student. As his knowledge of the language grew, and his acquaintance with the writ;ngs of Confucius and Mencius became more thorough, the purpose to translate these into English gradually fixt itself in his mind. Those who would understand the Chinese, must study their sacred writings. Dr. Legge determined that this should be made possible by translating them into English. The Chinese classics reveal the mincl of China more than any other books that have ever been written in that great empire. They stand, in fact, in very much the same relation to the people of China as the Bible does to the English. They have had to do with the molding and development of the Chinese character. From early times down to the present they have been the only school-books that would be tolerated in any school throughout the eighteen provinces. Every man that professes to be a scholar knows them off by heart, and even those whose education is most imperfect will assume an appearance of culture by quoting sentences that they have learned from them on all possible occasions. They are the royal road to distinction and honors in the State, for only the men that have received their degrees by passing examinations in them can hope for high official appointments. Every man in China is a Confucianist first, no matter what else he may be after.
To perform this great task one would naturally suppose that Dr.
* From the L. M. S. Chronicle.
t James Legge was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire. on Dec. 20, 1814, and studied first at King's College and University, Aberdeen, and then at Highbury College, London. He was a member of the church assembling at Trevor Chapel. Brompton, then under the pastorate of Dr. John Morrison, whose daughter, Mary Isahella, was his first wife She died in 1852. Subsequently he married Mrs. Willets, the widow of the Rev. G. Willets, of Salisbury.
REV. PROFESSOR JAMES LEGGE, M.A., D.D., LL.D
Legge would have had to devote all his energies to it, to the exclusion of almost eyery other work. But when he was most busy with the classics, he seemed also to be fully occupied in preaching. He was, besides, pastor of Union Church, in Hongkong, and as a public-spirited man and a loyal citizen, was always ready to expend brain and time for the furtherance of any plan that had at heart the welfare either of his countrymen or of the Chinese. The one thing, however, that has given him a world-wide fame is the profound scholarship that enabled him to translate the sacred books of China, and thus bring them within the reach of every student. In doing this he has broken down the great wall that hid that nation from the West, and has given thinkers an opportunity of studying the ethical principles upon which Chinese society has been built.
II. PROFESSOR LEGGE IN OXFoRD.-In 1876, after the labors of an average lifetime, he left China for England to become professor of Chinese at Oxford. But since that time he has been no less the Chinese missionary than in the earlier days at Hongkong. He has made it his chief concern to toil at the Chinese language and literature in such a way as to bring the West into a fuller and more sympathetic knowledge of the East, and we have had further translations of Chinese classics and treatises on Chinese religions from his prolific pen. He has also trained here in Oxford many able and competent missionaries. But of almost equal importance, we seem to lose in him a great Christian ambassador-to whom men from the far East were ever welcome, and who was unceasingly sought out in his Oxford home by all who were interested in China from whatever cause.
His belief in the necessity for Christian missions was never dimmed. When a paper was to be read before a Nonconformist society upon "Missions: their Use and Abuse," he discovered that some of the members were inclined to be somewhat critical and unsympathetic. He therefor.e wrote a long letter to the secretary, giving the arguments which he would have used had he been able to be present. One paragraph deserves quotation: "From the time that I began to think of what might be my own = course in life-long before I was ten years old-it was as clear to me as that 2 + 2 4 that if I could not find a good reason, which Christ would admit, for not becoming a missionary, I must go as one to some foreign field. For nearly ten years the search for such a reason went on in my mind, until every sophistical excuse which I proposed to myself was gradually disposed of, and, in 1839, I went as a missionary to the Chinese. I thank God to-day that I was finally constrained to adopt that course, and when I look back on the more than thirty years that I spent among that people, I venture to think that it was to me 'a I!race given to teach and preach among them the unsearchable riches of Christ.'''
In this spirit he lived and workt in Oxford, and his abundant services in the churches are to-day remembered with gratitude. His funeral service in Mansfield Chapel was a veritable grammarian's funeral-for Eastern and Western learning were there amply represented. But it was more than that. Our greatest scholars were there to do honor to the man of learning; but there were many also present from far Hankow, and distant Amoy, and elsewhere, whose presence bore eloquent witness to his great achievements as a pioneer worker in the great Middle Kingdom. On the special hymn sheet was the apt quotation from his own translation of Confucius: "If a man in the morning hear the right way, he may die in the evening without regret."
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
Ill.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDl:"CTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Impressions Made by the Student icies, methods, so that no little re- adjustment is required. But church Volunteer Oonvention. leaders and judicators may well make haste to square themselves to REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D. OBER- the changed situation, and at once proceed to put in harness the po- LIN, o. tent celestial forces here found al- ready massed and waiting to be All things considered, including wielded. the theme continually uppermost in every mind and heart, the great Or, the late convention stood for a l'eligious movement represented, phase of the most marvelous and the intellectual and spiritual char- impressive modern uprising of the acter of the delegates with the stu- youth of our churches, to take their dent bodies which se'nt them, the share of toil and responsibility, eminently business-like manage- eager to learn, rcady to fit themment of affairs, the well thought selves for efficient service. The through and comprehensive pro- Sunday – school and the publicgram, the remarkable high average school systems were prophecies of excellence of the numerous addres- good things to come; later the ses, the ruling spirit and motive Young Men's Christian Associafrom first to last, the really tre- tion with its kindred Young Womendous tho quiet and controlled men's Christian Association gave a enthusiasm everywhere manifest, broad hint of what was in store for it is to be counted a remarkable the Kingdom of forces auxiliary, and significant gathering, and one as well as the more general movenot often, if ever, equaled. Re- ment for the enlargement of woduced to a sentence, the meaning men's sphere, with the Society of of the convention was, world-wide Christian Endeavor and its adaptamissions at the very soonest pos- tion to well-nigh every denominasible constitute the supreme and tion, and the Student Volunteer exigent business of the entire Chris- ~Iovement to cap the climax. All tian Church; but, alas, only the which means that from henceforth f"w are fully awake and possest of not one sex only, but both are to intelligent, burning zeal. be represented in the vast mission- field both at home and abroad, and Among the characteristic feat- not merely by the older half of the ures were such as these: Here was Lord's host, but by the youth and a movement most clearly providen- the children as well. These latter tial in origin and inspiration, that are to be enlisted into the service is, springing up outside of all eccle- of the Great Captain in earliest siastical planning and manage- years. And this well nigh startling ment, spontaneous, fairly leaping innovation upon all hoary preceinto life, irresistible, like Christian- dent is to be accepted heartily and ity itself, the Reformation, modern with thanksgiving. These "irregmissions in Carey's day, or the Sal- ular" undertakings are not to be vation Army. Not strangely some lookt at askance, opposed, represt, confusion results, some revolution in certain well-establisht ideas, polbut rather to be encouraged, guided, culties standing in the way of the and utilized to the utmost. world's speedy evangelization, like the vast m ultitudes of the unreacht, One could hut notice the blessed the strength of the great false reand perfect unity which pervaded ligions, lack of money at home, every session. Here were brought etc., are excuse not the least for together old and young, great and discouragement, for giving up in small, black and white, male and disgust or despair, but are rather female, British, Canadian, and to be made a spur to faith, prayer, American, from every section of aggressive effort. This point was the land, North, South, East, West, made emphatic. If the missionary denominations by the score- societies are afflicted with empty Methodist bishops and Episcopal treasuries, and so can not send the hishops, Presbyterians and Bap- volunteers who are ready to go, tists, from hoth sides of Mason and then let the latter proceed to seek Dixon'::; line; Lutherans of divers needed funds from relatives, from kinds, and many others, hut nohody the local church to which they becared for the difference or stopt to long, or from neighboring churches. think of it. The one weighty, all- Such is the impulse of a soul dead in absorbing fact was, we are Christ's, earnest, of genuine faith and heroand are here to learn how we can, ism. Like Britain's greatest prime at the soonest, crown Him King of minister, the Lord's servant is kings and Lord of lords to the very called to "tread on impossibilities." ends of the earth; and that fellowship of the Spirit in the honds of No word more true, more weighty, peace was possest of a celestial or more solemn was spoken during quality as tho Pentecost had come those five notable days than that of again. Dr. Hall, when he said in substance that, as a rule, with very few ex- 'Vhat divine power went forth on ceptions, in our Christian colleges, Saturday from those five-and- and even our theological seminaries, twenty denominational rallies in as the students do not have afforded many sanctuaries; in sonle cases as them, either in the curriculum or many as twenty or thirty returned in aught that their instructors say missionaries sitting upon the plat- or do, a fair opport1~nity to face form, ready to bear witness to the the all-important q1.wstion, whether world's perishing need and of the they shall consecrate their lives to power of the Gospel to save. The some form of strictly missionary aggregate of these audiences could toil in the foreign field or at home. not have been much short of ]5,000, He would have in both seminary and on Sunday, when practically and college at least a two hours' every church in Cleveland and course required, and another two vicinity was addrest both morning hours' course elective, fitted to supand evening by missionary secreta- ply a chance to settle rationally ries, returned missionaries, student this great matter. Surely no man volunteers, presidents, or profes- or woman can claim to have sesors, and all upon the one theme: cu.red a liberal education who cares Let us arise at once and gird our- nothing about the world's evangeliselves to the mighty task of making zation, and because he knows Jesus King. nothing about the appalling spirit- ual needs of humanity and the ob- Two thoughts in particular may ligation resting upon every renewed be specified as having made a deep soul in every possible way to carry impression upon at least one au- the glad tidings of salvation. ditor. Again and again it was urged with earnestness that diffi- Autonomy of Native Mission Ohurches. dIe their own affairs and push on A great many questions of policy their aggressive work, if the opporin the conduct of foreign missions are forcing themselves to the front tunityof trying to do so is denied simultaneously in a way to demand, as they ought to command, wide them? "Vhat is the result of a and profound consideration. The missionary societies have counted century of cautiousness in throwing their successes at the close of the first century of Protestant move- on them responsibility? ment in non-Christian lands, and cheered their supporters on to new The native churches in West endeavor, but the crisis of the hour calls for a general frank acknowl- Africa in 1893, in a debate with edgment of the seriousness of the situation confronting them in the their home authorities in England twentieth century, and for concerted consideration about how to over the proposal to make a Eurograpple with the problems which experience shows them to have left pean successor to Bishop Crowther untoucht, or about which they have made mistakes. 'Vhen the Ecu- in the Niger See of the Church of menical Conference convenes in 1900 in New York, is it to spend its England, made a deliverance, signed energy in formulating its past achievements chiefly, or will it by forty-six of their clergy and mass its forces to some businesslike investigation of what a century laity as representatives of the body, has taught them they ought to seek to correct in fundamental and in which the following occurred: far-reaching principles of economy? "Christianity has seen about a A graver problem than even century in West Africa generally, "self-support" in foreign missions and yet it to this day wears the is that of self-control, self-propaga- character of an exotic. It has not tion, and leadership of native com- succeeded to root itself in the soil ; mittees by natives. If self-sup- to get the people generally to idenport is considered a prerequisite to tify their interest and their lives autonomy, may it not also be pos- with its existence and that of its sihle that autonomy is the short institutions, and exercise toward cut to self-support? The ultimate it that devotion which they or their goal being a self-acting and self- ancestors had exhibited toward developing native church, how early heathenism. ought snch Christian community to be left to bear the responsibility " There is no strong guarantee for of its own development? What permanence and continuity in this responsibility have the missionaries exotic character, and Africans who and mission boards entrusted them believe in the regenerating power with? Have these churches been of the religion and wish to see it kept in leading-strings from over- cover the whole country, who have caution, to the detriment of their some knowledge of its fate in North growth in tearing responsibility? Africa, after many centuries of ex- How are they ever to learn to han- istence, and of the complete failure of even its Homan Catholic form in comparatively more recent times after over two centuries of exist- ence, and who are not altogether ignorant of the causes of these re- peated and signal failures, are nat- urally anxious to see a repetition of the sad Lud terdble calamity avoided.
"It is our conviction that one of the reasons for the character which Christianity now manifests in Africa is the fact that it has been held too long in a state of de- pendence; and that it has been too long in the habit of looking to its foreign parent for immediate guid- ance and direction in almost every- thing, and this you will admit, does not make much for the development of that manly independence and self-reliance which are so essential for the development of a strong people and a vigorous institution.
"We are not blaming our teachers, who have sacrificed themselves Church-an experiment whose sucon the altar of love for us. vVe do cess was very generally desired in not underrate any of their achieve- England, especially on account of ments, for which we are, and ever the very heavy mortality which hope to be, grateful. 'Ve are not had always prevailed among Euimpatient of the presence of Euro- ropean missionaries in the African peans a,mongst us, as we have un- mission all through its long course. fortunately been too often mis- The clergy and lay agents that takenly represented by some of our workt under this episcopate, which foreign friends to be, but are invi- was often exercised amidst circumting attention to a state of things stances of peculiar difficulty and which we are persuaded they would trial, were almost, always natives." like to see changed." They did not attempt to claim They argued that the episcopate any perfection of administration. of Bishop Crowther demonstrated They were only endeavoring to their ability to conduct their own show that even when handicapt affairs successfully, tho that had by the semi-control of the church the drawback of sensitiveness about authorities in England, they had the control of their affairs being done well enough to justify further only one remove further back, be- enlargement of their independence. cause Bishop Crowther himself was They argued thus: kept under such limitations from "But attempts have been made direction by the authorities in the last few years-on account of moral weakness discovered in England. They believed that the some of the infant churchee that have been gat.hered in, and serious bishop and the native churches faults in some of the agents and the like-to pronounce the experiwould have made a much better ment a failure and the negro inca- pable for a responsible trust and for showing had the entire responsibil- an independent life ; and in spite of the century of training and teachity of administration, uncontrolled ing he has had, unfit still to be set free from his pupilage and the leadby Europeans altogether, been en- ing-strings of European superin- tendence. trusted to them. They might have " We, on our part, do not find made mistakes, but they would ourselves able to subscribe to this pronouncement with the facts of the have learned by experience, and mission to which we have already referred before us, and also the fact would have developt a governing that some of the apostolic churches of which we read in Scripture were faculty all the more rapidly. Yet not exempt from serious faults, and that the churches even in Europe, they believed the episcopacy of which have been in possession of Christianity many centuries, and Bishop Crowther, as a negro those in other parts of the world, do not, many of theIn, form an exbishqp, itself showed that they were ceDtion."
capable of self-direction and devel- This was not said in any "iu opment under absolute autononlY. quoque" spirit, but was a plain That episcopacy covered the space reference to the history of all be- of twenty-seven years. They said: ginnings, and the incipient stage of "The elevation of the late Bishop all church organizations. Crowther to the episcopate in 186! was declared by the Church Mis- The report of that able and spirsionary Society-which, under God, was mainly instrumental in bring- ited discussion reacht the writer at ing it about, and whose servant he was, and which has, from. the fact the time, not through any missionof its being the honored founder of the 'Vest African churches, held ary periodicals, in which it might the patronage of these churches in its own hands-to he an experi- properly have been lookt for, but ment to prove the capacity of negroes for evangelizing important through the local secular press in sections of the African Continent by themselves and without the stJmulus 6f the presence and supervision of Europeans, and for exercising the higher offices in the 'Vest Africa, and was preserved as Work Among Syrian Ohristians, India. a valuable contribution to the per- manent tliscussion of this funda- BY J. G. GREGSON, MANCHESTER, mental feature of missionary eco- nomics. He did not present the sub- ENGLAND. ject at the time in these columns, partly through delicacy lest such For over thirty years I labored course might be esteemed unfriend- in India without any knowledge of ly to the missionary administra- the power of the Holy Ghost work- tion, whose action provokt a ing within me. Recently I re- heated controversy. It is doubt- visited the country and was invited ful if the caution was justified. to hold meetings among the Syrian That discussion was educative, and Christians, in Travancore, South- ought to have had wide attention ern India. of the churches generally. Unfor- tunately, there is no provision for These people belong to the re- a common council of missionary form party in the Syrian Church, administrators and missionaries for which they believe was founded by the consideration of questions St. Thomas, at Quilon, on the which, like this, affect all missions. Malabar coast, in the year 52 A. D. The reform took place ahout twenty It is certainly desirable that this years ago, by the bishop renouncing Ecumenical Conference of 1900 shall the confessional, prayer to the consider whether it can not provide saints and Virgin Mary, prayers for the erection of some common for the dead and masses, but until representative body to meet, say recently they knew nothing of spiribiennially, to deal with questions of tual truth and power through the fundamental nature, like this, in baptism of the Holy Spirit. The which they have all common inter- reform had been more in outward est. What these African brethren ceremonies than in spiritual living. assert about the failure of a century of missions to produce an indige- The center of this movement is nous type of Christianity in their Aiyroon, on the river Ranee, where country is, there is room to fear, the people came night after night not peculiar to their locality. The in vast crowds of between two and episcopal churches have not ele- three thousand persons.. The servated natives to the episcopacy, vices were far too short to satisfy and they only represent what the their desire to hear and learn more non-episcopal churches have failed about spiritual things. At the close to do within their several econo- of the meetings we usually waited mies. It may be quite true that upon God, in silence, for a few the native churches have not exhih- moments, and then one after anited the qualities for such responsi- other of the audience would pray bility and leadership, but the deeper aloud. It would be impossible to question is whether this condition conceive of anything more moving is not attributable largely to their than to listen to these vast crowds, never having had responsibility in which each individual prayed thrust upon them. Men grow under aloud to God to guide him into all responsibility, just as lads do, or as truth, and very specially to reveal peoples do in new territory, where the possibilities of a holy life, lived they can not avoid assuming lead- out by His Spirit. ership. This problem deserves attention. Its discu);sion ought to be ad- My second mission was one of vanced on the calendar. constant traveling through the churches and living amongst the people. I found them simple- minded, hospitable, and earnest. In some parishes, where they were beginning their rice harvest, they an evangelistic movement among gave up work and often came miles the heathen, who are their farm to attend the meetings. In many servants. The Syrian Christians places the churches were too small are the farnlers of Travancore, and, to hold the crowds, so that we had in many instances, cultivate their to meet outside in the open air. own lands. The chief products are When the meeting was over, many rice, tapioca, sugar-cane, and cocoawould remain to a late hour, asking nuts. questions and carefully examining the Scriptures concerning the Another encouraging evidence truths they had heard. of their desire to know more fully what God has in store for them, Christmas day is kept on January is to be found in the eagerness with 6th, and a great festival it is. The which the women attend the meet- Christmas service begins just be- ings. They are taken up with fore dawn, a little after three household cares and duties, and o'clock, when the explosion of have but little time to attend to bombs and the clanging of bells spiritual things. Several of the arouse the sleepers to the con- elderly women were deeply consciousness that it is Christmas cerned about living a holy life in morning. The first ceremony is the power of the Holy Spirit. Tho around a camp-fire in front of the the Syrian women are not shut up church, where they sing and pray, in zenanas, they have a life of like the shepherds who kept watch drudgery, and are treated more by their fires at night. The service like household servants than as in the church begins about four wives. They are married when o'clock, and goes on without a they are quite children, through arpause till eleven or twelve o'clock. rangements made by their parents, At the invitation of the priest, I and submit to the position in which preacht the sermon on Christmas they live, according to the customs day, and in the afternoon had a of their forefathers. meeting with the Sunday-school children. The boys and girls were For this work men and money remarkably bright and happy, tho are needed, and my belief is, that one little lad greatly surprised me when He calls forth His laborers with a text, which was given in re- He will provide the means required sponse to my request. He rose and to send them forth. The need is for said very gravely: "Oh, wretched sanctified messengers who have reman that I am, who shall deliver ceived the baptism of the Holy me from the body of this death?" Ghost, and are thereby endued with I felt that my young friend must the power of the Holy Ghost, and go home with a brighter text than divinely qualified to go as living the one he had given me, so I gave witnesses to the uttermost parts of him instead: "Rejoice in the Lord the earth.* always." Does the Roman Catholic Church Want One of the most encouraging an" Open" Bible in Roman signs in connection with the mis- Catholio Countries? sion has been in having a good many young men attending the Weare furnisht with fresh evimeetings who have been educated dence of the antagonism of the in English and read our literature. Roman Catholic Church to a free These young men have formed a and open Bible, in an episode which Young Men's Christian Association, and are deeply interested in * Mr. Gregson returned to Travancore in November, in response to a request to con- duct a three years' mission among the Syrians.-ED. has occurred in the order of " Free Dam shall hereafter be removed and Accepted Masons." 'Vhat the and repudiated." merits or demerits of Free Masons or of Free Masonry may be, lies The New York Freeman's Jouroutside of the purview of this peri- nal, noticing this expulsion and odical. But Wm. A. Sutherland, repudiation of the Grand Lodge of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Peru, asks: Vhat will be the result of Free and Accepted Masons of if the Grand Lodge of Peru in turn the State of New York, has entered expels the Grand Lodge of New the arena as a champion of an open York from the order of Free and Bible as against one Christian Accepted Masons? Of the whole Dam, Grand Master of Masons in matter as an inter-Masonic affair, Peru. It appears from the recital whatever its merits pro or can, this in a circular, which we judge is not periodical knows nothing, and with esoteric to Masonry, that this it has nothing to do. But, assum- Grand Master of Masons in Peru ing that Mr. Sutherland is well acannounces to those under his juris- quainted with the facts in the case, diction that" according to Catho- and aware of his ability, and that licism the Bible is a sacred book in he is an eminent and authorized which the revealed word is depos- attorney in the State of New York, ited and as snch can not be freely we take it for granted that what he examined and criticized; that the affirms of the authoritative expul- Bible can not be considered as a sion of the Bible from the so-called fountain of scientific knowledge " Masonic altars" of Peru, and the or history, nor as a basis of moral- reasons for it, are matters of fact, ity; " and he does" decree that on and we make reference to it only all Masonic altars the Bible shall in evidence of the general spirit be removed and replaced by the of the Roman Catholic Church to- Constitution of the order of Free ward the Bible in every land it Masonry, and that in all our ritu- dominates, and as a fresh illustraals the word' Bible' shall be strick- tion of the need of the presence and en out and the words, 'the Con- power of Protestant missions in stitution of the Grand Lodge of countries dominated, as is Peru, by Peru' put in its place." the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
The circular signed by William The Freeman's Journal volun- A. Sutherland as Grand Master teers in explanation of the course proceeds to affirm, " By virtue of of the Peru lodge, that it is in evithe powers and prerogatives in me dence of and a part of the lamenvested as Grand lYlaster of Masons table infidelity of the times. But in the State of New York, I do will the Journal tell us in what announce and declare that the said Roman Catholic country the eccleedict and the decree of the said siastics of the church have not Christian Dam has terminated all antagonized the circulation of the relations heretofore existing be- Scriptures among the people, or tween the Grand Lodge of Peru in which of these countries it and the Grand Lodge of New has taught that the Scriptures York;" and as Grand Master Mr. might be "freely examined" by Sutherland commands all under the the laity? The Plenary Counjurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of cil of Baltimore may have said New York to "abstain from all that they desired to see the Bible Masonic intercourse with the so- (pl'esumably the Douay edition) in called Grand Lodge of Peru until every home, but that is in a strong the said edict of the said Christian Protestant country, and amidst tendencies which they did not originate, and is not in evidence for believe that to be true, not because, Roman communities which they as the Journal says, it expresses overshadow. Does it not occur also the infidelity of Masons in South to the Journal that it is dealing America, France, and Italy, but in with the product of three centuries that it plainly blurts out as the of unrestricted domination of the basis of its action, that" accord'ing Roman Catholic Church in Mexico to Cathoi'icis1n" the Bible is too and in South American communi- " sacred" to be "freely examined." ties, when it speaks of infidelity It is that policy which has resulted which results from Roman Catholic in the revolt against the Roman administration? We have long Catholic religion which the Freeknown that the Roman hierarchy man's Jonrnal styles infidelity, wasted no affection on Free Mason- and which it alleges the Masonic ry in Roman Catholic countries, orders of Roman Catholic lands repbut we had supposed that that resent. hatred was toward it in common with all other secret societies. It Uniformity in Missionary Statistics. seems very probahIe, however, that it is in accord with the spirit of the It was mentioned in the report of Roman Catholic Church, that the the Missionary Officers' Sixth An- Peru lodge excluded the Bible from nual Conference, that a committee its altar, and not because of infidel- which has been patiently working ity, since the ground of the expul- for some years to mature a formula sion, and the argument based on it, for statistical reports fwm the sevis that the Bible is a "sacred book in eral forE'ign fields, has been successwhich the revealed word is deposit- ful in preparing snch a schedule as ed. " There does not seem to be ar- the American and Canadian socierant infidelity in that, but there ties had generally agreed upon, and is a prononncement of what the this conference called attention to Grand Lodge of Peru understands it as possibly affording a sufficiently to be the permanent policy of the comprehensive and yet analytical Roman Catholic Church in all Ro- formula for general use over the man Catholic lands, in the assertion missionary world. We make room that the reason for the expulsion for the headings of these several is that" accor&ing to Catholicism" columns that missionaries everythe Bible is too "sacred" to be where may take note of the same, " freely exalnined," we assunle, by and if the brotherly spirit which the laity. dominated the American Officers' Conference shall prevail in attempt- There will not be much zeal for ing to work it, this or something the circulation of the Scriptures, better will greatly aid in reducing by any church or people holding the present confusion, which makes this theory concerning the Scrip- the foreign churches, at least in one tures. If the republics of South respect, not unlike heaven, in be.ing America and Mexico ever get this a company which "no 1nan can Bible in "every home," they will number." The formula has blanks probably only have that blessing for returns in the following order: through the Protestant Bible societies and the Protestant missions "TABLES OF STATISTICS FOR THE of those lands. YEAR ENDING – – The Free1nan's Journal says: Nmne of Stai'ion, Town or Vil- "Christian Dam has simply been lage-When establisht ; population more frank than his South Amer- of field. Missionar'ies-Ordained; ican confreres." 'Ve admit and unordained (not physicians); phY- sicians (men); physicians (women·) ; s~ngle women; wives; total mis- daily average attendance during sIOnaries. Native Helpers – Or- the year, not total enrolment. All dained preachers; unordained salaries, contributions, and so- preachers; teachers (men); teachers ciety grants should be stated in na- (women) ; Bible women; other na- tive currency. Expenses 01' contri- tive helpers; total native helpers. butions entered in one column Chu~rch Statistics – Out-stations; should not be entered in another places of regular meeting; organ- column. The salary of a preacher ized churches; churches entirely engaged in teaching during the self-supporting; communicants; week should be divided between con- added by confession (year); adher- gregational expenses and school ents; average attendance; Sunday-* expenses, in the proportion to schools; Sunday-school member- which he devotes his time to each. ship. Educai'ional Stat~istics-The Meeting places should include or- ological schools; students in theo- ganized churches. It is desirable logical training for the ministry; to group towns and villages by students in collegiate training; their relations to an organized boarding and high schools; pupils church, or by circuits, rather than (boys) ; pupils (girls) ; other schools, to enter them alphabetically. pupils. (boys); pupils (girls); total number under instruction; schools (This excellent table is by far the entirely self-supporting; united most complete and satisfactory with church during year. Native thus far issued, and much would be ContribuNons, Churches and Chap- gained by its universal adoption by els-For church and Ctmgregational missionary boards. There are, howexpenses; for education; fer build- ever, some headings which may ing and repairs; for home and for- still permit' misunderstanding. eign missions; total native contri- "Vhenever such possibility exists butions; appropriated by board; some are sure to make use of it: for churches and education (natiYe work). Medical Summwl'Y – The 1. Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyitems suggested are, number of hos- terian, and other organizations may pitals ; number of beds; number of put different interpretations on the in-patients; number of dispensa- word ordained. ries; number of out-patients; total expenses, including assist- 2. It would be well to distinguish ants ;t receipts in fees. Under the between paid and unpaid, Christian department of Pr'inl>ing Press the and non-Christian, native helpers. items are-number of printing establishments; number of pages 3. Communicants should include printed during the year; number only full members, and should be of pages printed from beginning; distinguisht from those who join number of Scripture portions; num- on probation. ber of other books; total expense of running press, including sup- 4. Added by confession might by plies; total sales for the year. some be more clearly understood if defined as meaning those "received This formula is accompanied with into full comnlunion."
the following suggestive notes: 5. It would be helpful to have a distinction made between Christian This blank can be used for station and non-Christian pupils. reports, or to make up the totals of a mission, comprising the statistics 6. Total (pupils) under instl'1wfrom a number of stations. (,ion should be stated not to include those in Sunday-schools. Adherents include all communicants, baptized children,::: inquirers 7. Un'ited with the ch1Lrch during under instruction or received on the year is, we suppose, intended to probation, and regular church at- refer only to pupils under instructendants. All contributions, fees, tion, and not to include those 01' society grants are understood to merely baptized or received on promean for the year closing the re- bation.-D.] port. Day-schools should allow Protestant Missionaries in Turkey. • The word "Sabbath" was suggested as a substitute for H Sunday." "Ve admire the frankness of the t Not including salaries of foreign mission- New York Freeman's Journal, a aries. Roman Catholic paper, in the fol- t Or baptized non·communicants. lowing, which it says under the caption of "A Correction: "
" Some weeks ago we commented
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
on reports, sent from Washington Rescue Work in India.
to the New York press, concerning Rev. J. O. Denning, M.A., prin- Protestant missionaries in Ar- cipal of the Hardwicke Christian menia. These reports represented Boys' School, Narsinghpur, India, the missionaries as encouraging the Dec. 22, 1897, acknowledges a dona- revolt against the Turkish govern- tion for the support of his orphan ment, and as presenting exorbi- boys, and communicates some facts tant bills of damages for property of interest, which we give in sub- destroyed by the Turks. vVeight stance: was given to these reports by repre- "Narsinghpur is one of the four districts of the central provinces senting them as based on official suffering worst by famine.
information from Dr. Angell, "Over two years ago a mother brought her three children, want- American Minister to Turkey. As- ing to sell the girl of twelve years for ten rupees ($3.25), but suppossuming the correctness of the re- ing no one would take the two boys, younger, at any price, after ports, and seeing no contradiction, a little talk, she gave me all three for nothing. From that time till we made our comments. now, two years, hundreds of people have been dying all around us; the " Concerning the crediting of ghastly looks of the living skele- tons crying for bread; the sores these reports to our minister to and other diseases resulting from hunger; children sucking empty Turkey, the Rev. John Lee, of breasts or crying beside a dead mother; the pitiful appeals for Chicago, sends us the following let- food, which we were unable to meet, were enough to make Dne's hair ter, which, in answer to an inquiry, turn gray.
he received from the Assistant " "Ve rescued over seven hundred children, nearly all orphans, and Secretary of State: sent them to various mission- schools. Our boys' school here "Rev. JOHN LEE, 57 vVashington soon filled up to about sixty, but Street, Chicago, Ill.: having no more room, we sent others away. Last February we "Sir: I have to acknowledge the bought a large building here, nearly receipt of your letter of the 21st new, for about two-fifths of its inst., in which you say that a cost, and put the boys in it. Last prominent New York paper states March we began relief work. A that complaint was made some lady gave money to employ people time ago that much of the trouble -hungry, yet able to work. Others in Armenia was caused by the con- did likewise. For six months I had duct of Protestant missionaries, about 300 of these working people, and that our minister at Constan- and have 100 yet. They have greatly tinople, in his report to the State enlarged and improved the school Department giving details of the buildings, and there is room now recent attack on Turkish villages for 400 or 500 boys. by Armenian brigands, justifies the complaint. You request a copy of " Everyone on entering the school said report. leaves off his heathenism and be- gins Christian form. Many of the "In reply I have to inform you older boys have really found the that no report of the character Savior. stated has been received from our minister to Constantinople, and Most of the boys will probably the statement that you have quoted, follow trades or some business, but which has been persistently current no small per cent. will be preachers in the press, has been repeatedly and teachers to their people. In the denied. Respectfully yours, first English class, a sweeper-boy stands first; in the second, a Brah- "WILLIAM R. DAY, min, while a Mussulman is proba- " A.s.si.stant Secretary. bly first on a general average.
"As the author of the reports falsely attributes them to our min- ister, no reliance can be placed on what he says. His statement is detrimental to the character of the missionaries, and must be considered as worthless. And any remarks of ours based on those false reports are, of course, withdrawn."
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
IV. -FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
India,* Burma,t Ceylon,+ Hinduism,§ Woman's Work,11 Native Agents.f1 BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
The Awakening of India. Christians, and second in the birth of souls into the Kingdom. More earnest believing prayer, and more absolute self-surrender 'Ve rejoice and give thanks for and dependence upon the power the blessing already received and and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the p'i"OgTCSS already made. At the great need of the Church to-day the beginning of this century Prctfor the work both at home and estant missions had only just been abroad. The Church of Christ has cOInmenced in India, and were on the money and the men; what is a very small scale. In 1851 the needed is the consecration and ener- native Christians numbered 91,100; gizing of these forces. More prayer in 1861 they had increast to 138,700; is of greater importance than more in 1871 there were 224,300; in 1881, work. India is possest of a legion 417,400; and in 1800 they were reof devils which can not be cast turned as 559,700. At the present forth but by prayer and fasting. time there are probably more than The missionaries are awakening to 750,000. There were very few chila realization of this, and observed dren in mission-schools at the be- December 12th last as a day of prayer ginning of the century. In 1851 for India. The fruits are already there were 64,000; in 1861, 76,000; being made manifest, first in the in 1871, 122,400; in 1881, 187,700; in quickening of the spiritual lives of 1890, 290,700. There are now 300,- the missionaries and of the native 000 children under Christian in- struction. A writer in the Harvest * See also pp. 368 (May, 1897); 517, 541 (July); Field summarizes the present work in India as follows: 579, 591 (August); 669, 682, 687 (September); 13, 36 (January, 18981; 119, 139 (FebruarYI; "There are to-day nearly three- 197 (March); 249,256,260,275 (present issue). fourths of a million of Protestant Christians; half a million of chil- NEW BOOKS: H India, the Horror Stricken dren are under Christian instruc- Empire'" II Twelve I ndian Sta tPeisomneeen~sII tion; there are also 1,000 European George Smith, LL.D ; •• Missio n ary and Eurasian preachers, another in India," John Rutherford, D.D ; H Life of 1,000 lady workers, 5,000 native preachers, and 10,000 native teach- Valpy French," Hubert Birke; .. Christian ers at work spreading Christian truth among the people." Services Among Educated Bengalese." R. P. Wilder; I< Life and Travels in India," The growth indicated in these figures is cheering, but when we re- A.nna Leonowenj H British India," R. 'V. Fra- member that in London alone there zer; II Hindu Manners, Customs, and Cere- are six times as many ordained preachers of the Gospel and probamonies," Abbe dn Bois. bly twice as many other workers as in the whole of India, the need of RECENT A.RTICLES: U Indian Discontent and more laborers in this great field Frontier Risings," Quarterly Review (Octo- will be apparent. ber, '97); "England and the Famine in India," Forum (November, '97); H Bubonic Bishop Thoburn writes of the present opportunii'ies in India, as Plague in India," Chautauquan (March). contrasted with 40 years ago: t See also pp. 264, 270 (present issue). "It was no longer necessary to NEW BOOKS: .. Picturesque Burma," Mrs. E. Hart.
t See also pp. 583 (August, 1897).
NEW BOOKS: •• Letters from Ceylon," Fannie Gregson.
§ See also pp. 445 (June, 1897), 579 (August).
NEW BOOKS: "The Upanishads," F. M. Miiller.
RECENT ARTICLES; "Early Religion of the Hindus," Bibliotheca Sacra (January).
II See also pp. 643, 669 (September, 1897); 197 (March, 1898); 249, 278 (present issue).
'[ See also pp. 264 (present issue). go to the jungles to find inquirers. all believe in the power. Spirit- Tn many parts of India thousands are manifesting a practical interest filled workers are the missing link, in the Christian religion. Thirty years ago the great difficulty but they need not be mbsing long. was to find converts who desired instruction. To-day enough Chris- Hindu Social Reform. tian teachers can not be found to instruct the applicants for bap- The following are the resolutions tism. This is not the time for discouragements, but for prayer, past by reform Hindus at the faith, and fidelity. May God inspire His people to rise up in their eleventh social conference at Amspiritual might and meet the stupendous responsibilities of the raoti. * They are suggestive of present hour." much thought, showing that Chris- As to the need of an awakening tian aims and principles are being Rev. G. H. Parsons cites the fact foisted on to Hinduism in many that in his own society (the C. M. directions. Resolved: S.) there was in one year an average I. That in the opinion of this of but two adult baptisms to every conference no perrnanent improve- rnent of our social arrangements three European and native workers. is possible, without a wider spread of female education and the elevation And this he takes to be a fair ex- of the standards at present taught in our public schools; and that the ample of the state of affairs in In- best way to attain this end is (1) the larger employment of qualified dia. No wonder that he calls upon female teachers trained in special his brethren for more 1caiting until normal schools; (2) the continua- tion of the school education in they be endued with power. private houses by means of home classes; and (3) the taking steps to Hev. V. B. Boggs, D.D., of Se- secure a body of self-sacrificing In- dian sisters, who will devote their cunderabad, indicates the following lives to the cause-sacrificing in the manner of Christian sisters of nquisites for the awakening of the charity and mercy.
missionaries and a new outpouring II. The conference notices with satisfaction that in promoting the of spiritual power: cause of temperance, the associa- tions should make common cause 1. A renewed and deepened con- with the temperance workers till viction of the unfailing power of we succeed in securing for the mathe old Gospel, and its perfect jority of the total abstainers the adaptation to India's need. Faith power of determining the number is the first requisite in the over- and locality of licensed liquorthrow of Satan's strongholds. shops in each. large town, or some adaptation of the principle of local 2. A new evangelistic crusade. option. Faith without works is dead. More loving, faithful, patient devotion V. That the conference notes to the work of saving souls will with satisfaction that the reports not fail to be rewarded. of most of the associations furnish evidence of an earnest desire to 3. A new era of prayer. In postpone the lIwr'1'iages of children closet communion lies the secret of to twelve at least in the case of Christian life and spiritual power. girls, and eighteen in the case of May God give us a new knowledge boys, and it recommends • . . of the power of prayer! that the consummation be post- poned till at least 14 and 20 in the It is always easier to recognize case of girls and boys respectively.
a mighty manifestation of God's VI. That in the opinion of the conference th~ practise of men of power in the past, or to believe that more than 50 years of age marrying young girls below 12, is opposed to it may come in the future, than it the spirit of the Shastras, and is is to expect that He will do great * Condenst from The Bombay Gttardian.
things in the present. There is nothing too hard for God. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and forever. All acknowledge the need, extremely prejudicial to the inter- industry so that they may attain est of the community. positions which will remedy the disadvantages of their condition, VII. That the experience of the and not to induce them to join last 40 years' working of the Widow other faiths. Marriage Act of 1856 has establisht the fact that the act fails to XIV. That the conference is of opinion that the imprisonment of secure to the remarrying widow women in execution of decrees for the full enjoyment of her natural the restitution of conjugal rights rights in the following respects: (1) should be abolisht, as such coercive That such widow is made to forfeit process is not sanctioned by any her life interest in her husband's enlightened code of laws, and as immovable property for doing a the legislature has already abolisht imprisonment of women in execulawful act, when such forfeiture tion of decrees for money. would not have resulted if she had misconducted herself; (2) that there XVI. That as the law at present is a general impression that she loses stands, there is apparently no proproprietary right over her mov- tection to a widow or an unmarried girl living under her guardian's proables in favor of her husband's tection, above 12 or below 16, who relatives; (3) in many cases she is a consenting party to an act and her second husband are not of personal dishonor at the hands only excommunicated, but their of strangers. In the opinion of the conference the consent of such right of worship in public temples a girl between 12 and 16 should, as and access to public places has been in the case of kidnapping, be held denied to them; (4) in some parts of to be inoperative to protect the man who violat.es her honor. the country she is subjected to disfigurement without any freedom to Prize Essay on India's Religion.* her to exercise her choice. The conference is of opinion that steps The Saxon Missionary Confer- should be taken by the social reform ence, whose object is to arouse and associations to adopt remedies to relax the stringency of caste usages, maintain interest and intelligence and to secure a reconsideration of at home respecting missions among the principles of the act with a view to remedy its defects. the heathen, proposes, in union VIII. The conference notes with with the Preachers' Conference of satisfaction that in several prov- the Lower Erzgebirge, a prize of a inces, notably in Bengal, Gujerat, and the Punjab a few attempts thousand marks ($250 or £50) for have been made to bring about the fusion of sub-castes, and the con- an essay in furtherance of the ference recommends that all castes missionary cause in India. This and sub-castes who can dine together, should, as a rule, strive to essay is to have the form of a promote intermarriage among their scientific dissertation of the followmenlbers. ing tenor: IX. The conference records with satisfaction that in nearly all parts "A presentation of the fundaof India efforts are being made to mental views of the Hindus, relig- ious and philosophical, according discourage Nautch and indecent to the Vedas, Upanishads, and of songs and obscene festivities at the the Brahmanic (especially the Ve- Holi. This is only one department danta) philosophy, and an estimate of the purity movement, and the of the same from the Christian conference is of opinion that a wider point of view." scope should be given and greater emphasis laid on the claims of this 1. This prize has been proposed movement in all matters of per- in view of three facts: sonal, family, and public life. (1.) The observation that, in the X. The conference notes with intellectual struggle which has been evokt by missions in India, satisfaction the efforts made by the the cultivated Hindus are, indeed, Maharastra Village Education So- ready to throw over the popular ciety at Baramati, and the Prar- religion, but cling so much the thaua Samaj at Satara, to educate the low castes, and to raise their * Translated by Rev. C. C. Starbuck. status in Hindu society, and it recommends that every effort be made to secure their education and more tenaciously to "the primeval Bhagavad Gita. Special presenta- Aryan religion" contained in the tion must be made on this basis of Vedas, the Vedanta, and the the following: Doctrine of God, Bhagavad Gita, and endeavor to cosmogony, lnan, transmigration, and, above all, redemption. strengthen themselves and others in the fancy that in this" primeval (4.) A further limitation of this religion" the fundamental concep- wealth of material may be made by lll;ying chief weight on the .final tions of Christianity are also to be a~ms (the practical results) of Brahmanism (especially Nirwana) found. against those of Christianity. (2.) The assertion, continually There the extinction of the person- ality, here life eternal; there the reiterated in the journals of India, contemptuous abandonment of the great masses, here the "seeking that this position of the Hindus is to save the lost," etc. confirmed by the comprehensive labors of European scholars in the (0.) The author, however, must take great pains to throw into the domain of Sanskrit literature and light the elements uj truth in those comparative religion. writings on which he founds his course of argument, and which, (3.) The observation, tbat many moreover, may render this better tendencies of the circles in Europe intelligible to Hindu readers.
and America which are estranged (6.) It is desirable that there from Christianity, as, for instance, should be the greatest possible ac- commodation to the Indian manspiritism and theosophy, have, in ners of thought. Whether the some measure, allied themselves author shall even use the form of with "young India," and al'e en- the dialogue, such a favorite form deavoring to make propaganda at of Hindu composition, it is for him home for the Brahmanic doc- to decide.
trines. (7.) The judgment past upon the In view of these phenomena the Hindu religion must be given from the positively Christian point of prize essay must be addrest to view, from that of faith in revelaserve a double end: nt h01ne to in- tion. The counter presentation of struct educated friends of missions the Christian truth will of itself be indispensable for the illustration of in the true genius of the Hindu the labyrinthine aberrations of Hinreligion, and its fundamental dis- duism. tinction from Christianity, as well as abroad to sustain the missionary (8.) The essay, which may be in his conflict with the giant might written either in German or Eng- lish, should not go beyond 20 of Hindu heathenism. printed sheets (about the size of Oldenberg's Religion der Veda). II. As respects the contents and Copyright is reserved to the author. jorm of the prize essay, it is meant: (9.) The manuscript must be (1.) To afford the proof (a) that easily legible, and superscribed this so-called "Aryan religion," with a motto, answering to the neither in itself nor in its histor- superscription of a sealed letter acical evolution is a homogeneous companying, giving the exact name of the writer, as well as of his callsystem, capable of satisfying the ing and dwelling-place. It must be religious needs of a people, not to sent in before June 30, 1899, addrest say of taking the place of Chris- An den Vorstand der Siichsischen Missionskonjerenz, z. H. des Mistianity. (b) That it is an error to sionsseniors R. Handmann, Leipassume that Christian Indologue zig, Arndtstrasse 22, Germnny. as a body would favor a "renais- (10.) The judges are: Professors sance " Brahmanism, now half dead. Dr. Windisch and Dr. Lindner at (c) That Christianity alone is, in its Leipsic, and Dr. von Schroeder at scheme, essence, and destiny, suited Innsbruck.
to become the world's religion. Die Siichsische Missionskonjerenz: (2.) The prize essay must rest P. DR. KLEINPAUL, Vorsitzender. upon a knowledge of sources and Brockwitz bei Coswig, July, 1897. literature corresponding to the present stage of Indological inquiries, and demonstrate this ade- quate knowledge by citations frugally and carefully selected and illustrated on all sides. (3.) It should limit itself to the main points of the religious view of Brahmanism, as it has especially defined itself in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Vedanta, and has modified itself in the
300 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
V.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The "Dizciples" of Madison Oounty. men, seeking to know God's Word, and to follow it. This REVIEW aims to stand for "One with whom I talkt, said: truth and righteousness, without 'There might be here and there an ignorant preacher who preaches fear or favor, and to deal justly error, but the church should not with all parties and questions, irre- be held responsible for such teach- ing.' spective of creed or conoition. But "I was told that the church bejustice is sometimes necessarily lieves in three persons and one God, tardy, for it takes time to secure and that candidates for admission to the church are askt: 'Do you besatisfactory evidence. In our No- lieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and your Savior?' Another vember (1897) issue certain state- told me that candidates are adments appeared imputing to the mitted by 'faith, repentance, con- fession, and baptism.' Repentance, Disciples of Madison County, N. C., he further stated, must be 'not from the teeth, but from the heart.' certain beliefs and benumbing in- A man must also break off from evil habits, and give evidence of fluences, which, upon further in- true repentance. 'Of course,' he vestigation, we are pleased to find said, 'we have members who are a reproach to the church. But the are untrue. The article was written lives of these do not represent the teachings of the church.' by one unconnected with any mission board, but who has a sincere " I am glad of this investigation, as it has convinced me of the earand sympathetic desire for God's nestness of the leaders of the church in question, and has shown to me blessing upon the people of that that, as a people, they honor the district, and the information was, Vord of God. . . . I am further convinced of the loyalty of these for the most part, gained from va- people to the Lord Jesus Christ.
rious residents there. Our inform- "It is, however, my honest conant, * in regard to the "Campbel- viction that somewhere among the lites," as they were inadvertently people is a great failure to honor the Spirit of God. * They affirm called, is one in whose Christian their belief in the personal Holy charadeI' and spirit we have the Spirit, and say, 'Vhere the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible utmost confidence-a confidence is silent, let a solemn hush prevail,' which is strengthened by further to which I say AUten. But there are great truths about which God communication on the subject. is not 'silent' regarding the per- sonality, character, office, and After a careful investigation our works of the Holy Spirit, which, tho they may be articles of belief, correspondent writes: nre not prominent subjects of preaching, " "The terms 'Campbellite' and 'CampbeJIislIl' were used simply 'Ve have a further communicato make myself more clearly understood, and to distinguish them from tion from one of the "Christians" Christians and disciples in the other churches. I now regret having of Madison County on the doctrinal used terms displeasing to these people, whom I would not willingly position of the "Disciples of wound. Christ" in that district,t and froUl "Regarding this church in the Bluff district I made somewhat this we make copious extracts: broad statements which were founded on hearsay rather than on • This is, unfortunately, only too true of personal knowledge of facts. At many other churches1 even where not traceyour request, I have gone among able to erroneous doctrines. It is often a these people to inquire into their failure of emphasis more than of faith. beliefs. I have interviewed members and adherents of this church in t Henry Clay Ammons. this distrkt, and my inquiries have convinced me that they are earnest • We withhold the name of our correspondent, not by request, but according to our own judgment. "(1.) Our church is known by the as to have unwillingly caused ofname 'Chur~h of Christ,' or 'Chris- fense, and so have given currency tian Church.' Ve regard the nick- to unjust reports. * This may serve, name' Campbellites' as an insult, however, to vindicate them more because we absolutely refuse to thoroughly than if they had not bear any human name, . . . . been accused. Our one aim is glory and we claim that no mortal has to God, and peace among men. any right to apply a name to God's May the Lord more closely unite church other than that found in the the Christians of all creeds to Him- Bible. self, to the end that they may be more closely linkt together, in loy- "(2). If there is a disciple in this alty of heart, and lahors of love. county who does not hold most firmly to the doetrine of the Trin- D. L. P. ity, it is unknown to me. Ve believe in God the Father, and in Dangerous Teaching. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. We believe in the Holy Vith no little surprise and sor- Spirit as that Holy Personal Spirit row we have noticed, not only in sent forth from God to convict, the daily and secular papers, but in convert, and save sinners, and to some of the religious weeklies the dwell in all saints, to comfort and reported opinions concerning the guide them unto the end. question "Can an agnostic enter heaven?" with the favorable "(3). Ve believe that all sinners answers, not only of Dr. Lyman must be regenerated by the word Abbott and Dr. Heber Newton, hut and Spirit of God in order that one of Drs. Faunce and McArthur (Bapshould enter the Lord's kingdom, tist), Lloyd (Congregationalist), and and that regeneration is the divid- North and Upham (Methodists), the ing line between the saved and un- last a professor in a Methodist saved. . . . Theological Seminary. The quota- tion of such opinions does not sanc- "(5). The only salvation that we tion them, but to qUfJte without ever heard of, conditioned on the comment is to give currency to mis- Gospel, is pCl'sonnl salvation. Each chievous sentiments. At risk of person must hear the Gospel for seeming illiberal and narrow, we himself, believe it for himself, re- feel constrained to say that in our pent for himself, and obey for him- opinion such exprest views tend self, and then he can rejoice that he only to encourage infidelity and is personally saved in Christ…. promote indifference to even the 8earch after the highest truth. On "All we ask is to have our doc- snbjects concerning which a Christrine clearly understood. . . . Ve tian minister and teacher has no are poor in this county, but, for the revelation, even if he ventures to glorious doctrines set forth above, have an o}yin'ion, it behooves him to there is not one of us who would be silent. It is a question whether, not go to the stake with songs if indeed, it is safe to form even an need be. Perse~utions have knit op'in'ion where there is no Bihlical us togethet as one man. Ve hate basis. " Preach the preaching that no one, we love all men who love I bid thee "-" preach The JVord"- our one Lord. Ve love peace- these are the Divine guides for us we even court it. . .. And now, brother, 'Vith charity for all, * The editorial note in our February with malice toward none,' let us go on to finish the work in which issue was printed before we received specific we are engaged, to bind up all denials of the reports as touching Madison needless wounds, and to stand by County, and oefore we had time to investievery hero of our common cross, gate. to the end that the world shall be taken for Christ, and our rightful, glorious King shall reign in all hearts."
This testimony is fully corrobo- rated by other witnesses from whom we have not space to quote. Ve rejoice at this vindication of our brethren in North Carolina, and regret that we were so misinformed in the solemn work of dealing with missionary bishops of the Church souls. The foremost preacher of Missionary Society, William Carey to-day is, perhaps, Dr. Alexander and Adoniram Judson, Dr. Duff Maclaren, of Manchester. If he and Dr. John Wilson, Griffith John, has any private opinions that go David Livingstone, Bishop Thobeyond the express teaching of Holy burn, and a host of others. If" by Scripture, his sermons, reaching their fruits ye shall know them," it through ahalf century, have never, is a proof that the modern lax views in a single case, betrayed them. He of Scriptures and human peril are has dared to confine his preaching to not of God, for they undermine the the Scriptures, and has helpt to very basis of missions. As Dr. mold more Biblical teachers than Ewing has said, "'Ve cannot afford any other living man. Beyond the to export doubt to the foreign clear revelation of the Word, we, as field." "Ve write in no conscious God's witnesses, can not safely go. intolerant spirit, but from pro- It is possible that agnostics are found conviction that those who often " willingly ignorant," and do would be loyal to God must preach not even care to examine into not a negative but a positive Christian truth. It has been well Gospel. Goethe said, "Give us said that" if it is of no consequence your convictions; as for doubt.s, we what a man's opinions are, pro- have enough of our own." With vided he be sincere, it is not worth tenderness, but faithfulness, we while to search for truth, or when would exhort our brethren not to found, to embrace it." And we have go beyond the Word of the Lord, no hesitation in saying that such as the only course whereby we shall sentiments, when not only pri- "save ourselves or them that hear vately held, but publicly declared, us." tend to knock the bottom out of all missions, both home and foreign. Our friend, A. R. Cavalier, of the If men are in no danger without Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, Christ, all missions become at best or Indian Female Normal School only a philanthropic and humani- and Instruction Society, writes tarian scheme, and we feel con- from London: strained in loyalty to God to ask whether in the judgment ofthe great " Our society is the first establisht day one would prefer to stand mission specially to reach the woamong those who have gone beyond men in the zenanas, and has for up· the ,Vord of the Lord, or with such men as Dr. Maclaren, C. H. Spur- ward of 40 years devoted its atten· geon, Archibald Brown, Andrew tion to work amongst women and Thomson, D.D., "Villiam Fleming girls in India." Mr. Cavalier, re- Stevenson, D.D., and men of this ferring to statements, page 643 of class across the sea, and with such as Drs. R. S. Storrs, Theodore L. the September REVIEW, that one- Cuyler, A. J. Gordon, Stephen H. twelfth of the women in India are Tyng, and Bishop Simpson, on this side the water. And as for foreign widows, says: "The actual nUInber, missions, the men who have most at the last census of 1891 was 22,- vigorously and nobly prosecuted 657,429; the proportion of widows is theln are, everyone of them, men therefore nearly one-sixth." who hold by thd old Bible. Witness Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, George The number, 8,000, for widows Miiller, the grand missionaries and under ten was a typographical er- ror, intended for SO,()(){); and in- stead of 175,000 under 14, it should have read" between 10 and 14."
The census is as follows: Widows under 4 years of age. . . . . . . . . .. 13,878 •• between 5 and 9 years ……… 64 040 H 10" 14 ~……….. 174,1582 U Total number under 14 is …………. 252,450 "According to the same census there were 38,047,354 girls under 15 There was no saying, 'I am of years of age, and of these, includ- Paul,' and 'I am of Apollos;' all ing all girls' schools, both govern- said, 'I am of Christ '-and they ment and missionary, only 313,777 helpt each other. If they had known were under instruction, so that for that I should be honored by being every girl who is being educated, 99 askt to speak at this meeting at least are growing up without to-night, I am sure they would education. " have sent a warm greeting to all here connected with the Alliance. At the Cambridge Conference of I think I may well say that the the Evangelical Alliance in Septem- missionary bond and the missionber, Mrs. Bishop, bearing witness to ary brotherhood are two of the the harmony of spirit and brotherly brightest examples of keeping that union which exist among Protes- unity of the Spirit in the bond of tant missionaries, said; "I shall peace which the Alliance for these be happy to say what I have fifty years has been striving to proseen of the Alliance spirit among mote." Mrs. Bishop has made a missionaries in various parts of the donation to the society of £100 for world. I have traveled for seven a mission hospital at Mien-cheo, and a half years in Asia, and have West China. visited in that time, I think, about 170 mission-stations between the The Student Volunteer Conveneastern shores of Japan and the tion, which met in Cleveland, Feb. Sandwich Islands, and those wil- 23-27th, was the largest and most low-shaded streams by which the representative ever held. Over Jewish exiles wept over memories 1,700 students gathered for prayer of Zion; from the snows of Sibe- and conference as to ways and ria to the fierce glow of the Equator means of carrying the Gospel to in the Malay Archipelago. In the "regions beyond." Earnest- Central Asia, China, Persia, Asia ness, waiting on God for guidance Minor, Arabia-wherever I have and power, calm consideration of met with missionaries in all these difficulties in the field, and the lands, I have met with the Alliance need of thorough spiritual, pracspirit, with work for the good of tical, and intellectual preparation man, carried out in faithful obe- on the part of workers, the emdience to the last command of our phasis on whole-hearted conse- Lord, while the workers have been cration, and the n:ed of beginning holding' one Lord, one faith, one one's life-work at home-these and baptism, one hope of their call- other characteristics markt the ing,' and one hope of eternal life. gathering and made it one of great I have found them meeting to- power and promise. A report will gether for prayer and Scripture- appear in our next issue. reading in all the mission-st.ations, loving each other as brethren; A British theological students' holding their own denominational conference is to be held at Birmingviews, many of them very strongly ham, England, April ]2-16 for the -but these denominational views purpose (1) of determining the renever, except in one particular case, lation of the British theological interfering with that bond of students to the student Christian brotherhood in which all were movement of Britain; (2) to deepen work·ing for the welfare of man- the spiritual life in theological colkind. It was instructive to see this leges, and (3) to stimulate missionbond of brotherhood so markt that ary enthusiasm among theological one never knew to what church or students generally. Two hundred society these devot.ed men and and fifty student delegates are exwomen belonged. All met together pected, and the earnest prayers of in love and harmony, seeking the God's people are sought to the end same aims and loving the same Lord. This Alliance spirit, this blessed observance of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, was communicated by these workers to their converts. One of the brightest features among the Christian converts, and, perhaps, especially in China, was this spirit of unity. that this conference may be di- must be ground between lions' rected throughout by God's spirit, teeth to make bread for God's peo- and that the results may be mani- ple." fest in spirit-filled men going forth to labor in all parts of the Lord's When our personal friend, Rev. vineyard. Archibald G. Brown, so long pastor of the great East London Taber- FmnCES E. Willard. nacle, went to the Chatsworth Road Baptist church, West Croydon, his The death of Miss Frances E. new field, he told his new flock Willard in her 60th year (born 1838), why he had left the London taber- which occurred in New York, Feb. nacle. For twenty-eight years he 18, is one of the most not::.ble events went to his work singing, and, as of this year thus far. She was long as that continued, there was no an extraordinary woman, probably need to stop; but then came a unsurpast by any woman of her sense of weariness and ill-health, generation in the symmetry of her and he recognized that he was no womanhood and the complete con- longer young, and that the strain trol of her really unusual powers. must be eased. But, after the rest, She is one of perhaps six women he could now say: "There is work who have most influenced her gen- in me yet." The Norwood deacons eration for good, and this death had said: "We have a chapel and strikes a chord in many lands. For hundreds of empty seats." "That's ten years she has been at the head a great attraction, and that has of the women's crusade against brought me," concluded he, with strong drink, and for this cause has the spirit of a true missionary. sacrificed everything with rare selfabnegation. Later on she became Errata. a strenuous advocate of the movement in favor of social purity. P~~re~;t. (Nov., 1897) for Unitarian read She was preeminent as a public Page 9~ (Feb., 1898) for Universalist read unispeaker, and will be remembered as versities. a model of sim~le, fluent, persuasive speech. Of her address in the Donations Acknowledged. great "Free-Trade Hall, Manchester, England, a competent judge has No. 106-Indian famine sufferers……. $1.00 said: "It was the finest speech I ever " lOB-Jerry McAuley Mission……. 5.00 heard." Her style as a public ., l09-Jerry MCAuley Mission……. 29.80 speaker reminded one of Wendell " l09-Pundita Ramabai…………. 80.00 Phillips. She was, first and last " 110-Jerry McAuley Mission……. 5.00 and always, a devoted Christian, " 111-Jerry McAuley Mission……. 80.00 and her death was such as fitly " 112-PunditaRamabai. ……….. _ 15.00 crowns a consecrated life. Her last words were: "How beautiful to be Books Received. with God!" This is not the place for a biographical sketch. But the AFRICA WAITING; or, The Problem of Africa's writer heard her years ago before Evangelization. By Douglas M. Thorna mass-meeting in the auditorium ton. 16mo, 148 pp. Map. Student Volof the university at Ann Arbor, unteer Movemeut, New York. 25c. where her closing historic reference was the key to her life. She quoted PICTURES OF SOUTH CHINA. Rev. J. Mac- Ignatius, the martyr, in the arena, Gowan Illustrated. 8vo, 320 pp. Refacing the Numidian lion, and say- ligious Tract Society, London. Bs. ing calmly: " I am grain of God; I ApOSTOLIC ANn MonERN MISSIONS. Student Lectures at Princeton, 1895. Rev. Chal- mers liartin, M.A. 12mo, 235 pp. Flem: ing H. Revell Co. $1.00.
WHETHER "WHITE OR BLACK, A MAN. A Plea for the Civil Rights and Social Privileges for the Negro. Edith Smith Davis. Il- lustrated. 12mo. Fleming H. Revell Co. 75c JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE MrSSION OFCHUROH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 12mo, 220 pp. 28.
18913.1 EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
VI.- GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign German Protestantism' at large. Periodicals. Even the authorities of the estab- lisht churches, particularly the BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, Prussian Church, entangled as they are in the depressing influences of MASS. Oresaropapism, begin to awake under this reviving breath. THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH AND MIS- SIONS. In the January number of the Missions-F1·eund, the Rev. A. Me- At the Reformation, in order to rensky has an article entitled escape the domination of the priest- " Signs of the Times," in which he hood, the Protestants deemed it remarks on this encouraging fact. necessary to allow to the State an He observes that we hear an infininordinate share of power in the ity of complaints about peoples and administration of the Church. In governments, and above all, and England, we know, the sovereign, that often with only too good tho not assuming the immediate ground, over growing frivolity and functions of the priesthood (which ungodliness. Yet all is not dark. European sovereigns have claimed These are exactly opposite signs, for nowhere), called himself Head of which we ought to thank God with the Church, and from the time of all our heart. The Gospel of Christ Elizabeth on has exchanged this has again become a power. It for the title of Supreme Governor. stands on the candlestick, and the In Protestant Germany and in time is here of which St. John Scandinavia, the sovereign is styled writes (as in Luther's Bible): "I Sun~mus Episcoplls, Suprerne saw an angel flying through the Bishop, and seems to trench more midst of heaven, who had an eterdeeply and far more arrogantly nal gospel to proclaim to those that upon the spiritual sphere than in sit and dwell upon earth, and to all England. The bonds of the Conti- heathen and races and languages nental state, as we know, are very and peoples." That man unquesheavy anyhow. The Old Catholic tionably forfeits a great part of his movement, which promist so well warranted Christian joy who does at first, has languisht in Germany not in our days look into the results for nearly a generation, in part on of Christian missions, which are, account of the feeble power of ini- without doubt, the greatest and tiative in the German laity, which, fairest object that our age has to moreover, has never formed the offer and that which is most worthy habit of spontaneous contributions of thanks. "Vhen the Kingdom of for ecclesiastical ends. Cresar may God begins to show itself at the have defended the Reformation, ends of the earth we know that it but he has very nearly suffocated it. is the herald of yet more glorious times, for" this Gospel of the King- Yet the Unitas Fratrum shows dom shall be preacht in all the what depth of spiritual energy and world for a witness unto all nations; of self-devotion is latent in German and then shall the end come." Protestantism. So, also, do the Hermannsburg missions. The in- Protestant missions originated in spiring, broadening, and strength- Germany, altho it was the maritime ening power which lies in missions begins also now to show itself in
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Denmark that sent out the first more than ever bent on exercising German missionaries. Considering wherever possible in Protestant the far greater numbers and energy missions, and of which we are now of the free churches in England having so aggravated and heartand America, and the far greater rending an example in Madagascar. freedom of the establisht churches, To be sure, the Jesuits would beand the far more extensive com- have in this way, even if Rome formerce of these countries, and the bade them ever so strenuously. wide colonial empire of Great Brit- However, she appears comfortably ain, it is not strange that these few to close her eyes to all their domissions in Germany make but a ings there. As Herr Merensky reweaker show in comparison, altho, marks, the encroachments of Rome what Herr Merensky does not abroad and the contumeliousness chance to mention – they are dis- of Rome at home are closely continguisht for thoroughness and joined. She seems determined that thought. Yet missionary interest if the heathen receive the Gospel it is steadily growing in Germany, shall not be in the brightness and aided, tho at the same time en- simplicity of the Reformation, but dangered, by the feverish zeal for under the cloud of medieval schocolonial extension. lasticism. There is ample field for both churches, and why must she, As to contributions, Germany, by unscrupulous interference, rewhich, moreover, is comparatively mind us so irresistibly of the early a poor country, stands relatively Judaizers? The Synod, therefore, thus. In England and Scotland did well to handle the two matters gifts amount to a mark (24 cents) together. We have not seen the for each Protestant. In France 55 Canisius encyclical, but we undercentimes (11 cents) and in Germany stand it to have past all bounds of 12 pfennig (3 cents). The large city courteous controversy. Indeed, it congregations are peculiarly back- is reported that the Curia itself has ward. In Berlin, for instance, the been forced into a sort of apology contributions are only 4 pfennig for it. (1 cent) a head. If Germany were as rich as France or the two Anglo- The Synod has directed the fol- Saxon countries, it would be dif- lowing protest to be read from all ferent, altho, perhaps, the Celtic pulpits of the Prussian Church, at and Anglo-Celtic nature is more home and abroad: free-handed than the unmixt Teutonic. "(1). What the Pope describes as malignant poison is, in truth, the "Another attractive sign of the saving gospel of the free grace of times is the favor which missions God in Christ Jesus. We must have found at this year's meeting never cease admonishing the Pope of the General Synod of the Estab- anew to give admission finally to lisht Church of Prussia. This.has this. (2). Luther, whom the Pope been shown at every opportunity invidiously styles a rebel, has, in of speaking for the cause. The reality, only in straightforward voice of the Synod in its advocacy simplicity, given the honor to God, has been as that of one man. Forty in bidding defiance to the papal or fifty years ago such an acknowl- authority, founded as it was upon edgment of its value would have the traditions of men, and in opappeared impossible." posing to it the authority of the Divine Word. (3). The secular Herr Merensky complains, with authority has first been recognized righteous displeasure, of the dis- again as an independent ordinance turbing influence which Rome is
– 1898
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS.
of God, since the usurpt supremacy to two or three pfennig a head; in of the Pope over the civil govern- Westphalia and on the Rhine, to ment no longer found credence 17 pfennig (4 cents) or more.
with evaD.gelical believers. History Professor Dr. Warneck, the well- bears witness that the dismal fire of known student of missions, added revolutionary rebellion has found valuable suggestions and warnings.
more abundant fuel and effected Especial1y: "Colonial history will greater ravages in the Roman Cath- ever be one of the darkest and dirt- olic lands than among Protestant iest pages of universal history. In nations. (4). Against the asserted the Kongo State these nightsides connection between the Reforma- are revealed in their most hideous tion and dissoluteness of morals we form. But let us, at all events, re- appeal to the witness of God. The joice that these colonial acquisi- Reformation, by its presenting of tions are a new missionary oppor- the unadulterated "Vordof God has tunity, It new missionary signal."
awakened the conscience, and has Director Gensichen then urged a been, from age to age, the spring of wider circulation of missionary Christian culture and morality literature.
alike for the individual, the family, The General Synod has not been and the nation. But, against all deterred by the effusively exprest calumnies, the incarnate Son of friendship of its Summus Episco- God, our Mediator, remains our pus for the Sultan from adopting a Refuge and Fortress. The field He resolution expressing- the utmost still shall hold." abhorrence and distress in view of The Synod has also occupied it- the pitiless and still-continuing per- self with the missionary work more secution of our Armenian brethren immediately. It had caused a re- in Christ. It warmly commends port to be drawn up which turned those that are still in the lion's den especially on the extent of the Ger- to the prayers and active help and lHan rnissions. There are 16 socie- liberality of German evangelical ties engaged in these, which have Christians. This liberality it im- altogether some 700 missionaries in plores, above all, for the children of their service, of whom nearly 100 the martyrs. ' , We exhort all the 3,re in the German colonies. They members of our Evangelical Prus- proclaim the Gospel in some 40 sian Church to pray that those who languages and have translated the are still under the trial may exhibit Bible, or parts of it, into about 30. a faithful constancy, and to suppli- They have gathered some 300.000 cate the King of all kings and the Christians from among the heathen, Lord of all hosts, that He will turn and almost 70,000 once heathen the hearts of the persecutors, and children go daily into German mis- give a gracious consummation to sion schools. It is a great matter the time of suffering."
of rejoicing that, as appears by the 'There is, indeed, more probability report, the income of these societies of a sudden conversion of the Mo- has, in ten years, increast by a mil- hammedan murderers than of their lion of marks. It now amounts to Western accomplices and apolo- about 4,000,000 marks. The colonial gists.
extension of the Empire is, it is The Synod calls attention to the true, in part to thank for this. The imperious need of providing ample various provinces, however, differ pastol'al care for the Germans in greatly in the amount of their con- East Africa, that while the Gospel tributions. In West Prussia, Po- is preacht to the natives, these may sen, and East Prussia, these amollnt not be set against the Gospel by the
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
virtual heathenism of the Euro- .. English Notes.
peans. The admirable influence ex- BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A. erted OIl the natives by the flourishing South African communities of The Society for the Relief of Germa,n peasants around the Her- Persectded Jews has recently held mannsburg missions gives special a meeting at the house of Lady point to this admonition. Louisa Ashburton, Kingsbridge.
Hitherto German missionaries, An interesting account was given few of whom have gone through the by Mrs. Tinn as to the amount and prescribed course for a pastorate at value of the work being done by home, have been incapable, if com- the society, which is not forty pelled to return, of holding a posi- years old. It was started in 1857 tion in the home church. The under the auspices of Lord Salis- Synod, however, has past a resolu- bury, in order to aid poor Jews tion greatly modifying this restric- returned to the land of their fation. thers from Russia, Rumania, and other countries, and yet utterly The modest, but admirable Ger- destitute. In order to get work for man hospitals, schools, and other these poor refugees a plot of land evangelical establishments in the known as "Abraharn's Vineyard," Holy Land were also commended was bought and cultivated. Soloto the effective interest of German, mon's quarries were again workt, immediately of Prussian Protes- and an olive-oil soap manufacture tants. started. In this way many Jews have been helpt to gain an honest Finally, the General Synod unani- livelihood, the soap manufacture mously adopted the following being specially prosperous. vote: "The General Synod has, with thankful joy, taken account of the Missionar'ies in Trainin[J..-On fact that results in the German Thursday, December 23rd, a most mission-fields have, of late years, enjoyable meeting was held at Har- been decidedly more encouraging, ley House, Bow. The gathering and that the home contributions was the last of the session, was, in have also increast, and a larger fact, the breaking-up meeting be- measure of trained theologians also fore the holidays. The new princi- have been added to the practically pal, Rev. Silas Mead, M.A., LL.B., trained force. Yet the Synod can has evidently alrtlady establisht not close its eyes to the fact that himself in the esteem of the stu- the increase of missionary gifts is dents; he was received with great still far from corresponding to the applause and his words of counsel increasing missionary responsibil- listened to and appreciated, coming ities opening before Protestant as they did from one so well verst Germany. The Synod, therefore, in wisdom and experience.
would address to all organs of the The Rev. J. Douglas, M.A., of Church a cordial and earnest en- Brixton, now for the third year as- treaty to persevere in extending sisting in the work at Harley missionary knowledge, and in using House-spoke a few words on the all means to kindle a warmer love right equipment for the faithful for missions, such as shall express missionary; dwelling mainly on itself in a larger liberality, that the the value of the study of the 'Vord efforts of our missionary societies of God-a library in itself-a study may not be lamed for want of the which, if properly undertaken, requisite means."-Redaction by would make the missionary a Di- Rev. C. C. STA.RBUCK. vine messenger' to the heathen.
ENGLISH NOTES
Mr. Crosby Brown, B.A., the by the Rev. F. B. Meyer of Christ resident art tutor, did not publicly Church, London. Addresses were address the meeting. Reference was given by Mr. C. T. Studd, Mr. made, however, to his great help- V. B. Sloan, and Rev. Arnold fulness in the work by most of the Streuli, the pastor. speakers. The London City Mission held The Rev. G. D. Hooper of Luton, their annual meeting at Exeter who during the two years previous Hall, as usual on New Year's Day. to Mr. Mead's appointment, had Between four and five hundred been theological tutor, added coun- workers were gathered under the sel mingled with dry humor re- presidency of Rev. Robert Dawson, specting the course of study for the one of the secretaries of the misfuture at Harley. sion.
Throughout the evening songs The meeting was stimulating and and recitations varied the proceed- energizing, and the toilers were ings. helpt by Rev. J. Campbell Morgan's address on "The compassion of The special feature of the even- Jesus for the perishing multiing was the introduction of the tudes." The workers were urged foreign students by Mr. F. Z. to manifest a Christlike compas- Hodge, who with true humor char- sion in their work among the acterized each foreigner as he in- sunken and degraded, and while troduced him. Palestine, Armenia, hating the sin, to love the sinner. Korea, and France were all represented, and ably represented, by THE KINGDOM. students now residing at Harley House, thankful for this land of -Revelation xiv. 6. "And I saw Christian freedom, and the privi- another angel fly in the midst of leges enjoyed here. heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that Dr. Harry Guinness was unable dwell on the earth, and to every to be present at this most pleasant nation, and kindred, and tongue, evening with the students, as he and people." was then worki~ in Peru, organizing the new branch of missionary -Referring to the fact that in all work there. churches the Ten Commandments are frequently heard, the Church One could not but feel thankful, Missionary IntelUgencer suggests as one left the college after the that in missionary meetings ten meeting was concluded, that such commandments from the New Tesa college exists, where men of all tament be read, the people being nations may gather together with invited to make after each the reone object, namely (after special sponse, "Lord, have Inercy upon training), the fulfilment of our us, and incline our hearts to keep Lord's great command, to go and this law." The following are menpreach the Gospel to every crea- tioned as suitable for this purpose' ture. Matt. v. 16; Matt. vi. 19, 20, 33; Matt. vii. 1; John xiii. 3t; John The Christian Endeavor Society, v. 39; John iv. 35; Matt. ix. 36, 37 ; in connection with Moss Side Bap- 1 Cor. xi. 23-25; Matt. xxviii. 19, tist Church, Manchester, has de- 20. The Intelligencer adds that one cided to support its own missionary advantage of the adoption of this in China, Mr. Charles Fairclough. plan, which has been successfully The ordination meeting was held in the last week of December, and the charge of the missionary given
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
tried, is that it puts foreign missions tians do; I have seen it in Agra, on the right ground; it teaches the and I've seen it in Ahmedabad and people to confess that they have been Surat, and I've seen it in Bombay.' guilty of failure, and to pray for Perna laughed, and his happy face grace to amend; and it shows that shone the more as he said, 'Yes, the real Christian has no option as I'll tell you the medicine; it is to whether or not he will take part happiness of heart.' 'The external in the evangelization of the world. appearance of our people,' said -Church At Horne and Abroad. Bishop Caldwell (Tinnevelly) 'is so much more respectable than that -The experience of George Miil- of their heathen neighbors; they leI' in regard to "Answered Pray- are so much cleaner and brighter er," is related in the Sunday Mag- looking.' "- Church Missionary azine. The whole of the money in- Gleaner. vested in the building of his orphanages, amounting to £115,000, -In suggesting what would be was obtained thus. For sixty-two proportionate giving for various years he has never askt man for a benevolent objects, the Mission penny, while he has received for Field, of the Reformed (Dutch) the carrying on of his work £1,400,- Church, indicates the following 000. Further, he has been enabled amounts on a basis of 10 per cent. to send £257,000 to his missionary on each $1,000 of income: Local brethren. His method has been in- church, $50; foreign missions, $13.- variably to go on praying till the 50; home missions, $9.00; church answer has come. In a recent ad- erection, $6.75; ministerial relief, dress to a Y. M. C. A. meeting, in $4.50; widows' fund, $2.25; publicahis ninety-third year, he said that tion, $2.25; and miscellaneous, he took up his orphan work espe- $5.00. cially with the object of giving a visible demonstration to the whole -Rev. John McNeil is back in world and to the Church of God of London girding at the Pharisees. what prayer could do. The whole "It is nothing to give one-tenth world is familial' with the result. when there are nine-tenths lying -London Chr'istian. snugly behind. Call such a man a pillar of the church! He is a cater- -On an Alaskan steamer the pillar." A good many church passengers were proving that an treasurers would be glad to have a Indian could not be civilized. So few such caterpillars in their con- Dr. Hill, of Portland, called up a gregation, all the same.-North graduate of Marietta and Lane, a and West. native Alaskan with bronze skin and black hair, who told the story -A whole Christ for my salvaof what the Gospel had done for his tion, a whole Bible for my staff, people. Skepticism was impossible a whole church fnr my fellowship, on deck after that demonstration. and the whole world for my parish. -North and West. -Au.gustine.
-" A Hindu trader in Kherwara -We shall be glad to see the Parmarket once askt Perna, 'What liament of Religions of the Paris medicine do you put on your face World's Fair in 1900 justify its to make it shine so?' Perna an- being; but it is at least not easy to swered, 'I don't put anything on.' see how it can serve any real good. 'No; but what do you put on?' It avowedly seeks "in default of 'Nothing. I don't put anything doctrinal unity, the fraternal unity on.' , Yes, you do. All you Chris- of all men only as being religious, and to raise above the differences resented by columns in church of sects the principles in which they papers; of 26 boards, 11 issue a are all united." But all people are children's periodical, and 2 have a religious; but what can the parlia- departmf'nt for children in the ment prom·ote that is held in com- senior organ; about 9,000,000 of mon between the fetish worshiper pages in leaflets and tracts are of India and the Protestant? Men issued each year, besides books and believe in God, indeed, but there is pamphlets; of 30 women's boards, nothing in that unless the concep- 14 pay all expenses, sometimes with tion of God in each case bears a surplus, 10 are subsidized, and 6 some show of approachment. The are in debt; in 30 boards, 23 find Jews and the Samaritans had a interest in m;ssionary literature good deal in common, as the Chris- increasing. tians and Mohammedans have. But will anyone tell us what work in -To Queen Victoria has recently common Christians and Moham- been sent a memorial signed by medans can do ?-Christian Work, 336,350 women of the realm, not a few of them of noble blood, setting -Rev. 'Villiam Ashmore names forth the fact that since her reign these" three mistakes to be a voided began 800 convents have been esin China," but all missionaries in tablisht in England, with 20,000 all countries will do well to take women now in them, but with no note and give good heed: (1) Build- sort of supervision except from ing their meeting-houses for them; Rome, and praying that the gov- (2) paying the salaries of their pas- ernment will take speedy measures tors for them; (3) educating their to inspect their condition, managechildren for them. ment, etc.
-Worse and worse. There seems -The British Syrian Mission to be no doubt that Hermann Schools and Bible Work Society at Warszawiak drew frqm an Edin- its 37th anniversary reported 29 burgh bank $20,000, which had schools in Beirut, Tyre, Damascus, been deposited for use in building etc., with 3,312 pupils, of whom his New York "Christ's Syna- 1,245 are Greeks, 315 are Moslems, gogue," and declines to give any 441 Roman Catholics, 399 Druses, account of it, tho one has been de- and 133 Maronites, Syrians, etc. manded. The number of European and na- tive teachers is 91. WOMEN'S WORK. YOUNG PEOPLE. -The following figures presented at the union missionary meeting in -The Chicago Inler-Ocean is New York by the chairman of the probably unique among large daily literature committee, show: That papers in the fact that it employs the number of members represented an experienced reporter, who deby the churches of 22 women's votes all his time and thought to boards is 7,324,924; the number the interests of young people's rewho are members of the mission- ligious societies, giving generous ary organizations of these churches space to his work. This reporter, is 611,237, or about 1 in 12; the Mr. Oscar E. Roecker, puts into his number in the missionary organi- writing much vigor and skill. zations subscribing to missionary periodicals is 191,565, or about 1 in -Miss Carrie A. Holbrook, secre- 3; of 30 boards, 26 publish a mis- tary of the Minnesota Christian sionary periodical, and 4 are rep- Endeavor Union, mentions a society in an Episcopal school which holding British degrees or diplois phenomenal in its realization of mas. They number 251, an increase the interdenominational and inter- of 11 since last year. India has ,national ideas. It is made up of 50 76, China 69, and Africa 36. The members, among whom are Scotch, Church Missionary Society leads Norwegian, Swede,Dane, Austrian, with 44, the Scottish Free Church Swiss, English, German, Polander, has 29, the London Society has 24. and American. The following denominations are reported: Presby- -Womankind is represented in terian, Baptist, Methodist, Epis- the foreign field by 116 medical copal, Church of Christ, Roman missionaries, who are scattered far Catholic, Lutheran, and Congrega- and wide through 11 countries: in tional. There might be a reminder China, 44; India, 41; Japan, 6; of Babel in the meetings, but on Africa, Persia, Burma, and Ceythe whole they must saVOl' far more lon, 4 each; Borneo, 3, etc. of Pentecost. -Americans in London, as a last- -Rev. "Villiam Carey, of Dhaka, ing memento of the Jubilee, raised East Bengal, India, the great grand- £5,000 and endowed in perpetuity a son of the famous missionary, writes bed in each of the 5 principal hosto the Christian Endeavor World pitals of London, for the use of of a special visit to Calcutta, and a Americans primarily, but when not tour through Assam, which were needed for these they can be used fruitful of results for the Endeavor for others. movement in which he is so greatly interested. "A fine opening has -Hindus of the Madura district been found for Christian Endeavor have subscribed about $13,000 for a among the Hindu girls in our mis- hospital, which has been given, sion day-schools. "Ve have 3 socie- nearly completed and free of cost, ties among them in Dhaka, and 3 to the American Board, with dismore in Calcutta. My Assam trip tinct consent to have the Gospel was very encouraging. In one preacht in its waiting-room every place 70 of the hill Christians (Kha- day. This hospital, called the third sis) signed the pledge at one meeting handsomest building in the city, on a cold, rainy morning." may be contrasted with the great Madura temple to Siva, adorned -The Endeavor society in the with the finest sculptures of South Cook county poorho1Lse, Dunning, India, and built 450 years ago, at a Ill., has just celebrated its fourth cost of $4,000,000. birthday. It receives hardly any help from outside in carrying on -The Church Missionary Society its meetings. It is now in the pas- has in its hospitals 1,030 beds, aml toral charge of the Moody Institute, to snpport each of these £5 are rehaving been transferred from the quired annually in China, and £10 Chicago Commons. elsewhere.
-The largest Junior Endeavor so- UNITED STATES. ciety in the New York City Union is at Five Points House of Industry. -If one is inclined to marvel and It numbers 200. wax indignant over the situation in New York City, it will be well to MEDICAL MISSIONS. remember that of the population 1,250,000 are foreign born, or with -Medical Missions at Home and their children, 2,500,000, that is, Abroad, for January, gives a com- two-thirds of all. The Germans, plete list of medical missionaries children included, number 700,000, which is more than any German
GENERAL MISSIONARY
city contains, save Berlin; the 000 souls have been saved through Irish, 850,000, tho Dublin has not the instrumentality of this society; half so many; 170,000 English; (2) to-day there are over 200,000 105,000 Russians; 100,000 Italians, "living monuments of God's 50,000 Scotch, etc. mercy" who have been brought to the Savior through the same agency; -Chicago, eminent for so many (3) each year, on an average, about things, good and bad, may properly 12,000 are baptized by the missionbe termed the Seminary City, since aries; (4) 475 American missionit holds 4 schools of the prophets,and aries, men and women, are now Moody Bible Training Instituf"ion fighting the powers of darkness; besides. In these are 865 theolog- (5) about 3,000 native preachers and ical students, distributed as fol- other workers are cooperating with lows: Garrett Biblical Institute (M. them; (6) during the last four years, E.) has 150 students. Of these only even in the face of accumulating 50 are college graduates; 20 are debt and diininisht resources, there in the Scandinavian department. have been nearly 50,000 additional The Chicago Theological Seminary converts; (7) the Union is working (Congregational) has 165. Of these, in 22 different countries, namely: 130 are college graduates; 45 are in Burma, Assam, India, Siam, China, the Scandinavian department. Mc- Japan, Africa, Sweden, Norway, Cormick (Presbyterian) has 150, all Germany, Austria, Hungary, Ruscollege graduates. The University sia, Finland, Poland, Denmark, of Chicago (Baptist) has 329 in the France, Spain, Bulgaria, Rumania, divinity department. Of these, 227 Belgium, and Switzerland. are college graduates, and 55 are in the Scandinavian department. -The distribution of the missions of the Presbyterian Church and its -Princeton Seminary in all has force are as follows: sent 208 men to the fo'.'eign field, located as follows: India, 48 ; China, .. ~.~~ ~ ,; ~~ 41; Japan, 20; Africa, 17; Brazil, 13; Siam, 12; Persia, 8; Hawaii, 7; '~.~d~ ;l" {'i:l Mexico and Chile, each 6; Syria, ~8 5; Colombia and West Indies, each ~~ c3 ~.§ 4; Ceylon, Korea, and New Hebrides, each 2 ; and Burma, Afghan- Africa …………… 33 50 8 (.)~ istan, and Formosa, 1 each. There China ……………. 185 511 72 are now in the seminary about 35 India …………….. 141 334 28 1,267 proposing to devote themselves to Japan ……………. 58 100 35 7,990 the foreign field. Korea ………….. _. 33 30 10 3,093 Persia……………. 60 276 29 5,269 – During the last ten years the Siam and Laos ……. 63 92 24 Brooklyn Union Missionary a~1d Mexico …………… 23 104 42 530 Training Institute has sent 62 to Cen. and S America. 63 79 52 2,404 the foreign field. The number in Syria .. ,. , … , ……. 39 215 28 2,496 attendance averages from 40 to 50. Chinese in U. S …… 10 11 3 2,191 1,854 -The number of Indian church 2,247 members in the United States is 28,663. 303 -The Baptist Missionary Union Totals ………… 708 1,802 331 30,644 is able to give this splendid account of itself: (1) Since 1819, when the -The Evangelical Lutheran first baptism took place, some 300,- Church (General Council) has one mission field in the Madras Presi- dency, India, in which are 7 mis- sionaries with their wives, 1 native pastor, and enough of other toilers to make a total force of 160. The principal stations number 7, schools have been establisht in 113 villages with 2,719 pupils, and preaching is sustained in 191 villages. The -In the St. Thomas Church communicants are 2,002, and native choir, at Ryde, Isle of Wight, a Christian (adherents) 5,036, an in- lady of eighty-five years of age is crease of the latter of 552 in two leader of the choir, of which she years, and of school children 826. has been a member for seventy- eight years. She walks to and EUROPE. from the church (from the alms- house, where she is one of the in- Great Britain.-An immense con- mates) to the services regularly. fraternity has been formed in France and England to pray and -The Evangelical Churchman work for the conversion of Eng- (Toronto) for Jan. 27, has a fineporland to the R. C. faith, and com- trait of Eugene Stock, editorial plete submission to the pope. This secretary of the Church Missionary is all right; it is a better way of Society, and an article which tells trying to conquer England then by of his gifts and work. These words sending " invincible armadas" are well justified by the patent facts against her. But the effort to in the case: "He has raised the C. convert England into dependence M. S. publications to be easily the upon an Italian priest for religious first in the world. He has done and moral guidance is a very fruit- more. He has managed to create less enterprise. The popes could an ever-growing circle of people not hold the English or the Scotch who read them. Missionary rein their harness when they had ports and papers are no longer dull them fairly well tied up; much less and uninteresting. They claim and can they recall a free people into secure attention." bondage to the ways and devices of the dark ages. The Continent. – The French Catholics seem to be alarmed over -Well does the New York Times the number of priests who are insay of the position Great Britain scribing their names at the Faculty has taken in China with regard to of Protestant Theology in Paris, free trade: She is the champion of and a leading French paper says civilization and humanity. She is that such a desertion from the the champion of democracy and Catholic ranks has never been witprogress against the reactionary nest as at the present time. autocracies of Europe. She deserves the support of all mankind, -The French Lutherans have and especially does she deserve the formed themselves into a society support of the United States. for helping the Norwegian Lutheran Mission in Madagascar.
-Gratifying progress seems to be -It is said that the Italian Govmade by a movement initiated by ernment has on foot the founding the Calvinistic Methodists to raise of a public library at Florence for a fund of £10,000 toward helping to the purpose of collecting all the make up the loss caused by the re- books which ha1'e been banned by cent earthquake in India. The Rev. the Vatican. There will be no spe- Josiah Thomas, the secretary of cial expense connected with the the foreign missionary society, has publication of the catalogue, as exreceived information as to the ex- isting copies of the Index Expurtent of the destruction in the Khas- gatorius are accessible and can be sia and Jaintia Hill, and in Sylhet, procured at a reasonable price. and it amounts to 207,124 rupees, or Expurgated truth will be thus given at least £12,000. public recognition, preservation, and circulation. A free state thus band of apostles, martyrs, and offsets an intolerant church. saints that have preceded them, they are, at least most of them, -The late Baron de Hirsch gave dull preachers of dogmas that bring away during his life, or devised, neither light nor life to our nation. nearly $22,000,000; for Jewish colonization, $10,000,000; for the Jews o Lord, if they have come to benein the United States, $5,000,000; for their education in Galicia, $5,000,- fit us, may their lives show more 000, etc. Vhat wealthy Christian earnestness, self-denial, and prayerhas done better? fulness. Make them worthy of Christ and acceptable to the people ASIA. among whom they labor by imbu- ing their hearts largely with that India.-Bishop Thoburn believes simplicity of faith, sweetness of it a fact that tens of thousands of devotion, and lowliness of ascetipoor people can be found in India cism without which preaching is t~-day who are willing to embrace sure to be ineffectual. Lord, teach the Christian religion if teachers them to be humble and poor, and can be found who, in the language turn more to the spirit than to of the inquirers themselves, can empty forms, so that they m::Ly " show them how to be Christians." prove truly helpful in leading our countrymen to purity of life and. -In the Wesleyan Work and godliness."-Indian Witness. Workers the question is discust of why there is often such an un- -How strange! During the apsatisfactory state of feeling be- palling calamities which have retween the races in India. ~'he cently befallen India from plague writer admits that color prejudices and famine, almost the entire may h~ve something to do with it, amount of financial assistance has and also the imperiousness begotten come from Christian Britain and hy the position of the rulers; hut America, and next to none from the he ascribes it largely to the moral thousands of wealthy Hindus and defects of even the best educated Mohammedans. natives, which make it difficult to work with them, and also to the -R. Chandra Chandra, a caste social entanglements by which the Hindu, was converted to Christ in natives are beset, and which cause the Duff College, and baptized by them often to live a double life the late Rev. Dr. Mackay. Hepast hardly compatible with honesty. into the Bengal medical service, and distinguisht himself both as a regi- -Christian missionaries are al- mental surgeon and a medical ways glad to have prayer offered in professor. When on furlough, their behalf. It may interest them Surgeon-Major R. Chandra Chanand stimulate their flagging zeal dra married the late sister of the and declining energies to learn present Lord Chancellor, Earl Halswhat their Bramho Somaj brethren bury. On her death, and his reare asking. We find this prayer in turn to India, Dr. Chandra Chanthe World and the New Dispensa- dra made a will, under which, after tion: "Cause Thy light, Almighty providing for his Hindu brother God, to shine on all ,Christian mis- and sister and three sister's sons, sionaries working in this land. Do and for a small hospital in memory Thou revive, we earnestly beseech of his wife, he bequeathed £500 to Thee, their declining zeal and ener- our foreign missions, and a capital gies, and increase their spirituality Chandra fund of Rs. 3,750 (say £235), and devotion. Unlike the noble the interest to go to our Calcutta Bengali Church's Sustentation -Hindu widow remarriages are Fund, to the mission, and to the increasing in number. One of the girls' school. The will was deelared latest recently took place at Hai- informal by the court, and the darabad, Scinde, under the auspices whole past to the nearest Hindu of the Arya Samaj there. The heirs. They have most generously bride, Valli Bai, was aged about 22 resolved to carry out their Chris- years. She is the head mistress in tian brother's intentions, and have the Thatta Vernacular Girls' paid over the amounts left for our School. The bridegroom was Lala missionary purposes.-Free Church Dewan Chand, a Punjabi employed Monthly. in the storekeeper's office, N. W. Railway at Kotri. The parents of -Among the 1,000 temples in the bride are living, and it is with Brindaban there is one built by their consent that the marriage two rich bankers of Mathra at a was contracted. The ceremony cost of $2,250,000. The food of the was performed according to Vedic idols costs $15,000 yearly, and other rites. expenses amount to $12,500. The managers of the temples were de- -John R. Mott visited a college termined that no Christian place of in Ceylon where he found a band worship should ever be built there. of students so poor that 16 of them They kept out the Mohammedan occupied one room. Near the build- mosque during the 800 years of ing was a garden, in which they Mussulman rule. Six years ago spent their spare time cultivating the Methodist Church began work bananas. When Mr. Mott inquired, in Brindaban, and now the presi- "What do you do with the mon- ding elder of Agra District, Dr. J. ey?" they took him to the shore E. Scott, of which it is a part, has and pointed to an island off in the 15 appointments. sea. "Two years ago," they said, "we sent one of our graduates -A member of the Bareilly M. there. He started a school, and it E. District Conference writes thus has developt now into a church. to the Indian Witness: "Ve have We are going to send him to an- 242 members, of whom about 180 other island this year." They also . are paid workers. We have 20 said they had instructed their cook circuits, 112 sub-circuits, with a that every tenth handful of rice sub-pastor and pastor-teacher for should be laid aside that they each of 1,222 villages in which might sell it in order to have Christians live, 1,088 baptisms this Christ preacht a little more widely. year, with 1,924 under special in- struction for baptism, 3,786 full China.-It is stated that from the members, 5,652 probationers, 4,335 Peking Government strict orders Christian children; giving a Chris- have been issued to each of the tiancommunityof 13,773. Number governors of the eighteen provinces of leaders, 688; Christian pupils in to open in the capital city schools day-schools, 2,026; pupils of all of Western learning. Of course, ages in Sunday-schools, 7,152." for teachers resort must be had to the missionaries and their Christian -When Dr. Duff began work in pupils. Calcutta, he found that a cow had more rights and higher rank than -Rev. V. B. Hamilton writes a woman, and he said that to try thus vigorously in the Independent: "to educate a woman in India was "China at present is like a sitting as vain as to attempt to Bcale a 'wall hen. She has sat and sat so long, jive hundred/eet high." and in her sitting has so mismanaged, that most of her eggs have there was a cart with a mule to pull become addled. Attempt to move it; paper servants to do all sorts of her and she ruffles her feathers, work, paper houses, flowers, tables, futilely pecks at the intruder, and chairs, a pig, and even an image of at times cackles incontinently. her pet cat. These all were sent up Poke a stick at her, in appearance in smoke, and supposed to go to like a gun, and away she runs in her wherever she is. Several bowlH temporary fright, in her awkward of real food that she liked best were haste perhaps breaking one or two burned too. Ugly paper lions were of her ill-smelling eggs. Sitting burned to guard her door and keep hens are sometimes cured by break- thieves away, for the Chinese have ing up their nests. To accomplish no treasures in heaven where this, external force must be applied. thieves can not break through and This process China is now under- steal. At her grave two huge going. Under foreign influence an- paper giants were burned-one tiquated methods in war and diplo- black and the other white. Their Inacy, in commerce, industry, and faces were terribly fierce, and they education are being abandoned. were expected to drive evil spirits But China's corrupt government avay." still remains untoucht. How long will the imperious powers of the -Rev. J. A. Silsby gives these fig- West continue to have their pa- ures as to the number of Christians tience thus abused? Already the in China, which he estimates at temptation is strong to wring the 80,000 communicttnts, and 20,000 old hen's neck and gather to feast applicants for baptism in addition. upon her toothsome body. But He finds them scattered through will our symbolic hen lend herself all the 18 provinces, Fukien leadto neat dissection? This is the Chi- ing with 17,000 communicants, nese puzzle of the day. In China Kwangtung following with 12,700; carving is often performed with Shangtung,12,000; Chehkiang, 9,000; a meat-cleaver. 'Vhack! whack! Manchuria, 7,200; Chili, 7,000; etc;, whack! down comes the blade, and down to Honan, 300; Hunan, 100; backbone and legs, breast and wing Yunnan, 60; and Kwangsi but 20. are served up in one shattered, shapeless mass. Snch carving, -Dr. Baldwin in a letter to the however, is very distracting to an New York Advocate describes the order-loving world. Undeniably, new M. E. church at Peking. It is China does present some lines of the largest church edifice in the emcleavage." pire, having comfortable seats for 1,300 people, and it is possible to -Miss Anna Pruitt gives this ac- accommorlate an audience of 2,000. count of a Chinese funeral: "The At night the church is lighted by old lady across the street has just 40 electric lights arranged in a cirdied. Her sons are rich, and think cle around the center of an auditheir money can buy happiness for ence room. The electric plant in their mother's soul. They burn the Methodist University building make-believe money, and say that near by furnishes the lighting powit turns into real gold and silver for er. The church was built in accordher to use. I can't tell you all the ance with architectural plans from things they have burned for her. the United States. Bishop Joyce There was a paper horse for her to dedicated the building a few weeks ride, tho the old lady never even ago. Mandarins of high rank were trusted herself on a donkey here; officially deputed by the Tsung-li Yamen, or Board of Foreign Affairs, to attend the service, who -At the Rhenish missionary stalistened with close attention to the tion of Omupanda, in German Methodist bishop'S earnest sermon, Southwest Africa, 13 converts have in which he held up Jesus Christ lately been baptized, the firstfruits as the only Savior of sinful men. of four years of preparatory work. In Great Namaland considerable -Bishop Joyce tells of an exhil- desire after the Word of God is aparating Methodist lovefeast at parent now that more peaceful Hinghua, in which 228 natives, as times have come round. At Keet- Inany women as men, and 11 for- mannshoop a new church has been eigners testified for Christ in .fifty built at a cost of £10,000, and anminutes. In that conference are other is about to be built at Betha- 40 members and 60 local preachers, nien. The total number of baptized whose whole time and energies are converts in German Southwest given to the work, at a cost of only Africa now reaches 9,370. – Allge- $3,500, and of which the people meine Missionszeitschrift. raise about half. That is, the average cost is but $35. -The churches of the Rhenish Missi9nary Society in Cape Colony -Dr. C. R. Hager, of Hongkong, numbered 14,335 souls, according to has charge Gf 10 stations with 9 the last annual report. It is an im schools and 226 pupils, treated 1,046 portant point that these congregapatients last year, made 98 visits to tions themselves pay the whole cost the sick, pulled 124 teeth, performed for the maintenance of their 53 operations in minor surgery, churches and schools, and in 1894 baptized 131, and received 122 they even paid 4,300 marks as a adults to the church; and all at voluntary offering to missions. In the expenditure of $590. The South Natal also the work is making de- China Mission received only $850 cided progress. The humbel' of nato sustain 11 chapels, 11 day-schools, tive Christians has increast in a and a training school. striking manner during the last seven years. In 1888 there were AFRICA. 5,000 baptized adults, last year there were 15,000. -The United Presbyterians have in Asyut, Egypt, a college and a -Says the Mission Field (Society girls' school, and the two institu- for the Propagation of the Gospel) tions seem to be enjoying abundant under the heading of "A Zulu Stusuccess under the management of dent:" Gregory Mpiwa Ngcobo, a Rev. J. A. Alexander and Miss Zulu, baptized at Isandhlwana, is a Jessie Hogg. There were about 590 student at St. Augustine's College, students enrolled in the college dur- Canterbury. He is the first Zulu ing the past year, and about 240 in who ever past the Universities' prethe girls' school. These numbers liminary examination of candidates are quite in excess of the reason- for holy orders. At that examinaable capacity of the institutions, tion an average of one-third of the and the students are simply crowd- candidates are rejected. Ngcobo ed in the study and sleeping-rooms. not only past, but did well in Latin, It is, indeed, fortunate that the ex- Greek, and elementary Hebrew. cellent climate of Egypt allows the The examiners were very much students to do a considerable part pleased with him. He is going back of their studying out of doors, or it to work in his own country under could never be done, with the pres- the Bishop of Zululand. There is, ent insufficient accommodations. indeed, good hope for the native church when it can have such men three years ago we had 1,600; two of the Zulu race for its clergy. years ago we had 3,400, and the past year nearly 7,000." -M. JulIa has been successful in preventing a war which was about -A missionary in Uganda tells to break out between the Barotsi us that once converted the people and the Mashikulumbue. The king are anxious to evangelize their feland chiefs being present at a ser- low-countrymen, and that one out vice, M. JulIa exhorted them to re- of every 5 communicants has gone nounce this iniquitous enterprise. to proclaim the Word of God to the They were astonisht at his bold- heathen. The natives are not enness, and some of the chiefs were couraged to adopt European habits, furious; but in a few days they all as the missionaries believe in the agreed to give up the war. This is formation of a strong native church. the first time that the Barotsi have renounced a war for which they had ISLANDS OF THE SEA. already made all the preparations.- Journal deslJfissions Evangeliques. -At the beginning of the century the population of Java was 3,500,- -A remarkable story of enter- 000. In 1826, it was 5,500,000. In prise, illustrating the rapid opening 1850, 9,500,000. In 1865, 14,000,000. of Africa, comes from Bulawayo, In 1890, 24,000,000. It is 600 miles the capital of Matabeleland. In long, and from 60 to 120 miles wide. April of 1896 the first rail of the Borneo and New Guinea are much new line north of Mafeking was larger, but, nevertheless, have poplaid, and on October 19 the first en- ulations of only 800,000 and 600,000. gine entered Bulawayo, completing The difference is the Dutch system the construction of 500 miles of of colonization in Java. There are railway in 400 working days. This about 13,000 Christians in the haste in construction was occasion- island, and the Bible is printed in ed by the ravages of the rinderpest, Javanese. which had rendered the transportation of goods in South Africa almost -General GalliEmi, the French impossible. We can have little con- resident in Madagascar, has deception of the immense losses manded for the current expenses of caused by this cattle disease. I t is the present year an additional sum estimated that in the district over of no less than £760,000, so that the which the Christian chieftain Kha- total expenditure for 1897 will rna rules, 750,000 cattle have died. amount to £1,220,000. It is calcu- The Christian Express, of Love- lated that in future the yearly outdale, estimates this loss as amount- lay will be at least £720,000. Most ing to $7,500,000, which, comparing of the unforeseen cost has been inthe condition of the people in South curred, not by reproductive works, Africa with that of the people in but by military expeditions, and by Great Britain, would be like taking what was otherwise necessary for $750,000,000 from British savings.- insuring the pacification of the J"Iissiona1'Y Herald. island. France, therefore, has not yet made much of its new conquest. -Mr. John R. Mott reports that last summer he met an old friend in M. Delord, who has been ap- England, just home on a furlough pointed by the Paris Missionary from his work in Uganda, who said: Society, after conference with the "Five years ago we had 400 bap- representatives of the L. M. S., to tisms; four years ago we had 800 ; two large districts in Imerina, writes thus of his charge: "From the material, as well as the spiritual point of view, it is a 'despoiled ety, just publisht, shows that this heritage' which has fallen to me, society numbers now as regular atand, some exceptions apart, I only tendants on public worship, on the meet with ruins. The schools are island of Samoa, 6,192 persons; Fiji, disorganized; about 50 have only a 96,421; New Guinea, 9,318; New Britnominal existence, not having been ain, 8,812, making a total of 120,- able as yet to find any teachers. 743. The first missionaries were The churches, in many cases, have sent to New Britain only 20 years no reality to answer to the name; ago, and the New Guinea mission the flocks, more heathen than was establisht only 6 years ago. 21 Christian, having only just come European missionaries, 73 native out of the forest to which they had ministers, 1,250 native teachers, and fled, are in such a state that one 2,778 day-school teachers are emfeels that everything has to be ployed in these fields. Of the nadone or to be redone."-Journal tive agents 3,763 are Fijians. The des Mis8ions Evangelique8. total cost of the work is about $50,000, about half of which is -In the three districts which borne by the natives. formerly belonged to Mr. Pearse, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Huckett, -The following are the latest stamore than 1,000 children and 1,200 tistics of the Fiji district: grown-up persons have come back to us. At Fianarantsoa I am told Churches and preaching places…. 1,293 that more than 300 children have left the Catholic church and begun European or Australian ministers. 11 again to attend the Protestant service, after having remained several Fijian ministers. … ……………. 67 months without appearing anywhere. The Malagasy judge, of Catechists and teachers………… 3,756 whom I wrote to you, has come back. This movement will grow, Local preachers………….. …… 2,051 I hope, when I have a church. And I am happy to tell you that I shall Class leaders. . . . . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,521 have one in about ten days, from what Commandant Claret tells me." Native members ………………. , 30,794 -Ibid. on trial….. …… 4,291 -From the Betafo district of the Norwegian Missionary Society in Catechumens …………………. 11,081 Madagascar, Pastor Engh writes: "Capt. Durand (the French offi- Sunday·school teachers………… 2,631 cial) keeps his word faithfully, and the greatest civil and religious free- H H scholars ………… 33,590 dom is allowed within the bounds of ·law. People can be Protestants, Day scholars…………………… 35,141 Catholics, or heathens, just as they like, without any influen!;Oe being Attendants on public worship …… 96,421 used by the authorities in one direction or another.-Norsk Mi8- – Rarotonga, the South Sea ission8tidende. land, which John Williams first visited, has a most interesting ar- -The annual report of the Aus- ticle devoted to it in the December tralasian Wesleyan Mission Soci- Chronicle of the London Mission- ary Society. It has a population of over 2,000, and has been a Chris- tian island for more than seventy years. Each village (there are 5 of them) has a church, school-house, and manse of its own. The people maintain their own pastors, and make an annual contribution to the London Society. They have stone hbuses, with chairs and tables; they use buggies, and have a bicycle club .. they have a local parliament, in which all the islands of the group are represented.
The Missionary Review of the World — 1897 Index
11197
MI~~ionary R~vi~w of th~ World YOLo 1. NEW SERIEI VOL. II. OLD SERIES JANUARY To DECEMBER, 1897 EDITOR·IN·CHIEF REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS , REV. J. T. GRACEY, D. D. REV. D. L. LEONARD, D. D.
REV. F B. MEYER, B. A.
MANAGING EDITOR D. L. PIERSON EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS REV. C. C. STARBUCK AND REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M. A.
FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON By FUNK 8< WAGNALLS COMPANY. Printed in the United States.
1~97.] INl>EX
INDEX FOR 1897.
DEPARTMENTS.
I. LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. II. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. J. T. Gracey, Editor. III. FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY. D. L. Pierson. IV. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. Editor-in-Chief. V. GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. D. L. Leonard, Editor.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. C. C. Starbuck. ENGLISH NOTES. James Douglas. ORGANIZED WORK AND RECENT INTELLIGENCE. D. L. Leonard.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE PAGE Africa, Church Co]lection in Uganda….. 401 Iceland, Bruara…..•.•…••.•.•••••…•.. 517 – Group otEllave Women …………….• 417 – Farm House………………………. 481 – Slave Punishment in ..•.•……..••….• 421 – Ponies ……………………………. 480 – Uganda Missionary Group …..•……. 401 – Reykjavik, The Capital of….•…….. 517 – Wives of the King of Uganda ………. 401 Japap, A Group of Ainu Christians.•….. 661 Arabia, The Mecca Certificate. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 – Mrs. Batchelor and Christian Aiuu Cleveland, Ohio Mizpah Ohapel of Con- Women ………………………….. 661 gregational Slavic Mission…•…….• 168 – Rev. John Batchelor and Group of non- – St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic Church. 168 Chile, Pilgrims in Cathedral Plaza…….. 561 Christian Ainu Men ………….•….. 661 – Priests and Caciques at the Ceremon- Jewish Colonies ill Palestine………….. 916 KesWick and Derwentwater, England…. 881 les…….•…………..•………….. 561 Korean Demon Worshipers……………. 928 – Virgin of AndacoJIa……………….. 561 New York. Iuterior of a Ten-cent Lodg- China, Blind Fortune – Teller – now ing House………………………… 177 Preacher……………•…•………. 417 – Light-House Mission……………….. 177 Persia, Donkey Rider ………………… 729 – Blind Peter and his sighted Wife…..•• 321 – Moslem Women drest for the street…. 729 – Goddess of Ear Diseases……..•…… 135 – Passion Play of Shia Moslems ….•….. 721 – Guardian of Temple Gate, Hongchow.. 135 – Three Holy Men (Dervishes) ……….. 729 – Three Lotus Buddhas……………… 135 Poland, Kosciusko's Hill, near Cracow .. 161 England, The Town of Keswick…… 81, 881 – Peasant Boy.. . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. … .. .. 161 India, Group of Educated Hindu Girls, A. 641 – Peasant Woman………………….. 161 – Hindus fresh from Famine District…• 610 Washington, Booker T •.•••••••••.•••.•••• 432 – Pandlta Ramabai and her Co-worker.. 641 AUTHORS.
PAGE PAGE CHALLIS, D. C ……………………….. 50 ALLIS, J. M …………………………… 287 CHAMBERLAIN, GEORGE W ••••••••••••••••• 832 A.nAIIS, MISS M. E ……………………. 514 CHAMBERLAIN, JACOB ………………… 248 CHATELAIN, HELl•••••••••••••••••••••••••• 417 ASHIIORE, WILLIAII …………………… 95 BATCHELOR, JOHN……………………. 658 CLARK, C. A…………………………. 47 BARON, DAVID ……………………….. 889 CLARK, FRANCIS E ……………………. 591 BISHOP, MRS. ISABELLA Bird……….. 363 695 CLARK, MYRON A …………………….. 854 BLAND, DAVID ………………………… 195 COBB, HENRY ………………………… 209 BLODGETT, HENRy …………………… 519 COUSINS, W. E ……………………….. 26 BREWSTER, W. M …………………….. 216 CUIIMING, MISS C. F. GoRDON…………. 339 DIAZ, A. J……………………………. 198 BUTLER, JOHN W …………………….. 334 CARLETON, MISS MARY……………… '. • 131 PAGE PAGE MEYER, F. B…………………………. 12 DoUGLAS, J.U!Ii:S. (See English Notes.) . … 67 MEYER, LoUIS ……………………….. 934 OLSSON, EHIL ………………………. _. 842 DODD, W. C ………………………….. 119 PADDOCK, E. A ……………………….. 816 PECK, GEO. W……………………….. 43 DYMOND, H. F………. . •• • • …. . • • •• . . • … 526 PIERSON. ARTHUR T. (See Editorial De· EATON, JOHN T ………………………. BOO partment.) ….• .1,58.81,161,241,321, 401, 481,561, 641, 730. 801,881 ELSING, W. T ………………………… 176 PIERSON, DELAVAN L. (See Field of ELLINWOOD, F. F ……………………. 757 Monthly Survey……….. ……….. 432 EURoZA, J. M ……………. ………….. 291 PIERSON, MRS. D. L ………………….. 821 PITcHER. P. W ……………………….. 143 S……………………. EVANS, EDWARD………………………. 69039 PoND, T. S………………… ………… 49 FISHER, GEORGE RIGGS. CHARLES T ……………………. 776 Fox,D. C ……………………………. 45 ROBINSON, ALEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 RODIO, PROF…………………………. 581 FRAZER, DONALD …………………….. 121 RUDESILL, A. W……………………… 52 GAEBELEIN, A. G ……………………… 889 SCHAUFFLER, H. A… .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. 169 ScHNEDER, D. B ……………………… S78 GIFFORD, D. L ……………..109, 188, 263, 854 SCHODDE, GEO. H …………………….. 593 SCHWEINITZ, PAUL DE …………….. .490, 809 GILMORE, DAVID ……………………46, 252 SHAW, F. B………………………….. 91 SHITH, ARTHUR H ……………………. 116 GILLESPIE, JOHN……………………… 567 SMYTH. GEORGE B ……………………. 684 SOLOVIEF VLADIMIR ………………. 753, 919 GLENNEY, E. H ………………………. 902 SPEER. ROBERT E ….•………… .422. 506, 721 SPENCER, DAVID S………………… 371,848 GRACEY, J. T. (See International Depart· STARBUCK, C. C. (See Extract8 and ment.) ……………………………. 43 Translations.)…………… ……… 64 STEVEN, F. A … ; …………………….. 452 GRACEY, MRS. J. T ……………. __•••448, 687 STORnow, EDWARD …………………… 278 STORRS, RICHARD S …………………… 201 GRACEY, S. L ………………………… 124 VAHL, J ………………………….. 517,835 WALKER, J.E ……………………….. 767 GRIFFIS, WM. ELLIOT…………………. 651 WANLESS, W. J ………………………. 260 WATSON, A ………………………….. 908 GUINNESS, H. GRATTAN •••….••••.••.•282, 579 WAUGH,J. W …………………….. 294,524 HALL, CHARLOTTE ……………………. 183 WARNECK, DR ………………………… 458 WATT, RITA A ……………………….. 845 HARDIE, R. A… .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. … 926 WILCOX, M. C……………………….. 46 HAyS, MRS. G. S ……………………… 102 WILDER, GRACE………………………. 669 HIGGINS, W. V ……………………….. 368 WILSON, SAHUEL G …………………… 741 WYCKOFF, J. H ………………………. 267 lIoSKINS, ROBERT …………………….. 445 YOUNG, EGARTON R ………………… 19,496 IRWIN, JtOBERT ………………………. 328 ZWEHER S. M………………………… 748 JERNBERG, R. A ……………………,…. 597 JESSUP, H. 1I……………………… 32, 993 KING, ALICE …………………………. 358 KNox, GEO. W…. .. …………………. 665 LAFLAJlHE, A. F…….. ………………. 44 LEITCH, MAny and MARGERET ……••….. 256 LEWIS, SPENCER. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. 365 LEONARD, D. L. (See General Missionary Intellfgence) ………. …………….. 64 LoW, EDSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 LUCE. H. W ……………………….. '" 530 McCONAUGHEY, DAVID ………………… 682 McDOUGALL. J. R….. ……. .. ……….. 581 McLEAN, A ………………………….. 212 MARTIN, W. A. P …………………….. 769 MASTERMAN, E. W. G …………………. 915 MAUGERI,G. C……………………….. 600 SUBJECTS.
PAGE PAG. Abyssinia…………………………240, 880 – – Ashantee…………………….480, 879 AFRICA, Notes on, D. L. Pierson •••• 464 – – Basntoland …………………..306, 960 – – Bachuanaland……. 320, 624, 719, 786, 798 – Power of God in …………………… 438 – – Central…………………. ;……. 80 – -East•••••• , ..••••••.•288. 240, 314, 398, 480 – Pigmies or Dwarfs in, Rev. John Gil· – – Gold Coast ……………………… 239 lespie, D.D ………………… , …… 569 – – Kongo.63, 69,149,288,807,318,398,718,797 – – Liberia………….. '" • ~ ……….. , 791 -The Open Sore of the World, Heli – – Livlngstonia ………………….240,899 Chatelain ………………………… 417 –Matabeleland………………… l58, 860 – – Natal …………………. , ………. 719 – Transformations in Uganda, T. A. Gur' ney . .. .. • .. • .. .. . … .. …………311, 501 – – North ……………………. 229, 879,948 – – Nyassaland ………………….. 399, 542 – Missionary Work in the Barbary States, E. H. Glenny. …. ……………….. 902 – Fields. (See also Abyssinia, E,gypt, Madaga8Car, and Morocco.) PAGE PAGE – – Sierra Leone••••••••••••……….67,456 Barbary States, Missions in the, E. H. – – Slave coast..••.•…•.•………….•. 879 – – Soudan………………….••…•239, 702 Glenny ……………………………. 902 – – South…•………..•152,798,864,880, 960 Bible Distribution….. 62, 236, 638, 792, 793, 952 – – TransvaaL …•………••.•.. 239, 560, 378 – Schools and Conventions, Arthur T. – – Uganda .. 67, 80,229,240,387,399,460, 465 Pierson ………………………….. 480 625, 880, 954 – Translation ………………… 234, 470, 638 –West…•…………… ,.319,456,639, 703 Blind in China, Work for, C. F. Gordon- – – Zambesi.•••••.•………. 387, 398, 467, 560 – – Zululand..•…….•………..560, 780,786 Cumming ……………………….. 349 – General Intelligence . .. 239, 319, 625, 703, 7"10 Building from th~ Base, Arthur T. Pier- 798, 859 son …………………………….. . Brahmanism ………………305, 306,317,681 – – Anecdotes and Incidents…..63, 238, 398, 630, 645 BRAZIL, A Needy Field in………301, 539 – Mission Schools in…………………. 859 –Bible Work ……………..•…….. 480 – – Cannibalism …………………….. 456 – The Genesis ot a Church in, Geo. W. – – Characteristics…………..480, 798, 956 – – Civilization…………………… , .. 239 Chamberlain…………………….. 832 –Converts. (See Progress.) ……•… 80 – Young Men of, Myron A. Ciark..•….. t!54 – – Country and People ………319, 320, 480 Buddha and Animal Life, Rev. C. C. Star- – – Edncation…………•…312, 819, 480, 719 –Health•…•………………..•.. 807, 639 buck ……………………………. 341 –Hindrances…………………..62, 68 BUDDHISM ……………………..376, 717, 539 _ – Industrial Missions…•………..798, 959 .- Ethics of………………………….. 376 –Language…………………… 455, 879 – Recent Books on…………………… 132 _ _ Liquor Traffic•………. 399, 454, 480, 455 __ MedicaIMissions………….229, 239,639 Bl1ftMA ………………………. 159, 620 __ Moravians………………………. 880 – How the Gospel Spreads in, Rev. David __ Methods of Work …………….152, 798 __ Needs ………………………….. 480 Gilmore…………………………. 253 __ Outlook.. . .. .. .. …. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. … 399 – Outlook in, Rev. David Gilmore…….. 46 Calcutta…………………………….. 379 __ Progress …68. 67, 80, 240, 820, 398, 560, 719 CALLS FOR MISSIONARIES. (See Needs.)…. 363 Canada………………………… __ …. 635 960, 956 Canadian, Evangelization of the French. 586 __ Railroads ..•••……..••.318, 398, 718, 798 Caste in India, W. J. Wanle~s, M.D . . . . . . . 260 __ Reinforcements ……………… 559, 628 Cathay, A Cycle of, Rev. S. I. Gracey, D.D. 124 __ Roman Catholics.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . … 306 __ Self-Support…………………….. 68 CEYLON……………………….383, 869 –Slave Trade……………… 229, 560,455 – The Importance of……………….. 583 __ Statistics………………….80.718,786 – Progress in, Mary and Margaret Leitch. 256 __ Superstitions………………… 238, 000 Christian Endeavor..313,372, 391,628,633, 712 –Women ………………………… 703 Cheung-Mai, Lao Mission, Recent Innova- ALASKA ………….. 392, 536, 783, 712, 953 tion at, Rev. W. C. Dodd…………. 214 America. (See United States, Oanada).597, 624 Chile, The Miracle Working Virgin of An- _ Central………………………….218,865 -South…………………………….. 542 dacolla, E. A. Lowe………………. 575 _ Spanish…………………………… 392 American Negro, Awakening of the. CHINA. A new Conference in, Rev. W. N. Brewster………………….. 216 Delavan L. Pierson ………………. 432 Appeals. (See Calls, Needs) …77,538, 610, – A Preaching Tour in West, Rev. H. F. Dymond…………………………. 526 701, 714 – Barriers to Progress in, Rev. Arthur ARMENIA. (See Turkey,) ..65, 141, H. Smith………………………… 116 378, 538, 701, 944, 956 – China, Past, Present and Future, Rev. – Clara Barton on…………………… 141 Wm. Ashmore, D. D. …………….. 95 – Gladstone on .. _…………………… 955 – Conversion of the Upper Classes in, ARABIA …………………..299, 634,703 Rev. E. C. Walker………………… 764 ._ Pioneer in. Ion Keith Falconer. A. T. – Chinese Missionaries to Home Pierson ………………………….. 730 Churches ………………………… 129 _ Difficulties and Encouragements of – Fuhkien, Since the Massacre in, Rev. Mission Work in, S. M. Zwemer…… 748 P. W. Pitcher…………………….. 123 Asia. (See Ohina, India, etc.) …..77,157, '- Higher Classes in, J. T. Gracey……… 764 234, 636 – New Life in the Far East, Mrs. J. T.
-Minor. (See Armenia.)……………. 65 Gracey ………………………….. 448 AI1STftALASIA. (See Australia, – Outlook in, Rev. M. C. Wilcox, Ph. D.. 46 – Polygamous Applicants ……. 111,188, 263 New Guinea, etc.) – Poverty of. Native Christians in, !vIiss Australia………………….314, 608, 720, 880 Mary Carleton, M.D… . .. .. .. . .. .. …. 131 – Siege of Tibet. … •.. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . . . .. 91 – The Opium Curse in……………….. 136 – The Aboriginal Tribes in South West, Fred. A. Stephen…………………. 432 PAGE PAGE Deeper Things, Some of the, F. B. Meyer, – The Anglo Chinese College in Foo- chow, George B. Smyth, D.D……… 684 B. A……………………………… 12 Destitute, The Gospel for the, Rev. W. T. -The Worship of the Earth in, Rev. Henry Blodgett, D.D…•••..••…..•.. 511l Elsing …………………………… 176 DIFFICULTIES OF CONVERTS AND MISSION- – West, Rev. Spencer Lewis …••…•…. 352 – Women of, Mrs. George Hays………• 102 ARIES: – Work for the Blind in (TIlustrated), – Africa …………………………. 62, 68 – China…………………………. 479, 796 Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming…•…… 349 – India…………………………. 67, f!17 -Fields: -Japan…………………………….. 47 – – Fukien Province •..•…• 135, 897, 468, 782 -Korea…………………………….'. 948 –Foochow.•.•.•.••……………. 216, 6S4 – Madagascar…………………….. 26, 227 –Hunan….••.•…•……•.•.•…• 146,558 Donations, Special. Do they Help or – -Manchuria ….•…•……•…318,878, 957 –Kansu…….•.•.•••….••••…•.•..•• 558 Hinder? J, T. Gracey …………….. 824 – – Shanghai. .••.•.•..••.•••.••.317, 477, 559 Doshisha, The……………………….. 221 – – Shansi •….•.••.•.•……..•.818,550, 558 Duty and Privilege of Self-support, – – Shantung ….••.•••..•.•….• 68, 479, 688 – – South …..•…..•….•…………… 689 Rev. J. M. Euroza. ……………….. 291 – Genera! Intelligence …78, 128, 149, 809, 318, Ecuador. . . .. .. . .. .. .. .. •.. • .. .. . .. .. .. . … S93 – Revolution in………………. .. . ….. 57 388, 893, 397, 454, 479, 559, 868, 869 – The Entrance of, Geo. S. Fisher……..' 37 EDUCATIONAL WORK. – – Anecdotes and Incldents.69, 558, 559, 630, – Africa ………………… 312,319,480, 719 717, 797 – China…………. 149,817,478,479,609, 878 – India. . . . .• 78, 154, 228, 235, 305, 896, 795, 871! – – Bible Work…………. 559, 688, 782, 797 -Japan ………………… 221,287, 81lS, 638 – – Convention of Missionaries. 129, 216, 633, -Mexico……………………………. 89 -South America……………………. 854 932 – Turkey……………………….. 284, 476 – – Converts……………………….. 638 – United States…………………. 154, 858 – – Country and People….•…. 131, 236, S06 Egypt……………………………….. 380 – – Difficulties and Hindrances.l45, 479, 796 -MissionWorkln, A. Watson ………… 908 – – Educational Work. 149, 817, 478, 479, 609, Empire of the Ottoman ……………… , 57 England …………………………. 67, 815 878 English Notes, James Douglas………. .. 67 – – Language ……..•……..••••.• 716, 796 Eskimo ……………………………… 865 – – Medical MissIons ..•• 78,236,397, 473, 630, Evangelical Congress in Mexico ..•……. 302 Faith Work, Arthur T. Pierson ……….. 241 701, 708, 796, 797, 868 Famine and' Plague in India, (See India).
– – Mohommedans…..•…………..•.. 225 D. L. Pierson ………………… 296, 66l – _ Native Workers….•..•••. " ……… 628 Fetichism….___ …. _……………….. Il60 __ Opium….•…•…..•…•.••• 151, 137, 397 –Opposition ……………………… 144 Far East, New Life in the, Mrs. J. T. __ Outlook………………….. 46, 448, 959 Gracey ………………………….. 448 –Needs …………………….67, 690, 695 Fiji Islands……………………… 280, 799 _ _ Persecution.. .. .. …. .. .. …. ……. 145 FINANCE OF MISSIONS .188, 150, 158, 156, 219, 224 __ Progress.•••• 68, 134, 236, 808, 548, 637, 957 281, 284, 390, 392, 400, 542, 855 621,633,710, 797, 828, 95~ __ Railroads……………….. 637, 717, 873 __ Roman Catholics……………….. 861 – American Bible Society…….•…. 240, 554 – Baptist, British…. , ……………….. 548 _ – Statistics…. , …… , …. 135, 479, 782. 796 – Baptist Missionary Union ………….. 2SO __ Women ………………………… 711 – Baptist, (Free)…………………….. S09 – British Societies.•..62,155, 157,470,476, 555 Chinese In America………………….. 953 Christian Alliance Missionary Offerings.. 630 632, 635, 700, 718, 792 Christian Endeavor Society. (See Organ- – Cohgregationallsts….•••.•….•….. 77, 281 – China Inland Mission ..••……….. 286, 392 iiZationB) ………………………… 633 – Christian Alliance•….••.•. 680, ~78, 791, 938 CITY MIssIONS••.•76,155,315,3111,392,555, 791 – Christian Endeavor Societies…818, 891, 712 – The Gospel for the Destitute, W. T. – Church Missiouary Society… .' ……… 156 – Epworth League………………….. 633 Elsing …………………………… 176 – London Missionary…………….. 388, 462 _ These from the Land of Sinim, Char. – Lutherans………………………… 795 -Methodist Episcopal……….. 282, 812, 718 lotte C. Hall… .. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. .. . … 183 – Missionary Alliance ……………….. 938 Columbia, The Outlook in, T. S. Pond…. 49 – Moravians………………………157, 218 Columbo, Ceylon……… .'…………… 383 – National Bible sOciety..•.••………… Congo, Outrages on the.. .. .. •.. . … .. …. 62 – Presbyterian.~.••.••••••819, 6S4, 635, 711, ~ Continent, A Bright Spot In a Dark, Rev.
Paul de Schweinitz………………. 809 Crete……………………………….. 57 Cuba, The War and the Gospel in, Rev.
A. J. Dlaz, M. D ………………….. 62 Cuba ………………… : ……………. 871 Debt was Paid, How the ……………… 936 Debts of Mission Boards. (See Finance.) 851
INDltt
PAGE PAGE – Society for Propagation of the Gospel. 874 – Famine and Plague in, D. L. Pierson… £96' – Y. M. C. A……••……•.•….. :. "•. 313, 854 – First Impressions of, Rev. H. Grattan Foreigners In the United States, Work Guinness ………………………… 282 Among, H. A. Schauftler…….. ". . .. 169 – Female Missions in, Rev. Edward Star- Formosa ….•…••.•. 136, 149, 398, 469, 629, 630 row….•.••..•………•……•.•…… 478 PR…NCB ….. ..27,60,315,320,398,462, 475 – Focus of Heathenism In, Rev. H. Grat- 619, 628, 640, 713, 714 tan Guinness, D.D..••.. : ………….. 579 – Religious Condition in .•..•.••••.•…•• 619 – High Caste Woman's Conversion, Mrs. Freedmen, (SeeNegro) •…….•…•… 432, 953 French Government in Madagascar… 226, 676 J. T. Gracey……………………… 687 French Canadians, The Evangelization of – Hill Tribe in Southern, Rev. W. V. Hig- the ……………………………… 586 gins ……………………………. . French Ideas of Religious Freedom…..• 383 – Hinduism As It Is, Jacob Chamberlain. 248 Frontier, Lights and Shadows on the, – Medical Schools for Christian Women Rev. E. A. Paddock………••…….. 816 in, M. Rose Greenfield.; ……………. 280 Fuhklen, Since the Massacre in, Rev. P. – Music and Musicians in, J. W. Waugh. 294 – PanditaRamabal and HerWork, Grace W. Pitcher………•…………….•. 123 Fund, The Countess of Dufferin's, A. Mc- E. Wilder………………… _ ……. 669 – Polygamous Applicants……………• 355 Lean, D. D……………………….. 212 – Results of Mission Work in, Rev. J. H.
GBKlIIANY. Missionary Conference Wyckoff…………………………. 267 in, D. B. Schneder……•………….. 373 – The Countess of Dufferin Fund, A.
– The Protestant Mission Societies of, McLean •••……………•.•.•……… 212 Prof. Goo. H. Schodde, Ph. D …. " … 593 – The Savaras, W. V. Higgins……….•. 868 – Scandinavian Mission Among the San- GIVING ……76,77,78, 138,156,159,221,230, 812 820,892,474, 550, 558, 68-!, 789, 797, 799 thais, J. VahI…………………….. 517 – General Intelligence .• •379,478,556, 557, 624 – Examples of..•.•..240,811,319,392,394, 555 789, 869, 874, 952, 953, 956 686, 715, 787, 794, 867, 945 – – Anecdotes and Incidents..66,235, 236,305 -Native Christian, J. T. Gracey……•.. 844 – Seven Paradoxes of…..•…..•…….• 221 816, 896, 470, 887 Governments and Missions … l44, 381, 462, 467 – – Bible Work ……………………66, 159 Greece, Evangelical Church In, C.T. Riggs. ;776 – – Caste..•………….261, 317, 896, 705, 706 Great Spiritual Movements of the Cen- – – Country and People .77,294,868,477, tury, Arthur T. Pierson …..••..•..••• 641 556, 636, 705 Guiana, A Bright Spot on a Dark Conti- – – Converts………………77,148, 3ffi, 957 – – Education …78, 154, 228, 235, 305, 896, nent, Paul de Schweinitz…•.•..•….. 809 Has Islam been a Religion of Progress? 795,878 – – Diftlculties …………….•…67,674, 877 Rev. F. F. Ellenwood, D.D., LL.D…. 757 – – Famine and Plague .187, 158, 236, 296, Heathenism ……………………….64, 144 Hindrances to Mission Work. (See DiJ!!- 887,896,477,541, 795 – – Language. . . •. . . . •. . ••• . …•…….. 706 culties, Opposition.) – – Medical Missions………876, 890, 473, 792 Hinduism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . • • . . . • • • . • • 146,867 – – Missionaries……… , " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 – As It Is, Jacob Chamberlain, D.D., – – Mohammedans.•..•…………..384, 877 – – Native Workers………….. 236,875, 552 M.D ……•………•…••••………..• 248 –Needs………………………….. 945 -::: At Bindrahan, Rev. Robert Hoskins •.. 445 – – Opposition…………………… 77, 557 Holiness Movement, Arthur T. Pierson… 321 – – Outlook…44, 45, 158, 154, 552, 706, 715, 784 ROHEMISSIONS•.•.•…•…. 76, 155, 217, 554, 873 – – Persecution…………………….. 77 – Lights and Shadows on the Frontier, – – Progress.77, 806,316,388, 896,478,628, 957 – – Railroads……….•••••….. " ….73, 159 E. A. Paddock……………………. 816 – – Religions…………………….146, 317 – Mountaineers of Madison County, Mrs. – – Self- support…….••••••….542, 637, 715 – – Statistics.•…….•………70, 71, 150, 279 D. L. Pierson…………………….. 821 – – Students..•………………..•.. 228, 795 Hospitals and Dispensaries………68, 236,874 – – Woman's Temperance Union…•.••. 472 Ion Keith Falconer, Pioneer in Arabia, – – Woman's Temperance Conference.• 478 – – Young Men's Christian Association.. 159 Arthur T. Pierson..•…..•.••..•••..•. 730 Indian Problem, The ……•.•……•.•…. 536 Indians, North American .154, 539, 712, 952, 953 ICELAND. A GlinIpse of, illustrated, – The Death of the Interpreter, E. R. Miss M. E. Adams………………… 514 Young …•…••….••…………..•.•• 400 Independent Missions, Arthur T. Pier· – The Gospel Among the Red Men, E. R. son …………………………….. 401 young………•…•••……..••••.•.. , 19 INDI…. AMightyMlracle,A. W. Rude· Individualism in Missionary Work, Miss sill……………………………… 5.2 Alice King……………….•……..• 858 – Caste in, W• .t. Wanless..~ …………. 261 – Christian" Endeavor in, Rev. Francis Clark, D.D………………….. : ….. 591 – Famine in•. J. T. Gracey…………… 266
INDEX
PAGE PAGE Industrial Missions………………..7lJ8, 969 KOREA …. 79, SO, 160,286,237,621, 694, International Missionary Union ……….. 606 ISLAn…………………. .51, 895, 476, 875 717, 718,948, 958 – Hints on the Study of.. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. 774 – A Call from, Mrs. Isabella. Bird Bishop. 368 – The Mecca Certificate, H. H. Jessup… 32 – First Impressions of, Rev. David ISLANDS OF' THE SEA. (SeeAus- Spencer ………………………….. 871 tralasia, Malaysia, Melanesia, Mi- – For Christ, D. L. Pierson ………….•. 694 cronesia, Polynesia.). .299, 808, 820, 899, 480 – Religion in, R. A. Hardie ………….. 926 640, 719, 799, 948, 960 Labrador……………………………. 864 – The Moravian Missions in, Rev. Pa'.ll de -The Waiting Isles, D. L. Pierson…….. 532 -Transformations in the Paciftc………. 534 Schweinitz……………………….. 490 Israel's Mission to the World and the' Laos. (See Siam.) …………………… 214 Lectures on Missions………….•381, 609, 876 World's Mission to Israel, David LEPERS ………………………………. 376 Baron……………………………. 889 – Life among the, Miss Lila Watts, B.A.• 845 Life in Mission Lands……………… 285, 877 ITALY………………………157, 600,608 Literature, The Growth of Missionary…. 224 – The Evangelical Church of, Rev. Alex- Liquor Traffic……………. 899,454,455, 480 ander Robinson, D.D……………… 608 l1IADAGASCAR.142, 226, 820,888,899,445 – Waldensil'n Mission in, Rev. G. C. Man- 464, 467, 626, 628, 640, 713, 800, 869, 946, 960 geri……………………………… 600 – Abolition of Slavery in, Rev. W. – Work for Italian Navvies…………… 583 Cousins……………….. ~……….. 284 ~APAN …………..55, 237, 544, 620, 697,782 — Military Rule in …………………. '.' 675 – Ainu of, Somet,hing about the (illus- – The French in…………………….. 60 – Trying Times in, Rev. W. E. Cousins.. 26 trated), Rev. John Batchelor………. 658 Madras Christian Association, The, David – Bible Distribution in Nagaya.. . . .. . . . .• 48 – Japan Problem, The, Rev. C. A. Clark. 47 McConaughy …………………….. 689 – Polygamous Applicants….•..•…….• 110 Magellan, Territory of, J. M. Allis, M.D •• 287 – Self-Support in Missions, Rev. David MALAYSIA. (See Sumatra, etc.) 875, 720 Spencer …………………………. ~8 – Missions in, Rev. J. Vah! ……………. 855 – Situation in, D. L. Pierson………•…. 697 – Malay Moslems, D. L. Pierson …….•.• 875 – The Year in, George Knox, D.D. . . . . . .. 665 March of Events. (See Editorial Depart- – The Situation in…………………… 697 – The Religions of…………………… 650 ment.) ………………………… .57, 137 – General Intelligence •..544, 620, 639, 782, 958 Massacres…………………………395, 701 – – Ainus.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . . . . . .. .. . . .. 658 MEDICAL MISSIONS •••••••••••••••••• 141, 695, 951 – – A p p e a l s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697,792 – Africa ……………………. 229, 289, 689 – – Bible Work ………………. .48,898, 688 – China..78,236,897,478,680,701,708,796, – – Buddhism…………………….650, 945 – – Civilization …………………….. 545 797, 868 – – Convert………………………… 689 – Foreign Hospitals and Dispensaries. – – Country and People..•……544,689, 850 – – Dlftlculties…………………….697, 849 68,236, 874 – -Education………..221, 237, 398,449, 688 – Formosa.•••••••• , •••….••••.••••.•..•.• 708 –MedicaIWork…………………… 449 – India……………………376, 390, 478, 792 – – Native Missionary Society…….381, 898 – Japan ………………………… 449, 951 – – Outlook ……………………..697, 71» -Syria•••••••••••••••••••••.•.••••.•….•. 285 – – Present Situation……………….. 697 -Tibet……………………………… 781 –Progress.. : ……………….237, 620,958 Melanesia. (See New Hebrides; Fiji, etc.) – – ReligIon …………………….. 650, 849 Methods of Mission Work ••••153,387,640, 870 – – Statistics………… 239,688, 668,848, 850 – – NeWspapers…………………….. 237 MEXICO……………217, 291, 398, 452, 790 –Schools……………………… 237, 688 – Duty of Self-Support………………. 291 – – Women ………………………… 237 – Evangelical Workers in……………• 802 Jerusalem(SeePale8tine) …..189, 235, 379,956 – Missionary Country in…………….. SSt – Rabbis Alarmed…………………… 932 Mighty Mirlicle, A, A. W. Rudesill, D.D.. 52 Jewish Question, The………………… 299 Mission Work, Power of Song in, Rev. J. -Creed…………………………….. 935 JEWS (See Israel.) ….. ………547, 857, 934, 942 W. Waugh, D.D ………………….. 524 – American Missions to.. .. . .. . .. .. .. . …. 985 – Individualism in, lIIiss Alice Klng …..• 853 -Missions to Jews in Palestine, E. W. G. Missionary Agencies, Mr. Edward Evans. 697 Missionary Economics, J. T. Gracey…… 207 Masterman ……………………….. 915 Missionary Council Board, An Interna- – The Time to Favor Zion, A. C. Gaebelein 899 Keswick Movement, The (illustrated), tional……………………………. 522 Missionary Debts, Good Hoped for from, Arthur T. Pierson ………………81, 881 KlondykeCl'aze, The…………………. 7113 J. T. Gracey……………………… 851 Missionary Instruction in Theological Seminaries, Rev. H. W. Luce ……… 5SO Missionary Training School. . . .• . . . . . •. . . . 61 Missionary's Trials, Rev. E. R. young •.•• 496 PAGE PAGE Missions in Labrador, The Moravian, Rev. – – Board of Commissioners.78, 141, 207, Paul de Schweinltz .••••….•………. 490 280, 300, 805, 889, 898, 585, 552, 682, 719 Missions, Waning Interest in, Richard S. – – Christian Alliance ..•……………. 957 – – Christian Endeavor….•..•••….712, 873 Storrs, D.D ………………………. 201 – – Congregationalists …•… , ….77, 221, 802 MOHAlIDIEDANI8M (See Islam, Jioslems.) … 225 – – Desciples of Christ.. . . . • . . . . . . .. 982, 95,1 – – Epworth League.;….•……….451, 550 226, 284, 455 – – Episcopal •…….••.••.•…………. 791 Mohammedans and Mohammedanism in – – Inter-Missionary Union ………. 452, 6HI _. – Jerry McAuley Mission………….. 815 Persia, R. E. Speer…………… .422, 506 – – King's Daughters………………•. 818 Monthly Topics for 1897. • . • . . •. . . • • . . . . . . • 53 — – Methodist Episcopal ..46, 159, 216,282, MORMONISM ……..•………..76, 855, 873, 953 Moslems. (See Mohammedans.) ………. 875 802, 812, 448, 472, 553, 958 Mountaineers of Madison Co., The, Mrs. – – Protestant Episcopal Mission …….. 457 – – Presbyterian..50, 77, 188, 282, 812, 317, D. L. Pierson…………………….. 821 Movement, The Student Volunteer. . . . …. 209 554,712,714, 874 Morocco. (See A/rica, North.)… ….. 289, 902 – – Reformed (Dutch)……. 299, 380, 588, 684 Music and Musicians in India, J.W.Waugh 294 – – Sunday-school Union……….••…• 554 -Powerof Song In Mission Work,J. W. – – Woman's National C. T. U ……..74,280 – – Young People's Society of Christian Waugh …•.•……………….•…… 524 Navvies, Work among Italian……..•…. 583 Endeavor………222, 813, 814, 391, 550, 633 NECROLOGY. – – Y. M. C. A •••…••••..•.•••..••..• 318, 854 – Aitken, Rev. M., Leicester, England…. S88 – Ashton, Rev. W., Africa ………•….. 859 -Briti,h. – Brooks, Dr. James Hall, St. Louis…… 588 – Buckenham, Rev. Henry, Africa….•.• 156 – – Baptist Missionary Society…68, 148, – Collins, Rev. James S., Dublin………. 629 – Crozer, Lewis, Chester, Pa….•…….. 555 157,808,811, 466, 598, 550, 629, 708, 787 – Davis, J. A., Nyack, N. Y .•……. _…. 926 – – Bible Society…..62, 156, 284, 470, 688, – Dow, Neal, Portland, Maine……….•. 943 – Dyke, Mrs., Basutoland, South Africa.. 859 713,782,798, 797, 954 – EltE, Baron vOil, Africa….• , …•……. 240 – – British College Christian Union….. 858 – Escande, M., France..•.•…•……….. 719 – – British Syrian Mission …………… 555 – Evans, Evan Heber, Wales…………. 80S – – Ohlna Inland Mission …..54, 236, 888, – Fenn, Albert R., England …•………. 140 – Gorch, Nehemiah S., India…………. 304 898, 548, 558, 628, 787 – Jewett, Rev. Lyman, Fitchburg, Mass. 288 – – Chnrch Missionary Society….65, 67, 144 – Kincaid, De, Wm. J., Congo………… 80S – Laurie, Thomas, Providence, R. I ….• 942 156, 224, 228, 815, 887, 467, 470, 477, 628, -Mather, Roland, Hartford, Conn……. 685 707, 713, 792, 868, 954 -May, Florence, Leicester, England….. 782 -lIIinault, M., France…….•……….. 719 – – Friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 288 -Murdock, Dr, John N., Clifton Springs. 303 – – Industrial Mission Aid Society…..•• 475 -McKenzie, Mrs. M., China.•….•.•….• 469 – – London Missionary Society…68, 146, -McNair, Rev. John, Melbourne, Aus- 808, 888, 462, 468, 534, 628, 719, 788, 869 tralia …•…•….•••…..•…..••…… 61 – – I,uLherans……………..•…..785, 795 _ Neethling, Rev. W. J., Africa ..•….. 588 – – Missions to the Le~J6rs of the East. – Wherreft, Albert E., Upper Congo…. 550 Nups. (See Appeals; Calls.) …••.. .480, 945 376, 792, 797 Negro, The Awakening of the Ameri- – – North African Mission …….229, 809, can, Delavan L. Pierson .•.•…•..•.•.. 482 788, 879, 943 Newport, England, The Work at, Ar- – – Presbyterian……………………. 957 – – Religious Tract Society………….. 233 thur T. Pierson.•……….•……….. 161 – – Salvation Army ……..•…•….. 815, 898 Opium…………….•..•…••••.. 186, 187, 897 – – Scotch Free Church…..809, 899, 422, Open Sore of the World and its Healing, 478.542.568 (Illustrated), Heli Chatelain.••.•….. 417 – – Society for the Propogatlon of the OPPOSITION. (See Difficulties; Massacres, Gospel…•….•…..•…•………….. 969 etc.) .•.•••..••.•…..••….•••••……6, 946 — Tibetan Mission Band……………. 781 – – United Presbyterians …149,156,808, ORGANIZATIONS, MISSIONARY, AND DENOMI- NATIONAL NOTES. (See Finance; Sta- 319, 379, 397, 469, 497, 708, 787 tistics.) ••72, 214, 219, 222, 289, 806, 337, – – Universal Mission….•….•….•….•·640 – – United Methodists…………•..•..• 957 894, 874, 879, 984 – – Wesleyan Missionary Society….812, -American. 556, 798; 868 – – Woman's Christian Temperance – – Baptists•••••••••••••428, 682, 712, 791, 857 – – Bible Society••••155, 898, 554, 688, 712, Union …………………….•…….. 449 – – Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. .. 682 798,858 – European and General.
– – Basle Missionary Society………898, 797 – – Christian Endeavor……814,891,628, 633 – – Danish Mlssio~ary Society.•….•••.• 816 968 INDEX. [December PAGE PAGE – – German Missionary Societies…•65. Poverty of Native Christialls in China. 157. 234. 320. 898. 879. 955 Mary Carleton, M.D. . . . .. …… .. .. … 131 – – McAIl Mission …………….475.714. 955 Power of Song in Mission Work, The, Rev. – – Moravians …… 157. 218. 393. 556; 622. J. W. Waugh. D.D ……………….. 524 880. 954. 969 Problem. TheIndian………………… 536 – – Norwegian Mission ………….. .467. 800 PItOGRESS Oli' MISSIONS………………… 957 – – Paris Missionary Society. 315. 394.560. 628 – Africa…63. 67.80. 240. 320. 398, 560. 719, IIiio – – Red Cross Society………. , ……… 141 -Burma……………………………. 46 – – Rhenish Mission………….636. 792. 875 – China…………68.134.2<>"6.308.548.637. 967 – – Salvation Army …..•………… 315. 393 – India…………77. 306, 316. 388. 396. 478. 628 – – Sierra Leone N. P. A. A …..•…… 898 – Islands of the Sea……299. 308. 320, 480. 948 –Student Volunteers……209. 450. 699. 792 – Italy………………………. 157. 600. 600 – — World's Woman's ChristianTemper- _ Japan ……………………..237, 620. 958 -Korea…………………………. · .. 79 ance Union••.. " .•…….• 74. 280. 449. 472 – Malaysia……… , ……………….375, 720 – – Vnited Brethren (Moravians)….•..• 640 – Mexico……………………………. 217 – – Young Men's Christian Association. -Spain …………………………… ,. 617 – Turkey…………………………234. 476 383. 450. 556. 618. 711 Prominent Spiritual Movements. Arthur – – Young Women's Christian Associa- T. Pierson……………………….. 321 tion ……………………………… 450 Orient. Greater Strategy in the. Rev. D. PuBLICATIONS NOTICED.
C. Challis. . •. •. . •••. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 – Armenia. Lettersfrom. J. Rendell Har- Orphanages ……….. . .•..234. 449. 475. 795 ris and Helen B. Harris…………… 543 Orphans. The Armenian…•………….. 538 – Autobiography of John G. Paton…… 60 OUTLOOK. THE. – Buddhismin Translations. Henry Clark – Africa…..•……. , •.•……………•.. 399 Warren………………………….. 132 – ChIna……………………………46. 448 – Cathay. A Cycle of. W. A. P. lIartin… 124 – Formosa. . .• •.. . …•………..•.•.138. 149 – Christian Missions and Social Progress, – India.•.•…..•.44. 153. 552. 706. 715. 784. 957 -Japan.•.•••••.•………•.•…•…•….. 47 Dr. Jas. S. Dennis……………. 464, 853 – Korea ….•……………………..372.718 – China, A History of. Dr. Williams .•..• 543 – Madagascar…•……………•……869. 960 – Christian Stewardship, Geo. S. Eddy… 464 – Mexico……………………………. 217 – Combination Bible ………………… 464 – Slam and Laos….•…….•…………. 328 – Eygate, Wm. Wilson………………. 943 -Tibet …………………………….•. 622 – Gen. Gordon, J. Barnet Smith……… 60 -Turkey……………………………. 51 – India and Dally Life In Bengal, Z. F. Oxford Movement. The Genesis of the…. 8 Pacific. Transformations in the. D. L. Griffin…………………………… 143 – Japan: Its People and ~ission, Jesse Pierson. (See Islands.) .. . " •…•…•• 532 Palestine. (See Jerusalem j Jews j Syria.). Page…………………………….. 143 – Kindergarten in Missions…………… 382 476. 553. 875 – Knights of the Labarum. Rev. Harlan – Mission to the Jews in. E. W. Master- P. Beach ………………………… 141 man •….•..•………………..•….. 915 – Life of Bishop Heber, Rev. Goo. Smith. Pandita Ramabal and her Work (illUS- LL.D……………………………. 60 trated). Grace Wilder…………….. 658 – Life and Work in India, Rev. Robert Papacy. (See Roman Catholicism.) Papal Lands. (See Spain j France. etc.) Stewart …………………………. 59 Persecutions. (See Massacres; Oppositions.) – Life of Robert Whitaker McAll. . . .. . •• 69 – Mandarin, The Young. Rev. J. A. Davis 453 PERSIA ……… .426.463.477.715. 876. 956 – My Life and Times, Cyrus Hamlin..•.• 303 – Persecutions in ……………………. 463 – Minute JIIan on the Frontier, The. Rev. – Politics and Missions In. Rev. S. G. Wil· W. G. Puddefoot…………………. 381 son ……………………………… 741 – Missionary Success in Formosa. . .. … 136 – Persian Highway. Glimpses of Lifeon – On the Indian Trail. E. R. young …..• 943 – Organizations and Methods of Mission a (illUstrated), Robert E. Spoor……. 721 – Mohammedans and Mohammedanism. Work. Dr. Edwin M. Bliss…………. 464 – Pioneering in New Guinea, James RQbert E ..Speer ….•………..•.•422. 506 Peru..••••.•…•…..•…………. 542. 856. 857 Chalmers………………………… 143 Pigmies. or Dwarfs of Africa. The. Rev. – Primitive Buddhism: Its Origin and John Gillespie. D.D….•…•…•.•.••. 569 Teachings. Eliz. A. Reed …………•. 133 Plague and.Famine in India. D. L. Pierson. – Sociological Aspects of Foreign llis- (See India.) ••••.. ••..••.•••..•…•..•.. 296 slons. Dr. Dennis …………………. 853 Plan of Foreign Missions..•.•..•………. 950 – Strategic POinli/! In the World's Con· Polygamous Applicants, Rev. D. L. Gif- quest, J. R. Mott…………………. 615 ford …………………..109.188,263. 364 – Victory, Monan M. Apperson……….• 800 Portuia}. The Needs of, D. L. Pierson …. 618 Railroads in Afri~a …….•.•.818. 898.718, 798 -China….. : ………………… 68'7, 717. 8'l8 PAGE PAGE -lndia……………………………73, 159 – Liquor Traffic…………………..SIll, 554 – Siberia……………………………. 310 – Madagascar………………………… 628 Reasons for Foreign Missions….. 229,377, 400 – Medical Missions……. 235, 390, 712, 718, 796 _. Mexico……………………………. 217 466, G31 – Missionary Societies…. 70, 151, 315, 816, 820 Red Men, The Gospel.among the, Rev. 556, 710, 872 EgertonR. young…..•.•………… 19 – New Hebrides ……………………. 400 -' South America…………. ;……….. 54 Religious Progress. . . . . . . . . . . . •. . . . . . ••••. 73 _. Syria and Palestine……………..315, 555 Reinforcements……………………… 74 – World's Kingdoms ………………… 230 – Africa ……………………….•…•. 814 Students' Volunteer Fund ………… 209, 451 – China ………………………….888, 897 – Volunteers…………………. · ….74, 209 Romanlsm, (see Papacy)…. ………….. 862 Roman Catholic Missions …..820, 640, 720, Students, The Federation of Christian… 699 – World Wide Uprising of Christians, A. 794, 861, 946 T. Pierson……………………….. 801 – Catholics.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 218, 885, 63.~, 958 Strongholds, Taking, (Illustrated.) Rev.
RtJl!ISIA……….. 299, 395,775,776,798, 875 H. A. Schauffier………………….. 169 – Stundists in……………………..61, '176 Strategic Poillts In the World Conquest .. 615 – Church and State In, Vladimir Solovlef. Spiritual Movements Of the Half Century, 758, 919 Arthur T. Pierson.; ..161, 241, 321, 401, Russian Religion, Pictures of the. . . . . . . .. '175 Salvation Army (see Organizations.). 815, 898 480,561, 641, 802 Samoa …………………………… 145, 400 Sumatra. (See Malaysia) ……………. 627 Savaras, The, Rev. W. V. Higgins …….. 868 Sunday-School Work ………………234, 2S5 Self-Support, Duty and Privileges of, Rev. SYRIA. (See Palestine.) .. 141,158,315, J. M. Euroza…………………….. 291 452, 555, 613, 715 – In the Japan Mission, D. S. Spencer…. 84 – Jews in……………………………. 235 Scandinavian Missions among the San- – Prayer Needed for, H. H. Jessup …… 9S8 – Proposed Home for the Insane In, Rev. thais, The, Rev. J. Vahl. ……….•.. 517 Scandinavian Alliance Mission of Amer- Theophilus Waldwelr…………….. 611 Temperance. (See Liquor Traffic).. …..• 893 Ica, Rev. R. A. Jernberg ………….. 597 Testimonies to the Value of Missions.. Science as an Auxiliary to the ~spread of 397,400,466, 631,945, 950, 956, 959 the Gospel, W. A. P. Martin ………. 769 The Shan States, An Open Door, Robert TIBET .. ………………. 134, 522, 600, 781 – Siege of (Map), F. B. Shawe………… 91 Irwin……………………………. 328 Tibetan Border, On the……………….. 622 SIAl!I AND LAOS• ……….. 152,160, 478 – Pioneer Mission, The.•• , …………… 781 – Lao Mission. Recent Innovations at Traihing Schools, Missionary..78, 394, 537, Cheung Mai, Rev. W. C. Dodd…••… 214 638, 878 – An Open Door In; Rev. Robert Irwin.. 328 Trials, Missionaries" Rev. E. R. Young… 400 Siberia……………………………. 73,310 Since the Massacre at Fuhkien, Rev. P. TtJRKEY. (See Armenia; Sy·ria.) . – Conditions in, D. L. Pierson ………… 774 W. Pitcher………………………… 123 – General Intelligence . …77, 378, 395, 546, Sinim, These from the Land of, Miss 610,714 Charlotte C. HalL……………….. 183 Slave Trade ………………. 229, 417, 452, 560 – – Education…………………… 234, 476 Something about the Ainu of Japan – – Massacres ……………………395, 701 –Needs………………………….. 476 Rev. John Batchelor (Illustrated.)…. 658 – – Opportunity…………………. 538, 701 Song, Power of, In Mission Work ……… 524 – – Outlook.. .. .. . .. . .. . . . .. .. . .. .. . . …. 51 SOtJTH AMERI()A. See (Brazil, – – Orphanages…………………..475, 725 – – Persecutions.. .. . .. .. . . . .. .. … .. .. .. 58 Ohile, Oolombia, Ecuador, Guiana, – – Present Situation …………….774, 876 Magellan, Peru.) Uganda. (See Africa.) – The Evangelization of, Emil Olsson…. 842 – The Story of………………………. 222 South Sea Islands, (See Islands of the Sea.) – The Transformation of (illustrated), T. SPAIN…… ……………. 140,380,617, 800 – Religious Life In, D. L. Pierson…. … 616 A. Gurney, LL.B………………411, 1101 STATISTICS…70, 73, 74, 76, 135, 150, 621, 850, tJNITED STATES. (See America, 866,953,954 Home Missions, Oity Mission.) ..72,75, -Africa……………………… 239,718,786 ~·A.laska …………………………… , l!92 77,154,232,814,391,474,634,712, 873 – Areas of Continents……..'………74, 80 – Converts………………………….. 862 -China……………………… 160,236,317 – Education………………………154,858 – Christian Endeavor……..314, 633, 712, 873 – Fresh Air Fund …………………… 231 – France…………… , .. .. .. …. .. . • …. 714 – Indlans …………………………… 586 – Indians In U. S………………….154, 474 r- Liquor Traffic…………………….. SIll -Japan……………….·…….. 237,814,688 – Mormons …………………….76, 855, 878 – Jews…………………………….984, 9S5 .- Prison Association …….. "'" .. .. .. … 75 -Korea…………………………….. 237 PAGE PAGE – Fresh Air Fund …………………… 231 – Romanism ………………………… 893 WO~IN – Salvation Army……….. .. ………. 892 – Unoccupied Fields…….•………. 375, 540 – Africa…………………………….. 229 – Victorian Era, lIIissionary Achieve- – China………. , …………….897, 781, 787 – India…………………52, 76, 2'73, SSI}, .632 ments of the……………………… 620 – Indi(Ul, American……………. : .. 232, 791 – Victorian Reign and Missions, The….. 444 – Mexico ……….., ……. …. .. .. . .. .. … 812 Virgin 'of Andocolla, The, Rev. Edson A. – Mohammedan……………….. ;; .228, 812 Young Men's Christian Association. (See Lowe (illustrated)…………. , ……. 575 Volunteer Movement, American.. , …… , 209' OrganizatilY1t8) . .888, 450, 556, 618, 711 Volunteer Movement, The European Ex- Young Women's Christian Association.
tension of the, Rev. Donald Frazer… 121 (See Organizations).. .. . .. .. … • …… 450 WEST INDIES. (See Cuba, Jamaica) 195 Young People's Organizations, Arthur T. – Christianity in the, Rev. David Bland.. 195 Wives ot Missionaries…. " …•……74, 707 Pierson ………………….. __ …… 561 Woman's Work…74,312,472,473,632,6'73, Young People's Society of Christian En- 711,790,872 deavor…………………………… 561 Woman'sWork in Missions, A. T. Pierson. 641 Young People's Work………….813,314, 8'73 Women 'as Missionaries…… , …. 319,632, 6'73 Zion, The Time to Favor, A. C. Gaebelein. 889 Zionist Movement, D. L. Pierson …….. 1)42
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1897
A GROlJP OF UGANDA
1. The Rev. R. P. Ashe and Native Teachers and Boys at Nassa. 2. A Church Collection. 3. The King's Wives. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOT,. xx. No. 6.-0ld &riea. – JUNE – VOL•. X. No. 6.-Ndto tJeries.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CE~TURY:. INDEPENDENT MISSIONS.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
"0 GOD, I BELONG TO THEE l"
Wendell Phillips was recognized as perhaps, in his day, the fore- most of American orators. There was especially noticeable about him a marked ethical momentum. No other word so well expresses it.
Momentum is 'the product of the mass of matter by the velocity of movement. When he spoke on great moral questions, he oarried his auditor with him by an oratorical force, into which entered two grand elements: first, there was a noble, strong,weighty manhood back of the speech; and second, there was a rapid, onward movement in forcible argument and intense earnestness of emotion and 'lofty purpose, all facilitated by simplicity of diction and aptness of iIius- '
tration. '.
This American Demosthenes had gone through the temptations, which a rich young man confronts, to early dissipation, and developt a great moral character, which must cause him ever remain one of the noblest figures in the history of New England. '
An interesting fact is related of his early boyhood: One day, after hearing Lyman Beecher preach, he repaired to his rQom, threw himself on the floor, and cried: "0 God, I belong to Thee! Take what is Thine own. I ask this, that whepever .a thing be wrong it may have no power of temptation oveJ,' me, and whenever a thing be right it may take no courage to do it!' '
"And," observed Mr. Phillips in later years, "I have never found anything thatimprest me as being wrong, exerting any temptation be over me, nor has it required any courage on my part to do whatever I believed to right':" .
mat a. key toahumau lifel In that supreme hour his higher moral nature, witL Hod's help, fl1ibjugated his lower self; and fQr him~ • ThIa periodical adopts the'Orthography of the following Rule, rec<lmmended by the Jbint action of the American' Philological Association and the Philological Society of England :-Change d or ed 1Inal to , when so pronollIlCed. except when the e deets a p~ sound.-PtlBLIsDlCBS.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
henceforth, there was no compromise with animal passion, carnal ambition, selfishness, cupidity, or any other debasing inclination; they were" snppliants at the feet of his soul."
The supreme motive to world-wide missions is found when any man or woman can say from the heart, "0 God, I belong to Thee!'" and no other impulse is proof against all worldly argument and temporary discouragement.
We are now, in the natural course of these careful tracings of the spiritual movements of our time, to look at some of those undertakings which aim at the rapid evangelization of the world, and for SOUle reason have cut loose froUl the ordinary denominational and corporate methods. One of these-and there are many others operating in North Airica, South America, Korea, etc.-the China Inland Mission, stands out conspicuous, and is taken as an example of all, as it is, perhaps, entitled to outrank the rest, both from priority in time and scriptural simplicity of method. Its history has recently been put into a printed record, and we can safely commend its careful perusal to those who would more minutely look into one of the most romantic, heroic, and inspiring chapters which modern missions has added to the unfinisht " Acts of the Apostles." * The history of this enterprise now spans a little more than a quarter century, and already its stations are scattered over an area continental in extent; its missionary force numbers nearly 700, with about 350 native helpers,-a total working force of about 1,000last year reporting about 250 stations and outstations, over 5,200 communicants, and 18,000 adherents, having added 850 last year; 66 schools, with 880 pupils, and an income for the last reported year of nearly 170,000 dollars. Interdenominational from the first, and now international, it has given such ample scope for testing the practicability of the principles which underlie it and the methods which it advocates, that there is a certain obligation on us to examine candidly and carefully jnto its annals, that we may see if God is not behind it, teaching us all some great lessons.
Its founder, Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, himself asserts that" the firm belief in the plenary and verbal inspiration of GOD'S WORD lies behind the whole work; it is assumed that His promises mean exactly what they say, and that His commands are to be obeyed in the confidence that' all things are possible to him that believeth.''' He adds: "a personal experience of more than forty years has growingly confirmed this confidence, and has shown us ever new directions in which to apply it. We were early led to trust the LORD to supply pecuniary needs in answer to prayer, and then to obtain, in the same way,jellow workers and open doors j bnt we did not learn, till later, what it is to 'abide in' CHRIST, and to find spiritual need all met, * "Story of the China Inland Mission." Geraldine Guinness. F. H. Revell Co. and keeping p011Jer through faith in Him. More recently the infilling and refilling with the HOLY SPIRIT has taken a place among us, as a mission, that it had not before; and we feel that we are still only beginning to apprehend what God can do through little bands of fully yielded, fully trusting, overflowingly filled believers.
"Thus we have come to value missionary work, not merely for the sake of the heathen, but also as a spiritual education for the missionary, who, in the field learns, as never at home, to find OHRIST a living, bright reality; nor is the education confined to the missionary, but blesses also the beloved ones at home, who, having 'nothing too precious for the LORD JESUS,' have given up their dearest and best, and who share in their hundred-fold reward. Such prove that it is indeed 'more blessed to give than to receive,' and the whole church at home is not less blessed than the heathen abroad." * This testimony of the founder of the Ohina Inland Mission we give thus fully, because he is entitled to be heard in explanation of his own course, and in interpretation of the history inseparable from his personal convictions and endeavors. It will thus be seen at the outset, how emphatically the brief sentence which opens this article, may be written over this whole work: "0, God, I belong to Thee I"
God demands on the part of His true servants, a perfect and perpetual surrender unto Him, without reservation or limitation. We -take Him, as He takes us, once and for all, or not at all. He will not consent to be made a liar by our disbelief, to be dishonored by our distrustful experiments, or to accept 'our self-offerings under any conditions as to service, or suffering, sphere of labor or length of time. We are to give ourselves to him beyond recall, and bear the covenant in constant remembrance. These conditions are not arbitrary or unreasonable. They are the necessary and indispensable requisites to a true consecration. God can not receive us, we can not become His, in any other way or on any other terms; and above all must such surrender prepare us for any large, spiritual, successful mission to a dying world.
This paper is not a biography of Mr. Taylor, hence we pass by much which is of the profoundest interest that we may dwell on the character of the mission work which he founded and his connection therewith.
In the autumn of 1860, Mr. Taylor came back to England, after seven years of absence in Ohina, years of strange providential preparation for the great enterprise he was to launch. At this time no definite thought of attempting any such stupendous work as the evangelization of Inland Ohina had yet entered his mind. To go even one hundred miles inland implied a long and perilous journey; and with one notable exception-that of Rev. Griffith John and Mr.
• The italios and oapitals are Mr. Taylor's. A. Wylie-the far interior had never yet been penetrated with the Gospel.
But on the wall of Mr. Taylor's room hung a large map of China, and when his eye fell upon it, eighteen populous provinces stood out, in deep black, as all in a darkness that might be felt. And from that map he turned to the Book, which said" Ye are the Ligltt of the world;" and the question would recur constantly: There a midnight; here the Sun of Righteousness; how may that Sun be made to shine in that night? Mr. Taylor and his colleague, Mr. Gough, could not live without laying this whole matter before the Lord, and they found themselves on their knees pleading that somehow God wonld drive away that awful darkness by sending forth His light and His truth. In two of God's choice saints, Mr. and Mrs. Berger, a symphony of desire and prayer was found; Mr. Taylor's pen began to burn with his message, and by degrees the zeal of God more and more controlled him.
On the other hand, he could not but see that the church as a whole was slumbering while the world was dying. Dr. Duff's awful sentence: "We are playing at missions," seemed to describe only too aptly the trifling with the great problem of a world's redemption, which allows fifteen hundred millions of people to perish, three times a century, and two-thirds of the whole number without even knowing that Christ died for them! And after 1,800 years of Christian history, eleven vast interior provinces of the Oelestial Empire, had not one resident Protestant missionary. In China alone, at least onetenth of the whole race were dying without Christ, or even the opportunity of hearing the Gospel. He felt the conviction grow that some new and special agency for the evangelization of Inland China was needful, which should dare to trust God for both the open door into the heart of the Kingdom, and for the men and money to do the work.
A question now arose in his mind; God has given you light, and light means responsibility. You see the need clearly; why not go ahead and trust God to work out His designs through you? The thought had a grip on him and would not let go. It was early in the year 1865, when this conflict began to be intense in his soul, and unbelief was battling with faith, and self-distrust with confidence in God for tIle victory. Sleep almost fled from his eyes. The sense of blood guiltiness for the million a month who were dying in China, was both a load on his heart and a goad to his conscience. And on June 1st, at Mr. Berger's chapel, he appealed for intercession with God, that suitable men and means might be furnisht for ihe evangeilzation of these destitute eleven provinces. But at this time Hudson Taylor had not got to the point of self-surrender as one of this new band-not to say as the leader.
An invitation from Mr. George Pearse, to rest for a few days at Brighton, brought him to an unexpected crisis of decision. It was Sunday, June 25, 1865, and the church bells rang. But Mr. Taylor could not go to the place of public prayer, for the overwhelming shadow of Ohina's need rested on him also, and he could not forget that, while these assemblies of disciples were gathered in their superb sanctuaries, rejoicing in their ample privileges, and heedless of the heathen, more than one thousand souls in Ohina would pass into the unseen world, Ohristless. His agony of soul drove him from the house to the beach, where he could walk and talk with God, looking out on that wide sea which was the fitting symbol of the awful ocean of eternity, which was swallowing up all these vast millions while its unrippled calm was undisturbed by their doom.
On those sands, this humble man, alone with God met the crisis of his life. "God can give the men to go to Ohina, and God can keep them there;" this was the voice that spoke to him that June morning. The decision was made: "Thou LORD shalt be responsible for them, andfor me, too." The burden was gone. Hudson Taylor first gaye himself to the Lord for Ohina, and then askt for those who should go with him: twenty-four in all-two for each of the eleven provinces, and two more for Mongolia. On the margin of his Bible he at once wrote down this brief sentence, which remains the simple record of that momentous transaction with the God of the covenant: " Prayed for twenty-four willing, skillful laborers, at Brighton, June 25, 1865."
Again we must take a leap over all the fascinating details of preparation, lest we delay too long. Mr. Taylor was at this time thirtythree years old-where his Lord was-as to age, when he went to the Oalvary where he bore our sins. The plan of the Ohina Inland Missions slowly took shape. It must be wholly scriptural, for otherwise prayer would lose its power to claim blessing. Let the plan be here outlined. The mission must be: 1. Interdenominational.-Oatholic, evangelical, and so both inviting and embracing all sympathetic disciples who were willing to cooperate.
2. Spiritual.-No intellectual, social, personal accomplishments, no wealth, rank, position, could atone for the lack of a thoroughly spiritual type of character in the workers and the administrators. Educational advantages were not to be despised, but they must be supplemented by gifts and graces of the Spirit.
3. Scriptural.-Debt must never be incurred. No regular salaries could be pledged, for this implies an assured and definite income. Whatever God gave, would be used as given, for the work and the workers. Only those who were prepared to accept this basis would be accepted.
4. Voluntary.-Dependence both for men and womeu, and for means, must be on free-hearted self-offering and offerings of substance. Appeals to be avoided as tending first to a dependence on human effort; second, to impulsive and unconsecrated giving; third, to diversion of attention from God as the supply of all need. Appeals to men dishonor God, and mislead men, for they imply that God is unduly dependent on human gifts. Hence it was determined to make no collections in connection with the mission meetings, but leave the hearer to contribute afterward as mature thought and prayer might dictate.
5. Prayerful.-Literally full of prayer. And the noontide hour, then given up to a household meeting, at the throne of grace, for China, and the Saturday afternoon larger meeting for the same purpose, set the key to the concert of prayer that for a quarter of a century has never failed.
In a word, this was felt to be the supreme need: "to get God's man, in God's place, doing God's work in God's way, for God's glory." " God alone is sufficient for God's own work."
God seemed to say to Mr. Taylor as in an audible voice: "i am going to open Inland Ohina to tne Gospel: if you will enter into My plea. I will use you for this work."
These were the days when conventions were beginning to be held for promotion of spiritual life, but the missionary appeal was seldom heard in them; and just now Mr. Taylor found himself in Perth at the annual conference. He himself had been a beloved fellow-worker of William Burns, and this happy link gave him access to the leaders of the conference; and he askt that he might say a few words for the Middle Kingdom and its needy provinces. "My dear sir," was the response, "it is quite out of the question; you surely misunderstand; these meetings are for EDIFICATION!" Persistence again prevailed, and Mr. Taylor got a chance-twenty minutes only-at the morning meeting. Doubly shy, because his native timidity was intensified by the reluctance of the permission given, he rose, stood silent a moment, unable to begin, and then quietly said: "Let us pray." Five minutes of his twenty were taken up in getting boldness from God to use the other fifteen for Ohina and Ohina's Savior. That lifted the load, and he first told of a drowning Ohinaman and the indifference of bystanders to his fate; then, like Nathan, applied his parable, and said: "Thou art the man!" And so Hudson Taylor began his convention work. And where is the conference that now would not welcome him? As the days came when the actual bearing of the burdens of this new mission began to bow down the backs of those who had undertaken it, at times it seemed as though a horror of deep darkness was upon them. What if, after all, money were not forthcoming, and workers were there starving in Inland Ohina, and the whole work became a by-word of derision and reproach I The last day of the year, 1865, was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer. Each one of that little band of praying souls sought to keep in such close harmony with God, that the symphony of prayer might be music in His ear as well as their own. And as of Jacob at Peniel, it may be written: "AND HE BLESSED THEM THERE." SO conspicuous was the blessing received that day, that December 31st has been for twenty-five years the annual prayer and praise feast of the mission both in China and at home.
From this point on, also the history of the China Inland Mission seems to us, who have watched its whole course with tender interest, like the footsteps of God. On February 6, 1866, special prayer was offered at noon that the Lord would graciously incline His people to send in from £1,500 to £2,000 to meet the expenses of the outgoing party of ten brethren and sisters who had offered to accompany Hudson Taylor. On March 12th following, before the first printed statement of the work was in circulation, Mr. Taylor footed np the receipts of the mission cash book, and it was found that over 1,970 pounds had come in unaskt, save of God. The need was more than met before the want had been made known to the Christian public.
Thus early in the mission this lesson was taught and learned, that if there were less pleading with man for money and more pleading with God and dependence on His Spirit, to guide in the work and to deepen the spiritual life of God's people, the problem of missions might find its solution. During this whole period it has been found that o-od has met every special need by a special supply, and that when the special need ceased, so did the supply. The whole party that first sailed May 26, 1866, numbered twenty-one, including children.
On May 2, before sailing, Hudson Taylor spoke on China at Totteridge near London, and it was thought a mistake that he declined to have any collection taken at the meeting. His host, the Ghairman, had remonstrated against his not striking while the iron was hot, but Mr. Taylor quietly assured him that he wished to avoid the impression that the main thing wanted was money, and that if there was a true self-surrender, all else would follow. His host next morning acknowledged that he had passed a restless night; that if he had had his way, the collection would have been taken, and he would have put in a few guineas; but that further reflection and prayer had satisfied him that such gift would have only been an evasion of duty, whereupon he handed Mr. Taylor a check for 500 pounds sterling.
The voyage to China on the Lammermuir was itself a mission to the unsaved, and twenty of the crew found the Savior, and among them, some of the most unlikely and most opposed at the first; in fact, the opposers all came over. But the voyage was not without trials. Two typhoons struck the vessel. Even the sailors gave up hope, and the life-belts were gotten out in readiness for the worst. But God wrought deliverance from shipwreck-a type of many other deliverances, all His own. A subscription of more than 120 dollars from the officers and crew was a sufficient witness to the fact that God had been with this mission party on the outgoing voyage.
It would be fascinating to our readers to spread the whole story of these twenty-seven years before them. But these pages are not the place for extended accounts. It was marvellous, however, how needs and s).lpplies exactly corresponded, in amounts of money and fitness of time, so that another motto was suggested: "GoD's clocks keep perfect time."
The year 1867 opened with united prayer, that God would extend and advance the work, and closed with the opening of the great city of Wan-chow to the Gospel, Siao-shan, Tai-chau, and Nan-King, having also been occupied. The number of stations had doubled, and the border had been crossed into Kiang-su province.
The little band had to face the risk of death in the Yang-Chow riot, but God kept them in the midst of great perils, and showed himself their avenger also; for all those who were concerned in that outbreak, singularly fell into trouble. The prefect and his son lost their lives, their property was pillaged, and the family reduced to beggary; the district magistrate, the whole family of one of the chief inciters of the riot, and the leader in ruffianism became infaIl1-ous; so that the people feared to join in any further violence against those whom God so defended.
When Mrs. Taylor died in 1891, and the partner in his prayers was no more on earth, he said to the LORD: "Be Thou my partner in supplication, as well as my High Priestly intercessor," and another step was taken in fellowship with the Great Friend, who said: " Lo, I am with you alway."
The gradual opening of Inland China to the Gospel, and the growth and influence of woman's work in the far interior; the itinerary preaching that covered 30,000 miles in two years, through regions beyond, hitherto almost unvisited; and especially that most memorable prayermeeting for seventy new workers within three yearsj the faith that took God at His word and turned that prayer-meeting into one of praise in anticipation of answered prayer, and the glorious answer that followed long before the three years expired-the story of " the h1tndred" given in the year when the mission reached its majorityall this, and far more, we have to pass by without further reference. The work has now included America, Europe, Australia in its scope, and embraces councils in five lands, which send out and support their own representatives.
To only one more thing we tarry to call attention: It is to the careful and admirable financial system of the Ohina Inland Mission. More than one grand mission work has been wrecked in public confidence by mismanagement or close management of its funds. The public that sustains a work has a right first to know what is done with the money given, and then to have some voice in the conduct of the work. There is a great risk of autocracy in the Lord's affairs. Sometimes a man with whom a new benevolent or mission enterprise originates, either determines to keep the whole matter in his own hands, or does it without deliberate design. His head becomes its office and his pocket its treasury. The work enlarges aud the constituency of supporters grows correspondingly. But he continues to be the factotum. His judgment is the final court, perhaps the only court of appeal. He gives no account to anybody, and, with or without the withdrawal of faith in his honesty, faith is lost in his wisdom, charity, and respect for the rights of his brethren; until, by and by, the work itself can no longer prosper unless it cuts loose from connection with him. We have seen at least seven such forms of good service split on this rock of autocratic management.
Geo. Miiller, Hudson Taylor, and others like them, have had the sanctified common sense to see that, when a work develops, its management should broaden also-and so they have associated with themselves a competent council of sympathetic advisers. But espe- , cially is it noticeable how transparent the financial methods of the Ohina Inland Mission are. Every penny given is first acknowledged to the donor, or the parties through whom it comes, by a numbered receiptj then in the publisht report, the amount is again acknow- ledged and can be distinguisht by its number, so that every gift, large or small can be traced. There is no chance either for misappropriation of funds, or for their appropriation by a merely autocratic and inde- pendent individual who is at the head of the whole work and who does as he pleases. This transparent conduct of the money part of this work inspires the full faith ofthe Ohristian public, and is partly the secret of this remarkable and unprecedented growth.
And now we reluctantly bring this extended paper to a close. The Ohina Inland Mission, is fallible and imperfect, and no doubt makes mistakes, but there are about it many great attractions.
Its beloved founder has sought to impress on aU who are connected with it the need of humility. Spurgeon used to tell of a certain alchemist who waited upon Leo X. declaring that he had discovered how to transmute the baser metals into gold, expecting to receive a sum of money for his discovery. Leo was no such simpleton; he merely gave him a huge purse in which to keep the gold which he would make. There was wisdom as well as sarcasm in the present. That is precisely what God does with proud men. He lets them have the opportunity to do what they boasted of being able to do. Not a solitary gold piece was dropt into that purse, and we shall, never be spiritually rich by what we can do in our own strength. Be stripped of self confidence aud be clothed with humility; and then God may be pleased to clothe you with honor; but not till then.
Dr. Payson said: "The most of my sufferings and sorrows were occasioned by my unwillingness to be nothing, which I am, and by struggling to be something."
Another fundamental principle constantly imprest on all these mission workers is absolute absorption in God, without which there is no real dependence on him or confidence in him. How often one recalls the sublimity of that quiet resolution of President Edwards: " Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most for God's glory and my own good, profit and pleasure, on the whole, without any consideration oj the time, whether now, or never so many myr1:ads ojages hence?" This is civil engineering that amounts to somethingsurveying and laying out a track through eternity! And the deeper and more quiet the solitude, the better it will be done. Such absorption in God is the only basis of an unchanging fixedness ojpurpose, our will being both lost and saved in union with His, losing its own carnal wilfulness and gaining His divine energy. Hear Sir Thomas Fowell Bulton: "The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between men-between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant-is energy, invincible determination, a purpose once fixt on, and then death or victory. This quality will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it."
And once more the China Inland Mission seeks to impress the great law of jellowship with God in His work. Hence comes the confidence that He will supply both men and means. Let the old story of " A Loan to the Lord," teach us a lesson in its quaint way. A poor man with an empty purse came one day to Michael Feneberg, the godly pastor of Seeg, in Bavaria, and begged three crowns that he might finish his journey. It was all the money Feneberg had, but as he besought him so earnestly in the name of Jesus, he gave it. Immediately after, he found himself in great outward need, and, seeing no way of relief he prayed, saying: "Lord, I lent Thee three crowns; Thou hast not yet returned them, and Thou knowest how I need them. Lord, I pray Thee, give them back." The salme day a messenger brought a money-letter, which Gossner, his assistant, reached over to Feneberg, saying: "Here, father, is what you expended." The letter contained about 200 thalers, or about $150, which the poor traveler had begged from a rich man for the vicar; and the childlike old man, in joyful amusement, cried out: "Ah, dear Lord, one dare ask nothing oj Thee, jor straightway Thou makes! one feel so much ashamed /"
TIlE TRANSFoRMATION OF UGANl>A
THE TRANSFORMATION OF UGANDA.-I. – BY T. A. GURNEY, M.A., LL.B.
It is scarcely more than fifty years ago since the intrepid mission- ary Krapf landed at Mombas on the East African coast to carry out his great missionary design. That design illustrates at once the imperialism and iudividualism of the true missionary instinct. Here is one solitary man who has buried his wife and only child on the mainland opposite Mombas three months after his landing, bereaved, fever-stricken, lonely, unsupported by the enthusiasm and interest at home, which his own mission was to arouse for the Africa of to-day. To his journeys we owe the discoveries of Burton' and Speke, of Baker, and Livingtone, and Stanley, to his missionary zeal the lives and deaths of Hannington, Mackay, Mackenzie, Smythies, Parker, and many others, whose bones lie buried beneath the stones by the quiet lakeshore at Usambiro. When he lands there is for the world no Victoria, or Albert Nyanza, no Nyassaland, no snow-crowned Kenia or Kilimanjaro, only vaguely rumored Tanganyika, and stories of a great lake. East Africa is in the hands of Africans still, ruled from Zanzibar, and in the west the Kongo has not been even named. The French are all powerful in Egypt. The English and Portuguese hold ineffectively a few places on the East African coast. The Suez Canal has not even been talkt of, and ships creep slowly to Zanzibar round the cape in 81 days from England. Frere Town has not begun to rise around the consecrated spot on the shore, which marks the grave of Krapf's noble wife. English relationships with Egypt, with Abyssinia, with the Sudan, so important in their effects hereafter on the Uganda Mission, the outcome of three important wars, are still undreamt of. The partition of Africa has not entered the heads of the most farsighted European statesmen.
Yet this lonely man of faith, joined two years after by Rebmann, conceives the magnificent thought of a chain of mission stations across Africa from East to West, which shall fulfill the idea which he had conceived much earlier of the Apostles' Street to run the breadth instead of the length of the entire continent. Krapf's thought is in process of realization. In fact, the close of the century will almost see it accomplisht, as the Missions in the Kongo Free State join hands near the Great Lake, with the missions of Eastern Equatorial Africa. Of all the gigantic schemes and projects of which Africa has formed and still forms the subject, there is none so truly imperialistic as this. Yet with that imperialism a holy individualism of self-sacrifice and realized personal responsibility is manifest.
, He stept across that first grave on the African shore to find a way for Ohrist into Darkest Africa. And as he stept on he sent his message back to the Ohurch Missionary Society: "Tell our friends that there is on the East African coast a lonely grave of a member of the mission cause connected with your Society. This is a sign that you have commenced the struggle with this part of the world, and as the ,ictories of the Ohurch are gained by stepping over the graves of many of her members, you may be the more convinced that the hour :s at hand when you are summoned to the conversion of Africa from its Eastern shore."
From that feeble yet glorious beginning arises the whole story of the Central Africa of to-day in its every aspect, religious, political, scientific, and industrial. The discoveries of Krapf and Rebmann led to the explorations of Speke and Burton, and the discovery of Tanganyika and the Victoria Nyanza, and, later on, to the discovery by Speke and Grant of the sources of the Nile. These, in turn, inspired the journeys of Livingstone and Baker, the awakened interest of Europe in Africa, and that scramble for Africa which has not ceast even yet. From Livingstone's journeys arose the Universities Mission and from his death, the Scotch Mission in Nyassaland. To search for him Stanley went first to Africa. And it was Stanley's second journey which opened up Uganda, and led directly to the Uganda Mission, as well as the discovery of the Kongo, now the highway for four distinct missions. It is in connection with the earlier discoveries that we have our first glimpse of Uganda of 1862, when Speke reacht there in his explorations of the Nile and resided with the King Mutesa four months. Neither from the general coarseness of the description nor from the details of the picture presented does the Uganda of those days please us. We behold, in fact, a Court given up to intoxication and excess and a yonng monarch absolute in power, regardless of its· responsibilities, and delighting to wallow in the blood of his subjects, whom he ordered forth without even pretext to daily execution, which Speke continually beheld as events in which no one took any interest, except the unfortunate individual who was sufferer. Stanley's picture, 13 years later, is far more engaging. There is nothing in his book" Through the Dark Continent," more beautiful than his intercourse with Mutesa. In the Mutesa of those days we see a monarch tyrannical indeed but eager now for instruction, and under Stanley's teaching becoming half a convert of Christianity, while anxious that his people should have teachers. And we mark already the Waganda as a people dignified, distinguisht, well drest, all powerful in war whether by land or sea, (that is upon the great Lake), with a strongly centalized Government, and a cultivated land. Many of these contrasts were due to the arrival of one Moslem missionary in the inter~ Tal. Yet Stanley himself has to own the dark background behind it all still and the impaling, burning, and maiming of Mutesa's victims. He had the remarkable foresight to perceive the possibilities for Christ's Kmgdom which lay in the Wagandacharacter.
The modern history of Uganda begins with this visit of Stanley in November 1875. Stanley converst with the king much about Christianity, and resolved to win him as a convert from Mohammedanism, and the results of these interviews was a challenge sent by the explorer as he was leaving Uganda to the columns of The Daily Telegraph and The New York Herald, to the Christians of England and America, to send out missionaries to Mutesa, who, he declared, was ready to receive them. Some of his words might almost be a prophetic description of Mackay. "It is the practical Christian tutor, who call teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases, construct their dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand to anything like a sailor, this is the man who is wanted." Three days after this appeal the Church Missionary Society received an anonymous offer of £5,000 for this object, and within a few weeks £24,000 was raised. Early in the following year the first band of eight men, among whom were Alexander Mackay, a young Scotch engineer, Lieutenant Shergold Smith, a retired naval Lieutenant, Rev. C. T. Wilson, Dr. Smith, and Mr. O'Neill, an architect, started for the Lake. The rest of the party were artizans for the industrial work of the mission. Of this party only Wilson and Shergold Smith, and afterwards Mackay actually reacht their destination. Two were invalided home from the coast; another, an artizan, died there; Dr. Smith fell a prey to fever fatally on reaching the Lake, and Lieutenant Shergold.8mith on returuing to the south of the Lak;.e from a month's first sojourn in Uganda was massacred, with O'Neill, by the chief of the islaud of Ukerewe, in their endeavor to shield an Arab trader in a conflict which had arisen. Wilson was for a time the solitary forlorn hope of the mission in Uganda, tho he was afterwards joined by Mackay. He found Mutesa still upon the throne. But Mutesa, tho he received the missionaries in a friendly spirit, soon showed that he had no serious intention of acceptillg their doctrines. At times indeed, he would listen and even exhort his court to take to heart their lessons. But he hesitated himself between the old and the new, like King Edwin of Northumbria, in the days of the first conversion of England, and, unlike Edwin, the old influences were too strong. The missionaries had not been long in the country before there was a return to African heathenism. 'fhe priests of Mukasa, the divinity of the Lake, brought her in pomp, in the form of an old witch, to the capital, and, tho Mutesa owned to Mackay his disbelief in such heathen deities, yet he yielded before the storm which his reception of the missionaries had aroused among his people, and received her in state. This was followed by another reaction, which placed the M.ohammedans in the ascendency, and for a time the missionaries were in peril. An interdict was placed upon their teaching, and for a while they could scarcely obtain food. The arrival, in 1879, of the Roman Catholic missionaries,. bringing their presents of guns and gunpowder for the King, and denouncing them and their religion to him as false, added to their difficulties. From that moment the presence of a mission to all intents hostile to their work seriously complicated on many an after occasion their dangers. But in spite of the beginnings of persecution they were now to have the joy of gathering in their first fruits from Uganda to Christ. Mackay one day received a letter from a lad named Sembera whom he had taught to read, asking for Christian baptism. This took place in March, 1882, Sembera being joined in his confession of Christ by four other lads. Two dying young men showed their faith in their Savior by asking for baptism in the midst of the agonies of the plague. Heathen priests, chiefs, and members of the King's household became converts. Many came to be taught, and some drew near for the first time to the Lord's table. The work of the missionaries at this time is typical of the whole story of African missions. Mackay had already built his own house. With a toy printing press he was pouring forth as rapidly as possible outljne books of theology, mainly upon the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile learners were coming to him at all hours for instruction, and sick were being treated by means of the dispensary. But this was only a small portion of their duties. The King had to be humored, and this could only be done by making themselves useful to him. Building, digging, trench-making, road-leveling, planting, washing, brick-making, candle-making, are among the items of work enumerated by Mackay himself. Now it was a flag-post for the King, now a set of coffins for Namasole, the King's mother, now iron railings for the great tomb of Mutesa himself. For, in 1884, after the arrival of a fresh band of missionaries, including Ashe and Gordon, with whom Hannington himself had reacht the Lake, being compelled reluctantly to return invalided home, Mutesa died, being succeeded by his son Mwanga, the present king. The contrast in their characters was manifest from the very first. With Mutesa cruelty, with Mwanga self-indulgence, were the chief hindrances to their becoming Christians. During Mutesa's reign the most frightful atrocities had been perpetrated. More than 2,000 had been massacred at the rebuilding of his father's tomb. During his last illness a similar massacre was ordered with the idea that it would assist his recovery. Two hundred Mohammedan boys were slaughtered on another occasion, because Mutesa's pages refused, under Moslem influence, to eat beef at the King's table. For the most fanciful of reasons the most frightful mutilations and tortures were inflicted, some people being placed in furnaces and slowly roasted to death. The" Strong Man armed " fought hard to retain possession of the heathen king's heart to the last, and he succeeded. Yet, when Mutesa died, au instance of the power of the new faith to change old heathen customs was not wanting. It had. been usual for all the relations of the succeeding king to be put to death on his accession, and the occasion was made one of universal plunder and wholesale murder. At Mutesa's death these elements of heathenism for the first time disappeared.
The new King had none of Mutesa's strength of character. Mwanga's cruelty sprang not from love of cruelty, but because he feared the new faith, and shrank from its exposure, through the courage of his pages, of his shameful personal vices. Coupled with this was the growing fear that his kingdom was being sur- rounded by Europeans. With General Gordon stm ruling the Sou- dan, and even contemplating the annexation of Uganda to Egypt, with German influence increasing at the coast, and mission stations spreading through the regions south of the Lake. Mwanga dreaded the race influences which the missionaries represented, and thus lent a ready ear to the Arab Moslems and heathen chiefs round about him. It was not long before the persecutions broke out, which have made the annals of the Infant Church of Uganda so glorious. Three such persecutions markt the first two years of Mwanga's reign. The first probably arose from the false reports as to the designs of the Christian missionaries spread by the Arabs. The order went forth to seize and kill all Christians found visiting them. Mackay and Ashe were stopt on their way to the Lake whither they were journeying to a neighboring station, separated from their boys, and roughly turned back. Three of their boys were captured, and, unknown at the time to the missionaries, were hurried off to a lonely swamp some little distance from the capital. A rude scaffold was erected on the edge of the swamp and piled with fire wood. Then, as he prepared to torture them, Mujasi, the king's fierce executioner, taunted them as scholars of the missionaries with their faith. " Oh, you know Isa Masiya (Jesus Christ) ; you know how to read. You believe you will rise from the dead. Well, I shall burn you and we shall see." The lads answered back fearlessly, and even sang the hymn they had learned. Then one by one, after their limbs had been thrown into the fire, they were roasted to death. Lugulama, the youngest, was the child of Wahuma parents, and had been captured in· a slave raid made by the Waganda, after his parents had been dragged off, and he had seen, hiding in the thick bush, the burning of his home. A chief friendly to the mission had claimed him when others were about to put him to death, and had handed him over to Ashe on his return to the capital, who set him free, and kept him at the mission. He was a delicate lad, and pleaded, but in vain, that he might " only be cast into the fire." But he did not deny Christ. Thus the Infant Church faced in its youngest members its first baptism of blood. And these martyrdoms were immediately followed by a crowd of eager enquirers. . Another disaster was soon to happen. Hanningtpn h~returned to England invalided in 18~3, but in June 1884 he w~ consecrated Bishop of Eastem Equatorial Africa, and in July, 1885.. he started on his journey from the coast to Uganda. The incidents of that jour- '
ney, and ,of its. sad but noble climax, are too well known to need de- tailed relation here.. Hannington was/unaware of the great danger in whioh be- had placed himself by choosing the route 00. Uganda which lay through Busoga. For the Waganda. had a tradition that their country could bot be conquered except through foreigners coming from the east through Busoga as its backdoor.. He was a.dvancing upon Uganda at a. time when the king lookt aska.zice upon all Europeans, and he was reported to the king as. a most important man, and had chosen the .dreaded route. In vain did. the mi.s.8ionaries write and wam hjm,. for their warnings. never ,rea.cht him.. He arrived indeed at the Nile safely, and: was within a. day's' journey of Uganda. But, on the. threshold of the conntry, by the kings order .he was stopt and after terrible sufferings put to death. The recovered . diary of those last days of the life of one of the most fearless of God's saints has stimulated the faith· and love of millions. Stricken with African fever, which often made him delirious, shut off from his loved servants, confined to a Qlose and filthy hut, surrounded by a drunken guard, tortured by horrible vermin, gazed; upon in his humiliation by idle and curious sightseers, gloating over his fall, awaiting the uncer- tain future with its possible call to a painfl~l death, Hannington found in those dark houl's consolation in the alternating notes of the psalmist, and, above all, rest in the Lo.d as his "light and his salva- .tion "(Psalm xxvii, 1). . When dragged forth to die h~ m.emorable words to. the Wagands. envoys were, "Tell your 'king 1 have purchased the TOad to Uganda with my life."
The murder. of Hanbington was followed by a more .serious ,out- break of the persecution in Ugauda. For a time the. mission prem- ises were practically closed from any coutact, with the .peopJe and all who welit there went at peril of their lives. .The missionaries .them- selves were in danger, and were only summoned to the king to be threatened and questioned, not knowing themselves what a day would bring forth.. But they stirred Up.tbeir co;nverts. to be. tr1).eto Christ by secret messages. And the Christians held ,their ground. o..ne of the princesses threw away het heathen charms. The boy pages of the king's court refused to commit sin at the king's bidding. . The young Admiral, Gabunga, sent word under cover of midnight that he de- sired baptism. The elders of the church appointed by the missionar- ies held secret meetings for reading and prayer in their own houses
A GROUP OF AFRICAN SLAVE
THE OPEN BORE OF THE WORLD AND ITS HEALING
under cover of darkness, and at these meetings Gabunga and others were baptized. The king's head page boldly told him that it was wrong to kill Hannington and was immediately burnt. Meanwhile Mackay and Ashe, expecting their work might end at any moment, pusht forward tho printing of St. Matthew's Gospel, which appeared in its first form in the very midst of all these troubles, in November, 1885. It was a bright omen of the victory which was coming.
THE OPEN SORE OF THE WORLD AND ITS HEALING.
BY HELl CHATETAlN, NEW YORK.
"All I call add in my solitude is, may heaven's rich blessing come down on every one- American, English, or Turk-who will help to heal this open sore of the world. "-Livingstone's last plea.
When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he went into the synagogue of Nazareth, and having received the book of the prophet Isaiah, he read for his text this passage: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." And when He had returned the book to the minister, He began to say unto them, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."
The liberty which the Son of Man came to proclaim to captives or slaves, was not only the moral deliverance from the bondage of sin, or the mental emancipation from the thraldom of intolerance; it was also the physical liberation of man from bodily slavery. To effect this emancipation, He took upon Himself the form of a slave. He performed the labor of a slave; He was sold for the price of a slave; He died the death of a slave. If in the unfolding of His text Jesus portrayed to His audience the gradual realization through the countries of this threefold emancipation, as every student of history can now easily discern it, well might His hearers wonder at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. Well may we, too, in these closing years of the century, wonder and bear Him witness, as we see Him marching victoriously to the final triumph; breaking shackles and fetters as with a rod of iron; dashing in pieces satanic institutions like potter's vessels; and taking the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.
At the time when Jesus annonnced the fulfilment of the ancient prophesy, slavery was everywhere a legal institution against which no reformer raised his voice. The great men of Greece and Rome were hard-hearted slave-owners; and the great generals of antiquity, whom our children are taught to admire, were monstrous slave-raiders. On a single occasion Julius Oresar sold 63,000 conquered Gauls into slavery; and Cato, the virtuous, was unconscious of his shame when he described his infamous way of dealing with his own slaves. The historian who fails to see the connection of cause and effect between Christ's teaching and the abolition of slavery, must indeed be blind.
To-day every Christian child, whether in Europe or Asia, in America or Africa, knows that slavery is incompatible with the Spirit of Christ. But very few Christians, even among the best informed, have any couception of the extent to which slavery still exists, and of the horrors attending the slave-trade and plantation labor in Africa. And we can never quite rid ourselves of the illusion that what we do not know, does not exist. How many actually realize that Lincoln's proclamation did not emancipate all slaves; that thousands of African slaves continued to be imported into Cuba and South Ame~'ica, and that it was not until 1888, less than ten years ago, that the millions of negro slaves in Brazil were declared free ? Nor was this liberation of the last American slaves the final act of the Universal Anti-Slavery Movement. It was rather to be the stepping-stone to the emancipation of fifty millions of our fellow-men who are still groaning in abject slavery throughout the length and breadth of the Dark Continent.
The Brazilian Emancipation Act had barely been proclaimed, when Cardinal Lavigerie stirred all Europe with his accounts of the atrocities committed by Mohammedan slave-raiders in the newly opened regions of Africa; and as a result of these addresses, new anti-slavery societies sprang up in almost all European countries.
Urged on by public opinion, the civilized powers, including the United States, met at the Brussels Conference of 1888-89, and in the hundred articles of the Brussels Act laid down the rules which should govern them in the suppression of the African slave-trade and in the gradual abolition of domestic slavery. Since the Brussels Conference the principal Arab slave-raiders in the Lualababas in, in Nyassaland, and in German East Africa, have been brought to terms by a series of military campaigns. From one end of the Sudan to the other, however, open slave raids are going on uncheckt; and within the boundaries of nearly all protectorates slave-trading operations are still carried on by the natives themselves. The estimate of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, placing the number of the victims annually murdered in this inhuman business at 500,000, seems to be rather an underestimate than otherwise. A rapid survey of the great Dark Continent-5,000 miles long by 4,800 wide-will help the reader to grasp the possibility of such a state of things.
"In Morocco," says a resident missionary, "the traffic in human flesh is making regretable development. Children of tender years, as well as pretty young women, are sold in the most shameful fashion. Heart-breaking are the stories from the lips of these slaves of indescribable horrors in crossing the desert plains-a camel journey of 40 days duration." The Anti-Slavery Reporter tells of Jewish and Moorish women who were stripped and exposed for sale. In Sus and Terudant there are houses for breeding black children, and the little human chattels always find purchasers, not only among the Moors, but also among the Jews. "There is scarcely a single Jewish protege under the American or Brazilian flag who has not slaves."
In Tripoli the condition is not much better. On the west coast of the Red Sea a brisk trade in slaves and eunuchs is carried on with impunity. "The many little harbors formed by the coral reefs" – says Mr. J. Theo. Bent – " offer every assistance to Arab dhows in coming over and secretly obtaining their cargoes." In his vast domains" the Khalifa has a large number of' zarebas,' or armed stations, whence his men start on their slave raids. The captured men are drafted into the army, where, no doubt, they become slave-hunters themselves; the women and children are sold to the Khalifa's faithful followers." In the small islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, which are owned and governed by Great Britain, more than half the population consists of slaves, most of whom have recently been smuggled in against formal treaties.* From Pemba and other places slaves are exported to Arabia and Persia, and 1,500 dhows are said to be engaged in this business. The treatment of the slaves on the clove plantations is so "humane," that seven years is the average of a slave's life. As to domestic slavery in Mohammedan homes, Mr. G. F. Elliott, author of "A Naturalist in Mid-Africa," says: "Both slave-boys and slave-girls are hopelessly depraved_ The immorality is such that probably not one quarter of those who die are replaced by those brought up in the household." The latest official report of the German Colonial Office acknowledges that slave-trading still exists in German East Africa, and that its suppression is necessarily slow. From Nyassaland a missionary writes: "The Angoni tribe possess from 100,000 to 150,000 slaves. The sole possession of these poor creatures is a strip of goat or cat skin around their loins, frequently only a little bark. They are kept in SUbjection by two species of terrorism. The first is the spear; the second is the poison ordeal, which is administered to the friends and relatives of 11 fugitive slave, sometimes to fifty persons at a time. In one village, recently, eleven persons lay dead from this cause."
In Madagascar the recent abolition of slavery by the French government is effective only where French rule is acknowledged and enforced.
• The daily press has just publlsht a telegram, dated Zanzibar, Apr1l6, In which the abolition of legal slavery, through a decree of the puppet Sultan, is announced. The government will pay compensation for all the slaves legally heJd. Yielding to the vigorous campaign led fo~any years by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and to many memorials and deputations from churches and missionary societies, the British government is thus, at last, puttin~ an end tQ tM scandalous anomaly It has so long tolerated In ZallZibar, In the Portuguese possessions, slavery is legally abolil!ht, but the law can be applied only where European altthorities are strongly implanted. The sugar-cane and coffee plantations are workt by imported blacks, who are bought and treated like slaves, but who are officially termed contract laborers. In the native language, the only one which they understand, they are still called slaves. Writing recently to a friend, an American missionary says: "Rum plantations are being opened all around us. These people, who sit in darkness, know no better than to sell themselves and their children for this poison.~' Then he gives instances of cruelties witnessed by a church member, once himself a slave. We quote one: " A slave ran away from a plantation. He was caught and brought back in the evening. Then he was taken under a tree and all the slaves of the plantation were called to witness his punishment. The white planter poured a bottle of kerosene over his head and lit it with a match. Every one who uttered a word of protest was thrasht with a Whip. The poor slave, burnt blind, with the scalp and skin of his face hanging down on his shoulders, was locked in a small room, and his low, mournful cry, 'water, water, water,' was heard by all the slaves.till nearly morning, and then all was quiet. The third day the door was unlocked, and the decayed mass of flesh and bones was buried in the road. I was askt whether I wisht to see the place."
In the cannibal region on the Mobanghi River, both in French and Kongo state territory, slaves are bought and killed for food. They far outnumber the free population, and form the regular currency.
In British Old Calabar, the bulk of the population is composed of slaves, and the important palm-oil trade of the Niger Delta is very largely the result of slave labor. In an official report, Sir John Kirk says of the Brass tribes: " They are a mixt race, recruited largely by the purchase of slaves from the pagan cannibal tribes, chiefly the Ibo people. Slaves are generally obtained when young. They grow up in the family, but are always liable to be sold. If human sacrifices are needed, it would be from these that the victims would first be taken."
Rev. C. H. Robinson, the latest authority on Hausaland, between Lake Tshad and the Niger River, states that "there are usually about 500 slaves on sale in the Kano market. Every town possesses its slave market, the annual tribute payable by the smaller towns to the larger and by these to the Sultan of Sokoto, consisting largely of slaves. The Provinces of Bautshi and Adamawa contribute no less than four thousand slaves per annum to the Sultan of Sokoto. During our stay in Kano as many as one thousand slaves were brought into the town on a single occasion, as the result of a slave-raiding expedition." The number of slaves in Hausa land he estimates at 5,000,000.
In 1894 the acting governor of Sierra Leone told Mr. Robinson that farther inland "he had past for seven days through burnt villages. In one place he came across a heap of slaves, who had just been killed, their owners having heard of his approach."
If these quotations suffice to prove the prevalence of slave-trading
E PCNISH~fENT OF AN AF RlCA;<!
For some s li gllt otfense a maeter. as a eOTllpal'atively rnild form of puni8hmen~ will cause a s]ave to be bound and placed in this position, with his face t",ward the 8un, until the agony becomes intense.
THE OPEN SORE OF THE WORLD ANDITB HEALING
in practically all parts of Africa, they ntterly fail to gi ve an adequate idea of the system of African slavery. It is a mistake to suppose that slavery was introduced into Africa by Arabian or American slave-trad- ers. African slavery is an indigenous plant. Its roots are found in the constitution of the African social order, and slavery can be eradi- cated only by a complete social reconstruction. 'rhe principal roots of the system are: 1. The right of parents (uncle or father) to sell their children. 2. The practise of polygamy, which occasions many raids on weaker tribes. 3. The sale of insolvent debtors, of murderers, adulteresses, witches, thieves and other criminals, slavery taking the place of penitentiaries. 4. The kidnapping of unprotected strangers. 5. The capture of men, women, and children in intertribal wars, most of which are practically slave-raids.
Wherever the powers which have partitioned Africa extend the effective occupation of their spheres of influence, they are confronted by difficulties arising out of the contradiction existing between the pagan or Mohammedan social order and European legislation.
The African slave trade, and domestic slavery itself, are condemned by the Brussels Act, and public opinion will not allow a government to legalize again the institution of slavery. Yet the immediate and forcible suppression of African slavery would cause rebellions, costly wa:t:s, and terrible bloodshed. What is then to be done? Force must be preceded and followed by persuasion and education. Model towns and free settlements must be founded, which shall show the natives that it is not only possible but profitable for them to live without slavery, polygamy, and poison ordeals, and where slaves liberated by the governments may receive protection and Christian instruction, so as to prevent their relapsing into their former state of barbarism. The need of such philanthropic work under the direction of societies due to private initiative, is recognized by the Brussels Act, and the governments are pledged to grant such agencies both protection and practical aid, without distinction of creed. The Roman Oatholic Church has not been slow to seize the opportunity thus offered by the good will of the powers. 'rhe Anti-Slavery Societies of Oatholic countries have raised, and are still raising, large sums of money, which enable them, in combination with the' church and colonial governments, to establish a net-work of Ohristian (Roman Oatholic) towns, largely composed of liberated slaves. It must be confest that the work of the Protestants in this line of effort can not compare with that of the Roman Oatholics. The Evangelical African League, of Berlin, has started one colony of freed slaves in the highland of Usambara, half way between Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro. The Universities Mission has a Slaves' Home at Zanzibar, and stations of other English societies occasionally adopt a few liberated slaves. But they are
PERSIAN MOHAMMEDANS AND MOHAMMEDANISM
not prepared to receive large numbers and build up Christian towns with Ch'ristian institutions. The Friends of Great Britain are about to acquire a plantation on the Island of Pemba, where freed slaves may find a safe refuge and employment.
A Slave Home, supported by French Protestants, has been in existeuce for several years near St. Louis, West Africa.
As might be expected, the Protestants of freedom-loving Switzerland, altho having not the least material interest in Africa, are, of all Protestants, showing the greatest zeal and generosity for the relief of African slaves. "The Slaves' Friends" of French Switzerland have raised the sum of $10,000, which they needed for their first settlement, and they will soon establish this in Ashantiland, where the Basel Mission has already adopted some freed slaves. The Swiss Society has over 4,500 subscribers, and its income is very largely derived from penny-a-week pledges. Freedom-boasting America, which ought to be the first in a practical effort to help others to obtain that Christian liberty which she so largely enjoys, is still lagging behind. The Phil-African Liberators' League, founded in 1896, is endeavoring to organize American participation in this blessed and Christlike work. Its immediate aim is to establish on the high and salubrious tableland between Benguella and Lake Nyassa, a free settlement, where free natives and liberated slaves may be reeeived and educated in the rudiments of civilization and Christian town life. The work will be divided into four principal departments, agricultural, industrial, educational, and medical or charitable, each to be in charge of a competent and devoted expert. The first settlement will probably be called "Lincoln," and $10,000 will enable the League to establish, it. Among the directors and officers of the League are many of the best known Christian leaders in America.* PERSIAN MOHAMMEDANS AND MOHAMMEDANISM.-I.f BY ROBERT E. SPEEIt.
Islam, almost more than South America, is entitled to the name of the "Neglected Continent." Six hundred years ago, in the days of the crusades, Raymond Lully strove nobly, but in vain, to sweep Christendom into a great missionary movement for the conversion of the Moslem, declaring, "I see many knights going to the Holy Land in the expectation of conquering it by force of arms; but * The address of the League is Room 518, United Charities Building, New York, and the secretary will gladly send literature to any address. t Thisis the first of a seri3s of promist articles from our beloved friend, Mr. Speer, who at the time of writing (Jan. 13, 1897), was just recovering from typhoid fever, at Ramadan, Porsia. Re is now visiting stations in the interior of China. Other articles will follow from various points of his missionary tour. instead of accomplishing their object, they are in the end all swept off themselves. Therefore it is my belief that the conquest of the Holy Land should be attempted in no other way than as Thou (Ohrist) and Thy apostles undertook to accomplish it-by love, by prayer, by tears, and the offering up of our own lives." Since Raymond Lully's . failure to call Ohristendom forth to a true crusade of Christ not against, but for the Moslem, the Ohristian Ohurch has sent out her missionaries by the hundred and the thousand to Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian, and has past Islam almost wholly by. Even the Church of Rome, brave to the point of utter sacrifice in every other enterprise, shuns this. Only little groups of men have been standing as advance guards at the gates of Mohammedanism which even in its decrepitude they have not ventured in their weakness boldly to assail.
In this general neglect of the peoples and lands subject to the faith of Islam, Persia has naturally shared. Henry Martyn visited the country in 1811 and past through on his way to his death at Tokat, but he was enfeebled by disease and gave most of his time to the work of translating the New Testament and Psalms. This translation he wisht to present to the king, before he past on. The greeting he received is worth quoting in his own words. As explanatory of the constant tone of Islam toward Ohristianity and of the church's timidity in facing its great problem: "June 12th I attended the vizier's levee when there was a most intemperate and Clamorous controversy kept up for an hour or two, eight or ten on one side and I on the other. The vizier, who set us going first, joined in it latterly and said, •You had better say God is God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.' I said. 'God is God,'but added, instead of 'Mohllmmed is the prophet of God,' 'and Jesus is the Son of God.' They had no sooner heard this, which I had avoided bringing forward until then, than they all exclaimed in contempt and anger, 'He is neither born nor begets,' (Koran, sura cxii.) and rose up as if they would have torn me in pieces. One of them said: 'What will you say when your tongue is burnt out for this blasphemy?' One of them felt for me a little and tried to soften the severity of this speech. My book, which I had brought, expect· ing to present it to the king, lay before Mirza shufi, as they all rose up, after him, to go, some to the king and some away. I was afraid they would trample upon the book, so I went among them to take it up, and wrapt it in a towel befoIe them. while they lookt at it and me with supreme contempt. Thus I walkt away alone to pass the rest of the day in heat and dirt. What have I done, thought I, to merit all this scorn? Nothing, thought I, but bearing testimony to Jesus. I thought over these things in prayers, and found that peace which Christ hath promist to His disciples."
The next visitor to Persia, who came to preach Ohrist, was Dr. Pfander, in 1829, who wrote" 'fhe Balance of 'I'ruth," a book fetting forth the comparative evidence of Christianity and Islam, whose mission is not yet ended. The same year Messrs. Smith and Dwight, of the American Board, were sent to explore the Nestol'ian section of the province of Azerbaijan, and their visit led to the first permanent Protestant missionary work in Persia, and the foundation in 1835 of the fruitful mission to the Nestorians. In 1833 also the Basle society establisht work at Tabriz, which Wil.B broken up by the bigotry of the people four years later, and not renewed. William Glen, a Scotch missionary, came in 1838, with a translation of the Old Testament into Persian, partially completed. In 1847 he finisht it, and combining. it with Martyn's New Testament, supplied Persia with the Bible. Dr. Robert Bruce came to Persia in 1869, and led the Church Missionary Society to undertake work at Julfa, near Ispahan, in 1876. Swedish and German missionaries were located in Azerbaijan for a w:llile, but are now withdrawn. The Roman Catholics have workt for years among the Armenians in Teheran and Salmas and maintained a feeble mission in Oroomiah. In 1888 a mission to the Nestorians, called" The Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission," of high Anglican tendencies and methods was establisht in Ol'oomiah after many vicissitudes. There has been some sporadic special work for Jews, and the English and American Bible societies have had agents at work. The Nestorian mission, founded in 1835, under the American Board, has "grown into the extensive work of the two missions of the Presbyterian Church, with centers at Oroomiah, Tabriz, Teheran, and Ramadan, and the work of Persia's evangelization is committed to these missions, and the mission of the Church Missionary Societies, which have agreed to divide the field between them by a line running from the eastern border of Persia along the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude to Kashan, and thence southwest to Khoramabad and the Turkish border. The 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 people of Persia are dependent upon these little companies for their knowledge of the Gospel.
The missionary work in Persia is surrounded by difficult and grave limitations. There are, perhaps, 75,000 or 100,000 Nestorians, Armenians, Jews, and Parsis in Persia. The rest of the popUlation is regarded as Moslem. Now the Koran nowhere states that an apostate is to be put to death, but according to Al Beidawi there are three crimes for which a man may justly be put to death, apostasy, adultery, and murder (Sale's" Koran," ed. 1887, p. 209), and converts from Islam in Persia have been killed, not professedly, but in reality, because of their change of religion. Moreover, there have been several firmans issued by the Shah affirming the right of the people of other than the Moslem religion to change their religion if they wish. Such a statement of the religious liberty of non-Moslems is its denial to Moslems. The withdrawal of the German missionaries from Oroomiah, a few years ago, was at the instance of the Persian government, which made their aggressive work among Moslems the pretext for its action. The bolder stand of the C. M. S. missionaries at Ispahan has recently led
PERSIAN HOBAlIl)CEDA:NS AND KOBAHlIlEDANISH
to no little discussion and condemnation. English missionaries are not so easily expelled, however. Oonversation with Moslems on the subject of religion has never been forbidden, and a sort of formal permission was even given some years ago in Teheran to men to visit thE) mission chapel; but apostasy has almost always met, and for years is likely to meet, in some form, speedy retribution, and an open and earnest propaganda among Moslems, on the part of either mission, would undoubtedly lead t.o the expulsion of its missionaries from the country. It has been necessary, therefore, to carryon missionary work in Persia with great tact and much quietness, devoting time and strength primarily to the non-Moslem populations. It was, indeed~ for the Nestorians that the American mission was founded, and tho it is, I believe, one of the principles of the Ohurch Missionary Society not to send missions to the Oriental churches, its mission at Ispahan, heading the dawn of religious liberty, is devoted chiefly to the vitalization of the Armenian churches in its territory. Nestorians, Armenians, and Jews, accordingly, constitute the present open field of missionary work in Persia. General Schindler gives the number of these as Jews, 19,000; Armenians, 43,000; Nestorians, 23,000, which Ourzon regards as in each case an underestimate. There is no such thing as a census in Persia, of course, the government being incapable of undertaking such a work, and the ecclesiastical authorities being averse to it. Judging from his estimate of the Nestorians, however, Schindler is not far out of the way. Of these three classes, the Nestorians present the most favorable field for missionary work. They are a religious people, of many childlike characteristics, patient, dignified, dependent. The Persian Armenians are a difficult class-money.. seeking, self-satisfied, not very tractable, ambitious, and active, "loving this present world," as one of them''Imt it in Tabriz, "and seeking the Kingdom of God last." Ourzon's judgment,while not wholiy just either to Nestorian or Armenian,is not without discrimination. The Nestorians, he says, are "docile, law-abiding, and industrious. They are a warm-hearted people, prone to hospitality, fond of festivity, and neither so precocious nor so crafty as the Armenians. On the other hand, they are very quarrelsome amongst themselves, are avaricious of money, and incurably addicted to mendicancy, and sixty years of missionary effort hav'e not taught them that there is any virtue in truth or any call for private honor." Thig last judgment rests on the opinion of Mr. Athelstan Riley, which is not wholly reliable. "The Persian Armenians," adds Mr. Ourzon, "are a less prolific, less gregarious, and less stay-at-home, . . . a less attractive, and an even less reliable people than the mendacious, but peaceable, Nestorians. They travel a great deal and pick up revolutionary ideas, and are disposed to deceit and turbulence." (Ourzon's" Persia," London ed.1892, vol. II., pp. 544-548.) The Jews are scattered through the cities of Persia, where they can live together. Unlike the Armenians, they do not settle in villages predominantly Moslem. Everywhere they are subject to painful disabilities. They are usually the first victims of the bigotry of a mob, easily aroused anywhere by an appeal to fanaticism. At· Ispahan, where they are said to be in a better position than elsewhere in Persia, "they are not permitted to wear the kolak, or Persian head-dress, to have shops in the bazaar, to build ,the walls of their houses as high as a Moslem neighbor, or to ride in the streets." In Hamadan it is not an infrequent thing for the missionaries to hear the roar of some street mob, stirred up by the mollahs, and bound for the Jewish quarter. Of even his primacy in bargain and trade the Jew has been deprived by the Armenian, who will invariably outwit the Jew, and who engages in the main in the more respectable lines of business, leaving the pedling and petty trading to the Jew. 1vlany Jews in Persia have accepted the Gospel, however. There is a small organized Jewish cl}urch here in Hamadan, and not a few Jewish young men have received the best medical training available in Persia in the mission schools and under the medical missionaries.
But it is neither of the difficulties nor of the success of the mission work among non-Moslems that I wish to treat. That is an article by itself. It is of Persian Mohammedans and Mohammendanism as the ultimate field of missionary work; for while the missionaries and their supporters are law-abiding and honest, and are at work for those for whom they are free to work, it is manifest to anyone that their work touches, and is affecting the establisht religion. Whatever the difficulties, moreover, and however long it may have to wait, the Christian Ohurch assuredly proposes to meet Islam face to face on every field now in Islam's possession, and to reclaim those fields for the great God, the compassionate, the merciful, whose prophet Mohammedan claimed to be, and for His Ohrist.
In preparation for that day and in all consideration of the Mohammedan missionary problem, it needs to be kept in mind that Persian Mohammedanism is not the same as the Mohammedanism of India, or Africa, or the Ottoman Empire. The Persian Moslems are schismatics. Their very name "Shiahs" means "Sectaries." It seems strange, as Sale suggests, that Spinoza should have been ignorant of this notorious division, and should" have assigned as the reason for preferring the order of the Mohammedan church to that of the Roman, that there have arisen no schisms in the former since its birth." The same mistake is frequently made, however, in our own day. The unity of Islam is held up as a rebuke to divided Christendom. But Mohammedans would not be grateful for this conspicuousness. They say "The Magians are divided into seventy sects, the Jews into seventy-one, the Christians iuto seventy-two and the Moslems into seventy-three, as Mohammed had foretold." Moreover they have advanced beyond Christendom in this that only one sect is entitled to salvation in their view, each sect holding the others damnable. Historically innumerable sects have developt, Sunnites and Shiahs with their subdivisions and Matazalites, Sifatites and Kharejites the principal ones. Since 1492 the Persian Moslems have been Shiahs.• a.nd between them and the Sunnites, the orthodox body to which the Turks belong, there is deep hostility and bitterness, where, indeed, the decadence of Islam has left any sincere feeling at all. The chief points of difference between Sunnite and Shiah are: "1. That the Bhias reject Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman, the three tlrst Caliphs, as usurpers and intruders; whereas the Sunnis acknowledge and respect them as rightful Imams. 2. The Shias prefer Ali (the cousin of Mohammed who married his daughter, Fatima, and the fourth Caliph) to Mohammed, or, at least, esteem the two equal; but the Sunnis admit neither Ali nor any of the prophets to be equal to Mohammed. 3. The Sunnis charge the Shias with corrupting the Koran and neglecting its precepts, and the Shias retort the same charge on the Bunnis. 4. The Sunnis receive the Sunna, or book of traditions of their prophet, as of canonical authority, whereas the Shias reject it as apocryphal and unworthy of credit." (Sale's" Koran," ed. 1887. Introductory Essay, p. 138.) The chief point to be noted is that the Shiahs believe Ali to have been lawful calif and Imam and hold that the supreme authority i~ all things, spiritual and temporal, state no less than church, of right belongs to his descendants. This right they do not enjoy in Persia. The civil power is in the hands of the Kajar dynasty. The Kajars are Turks, in no wise connected with the family of Ali. According to the strict faith of the Shiahs they are usurpers of authority belonging to Ali's descendants, in whose hands is the ecclesiastical power. There is a very real separation, accordingly, between church and state in Persia, more real than exists in many Christian lands. In Islam, using the word in its popular sense, such a condition as this is a logical contradiction. Mohammed's Islam, the Islam of the califs was the state. It grew by appealing to those motives which only civil power could satisfy and by making such promises as only Islam as a political and military organization could fulfil. Deprived of the power of appealing to such natives and of making such promises and reduced to a religion merely, Islam ceases to be Islam. To this condition Persian Mohammedanism is practically reduced. It is only a religion he~e. It is the establisht religion. The state does for it what Christian states, with establisht religions, do not do for them, but it does not subsidize it financially, as Christian states do. But Mohammedanism can not endure, robbed of its political character. It may become a modified, modernized Islam but it will not be Mohammedanism. It will have to take its place among the world's religions not as a political institution, but as a system of morals and faith. This is what Mohammedanism has had to do in Persia. It controls the passage of property, and still possesses many political advantages. The civil power has by no means wholly triumpht over it. There are even indications that the present Shah may surrender something of what his father had gained in his long struggle with the mollahs.
But Islam has been obliged radically t') change its character and Shiah Moliammedanism must become less and less true to Moham- med's principles and less and less like the Mohammedanism of Abu- Bekr and the world-conqnering califs and more and more a religion simply with no appeal save to the conscience and intellect of man.
From this deadly separation the Sunnite Mohammedanism of the Turk has been fictitiously saved. His Sultan has been his calif, too. Legally the califate belongs to the Prophet's family of the Koreist. After the dismal end of the Abbassid dynasty of califs in 1258, a mock califate was set up and maintained in Egypt. This came to an end with the conquest of Egypt by Selim I., Sultan of the Osmanlis, to whose successor, Suleiman, Muttawakkie, the last of the puppet califs of Egypt and a descendant from the thirty-fifth calif of Bagdad, surrendered his supposed rights, so that the Osmanli sultans to this day have claimed to be the spiritual as well as the political successors of Mohammed. The claim is a poor dream, mockt at by the Hindus, Persians, and Moors, but it has saved Sunnite Islam from the present fate of the Shiah faith. (Muir's" Oaliphate,"
Londou ed. 1892, pp. 589-594.) As a matter of fact, however, the pressure of civilization and the better Ohristian ideals, and the gener- al onward sweep of human life have deprived even the Sunni Moslem of the sanctions and incentives which made the faith of the Arabs vital, irresistible.
Deprived of its military character, and denied political authority, tho it administers still a good share of the civil law, and usurps political power wherever local officials are too weak to resist, Shiah Mohammedanism has had good opportunity to develop its religious,.
ethical and social fruits. What have been the results? In social life, Mohammedanism never conceived of flo home. In Persian there are no distinct words for wife and home. The words for woman and house serve instead. The Prophet's example and teaching, the supposed revelation of God in the Koran, made it certain that Mo- hammedan life should forever lack all that for which in our Ohristian life the home stands. "Of other womeu who seem good inyour eyes,"
said the Prophet, "marry but two or three or four," (Rodwell's "Koran,"
London ed., 1876, sura iv., 3, p. 451.) "Who control their desires, save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, – in that case verily they shall be blameless; these shall dwell, laden with honors, amid gardens." (Idem, sura lxx, 29, 30, 35, p. 60.) Thus Mohammed granted his followers in all times what in practical life amounts to unlimited polygamy, legalized lust to suit the taste and wealth of all. The late Sqah, I was told by a Persian officer in Teheran, left in his harem when he died 1400 women, 104 of whom were recognized as legal wives, the rest as concubines and attendants. The present Shah said some years ago that his father had 56 wives. Few Persians are able to maintain many wives. Probably one-half, says one who has lived in Persia many years, are monogamists, not of choice, but of poverty. For the satisfaction of these, against their creation of homes, the Koran provides in its enactments regarding divorce. "Ye may divorce your wives twice." "Then if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful for him to take her again, until 'she shall have married another husband; and if he also divorce her, then shall no blame attach to them if they return to each other." (Idem, sura ii., 229, 230, pp. 395, 396.) It is against this last provision that Al Kindi, a Christian apologist living at the court of AI-Mamun, one of the most liberal of the Bagdad califs, in the ninth century, and who seems to have been allowed free speech, most bitterly protests in a letter written to a Moslem friend, Abdullah ibn Ismail, who had invited him to embrace Islam, "what could be more vile," he asks, "than your own ordinance for legalizing remarriage after the thrice repeated divorce; for by it, a chaste lady, tender and delicate, the mother of virtuous daughters, herself, it may be noble-born and held in honor by her kinsfolk – this pattern of virtue and refinement must submit her person to the lewd embrace of a hired gallant, before she can be restored to her husband, – an abominable law, more odious even than the wicked custom of the Magians. And yet thou invitest me to accept a vile ordinance like this – an ordinance against which the very beasts of the field, if you gave them speech,would cry out for shame!" "Words strong, but not too strong here," adds Sir William Muir. (Muir's "AI Kindi" London ed., 1887, pp. 93, 94.) This was evidently the way the law workt. No limit was set to the number of wives a man might take in succession and put away by simply thrice declaring them divorced, and observing certain financial provisions. The wife had no remedy, no resource. She must do what she can with her life. Under such practises it is no wonder that one sees here in the main not the attractive women, (veiled women are the minority in the country as a whole) and the handsome, stalwart, active men of whom we read in books on Persia, but wreckt and weakly men and women, aged and shriveled before their time. It is significant that the provisions regarding divorce quoted above are from a sura in the Koran named '''fhe Cow." That is woman's grade in Moslem principles. There are exceptions to placing her on this grade. Some of the Prophet's women were in part wives and the exception of a nobler treatment emerges here and there in the Koran, but as a " Cow" Islam has treated woman. It began soon to degrade man. It began at once to degrade woman, who" possessed," according to Muir, "more freedom and exercised a healthier and mOre legitimate influence, under the pagan institutions of Arabia before the time of Mohammed, than under the influence of Islam." Islam had done its deadly work in this regard here. In his report on Persia in 1873, Dr. J. E. Polok, who was a physician, named as the first main cause of the decline of population, "the unfavorable position of women, including the facility of divorce, early marriage, and premature age." No wonder one woman said to Mrs. Hawkes, of Hamadan, at Kermanshah. "Your prophet did well for your women; ours did not. I shall have words with our prophet when I see him in the next world," and that another cried out of her wretchedness, "When the gates of hell are opened, the Mussulman men will go in first." (Wilson's" Persian Life and Oustoms," New York ed. 1895 p. 226.) It has been claimed for Islam that its provisions regarding marriage have abolisht the vice of prostitution, and made Moslem lands in this vital respect cleaner than Christian lands. 'l'he moral fruits of Islam have been extolled in the public places. It can be shortly replied that the authorized Moslem practices regarding women render prostitution a superfluous and unnecessary vice, but it may be worth while to accept the challenge and to measure Shiah Mohammedanism by it. Prostitution has not been abolisht. It flourishes in Meshed under ecclesiastical sanction, and in the cities. Meshed is one of the holy cities of Persia, the burial place of the preeminently holy Imam Reza, the son of Imam Musa and the eighth of the twelve Imams or Prophets, to which 100,000 pilgrims annually toil their way from all parts of Persia. "In recognition of the long journeys which they have made," says Ourzon, "of the hardships which they have sustained, and of the distance by which they are severed from family and home, they are permitted, with the connivance of the ecclesiastical law and its officers, to contract temporary marriages during their sojourn in the city. There is a large permanent population of wives suitable for the purpose (a sigheh or temporary wife may be married for any period from one day to 99 years. Women often prefer being sighehs for the full period to being alcdis or real wives. The alcdi can be divorced at any time, the sigheh not before the end of her contract, except for misconduct. Short period siglte7t.~ in the big cities are quasi-prostitutes.) A mollah is found, under whose sanction a contract is drawn up and formally sealed by both parties, a fee paid, and the union is legally accomplisht; after the lapse of a fortnight or a month, or whatever be the specified period, the contrar.t terz:ninates, the temporary husband returns to his own larcs et penates in some distant clime, and the lady after an enforced celibacy of fourteen days duration, resumes her career of persevering matrimony. In other words, a gigantic system of prostitution,~under the sanction of the church, prevails in Meshed. There is probably not a Jllore immoral city in Asia." (Ourzon'e" Persian/, London ed., 1892, vol. I, p. 165.) Malcolm says the Sunnites abhor the practice. (" History of Persia," London ed., 1829, vol. II, p. 428.) There are villages also, such as Novaron in the province of Irak-Ajemi, which are noted for the presence of soliciting women even on the roads about the town. While it has prostituted the home and made it a private brothel, Islam has not purged society of the hideous vice which is the curse of civilization, and of the celibate life which civilization fosters. It is true that Mohammed. with that one-sided vision which has characterized all legislation on this subject, pronounced fearful penalties upon the woman proved guilty of whoredom. She was to be immured, as men are still here, until she died. (Sale's" Koran," ed., 18&7, sura 19, p. 55.) This punishment was changed by the Sunna to scourging with a hundred stripes and banishment for a year in the case of maidens, and to stoning for married women. (Vid. sura xxiv, 2.) Within the last year or two, prostitutes have been sewed in bags, laid on the ground, and beaten to death with clubs in Oroomiah, by the civil officials; but such punishment is exceptional and it is not visited upon the Meshed iniquity, nor have I heard of any punishment of such offenses elsewhere. Shiah Mohammedanism, if it does not openly sanction immorality, tolerates it in its holy places in the very precincts of its mosque, and furnishes no justification of the panegyrics, with which we have been made familiar.
There is a hideous form of immorality, moreover, which Mohammedanism seems to htwe revived, and which flourishes under Islam as it does nowhere else in a world richly furnisht everywhere with ingenious forms of evil, the sin of Sodomy. Dr. Jessup writes: "In the city of Ramah, in Northern Syria, the Christian population even to this day are afraid to allow their boys from ten to fourteen years of age to appear in the streets after sunset, lest they be carried oft' by the Moslems as victims of the horrible practise of sodomy. Mohammedan pashas surround themselves with fair-faced boys, nominally as scribes and pages, when in reality their object is of entirely another character. A young English lord, traveling in Syria some years since, entered the Turkish baths in the city of Tripoli, when he was set upon by a number of Moslems, as the men of Sodom attempted to assail the angelic guests of the righteous Lot, and only with the greatest difficulty dld he escape from their brutal hands. They were arrested, bastinadoed and sent to the Acre penitentiary. A crime so abominable, unspeakable, and incredible, instead of being checkt by Mohammedanism, is fostered by it, and it is one of the scourges of Mohammedan society." (Jessup's "Mohammedan Missionary Problem," pp. 48, 49.) Among the "higher classes," this crime is horridly common in Persia to-day. Scores.of the khans and wealthier men of the cities keep boys for the foulest purposes. 'rhe sin was prevalent in Henry Martyn's day. He writes in his journal for May 28, 1811, "The Resident (at Bushire) gave us some account this evening of the moral state of Persia. It is enough to make one shudder. If God rained down fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, how is it thut this nation is not
THE AWAKENING OF THE AMBRICAN NEGRO
blotted out from under heaven? I do not remember to have heard such things of the Hindus, except the Seiks; they seem to rival the Mohammedans." After quoting Dr. Jessup's story of the condition of Hamah, Dr. Wherry adds: " In India the case may not be as bad as it is in Turkey, but I think we can fairly agree with the Rev. J. Vaughan, who says, 'However the phenomenon may be accounted for, we, after mixing with Hindus and Mussulmans for nineteen years back, have no hesitation in saying that the latter are, as a whole, some degrees lower in the social and moralscsle than the former." (Wherry's" Commentary on the Koran," London, ed., 1884, Vol. II, p. 69.) Against this sin the Koran says only this, and some dispnte its reference to sodomy. "And if two men among you commit the crime, then punish them both; but if they repent and amend, then let them be; Verily, God is He who relenteth, merciful" (snra iv, 20). The prophet was not understood to intend any heavy punishment. Some understood that they were only to reproach the offenders in pnblic, or strike them on the head with their slippers. Some others thought the guilty persons might be scourged. (Sale's" Koran,'~ p. 55.) According to the Tafsir-i-Raufi the punishment was to be inflicted by the tongue, at most by the hand. (Wherry's" Oommentary," vol. II, p. 75.) Shiah Mohammedanism has not saved woman from man. In multitudes of instances it has not saved man from his brother.
(To be concluded.) THE AWAKENING OF THE AMERIOAN NEGRO.* BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
The liberation of the slaves was but the first step in the emancipation of the American Negro. Even as the exodus of Israel from Egypt was but the beginning of their march toward the promist land. In order to make the liberation of the colored race of true and lasting benefit to themselves and to the country in which they live, industrial, intell,ectual, moral, religious, and political freedom and education must follow.
Great strides have recently been made in this direction, especially through the efforts of one of their own number, Booker T. Washington, who has been called "the Moses of the negro race." He is now well known throughout the country as the l-eader and educator of his people, and has not only accomplisht wonders toward solving the negro problem by means of his system of education at The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Training Institute, but has awakened much * The facts In this article are gathered largely from address@s and articles by Booker T.
Washington. Principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Training Iustitnw. interest and gained much commendation in all parts of the country by his numerous and telling addresses. Without special gifts as an orator or magnetic qualities as a speaker, his thorough knowledge of the problem which confronts him, his wisdom in carrying out his ideas, and his intense earnestness have enlisted for him and his work the sympathies and support of thousands of men and women all over the country. The success of his methods has also attested the practic- ability of his theories.
Booker Washington was born a slave on a plantation at Hale's Ford, Virginia in 1857. He lived with his mother in a little one-room log cabin with a dirt floor, in which was a hole for storing sweet potatoes. At the close of the war, which made the negroes men instead of property, he went to Malden, West Virginia, to work in the salt furnaces. While there, he heard of General Armstrong's school in Hampton, Virginia, as a place where a poor boy could earn an education. He made up his mind to go there if possible, and with this end in view began to save every cent he could earn. Finally one morning he started to walk to the coveted school, scarcely knowing where it was located. One night, after traveling many miles on foot, by coach, and by rail, he found himself in Richmond, without friends, money, or !l. place to sleep. After spending the night on the street, he started to look for means to continue his journey. Seeing a ship unloading pig-iron, he obtained work from the captain until he had enough money to pay his way to Hampton, where he arrived with fifty cents in his pocket. After General Armstrong had heard his story, and the object of his coming, he promist to give Booker a chance to pay his expenses through. While at Hampton, he learned much that has been of immense assistance in his present work and resolved that if God permitted, he would go into the" black-belt" of the Gulf States, and give his Hfe to help young men of his own race to gain an education.
Washington was graduated from Hampton with honors and after teaching in West Virginia, and studying in Wayland Seminary, he returned to Hampton as a teacher. In 1881, the Alabama legislature past a bill appropriating $2,000 yearly to carryon a school at Tuskegee for the education of negro youths. General Armstrong was askt to suggest a suitable man to establish and conduct the work, and he recommended Booker T. Washington. The district in which the new school was to be located is one in which the black people outnumber the white three to one. Here, on the 4th of July, 1881, he opened the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Training Institute in a small church and shanty, with thirty students and one teacher. Since that time the institution has grown, until it has now eighty instructors and about one thousand students, of both sexes, from nineteen States, all over fourteen years of age, the average being eighteen and one-half years, This institution is Ohristian, but not denominational. The instructors emphasize that religion is practical, not merely theoretical or emotional, and of all the lessons that need to be emphasized in the South, none is more needed than that of practical Ohristianity. Prof. Washington cites, as an example of the prevailing idea of religion among many of the colored race, the story of a colored man who went to his weekly class-meeting, and said to his class leader, "1's had a ha'd time since our las' meetin'; 1's been sometimes up and sometimes down. 'spect 1's broken eb'ry one ob de ten comman'ments since our las' I meetin', but I tanks God, 1's not los' my 'ligion yet." The coming generation of young men and young women need to be taught that they should not only profess Ohristianity, but put it in practice in their daily lives.
From the first, industrial training has been given, together with intellectual and religious instruction. This industrial training has several advantages. Young men and young women are thereby enabled to work out about half of their board, and pay the rest in cash. Their labor has an economic value to the institution, and at the same time trains the student to make an honest living. Over twentyfour hundred acres of land are owned, six hundred and fifty of which are cultivated. Beside the regular literary, scientific, and religious training which the students at Tuskegee receive, the institution offers courses in various branches of agriculture, horticulture, dairy products, brick masonry, wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, tinning, carpentering, painting, shoemaking, tailoring. dressmaking, and various branches of domestic science-in all, twenty-five branches of industrial training, besides preparing men and women as teachers, preachers physicians, nurses, lawyers, clerks, merchants, machinists, etc. This system enables them to make practical application of the theories which they learn in the class-room. The principle of physics are immediately applied in the machine-shop, those of chemistry in farming and cooking, those of mathematics in carpentry, etc. There are no idlers in Tuskegee. They erect their own buildings, even manufacturing every brick; they also do the carpenter and other work. Thus the institution secures buildings for permanent use, with a minimum of expense, and the students have the industrial training. This also helps the young men and young women to get rid of any old idea they may have that labor is disgraceful; that it is beneath one to use his hands if he has had some education. The Tuskegee property is now valued at two hundred and eighty thousand dollars, on which there is no mortgage. This includes thirty-seven buildings, all except three of which have been erected by the students. The central aim of all departments of the institute is so to fortify the head,hand, and heart of the negroes who attend that they may go out and mingle with their race on the cotton, rice, and sugar plantations, and be the means of elevating them economically, intellectually, morally, and apiritually. The expense of carrying on this work is only about seventy-five thousand dollars a year, over one half of which is met by the labor of the students. .
One great difficulty met in endeavoring to better the condition of the southern negro is the "mortgage system," which makes them vir- tually the property of the well-to-do planters, taking away all their independence, ambition, and self-respect. They live in little cabins and.try to pay sometimes forty per cent. interest on their property and on their crops, which are often mortgaged even before they are raised.
The result in poverty and lack of hope for better things can be imagined.
Intellectually their advantages are in many places not much better.
Not being allowed to attend school with white children, they go to little log cabins or tumbled-down churches, which in Alabama are open only three months of the year in the country districts. Owing to poor pay and other reasons, many of the teachers that can be secured, have been not competent instructors, and the result is intellectual poverty and stagnation equal to the industrial.
The moral and religious condition of these people is, if anything, generally lower; witness the nl.!-mber of lynchings in the South for beastly crimes; the character of their dances; their preaching services, and many of their religious-but not Christian-leaders. Without ambition in material things they, to a large extent, live without self- restraint in moral things. Their careless natures joined to their state of poverty and ignorance tending to divorce morality from their religion.
Tuskegee. Institute is seeking to find and apply a remedy for this state of things. This work they do not consider to be hopeless or even discouraging.. The negroes acknowledge their ignorance and low condition, but they think that there is no help for it. What they need is intelligent and unselfish leadership in their religious, intel- lectual, and industrial life, and this is what the Tuskegee Institution is endeavoring to give them. The trouble is that these people do not know how to utilize the results of their labor. What they earn gets away from them in paying mortgages, and in buying lace, snuff, and cheap jewelry. They have not yet learned the distinction between cheap and showy imitation of wealth and education, and the culture and refinement which comes only by slow and labored progress. A one- roomed cabin will sometimes have clocks bought on the installment plan for twelve dollars, when in nine cases out of ten, not one in the family can tell when the hands point to six o'clock and when to twelve; or a family will mortgage a year's crop to pay for a showy wedding or funeral.
Tuskegee has already succeeded in transforming many districts.
At the time of their emancipation, practically all of the negroes lived in one-room log cabins; ten years ago nine-tenths of them lived in the same way; whereas to-day one-third of them have at least doubled their accommodations, and many of them own their farms and homes.
The students who come to Tuskegee from wretched, single-room hovels, go back to transform them into homes, where peace and purity can thrive. Already the graduates of the institute are in great demand all over the South, and other schools are applying the ~ruske gee principles and methods of education.
As examples of the practical workings of the system, :Mr. Washing- ton cites the following instances: Ten years ago a young man born in slavery found his way to the Tuskegee School. By small cash payments and work on the farm he finisht the course with a good English education alld a practical and theoretical knowledge of farming. Returning to his country home, where fiTe-sixths of the citizens were black, he found them still mortgaging their crops, living on rented land from hand to mouth, and deeply in debt. School had never lasted longer than three months, and was tanght in a wreck of a log cabin by an inferior teacher. Finding this condition of things, the young man took the three months' public school as a starting-point. Soon he organized the' older people into a club that came together every week. In these meetings the young man taught them the value of owning a home, the evils of mortgaging, and the importance of educating their children. He taught them how to save money, how to sacrifice-to live on bread and potatoes until they got out of debt, begin buying a home, and stop mortgaging. Through the lessons and influence of these meetings, during the first year of this young man's work, these people built by their contributions in money and labor, a good frame schoolhouse that replaced the wreck of a log cabin. The next year this work was continued, and those people, from their own gifts, furnisht funds for adding two months to the original school term. :Month by month has been added to the school term, till it .now lasts seven months every year. Already fourteeIJ families within a radius of ten miles have bought and are buying homes, a large proportion have ceast mortgaging their crops, and are raising their own food supplies. In the midst of all is the young man educated at Tuskegee with a model cottage and a model farm that served as an example and center of light for the whole community.
A few years ago a young woman was educated and converted at Tuskegee. After her graduation she went to one of the plant.ations where they only had school for three months in the year in a brokendown log cabin. She took charge of the school, and went amongst the mothers and fathers of the pupils, and found out what their resources were. She taught them how to save money. The first year, many men decided not to mortgage their crops, but to provide suitable homes, and a good schoolhouse. They added to the school term until now they have a season of eight months. 'rhe community is transformed, and the very faces of the people show the revolution that has been wrought in their lives by that one Christian leader. Every improvement has come through this young woman in their midst showing them how to direct their efforts, how to take the money that had hitherto gone for mortgaging, snuff, and tobacco, and to use it for their own uplifting, What effect does this work at Tuskegee have upon the relations between the white and the black men? The Institute aims not only to uplift the ignorant and down-trodden negroes, but to bring the white people of the South to the point where they will not think that they need to degrade themselves by dishonesty at the polls in order to overcome the majority which the colored people have over them. Whatever friction exists between the races will pass away just in pro- portion as the black man can produce something that the white man wants or respects commercially. When the Tuskegee Institute was first opened, it was ignored or despised by the white people. A wheel- wright shop was started, and then men who wanted carriages came to it. A job-printing establishment was opened, and soon the organ of the Democratic party was printed every week by the colored students. By having something that was of commercial value, the whites and blacks became acquainted; their business interests became linkt together, and they are now warm friends. If a negro's business interests increase until he gets a mortgage on a white man's house, that white man wil~ not drive the negro from the polls.
Mr. Washington thus concludes one of his telling addresses on this . subject: If ever there was a people that obeyed Christ's injunction, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," that people has been the American negro. To right his wrongs the Russian has appealed to dynamite, the Indian to his tomahawk, the Irishman to agitation, the American to rebellion, but the negro, patient, unresentful, and law-abiding, has always depended upon his songs, his midnight prayers, his groans, on an inherent faith in his cause. If we may judge the future by the past, who will say that the negro is not right? We went into slavery pagans, we came out Christians; we went into slavery a piece of property, we came out American citizens; we went into slavery without a language, we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue; we went into slavery with the slave chains danking about our wrists, we came out with the American ballot in our hands.
You seldom see a black hand on any street in America held out for charity. It is not charity that the black people of this country ask. We do not ask anyone to do a thing for a student at Tuskegee which the student is able to do for himself. They pay their own board, partly in cash, and partly in labor. They have put up their own buildings to a greater extent than in any other institution in the country. The only thing which they can not pay is the fifty dollars each for tuition. We do not ask to have money scattered promiscuously among our people in the South, but simply to be used in educating one or morc of those Christian leaders, who, when they have received their education, will go out into other villages and try to accomplish the work of making the colored people a righteous and thrifty race. * .. The present needs of the institute are an adequate endowment fund, scholarships, addi· tional buildings, tools, and other outllts. Fifty dollars furnishes the means fOl" educating a student for one year, and $1,000 establishes a scholarship. Already the graduates contribute generously to the current expenses, and thereby show their appreciation of the benefit~ which they have derived from their Alma Mater.
4,38 THE POWER OF GOD IN AFRICA
THE POWER OF GOD IN AFRICA.
The original "Memoir of W. A. B. Johnson," publisht in 1852, is now difficult to obtain. It seems to us best to preserve at least some of its most important and striking portions of its contents which are no longer within reach of most readers, as invaluable testimonies to the work and revelations of God's gracious power.*-EDITOR.
A young man came to Mr. Johnson and said: "Massa, them words you talk last night strike me too much. You read the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the forty-fourth Isaiah and explain them. Me say, ' Ah, who tell massa all this? He never been in my country.' You say, ' Do not your country-people live in that fashion?' I say, 'Yes, that true; God knows all things. He put them things in the Bible.' I so sure that the Bible God's Word, for man can not put all things there, because he no see it. That time I live in my country, I live with a man that make gree-gree, and teach me to make gree-gree too. He show me one tree. He say, 'That gree-gree tree.' He take aX and cut some of that tree. He make a god, and he take what was left, and make a fire, and all the people come and sit ronnd the fire. Then they cook and eat. When they done eat, the man take the leaves of the gree-gree tree and burn them in the fire, ann then all the people stand round the fire and clap their hands and cry, 'Aha, aha!' Massa, when you read that verse, I can't tell you what I feel. You then talk about the twentieth verse: 'He feedeth on ashes;' and I was struck again, for when they done cry, ' Aha,' they take the ashes and make medicine; they give it to people when they be sick. You been see some gree-gree which looks like dirt; that is the same ashes they carry that our poor countrymen feed on. For true the Bible ,God's Word. Again you talk about the twenty-first verse, and tell us look back and see how God pull us like brand out of the fire. Massa, I thank God for the Word I hear last night; it make my heart sorry for . my country-people, but it make my heart glad when I see what God done for me. But me so wicked. God love me so much, and still my heart so cold. Massa, one thing trouble me too much; sometimes you taik about whoremongers and adulterers. I must say I not done that sin yet, but I am so 'fraid by and by I shall do that sin. Me done that sin plenty times with my heart. I hope the Lord Jesus will have mercy upon me and keep me. Another thing tronble me; I don't know if you like to hear it, but I will tell you. My heart trouble me too much about my country-people-me so much want to be a teacher to them. I wanted to tell you before, but me so ashamed; but when you preach last night about our country-people, I think I must tell you.'''
• The Editor has recently reproduced this remarkable story under the title "Seven years In Sierra Leone," Publisht by Fleming H. Revell Co., N. Y. Mr. Thomas Morgan wrote to the secretary at London: " •1 had given in to some prejudices against the mental endowments of the negroes, leaning to the side of uncharitableness. I resolved to study a particular acquaintance with their private thoughts; and I find, from summing up the various occurrences which I have myself witnessed, you have reason to adore God for suffering you to open a door through which the light of the Sun of righteousness is now spreading its influence over the whole country of Ethiopia.
"I visited the members of each family separately, to gratify my own inclination, and to try the ground of those faults so often assigned to professing Christian negroes. Faults and crimes were found, and many were great; but none surpast, nor did they equal, the state of the towns of the same size, and which for centmies have heard and read the Gospel, in England. This is a pro.:.f that African towns (I speak especially of Regent's Town) are superior to the towns of Eng- land in moral and religious conduct; and if we take into view the short period since civilization began here, we may say it is a light to the people of Britain.
"In Freetown schools, I have seen Dr. Bell's remark verified, that a child of any ability may with facility proceed from reading the al- phabet to the reading of the Bible in four months. As to the ability of the negroes, if I can recollect my own at an early period of life, theirs is as far superior as one child need wish to be to another.
" We were much struck with the integrity of the people. At one time a fire broke out, and in the confusion many things were scat- tered about the yard; not one article, however, even the most trifling, was lost, but all were brought to the house again and fixed in their proper places. A boy who had got possession of the box which con- tained the money for paying the mechanics and laborers was found in the garden, with the box under his arm, gnarding it, tho unneces- sarily, with a drawn cutlass in his hand. During the fire the women went to the church to pray.
"Scarcely an event occurs but what they notice as springing from the overruling providence of God. Taught of God, they mark the painful events of His providence, as children would mark the deal- ings of a father.
Entering the huts around us, unexpectedly, as I often did, of the families of all classes of the communicants, I could not be deceived as to their actual condition.
"I have found many commendably employed in agriculture.
Many gardens are kept in very neat order, tho most of the owners have but little leisure to devote to this employment. I have fre- quently known the whole of the time allowed for dinner spent by both husband and wife in fencing, digging, or planting the little spot of ground attached to each dwelling. Decency and cleanliness manifest the diligence of those who live under the power of religion. In cases where they can read they may be frequently seen with friends around them searching the Word of life; and respites from labor are often made a blessing to the whole town, as the sick, the careless, the backsliding, and the profane are visited, instructed, warned, comforted, and relieved by their zealous brethren.
" The Christian negroes show a strong attachment to the simplest views of religion. I began some explanations of the Lord's Prayer. They made the most practical use of them. A display of an unholy temper would receive a reproof: 'If God, your Father, that be no like His child.' Some said that they needed indeed such a Father; others, such daily bread. Some thought God could not be their Father, because they did not feel sufficient desires that His kingdom should come among their country-people; and others thought they were rebellious for not doing His will on earth more as it was done in heaven. Some wept to think how He delivered them from temptation and evil; and all, I believe, burned with love to ascribe to him the kingdom of His love, the power of His spirit, and the glory of their salvation."
Mr. Jesty wrote: " Never did I pass such a Sabbath in my dear native country. Never did I witness such a congregation in a professing Christian land. nor ever beheld such apparent sincerity and brotherly love. At the monthly meeting in one minute after Mr. Johnson and myself were ready to receive the money and the names, we were surrounded by several hundreds of humble friends to missionary exertions, crying, as it were with one voice, 'Massa, take my money! ' 'Massa, massa. take mine! ' It was indeed a pleasing sight to behold a people-once led captive at the will of Satan, devoted to gross superstition and folly, embracing their gree-grees and trusting in them for defense, and once expending all the money that they could spare in the purchase of these false Gods – now conquered by the love and power of Him that taketh away the sin of the world, and with cheerful and renewed hearts giving of their little substance to communicate the privileges of the Gospel to their countrymen also.
" On a beautiful moonlight night, the children could be seen from all parts of the town, (assembled to hold a prayer meeting in the open air), I saw at the foot of the hill some men and women coming toward the children. The men joined the boys, and the women joined the girls. The boys and girls had now sung several hymns, and after a few minutes' cessation began again. I looked around and saw numbers of the inhabitants, men and women, coming in every direction. They joined respectively the boys and girls, and sang for some time, when the "boys and girls retired to their school-houses, and the men and women retired to their homes in peace."
The original memoir of Johnson thus impressively concludes: " And now we bring our narrative to a. close. The lessons it teaches are many; but two or three thoughts more immediately present themselves.
"The first is, the sovereignty and power which mark certain of the divine operations.
" It was remarked a few years since by an aged and thoughtful minister: 'We do the best we can to raise up a succession of faithful ministers of the Gospel. We look out for young men of promisemen whose hearts God seems to have touched; we put them under instruction; we make them theologians and preachers; and thus whatever is in our power we do, and in so doing we act rightly; no other course is open to us. To a certain degree we succeed, tho we often have to mourn over grievous disappointments. But now and then it pleases God to take the work into His own hands. He raises up a man, and makes him a preacher of the Gospel by His own especial teaching, and tken we behold a very different sort of minister from any that human efforts or human skill can produce. '
"The truth of this remark, which was uttered long before either of these remarkable men had been given to the Christian church, has since been made strikingly evident in the histories of Williams and of Johnson. No two individuals in modern times have been so honored of God in the missionary work as were these two men, and none could be more evidently prepared by Himself for the work.
"In the year 1816-a year which will be ever memorable in the angelic annals-the mission of these two men was commanded. An eminent prelate* once compared Mr. Williams's narratives with the Acts of the Apostles, and under such sanction we can not hesitate to say that, as in A.D. 45 (Acts xiii, 2)so in A.D. 1816, 'tbe Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Johnson and Williams for the work whereunto I have called them.' And what was that work? It was one as absolutely beyond all human power as was the subjection of the Roman empire to the sway of Him who was crucified on Calvary.
"Two regions of the earth were preeminently reigned over by the Evil One. In Africa, among the degraded race of Ham, the slavetrade had done its work in crusbing, brutalizing, exterminating, while their religion was avowedly devil-1lJOr87~ip. In Polynesia some of the most lovely spots on the earth were becoming depopulated by vice and unnatural cruelty. Mothers slept calmly on beds beneath which they had buried many of their own murdered infants. Over these two regions Satan ruled supreme, and his kingdom of hell was almost visibly establisht. To overthrow that dominion it pleased God to send forth two young men – not a phalanx of learned theologians or well-taught divines or clever and astute philosophers, but two men of no learning, possessing only a scanty measure of the most * Late Bishop of Ripon. ordiuary instruction. '1'here cannot be a doubt that th~ was ordered as in the apostle's day: 'After that . . . the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. • . Because the foolishness of God is wiser tban men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men' (lCor.
i., 21, 25).
"Had the event proved otherwise, the directors of the London Missionary Society would llave been deemed by many to have laid themselves open to censure. John Williams had not arrived at the age of manhood when he was sent forth, and his previous instruction had occupied but a few short months.
" As to William Johnson, he had been a mechanic; had been placed in the National Society's training-school for a single twelvemonth, and was se:1t forth by the Church Missionary Society to labor in West Africa as a schoolmaster. It is quite certain that neither of these societies had an idea, when they sent forth these young men with far less than the ordinary preparation, what important instruments, in the hand of the Holy Ghost, they were then dismissing to their labors.
"It is no' detraction from the merits of Mr. Williams to remark that Mr. Johnson, placed in more painful and difficult circumstances, shines under these circumstances with a still brighter light. Ease and luxury, sunny climes and softening atmospheres,' are not those which are most favorable to Christian heroism. Multitudes of predecessors in the missionary work had sunk under the temptations, and had failed in the same undertaking in which Mr. Williams so remarkably succeeded. The difficulties which surrounded Mr. Johnson were of a different class. The climate, it is true, was in each case unfavorable to vigorous efforts; but, while surrounding circumstances in Polynesia almost resembled those of Bunyan's' enchanted ground,' the case of a missionary in western Africa was widely different. Despondency might cooperate with a relaxing climate, and so produce a despairing inertness; but assuredly everything around was replete with painful sights and dread-inspiring alarms. Poverty, degradation, physical and moral wretchedness among the people, conspired, with frequent sickness and death among the laborers, to throw the missionary upon his God as his only refuge and strength, 'a very present help in time of trouble.' And u)hen this result 'was produced, the effect was naturally most salutory.
"The general effect, then, of these differing circumstances was, that while both these eminent men preacht the same Gospel, and with the same simplicity and faithfulness, the resnlts were modified by external influences. In Mr. Williams's case we find large and rapid successes; in Mr. Johnson'S, more limited but perhaps more deeply spiritual conversions. We remark the difference not in depreciation of Mr. Williams's labors; had he been placed in Mr. Johnson's circumstances he would probably have been what Mr. Johnson was; while Mr. Johnson. in Polynesia, would have proved himself another Williams. 'But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will' (1 Cor. xii., 11), Nor must the reader forget, in comparing these two eminently succesful missionaries, that Mr. Williams's course was prolonged to more than two and twenty years. while Mr. Johnson's ended in less than seven.
"A second remark which naturally suggests itself is this: that when God speaks to any man directly, as He spoke to William Johnson, the speech of that man to his fellow-sinners will often be found to be simIlarly direct and effective.
"Johnson was awakened and called' out of darkness into marvelous light' without human instrumentality. By the Holy Ghost, working with conspiring circumstances, his heart was penetrated. The preacher's part which followed was only to administer comfort and to point to Christ. And when so built upon the only sure foundation, and made desirous of spreading the knowledge of salvation, it is most worthy of remark that he could scarcely open his mouth without some one being stricken to the heart. 'I'lIe proofs of the directness and effective character of his preaching pervade his whole historv. '1'he 'live coal from the altar' evidently had 'touched his lips,' "and his speech was' with demonstration of the Spirit nIld with power.'
"One more observation must be made, tho with fear and trembling. In the short but eminently successful career of Mr. Jolllison, we see how practicable it is to unite a burning zeal with a sound judgment, and how excellently the two combine to form the able minister of the Gospel. "In the present day, pr<.dence and caution and decorum are more common than fervency and earnest zenl; and hence it follows that allY overflowing of earnestness is almost sure to be checkt and reproved, as' bordering on enthusiasm.' It was so in Mr. Johnson's case. His verl first step in his public duty exposed him to such a check; but a reVIew of his whole course presents him in the light of one who merely felt and acted in 'the spirit of St. Paul. He was willing to be 'made all things to all men, that he migt by all rnean8 save some.' He was 'instant in seasen, Mtt of season, reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-sufferIng and doctrine.' But he was ever watchful, humble, desirous to receive the counsel of his elders, and prompt III obeying it. He kept an even course between the urgency of the governor, on the one hand, desirous of a general admission into the church, and the apprehensions, on the other, of 'that fearful Tamba, dreading that the church would be fil!ed with hypocrites.' 'I'he soundness of his judgment and the wisdom of his course are seen in the rapid disappearance of disorder, and the perpetual increase of his influence over his people. Not by mere priestly pretentions, but by the legitimate sway of mind over mind aI'd heart over heart, he won his way, till toward the close of his course the control exercised by him seemed all that a pastor could desire. It is not indeed to be dou bted that, as in the apostolic churches, so in Regent's Town, the enemy was sedulously employed in sowing tares among the wheat. We have already seen that within a few weeks after his departure the temptation of ardent spirits crept in. If we had pursued the story still later, we might have met with the sad story of a quarrel, ending with the appearance of some of the Regent's Town communicants, as criminals, before a magistrate. But the counterpart of all this had been written before, in St. Paul's and St. Peter's epidles (2 Cor. xii., 2l; 2 Pet. ii., 18-22). And the best criterion of Mr. Johnson's having followed Paul, as Paul followed his Master, is that his whole narrative bears the closest resem- blance to the apostle's own experience, as we find it depicted in his various epistles. "Such is the work of God, carried on by a few of His people, for 'accomplishing the number of His elect and·hastening His kingdom.'''
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
IL-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Victorian Reign and Missions. the administration of the Queen Em- press Victoria for well nigh forty years. Edward VI. declared the colonial The British Government of the Empire policy of Great Britain to be founded of India and the Crown colonies of upon the extension of the Christian Ceylon, the Straits Settlements and religion. Sir Humphrey Gilbert makes Mauritius have gradually realized a him to say: "The sowing of Christian- policy of religious neutrality, while ity must be the chief interest of ~uch as they have establisht a civil law which shall make any attempt at foreign dis- follows the religion of each subject covery, or else whatever is builded until it may be doubted if there ever upon their foundation shall never obtain has been in the history of the race, exhappy success or continuance." That cept in China, so great a body of people has been the colonial policy of Great under one government, and in one Britain from the beginning. However country, in the full exercise of so large consistently or otherwise incidental acts and thoroughly guaranteed religious may have been with it, or however little liberty. Since full religious liberty in sympathy some of the administrators all India was assured by Victoria, oneof the government at home or abroad fifth of the human race has participated may have had with it, or how IT :aerably in it. The British raj has gradually some of them may have misirepresented withdrawn iniquitous and abominable it, the great stream of tendency of the heathen customs from the Indian Em- Brit~sh government through at least pire. Dr. J. Murray Mitchell, honorary three centuries has been to make the secretary of the Free Church of Scotnation a missionary agency. land Missions, cites some sixteen evil customs which have been abolisht by Of the prominence of this feature of the English government within the past national administration under the reign fifty years. Among these are infantiof Her Majesty Queen Victoria, we do cide, Suttee, Thuggee, swillging by an not propose now to write, however iron hook run through the musclcs of interesting the treatment of so vast a the back, taking evidence by torture, topic might be. When one considers and prohibition of widow· marriage. the changes that have taken place in Dr. George Smith has well said, .. The the British colonies and the colonial Indian Empire compels reluctant statesextension within the last three decades, men to lengthen the rods and strengthen and the steadiness with which the the tent-pegs. From Scotland, by the underlying policy of Edward VI. has Mediterranean and Red Sea, to the been on the whole maintained, it is cer- Himalayas and the Pacific Oc~, is tainly u very tempting theme. India one missionary highway. alone would in this connection furnish rich materiul for a far longer article This same policy has been inauguratthan our space would admit. The East ed and is being steadily more and more India Company saw twenty-one years realized in the vast region equal to of the two hundred and fifty-eight years three Europes, known as Australasia. of its existence under Queen Victoria, Everywhere in Africa also, where the and as it was on the 11rst of November, British standard floats, the same aggres- 1858, that that company was displaced sive tho indirect policy is steadfor the direct rule of the Crown and fastly maintained. Senegal and Sierra Parliament of Great Britain in India, Leone, the Gold coast, the Kongo delta, two hUl;tdred and sixty millions of and alJ Southern and East Central people in that land have been under Africa have felt the influence of this missionary policy. We are not claim- it has special pertinence in our case, ing unmixt motives, nor unmixt good because up to within a very recent results in the operations of the British date our naval force in these remoter government in missionary fields. We seas has justified the mockery bestowed are only now asserting that the national upon it. The British government has policy in the colonies has been a mis- placed, for the personal safety in sionary policy. emergency of missionaries on any shore or in any sea, the almost ubiquitous Her Majesty the Queen.Empress naval protection of the Bdtish Empire. herself has lost no opportunity to put Whatever Americans at home mayor Christianity in the foreground. The may not realize of this advantage, it far-reaching influence of so simple an has been of untold comfort to American act as that of telling a great African missionaries wherever it has been chieftain toot the Bible was the founda- necessary or possible to profit by it, and tion of all England's prosperity and the whole body of American missionpower, or the other seemingly little but aries would cheerfully, we are sure, socially revolutionary act of suggesting and gratefully acknowledge it. to Lady Dufferin the introduction of a large scheme of medical missions for J. T. G. women in India, can not be measured. Hinduism at Bindraban. Yet it is not all these things which interests us at this instant the most. It REV. ROBERT HOSKINS, INDIA. is rather the obligation all missionaries, eminently American missionaries, are Hindu religions are very costly, for under, who have in any part of the seas they require twelve hundred million or on missionary shores, found personal dollars yearly for their maintenance, protection under the British govern- and twenty-two million persons are ment, whenever needed_ American withdrawn from lucrative employmissionaries, or for that matter, within ments and dropt into this Whirlpool. our knowledge, any missionaries of any At all seasons of the year millions of country, or of any creed, have had ex- men and women are wearily wending tended to them, in the British their way from shrine to shrine, while colonies under Victoria, as exact other millions hasten on the railway to and even-handed justice, and as full the renowned bathing places in search protection as tho they were the of rest of soul. most loyal subjects of the British Crown. In every case the native Chris- Begging is honorable, for it is a tian communities gathered by mission- visible sign of devotion to a religious aries of another nationality have life, and alms-giving is in special favor, received the same patronage that was tho little attention is given to the extended to the commullities gathered character or claims of the recipients. by Britains themselves. No dis- Bindraban is reckoned one of the most crimination has been made against holy places in India. It is specially them as of another nationality in grants dedicated to Krishna, the cow-herd. in aid of the vast educational scheme Three thousand years ago the local such as obtain in India. On the ruler had become very oppressive. Chinese coast and other shores, when- Krishna organized a revolt, and slaying ever American missionaries have needed the king, placed another on the throne, it, the Bdtish naval force has been to but soon he found that the friends of them as free and as safe a refuge as it the former king were bitterly opposed could be to the most stout-hearted to him, 80 he emigrated to Gujarat, and Brit.isller. It may be said that this is founded a city caIIed Dwarka, on the only common international courtesy seacoast. It is supposed that he hum· among Europeans and Americans, hut bled the dominant Jainism, which, starting about twelve hundred years before the Christian era, became very two million two hundred and fifty thou- exacting and oppressive. Sl).nd dollars. It was built by two rich bankers of Mathra, Gobin Dos and The Jain religion was exceedingly Radha Krishan. Lachman Dos, the son distasteful to the Brahmins, and they and heir of Radha Krishan. has given deifled Krishna in order to gain favor much care and attention to the interests with the public, and restore to them- of the temple. This millionaire banker selves the exalted position they had has a large house in Mathra, six miles held before the coming of Jainism. from Bindraban, and a number of rooms in this house are furnisht in Krishna was fond of music and European style, and he keeps several dancing, and in the cool of the evening carriages and spans of horses, which he he played the flute and danced with the places at the disposal of European sight- milkmaids in the sylvan bowers. Thc seers. He does a large banking busi- stories told of him are corrupting to ness, and his drafts are good as gold in the morals. The young widows of all parts of India. Bengal are attracted to this place in hope of becoming the brides of Krishna. On the right side of the entrance to In Bindraban there are eight thousand the temple is a shed under which the widows out of a total population of idol car is usually stored. Every year twenty-one thousand. Many of these a religious fair is held, which continues are wealthy, and many are so poor that ten days, and daily, during the fair the they subsist on alms doled out at the idol is carried from the temple about temples and private houses; they are half a mile to a large pavilion in the quickly led into sin by the wily attend- garden. ants of the temples and soon are cast out to die. On the flrst day the idol is placed in the three-decked car, and is drawn by Recently Pundita Ramabai visited thousands of men. The highest classes Bindraban in the garb of a pilgrim; esteem it an honor to tug at the ropes, she hired a house and began to distri- and nearly three hours are consumed in butealms. She drest in the customary moving the car. On both sides of the coarse garments of the widow and slept car stand fleshy Brahmins, who conon the cold masonry floor. Many stantly fan the idol with horsehair widows came to see her, and she per- flappers. suaded eight of them to go with her to the Poona Widows' Home. Great enthusiasm is developt among the people by torches, incense, and The managers of the temples realized military display. The Raja of Bhartthat her success would decrease their pore furnishes the soldiers and band, revenue, and they organized a counter and a program, printed in English, is movement. Finally only two widows distributed among the sightseers. had courage to leave this Sodom and go with Hamabai. On the succeeding days the convey- ance for the idol is changed, and it is In Bindraban there are a thousand brought out on a palankin, tabernacle, temples, large and small; some small throne, tree, sun, moon, horse, or swan. and in rUlns, but most of them are goodsized and in good repair, while a -few Daily all the year food enough for are well endowed. five hundred persons is cookt and placed before the idol. After time The following is the yearly income of enough has elapst for him to take a few temples: Gobind Deva, $8,750; the essence of the food, it is given to Madan Mohun, $13,500; Gopi Nath, the attendants of the temple, and at the $2,100; Krishna Chandrama, $11,000; same time a dole of flour and pulse is Rang Ji, $27,500. The Rang J ai Temple given to every person who applies is a magnificent and imposing structure. for it. It is 773 feet long, and 440 feet broad, and WM completed in 1853 at a cost· of The food of the idol costs fl0,OOO yearly, and other expenses amount to dared not to go with them. He wan $12,500. The funds of the temple are dered from place to place, disguised in invested in thirty-three villages. Man rags and tormented with hunger.
Singh, the heir to the Jeypore throne, One evening about midnight a muf- preferring t1:>P, life of a recluse, sold his fled voice was heard at their doorway, rights in the State for an annuity of asking for admission. They opened $15,000, and retired to Bindraban, and the door, and 10 ! the long absent father gave three villages to the temple. stood before them. He motioned to them During the last twenty·seven years of to keep silent lest his presence should his life he sat cross-legged in medita- be known, and he askt for some tion, and only left this position once a food to eat. His wife immediately took week. flour and prepared some unleavened The managers· of the temples were cakes for him. He ate them in silence determined that no Christian place of and then laid down to rest. Early in worship should ever be built in Bindra- the morning they awoke to hear from ban. They have kept out the Moham- him an account of his hardships and medan mosque during the eight wanderings, but he could not be found, hundred years of Mussulman rule. for before daybreak he had disappeared, A lady missionary opened a hospital never to return. He knew that if the for women, and quietly, through a third English officers should find him he party, bought a piece of land on which would be blown from the mouth of a to build. The temple managers aid cannon.
their utmost to nullify the sale. They Ten years later Isa Dass met Dr.
presented false claimants, they hired Wilson in his own village and listened false witnesses, and they pursued the to the preaching. He felt sure that he case through all the courts up to the could completely refute all that the highest, but they were finally and com- missionary had said, consequently he pletely beaten. procured the Christian book, that he The American Methodist Episcopal might properly qualify for the task, Church began work in Bindraban six but before he realized it his faith in years ago. It is part of the Agra Dis· Hinduism began to crumble away, and trict in charge of Dr. J. E. Scott. In re saw a wonderful beauty in the this district there are fifteen appoint- CLlaracter and teachings of Jesus ments. Three are manned by Ameri- Christ.
cans, and twelve are manned by Hin· In the Bindrabau Circuit there are dustani preachers. nine hundred and fourteen Christians, Rev. Isa Dass has charge of Bindra- and of these there are one hundred ban. His father was a captain in the and twenty children in school. The native army at the time of the mutiny converts are largely from the lower of 1857, and he heartily joined the walks of life, but they do not remain mutineers. When the prisoners were low.
led down to the ford ou the Ganges, In the Madras Presidency the Chris· with the promise of safe conduct to tians number about one and a half per Allahabad, Isa Dass and his father cent. of the population. They originally stood on the banks of the river to see came from the deprest classes, but to· the slaughter of the English, for they day ten per cent. of all the students knew that Nana Sahib did not intend that succeed in passing the govern- to let them escape. Isa Dass was a boy mental examinations in arts, law, medi- of twelve years, but he had been filled cine and engineering, are Christians.
with hatred for the English, and he The Bindraban Christians are freely gloated over their death. After the giving up their meagre income for the mutiny the family returned to their support of the Gospel. Last year each home in Roy Bareilly, but the father family gave an average of two days'- wages. Tbey give in kind, fowls, eggs, legal changes in the interest of the sheep. goats, etc. Things valuable elevation of women in India by the that they receive they gladly give for greater protection of widows, elevation Christ's sake. of the age of legal marriage, and in China, where native non·Christian anti- The New Life in the Far East. foot-binding societies are active. Here- after national decorations are to be con- MRS. J. T. GRACEY, UOCHESTER, N. Y. ferred in Japan on women as well as on men for meritorious services. It is difficult to appreciate tb e great modifications which are taking place in THE NEW EDUCATIONAL LIFE.- Oriental lands; in politics, society and religion. New forces are penetrating There are in the higher educational in- and disturbing the lands of the East, stitutions in foreign mission lands not and these forces are from Christian na· far from a half million of students pur- tions, awakening a new intellectual, suing their studies after western methsocial, and religious life. ods. Perhaps less than ten thousand of these are professing Christians, but the THE NEW POLITICAL LIPE.-Chlna new methods and the new studies are changing the very foundations of the within the last two or three years has civilizations of the lands. The Chrisbeen shaken from center to circumfer· tian colleges exert a powerful influence ence. The old is giving way to the new over the intellectual, moral and religi. in that old Empire. News comes from ous conditions of these several civiliza- China that on Chinese New Year's Day tions. Not a single one of the more the Imperial Government inaugurated than fifty graduates of the college in a regular mail-service and penny-post. Tung Chow China, founded twenty- Who shall say that China is not moving? five years ago, has left the college un- Pcrmission has been obtained of the converted. The young men graduates Emperor of China to establish a mili- are with scarcely an exception filling tary school under German instructors at places of wide infiuence, and are mak· Nanking, and a Naval College at the ing their lives felt upon the advancesame place, under English instructors. ment of Christianity in China. But, falther reaching, is the fact that the Pekin Government has ordered the es- There are now upwsrd of a thousand tablishmen~ of schools for learning the schools of various descriptions for na· English language and western sciences tives in China under foreign instruction in all the principal cities of the Empire. or direction. They range from the vil- Yung Wing has been ordered to Pekin lage day-school up to high-schools and to discuss the practicability of estab- colleges. Many of these schools have lishing a national banking-system. been in operation from ten to twenty Japan in the life-time of a single gener- years, so that the number of youthful ation has revolutionized a political sys- Chinese who have actually been brought tem which had existed for more than a up under foreign educational influence thousand years, and has surprised the of a Christian character may safely be world with its advancement. Even the estimated at considerably over a quarter little "Hermit Nation," Korea, has of a million. within the last fifteen years suJfered violent nnd radical disturbance of its The Nanking University, belonging relations to the rest of the world. to the Methodist Central China Mission, India is a new world. "God is form- has just held its first graduation exering a new nation in India," says Sir cises, with a class of seven. The North Herbert Edwards. China Daily New8 says that the whole official body of that city took an in- Efficient non-Christian native organ- terest in the occasion, and that the izations are demanding most radical Viceroy, Liu Kun-Yi, long regarded as hostile to everything foreign, called ~ the University and presented $100 in in the line of Christian charities within prizes to the graduating class. This is ten or a dozen years in Japan. Ten said to be the first time that any high training schools in Japan date since official in China has shown any practi- 1889. Of forty-one Christian schools cal interest in the new education. for young men all but nine have been establisht since 1889. Of forty-six In the city of Pekin, in connection Christian schools for young women not with the Methodist Mission, is a Sunday- a dozen existed twelve years ago. school which numbers over a thousand There are nineteen Orphan Asylums, members,-heathen men, women and not one of them ten years old. Of fif- children, all studying the life of the ty-six schools for the poor, not one ex- Savior. isted ten years ago, and of fourteen kindergarten schools. only one dates In India there are 30,000 college stu- earlier than 1890. A Froebel society of dents, and 70,000 in the two highest Japan was organized April 1897, for classes of high-schools. India is honey- advancing kindergarten work in the combed with educational institutions, empire. Fifteen Protestant hospitals many of them Christian. One Chris- and dispensaries are at work, ten of tian college in South India has sent out which have been establisht within ten over five-hundred Christian workers years. Thirteen" Homes" for various during the last half century. classes have been begun since 1890.
The department of medical educa- There is a deep significance in the tion especially for women among wom- story of a few Mohammedans who in en, is not only beneficiary but revolu- North India were discussihg the affairs tionary. Dr. George Smith says," The of a certain Christian school. They greatest of all the blessings which the said, "if we had our way, we would evangelical churches of America have come in a body and pull down these conferred upon the people of British buildings and take them away brick by India, is that of healing their sick brick, until not one remained." A women." The Countess DufferinFund young Hindu hearing the conversation for Female Medical Aid is one of the said" you might do that, but there is most important humane efforts of the a power behind the bricks you can not present century. It promises to be the destroy." Old faiths are dying. Old greatest of all charities ever inaugu- prejudices are giving way. The new rated in India. The demand for effi- is the order throughout the Orient. cient women physicians in India has The press is a powerful agency in the just now culminated in the establish- hands of the missionaries. Christian ment of a medical school distinctly for papers, magazines, and books are being Christian women at Ludhiana, in the circulated everywhere. The English Punjab. Missionary A.L.O.E. issued during her life in India over one hundred books The great increase in the literary and for women. educational facilities afforded to women all dates within a half-century, while THE NEW LIFE. SOCIAL, MORAL, the national interest in female educa- AND RELIGIOUS.-Nothing strikes one tion in Japan has culminated within more than the extension of the most the past year in the establishment of a modern of the Western methods of Woman's University. There has also work throughout the Oriental missions, been a demand for education of em- and the hold they are taking among ployees engaged in work in factories, those old civilizations. 1. Temperance an increase of kindergartens and of societies are not only formed, but the helps for young people, while there are Woman's Christian Temperance Union now some thirty periodicals or Wom- has extended its organizations into an's Magazines in the country, most of nearly all of these old countries, sendthem based on Christian principles.
It is astonishing to note the advance lng its agents to begin the work which the possessor of a sewing machine. She the natives in many cases, irrespective was called home and left her machine of religious belief, have taken up and for sale. The wife of this official hear- prosecuted with vigor. 2. The society ing of it had a great desire to have it. of the Ki1lfJ'8 Daughter8 enrolls thous- He sent word that he would buy it if ands of the women and girls of Japan and the missionary ladies would teach his of India and of China in their lists. 3. wife how to use it. He was particular Not only has the Sundall-&hool become in giving instructions, however, that a great help and new factor amongst the women might sing, but they were the Christians, but tens of thousands of not to read the Bible or to pray. So non-Christian people attend them, com- they sewed and sang, and one day the mitting to memory large portions of wife askt in the presence of one of the Scriptures, and learning Christian members of the family, if our Bible songs. Even the novelty of Children's told the same things as the song they Day has become popular in these had just sung. The ladies told her Christian missions throughout the East. " yes." Then she said, "well, read 4. Camp-meeti1lfJ8, at which thousands me just one verse of it," so they read assemble for days together, and in con- one verse: "For God so loved the nection with them are elevating liter- world that He gave His only begotten ary exercises, as well as powerful Son, that whosoever believeth on Him impUlses to religious life. These are might not perish but have everlasting establisht institutions in Methodist mis- life. " This woman opened her heart sions in North India. 5. The Red Cro88 and told the teachers how she longed has been adopted by the Japanese as a to go out and see the sky, the flowers, national institution as naturally as and the trees, and askt if God did not though it had originated on the soil. make all these things for women, and a 6. Night-8chools for Bible 8tudy are no great impression was made upon the longer any novelty. woman and her family.
Even so simple an instrument as the Notably among the organizations stereopticon becomes a factor, if only that have had a far-reaching influence as a novelty. A missionary, writing are the Young Men·s Christian Associafrom China, says: "One evening by tions and the Young Women's Chrisinvitation I gave an exhibition in the tian Associations. There are forty-five temple near one of my day schools. Young Men's Christian Associations Standing within six feet of the idols, I throughout Asia. Of these Japan alone threw upon the screen thc views of the has fifteen, eleven of which are in govlife and miracles of Christ. Hundreds ernment colleges. Among these stulistened with pleasure and astonish- dents the Association was the first ment. The next day three of the lead- Christian agency to find an entrance. ing literary men of the ward called to Associations have been formed in Ranpay their respects, and invited me to goon, Burma, in Persia, in Kurdistan, in visit their houses, so their women Harpoot, in Smyrna, in Robert College, might see and learn of the doctrine. Constantinople, and even in Jerusalem. To those familiar with the prejudices Hon. John Wanamaker has given of the East this was a great conces- thirty-thousand dollars for a Young sion." Men's Christian Association building in Madras, India. All the Young Men's A sewing machine might not be con- Christian Associations of China were sidered a Christian agency, but in some organized into a National College instances it has made way for the Chris- Young Men's Christian Association, at tian teacher in the heathen home. A a meeting in Shanghai, in November, native official in Northern India kept '96. The Y. M. C. A. of the Methodist his family in strict seclusion. One of the Anglo-Chinese College at Foochow, of missionaries residing in the station was which Rev. George B. Smyth is presi- gates present. A notable feature of dent, is the oldest in China. One of the these conferences was the voluntary teachers of this college was elected a consecration of one hundred and twentymember of the National Committee, and seven students for Christian work in one of its graduates, though now serv- India. There were Student Confering in the theological school of another ences held also in different parts of mission, was elected the Chinese Lele- China, which were full of significance gate to the Convention of the World's and promise. They were attended by Christian Students' Federation, to meet more than twelve hundred Chinese stuin the spring of 1898 in America. dents, besides missionaries and Christian workers. Forty colleges and thirty:seven The Rev. F. E. Clark has been visit- missionary societies were represented. ing the Christian Endeavor Societies in In Japan a Student Conference has the East, and enthusiastic services were been held, where eleven Christian and held in connection with the Association thirteen government schools were reprein various places in India. At a conse- sented. A National Christian Students' cration service of the Christian Endea- Union was formed, and they joined the vor, held in Foochow, China, a mission- World's Federation of Christian Stuary, who had been in China for nearly dents. The organization was completed fifty years, said he rejoiced that his life upon a strong evangelical basis-"the had been spared to see the time when a Bible as the only infallible rule and thousand persons could consecrate practice, and Christ as the only Saviorthemselves to God in a single day in true God and true man." This is the peace and joy, on the very ground first time the Japan Church has taken where the first missionaries were stoned part in a world-movement. on the streets. Epworth Leagues have been organized in connection with vari- The broadening of sympathies and ous Methodist stations in mission fields. widening of vision of the young Chris- At the recent session of the Foochow tian people of the Eastern world is one Conference, the Sabbath evening service of the results of this new life. was under the direction of the Epworth League. There was a crowded house, The "Light in the East" Circle of and the interest is said to have been King's Daughters in Smyrna, Turkey, intense. A collection was taken for the supports an Armenian boy, pays the suffering Armenians, then an altar ser- tuition of an orphan girl, and constantly vice was held, and a number sought gives help in other ways. The W eland obtained pardon. India enrolls lington Society of Australia has been 12,000 members of the Epworth League. devoting special attention to missionary An all-India Epworth League conven- work, and supports two native teachers tion was held recently, in which eleven in the New Hebrides, and contributes languages were represented. An Ep- also to the support of a Chinese missionworth Herald is publisht in Calcutta. ary. In North China the students of a Bishop Joyce reports 2,000 Epworth certain college for a number of years League members in China, and has just have been supporting a Zulu student in ordered a large lot of charters for new Natal. The girls connected with the leagues. Methodist Boarding School in Foochow, China, sent a contribution to the The Student Volunteer Movement is Women's College in Lucknow, India. repeating itself in its extension in for- The Missionary Society in the Nagasaki. eigu lands. This association has now School, Japan, supports a Bible woman girdled the globe. In India, during in the Loochoo Islands. the past year, five great Student Conferences were held in various parts of All change does not mean progress, the country with over a thousand dele,- but all opportunity does mean obliga- tion. The Aboriginal Tribes in Southwest the common masses of men and women China. of Islam. 2. For their Ulema and Sheikhs. 3. For their Kings and Sul- REV. FREDERICK A. STEVEN, OroNA tans; even for those who have perse- INLAND MISSION. cuted and massacred Christians, that God will bring them to repentance. 4. Ih Kawsut province there are thirty- For all Mohammedans who have copies nine separate tribes of aborigines, of the Arabic Scriptures, that their largely distinct in history, religion, eyes may be opened to see Christ as their language, customs, and dress, alike from Savior. 5. For all missionaries in Mothe Chinese and from each other. In hammedan lands that they may be wise the three southwestern provinces, as serpents, bold as lions, loving as Sichuen, Yunnan, and Kweichau, there their Lord and Master, and harmless as are records of one hundred and eighty doves. 6. For Christian rulers who tribes. Allowing for the tribes that govern Mohammedan lands that they have been exteriminated by war, or may be wise, just, impartial, and protect have amalgamated with other tribes, or liberty of conscience to all. with the Chinese, there are probably still seventy or eighty distinct tribes. -Rev. D. A. Wilson, of Guadalajara, Mexico, writes:-" Since 1857 there has Among the Kachins, on the Burman been no connection between church side of the frontier, much work has and state in Mexico. Under the leadbeen done by Rev. W. H. Roberts and ership of Juarez at that time Romanism others, and by several Karen preachers received a check which left it comsent by their own people to evangelize paratively very weak. Protestant misthese mountaineers of another race. sions have prospered-are still prosper- Something has also been done for the ing. Open persecution became less northern Shans. Until recently, how· and less common. Of late, however, ever, nothing has been done in their the Catholic party has much revived. own language for any of the tribes in They have acquired anew a great deal China. Within the past fifteen months of property; have more influence with three gentlemen and three ladies of the the government than formerly, have China Inland Mission have been ap· become bolder in their violation of the pointed to study, translate, and preach laws of reform, and in their attacks the Gospels in the language of the on Protestantism. Their aim and chief Hehmiao and the Hwamiao tribes in desire is to uproot the laws which the province of Kweichau. guarantee rcligious toleration, their greatest obstacle, which God forbid! As among all the older races of the earth, so among these tribes there is at Personally, I feel that the greatest present a time of crisis and transition, need of the hour is the induement of for the people are losing their old the Holy Spirit among all the workers superstitious worship of the spirits in in Mexico. This we pray for, that we the trees and rocks, the water and air, labor for, this we wait fo:r; for this we and are adopting the idol·worship of ask the prayers of the Christians. the Chinese. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, considers that at least fifty distinct International Missionary Union. languages will have to be studied, and fifty translations of the Bible will have A proper notification of the fourto be made, in order that these many teenth annual session of the Interna· millions of people may have the Gospel. tional Missionary Union failed by ac- cident to appear in our May issue. PRAYER FOR MOBLEMB.-Dr. H. H. Even this mention may, however, Jessup of Beirut, Syria, in a communi- reach some of our readers in time to cation at hand, expresses his conviction be of avail. This organization is that prayer should be made at this time for the Mohammedan world: 1. For widely known throughout all the mis- for us at any time and with all the light sion fields of the world, and the we can secure, to get an insight into the attendance of returned missionaries real life and motives of Oriental peoples, from foreign fields has for some years but it is possible to convey an impres- past varied from a hundred to a hun- sion concerning them by a story, such dred and fifty persons. It meets this as is got by no other means. The plot year as usual at Clifton Springs, the of Mr. Davis'story is laid in Amoy, but first session being held on Wednesday represents much that is common to all night, June 9th, and the last session parts of China. Among other features on Tuesday night, the 15th. All mis· of society vigorously depicted, is that sionaries whose address is known to of the official corruption which, tho it the officers of this society, have been is scarcely recognized to have been personally notified of the meeting, such, was really a very prominent cause but it is very desirable that this men- of the defeat of China in her late war tion should reach any missionaries with Japan. The statement is given on who have recently returned to this what seems good authority, that sixty- country. Through the munificent hos- three per cent. of the governmentappro- pitality of Dr. Foster, founder of the priations for the relief of famine-stricken Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, enter- people, were taken for their own use by tainment for all returned missionaries Mandarins instead of being applied for is provided without cost to them. It the relief of the suffering. Personally is desirable, however, that information we have found this book to give us a of the purpose to attend shall be sent keener appreciation of some phases of at as early a date as possible to the Chinese society than we have ever got secretary, Mrs. Dr. C. C. Thayer, Clif- from other sources. As a story it is ton Springs, N. Y. An admirable graphic, and holds the attention from program has been prepared and emi- first to last and is as interesting as it is nent missionaries are among those instructive.
who have already announced their in- -Probably the most important aptended coming. The secretary will be pointment made iri late months to a glad to give any information concern- theological chair in Germany is the call ing the meeting to those who may ap- given to Dr. Warneck to lecture on ply to her. evangelistic and mission work at the University of Halle. Warneck is easily J. T. Gracey, President, Rochester, the leading authority on foreign mission N. Y., will be glad to hear from any topics in the Fatherland, and through missionaries concerning topics desira- his Missionszeit8cltrijt, publisht monthly, ble to be considered during the week. has contributed more than any other Friday, June 11, and Tuesday, June 15 man to the arousing of interest in the will be days of very much interest mission cause in the country. No man to the general public.
– It would be difficult to name a is better acquainted with the theoretical book dealing with an Asiatic country that has been more popular than "The and scientific life-problems of foreign Chinese Slave Girl," by Rev. J. A. Davis; but it has met its competitor in a mission work than is the new Halle new book by the same author entitled "The Young Mandarin," a story of docent. It is to be noted that this is Chinese life, publisht by the Congregational Publishing Society, Boston and the first chair of this kind that has ever Chicago. It is not easy to specify a class of people who would not be inter- been establisht and manned in Gerested in this work. It is very difficult many, and its establishment is one of many indications that the Church of Germany is no longer concentrating its efforts on abstract theological research and discussion, but has an open eye and heart for the practical problems of evangelization and missions.-Indepen. dent.
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Africa,* Madagascar,t The Slave Trade, t The Freedmen. § BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
NOTES ON AFRICA. tion. Geographically, wonders have War has been the means of bringing been accomplisht in the last fifty years the Dark Continent much into public notice during the past year. The con- in the knowledge gained of the interior. quest of Madagascar, the revolt in Zanzibar, the raid into the Transvaal In 1837, practically nothing was known and the British occupation of the island in Delagoa Bay, the British expedition of Africa with the exception of Egypt against the Kings of Ashantee and Benin, the troubles in Morocco, the and Cape Colony, a strip of land two sending of British forces up the Nile against the Dervishes and Italy's war hunC!red miles wide on the Mediterranwith Abyssinia have all contributed to keep Africa before the eyes of the ean and a strip of coast extending from world. All these events have their effect on the work of Christian mis- ten to fifty miles inland around the resions, either in the hindrances which war and change of government cast in mainder of the continent. Now very the way of the preaching of the Gospel, as in Madagascar, or by opening up nearly all of the continent has been the country to the further advance of Christian civilization, as in the case of traverst and is under the ownership the expedition against the king of Benin, and perhaps by the Nile expedi- or protectorate of European nations.
* See alsopp. 63,80 (January); 222(March); Railroads are pushing north, south, east, 378 (May); 411,417, 438 (present issue). and west, and telegraph wires are join- New Books: '~Pioneering in Morocco," ing these out-of-the-way places with Robt. Kerr; "Chronicles of Uganda;" H Timbucktoo, the Mysterious," F. Dubois; the heart and nerve centers of the world. H A Lone Woman in A.frica," Agnes Mc- Allister; "The Story of Livingstone," B. K. Mission stations are scattered all over, Gregory; "Twenty Years in King Khnma's Country," J. D. Hepburn; "Travels in West comparatively few and far between, it Africa," Miss Kingsbury; "Through Unknown African Countries," A. D. Smith. is true, but forming centers of light for Recent Articles: "'White Man's Africa," the illumination of the surrounding Harper's; H Zanzibar," Sunday at Horne (Dec. '95); "South Africa and Its Future," darkness. Slavery has been entirely North American Review (Sep.); ,. Algeria," Edinburgh Review (Feb.); "Timbuctoo," abolisht in many places and has been London Quarterly (April); Gospel in All Lands (June). nominally so at least in all except the t See also pp. 26, 60 (January); 142 (Febru- Eastern coast and some inland districts. ary); 284 (April); 462 (present issue). The great curse in which there is no im- New Book: "Madagascar.Before the War," James Sibree. provement is in the carrying on of the Recent Article: "The French in Madagas- "Devil's Foreign Missions"-the Rum car," Nineteenth Century (January). Traffic. Millions of gallons still pour :I: See also p. 417 (present issue). § See also p. 432 (present issue). into the country from Christian (?) Recent Article:, 'Past and Future of the American Negro," A"ena (April). America and Europe, causing whole vcillluadO~'egs to be drunk at once, even in- sucking infants, and leading to the actual deification of RUM and the consequent destruction of the African's soul and body. Some chiefs do en- deavor to prohibit the traffic, but are well nigh powerless in the hands of European traders. Meantime the Gos- pel has been faithfully preacht and thousands have been brought from death unto life. No one can read the marvelous story of the work in Uganda without acknowledging that the day of miracles has not yet past, and giving praise to God for the transformations which are there taking place. (See p.
411.) 1897.] FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY. 455 Africa comprises nearly 11,520,000 road car he said, "Him be one thunder square miles, and probably contains mill." Khama called the railroad over 190,000,000 people. Great Britain tracks "the trail of the locomotive."
holds some 2,800,000 square miles, with About one·fpurth of the Africans are a population of over 47,000,000. Mohammedans, and almost three- fourths Pagans. The religion of the In Africa, 438 languages and 153 dia- latter is little more than fear of spirits, combined with which is a universal lects are found; into only about 70 of belief in witchcraft. Idol-worship is these has any portion of the Bible been not so common as fetish-worship. A translated. Five hundred of them have fetish is a charm, believed to possess no~ even been reduced to writing. The powers through an indwelling spirit. Sudan, with its 60,000,000 people, is Charms are largely used by Moham- medans as well as Pagans. At Brass, in still without a single Protestant Mis- the Niger Delta, a huge snake used to be sionary who can speak the language, regarded as a god. Human sacrifices are tho three societies are now endeavoring becoming more uncommon, but are not unknown. Old men and women (not to begin work there. slaves) near the Kongo, if unable to provide food for themselves, are put The noted English philologist, Dr. out into the forest to die. The slave Cust, in a careful essay on African trade has not yet been entirely abolisht in East Africa, tho, theoretically at languages to which he has given years least, it has been stampt out on the of investigation wrote: West Coast. Sir Lloyd Matthews, the Prime Minister of the Sultan of Zanzi- " The existence of the Negro group bar, estimates the number of slaves in of languages is an unparalleled record Zanzibar and Pemba, i. e., under the of the power of the human intellect. British fiag, at 140,000. Slavery has The twentieth century will classify that since been prohibited here also, and the group. Many African languages are Queen's Diamond Jubilee is to be celedoomed. Scores – including such im- brated by the entire abolition of slavery perial tongues as Hansa, Kongo, Suto, in the British West African possessions. Swahili, Yariba, Zulu- have in their original purity past into the hands of The drink traffic in West Africa is & missionaries who have in fifty years terrible curse, and appears to be indone what European languages re- creasing. In the Niger Coast Protecquired centuries to achieve. Africa has torate the annual import of spirits inachieved more Bible-version transla- creast from 1,300,000 gallons to nearly tions in half this century than the world 2,000,000 when the British Government in eighteen centuries. The origin of establisht a regular administration there. language can not even be approacht In 1892 the imports of liquor into till the secrets of Africa, America, and Lagos amounted to over 1,100,000 gal- Oceania have been revealed. In examin- lons, in 1893 they had risen 50 percent., mg an African vocabulary, whose one and in 1894 the quantity was said to be hundred words represent the environ- very little short of 2,000,000 gallons. ment and requirements of simple life, Large public meetings of natives have we obtain a standard of comparative lately been held to protest against this chronology and progressive culture." traffic. The statement that Mohamme- How far above the African barbarian, dans never drink will scarcely bear in- A.D. 1900, was Abraham, B.C. 1900?" vestigation. A well-known French traveler, a great supporter of Moham- Africans have some very striking medanism, recently wrote as follows expressions, showing that they are full of poetical ideas. The ~Ioongues call thunder the" sky's gun," and the morning is with them "the day's child." The Zulus call the twilight "the eyelashes of the sun." An African who came to America was shown some ice, which he had not seen before, and he called it "water fast asleep."
When askt to give a name to a railabout the Foulahs, who live in the hare. Each sets himself to cut off his Western Sudan: favorite piece, no one making it his " All are Mohammedans withont ex- business to kill the victim first, lest a ception, and all are drunken in the fullest acceptance of the word. Towards coveted morsel should be lost. After five o'clock in the evening it is no longer possible to have serious conversation a big battle, in which many prisoners with them; young people, adults, and old men, all are drunk." have been taken, human beings have A native catechist wrote lately con- been sold for as little as five or six cerning the importation of spirits to shillings a brace for eating purposes. Abeokuta: " It is an enemy within the walls; an Natives in the region of the Ubangi enemy that has taken the stronghold of river urged one of Stanley's officers to the town; an enemy that has chained our elders, sent into poverty and bond- leave one of his boat's crew in exchange age our young men and young women, filled our streets with broken bottles, for a goat, saying, "Meat for meat I" filled our homes with desperate and hardened inmates, and peopled hell Urging his help in making a war with souls that might have been saved by the sound of the Gospel." against their neighbors, he said: "You Cannibalism has been surprisingly can take the ivory, we will take the little discust in books of travel. We meat!" Rows of skulls are hideously are told that in such and such a district cannibals are to be found, but we hear exhibited, hung round the tents of canno details, neither how the flesh is prepared, what joints are preferred, nor to nibals to show how many men they what extent the practice is prevalent. Captain Hinde asserts that nearly all have eaten.
tribes in the Kongo basin are or have A correspondent of TlU! &turdatf been cannibals, and that the practice is on the increase, not merely for super- Review writes as follows:- stitious reasons, but also for the pro- " The cannibalism of the black secret vision of food. There is a certain society known as the Human Leopards, sturdy, fat race in Africa, which has near Sierra Leone, disclosed by the never been famous for its prowess, recent trial, brings forcibly before us but which is made a regular staple the difference between the East African and the West African habits of eating article of diet. Whole cargoes are human flesh. The Sherbro cannibals constantly carried up the river and waylaid and killed their victims and sold to the natives for food. afterwards feasted on their flesh. The cannibalism of the East coast is of a The Batetella are described as a fine very different kind. The flesh of the race, with no old or infirm persons old people-the grandfather and grandamong them. The reason of this is mother of a family-is dried and mixed with condiments; and a portion of this that at the first sign of decrepitude the is offered, with a dim sort of sacrasufferer is killed and eaten. The mem- mental meaning, to travelers who bebers of this tribe consider human flesh come guests of the family. To refuse it would be a deadly insult. To accept the greatest of all delicacies, and are it is a passport to the privileged position ever on the watch for any excuse to of a friend of the house. Many of our kill and eat their comrades. So soon as travelers in East Africa have eaten thus a victim is appointed to die, mobs col- sacramentally of the ancestors of some dark-skinned potentate. lect outside the king's house, and the victim is given over to them, the peo- " The cannibalism of the West coast is, as has just been said, of a more ple tearing him to pieces as quickly as horrible kind. The- Sherbro's case a pack of hounds will make end of a seems to be connected with fetichism, the worst developments of which are peculiar to that country; but there is a hideously genuine appetite for fresh human flesh still existing among the negroes of West Africa. This cannibal- ism manifests itself in a refinement of gluttony which has its mild analogy in the tastes of Europeans. Young boys are brought from the dark interior, kept in pens, fattened upon bananas, and finally killed and baked. To these Thyestean feasts come not only the savage chiefs of the interior, but also, it is whispered, black merchants from the coast. Men to the members of the Church. The who appear at their places of business Mossouto is the master of his children; in English territory in broadcloth and tall hats, who ape the manners of their his wife or his wives are in complete white masters, are said to disappear annually into the interior, where, we subjugation to him. A Christian wife, are told, they might be seen, in naked savagery, taking part in the banquets married to a heathen, sees her children on plump boys in which they delight. Be this as it may, somehow the native obliged to submit to every heathen of the West coast and its Hinterland is unlike the East or South African native custom. She can not raise her voice in the deep·lying savagery and the extraordinary facility for returning to against it, because she also is the proit, which are his leading and very un- perty of her husband. pleasant characteristics. The subject claims the attention of the anthropo- The Kongo was not discovered till logist, and certainly suggests a curious reason for questioning the relationship 1484. More progress in mission work of the black man and the ape or the gorilla, seeing that the race of monkeys has been made along its banks in the seems to be singularly free from anything like cannibalism. last ten years than in the four hundred To David Livingstone belongs the previous years since its discovery. The credit of having first crost the continent of Africa and of having given an trains of the Kongo railway are now intelligent account of his journeys. By the nobility of his character and by the running two hundred miles from the simplicity and tenderness of his life, he coast. From Luebo, on the Upper won the confidence of the natives and gained their love. He still lives through Kongo, comes the following encourag. his work in that dark land. ing report: Krapf, the first missionary in East "This mission has been in operation Africa, who landed in 1844, said that he some five years, and now comes the "took possession of the Pagan lana for answer to the unnumbered prayers that the militant Church of Christ." Now have ceaselessly ascended to our Father it is calculated that there are in Africa since that time. Prayer will prevail. 1,000,000 Protestant native adherents, On Sabbath morning, March 17th, 1896, of whom over 100,000 are communi- twelve more were baptized aud became cants; more than 1,200 American and members of this church, and on the European missionaries, and some 1,000 following Sabbath fourteen, and on mission stations. April 7th two more, and on April 14th one more What a day of rejoicing Unbelief does not exist among the when we had our first communion with Lessouto of South Africa; the heathen them! These were mostly from among there is religious after his fashion. He our station people." does not mock at Christianity; he speaks of God with respect; he believes, up to The following is a copy of part of a a certain point, in the truth of the Gos- composition written by a little African pel, and While he prays to the idols of his hut, he is not afraid of addressing girl in the American Protestant Episcohimself also to the God who made heaven and earth. The things which pal lI-Iission, at Cape Palmas, Africa, hold him back are poligamy and intoxicating liquor, which are both forbidden which shows some results of mission training, and may have some interest in view of the recent Biblical contro- versy!
Composition on Jonah.-" History as you know teaches us what is happen, in the past event. Geography where the thing has happened at. History tells us that Adam was the first man that was created and geography shows us where the garden of Eden is, which continent, which division.
" History tells us that Adam was the first man that was created and while he was sleeping, God took out one of his Jibs and made Eve, after a while Eve went to walk among the trees of the garden of Eden. Conversation took place between her and the devil, the devil told her to eat some kind of fruit difficulty which faces missionaries in which God had told her and Adam not to eat, she took it, and ate it, and also endeavoring to lead the nations to took some for her husband. When Adam saw it he did not take no time Christ. These traders and travelers to ask her where she got it from. for the most part lead immoral and "History, geography and the earth, just do to go together. One tells dishonest lives and turn the Africans about this, one tells about that, and so forth. Histories are interesting to against the white man and" the white read, indeed they are. It tells us about the whale. The whale is the man's God." Many of them oppose largest animal in the sea. Whales is spoken of in the Bible, God had sent the missionaries, and do all in their Jonah to Ninevah to preach to the people about their sins, Jonah refused power to keep the natives in ignorance to go. He went into a ship with some people, he just went in there to hide and degradation, living in lose relations from God, but God caused a storm to take place and the ship went from with the native women, and by lying, this way to that way. The people was afraid indeed and they began cheating, and cruelty endeavoring to to cast lots and the lot fell upon him so they up and throwed him into make the poor black men their slaves. the sea, while he was going to the verybottom of the sea he met with this anI· One missionary writes thus of a visit mal, so the whale said 'My friend, where are you going?' Jonah an- to one of these European planters on swered and said unto him, 'I have disobeyed my God and I am trying to the west coast: hide from His face.' The whale said, , You ought to be ashamed of your- "We were introduced to the family self. ' 'Don't you know that neither of the merchant. Two little mulattoes you nor I can hide from Hisface.' Jonah were marcht up to shake hands and said, •O! whale I am so afraid, I do to kiss the ladies, and a black woman not know what I am doing or saying." was introduced to us as the children's The whale said, 'The idea of your mother. 'My woman,' as the Englishrunning away from God, you got to man put it. We were expected to be bear the consequence that's all I got to friendly with these black girls, who say.' are kept in each factory. Of course, these girls are not to blame, since they .. Jonah said, 'Whale I think you are often brou~ht to the white men had better swallow me because I see against their WIll, the relatives receivthere is no use in talking.' The whale ing presents of rum when they hire said, 'Jonah put your head in my the girl out to the trader. Whenever mouth and get ready for your life.' the trader tires of his mistress she is At the same time he did swallow him sent back to her family, and he hires up. Jonah thought the whale's body another girl. I know of one case where was his end. Therefore Jonah offers a white merchant, I am sorry to sayan up a prayer for his sins. If he should American, tried to compel a girl of die before he should get the shore, if twelve to live with him, although she it was Gods's will to carry his soul to was a scholar in our mission school. Heaven. The whale did not rest day The missionaries were smarter than he after day nor night after night. and succeeded in keeping the girl away from him by adopting her. "After three days the whale went to the shore and vomited up Jonah. " The lives of the traders seem much alike, a little work, a good deal of " J ollah was like a drownded rat." drinking and immorality. The climate of Central Africa is very trying, but The white man in Africa has much the white traders are to blame for the great mortality among them. It is not to answer for. To the Mohammedan is hard work or exposure, as in the case of the missionaries, that kills them,'but due the carrying on of the horrible rather drink and immorality. The outrages committed by these men can slave traffic. To the European and not be told in print, but no crime is black enough, it seems. When the American is due the prevalence of the young traders come out to Africa, per- haps young men brought up in Chrisdrink traffic, and to the white traders' tian homes, they do not like the life there and everyone longs for. his enaccount is to be laid very much of the gagement of three years to come to a close and vows that Africa shall never see him again. But, alas, at the end of three years nearly every young clerk has changed his mind, and is very willing to return.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
March of Events. raise a permanent endowment for its hospitals of not less than £150,000 Of course, in Britain the celebration annually. To secure such a sum in of the Queen's Jubilee-or more prop- yearly income from previous non-conerly sixtieth anniversary of accession- tributors is an immense blessing all June 22d, now absorbs attention. It around, and such a Bum is equivalent is estimated that six million people will to an endowment of nearly £3,000,000, be in London to witness the celebration, if the sum is estimated at 5 per cent. and as high as £1,000 will be paid The Queen Victoria Jubilee Nursing for a floor of a house to witness the Institute Commemoration Fund is a special ceremonies when the proces- general scheme for which over £30,000 sion halts at St. Paul's. Sunday, June is already secured to provide trained 20th, is to be kept as general Thanks- nurses for the poor. It is proposed to giving; on the celebration day 8,000 found a grand sustentation fund for the policemen will be on duty, and 40,000 needy clergy; and if every church soldiers and sailors will be mixt up family in Britain would give a half with the procession or line the route. penny per week, it is estimated it would The public religious service will be in reach £400,OOO-a good example of how open air at the West entrance of the many a mickle makes a muckle. The Cathedral, and the queen is not expec· Open Spaces Commemoration Associated to leave her carriage. The decora- tion likewise undertakes to secure pertions will, of course, be superb, and manent ampler breathing places for the the display of court robes and cos- confined and cramped populations in tumes and paraphernalia gorgeous, country places and rural districts, as while the fireworks and illuminations well as great cities. The project of will be indescribable and brilliant. On planting Jubilee avenues of 60 trees in the evening of the 22d, beacon-fires will various parts meets much favor. Most be kindled on all the high hills through- benevolent schemes, of course, take out the United Kingdom, as in the advantage of the Jubilee to raise a olden days, when no other method special fund. For example, Mr. except that of the fire-telegraph was Waugh's Society for Protection of known for rapid and simultaneous Children proposes a great exhibit in communication. Royal Albert Hall, of improved devices for preserving and protecting child-life The matter that most interests a MIS- since Victoria ascended the throne. SIONARY REVIEW is the bearing of all The Church of England Society for this on missionary and philanthropic waifs and strays is raising a fund, work. The queen, like the pious woman as also the Wesleyans for soldiers she is, has openly encouraged her sub- and sailors-the Jews have various jects to express their thanksgiving to projects on foot, etc.-and in fact, God by exhibiting their humanity and there is no end of schemes to make sympathy to God's needy and suffer- this memorial year memorable pering ones. Her Majesty has more than manently for the increase of all good intimated her preference for practical work. New homes for workingmen, deeds of charity and mercy as the true like Mr. Morley's model village of expression of loyalty to herself. Ac- Leigh, workman's rests, homes for aged cordingly various projects are on foot and needy poor, governesses' homes, for the founding or conducting of the drinking fountains, baths, churches hospital system on a more extensive and church-houses, statues, free librascale. The Prince of Wales leads the ries and reading-rooms, technical way proposing that the metropolis shall schools, lecture endowments, museums, One great event of this year in Lonart galleries, town halls, public gar- don was the remarkable .. Keswick dens, nursing institutions, convalescent Convention," which assembled in St. homes, commemoration beds, coffee James's Hall in April. Prayer was taverns, cottage homes for aged fisher- previously made devoutly in fifty differmen, pension funds, etc., ad infinitum. ent places, in and about the city, for a great spiritual blessing in connection If the Editor of this REVIEW might with this gathering, of which we may venture on a suggestion, it would be that give more information hereafter, as the a memorial building be erected in Lon- editor's first object in his somewhat don for the Student Volunteer Mission- unexpected trip to Britain has been to ary Union, when missionary volunteers attend this Conference on Spiritual Life. and departing and returning missionaries might find a meeting place, with The address of Mr. Roscoe of Ugana missionary library and reading-room, da, given at the close of the London and missionary museum, a hall for Convention, April 10th, bristled with common gatherings, especially for the most arousing facts about that prayer, etc. Also that a permanent wonderful work of God in the kingdom fund be raised by each of the great where, so few years ago, Hannington's societies for the establishment of med- blood sowed the seed of churches. He ical missions, with hospitals and dis- told us of the city of Benin, with its pensaries, throughout the British Em- huge mud fetish, that must be kept pire. If, in addition to these, there damp with human blood for nine months could be a permanent fund for the relief in the year-so that victims must be of returned, disabled, and indigent sacrificed sufficiently often to secure a missionaries, it would be one of the constant wetting of the clay idol, etc. noblest ways of celebrating the Jubilee year. Another thing is greatly needed, But he told us a story of a transa permanent educational home for the formed church, most wonderful to children of missionaries, who can not, hear. There was a band of about twenfor any reason, continue to live with ty-five missionaries, twenty of them the parents in the mission field. There being men-and they felt that they are a few such homes, but by no means lackt true consecration to God, and equal to the demand. In many cases it quickened by desire after holiness, they is quite impossible for children to re- held a little meeting among themselves main with the parents without perman- for the deepening of spiritual life. ent risk to health, and even worse risk How could twenty-five Christians meet to morals. If, in some such ways as the needs of 10,000,000 people in Uganthis, missions could have a lasting ad- da? The result of their meetings was vance, it would be of incalculable bless- a new baptism of power, and of course ing to the whole cause of the Kingdom it must spread. They at once began of God. We yearn also to see a far a ten-day's preaching service, and the greater provision for the increast setting preaching was with new power. The up of Christian printiug presses in first result was the uncovering of 8ecret needy districts of the foreign field; and sin in the lives of nominal converts the Bible Society should likewise take until the confessions revealed so coradvantage of popular enthusiasm to rupt a private life that it was thought issue a Jubilee Edition of the Bible in best not to allow them to be publicly some specially cheap and popular form made. for almost gratuitous distribution. Let our readers pray that every practical Then, being more privately confesst, scheme for advancing the cause of God and renounced, the spirit of God came may be the outcome of this great Jubi- upon them for sanctification and ser- vice, until the native church became lee year. both a pure and a missionary church, and the spirit of evangelism took pos- 300 churches and 800 teachers sent forth session even of the earls and chiefs, un- with the good news, and now 60,000 til they left· their local official abodes Bible readers among the Uganda and undertook the work of preaching people. the Gospel. At last the prime minister protested that it would be impossible There is power in the testimony beto carryon the kingdom properly with- cause of the Holy Spirit force back of out their help in governmental affairs, it. They felt a new inward impulse to and a law 'lOa,s made, forbidding these tell the good news, until, as we have chief men of the realm from being ab- said, the foremost men of the nation reo sent without permission from their signed their positions of temporal emolocal trusts! As was remarked by Mr_ lument to become teachers; and after Webb-Peploe-imagine Lord Salisbury the law was past prohibiting them, coming to the mission secretaries and they came to obtain leave, for six protesting that the wave of missionary months or more at a time, to be absent enthusiasm was so moving the head from their posts, to undertake preachmen of Britain, that the Houses of ing, returning to the civil duties at the Lords and Commons were in danger of expiration of the leave of absence. being vacated, and the government left without proper legislators! Here is a people of one book, and that book the Bible. The authorized teach- Here was in Uganda what was a few ers number a tenth of the whole body years since a nominal church practically of converts. A little mud church was both unfit and unwilling to go out into found built among the dwarfs on -the active service for souls; converts com- border of the black forests near Victoria ing by the thousand into the church, Nganza. It was necessary to cross a yet without power to go forth and carry swamp land for three days to get to it, the Gospel. This revival of three and with the water sometimes up to the arm a half years ago was God speaking to pits. And it was one simple Uganda the hearts of his people, leading them convert that had there gathered a to the laying aside of every weight and church of 400! When Mr. Roscoe easily besetting sin, and then go out as came away from Uganda, to see his His messengers to the destitute masses wife and children, from whom for five about them. How much hangs on the years he had been separated, these contrue consecration of the missionaries verts clung to him fondly, saying, "Are themselves. Those men and women not we your children ?" and 4,000 of were met before the Lord, weeping be- them escorted him to the boat. tween the porch and the altar, some said, "We want George Grubb," who We hope to have this marvellous is well known for his recent world-tour story written out for our readers by of testimony. But the rest said, "No, Mr. Roscoe and others, themselves we want George Grubb's God." The workers in thc Uganda nation. But natives could not at first understand the the amazing developments will be apchange in their Christian teachers, but preciated if we remember that the C. they felt it. The new preaching deep- M. S. missionaries in India have proly impressed the crowds that gathered, posed, in view of the pressing needs of and on the first morning there was an the Uganda field, that they will underafter-meeting attended by 600 people, take for a time to get on without and the converts now began to say, recruits, if those who offer for India " Now I understand the power of the can for the next year or two be sent to Gospel," etc. Drunkenness and various Uganda! forms of impurity, and immorality, were forsaken; a new life began with a The Anglo·American Arbitration new power; in three years there were Treaty is dead, having failed to pass the Senate by the required two-thirds majority vote. After being amended, until it had lost much of its force and reaches an aggregate of 25,300, and on form, it has now been rejectes.. We week days. of 6,307.
earnestly hope, however, that some such 4. The number of teachers at work, measure will ere long be introduced, 725, of which 192 are church council and meet with the success it deserves. teachers, and 533 teachers in local con- We can not conceive of the objects nection. The former are of a higher which civilized men can have in oppos- class, paid about two pounds sterling ing a measure which would insure peace per annum, the people supplying house between the two leading Christian na- and food; and the latter belong to a. tions of the world. lower grade, recognized by the local The Greco-Turkish war, which the church governing body, the majority European concert so weakly endeavored having no stipend. There are teachers to avert, has begun, and seems to have of the mateka-a sort of church primer; ended. Greek reverses have been others who train Gospel-readers and severe, and have caused a change in candidates for baptism; and others, the Grecian Cabinet – have, in fact, still more experienced, who do the threatened the overthrow of the mon- highest class of work. The mateka archy. The Greek army lacks in dis- readers number 22,972; the Gospel readcipline, and at one time fights valiantly, ers, 20,586. To be a Gospel-reader while at another suffers ignominious means for most of them, to be a bapdefeat. The outlook is dark for Chris- tized believer, and a communicant. tians in Crete and everywhere else Probably nine-tenths of them will come where the Turk holds sway.-May 10. forward for baptism. Bishop Tucker has given in the Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer for 5. Some 25,743 New Testaments and March a. valuable resume of the work in Uganda, in the form of very care- Gospel portions l:ave been purchased to fully prepared statistics. meet demands. 1. The number of readers, i. e., those who wish to read for themselves the 6. There are now 6,905 baptized Word of God, and are at least beginning so to do, has reacht a total of Christians, and 1,355 communicants. 57,380, in Uganda. The great significance and importance of this fact Bishop Tucker confirmed over 2,000 lies in the close and real link between the reader and the Christian believer. candidates during his late visit to Only within three or four years has the work begun in the province known as Uganda. ' the Sesse Islands, and there are nearly 6,500 readers there alone. Considering that all this is the devel- 2. The number of churches, or read- opment of the brief period since Bishop ing-houses, in which the bulk of Christian instruction is given, is 321, and the Hannington was assassinated, it is aggregate seating capacity 49,751. These buildings are of all sizes from another miracle of missions. the Cathedral Church, holding 4,000, down to the little prayer·house, hold- The French Government have seized ing 30. They are built generally of the College, the Normal School, and reeds, timber, and grass; unsubstantial the Girls' Central School in Antonaindeed, but built rapidly and cheaply, narivo, Madagascar-buildings which to keep pace with the rapidly develop- were reared for missionary purposes by ing work. In these, ordinary church money subscribed at home. The Lonservices are held on Sundays, and in don Missionary Society has given worksmaller buildings, one or two hours of ers and money to Madagascar for a teaching followed by a briefer form of generation, for the evangelization of service. the people, it is their work that has chiefly contributed toward making the 3. The attendance, on Sunday, Island a valuable possession for the French. Thousands of the native savages have been transformed through their instrumentality into peaceable, in- dustrious Christians. And now their schools, and hospitals, and churches are being appropriated with a total dis- regard to justice.
-In the Niger Company's territory, the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's accession is to see a proclamation pro- hibiting any form of slavery for evermore. . On the strength of the recent by Mr. Pilkington and others, this year military successes this is, no doubt, the Punjab was prominent. Rev. T. possible, and the news of it will fly far R. Wade, who has for thirty years and wide through Africa. We hope it wrought in this field, made the address. will reach at an early date the natives This annual gathering has been and is who are held in South Africa to forced one of the great occasions at Oxford, labor, in mines and elsewhere, without and shows what one man can do to any voice in the terms of their engage- further missions, who is engrost by the ments or of their wages. Their state is care of a large home parish, but studivirtually one of slavery, although they ously endeavors to fan the flame of a do get a grudged shilling or so a holy enthusiasm for God's work. month. Such a state ought not to be tolerated under the British flag, or that The illustrations accompanying Mr. of any chartered adventurers who have Chatelain's article on the slave trade in obtained permission to fly it. our present issue are kindly loaned by the Journal of American Folk LYre. -Rev. Phillips Verner, Presbyterian This journal is the organ of the " Am- Church South, thus speaks of the erican Folk-Lore Society," an organizacharacteristics of the natives as he has tion which has done much to throw met them on the upper Kongo. ., One light upon the subject of the literature, of their most striking mental qualities characteristics and beliefs of unknown is acuteness of external perception. peoples of other climes. They are very apt to learn things requiring the sllarp eye, quick hand, and Cable messages from Persia tell of steady foot. There are engineers, renewed persecutions at Julfa. An inwheelmen, brick masons, carpenters, fluential mollah is named as threatentailors here who, ten years ago, roamed ing to close the hospitals and secure the aboriginal forests in utter savagery. the expulsion of the missionaries. They are also astonishingly sharp at reading the character of others, especi- The Church of England Zenana ally their superiors, on most salient Society is to undertake a noble compoints. As a general rule, they have memoration of Queen Victoria's sixtieth marvelous memories for things heard year as queen, sending forth sixty or seen-not for processes explained. additional ladies to India, Ceylon, and They rather lack the higher reasoning China. and introspective faculties. They compare externalities quickly, and gener- At Oxford the Hannington Memorial ally draw sound conclusions within Hall was opened January 26th. It contheir observation and knowledge. tains a hall holding 200 to 300, a mis- They are very materialistic in their sionary library, care-taker's rooms, etc. ideas until converted, refusing to see Sir Geo. Williams generously gave any value whatever in that which does £100 toward the library. It is hoped not contribute to their bodily comfort that like the Henry Martyn Memorial and pleasure." Hall at Cambridge, this will be a nur- sery of missions at home and abroad. Once more, that beloved man of God, The building and site cost about £5,000, Canon Christopher, of Oxford, has of which over one-fifth was from undergiven his annual missionary breakfast graduates. Sir John Kennaway preto about 300 persons. Members of the sided at the opening. It is hoped that university, local clergy, and citizens of many donations of missionary volumes the town. As the claims of Uganda will be made to the library by authors had been put before the guests last year and publishers. Publioations Notioed. admission of Polygamous applicants, in Dr. Dennis' new book on "Christian which he reaches the following conclu- sion: Missions and Social Peogress" * of Polygamy and concubinage can not which we have seen advance sheets, be tolerated in the Christian Churches. promises to be an invaluable encyclopedia of up-to-date information. No Baptize believers who have only one pains or expense have been spared to wife. make it as complete and perfect as possible. It will have excellent maps, and Applicants who have no wife, but are an abundance of illustrations. Those living with concubines, should be rewho have read" Foreign Missions After quired to put away all but one before a Century" will not be slow to become baptism, and should be married to that possessors of this still more valuable and one. interesting work as soon as it appears. Applicants with two wives should The report of the "Fifth Conference put away one. of the Foreign Missions Board" of the United Statesand Canada comes to hand, Require immediate separation from carefully edited by lir. Wm. Henry all concubines before baptism.
Grant, of the Presbyterian Board. t This Much attention is now being given to the question of Christian Giving. .An conference has already received some notice in these pages, and the report is excellent little 32.page pamphlet comes exceedingly valuable, discussing, as it does, questions of finance, self-support, from Mr. Geo. Sherwood Eddy, on statistical blanks, specific donations, annual reports, missionary comity, fur- "Christian Stewardship," * studied loughs, the student volunteer movement, and independent missions.. from a Biblical and experiential stand- The "Combination Bible":j: is a unique point, which presents the subject in and excellent compromise for meeting the needs and desires of those who wish clear and forcible style. the better rendering of the revised version, but who cling to the authorized The Ohristian Financier t is a monthversion as sacred, from its historical associations and memories. The text is ly magazine recently started, which according to the old version, printed in clear type, with references to the bottom contains a great abundance of helpful of the column where changes made by the revisors are noted in full.' It is a and interesting material on this subject. reference Bible, and has a large number of valuable helps to Bible study. Two The aim of the magazine is to promote other points of especial value are its "self-pronouncing" system for proper " The Right and Christian Uses of names, and the series of 4,000 suggestive questions in the back for the use of Money, " which its pungent notes, forcestudents and teachers of Bible-classes. ful discussions, and telling stories are Rev. Wm. M. Baird of Korea sends well calculated to do. us a pamphlet on the question of the " Organization and Methods of Mis- * In press. Fleming H. Revell Co., New sion Work,":j: by Dr. Edwin l1. Bliss, York. is Part III. of "A Concise History of t Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Missions." As Missionary Editor of the 156 Fifth Ave., N. Y. ~ National Publishing Co.,239 Levant St., Independent, and Editor of the" Ency- clopedia of Missions," Dr. Bliss has Philadelphia. proved himself uniquely capable of writing intelligently and concisely on this subject. The present compact treatise deals especially with the object and motive of missions, the organization of the work, the agencies in the field, the various evangelistic, medical, edu- cational, and literary methods of con- ducting missionary work and the de- velopment of the native churches.. rr:his book is not a bundle of dry statIstICs, but a very brief and general statement concerning the subjects mentioned.
*D. L. Eddy, 261 Lawrence Hall, New Haven.
t The Tithing Press, New London, Conn. 250. per year.
~ Publisht by Fleming H. Revell Co., New York.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations from Poreign possibly the mountain district of Abys- sinia, included in the Italian protector- Periodioals. ate, may fulfil the same conditions, but no data are available on which to base BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, conclusions. "
MASS. -Miss Furley writes in the O. M. Gleaner, from Mengo, the capital of AFRICA. Uganda: "The Queen's birthday was kept on May 25th (the 24th. being Sun- -At the International Congress, late- day) with all loyal honor in Mengo. ly held in London, Sir John Kirk pre- Kampala, the government station was sented the general conclusions as to the extensively decorated with flags and availability of Africa for European palm branches; triumphal arches were colonization. We extract from the erected with appropriate inscriptions of "Annual Papers of the Church lVIis- good will to Her Majesty, and welfare sionary Society" for 1895-6: "For the and prosperity to Uganda. There was a purposes of colonization the maritime grand public reception of the king and zones of both the east and west coasts all the chiefs by the government offimust be dismist as useless; so also cials, which was celebrated by the premay all lands in tropical Africa having sentation of a new Uganda flag to the a lower general level than 5,000 feet, country, a review of troops, and a while the high temperature and humid- 'march past' in grand style!, The flag ity of much of the rest are very ex- is blue, with a Union Jack in the center, hausting to the average European; but and four stars round at the four sides. the higher central and more mountain- King Mwanga was highly delighted ous regions are possible areas for future with it. After this there was a lunch colonies. In effect his conclusions at Kampala for the king and the chiefs. were: (1) that all the possessions on the In the evening all the Europeans were West Coast under Great Britain, Ger- invited to dinner, and all went, ahout many, France, Portugal, and Spain, and thirty, including the French and Enthe Kongo State (with the possible glish Roman Catholic missionaries. exception of German Southwest Africa, We were told that there was to be a which suffers the disadvantage of having torchlight procession, and truly there no convenient port), are throughout was, beyond anything we had ever their extent too malarious, too hot, and thought of; even the brilliant moontoo damp to offer a chance of European light did not spoil the effect of it. The colonization; (2) that in the vast region chiefs and their followers turned out in under British rule in Southeast Africa force to do honor to England's Queen all the conditions necessary for success- and England's administration . ful colonization Itre present, and the But the finest sight was after dinner, same probably is true of the region when we went out on the fort-walls to further north across the Zambesi Valley, see it. The procession assembled on the the extensive plateau to the west of King's Hill in the open space between Lake Nyassa, of which the adminis- the King's enclosure and that of the tration has been taken over by the Katikiro; then began slowly to move South-African Company; (3) that the down the hillside in the direction of elevated plateau and escarpment, which Kampala. On they come, more and forms the greater portion of British more, till the whole of the broad road East Africa, varying from 5,000 to 7,000 feet in height, appears also to be adapted for colonization; and (4) that
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
down the hillside is one shining stream is offered by the circumstances which of light, as thousands of torchbearers resulted in a plentiful display of ethnopass down in perfect order; then nearer logical curios by their agents, to an they come, and pass close under where exclusion almost practical of any native we stand, to the very gates of Kampala; literature. Herr Merenski summarily then up Namirembe Hill, they divide, disposes of the flimsy apology offered and some double back, and the two for this grave omission by the Gerstreams of light pass and repast, till manz'a (June 3d, 1896). In the Prothe whole hillside in front of us is testant stalls, on the other hand, twinkling with light; then with no appeared various tokens of the services noise or disturbance they return up the rendered by the Reformed creed to the King's Hill. Besides the thousands African philologists. Writings in the lighted, many hundreds of spare torches Swahili, Dualla, Benga, Eohe, Herero, were carried. It was reckoned there Nama, Gil, Pohi, and Konde tongues were about 7,000 torches out. Double are amongst those offered to the attenlines of Nubian soldiers lined the ap- tion of the passerby, while evidences proach to Kampala, through which the of the dawning literary proclivities of procession passed. those natives under the Teutonic flag lie open to inspection. – " The value of mISSIOns as an important factor in the adequate develop- "So official a recognition of Chrisment of German colonial possessions tian missions is in consonance with the has been to some extent recognized by trend of opinion, which found expresthe pOSItion assigned them in the colo- sion some time since in the IJeutscM nial department of the Berlin Industrial Kolonialzeitung (No. 45, 1895). In an Exhibition. A spontaneous and inde- article headed 'Missions or Islam' the pendent suggestion from an official writer urgently deprecates any encour· source resulted in the construction of a agement of Mohammedanism in Germissionary division; which was thrown man colonies, on account of its fossilizopen to workers of all sects, creeds, and ing influences upon the native mind. nationalities laboring under the Ger- With a candor sufficiently flippant to man colonial flag. Some of the Eng- elicit the rebuke of a publication so lish-speaking bodies neglected to avail emphatically colonial in its tone as the themselves of the occasion offered, but Allgemeine Konservative Monatsschrijt, others, notably the American-Presby- he advocates the promulgation of terians, working in West Africa from Christianity as a factor better qualified the Gaboon to the southern portion of to subserve the aims of trade and terri- Kamerun, and the Australasian Wes- torial extension. When we are furleyans, of Sydney, located in the Ger- thermore informed, that to the true man Bismarck Archipelago, displayed colonial politician all creeds viewed an active concurrence in the efforts of otherwise than in their commercial Herr Merenski, upon whom fell the bearing must remain a matter of comonus of the undertaking. In addition plete indifference, and that the welfare to the eight German Protestant socie- of the natives is also a matter beyond ties, four Roman Catholic agencies, .the all possible consideration, we are Heart of Jesus Mission, the Missionary at no loss to account for the blots Society of the Divine Word at Steyl, which have darkened the records of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost and Un- colonial enterprise in Germany."-O. spotted Heart of Mary, and the Bene- M. Intelligencer. dictine Mission claimed admission. A striking commentary, we may remark, -Professor Kruger, in the Journalda on the permanent utility of Roman Missions, remarks on the painful mon- Catholic missions to African philology otony with which all the missionary re- ports bring out the terror and aversion
ENGLISH NOTES
felt hy the natives toward the govern- more violent the Jesuits become. No ment of the Kongo Free State. We means, not even the worst and most should expect from Belgium, so largely culpable, are bad for them. Their French as it is, a good measure of that adepts traverso the oountry in bands of humanity and friendliness, which so from forty to Jiifty, and say to all whom signally characterize the French in their they meet that if they do not turn dealings with subject races; but it is not Catholics they shall meet with the fate the case. The policy of the Free State of M. Alby. They declare loudly that toward the Africans seems to be mere M. Alby has been chained and sent terrorism and hard exaction. If there back to France to be executed there, is not a decided reformation soon,it is to and that all the Malagasy who will not be hoped that the neighboring great join with the Jesuits are to be shot, and powers, France, Germany and England, that all. the Protestant churches are to will divest Belgium of an authority to be torn down at once. There is new which, perhaps, her pettiness renders fear of a rebellion in the west, and I her unequal. Strength is often a guar- should be by no means astonisht if antee of comparative humanity. such were the case, as the people are obliged by force to send their children Professor Kruger remarks that col· to the schools of the Jesuits whom they ored missionaries in Africa are treated detest. "The kabarys-public conferby the natives With just as J;lluch respect ences-held in the name of the governas the whites, an encouraging feature ment, are useless as soon as they do not in view of future calls to the colored meet with the desires of the Jesuits. race. Even the declarations of the Resident General are a dead letter. They are -On the Zambesi, in Tewanika's not obeyed at all. They say that if the kingdom, the highest place of dignity General wishes to impose on them the belongs to the manes of Mboho, the contrary of what they wish and desire, first king of the Baratse. The first he will soon have the same fate as royal visit of the year is due to him in M. Laroche, whose recall they have his place of sepulture. When, there- , procured.' " fore, this year King Tewanika, instead of rendering the royal shade this honor, English Notes. invited his missionaries to make an excursion with him in the royal bark, and BY JAMES DOUGLAS. in a different direction, it was not a simple excursion of pleasure, it was, Ohurch Mis8ionUlrll Societll.– The Rev. in his mind, and in the eyes of his peo- E. Bacheler Russell has been recently ple, a significant protestation that the conducting a mission in the Diocese of old national customs, even the most Travancore and Cochin, of which, sacred, were falling one by one into among others, the bishop writes in forgetfulness, to yield the right of citi- terms of markt appreciation. To Mr. zenship to Christianity. – M. COIL- Russell himself, this missionary tour LARD, in Journal de8 Missions. resembles a revelation. It was a dis- covery to him to find how deeply MADAGASCAR. patient testimony for Chlist had told throughout that region, himself the The Rev. Mr. Gulbrandsen, of the first, apart from the bishop and mis- Norwegian Mission, in the province of sionaries to go over the ground, he says: Betseleo, south of Imerina, says, as "I think that I have found the Uganda quoted in the Journal de8 Mis8ion8, for of India." And again, "I should say March, 1897: ' , The situation becomes that it is one of the most wonderful remore and more somber. From morn- sults of faithful work in India, and cering until evening I am running here tainly most encouraging, as I believe and there to the government functionaries, but the more I complain the
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
you will say when you hear what I months. The chapel he found crammed saw." Mr. Russell's mission had in with converts, nearly all farmers and view principally the deepening of spir- farm-laborers; and twenty-three were ituallife. Great power seems to have baptized, all adult believers. Dr. John accompanied the services, and the con- attributes instrumentally this remarkgregations which were seldom less than able development in Yun-Mung to Mr. 700, listened eagerly to the message and Wang, the native evangelist in the dis- gave every sign of fervent response. trict, a mall who is both a scholar and By a vote of conference, the bishop an earnest Christian. Since 1878 the presiding, the hope has been exprest work has been in course there, but that arrangements may be made for the only now has it been attended with missionaries return, so as to give im- markt results. The next places to be portant parts of the diocese hitherto visited are Tien-Men and King-Shan, unvisited, and the Syrian churches, where hundreds are waiting to be the opportuntty of sharing in the bless- baptized. ing which must follow such earnest ministrations. Zenana Work in Neyoor.-The work of teaching the mothers to read pro- Mis8ionary work in liUh-Kien.-The ceeds apace. " Thirty years ago," Rev. Llewellyn Lloyd writes.hopefully writes Mrs. Baylis Thomson, "this of the work in this province. At pres- would have been impossible, on account ent there are 163 missionaries in all, of of the bitter hatred to Christians, as low whom 53 are men, 36 missionaries' caste, and the prejudice against female wives, and 74 unmarried ladies. In education;" but now the movement addition the number of ordained native has spread from village to village and pastors is about 140, the unordained there are over one thousand heathen puassistants numbering about 400, exclu- pils in over a hundred Villages. "In sive of 100 Bible women, also school- one village an eager desire for instrucmasters, and a large staff of unpaid tion has resulted by God's blessing in voluntary workers. Thus far there are several families becoming Christians_ now over 40,000 profest Christians; They broke down the devil shrine and and despite the working of the enemies gave me the stone god which for years malice, which has borne heavily on had been an object of fear and worship this province, the interest spreads in their families." amongst all classes of the community. Mr. Lloyd says, "Our churches have Baptist Missionary &ciety.-From never been so well attended as now and the Rev. Thomas Lewis's account of probably a greater number of persons the death of the King of Kongo, we have confest Christ in the great city gather the following: Some years ago, of Fuh-chow this year than in all the before the king came to the throne, he years preceding it. All this calls for was favorable to the missionaries, and loud thanksgiving and unceasing would gather his people to hear their praise." teaching. They often spoke to him personally, trying to bring him to Lond<Jn Missionary &ciety.-In com- Christ ; but without success. He was pany with Dr. Walton, Dr. Griffith continually engaged in acts of crueliy, John has been making a tour in the and was cut off suddenly on Novem- Hankow district. He is especially de- ber 18th. He and another chief had lighted with the fruit that has accrued conspired against a neighboring chief to ill Yun-Mung. So great is the blessing rob him and his people of their propalrealy given, and so rich the promise erty. They had no sooner succeeded of further fruit, that he anticipates. that than the king's accomplice was taken there will be hundreds of converts in ill, and died in a day or two. The Yiin-Mung within the next twelve king was frightened, became ill, and from ~ combination of diseases died in Miss Thomson reports from Ram- a short time. It is doubtful as yet, pore Bauleah: "Our three schools who will succeed him. For the peo- have been open during the entire year ple's sake, the missionaries are hop- with the exception of the 60 days al- ing for a better man. Mr. Lewis lowed as holidays. The average at- says: "Our work at San Salvador is tendance has been large both in day growing apace. People constantly and Sunday-schools. Much time has come, asking us to go to their towns, been spent in visiting the houses, and send a teacher to them. We do especially during the cold season, also in all we can in the way of visiting and itinerating in the surrounding villages. preaching, but we dare not get too far a field with our substation. I wish to Miss Johnston writes from Amoy, impress this fact upon all the friends at that the number or boarders in the home. We are kept back from these girl's school has doubled during the people, who are begging us to go to year ; that three of the older girls have them, because we have not sufficient joined the church, one of whom, tho men." she formerly caused much anxiety, is now rendering efficient help in teaching Repqrt from Mendapada, Orissa.- the younger children. There are en- Mendapada is a village of about 30 couraging features also in connection houses, three miles from Cuttack. On with the women's school. One woman, the occasion of a recent visit paid to too old to learn to read, has given up this place by two of our brethren, all help from heathen relatives, and three candidates were baptized, one of bearing poverty and reproach, goes them being a young Hindu. This from house to house, telling the story was followed by a communion service, of a Savior's love. at which about fifty were present. Miss Ramsay and Miss Duncan have Lantern ExMbitions in the Agra Dis- had a trying time in Chin-Chow, tmt.-The Rev. D. Jones gives cheer- through an outbreak of the plague, ing particulars of his work in this di- tho thankfully they report that it did rection. In one village, he and his not enter the girls' school, consisting of friends exhibited "Scenes from the eighty boarders. A new church has Life of Christ," "Miracles of Christ," been opened in this city, and the hosand "Prodigal Son." A large crowd pital work is very encouraging, many gathered, and the message of love was patients receiving the truth. made known. Our friends in Formosa, were afraid Presbyterian Ohurch of England.- that the troubles that followed in the From the eighteenth annual report of wake of the coming of the Japanese to the Women's Missionary Association the island, might deter some of their we gather the following items: "With girls from returning to the school, but much thankfulness we note that the they have had a greater number than past year has been one of progress. before, and eleven of their girls are in More workers have come forward: church membership. new fields have been opened up; and our financial condition has improved. We regret to report the los8 of a There has been more prayerful interest valued worker, Mrs. M. Mackenzie, manifested in our foreign work by our who has labored in Swatow, China, and Home Churches. Meetings held in was called to her rest in January, after different centers by some of our work- a brief illness. ers during their furlough have been well attended; and the contents of the THE KINGDOM. "Thanksgiving boxes" last year was increased by £72. -Said Robert Freeland at a recent anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society: What changes since 735!-When the sainted Bede, on hls dying bed dictated to his amanuensis bly of Scotland voted down a foreign the translation of John's Gospel. mission enterprise. A leading Moder- .. Write as fast as you can," said Bede, ate, who opposed it, said: "To spread on coming to the closing chapter. abroad the knowledge· of the Gospel " Now, master, it is finisht ! " " Is it among the barbarous and heathen na- finisht?" askt Bede, "then lift up my tions seems to be highly preposterous, head where I have been accustomed to in as far as it anticipates, nay, it even pray. Now, Glory be to the Father, reverses the order of nature. Men and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." must be refined and polisht in their With that utterance his work was manners before they can be properly done. What changes since 13801- enlightened in religious truths. Phil- When Wycliffe carried out his heaven- osophy and learning must, in the nature inspired purpose .f translating the en- of things, take the precedence." tire Bible into English, laboriously copied out, to give to his countrymen, -When Duff left Scotland sixty-five that they might read for themselves years ago to begin his apostolic work and ponder over God's message of for India, as he stood on the banks mercy to a benighted world 1 What of the Ganges his heart sank within changes since 1524!-When Tyndale him. And little wonder, for he saw began his mighty task of printing his deluded multitudes washing in its Scripture translatitms, making himself waters to take away their guilt, he an exile from the land he loved to heard the groans of others left on its carry out his purpose, and when many shores in utter helplessness to die, or to of his English Testaments only reacht have their deaths hastened by the London to be publicly cast into the murderous hands of near relatives. He flames at the instigation of church and beheld many lifeless bodies floating state. What changes since 17891- down the Ganges quite unheeded amid When Wilberforce stood up in the the merry songs of the boatmen. He British Parliament, his heart throbbing was stunned by shouts in the name of with Bible principles, as he went on worship to gods innumerable, and he pleading for three hours, the champion saw blazing before him the flames of of the opprest, and urging the aboli- the funeral pile, where dead husband tion of the slave trade. This act cost and the living widow were burnt to- £20,000,000 but it gave freedom to gether, not to be divided by death, and 770,280 slaves throughout the British he exclaimed, in the deep depression of Colonies, and abolition soon followed his soul, "Oh, Lord! How long will in the East. this continue? For ever?"
-Within the last five years no less -In 1825, there were in connection than 52 new versions have been added with foreign mission churches about to the list of languages and dialects in 60,000 persons, including all then which some portions of the Bible are known to be converts from heathenism. printed. The total number in which In the closing years of the century, we some portion is printed is 381, while are able to count, according to the the entire Bible has been translated most trustworthy statistics, that at into 107 languages and dialects. Dur- least 75,000 converts are added to the ing the year ending April 1, 1896, the mission churches every year. British and Foreign Bible Society issued 3,970,439 Bibles, Testaments, -The Church Missionary Society of and portions. The society was organ- England reports 58,000 communicants ized in 1804, and within the ninety-two and $1,340,000 expended. The London years it has issued 147,356,669 copies. Missionary Society reports 96,000 com- municants in 1895 and $950,000 ex- -A century ago the General Assem- pended. The Presbyterian Board (North) reports 30,000 and $885,000. The Baptist Missionary Union, 122,000 to various charities in France, England, and $633,000 expended. The Ameri- and Austria. Besides the 2,000,000 can Board 43,000 and $743,000. The francs she has given for the building of Methodist Episcopal Church reports a laboratory for the Pasteur Institute, 44,000 and $890,000 (in heathen lands). she has recently given 2,000,000 francs The total for these six societies is for the pension fund of the Oriental 393,000 communicants, and $5,441,000 railroads, in building which Baron expended. Hirsch laid the foundation of his colos- sal fortune. Besides this, she has given -On a vast plain, the 350,000,000 1,000,000 francs for the foundation of a subjects of Queen Victoria are assem- hospital in London, and several benebled before her throne, and on a table ficent institutions in Paris have just near the throne are the five sacred books received large sums from her. It is of the East: the Bible, the Vedas, the estimated that within a year Baroness Koran, the Tripitakas and the Zend Hirsch has distributed 12,000,000 francs Avesta. Rising from her throne the in charity. Queen says: "Let all those who believe in the divine inspiration of the Vedas -One of the richest men in the take their sacred books and pass out world, John D. Rockefeller, in talking and away," and 200,000,000 go out before a young men's Bible class, recentwhile but 150,000,0110 remain. Sadly ly made these significant remarks: the Christian Queen again speaks: " The poorest man I know is the man "Let those who believe in the Koran who has nothing but money. If I had now leave." Her grief increases as my choice to-day, I'd be the man with 60,000,000 more go out, and but 90,- little or nothing but a purpose in life." 000,000 remain. Again she speaks; and He read to the young men from a small again there is an exodus of those who account-book he kept while getting a believe in the Tripitaka, the sacred start in life. His clothing from Nobook of the Buddhists, and in the Zend vember, 1855, to November, 1856, cost Avesta, the Parsee Bible – 40,000,000 him just $9.09. There were frequent more. Out of 350,000,000 only 50,000,- entries, however, such as these: "Given 000 remain, who accept the Scriptures away, $5.58. Missionary (:ause, 15 cents. of the Old and New Testaments as their Present to Sunday-school superinten- Bible; and only a part of these are dent, 25 cents. Five Points Mission, heart believers in God's Book. This 12 cents." . 'My opinion," said this parable shows that the disciples of millionairl'w "is that no man can trust Jesus still have much to do before it himself to wait until he has accumucan be said that the glad tidings have lated a great fortune before he is chariadequately been made known to every table. He must give away SorM ~ creature.-TJ/./l Advance. continuously.
-Thank God for a good manf More, -A Chinaman has had the temerity for a good man with brains and cul- to modify Bishop Heber's missionary ture ! I Most of all if to the rest is hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountadded moral courage II I Videlicet ains," Rev. Chau Hou Fan, of San Wm. E- Gladstone in his recent strictly Francisco. Since Greenland is now a grand letter to the Duke of Westminster Christian country, and the good bishop upon the Cretan and Armenian matters_ did not mention China, with its 400,- Surely, some of his scorching phrases 000,000, nor Japan with its 40,000,000, will live forever: "Concert of Europe," Mr. Chau has introduced these two "Integrity of the Ottoman Empire," " A David facing six Goliaths," etc. needy lands in the first line, instead ot -Since the death of Baron Hirsch Greenland with its "icy mountains." his widow has been making large gifts A chorus of Chinese Christians, men and women, sang the revised hymn at one of the meetings in San Francisco, and delegates from 11 organizations in connection with the week of prayer. were present. Pundita Ramabai, of – Woman'8 Missiona'l'1/ Friend. Poona, addrest the convention on the needs of her country-women and WOMAN'S WORLD. rejoiced the hearts of the white rib- boners by saying at the close of her -The World's W. C. T. U. is the remarks that altho she had hitherto out-flowering of the "Woman's Cru- refrained from throwing herself fully sade" of 1873-74, whose first stalk was into W. C. T. U. work for want of the National W. T. C. U. of the United time, she was now resolved to take it States of America formed in November, up. She was made nationalsuperinten- 1874. Canada was the next branch, dent of native work. rapidly and strongly developt under the inspiration and care of Mrs. Letitia -The statistics of the Woman's Youmans. In 1876 the British Woman's Board of the :Uethodist Church, South, Temperance Association was formed as for China, are as follows: Girls' boarda result of the labors of Mother Stewart, ing-schools, 3; teachers, 12; pupils, 88. of Ohio, and Mrs. Margaret Parker, of Day schools, 32; teachers, 44; pupils, Scotland. Six years later an "illumina- 1,169. Number of school buildings, 6; tion" came to Miss Willard while in- value of school buildings, $20,000_ specting the opium dens of Chinatown, in San Francisco, and witnessing the -Mrs. Booker T. Washington, the "flagrantly flaunted temptations" of wife of the Principal of Tuskegee Inthat famous slumquarter, "the result stitute, in Alabama, has been accomof occidental avarice and oriental degra- plishing a good work of late in the indation." This revelation took shape stitution of an entirely novel Sundayin the vow: "Weare one world of school class-a class in house-cleaning. tempted humanity: the mission of the Every Sunday she goes over to a neigh- White Ribbon women is to organize boring plantation and takes one of the the motherhood of the world for the negro cabins as a sample of how such peace and purity, the protection and work must be done. She washes, cleans, exaltation of its homes: we must no sweeps, dusts, and puts things generally longer be hedged about by the artificial to rights. This is the object-lesson. boundaries of states and nations. " Each Sunday she notices the improve- Going up to the annual meeting of the ments which may have been made dur- National W. C. T. U. that autumn, ing the week in the other cabins. Those 1882, in Detroit, Mich., this heavenly improvements have now become so vision of the world-wide mission of the markt that the owner of the plantation W. C. T. U. was laid before her com- has set apart a cabin for Mrs. Washing; rades, who appointed a committee to ton's perpetual use, which serves as a consider what could be done. That model for the other cabins. Recently the revelation was of God was con- the owner exprest a desire for a school firmed two months later by the accept- to be started on the plantation, and this ance by Mrs. Mary C. Leavitt, of has been done by Mrs. W. Massachusetts, of a commission to make a reconnaissance around the world. -The Women's Foreign Missionary Since then 6 other women have circum- Society, working hand-in-hand with navigated the globe on the same bene- the Free Church of Scotland missions, ficent errand. renders invaluable aid in its own de- partment. Without including mission- -The W. C. T. U. of India has aries' wives, some of whom do noble lately held a most successful conven- work as honorary agents, the society tion at Poona. The president Mrs. has 56 women missionaries-35 in Indja, Mary R. Phillips, of Calcutta, presided. and 21 in Africa; 350 native Christian agents-220 in India, and 130 in Africa; 2 hospitals and 4 dispensaries, relieving -By 5 hospitals in India, 8,000, 16,- annually over 14,000 women; and 11,000 000, 40,000, 43,000, 89,000 are given as girls under instruction. the annual attendance, and numbers of conversions reported. Medical mis- -Attention is called, by the Estab- sionaries have unlockt the doors to the lisht Church of Scotland, to the strange dominions of native princes before fact that of the 33 women missionaries closed to Christian evangelization. at work in the foreign field, no less than 19 are drawn from other denominations, -According to the Rev. S. L. Bald- while only 14 are from its own mem- win, who has spent over twenty years bership, 2 coming from the Free in China, the following are the figures Church, 6 from other Presbyterian relating to medical missions in that Churches, 7 from the Church of Eng- land: "There are 100 male and 50 land, etc. female physicians, 150 male native medical students and 30 female students, -The South India Woman's Mis- 71 hospitals treating many thousands sionary Conference of the Methodist of patients, and the physicians attend- Episcopal Church reports 7 mission- ing yet other thousands at their homes, aries, 15 assistants, 16 Bible readers, and 111 dispensaries, in which over and 66 school teachers. There are 6 223,000 patients are treated. About vernacular daY-SChools, 1 vernacular $70,000 was spent in medical work last boarding-school, 2 orphanages, and 1 year." Anglo-vernacular school, with a total of 1,102 pupils. There are 1,075 girl UNITED STATES. pupils in 23 Sunday-schoolS, and a total 27,738 tracts have been distributed. -Dr. Daniel Dorchester gives these Nearly 200 women are learning to read encouraging figures in a late Zion's and do needle work, and 1,4?6 women Herald: The growth of the Roman receive religious instruction only in 793 Catholic population 1870-1894 was from Zenanas, 16 Zenana patients and 3,070 4,600,000 to 8,806,600, while the indispensary patients received medical crease of the communicants of the attention. and 1,000 prescriptions were Evangelical Churches was 6,673,400 to given at a single station. 15,218,000. During the same time, the popUlation connected with these MEDICAL MISSIONS. churches increast from 20,020,200 to 45,654,000. The Baptist population The paths 'of pain are thine. Go forth alone inreast from 4,492,000 to 11,353,- With patience, trust and hope; 000; and the Methodist population from 7,497,000 to 16,215,000. Thesufferings of a sin-sick earth Shall give thee ample scope. -We have just received a copy of Hoffmann's Oatholic Directory for 1897. Beside the unveiled mysteries It shows that there are 14 archbishops Of life and death go stand. and 74 bishops, making 88 in all, with 10,752 clergy, 9,670 churches, 5,189 With guarded lips and reverent eyes stations and chapels, and a Catholic And pure of heart and hand. population of 9,596,427. The increase in Catholic population is 185,637. There So shalt thou be with power endued has been a gain of 77 parochial schools, From Him who went about the total being 3,438, arid the number of children in attendance 812,611, an The Syrian hillsidee doing good, advance of over 16,000. There are 9 And casting the demons out. universities, 25 secular seminaries. and 82 regular seminaries; also 201 high That Good Physician liveth yet schools for boys and 651 high schools Thy friend and guide to be; The Healer by Gennesaret Shall walk the rounds with thee. – Wldttier. for girls. There are 249 orphan asy- upon the Pennsylvania farms, earned lums and 888 charitable institutions. $19,238, and saved of it $8,598.
The total of children in Catholic in- The 68th volume of the "Sailor's Magstitutions is set down at 947,940.- azine and Seaman's Friend" is issued for Independent. 1896. "Those who go down to the sea in ships," have here their faithful monthly -My first call was at a rural school record. This is a very weil edited upon a plantation. This school, al- magazine. For many ;rears it has held tho but a year old, already ranks among its own among the mIssionary records the" graded schools." It was given to and reports of this evangelistic era. the Association with buildings and It is much more than a report of more than 1,000 acres of land, and has aggressive work among seamen; it been largely sustained by the benevol- contains a large body of literature that ence Of a Christian woman in Brooklyn, finds its nucleus of interest in the sanc- tification of a world's commerce, and N. Y. The 4 successful teachers are to those who would keep track of the immense number of human beings graduates of Fisk University. I find in who follow a seafaring life, is an inmy notes taken at this place; "It is dispensable help. It is publisht by the sometimes said that higher education American Seamen's Friend Society, 76 unfits the negro for work, and makes Wall street, N. Y. him unwilling to leave the town or city. My testimony of this school, as Baroness Hirsch, widow of the Jewof others, is the reverse of this." Teachers go where the work is to be ish financier and philanthropist, is to done. Everywhere I find that to make men both good and useful is not only spend $1,500,000 in New York City the regnant purpose of our colleges, but their real accomplishment. I find erecting trade schools and model that high ideals in knowledge, with thoroughness and accuracy in intel- houses for the tenement house district folk, and ex-Mayor Grace, a Roman Catholic, announces his intention to spend $200,000 in establishing a train- ing school for young girls and women in the same city.
lectual work, and careful training in -Such intelligence as this is most moral and Christian life, do result in sad, and how great is such a sin. The sending young men and women into the New York Presbytery has been for most needy places with the. power some time agitated over the applica- which they have acquired. They are tion of Herman Warszwiak for mem- not hanging about towns and cities in bership in that body. He was for a idleness. The educated negro is at time employed by the New York City work. You do not see him loafing Mission Society, of which Dr. Schauffier upon the street corners. The educated is secretary, but left it more than two negroes, men and women, are in de- years ago. Last week the society is- mand, and are meeting the demand.- sued a public notice of his wrong-doing, A. F. Beard in Amerioo,n Missionary. claiming to have abundant proof and -Captain Pratt has in the Carlysle warning the public against him. He Industrial School 803 Indian boys and was followed by detectives who testigirls, representing 61 tribes, among fied that they saw him enter gambling which are Apaches, Arapahoes, Chey- houses and places of ill repute. On ennes, Chippeways, Crows, Nez Perces, being charged with this evil-doing he Omahas, Oneidas, Pueblos, Pequots, denied it, but being shown photographs Pimar, Sacs and Foxes, Sioux, and .of himself entering these places he Winnebagoes. The cost of maintain- confest.
ing these youths is $100,000 a year, or -Bishop Thoburn finds that while an average of $141 each, including fur- the average of missionary contributions nishing them homes, building, repairs, from Canadian Methodists are $0.87, in etc. Last summer 506 went out to work the Methodist Episcopal Church they are only $0.39. This is for both home provide resources for many new enter- and foreign work. In Ohio the aver- prises which we need to start."
age is $0 43, in Indiana and Michigan, -Tile Star in the East says of the $0.35. He says: "In our larger annual Broussa Orphanage: The inmates have conferences the average is a little less more than doubled; there are now 113, than $0.24." of whom 71 are massacre-orphans.
EUROPE. Never have we read more painful and pathetic incidents than the personal Great Britain.-In the quarter-cen- items given of these sad little children.
tpry since the death of George Peabody" The Turks have killed my father," is his magnificent gift of $2,500,000 for. all some of them can tell. A great workingmen's houses in London has tide of charity has flowed to this increast to $6,000,000, It is interest- orphanage-'-£4,204 in all; £500 from ing to note that in these houses the our society, nearly £3,000 from Christ- death-rate of infants is four per cent. ians in Switzerland; the balance in below the average death-rate in hand on January 1, 1897, stood at London. Last year the Trustees of the £2,886, enough for all the charges of Peabody Fund provided over 11,000 the current year_ The cost per orphan rooms, besides bath-rooms, lavatories, is £10 annually.
and laundries; nearly 20,000 persons Continent.-The McAll mission has occupied them_ 15 halls in Paris. which are used regu- larly for religious services, and 11 else- -The Mansion House Fund, inaugu- where in France. rated by the Lord Mayor of London, to supplement governmental aid for the famine-stricken people of India, -The Indian WitneR8 is responsible amounted, on March 4, to £388,000, or for the following surprising item of about $1,940,000. The reports from news: " Up to the present time the India, up to March 1, show that 3,141,- Dutch missionary societies have sent no 000 persons were employed upon lady missionaries to Netherlands India, "relief works," that is upon various except, of course, missionaries' wives.
industries, chiefly road-building, super- The suggestion that lady missionaries intended by government officials, by should be sent seems to have wrought which the people may obtain enough consternation in the ranks of the more food to keep them from starvation. conservative brethren. The ladies are More than half of this help was given a dreadful trial to them, apparently.
within the Northwest Provinces. One said he objected to lady mission- -One of the latest forms of develop- aries because they would cost so much ment in missions is found in the Indus- for carriage hire; another was sure they trial Missions Aid Society, now fully would make trouble on a mission staorganized and ready for work. It is to tion, because they would not be obedient makc a specialty of helping on, in co- to the male missionary; others wonoperation with all other missionary dered where the lady missionaries could societies, all methods of teaching native live, because it was held that it would Christians to be industrious and make be impossible for them to live alone. a living for themselves. High com- and married missionaries would not be mendation comes from various quar- willing to board them; one thought it ters. This is from Bishop Thoburn: would be very difficult to have lady "I am much interested in your missionaries 'because they could not proposed scheme.-It has been on my go into the pulpit.' "
mind for two or three years past that -The Mission College at Hermanns- a scheme on the lines proposed by you burg is attended by 32 students, of might be workt successfullY, and whom 6 are sons of missionaries. It has been confirmed by experience, that pitals, besides schools, orphanages, and such young men as have grown up other public buildings. Tho agriculamong the natives, and therefore are ture and commerce have decliued, and well acquainted with the language, the population has decreast, Palestine customs, and ideas of the people, can is capable of increasing its population become especially efficient in mission fourfold. West of the Jordan the service after receiving a thorough prep- water-supply is good, and agriculture aration abroad. Such an education is can be carried on successfully. The given them at Hermannsburg. They conditions are extremely favorable to are instructed in the languages, in the the growth of oranges, cotton, tobacco, common and higher branches, in theo- and sugar-cane; and already gardenlogy and pedagogy for six years. plots are successfully cultivated in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, Nablous, -The Lutheran synods of Leipzig and a few other places. With increast and Dresden have resolved to adopt capital, skill, and good management, foreign missions as an integral part of oil and wine can be obtained. The the activity of the whole Church. Pro- date, too, ripens here, and is of better vision was made for regular mission quality than that grown in Egypt; services in all the churches, and the bananas can be grown with ease ; and innovation is accepted by the congrega- during the winter months various kinds tions with markt satisfaction. of vegetables would take the place of the fruits. At the present date, Jericho ASIA. can send its produce to Berlin in five days. Its climate is two degrees O. Islam.-Mohammedanism has three above that of Oairo. Why should it foes in the Orient, which are mighty not become a winter resort for Euroand exceedingly hard to resist, and peans seeking shelter from the cold? these are found in Robert College, at There are in its vicinity excellent Oonstantinople; the Syrian Protestant mineral springs. East of Jordan lies a Oollege, at Beirut, and the Training wheat country, which for quality has College of the United Presbyterian no second in the world." Ohurch at Asyut, Egypt. These are far more dangerous than would be an -One of the most pressing needs in army of 50,000 men. Eastern Turkey is a supply of agricnl- tural implements, and especially oxen -In a German periodical, Dr. Alfred for plowing. To provide for this Hettemer thus forecasts the future of latter need, in anticipation of the Palestine: "Once let a good govern- spring sowing, Major Williams, the ment be establisht, and from that British Oonsul at Van, has supplied the moment the development of the coun- funds for sending Rev. Mr. Allen from try will set in. To-day it has about the Van to Persia to purchase 1,000 oxen. worst possible government; and not- It is believed that in this way money withstanding that drawback, an im- spent will be worth tenfold the same provementis takingplaee in consequence amount spent in the ordinary form of of increast communication with Europe. relief. It is estimated that through 'fhis is most noticeable in Haifa, J aft'a, this supply of working oxen, 25,000 Nazareth, and Jerusalem; but slighter people can be provided for in the year traces of the same influence are felt to come, and that at a cost of about even east of Jordan. Nazareth has $8,000.-Missionary Herald. establisht 3 hospitals and 12 schools, at some of which technical instruction is -Tabriz is the most important city given. In Jerusalem, where the Mo- of Azerbijan, the northwestern province hammedan population is on the decrease, of Persia. It is the residence of the and is already in the minority, there governor, and its bazaars are probably are 70 synagogues and numerous hosthe largest alld the most characteris- Journey may be. He must carry the tically Oriental bazaars in the East, cow's tail aloft at the end of a long since the Constantinople bazaars were staff, crying aloud when approacht Europeanized. Everything is individ- so that all may avoid him as pollution ual in them. John Ruskin would be incarnate. He may not enter a village, delighted. Each man has his little but food is brought out to him when shop, and tinkers at his little trade with he halts on his march." his hands, as his ancestors have done for two thousand years. TherCl is no -As to the ravages of the plague in sign of coal or steam or machinery. Bombay, these statements from Rev. W. All is patriarchal, primeval, petty. H.Ball will go far to explain them: In The hand of progress and power has the midst of a crowded neighborhood barely touched trade, and has touched ani! noisy streets, never quiet for twenty tools not at all. If Tabriz were as hours out of the twenty-four, living, near the English boundary as it is near working, teaching in the midst of con- Russia, the tides of the world's bound- t.inual noise, sometimes the teacher has ing life would thrill through its streets. to stop simply because he can not be But there are no Russian shops. No heard. Living in the midst of a popu- Russians fill the streets. No Russian lation crowded to the enormous extent enterprise does what there is no Persian of 68,480 per square mile; existing in enterprise, and never will be any, to the midst of insanitary conditions, do_ Yet foreign influence is very per- which the present Lieutenant-Governor ceptible. The Armenians of Tabriz of Bengal has described as unspeakable are an active, thriving people. Many in their abominations. The next ward of them wear English dress, and speak to this, and whose boundaries are only English or French, and the ., Frangee " about 200 yards from the College, is has ceast to be an object of curiosity. described by the Sanitary Commission- -Secretary Speer. ers as having houses built almost back to back, the narrow passages between India.-Says Rudyard Kipling: "It them shut out from the sunlight, rats is not easy to select instances that shall running about in the dark as they make clear to foreign readers the Hindu would at ni~ht, and a heavy, sickening reverence for the cow, and the place odor pervading the whole place; walls that her protection from death holds as and floors of the houses damp with cona sacramental ordinance. In Indianhis- tamination from liquid sewage, which tory the slaughter of cows by impious lies rotting, and for which there is no and impure persons has often been the escape. Jammed in among these are beginning of battle, murder, and sud- native huts, filthy, dilapidated, and den death. In every local riot Hindu foul beyond description, in many vengeance is first wreakt on the places it being impossible to walk Mohammedan beef-butcher. In purely round these huts where the ground is Hindu states, and in Kashmir, where a damp with liquid sewage and the Mohammedan popUlation is ruled by a stench is beyond description. Yet in few Hindus, the punishment officially this ward the population reaches as awarded for killing a cow is death, and high as 144,640 per square mile. there are cases on record where whole families have suffered death on suspi- -At a recent meeting of the Church cion of the offense. In ordinary domes- Missionary Society in England the tic life a Hindu who has accidentally Bishop of Newcastle gave the follow· killed a cow voluntarily undergoes a ing tribute to the work of American painful penance. He is at once put out missionaries in India: "If the rate of caste and must repair to the Ganges, of missionary progress during the no matter how long and toilsome the next century in India is what it has been for the past twenty years, In. dia will mainly owe its Christianity the native preachers can him a ,i1HO/r not to the Church of England, whose responsibility is really greater, but to thaw thoo-" a considering man." Some American Christians, who do not wor- of the natives 8in-zar for years before ship with us, but who are realizing coming to a decision. more than we churchmen what evan- gelizing a great country means." -The King of Siam, Chulalongkorn, is to make a tour of the world, tarry- -" On December 11th, the Rev. ing in the United States long enough Dhanjibhai Nauroji, of Bombay, com- for his yacht to go around Cape Horn pleted the fiftieth year of his ordination to California. He is forty years old, as missionary, and the occasion was his sons are at school in England, the taken advantage of by his numerous crown Prince at Eton. The King friends to present him with addresses dresses like an European; his palace is and congratulations. He was the first lighted with electrictity; he has a French Parsee convert in India, and was born of chef; he has proclaimed religious lib· a very respectable Parsee family at erty in Siam and the protection of Guzarat in 1822. He was one of Dr. Christians in their observance of the Wilson's converts. His baptism took Sabbath. He has reformed the judiciplace on the evening of May 1st, 1839, ary, lightened taxation, partially aboland created a great sensation in Bom- isht slavery. H'e has establisht a fine bay. Amid all persecutions the young postal service, public schools, hospitals, lad stood firm. In 1843 he accom- asylums and nurseries, and introduced panied Dr. Wilson to Scotland, where modern methods of travel. Personally he studied theology for three years. In he sets his people an example of vir- 1846 he was ordained a missionary of tuous, temperate, upright manhood. the Free Church. Mr. Dhanjibhai was the first native of India to travel China.-John R. Mott, just home through all the countries of Europe. from a world-tour, concludes that China His missionary work has been confined is the greatest of mission fields for poputo the city of Bombay, and he has al- lation, for the combination of difficulties, ways been lookt up to as a leader of and also for possibilities. The students the Christian community."-Ohurch of the government competitive examina- Intelligencer. tions constitute the" Gibraltar of the student world." Each year 500,000 -The American Baptist Telegu Mis- compete for the first degree, 150,000 for sion, India, records 831 baptisms in the second, and 10,000 for the third. 1894, and has a membership now of Educational missions are of the greatest 53,502, with 8,048 Christian pupils in strategic importance. the school, and 5,456 in Sunday-schools. The medical work is increasing, with -A correspondent from Pekin men- 2,204 new patients treated during the tions an interview he recently had with year. Li Hung Chang the distinguisht Chinese statesman, in which he referred to his -The statistical returns from the meeting with the representatives of the two Canadian Baptist Telugu Missions various Foreign Mission Boards in for 1896 are as follow :-Baptisms, 494; New York. Says the writer:' "He present membership, 3,980. Of these, spoke of the fine appearance and evi· 25 baptisms increase the membership of dent attainments of those presented to the Maritime Mission to 200. The re- him at that time, showing that, like maining 457 baptisms push the mem- others of his countrymen, he is a close bership of the 9 other stations up to observer of faces and character." The 3,780. correspondent adds: "I have never before heard the old man ask so many -Among the Burmans, when a man questions about Christianity, having becomes an inquirer after the Gospel, been greatly imprest in many ways during his recent trip with its import- America, and form a General Assem- ance and power."-Church at Home and bly for China.
AbToad. -Two Chinese Christians, now resi- dents of Chinanfu, Shantung, have -Dr. Muirhead furnishes some gen- establisht a primary school for boys in eral statistics relating to mission work their native village, for which they have in Shanghai. The English have 4 borne the chief expense, and an evanmissions in that city, while the Ameri- gelist of Chinanfu, who was formerly cans have 7, and the Germans 1. There paid from mission funds, last year are 29 women and 28 men missionaries. by his own request workt without Of these 43 are American and 2 are salary. He gave as the reason for this German. Some 1,400 members are action, that he was constantly askt connected with the 15 native churches, how much silver the foreigners gave and 1,200 scholars attend the 30 col- him, and he believed he could do leges and schools. The sick are well better work if no salary were paid him. cared for in the 4 Chinese hospitals. There are besides 30 country stations -During the past year the advancearound Shanghai. An American print- ment of interest at Pyeng Yang was ing establishment, 2 Bible depots, and such as to require the enlargment of a book and tract society are all estab- the church four times. It now seats a lisht. A united missionary prayer- congregation of 500, and is already meeting is held weekly, and a united overcrowded. At the last communion conference once a month. There are service 28 men and women were bap- 13 Christian Endeavor societies with tized. 401 members.
-The Rev. G. F. Fitch, the superin- -Friday. – We gave the Bibletendent of the Presbyterian Mis8ion women a feast to-night; they did enjoy Pre88 at Shanghai, writes: The demand it. We wisht our friends at home for books of a scientific and educational could just see them eating. It would character is increasing by leaps and not do for very fastidious people to sit bounds, and some of the best works of down with them; they would have the missionaries, such as Arithmetics, their sensibilities shockt too much. International Law, History of the War Each one dips her chopsticks into the between China and Japan, History of various dishes and bears a morsel from the Nineteenth Century, and many it to her bowl or her neighbor's, not others, all by missionaries, are now minding that gravy in dropping about being pirated, or reprinted if you like, the table. If they do not like what by the natives themselves, and sold at they have, they throw it over the shoula good profit, where formerly they der or under the table. There are usually could scarce have been given away. two or three dogs in attendance, so that There is light without heat in some of nothing is wasted. I managed a little these, but we hope to get in the rice and shrimps, holding the bowl to " heat" also. my mouth and scooping the contents into it! Most of these women are very -The Presbytery of Shantung over- poor and live principally on sweet tures the General Assembly to organize potatoes, so we were glad to let them a new synod for North China, taking have a good meal.-C. M. Gleaner. in the country north of the Yang Tse river. At present there is but one AFRICA.
Synod for all the Empire, and it only -A recent writer gives the following meets once in five years. The Christ- description of one of the most striking ian Observer suggests that all the Pres- characteristics of the African races: byterian denominations in China unite, " Nothing is done here without a song.
whether from England, Scotland, or Your boatman sings all day long, keeping time with his paddles; the woman -The Leipzig missionaries in Ger- beating rice, beats in time to her man East Africa do not have many voice; your carriers sing to their tread, "home comforts. .. The brethren at and tbe farmer to his hoe. Joy, grief, Madshame on one of the mountains pain,-all are shown in spontaneous surrounding snow-capt Kilimanjaro had song. Their songs are always extem- to live for months in tents and Bufpore, and adapted to present circum- ered much from the rains, until they stances. The ordinary method is for succeeded in building block houses, one person to sing a bar and the whole the logs for which they had to cut themcompany to join in a responsive chorus, selves on the mountain ridge. One of consisting generally of a single syllable, the missionaries while camping out in suited in sound and meaning to the the principal forest spent many a weary sentiment. Current events are described night because of being unable to get often with great accuracy, and they fre- warm, and the first thing greeting him quently ridicule the manners of some in the morning was the glittering glaking or praise the virtue of another, cier only half a mile away. Returning acting out the character to perfection. home, he was glad to get a dish of hot beans and roasted bananas. Neverthe- -The Basel missionaries in Ashantee, less the brethren do not wish to get which, now as a British protectorate, back to Germany; they have come to is at peace, are able to offer the Word Africa to stay. But think of it, nearly of God to the people in their own lan- to freeze to death in Africa, 4 degrees guage. Missionary Christaller trans- south of the equator I lated the Bible into Tshee, which language is known on the Gold Coast ISLANDS OF THE SEA. as well as in Ashantee. -The tenth annual report of the An- ~Bishop Tugwell sends a challenge glo-Chinese School, Singapore, shows to Christian England to supply men that the serious attack of last year upon and means to enable him to enter Haus- the institution, because of the religious aland and plant a mission at Yakoba, instruction imparted, has not affected and possibly at Kano, this year. He its prosperity. The number in attendasks for a band of from 20 to 30 men, and ance is about the same as last year. for a sum of from £10,000 to £15,000. Average attendance for 1896 was 555, A population numbering, it is said, against 507 in 1895. The average ensome 15,000,000, having a vernacular rollment for 1896 was 641, against 570 cp.aracter and literature of their own, in 1895. The new boarding-school is with communications as traders and rapidly approaching completion. The travelers with the Mediterranean sea- main building is fifty feet deep lind board and with the West coast, is sure- eighty-five feet long. It has three ly worthy of a great and self-denying stories above the basement floor, and effort. will have free accommodation for one hundred boys. -One of the most pathetic instances in modern Christian history is the ap- -The "Bible-Basket" is lin indispeal of the African King Khama to the pensable requisite in the Hervey Group. English Parliament, that in placing It is neatly plaited the exact size to necessary stations on the railroad that contain a thick octavo Bible, a hymnpasses through his territory no spirits book, a lead pencil, and a pair of specof any kind shall be supplied at the tacles. Every church-goer, man or refreshment room. And yet it is a woman, is equipt with one of these heathen request to a Christian govern- baskets, suspended from the shoulder. ment, or rather a Christian request to It is the custom to take notes of the a government with some heathen no- sermons, as the head of the household tions still. invariably catechises each member on return.
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1897
AND DERWENTWATER
The Town of Keswick, England.
'…. "
THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD..
VOL. XX. No. 2.-0ldSeriu.-FEBRUARY.-VoL. X. No. 2.-N~ &risa.
THE KESWICK MOVEMENT.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Keswick is a town of Cumberland, England, on the sonth bank of the Greta, some twenty-four miles from Carlisle, and having 'a population of perhaps three to four thousand. It has no importance commercially, tho it has manufactures of linsey woolsey, cutlery, ancl lead-pencils, and has two museums, indicating a high average of intelligence. It is but a mile from the foot of Skiddaw, and half as far from Derwentwater; and, even in this famous Lake District, forever memorable by association with Coleridge and Southey and the poets of the Lake School, Keswick's vale is unsurpast for picturesque and fascinating scenery.
But the association which makes Keswick already famous is that which links it with the annual convention of believers which meets in July of each year for about a week, and then during the whole year radiates its blessed influence throughout the 'whole British Empireand the world. Nearly twenty-five years ago a very remarkable movement began in Britain, which in a previous number has been traced to its beginning, and which has ever since been in progress. In somerespects it was a sort of modern Pentecost, having in it a depth of meaning and a breadth of influence, quite unknown and unsuspected at first by those who were connected with it.
An American evangelist, known as R. Pearsall Smith, the husband of Hannah Whithall Smith, a man whose brief tracts and inspiring addresses have for many years been such a stimulus and help to holy living, was proTidentially among those who were connected with the: inception of the movement, as was also his wife.
It is a singular fact that God seldom moves on one section of the Church, or in one locality, alone. Simultaneous quickenings commonly take place in various parts of the world, as the reinvigoration
KESWICK MOVEMENT
()f So human body would shew itself in different members and even at the opposite extremities at the same time.
These various conventions, across the sea, were held, in 1874, at Broadlands, July 17-23, and at Oxford, August 8 to September 1, then :at Brighton, May 29 to June 7, 1875, and the first Keswick Conven- tion followed, from June 29 to July 2 of the same year. With tile convening of the latter the lamented Ganon Battersby is inseparably 'connected, and it was he who invited Mr. Robert Wilson to join him, as he wanted a layman to cooperate with ,him. The first Keswick Convention was not in a building, but a tent, capable of holding a thousand, but attended by between three hundred and four hundred. It is also noticeable, as a part of this history, that both the Brighton and first Keswick gatherings were for ten days, and that at Brighton about 8,000 were present.
About the time that these meetings were thus being held in such rapid succession in Britain, and on the continent, there was in more than one quarter a similar gathering in the United States; for example, at Oberlin, Ohio, and in Maine, on the borders of Canada, where a great company of disciples assembled for a purpose precisely similar to that of the Oxford meetings. The railways sold some 40,000 special tickets in connection with this latter conference alone.
For the present, however, we confine our attention to the so-called '" Keswick" movement, which is just now compelling such attention from its widespread and deep-reaching results, that we are constantly :receiving letters and attempting to answer oral inquiries, as to the origin and character of this remarkable revival or reformation.
It may be well to let Rev. Evan H. Hopkins tell our readers how the Keswick Convention began, as he has been very closely identified with it for many years. In the Life oj Faith, he has recently spoken on this subject, editorially. We quote, at some length, as all -our readers may not have access to the admirable periodical from which these extracts are taken.* In a brief outline of some of the 'Chief events that preceded the holding of the first convention at Kes- 'wick, and were closely connected with its origin, he says: This remarka:ble movement, iD. connection with the experience of a fuller spiritual life, did not have its rise in the Keswick Convention. The first convention held at Keswick was in July, 1875; but, during the year 1873, small meetings 'Were held in London, where great and definite blessings were realized by a few. These led to larger gatherings, and in the year 1874 special meetings for consecration, for two or three days at a time, were held at the Mildmay Conference Hall, and.at the Hanover Square Rooms. These were followed by similar meetings in -Dublin, Manchester, Nottingham, and Leicester. On the Continent, too, meetings for the same purpose and on exactly similar lines were held. The result was that very many of God's children, both at home and abroad, were awakened to '8 deep sense of need, and to an expectation of larger and more definite blessing• • Life of Faith, July 22, 1800. such as they had never conceived to be possible in this life. The uplifting of soul experienced by many who attended these meetings was one of the most striking features of the movement, and the effect of their testimony upon thos~ who came within the sphere of their influence, was one of· the chief factors in arousing the Church to seek the realization of its privileges in the matter of triumph, usefulness, and power.
In the summer of 1874, the first convention at Broadlands was held. Its origin was in the desire that a number of young university men, who had found paliial blessing in some meetings for consecration held at Cambridge, during term time, should have a few days of quiet meditation and prayer in some secluded spot, keeping before them the following definite aim: The Scriptural possibilities of the Christian life, as to maintained communion with the Lord and victory over all known sin. This suggestion was made in the presence of the late generous proprietor of Broadlands Park, near Romsey; and he at once said: "My place is at your service if you will accept it." The plan was extended to the invitation of about a hundred persons for six days-July 17 to 23-all of them to be the guests of the then Right Han. W. Cowper-Temple (afterward Lord Mount Temple).
The meetings were mostly held beside the river or under the beech trees, or in the Orangery. Such was the absorbing interest felt by all, that no di1ll.culty was found in gathering the guests at seven o'clock in the morning; and it was an effort to separate when the breakfast hour of nine came. At ten o'clock con- versational meetings were held, Bibles in hand, in different places through the grounds, and at eleven o'clock there was prayer, with singing and addresses. Meetings for ladies only were also held; and at three o'clock conversational meetings, followed by a general gathering at four; and after tea Bible-read- . ings were given, till the regular evening meeting. The manifested presence and power of God pervaded every meeting, and many stated that the long periods of silent prayer had been to them the most solemn and helpful seasons of their spiritual life.
One wrote at the time: "We began with the negative side, renunciation of discerned evil, and even of doubtful things which are not of faith, and therefore sin. For some days the company was held under the searching light of God, to see and to remove any obstacles to a divine communion, aught that frustrated the grace of God. We sought to have that which was true in God as to our judicial standing in a risen Christ, also true in personal appropriation and experience. Many secret sins, many a scarcely recognized reserve as to entire self-renunciation, were here brought up into the light of consciousness and put away in the presence of the Lord. We desired to make thorouglt work, so as to have no known evil or self-will unyielded; and we have reason.to hope that those present did so, and that we took the position of solemn purpose to renounce instantly everything in which we should find ourselves 'otherwise minded,' as from time to time' God shall reveal even this unto us. '
" In the intervals of the meetings it was interesting to see groups gathered, in the more secluded places in the woods by the river, on their knees, praying, searching the Scriptures, or speaking earnestly to each other of the all-absorbing subject of our meetings. Some one had proposed to have reading at the meal- times, so as to concentrate our minds; but no such plan was needed to keep the company, even at times of refreshment, to the one engrossing subject."
In a letter received from Pasteur Theodore Monod at the time, reference is made to this memorable occasion. An extract from that letter will be read now with interest: "The difference between those Broadlands meetings and many others that I have attended is just the difference between a flower and the name of a flower. Christians too often meet oaly to talk about good and precious things: peace, joy, love, and so on; but there we actually had the very things themselves. I cannot be grateful enough to God for having led me into such a soul·satisfying and God.glorifying faith. I think I may say that I got all that I expected, and more. .And I begin to suspect that we always get from God every- thing-provided it be good for us-that we ask for, expecting to get it. Oh, for self.forgetting faith, that I may have more and more and more of it, and that the Church of Christ may cease to grieve Him, distress herself, and hinder the coming of His Kingdom, by disbelieving His Word I My French companions have all derived much benefit from the Conference. God be praised for His work I Never mind the world, nor the devil, so long as you have the sunshine of Jesus" smile in your heart."
During this Convention our brother Monod wrote the now well-known hymn, .. The Altered Motto: "
Oh I the bitter shame and sorrow That a time could ever be, When I let the Savior's pity Plead in vain, and proudly answered, " All of self and none of Thee."
It was only a short time before this hymn was written that our brother entered into the" fulness of blessing."
The account of the Broadlands Conference was read far and wide, and awakened considerable interest. Many who had never attended any meetings of the kind were led to cry to God for the fullness of the Spirit, with an expectation and earnestness of desire they had never before known. At the close of the meetings one said, "We must repeat these meetings on a larger scale, where all who desire can attend." And one of the guests volunteered £500 toward the expenses of this effort. But none of this money was found to be necessary when the proposal was actually carried out in the conference that followed. So abundant were the offerings that large sums remained over actual expenses, to be devoted to the extension of the movement on the Continent.
It was suggested by the late beloved Sir Arthur Blackwood, who was present at Broadlands, that this proposed convention should be held at Oxford during the vacation, and it was accordingly held from August 29 to September 7, 1874. The details of the meetings were settled during a mission week in August, at Langley Park, the seat of the late Sir Thomas Beauchamp, Bart., near Norwich, who shortly after passed from an earnest life of service to an eternity of reward. Having received great blessing himself in a similar meeting the previous year, he again generously gathered about forty clergymen, and many others, for five days' waitingupon God for consecration and prayer. The invitation to the" Oxford Union Meetings for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, .. was issued on the 8th of August, 1874. And, tho the notice was so short, a large and representative number of Christians came from all parts of the king!iom, as well as a great many pastors from the Continent, to spend ten days at this convention.
A few extracts from an able review that appeared immediately after will give some idea of the deep impression that was made by what took place during those ten days at Oxford:- " 'God hath visited His people.' If anyone had said a year ago that we' should see, in the city of Oxford, an assembly of Christians, very largely composed of ministers of the Establishment and various Nonconformist bodies, and including twenty or thirty Continental pastors, gathered for the purpose of seek. ing, by mutual counsel and united prayer and consecration, to reach a higher condition of Christian life, it would have been considered far more devoutly-ta-bewished than likely to occur. An(l if it had been added that we should see early morning meetings of nearly a thousand of these men and women, of all ranks in society, and of all denominations, gathered in prayer, and for the communication of their experiences in the divine life, clergymen and laymen standing up and declaring what God had done for their souls, there would have been not a few to say with the lord, on whose hand the king of Israel leaned, 'If the Lord would open windows in heaven might such a thing be I' But God has opened the windows of heaven, and is pouring out a blessing that there shall not' be room to receive it.' Alld not only so, but 'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; that no flesh should glory in His presence.'
***** "We have attended many conferences, including a ten days' convention in America, the prototype of that at Oxford, but in many respects this excelled them all. It is the fruit and flower of those which have gone before-of those at Barnet, and Mildmay, and Perth, and other places at home, as well as of Mannheim, and Vineland and Round Lake, in the United States. Conferences must be of another type henceforth.
"If it be askt, What is 'the blessing?' it is the blessedness of the man 'who maketh the Lord his trust,' 'whose strength is in Thee,' of them who have not seen and yet have believed, who stand by night in the house of the Lord, trusting where they cannot see Him, who present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, their reasonable service, and who, doing this, are not conformed to this world, but are daily being transformed, by the renewing of their minds, that they may know what that good and acceptable and perfect wfil of the Lord is."
At this Oxford Convention the late Canon Harford-Battersby himself entered into "the rest of faith." But for this event the now well-known Keswick Con- vention would never have had a beginning.* Very soon after the Oxford Conference similar meetings on a smaller scale, but on the same lines, were held at Stroud, under the presidency of the late Mr. T. Croome. Two brethren who had taken part at the Oxford meetings conducted this Conference. At that time the Rev. Preb. Webb-Peploe was not on the platform amongst the speakers, but was seen amongst the listeners. He had not been able to attend the Oxford Conference, and we think it was only at the Stroud Conference, or soon after those meetings, that he himself deflnitely entered into the blessing of the more abundant life. The Cheltenham Conference followed the Stroud Convention, and there for the 1Irst time he actually took part in the movement.
The next great series of meetings was the wonderful Brighton Convention, which was held in the Pavilion at Brighton, from May 29 to June 7,1875. There some eight thousand people, the greater part earnest, well- instructed Christians, met together for ten days in prayer, meditation, and waiting upon God. Addresses were given there during those days, which live to this day in the memories of those who heard them, and have been the means of lasting blessing to thousands. Everywhere-at home and abroad-we meet with the abiding fruits of this memorable gathering. It was at this Convention Canon Battersby arranged for the :tirst Convention at Keswick, to take place in July of that year.
In looking back upon the twenty-one years that have elapst since then, it would be interesting to be able to note the various names of those who now take • "Canon Harford-Battersby and the KeSwick Convention," edited by two of his sons. (Seeley & Co., London.) part in this great annual gathering at Keswick, and to record the particular year, and circumstances, when they each saw for the first time the truth of a fuller life. It cannot be too clearly stated that those who are askt to speak at this and otlier similar conventions are those, and those only, who can bear testimony to a de1l. nite experience of the fulness of blessing.
Every year at the Keswick Convention numbers of God's children are brought into a realization of their resources in Christ, such as they have never before thought possible; and this has given a strength and brightness to their lives which have been felt by others around them. In this way the movement has been continually advancing and deepening, so that its fnfiuence is seen to-day in every quarter of the globe.
In a. memorable series of meetings held by me in Brighton, in 1896, I found many who had been present at the conference thus held at that place for the deepening of spiritual life, where tbousands of people gathered. The main objects were united prayer for the deepening of spiritual life and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power; and at that time, both in America and in England, there was a spontaneous and simultaneous movement among disciples looking toward similar results. In one sense, the greater part knew not wherefore they were come together, except that such a general and widespread longing and expectancy had been created for a new and singular bestowment of power from on high. Worldliness, formalism, apathy, selfishness, were so apparent in the Ohurch and so alarming, that devout believers were driven to the Throne of Grace to seek some help from above. Throughout the whole convention at Brighton this blessing was realized. While engaged in prayer the Holy Spirit often in those days mysteriously laid hold On men and women, and they were swayed as by a rushing, mighty wind. Prayer became more earnest, importunate, believing, prevailing, and it was manifest that some new force was controlling. The first fruits were found in a distinct entrance into newness of life on the part of many who hitherto had been cold or conventional in their religious character, hampered by forms, exclusive and uncharitable, inconsistent and without power as witnesses. Men and women were blest, and clergymen of the Anglican Ohurch were among the prominent parties receiving this Divine enduement. At the time no one suspected the real import of this Divine visitation, and hence the early history of it has somewhat inadequate records.* It is remembered by those w1!o had a share in it simply as a very unusual and quite indescribable manifestation of spiritual quickening and power. Of course, such a meeting could not but be the mother of others, and hence the subsequent gatherings known as the Keswick meetings of which we are now more specially writing.
~ " Record of the Convention for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness," held at Brighton, 1875. London, S. W. Partridge & Co., and "Account of the Union Meeting," etc., at Oxford,l874. F. H. Revell, Chicago. . The movement at Keswick found both its suggestion and warm sup- port in the Vicar of Keswick, the lamented Oanon Battersby, by whose influence it became connected with and located at that beautiful spot in the English Lake District, and who, as long as he lived, presided over the meetings held there. In the same simple way, the presi- dency then passed by a general assent to Mr. Henry Howker, and a~ his death to Mr. Robert Wilson. But there has never been a fixt com- mittee of leadership; quite without any definite arrangement of man, it remains in the hands of Mr. Wilson so far as any human hand is on the helm.
To a singular extent no deference is paid to men, however high their social or ecclesiastical position. Keswick stands for a peculiar type of spiritual teaching and life. Those who understand it and, exhibit it are askt to take part, and no others. The most renowned minister or evangelist or theological professor from any country might happen in the very meeting, but would not be askt to speak unle~ he was believed or known to have_been led out into this sort of experi- ence and teaching.
The first Keswick Convention, which lasted four days, was held in a large-sized building; but as the meetings became more largelY' attended, they were transferred to a tent. The present accomodations are equal to about 3,000, but 10,000 often attend in course of the con- vention.
In view of all that has been thus far written, it is of some consequence to ask and answer three questions: 1. What is the exact type of Keswick teaching? 2. What is the peculiar method of dealing with souls? 3. What are the actual results reacht ? 1. The Type of Keswick TeacMng.-This is definite, complete, and progressive. It has a definite beginning, middle, and culmination. Six successive stages may perhaps be indicated, all of them being deemed important, and in the following order: (1) The definite and immediate abandonment of every known sin or hindrance to holy living. (2) The abandonment and renunciation by faith of the self-life, or the life that centers in self-indulgence and self-dependence. (3) The immediate surrender of the will in loving and complete obedience to the will of God, separation in order to consecration. (4) The infilling of the Holy Spirit, or the claiming of the believer's share in the Spirit's pentecostal gift of power for service. (5) The revelation of Ohrist as an indwelling presence in the believer's soul and daily life, and as his actual Master and Lord. Beyond these there is always a sixth and last stage of teaching-the privileges and victories implied in this higher or deeper life, such as the rest life of faith, power over sin, passion for souls, conscious fellowship with God, growing possession of promises, and prevailing prayer and intercession.
The basis of all this teaching is, as is very apparent, the con- 'tiction that the average Christian life is too often grievously des- titute of real spiritual power and is essentially carnal, and that it is the duty and privilege of every child of God to enter at once into newness of life, and to walk: henceforth in the power of Christ's resurrection.
1. Hence the starting-point-instant abandonment of sin and of every known weight which prevents or hinders progress. Whatever is wrong or believed t~ be wrong in God's sight cannot be indulged with impunity. It is held up as utterly destructive of all holy living and testimony, as unnecessary because wrong, and as making impossible even assurance oj salvation. How can disciples lead out others into a life they have not themselves found? How can a man help a. sinner to salvation unless ~he knows he is saved? To continue one moment in what is felt to be sin is therefore perilous not only to holiness, but to the hope of salvation itself.
2. Secondly, a deadly blow is aimed at self-liiein its six forms; selfdependence, self-help, self'pleasing, self-will, self-seeking, and selfglory; in other words, a new practical center is sought for all the life to revolve about, and in this way a new step is taken in advance. Beyond the territory of known sin there lies another almost as danger- (lUS, where self-indulgence is the peculiar feature. There is a large (Jlass of pleasures, amusements, occupations, which do not bear the hideous features of secret or open sin, but which all tend to give supremacy to self. In them all the real question is: What will gratify and glorify myself? For example, the pleasures of ambition, grasping after power and position which feed self-glory; avarice, heaping up riches, which is pleasing to self-indulgence; appetite, eating and drinking for the sake of pleasure, which ministers to self-seeking; and other forms of selfishness, such as courting human applause by intellectual preaching, or conformity to worldly maxims.
There are five or six forms of amusement that bear the distinct stamp of this world, whatever may be contended as to their inherent innocence; the theatre, the dance, the card-table, the -horse-race, the 6pera, the wine-cup. These have been felt, for some reason, to hinder holiness and service; and some churches have distinctly made indulgence in them a matter of discipline. Whatever may be said of them, this is true: that wherever this deeper experience of Christ's power has been known it has been preceded or followed by their abandonment. These matters are very seldom referred to specifically at the Keswick gatherings, as the teaching concerns great general principles .. of holy living and serving, yet as a fact, those who attend are brought face to face with this question: how can you do anything primarily to please yourself which does not put at risk your pleasing God'! A high type of holiness always involves two practical rules: (a) I will seek in everything to please my Master as the Lord and Sovereign of my life; (b) I will seek to please my neighbor for his good unto edification. Hence one of the remarkable features of this movement has been, for instance, the abandonment of tobacco, not because its use can be conclusively shown to be inherently sinful, nor because of any direct pressure brought to bear by speakers; but because, where used, not as 8 medicine, but for indulgence of a liking, it exalts self to the throne. Paul gives by the Spirit two or three great all-controlling principles to guide in doubtful indulgences, and in each case he carefully guards the' principle by saying in advance, "all things are lawful for me;" but he adds in one case, "all things edify not, are not expedient i" and in the other case, "I will not be brought under the powe1' of any." Compare 1 Cor x: 23: vi: 12. Three questions are thus to be asked after we have settled the matter of lawfulness. First, is this lawful thing expedient? does it advance or retard holiness? second, does it edify-that is, help or hin- der others? and, third, does it tend to enslave or to emancipate me? A true disciple whose whole heart is set on pleasing God will soon settle all debatable territory on these ,three principles. 3. Thirdly, the surrender of the will to God in obedience. Christ must to every believer become not only Savior but Lord (Rom. 10 : 9, R. V.). "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 12: 3). Hundreds who accept Him as Savior from sin have no real conception of Him as the actual Master and Sovereign of the daily life. In the message to Laodicea we have a hint as to this sort of profest believers. "Behold I stand at the door and knock," etc. Here is Christ outside knocking and appealing for admission. The keys of the house are not in His hands. He is not admitted to His own house and in control. There is a definite act of opening, welcoming, and entrusting to Him the keys which mean government; but so long as one apartment in the house is voluntarily withheld from Him, He never practically assumes control. From the nature of the case it must be all or none i and every child of God knows, or will know if he searches his own heart, whether any part of his life shuts out Jesus from practical rulership. If any part of the body shrinks and shows abnormal sensitiveness under the surgeon's touch, he begins to suspect that there is a lurking place of disease. And whenever a disciple is especially sensitive as to anyone or more forms of indulgence, or shrinks from the candid application of Scripture to any particular practice, he may know that at that point there lurks spiritual disease. On the other hand, if the hidden recesses be opened , up to Christ and He be welcomed to the whole heart and whole life. the very chambers of our previous idolatry will become the chambers of heavenly imagery and Divine communion.
4. Fourthly, the infilling of the Spirit.-Here is perhaps the most delicate and difficult part of this teaching. But it is well not to stop on phrases; whether we agree or nO.t on the exact form of words, we must agree on facts, and conspicuous among the facts is this: that thousands of profest believers, like the Ephe!lian disciples in Acts XIX, do not practically know whether there be a Holy Ghost or not. Dr. Gordon discriminated between sealing, filling, and anointing. He thought the first had reference to assurance, thl'l second to power, and the third to knowledge. The point is this: have you ever claimed and received the power of the Holy Spirit as such? He came down on the day of Pentecost and filled disciples. This was an experience quite apart from conversion. The upper room was filled with a hundred and twenty disciples, some of whom for years had followed Jesus. And yet now suddenly they all received a Divine gift whereby they had new apprehension of all spiritual truth, a more assured witness borne to them as children of God, and a greater power in testimony for Christ. They were somehow filled with light, and love, and life, and power; their tongues were loosed, and they spake even in new languages before nnknown. Now, it may be, and doubtless is, true that this" baptism" of the Spirit was once for all, and that no further such effusion is to be expected in this age. But every disciple is entitled to claim his full share in that blessing and enter into pentecostal life and power or rather have it enter into him.
This is to be claimed by faith quite apart from feeling. Nowhere in the Word of God is feeling addrest, and for a good reason: if God made feeling an evidence or test, we should depend on it, and our confidence would vacillate as often as our feelings do. Man is complex; he is composed of body, soul, and spirit; and body and soul have much to do with spirit. Where the body is not normal, a cloud comes over the higher faculties. What we call feeling is often largely at the mercy of digestion and other physical conditions which do not affect faith or choice. The will may be as unchangingly fixt on God in sickness as health, tho the feelings vary with every change of bodily mood. " According to your faith be it unto you." If you open your heart to the Spirit's infilling and are claiming this blessing, rest on God's faithfulness. He will not fail you.
5. Fifthly, The Revelation of Jesus Christ in the soul as an. Indwelling Presence.-This is the climax of this teaching. The supreme end of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and inworking is to manifest the personal Christ as consciously our possession and in possession of us. ,This is the mystery: Christ in you. The Spirit first takes the things of Christ and shows them to the believer; second, he testifies to Christ, and, third, he glorifies Christ. Note the three parts of this
1R97.] THE SmGE OF TIBET
work as laid down in John 14-16: Manifesting, witnessing, glorifying. He will show you Ohrist iu all His offices and relations to you; He will make Him real to you as your actual possession; and He will clothe Him in glorious charms, so that you will gaze on Him as one enamored of His beauty and love. It is very different to have Ohrist revealed withont you as a historic personage, and within yon as experimentally and really master and Lord. 1'his latter the Holy Spirit does, as the former the Word does.
Rev. F. B. Meyer, who is so prominently connected with the Keswick teaching, has left a special farewell word to his brethren, which we here reproduce from The Ram's Horn.
" I am askt to give a parting message to the beloved ministers of, the Gospel -and other friends with whom I have met during this my fourth and brief visit to the United States. Your country is becoming increasingly a second homeland to me, and I thank you a thousand times for your love. It is an unfeigned delight to find that the teaching of the Inner Life is becoming so widespread in its influ- ence on this side the Atlantic. Union with Christ is His death and resurrection, the reckoning oneself dead to self the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the Rest of Faith, Life across the J~rdan in the Land of Promise, these are familiar and- deeply prized truths and their wide dissemination and realization on the part of believers, together with the exposition of the Bible, as opposed to merely topical preaching, seems to me the conditions of a Revival of God's work in this land, which shall reanimate the churches. and enable them to act as the cementing bond in your vast and varied population.
" Ever your attached friend, F. B. MEYER."
THE SIEGE OF TIBET.
BY F. B. SHAW, WAKEFIELD, ENGLAND, LATE OF LEH, BRITISH TIBET.
Situated in the heart of a vast continent, guarded on the north by immense deserts and arid plateaus, shllt in on the other sides by the loftiest mountains in the world, Tibet is as inaccessible as any country well could be. Small wonder that its wondrous line of snowy peaks, which glistened so strangely above the mists of the plain, and from which issued the mighty rivers upon which his crops depended, became an object of reverence and religious awe to the ancient dweller in the Indian lowlands. This reputation of the unknown has descended to modern times, when Tibet is almost the only country in the world absolutely and of a set purpose closed to Europeans, the country of the Dalai Lama, a priest-king as wonderful as any Prestor John, the country of reputed mahatmas-in a word, the country of mystery.
But Tibet has not always been the" Great Closed Land." Friar Odoric, of Pordenone, past through the country about 1325; and it is quite in keeping with the energetic character of their order that several Jesuits traveled in Tibet during the seventeenth century, but without making a permanent settlement. This was first done by Desideri, who resided in Lhasa from 1716 to 1729. At first alone, this Jesuit was joined in 1719 by twelve Oapuchin friars under Or~io della Penna. They seem to have had a very flourishing mission; but they had fallen on troublous days. Civil wars and insurrections against the Ohinese having thrown the country into anarchy, the missionaries were expelled in 1760. During the last twenty years of their stay the Capuchins had been practically isolated, and with their departure the land was thoroughly closed. For one hundred years not half a dozen Europeans, none of them missionaries, succeeded in entering the country, and of these only one reached Lhasa. For one hundred years the Ohristian Ohurch left Tibet to slumber into death.
To their honor be it said, the Romish Church was the first to resume attempts. In 1846 the Redemptorists Huc and Gabet penetrated to Lhasa, hoping to be allowed to settle there; but Ohinese influence prevailed, and after only a few weeks' stay they were driven out of the country.
The time had now come for Protestants to take up the work, the Moravians being first in the field. But their work was in so far different from any other attempt, as, when the pioneer missionaries Heyde and Pagellleft home, neither they nor the directing board had Tibet or the Tibetans in their minds. On the contrary, the new effort, prompted by the veteran Chinese missionary GiitzlafI, was directed to the Mongolians. Only after failing to reach Mongolia through Russia was the attempt made to penetrate through Tibet, and only when this attempt, renewed at various places, had utterly failed, was the finger of God recognized as pointing to a settlement among Tibetan Buddhists living around the western frontier of Ohinese Tibet. To this day the visitor can see in the library of the oldest station the Mongol books brought out by the pioneers. Time and space fail to relate in full the story of this mission. Suffice it to say that the missionaries decided in 1856 to settle in the Valley of Lahaul. Attempts to obtain land in the chief village failed, and the pioneers were obliged to content themselves with Kyelang, a village on the opposite side of the valley. This was again a providential leading, for it soon appeared that Kyelang was in every way more suitable than the village originally thought of. The same providence was apparent in the fact that just at that time there was in the service of the Moravian Church a man of rare linguistic talent, H. A. Jaeschke, who was willing to devote himself to the exploratioJ? of the difficult and little-known Tibetan language. The untiring energy of these three men soon made Kyelang a center of light. Not only was the Gospel preacht to the villagers at hand, but long itinerations from village to village served to make it widely known. Quickly realizing the fact that they had to do with a people possest of an alphabet and a literature of their own, they started a lithographic M0 N G 0 L A lQ . S A .IT 0 o 7'
II, O!
O~_ _'fIO ~'lh·()r)l11{,R, 2(~J ~IJO —.±OO 600 MISSIONARY MAP OF TIBET, (Dotted lines indicate trade routes,) The Scaudinavian Alliance l'tIi88ion has aleo l'ibetan Missionaries in Ghoom India, in Baksadnar, Bhutan, and iu Guntak, Sikkim. printing-press, from which school-books, catechisms, hymns, tracts and B,ible portions were issued in rapid succession.
In a few years another station was founded in Poo, in the Upper Sutlej Valley, close to the borders of Chinese Tibet, and on an import- ' ant commercial route. But Ladak, with its capital Leh, on the upper course of the Indus, was the spot which seemed most desirable. Leh is a great center of Tibetan trade, as well as the metropolis of Western Tibetan Buddhism, and no stone was left unturned to secure a regular station there; but its ruler, the Maharajah of Kashmir, tho allowing some freedom of travel through the country, anxiously excluded resideut Europeans from his territories. Not till 1885 did the Maharajah give the required permission, when Leh was immediately occupied. A new feature in the work was a fully equipped medical mission, which has proved a most useful adjunct. Its temporary cessation, owing to a series of adverse circumstances, is all the more to be regretted, as the Roman Catholics saw fit, in 1888, to start a work of their own in Leh. The visible results of the work at all stations are small, very small; but the conviction, caused by the circumstances attending the origin of the work, that the mission is where God would have it, has sustained the directing board at home and the missionaries abroad in their efforts. So far from withdrawing, the Moravians are seeking to extend their work.
An encouraging sign in answer to much prayer for Tibet is seen in the great interest now taken in this field of work. While the Moravians were for years alone, there are now about forty men and women engaged in Tibetan work. The same impulse seems to have come to many minds in various places. Miss Annie Taylor, originally attacht to the China Iuland Mission, naturally demands first attention. Her work in Sining brought her into contact with the Tibetans, and she determined to try what could be done. Proceeding to Darjiling, she acquired some knowledge of the language, and then returning to China, started on her adventurous journey. She had to return, foiled of her hopes of reaching Lhasa; but the journey was not in vain. Her marvelous feat drew universal attention to the people on whose behalf it was made, and in the course of a few months the Tibetan Pioneer Mission was launched. With fourteen companions she returned to Sikkim, there to continue linguistic studies, and, if possible, to penetrate from thence into the country. In and near Darjiling she found several Swedish missionaries belonging to the Scandinavian Alliance Mission (U. S. A.) engaged in similar work.
In the meantime another worker had been made ready. Mr. and Mrs. Polhill-Turner, like Miss Taylor, belonging to the Chiua Inland Mission, had also had Tibet laid on their hearts. When stationed at Sining they devoted what time they could to studying Tibetan, 'but not finding it a suitable place they removed, and after many wanderings settled in Sungpan in the autumn of 1891. A prolonged drought having roused the superstious fears of the Ohinese, (Mr. Turner is careful to say that the Tibetans took no part), a terrible riot broke ()ut and the missionaries were driven away. Here, again, was God's hand working wonderfully; Mr. Turner was taken away from Ohina only that he might take the leadership of some of those who had originally joined Miss Taylor in Sikkim, but now desired to seperate themselves from her. Thus the Tibetan Mission Band was formed. Besides these workers the International Missionary Alliance (U. S. A.) in 1892, also sent men to Darjiling, to acquire the language. All these workers are new, and for this reason little could be said of the work done, even were space to allow of it.
And now let us see how the forces are disposed around the mighty mountain ramparts. Let the reader take a good map. He will find the north of Tibet to be a vast uninhabited region, where the missionary would find no work to do. Ooming round to the west, the Moravians hold Tibetan districts in the higher valleys of the Indus, Sutlej, and tributary rivers. Lower down the Indus and west of the Moravians, the Scandinavians are commencing work in Baltistan. This is an important step, for it means the occupation of a district with 100,000 souls as yet untouched by regular work; Mohammedans by religion, but speaking Tibetan, and members of the Tibetan family. Toward the south, Almora is occupied by the London Society, who have devoted what time they could spare to Tibetans, and where an independent worker, Mr. Agnew, has settled. Nepal is as yet unoccupied, being closed to missionaries. The Scotch mission has long held Sikkim and devoted much time to the Tibetans; but this branch of their work is now presumably taken off their hands by the members of the various societies destined for ~'ibet. Bhotan is unoccupied by Protestants, but the Oatholics have a work in that country. In 1854 they had obtained a footing in Tibet, were ejected four years later, and retired to Bhutan. We finally come to the east, or (i)hinese side, where the Oatholics have several stations, but where no Protestants are working at present.
We hear, however, that Mr. Polhill-Turner has made an arrangement with J. Hudson Taylor, by which his men will form a separate group affiliated to the O. I. M., but set apart for Tibetan work. They will therefore move round to the Ohinese frontier of Tibet, thus completing the ring of attacking forces. The present writer rejoices over this decision, for he is convinced that the road to Lhasa lies through Ohina. The population is densest, the country is most fertile, political jealousies are least on that side. But the strong fortress is not to.be taken at first storm, and many weary years may have to be spent in the trenches. We do not believe that a sudden dash at Lhasa is in any way advisable, inasmuch as it would probably only serve to make
CHINA-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
the people more suspicious. Also the British Government is anxious to establish friendly relations with Tibet, from which the missionaries must ultimately derive benefit. A recently publisht report on the matter shows how difficult this is, and it would be a matter of regret if the missionaries should by any hasty actioR delay the desired event. The advance will be gradual, the whole country being occupied, and every outpost having'a support to fall back upon. This may, probably will, be slow work; but nothing else can be expected. Tibetan Buddhism, however grotesque it may seem to us, has a firm hold on the people, and stands ready for battle. Let us, therefore, while thanking God for the work already done, and the great accession of workers, not imagine that the difficulties are past.' God may be preparing another Jericho; but we must be prepared for much toil before the power of Dalai Lamas is broken.
Any enumeration of the forces arrayed against Tibet would, however, be incomplete without a mention of the Tibet Prayer Union. Originally launched in connection with the Moravian work, it has grown so as to demand a separate existence; and it now consists of a union of those interested in Tibet, being independent of and above every society. The workers in the field expect great things from this union, for when Tibet falls, it will be in answer to prayer. There is no missionary who does not feel himself strengthened by its existence and quiet work. We can only wish that all who desire the good of Tibet-and we are persuaded that very many are regular in their supplications for that country-would definitely join the union, and so enroll themselves personally in one of the regiments-and by no means the least important-detailed for the siege of Tibet.
NOTE I.-The latest books on our subject are (1) "Working and Waiting for Tibet," Moravian Publication Office, Fetter Lane, London, E. C., and Bethlehem, Pa., 1891; (2)" The Great Closed Land," by A. W. Marsten. Partridge & Co., London, 1893. .
NOTE 2.-The secretaries of the Tibet Prayer Union are: Messrs. Ford and Ashton, War- Ington Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, England.
NOTE 8.-There being some confusion as regards the spelling of certain common names, the following may be of interest: (1) The orthography "Tibet" seems to be the best, the form" Thlbet" having no sufficient authority. The name is of doubtful origin, being certainly not Tibetan. (2) The form "Lhasa" would seem to be best, as corresponding most closely in letters and pronunciation with the Tibetan "lha-sa "-abode of the deity. (3) The form "lama" (Tib-" bla-ma," with mute b) is the only correct rendering; the use of the word "llama" rests on confusion with the South American quadruped, which may claim to be allowed the exclusive use of Its own name.
CHINA-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
BY REV. WlLLIAM ASHMORE, D. D., SWATOW, CHINA.
Some people in Ohina are sanguine of great and immediate advancement. They consider that Ohina has now discovered her need and that, therefore, impelled by the sturdy, practical common sense of her people, she will lose no time in giving effect to her more enlightened views, and will take her place in the great procession of the nations,., Others haveno such expectations. They consider China to be like the sluggard of holy writ, disturbed in its sleep of ages, it has merely rolled over-and merely says: "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." Her administrative heads are stupefied with conservatism, and will not change without still more violent convulsions 1 And so, after this little spurt of reform has spent itself, things will all fall back into the old ruts, according to the litany of Chinese politics, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be."
Each of these views has much which may be said in its favor, therefore a more correct answer to the question may be arrived at by taking some items on both sides into the account. It becomes a case of general average.
I: The first point to be noted in the consideration of the question as to whether China will now become progressive is contained in the affirmation that slLe has advanced immensely already. This fact is beyond dispute. One who notes the growth of a tree, by the week or the month, will not discover much progress, but by making the observation extend over an interval of several years, he will find that there has been an immense advance. In order to apprehend the progress which China has made, we need to go back and note the state of things before the first war with England, in 1842.
At that time Chinese statesmen knew nothing of the West. Their ignorance was dense. They knew nothing, and they cared nothing. None of them ever went West. To find a Chinaman who had been to London or New York was at once to give him a new designation. " Boston Jack" and "London Tom" were so called because one had been to Boston and the other to London. Of intercourse with Western people, there was none whatever. Europeans and Americans were not wanted, and were not allowed the freedom of the soil anywhere in China. The only place allowed them was that small patch of ground along the river front of Canton, known as "The Thirteen Houses," so called· because there were that many dwellings and warehouses there to be occupied by foreigners of all nationalities alike. Then there was a. garden plot for common use, in which they all had to get their airing a.nd exercise, under the greatest limitation and restraint. If they ventured outside of their "jail-bounds," they were liable to be mobbed and stoned. Inside of the gate of the city no man could go. If he attempted it, he riskt his life. They could also take a little run down the river, for a dozen miles, to Whampoa, where the ships anchored. That comprised their privileges in China.
i~e estimate placed on foreigners by the Chinese was contemptuous to the last degree. They were spoken of as "barbarians," "redheaded devils," who had come to China to beg the privilege of supplying themselves with tea, and who were, as a very great favor, permit. ted to bask under the imperial smile. China was to them the Central Kingdom. All other countries were on the outskirts, and wer~ reckoned as the mere rind of civilization. When dealing with them officially, the mandarins deputed only low-class subordinates, but littl~ above the grade of constables, to "instruct the ignorant barbarians how to demean themselves." Then the most arrogant, haughty, supercilious and utterly unbearable manner was always assumed. Even Lord Napier, when sent out to negotiate a better understanding, was addrest as "a barbarian "-he was called "the barbarian eye" in all official communications-he was snubbed and insulted and treated with an infinite disdain. An attempt to get the Viceroy to use more courteous language only called out a scornful laugh and another kick. England herself was called" a tribute bearer," and was regarded as a distant dependency of China, along with Siam and Tibet, and the regions occupied by wild tribes on the frontier.
The Chinese, then, had no steamers, no sailing ships, no telegraph, no railroads, no ambassadors at their capital, no open ports except Canton, no foreign consuls recognized, nobody to represent them at foreign courts, no books or papers that told them anything about foreign nations, no foreign improvement of any kind; their trade was all done in the old-fashioned junks; their men-of-war were all small and contemptible junks, but little better than their merchantmen, each one armed with several old smooth-bore cannon, full of blisters in the casting, and almost as dangerous to those who stood behind them as t() those who were in front. Their rabbles of militia, without drill, and without organization worthy of the name, still practised with bows and arrows and old matchlocks, and thought to scare their enemy by the flaunting of flags, the banging of gongs, noisy vociferation, and fierce paintings of tiger-heads on their wooden shields. Ohina was a thousand years behind the rest of the world, and, at that time, there was not the least sign that a change would ever come. Would China ever come to recognize the nations, the West, as equals? Never! Would her viceroys ever adopt terms of equality with foreign consuls? Never! Would China ever have any use for Western science and Western improvements? Never! Would the supremely august and" Solitary one" in Peking ever admit foreign embassadors to his presence 1:" Never ! Never! Let the heavens fall first. Would there come a time< when foreigners would have the free range of the empire? Never! Would the proud, stiff-necked, conceited and supercilious mandarins ever be found imploring foreign aid to keep them in resources to run their ship of state ? Never! Would China ever be found sending her most renowned statesmen to carry the respects of his imperial majesty to those despised and so-called tributaries of the West? Never-s() long as the world stands ! Yet all this, and far more, has come to pass. China began to go to school in 1842. She has had several special semesters since. She has been in the public school of the nations and has had private tutors of her own. It is a course of rough discipline that she has gone through. She has rebelled and kickt at the teach- ers, but her stiff-necked mandarins have had to yield to the power of .solomon's celebrated mortar-and-pestel treatment. Braying in the mortar has done them good. They have not got there yet, but they .are on the way, and will "fetch up" by and by.
Now, look at some of the changes that have taken place. That {)ffensive expression, "barbarian," has been knocked out of aU official documents, consuls are the equals of viceroys, ministers plenipoten- tiary reside at the imperial capital; the Chinese have reorganized their army; they have reconstructed their navy; they have rebuilt their forts; they have remodeled their whole commercial marine. The old junks of such enormous size, that used to run to Batavia and Singa- pore and Siam, are all gone. They were crowded out by sailing ships, and now the sailing ships have been crowded out by steamers, and the Chinese own steamer-fleets of their own; they have iron-clads and tor- pedo boats, and arsenals, and huge dry docks of their own. They have the most reliable part of their revenue collected for them by for- eigners; they have telegraphs and railroads. They have started great foundries of their own; they have started silk filature establishments, and cotton-mills. They now have banks of their own and insurance {)ffices. Once they did all their business in the West through foreign houses in Hong Kong and Shanghai; now they have their own agents in London, Berlin, New York and San Francisco. Instead of a stray sailor called" Boston Jack" or "London Tom" they now have able .and wealthy business men of their own-men who have1 become mil- lionaires in the West, and who compel the respect of the whole com- , mercial world. All this is progress. Certainly the tree has grown, if it has been imperceptibly.
II. In the next place it must be noted that these advances make -other advances necessary-advances so great, that aU that has been before will be thrown in the shade! There is an immense amount of 'seed sown ready to spring up; there are vast potencies at work to 'Produce more changes; there is a logic of progress which is bound to :assert itself. One of a kind begets another of the same kind; two different kinds make a demand for a third kind. One successful <:otton-mill means two cotton-mills, and two mills means three mills. One telegraph wire means another wire. Twenty miles of railroad means a hundred miles, and a hundred miles means a thousand in the future. .A short road from Tientsin to Peking, less than a hun- dred miles, means a long road from Peking to Hankow, six hun- dred and fifty miles, and a road from Peking to Hankow, means an extension to Oanton, five hundred miles more-and eleven hu,ndred and fifty miles of main trunk lines means innumerable branch lines, and all that means radical change, industrial revolution, and continual progress.
The most significant indication of progress is the altered attitude of the Chinese science to all things Western. The change of sentiment is not complete, but it is going on, and will continue to go on, till Western ideas will permeate and dominate future Chinese civilization. The most important bureau in Peking to-day is the one which has to do with foreign affairs. Powerful viceroys, like Li Hung Chang and Ohang Chi Tung, have English-speaking linguists attached to their yamen. Forty years ago such a thing would have been pronounced impossible; they have English books translated and laid before them; they have daily newspapers started-a marvel of progress; they have schools for teaching Western science. The emperor has actually issued an edict commending to his people the adoption of such Western improvements as the Chinese may deem advantageous. This is an astonishing stride. It does not say so, but it does mean that China, officially, is getting ready to declare a break with the old. It is slipping the anchor and letting the ship drift into the Western gulfstream.
Then, too, China is being affected powerfully by her emigrants who have gone abroad-have become inoculated with various Western ideas, and have come back to let them germinate. Furthermore, a score of open ports have become luminous and radiating centres. Tens and hundreds of thousands of her people, at these places, are getting their eyes opened. Persons at home can hardly conceive of the change of attitude in the minds of the common people that is now beginning to take place in consequence of the events of the last few years. They have seen the energy and efficiency of the western man; they have seen their own mandarins quail before him. The glamor of superiority, which surrounded these mandarins and literati in their estimations, has begun to fade as a rainbow fades. When John the Baptist came, men mused and "were in expectation." A state of "expectation" is the soil out of which changes sprout. Without exaggeration we may say that, up and down the coast of China, millions of people are" in expectation" of something. So all that enters into the preparation. Not only are they expecting something, but they are longing for something. Things can hardly be worse, they think, and they may be better.
III. It will appear then that the real question is not whether Ohina has progrest or will progress, but it is, at 10hat rate will China now progress? This will call for a reestimate of the forces at work-those holding back and those impelling forward, and their mutual pullings and haulings with each other.
The former come first. Origiually they had the entire field, , adversely to them nobody dared to peep or to chirp. Conservatives they are called, but obstructionists and dead weights is what they really are. The China "Mission Hand Book" gives the number of leading mandarins-that is, of high grade mandarins-at a few over ten thousand. This does not include the large retinue connected with the imperial household; then there are the literati, attending examination still, about six hundred thousand; then there is the large roll of past literati, the number of which it is difficult to ascertain, and certain of the gentry, so-called, with them, who cannot be less than a million. At the outset ~'}l of these classes were of one mind and of one instinct to oppose foreign ideas. They included the edu- cated brains of China; they represented all the power and all the prestige of the nation; they were ben t on resisting foreign encroach- ment, in maintaining the complete isolation of Ohina, and the con- servation unmixt of their ancestral inheritance of civilization. The mass of them hated the foreigner, and were ready to drive him out into the sea. .Out of this immense class began to be born, little by little, the new class-the men of progressive ideas, the men who discovered quicker than others that Ohina was kicking against the pricks. They have been growing, little by little, since the first war with England. For a generation they were but few, without communication or con- ference with each other. Some high statesmen were in this class; they stood where they were compelled to see the truth. But they were not assertive, nor were they at all agreed in the extent of the innovation they would sanction. They took to improved military and naval arrangements first, and yielded to other demands slowly and reluctantly. They still considered China able to dictate her own course. While some of them saw the real advantages of Western methods, and what an immense boom their introduction would be to China as a nation-others of them advocated a limited adoption of Western appliances, chiefly on the principle of fighting fire with fire; they would beat the foreigner by resorting to his own weapons. Small at first, this class has now become large and influential. Great statesmen are now enrolled among them; the influence of traveled Chinese is on their side; foreign diplomacy is on their side; the wars of China have all been on their side; and the whole drift of the gene- ration is on their side. Of course, there is friction and collision, and that is what is the matter with China just now. She is a divided house. The conser- vatives are powerful, and bigoted, and desperate-they cling as for dear life to all the features of the old system of administration and emolument. But the others are becoming powerful too, and are reso- lute, and are coming into touch with each other. Two civilizations are struggling in the womb of Ohina. The second one is Jacob, the Supplanter. First, it is one that is likely to claim the portion of the first-born, and then it is the other. Jacob will start his Reform Society and appear about to lead the host. Then, all at once, his Reform Society will be knocked to pieces by the red and hairy hand of Esau.
Let no one despair of the outcome. It will be Jacob and not Esau that will win at the end. But it may take more time than we pushing Western people are willing to allow. The rate of progression may be slow and tedious. At the same time we are cheered with the hope that, in the Providence of God, events may be accelerated. It may be peaceably, and it may be with commotion and upheaval, but the consummation is surely coming. Conservatism may show its power to humiliate Li Hung Chang after all the honor heapt upon him, but that power is being exhausted with every blow it strikes. It may never be possible to do as bold a thing again.
In addition to all this, allowance must be made for inherent difficulties, which lie in the way of radical and rapid changes in China, even when pusht by willing and unfett;:;::"ed hands. These arise from the crystallized form of society-the time and labor required to move such immense masses of human beings into new lines of thought and action. But into that large subject we cannot enter here.
IV. When it comes to missionary aspects of the question, as to whether China will become progressive, we appeal to a comparison of the present status with that of the past. We look back to a time when Robert Morrison was the only missionary to China. Then he had to dodge about the foreign settlement at Canton to escape observation. Now Robert Morrison and his wife have become twenty-five hundred strong, and he is the most ubiquitous person of the foreigners in the whole empire. Once Leang-A-Fa was the only convert. Now Leang- A-Fa has become seventy thousand strong, and is the growing class of China-he is the man of the future-the coming Chinaman. Others will decrease, but he will increase. Like Abraham, he will become the father of multitudes-those of his countrymen who will come to believe with him, will be like the stars for numbers. Once the Chinese teacher who helpt Dr. Morrison translate the Scripture, had to carry the manuscript concealed under his jacket, to avoid arrest. Now Bible Societies and Tract Societies occupy central points in their great cities and send out their printed pages, by the million. every year for the healing of the nation. Native churches are springing up by the thousand, and native speakers by the thousand. In her pristine state China had no public speakers. Among the incidental things being done by missions for China, is the raising up of a class of men trained to address crowds of people. In course of time, other classes of men than preachers will catch the spirit and learn the artthen a new dynamic element will enter into social and political life.
THE WOMEN OF CroNA-HEATHEN AND CBlUSTIAN
Not to prolong the subject, just rest the inquiry on two things. Oontrast two events in missionary history. In the one the translator, spoken of, appears slipping into the back door of Robert Morrison's dwelling with his contraband manuscript hid away in his clothes; in the other, a deputation of missionaries, headed by a foreign ambassador, marches into the imperial precincts to present a copy of the whole Bible to the Empress Dowager, who accepts it with pleasure and appreciation, while the servants of the Emperor are seen at the book stalls buying copies for themselves. The stride from the little alley in Canton to the palace in Pe~ing is tremendous. Then again, who, of all the missionaries of thirty years ago, familiar with the disdainful manner of even the yamen lackeys, could then have dreamt that the greatest statesman of Ohina would be receiving a deputation of missionary supporters in New York City, and should there put in writing an expression of his estimate of the value of their labors, and pay them an imperial compliment for their moral and personal worth. And yet that, too, has come to pass. Let no one say that missionary work in C~ina does not move. If all this be not progress, then what is progress?
China has been called a hard field. And snch in truth it has been, partly because of the intense materialism of its Confucian ethics, partly because of blind and slavish subservience to antiquity, and partly because its people have been trained for ages to think in bulk. But a freshet has come, the ice is beginning to crack and to break. The world has seen great ingatherings of disciples at many times and in many places, but in our humble opinion, these may all fall short of what may take place in China when the veil of ancestralism shall be torn away from the eyes of her myriad myriads of people.
THE WOMEN OF CHINA-HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN.
BY MRS. GEORGE S. 1LA.YS.
To nnderstand a woman-Ohinese or American-one must have some knowledge of her home, her family cares, and her habits of thought. A typical Chinese family consists of the father and motherin-law, two or three sons and their wives and several grandchildren, all living in rooms opening upon the same high-walled court-yard, and sharing the same kitchen.
The father and sons work for and contribute to the common purse, and so strict are their ideas of impartiality, or rather so jealous is each member of the family of the others~ that a husband may not take even of the money he himself has earned to buy a. present for his own wife, without buying one equally v!l-luable for each of 'his sisters-in-law. The Chinaman has ways and means, however, of evading almost every law or custom, and the fond husband buys a handsome gown and sends it and his wife for a few days to her maternal home. From there she will return triumphantly displaying her gown as a present from her mother.
In the home the mother-in-law is usu~ly-but not always-the head. Sometimes a daughter-in-law of unusually bright mind or vicious temper rules the whole household. The quickest way & daughter-in-law possesses by which to bring her mother-in-law to subjection is threatening suicide. If a woman kills herself her spirit is supposed to return to haunt the mother-in-law, but worse than this to the practical mind of the Chinaman, her living relatives will gather and by demanding a costly funeral, will plunge the whole family into heavy debt that they will be unable to pay for years.
Imagine the situation in a Chinese home, and it becomes at once apparent that peace and happiness can not reign continually. On the one hand is the daughter-in-law, a young girl, perhaps indulged and spoiled from her babyhood in her mother's home, and untrained in housework and sewing. She is suddenly introduced by marriage intoa new home. Her husband, her mother-in-law, her neighbors are aU total strangers. She is miserably homesick; she gets wretchedly tired' doing all sorts of unaccustomed work; she is criticised, laughed at, or' reviled for her stupidity or her indolence.
On the other hand is the mother-in-law. She has perhaps suffered for years under the hard reign of her mother-in-law; she is now ready for her turn to sit on the throne. She expects to be treated with obedient consideration by her son's wife; she expects to take life easily in her old age. Instead of this she discovers that her new daughter-in-law is saucy, careless and wasteful, if not actually thievish; she is above all taking the place in her beloved son's affections which the mother has always held.
Remember, they are two heathen women with hot and hasty tempers which have never been controlled; each with a stock of vile words. and insulting epithets at her tongue's end, and it is easy to imagine the result. When there are several daughters-in-law in the samehouse, and children of different mothers ready to quarrel at a, moment's notice, and each mother ready to take her own child's part to the bitter end, it is often "confusion worse confounded."
It is well in such a household if there be one at the head who can command obedience and at least a semblance of peace. As the daughters-in-law grow older and wiser, as they bear sons to add luster to the family name, and as the various elements of the family become accustomed to each other, terrific outbursts of temper and violent chastisements by the mother-in-law become less frequent. There are, of course, some cases where the mother-in-law and her son's wife live together in loving harmony, but these are, unfortunately, rare exceptions.
The saddest and most hopeless lot in China is that of the" nourished daughter-in-law;" the girl who, yet too young to marry, is sent to her betrothed husband's home because of her parents' death or extreme poverty. Her mother-in-law resents this most vehemently. Why should she be called upon to feed and clothe for years the unfortunate child? .Ail there is no one to take the girl's part, she is usually over-worked, reviled, beaten and sometimes half-starved and driven to sleep with the dogs in her new home. If the mother-in-law goes too far, however, resource may be had to a curious mob-law, as far as I know, only practist by the women of China.
Not long ago an orphan girl was sent to live with her mother-inlaw who had already one daughter-in-law living with her. The child's betrothed husband was an industrious business man a good many years older than herself. He was seldom at home, and even when there, as it was not good form for him to take any notice of his little bride before marriage, he knew nothing of how she was treated. Altho the girl was a gentle, modest child, afraid to say or do anything contrary to her mother-in-Iaw's wishes, she was most cruelly treated. When she was thirteen years old, she 'inadvertently did something to offend her. mother and sister-in-law, and the two women, working themselves into a fiendish rage, killed her with scissors, cutting her :flesh horribly and slitting her tongue, but leaving no mark upon her face. When she was dead they carefully drest her in her best garments, and, according to custom, were obliged to send word of her death to her aunt, her only living relative. This aunt was a desperate character, a beggar-woman who could hope or fear nothing from the magistrates, as she had not enough money to make it worth an official's while to pay any attention to her case. She obeyed the summons at once, and after carefully examining the body of the dead child, returned home, and gathering together thirty or forty women, each armed with an awl or sharp pointed instrument, came to execute vengeance on the murderers. The two women, however, managed to hide themselves, and the infuriated mob were obliged to disperse after being assured by the bridegroom, who was horrified at the dreadful death of his bride, that a grand and costly funeral should be given in her honor.
In another instance within my knowledge, a mother-in-law who had beaten her daughter-in-law to death, did not escape so easily. In this case the murderess was caught by the mob of women armed with awls and sharp metal pins; they dragged her out into the street, stript her of her clothing and prickt and jagged her furiously. Then they .dragged her over the stones the whole length of the street two or three times, and finally left her, after pushing a quantity of briars and small thornes into her flesh. She was carried home by her friends more dead than alive. "No one in that village has dared to kill her daughter-in-Iaw since that time," was the significant conclusion given by the Ohristian woman telling me the story.
It is frightful to see a woman deliberately" nourishing wrath," as the Chinese express it. The word translated" nourishing" can also be rendered "kindle," as in "kindle a fire," and is most expressive in connection with the working-up of anger. It was once my unfortunate experience to see my nurse-maid, "nourish" or "kindle" wrath. One day, after having a quarrel with the washerman, she sat down in spite of my remonstrances, and deliberately gave way to her evil passions. She drew her breath in with great violence at long and regular intervals, until she became wholly unconscious of her surroundings. In this state, which lasted about forty hours, she threw herself about violently, and talkt deliriously, especially after I had applied the mustard plasters which I had heard were effective in such cases. Altho I lean toward homeopathic treatment, on this occasion I made two plasters thick and strong, one foot broad by two feet long, and applied them on her chest and down her back. While I was preparing the plasters my cook told me that the Ohinese would call one in this woman's condition "possest of demons." I am glad to state that by the aid of those mustard plasters, I exorcised the demons, and better yet, that they have never dared to return to that woman!
She came legitimately by her temper. She often told me of her grandfather, who had a long wished for and only son born to him late in life. He was so greatly delighted that he went in and out of his wife's room, exclaiming, "aren't you happy! aren't you happy!" After repeatedly replying in the affirmative, the old lady finally becoming irritated answered emphaticallly, "No, I am not happy." Whereupon the old man "nourished wrath," refused to eat and drink, and died in a few days. Serious illness or death often follows this deliberate giving way to anger.
Women who claim to be possest of a" fox or a wolf god," are much feared and reverenced by the Chinese. I once askt an intelligent Ohristian woman, Su May, whether she had ever known any women claiming this possession. She answered that she had met with very few, and those all claimed to be possest of a "fox god." When a pupil in one of our Christian schools, she had been allowed by the matronwho had not yet given up all her heathen superstitions-to witness the attempted healing of a very sick child by a woman possest of a "fox god."
Several of the school-girls stole into the room while the woman mumbled her incantations-intelligible only to herself-and it was not long before she turned angrily to the matron, and declaring that her god could do nothing in the presence of those believi::J.g the " Jesus doctrine," gave up the case and went away. She afterwards bitterly reproacht the woman who had conducted her to the school, saying, t< you should not have taken me there. Don't you know I have nothing to do with people holding their belief?" She declared that the child would surely die, as she was the run-away soul of a little nun, who had in her previous existence broken a bowl, and her mistress was calling to her to come back and account for the damage done to her property. But the child recovered in spite of this prophecy. .
After Su May left school, her fathel' took her for a visit among old family friends whom she had not seen since a little girl. Nearly every woman and child in the village crowded to see the natural-footed girl, who had been educated by foreigners, and among them came a woman who at once caught Su May's attention from her resemblance to the woman possest of a "fox god." She entered the room in a gli~ing serpentine manner, with averted eyes, which were never lifted in a straightforward, direct look into the face of another. By slipping behind some of the other women, she sought to avoid notice, but Su May said· to her at once, "you are possest of a "fox god, aren't you ?"
"Dreadful!" the woman gaspt," How do you know? No one told you about me, for I have been watching you." .
" I have a way of recognizing you," answered Su May, "but I won't tell you my way."
" Are you possest with a god also?" askt the woman.
"Yes," answered Su May, "I have the true God in me. He is with me all the time. Is your' fox god' with you? Let him speak to us through you."
" My god has gone to Shanghai," confusedly answered the woman, slinking out of the room as rapidly as possible.
Another woman of this kind was for a time in Mrs. Nevius' sewing class, but she declared she could not prophesy before the Christian school-girls. The most striking part of Su May's story was her state- ment that all the possest women of whom she had known or heard, confest at once on hearing the name of Jesus, that" He is true. He is the Son of the true God." And while others around might mock and jeer at the preaching of the Gospel, they either listened with respectful attention, or evaded it entirely.
The women who claim a "wolf god" are of a fierce nature, advis- ing more cruel methods of averting misfortune or curing the sick than those who are under the guidance of a "fox god." A petty mandarin living near Chepoo, having two wives, had the great misfortune to have no children. In great discontent with this state of affairs, he sent for a woman possest of a" wolf god," and askt her to tell him the reason for his ill-fortune. She was a total stranger to him and to both of his wives, so it could not have been an old grudge or wish for revenge that influenced her demands. She told him he would never have good luck as long as he kept his second wife; that she must not be divorced, but killed. The head wife was in real sorrow at this ver- dict and begged the mandarin to spare the unfortunate woman's life, but he remained determined to follow the "wolf god's" advice. Strip- ping the heavy wadded garments from his second wife (with whom, as far as known, he had had no previous quarrel) he drove her out into the bitter cold, where she was soon frozen to death.
The religious feelings of Ohinese women vary greatly in different localities. In some places they are distinctly religious, visiting tem- ples, worshiping daily at a private shrine in the home, fasting, praying and endeavoring by good works to lay up for themselves a reward in the future world. In the eastern part of Shantung Province this was not the case. The women as a rule never visit the temples, and worship no private gods. They are, of course, filled with' many vague and dark superstitions. Hard workt, improperly nourished, easily distracted and excited by the little details of daily life, they seem to give little, if any, thought to their future after death. It is commonly believed that a woman will change at death into a pig-considered the filthiest of animals-to atone for the sins committed during her lifetime,such as polluting pure water, wasting food, cutting cloth, reviling her husband, worrying her mother-in-law, etc. From a pig to a woman, a woman to a pig, the dreary transmigration goes on forever. Others believe in total annihilation, but most women dismiss the question of a future life by a careless" who' knows?" or by the sad statement, "I fear no future suffering. My lot cannot possibly be worse in the world to come than it is in this life."
This picture of heathen womanhood would be misleadingly dark and' gloomy if all bright coloring be omitted. It is indeed a black and bitter life, even among heathen homes that get no ray of light occasionally. Hunger satisfied, tho with coarsest food, a refreshing breeze after a hot day, warmth in winter, a shelter and rest at night, the doubtful joy of having overcome an adversary in a reviling match, or, the relief of escaping with whole bones from a fierce quarrel, make a lining to the black cloud of life, which, if not silver, is at least lighter than the prevailing hue.
But we may certainly call bright silver the joyous smile of an innocent child, the true love which children give to and receive from their mother, vigorous health with few nerves, and the natural love of life, which is the portion of all God's creatures. Add to this an apathetic disposition, an astonishing lack of envy of those in better circumstances, and the fact that a quarrel, which wonld drive an American woman into a long siege of nervous prostration, is but meat and drink to the ordinary Chinese woman, and one has a clearer insight into their lives.
Many deeds of unselfish and even heroic kindness are performed in heathen homes, of which the world hears nothing. In no other land are daughters more carefully guarded from impurity of action- tho purity of thought or word is considered unimportant. Altho the children do not render the cheerful obedience which Christianity demands, yet the care and protection of infirm and aged parents is a rule rarely departed from.
But notwithstanding all these ameliorating circumstances, it is with a feeling of distinct relief that one leaves a heathen home, too often filled with a " darkness that can be felt," and enters the home of a Clll'istian. In this connection a story which I have already told in The Independent, is so apt, that perhaps it is worth repeating. After a morning spent with a Chinese woman, she inteITupted my Gospel message with the question, "Is your mother-in-law living?" " No," I answered. "Does your husband get druuk?" "No." "Does he smoke opium?" "No." "Does he beat you?" " No," I replied. "He has never struck me a blow in his life." It took her several moments to become convinced of this astonishing fact, and then she turned to me saying impressively, "You have been talking to me of heaven and hell in the world to come. Your life now and mine are as heaven and hell."
Those who have seen the changed lives and happy homes of many Chinese women, can testify gladly that nothing but Christianity could perform such miracles. One of the strongest proofs a Christian Chinese woman can make of her sincerity is in unbinding her own or her daughter's feet. In Shantung, with the exception of a few slaves or prostitutes and manchus, all women-whatever their condition of life-bind their feet. It requires an enormous amount of moral courage for.a Chinese woman to go about with natural feet, thus incurring the curiosity, ridicule, and evil insinuations of every one she meets. The change, therefore, is very slow, but it is surely coming, owing to the influence of Christian schools and anti-footbinding societies, or rather to the influence of Christianity.
An old, Godly elder, in the church at Chefoo, who's Christianity was real enough to break an opium habit, strong with the practice of many years, was very fond of telling of the change Christianity wrought in his wife. "Before she became a Christian, she had a most violent temper," he would say in his slow, gentle manner. "She would scold and revile most abusively, and we were all afraid of her. But since she has become a Christian, all is changed. Why now she hasn't even a disposition left," was always his quaint conclusion.
Truly, in a heathen land is most clearly illustrated the truth, " By their fruits ye shall know them."
POLYGAMUS APPLICANTS
POLYGAMOUS APPPIOANTS.-I.
WHAT MISSIONARIES THINK SHOULD BE DONE WITH THEM.
BY REV. DANIEL L. GIFFORD, SEOUL, KOREA.
Toward the close of the year 1894 the church session in Seoul, Korea, had its attention called to certain concrete cases, which raised the question of the status of men with plural wives in relation to church membership. It was not until a year later, however, that any of the members of our mission dreamed that in our copies of "What is Presbyterian .Law," tuckt away under the irrelevant heading of "Who are forbidden to marry," was a statement of the speciallegislation of the General Assembly of 1875, which forbade the admission of men in such relations.
The problem was brought to the attention of the Presbyterian Oouncil, which met about that time, and they were askt to legislate upon the subject. In the debate which followed, it soon became evident that we had upon our hands a question which could not be settled upon the spur of the moment. So its consideration was postponed for one year. From the account of the debate upon this subject at the London Missionary Oonference of 1888, I observed that most of the missionaries from Africa favored exclusion, while quite the reverse was true of most of those from China. I was perplexed and wondered if it might not be true that the social conditions which attended the unhappy practice, might not be different in the different countries.
The first of July arrived, and still no light; then in desperation I decided to appeal to missionaries upon older fields for their advice. A circular letter was prepared and sent to some sixty representative missionaries of various denominations in Japan, China, and India.* So far as I am aware, no such data has ever before been gathered on what is perhaps the most intricate of all mission problems.
The circular letter was as follows: SEOUL, KOREA, July 1, 1895. My dear brother in Christ:-I feel compunctious for taking the time of one, busy with missionary work, to answer my questions. But my justification, I think, will be found in the facts as I state them. The missions in Korea are new missions, and in certain matters need the experience of older missions and missionaries to help them in reaching right conclusions. The three Presbyterian missions working in this country are united in a "Council." At the last annual meeting of the council, the question of the .. They were for the most part people whom I had seen personally at the Shanghai Conference in 1890, and at meetings of the highest ecclesiastical courts of the Congregational and Reformed bodies of Japan, in 1889. admission to church membership of men with plural wives came up for settle- ment. I need not tell you that we found it a very complicated and perplexing question. After an evening of discussion, in which were developt nearly as many opinions as there were missionaries present, it was voted to lay the whole question upon the table for one year, in the hope that we could get more light upon the subject. It is in the interest of "more light," that I am writing to you.
Of course, it is clear that the adopting of such marriage relations after entering the church cannot be allowed; and the Scriptures seem to imply that a man hav- ing once entered into such relations, altho living with only one wife, may not hold ecclesiastical office. But there are other questions for which the answers are more difficult. Allow me to state them.
I. In case a man with plural wives applies for baptism, should he be kept out- side the church as a "perpetual catcchumen?"
II. Or still retaining his wives, should he be allowed to enter the church; and under what conditions, if any?
III.. Or again, should he be required to put away all but one wife?
(a) If so, should the one retained be invariably the first wife, to whom he was married in childhood by his parents, or the wife by whom he has had chil- dren; or ·again. should he be allowed to choose one from the number of first wife and second wives, or concubines?
(b) And should the wife, or wives sent away, be still supported or absolutely divorced? If divorced, what shall be done with the children, if such exist?
IV. Also, what shall be done with a female applicant, in such relations, especially one whose husband refuses to give her up?
In answer to the above, will you kindly tell me (a) what is the rule of prac- tice of your mission in dealing with such cases; and (b) what is your own opinion with regard to the same?
As the council will meet in October, may I request an early reply. Thank- ing you in advance, I am, Yours in the work, D. L. GIFFOlID.
REPLIES RECOMMENDING EXCLUSION.
Japan.-Rt. Rev. Bi8hop E. Bickersteth (English Church Mission), Tokio, quotes the action of the Anglican Bishops: "(1) That in no case shall a man·be admitted to baptism who has more than one wife. (2) That a woman being one among several wives, should not be .regarded as a ban to her baptism."
Rev. M. L. (Jordon, P.P. (American Board), Doshisha College, would require such a man to give up all but the first wife. He should support the divorced wife and children, if possible. "But the wife should be put away with a lump sum and pecuniary relations severed, otherwise temptation and fall may follow." The rule of Congregational Church ("largely in the hands of the Japanese") requires separation. Rev. J. B. Ayres (N. Presbyterian), Yamaguchi. "Should think we might rightly insist on no church member having more than one wife; but let him have his option in chosing that one, and leave it to each one to settle in advance the support of those who have been dependent upon him."
Rev. J. L. Atkinson (American Board), Kobe. "I should incline to leave the choice and decision to the man himself. I could never baptize a man who insisted on bringing his heathenism into the church. The whole Christian scheme is hard for the heathen and the natural man, and it would hardly help matters by making one or two or more things easier. See the Sabbath in Roman Catho- lic countries. I should suppose that any man who has any heart or enlightenment at all, would provide for those who may have been his partners in (unwitting) violation of God's law. If a man would not do this to the best of his ability, I should doubt his con- version."
Rev. J. B. Porter(N. Presbyterian), Kanizawa.
The question of plurality of wives has never been a seriously practical ques- tion in the Christian Church in Japan, as it seems to be with you, because in this country a mall cannot legally have more than one wife at the same time.* Many men have concubines; but no one would be admitted to church membership, as long as it is known that he kept a concubine. I have heard of instances where a man became a Christian who had a concubine with children, whereas his legal wife had none. He had the option of putting away his wife by divorce and retaining the mother of his children as his wife. Or, if this were not practicable, he was required to care for the children and support their mother until he could find a home for her. In other cases I have heard of Christian·men securing a proper husband for a former concubine. But in no case have I ever heard of either plural marriage or concubinage recognized in the Church, even tempo- rarily. Therefore, in answer to your questions, I would say that no one should be admitted to membership in the Christian Church, until he has put away all but one of his wives. Each case should be decided on its merits, as to which wife should be retained,-sometimes the mother of children, or, perhaps, the one best loved. Certainly a man should be responsible for the support of children he has brought into the world, and the mother also as long as she is in a dependent con- dition; but if she is not retained as wife, she should be divorced. Your fourth question •a female applicant in such relations, especially one whose husband refuses to give her up,' is to my mind the most difficult of solution. But I think in such a case I should decline to baptize her, until her marriage relations were changed. It seems to me vastly important that the Church of Christ should make no compromises in the questions of family and social purity. The only way that the Church can lift up the nations from the tilth of heathenism is by occupying the lofty plane of Gospel purity. If we yield in any particular to heathen marriage customs, there is danger that the camel whose nose has come in, may next get in its whole body.
Ohina.-Rev. J. Bates (C. M. S.), Ningpo: "They (polygamists) are only regarded as catechumens."
Rev. T. Barclay (Eng. Presbyterian), Tai-wan, Formosa: " We have no standing for any but simple membership. Others are just counted as hearers."
Rev. W. Gould (Can. Pres.), Tamsui, }'ormosa: "They are welcome *At the recent meeting of the Synod of the United Church of Christ in Japan (Presby- terian), there was a motion to overture the Government to enforce the law of single marriage more rigidly. But, as it was deemed inexpedient to take action, the matter was finally dropt. to come and hear the Gospel, apart from that no standing is granted. But here they are comparatively few, and, so far as I can learn, none have askt for baptism or any church standing."
Rev. J. N. B. Smith (N. Pres.), Ningpo. No experience. Should separate from all but one wife. "He should be allowed to choose the one whom he loves and who by temperament and inclination is best fitted to be his true helpmeet, seeing that in his first marriage he presumably had no choice." The first wife, or woman recognized by her husband as lawful wife, is not living in sin, and is eligible to church membership. Others to be legally separated and supported. "They should be treated as he would treat his own sisters."
Rev. W. M. Ha.yes (N. Pres.), Presbyterian Oollege, Tungchow. Thinks if the man will not live with his first wife alone and will not make provision for secondary wives and their children, would not admit him. "At the same time I would tell him that I could not afford to be lord over another's conscience, and that, while conscientiously I could not do otherwise, my action did not necessarily debar him from an entrance into the Kingdom. I would urge him to be faithful, to study God's Word more and more, to pray for light, and then leave the result with God. To give up his secondary wives may, as you kn0w, be giving them in their weakness over to ruin, and unless they can be provided for safely, I would be very cautious about urging such a man to join the Ohurch, while I would urge him to identify himself with the Ohristians."
Rev. O. Hartwell (American Board), Foochow, refers to the occasion in the fifties, when Dr. Anderson and Dr. A. O. Thompson, of the American Board, visited their missions in India.
After discussion there, the opinion was adopted that bigamists and polygamists should be required to cohabit with but one wife in order to be received to the Church, but that he should be required to support the other or others who had lived with him, unless they saw fit to marry other persons and relieve him of this duty. I have known of cases where second wives have married other men, both for their own and their first husband's benefit. As to the children, of course, the father is responsible fqr their support and for the best arrangements for their training and education. I do not think a cast·iron rule can be made in respect to the arrangements for the children, when a concubine is discarded. In case of her marriage it seems possible that in some cases her ehildren might follow their mother. In others, perhaps, she would better leave them. The good of the children is, of course, the thing to be sought in all arrangements for them. As to receiving a concubine into the church, my idea would be first to see if some arrangement could not be made for her to get a proper husband. Get her mind right on this subject and see if the thing cannot be brought about. It will be hard sometimes for such a woman to be willing to take a poor man for a husband, when she has been the concubine of a richer man. But let grace have its perfect work. In respect to always taking the first wife, this is the only wife according to Chinese law. The children of others all have to call the first wife 'mother,' and their own mothers only 'elder sisters.' . . . Notwithstanding all the difficulties, I do not think a man should be received to the Church who persists in cohabiting with more than one wife. People's feelings and opinions may not; all coincide with this view, but I regard the method indicated as the least of all. the evils.
Rev. David Hill (Eng. Wesleyan), Hankow. Rule of Wesleyan; Missionary Society is that no man with more than one wife can b& admitted to the Church. . Must put away all but first wife and support the others until they are "honorably and properly married to a. suitable husband." Is bound to support the children. No concubin& would be admitted. Legislating for the majority, he thinks the ruler practicable and just.
Rev. A. Foster (London Mission), Hankow.
In China, a man can have only one wife and to marry a second in the life of: first, is a crime. . . . In addition to his "wife," a Chinaman often has a number of women attacht to him in various degrees of loose relationship, some of" whom we foreigners call" secondary wives" and" concubines," but there is in. Chinese law no distinction between these miscellaneous women, such as we make., tho, of course, there is a distinction between the "concubine" and a "prostitute.''' . . • Here is another (point) showing, as I think, the impossibility of drawing iii. line bywhich con'OertlJ from lteatheni8m are to be allowed to keep their extra women and Oliristians are to be forbidden to make such alliances. A Christian takes ~ "secondary wife" and is excommunicated for so doing. That is very simple; but; a year or two later he comes back sincerely penitent, and asks to be forgiven. Whllt is to be done with him? Is he (1) to be received back as a polygamistt If so, other Christians will know how to get secondary wives. (2) Is he to be told to put away this woman? Well, then why can't a new convert be told to act. in the same way? The hardship is not greater on the new convert's concubine than on the concubine of the renegade Christian. If pity for the woman is to> decide the case, it applies to both cases equally and should decide each on the same lines. But (3) you may under the circumstances refuse this renegade Christian readmittance to the Church at all. Is that right? . . . Why should you make the sin of taking a concubine the one sin that must forever debar the man from Church fellowship? • . • To me there seems a very simple way of dealing with the case, but only one way. If under no circum8tances can a man living: with several women be admitted to the Church, the law holds good for every one alike. If you repent, put away the woman? . . . The concubine should be put away in a Christian spirit, in a right, considerate, kind way. . . . The: influence of polygamists will always be on the side of polygamy. Your polygamous converts will leaven your Church with polygamous notions. If you want to create a conscience among your young Christians that makes polygamy impossible, every man who comes into the Church as a polygamist will be secretly working against you. He has not this conscience and cannot sympathize with it, and his influence will insensibly lower the tone of your whole Church.
Rev. Henry V. Noyes * (N. Presbyterian), Canton.
Concubinage is a more correct term to designate the custom among tl16' Chinese, often referred to as polygamy. For: (1) In taking a second partner, the prescribed formalities for taking a wife are not necessary; nothing is needed but. a contract with her parents. (2) The act is deemed discreditable, except in the case of the wife bearing no sons. (3) The sons which the second woman bears.
* For Mr. Noyes' argument in full, see his paper on Native Customs in "Reportof Shanghai Conference of 1890," p. 609. are not legally her own, but belong to the wife. (4) The degradation of the wife to the second place, or the elevation of the second woman to the first place, are alike illegal and void. Thinks that applicants for baptism, who have concubines, should not be received into the Church, without being required to 'put them away. His reasons are two. (1) So far as the custom of taking concu- bines is legal, its root is found in ancestral worship. * If the wife bears no son, the husband may, by Chinese custom, take 'a concubine, in order that husband and wife both may, after death, have male posterity to worship at their grayes.
Not to have such worship is deemed a great calamity. If we require applicants for baptism to abandon ancestral worship, we should also require them to abandon this custom so closely connected with it. If the root be unholy, so also are the branches. Root and branch must both be put away. (2) But the reason which ought to settle the question forever is that we have no right to depart from the law of marriage which Christ has himself laid down. (See Matt. 19: 4, 5, 9). . • Neither by word nor act, so far as the record goes, did our Savior ever relax one iota this absolute and unqualified requirement that marriage must be betwcen one man and one woman, and because this was the original, and-is the permanent and universal law of marriage. TIe calls things by their right names, and tells us that, except for one named cause, the man who puts away his wife and marries another, is an adulterer. :Much more then is he an adulterer who, retaining his wife, takes another woman, without even the usual formalities of the marriage ceremony.
If Christ's language means anything, the simple question to be decided is:- Shall a man, who, while a heathen, lived in adultery, be allowed to join the Chris- tian Church and continue that adultery? It would seem that there could be but .one answer to such a questioD. Whenever the apostles refer to the marriage rela- tion and the duties arising from it, their language always implies that the union is between one man and one woman. If they refer to polygamy at all, which is doubtful, it is only to flYl'bid it, a poor reason indeed for allowing it now. Even if we admit that it had crept into the Church, we have not the shadow of evidence that it came there by Apostolic authority_ . If men drifted away from their original knowledge and practice of duty into idolatry, and ancestral worship, and polygamy, this does not make it right that these things should continue.
• Even if it is proved that God permitted an exception to the permanent law of marriage, in the case of some in the Jewish Church (in Old Testament times) it does not follow that we can in the face of Christ's reaffirmation of the original law, assume our Maker's authority and permit this exception in the Chris- tian Church. God's permission being an exception to the universal law, was surely limited to the time when, and the persons to whom it was given. . He thinks that the fact that Abraham's progeny by his concubine Hagar are the wild slave-raiding Arabs of to-day, is a "mark of God's displeasure" "upon this unhal- lowed union." He doubts whether Moses legalized polygamy and thinks that Deut. 21: 15-17 alludes merely to the existence of polygamy, without expressing :an opinion as to the rightness of the relation. While on the other hand, he -declares that both the old and new translators of the Scriptures give two inter- pretations to Lev. 18: 18. One is, "Neither shalt thou take one wife to another to vex her in her life time." He is therefore inclined to believe that Moses forbade polygamy. The hardship of breaking up a long standing relation is cer- tainly a serious difficulty, but to argue that therefore polygamy or conCUbinage ought not to be meddled with, proves too much. It equally proves that such rela- .. This is important, as showing that concubines taken In days of Gospel Ignorance in ChIna and Korea, were taken under the semi-religious sanction of Confucianism, the highest system of religious ethics that they knew. tions once formed should in no case be broken up, for the same difficulties always exist. . . . A great many difficulties meet the Chinese who wish to keep the hlwof God, but these difficulties only give him an opportunity of making his testimony to the truth all the stronger, if he overcomes them. Of course, in separating from his concubine, it is a man's duty to see that she and her children are properly cared for. . . . In regard to the children, they are, of course, his own children as much as any others, and should bc provided for. In all ordinary cases I should think they might remain under the mother's care, during their childhood life, but I can see that some difficult questions might arise to make this undesirable. For instance, suppose the mother is an out and out heathen, and insists on bringing up the children in the practice of idolatry. A good deal would depend on the circumstances and probably no absolute rule should be adopted.
. . He considers the question of a female applicant whose husband refuses to give her up, as the most difficult of all. " With the power which the husband has over her, at least in China, a woman would seem to be almost helpless in the matter." Yet he thinks that while such a woman should be counted as a Chris- tian, she should not be admitted to the Church. "The Synod of China discussed these questions, long and earnestly, as long ago as 1874, but there was strong difference of opinion, and no other decision was arrived at than to leave the whole matter to the Session of Churches, exhorting them, however, to exer- cise great care in regard to the admission of members."
Rev. Griffith John, D.D. (London Mission), Hankow.
In reply to your circular just to hand, I would say: (1) All polygamists should be kept outside of the Church as "perpetual catechumens."
(2) In the event of putting away, the one retained should invariably be the first wife. She is his Wife, and to ask him to put her away, would be to ask him to violate God's law, and offend the moral sense of the nation. How missionaries can have any doubt on this point, has always appeared to me a great mystery.
(3) There are circumstances in which I should have no hesitation in requesting a man to put away all but one wife. (4) But there are circumstances in which I could not do so. (a) I could never ask a man to put away the mother of his chil- dren. (b) I could not ask a man to put anyone of his wives away unless he saw. his way to make provisions for her future support and safety. To throw her upon the world helpless, would be cruel, and to expose her to temptation, would be immoral. (5) As to the female applicant, she is in a different condition; still my vote would be against admitting her into membership. (6) We do not admit polygamists in this mission. (7) My own idea is this: Did I believe that the salvation of any man depended in the least upon membership, I would bap- tize the polygamist, that is, if satisfied with him in other respects. But I do not take this view of the matter. Then I ask myself, what is the mission of the Church in the world, apart from the saving of the individual? Is it not to teach, maintain, and confirm the great Christian principles of righteousness and truth?
Polygamy is one of the great curses of the East, and it is certain that the East can never rise to true greatness while it lasts. But how can it be ever done away with, unless the Christian Church in the East sets her face determinately against it? The fact, that no one is allowed to take a second wife after entering the Church tends to brand the practice as unchristian. On this point we are all agreed. But I feel that this is not enough. I think it is a matter of vital impor- tance that the Christian Church should be known in China, Korea, and in every part of the East as a Church which does not and cannot tolerate concubinage.
In order to do this, polygamists must be strictly excluded.
(10 be continued.)
BARRIERS TO PROGRESS IN OHINA
BARRIERS TO PROGRESS IN CHINA.
BY REV. A. H. SMITH, TIENTSIN, CHINA.
There is an important sense in which the problems connected with the planting of the Ohristian Ohurch are the same in all times and in all lands, yet there are special features everywhere to be discerned. It is the object of the present paper to point out some of these features as exhibited in missionary work in China.
When once Christianity has got any foothold, it is,not difficult to organize a "church," but to introduce the practice of self-government or even the idea of it, is quite a different matter. Self-government implies a certain amount of democracy, and Asiatics are seldom very democratic, tho there is a strange and an abundant admixture of the popular element in the government even of China. The initial difficulty is generally to make an effective bridge from control by the missionary and his society to some form of local autonomy. The Chinese readily fall into the way of expecting the missionary to take the lead in all cases, and will seldom assume independence until it is thrust upon them, in which respect they differ greatly from their neighbors, the Japanese.
Theoretically there is no caste in China, but in practice there are certain religious Brahmans that make havoc of self-government in churches during the initial stages. There is the man who has been a church-member from the very first-a" charter member"-who must be considered and consulted. There is the aged member, and China is a country in which there is an ideal respect for mere weight of years. There is, as in other lands, the rich church-member, who must be conciliated. There is the influential member, strong in his family connections, who must always be reckoned with. There is the literary graduate, who often carries the infant church in his closed hand. A word from him is the end of all independence on the part of the uneducated. There is also the irrepressible talker, who as a rule is capable of becoming so obstreperous that, as the sayings go, "People do not know east from west," and" Men are worn out and horses exhausted.» No one wishes to arouse, much less to offend him, for there is no adequate social machinery which can cope with him. When he has inserted himself into a church, as not infrequently happens (for is not the Gospel meant for publicans and sinners?) there are dramatic times in prospect. There is in every Oriential country-or, indeed in any country-an instinctive dread of giving offense. There is, also a marvelous instinct of secrecy. There is, for example, a. matter which ought to be taken cognizance of, but no one will take the initiative, nor even impart any information. No one wishes to be implicated in any possible trouble, for all remembre the Oonfucian maxim, that when a word has once gone forth, four horses cannot overtake it. In any country where the differences of intellectual ability are emphasized in the church, those below will follow those above. "When the wind blows the grass bends," and nowhere is this more true than in Ohina. Moreover, the custom of adjusting troubles by giving" face" to one party, requiring the other party to do something by way of penalty, is very likely to hinder real disciplin. "The guilty person is sentenced to do something which he reluctantly agrees to, but which he has no intention of really carrying out, and unless adequate and continued pressure is brought to bear, that will be the end of the matter. In general it may be said that the difficulties in the way of self-government in Ohristian churches are everywhere the same. They can be overcome by the use of the teachings of the Scriptures, as opened to the spiritual understanding by the Spirit of God, but the process will demand that infinite patience without which no spiritual development is anywhere possible.
If New Testament ideals of purity in the Ohurch are foreign to Ohinese instincts, New Testament ideals of the duty of the Ohurch to diffuse itself are no less so. Ohina is filled with societies which have for their ostensible object the" practice of virtue;" but propagandism is not a principal feature, if it is a feature at all. Those join who wish to join, and those who do not join are severely let alone. It is not "good form" to inquire of a member as to the practices or the ritual of his" sect," and thus it comes about that thousands who live in the midst of many "virtue societies" have as little acquaintance with their tenets as with the different theories of Egyptian chronology; and even if they happen to learn something on the subject, they will seldom allow that circumstance to be publicly known. It is the same with the multitude of Mohammedans in China. Beyond the fact that they worship a being known as "Lord,", and that their notions are strange and divisive, the Ohinese know nothing about their beliefs, and care as little as they know.
When Christianity comes as one more "sect .. or "instruction," it is at once placed in the same category as the rest. The outsider cannot comprehend why the insiders should insist upon teaching it, unless there is somewhere a cash asset in the business, and the Ohinese Christian cannot see why he should be at the trouble to diffuse a teaching which he got himself with much trouble, and perhaps at no little cost. We have heard of an infant Ohinese church where the word was past that no more members should be received, lest there should not be enough of some of the incidental benefits to go around! But this is more than matched by the case mentioned by Dr. Josiah Strong, where a clergyman told some working girls, who applied for membership in a stylish church, that he believed there were at present no "vacancies." Oriental inertia is a great barrier to /lelf-propagation of Christianity – Oriental suspicion is an even greater one. "Who knows what drug this fellow has in his gourd?" is a natural and indeed an inevitable question on the part of a Chinese, when a stranger appears recommending some new "instruction." It is not at all uncommon for Chinese evangelists in the quest of some possible "inquirer" to be thrown completely and permanently off the track by the suspicion on the part of those of whom questions are askt, that there lurks some sinister design in this strange thirst to find a wholly unknown person for an incomprehensible purpose.
It is a Chinese custom for the (( roving scholar" to use his Iiterary talents as a hook with which to secure a few morsels of food. Christian colporteurs are supposed to have a like interested motive. C( How much are you paid for believing this? " is the inevitable inquiry on the part of the interested and curious spectator. It is a proverb that the priest, Buddhist or Taoist, " eats the four directions"-that is, that he lives off the land. It is reasonable to suppose that the Christian propagandist means to do the same as soon as his arrangements are completed. The inate hostility of the human heart to the Christain teaching of sin and the atonement is everywhere the same. Intelligent Confucianists, who have gained an outline idea of Christianity, will often say to the missionary, " As compared with our sects, your doctrine is more truej but if you wish to get a hearing from intelligent people, you woulU do better to drop all your talk about the cross and about what you style sin. If you leave this out, we shall be glad to listen to your comprehensive instruction." What Paul called" the offense of the cross" is a permanent factor in the spiritual history of mankind. We have known an expert and skillful story-teller who had a large circle of auditors in the district where he was a peripatetic dispenser of entertainment, to be turned from the doors of his patrons when he began to substitute Christian stories for those which were distinctively Chinese. It is a characteristically Oriental trait that those who have received Christianity stand in a special relation to those from whom they receive the truth. The contention that" I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," is a very real barrier to intercommunication of Divine truth. Christianity, like other forces, is propagated along the lines of least resistance, and no one can foresee whither bread cast upon the waters may drift. It constantly happens that a wise economy of mission forces is prevented by the clannishness of the convert, who refuses to be transferred to the care of another shepherd or to connect himself with another church. Precisely the same trouble is met with in missions to the Chinese in this country, where it is often impossible to change teachers in a Sunday-school class without precipitating a. "strike" on the part of the scholars; but when we consider well the phenomena of denominationalism in the United States and elsewhere, we feel that we can cast no stones at the Chinese. Great as are the initial obstacles to inoculatiug Chinese Christians with the conception of the duty of evangelizing the regions about and beyond, the measure of success which has often been attained is simply marvelous, and is itself the best authentication to the Chinese outsiders of the Divine origin of Christianity.
There are many Chinese churches which are doing more in the way of working outward among their neighbors than nine-tenths of the churches of America. One of the most interesting instances with which we are acquainted of the development of the idea of self-propa~ gation of Christianity in China is to be found in the formation and operation of the Canton" Book-lending Society," composed exclusively of natives of different churches in that city, and wholly under native management. It is colporteur work mingled with a free circulating library of Christian books for the benefit of all who will agree to read and return them. There is no reason why this plan should not be adopterl all over China, as it is peculiarly adapted to the genius of Chinese society.
There are many traits of Chinese life which render the oral proclamation of the Gospel, accompanied with the circulation of printed matter of a suitable description, easy. The Chinese live simply, and can put up with anything. They are in the habit of taking long journeys on foot, and often with loads. The respect for literature is a national and an ineradicable instinct. They have, as already remarked, a great theoretical respect for "virtue," and extensive societies for the diffusion of books for the inculcation of good practices. The minute subdivision of the currency and the cheapness of material and of labor render it easy to get all sorts of books into general circulation when once an impression favorable to their reception has been made. What is most needed for the universal diffusion of Christianity in China is the indefinite m~ltiplication of Christian centers, and the possession of the native church by the missionary idea, "Freely ye have received, freely give." We cannot expect the Chinese Christians to rise higher in the tone of their piety than the average of those from whom they have received their teachings. That our Chinese converts may be filled with the Spirit of Christ, we must be filled with it ourselves.
At first sight it would appear that the self-support of Chinese churches would be a much easier matter to compass than their selfgovernment or their self-expansion. Experience teaches otherwise. It is always difficult for Occidentals to comprehend the poverty of Orientals, however much we may think we know about deprivation in a year of "hard times" and scarcity of money. Poverty in China is the universal rule, with only exiguous exceptions. It is partly a matter of latitude, for the poverty whioh both freezes and starves is more desperate than that which is merely out of food. Until onr present methods of missionary activity are radically amended we can- not get on without the expenditure of money in the introduction of Christianity, and this use is itself a poteut factor in hindering self- support. Many a missionary society might have been saved much'trial had it duly considered the Russian proverb which advises one to ~'measure your cloth ten times, for you can cut it but once." Mauy a missiouary has had to "eat bitterness" during the period in which he endeavors to correct early mistakes by taking in sail which might much better never have been spread. It is a venerable proverb that when it rains puddings one should hold up his dish. In this the Chinese are expert. 'rhe writer once taught a station class imported many scores of leagues from a distant field for the purpose. The pupils were on au allowance, which, like most Ohinese allowances, was perennially "not enough." One scholar only of the whole number was a permanent and valuable addition to the preaching force. Years afterward he remarked casually that the motto of his class whenever a payment was to be made was exprest in the significant words, " Don't spend too little!" In one of the mission conferences in India an experienced missionary mentioned the remark of an old woman who was one of his converts, on the occasion of his revisiting his former tield, and preaching from the words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." "That was a blessed text," she observed," and yet, tho you have been here two days, you have not given me a single rupee."
Self-support of Ohinese churches can only be obtained by adherence to Ohinese simplicity in the externals and in the inner working of the eystem, and even when attained it may be lost. It is the custom for the temples to have a piece of land which supports the priests. There is considerable danger in the "endowment plan" as applied to lChurclles, lest misappropriation of funds, so common in the case of temples, should work more injury in a year than the Church can remedy in a lifetime.
The way to attain self-support in native churches is for the misilionary leaders to have from the start a clear and comprehensive con- ception of the end at which they aim, and to make every part of their teaching cooperate to the end in view. Unyielding firmness combined with a loving regard for the hardships to which the convert is subjected must be judiciously blended. This is an ideal to which few of us ever attain, but whenever it is attained the result is no more in doubt than is the adaptation of Ohristianity to the wants of every class of men in the world. The essential difficulties are precisely the same as those which are to be met in this or any Christian land, and are due to the intrinsic selfishness of human nature, for which the Gospel is the only cure.
The fact that from communities radically hostile in spirit to the Christian religion there have in such iunumerable places been developt churches which govern, propagate, and support themselves, and that this evolution is at present going on upon an unprecedented scale, is a phenomenon to which the attention of the critiCS of missions may be respectfully invited. Of the facts there ought not to be a rational doubt. Taken in connection with the obstacles everywhere to be overcome, they either constitute a series of effects without any cause, or they show that Christianity is a Divine system which will win its way ~espite the resistance of forces which ought logically to destroy it.
EUROPEAN EXTEl'ISIOl'l OF 'l'HE VOLUl'ITEEB HOVEMEl'IT
EUROPEAN EXTENSION OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
BY REV. DONALD FRASER, LIVINGSTONIA, AFRICA.
One of the chief purposes of the Liverpool Conference was to bring the Continental students into line with the missionary movement, which is spreading through the colleges of Great Britain and America. For some time past signs of a slight spiritual awakening in some of the universities of Europe were evident, and thus a basis for a missionary movement was being formed. For nine months before the Conterence, daily prayer was made to God that He would choose the delegates who should come, and would pour down upon them His fire, that they might, on their return home, set their fellow students ablaze with a new enthusiasm'for the world's evangelization.
The Conference was international beyond our faith. Students were present from no less than twenty-four nations-the most international gathering of students that the world has ever seen. These were days of wonderful power, when the presence of God grew daily more and more conscious.
On the Saturday morning of the Conference, in welcoming the forei~n students, we askt whether they would not join hands with us in formmg a great student brotherhood for the coronation of Jesus in all lands. In the afternoon they met, each nation apart, to pray and discuss how they might best further the missionary spirit among their fellow students. In the evening we had our financial session. Just before it began a note was handed to the chairman from the Scandinavian I delegates, saying they would promote the Volunteer Movement in Scandinavia, and had appointed a committee for this purpose. A minute afterward the German delegates sent an intimation that eleven of their men had signed a declaration and were forming a Volunteer Union for Germany. Then there came another from the Frenchspeaking delegates, saying that they had nineteen Volunteers, and were banding themselves into a missionary union for France and Switzerland. Besides this, there was a note from five students in Madrid University, Spain, asking whether they might be allowed to join the missionary movement. Also a letter from Australia, telling how in March, 1895, at the very time when some Edinburgh men were in daily prayer for Australian colleges, a spiritual revival had begun in the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide, and it was now turning into missionary lines. As these notes were read out, one after the other, what a thrill ran through the hearts of men and women who for years had been praying for this consummation I We had adopted that day as our motto, "The Evangelization of the World in this Generation," and we now felt that God was approving our faith and quickening our hopes in the possibility of its realization.
On Monday, when the delegates were dispersing, a very significant incident happened. About eighty Belfast students sailed from the Mersey in the steamship Magic. Some other men went down to see them off. When the Magic was in the middle of the river the students on board were seen to be lining the bulwark. Then there came a great shout from them as from one voice, "The Evangelization of the World in thiE Generation." And the cry rang across the river and through the ships and along the wharf, making sailors and passengers start and wonder what it meant. Then the men on the quay shouted back, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Then in the silence the cry from the Magic came back, " Amen," and the steamer sailed away out into the evening. During the last few months that cry has been ringing up and down the col- leges, through the churches, and across the Continent, quickening men's expectations, and rousing a new endeavor to take possession of the world speedily for Christ. .
Immediately after the Conference I made a rapid tour of some of the colleges of Europe, and I can testify that that movement, which began at Livcrpool, was no temporary affair, born of sudden excite- ment, but an awakening come from the breath of God. In Paris and Montauban the work which had begun at Liverpool was being carried on with great spirituality and energy. In some of the other universi- ties the news of blessing which delegates had received was rousing a spirit of inquiry. At a conference at Geneva, we organized the Franco-Swiss Volunteer Movement, with morc than forty Volunteers, and appointed a French student as traveling secretary.
My next point was Holland. There quite a spiritual revival was spreading in some of the universities. The" Dutch Eleven," who were at Liverpool, had met together at Velp, spent two days in prayer, and prayed one student who was present into the Kingdom of God.
Since then they have started a Dutch College Christian Union, and daily prayer-meetings are being carried on in most of the universities.
Now, many of the leading men are earnestly facing their personal responsibility to the foreign field.
I arrived in Germany too late to do much work in the colleges, as the long Easter vacation W:J.S on. Nevertheless, we held at Halle a little conference of students from some six universities. We formed a German Students' Missionary Union, which seeks to spread living religion among German students, and to call forth men to foreign service. The first step that has been taken is to issue a call to daily prayer for the German universities.
In Scandinavia one found the situation there much more ripe for a missionary work. At all the universities we had large and solemn meetings with the students, which were frequently followed by after- meetings, lasting till past midnight. Hours were set apart for inter- views with men who wanted to know about Christ or about the claims of the foreign field, and they were fully occupied with those who came. A work was also begun among young men and ladies of the better class, and others. Now I hear of no less than nineteen Volun- teers in Stockholm alone. Very few of these, however, are students.
At Copenhagen we organized a Scandinavian Volunteer move- ment and a system of intervisitation was planned, by which the movement may be strengthened and extended.
On our return home, what a day of praise we had for the way that God had answered prayer all along the line! But we were still in the midst of our praise when we heard the news of what had been done among the Indian students through Mott and Wilder's conferences- how eighty-seven Indian students had profest conversion, one hundred and thirty-seven had consecrated their lives entirely for the evangel- ization of India, and more than seven hundred had joined the" Morn- ing Watch! "
Thus God is girding the whole world with a great student-brother-
SINCE THE MASSACRE IN FUIIKIEN, CHINA
hood who have consecrated themselves to go forth into all the earth and claim His inheritance for Him. The marvelous progress of thepast five months, which has b~en swifter than the previous fifty years~ has made our hearts beat sWIfter for the near approach of Ohrist's coronation day. All this, however, is but the begmning.
SINOE THE MASSAORE IN FUHKIEN, OHINA.
BY REV. P. W. PITCHER, FOOCHOW, CHINA.
Eighteen months ago, August 1, 1895, the horrible massacre, which shockt the whole world, occurred at Hwa Sang. As we recall those- solemn scenes may we not, with profit, look back over the past year and ask if indeed the blood of the martyrs has, in this case, proved to be the seed of the church? Or was it true, as some said, that" the time had come to get out of Ohina," that our task was hopeless and should be abandoned?
No, that could not be true even at a greater cost than that which was paid at Hwa Sang. In the face of even more bitter opposition, it would be difficult to find a single missionary ready, willingly to abandon his post. Abandon the work of over fifty years? Preposterous! It has been estimated that 20,000 inquirers have presented themselves at the doors of the churches of the three missions located in the Foochow district. "Hundreds of families have renounced their idols,'~ _ while hundreds of others have been asking for leaders and teachers to guide and instruct them. Manyof these may be moved with little or no conseiousness of sin, but they are nevertheless coming, and may we not be too ready to question motives, but ask for wisdom in dealing with these inquirers, so that they may be led to that true consciousness of sin which bringeth sorrow and repentance. Driven by the storms of oppression and persecution, driven by the thraldom of superstition~ with its heavy burdens, it may be that some of them are coming~ blindly, yet honestly coming to seek shelter in the fold of Ohrist. May we be taught how to lead them to the true refuge where they shall find safety. Of the 20,000 inquirers already mentioned, it has been stated that probably 5,000 have been accepted and have united with these three missions since August 1, 1895. This is an unprecedented record for any twelve months since the establishment of missions in this district, or, in fact, in the whole province.
While the great awakening centers about Foochow, still there are encouraging signs in the Amoy, the southern district, especially along the line of church development. The southern portion of the work is admittedly remarkable for the progress made in the matter of the development of a native ministry, church organization and self-support. In the synod of Amoy (Eng. Pres. and Am. Refd. Oh. Missions) thera are twenty church organizations, which support their own pastors and maintain a home mission work~ while some carryon other independent work besides. The London Mission Society also has seven church organizations working along similar lines, many of them supporting evangelists. Throughout the length and breadth of this whole province the present status of mission work is encouraging, and the prospects bright with hope.
INTERNATIONAL DEPABTlIENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
II A Oyola of Oathay." * he says: "The drug was already con- traband by imperial decree, England BY REV. S. L. GRACEY, D.D., EX-U. S. has made no protest, nor would she have lifted a finger to protect her people CONSUL, FOOCHOW, CHINA. in the smuggling trade, if Ohinese cruisers had driven them from the A few years since, one distinguisht coast. But when commissioners of the literateur askt another, what book writ- Ohinese issued commands to the Queen ten within the last forty years would as a vassal of Ohina, and treated her last forty years; but Dr. Martin's subjects with unjustifiable violence, the "Oycle of Oathay" was not yet pub- question entered upon another phase. lisht. Dr. Martin being askt how long The opium was stored on ships that lay it took him to write this work, answered, outside among the islands, but its own- "forty-five years." If Dr. S. Wells ers were at Canton. Without taking Williams, after twelve years residence the trouble to identify them, the comin Oanton and Macao could write the missioners surrounded the factories •• Middle Kingdo~," which has already with a cordon of soldiers, and threatened survived through forty-five years, why the whole foreign colony with death if shall not Dr. Martin's masterly com- the opium was not surrendered by a. pendium of the political, social and fixed date. To give them an idea of religious movements of that vast empire, what they had to expect, a native as observed, participated in, and patron- opium smuggler was put to death in an ized by himself this forty-five years, open space in front of the factories. together with criticisms which exhibit Oapt. Elliot, the superintendent of his independent judgment and remark- trade, who was at Macao, hearing of able prescience, warrant the expectation these high-handed proceedings, hasthat this volume will remain one of the tened to Oanton to share the perils of chief literary authorities on Ohinese af- his countrymen. He obtained the opium fairs for the next forty-five years. for the service of the Queen, and then handed it over as a ransom for British It is conceded that there has been lives. Over twenty thousand chests, nothing equal to Dr. Wells Williams' valued at nine million dollars, were de- .. Middle Kingdom" in comprehensive- stroyed by mixing the drug with quickness, clearness, and accuracy, down to lime, and pouring it into the river. the date at which it was first publisht. The property having been demanded Dr. Martin's book takes up many of by Her Majesty's representatives for these great topics where Williams' vol- her service, the Queen was pledged to umes closed. Lapping backward on see that the owners were indemnified. Williams' topics, Dr. Martin treats An order in council authorized reprisals, fairly and thoroughly what is called to compel the Ohinese to make amends the " Opium War" with England, and for their acts of spoliation. Thus betho condemning the English for intro- gan a war which was more fortunate ducing opium, the great curse of Ohina, for England than that which followed the destruction of her tea in Boston • A Cycle of Cathay; ~r, China, South harbor, and which' eventually ended in the opening of the five ports of Oanton, and North, with personal remlniscences by Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shangthe Rev. W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., President Emeritus Imperial Tungwen College, Peking,with 7OillustratioDS from photographs and native drawings; a map and inde:x:. Svo, cloth, decorated, $2.00. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, Chicago, Toronto. hai to British trade, and tho not a word the Ten Commandments, and imposed was inserted in the final treaty in favor on all his subjects observance of the of the trade in opium, the result was Sabbath day, on which day their highforeseen, a complete immunity from est officers ascended the pUlpit and interference with the traffic, and the thundered against idolatry and the Tartraffic flourishes beyond measure. Had tars. The washing of the bosom with England, after exacting due reparation, a towel dipt in water in token of the introduced a prohibition clause, there cleansing of the heart, was the form can be no doubt that China might have of ceremony observed for baptism. been free from a terrible scourge. These fierce and fanatical forces were What a contrast between her opium unsubdued for fifteen years, and caused policy and her anti-slavery legislation." the loss of fifty millions of human lives.
The Taiping Rebellion lies on the It is not a new question now, nor can hither side of the date of publication of it at best be little more than a specula- Dr. Williams' great work, so that, his- tive one, what might have been the reo torically, Dr. Martin takes up this sult had the western powers not come thread. where Williams laid it down. to the aid of the Imperial government Later editions of .. Middle Kingdom" at Peking. But Dr. Martin, tho he have mentioned this movement among were first to name it, is not alone in the the Chinese in a few brief lines in the suggestion, that every interest of civilipreface; but Dr. Martin gives the clear- zation and of Christianity would prob· est, most succinct statement of facts con- ably have been greatly advanced, had nected with it, and makes the most the western Christian powers supported satisfactory analysis of any author who and directed this Christian rebellion, has written upon the subject. rather than to have supprest it, to gain the prestige of saving the throne to the Dr. Martin "watcht its waxing and Tartar. Whatever weight of opinion waning with the deepest interest; came may be brought in support of the one in contact with active agents on both view or the other, one thing is certain, sides; and at least endeavored to exert that an opportunity to decide a question some influence on the course of events." so vast an,d overwhelming in its out- It must be borne in mind that, whatever come, is one that "does not occur once its imperfections, this rebellion was led in a thousand years." by a body of native Christians, and that it not only threatened to destroy the His account of what is known as the dynasty at Peking, but to overthrow co Arrow War" follows. A Chinese the gigantic paganism of the ,Empire. vessel known as the" Arrow," and fly- It was a tidal wave of blood. At Nan- ing the British flag, had been seized by king the" Manchu garrison of twenty- the authorities, and its crew thrown five thousand were butchered to a into prison on a charge of piracy. The man." Dr. Martin declares "history British authorities at Hongkong at once presents few pages more brilliant than began negotiations which were blunderthis part of his (Hung's) career. Sher- ingly conducted, and a war resulted, man's march to the sea must be com- which is described most interestingly bined with Garibaldi's successful assault by the author, and all going to show on the Kingdom of Naples, backt by how great a matter a little spark will only a thousand men, to furnish an kindle. One of the good results of the adequate parallel." • . "These in- war was to take Dr. Martin to Peking surgents were known to be Christians as interpretor at the court, to Mr. Reed, not simply fighting for empire, but United States Minister to China. The carrying on a crusade against the pagan- record of his services, the incidents of ism of their country." The chief styled the war, the diplomatic struggles, the himself, "Younger brother to Jesus Chinese peculiarities of statecraft, Christ," called God his father, publisht supply most interesting reading, and· give the outside barbarian a glimpse of curriculum are described, and the final the inner workings of the highest circles triumph of the institution as a recog- {)f Chinese official and diplomatic life, nized imperial college, in which all the not found in any other publisht work modern sciences are now taught, is that has come to our notice. graphically related. It now has nine :Many persons will recall the thrilling foreign professors, with classes studying interest with which the news was re- international law, physics, physiology, -ceived, that the United States Plenopo- astronomy, chemistry, and mineralogy, tentiary, the Hon. William B. Reed, with the French, German, and Russian had secured the insertion in the treaty languages. There are also four native between this country and China, of a professors who teach Chinese and "religious toleration" clause. Accept- mathematics. The number of students ing Dr. Martin's analysis of Mr. Reed's is limited to one hundred and twenty.
interest in that affair, the American This institution, tho under the hearty people will find reason to reconsider the sanction and support of the govern- measure of commendation which should ment, has been constantly opposed by be accorded to him. Evidently Dr. many of the literati, who are every- Williams and Dr. Martin were, far and where the foes of modern methods of ;away, the chief actors in securing the instruction, as well as :of the study of insertion of that clause; and tho it may modern sciences, and cling to their old seem a little ungraceful in Dr. Martin conservative theories of education em- to disclose the vanity of Mr. Reed, yet bracing only the Chinese classics. Two it looks as if regard for exact history of the graduates of the Tungwen Col- demanded it. Mr. Reed told them that lege are now tutors to the Emperor.
he expected they would not only make The author gives us an excellent chap- this unexpected triumph in the issue, ter on "Mandarins and Government,"
widely known in America, but also in which he tells of the higher classes, that they would attribute to him the their training, virtues, defects, powers, honor of its accomplishment, tho he and limitations. He also devotes a ;announced himself as impatiently ready chapter to the influences of some of to sign the treaty without the insertion the most noted mandarins; his charac- of this privilege, and declined all fur- ter sketching is excellent. " China and ther delay to secure it, saying, "Now, her Neighbors;" "The Customs Ser- gentlemen, if you can get your article vice;" "The Audience Question,"
in, all right! But, with or without it, I and "The Mission Question," are sub- intend to sign on the 18th of June." jects with which every student of China It is a little humiliating, however, to should be familiar. The book is beau- find that the United States must be tifully illustrated, and mainly from largely shorn of its honors, since the drawings by native artists, which show other nations inserted a similar clause, considerable merit and the usual de- and were determined to insist on it fects of Chinese art.
without any regard to the contents of It is doubtful if there is any other our treaty, or the prestige of the con- foreigner in China who has the confi- cession to us. dence and appreciation of the official The opening of the "Tungwen Col- class to the degree that Dr. Martin has; lege," at Peking, is described. This Sir Robert Hart excepted was originally designed to train Chinese Dr. Martin arrived in Canton in scholars as interpreters for the diplo- April, 1856, being accompanied by Rev.
matic and commercial service. Dr. Justus Doolittle, (whose name should Martin was called to the charge of the have been, •• Did-great-things ") and institution, by the "Tsungli Yamen," Rev. S. N. Martin, the author's brother.
or Foreign Board. The difficulties ex- The personal narrative, which is exceed- perienced in efforts to introduce a wider ingly interesting, serves only as a thread on which to string pearls of truth con- The Missionary Question in China. cerning native customs, diplomatic struggles, native craft and history for Dr. Martin, in "A Cyele of Cathay,"
nearly sixty years, a Chinese cyele. has a vigorous chapter on the "Mis- It is to the equal credit of Dr. Martin sionary Question," of which he remarks: and the Chinese government that he "For the Chinese government this has been invited to resume the Presi- means, how may we minimize the in- dency of Tungwen College; especially conveniences arising from the opera- in view of the fact that, for one who tions of missionaries? For a party was a guest of the government, he among officials and people it means, treats of national affairs with great free- How may we get rid of them aIto~ dom. It will be remembered that an gether? For the representatives of eminent statesman of our own country, Christian powers it means, How far are designated by our government as Minis- we bound by policy or autllOrity to in- ter to China, was rejected by them as terfere for the protection'of missionaries persona non gratia, because he had and their converts? With missionaries written, or was supposed to have writ- and their supporters it takes the form, ten, unfavorably of their country. How can we accomplish the greatest This will suggest how difficult it always results with the means at our disposal?"
is for one who is in the employ of the To France belongs the honor of in- government, or even one who hopes to augurating the new era of religious labor with success in the uplifting of freedom in China, which dates from its people, to write freely and truth- 'the signing of the French treaty in fully of conditions and actions which 1844, which removed the ban of pro- would expose rulers or customs to ridi- hibition against promulgating the cule. Christian religion. "This was the Dr. Martin criticises faithfully, and first stage in the way of enfranchise- exposes trickery of officials in diplo- ment. Under its provisions mission- matic affairs which came under his aries enjoyed no small privilege, tho observation. He is cautious, but bold, they were still of a nature of 'un- and spares neither Europeans nor covenanted mercies.' Protestants set- Chinese from the scalpel of his analy- tled at the five ports, from which they sis. His association with the leading were able to make long jOUl;neys in- men of the "Celestial Empire," and land, tho nominally restricted to a with the plenipotentiaries and other radius of fifty miles, while Catholics diplomats of all the European nations, journied in all the provinces without under conditions of practical equality, molestation. It was reserved for the 'Ar- furnisht the opportunity for this rich- row War' to complete immunity from est and most piquant of narratives of all obstruction under guarantee of treaty reminiscences of these notable person- stipulations, and Dr. Martin says: 'It ages. There is a remarkable combina- was a sublime spectacle, the great pow- tion of the most ancient history of China, ers of the earth sinking their differ- with the most recent, in which China, ences of creed and joining their shields Russia, and Japan have been concerned, to protect the Church of Christ China and accurate and trustworthy accounts found it to her interest not to reject of the present status of questions still their demands.'" This was in 1858.
pending, which involve the mutual re- " The discrepancy which exists between lationship of Korea, China, and Japan the French text and the Chinese text is with the individual and combined inter- one of the anomalies of diplomatic his- ests of Russia, Germany, France, Great tory. The Chinese text contains the Britain, and the United States. The clause securing to Roman Catholic mis- Greater "Eastern question" lies in the sionarics the right of buying land and Far East. building houses in the interior, tho the French text has nothing of the kind." have conformed to the original type in By whom the attention of the Chinese every particular-beginning with tracts was first turned to the disagreement is and placards as their exciting cause, not known, but twenty-five or twenty- followed by studied negligence on the six years ago, when Dr. Martin was part of mandarins (who always conaskt to translate the article for com- trived to come too late when their aid parison, he supposed the Chinese author- was invoked), and finishing with an ities intended declaring the French text inquiry how many heads and how much the authority on all points of differ- money would satisfy the resulting ence. To this day, however, they have claims. never taken a step in that direction, Dr. Martin says, for the obvious reason "If, in 1870, the French Charge, dethat the interpolation being in Chinese, clining the offer of money and heads, there was no ground for complaint that had waited until he could have had a they had been hoodwinked. But we fleet of gunboats in the Peiho, if then must bear in mind that a Chinese Em- the whole suburb where the riot had peror, or any other chief Chinese au- occurred had been laid in ashes, and thority, could never admit that he had, the ground confiscated for a French even by accident, made a political mis- concession, the government would have take. Witness the instance of our taken care that there should not be a government tendering the Chinese gov- second riot. Being let off cheap, the antiernment the return of a large indemnity foreign mandarins felt that they could fund wrongfully paid by the Chinese to continue the process of fanning the us. On the theory of infallibility they flame of patriotism. These occurcould not and did not accept this, the rences have created an impression on funds remaining in the Treasury at the mind of a public not very well in- Washington for many years, until a formed on the subject of missions, that 'Via media was discovered. for our government to back up the missionaries by affording protection or Dr. Martin says: "If the first stage exacting redress, is equivalent to forc· in the recent history of missions was ing our religion on an unwilling people. then toleration by edict, and the second But is it forcing our religion on the the recognition of their legal status by Chinese to protect our missionaries any treaty compact, the systematic attempt more than it is forcing our commerce to crush them out by mob violence may on them to protect our merchants? No be regarded as a third stage. On this duty is plainer than that of requiring phase they entered in June, 1870, when the government of China to provide for a Catholic mission in Tientsin was de- the secUlity of our mercantile estabstroyed, and sisters, priests and a French lishments, and to leave the people free consul were murdered by the populace, to buy or sell as they may choose. led on by an ex-general of the Chinese The missionary asks the same, and no army. The minds of the people had been more. prepared by the dissemination of false rumors, and when they were wrought H But are the people unwilling to up to the required point, the mandarins have missionaries live among them? stood aloof and allowed the storm to If they were we should have had to take its course. Since that date there count many more than twenty riots have been twenty or more anti-foreign during this quarter of a century. Their -not altogether anti-mission-riots of increase has not kept pace with the sufticient magnitude to be visible across growth of the missionary work. One the seas, culminating this year in the a year in a country of such vast extent, expUlsion of missionaries from the cap- and with a missionary force of over two ital of Szechuen, and the massacre at thousand, is no proof of popular ill- K;ucheng, near Fuchow. Most of these will, but rather the reverse."
From the secular or semi·secular standpoint which Dr. Martin has occu· which there is more to hope thal!l from pied for a quarter of a century, his tes· an excessive multiplication of the fortimony concerning the prosperity of eign element. Foreign missionaries illl mission. work will be read with special large numbers will, it is true, be needed interest. We quote from it as fol· for a long time, and they will find amlows:- ple scope for their energies in the work of education and superintendence. " I can testify that they have made progress. There is, indeed, no better "If it be true, and it certainly is. testimony to that fact than the increast that the grandest enterprise that apactivity of the opposition. I hold that peals to the heart of man is the converthe results achieved afford good ground sion of the world to Christ, it is unfor expecting more brilliant results in questionable that the grandest of misthe near future. Much of the work sion fields is the empire of China. done has been of such a nature that its effect is not visible on the surface. "There is no danger of too many When works were going on which reo entering the field if our missionary suIted in the removal of those dangerous societies encourage none to offer whOo rocks called Hell Gate from one of the are not fitted by superior training. entrances to New York harbor, a care· Weak and ignorant men and women less observer might have reported that are out of place in China. In addition there was nothing to show in proportion to other qualifications, they require toto the expenditure of public funds. Yet, be strong in faith and full of the Holy deep down in the water, the roots of the Ghost:' rocks were being honeycombed with drill-holes, and when the hour came, Ohina Missionaries to Home Ohurches:, after long years of preparation, a spark from a battery sent the whole mass high and to Native Ohristians in Ohina. in the air. Over eighty missionaries, members "There are, however, visible results ofthe different missionary organizations. in full proportion to the means em· conducting missionary work in the Proployed. The one or two hundreds of vince of Foochow (Fuhkien), China, converts whom I found in connection assembled in August, 1896, at Ku-liang. with Protestant churches at my arrival near Foochow, to consider missionary in 1850, have expanded to fifty· five or affairs in their fields. sixty thousand in 1895. This, the low· est estimate, compared with the thirty- They prepared two addresses, one to' five thousand in 1890 (obtained by a the Committees and Boards of the Sosort of census), will give the rate of in· cieties in England and America, with crease. The churches, or organized whom they are connected; the other a. companies of believers, are not far from pastoral letter to Native Christians. a thousand. Some hundreds of these are supplied with native pastors, while The address to the home patrons COil>- the number of evangelists, who have a tains some statements of general intei~ roving commission to plant the Gospel est. They say:- in new fields, is greatly on the increase. Mission schools, some of which take "1. The atrocious crime of Angust. rank as colleges, are raising up large 1st, 1895, which turned the eyes of tha. numbers of yonng men well equipt world upon this part of China, has beem for this work. Numbers of students followed by the undermentioned re-· from mission schools have been drafted sults:- into the new university at Tientsin, and the demand for such is certain to ex· (a.) The fact that neither the Mistend. Here, then, is an agency from sionary Societies of England and Amer"", ica, whose interests were involved, nor the relatives of those who lost their lives at Hwa-Sang have askt for thlt slightest compensation, has afforded to the world a conspicuous example of the. disinterested motives of the missionary the Redeemer from sin under these cir- societies and their agents. cumstances. "
(b.) The abundant wealth of prayer The Pastoral Address to Native Chris- which has ascended from all churches tians, exhorts loyalty to government, in all parts of the world since the mas- and love of neighbors, warns all Chinese sacre of August 1st has been manifestly guilty of crime against seeking refuge followed by a wide·spread and general from Jegal penalties by professing the movement towards Christianity among Christian religion; declares that none .all classes of the population, and in all should expect foreign governments to parts of the province, but especially in compel the Chinese government to alter the neighborhood of Foochow and the its ordinary laws, or modes of execu- northern part of the province. tion of the same. In cases involv- ing religious liberty guarenteed under (c.) The knowledge of this move- treaties with foreign governments, no ment. and the fact that in many places discriminating legislation should be hundreds have joined the local sought; if the case cannot be settled churches, has caused a feeling of un- amicably, and it be found necessary to easi.ness in the minds of the Chinese appeal to the courts, this should be authorities. And parallel with the done in the usual way, no missionary above movement there is noticeable being askt to adopt the case. "Chinese on the part of the local authorities an Christians should remember that in the organized effort to repress and to providence of God, they are Chinese; intimidate the people from joining that the regular government taxes are the Christian churches by harrassing light comparatively, and that the the native Christians and discrimin- present untrustworthiness of the people, ating against them in every possible the system of yamen fees for service circumstance and on every possible oc- rendered is unavoidable." Even if for- casion. eign missionaries and counsels appeal to the officials in behalf of native (2.) "In a Ch,istian land, when a Christians who suffer wrong and loss, man turns to Christ it is because he is they have no official relations or rights ~onscious of sin, and longs for forgive- to interpose, and can only exert a moral ness and emancipation. In a heathen influence in the premises, and even this land the reason for turning to Christ may must be cautiously exerted,· or they will well be more imperfect and more mixt." induce hatred of Christianity and of Christians, among officials for their in- It may be that it is "not hunger for terference. Missionaries at most can spiritual things which gives this move- only appeal to their counsels, and this ment its growing impulse, but certainly should be restricted to cases of perse- .ood's Spirit is at work in those who are cution. invoking Christian help. The desire for freedom, for alleviation in the social Many Christians are persecuted be- scale, for many good things in the world cause of their refusal to contribute like these. may possibly form the main money for the support of idolatry and .spring of the movement." . • • " To for immoral purposes. The mission- .help on such a movement and to make aries remind the native Christians that it Bubserve the highest spiritual interests the treaties of the government with is indeed the grandest work in which it Christian nations pledge the Imperal is open for men and women to engage." government to protect any person, We therefore plead for the absolute official or citizen in the full exercise of legitimacy of this stage of the Chinese his religious liberty, and say that for . Dation's cry to God. Patience with the many years t,he officials at Foochow, crudeness of such a movement, gener- from District Magistrate to Viceroy and ous support, hopeful prayer and stead- Tartar General, have proclaimed the fast labor, will lift the hearts drawn to Christ up to a higher faith in Him as rights of Christians to be exempt from Poverty of Some Native Obristians in taxation for temple service or immoral Ohina. proceedings. BY MISS MARY ELIN CARLETON, M. D., In the case of property rights held in FOOCHOW, CHINA. common with heathen relatives, they say: " With respect to property shared I have wanted to write for a long year by year in rotation, we recommend time on a subject that greatly engrosses that the Christians in the several pre- my thought; that is, what are we to fectures, or in the entire province, unite do for our native Christians who are and present the case to their officials, living in such destitution as defies de- showing the injustice that must result scription. Some are in such poverty in case the Christians on account of because their former means of livelihood moral inability to perform ancestral was connected with idol worship-i. 6.
worship, should be deprived of their making idol-money, commonly called share in their patrimony. To aid in the "Joss-money," also making incense- mlttter, it could be suggested that the sticks. Of course, when they become money for the sacrifices and feasts Christians, they can not continue in should be divided among those entitled such employment. Then again, there to it, and the balance belong to the are many who had DO employment be- party who has the control of the prop- fore they became Christians. Let me erty for the year. Or the proposition tell of a few instances.
might be made that the expenses for I have living near me, so near ~hat I the repair of graves should be provided might practically say living with me, a annually and the rest go to the man- family consisting of twelve persons.
ger for the year, or, that the property Formerly they had been very wealthy, be equitably divided among the heirs. but the head man was an only child, The last course would naturally be the petted and indulged to a fatal degree.
rule if all the heirs became Christians. When he wisht to study, he did so, In such application to the officials, it whenhe wisht to play, he was allowed should of course be shown that Chris· free bent to his will-consequently he tians are not wanting in filial piety, tho grew up unrestrained, undisciplined, they refuse to sacrifice to their ancestors. knowing no will but his own. When " With respect to reforms in marriage he took up opium smoking, his father and social customs, such as the protec- willingly sold field after field, that tion of widows from the power of their he might have the wherewithal to late husbands' relatives; the daughter's gratify his poisoned appetite. A few right to share in her father's property; years ago Dr. Sites, having business the matter of infant betrothals; the relations with this house, got an influ- selling of daughters to be slave girls, ence over this man, then a middle-aged and other questions which may arise, man with a large family, and so poor, the same general method may be fol- that they could scarcely keep body and lowed." soul together. By sheer love and stick- The necessity for the proclamation of to-it-iveness, Sites led him to Christ these directions shows some of the dif- an~ stood by him till opium smoking ficulties in the way of progress of mis- and many kindred sins were conquered.
sions; but the fact that thousands of As his buried manhood was resurrected, Chinese converts, become such at the his conscience quickened, he wanted to risk of the loss of all things, and remain work and support his family, but what such in the teeth of persecution, to the could he do? Totally unfit for any- shedding of their blood in many in- thing, without strength or skill for stances, marks the integrity and stabil- manual labor, without knowledge suffi- ity of the Chinese Christian communi- cient to teach or preach-his children, cants. [J. T. G.] most of them born when his family were in deep degradation, are slender, greatly overcrowded, so most of the miserable, and sick a great deal of the time. It is understood that sixty gold work goes to younger and abler men. cents will provide food enough for one person a month, so that $7.20 would be The mother earned a pittance by taking required to support this family of twelve for one month. But what are their a baby to nurse. You will understand assets? By most careful computation I reckoned they are able to earn from to what extremities they were driven, $2.50 to $3.00 per month; then they have a little garden, about thirty feet when I tell you that when this little square. You may well ask the question I askt of my Bible woman-If $7.20 baby-boarder died, the womanborrowed is necessary for their food, and they have only $3.00, how can they live? a baby once a month and went to the "Well," said dear old lIrs. Huie Mu, "they cook what rice they have, and Roman Catholic Foundling Home, those who have any work in view, eat the kernels of rice, and those who have where the baby belonged, and got her no work, with the little children, have the rice water;" i. e., the water the rice wages. You may say that was inexis boiled in. One glance at this family would convince you of the truth of this. cusable conduct for a Christian woman, Again, I know a woman, who is one but remember, it was to keep her own of our Bible women, receiving $1.00 per month for her services. With that children from starving to death before she must support herself, her invalid husband and an idiotic son. Again, her own eyes-and again, she had only some epidemic or other carried off every member of a family, save a little boy of been out of heathendom a few months. twelve years and his betrothed little wife of nine years. This little girl Well, we heard the other day that the found her way to one of our pastors, saying, she had heard he was a good whole family were nearly starved, so man, but she said to me, "It is too bad for me to impose myself on this good much so, that their heads were fairly man as he has a big family of his own, but what can I do ? My brother," as dizzy for want of food. Now, we can't she calls her be trotht, "can only keep himself." turn these cases off. God has sent Now, one more case, and I will re- them to us. Every other missionary frain, tho every case could be mul- has her hands full-we cannot simply tiplied by a hundred. There is a family Jtive them money and call our duty in Foochow City, consisting of a man done-I cannot tell you how disastrous of fifty years of age, his wife, a girl of it would be to give such Christians sixteen, and three younger children. money. Too often. as it is, we have They have recently become Christians our Christians called "rice-Christians" , by seeing the power of God to save the -we must give them work. Not all sick when this man was at the point of can be preachers, catechists, Bibledeath, and when the daughter was women, or school-teachers. 'Ve canrecovered from ,. devil possession."- not undertake anything along their own The man is a tailor, but that business, lines of work, for already there are ten like all others, especially in the city, is persons to every one required. _ There is a growing demand for knit- ted goods-stockings, socks, children's caps. I want crochet-hooks, knitting- needles, Germantown yarn of bright colors, stocking-yarn – black, blue, gray, and white-but best of all would be a simple knitting machine, with yarn to work it. I feel sure that with such capital provided, they would soon be- come self-supporting.
Now don't fancy I am leaving my medical work and going into the stock- ing business, but I must not leave these needy ones to face the battle of life unaided. "He that bath this world's goods and seeth his hrother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compas- sion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
Two Recent Books on Buddhism.
"Buddhism in Translations," by Henry Clarke Warren, publisht at Cambridge, Mass., by Harvard Uni- versity. 8vo, pp. xx+250, $1.20.
This book meets a distinct need of students of Buddhism who are not ac- the ritual and discipline of the priestquainted with the classical languages hood, and some remarks on the conof India; it gives them a knowledge of duct befitting the laity. the subject which is not only first hand, but also systematic. .Mr. Warren gives The selections cover all important us translations of a series of excerpts points of Buddhist doctrine. }Ir. Warfrom the Buddhistic sacred literature, ren has acquitted himself well in the judiciously selected and carefully ar- difficult task of translating Pali theo- ranged under appropriate headings, to logical writings into English. Not only afford a fairly complete and orderlyac- is his translation exact, but his English count of the Buddha, his doctrine, and is elegant. The book will be of value the religious order which he founded. to missionaries in Buddhistic communi- ties, and to all who have occasion to Mr. Warren's book represents what understand Buddhism.-REV. DAVID is known as the Southern school of GILMORE, PrOfessor Rangoon Oollege, Buddhism, whose sacred literature is Burma. in the Pali language, whose chief seat is in Ceylon, and which prevails Almost directly in contrast with throughout Burma and Siam. The Warren's "Buddhism in Translation" excerpts in this book are taken from is a smaller work, and a popular one, Pali literature exclusively. Most of .. Primitive Buddhism: its Origin and them come from the Tipitaka, the Teachings," by Elizabeth A. Reed, Buddhist Bible; but a number are A.M., already well known as the author taken from the Milinda Pai'iha, and the Visuddltimag.qa-two works which (tho of "Hindu Literature," "Persian Litnot canonical) are accepted by Southern erature," etc. (Scott, Foresman & Co., Buddhists as authoritative statements Chicago,$l). The admiration of Buddh- ()f their belief. ism is just now a "fad" on thc part of a class of persons who have neither the The excerpts in this book are arranged culture nor the earnestness to become in five chapters, each of which is pro- even superficially acquainted with its vided with an introductory discourse. philosophy, its tenets, or its effects on There is also a general introduction and society. The author appositely says, :an excellent index. "theories have been advocated as to the doctrines of Buddhism of which its The first chapter treats of the life of founder never heard, and 'statements Gautama, the Buddha. It is introduced have been made upon the modern platwith the resolution which he formed in a form which could astonish no one 80 previous stage of existence, to attain the much as Gautama and his early follow- Buddhaship. Passing very briefly over his intermediate existences, it recounts ers." fully his birth, his retirement from the The manuscript of this volume was world, his attainment of Buddhaship, subjected to the criticisms of some of his daily habits and his death. Pali the most distinguisht savants of Euliterature affords no account of his life rope, and thoughtfully discust byemibetween the commencement of his min- nent Orientalists. Like Warren's work, istry and his death. it is mainly a compilation of translated texts from primitive sources. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 deal with Buddba's doctrine. Chapter 2, entitled The author rightly estimates Buddha .. Sentient Existence," treats of that as ., the prince of pessimists," who denial of "an ego," of .. a continuous ,, nowhere alludes to the happiness personal identity," of .. an underlying which may be derived from health, persistent reality," which is the chief friends, love, or existence in a world of source of confusion in the study of beauty." Monier Williams affirms cor- Buddhism, inasmuch as it is explicitly rectly when he says, "Buddhism has no creator, no creation, no original germ denied and implicitly assumed in the of all things, no soul of the world, no system of thought. personal, no impersonal, no supermun- dane, no antemundane plinciple." Of Chapter 3 treats of Karma and rebirth. all the dreary wastes which manJdnd have been invited to contemplate, the Chapter 4 treats of Nirvana, and of dreariest, dismalest and surest of rethat system of meditation or trance sulting in disaster and dismay, Buddhwhich is supposed to lead to Nirvana. ism easily stands, unchallenged, the Neither the excerpts in this section nor first. We commend •'Primitive Buddhthe introduction thereto, afford us a ism" to those who feel impelled to definition of Nirvana; yet the book acquire some knowledge of this diBmaZ sheds much light on the Buddhist conception of Nirvana. 8wamp."-J. T. G.
The fifth chapter gives samples of
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY DBLAVAlII' L. PIERSON.
* China,* Tibet, t Formosa, Oonfuoian- ment allegiance; (d) the prohibition of ism, § Taoism, Opium. Tra.flio." the practice of foot binding; (6) the pro- hibition of opium smoking; (f) the pro- THE GOSPEL IN CHINA. tection of a free press. These involve great changes. To secure them outside The war with Japan and the late help is required. A British protectorate tour of Li Hung Chang have recently would :he a boon for China. drawn unusual attention toward China, "2. The construction of extensive railroads, bridges, tunnels, canals, etc., and there is a very general anticipation is tending to upset heathen belief, and of some markt change in China's home Is opening to Europe a trade in China's and foreign policy. Altho the" Celes- 34,000 square miles of coal beds, oil tials" move slowly, and in many respects and mineral products, so that the devel- opment of the wealth and industry of are still' far behind Japan and India, China is assured. they have already made many strides "3. The adoption of Western methsince missionaries first entered their territory nearly a century ago. In the ods and ideas will help her. She is getting her eyes opened. Education is acknowledged as of value and schools opening up of the various ports of the are in demand. Empire to commerce and missionary "4. To-day China is beginning to work, in governmental protection for believe that Christianity is a prime factor in the progress of Western naforeigners, in the general attitude of the tions. "5. Her appeal to our missionaries masses toward Westerners, and in read- for a knowledge of science, art, literainess to accept foreign institutions and tureand general learning is a hopeful inventions, there is evidence of very sign."
markt advance. The future promises The great need of China to-day is two-fold-more believing payer for the still further progress, both in civiliza- preparation of the hard hearts of these idolators, and a more 8eif-sacrijicing 8pirit tion and Christianity. Dr. B. C. Henry on the part of Christians at home, lead- ing them to give themselves and their has thus summarized the reasons for substance, that these ignorant, degraded taking a hopeful view of the outlook: .. 1. The demand for a change in the administration of the central government. A manifesto has already been issued, demaJ;lding (a) a change in the and helpless multitudes may have an constitutional government; (b) the re- opportunity to accept the Gospel. moval of incapable rulers; (c) the removal of the 'cue' as a sign of govern- While there are now some 1,900 Pro- testant missionaries in China, there • For additional Information concerning the would have to be over 500,000 more Ji'ield# of Monthly Survey see REVIEW Index sent out in order to give to China the for 1896 (December number). same proportion of ordained ministers See also p. 46 (January), 95, 102, 116,128,124, 129; 181 (present Issue). as the United States, and were this New Books: " A Cycle of Cathay," W. A. P, republic supplied in the same propor- tion, we should only have 140 ordained Martin; "Alone in China," Julian Ralph; ministers for the whole of the United "Sketch of the History of Missions in China,"
D. Willard Lyon.
Recent Articles: "China, England and'Rus- States I We have 80,000. "If all the sia," Fortnightly Review (Oct.), "Secret Christians but 750 were taken out of Soci~ties in China," Blac~ood's (Dec.); London, and their places filled by Gospel in all Lands (Feb.); China's Millions heathen, scarcely any of whom had (Monthly).
t See alSo p. 91 (present issue). ever seen a Bible or heard of a Savior, :I: New Book: "Formosa," Wm. Campbell. and among them 19 missionaries (in- § New Book: "Proverbial Philosophy of cluding wives) were put to WPrk with Confucius," F. H. Jennings. '''If Recent Article: "Opium Traftl.c in France," some 60 native agents, that would be a Chautauquan (Oct,.). fair representation of what is being done by Protestant Christendom to win Rev William Brewster, of Hinghwa, . China for Christ." China, sends us an interesting account But with all the disadvantages, the paucity of men and means, the un- of a recent tour in Fuh.kien Province. willingness of the natural heart to turn from idols to serve the living and We regret not having space to print the true God, the harvests which have been reapt in China are very encouraging, whole report, but in substance his com.: and show unmistakable proof of Divine approval and blessing. munication is as follows: The Statistics* of Missionary So- "Three years ago Brother Ng long Seng, a good earnest man, with excel.. cieties in China are in part as follows lent sense and immense industry, but with perhaps the least education of any (1894): …~ :.i of our 70 preachers, determined to be- " " ".. g I0i:!'!"l 0 gin work in a new region across the Nllnc 0" SOCIETY. ~~ . o! border of the county of Sing-iu, a half Ii: day's journey distant from his old field in the Heo-Sang circuit. His first and :z: ~ to only auditor at this new place was won – – – ~ pt,<H,~'-);I- to Christ, and is now a very effective ~ E-4 junior preacher on the circuit. From this one genuine convert the work BRITISH, IBISHAND CANADIAN. spread into a large market town, a half day's journey beyond. Last ~larch we h~ftts'hnF~~~~~"nn:~a ~~gl~tloo:: 1807 44 SS 21 98 held a three day's camp-meeting, at 1848 9 7 ••• 16 which the pastor and eight or ten of the Church Missionary Society…•• 1844 46 S1 SS 110 new converts were present. This little English Baptist …..•.•..•…..• 1845 21 17 .•. SS band were all baptized with the Spirit, English Presbyterian..••……• 1847 81 t18 18 67 and went back to tell the glad tidings. Wesleyan Missionary Society•. 1852 16 t8 2 26 Within two weeks after they returned, tMethodlst New Connection… 1860 7 4 1 12 I was asked to confirm the appointment tSri'.~~t);l~~a1fg:.~.t~~.~. ~:. ~:: 1864 55 of II man to a new place. No money was asked for, it having been provided United Presbyterian of Scotl'd. 1865 14 t6 2 22 by the little company of converts. Soon China Inland Mission•…..••••. 1865 241 120 232 593 another, and yet another place was tUnlted Methodist Free Church 1868 8 8 6 opened In the same way. We were National Bible Soc. of Scotl'd.. 1869 8 t6 14 askt to hold another camp-meeting ] Urlsh Presbyterian…………. 1869 4 4 9 on their circuit, and promist to d() Canadian Presbyterian•..••.••. 1871 12 8 22 so during the latter part of May. I i~l:a£ytllw,au~~~oo~ °Jc~g~n"J: 1874 9 2 13 went to Gia-tau, where the meeting was 1879 1 1 2 to be held, and a mile out was met by a !Blble Christians .•••…•….••.. 1885 4 t2 procession of 50 or 60 Christians with Society of Friends…………. 1886 1 1 6 banners and native instruments, and S conducted to the house where the meetoc. for DltTuslon of Gen. II4ld 1886 2 1 8 ing was in progress. Through some Christian Knowledge….•…. misunderstanding the date of the meet- – – – :tCburch of Eng. Zenana Mlss'n1888 5 5 ing had been put three days earlier than 1891 "6 "2 2 10 I had expected, but the people had come Canadian Methodist ••.•.•….•. 1080 together 70 or 80 strong, and when I Total British, Irish and Can. …. 479 274 – reacht there they had already been holding the meetings for four days, 327 four services a day, beginning with a sunrise prayer· meeting. It meant much AMXlUCAN. to these people, mostly poor farmers, t() spend a whole week at a camp-meeting A.B.C. F.M……………….. 1830 47 4S 27 117 during the planting season. The testi- A.B.M.U……..••.•…..•….. 1324 84 26 18 78 mony meetings were remarkable. There Protestant Episcopal •••.•••.••• 1885 18 9 5 27 was no time even to sing, much less the ~~~bJ~~~'l,nl~Nl'~~J: 1885 76 69 S5 160 need of saying' Brethren, don't let the 1DutcIij: 1842 7 7 7 21 time go to waste.' In voluntary prayer, Methodist Episcopal (North) .•. 1847 54 45 41 140 not less than a dozen would pray in Seventh Day Baptist……….•• 1847 1 1 2 4 quick succession, always right to the Sonthern·Baptlst Convention•. 1847 15 15 8 SS point and very brief. A number of the Methodist Ep,lscopnl (South) .•. 1848 16 7 9 32 men are scholars or literary men, con- Woman's Union Mission …. o •• 1859 8 8 verted through the influence of their 1867 '24 'is 8 50 comparatively ignorant pastor, and all r:'~i~::~~b~'1;~~~~ty::::::: : 1876 2 4 look up to him. Nine men testified to 1886 11 2 "s 24 For. Christian Missionary Soc.. 1887 2 10 1 8 1869 1 2 4 i!m. Scandinavian Conrseg't'l "i United Brethren In Chr st.••.. ternat'l Missionary Alliance. 1389 46 4 32 32 – Total American ….••••••••••. 849 257 206 812 CONTINENTAL.
Basle Mission.•••••.•.•••••••.•.. 1847 24 18 1 4S Rhenish Mission…………….. 1847 7 7 7 21 … JPe~rl~nJ;~~~~~~~. 1350 ~~~~~: ::: ::: 1632 11 5 7 8t5 1S … tGen. Evangel. Protes. Mission 1324 1 ••• 1 – – – Total Continental•.••.••..•.•. …. 41 31 – 18 85 Grand Total••••••••.••••…. 869 562 546 1977 • From D. W. Lyon'l .. Sketch of the History of Protestant Missions In China."
*.t Reports In these ca.es were not exbanltlve as to the number of marrIed womf"n. These are the ~ tor 1890. ! baving been saved from the opium hab- territo17, but it will probably be some , it. I baptized over 40 adults, everyone of time before sufficient quiet is restored whom keeps the Sabbath strictly, can , answer intelligently questions regarding to allow missiona17 work to progress as the fundamental truths of God as Fath- er, and Christ as Savior. All are accus- prosperously as before the war. The tomed to testify and pray in public, as sto17 of this wonderful work has been well as in private; and all give of their substance to the support of the Gospel; told in two intensely interesting vol- and, as far as we were able to discover, all have broken off entirely from their umes, which deal both with *tihne work (lId idolatrous customs, and the sins of of the English Presbyterians South their former life. At one place, far up Formosa and that of the Can~dian (In a high mountain, where there is but (lne village with about 60 inhabitants, a Presbyterians t in the north man heard the Gospel, and accepted it at once. The women of his family The Opium Curse. could not attend church on account of the great distance and bad roads, 80 he The following is a translation of a offered to pay $24.00 a year, and fur- small sheet which has been issued late- nish house· room for a pa~tor. Now ly in connection with an Opium Refuge there are a dozen converts in the village, at T'ai Yuen Fu, and is being also used and no doubt it ~ill ere long be a Chris- on other stations :- tian village. This man probably spends SO per cent. of his entire income for the "Of all things in this world that support of the Gospel. He says, 'I harm men, nought surpasses opium; inused to spend much money on idolatry. juring manners and destroying customs; I would be ashamed to spend less money overturning homes and laying waste for the true religion than I did for a patrimonies-eve17where it acts thus. false one.' These people are also' giv- But none appear to think of the mising themselves unto the Lord.' Four chief of opium, which is like a flood of men have already been appointed to poison unrestrained. It is the cause of these new places from among the new anxiety to one's parents and also to the converts. They are all men of educa- wife. When the wealthy take it, it tion and culture; some of them were shortens their years, deprives them of well-to-do, and are making markt posterity, and wastes any amount of tlnancial sacrifices to go into the work. money. When the poor take it, clothes These people seem heartily to believe are exchanged for it, or pawned away, that 'it is more blessed to give 'than to while they suffer from the extremes of receive,' and cheerfully contribute not hunger and cold. Thus do men lay hold (lnly for their own support, but to help of error, and do not awake and perceive their more needy brethren in neighbor- how things are and repent. With such ing towns. When the spirit that is in things God is not pleased, but He sent these men becomes general among the Jesus into the world on purpose to save Chinese native Christians, the church men from their sins, and assist them in will propagate itself. and support itself. their sorrows ; therefore here is the holy • All things are possible to him that doctrine taught that men may forsake believeth.' " wickedness for righteousness, and give up falsehood for tmth, and repent of FORMOSA. everything that is harmful and inju- Since this island was acquired by rious; as the Scripture says (of Jesus), , I came not to call the righteous, but Japan, natives have been in a continual sinners to repentance.' The disciples of Jesus, desirous of imitating His state of ferment, sometimes breaking example, came from the West to China, respectfully desirous of assisting men (lut into open rebellion, and at other to repent. If there are any who, clearly- seeing the harm done to them times only submitting under compul- by OpIUm, determine to cut it short, and will quickly come to the 'Salvation sion to the occupation of the land by Hall,' then, according to proper pre- scriptions, taking the necessary medithe Japanese. The strategic import- cines, from within twenty-one days to a month, whether old or young, with a ance of the island is recognized by the strong or weak craving, they may make a clean sweep of the opium, and, leavnew rulers, and they have now well- ing this false road, return to the true way. This is what we earnestly denigh brought it under complete control. sire."
The Japanese Christians have shown *"Missionary Successes In Formosa," by their zeal by making plans to send their Wm. Campbell.
own missionaries to the newly acquired t"From Far Formosa," byGeo. L. Mackay.
EDITORIAL DEPAUTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The Maroh of Events. because they stand so related to mis- sions. But in every part of the world The plague and famine in India pre· there is at this time a peculiar aspect of sent two of the most important and affairs, which invites ample discussion. weighty facts that now confront us, next The atrocities in Armenia still go on ; to the Armenian horrors which lie on and the appeals for the destitute are so all thoughtful people like a nightmare. emphatic and agonizing that many feel that there can be no attention paid to Toward the close of last September any other calls until these are attended a peculiar fever broke out in a part of to; and yet the need is so great it seems Bombay, attended by a singular fatality almost hopeless to meet it, and almost among rats, and it was soon identified useless unless the Turk can be held in with the plague that two or three years check. ago broke out in Hongkong. Tho considered comparatively mild, about Cuban affairs threaten to involve the two-thirds of the cases are fatal, tho it United States in a war with Spain, and does not seem contagious, nor does it a general state of disquietude and alarm abate. 011e week the death-rate ex- or uncertainty prevails. ceeded by 300 the rate of any period for nveyearspreceding. Within two months The half bankrupt condition of some nearly 100,000 Hindus left the city. missionary boards, and tlle measures of Various precautionary measures were retrenchment which seem to be needful, taken to prevent the spread of the -these are the features of discourageplague, and much prayer was offered ment against which it is hard to conby believe rs. Meanwile outside of tend. Bombay a famine is spreading over a large area. Since the monsoon the Dr. W. A. P. Martin has returned to price of food has in some parts doubled. China. It is nearly half a century since Already there has been a year's dearth he first went, when, with his brother, he in the Hindee neld in Central India, began work at Ningpo, where he spent where hundreds have starved to death, six years, which he looks back on as the and the sight of children, not to say most fruitful of his life, and where he adults, in every stage of disease and was qualified to act as interpreter to the want, is almost too terrible for believers American plenipotentiaries, Messrs. to bear who seek to be ministers of God Reed and Ward, in the treaties with to them. The details are too bad for China. Afterward he determined to reproduction. It looks as tho a large move further north and undertake an section of the Marathi country would educational mission work, and this become a similar scene of suffering. opened the way to the presidency of the Riots have become common where the Imperial Tungwen College and a prostarving people forcibly sieze what they tracted stay at the capital. He now recannot buy, and the police are some- turns joyfully, in his maturest life, and times unable to protect the shops. we wish he might spend there another •• Khandesh is sure to suffer unless rain "cycle" of "Cathay." He is better shortly falls," was the report in the fitted than ever to act as a wise counmiddle of October. Jowari was burn- sellor and competent teacher and ading up with drought, and the north- ministrator. west, north and central provinces seem threatened with a repetition of the suf- Our dear friend, the secretary of the ferings of twenty years ago. Presbyterian Board, Robert E. Speer, has been seriously ill at Hamadan, Per- These events we give prominence to sia, with typhoid. He had intended to sail for India by the middle of De- most effectual ministry to the une~an.
cember, but was detained. Already gelized.
his visit to the East has left a markt The last report, covering 1895,tells the impression wherever he has been. He story of seven years; and this last year thoroughly studied up the countries to exceeds all the others. Some of its facts which he was going, and surprised should be borne in mind as an incentive brethren on the ground by showing in to others to follow his example. 'rhe many respects a familiarity with the missionary money up to Nov. 12 this conditions of field which they them- year, 1896, is upwards of $19,000.00, selves did not possess. of which his own congregation of per- haps 200 people have, without any On October 13th of last year, our be- pressure, given over $4,000.00. The loved brother, Rev. D. M. Stearns, of map of the world is kept ever before Germantown, bade adieu to his beloved them, and they are taught that they are wife, who, after less than two days' debtors tothe whole unsaved world,and illness, departed for a higher home. trustees of the Gospel of salvation, and She had shared all his work for the that each of them iS,to regard himself Lord, and was to him a help, meet for as responsible for bringing the Gospel him. Noone knows the extent of the to every living soul as soon as possible.
loss and sorrow that came to our , What could not be done by a few hun- brother, who nevertheless bears up dred such men as Pastor Stearns, who with a fortitude and patience only would follow this hitherto untrodden learned of God. Some years ago this path in Bible study and missionary brother, in a conversation with me, work? He is now teaching a monthly heard me emphasize the fact that the Bible class at Princeton University, church is not a man's field but his and his influence is constantly ex· force wherewith to work in the world panding. Most of the mission funds field, and this seed of truth found in he collects go through regularly organ- him such a soil as to bring fonh liter- ized channels, and the paper, King- ally an hundred·fold. Witness the wide dom Tiding8, has a circulation of about dissemination of the Gospel through 3,000. Of the nearly $10,000 that the this man, his parish and his Bible synod of the Reformed Episcopal classes now held over so wide a terri- Church of New York and Philadelphia tory. And now in the departure of his gave to the foreign work from Oct.,1895, wife, he is asking whether God means to Oct., 1896, over $4,500 came from to open a new door of wider usefulness; Pastor Stearns' congregation, the other whether in leaving him alone He may twenty or more parishes giving the rest.
not be leaving him free ttl go through They give to the Reformed Episcopal the world-field on a wider ministry to Church; Mr. Stearns' congregation give souls. This 'devoted brother, who to the whole Church.
watches keenly the signs of the times, watches also the signs of God's will in Since the Editor's note appeared in his own life, studying to know the the October issue of 1896, on the Ben- Divine plan and fall into his own lot in oliel Mission in Jerusalem, some vigor- it, ready for any service which his Lord, ous letters of remonstrance have been the King, may appoint. received from parties who consent that ,Certainly it would seem as though their names should appear; and promi- God has for him some increasingly use- nent among them is Rev. Edwin S.
ful future. He has projected what is Wallace, American Consul at Jerusalem, essentially a new method of working a who does not hesitate to express his dis- parish into a missionary agency, and his satisfaction with the position taken by Bible classes are in effect a larger parish the Editor in the paragraphs referred to. rn enlisted in a similar way on a wide and self·defence the Editor will only say that for more than a year-in fact, since brief notes in the October number, he some time before Dr. Gordon's death- will see that no endorsement of Mr. he and his lamented co-editor sought to Benoliel is therein contained, as there trace unfavorable rumors concerning was no personal knowledge on which to Mr. Benoliel to some satisfactory rest iuch sanction. All that is affirmed source, and to obtain some data in the is, what was true, that after a year way of definite charges founded upon spent in diligent investigation, nothing definite facts, upon which to -base an had been found worthy of credence, or intelligent judgment of the merits of sustained by any reliable proof; and the case. But, up to the time of re- that nothing assailing his piety, integ- ceiving Mr. Wallace's letter, not one rity or loyalty to Christ had been sup- clue had been given to the situation. ported by adequate evidence. On the Dr. Gordon had received some com- contrary, the testimony of my friend, munications from a Mr. T. J. Alley, Arthur W. Payne, of London, as wen and Rev. Selah Merrill, which he, with as of R. Scott }ioncrieff, of Edinburgh, the aid of a lawyer, undertook to in- and other parties in Great Britain, some vestigate. He has himself publisht of them connected with work among the result of the investigation, and he the Jews, was entirely in his favor. saw his way not only to vindicate Mr. Benoliel, but to assist him, and encour- In now adding these paragraphs, the age others to do so. Personally, the Editor can only say that he has desired Editor-in-Chief gave no attention to to be fair, impartial and umpirical in these communications, and was not this whole matter, and treat a brother responsible for his colleague's action. who has been accused as entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven When, however, separate letters were guilty. The amazing prejudice existing sent to me, after Dr. Gordon's death, I everywhere against the Jew, the prevailat once undertook for myself to trace inganti Semitic spirit, makes it very easy unfavorable rumors, and find some solid to create a bias against any brother whobasis on which to rest a judgment. I is a Jew, and seeks to work among his· wrote to parties accusing him, and brethren-a bias easier to create than among others to Rev. E. S. Wallace, remove. While thus seeking to do a for whose character and reputation I simple act of justice to a maligned had high esteem, asking for something party, the Editor of this REVIEW must that was worthy to be made the basis not be understood as giving his sanction of such accusation. It seemed to me or the sanction of this periodical tu Mr. then, as now, both unwise and unfair Benoliel, for the sufficient reason that to give currency to damaging reports, he is unable to vouch for him by any where no one was found to make dis- personal knowledge of his work; and tinct charges of misconduct or unfaith- he must leave to those who are inclined fulness; and yet, up to the date of re- to aid him to satisfy themselves by such ceiving Mr. Wallace's letter, about Dec. methods of investigation and through 15 ult., no 'I'e8po7UI6 had ever come to my such parties, as are open to them. It hands. Not having visited Jerusalem, nevertheless remains true, whatever my only way to investigate was by let- may be the reason, that a singular suster or conversation with visitors and picion seems to hang about almost every residents. .And the only party who did man who is a Jew, and who, as a conreply to my communications was R. verted Jew, seeks to carryon mission Scott Moncrieff, Esq., whose endorse- work among his fellow-Israelites. Ament of Mr. Benoliel was as unquali- man lately said to me: "They are aU fied as the charges of some others were Jacoba yet. not IS'I'ae18." hostile. Under these circumstances the Editor felt bound to state just the It should be added, in order to bafacts, and if the reader will recur to the fair to all parties concerned, that no in- tentional reflection was made upon any particular party in the remark of the These schools quietly helped to per- Editor that Mr. Benoliel seemed the vade the country with the Gospel. Por- victim of persecution. The reference tions of the Word were daily learned, was to sundry anonymous reports and and often as regularly recited at home.
attacks which have come to our know- It is an interesting fact that the Queen ledge, but which we have been unable of Spain herself once heard the Gospel to trace to any responsible source. In recited by a child from the Protestant all t11is matter but one conscious desire school, who had been put into a Roman has controlled, namely, to do just as we Catholic school, that was honored by a would have others do to us. royal visit. Some 5,000 children in all had come under the influence of Mr. Albert R. Fenn, whose death, these schools when Mr. Fenn's health Aug. 3, 1896, was briefly noticed in compelled him, in 1895, to withdraw these pages, was born in London in finaIly from the little church in Cham- 1832, and had spent forty-four years in beri.
his Master's service. For some years At his death, a very pathetic com- he was connected with George Muller's munication was sent to his widow from school work, and engaged in various the church. It was signed by all who forms of Gospel work in the neighbor- could write, and bore strong witness to hood. In 1861, he gave himself wholly the marvelous strength and tenderness to evangelistic and pastoral work, look· of the tie that bound this faithful pastor, ing directly to God for support, and loving father and wise counsellor to his until his life closed he continued this people.
life of faith and prayer. Wherever in England he labored, Backwell, Yalton, In the September number of the RE- Weston-super-Mare, Kingsbridge, etc., VIEW mention was made of a medical he left the impress of his catholic spirit, work by Dr. Frank Ross, which would and united prayer-meetings are even yet be sent by· him free to missionaries.
held in Kingsbridge, where he initiated Numerous applications have since then them. 'When the Spanish revolution, been made to the Editor for copies of in 1868, opened the door to the land of his book. To one and all such appli· the Inquisition, he and his wife, with cants the Editor would herein say that four children, went forth, trusting he has not yet been able to ascertain wholly in God. For three years he and Dr. Ross' address, and that, when he Mrs. Henry Payne wrought together in does, he will publish it in these pages.
Barcelona, and then joined Mr. Charles This must serve instead of private cor- Faithfull in Madrid. There, by his respondence on the subject.
holy and blameless life, not lcss than his preaching, he rebuked the abound- In the review of the one volume bio- ing wickedness even of profest religious graphy of John G. Paton, it should guides, and by his honesty and punctu- have been mentioned that the two vol- ality in business, presented a markt umes in one are thus furnisht by Revell contrast to the deceitful and procrasti- at $1.50-one-half of the cost of the nating Spaniard. He was known in the previous two·volume edition. Thisnew little Chamberi Chapel as "the Saint." edition is printed from the same plates, Unti11892, Messrs. Mllller and Wright, and has over 800 pages. If there is any of Bristol, assumed the support of the more interesting book on missions, we day-schools and Sunday-schools, but for have not seen it.
the rest of the work all supplies were in answer to prayer, and yet there was The Editor intends to give ampler no delay in meeting all dues, and the space to the review of books than schools had latterly an attendance of hitherto. Authors and publishers who four or five hundred children daily. have sent on books for examination will kindly take notice that the absence Among medical missionaries, there of the Editor in Great Britain for six are at least two abroad who are the months in 1896 caused all such work to peers of any physicians and surgeons at fall into arrears. But it is his intention home. One is Dr. George E. Post, of to give careful examination to all books Syria, who has performed more major sent either from Europe or America, cases of surgery than probably any man for review, and to send to the parties abroad; and the other is Dr. Kerr, of from whom they come markt copies of Canton, of whom the U. S. Consulthe REVIEW in which they are review- General in that city remarkt that he ed. If those who forward books will undertook cases that Philadelphia sursend them to the Editor's residence, geons would not risk, and is the peer of 1127 Dean St., Brooklyn, N. Y., it will any living surgeon, and has treated prevent delay. The present variety three-quarters of a million of patients. and value of books on missions ex- Both of these men could command an ceed all the contributions made to the income of at least $1,000 a month, and subject in any previous generation, they get little more than that a year. and we shall seek to do a serviCe to our readers by a fair, candid, and careful Miss Clara Barton, who is at the head estimate of all books brought to our of the Red Cross Society, says of the notice, so soon after their reception Armenian sufferers, that according to as time and other duties allow. At careful estimates, not far from 155,000 least forty deserving volumes now Armenian Christians, men, women and await reading. Among the most prom- children, are destitute of shelter, raiinent may be mentioned the following, ment, fire, food, medicines, of the comwhich have had at least a partial ex- forts that tend to make human life pre~ aminat.ion: servable, or of any means of obtaining them save through charitable benefi- " Knights of the Labarum," by Rev. cence. Without such outside support Harlan P. Beach. This is a volume on at least 50,000 of these persons will have missionary biography, prepared for use died of starvation or perisht through in mission study classes, giving an ac- accumulated hardship before the 1st of count of four typical men in as many May, 1897. Money may be sent to the fields and in different methods of work. agency of which Mr. Spencer Trask. of Tho publisht in October, in a little over New York pity, is treasurer. a month 2,500 students were already using'it, and was adopted by the Ep- As to the famine in India, we find in worth League, and by the Woman's our reliable exchanges the following :- Baptist Board in the mission course. Editions are to be had for 40 cents and .. The whole civilized world will 25 cents, respectively. It is publisht in stand aghast at the horrors which the Chicago by the Student Volunteer next nine months are certain to bring in movement, and Mr. Beach is abun- India. According to the statement dantly able to discuss his topic, being made by Rev. Dr. James L. Barton, a returned missionary from China, and secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., this now Educational Secretary of the Vol- famine 18 due to the failure of the wheat unteer movement. The four typical crop, which has trebled the price of missionaries chosen are Judson, Duff, wheat, and the people have not the Mackenzie and Mackay-Judson, the money to buy it. UnUke the famine of Pioneer in Burma; Duff, the Educator, 1877, the present one is general. Then in India; Kenneth Mackenzie, the Phy- rich and poor suffered, as the means of sician in China; and Alexander Mackay, communication had not been opened the Engineer, in Africa. The work is up. Now, however, railways have been done carefully and thoroughly, as Mr. built with the result, as stated, that Beach's work always is. " the rich will not starve, but the mil- lions of the poor must." It is not a question of the scarcity of grain-which can be had from abroad-but of the want of money wherewith to buy it. of worship, both Roman Catholic and The government has appropriated *125,- Protestant, have been burned; aIld 000;000 to be spent on public works as native pastors,. evangelists, and school- a means of relief to the starving people, masters have suffered most. and the missionaries are cooperating with the Buthorities. Nevertheless The Jesuits are trying to make capi- there are 287,000,000 of people to be tal out of. the fears of the people, and 8upported in a country barren of crops, say openly that only under their pro- and "millions will die from starvation, tection can the people expect safety. and within a few months the world will And they are now trying to obtain hear of such suffering and wholesale possession of Protestant churchel!. deaths as it has never heard of before, unless relief is extended." The mis- General Gallieni has issued instruc- 8ionaries of the various denominations tions to the commandants of military are scattered all through the afflicted circles, telling them to see that at least territory and they will do all they- can. half the time in all schools is devoted But most of the native missionanes get to the study of the French language, but $3.75 per month, and it is quite as and to shut up schools that do not commuch as they can do to support them- ply. There were, before the war, 700 selves. Touching this matter, Rev. A. or 800 schools in connection with the B. Leonard, corresponding secretary of L. M. S., and few of the teachers have the Methodist Board, also says: any knowledge of the French language; it is not, therefore, easy to obey this "Letters received at this office give law. Military power, however mighty, an appalling account of the famine now can hardly, with the stroke of a pen, prevailing in parts of India, particularly in the north and northwest. Hundreds turn 700 vernacular schools into French of children are to be seen in the bazaars, schools. Perhaps the Paris Missionary 'Picking up grain or anything that can Society may give aid in this serious be used as food. Some of them stagger crisis, and help to prevent the permaas they walk. The cries of hungry nent weakening of the Protestant cause people for food in the darkness at rail- by the enforced closing of so many road stations is often heartrending. schools. Parents take their children to the mis- 8ionaries, offering to give them away All ordinary civil government meanfor food;" while being suspended, martial law pre- vails. The whole country is divided into Rev. James Smith, of Ahmednagar, military circles, and great powers are writes. that "in the district of India, placed in the hands of the officers comover which famine is now impending, manding. The General's plan seems to there are 80,000,000 of people who in be to lay down principles for the guidgood times have only one meal a day, ance of subordinates, and tben to allow and that 40,000,000 always go to bed large liberty in carrying them out. hungry. To these millions the present Thus in different parts of the country dearth means death, as the increased very different modes of operation may price· of grain has raised the cost of be employed, and a very different attImaintenance per capita from one to tude assumed towards the work of three cents per day, and the Viceroy of Protestant missions. In some districts India has telegraphed to London that the clear instructions of General Galliem '72,000,000 must succumb to famine in reference to religious freedom seem unless assisted." fully carried out; while at the same time in other districts Protestants are A correspondent says as to affairs made to feel that they are at the mercy 1n Madagascar: "General Gallieni seeks of officers who suspect and dislike them. to extend the French outposts and re- A Protestant church at Fiaferana, built store order. Refugees are returning, in part by the contributions of native and Christian services resumed in vil- congregations, has been forcibly taken lages, lately in the hands of tbe rebels. and handed over to the Roman Catho- Tliousands of Christians have suffered lics, and Protestants are forbidden to greatly, many having lost everything enter it. At Tsiafahy another church in but their lands, but they have patiently connection with the London Missionary endured tribulations. Many nominal Christians have in fear joined the rebel Society was taken by the officer in bands, and a few have been among the command and used for a Roman Catholeaders; but the Christians, as a whole, lic service; but it has since been rehave been loyal and law-abiding. The stored. In another district the whole rebellion has taken, from the beginning, of the school teachers were called be- fore the commandant and told, among a distinctly anti-Christiaii form; places. other things, that henceforth no relig- ious instruction is to be given in the schools held in Protestant buildings, and supported. by the native Protestant the great work done among the women congregations and by the London Mis- of the Indian Empire, this magazine is sionary Society. A missionar,Y going to indispensable. It is well illustrated visit a village in a district WhICh he has and full of interesting and informing worked for a quarter of a century, was matter. Those who think that a virtually arrested and charged with monthly magazine contains only mat- collecting the people unlawfully with- ters of transient interest should give ont permission of the officer in charge. " The Zenana" a careful perusal. One notices that all these irritating measures are taken against the work of "'India, and Daily Life in Bengal," English Protestants. Time after time also their churches have been occupied by Z. F. Griffin, is publisht for the by the French troops; but I have not heard of a sin~le instance in which a author at Buffalo, N. Y. Roman Catholic church has been taken for such purposes." It is the object of this book, of less than 200 pages, to give details of life in Oongregational Work. This is the India which are not generally supplied title of the new monthly publication by books. The author spent two and a devoted to the Home and Foreign Mis- half years in travel through the coun- try as "field secretary of our forei~ sionary operations of the Congregational mission work."- He does not explam churches in the United States. whose foreign mission work he means, tho the reader discovers it is the Free It has been started in answer to a Baptists. " He was for ten years a misstrong feeling in the Congregational sionary in India. The last two chapbody, that the missionary intelligence ters on "Hinduism," and " Mission of the denomination has not hitherto Work" contain the gist of the informabeen thoroughly disseminated through- tion found in this volume as to the out its rank and file. One hundred purely religious aspects of Indian and twenty-five thousand copies of the affairs. The rest of the work is, as first edition will be circulated, and in the author says, a bird's eye view of view of the subscriptions already re- this interesting land and people, and ceived from the churches, the watch- will be found well worth a reading. word of the paper "into every family" may soon be realized. Among other books, issued by F. H.
Oongregational Work is attractively Revell Co., N. Y., we would call attenprinted, ably edited, and furnished to churches at the cost of 10 cents per tion to the following as all worthy of a year. place in the fine missionary library that U The Missionary Calendar of Prayer," issued by the Woman's Bap. this publishing house furnishes at such tist Missionary Society, Philadelphia, is a very beautiful calendar with an low cost. exquisite selection of texts, beautifully " J /Iopan, Its People and Missions," by illustrated. To have such a calendar before one day by day is both a re- Jesse Page, a book of 160 pages, well minder and an incentive, along the line illustrated and ful~ of interesting matter.
of missionary effort, giving and praying. "Through Egypt to Palestine," by .. The Zenana:" or Woman's Work in Lee S. Smith, with original illustra- India, the monthly magazine of the tions. Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, published by Partridge & Co., 9 Pater- "Pioneering in New Guinea," by noster Row, E. C., London, England, James Chalmers, likewise abundantly has been issued in a second volume and originally illustrated. This will be bound for 1895, at half a crown. This bound volume contains the numbers found bristling with points; graphic from Nov. 1894 to Oct. 1895, inclusive. and fascinating-a story of real pioneer- To those who desire to keep track of ing.
The American Baptist Publication Society likewise issue "The Lone Star" -the history of the Zelugn Mission. This tale of missions we have long re- garded as one of the great classics of all mission history. No one can afford not to read it, who aims at even a re- spectable knowledge of "The new acts of the apostles," as they are being written in our day.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENcE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
:Extraots and Translations from Foreign -The Annual Report of the Church Periodioals. Missionary Society for 1895-6 gives a full and compact statement of Chinese BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, opposition to foreigners and of the sit- uation generally. MASS. " Anxious eyes have again and aglin CmNA. been directed to China during the year under review. Bishop Moule, speaking -A pious Chinese Christian, Chang at St. James' Hall in May, 1895, with Wang, mentioned in the Damk Mi88ions special reference to the war between Btad, remarkt once: "Solomon was China and Japan, then first concluded, seven years in building the first temple; said: 'Some of us, who are looking Herod forty-six years in renewing the with deep affection on that great nation, second, but Lord Jesus has been nine- are wondering whether it will please teen hundred years already in prepar- God to permit her to pass out of this ing a place for us. How glorious then terrible crisis which has been upon her it will be when He has it finisht I" without further trouble, without inter- nal convulsions and practical anarchy – " The Chinese have the repute of amongst her three hundred millions of being a proud, haughty people. But people.' The potentialities of the situthe more intimate our relations become ation were indeed exceedingly grave. with them, the more completely does A government corrupt to the very core, this prepossession evaporate. Beyond and in every department of its adminisquestion foreigners find the mandarins tration, legislative, judicial, and execuand other oflicials haughty enough, and tive; an armydefeated and disorganized, indeed the literary classes generally, disperst over the land; a people not almost -universally. It is these classes affected by any profound sense of loythat form the chief obstacle to the Gos- alty to the ruling dynasty-such condipel. Li Hung Chang mayor may not tions amply justified the apprehensions have assured the French that their which were entertained and exprest. army, and the Germans that theirs was the best in Europe. At all events such "The first serious disturbance, howa sacrifice of sincerity to courting is ever, has its own causes, not in the discharacteristic of Chinese functionaries. content or ambitions or passions of the And to insincerity most of them add people in relation to their rulers, but in oppressiveness. The people sigh under the hatred of the ruling classes themthe burden, above all those who, on the selves toward foreigners. Before decoast, or perhaps abroad, have become scribing these disturbances, a few words familiar with just government, and if in evidence of this deep. rooted dislike Europe and America do not intervene, may be introduced. Mr. Valentine which in view of the chronic suspi- Chirrol, in his recent book, 'The Far ciousness of the different powers to- Eastern Question,' testifies to the invetwards each other is hardly to be looked erate nature of this antipathy. He enfor, a revolution is likely to ensue joyed the probably unique privilege, as before very many years through Chi- an unoflicial person, of an interview nese hands, which God will doubtless with the Tsung-li-Yamen, or Board of turn to the advantage of His king- Foreign Relations, the regular channel dom and of the poor people."-Mission- for communications between the Forary GOTTSCHALK, in Berichte der rhein- eign Legations in Peking and the Chii8chen Mi88Wn8 Geaell8chtJj't. nese official world. He writes ;-
EXTRACTS AND
" , Outside of its official relations with Hunan, but in other provinces. He; the foreign representatives, the Chinese saw copies which had been publisht in would know nothing, and want to Si-chuan and in Kwangsi, on the covel!' know nothing, of the Western world. of which it was stated that all th6'1 The members of the Tsung-li-Yamen scholars and people of these two provthemselves have scarcely any inter- inces were, in imitation of Hunan,. course with the foreign representatives printing this book and widely distribat Peking, beyond making a few formal uting it. The author of this book i8lo calls on stated occasions and offering Chou Han, 'a disciple of ConfuciuS' th8m an annual banquet at their official and a Minister of the Great Pure Dyresidence. One or two may sometimes ac- nasty,' whose conduct in this respeca. cept invitations to a foreign Legation, was investigated in 1892 by the Viceroy but no mandarin can frequent a for- and the Governor of Hunan, and whQl. eigner's house without exposing him- was then declared 'not guilty,' but self to suspicion and obloquy. Even ,subject to fits of insanity.' Regarding the unsuccessful literati, who are driven this tract, Dr. Griffith John says ;- to accept employment as writers in the European Legations, will not compro- .. 'Of all the Hunan publications I de> mise themselves by showing any open not know one more violent, morer recognition of their employers when abusive, more foul, or more infiamma.- they meet them in a public thorough- tory than this. It finishes up with a fare. The whole atmosphere of Peking song, to be committed to memory by is saturated with hatred and contempt the reader. Were I to translate: of the foreigner, and the street urchins, and send it to you, you could noll who shout opprobrious epithets or fiing print it, it being too dirty and vile fop' mud and stones from a safe distance at your columns. I may, however, givehim as he passes; merely have the you the closing words, which are words. youthful courage of opinions which of exhortation to old and young; .. Let their elders only venture to betray by a fathers and elders teach the children to' sullen scowl or a muttered impreca- sing this song, and thus accumulate tion.' merit and secure happiness. Let the> little boys learn to sing this song, and! " This attitude of strong and persist- thus remove calamity and escape da~ ent and unswerving dislike toward for- ger. Why fear because the demons eigners, though happily by no means (foreigners) are many? We are firmly; universal among the official classes, is resolved to exterminate them utterly.'~ very widely prevalent. In the Annual All the charges brought against foreignr Report for 1891-2, reference was made ers are given in this book in full detail. to one most dangerous form in which The use of the eyes and brains, and it had been extensively manifested in other parts of the human body, for 1891, namely, by the distribution of medicinal and other purposes, is mi.. abominable placards, emanating chiefiy nutely described. The history of Jesus from the province of Hunan, regarding is given; and anything more blallphe– foreigners. To these placards the numer- mous it would be impossible for the ous riots which occurred in 1891 were mind of man to conceive. considered to be largely due, and they led to a joint representation by the for- "'This is the book which Chou Ham eign ministers to the Chinese govern- has been scattering over the fa.ce of· ment in that year. The Rev. Dr. Grif- the land. We know now that ther6'1 fith John, the veteran missionary of the is a Si-chuan edition and a Kwangsi London Missionary Society, discovered edition. It is highly probable tha~ in the course of 1895 that the worst of every province has its edition. Be that these papers were still being printed as it may, there can be no doubt as to> and circulated, and that not only in the widespread dissemination of the book.'''
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
INDIA. character, the religious belief of the -The Ohureh Mi88iona1'1l InteUigencer Hindus has really no single succinct for August had a leading article on Dr. designation. ' "
Miller's recent Madras lecture. It is Dr. Miller, however, neglecting popu- mild and careful, but expresses" genu- lar Hinduism on the ground that no ine regret at the opinions exprest in it, religion is worthy of itself in its popu- which seem to us in some points lar disfigurements. appears to make it to be not only defective, but mis- his place to compare before his pupils leading. the essential Hindu and the Ohristian – "The assumption that all creeds are, ideal, in the hope that they shall ac- In the main, equally worthy of accept- knowledge the immense superiority of ance, is one which lies at the root of the latter, as it appears that many do.
much indifference to the work of For- "But," says Bishop Caldwell, "with- eign Missions. It is one which, as far out any dislike for Christianity as 8.
as we know, is not held by any Chris- religion; regarding it on the contrary tian missionary"-and of course not by as an excellent religion, probably the Dr. Miller-" although there may be best in the world, Hindus are so in- some who are disposed to allow more tensely nationalistic and conservative, value to other religions than we are able and so intensely jealous about ~he re- to allow. To examine the position of tention of their social respectability, these optimists, let us see what Bishop that they will on no account consent to Caldwell says: 'The theism of the a conversion taking place. • • As a Hindu religious system is avowedly or rule, the pupils are quite ready to be in- virtually Pantheism, not the belief held structed, and even to be convinced, by Christians in a God who has made provided only that they are not required the world, and governs it in the inter- to act upon their conviction. . . • ests of righteousness.' Again, Sir M. The difficulty we have to deal with is Monier-Williams says in the introduc- not so much the resistance of the mind tion to his 'Indian Wisdom:' 'Nothing to truth, as resistance to change, the can possibly be more simple than gulf between convictions and actions, Esoteric Hinduism. It is . . spiritual the absence of moral courage, which Pantheism. A pantheistic creed of this so generally ,characterizes the Indian kind is the simplest of all beliefs, mind, and which nothing can overcome because it teaches that nothing really but special grace from above. • • • exists but the one universal Spirit; that To be almost a convert is the highest the soul of each individual is identical point that many well-disposed Hindus with that one Spirit; and that every have reacht at present. "
man's highest aim should be to get rid The InteUigen~r objects to Dr. Mil- forever of having, being and doing ler's talking so much about ideals.
with a view to such spiritual knowledge Christ is not an ideal, but a Living as shall force upon him the conviction Person, coming into the world by the that he is himself part of the One free act of the Godhead, revealing God, Being constituting the universe. (Ex- and through His personal Spirit enter- ()teric or) Popular Hinduism supposes ing into living communion with those that God may, for His own purposes, who receive and confess Him. How amuse Himself by illusory appearances can this be made equivalent with a The Hindu religious creed, misty recognition of Him as a sublime starting from the Veda, ends by ap- Ideal, by those who remain in a relig- pearing to embrace something from all ious community which does not reveal religions . . . It is at once vague- the God whom He reveals, nor the ly pantheistic, severely monotheistic, Regeneration which He imparts, nor the grossly polytheistic, and coldly atheis- Eternal Life. which He promises?
tic . . . In unison with its variable However, Dr. Miller expressly declares
ENGLISH NOTES
that he does not mean to disparage EngliSh Notas. baptism. The precise force and intention of his lecture can probably not be BY JAMES DOUGLAS.
well understood except from familiarity "Latest Uganda StatistiC8-a Dilem- with the conditions of Indian life. ma."-This tractate has been publisht Christian apologists, from St. Paul at by Mr. Pilkington, showing the vast- Athens down, have often allowed them- ness of the population and area of this selves to use language to them without district of Africa, and the insufficiency which was far from expressing the as regards the workers there. Three intimacy of their own convictions and out of the nineteen districts are quite experience. unoccupied by Europeans, and several _H It is the painful fact that those others, having areas of from 200 to who now go to India, whether mission- 2,000 square miles, are occupied only aries or chaplains, as preachers of the by two workers. Mr. Pilkington asks Gospel of Christ, no longer find them- " are all these magnificent openings for selves confronted merely by native fresh Gospel victories to be allowed to champions of Heathenism. They are pass by?" And he adds, "We leave the compelled to meet in controversy Euro- question with those who can give it a peans who have reversed the happy ex- practical answer, which is the onlyan. perience of the Thessalonians, and have swer worth giving…
turned frmn God to idols, to deny even We8tern lndia.-"We learn that the the existence of the True God. " Rev. A. Manwaring baptized at Pasik, -REv. J. IRELAND JONES, in O. M. last August, a somewhat notable con- Intelligerwer • vert, viz., Professor Pandit Gopal -Mr. Bowles Daly, LL.D., of Dub- Chundra Sastra, M.A. The pandit is an Oriental scholar, and was at one time a. lin University, formerly, it appears, a magistrate of the second class. He has traveled widely in India, and has visited clergyman of the Irish Church, but now Burma, Ceylon, Aden, and even Tibet, as a preacher and teacher of Hinduism. a Buddhist, has lately given a report, He attributes his conversion to the Bible only. He says "It is the Book of which Mr. Jones remarks: "Dr. through which God speaks to man; by constantly reading both Testaments I Daly's report indicates how completely have been able to understand the True the moral principles of Buddhism have Religion and the only Mediator." failed to influence the lives of those London Missionary Societg.-The So- most bound to enforce them. He does ciety is cheered by being able to send not allude to, because he does not out eighteen new missionaries. This understand, the reason of failure. does not represent entirely new work Buddhism has in it no living principle, beginning, as several of the friends goand it appeals to nothing higher than ing out have to step into vacancies personal selfishness. It knows no Liv- caused by death, retirement and other ing God. whose commands are those of circumstances. Appeals from various an Almighty King, and whose precepts quarters are constantly coming to hand, are those of a wise and loving Father. and funds and volunteers are still ur· It teaches no chord which vibrates gently needed for the furtherance of the with gratitude in the realization of work. pardon, purchased and bestowed; and in its denial of the existence of a per- Work in Madagaacar.-The Memorial sonal soul in man, it quenches that Church at Ambokipstay, which for over stimulus to believers and purity of life a year has been occupied by the French which lies in the blessed hope of a soldiers, is once more in full possession glorious and sinless hereafter. However subtle its metaphysics, however profound its so-called philosophy, however excellent some of its precepts, such a religion leaves untarnisht mm's moral nature; it fails to reach and influence his heart, and must be, as experience demonstrates that it is, powerless to elevate as it is impotent to Ave.'" ,
GENERAL KISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
of the native church. Very little dam- Samoan Delegates in Oouneil.-The age was found to have been done, and twenty-third council meeting has re- the building and the churchyard were cently been held, and a discussion on left clean and in order. the social condition of Samoa took place, pointing out the great need of the The Rev. W. E. Cousins writes: "We people for further enlightening. The have had an excellent congregation resolution referring to the control of this morning, the body of the chapel the clan over the marriage contract and being well filled. Our service was al- the distribution of native property was most like that usual at the opening of a the great battle-ground of the confer- new church. ence. The three papers read at the meeting were of a very practical and The Faithfulnes8 of a Ohristian Lep- useful character, and these are to be er.-A poor leper, named David, who publisht and circulated throughout the had been an evaugelist beforehis terrible group and out-stations. In every affliction, was entrusted by Mr. Peake way this conference is encouraging in with money and supplies for the in- its promise for the future, altho the habitants of the village for lepers, who resolution referring to the marriage had been robbed and ill-treated by the contract and native property distriburebels. By some means the rebels got tion was not past in the form in which to know that David was the bearer of it stood, but had to be compromised. the money. They seized him, and hav- Still this result is better than that ar. ing stolen the money and other goods, rived at before, and ere long it is to be demanded that he should renounce hoped the natives will, be freed from Christianity. On his refusal, they their self-imposed bondage. most brutally murdered him. Thus perisht another martyr to the faith of Baptist Missionary Society. – Last Jesus Christ. month, at the autumnal meetings at Bristol, leave was taken of nineteen out- From Dr. Griffith John's testimony going missionaries, some of whom are to the late Dr. Lockhart, we cull the fresh to the work. Others returning to following: "Dr. Lockhart was more their spheres after having been in Engthan a physician, he was heart and soul land on furlough.. The valedictory a mIsSlOnary. He took the deepest in- address was given by the Rev. Dr. terest in every department of the mis- Landells-an address full of tender sionary work, and every afternoon he sympathy and wise counsel. At the might be seen rushing into the native close of the address, the missionaries city with his bundles of Scripture and were commended in prayer to the safe tracts, which he gave away as oppor- keeping of the heavenly Father, and tunities presented themselves. On my the congregation joined in singing the last visit to England he said, with much hymn, "God be with you till we meet feeling, 'John, I wish I could go back again." with you, the missionary life is the only life worth living. Looking back upon At Delhi are manifest signs that the my life, I can truly say that the happiest spirit is working among the people. days I have ever known were the days Mr. Thomas Herbert writes, telling of spent in China doing God's work.' the baptism of two young men, sons of When thinking of paying another visit Christians who had been cut off in that to England, the expectation of meeting sad apostasy among Chamar Christians Dr. Lockhart and spending some time in 1890. In one case the father is dead, with him, was one of the main sources but in the other illness alone prevented of attraction. The world is much him from being readmitted to the Lord's poorer to me now that my beloved table on the day when his son, for the friend is no more in it. But we shall first time, was taking the communion. meet again, and that before very long. Presbyterian Church of England.- ures must be taken by the Japanese. A Great distress has been among the For- great mass-meeting of the Japanese mosan Christians and their heathen people has been held to bring about the relatives: many have been rendered change. None will wish more speedy homeless and destitute. Some of the success than the missionaries of the injuries have been inflicted by Japanese Gospel on the island. soldiers, and some were the work of Chinese brigands and rebels, many of Regions &yond.-Dr. HarryGuiness, whom have been specially hostile to in an address on "Shall we Abandon Christians. Extreme suffering and want Central Africa," concludes as follows: is the result of this outrage, and a .. Relief Fund," to meet the more "Belgian', French, English, and Porurgent cases is being organized. tuguese traders do not flinch from en- countering the dangers of the Congo Foreign Schools in Ohina.-There are climate, for the sake of worldly adnow upwards of a thousand schools of vancement. It were a thousand shames various descriptions for natives in China were we to lag behind! " under foreign instruction or direction. They range from the village day-school Another Side of tM PiCture.-There up to high-schools and colleges. Many is, however, in connection with our Qf these schools have been in operation Congo mission, another side to the from ten to twenty years, so that the picture, and one that is full of hope. number of youthful Chinese who have Whilst our trials and difficulties are actually been brought up under foreign undoubtedly great, we have a compareducational Influence of a Christian ative exemption from certain' hincharacter may safely be estimated at drances which are found in other misconsiderably over a quarter of a million. sion fields. Lolo Land offers no religion of antiquity to combat, no ancient sys- A Jubile6 History of tM Mis8ion in tem of caste preventing ready access to Ohina is in course of preparation by the the minds and hearts of the people: Rev. Jas. Johnston, one of the earliest and, thank God, no persecution such as of the Amoy missionaries, whose daugh- in Mohammedan countries frequently ter, 'Miss Jessie Johnston, is in Amoy awaits those who make an open profesnow. Mr. Johnston knows intimately sion of their faith in Christ. the history of the mission and the characteristics of the fleld it occupies, and Moreover, God has markedly proswill, of course,' write it as one whose pered all the efforts put forth, so that heart is in the midst of it. The volume on the Lower Congo there are to-day will be amply illustrated, and is sure to many hundreds of native Christians be of the greatest interest and value. gathered out of the darkness of super- stition into the Light of Christ, whilst FO'f17Wsa Under Japanese Rule.-The on the upper river numbers have been law enacted to put down the sale of baptized, and the cloud is already seen opium in the island of Formosa seems, on the horizon which betokens an unfortunately, to be laid aside by the abundance of rain!" Japanese parliament. The feeling of the people is very strongly against the THE KINGDOM. sale of opium in Formosa, realizing the curse it is in China, and the great good " My life is not my own, but the non-use is to the Japanese. Christ's, who gave it ; And He bestows it upon all the race. The use of the drug has firm hold on I lose it for myself, and thus I save it ; the island, as it was the first part of the I hold it close, but only to expend it : Chinese Empire in which opium-smok- Accept it, Lord, for others through ing was practist; therefore, in order Thy grace." that it be abolisht, very strict meas- -The missionary idea, translated and transfigured into missionary service, is one of the most incontestable evidences [Tmt.JE statistics are designed to include only Missions among either non-Christianor non· reduced. Accuracy has been sought, but also completeness, and hence conservative estimates within the space afforded by two pages of this Magazine, a large number of the smaller and r:i eli . . -. jl l~.8=,.,=.S . ."""!!hi. NaEs OF MISSIONARY SoCIETIES IN ~§ ~·I — o.:a~ ~'.I GREAT BRITAIN AND UPON THE CON' ~ ~ !; "".~d ~B TINENT, AND 8UlIfJLI.RIES FOR ASIA. ~ ~~ ~<I:0t"j AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, ETC. ."!:l t4 1<0:8" ~~ oZ AtlI) ~8~° !~ 0 – – – — — Baptist (England) •••••••••••••••••••. 1792 $411,975 82 64 95 63 S04 68 819 Strict Baptlst._•••••_ ••••••_ •• 1861 4,905 2 0 2 1 5 8 57 London Society (L. M. S.} •••••••••••• 1795 954,580 158 87 158 68 411 411 2,591 Church Society (C. M. S.}•••••••_ •• 1799 1,342,680 883 94 299 218 009 319 5,390 Propagation Society (S. P. G.) •••••••• 1701 611,685 589 70 854 170 1,188 180 3,800 Universities' Mission••••••••••_ •••• 1859 133,105 28 21 1 28 78 9 115 The Friends'••••••••••••- -•••••• 1867 63,860 23 0 16 18 59 13 425 Wesleyan Society._••••_ . _•••• 1816 657,086 180 270 216 195 741 175 2,775 Methodist New Connection•••••••_ 1859 23,000 11 4 11 0 26 0 108 Primitlve Methodist._••__ •••_._••. 1869 22,100 9 0 8 0 17 0 60 U nited Methodist Free Churches._ 1887 46,920 58 0 11 1 70 0 883 Welsh Calvinlstlc._••••_ •••••••. 1841 89,565 14 2 11 6 33 6 209 Presbyterian Church of England•••_ 1847 97,055 80 8 27 17 77 15 147 Presbyterian Church of Ireland•••••. 1840 95,595 95 1 22 12 60 12 216 China Inland Mission.•••••___•••••••• 1865 168,876 89 201 105 262 657 11 842 Established Church of Scotland-•• 1829 1112,220 20 12 21 45 00 8 443 F rae Church of Scotland••_••• -••••• 1848 832,665 64 26 58 56 204 23 1,018 Reformed Presbyterian ••- – -••••-. 1842 18,050 8 0 1 0 4 0 9 United Presbyterian••••__ •___ •••_•••• 1847 100,000 76 20 66 45 207 19 788 other British 800ieti88_ _ _._•••• —… 422,000 87 256 140 512 l95 95 2,589 Parls SOclety.•••••••••••••_ _ _ 1822 94,800 82 5 81 7 75 28 818 BasIe Society_ _ _ _ _••••_ .• 1815 296,391 149 48 117 8 322 85 840 .Berlin Soclety___••••••••••••_._. 1824 189,4112 74 17 69 4, 164 0 164 Breklum (Schleswlg·Holstein).__•• 1877 14,000 10 0 7 0 17 0 25 Gossner's Society.••____••_••_••_ 1886 48,000 18 14 20 8 55 19 440 Hermannsburg Soclety•••_•••_._ •• 1854 60,672 50 7 51 0 108 0 866 I.eIpsic SOClety••••_.__•___••••__ 1886 97,836 89 4 28 3 74 17 611 Moravian Church••__•••••_••_.__. _ 1782 148,678 100 78 157 15 845 23 1,979 North German SOclety•••_••••_•••_•• 1836 27,000 14 5 7 7 33 1 87 Rhenlsh Society (Barmen) ••••••••••_ 1829 123,986 00 11 85 8 194 28 290 – EIght other German Socleties_._••••• 70,000 12 63 88 19 132 4 58 – Twelve Netherlands SocietieS-._ 145,000 152 0 180 0 282 12 672 – F ffteen Scandinavian SOCietie~_ _ •. 298,500 87 48 Il6 71 802 70 1,875 — Socleties in Asla,Africa,Australia,eOO. .. Totals for Europe, Asia, eoo..••___• —- 180 400 -285 -175 940 -287 7,500 2.888 1-,776 2,788 1-,962 – Totals for America._._•••_……….. 9,951 1,816 86,890 – Totals for Chrlstendom•••____ ••••.• 500,000 – – — — – — — $7,889,577 4,825 1,588 15,847 – – – – – – – $5,693,020 1,396 672 1,892 1-,385 $13,582,597 4,279 2,448 4,180 3,297 14,076 8,854 51,787 Protestant peoples, and hence the figures of certain societies doing colonial work have been have been made concerning certain items omitted from some reports. Malnlyin order to keep special organizations have been grouped together.] oS U.",' §. "<"~'I!'.l>.g~.<,j ! I'l"; ~ -;} z] Countries in which ~~ Missions are Sustained. ~.,; …,.~w. …:l ~f~~1· E ~ ,<:l f:;~ "<,!zl'~t6: ~8 0" w. ell "3"1"1" 0 0""
Eo< ——– ——— 43,198 India China, Palestine, Africa, West 1,116 1,016 53,780 3,452 161,340 650 Indies.
68 25 557 89 1,820 80 576 India (Madras, Ceylon).
8,002 867 27,082 1,560 108,929 1,108 44,604 China, India, Africa, Madagascar, 6,882 462 58,564 2,026 217,825 2,180 Polynesia. 4,488 4,500 35,000 4,500 208,000 850 81 1,278 88,205 Persia, China, Japan, India, Africa. 198 168 4,877 44 North America, etc.
88,000 India, China, Japan, Maiaysia. Africa, West Indies, etc.
16,96 Africa (Lake N,assa and Zanzibar).
484 16 2,725 95 14,715 165 12,618 Palestine, India, China, Madagas- 8,516 2,249 52,687 1,979 145,000 car. 2,471 184 99 146 7,400 880 57,000 India, China, Africa (West and SouthJ West Indies.
20 416 China ( iumtung, Tien·tsin).
77 28 986 80 3,000 8 40 Africa (Fernando Po, Zambesl).
453 65 10,614 250 24,000 180 8,000 China, Africa, Australia.
285 292 2,868 828 12,854 260 6,409 N. E. India, France (Brittany).
224 116 4,640 418 13,000 52 5,600 India, China, Malaysia.
276 45 1,020 817 3,200 57 5,000 China, India (Kathiawar), Syria.
929 244 5,211 847 18,000 66 880 China (Fifteen Provinces).
641 151 1,871 167 7,600 206 13;049 India, East Africa, Palestine.
1,207 805 9,017 754 25,000 418 25,877 India, Africa, South and East, Ara- bia, Palestine, New Hebrides. 150 2 165 Syria (Antioch, etc.). 18 2 43 3 945 284 19,949 712 54,000 281 17,576 India, China, Japan, Africa, West 8,559 198 – 9,697 1,120 and South, West Indies.
28,000 120 15,000 898 198 18,868 333 40,000 845 9,428 Africa, South and West, Tahiti.
1,162 474 15,960 1,503 31,708 861 18,796 South India, China, West Africa.
328 201 18,922 700 28,315 120 5,566 Africa, East and South, China.
42 8 55 18 150 7 120 India (Telugus).
495 50 13,020 970 40,000 120 8,140 India (Ganges, Chota Nagpore).
474 184 20,972 884 82,015 60 4,550 India, South Africa, New Zealand.
685 87 7,187 527 15,044 208 5,775 South India, lIurma, British and 82,681 1,555 95,439 German East Africa. 11,824 1 168 1,800 70 25 860 150 258 24,916 South Africa, Australia, Sonth Am· erica, West Indies, Eskimo.
28 650 West Africa, New Zealand.
487 280 18,899 B85 60,144 282 9,608 Africa, East Indies, New Guinea, 190 80 870 ChL1a. 1,000 5 280 45 954 502 88,000 3,420 280,000 150 2,780 1,677 824 81,650 2,500 90,000 415 82,000 – – 8.440 – – – 1,470 240,000 – -4,5-00 – -80-0,0-00 -1,8-00 -4-8,0-00 – – -45-,62-8 14,841 -79-6,8-59 -8-6,8-91 -2-,028-,82-0 -11,5-66 -44-4,4-68 – – – – – – – – 20,142 6,049 815,287 901,648 5,875 212,271 — — – – – – – 25,569 – 65,765 20,890 1,112,146 61,950 2,924,968 17,441 656,739 [February of Christ's presence in the world. It "Come over and help us," "-We, His is Christ in the presence of his servants, servants, will arise and build," •• The loving and laboring and going about Lord hath need of it," .. Workers todoing good, and touching a sin-stricken gether with Him." And some of the world in order to make it whole. Trans- owners of these boxes look beyond· the late that grand word redemption into present needs and opportunities, and action, and it is missions. The Church send with their offerings such messages <can have no such sign of Christ's living as "The heathen for Thine inherit· presence and gracious power in the ance," "The idols He shall utterly world as she has in the existence of the abolish," "The Lord shall be King missionary spirit in her members and the over all the earth," .. Till He come," ~eports of missionary success from the and "To bring back the King."- tields.-Rev. J. S. Denni8. OhU1'ch MiBsionaru InteUigencer-.
-Sister Dora gave up her life to -I assert it to be a fact beyond connursing sick people. At the head of tradiction that there is not a ruler, offiher bed a bell was fixt by which suffer- cial, merchant, or any other person, ers could summon her at any hour of from emperors, judges, governors, :the night. As she rose at the sound of counselors, generals, ministers, admithe signal she used to murmur these rals, merchants, and others, down to words as if they were a charm: "The the lowest coolies in China and Japan, Master is come, and calleth for thee." Siam and Korea, who, in their asso- ciates or dealings with their fellow· -The Friends' Tithing League is men in that quarter of the globe, are the name of a new organization, or not indebted every day of their lives to other, of an added wheel to the Chris· the work and achievements of the tian Endeavorer's work, which was in· American missionaries.-Rear·Admiral ~ugurated at Richmond, Ind., at the Belknap, U.S.N. Christian Endeavorer's annual meeting during the time of the late Yearly Meet- -It has been justly said of Dr. Van. ing. The following is its pledge: derkemp, one of the first missionaries .. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for to South Africa, that "for combining guidance, I promise to give at least one- natural talents, extensive learning, ele· tenth of my income to support the work vated piety, ardent zeal, disinterested .of the Lord." benevolence, unshaken perseverance and unfeigned humility, he has not -The names of missionary box- been equalled since the days of the holders do not, as a rule, convey much Apostles." Dr. Moffat says of him: to friends outside the parish circle, "He came from the university to teach rutho the sum total collected may inter· the alphabet to the poor naked Hotten- -est them. One long list, however, tot and Kaffir; from the society of which comes from a large suburban nobles to associate with beings of .association, gives much food for thought the lowest grade of humanity; from and scope for imagination. A large num- stately mansions to the filthy hovel of ber of the box-holders prefer to with- the greasy African; from the army to hold their names and to give instead instruct the fierce savage in the tactics eome favorite text or motto. A spirit of a Heavenly warfare under the ban- ()f consecratfon seems indicated by such ner of the Prince of Peace; from the expressions as "For God's glory," study of medicine to become a guide to "For Christ's sake," "For the Master's the Balm of Gilead and the physician use," "For the work of the King," there; and finally from a life of earthly .. Of Thine own have we given Thee," honor and ease to be exposed to perils A deep sense of personal responsibility of waters, of robbers, of his own conn- 4Stamps -the choice of such mottoes as trymen, of the heathen, in the city, in no active zeal for missionary work, the wilderness." which there is not in the Church at large to·day, there is not real prayer, -At a great missionary meeting re- "The Church is in no dire extremity at cently held in Glasgow, Principal all. She is in no position where she can Whitton, of Nagpore, India, said: expect an answer to her prayer.. She is .. This century has taught this at least merely repeating by rote words which -that it is the duty of the Christian she does not feel. She is not praying in Church to go to work among the hea· any true sense of the term. The means then unto the ends of the earth. He for the world's conversion are, to·day, thought, with regard to missions, that in the power of the Church. She can the proper view to take was that the do the work if she will. Why shirk Christian Church had been going the work under the pretense of piety? through an apprenticeship to the work Why transfer her responsibility to the of converting the heathen. First of all, Lord? Weare, certainly, at this day they tried the evangelistic method alone, prepared to confess that if the world is but they soon found that there were converted to Christ, it must be done by very many whom they were not reach· human and ordinary means. It is the ing by that method. Then they intro· business of the Church to do it. She duced the educational method, which was sent for that, and that is the meanwas producing a revolution in the In- ing of her being here." dian religious thought of to.day. Then they introduced the medical method, so -Year by year Dean Vahl is performit would be seen that they were look- ing for Christendom an invaluable ser· ing in this direction and in that direc· vice by the preparation and publication tion, using this tool and that tool to see of his pamphlet, "A Statistical Review which would work best. He was not of Missions to the Heathen." The quite certain that the apprenticeship tables of figures are unapproacht for was ended. Probably they had a great both comprehensiveness and abundeal to learn, but there were four years dance of detail. The fifth annual issue yet to come, and if they hurried up has come to hand, containing statistics perhaps their apprenticeship would be for 1893-4. These are his summaries: finisht by the end of the century. Then, Income of 352 societies, $13,974,915; when they had learned what tools to missionaries, 5,933; missionaries' wives, use, and how to use them, let the next 1,904; unmarried women, 3,341; native century give the results for which they ministers, 3,815; native helpers, 49,796; had been so long working and praying." communicants, 1,060,822.
-Bishop Thompson, of Mississippi, -The famine in India and the rinderasks this solemn question in T lw Spirit pest in South Africa are as grave as any of Missions.- "Is the Church's refusal political problems of the day. In India, to do her work, and the asking of the the pinch of hunger is being keenly felt, Lord in some extraordinary way to do while in Alrica, according to Mr. F. R. it for her-is that, no matter how fre· Thompson, of Matabeleland, the rinderquent and how often the asking, is that pest is the gravest situation any British prayer'! We may say the Church neur colony has ever had to face, and far exprays for the conversion of the world, ceeds in importance the Transvaal war, and challenge the contradiction of the native rebellions, and Jameson's raid. statement." This conclusion is reacht He does not think that one per cent. of thus: an earnest desire for the thing the cattle will be saved. askt for is an essential element of true prayer; slackness in putting forth -The Oong1'egationali8t, in commentefforts proves tbe absence of a strong ing on the recent order for 1,000,000 desire; and consequently where there is of Spurgeon's sermons, says: .. Except the Sermon on the Mount, no sermons have ever had so wide a circulation, nor, -Within the next two decades it will indeed, can any work of secular litera- be decided whether the negro, by dis- ture compare wJth them in the number carding ante·bellum ideas and methods, of probable readers in a single genera- by putting brains and skill into the tion. Ana the power is not in style, common occupations that lie at his door, which is of the simplest, or thought;. will be able to lift labor out of toil, which is neither deep nor subtle, but in drudgery, and degradation into that adaptation of evangelical truth to the which is beautiful, dignified, glorified.
heart and conscience of plain people." Further, it will be decided within this time whether the negro is to be replaced, UNITED STATES. crushed out as a helpful industrial force by the fast spreading trades unions -In his" Conversion of India," Dr. in connection with thousands of foreign George Smith, of Scotland, says: "The skilled laborers, that even now press foreign politics of the United States of hard and fast upon the heels of the America are foreign missions. Starting negro and seem to press us unto the into national life, free alike from the very death.-Booker T. Wa8hington. ecclesiastical bonds, the feudal institu- tions, and the political interests of -To educate 24,000 Indian children Europe, but possessing the full heritage requires an annual appropriation by of British history, literature, and char- Congress of over $2,000,000. There acter, the Americans were from the are, even then, 14,000 unprovided for.
first prepared to become the chief mes- Some of the schools, such as that at Car- sengers of Christ to the human race. lisle, Pa., and the Haskell Institute, at In 400 years they have, by Christian Lawrence, Kans., have been establisht colonization and home missions, evan- away from the reservations, and the gelized their own continent from the training is chietly industrial. There Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, bringing are 22 of these, scattered at different into the Church the remnant of the Red points, and about 5,000 Indian youth Indian tribes, and giving to Christen- are successfully learning self.support in dom its •richest acquisition' in 65,000,- them. But "the backbone of the Indian 000 of Christian citizens, whom every educational system," according to Com- year increases in number and influence. missioner Browning, is the reservation In the whole development of mankind boarding-school. These number 77, during 6,000 years there has been only and have over 8,000 pupils. .. Their one people and one land ready made, influence," says the commissioner, "in as it were, to be itself free, and to all uplifting the tribal life around them is beside the apostle of liberty in its high- wonderful." There isa third dass, the est form, the freedom which is in Christ day schools, numbering 124, which Jesus." probably come closer home to Indian -A Russian college bas just been life than the two first named. The dedicated at Minneapolis, Minn., by teachers in these schools are expected Bishop Nicholas. This prelate belongs not only to care for the children, but to to the Greek Church, and his bishopric do what they can to civilize the parents includes our Northwest with Alaska by instruction in domestic economy and and the Aleutian Islands. in the art of making attractive homes.
-On the 28th of October, 1646, John -" Mormonism as a religion lives and Eliot preacht at Nonantum, Mass., the will live for a long while to come, first Christian sermon in the Indian Mormonism as an advocate and pro- tongue ever delivered on this continent.
moter of polygamy' is dead. and we This was the beginning of a course of need have no more concern about it." instruction which was continued for -BiBlwp F088. forty years. He translated the Bible and several books to aid in practical York and Philadelphia to supervise the Christian living. At the end of one of organization_ Instead of deacons, these books he placed his motto, clergymen, and bishops, it is to have "Prnyer and pains, through faith in captains, majors, generals, and other Jesus Christ, will do anything." Said officers_ Instead of churches it is to Edward Everett, in an oration, July 4, have posts, companies, regiments, and 1855: "He is called the apostle to the brigades. A House of Evangelists has Indians. .An apostle I Truly I know been opened near the Grand Centr&l not who, since Peter and Paul, better Station in New York City, for the train- deserves that name." Eliot's 250th ing of officers, where "instrumental anniversary was celebrated recently in and vocal music will be taught and Newton, Mass. practical rescue work," with "lectures -The centenary of Mary Lyon's birth in elocution, mannerisms, and how to occurs Feb. 28, 1897. She was born in approach and win sinful persons."
Buckland, Mass., a hill-town in the -rhe New York Society for the western part of Franklin County. Prevention of Cruelty to Children, has There and in Ashfield, an adjoining during twenty-two years received and town, she laid the foundations of her investigated 102,501 complaints, involv- career as a great teacher. The Frank- ing more than 307,503 children; ob- lin County Association of Congrega- taining 36.981 convictions, and rescued tional ministers at a late meeting voted 56,160 children from vice, from sufferto recommend to the ministers and ing, and from destitution. Its recep- churches of the conference to observe tion rooms during the past fifteen years the centenary by a sermon on the fourtll of their establishment have Sheltered, Sunday of February on the life and clothed, and fed 24,932 children, and work of Mary Lyon and the taking of furnisht 233,870 substantial meals. an offering for the building fund of Mt. Day and night, in summer and in win- Holyoke College. ter, its doors are never closed. No child has ever .been turned away with- -The American Bible Society cir- out temporary shelter. Two hundred culates the Scriptures in nearly 100 and fifteen similar societies with the tongues_ Missionaries of every name like object have been organized through- are found among its correspondents and out the United States, and 81 others in co-workers. It had last year its regi- foreign lands.
ment of nearly 450 men engaged at its expense as distributors of the Bible in EUROPE.
foreign lands_ More than one-half of Great Britain.-We are told on good its issues in 1895 went into the hands of authority that the annual contributions Pagan, Mohammedan, or nominally of the Church of England for ber own Christian people outside of the United home work are just ten times the States. Not less than 888,898 of them amount she gives for Christian work were sold in China alone, and- about abroad, and that while we can supply 1 5,500,000 volumes in the various dia- woman worker for each 50 English lects of that empire have been printed women and girls, we can only afford 1 during the last fifty years. for each 100,000 in heathen and Mo- hammedan lands. -The Salvation Army idea has been adopted into the Episcopal Church. -Canon Scott Robertson has com- .An "army" which has existed for a pleted his twenty-fifth annual summary year or more has taken an important of moneys voluntarily contributed in forward step by the appointment of a the British Isles by all sections of Church Army Commission, consisting Christian people to the work of foreign of several Episcopal clergymen of New missions. It shows that for the year 1895 the total sum so contributed thus taking the Bible Society's money amounted to $6,938,325. The channels , for this work. Turning to Japan,it is of contribution selected by the support- interesting to know that the society ers of foreign mission work in 1895 lIells a Gospel there for half a farthing were as follows: Church of England -thus $5.00 buy about 500 copies each Socleties, $2,721,~60; Joint Societies of of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A Churchmen and Nonconformists, $921,- Church Missionary Society woman has 095; Nonconformist Societies in Eng- interested herself in placing these por- land and Wales, $2,229,235; Scotch tions in the shops of Osaka, a city with and Irish Presbyterian Societies, $1,- 500,000 inhabitants.
002,275; Roman Catholic Societies, -The news has been received of the $64,560. From this total are excluded death of the Rev. Henry Buckenham, all dividends, all interest, all foreign pioneer missionary of the Primitive contributions, and all balances in hand Methodist Church to Mashukulumbweat the beginning of the year. Last year land, north of the Zambesi, South Centhese joint agencies received $1,057,550 j tral Africa. More than seven years ago this year, only $921,095. Mr. 'Buckenham was sent out as super- -In a publication of the English intendent of a party of three, to the Church Missionary Society it is stated Barotse country. Not until between that the sum of $60,000 was raised last two and three years ago did the little year by the .. juvenile boxes" which band receive the needed permission are in such common use in Great Brit- from the king to evangelize the natives, ain for collecting missionary money. and then, altho reinforcements were The same publication reports that there despatched from England, the work have been 988 "sales of work," the was of the most arduous kind. Mr. avails of which have amounted to about Buckenham's health began to suffer, $115,000. and he had arranged to return to Eng- land, but on reaching Kanyungala, fifty -The Rev. W. Major Paull, who has miles below Palapye, he became pros- retired from the service of the British trated and died on July 11.
and Foreign Bible Society, says: "As -During 1896 the Scottish United far as langnage is concerned we are Presbyterian Church sent out 22 new able to put at least a Gospel into the missionaries, including wives, 14 going hands of three-quarters of the world's to Manchuria, 6 for Old Calabar, population. Notwithstanding this, at Africa, and 2 for India. the present time we have translations or revisions of existing translations going -George Muller, of Bristol, has on in more than one hundred lan- past his ninety-second birthday, in guages." full vigor of mind and body. In a -The British and Foreign Bible So- recent speech he said he had received ciety offers £144 a year to such mission- $7,000,000. He has had 9,700 children ary societies as will keep 12 or more under his immediate care, of whom Bible-women at work. Some societies 4,000 have been converted. He has avail themselves fully of this-others sent $1,285,000 to missionaries, and has partially. Some find that £144 enabled distributed 275,000 Bibles and 1,460,000 them to keep more than' 12 women in Testaments.
the field. In 1894 the Church Mission- The Continent.-The oldest Protest- ary Society had 17 women j the Church ant mission is the Swedish mission Zenana, 13 j the London Missionary among the Lapps, begun by Gustavus Society, 11; the Wesleyan, 12; the Vasa during the sixteenth century.
Basel Evangelical Mission, 33. Alto- The Swedes were also the first Protest- gether some 30 missionary societies are ants to begin foreign mission workthat among the American Indians in may not be best to make overits Green- 1636. land Mission to the Danish Lutheran Church. The latter has some 8,800 -The Queen of Sweden has been so Eskimos under their charge, who are interested in reading the life of Robert rather increasing; the Moravians, someand Louisa Stewart that she has sent £6 thing over 1,600, who are decreasing. for a native Bible-woman in China, and hopes to send it annually. This sum -The Italian "Evangelical Yearpays food and clothing and traveling book," in its statistical tables of Proexpenses of one of these Chin!'lse mis- testant churches in Italy-including the sionaries. Waldenaians, the Evangelical Church, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Methodist -Rev. J. H. Barrows, in one of his Episcopal Church, and the Old Cathorecent letters from Europe, says as lics-gives the aggregate number as 150 to German uni versities, " It is the organized congregations, with 138 pasuniversal testimony of men coming tors, 81 evangelists, 25,074 members, hither from our richer Eastern colleges 1,880 catechumens, and 9,692 pupils in that there is more real drunken dissipa- Sunday-schools. The Waldensians have tion in these American institutions than 4,864 pupils in day·schools, a theologiin the German universities." cal seminary and a college at Florence, a Latin school, a high school for girls, -King Albert of Saxony, although a 5 traveling ministers in Italy, 1 pastor Roman Catholic, lately gave $3,000 to in Switzerland, 2 in South Africa, and the building fund of a Lutheran congre- 6 in the United States. The theologi· gation in Guttentag, Saxony; and guar- cal school of the Evangelical Church is anteed an annual subscription of $75 closed for lack of students. towards the support of the pastor. -The Foreign Mission Board of the -The German Protestant missionary Southern Baptist Convention began societies are represented in the German work in Italy in 1870. There are lS possessions of East and West Africa, as Italian preachers connected with their follows: The Leipsic Mission has 2 work. These are stationed in Torre stations on the slope'of the Kilimanjaro, Pellice, San Remo, Cannes (just beyond the Moravians have 4 stations in Kon- the Italian border), Milan, VIlnice, Gedoland (northeast of Lake Nyassa); not noa, Carpi, Florence, Rome. Naples, far from them the Berlin Society No.1 Boscoreale (at the foot of Vesuvius), has 5 stations; the Basel Mission has 4 Portici, Bari, Miglionico, Gravina, and stations in Kamerun; the Berlin Mis- in the island of Sardinia, Cagliari, Iglesion No.3 has 7 stations in East Africa; sias and Cuglieri. A station has lately the Bremen Mission has 2 in Togoland, been opened in Palermo, the chief city and the Rhenish Mission has 18 in of Sicily. Besides these centers, many Southwest Africa. other places are visited. There are. about 700 Baptist church members. -The Industrial Company of the Basel Mission was able last year to con- ASIA. tribute $43,000 to the missionary fund. The last report of this mission shows, Islam.-The Indian Standard gives on the Gold Coast, 13,972 church mem- the following item of ne~s: "At 8. bers, 4,126 scholars, 831 baptisms, 10 public meeting of Mohammedans at. stations, 48 male and 26 female mission- Madras the following resolutions were aries. In Kamerun: 1,807 church mem- carried: That the meeting notes with bers, 1,281 scholars, 298 baptisms, 5 extreme regret and pain the foul and stations, 15 male and 5 female mission- abusive language used and publisht aries. by the press with respect to the Sultan -The Moravian Church is seriously considering the question whether it Qf Turkey, who is recognized as the people estimate that not less than 80,000 head of the Islam Ohurch, in connec. have emigrated, and that of this num- tion with the Armenian question ; that ber one-third will remain in foreign Government is respectfully requested lands, one-third return, and one-third to put a stop to the publication of such die away from home. And of those language in the local papers; and, in who return, many are a curse to their forwarding a copy of these resolutions native land from habits of drunkenness, to the Government of India and the gambling and other vices acquired Secretary of State for India, that the abroad. Some maintain their integ- meeting express its deep sense of obli- rity, and there are noble instances of gation to the British Government, which men who have received a blessing and by its voice and liberal policy has always brought a blessing with them. A large respected the religious feelings of its number are studying in various schools subjects." The Standa'l'd remarks that in the United States, but the majority in the case of the Sultau, truth is more are common peddlers, wandering and damaging than the vilest slander could homeless. A large percentage of the possibly be. The curious and awful church members in Syria are now thing is that a ruler who has organized thousands of miles away from home.
wholesale massacres and protected red- handed murderers should be hailed and -India. The appalling extent of the honored as the Head of a Ohurch of famine in India is now disclosed. It God-the infallible Head forsooth of prevails in nearly every part of the em· the only true Church, the Ohurch of pire. In the Punjab the whole vast Islam. Logically enough they ask the triangle of which Lahore, Simla, and government to muzzJe the press in the Delhi are the apices, is destitute, as interest of the great assassin.-Indian well as some other districts-ss.y one- Witness. half of the province. About the same -There are now 3 railways in Pales- proportion of the Northwest Provinces tine, one from Jaffa to Jerusalem, 54 and Dude is suffering. Of the Central miles long, and 2 others centering at Provinces one-fourth is in distress- Damascus, 1 of these being just com- namely, the Nerbudda Valley and Raipleted, and connecting Damascus with poor. In Upper Bengal distress bids Beyrout. Two other railways are in fair to become serious, especially contemplation, also to center at Damas· around Patna and Bagulpore. All cus. When these are completed, 4 dif- Berar is in want. So is !1adras north ferent railway lines will radiate from of the Kistna. In Bombay trouble is this the oldest city in the world, con- most threatening in the central and necting her with the leading points of southern districts, such as Ahmednug. the East. Thus, as has been well said, gur, Kolapoor, Bejapoor, Khandesh, I< Damascus promises to again become and Belgaum. Upper Burma is in one of the great centers of the world." some danger, Hyderabad, Gwalior, .AB a proof of this, the Jews are said to Bhurtpore, Bundelkund, and, indeed, be buying all the land they can secure most of the native States, are in a bad about this ancient city. way. Some 60,000 persons are now employed on relief works, but 60,000,- -Rev. H. H. Jessup in calling for 000 need relief. The trouble has been special prayer in behalf of Syria, gives caused by dry weather. That made this fact among others: "Tens of the autumn crops a failure, and has thousands of Syrian men and women prevented fall sowing for the spring have emigrated from their native land crops. There is no prospect for relief, to North and South America and Aus- therefore, except from outside, until tralia, in quest of earthly gain. They next fall. At least one-third of the are exposed to great temptations. The empire is thusaffected.-N. Y. Tribu1l8. -In a recent issue the Bombay its body straight." Inserting two Guardian has a picture of the famine fingers into its mouth, she raises it up, children from the Central Provinces, as with no other support. This is .. to they arrived at the M. E. Mission, Maza- keep the roof of its mouth from falling gOD, Bombay. Miss Carroll wrote; in." Its nose is prest and pulled, its .. The groans, the bad odors, the cries head rubbed and molded. Finally of hunger are not there. You may steaming water is brought and poured think they look like boys. Miss Frank- over the child, almost parboiling it, and lin has a boys' school, and when these the bath finisht with the administration children were brought to her she had of some hot spices, "to keep away cold, their hair, which was long and filthy, and soothe the child." Many babies cut off, and put on them boys' clothes do not survive their first bath. The for the journey. We dared not give wonder is that any do. them all they wanted to eat at first, but fed them every three hours. For several -There are now about 1,000 natives days they were not satisfied, and their of India ordained to preach Christ to cries for food were very touching. At their countrymen-Hindu, Parsee, and night they cried with pain; earache, Mohammedan. Fifty years ago there toothache, etc. Some of them had such were only 21. What hath God wrought! sore mouths they could hardly speak. One night my servant called me and -John Wanamaker has undertaken said one girl was vomiting blood, but I the entire cost of a building, $30,000, found that it was from her sore mouth. for the Y. M. C. A. in Madras.' By One girl of nine had a very sore scalp, the liberality of friends in England and and her hair was grey. Another had a America one of the best sites in the city sore head which had to be poulticed had been previously secured; and this for some days. In fact, eleven were so handsome gift will permit the comple· very ill that we put them in hospital. tion of a project that is full of promise Oh, I have seen wretchedly poor people on behalf of the young men in and but never before faced starvation. I around this important center. could not but think that if the sights and sounds were so heartbreaking -Rangoon is the great commercial where food, medicine and care were center of Burma, says a writer in given, what must they be in the place Woman'8 Mi88ionarll Friend, and from which these children came." promises to be the door into Western China. Work has already been begun -This is what Annie H. Downie on the railroad which will take one to writes about child·life in Telugu Land; the very borders of that great empire. •• It is the custom," therefore the mother The city has a population of 200,000, must have neither food nor water for made up of nearly every race on earth; three days, nor must the baby be bathed there is an English-speaking community until then. Quite a ceremony attends of 10,000; the Chinese, Hindus, Mothat first bath. Some elderly relative hammedans, Tamils and Burmans make takes the child, and, stretcbIDg out her up largely the rest. Within the boundfeet, lays it between her ankles. It is aries of this little country 72 lanthen rubbed all over with soap-bark, guages and dialects are spoken. and its mouth, nose, eyes and ears, are filled with a pungent oil, •• to keep out -The American Baptist Mission the cold," and the other women look on Press in Rangoon, Burma, employs composedly while the poor child screams about 75 men, and is perhaps the most and sometimes froths at the mouth. important single agency in the Baptist Then the woman grasping the child by missions in Burma, and the largest misboth feet, swings it back and forth, sion press under the control of the head down, a couple of times, •• to make American Baptist Missionary Union. It was first started in a small way more than 75 years ago. From it have been issued many millions of portions of preaching in English I On another Scriptures. The whole Bible is pub- occasion he meant to order a roast lisht in 4 different languages, the Bur- chicken, and told his cook to go out man, the Sgaw Karen, the Pwo Karen and set fire to the street. and the Shan, and portions of Scrip- ture in about 5 or 6 other of the varied -The Peking Gautte publishes an dialects of Burma. As the Press is imperial edict appointing a director of the only printing house which can the railroad to be built between Peking publish books in all the principal and Hankow. The new road will be languages used in Burma, many school books in general use not only in some 700 miles in length, and it will the mission schools, but in government involve the bridging of 27 rivers. It and other schools, have been issued is said that funds for the construction from it; and, in fact, the school work of this line, to the amount of 30,000,000 of the whole country is largely depend- taels, have been advanced by an Amer- ent upon the work of this single estab- ican syndicate. lishment for its books and other liter- ature. -The China Mission Hand·book, just publisht in Shanghai, gives these -E. P. Dunlap writes thus from the latest figures from the Celestial Siam: A few months ago 2 devoted Empire: missionaries reacht our field from an unexpected source. They were sent by Number of societies reported, 44 the native church of Burma, and by Stations, 159 that church to be supported in their Out-stations, 1,054 work. They are Peguans, a tribe of Foreign misssionarles 1,824 lower Burma, and arc here to labor for Native agents (preachers, 1,4(9) 4,174069 the Peguans of Siam, a people that Number of churches, 55,098 have been sorely neglected-thousands Communicants, 21,858 of them war captives, and the descend- Total pupils under instruction, 148 ants of captives, made G.uring Siam's Medical missionaries (women, 47) 71 wars with Burma. This aged mis- Number of hosl'itals, 18,8Il8 sionary and his wife left a strong church Number of patIents, 111 in Burma and a large family of children Number of dispensaries, 228,162 and grandchildren, and made their w.ay Patients in dispensaries, alone for the joy of proclaiming Christ to their fellow-countrymen in this land. Were the wives of the missionaries A few Sabbaths ago 15 Peguans were baptized through their labors. enumerated, the number of foreigners, China.-Rev. J. F. MMters, a mis- male and female, would probably ex- sionary in China, says the Chinese word for heavenly is "teen," with an aspirate ceed 2,000. on the vowels. The missionary left out the aspirate with the result that the Korea.-A man's name, says a mis- word meant" crazy." After Mr. MM' sionary in Korea, is like a bamboo wil- ters had studied Cantonese a few derness-all the same thing, and yet all months he endeavored to preach a different. He has his boy name, his sermon. He wrote it out carefully, hat name, style name, special name, but made so many blunders in tones, and the good or bad name he leaves at vowel quantities and aspirates that some death. . of the Chinese remarked how much the English language resembled the Chi- -Mrs. M. F. Scranton writes of the nese. They supposed that he had been dress of the Korean boys and girls: "The boys, when drest up, have on long pink or red coats and white loose trousers, fastened about the ankle with a band of a bright·colored cloth or ribbon. They wear white wadded socks and wooden shoes. Their long black hair is parted in the middle and hangs in a braid down their backs. and is tied with a black ribbon. The girls generally wear red cotton skirts, with short jackets either green or yellow in color. Their hair is combed like the boys', only they wear a plum·colored ribbon instead of a black ODe,"
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1897
IV. Plate ill. Plate IT. Plate
MECCA CERrrIFICATE.
This Certificz(te is gIven to Moslem Pilgrims to Mecca and is Considered by them as good as a Passport to Heaven.
(See page 32.) MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.R VOL. xx. No. 1.-0ld&riu.-JANUARY.-VOL. X. No. 1.-NI'IDlJtJtriM.
BUILDING FROM THE BASE.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Rev. William Haslam, in his remarkable book, "From Death Into Life," tells us about an elderly Cornish woman who had been taught the deep things of God, and who, observing that he was trying to promote a higher standard of active Christianity without due care to lay right foundations in holy living-asked him one day as be past, "Now, Mr. Haslam, are ye goin' to build your spire from the top'! "
The question was like an arrow that is not easily dislodged. He could not get that thought out of his mind. "Have I begun at the beginning? Am I building from the bottom or absurdly attempting to construct from the top down?" Such were the questions he found himself asking of his own inner self, until he was compelled to make a new start, and lay the broad, deep and firm foundation of all holy serving in holy living and holy praying. This experience suggests the title of this paper, in which we purpose to discuss the radical need in mission enterprise of a reconstruction from tlte base upward.
This conviction and conclusion have not been reacht without much thought and prayer. If a bit of personal history be not an indelicate intrusion in an article meant for the public eye, the writer would here confess that it is now thirty years ago since, as a pastor in New York State, he turned his attention deliberately and persistently, first to informing himself and then to informing and arousing the church npon the great cause of missions. Since then, with growing absorption, both tongue and pen have been put at the Lord's service in this world-wide work. Books and pamphlets have been written by the score, missionary sermons and addresses delivered by the thou. sand to an aggregate audience, singularly expanding year by year under guidance of a strange Providence which gave unexpected
FROM THE BABE
opportunity to be heard across the sea; for ten years the writer haa been addressing every month fifty thousand people who at least read the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: and these are bnt a few of the ways in which the editor of thit! REVIEW has been compelled to watch the progress of missions for more than a quarter of a cen- tury. Without claiming any undue capacity for observation, saga- city in discernment, or accuracy in judgment and induction, the calm conclusion reacht after thirty years of study of this theme and of active participation in the actual machinery of missionaryenterprjse, is, that at no time during the llalf century now closing have missions to the heathen been at greater peril of utter collapse! Wide doors are open, immense fields invite, some soil calls for the ,sower, while 11arvests demand the reaper; we never knew so well how much territory there is to be possessed. and how deep is the need of mankind; never had the church such opportunities and facilities, never such large numbers and wealth at her disposal: and yet, with doors open wider than ever, and candidates offering in unprecedent£d numbers, the giving of the people of God is so utte]'ly inadequate and disgracefully disproportionate, that where every divine sign of the times is a call for rapid adyance and expansion. our drums beat a retreat, and our boards loudly call for retrenchment!
And-what is, to our view, most fraught with risk,-there is a growing apathy about the whole question of a world's evangelization, which seems to argue a decay at the very root of missionary enterprise. The canses of this we cannot for ourselves either doubt or deny. On one hand there is laxity of doctrine, which, at least, leads disciples to induJ,ge a vague" eternal hope," like Dean Parrar, that the heathen are not really lost without Christ: and on the other hand there is a laxity in practice, which leads to a practical recognition of all religions as belonging to a universal brotherhood of faiths, and to the fellowship of their representatives as entitled to our" Christian charity", forgetful of the famous proverb quoted by Dr. John Ryland to Robert Hall, that "charity is an angel while she rejoiceth in the truth, but a harlot when she rejoiceth in iniquity," embracing those whom she should rather pity and weep over.
These pages are devoutly consecrated, not merely to the news of missions, but even more particularly to the problems of missions, to the principles and practices on which depends whether there shall be any news to announce save that of defeat and disaster. And so, in the faith and fear of Him whose stewards we are, we make no apology for the candid examination and outspoken testimony which are necessary if we are either to guard against errors or secure lasting advance. And the firm persuasion controls the editor; that if anything can be done to secure a broad, strong, firm basts in a holier, diviner life in the church, the whole structure of active evangelization will take new
BUILDING FROM THE
proportions and dimensions, and grow up toward completion and con-. summation, like the Temple of old, noiselessly, symmetrically, cease- lessly, without buildiug into it one false element, misplacing one stone,.. or timber, or reshaping by human tools of worldly wisdom or inven- tion any of the blocks which a Divine architect has hewn in his own, quarry.
Let any prayerful and candid disciple survey without prejudice the- present status of the Ohristian Ohurch and the so-called Ohristian world", and as in the sight of God, calmly ask himself whether from such con- ditions a true self-sacrificing apostolic type of evangelism can be ex- pected. Look at the church pervaded by sectarianism, sacramental- ism, ritualism and Romanism, and an even more fatal secularism. Be- hold the awful lack of gospel preaching, the reckless extravagance thatreigns and practical denial of stewardship, the low level of piety, theprevalence of prayer]essness, and the encroachment of virtual infidelity_ See the church confronting the world with its more than thousand million unconverted souls, scattered over a wide unevangelized territory, with its unoccupied and neglected fields continental in breadth;. yet unable to grapple with the awful problems of society, conscious of a widening gap or gulf between itself and the world, yet nnable tobridge the gulf, while the intemperance, licentiousness and anarchy of society takes on a more and more revolutionary aspect. Then turn to the history and progress of missions, the triumphs and successes of the past century, the encouragements of God's promise and prophecy, the providential access to all nations, and the heroic examples of faith and consecration that are our incitements to holy effort-as well as the large body of converts and the larger communities of adherents which are the visible planting of the Lord-and then let anyone tell us why missions stand at such a halting place on the way, unless it be becanse vital godliness has been suffered to decay.
There is to our mind but one possible conclusion, which we dare to, emphasize by repetition: namely, to build up missions so that thestructure shall risk no collapse, we must look well to the base-in the individual as well as the collective church-life. We mnst press homO" on the believer the demand for personal holineRs. The word of God mnst be r{'stored to its supreme place as the inspired, infallible testimony of God; the personality and power of the Holy Spirit, the indispensableness of Ohrid to human salvation, the nniversal priesthood of believers and the need of a simple and spiritual worship, the call to'
separation and selfdenial for Ohrist, and the neglected hope of the Lord's coming,-these and like truths must be preacht, taught, driven home to ihe conscience-until God's people are brought into personal, living, loving sympathy with Himself.
When Rev. Dr. Aleyander MacLaren, of Manchester, spoke at the Jubilee of the Free Ohurch of Scotland, he thrilled and awed his hearers by a characteristic treatment of "Spiritual Dynamics." And in course of that grand speech he shewed how. wide reaching is thlt range of spiritual truth, by an illustration which had the force of a demonstration. He set before his audience the image of a compass, with one foot firmly set in the true center, and the other describing a circle which, while that center was preserved, could not possibly err in its width or range of circumference.
The persuasion grows upon us that the first necessity in our mis· sionary theory and practice is to get the truth center and fix there the point of our compass, and then, however wide the circle of our activity, we shall always be right, scriptural, spiritual; and, on the contrary, if we have not the true center and do not keep it, our best enterprises, by whatever name called, will be more or less failures.
It is a most markt fact that, thus far in history, all the great .epochs of missionary activity have been circles with one center: a revival <oj E'IJangelical pietYj and even within these have been only smaller "circles with a uniform center: PRAYER. In other words, all wider or ,smaller enterprises which have been of a true missionary character .have been a circumference whose one center has been a new approach ':1;0 God in believing supplication and intercession. For example, John Wesley unconsciously founded a great missionary movement known as Methodism, whose results already are five and a half million of adher· "ents, but all this can be traced back to a holy club of four that met in Lincoln College, Oxford, one hundred and seventy years ago, for cui· . tivation of holiness and prayer. The great revivals that swept over ,ine United States and Britain between 1830 and 1860 were all the ,result of prayer that began with a few burdened souls. So of the 'China Inland Mission, which leapt into life under the inspiration of 'one man's supplication. The Bristol Orphanages, with all the work ,of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution and kindred work of missions in all lands, may be traced to that one apostle of prayer, George Miiller.
It seems too plain to need demonstration that, if we are to sweep a wider circle of missions around the now unoccupied territory, and have it a real achievement rather than an apparent and superficial advance, we must be sure that the compass of our plan plants its foot in the firm pivotal center of believing prayer and the higher holiness that is bound up inseparably with such devout and privileged communing with God. And for this reason we propose to give in consecutive pa· pers in this REVIEW a series. of half-historic sketches of certain con- spicuous spiritual movements of the last half century, from which we may learn some great lessons of God. We believe that the effect will bit to shew that all real advance in missions is due, uniformly, to an advance first of all in the standard of holy living, and that eTen this is quite as uniformly due to a new power of prayer. .I There has been no time within the memory of men now living, when the crisis in missions has equalled the present for critical and pivotal interest. There are three factors that now combine to consti- tute this a new and critical emergency in the work quite beyond any previous exigency, both in its importance and its appeal: namely, the vastness of the area, both open and unoccupied; the inadequacy of the available force for occupation ; and the apathy exhibited by the Ohurch at large, especially as shown in the insufficient standard of giving, and in the indifference which allows retrenchment to go forward where every condition calls for expansion.
These convictions are not held bj the writer of this paper without a wide constituency of sympathetic souls. Much residence abroad and travel on the continent has revealed a general unrest and dissatisfac- tion among God's people, a common consciousness of this need of a highe:a: standard of holiness, and a drawing into closer fellowship on the part qf praying'souls, to the utter disregard of all previous barriers of separation and exclusion. Never before, since apostolic days, has there been such a fraternizing of believers who have been pent up within high sectarian fences. Close limits that have restrained many Baptists from communing at the Lord's table with nnimmersed believers, and the close limits that h~ve restrained many Anglicans from acknowledging any ordination as valid, except that of prelatical bishops, and have kept many conscientiously from ever attending a dissenting place of worship -even such high walls as these have not been high enough to keep apart disciples who, in yearning for a deeper spiritual life, have found in other disciples an answering yearning, as in water, face answereth to face.
In this um:on of all disciples in common prayer and self-surrender to God for holy living and serving, is to befound the most significant sign of the times. It suggests the one practical solution of the problem of missions, if indeed it be not the hope of solving all the perplexities of our Ohristian life. Certain it is that wherever, and so far as these movements have prevailed, the whole state of the church has felt a new and reforming power at work. Prayer meetings have multiplied and become mighty: preaching has taken on' new gospel tone. and new Holy Spirit power: giving has become more spontaneous and liberal, and missionary candidates have offered in unprecedented numbers.
The result of this "Oxford movement" which ,a few years later found a center in "Keswick" teaching, so-called, and which is to form the subject of the first paper in this series, are far wider in range than most of us realize. One who is as well qualified to speak 8S any other observer, and who, at seventy years of age, gives his calm judgment, writes me thus in a letter not meant for publication, and so the more valuable as a testimony. He says, "I think that perhaps the results were larger in Germany than in England. A German theo- logical professor told my brother that, as Justification by Faith had -once been establisht in German theology, so now sanctification by faith has likewise been largely accepted as a doctrine by theologians there. I hear from various quarters that a great impulse has been given by this wave, to missi01~ary work, the dedication of Ute will, the central thought of it all, leading to this form of service in large numbers of cases. "When Mrs. Catharine Booth was dying," he continues, Il she said to Mr. Edward Clifford, who was much with her, that the Oxford- Brighton mOTement was one of the principal means of the establish- ment of the work of the Salvation Army, or rather an aid to it. It brought the very great number of the upper classes who have been ef- fectually reacht, into sympathy with the Salvation Army, the central power of which was the same-a completed consecration and a full faith. Curiously, therefore, the' High Church' were greatly reacht at one end, and the' Free Methodists' at the other. And yet more curiously, it was the means of forwarding the agnostic' Peoples' Church' through an attendant at Brighton, who, in a full joyous sense of a yielded will, and full trust, feeling the force of the historical difficulties in Ohristianity, tho he seemeJ. to be as earnest, sincere and consecrated and true in heart as ever, felt led with the same sort of personal devotion to making a church for the large class of morally good men among the working classes whom he found seemingly incapable of Christian faith (in its historical sense), and formed congregations out of such. I have conferred with many such men, and all acknowledge that the spiritual leverage-shall I say-power to immediately and greatly move souls is wanting. In one of George Macdonald's novels he makes the typical 'broad' doctrine curate effect only a modification of a carpenter's cynical views of life! Sudden and effectual conversions-the ordinary work to be wrought by evangelical preaching-is not in it, though he had the novelist's choice.
"From my present standpoint, the essence of Christianity lies not so much in doctrine, even historical, as in the surrender of the will and effectual realization of the real Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Christ: and whenever I attend public services I burn to have these things proclaimed in power and souls brought out of that misery -of a quickened conscience while yet there is a divided heart-into the joyous obedience of a realized sonship. This is the truth which has formed (the church within the church' in all the ages-the inner church which instructed Luther and the great apostles of the faith,- (lven while some of them rejected the form it took." * This is one testimony out of hundreds which we hav;e collected, to * See the new" Catherine of Siena," by Talbot. the effect on mission work at home and abroad of this school of teach- ing, the central peculiarity of which is that it seeks to bring the believer into close and vital contact with Ohrist as a sanctifier, and as complete master of the surrendered will. Is not the final solution of our present problem of missions, is not the only hope that the work of a world's evangelization will ever be carried forward as it ought to be, found in the increast holiness of God's people, and in the real surrender of the will to Christ as Master, which at once establishes the bond of sympathy with Him, and makes obedience natural, implicit, immediate, delightful?
We feel that we are working down past the accidents and super- ficial attendants of the difficulty to its very root. Missions languish because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to go everywhp.re and preach to everybody is still unobeyed, because the will is not lost by self-surrender in the will of God. There is no right giving because there is so little right living, and, because of the lack of sympathetic contact with God in holiness of heart, there is a lack of effectual contact with Him at the Throne of Grace. Living, praying, giving, and going will always be found together, and a low standard in one means a general debility in the whole spiritual being. We must come to feel and acknowledge this. And for this reason, that our readers may be brought into more sympathetic contact with this flood-tide of spiritual sympathy and power which is now sweeping quietly over two continents, we shall, from the best sources possible, get accurate information on these subjects, and spread this before those who commune with us through these pages. We shall first trace the history of the Oxford-Brighton movement; then of the Keswick Oonventions, which are, in a sense, its successors; then look at the Newport Revival in Monmouthshire, England, singularly contemporaneous, yet independent; and we may afterward, to complete both the record and the impression, refer to the distinctively missionary movements like those of the Ohina Inland Mission and the Missionary Alliance which are the indirect outgrowths of the deepening spiritual life to which we refer.
The first of these successive articles, immediately following this, on the genesis of the" Oxford Movement," is prepared by one who, tho modestly withholding his name from publication, was intimately, and from the beginning, both an actor in, and an observer of, what is here put on record.
May the God of all truth and grace add His blessing to the simple, humble effort to build up from the base a new and growing interest in the work to which our Lord gave Himself and appointed us-the Evangelization of the world.
TlIE GENESIS OF TlIE "OXFORD MOVEMENT."
THE GENESIS OF THE "OXFORD MOVEMENT" FOR THE PROMOTION OF SORIPTURAL HOLINESS.
The spiritual history of the coming decades in England can be pre- dicted largely from the spiritual currents among the younger men of the universities. The" High Ohurch" or " Puseyite ., tidal wave was rightly called" the Oxford movement." The" evangelical impulse," given mainly by Charles Simeon, was similarly called "the Oambridge movement." Succeeding, or parallel to this last, was a radical highly Calvinistic impulse through the unorganized body called "the Ply- mouth Brethren." In the well-known book, "The Fairchild Family," by Mrs. Sherwood, one may find the evangelical teaching prest to its extreme and least attractive forms, and in the numerous and widely circulated publications of the" Plymouth Brethren" will be found the teaching of the strongest doctrines as to implicit literal" obedience to the Word," or Scripture, combined with strictest Oalvinistic statements as to the forensic condition of the believer, as an unalterable complete state of grace. The influence of this latter teaching ex~ tended through both the Establisht Church and most of the dissenting bodies, far beyond the limits of the unorganized Plymouth Brethren themselves, who, without formal membership or denominational system, met" to break bread," as they termed the act of communion.
In the seventies, the first generation of these three forms of revival was passing away, and the successors, who had not shared the deep I'lpiritual crisis in which the High Church, evangelical and Brethren movements originated, found themselves with forms, either of ritual, or of doctrine, which, dulled by use, failed to meet their spiritual needs as they had supplied those of their predecessors. There was a felt lack of, and a great hungering for a personal righteousness, which shonld really meet their too often starving spiritual natures. Taught that they wpre sacramentally complete by absolution on one hand, or judicially, forensically, perfect. by forgiveness of sin on the other, they yet found themselves unsatisfied, with no well of living water within, as promist in Scripture. They lived with a high standard of holiness, yet under frequent or almost constant sense of condemnation for transgression. They exaggerated the doctrine, often exprest in the words "black but comely;" or. as they would state in prayermeetings, they were "from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot bruises and putrefying Bores;' while yet forgiven saints, and by imputation "whiter than snow," and ready for heaven itself. Their supposed judicial standing and their lives of practical failure, were in startling' contrast.
In this condition of mind numberless tender-hearted Ohristians found a sorrow which nothing reacht. They felt that they were by their failures continually grieving the One in all the univers-e whom they loved best, and they suffered constantly renewed sorrow. Saved, as they believed, for eternity, from the penalty of sin, they were yet in many respects under its acknowledged power. It was not gross sins, but sins of pride, anger, temper, censoriousness, evil thoughts; and they even sometimes felt that some around them who made no. Christian profession were more free from failure than themselves.
In 1873 a series of papers written in America appeared in a London weekly, now named The Christian, which called attention to a neglected part of scriptural teaching. This teaching was that Christ came to save His people from their sins, and not from the consequences of them only; that in the Epistles His offering of Himself was more often stated as for their sanctification than even for their justification; that" He gave Himself for us that He m;ght purify unto Himself a people," etc. "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, shottld live unto righteousness." This was felt to be more than judicial pardon and imputed righteousness. One part of the Gospel had been fully preacht, pardon to the sinner, forgiveness to the repentant transgressor; but its complement of a practical, continuous victory over temptation equally provided in the Gospel had been overlookt. A false humility, while boldly claiming pardon for sins, overlookt its correlative victory over sin.
These "views" in The C'hristian deeply affected great numbers of spiritual Christians, and when, in 1873, they were emphasized in meetings, beginning in the rooms of the London Young MelY's Christian Associations, many were greatly changed by them in their attitude as to faith and personal consecration, and consequently in their lives.
What was taught was simply that a completed consecration of will and a completed trust in the Word of Christ would bring the Christian into a realization of the promises of victory over sin, and into sustained communion with God; that the only normal condition of the "believer" was that of full belief; of the" child of God," implicit obedience. That as a bird cannot rise on one wing, so in both full trust, and full obedience alone could a disciple find the promises of victory over sin a continuing reality.
What gave effect to this teaching was the steady insistence that bere and now, even while this simple truth was being preacht, the- Christian should yield his too often divided will, give np some doubtful or consciously condemned idol or practice, and commit himself to an unreserved trust and obedience. Often it was like death itself t() renounce something more or less clearly known to be evil. "I would die if I gave it up," said a popular preacher, referring to an unhallowed indulgence. The reply was, "Life to a Christian is not a: necessity; obedience is. The early Christians preferred death to dis· -obedience, and so must you." ~'he agony almost of death was in his -countenance as he said, "Then I renounce it." The battle of Waterloo is said to have depended on the possession of a small cottage as a key to the contest. It was often some small matter in which tlte will was entrenched, and till this was yielded full trust was impossible; ;and, conversely, often till a full trust was exercised the yielding was impossible. How near they often were to the Rock and knew it not! A man descending a well by a rope found himself at the end of the line, and soon his strength began to fail. He could not climb up, and to let go would be, he supposed, to be dasht to pieces. At length he ,could hold on no longer, and dropt. The distance to the rock was- three inch8s! How often have we seen the spiritual counterpart of this scene!
Words can but imperfectly describe the joy and spiritual power which came through the extr-nsion of these meetings to thousands of dergymen and religious teachers, and to Ohristians in less conspicuous conditions. By the liberal kindness of Samuel Morley, the Member of Parliament for Bristol, a leading Oongregationalist, a series of breakfasts were given in London in 1874-75 for ministers, which were ..attended by twenty-four hundred preachers, mostly at breakfast-tables of thirty or forty in a morning. Oontinuous meetings of a few days at a time were held in London and the provinces and in various cities on the Oontinent, and in 1874, in response to the request of a number of young men at the University of Oambridge, the late Lord Mount Temple opened his country seat, "Broadlands," widely known as the residence of the late Lord Palmerston, for a meeting of ten days. This was by private invitation, and so great was the blessing found, that it was felt that another and larger meeting must be convened. This resulted in a meeting at Oxford of clergymen of the Establishment, as well as preachers and members of the various churches, about a thousand in number gathered from all parts of England. At this "Oonvention" many pastors were also present from the Oontinent; and similar meetings were held later in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany, which were crowded, sometimes the addresses being repeated twice in the same evening to as many as .six thousand hearers. Everywhere the same remarkable results in the revival of the Ohristian life were realized. In France, Theodore Monod, in Switzerland, Pastor Stockmeyer, and in other countries -others held similar" conventions" or "retreats" upon the same model.
In 1875 a yet larger meeting of ten days was held at Brighton, .attended by about six thousand persons, among whom were about two hundred and fifty pastors from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France, and also by the venerable Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem.
And now, after twenty-one years, there are still held annually in England, ten" retreats" or " conventions" on a similar plan of three to ten-day continuous services. The one at Kendal, establisht by the Rev. Canon Battersby, is widely known. The one at Guilford collects about five thousand persons annually. From many countries on the Continent continual reports come of continuous blessing still attributed to this movement. At Nancy, for twenty years a pastor has held a weekly meeting as a remembrance and continuation of the blessings received at Brighton.
This spontaneous, unorganized movement, so far as is known, never resulted in a change of the Church connection of a single individual from that in which it found him. It gave him power to work in the sphere in which he already lived. The establishment of a new denomination was confidently predicted by some, but its announced object was not a change of either doctrine or organization, but a revival of living faith in truths already accepted, and in full practical obedience within spheres already found.
It was without public emotional expression. The writer cannot recall any indication of physical excitement, not even a single Amen! spoken aloud. Those who led it, it happened, did not need any pecuniary support, and with little mention of needs for rents of halls and traveling expenses of Continental pastors, there was a surplus of many thousands of pounds of voluntary contributions, while no portion of a guaranty fund of twenty-five hundred pounds was required. Seventy ushers waited on the meetings at Brighton, held in several languages, from seven o'clock in the morning almost continually till ten at night. The civic corporation gave three large halls and many rooms for the purpose free of charge.
Among other results, a great and continuous impulse has been given the missionary movement, through the completed obedience and faith of Christians attending these "consecration meetings."
It would not be well to close this notice of the movement without stating what is nat meant by the teaching above described. Everywhere an anxiety prevailed among good Christians lest it should mean what is termed" sinless perfection." Perhaps our danger lies more in sinful imperfection, but yet it is an honest anxiety based on occasional fanaticisms. The wine of the Kingdom, like earthly wine, proves sometimes too much for ill-balanced souls. It was interesting to see persons coming to these meetings full of the expectation of hearing "sinless perfection" preacht, and then to see their surprise as a speaker opened with the words, "Perhaps no one has ever accurately defined and limited the term Sin. If it be the coming short of the absolute holiness of the Divine, I sin in every breath I draw." Such hearers would look in surprise at one another, and the speaker would continue: "But if continuous, conscious trespass be made the necessary inevitable condition of the Ohristian; if he, by the law of his exis"tence, as a follower of Christ. must continuously and inevitably grieve Him whom he loves best in all the universe; if the fence between sinners sinning and saints obeying be thrown down; if Christ did not die to redeem us all from iniquity, and pnrify ns unto Himself, to 'save me from my sins, then is the Gospel a failure as regards this life, and the will of God is not our sanctification. Yet no one can claim deliverance from sin in any other sense than victory over known, dis- covered sin. Had we the insight of angels, we could not take one step in our confused .surroundings without conscious sin. But from known sin, from discerned evil, one may find deliverance in Christ. And as we walk in the light and in obedience. each day shows us more of evil to be avoided. In to-day's light yesterday's sin of ignorance may become one of knowledge to be now conquered. No wise person will boast that he has not sinned for such and such a time. But he may say, that to the utmost of his trust is his victory over known sin; and that so far as he does not trust, in so far he fails. In such a life, the momen t of confession of sin is the moment of realized pardon, and also of power to avoid its repetition."
"Wherein, then, does your present life differ from the former experience?" we are askt. It differs, first, in that we are not expect- ing to sin, that we are not making a provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. And that the courage of faith, that secret of vic- tory, and the coincidence of our wish or will with what we as yet know of God's will, makes a habit of victory and obedience.
You claim an undivided allegiance to your country, entire loyalty .. to your wife, complete affection for your children-is it impossible to have, as to the totality of your condition, equally trne relations to God? Must you be partly a rebel, an adulterer, indifferent to your children? Nay, even tho there be momentary failure, the trend of your being, the habit of your life, the current of your existence, may -nay, mttst-be henceforth allegiance, loyalty, love. Then you no longer are under law-a sense of compulsion, a contest of inclination, but your will, now completely yielded, becomes henceforth that of God• .. I worship Thee, sweet Will of God, And all Thy ways adore, And every day I live, I learn To love Thee more and more."
SOME OF THE DEEPER THINGS.
BY REV. F. B. }fEYER, B. A., LONDON, ENGLAND.
The only hope for any of us to realize the life which is life indeed is: first, To discriminate between the workings of the flesh and that of the spirit; and second, To consign the former absolutely to death.
The workings of the flesh are very insidious, because they are the outcome of the I-life. "In me-that is, in my flesh," sald the apostle
BOllE OF THE DltEPElt TIDNGS
(Rom. 7: 18). The flesh is mej the me-life; the life in which self is prominent; which is prompted and inspired by self; the final end and efficient cause of which is self. And beeause our personality is so ubiquitous and energetic, the presence and power of the flesh is infused into all our life.
The only true test of discrimination between these two principles is the Word of God, because it is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the 'dividing asunder of soul (which is the seat of the self-life), and spirit (which is the seat of the Christ- life). Bathe in the Word of God, let the blessed Spirit use it perpet- ually, and you will become sensible of the manifold workings of the flesh in regions where you had not suspected it.
The flesh assumes base passionate aspects. It The works of the flesh are manifest, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, enmities, strife, drunkenness, revelling, and such like" (Gal. 5 : 22). At any tllAvern, in the streets at dark, in the cell of the jail you can see its works by the myriad; and in the beginnings of Christian life one is conscious that, tho restrained from outward manifestation, there is still the un- hallowed, inward impulse in such directions.
But t7te .fles7t may also be present il~ our efforts after sanctification. " Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the fl<l:3h ?" (Gal. 3 : 3). It would appear that in Galatia there was a sc11001 of perfectionists, who were attempting to secure perfection in the energy of the self-life. And, indeed, to take an illustration from what is known as consecration teaching, in which people are incited to give themselves again and again to God, how much there is of the resolves and determinations 'of the flesh! Do you suppose that a man 'I who has really entered into an act of consecration will need perpet- ually to repeat it? And will it be needful for him to maintain him- self therein by the incessant exercise of his own energy? 'J'rue holi- ness, as true consecration, must be wholly of God, through Rim, and to Rim. "Of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us ••• sanctification."
The flesh may also be energetic in Ohristtan work. The apostle clearly indicates this when he says that he did not after the flesh plan his coming to Corinth so that "there.should be the yea yea and the nay nay" (2 Oor. 1 : 17). How much of our Christian work has been along this line, suggested by the flesh, wrought out by the flesh or self-energy, and tending to the glorification of ourselves! And, therefore, much of it is wood, hay, and stubble, to be burnt up, altho men have admired and praised it.
Much of our work has been begun at our own instigation, and after the plans have been made, we have turned to God, asking Rim to help and bless; whereas we should have let Him guide and lead, being iatisfied to stand beside and hand Rim the implements, or to lie deep down beneath the roadway, trampled under foot of men, the wire that carries His messages.
How memorable is that incident in Hudson Taylor's life, in which God said to him: "Iam going to evangelize inland China, and if you will walk with me, I will do it through you!" This is the way in which we think when we have learned to consign the self-life to the death.
Bnt it is only as we live in constant fellowship with the Word of God, as illumined by the spirit of God, that we come to detect these workings. The man who has breathed pure air will know in a moment when he is inhaliRg poisonous miasma; and the purer the air he has breathed, the quicker he will be to detect the worse.
And as we detect it in ourselves, we shall sorrowfully detect it in others. Perhaps it is well that we should do so, because it reminds, humbles, and warns us. "I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal" (1 Cor. 3 : 1). And the word carnal is the Latin equivalent of the Greek word rendered flesh. They were certainly Christians, for he speaks of them us beiug babes in Ghrist, but they were as certainly dominated by the self-principle, and so in the most elementary stage of Christian experience.
The carnal, self, or flesh-life is indicated by (1) the inability to receive the teaching of the epistles; (2) the presence of jealousy and strife; (3) the sectarian' spirit, which set up one teacher against another, instead of going behind the servants to the Master; (4) the inability to withstand impurity (1 Cor. 5); (5) and all this is not inconsistent with the possession of many wonderful gifts (1 Cor. 12).
When people are in this state it is useless to present the deepest truths of the Christian life. They must be rebuked and shown their error, and led into that position which is presently to be described, in which once and for all the self-life is consigned to the cross beneath the curse of God, an execrated and abominable thing.
The next step towards the attainment of the true life is to see what God thinks of the life of the flesh. It is somewhat of a shock to the believer when he comes, so to speak, for a second time on the cross of Jesus. At the first he saw the Savior dying there for him, and came away thankful, not suspecting that there was a deeper vision possible, reserved for those who had eyes to see. But whenever that deeper vision is vouchsafed, he sees the likeness of his sinful flesh there in the dying Lord (Rom. 8 : 3). It is as if a man were suddenly to see a crime, akin to something in his own life, tho long hidden, adjudged in another, doomed to die, and led to the scaffold. Of course there was no sin in Jesus, no taint or touch of it. He was "that holy thing." But in Him there was, the apostle says, the likeness of sinful flesh, and God's curse was on it, for it is written, "Curst is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Thus we reason with ourselves: if the likeness of our sinful nature, as born by the holy Savior, was so abhorrent to God that He nailed it to the cross beneath His curse, what must not its reality ana essencebe, as it dyes our nature, tinctures our holiest moments, and enters. into the vitals of our being. God help us! No flesh may glory in His presence, but life hitherto has owed all to the secret energizings of this heaven-cured principle.
Cain's offering was made after the wisdom and in the energy of the flesh. He brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Without doubt it was beautiful to look at, luscious to taste, but it could not be accepted. And all that emanates from the pride ftnd ambition of our nature is equally abhorrent to the holy God; nor could lIe endure it, if it were not for the precious blood of Jesus, who ever lives to intercede.
My reader, will you pause here and acknowledge the justice of this enactment of God's infinite holiness! In the Old Testament, where Amalek was the type of the flesh, Moses said: "'fhe Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." In the New Testament, Paul said the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
Do you see that you have been consorting with a felon, well drest tho he may have been, and that much of your religious effort has been instigated by his suggestions? Can that which has originated in a. felon, whom God has arraigned and consigned to the crOSE, be acceptable in His sight? Ah! it is a bitter, bitter discovery to see that so much that we have prided ourselves on has been what Israel's sacrifices were (Isa. 1 : 12-15).
The next step is to 1mite O1trselves with the death of Christ. " If we have become united with Him by the likeness of His death" (Rom. 6 : 5 [R. V.]). "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof" (Gal. 5 : 24 [R. V.]). There comes a definite, never-to-be-forgotten moment, in 8, man's life, when he definitely unites himself by the choice of his will with the death of Jesus to sin. This is already his position in the sight of God, as he is viewed in the Lord Jesus; but he accepts it definitely and finally as his own.
"My God," he says, " I see what Thy thought of the flesh is, that it is an accurst felon. I accept that judgment of it henceforth, and I desire that no part of my life may be dominated by its unholy influence. I cannot do it to death, or die to it, by my own resolve, but I will it to be so, and in the power of the Eternal Spirit I offer myself to live henceforth in the energy of my risen Lord. I would be crucified with Him, that so long as I live, my life may be one of faith in the Son of God, receiving from Him life on life." It is an awful moment when the soul takes this step. Never again to live on its own plans; or obey the promptings and suggestions of its own restless will; or tolerate the promptings of appetite aud selfwill. It seems as tho the very ground were giving way under the feet, and the grave yawning to receive. Did our blessed Lord feel this when He finished His holy and beneficent ministry among men, and took the path for Oalvary? But as the soul goes down into the grave, it sings the song of resurrection hope. Listen as the words come up from the vault: .. The Lord ia alway8 before my face ; For He i8 on my right hand, that I81wuld not be m01!/Id: Tlierifore my heart i8 glad, and my ioTlfjue 1·tjoices; Moreover my jle8h alBo shall dwell in hope ; Because Tlwu wilt not leave my Boul in Had~, Neither wz'lt TluJU give Thy Holy one to see C()rruption. Tlwu makest known unto me the ways of life; . Thou shalt make mefull of gladne88 with Thy countenance."
Have you ever definitely arraigned your self-life as a felon, and adjudged it as an accursed thing to the cross? If not, I pray you to do it. It need not take long, but it should be done solemnly and irre- vocably. You do not realize all it may involve, but you can safely leave yourself in the hands of Jesus. Remember, however, not to do it in the energy of your own will. If you do, at the first summons, the crucified will descend from the cross. No, you have only by faith to accept a position, already fixt and assigned in the purpose of God, and in the death of Jesus, and then to trust the Holy Spirit to make real in your habitual experience that which is real in the purpose of God. Ascertain what God has done with the flesh principle in the person of Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit to make this objective fact a ~ubjective experience.
It is impossible to live this life apart from the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Unseen and eternal facts are too recondite and far away to be matters of experience, unless we yield to the Spirit, become filled by the Spirit, live and walk in the Spirit. We must saturate our spirits in the contemplation of these great mysteries of identification with Jesus in His death; but we mltst also receive the Spirit continually, as the unshuttered windows receive the light, that He may not only explain t.hem to the inner heart, but may make them blest living experiences! Oh, give the Spirit time! T-lie asoak in His gracious influences! He will take of the things of Ohrist, and reveal them. Fear not, only trust Him, and be still.
What then, may 'We expect? Some would say the death of the self-life. But I am persuaded that in this they greatly err, and lead many astray. It is not a scriptural expression, and it is not true to Christian experience. I grant that we may be instantly and forevermore delivered from known sin, and the very desire for it may be taken away and turned to holy loathing. But the self-principle is not eliminated from our inner life. It is not dead, but we are to reckon ourselves dead to it, trusting the Holy Spirit to make our reckoning good (Rom. 6: 11; Gal. 5: 16, 17).
Supposing a woman is divorced from her husband, because of his cruelty and unfaithfulness, and marries again, this time to a nol1le man, whom she devotedly loves. The moment of the divorce is the moment of her liberation, and from that moment she reckons herself dead to him. He may sometimes solicit her to return, but his solici- tations fall on deaf ears. There is no effort even in refusing them, because she is so occupied and satisfied with her new true love. And if the drunken sot comes too near or threatens her, she only gets closer to her beloved, and puts him between them. The former hus- band is not dead, but she is dead to him.
What may 10e expect? I answer, a quicker appreciation of the promptings of the self-life, at ever lower depths. So that we shall detect its presence where we never dreamt to find it. But whenever we are conscious of its presence, we shall know and judge it, and consider that all its strivings were included in the hideous felon-life which we have definitely put away. Then we shall turn to the Holy Spirit, and ask Him to deal with it. We need not fight it; if we do, we shall fail; if we try to help the Holy Spirit to fight it, we shall fail; if we antagonize it by our righteous wrath, we shall fail-we must hand the matter over to the Holy Spirit. He will deal with it in unknown depths. We may hear the sounds of the awful strife, but we must stand still and see the salvation of God.
Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is traveling in the greatness of His strength! It is the living Christ, who by His Spirit has dealt with our enemies alone. His own arm brought salvation.
This, so far as I can understand it, is the process. We detect the presence of self; we arraign and adjudge it to be included in the feJon from which we have been divorced; we then hand it over to the Holy Spirit. He delivers us from it, and gives us more and more of its opposite in Jeous. And as this process is continued two or three times, the suggestion itself is apt to drop right out of our life. We may be tempted in other ways, but not in this. I do not say that this is invariably the case; but I suspect it will be your experience, if you live and walk in the Spirit.
When at Northfield, Mr. Moody showed me a tree in which grafting in three kinds of apples had been performed. He said that every bud beneath the graft was at once nipped off, so that the energy of the plant might not expend itself in its own growth, but ascend into the graft. He said that after nipping off a bud in the same place once or twice it ceased to appear, tho the natural life of the plant might break out in other places. This seems to be a true analogy. You may therefore expect deliverance from the suggestion to certain forms of sins, but beware of the manifestation of the self-life in other forms, more subtle, and deeper.
Still there is no need to be constantly living in apprehension of such things. Reckon yourself dead to them, in the flash of a moment, and do not think of them further. Hand them over without surprise or alarm to the Holy Spirit, and leave them there. But, as the habit of your life, be occupied with Jesus, reckon yourself alive unto Him, let all the love and desire and attention of your nature be toward Him. This will be in proportion as you abide in the Spirit, because it is His delight to take of the things of Christ, and reveal them to those who hunger and thirst.
It is thus that Jesus is formed in 1M. My beloved friend, the late Dr. Gordon once said: "In the part of New England where I spend my summer holidays I have seen a parable of nature. Two little saplings grew up side by side. Through the action of the wind they crost each other. By and by the bark of each became wounded, and the sap began to mingle, until, in some still day, they became united together. After they were firmly compacted, the stronger began to absorb the life of the weaker. It grew larger and larger, while the other grew smaller and smaller. And now there are two trunks at the bottom, but only one at the top. Death has taken away the one; life has triumpht in the other. There was a time when you first were united to Jesus Christ. But how is it now? Has the word been accomplisht in you, 'He must increase, but I must decrease?' Has the old life been growing less and less, until it has almost disappeared, and the life of Jesus bclcome all in all?" This beautiful illustration may help you to understand how the self-life decreases and Jesus increases. This is the process: " All of self and none of Thee, Some of self and some of Thee; Less of self and more of Tltee, None of self and all of Tltee."
It may be aslcet, ltow does all this affect the outward l{fe'! In one sense it leaves it unchanged. The merchant still goes to his countinghouse and store; the wifu still attends to the duties of the home; the clerk is still found at his desk; the child iiJ at the school; and yet there is a difference The old life is lived from a new standpoint; it is no longer I, but Christ; no longer self-enthroned, but love, love to Jesus and love to all mankind. The life I now live in the flesh is a life of faith on the son 0f God, who loved me a:J.d gave Himself for me.
There is new tenderness between husband and wife, because the love of God flows through each to the other. There is new obedience
THE GOSPEL AMONG THE RED MEN. 19
on the part of the child, because the meek and lowly Jesus is living: through its yieldecl heart. There is new punctuality and diligence in attendance on and performance of daily duty, because the old fitful wayward life is abandoned, and Jesus is within, who for thirty years lived in the carpenter shop at Nazareth.
Do not fear, then, to surrender your own life to the death; Godwill give you something infinitely better, even the life of His Son,.. which will rise up like a fountain, and pour through all the channels of your being.
My friend, Mr. Gregory Mantle, in The Way oj the Oross, tells of 8> district on the Amazon which was rich in gorgeous foliage, but heavy with malaria and fever. There was no alternative but to cleanse it by fire, and for three months fire raged through the valley, destroying the rich aud beautiful growth, until a desert lay bare to the sun, where myriads of flowers had lifted their cups to his rays. But after a while the whole territory was covered with an extremely rare and exquisite Hower, that excited the rapturous admiration of all beholders; so, as Dr. Matheson sings: "We lay in dust life's glories dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be."
THE GOSPEL AMONG THE RED MEN.* BY REV. EGERTON R. YOUNG, TORONTO, CANADA.
"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."-Isaiah xxxv: 1.
The prophet is looking down to the time when changes will be made in moral wastes, such as our forefathers accomplisht on this continent when they changed the great forests into these splendid farms and beautiful homesteads. Similar transformation will bewrought in Ohrist's kingdom. "The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopt. Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tQngue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." Those{ same transformations, which you have seen in your missionary work. in towns and cities, the missionaries have been permitted, under God'S' blessing, to see in the lands of paganism.
We labored among the wild Indian tribes away up in the heart of the British territories, a thousand miles north of St. Paul. They were the most northern tribes of Indians on the borderland of the Esqui..
• Oondenst from Th6 Nortlifleld Echo~8, August Conference Number, 181l6. maux people, away from civilization, so far away that the nearest post office was four hundred miles distant; we received our daily paper there twice a year. We found hundreds of Indians wandering through those vast forests as hunters and fishermen. They lived in a land so remote from cultivation that the word « bread " was literally unknown in those days, and the petition, « Give us this day our daily bread,"
had to be translated, "Give us something this day to keep us in life."
I have seen Indians eighty years of age who never saw a loaf of bread, .
or a cake, or a pie. When my wife and I went out there we lived as they did; we lived on fish twenty-one times a week for months together, and for weeks together we did not average two good meals .a day. For years we did not begin to live as well as the thieves and -murderers in the penitentiaries of Great Britain and America. But ~.it was a blessed work, and we were happy in it.
We have the Bible translated for our Indians, it is the work of one "of our missionaries, Rev. James Evans, who invented what are known '..as the Syllabic characters. He found these people wandering on the borders of the Great Lakes and ALPHABET. rivers, fishing, hunting in the vast forests for bears and other ani- mals, and looking all the time for (a) SYLLABICS. game, as they were ever on the go. The thought occurred to him to invent a simple way of teaching ~e these Indians to read, so that they might be able to use the Bible for Ape themselves. The result of it was this invention, each character is Qte a syllable,-in all thirty-six of them. 'l'hey are represented in r '1 eha eM .j eM L ehi the accompanying cut, which gives both the Iudian characters qka p M d ko b kit and the English sounds. As soon as the characters were graspt we ,f ":0 nil ~ n~ used to turn to the· first chapter of the book of Genesis, and begin :tma. E m~ L IDa. to read. Now, I want to paint a picture, to take you with me to a ," ·i.• ! ""' '-. sa .-~ s~ 6 yA '~ y~ * a, as in far. l;>and that has never seen a mis- sionary, never seen a Bible, never heard the Savior's name, and I want to show you how we teach them to read on a first visit, which lasts only a few weeks. We have no schoolhouse, no school-books, no pencils or paper. We have only a few Bibles, which that magnificent society (the British Bible Society) now sends out to us. After I have preacht to them for some daysl and have gained the good will of most of them, * I say, "Would you not like to learn to read this book?" "Yes." I cannot go and get a sheet of paper, slate and pencil, and begin teaching them, but here are great granite rocks near by, and I take a 'burnt stick from my camp fire, and with that burnt stick I make the characters shown in the cut: A, E, 00, AH, MA, ME, MOO, MAH, etc. Then I say to the people, "Now say as I do," and just as a primary teacher gives a lesson to her children in A, B, 0, so I begin, " A, E, 00, AH, MA, ME, MOO, MAH." By and by a fellow gets out his flint and steel, lights his pipe, and repeats, A, E, 00, AH; but I can't say auything against the pipe, for one dare not be cross with them. We go over it again and again; I point to the letters in turn and say, a What is this? " They are unknown sounds to them, but I write down a character and ask," What is that?" They look at it and shout, "MA." I put down another, and ask, "What is that ?" "NE." I write a third: "What is that?" "TOO." I have written the word in Indian,-Ma-ni-too-thre.e characters, but I have not combined them yet, and they don't know. I say, "What is the first?" "MA." "The second?" "NE." "The. third?" "TOO." Then they combine them,-Manitoo.-Whylthey drop their pipes and put up their hands, and open their eyes in wonder. It is worth starvation and suffering, it is worth any amount of hardship, to see the ray of intelligence darting into the eyes of hundreds of these Indians, as for the first time, God, the name of God, becomes visible to their eyes there on the rock, made with a burnt stick from the camp fire. Manitoo, God. They have heard Him iLl the thunder, in the blizzard, and in the storm. But to them here is a new revelation. There is Manitoo on the rock, and they can hardly believe their eyes. Then, when the excitement is over, I write: J[anitoo Sa-kee-e-wa-tvin, "God is love," and that is a revelation. So I go on, and on, and on; no more smoking pipes. Most intense iuterest is excited, and we talk and talk until my mouth is dry and my strength exhausted, and then we go off and sit around our camp fires and have something to eat, and come back again.
In less than three weeks some of those Indians can read the Word of God in their own language. Just as soon as these characters and some simple sentences have become familiar to them, we turn to the first chapter of the Indian Bible, and with those characters on the rock, and we begin, "Ma tva eke misturn ne sa Manitoo." "See God in the book just as He is on the rock," they say. They catch the idea at once. Thus slowly we go through the verse. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." To a people that have been in darkness and ignorance there is a lot of information in that first verse. "Who put those stars in the sky; who caused the warm sun to greet • The old conjurers hate me because they know that my success means the end of their terrible rule over the people. the eyes and fill up our creeks with fish again?" Thus had they talkt ,as they groped in darkness. " Now we know: 'In the beginning God >created the heaven and the earth.''' Some of them thought their -education was complete at once,-they knew all about it now, and I have known a boy to jump up and run away six miles and bring his :father, pulling him along to show him the book which tells how those things, talkt about by their old people before the camp fires, had been ,accomplisht. In some of our villages eighty per cent. of our people Qver eight years of age are now reading in their own tongue the blessed :Book. In spite of the many hardships and trials, God is blessing the work grandly.
Not very long ago the governor of our colony sent out one of his >commissioners to meet the Indians with supplies, in accordance with the treaty. This commissioner sent word to one of our Ohristian Indians to bring his people to a certain point, as he would be there to distribute their annual allowances. The Indians were on hand at the time appointed; they brought nothing from their distant camp fires, i{)r they expected to receive abundant supplies to feast upon. But the day came, and the big white commissioner did not arrive,-and it is an everlasting disgrace when government representatives break word with the Indians. The commissioner did not come the first day, Qr the second, and the Indians were hungry. They went to the big .chief and said, "Pakan, our wives and children are crying for food,- here are our supplies, the gift of the Queen to us, and her servant has :not yet come to distribute them. Will you open them and give us enough to satisfy us?" "Oh, no, my children, I have never broken a word of treaty and I don't want to now," replied the chief. The next day no white man appeared, and the third morning those young Indians' eyes began to look ominous and flash out something that boded trouble. They went to the chief and said, "We must have food for our hungry ones." His answer was, "Have patience a little longer, my people," and he called on an Indian who had a splendid horse to accompany him, and, mounting his own, away they went as :fast as they could, to find and 1mrry up the dilatory commissioner. About noon they met him coming along with a large retinue of friends and servants. In those days that country abounded in game, and these white men had gone out for a good shooting time. As Pakan Tode into the camp at noonday he found them preparing to stop there, because not far off was a spot that seemed full of game. Pakan said to the commissioner, "You have broken your promise to my people. You were to have met them three days ago. Don't stop here,-come cQn and distribute the supplies, for my people are hungry." "Oh, Pakan, I am glad to see you," replied the white man," you are the .chief. I would like to have you dine with me, I hear you are a great hunter. Oome with us this afternoon and show me your skill in huutiug." "No," said he; "you have broken your word. The peo- ple are hungry,-come on at once." " Oh, no; I am going to have some shooting." Pakan said, "When are you coming?" "I will come to-morrow." "Oh," said Pakan, "to-morrow is the Sabbath, and we have been taught to keep the Sabbath." The commissioner answered, "My religion won't prevent me from distributing the food on Sunday." Pakan looked at him. He is one of the finest specimens of·a man I ever saw. He bravely replien, "I don't care what your religion will allow you to do, mine says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,'-and, hungry as we are, unless you come and dis- tribute the food to-day, we will not take it until Monday." The man quailed before him, and at once some subordinate was sent back with him. Before they left the commissioner said to the chief," I shall come along to-morrow, and we will have our usual annual talk about Indian affairs and the distribution of money." Pakan replied again, "To-morrow is the Sabbath, and we will have no treaty talk to-mor- row," and away he rode. The next day the white man came on to the Indian encampment. He expected the Indians to meet him, hundreds of them, with firing of guns and waving of flagE', but not one came to receive him, and no guns were fired; the only wigwam where the flag was flying was the place where the people met together three times a day to worship God. l'he commissioner sent out his criers for a council, but not one Indian responded. He sent for Pakan to come and dine with him, but Pakan said, "I dine with my own family on God's day whenever I can,"-and he refused the invitation. It is a great thing to dine with the ambassador of the Queen, yet this godly Indian refused the honor on account of his respect for the Sabbath day.
Now I want to give you an incident that is practical, and that you can use when advocating the Sabbath as a day of rest. When Mr. Evans induced a large number of Indians to become Ohristians, he said to them, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." In that country is the greatest fur trading company in the world, the Hudson Bay Oompany. They have been there since the reign of Oharles the First. All the goods are taken through that part of the country by brigades of boats. Until lately they carried all their goods from distant places by Indian brigades, who bring Qut as the exchange cargo boat-loads of furs, which are shipt to London. Before these Indians became Ohristians, they traveled every day alike. When our mission was establisht, all the missionaries went in for the observance of the Sabbath day. At once there was opposition from the Hudson Bay Oompany. They argued, " Our summer is short, the people have to work in a hurry, and to lose one day in seven will be a terrible loss to UB, and you missionaries must get out of the country if you are going to interfere with our business." There was downright persecution for years,-but there is none now, for it was found that the brigades , of Indians who traveled only six days, and quietly rested on the Sab- bath, made the journey of perhaps fifteen hundred miles, without a single exception, in less time, and came back in better health, than those who traveled without observing the Sabbath. So the Hudson Bay Oompany opposes us no more. They say, "Go on, missionaries, ana the Lord bless you."
When traveling in the winter we had to dig holes in the snow, and there cook our fat meat, and make a kettle of tea, and then try to go to sleep, until sometimes the snow piled npon us, during the fierce blizzard storms, so that we were completely covered, and if you were out hunting you could tramp right over us, little dreaming that a missionary and three dog-drivers were asleep there under the snow. I did not take my wife on those winter journeys, but in the summer months she sometimes went with me. We were paddling along one day and we came to a sand bar, where we went ashore, and while the Indian boatmen were cooking the dinner, my wife and I walkt along the beautiful beach. Soon we saw a number of Indians coming along in their birch canoes. I saw that they were some of myoId friends whom I intended to visit on my return journey. As they came along in their canoes from a distant point, I noticed one old fellow who had not the strength and skill of the younger fellows, and so his canoe lagged behind. I said to my wife, "My dear, go down and talk to that old rndian,-his name is Benjamin Oameron. Get him to talk to you of what he knows of Ohristianity, and r will talk to the others." So my good wife went to him where he landed, and, as she under- stands the language like a native, they sat down on the rock, and chatted. When dinner was ready she did not care to come. She seemed very unwilling to leave the old man. She replied to my call, " Oh, I would rather talk to this old man; it is such a blessing to hear him tell of what God has done for him. It is a greater privilege than eating my dinner." Finally she came with me, and as we walkt back she talkt about Benjamin, and her face lighted up with interest. When she stopt I said, "I am glad that you think so much of him; I think just as much of him as anyone, but listen: he was once a cannibal and ate his first wife." " Ugh!" she exclaimed, "can it be possible; well, I am glad that I didn't know it before I talkt with him or I am afraid I shouldn't have so enjoyed the interview." Years ago that old Indian went out in the woods with his wife for their winter hunting. They put out their traps and snares to catch the wild animals that wandered there through those northern forests in the cold and the snow,–":but they were not very successful. The deer did not come as usual, so when there came a day that food was scarce, the man became discouraged and one day he up with his rifle and shot his wife dead. He put the body out on a staging where it froze as solid as marble, and, when other supplies failed, he went to that, and during the winter he ate his own wife. Years after, the missionary came along with his Book. At first Benjamin was very shy and distant,-"No! no I-tho book is for you white people. Not for us." "Oome now and listen,-it is for you." He said, "No," but finally he became interested. Those Indians have wonderful traditions and stories, and I used to match their tales with Bible stories. Some of the Indians are huge fellows, over six feet tall, and they pride themselves on their stature. As they talkt about their height, I would say, "Listen,-I have a book that tells about a man as tall as if one of you were seated on the shoulders of the tallest among you." "Oh! what a story ; what talk is that, missionary?" " Well, come and listen." Then I talk to them about Goliath, and get them interested, and the Gospel follows. In my work among these people I found one reason at least why those stories were in the Bible. Benjamin would not listen, but he became interested in stories, and then he listened to the Gospel. Then he was in 'a state of despair as he thought of his great crime; his head hung down, his face was sad. "Oh!" he said, "if you had only come before I shot my wife, I might have had a chance, but don't tell me that the Holy Spirit is so kind. that the great Father is so kind, and that the Son Jesus is so kind, as to look down and notice a man who shot and ate his wife." "Why yes, I do believE!' He can save you." "Oh.• no, no; I thank you for your words, but I am sure you must be mistaken. He surely will not stoop so low." "Yes, He will." Then I think of the passage "beginning at J erusalem." Ohrist said practically, "Go find out my murderers and offerthem salvation." So I do not despair, and such a blessed Ohristian does Benjamin become that when my wife first met him, mature blessed Ohristian woman as she is, she, nevertheless, felt that she was a child to sit at his feet, and listen to his blessed words. If you should go to that land, and should want to get a maguificent pair of reindeer horns or splendid bearskin, there would not be a, better man than old Benjamin to guide you to where you could shoot what you desired; but he would not let you be with him five minutes before he would say, " Are you a Ohristian? Do you love my Savior? Is His love in your heart? If so, give me your hand, I am glad to shake hands with one who loves this blessed Savior who so loves me."
Blessed work! May God give us a missionary spirit, and whether it is in home missions or in foreign work, church work or prison work, let us do what we can, and remembtll' Longfellow's words, so applicable in these blessed days:- .. Out of the shadows of night The world rolls into the light; It is daybreak everywhere."
TRYING TIMES IN MADAGASCAR
TRYING TIMES IN MADAGASCAR.* BY REV. W. E. COUSINS, ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR.
Madagascar is now a French colony, the Chamber having on June 20th, 1896, by 312 votes to 73, past a bill declaring this change. The tri-color now meets the eye at every turn. It is hoisted in all the ports, and in almost every important town throughout the country. In some places the native flag still flies side by side with the French colors, notably on the Queen's palace of Manjakamiadana, the most prominent building in the capital; and this combination of the flags not unfittingly symbolizes the actual condition of the government of the country. Ranavalomanjaka III. is still Queen, and has her Prime Minister and her court, and keeps up much of her former state; but Frenchmen are now at the head of all government departments, and the French Residency bulks more largely in the minds of the people than does the royal palace of Manjakamiadana. All respect is shown to the Queen, and a definite sum has been allotted to her from the national revenues, and she probably possesses fuller liberty in all minor matters than she did formerly. But it is perfectly well knowu that the administration of the government has past into the hands vf the French, and in every department they now exercise the controling power.
In many ways French rule has already effected many changes and improvements. The things that first strike the attention of an old resident returning to the country are the new roads, the free circulation ·of French money, the use of mules instead of native porters, the pres- ~nce of many French troops, and the gangs of Chinese coolies now to be seen near the coast engaged in road making.
'rhe mule road from Tamatave to the' capital, a distance of more than two hundred miles, is a wonderful achievement. In less than a year from the taking of Antananarivo the French have effected what the natives have failed to do during the many centuries they have been in the land. In the more mountainous parts of the country the road is carried round the slopes of the hills, and all the steeper ascents ,.of the old route are avoided. Streams are bridged, and all swampy places now have well-constructed causeways running across them. No bridge has yet been built across the Mangoro, but a large ferry boat is used to carry the mules across. Canals are being dug to con- • Having recently returned to Antananarivo after nearly two years absence in England, J: wish to give a,n account of the present state of this island and of the prospects of Christian work under the new regime. W. E. C. nect the line of lagoons near. the coast, and it is believed that soon steamers of light draft will pass from near Tamatave to Maromby, a third of the whole distance to the capital.
Oonvoys of mules are constantly employed in carrying stores from post to post, and in these convoys one sees with pleasure a prophecy of the time when human beings will cease to be beasts of burden in this land, and the thousands of able-bodied men who now spend their lives on the roads as porters will be set free to cultivate the soil or to engage in other works that may increase the wealth and prosperity of the land.
Another welcome change' is the free use of French money. Till recently the five-franc piece was the only coin in use, and it was cut into small pieces for change. A pair of scales was always required in making payments, and much loss of time and temper occurred. Now from Tamatave to Antananarivo a traveler need not once handle the scales or touch a piece of the old cut money.
A less welcome change is the presence everywhere of the soldiers of the Republic-Frenchmen, Algerians, Senegalese, Dahomeyans, and others. This is, of course, only natural, seeing we are as yet only ten months distant from the close of the war; but it is nevertheless a cause of no small trouble and annoyance to the natives. Many of the villages now have a neglected and deserted appearance, the people having left in large numbers for more remote and quiet places. These soldiers are a constant reminder that the land has been conquered; and tho, on the whole, friendly relations are maintained between them and the natives, they are at times overbearing and unjust in their dealings with them. This evil, we may hope, will gradually disappear; but it is my opinion that for years to come a strong French force will be needed to keep order in the land. What has been taken by force of arms must, tm other influences have had time to work, be held by the same power.
In my paper publisht in the June, 1896, number of this REVIEW, I quoted a statement from the correspondent of the Standard newspaper to the effect that fifty Frenchmen would be more than sufficient to prevent any outbreak against the French. This, no doubt, seemed probable at the time; and so far as the capital and its immediate neighborhood are concerned, it might be true still; but, alas! even three or four thousand l!'rench troops do not seem enough to maintain order in the outlying districts of Imerina. For many weeks past there have been daring outbreaks of rebellion, nominally at least, against the French rule, or rather perhaps against foreigners, and the changes their presence inevitably brings. There is, no doubt, among the rural population a strong anti-foreign spirit, and this has been turned to ac- {lount by all who are ready to rejoice in disturbance for the sake of the plunder they may obtain. On the borders of this central province of Imerina, there have been for many years bands of· lawless men, who have, at times-especiaLly in the cold and dry season-raided the country, shooting down the men, driving off the cattle, and carrying the women and children into slavery. Thus the evil is an old one, but it has been growing to more formidable dimensions during the past twelve years, the bands of raiders having been largely increast by deserters from the army. These bands, taking advantage of the political excitement caused by the downfall of the late Prime Minister, and receiving encouragement from e,il disposed persons generally, have for months past been committing serious depredations all around. In every case they have proclaimed a crusade against Christianity, aud have declared themselves adherents of the old heathenism. Pastors and evangelists are the special objects of their hatred, and some of these have died a martyr's death, while scores of others have had to fly for their lives. About four hundre.d churches belonging to the London Missionary Society have been burnt; and many others belonging to the Roman Catholics, the Anglicans, and the Norwegian Lutherans have been similarly destroyed. We can, just now, with sad hearts repeat the words of the Psalmist and say: "They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." No distinction is made. Christianity and the presence and predominance of foreigners are considered to be so closely connected, that everything that has to do with Christian worship is to be destroyed. A French priest, Father Bertier, who was trying to aid some of his opprest and frightened people, was brutally murdered at AmbOhibemasoandro. About a dozen other Europeans, mostly Frenchmen, have also been killed. At Antslrabe a party of Europeans were besieged in the Norwegian mission house by many hundreds of the rebels; but they were bravely defended by a few French soldiers and some of the Malagasy militia, and were finally rescued by the French Resident of the district and a native governor.
This widespread movement may have in it some rude elements of patriotism and a wish to be free from a foreign yoke; but, on the whole, it is rather, I think, to be regarded as a last dying struggle of the old conservatism and heathenism against all progress and change. In the meantime, whatever may be its true explanation, it is a sonree of untold suffering to thousands of quiet, law-abiding people. The full tale of the miseries of the past few months will never be fully known. From our district alone no less than eighteen hundred have been obliged to flee. The capital is full of such refugees. Happily many are earning a livelihood by joining the gangs of road-makers so largely employed just now. We never saw so clearly, tho in words we often acknowledged it, how light a hold the Christian religion has had on the minds of thousands of the country people. Much in the past history of the country explains what is now taking pl~ce, as multitudes only gave up the observances of the old religion because the Queen and the leading people of the land led the way.
This outburst of persecution and lawlessness is just now like a. thick cloud hanging over the land. But, on the other hand, I see much reason for thankfulness and hope. Not a few of our friends have proved faithful in the hour of trial, and again in the annals of the Malagasy Church fresh names are being added to the noble army of martyrs. Instances are constantly coming to light in which native pastors and others refused to save themselves by taking a heathen {jath, preferring to lay down their lives rather than to bE, false to their Lord.
There is also much reason for thankfulness for the quiet way in which Christian services are being maintained lind general missionary work is being carried on in Antananarivo and its neighborhood. Changes, it is true, are coming over the land. Evils will arise from many sources, and the young esp':lcially win be exposed to fresh temptations. Strong drink may be obtained more easily than ever. And the presence of thousands of French soldiers brings with it well-known moral evils. But in this nearer district, and in other older centers of teaching, the Christians, as a whole, are true to their profession.
The well-timed visit of MM. Langa and Kruger as delegates from the Paris Missionary Society has been of immense service to the cause of Protestantism. The Jesuits, not unnaturally perhaps, sought to take every advantage of the French victory; but it has now been shown clearly to all our native adherents that there are loyal ~nd enthusiastio Frenchmen who are not Roman Catholics, and who can preach the Gospel to our nathre congregations in all the simplicity to which they have been accustomed. There is reason to hope that the Paris Society will undertake permanent work in thi8 land, and its cooperation will be warmly welcomed by the London Missionary Society.
I am much imprest by the q!1iet, matter-of-fact way, in which our people generally accept French rule. I have heard no word of bitterness from them. Indeed, recent events have distinctly tended to throw them into the arms of the French, as their only defenders against these bands of marauders. Already it is becoming apparent to the people, that altho French rule will involve some things distasteful to them, it will also bring many solid advantages. The fine roads now being cut through all the main districts of the 'capital are an evcrpresent indication of French energy. Another clear gain is the promptness with which public business is now transacted. The French judges are also making it clear that justice will be administered with strict impartiality to all classes. A young Hova, who holds a position in one of the courts, said to me a few days ago: "Now for the first time the old ideal of our ancesters, that' the rich should possess their own, and the poor should possess their OWll, ' is becoming a fact of daily experience." The care and strict impartiality of the French Judge who presides over his court, he described as being worthy of the highest praise. It is becoming evident that the government will not be carried on in future for the benefit of privileged classes, but for the good of the whole people.
M. Laroche, the Resident-General, is himself a Protestant, and makes no secret of his religious position. But as representative of the French Republic he allows no distinction to be made on the ground of religion, and many important government offices are filled by Pro- testants. An illustration of the feelings of the native Protestant Christians toward him is to be found in the fact that in the large public meeting of the Congregational Union of Imerino on April16th~ a resolution was past expressing satisfaction with his policy.
An important proclamation on the subject of religious liberty was publisht May 15th, the text of which reads as follows: " Nous garantirons la liberte de conscience et de la liberte des cultes. Cette liberte a ete proclamee en France il y a un siecle; nous en affirmons ici, non moins haut que chez nous, Ie principe. Les protestants, les catho- Iiques,les diverses communions, leurs ecoles, jouiront d'une egale pro- tection sous nos lois: et il serait contrarie a nos moours d'en favoriser une, a plus forte raison de la persecuter." There is, then, no immediate danger to be feared from the action of the French Government. Still, the ol1tlook just now is, it must be confest, a somewhat gloomy one. We see much of our work apparently destroyed; and our people scattered. But we thank God for what remains, and we believe there are in Madagascar a sufficient number of true Christians to prevent the final destruction of our work~ even in the more remote country districts. We believe that, as soon as these disturbanMs are brought to an end, and order and peace are once more restored to the people, earnest and well-directed efforts will be made to gather together the scattered. sheep, to rebuild the burnt churches, and to "strengthen the things that remain," which to all outward appearances just now, indeed, look to be "ready to perish."
[Later .Notes.] **** The general condition of things in Central Mada- gascar remains much as it was two months ago. In some parts the people seem inclined to settle down quietly under their new masters; but church burning still goes on in other districts, and fresh out- breaks of rebellion are constantly reported. Just now, (Sept. 18), the Vakin-Ankaratra district (in the southwest) is in a very disturbed condition; the whole of Vornizango and much of Marovataua (in the northwest) are virtually in rebellion; and the small French force in Ambatondrazaka, the chief town of the Antsihanaka province (in the northeast) is reported to be surrounded by a large body of the socalled rebels. Whenever French troops meet these bands, they are, of conrse, victorions, and no French post has been taken by them. Bnt unfortunately these would~be patriots and deliverers of their country from a foreign yoke prove themselves to be only common marauders and robbers, and the poor defenceless people must either feign obedi- ence to them, or suffer the loss of all they have. A new French general has just arrived, and fresh troops are said to be on their way" so that some more decisive action may soon be taken. That the French will ultimately succeed in reestablishing order, no one, I suppose" doubts; but the process is a tedious one, and in the mean time hun- dreds of our country people are snffering greatly.
Bright spots may, however, be discerned amid the prevailing gloom. In the Betsileo district, for example, where the Jesuits have been trying hard to frighten the village people and make them believe that their only chance of safety under French rule lay in becoming Roman Catholics, the Resident, Dr. Besson, who for a time manifested an unaccountably bitter spirit against the L. M. S. Mission, has now issued a most satisfactory proclamation of religious freedom, and onr people are relieved from the fears to which they had been yielding. At the same time M. Langa, one of the special envoys of the Paris Missionary Society, is visiting the Protestant churches in the Betsileo district, and, we believe, his presence and his message will do much to quiet the minds of the people.
Another cause of rejoicinK just now is, that our Stone Memorial Church at Ambohipotsy, which has been occupied by French soldiers since the bombardment last year, has now been vacated. The people generally, and particularly the congregation using the building, are delighted to have this proof that the authorities do not intend to place any hindrances in the way of those who adhere to the Protestant form of religion. Two suburban churches are still occupied by French troops, as well as a schoolroom, and several country churches. We hope that these, too, may soon be restored to their ordinary uses.
It is a noteworthy fact that not a single Roman Catholic church has been occupied by French soldiers, showing how difficult it seems for even those who profess to be strictly impartial, to treat Protestants and Roman Catholics alike.
Our country work has, of course, been sadly hindered by recent events. More than five hundred of our churches have been burnt. But in and around the capital all ordinary mission work is being carried on much as usual, tho many congregations are reduced to a third of their former numbers. In our educational work, on the contrary, there are signs of advance, and our college and the high schools were never so well attended. Young Malagasy are now beginning to see some of the material advantages of education, and, of course, they are eager to learn the French language, which bids fair to lead to good appointments of various kinds.
lIIECCA CERTIFICATE
THE MECCA CERTIFICATE.
The following is a description by Dr. H. II. Jessup, of Syria, of the ~ertificate given to Mohammedan Pilgrims to Mecca.
The copy of this certificate, from which our frontispiece for this month is reproduced, was given by an aged Mohammedan pilgrim in the Beirut quarantine to a physician who had attended him in sickness in 1893. It is a duplicate copy which he had, and which had never been signed by the Sheiks of Mecca or by the Shereef of Mecca. This certificate is especially interesting in the inside view which it gives of the character and tenets of the Mohammedan religion.
PLATE I.
The Arabic verse at the top of the page is from the Koran "Sura el Bukr" or "The Cow"-(Chap. I ; 198); "And when ye go in procession from Mt. Arafat, remember God near (El Mashaar el Haram) the holy monument."
The words at the bottom of the certificate read as follows: "Praise to God who has granted us the privilege of the Holy House, and the well of Zemzem, and the Mukano (station of Abraham) and the station of the Prophet, may Allah pray for (or bless) him and grant him peace! . . . After this preface we testify that the Hajj . . . has performed tllC llOly pilgrimage at the lawful time according to the holy law and continued clad in pilgrim garb. Ihram, persevering and praying upon (by the intercession of) the Propliet, may the Lord bless him and grant him peace! ; until he entered Mecca and entered the House of the Haram by the gate of Es Salam, and went around the (Kaaba) Raj going and advancing, and went to Mount Arafat, on tbe west side, and joined the "rush" to lluzdalifa, and gathered the stones, and spent the night in it (Mina) until dawn and went to Mina all(~ tbrew the seven stones at tIle pillar (Cairu) of Akaba ; then returned to Mecca and performed the Towaf of the visit; then returned to Mina and remained there the appointed days, and hurled stones at the three Cairus (Jemeat) and completed the Haj and the 'Omra. Our standing or witness to this was on the – – day of the year 130 – '- and I call God to witness to this, and He is the best of witnesses."
Then follow places for the names of four witnesses. At the right-hand upper corner of this page is the representation of the Mosque of Muzdalifa and tents of the Pilgrims; to the left of this the Mosque of Nimr near Mount Arafat and below it the Mahmals of Syria and Egypt, i. e., palanquins carried on camels, surmounted by flags. 'ro the right is Mount Arafat, a sacred mountain about 12 miles northeast of Mecca, which, in Moslim tradition, is said to be the place where Adam and Eve met after the fall. 'rhey were in the Celestial Paradise in the skies. when one day, while walking too near the border, they stumbled and fell over the edge, so tumbling down into this world. This is the Moslem idea of the "Fall." Adam landed in Ceylon and Eve at Jeddah on the Red Sea. He was 200 years search. ing for his wife; but at length he set out westward, stepping sixty leagues at a step, and wherever his foot touched the ground, a city sprang up, until at length he met Eve at this mountain, " Arafat-hoo, she recognized him," hence the name of this mountain. At the foot of this mountain, the Mohammedans believe that Abraham offered a ram in sacrifice instead of his son Ishmael (who, according to the Koran, was the favored son instead of Isaac). Here every year each pilgrim offers a sheep as a commemorative sacrifice. The Bedawin Arabs from Arabia come together in thousands at this time, bringing their vast flocks of sheep, which are sold to the pilgrims, each one of whom, if able, is to buy and sacrifice a sheep. Formerly the offal of these . thousands of slaughtered animals poisoned the air and produced pestilence. The governor of Mecca now has great trenches dug to receive this offal. In 1893, when 100,000 pilgrims visited Mecca, and 50,000 died of cholera, these trenches were filled with the dead bodies of the pilgrims. Hundreds dropt dead along the road from Mecca to Arafat, and while writhing in the contortions and agonies of the cholera convnlsions, no medical aid was askt or provided. The devout pilgrims only said "Niyalhoo," "happy man-he has died at Mecca."
The three pillars of Mimi, which are also represented here, are ancient pagan shrines. At each one every pilgrim must hurl seven stones at the devil.
Near this is pictured the Mesjed or Mosque of Taif, the altar of Ishmael, the Dome of Abd-el Kader in Baghdad,.and at the extreme right the DO-llle of "Our Lord" Hassein al Kerbela, where thousands of corpses of deceast Persians are brought yearly to be buried. It is northwest of Baghdad and lies in 'furkish territory.
Then we notice the birthplace of Mohammed, of Ali ibu Abi Talib, of Abu Bekr, and Fatimeh, and the Tomb of Amina and Khadijah; also two bell-shaped hills, Jebel Thowr, and Jebel Noor.
PLATE II.
At the top of this page is a verse from the Koran (Sura III: verse 90).
"Verily. the first house appointed unto men to worship in was that which was in Becca [Mecca] blessed and a direction to all creatures."
This page contains the quadrangular court of the Mecca Haram, within which is the circular colonnade, enclosing the Kaaba or Beit Allah, the House of God. 'fhis Kaaba was, in the days of Pre-Islamio paganism, a pagan temple, and was adopted by Mohammed as a. sacred shrine, out of deference to the time-honored superstitious reverence of the Arabian people, especially the citizens of Mecca. According to Burckhardt, its sides are 18 paces by 14, its hight from 35 to 40 feet. It is oovered yearly with a Kiswet or vail of black brocade, adorned with a broad band embroidered with golden inscriptions from the Koran; it has also a richer curtain for the door.
The old Kiswet is removed on the 25th day of the month before the pilgrimage, cut up into small pieces, and sold to the p'ilgrims for charms.
At the southeast corner of the court is the famous Black Stone, or Rajr el Asswad, a meteoric stone set in the wall, about a span long, which is reverently kist hy every pilgrim seven times, as he makes the seven-fold circuit of the Kaaba. The Moslems claim that this stone was given by Gabriel to Abraham. It is no doubt a meteorite, which fell from the skies in ancient days, and was regarded as divine as was the "image which fell down from Jupiter" (Acts 19: 35): Mohammed, as a concession to the Pagan superstition of the Meccans confirmed the kissing of the Black Stone as a religious rite of Islam. The fiery Omar, when askt, why he kist the stone, said" Verily, I know that thou art a stone; thou doest no good or harm in the world, and if it was not that I saw the prophet kiss thee, I would not kiss thee"-(Mishkat ul Masabih, Book XI : ch. IV. pt. III.) Modern intelligent Mohammedans, when askt why they kiRs the stone, reply, " God knows, we do not."
Below the representation of the Kaaba is depicted the famous station of Abraham, a stone 20 inches long by 15 inches wide. It is in the shape of a basin, and iR buried in the earth. The naTDe of Abraham is connected with it from the tradition that he first built the Kaaba.
Below this may be noticed the famous "Beer Zemzem," Well 01 Zemzem, or Well of Hagar, which is claimed to be the water which Hager saw, when Ishmael was dying of thirst. The Moslems ascribe miraculous virtues to its tepid waters, and the manufacture of bottles or jars for carrying the water to distant countries has developt into quite a trade. The curb of the deep well is on a level with the pavement, and as the vast procession of pilgrims comes to the spot, the keepers of the well draw up a bucket, the pilgrim drinks a little, and the rest is poured over his body, and runs back into the well. One can imagine the state of this water when ten or twenty thom:and pilgrims have been washt in it 1 Prof. Hankin, of London, analyzed the water and publisht the result in the the British Medical Journal of June, 1894, as follows: Total solids in a gallon _______________________________.___ . _.259. Chlorine . _________________________________________________ 51. 24 Free ammonia parts per million ______________ : ___________ • __ 0.93 Albuminoid ammonia _______ . ___________________________ . _.. .45 Prof. Hankin says that this water" contains an amount of solids greater than that in any well water used for potable purposes."
Even when cholera is raging, the same use of this well is con· tinued; no wonder that it becomes the means of conveying and increasiug the cholera germs among the unfortunate pilgrims, so that the European government have urged the Sultan to enforce a reform, cleanse this water, and protect the lives of the pilgrims.
Around the circle are the praying places of the Malikis. the Hanafys, the Hanbalys and the Shafi-is, the four great sects of Islam.
Around the quadrangle are 20 gates, such as Bab-su-Nebi, Gate of the Prophet, Gate of Abraham, of Peace, of Abbas, of the Mare, the Mule,Safa,* of Farewell, of Wisdom, etc., etc.,-besides various>- shrines.
PLATE III.
On the third page are represented the Holy Places of El Medizel,,_ the tomb of Mohammed.
The Koranic passage at the top reads as follows: "Said the prophet, may God bless him and grant him peaceI Who visits my' tomb, has my intercession."
The large dome in the upper left-hand corner is the tomb o:t Mohammed. Around the page are drawn the mosque of Fatimeh,.. mosque of the Strength of Islam, the mosques of Hamzeh, Abu: Bekr, Ali and Silman, the tomb of Othman, and various other shrines~ PLATE IV.
This page contains the Holy Shrines of Jerusalem. The Haram-es- Sherif, or the quadrangular area once occupied by the temple of Solomon, occupies the centre of the page. The verse of the Koran at the top is from Sura XVII. : .. Praise be unto Him who transported His servant (Mohammed) by night from the sacred temple (of Mecca) to the farther temple, the Mosque El Aksa (of' Jerusalem). "
'1'he Mosque commonly knowu as the Mosque of Omar, is here> • styled "Beit el Mukdas" or the Holy House. Under the dome in thS' black circle is the" Rock of God," or the" Suspended Stone." Every visitor to thill Mosque is startled at finding within it, surrounded by' the iron railing, an enormous naked rock. 'rhis was very probp,bly thssummit of Mount Moriah. Moslem traditions say that when Mohammed made the famous "Mi'raj ., or midnight journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and started to ascend to heaven, this rock followed him until he kicked it back with both feet, leaving the prints of his. two feet in the rock, which has ever since remained suspended in the air! 'rhe two footprints of the prophet are pictured below the rock.
Below this are the Scales of "Mizan," in which all men's deeds are· to be weighed at the last day, together with the shears which cut off the life of men. Men's good deeds are to be placed in one scale-pan· and their evil deeds in the other. The good deeds are the Moham-· medan good works, viz.: (1.) To repeat the Oreed or Formula. "Tnere is no God, but God, and Mohammed is his Apostle." (2). To give alms to the poor. (3). To pray five times a day. (4). To keep. the fast of Ramadan. (5). To make the pilgrimage to Mecca. If one observes these outward rites, his good deeds will outweigh any possibleevil deeds. The Arabs have a proverbial saying, "If a man has been to Mecca once, well and good; if twice, have an eye on him; if three· timeR, have nothing to do with him, he has become so holy that he is; dangerous," i. e., he has laid up such a stock of religious merit that ha,~ can commit any amonnt of sin with impunity. At the bottom of this fourth page of the Oertificate is the great'; Bridge of S~'l'aat, of vast length, the width of a hair, and sharp as a, razor, over which every mortal must walk barefooted. At the right..
* The Hills of Safa and Merwah, a short distance outside of the Heram, beyond th&o Bab Safa, are two hills, Sata and Merwah, on the top of which in Pre-Islamic days stood two stone idols. worshipt by the Pagan Meccans, When they accepted Islam, it was on condition that these two sacred hill-tops continue to be visited as a part of the holy pilgrimage. So to this day, every Mohammedan pilgrim, however grave, learned and dignified, must run seven times from the top of Safa hilI to the top of Narwah hill, as did the old pagan Arabs. When m askt, why do you do this? they reply, • Allah knows, we do not." This is another instance of the adoption and adaption by Mohammed of the superstitioDs of paglUlism order to.. win the Meccans to his cause.
THE ENTRANCE OF ECUADOR
of it is the pit of Jehenaam or hell, and to the left Jenneh or Paradise. A nazatdous feat it is to make the journey, since on it depends one's eternal destiny.
Arouud this area are pictured the tombs of David, Solomon, Moses aud Jacob, and in the right-hand upper corner is seen Jebel, Tool' Sina, or Mount Sinai.
This Oertificate is the Moslem's passport, as it were, to Paradise. It gives one in brief an epitome of Mohammedan faith and practice. Islam is a religion of works, of human merit. There is no way of salvation by a Redeemer. 'l'hese 200,000,000 of Moslems sorely need to be taught the true way of life, even salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, their true prophet, priest and king.
THE ENTRANOE OF EOUADOR.
BY GEO. S. FISHER, DIRECTOR OF THE GOSPEL UNION.
A few days of tossing on the sea, a short ride across the Isthmus, -a calm journey down the coast and "Over the line," four days of travel on mule-back, toiling up the mountains, a wet, cold night in a shepherd's hut on old Chimborazo, 14,000 feet above the sea, a day and a half by stage and I arrived in sight of Quito-a city whose history is shrouded with a record of licentiousness;murder, rapine, torture, igno- rance and superstition-all that cruel Spain, the unscrupulous priests and inhuman rulers could make it; but the streams have washt the blood away, the rocks are dumb, and she still lies at the feet of old Pichincha, fair and beautiful, and, thank God, I believe that for her ,the first rays of light are streaking the mountains and the morning dawneth when there shall be here sounded out the true and glorious 'Gospel of the Son of God.
A few mornings after my arrival I climbed the mountain for a short distance and sat down to pray to the Great Oreator and to look . over the city. Though 10,000 feet above the sea, Quito is situated in "I" valley almost surrounded by mountains, and three or four snow- "capped peaks are to be seen on a clear day, among them the lofty 'whitened head of Catopaxi, some 18,000 feet high. It is not now an ;active volcano, but sends forth enough light steam to form a cloud ;that appears to sit upon its brow like a silvery plume. 'rhe city: con- tains 60,000 people, and is built very compactly, the streets are paved, and. fountains where the drinking water is obtained, play in all the principal pIazzas, while numerous streams of water run through tha city underground. The climate is quite cold, plenty of rain falls, and hail is not infrequent. But a few hours distant hot valleys are reacht, while wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., are raised in other parts, so that th!3 markets are well supplied with eatables, which are gener- ally sold very cheaply. The best restaurant in the city serves meals- about five courses-for twenty cents, and house-rent is quite reasonable. Wool abounds, and some very good, but coarse, cloth is manufactured. Almost the entire work of the city is performed by the Indians, and their powers of endurance are marvelous, but they are poorly paid, and are kept in ignorance and poverty.
Perhaps one-fourth of the city is occupied by churches, convents, etc.-one of the churches with its attachments covering nearly two entire blocks, and is enclosed with a.great high wall. From the days of the killing of Atahualpa, king of the Incas, by the Spanish troops, to the present time, the Indians have been treated very much as were the children of Israel under Pharaoh. 'fhe Catholic religion has been supreme, the Bible is almost unknown, and the priests have become rich and wanton, and are the fathers of many of the inhabitants. I have met here one of the chief priests of the Cathedral, who, it is believed, poisoned the Archbishop, because he spoke against their evil practices-at any rate, the Bishop drank the communion cup and fell dead. Sermons are no longer preacht, but dozens of bells seem never to cease their clanging, calling the people to their idolatrous worship. Images are to be seen almost everywhere, and feast days to certain saints are most numerous. Processions march the streets, men with lighted candles, and the priest, arrayed in his vestments-walking under a canopy carried by a boy-on his way to administer "Extreme Unction" to the dying, while men take off their hats and women fall upon their knees on the pavement. This very day I saw a number of horrid looking images carried about the city, before whom, I suppose, some time or other, the faithful are to fall down and worship. Nuns have been paid by the government to teach the Indian children, but only attempted to instruct them so that they could read mass. Many of the people live together as man and wife without being married, because the priests charge such an exhorbitant sum for performing the marriage service. All sorts of means are used to obtain money from the now poverty-stricken people. Collections are taken up in a silver box with a crucifix attacht, the people kiss the image and drop their money in the box-even the dead are not at rest, for, unless the grave rent is kept paid up, the remains will be exhumed and carried to the burn pile. I do not wonder that in his day Luther's soul was moved within him until he was forced to cry aloud. Oh, that to-day our God would help us confess our own sin-the sins of the professing Christians of our own land, and then cry mightily for the desolate blinded people of this country, tottering fast into the grave and utter darkness forever.
Some thirty years ago, under the reign of President Morena (The Tyrant), a large number of foreign priests were brought into the country to help him, "Hold the people." He was finally stabbed as he came out of the Cathedral, and from the date of his death, about 1880, until a year ago, there has been no strong or lasting government. The liberals desired many changes and struggled a little, but the priests and church party were so firmly entrenched, that there seemed to be no possible means of gaining a victory. But our God had heard the cries of the poor down-trodden people, and was making ready his Chariot of Deliverence. His ways are not our ways, but He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him.
Something over a year ago Japan, then at war with China. wisht to buy from Chili the warship "Esmeralda," but under some treaty or international law she could not sell to her without probable tronble. Ecuador being considered a small obscure nation, it was suggested by Chili that the ship take the Ecuadorian flag and be sold as her vessel.
The President, the Governor at Guayaquil and the Consul at New York entered into the agreement, and, it is said, received $400,000 for the sale of the Ecuadorian flag, as the transaction was termed. In some way the action became known, a revolution was started at Guayaqui! and the President was obliged to flee. The old Government being conservative, i. e., for the clergy, the liberals of course now came to the front. A" Hnnta," or meeting of the leading men of Guava- 'quil, was called and they decided to send for Gen. Alfaro, who had been fighting for liberty for many years, but for some time past had :been exiled in Oentral America, and proclaimed him "Jefe Supremo."
He came at once, bringing with him Gen. Franco, who had also been <exiled as a liberal. From Quayaquil Gen. Alfaro marcht with his troops up country, taking the cities as he went, without very much of a struggle, occupied Quito, the capital. His officers and soldiers then began the work of taking the different provinces and cities, and an ;·election was soon ordered for delegates for a convention to reform the ,(}().nstitution and elect a president. There are no real elections in any _part of South America-the ruling officer simply reelects himself with :the aid of his troops, or designates some friend for whom the few votes …-are cast, and Gen. Alfaro's men were, of course, all elected. Trouble, however, arose at Ouenca in the south, and the General was obliged to go once more to battle. After qnite a severe fight Ouenca was taken and the couutry quieted. '
On taking hold of the country Gen. Alfaro at once stopt the pay- ment of state money to the church-perhaps a million sucres per year, -or $500,000. He also found that the priests were the strong enemies of his party, and were using their vast wealth and power against the .:government, he therefore confiscated some of their property, and they were pretty thoroughly driven out of the Oriente and the province of Manibe, and a number of them were exiled. Three o'clock in the morning was the regular time f(r confession and mass, and as few peo- Jlle but women attended at this hour, aud the priests were probably using the churches for immoral purposes, he ordered that the churches should not be opened until five o'clock. 'fhe Archbishop instrncted the priests to stir up the people against tlie government, until he was 'in a measure silenced, and he now pretends that his life is in danger, :and that he has left his palace and is in hiding in the city. U ndoubt- >edly the priests and church party understand that a change has taken . place, but the conservatives have much of the wealth of the country, and the priests are never known to give up.
Gen. ]!'ranco is next to Gen. Alfaro in command of the troops and is stationed in this city. He is supposed to rule with a much stronger hand than the President, and he is much feared. He has placed the !City under martial law, and the whistle of the sentinels day and night >on nearly every corner, the concerts giyen by the two military bands, -with soldiers attacht, the marching of the troops through the streets, all tell the people thflt a ruler is in their midst. A short time ago a ~onspiracy was formed to assassinate him, but it was discovered, the 'head man apprehended in the morning and shot at 4 P. M. This tCaused quite a stir, and Mr. MorIa, the head government minister, and ·>others resigned, but the general seems not at all disturbed and walks or rides in the streets with a friend or two, and holds the key to the <city. Both Gen. Alfaro and Gen. Franco have received me very kindly, ,and offered any assistance in their power.
I have found here a small grammar of the Quichua language, ;printed in Spanish, and have had a short conversation with a nun who has been in the Oriente for seven or eight years as a teacher for the Indian children. Archidona, the capital of that province, is over the eastern range, and some seven or eight days distant, but there are no roads, and a person must walk or be carried on the backs of Indians. That town is, however, only two or three days from the Napo river, at a point where it can be navigated by small vessels to its confluence with the Amazon, The country is supposed to be healthy, and parts of it inhabited by tribes of wild Indians who speak dialects of their own.
I find quite a number of people who are now openly opposed to the church and the priests, and while I believe that during the past years brave, wise, Holy Ghost laborers could have lived here, and possibly with much persecution disseminated a good deal of Gospel, I can now see no reason why God's chosen workers should not come here very soon. However changable the people may be, and whatever may in the future befall the present liberal rulers, our God still sits upon the throne, and He is well able to care for'His own so that they may glorify His Son in life or even in death.
'rhe Gospel Union, with headquarters at Kansas City, Mo., has already undertaken a work for this country. Laborers are now at Guayaquil. Brethren pray for us.
* *** At the annual summer Bible School of the Gospel Union held at Orete, Neb. (July 17-25, 1895), it pleased God to pour out upon the Christians there assembled an unusual spirit of prayer for the evangelization of the world. Without premeditation they were led to pray especially for the opening up of South America to the Gospel and the sending forth of missionaries to that land. 'l'he interest culminated in an all-night prayer-meeting and an offering of money, jewelry, etc., amounting in all to about $150.00 for the opening of a new mission in the Neglected Continent. To human eyes this was the beginning of the work which has now resulteu in the sending of four missionaries to the hitherto closed country of Ecuador. We say to human eyes, for in the councils of God the work had been begun before our prayers were offered. It is well known that by the Constitution of Ecuador all forms of religion, save the Roman Catholic, are prohibited from being preacht or taught, and the fanaticism of the Jesuit priests, by whom the country is overrun, had served to re-enforce the law and make the preaching of the Gospel there exceedingly difficult and dangerous, if not impossible; and the result has been that there has never been any settled Protestant missionary work undertaken in the country. There have arisen, however, from time to time in Ecuador some who have opposed this policy by pen and sword, and who have attempted to bring about such a revolution in the government that the Constitution might be so revised as to grant religious toleration; but this liberal party has been hopelessly in the minority, the conservative element controlling both the mass of the people and the wealth of the country, while behind it was the tremendous power of the Jesuit priesthood. But God was working for Ecuador. Almost simultaneously with the Kansas Bible School a revolution was inaugurated which has gone forward until Gen. Alfaro has been elected, the first liberal president of the Republic; the Constitution has been. revised, and we have now every reason to believe that religious tolera- tion has been granted. It seems to us that under such clear leadings of the Providence of God, there is nothing for us to do but to send out missionaries as rapidly as God may permit us to do so. The faith of the people ill
THE THREE YEARS' ENTERPRISE
the Jesuits is shaken, the doors are opened inviting Protestant missionaries to enter, and now is the time to move forward before the country shall settle back into infidelity and atheism, or invite the priesthood to resume control. Delay at this time may mean (as in the case of others of the South American countries) a relapse into a condition worse than that from which it is now emerging.
THE THREE YEARS' ENTERPRISE.
In an appeal issued with reference to the approaching completion of the first hundred years of the Ohurch Missionary Society, the committee say in part: "On April 12th, 1899, the Church Missionary Society will have completed its first century. 1'he O'lle hundredth year (April 12th, 1898, to April 12th, 1899) will be its second jubilee year, and wiU call for an observance markt by still deeper thankfulness, and still greater largeheartedness in offeriug to the service of the Lord. • . . While we would praise Him for His blessing. the attitude of all His servants should be one of deep humiliation on account of the inadequacy of their efforts, and of the neglect by the Church, as a whole, of His solemn command to preach the Gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all nations. That after the lapse of nearly nineteen centuries since that command was given, at least one half the present population of the world should never have heard that there is a Savior for them (to say nothing of the myriads who have died without hearing such glad tidings), is a fact that should humble the Church in the dust; and no joyful commemoration should be allowed to canse it to be forgotten for one moment.
"For this reason, the committee desire to turn the thoughts of the whole society to the consideration of the great and world-wide work of evangelization. . . . The committee accordingly propose to devote all the attention that can be spared from the constant demands of current work during the three years to two great objects: "I. A comprehensive review of the Society's position and met/zods, particularly in the mission-field-tho not excluding its home administration-with a view to the detection of weak points, the correction of errors, the application of the experiences of one mission to the circumstances of another, the more effective distribution of forces, the inauguration of such fresh plans as may conduce to more stable and lasting results. • . . In particular, to give careful attention to the position and needs of the native Ohristian communities called out of heathendom through the Society'S instrumentality; for the evangelization of the great heathen nations will not be accomplisht by foreigners. . • . "II. A large increase in the SoC£et.lf's evangel1:stic forces,. and this with three great objects in view-viz.: first, the strengthening and consolidating of the existing missions of the Society; secondly, the extension of its operations, both in present work and in regions beyond; thirdly. the promotion of the spiritual life of the native Christian communities, with a view to more active and fervent evangelistic effort on their part.
"But there are two essential requirements for the taking of whatever measures may prove to be desirable-viz.: more missionaries, and more means for their maintenance. And with a view to these, the committee propose the following steps: "1. To foster and extend in every possible way the Society's existing agencies, old and new, for spreading and deepening missionary zeal and interest. • . . "2. To seek fresh opportunities of reaching various particular classes of the community. (Men, women, boys, girls, students, and children.) • . . "3. To open communications with several organizations already at work among some of these classes, such as the Church of England and Church of Ireland Young Men's Societies, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, the Girls' and Young Men's Friendly Societies, the Children's Special Service Mission and Scripture Union, etc.; not with any idea of their specifically helping the Church Missionary 'Society, but rather that the Society may be able to help them in the efforts already being made by them (or some of them) to awaken a missionary spirit among the classes for whose benefit they exist. "4. To take fresh steps for the circulation of missionary informa- tion, particularly of the latest current intelligence. The committee propose to issue a monthly letter, containing the latest missionary news, in such It form that it may, if desired, be read as it stands from the pulpit at a Sunday or week-day service. . . . "5. To encourage definite and believing prayer, private, or in the family, or in social or parochial meetings, by supplying friends with topics for prayer, either in the above-mentioned letter or separately.
"6. The committee fully hope that the general interest aroused by these and other plans to be specially developt during the three years will, if inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit, give such an impulse to missionary zeal and interest as will call forth immediate and numerous offers of service. . . . If in the seven years from October, 1887, to October, 1894, the Society did, without realizing it at the time, send out additional missionaries in such numbers that, at the end of the seven years its staff had actually doubled, surely in the coming three years a similar advance may be lookt for, itthe Lord pour out upon his people the spirit of self-sacrifice. . . . "7. The committee consider that the sending forth and the main- tenance of these immediate recruits should be a principal purpose of the new and special freewill offerings which many friends will wish to make during the three years. No object will so surely call forth liberality and self-denial as the sending out of more missionaries for the evangelization of the world. The committee therefore propose to ap- ply to the support of the new missionaries not otherwise provided for, and of any development consequent upon their going out, snch of the centenary or second jubilee offerings as may be made in the following ways: "(a) The committee invite their friends to adopt St. Paul's direc- tion in 1 Cor. 16: 2, and to 'lay by them in store,' Sunday by Sunday, some additional weekly contribution, however small, over and above their ordinary subscriptions, toward the support of the three years' reinforcement; such offerings to be paid in from time to time, either through the associations or direct. "(b) The committee recommend the adoption of the plan of rais- ing additional contributions for the support of individual missionaries, either as personal substitutes for service, or as 'our own mission- aries' for individual parishes or branches of the Gleaners' Union or other bodies, . . .
"The committee will remind their friends that while they rejoice to continue the policy of faith to which they believe God led them €ight years and a half ago, and to send out all qualified missionaries in full trust that He who has called them will provide the means for their support, they are bound to combine effort with faith, and to seek new methods of increasing the funds; and as the income, notwith- standing its unexpected growth in the last few years, is still insuffi- ,dent for the upkeep of the existing staff and machinery, the com- mittee do not doubt that the plan of utilizing the interest which the Society's second jubilee or centennary will arouse, and of employing the funds that will be contributed, primarily for the increase of the Society's evangelist.ic forces, will command general approval. '1'he ,committee do not contemplate the formation of a great centennary fund. To name a figure for such a fund would be either to cause dis- appointment if it were not reacht, or to limit the liberality of God's people if it were reacht. But as the year of the second jubilee ap- proaches, the committee will issue a list of special objects, other than the three years' reinforcement, to which special thank-offerings can be .appropriated. . . • " 'l'he committee earnestly desire that the three years should be a period, not only of progress on the part of the Church Missionary ;Society, but also of a general advance in thc whole Church toward a deeper realization of her responsibilities to her Divine Master for the fulfilment of His great command. In several ways these and succeed- ing years will be a period of centennaries. In 1898 the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge will celebrate its second centennary; in 1901 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel will celebrate its second centennary; and in 1904,the British and Foreign Bible Society its first centellnary. In addition to this the close of the nineteenth cen- tury itself is suggestive of solemn considerations. It is true that if the Christian era should date four years further back than the com- mon reckoning, as is generally believed, 1900 years since the birth of our Lord will be completed this year; but still the very change from the .expression nineteenth century to twentieth century will be a natural occasion for review of the past and preparation for the fu ture. . . .
"The committee do not at present put forth any suggestions for the observance of the Society's second jubilee itself. . . . What is needed is that every member and friend of the Society and of the missionary cause should (1) intend to move forward, (2) actually move forward, and (3) feel and know that he is moving forward; that he is not to-day where he was yesterday, and will not be to-morrow where he is to-day. And this applies to prayer for missions, to the study of missions, to the exercise of influence upon others in regard to mis- ,sions, to the dedication of our substance to the Lord's service in mis- sions, to the daHy 'submitting' of 'ourselves wholly to His holy will and pleasure,' ready to go where He sends us and to do what He bids us. It is little indeed that any of us can do; but if every individual Christian will do that little-not the little he is doing now, but the little he can, if he will, do besides-in prayer, in influence, in offerings, in personal service-then the Lord will do great things for us whereof we shall be glad."
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The General Missionary Outlook. less than three quarters of a century. It took the whole of the first hundred BY REV. GEORGE W. PECK, L.L.D., years after the birth of Christ to gather 500,000 Christian adherents in the whole BUFFALO, N. Y. world, and now we are gathering over 100,000 converts each year in the for- For our sakes, rw doubt, tltis is written: eign mission fields alone. Surely, our that M that ploughetlt sltould plow in, God is marching on. hope; and that he that thresheth in hope JJhould be partaker of his ltope. (1 001'. In the year 1800, before the era of D : 10.) foreign missions began, there were 200,- 000,000 Christian adherents in the whole Theodore Christlieb remarks at the world. The next ninety years of this beginning of his" Universal Survey of great missionary century showed an in- Protestant Foreign Missions," that it is crease of total adherents to Christianity of 270,000,000. Thus, on the average, "a hope inspiring review. * * There Christianity expanded more than 30 times faster during eaeh decade of the breaks upon us, in our days, and grows missionary century, than it did during more and more complete, the age of each decade of the previous eighteen universal missions." centuries.
Other authors of perhaps wider per- What are the facts with reference to sonal observation, tho no better stu- the United States? In 1750 evangelical dents of the theme, agree that the times church membership in the U. S. inin which we are permitted to live, are cluded only one out of every 13 of the unparalleled in their missionary enier- population. At the end of 42 years the prises, and it has come to be recognized church membership included only one that, ., the Church that is not mission- out of every 18 of the popUlation. Durary in its spirit must repent or wane; ing the next 25 years five great missionthe pastor who is not should reform or ary boards were organized in the U. S. resign." largely for work in foreign fields. Since that period evangelical church member- Reliable figures are not always avail- ship has increased in the U. S. from able. I have selected some from Den- one out of every fourteen to one out of nis, Pierson, Todd, Gracey, Christlieb, every four and one-half of the popula- Adams, Gordon and others of our best tion. That is to say, while we have authors, and from our current periodi- been plowing and reaping at the rate (lals and reports. of 100,000 converts a year in the foreign field, our home church membership has Take the year 1825 as our first land- increast from about seven per cent. to mark. There were then only 60,000 nearly twenty-five per cent. of our popu- Christians in all the mission churches of lation. the world. The annual rate of increase was then so small that it was sometimes As an encouraging feature of this cona question whether the diminutive re- denst exhibit, the rapid spread of the sults justified such prodigious efforts. English language and the wide circula- tion of the Scriptures are interesting In 50 years from that time the annual items. In 1800 the English language increase of Christians in mission fields was used by only 24,000,000 of people, was equal to the previous sum total, 60,000,.and in 70 years from that time the annual increase of Christians in mission churches was 100,000; from a few scattered converts each year to over 100,000 converts each year, in a little but in 1890 it had become the vehicle of tend the Savior's kingdom throughout thought for over 115,000,000, outstrip- the habitable world. The Orient will ping its nearest competitors among the furnish the material for the proper in- Russian, German, Spanish and French terpretation of the Scriptures, as within tongues by more than 35,000,000. As a that Orient these were almost exclu- consequence the Bible of our own splen- sively confined for 4500 years. Hun. did vernacular, by far the widest dreds of its cities, towns, rivers, moun· medium of communication between tains, and present inhabitants, are living' the Christian forces of to·day, very witnesses of the truth of the inspired naturally follows the" King's English" word, and will reward extended tours to every nook and corner of the world. for independent investigation in the The Bible is also publisht and circu- interests of Biblical interpretation. The lated in more than 350 translations into stamp of scientific accuracy and appro· languages spoken by 1,400,000,000 peo- val which these lands and people give ple, so that its present annual circula· to the geography, hi2tory, botany, tion exceeds 6,000,000 copies, and its geology, topography and ethnography total circulation during this missionary of the Bible, are so satisfactory to the century exceeds 256,000,000 copies. honest and industrious inquirer that he cannot help regarding them as necessary Here we discover a mighty mission- links between the distant past and the IIry force at work. By competent au- living present. thority it is estimated that not more than 8,750,000 copies of the Bible were These statements give only a faint issued from the time of }loses up to idea of our real indebtedness to the 1804, a period of thirty-six centuries. Orient. The Christian world should From 1804 to 1896, less than one cen- pay, without further delay, its indebted· tury, more than 256,000,000 copies of ness to the fatherland of the prophets the Bible were issued. With the Bible and apostles by saving their unregen· in the hands of the people, ancient erate successors. Educated natives in apathy gives way to modern missionary the east recognize the most perfect activity, and as our tireless presses and adaptation of our religion to all their increasing agencies continue to sow the needs, and this is proving to be a collagospel seed, we will continue to plow teral encouragement of prime importand sow, to r<':ap and thresh in hope of ance. Keshub Chunder Sen, one of glorious rewards. the most learned Hindus, made use of the following forcible language ;- The objection is frequently made, that .. When I reflect upon the fact that it is a waste of time and money to at- Christianity was founded and developt tempt to force the religion of the west- by Asiatics in Asia, my love for Jesus ern world upon the people of the Orient, becomes a hundred-fold intensified." whose habits and customs are so widely different from our own. The Outlook in India.
This, indeed, when our Lord Him- REV. H. F. LAFLAMME, COCONADA, Belf was an Asiatic, and when Chaldean INDIA. shepherds, watching their flocks by night upon the plains of Shinar, were Tho the statement that 15,000,000 of the first to hear the glad tidings of the population of India can read and great joy to all people. Our religion write English has been repeated, it is was born and cradled in the Orient. very wide of the mark. Not that many, It was preacht and practist in the Ori- altogether, can be considered literate in ent in its prestine purity, by the Son of anyone of India's many vernaculars. God himself. The comparison, as regards literacy, between the United States of America Mesopotamia, Egypt and Arabia, and and India, of each 1,000 males, and indeed all the adjacent lands, were laid under contribution to solidify and exthe same number of females, stands choicest troops, and about 12,000 or thus:- more of her pickt men in the railway Malu. Female,. and civil service of India, to preserve The literate in U. S. A. are 725 406 and administer that empire, besides the "India " 109 6 large staff of native officials, then surely That makes but 5 per cent., or 14,- it seems a very reasonable request to 500,000 of the people who can read and ask that 5,800 ordained mis~ionaries, write any language. Out of that num- with a large number of single ladies, ber only 537,811 speak English. Ex- should be engaged in the conquest of <lIuding from this last total the English that continent in the name of tile Lord residents, such as troops, civil servants, Jesus.
traders, the handful of missionaries, etc., the residuum l'epresents the Eng- Outlook in India. lish-speaking natives, who number only 388,032. Tho this class make REV. D. O. FOX, POONA-, INDIA.
themselves heard thro the press, and on What is the outlook for the conquesi 'he platform, the attention of enlight- of India for Christ? This is a very ened Christendom thus drawn to them interesting question. A beginning has is ont of all proportion to their influ- been made towards this end. There is ence and importance. Superstitious, an army of hundreds of workers in the idolatrous, degraded, ignorant India. land. Tllousands of converts are with her teeming millions sleeps on un- gathered into the Christian fold every conscious of their very existence as far year. But what are these anlOng the as any significant effort on their part millions that fill this great empire.
to enlighten her is concerned. These workers were never more con- India's eternal hope lies in the mis- scious that they are face to face with sionary of the cross. Her peoples' il- opposing forces that no human power literacy makes tle colportage campaign can overcome.
a feeble factor in her evangelization. There are two elements at work in That same limitation, while calling India which, together, give promise of loudly for Christian schools as a relief. wonderful results. 1st. There is Ii places them as an immediate and rapid growing spirit of oroeneal among the evangelizing agency largely out of the missionaries of nearly all the different count. Native agents, in greatly mul· denominations. This oneness that tiplied numbers, fired with a holy zeal, comes from love to God and to one an- prepared and sent forth by native other, is becoming a marked feature churches, will be the final efficient fac- among them. It is a cause of grea'
tor. But these are war times. Those joy to all. They freely and heartily vast millions are dying at the rate of unite in missionary conferences, a11- twelve millions a year. They can- day prayer-meetings, camp meetings, not await the preparation of even the district conventions and Bible read- effective native agent. The 800 or- ings. 2nd. There is a united cry going dained foreign missionaries from Pro· up to God all over the land for the gift testant Christendom are entirely inade- of the Holy Spirit. They study the quate. Tile immediate, emphatic, urgent Scriptures with reference to this expe- call is for 5,000 more ordained mission- rience, and are seeking it in all their aries from the warm heart of Christ's meetings. In this they are following people. and a large contingent of select the apostolic practice. As in apostolic Christian women to meet the peculiar times, so now in India, there is coming needs of India's secluded womanhood. the Divine power that follows the bap- If the Queen-Empress of British Do- tism of the Holy Spirit. The resulta minions needs to keep 73,000 of her will be glorious. Outlook in Burma, Previous to the war with Japan, BY REV. DAVID GILMORE, RANGOON, China's principal attention and fears BURMA. had nrenfwerietnhcaestobeceenrtaprianctdii(s~taalnlty nations When I left Burma last March, the but demon: prospects for missionary work-at least strated that her nearest neighbor is an for the work of the American Baptist- ambitious and powerful enemy. In were generally regarded as brighter order to cope with this enemy, China than ever before. The most significant has no alternative but to accept heartily feature is the changed attitude of the and sincerely those western inventions Burmans towards the Gospel. The and sciences that have helpt make the Baptist mission has in the past been Island Empire such a mighty force in blest with great success in Burma; the Far East. but this success has been principally Many things seem to indicate that among the Kavens, a non-Buddhistic race. The work among the Burmans a new era is dawning in "the Land of Sinim." The recent visit of Li Hung (who are Buddhists), while equally Chang to Europe and America has doubt· faithfully done has, until recently, had less much significance. Li is regarded comparatively meager results. But as the leader of the progressive party in now all over Lower Burma it is noticed China. His numerous, practical ques· that the Burmans are much more ready tions while in this country, show that to listen to the Gospel. The number of he sought information which he hopes those desirous, or at least willing, to em- to turn to good account in his native brace Christianity, is steadily increas· land. It is highly probable that west· ing, and many more Burmans are being ern inventions will soon be introduced baptized now, than was the case five into China as never before, and that years ago. railways will be built for military pur· poses primarily, but ultimately for Other important signs are: the great general use. increase of Bible reading among the Christian Kavens, due to the introduc- Recent letters from China indicate an tion of a cheap and portable photo-en- increasing interest in western affairs graved Bible; the extension of work and in Christianity, despite the riots of among Telegus and Tamils by the Bap- last year, and the deplorable Kucheng tists, who for the past two years have massacre which, on August 1st, 1895, had a missionary devoting his whole deprived the writer of eight valued time to this work, and the organization fellow-workers of the Church Missionof a Conference by the American ary Society of England. Yet from that Methodist Episcopal mission in Lower region, and also from the scene of the· Burma. The Methodists are evidently riots in West China, there come cheering determined to take up work for the reports, which betoken the dawn of a natives with the same energy they have brighter day of opportunity. shown in their Eurasian work in Ran- Rev. G. B. Smyth, President of the. goon. Anglo-Chinese Oollege, connected with the Methodist Episcopal mission at The Outlook in Ohina. Foochow, writes: BY REV. M. C. WILCOX, PH.D., FOOCHOW, "There are many signs of a great.
CIDNA. awakening of interest here in things.
During the last few years China has foreign. Large numbers of people are been making history far more rapidly attending the churches. Over 100 have, than ever before. The recent war with joined Tieng Ang Dong (a leading- Japan, in which China lost every battle, Methodist Church) on probation since, will doubtless prove a greater benefit, conference. Of course, it would be a in the sequel, to the larger country than mistake to suppose that all this isa relig· to the smaller. ious awakening. • • • I think thegreater part of it is not. It is rather a two million who have heard, more or less, to accept the Gospel offer, and feeling that the future belongs to the how shall the forty thousand Protestant Ohristians of Japan be helpt to fuller foreigners. or to those who learn their faith and larger work? Il'his is th9" great Japan problem. secrets. . Some of the new America has its problem of the massstudents at the college are from some of es ; but in America it is the problem of persuading the two out of every three' the most important families in 'the city. who are not members of evangelical churches, to accept Christ and the One is a nephew of the Au Kuang Christian life. In Japan, it is persuad- ing the nine-hundred and ninety-nine of magistrate, another is a grandson of the everyone thousand.
Chek Kiang Taotai." Here the two refuse Christ, not from ignorance, but from deliberate choice. So much from one whose statements There the nine-hundred and ninety- nine do not choose because they do not are sure to be sufficiently conservative. yet know of the Christ.
I will now quote from a missionary Suppose the case reverst, and the United States to be in the condition of who is sufficiently optimistic, but prob· Japan-circled by isolation and steept in heathenism for twenty-five hundred ably not too much so in view of all indi- years, all the people Buddhists, Shinto- ists, Confucianists, Atheists or Panthecations, Rev. W. N. Brewster, of Ring- ist8,-a large part of them all of these at once,-our present material civilizahua, China: tion-railroads, telegrafs, school-system and the like, all gotten from abroad .. Weare growing as rapidly as we within the past thirty years. Then suppose that only thirty-five years ago have men to shepherd the people. The missionaries from Asia began cOming to 8uch an America to make us acquainted, people and the officials are in general for the tirst time, with the Bible and Christianity, and that to-day-carrying very friendly. . . . Ringhua mis- out the proportioDs,-there were but 800 of those Japanese and Chinese men sion, when organized separately from and women working for us as Christian missionaries, and but 65,000 of our the Foochow Conference, will have over 65,000,000, who call themselves Protes- tant Christians, while over nineteen 5,000 members and probationers. . • . twentieths of the rest had never heards word of Christian teaching. What our A missionary's life, if anything. is one problem would be in such a case is the problem of Japan to-day. Prayers and of faith; he 'sows in hope.' The black- sympathy are needed for the Japan missionaries and Christians, who are ness of the heathen night enshrouds facing these difficult minor problems. But we must not let these obscure our him like a pall. Even though he report view of the 181'ge problem. It is not re- trenchment and withdrawal of mission- 1,000' converts in a single year, what ary help, as some have suggested, but deeper sympathy and more earnest are these to the thousand times 1,000 souls in his district that are, to all ex- cept the eye of faith, as far from Christ as ever. . . . You ask me, 'Watch- man, what of the night?' 'The morn- ing cometh.' It is here."
The Japan Problem.
REV. c. A. CLARK, MIYAZAKI, JAPAN.
Japan has come to the "problem" stage. Problems great and grave have arisen; problems of education, of property, of theology, of cooperation; problems calling for great wisdom and patience and wakeful nights and earnest prayer, and above all, for Christ-like love.
But the compound problem, which towers above all these problems, and makes them seem small, is: How shall we get t.he Gospel m~ssage into the ears and hearts of the forty million people who have never yet heard a lisp of it, aud how shall we persuade the .other prayers, and renewed and continued bloodshed as a consequence of stirring effort, and still larger offerings of men up Buddhist wrath by attempting a and money, for years to come, that are house-to-house visitation and distribu- needed to help in solving the great prob- tion. It was well known that among lem of Japan. these two-hundred thousand people, mostly Buddhists, two thousand Bud- Do the Japanese desire this help? A dhist temples and five thousand priests, few may not. But anyone who knows there would be some opposition; but the feeling of the great mass of the the committee did not hesitate. All Evangelists and Christians will not were eventually surprised at the mild- hesitate to say yes, vcryemphatically. ness of the opposition. The work was While the spirit of indepcndence is begun by presenting to the ~rarquis strong. and sometimes is manifested in Tokugawa and the four officials of conspicuously unpleasant ways, yet all Chokunin rank, well bound copies of but the very few realize thut Japan the whole Bible. Neat, well-bound must have outside help for" long time copies of the New .Testament were preto come, to accomplish the evangeliza- sented to fifty-four officials of Sonin tion of the nation. Let us not forget rank, and to gendarmes and police inthe great problem! spectors cheaper editions of thc New Testament were givcn, and with each Bible Distributi?ll in Nagoya, Japan. copy of the BibJe and New Testament special letters of explanation were pre- In the spring of 1895, the missionaries sented. With but one or two excepresiding in Nagoya, together with some tions, the officials received the commitof the native workers, representing tee with great cordiality, and many of four denominutions, resolved to under- them seemed glad to iuquire about take the work of putting one copy of a Christian customs, etc. Portions of portion of God's Word into each of the the city adjacent to the respective fifty thousand dwellings in this city. churches were apportioned to their Dr. W. N. Whitney of the Scripture workers, and the work of house-to- Union greatly encouraged and sub- house visitation began. In some insta~tially aided this work. A' repre- stances priests went in advance of the sentative working committee was ap- workers and threatened the people, if pointed by the contributors to the pro- they should take copies of the Word. ject, fifty thousand copies of the four In other cases the distributors were Gospels, twelve thousand five·hundred closely followed, and all the portions of each, were specially ordered and left were gathered up for destruction. printed for this work, the Bible So- In some cases doors were barred in the cieties' agent making a reduction of face of the workers. In one section, 50 per cent. of the retail price. Sys- covering several blocks of the most tematic preparations were made to be- wealthy people of the city, an agreegin the work of distribution. A brief ment was made that no one there would tract, introductory and explanatory, receive these portions of Scripture, and was printed, and 11 copy of it put into in some instances priests required the each portion of the Word. This tract people to sign documents to the same singled out and called special attention effect; but no violence has taken place. to important passages. The committee From 2 per cent. to 40 per cent. of the held regular meetings, and the different offers made were refused, but the avcrphases of the work were fully discust_ age will not cxceed 4 per cent. or 5 per Some Christian friends came to the cent. In many instances people apmeetings of the committee, and made peared glad to get the Word, and inwell-meaning but discouraging speech- stances of direct good are known to es, declaring the undertaking danger- have followed this work. The spirit of ous, and one Christian pastor predicted inquiry has increast and some per- draw the" color-line," for they" shade sons thus found are now attending the off" into all the colors which" flesh is churches_ Some small, isolated por- heir to."
tions of the city still remain to be Nominally Romanists, the majolity workt, but 'the main portion has been pay little, if any, respect to religion.
covered, and the remaining portions of They are given to vice rather than the Scriptures have been divided among crime, are weak rather than wicked.
the four missions represented-the Some regions are priest-lidden, others Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, have very few, and some no priests at lIethodist Protestant, and the Church all. Northern Colombia is counted of England. mostly as "liberal" in politics and Some of the workers have met with religion.
rich experiences, and in this way alone Baptisms are frequent; confirmations the work has paid well. ThG borders rare; church going still rarer; and "con- of Zion have been enlarged and her fession," even once a year, at Easter, is bulwarks strengthened perceptibly in practically almost abandoned in this this city within the past twelve months, region. :Marriage is made costly by to which good work the distribution of "The Church," hence is rare, save Scripture portions has undoubtedly among the rich; but there are children contributed no mean part. Much prayer none the less. Two-thirds are illegiti- has accompanied this work, and while mate. "Extreme Unc,tion" is beyond we may never be able to tabulate re- the reach or the desire of the masses.
sults, sure it is that He who has made a It costs too much to die in the arms of dennite promise as to the fruitfulness of "The Church." Hence the many die His Word, will see to it that great reo unshriven. Twenty dollars is the sults follow. Hundreds who would priestly tax for a funeral. Hence there otherwise never have seen the true is seldom any ceremony other than a Word of God, have had at least one thorough-going "wake," accorded by chance to read some of its truths, and the neighbors, who carry the defunct 'have had the importance of the subject in noisy, irregular procession at night, brought home to them. with lighted lanterns to the grave.
To the entI that those friends who With only ten per cent. able to have felt interested in this work may read, with frequent revolutions, with know what has been done, and in the few or no houses, and all too little hope that others into whose hand this home purity, and with little or no relig- writing may come,will unite with us in ious spirit, the spirit of "faith and a Nagoya in prayer that the Word which sound mind," in the vast majority-it has thus been distributed, may long is not surprising that public morals are continue to burn 'its truths into the "at low ebb," while "progress" does hearts of this people, this brief report not come within the "list of possibili- is respectfully submitted, by order of ties, " Indeed, tokens of retrogression the Committee. are too evident on every hand, save D. S. SPENCER, Pres., where foreign interests and enterprise A. R. MORGAN, Sec. employ and develop native resources.
Nagoya, Japan. In a word, Rome and heathenism have long ago formed a "close-joint"
The Outlook in Oolombia. partnership, under the now ancient BY REV. THEODORE S. POND, style and title of "Pope and Pagan."
NEW YORK. The fruits of this union in Colombia This "RepubHc " (?) has a population and all South America are exhibited to of 4,000,000. A mixture of European angels, devils and men on a scale at races with Indians and negroes, result- once colossal and continental.
iDg iD a people where it is impossible to In the midst of this thick darkness, covering the people of Colombia, there Greater Strategy in the Orient. are three little points of light discernible. BY REV. D. C. CIIALLIS, SISTOF, BUL- GARIA. There is represented in that needy country just one missionary society. The flnal settlement of the Eastern The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- Question involves more than the arbi- sions has two ordained missionaries tration of war, or the machinations of in the capital, Bogota (150,000 in- European diplomacy. It depends rather habitants), four ladies and one native on the action of forces whose field is helper. There is one higher school for humanity, and whose measure is the girls, with preparatory department. march of the ages. Unconscious racial Another higher institute for boys and instincts independent ofmere selfishness, young men. These schools are well at- and more potent than ministers or gene- tended. There is one church edifice and rals, are the plane wherein a "Provi- book deposit and a congregation of 150. dence that shapes our ends," finds its Another point of light is the station peculiar field of action.
at city of Medellin. (60,000 (1). One The steady advance of Russian power ordained missionary, his wife, and a in all those regions is not mainly owing native lady assistant-a school house to the skill of her diplomats, or the size for a day·school and for meetings; of her armies. Her people are but a books for sale. part of a great race whose" stream of A third point is Barranquilla, at the tendency" overleaps and ignores all the mouth of the Magdalena river, the chief labors of diplomatic map-makers.
port of the whole country. (40,000). From the fifth century onward we Her-e are two ordained missionaries, find the Slavic race, slow.going but their wives and three ladies; two steady, healthy, patient, industrious schools for girls, one for boys and and prolific, has possessed all of Eastern young men, in training for native help- Europe. Huns, Tartars and Franks ers; no place of worship save a school- have successively invaded and fought room. This board can do no more now. over these lands. The "unspeakable II There is only one ordained missionary to Turk has settled in a darkening cloud, every million of souls, and there are only like locusts of the Apocalypse. But all four hundred (400) evangelical work- these have past or are passing away ers-both native and foreign-to the 37 without disturbing the stately move- million of the Southern Continent. ment of the mass. Freed from ancient Comment is struck dumb. despotism and the blighting influence Since the last revolution not a tithe of medieval priestcraft, the Slavic race of the .common schools are sustained; will be to the East what the Anglo- not a press in the whole country is Saxon is to the West.
wholly at disposal of the mission. There Mohammedanism is a mighty force, is not a hospital worthy of the name, but it is built on fanaticism and not on nor a refuge for the 27,000 lepers who racial instinct. Blood is thicker than live unsegregated from the people of water and more potent than the foam of Colombia. fanaticism. Diplomacy will exhaust its Not the merchants of the world, not skill and play out its little game.
the gold hunters, not the naturalists,cer- Fanaticism will "foam out its own tainly not Rome, ubiquitous and domi- shame." Russian autocracy and Turk- nant, has neglected this country (among ish atrocity will be alike forgotten, but the very richest in natural wealth), but the Slavic race, civilized and evangel- the Church which has the Everlasting ized, will possess the land, and, joining Gospel to preach, has past by on the hands with the Anglo-Saxon, will other side and has made of South encircle the world with a girdle of America, ., The Neglected Continent." peace. The Outlook in Turkey. .. Another subject for deep sympathy is the condition of the many innocent'. It is not prudent to append names of men, unjustly imprisoned. They are contributors from within the Turkish charged with having caused the Empire. The Ohristian, of London, massacre, and the impression is that collates whole columns from corres- they will be sentenced to long imprison.· pondence received at its office. We ments, if not to death. A!llong these:.' could readily do the same, but prefer to prisoners, (perhaps 150 in all), is thegive a few extracts from the budget of good pastor of the Church, with the: TIle Christian. assistant teacher and the beloved! doctor, full of good works and faith~ 0< • The attitude of the Turkish who, like Paul, is rejoicing in that he Government has never been so antagon. is countecl worthy to suffer for Christ. • istic as it is now. Leading Turks . . The people are like poor frightened confess that Protestant teaching is loyal sheep. It is pitiful to Bee how terrifie<l to the Government, but that it also they become at the slightest rumors. opens the eyes of the people, and leads Threats of further massacres are comthem to think for themselves, which is mon. We wonder how long a Governnot co~patible with the Turkish poli- ment so thoroughly corrupt and so< tical system. Protestants are not hopelessly bankrupt can hold out. God allowed to rebuild their burned chapels only knows when and how the en<t and schools without permission from will come. . . . Our spirits have been the Sultan himself, and such permission greatly refresht by visits from the Red there is no hope of receiving. We Cross agents.'" have never had such discouragements to face as now. As compared with a We also quote a late editorial of TluJ year ago, the work seems to be in Christian, to wit:- ruins. Many of the best men in all our congregations have been cut off. "The dark midnight that has hung Every congregation is impoverished, over Turkey for so long seems touched and the people are still living in the with light at last. While rumors of fear of another massacre, but we know further massacres are still coming in. that this is God's work and He will yet there is at the same time a belief that bless it. Pray for us. the powers are really working towards a mutual understanding. The latest H 'There is a mighty battle being advices contain repeated hints that fought between the false prophet and England has led the way in making the Son of God, and although we are certain overtures to Russia that may" sure that Christ will conquer in the lead to such interference with the SuI-. end, it often seems that the victory is tan, as will bring his power for mischieV being long delayed. We are trying to to an end. What these proposals a1"6.·' help the people to set to work, but does not yet appear; but that they are.' what can the multitudes of widows at least being made seems pretty cer·· and orphans do? There are no factories tain. The agitation that has moved; for spinning, weaving, stocking-mak- this country from one end to another._ ing, etc. When there is no market so together with the Czar's visit, appear to! far in the interior, the condition is be the primary causes of the new direc– desperate. Had it not been for the tion which affairs are taking. If we' relief last winter thousands would have have succeeded in proving that the. died, and the prospects of this winter moral sense of Europe was not dead,_ are even darker. We dare not look but sleeping, and in rousing it to action: ahead, but only lean hard on God How we have done a good work. It would. we wish that some one would come and however, be a mistake to think that the start an orphanage here for the many battle of humanity and justice has yet orphans. been won. All the resources of diplo,… macy will fail, unless the nation shows Not long after, on a Saturday, Miss a determined and watchful attitude." Stevens was astonisht beyond meas- The sentiment in America must be still further stimulated to furnish moral ure to see this priest standing in her support to our own Government at Washington, in enforcing the rights of own room, and to hear him say, "Jesus American citizens in Turkey. " Eter· nal vigilance is the price of liberty."- has conquered me." I thought, said [J. T. G.] Miss Stevens, I had seen heathenism in A Mighty Miracle. all its repulsiveness, but never had I BY REV. A. w. RUDISILL, D.D., MADRAS, seen anything that quite equaled this, INDIA. and I confess I trembled. He offered Miss Stevens-" Evangelist Eliza- beth,"-entered a Imtcher shop in a her his beads and askt for baptism. village in the suburbs of Madras, dis- tributing tracts and talking to the peo- With her customary prudence she said, ple. Among them was the priest of the village; near by was his temple. "Not now. Wait awhile_ Think what He was a periodical worshipper at all the chief temples of that part of the this will cost you, and if, aner a timo .country, having treasure of some de- scription in each. About him was his you still desire it, I will arrange for your yellow priestly robe; on his neck the priestly rosary; on his arms strings of baptism." beautiful beads; on his forehead the sacred ashes, in the center the round Not less was her surprise on the fol- . crimson mark, a sign of his devotion to the god he worshipt. He was known lowing day to have him approach her . as a subtle dialectician by some of the leading missionaries of Southern India, in church, and taking the rosary from with whom he had disputed for many . years, but this poor woman was not his neck, and the beads from his arms, worthy of such honor, and he listened in contempt. Had he not taught the say meekly, "What hinders my being :people that he himself was a god? .Had he not seen them prostrate at his baptized to-day?" :feet? Elizabeth read the third and fourth verses of the first chapter of After a brief sermon by the native Isaiah, then kneeling, asked the Holy Spirit to do his work. The priest pastor, Elizabeth conducted him to the accepted her tracts and read them, and they kindled in his heart a fire of altar, and the sight was that 01 a fierce indignation. A few days after he poured upon one of our native preachers tiger following a gentle lamb. 8. volley of abuse, and vehemently at- tackt the Christian religion. The Miss Stevens washt from his brow the preacher answered him never a word, but when the priest had spent his fury, sacred ashes; the man tore away tho read to him the first chapter of 1st John, and kneeling, wrestled with God for crimson disk and threw it on the floor. the man's conversion. The priest was visibly affected. Askt why he took such a step, why he renounced the religion of his fathers and cast away his priestly inheritance, he answered, "Christ is my Shep- herd." He was baptized, receiving at his reo quest the name of "John." In the parsonage he exchanged his yellow priestly robe for a cloth of pure white, and in this garment, emblematic of the clean linen in which the saints auvve are arrayed, he went away.
In the afternoon Miss Stevens found him sleeping in the shade with his Tamil Bible, which she had given him, lying near his head. He wakened and at once began his work, preaching with great power from the text-" Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."
Anxious to say nothing that would not accord with the truth, he would tarn and ask in Erglish-" Am I right'! "
He was right in all he said; he waa the Savior's mouthpiece. He is now preaching and teaching a village school, and is one of Miss Stevens' distributors of tracts.
Waa it not "A Mighty Miracle?"
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
IlI.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
Monthly Topics for 1897.* DECEMBER.
JAN-:JARY. Syria and Palestine. The Jews. The General Outlook. Educational Missions, FEBRl'ARY. A Glance at the World ofMission& The Chinese Empire. EDITOR-IN-CillEF. Tibet and Formosa. Confucianism and Taoism. As the field of survey for this Jpen- The Opium Traffic. lng month of the new year is the world, and this issue as a whole is taken up MARCH. with the conditions of this world-wide work, we content ourselves with a few Mexico. additional comments upon general mat- Central America. ters of practical interest and import- The West Indies. ance. City Missions. Foreigners in the United States. The first thing that strikes us in the outlook is the almost unprecedented APRIL. 'Unrest in the nations. Seldom have we known a year within the life-time of India. Burmah, and Ceylon. this generation, when the world was in Hinduism and Brahmanism. so unsettled a state, and there was such 'Woman's Work. a common feeling of uncertainty. N(} political crisis since the first gun was )lAY. fired upon Fort Sumpter, thirty-five years since, has created an excitement Siam and Laos. so intense as the last presidential cam- Malaysia. paign in the United States. In Africa, Unoccupied Fields. Madagascar, Boerland, The Sudan, Buddhism. The Kongo Free State, in fact, almost Work Among the Lepers. every partof the Dark Continent, has had an upheaval during 1896. In Japan lUNE. there has been the most serious and alarming crisis since the Gospel was Africa and Madagascar. first preached. In China, India, Turkey Fetichism. and Armenia, Spain and Cuba, the The Slave Trade. Philippine Islands-all over Europe- The Freedmen in America. in almost every quarter of the known world, some peculiar form of disaster JULY. or struggle, some alarming crisis, war, massacre, financial depression, political The Islands of the Sea. entanglement, which threatened serious Arctic Missions. results, or actual revolution, has charac- North American Indians. terized the last twelvemonth. Work Among Seamen. The Liquor Traffic. While, in the Master's work, discour- agement is never in 'order, it must be AUGUST. confest that in most parts of the mis- sion field there has been no markt ad- Papal Europe. Romanism. Bible Work.
SEPTEMBER.
Japan and Korea. Shintoism. Japanese and Chinese in North America. Medical l'Iissions OCTOBER.
Turkey, Arabia, and Persia. Russia, Siberia, and Greece. The Greek Church and Eastern Sects. Islam.
NOVEMBER.
South America. Frontier Missions in North America. Mormonism. Younl'" People's Work.
ber• Articles intended for insertion in the num- devoted to these topics should be in our bands at least two months in advance. vance, and in many cases, our missions where a vast population is as yet have with difficulty held their own. accessible only to Greek priests, and It may be well to give a few exam- imperfectly reached even by these ples of the history which the past year ignorant and superstitious men.
has been writing, and to call attention 3. Arabia, with its nomadic tribes once more to the crisis which the world- and shrine of the False Prophet. In field now presents. fact we may say of that whole territory Glancing first at the field as a whole, which may be called Mohammedia-or the outlook for the new year is one, first the territory of Moslem power, which of all, of appalling destitution. We must reaches from the west coast of North not shut our eyes to the vast unoccupied Africa to the borders of Tibet – it is area which after nineteen centuries like Jericho, yet to be encompassed by still confronts us in the world-field. the hosts of the Lord, for the first There are two massive oriental Em- time.
pires, India and China, each in itself a 4. 'fhe Sudan, reaching from the world, which together embrace one-half Kong mountains east to the Nile valley, the entire human race. Yet, among 3,000 miles long and 500 miles broad, these seven hundred millions, all that is held under the sway of the crescent, has been done is thus far insignificant. and has a popUlation equal to that of J. Hudson Taylor, twenty-five years the United States and Great Britain com- ago was driven to the organization of bined. It is just beginning to be the "China Inland Mission," by the entered by missionaries.
impulse of a resistless passion to reach 5. The central portion of &uth eleven vast provinces of the celestial America, sometimes called Amazonia, empire, which up to that time had not with at least 10,000,000 natives, is an- one resident Christian Protestant mis- other of the unevangelized spiritual sionary. In India, each of the great deserts of our globe.
native states has heen nominally occu- Even in the best manned mission pied by one missionary or more, but fields, the laborers are few. Out of all many of the smaller states have yet to Protestant Christendom, with fifty mil- be entered by preacher, teacher or lion church members and four times healer; Nepaul alone being shut to the that number of adherents, the total mis- Gospel. Bengal's non-Christian popu- sion force, including women and medi- lation exceeds the whole popUlation of cal missionaries, is not over 10,000. If the United States, and Bahar. with a we include in the total force at work all population as large as England, has but the converted native helpers, the whole thirty missionaries, one-half being number is about fifty thousand, or one women. The Decennial Conference laborer to every 20,000, supposing them held in Bombay in 1893, solemnly ap- all to be equally distributed, without pealed to the Christian Church to help regard to grade or sex. The great meet "an opportunity and responsibil- Tabernacle in London could accom- ity never before known." modate the entire male force of mission- Yet, entirely outside of these two aries now sent out from the churches of <colossal empires, there lie at least five Christian lands.
great territories which may be marked As to the money supplied in 1897 for as yet unreached by the pure Gospel. the world-wide work, it has been 'Three of them lie in Asia, one in ,liberally estimated at fourteen milllion 'Africa, and one in South America. dollars, or, perhaps 2,800,000 pounds 1. What Illliy be called "Inner Asia" sterling. Yet the incorM of the Pro- -the Central Belt spanning the very testant church membership-not to heart of the continent, including Tibet mention the vast capital accumulated and reaching to the Chinese Sea. and invested-reacht at least, in 1897, 2. Upper Asia, or Russian Asia, the sum of fifteen thousand millions of dollars. So that less than one dollar in REVIEW, but it is a strong and urgent a thousand found its way into the presentation of the wants of that great mission treasury I empire, addrest to their feIlow·students whom they would draw to the field as Missions among the Mohamrnedarui sowers and reapers. have made very little progress during the past year. In fact, the dominions The statistics of the Madras and BOID>" of the crescent seem to be the most im· bay Presidencies, of the centr~l and pregnable of all fields open to Christian northwest provinces, Bengal, Rajpu. missions. tana, and the Punjab, are given sepa· rately and carefully, some of which are Korea presents features of great in· of permanent interest and value, and interest. A fair beginning is making in which are here condensed. The census evangelizing that land, and what is of 1891 is made the basis of estimates. needed now is a large band of devoted men and women to take possession of The Presidency of Madras was the this field. There is room for three first in order of occupation. The num- thousand workers there to·day. ber of native Christians in southern India is 865,528, having increast in a Tibet seems about to be opened to decade more than 22 per cent., while Christian effort. A band of very the population increast but 15 per resolute and self'sacrificing men and cent. The Christians are one in 40 of women are on the borders of this land, the population, but 1 in 12 of the mastering the native language, and graduates is a Christian. Yet even in preparing to push towards the very this comparatively well·workt field- capital itself when it can be done with Madras and vicinity-at least 32 work- any measure of safety. And a native ers are at once needed, and students are Tibetan has recently embraced the especially helpful in the effort to re.ach Gospel and proposes to devote himself the educated classes. to its proclamation among his own people. Outside of Madras, the destitution is in some cases appalling. In one dis- In Japan there is a net loss in memo trict there is but 1 missionary to bership of Protestant churches of over 40,000, in another to 50,000, in another 500, in fact, a general decline in bap· to 100,000, and in others but 1 to tisms and Sunday.school attendance, 250,000, 380,000 and even 500,000! etc. The gifts of native converts faIl $10,000 below 1895. And the worst of In the Bombay Presidency, there are it is that these statistics do not misrepre· 21 colleges and schools, only one under sent the real state of things. It is quite Protestant Christian control; and out of too obvious that in spiritual state there 3,189 students only 35 are Christians. has been a very noticeable lowering of Bombay City has 47,000 Parsees, a com- the level of piety, of which the defec· munity especially inviting to educated tion of the Doshisha-the institution Christian students. In the Poona dis- founded by the lamented Neesima-is trict are nearly 1,200 villages without a one conspicuous sign. And yet the more resident Christian. Kathiawar has 3 devoted missionaries, instead of losing missionaries to 3,000,000. Kutch, equal heart and hope, believe that all this is to Ugunda in popUlation, never yet had . only one of the inevitable reactions one messenger of the cross. In Wadh- which come in spiritual work, and which wan a missionary writes: are foIlowed by an even more markt advance, as in the case of sea·tides. .. The people listened splendidly, They have never heard before, in Bome Rev. Robert P. Wilder and his asso· cases, in others possibly once. There ciates in the Student Volunteer Move- are hundreds of villages of aboriginal ment in India and Ceylon have issued races as reachable as the Fijians were, a very stirring "appeal for India." It and with little or no religion to destroy. is entirely too long for the pages of this In a few years these wilt have beeome Bra1.manised, and then work among them will be like knocking our heads thought of the masses, we ought to be against a stone wall. A government official of the district entreats us to send prepared to whiten the fields of India men there, promising every assistance in his power, an'l we cannot move. with a snow-storm of lively penetrat- Why? For want of men. We could keep two or three men busy at nothing ing and attractive leaflets. '1'0 accomelse than translating and writing. The Bible revision is not expected to be plish this, experts should be set apart finished in any one's life-time, and all for lack of men. We have one man to to the task. do the work of a minimum of six in Sm'at alone." We append the closing paragraphs: Of the central provinces, Balaghat The picture is a dark one, taken by missionaries on the spot, and taken for has a solitary worker who believes no us volunteers. One of the workers part of India promises speedier or better asks for "European Knights of the Cross," and adds: " It's cbivalry for results. Chanda has a popUlation of Christ that is wanted in the hearts of over 690,000 without one missionary. young men at home." Nearly all the native states in Raipore are unoccupied. In Hoshangabad, a Are you to disappoint these dear population of over 3,000,000 is entirely faithful workers? They are only 1,600 among a population more than untouched. four and a half times that of the These are some of the specimens of United States, and nearly ten times that of England and Wales. Eight facts with which the twenty pages of and a half millions die annually.
this appeal are absolutely crowded. The We close with the words of that repetition of this destitution would be friend of Western students, Rev. A. J. monotonous, but it is the monotone of Gordon, D.D.: ., I have long since misery, which can be tedious only to ceased to pray, 'Lord Jesus, have the selfish. This pamphlet is aflame compassion on a lost world'! I rewith facts, which ought to make the member the day and the hour when I dullest disciple arouse himself and ask, seemed to hear the Lord rebuking me Lord, wilt Thou not send me to reach for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, 'I have had compassion these untaught millions? upon a lost world, and now it is for you The close of the appeal lays great to have compassion. I have left you to fill up that which is behind in mine stress on the power of Christian litera- afflictions in the flesh for the body's ture. There are now 15,000,000 of sake, which is the Church. I have given my heart; give your hearts.''' persons in the Indian Empire who can read and write, and about 1,000,000 "When I say llnto the wicked, 0 wicked man. thou shalt surely die, and leave school every year. Here is a thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall great field to be sown with the products die in his iniquity, but his blood will I of a sanctified press. Books and tracts require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if are like bullets which strike far beyond thou warn the wicked of his way to the range of a hand to hand con- turn from it, and he turn not from his tact. For example, Rev. J. F. Ull- way; he shall die in his iniquity. but man's book-" Dharmtuta," or "Re- thou has delivered thy soul." Ezek. 33: 8-9. ligions Weighed," carried by a Hindu ascetic into a village of Behar, -The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meetproved the means of establishing a Christian community there. A Chris- ing of the Inter-Seminary Missionary tian coaly bequeathed Rs. 100 for the Alliance at Chicago, November 12-15, spread of three little books, which he highly valued, as they had been the 1896, was attended by six hundred means of bringing him to Christ. theological students, and was es- After his death they were found under his pillow. If we wish to alter the teemed one of the best, if not the very best annual meeting the Alliance ever held. The culminating consecration meeting on Sunday afternoon will be remembered specially for Mr. Studd's recital of his personal experience; and all realized a great spiritual uplifting under Dr. A. '1'. Pierson's address, Sun- day evemng.-J. '1'. G
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
., Few events of the past year have The A. B. C. F. M., venerable and been more remarkable than the revolu- beloved as it deservedly is, feels with tion in Ecuador, of which we heard a other missionary agencies the backward vivid description by George S. Fisher setting of the missionary current in the of the gospel union, who returned from churches. The total receipts for the there in November. His stirring ac- year were $743,000, including the count of the sudden and marvellous up- money raised for the debt of a year heaval, the singular connection of the ago. But the fact is that those who Japanese Chinese war with the events have the conduct of mission Boards in Ecuador, the first free convention, move in these days with timidity and etc., we have printed in allother de- apprehension, having little confidence partment, in which the details are pre- in the solid backing of their so·called sented to our readers. constituency, which alas! proves too The Review of ReVie1JJ8 remarks of often rather a deficiency. In raising this the Ottoman Empi1'e: "It is like a debt, the special committee thought best smouldering heap of burning refuse. chiefly to solicit from individuals, not It reeks all over with smoke, and some- churches, which is itself a significant fact. times when the wind blows it bursts Is it not humiliating that the world-wide· into flame. But as no one can say on work of Christ should have to go to what side of the rubbish heap the wind Christians one by one, and beg money will play, so no one can predict where to pay a debt and prevent a collapseI' the flame will appear. All the pro- The amounts given by individuals are vinces smoulder with discontent, and also significant. Beside the large gift every now and then, under some un- of Mr. James, $4,500 came from seven seen influence, that discontent leaps persons, twenty-four gave $500 each, forth into active insurrection. Lately and there were about a hundred gifts it was the turn of Crete, where there of $100 each. It is safe to say that has been bloody work by the Turks in $50,000 came from about 250 persons, Canea. apparently by way of reprisals so that they paid the bulk of the debt. for the insurrectionary movement of This surely is abnormal, and no steady the Christians in the hills. It is more advance can be hoped for in this work dangerous to kill Greeks than Arme- of the whole Church, while there is so' nians; Crete, moreover, is accessible to unequal distribution of pecuniary supwarships, and the Sultan has therefore port. been sternly told that Europe will stand no nonsense in the Mediterranean. It As usual, the Report of the meeting is rather hard upon the local Mussul- in the November issue of the Herald mans, who will feel themselves most is a small library in itself, and contains cruelly deprived of privileges which most interesting matter. Dr. Barton's their brother True Believers enjoy to paper on Japan, the discussion on the the full in Anatolia; but necessity knows no law, and however disagreeable it may be, the Sultan will have to stop the massacre in Crete."
The eighty-seventh annual meeting crisis in Turkey, led by Dr. Smith, and of the" American Board," held in To- the resolutions on the Armenian q ues- ledo, 0., in October last, Dr. Storrs tion presented by President Angell, pronounced one of the best and most were among the special features of the inspiring ever held, tho Rev. S. N. meeting, which gave it a very markt Packard, the preacher for the meeting, character. Hon. E. O. Wheeler, after a remarkt that the Board "has never fine speech, brought down the house been placed by the churches sustaining with tumultuous applause as he con- it in so grave a position as to-day, des- cluded by saying: pite the favorable showing in the treas- "I can see but one thing to do under urer's accounts." the circumstances, which is to send a fieet and armed force to Turkey to en- people and negroes to be instructed or force our treaty rights. boarded within the same building, or be taught in the same class, or at the same " We ought to be ready to send men time, or by the same teachers! It has to seize Smyrna until our righteous been well said that to find such a law- damages have been paid. such a relic of barbarism-even getting countenance, not to say becoming an "The European governments could enactment, in a state legislature, makes have no reason to interfere with our one wonder whether he is dreaming or actions. We have unselfish interests at not, and if not, what country it is he is 1!take." President Angell's resolutions living in. This atrocious law~ was re- were similar in tone; commending the ferred to in a prominent Christian news· steadfastness, courage and faith of the paper in mild terms of condemnation, American missionarieR in Turkey, and and at once a citizen of Virginia, a sub- pledging the Board to stand by them in scriber to that paper, wrote an indig- maintaining their work. They recite nant letter, in which the following that nearly $200,000 worth of property paragraph is found; belonging to American citizens in Tur· key has been destroyed, their houses "Stop senging me your paper. I do burned, themselves attackt and im- not believe that God ever intended the -prisoned, and in some cases driven from negro to be a companion or associate of their homes; that the government has our race, either on this earth or in '<iemanded redress of these injuries and heaven." punishment of the offenders, but has ,obtained neither, and that these violators And this man calls himself a Chris- 'of treaty rights indicate a purpose to de- tian! stroy the whole fabric of Chlistian civilization which has been erected with so In the October issue, 1896, the editor much toil, sacrifice and cost. refers to Mr. Dimbleby's calculations as to the "end of the Gentiles" The President of the United States is and the doom of "Turkey." No part urged to insist upon the issue by the of the intention was to sanction Mr. Turkish government of the proper" ex- Dimbleby's theory, but only to call equatur," that our consuls may securely attention to it as of interest in the study occupy, under the flag of our country, of "prophetic history." We have since the posts which our government assigns received a very elaborate and learned to them, and in the interests of justice pamphlet, "Astronomy and the Bible," and in accordance with treaty rights, by a fellow of the Royal Astronomical administer with authority the duties of Society, in which the author sharply the office. contests Mr. Dimbleby's theory and contends that it is far from trustworthy. We have seen another singular evi- This pamphlet is publisht, at three ,dence of the caste and race spirit which pence, by Parker Brothers, Sheffield, largely dominates people in the South, England, and will richly repay study. ,and perpetuates the hateful and baneful Tho anonymous, it would not be influence of slavery in keeping the difficult to guess at the authorship, for colored man down. the "speech" of the writer "bewray- eth" him. The Sheats Law, which has recently 'been declared unconstitutional by the All the hopes of the Ritualists and 'Supreme Court of Florida, has been well of Mr. Gladstone have been completely 'pronounced "infamous" as a statute. disappointed, for the Pope has decided It was passed at the instigation of the that "all ordinations made under the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- Anglican rite are invalid." Rome detion of Florida, and gives his name an cides that the cbain of succession was infamous immortality. It provides that it shall be a penal offense for white broken by the Anglican Church in the make a contribution not only to the sixteenth century, and that the only record of .mission work, but to the way in which the Ritualists can enter solution of problems of missions, he the Church of Rome is by conver8Wn. takes a concrete and typical case with So that the Pope has placed the Church which he is personally connected, and of England, the Episcopal Church in presents through it the great questions the United States, and the whole Ritual involved, and the helps which his own party in the same position, with respect observation and experience have to Rome, as the Presbyterian, !fetho- collated toward their successful answer. dist, Baptist and other non-Episcopal An index of twenty-five pages puts all denominations. the contents at the disposal of the reader, and superb illustrations and The representative of the highest maps complete one of the most Ritualists, the Holy Cr088 Magazine, attractive and useful books we have said lately that such a decision by the seen on India. Pope would stop all movements in the direction of Anglican reunion with The copies, we hear, are getting Rome for generations, and called for scarce, and it is not to be wondered at, prayer from all Ritualists that it as the sale has been uncommonly rapid. might be prevented. But the decision Our own hasty glances have kindled a was given, and the Ritualists' strong de- desire to examine more closely into a sire for recognition by Rome looks as if volume that, as Bacon would have said, they were somewhat doubtful of the is to be not" tasted" only but" chewed validity of their own ordination. and digested."
Meanwhile the following notice ap- Those who are tempted tf) compropears in the list of deaths in the Public mise with false faiths should read the Ledger, of Philadelphia: "Smith.-A manly utterances on page 356, where Requiem }Iass for the repose of the soul is shown the double drift on one hand of Miss Hannah P. Smith will be offered toward unduly magnifying the ideals at St. Clement's Church, Twentieth and of false religions, and on the other Cherry streets, on Tuesday, at 7.30 toward lowering the importance of the A. 1'1:." This should be put alongside distinctive features of the true faith. of the Pope's decision as a sign of the Dr. Stewart shows also the result, re~ times, showing the Romanizing drift of ducing all faiths to one dead level of a section of the Episcopal Church of common-place, or blending them in a Pennsylvania. The church mentioued resultant ideal, which is simply a subin this notice is not under the jurisdic- limated form of natural religion. tion of Archbishop Ryan, but is still of His words are a tonic to weak unquestioned standing in the Protestant souls. Hear him protest, that the Episcopal Church. strength of Christianity lies in its uniqueness, and between it and every Notable Books on Missions. other non·Christian system the confiict is irrepressible; and that, to parley, We might have embraced in our barter or compromise will end in dis- " Survey" a notice of some of the grand aster. Here are thirty chapters of solid contributions made to the permanent meat, that will make strong men literature of missions, during the year stronger, and wise men wiser. 1896, not a few of which are entitled to a special commendation. There has been issued now on both sides of the sea a life of Robert "Life and Work in India," by Dr. Whitaker McAll, founder of the McAll Robert Stewart, pUblisht by the Pearl Mission, in Paris. It contains a frag- Publishing Co., Philadelphia, is one of ment by himself, and a souvenir by the fullest, most painstaking and com- his wife. With portraits, facsimiles, plete books of the year, in its special and illustrations. 8vo, cloth, $1.50. department. As the author seeks to " Heroic toils, sanctified by self·sacri- ".A Cycle of Cathay," is Mr. W. .A. fice, defy description. One may as Martin's book on China, spiced with well try to put on canvas or into poem personal reminiscences of one who for the subtle aroma of a flower as to five and forty years studied the Celestial embody in the printed page the still Empire both as a missionary and as an more subtle charm of a spirit like that employee of the Chinese government, of Dr. McAll. But what can be as well as president oithe Imperial Colpreserved is here to be found, and as lege. Whatever Dr. Martin bas to say, the reader traces the life story, may it always commands an audience, and his heart be set on fire with a living this volume is a suitable platform from coal from off God's altar. Such a life which to reach the multitude. This is vocal, and its perpetual command is, book is very racy and readable. It is full of intelligence and humor and sanc- , Go and an thou likewise.' .. tified common sense beautifully blended.
This charming life is written with George Smith, LL.D., has once more sympathetic ink, for it was from the put the world under tribute by a maspen of a beloved wife, who was herself terpiece of biography in the Life of magna par8 rerum. She not only Bishop Reginald Heber. (London, Jno. shared her husband's toils, but her own Murray.) This accomplished author, have equaled his in heroism and self- who has done more than any other man sacrifice. This book is sure of a wide of his time, to provide a library of miscircle of readers. sionary biographies-the man who has given us Carey and Martyn and Wilson F. H. Revell Co. have sent forth a in such attractive setting, now tells the new illustrated edition of John G. story of the poet missionary bishop of Paton's autobiography. It is a bene- Calcutta. The laborious and prolific diction. The aroma of heaven is about pen of Dr. Smith has left its mark its pages, as about the saintly man everywhere through this life of Heber; whose story it tells. nothing here is slovenly or superficial. The style is befitting the subject, and "The }Ussionary Pastor," from the that is all that need be said. The sad same publishers, is meant to aid a pas- story of his death in the bath at Trichitor in developing missionary interest nopoly is superbly told, it is a poem. and activity in churches. It is one of the fine group of helps which the Stu- The .Armenians are still in sore need dent Volunteer Movement has created, of our sympathy, prayers and pecuniary or is creating. Rev. James E . .Adams assistance. The time has not come for is the editor, and R. J. Kellogg the us to fold (lur hands with the thought delineator of the charts. There are five that we have done our duty. Thouchapters which respectively discuss sands are in danger of perishing and are missionary methods, meetings, classes, in need of immediate help. literature and charts. That on the charts alone would well compensate for We acknowledge with thanks, the the price (75 cents). receipt of $5.00 for the persecuted Russian Stlmdists, from Mr. George W. "General Gordon," by G. Barnett Cross, of New York, and 50 cents from Smith, is another of Revell's noble se- W. C. Dixon, of Berwick, Pa., for the ries of missionary biographies. Brief, .Armenians. covering but 160 pages, it puts succinctly the story of this unique Christian It is said that the French Governsoldier, who has the strange record of ment contemplate excluding from their heroism in three continents, into read- colonies all missionary workers who are able and useful form. We can safely not natives of France. This would commend this life to the study of the be a great blow to missions in North young especially, who cannot read this story of rare self·sacrifice without feeling a desire to emulate it. Africa, Madagascar and other French course of scriptural, practical and spiritual preparation; and no honest colonies and protectorates. We can student could pass through this course of study without being much enricht only look to the Almighty either to thereby.
prevent it, or to overrule it to His glory. 'l'he school is under the presidency of the editor of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. Rev. John :M:cNeil of Australia, the and the wise and careful guidance of Rev. l!'. L. Chapell, who gives it his author of one of the most helpful books whole time as Iiesidcnt Instructor, per- sonally conducting the classes in Bib- of modern religious thought, " The lical and Practical Theology and Exe· gesis. Those who best know his work Spirit-Filled Life," has recently died in recognize him as a man prepared of God for this sphere. Among the instructors Melbourne. He was a most devoted is also Rev. Dr. JamesM. Gray, a man of rare scholarship and consccmtion, who and successful evangelist, and his sud- gives valuable instruction on the Syn. thesis, History, Inspiration, Interprets- den death created a solemn pause in the tation and Use of the Bible. The med· ical instruction under Dr. Julia Morton rush of city life, and deeply imprest Plummer includes two courses of lee· tl!res – one on Physiology and Hy- even the most thoughtless. He was a gIene, and one on Obstetrics. There are classes in New Testament Greek man who lived as loudly as he spoke, and Christian Song, lectures on various Biblical and MiSSionary subjects, and and his death will be keenly felt. evening lectures for those who cannot attend during the day. The Missionary Training School as a The tuition being ,free, the expenses Feature in Modern Church Life, of the school are met by free-will offer- ings. An accomplished lady in Boston writes: "In these days it is prest 'rhe school is thoroughly inter-de· upon the ChriEtian consciousness as nominational, yet it stands unequivo. never before that· the King's business cally for great vital truths of Redemp- requireth haste'; many are hearing tion ; it emphasizes the supreme author- and heeding the call to a separated life ity of the Holy Scriptures; the neces- for service in home and foreign fields; sity of the enduement of the Holy and still others hunger to be enricht in Spirit; the Lord's Coming, the nature the Word of God, unto new measures and need of the times in which we are of blessing and usefulness, while abid- living; and the urgent duty of heralding •in the calling.' Hence has arisen ing the Gospel throughout the whole a new need, which is to be distinctly world. recognized as a part of this great new quickening in Christian work," The eighth year opened last Octo- ber. For further information any who Hundreds of earnest young men, and wish may address Dr. Chapell, of Clarwomen, with some perhaps of riper endon and Montgomery Sts., Boston, years, have come to their hour of self- or the Editor·in-Chief of this REVIEW. dedication, to be met by a new problem-that of PREPARATION. How and George Muller has tql.d the story of where are they to gain the necessary equipment for the work to which God his c0nversion. He was a worldly is calling them? young man, not vicious, but utterly in· Even if they had the time and money and technical education to pursue a different to his soul's salvation. In his theological course, that would not meet the need I and they might have sought own words, .. he never read the Holy in vain for more condenst and practical course of preparation, had not God Scriptnres, never thought about the con· wonderfully gone before them in 1esponse to this providential demand. cerns of his soul, never in the least de- Several Training Schools have thus gree sought to care about God." He come to be, among them the Boston Missionary Training School, begun was in this state when he was in college seven years ago through the faith, prayer and labor of Rev. A. J. Gordon, in his twenty·tirstyear. One of hisfel· D.D.,-its President until his death,- since which time his name has been low students askt him to go to a little given to the School that it might thus stand as a living memorial of him. prayer-meeting at the house of a trades- Here is offered, to men and women man which was attended by four pious 4Ilike, free of expense, a two years' students. In that little prayer-meeting It is with thanksgiving that we look he heard of the way of salvation forward to the speedy agreement for through the Lord Jesus Chr.st, and settlement by arbitration, of all disputes for "the first time he saw what a between England and the United States. wicked, guilty sinner he had been, walking without a thought or care The British and Foreign Bible Soci- about God." He sew himself ,. dead ety has issued since 1804, 147,363,669 copies, while 73 other societies have in trespasses and in sins," and the pious issued more than 257,000,000 Bibles, students pointed out to him the grace of Testaments and portions. God which would pardon so guilty a sinner as he, because Christ had died in According to the eightieth annual rehis stead, making a propitiation for his port of the American Bible Society, the sins. He had gone into that little prayer- total issues of the Scriptures for the year amounted to 1,750,283 copies, and meeting careless and forgetful of God; during the eighty years of its existence, he went out rejoicing in theforgi,eness 61,705,841 copies, circulated in nearly of his sins. Those foul' pious students one hundred different languages and who kept up that prayer-meeting have dialects in all parts of the earth. More gone home to glory, but the good which than one half of its issues in 1895 went they did in their humble faithfulness into the hands of the pagan, the Moabides. In fact, they originated in hammedan and nominally Christian Halle a sort of holy club like that of a people outside of the United States; 383,000 were sold in China alone. The century before in Lincoln College, be- society expended during the year gun by John and Charles Wesley, $503,500.52. George Whitefield, etc. They rest from their labors and their works do follow The outrages committed in the Kongo them. It is well to hear stories of con- Free State in the name of civilization version in which God's pardon and seem incredible in this age of enlighten- God's grace are points on which em- ment, and a Baptist missionary declares phasis is laid. Too little ~s perhaps the treatment of the Kongo natives by said, even in talking to sinners, of God's the government agents to exceed in cruelty anything known, instancing the forgiveness of sin. seizure and execution of one of his hear- ers simply becau8e he had brought in no How shall we meet the present exe- rubber tltat day__ and in another village gency of the mission field except by a several persons slaughtered by the sol- diers because the villagers had not sucmore United Church? ceeded in collecting the amount of rub- " At the battle of Doornkop two men ber required to be paid as taxes to the State, and upon which the white agents were about to fire on one another at received, until recently, a percentage. short range, when they simultaneously Last year a Belgian c~ptain, on the redropt their rifles. Each recognized the fusal of some native porters to carry a other. They had been at school together__ store of ivory taken from a trader, on Rnd so they realized their brotherhood the ground that they were not employed in the very madness of battle. And are by him, ordered his soldiers to fire, and not all combatants brothers, if only they killed more than a hundred of tlUlm. In would recognize the fact? When men the United Ser1Jice Magazine, a British of aU nations learn their true relations officer who in 1894 volunteered for serunder the Prince of Peace, they will vice in the Kongo State declares, as to find it as impossible to fire on a human the white officials, that their" boasted being-tho a stranger-as these two work of civilization is murder, rapine, friends did at Doornkop when they recognized each other at the fateful moment."
A true recognition of the brotherhood of humanity would make impossible war between nations, and still more impossible between Christian na- tions. plunder and cruelty in the most awful "To show that when I have once degree ever reacht." These barbarities past, I cannot be caught." are perpetrated also on the black subjects of other countries, particularly We do not see statues standing on those of Great Britain, who are induced the highways to remind us of our opby false I epresentations to go to Boma as portunities for doing good and being contract laborers, but forced to serve as of service to others, but we know that soldiers on distant expeditions, and in- opportunities come to us. They are stead of being sent home at the ex- ours but for a moment. If we let them piration of their two years' contract, pass, they are gone forever.-Selected. kept until woru out with service, then turned into the bush to becomefood for In 1867 the tirst diamond ever found cannibals. Of such conduct it is well in South Africa was picked up by a said that it is an outrage not only upon hunter out of a heap of shining river humanity but upon international comity pebbles. This was near the banks of of the grossest kind; and if the blacks the Orange River, a little above its concan be controled only by such out- tiuence with the Vaal River. Then a rages, the work of civilizing Africa diligent search for diamonds began in would better be abandoned I all the surrounding districts. In 1870 diamonds were discovered in consider- The present crisis in the mission tield able quantities near where the town of exceeds for grandeur of opportunity Kimberley now stands. A rush of and for failure adequately to meet it miners soon filled the neighborhood, any crisis of previous history. and from that time onward Kimberley has been the center of the diamond-get- In one of the Greek cities there ting industry, though there are other mines scattered here and there to the stood, long ago, a statue. Every trace west and south of it. of it has vanished now, as is the case -A young church composed of Zulus with most of these old masterpieces of in Johannesburg, under the charge of genius; but there is still in existence an Rev. H. D. Goodenough, has made a epigram which gives. us an excellent remarkable record in the matter of selfdescription of it, and as we read the support. Over two years ago a chapel words we can surely discover the lesson was built, largely by the natives themwhich those wise old Greeks meant selves. During the first year a debt of that the statue should teach to every $500 was paid, besides meeting the curpasser-by. rent expenses, and on April 1, 1895, there was a balance in the treasury of The epigram is in the form of a con- $85. For the year ending April 1, 1896, versation between a traveler and the the receipts of the church were nearly $1,200 and came within about $70 of statue. meeting all the expenditures, including the salary of the native preacher and a "What is thy name, 0 Statue?" house for him, together with the cost of a class-room and some furniture for the "I am called Opportunity." chapel. Mr. Goodenough writes of a plan for establishing a new station eight "Who made thee?" miles from Johannesburg, at a railway and mining center where already a lit- " Lysippus." tle chapel bas been secured. The spiritual work does not suffer in the "Why art thou standing on thy midst of the material prosperity. .
toes? " .. To show that I stand but for a moment " .
•• Why hast thou wings on thy feet? "
"To show how quickly I pass by."
" But why is thy hair so long on thy forehead ?"
"That men may seize me when they meet me."
"Why then is thy head so bald be- hind?"
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign touching the essence of idolatry, we are surprised at the peculiar reserve with Periodicals. which he handles idolatry before the heathen. We find in him no irritat- 1. ing attack, no scornful or mocking word. He says on the Areopagus of BY REV. C. C. 81'ARBUCK, ANDOVER, Athens: 'Being then the offering of MASS. God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or MISCELLANEOUS. stone, graven by art and device of men.' How earnest and yet how meas- _H The attitude of Missions toward ured are these words. They contain the heathen religion as such is, on prin- the whole truth, and yet refrain from ciple, that of utter repulsion. Above all injurious speech. That' the God- all is this so ever against the abomina- head d welleth not in temples made with tion of idol worship. Young mission- hands,' Paul may have said in Ephesus aries cannot avoid a shudder when they itself. But, in the theatre, the town first become witnesses of this evil thing clerk expressly bears witness that Paul dragging down human dignity into the and his colleagues had uttered not a dust. 'They are indignant in spirit,' word of blasphemy against the god- like St. Paul at Athens. The horror dess. We nowhere find an intimation grows, the deeper the insight which they that Paul ever addrest the popular obtain into the impelling motives of masses gathered to the May feast this madness, which is for our thoughts around the temple of Diana. Indeed, utterly incommensurable. Idolatry is of the whole situation, as portrayed in demoniacal nature, and its demoniacal the Acts, appears to exclude this. background is its power. St. Paul This implies a momentous admonition concedes to the enlightened Corinthians to the missionary practice of to-day. that an idol is nothing, but intimates H my views on this point contradict Ii with sufficient clearness that this noth- wide-spread practice, this only urges ingness is only relative, that the idols me to emphasize them the more. They are only a nullity to those who have are well-weighed. I should deem myfound in the one God the Father and in self not to have spoken in vain, if only the one Lord Jcsus Christ the being of in this one point I can find hearing in all things, their life, maintenance and influential missionary circles. Is it defence. None the less do there stand judicious to attack idolatry in direct behind the idols dark powers and in- and public preaching? to scourge its visible realities, whose might the Corin- folly, to mock and scorn the idols? thians have discerned, when they 'were Young missionaries, especially, are apt carried away with these dumb idols, to do so, often with great zeal, not seleven as they were led.' 'Our wrestling dom provoking thereby dismal and is not against flesh and blood, but riotous scenes. Are those who provoke against the principalities, against the these scenes martyrs of a good cause? powers, against the world rulers of this I think this most difficult province darkness, against the spiritual hosts of ought to be vigorously interdicted to wickedness in the heavenly places,' young missionaries. Idolatry, unqueswrites the Apostle in view of the tionably, must sometimes be openly as- Ephesian idolatry, and of the magical practices which in Ephesus were connected with idolatry. But notwithstanding such a fragment of the Apostle
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
sailed. Where do we find the right proclamation of truth would be a far model? In Paul's speech on the more effective fOfce."-Pastor STOSCK, Areopagus, with its chastened, prac- in AUgemeine Mis8ion8 Zeitschrift. tically deeply earnest temper. But for this there is needed great spirit- -The collective German Protestant ual ripeness, deep knowledge, and, missions (Moravian, Basel, Rhenish, I may well say-an illimitable compas- Hermannsburg, Leipsic, Bremen, Goss- sion. Idolatry is a deep, unfathomable ner, Berlin I, Berlin III, and some wretchedness. Should the wretched be others), have 700 ordained missionaries, mockt in their wretchedness ? They and 300,000 native Christians. In 1894, know their misery and feel their the total outlay was 4,800,000 marks. chains. With all idolatry there is con- joined a deep sense of unhappiness. -" Pastor Dr. LEPBIUS, who himself They are aware of its demoniacal has traversed Asia Minor and Armenia, background. In the doctrinal books of and has everywhere instituted the most the true religion there are heartrending careful inquiries, has come to the con· testimonies to this. That this con- clusion that up to October, 1896, a' sciousness is also living in the people is least 65,000 Armenians have been killed, a conviction easily gained by confiden- at least 100,000 forced into the profestial intercourse with some of the more sion of Islam, and 500,000 reduced to reflecting heathen. When we scourge the greatest misery, 2,500 towns and the madness of idolatry we tell the peo- villages laid waste, 568 churches and ple nothing new. They know better monasteries destroyed, 282 churches than we that idolatry is folly. The turned into musques, 21 Protestant Apostle in Ephesus might easily have preachers and 170 Gregorian priests, bebeen tempted to mock at the delusion cause they would not deny their faith, that the wretched doll, which, under cruelly murdered. But the most terri; the name of Diana of Ephesus, was ble is the outraging of women and girls. idolatrously reverenced by millions, had 'No quartering of soldiers, but that the fallen from heaven. The story was Christian maidens of the village are quite as ridiculous as any Indian legend. every night allotted by the officers to That Paul did not do this, is, I think, their men; no massacre, in which the an admonitory law for the missionaries murder of the men is not at once folof all times. Testimony must, unques- lowed up by the violation of the women tionably, be borne against idolatry, but and girls.' The most hideous abominalet it be done in the right place and at tions are simply unreportable. And for the right time. Not in the neighbor- all this the government of the Sultan is hood of temples or at idol feasts, where answerable. But his accomplices are passions are excited to the uttermost. the European governments, who have And let attacks be not too frequent. promist to care for the safety and reo The missionary centre of gravity is not ligious freedom of the Armenians, but found in the offensive, but in the posi- who do not venture to intervene."- tive attestation of salvation in Christ. Calver Mission8 Blatt. By means of the new the old will fall. as the new germs in the oak tree push -"The Church Missionary Society off the withered leaves, which, tena- missionaries last year baptized 7,000 ciously adherent to their place, no win- heathens, adults and children, 3,000 try storm had power to detach. The being in Uganda. The whole number faith in the Living God and in Jesus baptized by Protestant missionaries Christ, whom He hath sent, will bring seems to have been about 60,OOO.-Muidolatry to its fall. Much precious time ,ion8-Freund. and noble capacity is squandered in disputations, in place of which positive -" A speaker in the General Assem- bly of the Church of Scotland lately aI· ledged that travelers like Mrs. Bishop
GENERAL MISSIONAHY IN'fELLIGENCE
and Miss Gordon Cumming had exposed the earth, and to the very utmost of her the failure of Foreign Missions! The power strengthening others.' "-C. M. latter lady at once wrote a vigorous let- Gleane'!'. ter to the chief Edinburgh paper, the Scotsman, protesting against this mis- _U 'On all sides we see a change in representation. She wrote:- the temper of the people from what it 'Mrs. Bishop and I were merely travelers wishing to see various phases was in years gone by,' writes the Rev. of humanity with the smallest admix- ture of European influence; conse- W. Wallace, of Krishnagar, Bengal. quently we by no means sought the company of mission workers. It has • The antagonism to Christ has given been entirely in consequence of what we have each seen of the awful needs way to a most persistent attempt to in- of heathendom, and of the amazing transformation of whole races, who have corporate Him into Hinduism. It is heard and accepted the Gospel message, that we each have become most em- attempted to be shown in public lec- phatically mission workers. tures that He took His itneaicthifnro~- mfrHomis 'Mr. Menzies' words prove that he India, having traveled cannot have read my books, as it would be impossible to find a more emphatic twelfth to His thirtieth yeur. His testimony in favor of missionaries, or more startling instances of successful teaching is extolled as that of a true missions than the wonderful and true histories I have recorded in " Fire "Yogi." One of the Gospels has been Fountains of IIawaii," "At llome in Fiji" and "A Lady's Cruise in a versified and published in the vernacu- French Man of-War." And altho my "Wanderings in China" and "Two lar. More than this, a translation of Happy Years in Ceylon" tell of less fruitful mission fields, assuredly they the whole Bible into the vernacular has' also tell of encouragement. been commenced by the Hindus them- 'As regards the testimony of Mrs. Bishop, I can only suggest that Mr. selves at their own expense, and the Menzies should send to the Church Mission House, Salisbury Square, Lon- Gospel of St. Matthew has already been don, E. C., for a copy of the magnificent speech delivered by her some years printed and published with a Hindu ago in Exeter Hall, which so stirred that vast assemblage, and hundreds of commentary. These are amongst the thousands who have since read it in print, that many have thereby been chief, but are not the only signs of the awakened to a sense of their own grave responsibility in having so long neg- influence of Christianity on India, and lected the last Commandment of their Lord-that all who call Him Master, witness to the immense indirect effect should bear their part in making known His message of Love throughout the of missionary and other Christian effort world. Mrs. Bishop has herself, for some years past, devoted her own life in this country. Seeing such signs..we and marvelous energies to establishing Medical Missions in remote corners of may well go forward. knowing that tho our Lord's way may not be ours, yet our labor shall not be in vain in Him. '"
-C.M. G.
-" At Jabalpin, in the Central Prov- inces of India, a Brahman Pundit, pos- sessing a government teacher's certifi- cate, was baptised last year. His old father came with tears to try and dis- suade him, and warn him of the danger he ran in confessing Christ. But he answered, •It was a serious matter that the Innocent should have died for my sins, but it is a small matter for me to die for such a Savior's sake. Besides, He now lives to defend me, and no one can touch me without his permission. Even if that man should lift his club to fell me, Christ can arrest the blow and save me. But if He should not, I can but die and go to Him."'-C. M. G.
-The Christian Patriot, of :M:adras.
ENGLISH NOTES
quoted in the Flvangelisch·Lutherisches regeneration through God's spirit the Missionsblatt, remarks of the so-called Indian people cannot be helped. Will Indian Congrees, which is now we not bestir heart and hands to help almost wholly in the hands of the bring this to pass." Hindus, as follows: "The native Christians have more and more with- English Notes. drawn themselves from the Congress, because it has not kept what it has BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M. A. promised. At first it proposed (1) to join together in one great body politic The Church Mis8ionory Society.-Th6' the peoples and social classes of India, work done in Uganda has brought which are now in part widely separate, about immediate results which must (2) in every sphere of the national life surely encourage Bishop Tucker and his of India, intellectual, moral, social and helpers, and enable them to go on in their political, to work towards a gradual labor. regeneration. Has it kept its word? We answer emphaticaily, No I The During the Bishop's sojourn of eight separation of classes and castes in this months in Uganda, over 2,000 candiunhappy land is as great as ever. And dates have been confirmed-with reas to the second object, the Congress spect to the work the Bishop says: expressly declares that it means to set " When we consider the amount of inaside the impro;:ement of moral and struction given to the candidates for social relations, and to confine itself to baptism, and then afterwards to those political activity, in order to acquire who offer themselves for confirmation, for its members greater liberties and I am lost in wonder at the amount of rights and a reform in the administra- work our native and European brethren tion of India by agitation both here and have been enabled to get through in the in England. For this latter end it preparation of these candidates. It will maintains in England, at great cost, a easily be realized what an enormous restanding 'Reform-Committee.' sponsibility the existence of between 2,000 and 3,000 communicants casts The Missionsblatt adds: "In view of upon the ministry of the church, and these soaring aspirations, the Christian what claim they have for pastoral overjournal calls the attention of the orators sight. It is this thought which, tho of the Congress to the crying social in itself a ,very solemn one, yet fills my maladjustments, which demonstrate healt with thankfulness, when I think the unripeness of the Indian people for of our three native pastors and five napolitical independence. It exclaims to tive deacons ordained on Trinity Sunthem: 'While you smite your breasts day. With the increase of the flock and, in "the holy name of humanity," God gives us a corresponding increas& Ch,lTIl equal rights for Indians and of pastors." B""f)'1s, you do not stir a finger to help tpe do'Vn-trodden Parias out of their Sierra Leone affords a vast field of unwretched condition, or to lighten the occupied labor-thirty-nine fortieths of yoke of your women, and to illumine the protectorate have not as yet been the darkness of their ignorance.' It touched by any missionary society, and ends with the incisive remark: 'So every district is now easy of access and long as we bear on us the visible brand open to missionary work. of slavery, of slavery to slothfulness, superstition and other sins, it is our first Mr. William Humphreys shows that and chiefest duty first to reform our the great need in Sierra Leone at the own community.' present time is that some European leaders come among the native Chris- "All these endeavors and movements tians. There are many belonging to show ever anew that without a religious the native churches who are willing and ready to go to the interior of the dis- trict with some person or persons at
ti8 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
the head; a great work is already being Jesus far and wide. )l.'[r. W. M. Bel- done solely by natives; they support cher writes encouragingly about the liberally several mission stations, and work at Liang-Chau: "There will be send many of their own missionaries. an abundant harvest here some day. At the present time there are over 30,- That God has much people in this city (JOO native Christians. It mUDt be borne is my firm belief. This last Sunday or .in mind that Sierra Leone represents a two our little room has been packt, and district as large as Scotland, and much sometimes the quietness was intense- 'lIlore thickly populated, so the number the people hanging on the word breathof Christians is small in comparison less. It cannot end there. God is in with the number of Bouls needing our midst, and the day is not far dis- ,Christ. tant, when the reaping will begin"
Londqn Miasiona/I"!/ &ciet'U.-The city Baptist Missionary Society .-As in ·<Jf Peking was one of the first to open India, so in the interior of the Kongo its doors to European missionaries, but Free State, one of the chief obstacles to altho work has been carried on there for the spread of Christianity is the con- some thirty.five years, the progress is duct of nominal Christians. Central slow. Now is the time of sowing- Africa is the theatre of violence and the reaping shall be hereafter. crime, of lawlessness and rapacity, of in- humanity and desolating wickedness. Still there is progress, altho it is small, The Belgian officers of State give the both in the East and West cities. In poor overburdened natives a bad idea of the former, the street chapel is regu- Christian white men, and thus the work larly open for four or five hours every done by the missionaries is hard, and day throughout the year for the preach- the results few and far between. ing of the Gospel, and it is always well filled. Too much importance, however, The illness of the Rev. n. Wright cannot be attached to this, for it is one thing to listen attentively, and quite Hay, which necessitates his rctum to another to yield the heart to the influ- England, causes great regret and anxiety ence of the message. to the MissionaryCommittee, as well as unspeakable sorrow to Mr. Hay him- "In the West city the work of daily self. " Alike in the Cameroons and at preaching in the street chapels is car- Dacca, among the semi-savages of ried on with encouraging results, the Africa and the educated Hindus, Mr• . congregations being good and attentive, Wright Hay has wrought nobly and ,but here again, as in East city, the sueeessfully in the Kingdom. We unite '..' time for believing' seems not yet." in the prayer that he may be restored to perfect health, and in years to come Ohina'8 Millions.-We have already excel his former self in efficiency of heard of 526 baptisms during the first service." half of this year, and there may be some still to report from the more distant Work in Shantung ProvinC6, N. W. stations. We mention this for the en- Okina.-A new dispensary was opened couragement of all who are interested recently in Po-shan, the Rev. A. W in the progress of the work. A large Wills working as dispenser as well as proportion of these received into the preacher. He writes: "On the morn- church were in the province of Cheh- ing of the 29th inst. over 300 patients Kiang, but we expect ere the year closes filled the chapel and courtyard. Being to learn of many more being baptized anxious that none should be disap- in other parts of the field. pointed, I commenced before 6 A.1'I., and continued till past 8 P. M., when A new station has lately been founded the last patient was seen. at Liang-Chau, far distant from most other existing ones, and likely to be the "The Sunday before I left, I had the means of extending the knowledge of pleasure of baptizing nine men and five us women, who were afterward received taking right at once to the Eternal into church-fellowship at the Lord's Goodness Himself. It provides us not table. I tried to press on them' to live only with the way, but with the life a& in deed because of Christ, who lives in well; with the rail as well as with the them (for he only truly lives who lives engine. I am yet to be taught by for God, and in his life and work reveals "Comparative Religion" of some other his Master's image). Thus reflecting religion !hat doell likewise.-Kanzo: Him and following in His footsteps, Uchimura in "Dia1'l1 of a Japanese.
who shall say what that little group of Convert."
now forty-eight Christians might ac· -A brave Commis8aire of the Free complish, by shedding around them State, who had himself suffered from upon the darkness the light of His fevers almost to the point of death, and knowledge and glory!" yet had refused to return even for a The Rev. W. B. Frame writes short furlough to Europe, answered, cheeringly of the results he has seen in when inquired of as to whether a diffi- his missionary journey on the Kongo culty existed in Belgium to secure up country. He tells a pleasing inci- officers for the Kongo, "Our King shall dent which occurred during his expe- never lack volunteers."
dition. "One night, on my way up -At a recent convention a young country, I was sitting outside my tent, woman of German birth, doing home when some of the carriers gathered mission work among Germans, strnck round and requested that I should read the key-note of "cooperation" when the Bible to them. They did not know she said: "I hardly know whether I English and I could not read in Kongo, should say I am a foreign missionary. 80 that the request was beyond me. But doing home mission work, or a home you can imagine how pleased I was to missionary doing foreign missionary hear them start up the hymn, 'All hall work, It is all so mixed up, you see." the power of Jesus· name.' After singing That is just the kind of "mixing up" a few verses, one of their number offered that ought to be found in all our work. prayer. It was no passing whim, for night after night six or seven of them -Mr. Yong Kay, ~ young Chinese, met for prayer before lying down to giving an account of his work among rest." his own people, says: "I visited the But a few years ago they had known Chinese missions under Dr. Pond in nothing of the Savior, now He is known, California. One man came in and· said: 'If Chinaman goes to heaven, r loved and worshipt by many.
not go.' ' But there are wicked China- THE KINGDOM. men in hell, do you want to go there?'"
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the The old man did not kn()w what to heathen for thine inheritance, and the say.
uttermost parts of the ea1,tli for ilil; -The president of the Chicago Tele- possession. " phone Company has done a good deed -Christianity is more and higher in permitting physicians to use all his than heathenism in that it makes us telephone lines free, whenever they keep the law, It is heathenism plus wish to communicate with the healthlife. By it alone the law-keeping department.
becomes a possibility. It is the spirit -A pastor has been discovered WilO'· of the law. It of all religions works for years has not "begged" once for from inside. It is what heathenism missions, bas not even passed the has been searching and groping after " basket" or the "hat," neither has he with much weeping. It not only shows taken a solitary "collection." He has us the good, but it makes us good by simply given opportunity at each ser- Statistios of the Missionary Sooieties of the [THESE tables Include only Missions to non-Christian and non-Protestant peoples, and so they Japanese in the United States. The figures are derived almost wholly from annual reports, and leave the fewest possible blanks, and hence where official figures were not at hand, conservative Missionaries. Native Laborers. <l ~:3 NAMES 0 .. SOCIETIES. .§~ ,O>ill.<Si od d ".<"'-~dI<l <I•l od oS ,,0: E-<~ <Il s <Il " -g . .~.~ '" A§ f.98 .~ >. .; ~Sil~Os .13 ~~ ~ ~"'~ ….. ..g..s. ""d ..0.:. <Il 0: ~ 0 '-< E-<:g il I0i<"~'0…l. "B 0 0 – – – – – – —- – – – – – – – – – – American Board …..•…•.•••••• " •…•.. 1810 $743,105 178 19 179 177 583 227 2,951 Baptist Missionary Union…•••…•.•….• 1814 632,954 162 24 159 127 472 250 2,645 Southern Baptist Convention …..••••…. 1845 108,151 36 0 31 13 80 34 109 Free Baptist ….•…….•••••……•••••… 1836 34,913 6 1 6 12 25 7 216 Seventh-Day Baptist ..••••••••..•.•..•••.• 1847 11,065 1 0 1 8 5 1 4 Christian (Disciple) ..••••••••••….•..••.. 1875 92,596 19 8 22 12 56 0 66 American Christian Convention ..••••.•.. 1886 4,500 4 0 2 1 7 2 18 Lutheran, General Council ••…••••…•••• 1869 19,000 7 0 7 3 17 2 147 Lutheran, General Synod…••..•.••..•••. 1837 52,000 11 0 6 7 24 2 442 Methodist Episcopal ……..•••••.•……. 1832 889,283 230 44 224 296 794 415 8,475 Methodist Episcopal, South.•….••••….. 1846 240,802 53 1 49 5 108 114 271 African Methodist Episcopal. .. , •..•••…. 1876 6,940 6 12 12 8 33 0 7 Protestant Methodist ….••.•.•….•••.••. 1882 14,711 50 4 8 12 4 9 Wesleyan Methodist .•••………..•…… 1887 3,000 4 2 8 2 11 0 1 Protestant EpiscopaL ………•..•….•… 1835 395,298 93 9 23 16 141 66 420 ss.~,392 214 '1 Presbytel"ian •. , •…….•………..•..•.. 1837 43 223 188 668 180 2,101 Presbyterian, South.. • . . • . . . . . •• . . • . . . . .. 1861 142,499 60 10 58 21 149 81 151 I Cumberland Presbyterian …..•…•…… 1820 31,875 7 0 71 12 26 5 25 United Presbyt~rian……. •.•••••• … 1859 122,939 85 1 34 29 99 23 649 Reformed Presb. (Covenanter) ……….. 1856 20,250 6 27 6 21 0 37 Reformed Presb., General Synon……… 1836 6,000 5 0 5 2 12 0 28 Associate Reformed, South…………… 1879 8,413 3 0 8 3 9 4 5 Reformed (Dutch) …………………… 1886 154,139 28 4 28 20 80 33 364 Ref0!'!!led (German) …………………. 1878 80,000 6 1 51 2 14 12 39 German Evangelical Synod …………… 1ss.~ 12,124 7 0 0 11 0 49 Evangelical Association ……..••…….. 1876 9,100 2 0 0 4 14 46 United Bretbren …•…………………. 1853 23,111 26 10 :1 6 48 18 30 S ociety of Friends .••.. , ………………. 1871 82,661 11 34 11 19 75 9 82 Canada Baptist…•..•………………… 1873 30,252 11 0 11 10 32 11 172 Canada Baptist (llaritime Provinces) …. 1880 16,500 7 0 7 5 19 3 46 Canada Congregationalist ……………. 1881 5,600 1 0 1 2 4 0 4 Canada Methodist •……….•………… 1873 123,573 28 24 45 15 112 26 59 Canad:1 Presbyterian •…. …………… 1844 116,714 32 15 37 43 127 7 243 …. 669,160 92 413 170 272 947 33 441 — — – — — — — – – – – :TwentJ'-flve Other Societies …….•……. – – Totals …………………••….•.••… …. $5,693,020 1,396 672 1,392 1,33t> 4,825 1,538 15.347 1 United States and Oanada for 1895-96.
omit work done in non-Catholic Europe, while covering that in behalf of Indians, Chinese, and relate in the main to 1896, tho sometimes the year includes a part of 1895. The aim has been to estimates have been made.] Countries in which Missions are Sustained.
– – – — – — —— ———— 3,504 1,21)2 43,013 2,957 131,000 1,060 52,619 Africa, Turkey, India, China, Japan, 3,117 1,131 121,849 6,41<1 350,000 1,138 'Micronesia, Mexico, Spain, Austria. 10,000 189 128 3,801 735 31 27,622 Africa (Kongo), India, Burmah, Assam, 241 13 743 68 1,610 101 China, Japan, France, Russia, etc.
851 1 China, Japan, Africa, Italy, Mexico, Brazil.
3,375 India (Bengal).
9 1 38 7 140 5 110 China (Shanghai).
122 26 912 94 2,000 20 784 China, Japan, India, Turkey.
20 6 261 31 800 4 12 Japan (Tokyo, etc.). 1,800 105 164 198 5,283 150 4,500 210 1,900 India (Madras). 43,560 1,506 466 13 7,888 1,870 15,000 5,870 India (Madras), West Africa. 68 4,269 560 356 4,270 121,929 5 4~,874 China, Korea, Japan, Africa, S. America, 254 2 Mexico, Italy, Bulgaria, Malaysia. 379 106 16 55 18,000 1 2,889 3,984 137 257 China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, American 40 12 30,882 70 800 490 Indians. 2,804 36 680 4 West Africa, West Indies. 11,586 331 21 10 243 41 600 15 90 Japan (Yokohama). 582 S 12 8 276 o 50 4 30 Africa (Sierra Leone). 6,040 165 561 208 1,985 252 12,000 2 4,598 Greece, Africa, China, Japan, Haiti, in- 675 15 28,486 dians. 2,769 877 805 3,099 105,000 1 1,361 6,230 9 India, Siam, China, Japan, Korea, Africa, 300 45 993 519 7,000 27 200 Syria, Persia, S. America, Mexico, etc. 3,446 77 51 8 185 85 1,800 4 China, Japan, Korea, Africa, Greece, 26 2 Italy, Mexico, Brazil. 2,137 40 3,240 169 Japan, Mexico. 9,534 90 748 270 1,141 19,912 16,132 Egypt, India (Northwest Provinces).
58 8 28 500 590 Northern Syria, Asia Minor.
40 24 272 1,000 60 India (Northwest Provinces).
14 14 39 600 !lO Mexico (Tampico, etc.).
444 259 404 18,000 6,125 China, Japan, India, Arabia.
53 56 256 3,000 211 Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, etc.).
60 13 240 2,227 1,182 India (Central Provinces).
50 21 118 1,780 8 Japan (Tokyo, Osaka).
78 856 600 25,000 700 Africa (West Coast, Sherbro, etc.).
157 40 77 1,800 834 Mexico, China, Japan, Jamaica, Alaska.
204 80 453 10,000 1,178 India (Telugus).
65 12 20 500 80 India (Telugus).
8 1 9 100 105 Africa (West Central).
171 25 85 6,000 2,500 Japan (Tokyo, etc.), Indians.
370 99 350 10,000 7,338 China, India, New Hebrides, West in- dies. 1,3881~ 7G8 20,000 3,200 20,1421 6,1)49 315,287 25,5691 901,648 5,875 212,271 vice to present a thank-offering for the the liquor trade." Good; so mote it Lord's work, with the accompaniment be. of a brief prayer for a blessing upon the gifts_ -"The Devil's Foreign Missions" was the startling but suggestive title of -Here is a case of Christian comity a paper concerning the liquor trade in which for sheer novelty is well nigh West Africa, read at a recent meeting of startling, Rev. C. R. Baker, rector of Student Volunteers. But then, not only the Church of the Messiah, in Brook- are liquor dealers missionaries of Satan, lyn, lately said to his congregation that but slave stealers as well, and all godsomewhat recently a man and his wife, less sailors, traders and travelers from members of that church, had gone to Christian lands. North Carolina to live. They found themselves in the midst of a community -Mr. John R. Mott has reacht this of 250 persons who were absolutely conclusion concerning a branch of miswithout church privileges of any kind. sionary work: "We confess that we They learned that the people were started on this tour somewhat disposed Baptists by preference, and that they to look upon educational mission work had a small building which could be as less important than directly evangelused for services. The man wrote to istic work. A careful study of the the rector and asked for his advice, question in four or five mission counwhether he should try to organize an tries has led us to attach the greatest Episcopal church or to resuscitate the possible importance to educational mis- Baptist and get it in running order_ sions. No country has done more to Dr. Baker at once ad vised him to re- deepen this conviction than India. organize and set going the Baptist Without doubt educational missions church by all means, and a collection have opened a larger number of doors was taken up to buy hymn books. for the preaching of the Gospel than any other agency. They have furnisht -Dr. Jacob Chamberlain says: "I the most distinguisht and influential have compared the annual average ex- converts. They have done more than pense of running three New York City all else combined to undermine heathen churches with the annual average ex- superstitions and false systems of bepense of carrying on the Arcot Mission lief_ They are to-day the chief, if not since it was established 40 years ago, the only, force to counteract the influand it is less than that of these ence of the secular character and tenchurches. And note what has been ac- dency of the government institutions of complished. There are now 8 mission learning. In the interest of the ultimate stations; 100 village congregations; 24 success of the missionary enterprise we organized churches with 4,910 members believe that educational missions would and 1,861 catechumens. There are 120 be abundantly justified, if they were schools with 2,992 pupils, of whom doing nothing but teach science, his- 2,200 are not Christians; also 16 girls' tory, philosophy, ethics, and political schools with 1,343 pupils; 4 Anglo- economy, in their right relation to vernacular schools, where 1,000 young Christ." men are taught; 6 training schools with 322 boarding pupils. And yet the -A recent number of Harper's average yearly cost of all this work is Weekly calls attention to the $101,000 less than it costs to support 1 New raised at a meeting in Old Orchard last York City church." summer, and to the collection of- $112,000 at the meeting in Carnegie -Says the Wine and Spirit Gazette, Hall, New York, and says that in the which ought to know: "There is sixteen years in which Mr. Simpson everywhere a growing prejudice against has been connected with the Christian Alliance, he has raised about $700,000 for missionary purposes. The editor western part of that empire as has then observes as follows: .. No doubt hitherto been impossible. The im- most of the people who gave it got portance to India and China will be their money's worth. The satisfactions great, both commercially and poli- of religious enthusiasm are very great. tically. The other is to be projected People who don't understand them from the Mediterranean coast to undervalue them. If.a woman keeps Timbuctoo, through the oases of the a carriage, they can see, or think they Sahara. As a preliminary, the French . can, that she gets a handsome return government is organizing an expedi- for her money. But if, instead of a tion to secure control of the larger carriage, she keeps a missionary, they oases, especially that of Touat. With think her unthrifty, and believe her to a completed railroad to the central be imposed upon besides. They are Sudan, central Africa will be within stupid, these worldling~. The chances easy reach of Europe The western are that the woman with the missionary Sudan, too, cannot but feel the effects gets more true and substantial satisfac- of such an enterprise. tion oui of her investment than the woman who keeps the carriage." -This item and the three which fol- low are based upon Dr. Dorchester's -Certainly, this is strange reading The Problems of Religiou8 Progress, and from the Antipodes.' The Methodist, of give a cheering outlook for the future Australia, says: .. Fiji returns a native of Christianity. In A. D. 1500 there membership of 30,704, while the whole were 100,000,000 ,Christians in the of our New South Wales districts world; in A. D. 1600 there were 125,- can only return 10,549. Fiji has 803 000,000; in 1700 there were 155,000,000, churches and 447 other preaching and in 1800 there were 200,000,000. In pIsces, while our own district returns 1830 the number had grown to 228,- show 416 churches and 481 other 000,000; in 1840 to 300,000,000; in preaching places. Fiji has adherents to 1850 to 342,000,000 ; in 1876 to 374,000,- the number of 97,254, while our own 000; and in 1880 to 410,000,000. Thus list, including the children, only runs it will be seen that while Christianity to 83,940. And finally, Fiji raises for gained 100,000,000 in the first fifteencenthe general funds the sum of £4,512, turies of its history, and another 100,- which is nearly double the amount 000,000 in the next three, the entire result raised in New South Wales (and which of the progress of 1800 years had been includes a legacy account of £324), and more than doubled before the end of which almost equals the contributions the eighth decade of this century. And from the combined colonies of New it is safe to say that the two closing dec- South 'Vales, Queensland, South ades will add at least 50,000,000 to the Australia, Western Australia, and number of Christians in the world, Tasmania." bringing up the grand total to 460,000,- 000 (including Greek and Roman -Railway extension is playing a con- Catholics). stantly increasing part in the development of countries hitherto almost un- -Or, consider the increase of popukllown. Of such the great Trans- lation in the countries under Christian Siberian Railway has hitherto attracted governments. In 1500 the population the most notice; but two others are of such countries amounted to an aggredestined to be of great importance. gate of 100,000,000; in 1700 it was 155,- One is to connect British India, through 000,000; in 1830 it was 387,788.000; upper Burmah, with the large and and in 1876 it was 685,459,411. The fertile province of Yunnan, in western proportion of this increase which has China, and then open up the entire been made in countries under Protest- ant governments is remarkable. In 1500 the population under such as were E. Willard gave these facts and figures Roman Catholic governments was 80,- reJating to the status of her sex in this 000,000, and under Greek Church sway land. Twenty five States have given about 20,000,000. In 1700 the popu- the educational ballot to women; 1 lation of countries under Roman Catho- (Kansas) has conferred upon them the lic rule was 90,000,000; under that of municipal ballot, and 3 (Wyoming, Greek Church 33,000,000, and under Colorado and Utah) have made them Protestant dominion, 32,000,000. In 1830 full citizens. Forty-three per cent. of the figures stood thus: Roman Catho- the 400,000 teachers in this country are lic governments, 134,164,000; Greek women. Out of 451 colleges and Church, 60,000,000; Protestant, 193,- universities in this country only 41 are 624,000. In 1876 the population of coun- closed to women; the rest are coo tries under Roman Catholic govern- educational. Besides these there are ments was 180,787,905; under Greek 143 schools of the higher educational Church, 96,101,894; under Protestant, standard, with 30,000 students. One- 408,569;612. fourth of the fellowships of the University of Chicago are held by -Looking at the area of the earth, we women. notice similar progress. The latest computations fix this at 52,062,470 -The October Student Volunteer square miles, of which Christian nations gives a capital program for a missionary have under their control 32,419,915; meeting with " The Better Half of Our and the pagan and :Mohammedan, 19,- Mi8sionary Force" as the topic, Ps. 624,555; or, the earth is three· fifths lxviii : 11, 12, revised version, as a motto Christian, and two-fifths pagan and text, or if preferred, woman's ministry Mohammedan. Dividing the Christian in the Gospels, especially prominent ia nations, we find under Protestant gov- Luke, may be taken as the Bihlico,l -ernments, 14,337,187 square miles; basis. "Let one person briefly prepare under Roman Catholic, 9,304,605, and the way by calling attention to the fact under Greek Church, 8,778,123. The .that woman is nume'l'walill the st'l'07lge8t acquisition of territory by Great Britain f'Mw'l' in the mission field to-day. is a momentous fact, which has a direct World statistics do not show this, IlS bearing upon the subject of the progress scores of missionary societies do not of Christianity, and is without a parallel count in the wives of missionaries. in history. She bears rule over one- Place on a board in tabular form the fourth of the surface of the globe, and statistics of 1894-95. The United one-fourth of its population. Her pos- States: male missionaries, 1,469; sessions abroad are 60 times larger than female missionaries, 2,043. Canada: the parent s.tate. She owns 3,500,000 males, 119; females 116. Great Britain: square miles in America; 1,000,000 males, 2,991; females, 2,238. Germany: each in Africa and Asia, and 2,500,000 males, 550; females, 399. Total for in Australasia. And even these figures these and all other societies, wives being take no account of the British posses- omitted in many cases, males, 6,275 ; sions in South America, or of the im- females, 5,219. In supporting and praymense area in southern and central and ing for missionaries, therefore, we are northern Africa, which approaches to praying and contributing mainly for 3,000,000 square miles. the work of missionary women." Then follows an address giving reasons why WOMAN'S WORK. woman's work is important, and an- other presenting the phases of her -In her annual address of the twenty- work, such as: (1) literary work; (2) third convention of the National her medical work; (3) educational Woman's Christian Temperance Union, work; (4) evangelistic work; (5) the recently held in St. Louis, Miss Frances missionary wife and mother. UNITED STATES. ernment in the training of the Negro -We reprint the following from the and the Indian for American citizen- Golden Rule: " The Minnesota Prison ship in the Hampton Normal and Association is a noble philanthropy Agricultural Institute, in full view oj which we hope will be taken up and the beach smote bU the prow of the first copied throughout the nation. It is Dutch slave sMp in 1620."
one thing to place criminals in even the -Again says Mr. Mayo: "Out of best of our modern reformatories and the new South, burdened with the final train them to a life of useful industry social problem of humanity-the deand to a liking for it, but it b quite monstration that all races of men can another thing, after these criminals are dwell together in a republic, in freedom, discharged, to obtain work for them at order, mutual appreciation, alld muall, let alone to place them in situations tual helpfulness-is to come the final where their past will not be constantly decisive proof that the Christian rethrown up at them, and the scorn and ligion is the one power, and the Divine distrust of their fellow men drive them Man the one leader, whereby the awful back into their old sins. It is to meet distinctions and repulsions in our huthis difficulty that the Prison Associa- manity, before which paganism, secution has been formed. It will have larism, science, and culture stand branches in all the counties of the aghast, may be reconciled in the King- State, and its agents will seek out good dom of God on earth. places for deserving prisoners after their discharge, and endeavor in all proper -The New York Evening Post sugways to maintain their newly aroused gests that some of the journals that manhood." give criminal intelligence so conspicu- ous a place in their columns, make 8 -If the intermittent Indian fighting canvass of their readers in respect to and the brief contest with the Barbary their preferences in regard to crime. It corsairs be disregarded, the United guarantees that "the pUblication of the States have had only four years and a answers which would be received . . .
quarter of international war in the one would prove most attractive reading,"
hundred and seven years since the and that they would "help to sell the adoption of the Constitution. Within paper" containing them, and so accom- the same period the United States have plish the chief purpose of the "new been a party to 47 arbitrations, being journalism." It proposes, as very suit- more than half of all that have taken able for sending out, the following place in the modern world. questions: Some of them were of great magnitude.. " (1.) Do you prefer crime to any the four made under the treaty of other variety of news?
Washington being the most important "(2.) What is your favorite brand of that have ever taken place. Such is the crime?
language of President Eliot, in the "(3.) How do you like best to have October Atlantic Monthlu. your crime written up?
-In his masterly historical produc- "(4.) Do pictures of the criminals tion, Public Schools During the Colo- add to your enjoyment of it? nial and Revolutionary Periods in the United States (Report of the Com- "(5.) Would you like a paper filled missioner of Education, 1893-4), well entirely with crime? does Rev. A. D. Mayo exclaim: "Most amazing of all the wonders of Ameri- " (6. ) Would you like your crime on a separate sheet, or mixed with the other news of the day?"
can history is the spectacle of new Vir- -In the Greater New York, with its ginia striking hands with the N oIthern population of 3,200,000, only twenty per Christian people and the national gov- cent. of its inhabitants are American by birth and parentage, and the New Tuesday I would have very poor les- Yorkers of New York descent are bare- Bons, and the excuse was, •I had to go- ly one in eight of the entire population. to religion class last night and I did not The number of those' born in foreign have time to study.' These religion countries is forty-two per cent. of the classes have been formed in every ward whole. There are 700,000 persons of and all through the surrounding coun- German parentage in Greater New try, and it is probably the same all York, and nearly as many of Irish; through the State. Yet, after spending 100,000 of Russian, and as many of so much time in their so-called religion Italian, and 300,000 of other foreign classes, they know simply nothing parentage. There are more Germans about God's word. During the year, I than in any city in Germany except found that there was scarcely one of the Berlin; more Irish by twice than in pupils who came to our school for the any city of Ireland. Large portions of first time last fall, who knew one of the the population cannot speak or read the Commandments. " English language; vast numbers of them never saw the Constitution of the -Members of the Christian Alliance United States or of the State of New have purchased the property of the York, and have little or no knowledge Rev. Ross Taylor, and 14 acres, at of their history or form 01 govern- Nyack, N. Y., for a mission home. It ment. is understood that the purchasers will spend $50,000 in improvements the first -The summary of the New York year. The plan comprehends the en- City :Mission Society's work during the larging of a stone building on the proppast summer is given as follows: Num- erty, so that,it will have 100 rooms, for ber of services, 4,440; aggregate atten- the purposes of the home; the erection dance, 294,228; number of persons re- of another large building for educaceiving communion, 7,937; baptisms, tional purposes, in connection with the adults, 106; children, 478; number of work of the Alliance, and buildings for persons confirmed, 233; marriages. 35; an orphanage and an auditorium. burials, 202; visits made by missionaries, 56,972; papers distributed, 69,252; -By invitation of the president and books distributed, 21,676;. scholars, students, Booker T. Washington, the 30,691; number of children cared for colored principal of the Tuskegee Instiin the day nursery, 14,097; number of tute in Alabama, delivered an address children in the kindergarten, 20,198; in- recently before the faculty and students dustrial school, aggregate attendance, of Trinity College in North Carolina. teachers,595; scholars, 11',307; number Altho Trinity College is an old southern of women and children sheltered in"St. white college, and this is the first time Barnabas's House, 1,407; number of he was ever invited to address a southlodgings furnisht in St. Barnabas's ern white college, Mr. Washington says House, 33,413; number of meals fur- that he and the half-dozen colored citinisht at St. Barnabas's House, includ- zens who accompanied him were treated ing those sent to the day nursery at with the greatest courtesy, and his ad- God's Providence }[ission from the dress was received with markt enthu- Huuse, 117,787. This mission is under siasm. As he left the college grounds Protestant Episcopal care.-Observer. the students assembled on the campus and gave him their college yell in a -Speaking of the vigilant watch care most hearty manner of the Mormons in teaching their peculiar doctrines to the young, a teacher -The Qhurch of God (Winebrensays: "It seems to me the Mormons are nerian) has sent out its first missionary. doing more than ever to teach the chil- Miss Clara Landes of Iowa sailed from dren their doctrines. Frequently on Boston in November for India. She will be located temporarily at Midnapore, but the plan is to start a new sta- part of the Northwest Provinces, the tion in the near future. Punjab, eight districts of the central provinces and two districts of Upper -Rev. Jee Gam lately sent the fol- Burmah, which was not irrigated this lowing note and postscript, which ex- autumn, the crops are in a seriously plain themselves: "On behalf of the damaged condition. In addition the Congregational Association of Christian prospects of the crops in parts of Bom- Chinese of California, I enclose a check bay cause anxiety. Rain is now imfor $50.00 to the credit of the Jubilee probable and a famine is inevitabl0, un- Fund, as an expression of gratitude for less sufficient rain falls in Oude, the the noble work that is being done by Northwest Provinces and the Punjab. the American Missionary Association There is also considerable distress in for them and their countrymen. other affected areas, which are about the same as in 1877. "P. S.-I inclose also a mite (a postoffice ordeT for $5.00) as a personal of- -Then, after professing Christianity, fering in appreciation of the same ser- converts are subjected to such ill-treatvice." ment as goes far to deter others from joiningher ranks. III-treatment assumes -From 50,000 to 100,000 Armenian various forms. Sometimes our people children by the massacres of the last are turned out of employment, sometwo years have been left either half or times they are kept from getting water wholly orphans, and it seems to be a at a public well, sometimes troublesome part of the Turkish scheme to rear lawsuits are brought against them and them up in the faith of Islam. To save they are involved in debt, sometimes them from this fate and help them in they are compelled to do more than their destitntion, a noble plan is on foot their share of work for government to care for them in asylums. The officers, and that without pay, some- Congregationalist affirms that: " Ten times they are unjustly put upon the dollars will provide home, clothing official lists of rogues and are conseand food for one orphan for five quently exposed to arrest and much months, or until the trying winter is suffering, sometimes they are falsely over. Five dollars will house and accused of crime and thrown into clothe one orphan for a year. Three .prison, sometimes they are cruelly dollars will house one orphan for a beaten, sometimes they are deprived of year. One dollar will house, clothe and their property by force or fraud, and feed one orphan for two weeks." treated with the greatest indignity, sometimes they are kept from prose- ASIA. cuting their own trade, sometimes a private wrong is done them, and in- India.-Just as the buffalo has been stead of obtaining redress, they are exterminated from our great western punisht as tho this wrong had been plains, so lions are disappearing from done by themselves to the perpetrators. India before the rifle of the hunter and -Rev. Robert Stewart. the ax and plow of the farmer. In Kathiawar, whose forests have fur- -By thEllast report of Lodiana Presnisht one of the last retreats of the re- byterian mission it appears that 566 tiring king of beasts, an attempt is be- were received to the church last ing made to save the animals from com- year. There are 19 ordained native men, plete extinction by prohibiting lion 15 licentiates, 23 Bible women, 20 hunting during a period of six years. churches and chapel buildings where It is said, however, that the gradual services are held, 10 hospitals and disclearing away of the forests will in it- pensaries in which over 90,000 patienta self result in the extermination of the were treated. lions.
-The Viceroy of India cabled to London, that over most of Oude, a large -A remarkable man, named David, 200 miles, will enclose nearly 46,000,000 has arisen in Southern India. He goes of souls. Our students can easily reach about preaching the Gospel, and thou- this grcat mass of humanity. We sands flock around him. India has have sent out from the seminary 301 never seen such crowds surrounding a preachers, 196 women, and 61 trained preacher of the Gospel, and especially a teachers, who also act as evangelists colorcd preacher; we hear of 8,000 or and pastors." An American woman has even 10,000 people being present. And offered Dr. Scott a donation of $1,000 in he has found out that what is essential is aid of dormitories for the seminary on that a new spirit first should, of all, come condition that another friend or friends over our native churches, in order that will duplicate the sum. thousands of witnesses should arise for their Savior, instead of one. He -Next to the venerable Dr. Elias has recently gone through most of the Riggs, of Constantinople, the senior great towns of India, and everywhere missionary of the American Board on his message has bcen with power. "Is the field is Dr. S. P. Fairbank of the there nothing unsound in the move· Marathi mission in India. Mr. and ment?" I hear many anxiously ask. Mrs. Fairbank sailed the same year for We do not trouble ourselves greatly India that Dr. C. C. Baldwin did for thereat. We know by experience at China, and have recently celebrated home that, when God sends a blessing, the 50th anniversary of their arrival at people spin out discussion about how Bombay. much per cent. of it is sound and how much unsound. till all has gone happily China.-That this Empire is to profit to sleep again, and thc guardians of by the knowledge pickt up by Li Hung soundness often first of all.-Evan- Chang in his recent round-the-world gelisches Missions Magazin. trip, is made evident by his appointment to the office of president of the Tsung- -We learn that the Rev. A. Man- li Yamen, or chief minister of foreign waring baptized at Nasik Aug. 2, affairs, a position usually reserved for a somewhat notable convert, viz. imperial princes. This will require Li Professor Pandit Gopal Chundra to remove his residence from Tientsin Sastra. He is the son of Rao Bahadoor to Peking. Gowree Sankar, a wealthy landlord and influential merchant. The pandit isan -In writing of the evangelistic Oriental scholar, and was at one time a efforts in connection with the Tungmagistrate of the second class. He has Cllo hospital and dispensary, Dr. J. H. traveled widely in India, and has Ingram says he has often thought that visited Burmah,Ceylon,Aden, and even the want of clocks in China will Tibet as a preacher and teacher of certainly be one of the means by which Hinduism. He attributes his conver- God will save many souls. Onc of the sion to the Bible only. He says, "It most satisfactory l'esults of the past is the Book through which God speaks year has been tile opportunity for work to man; by constantly reading both among the women who come to the the Testaments I have been able to dispensary. They frequently arrive understand the True Religion and the very early, as they have no means of Only Meditator."-Ohurch Missionary telling the time at home, and they are Intetligencer. usually so anxious for treatment that they err on the safe side and appear an -Some of the statistics in connection hour or two before dispeI1sing time. with Bareilly Theological Seminary One of the Bible women talks with the are very encourgaing. Dr. Scott early comers while they are waiting for writes: "A circle drawn about the the doors to open, and seed is sown in seminary as a center, with a radius of the waiting-room from day to day which sometimes bears visible fruit. The opening for medical work among with me. When we came before him I Chinese women is evidenced by the knelt down real low, but the dear man,. increasingly large numbers flocking to he rise from his seat, come and assist the hospital and dispensary. Of the me up, and" bless you." He want to 10,000 treatments given the past year shake hands with me, and we did. We over one-third have been to women. sat down while he askt me all about the family from father down to my -In describing the superstition of youngest sister. He said he wisht to China before the English Baptist Union appoint me to represent our dear China at the recent annual session of that in the World's Congress of Representr.- body, Rev. Timothy Richard, of tive Women in London in 1898! He Shanghai, said that only five years ago gave three big books-histories of the he saw a procession headed by Li Hung World's Congresses. Chang going to the river to propitiate the god of the river, through neglect of Sept_ 27.-This afternoon Li sent his whom, it was believed, the river was secretary to me to get father's full name overflowed. He saw the god next day and address, and say he is going to -it was it snake fifteen inches long. write father just as soon as he reaches Tientsin. He commanded me to learn -The Chinese physician, Dr. George Mandarin thoroughly, and keep on my Mark, who was in attendance upon Li English also, because he desires me to Hung Chang in his journey around the go to Peking and see him just before world, is a member of the Second going to London in 1898, and when we Presbyterian Church in Canton. Dr. come back we must carry the report to- Henry baptized him and recommended him at Peking, and there he will prehim to the government school in Hong sent us to the Ell1press of our China Kong, where be was found when also. By and by, when we are through Viceroy Li instituted a search for young in this world, we will go to see our Chinese who were qualified to take a heavenly Father, who is the" King of medical course in English at the Tient- kings and the Lord of lords," hand in sin school, which Li establisht. hand together, and report our work be- Young Mark was chosen and did him- fore His throne. self great credit, and has been under the patronage of the Viceroy ever Korea.-The Rev. Eugene Bell, of since. He has the confidence of the Seoul, expresses the opinion in Th6 Canton Christia.ns. His wife, also a Ohristian Observer (Southern Presbymcmber of the Second Church, is terian), that no other mission field in daughter of a Bible woman now dead. the world, after the first decade, could -Ohurch at Home and Abroad. give the church at home so encourag- ing a report as Korea. The church -There is much more than a touch membership was increast last year by of romance about these quotations from abuut sixty-one per cent. At the decenthe diary of Miss Marguerite Wong, a nial meeting last fall 42 congegrations Methodist Christian Chinese young were reporting as worshiping reguwoman, who crost the Pacific in the larly every Sunday, 6 churches as same steamer with the greatest of ministered to by native pastors, and Chinamen: 445 persons as enrolled in Sunday- schools. Several houses of worship Sept. 16.-Li is very sensible, and have been erected entirely with najust dresses and acts like any ordinary tive funds, and native Christians have Chinese gentleman. I rather like him. contributed liberally to the erection He don't put on any airs, as I thought of others, the contributions for this he would. and other purposes baving averaged last year more than one dollar per mem· Sept. 17.-This morning the Viceroy sent word that he wisht to see me at ten o'clock. I askt Miss Hartford to go up ber. The Presbyterian church in Seoul, nearly five times the area of the origI- erected last winter, exclusively with nal .. Fatherland." If German acquisI- native funds, has been found too small tion continues at this rate for three to accommodate the crowds. years its African domain will be in ex- cess of that of Britain, provided always -Mrs. Underwood of Seoul has re- that Britain does not continue its work cently written as follows: .. Work is of annexation. In the 12 years from very promising here all the time. Last 1884 to 1896, France has acquired week was the king's birthdaJ, and some rather more than Britain, her accessions Koreans said they thought we might being 2,726,000 square miles; which is have a prayer-meeting on that day. Mr. to say that her foreign possessions are Underwood seized the opportunity and rather more than five times as great in tho only three days remained for prep- 1896 as they were in 1884. Then it is aration, he got out a tract for the occa- to be remembered that Italy has got a sion, had 10,000 copies printed, also a foothold in Abyssinia, that the Kongo hymn, .. God save the King," to the Free State, covering an area of 900,000 tune of America, and obtained the use square miles, virtually is a protectorate of the largest government building in of the European powers, and that Seoul, and advertised the meeting to Egypt, tho nominally ruled by a native pray for the king. He taught the Viceroy, is really a British dependency. school-boys to sing the hymn, engaged Except the Sudan, now in process of speakers, had the hall draped with subjugation, nominally to Egypt, but bunting, conducted a service at our really to Great Britain, there is no conchurch in the morning, had an audience siderable area of Africa that now is not with the king after dinner, and theu under control of Portugal, Italy, Gerwent to the celebration, where fully many, France, or Great Britain.-lnter 2,000 people were assembled, the larg- Ocean. est meeting ever held in Korea. Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries and -Bishop Tucker wlites thus of a ser- (lonverts were there, several members vice in Uganda: "My heart was very of the cabinet and highest officials were full as I spoke to these dear men of their on the platform, and one of them ad- work, and as I pleaded with the condrest the audience. The singing was gregation either as Chrietians to be grand, and hundreds of voices joined faithful to their God and Savior, or 6a reverently in the Lord's Prayer. It was unbelievers to- 'come to Christ. ' Very thrilling to us who have watched the nearly 500 communicants gathered work from the first. The tracts were around the table of the Lord, a congreaskt for before they were ready to dis- gation in themselves. What wonders tribute them, and there was great strife of grace I Acongl'egation ofsome 3.000 in the crowd to get them. or 4,000 souls, 466 communicants, 3 native priests, and 5 native deacons or- AFRICA. dained, and later in the day 22 lay readers set apart for their special work, -'An illustration of the rapidity with was it any wonder that one almost which the interior of Africa is opening broke down from time to time, or that to the world is the recent transmission one's heart was filled to overflowing of a telegram from Blantyre in the with thankfulness and praise to God? " Shire district, Central Africa, to a missionary secretary in Edinburgh in about -Rev. J. Roscoe, now in England, three hours. speaks of 500 churches in Uganda and 600 teachers at work, of whom 400 are -In one year Germany has added volunteers, and of 56,000 readers under 1,000,000 square miles, mainly of Mri- more or less regular instruction. C8Il land, to its possessions. This is
The Missionary Review of the World — October 1892
THE GREEK CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL.·XV. No.1O.-0ld Series. –OCTOBER.– VOL. v. No. lO.-New Serie8.
THE GREEK CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL.
BY I. E. BUDGETT MEAKIN, TUNIS, AFRICA.
How few of us realize what is really embraced by the title" The Greek Church"! In using it we speak of a religious orgamzation submitted to by more millions than Romanism and Protestantism can muster together; we speak of a church named by the name of Christ, and styling itself the only orthodox, by the side of which the Pope of Rome is an arch-ProtlOstant;* we speak of a despotism unsurpassed under the Inquisition, and of a heathen darkness great as that of the most vaunted stronghold of idolatry.
To most of us the Church of Rome is the embodiment of evil in the Christian fold-the only Babylon. Day by day we have before our very eyes her human teachings and her superstitious practices, while we arc also enabled from our own experience to gather some idea of her fruits. But of the workings of the Church of Greece we remain in comparative ignorance, and in consequent indifference. Yet the millions under its sway are unnumbered by man, and to everyone of these it is as much our duty to preach the Gospel as to our brethren who sit in darkness by our side. Dean Stanley has aptly written of the Eastern Church: "That figure which seemed 80 imposing when it was the only one that met our view changes all its proportions when we see that it is overtopped by a vaster, loftier, darker figure behind." t He says that the study of it brings about " a two-edged disappointment," for that it is Catholic and Protestant at once, a strange anomaly, a living death. It was at one time the dream of this divine, as it had been of Melanchthon and others before him, that an amalgamation might some day be effected between this Church and Protestantism-that "the Greek face may yet hand back from Europe to Asia the light which in former days it handed on from Asia to Europe;" but the indulgence in such a hope only showed the Dean's acquaintance with * He is indeed so styled by one writer of the Greek Church.
t "The Eastern Ohmch," 1884 (p. 43), to which the writer is indebted for most of the compari· sons of these opening paragraphs. its practice to be as shallow as his knowledge of its theory was deep. Centuries ago the Patriarchs of the East had condemned the Lutheran teachings as heresy, Ilnd their successors are no more inclined to think otherwise now of the teachings of the Church of England.
Even in theory the gulf between them is impassable. The Eastern and the Western churches have developed on almost as distinctly different lines as Islam and Judaism, the one grafted on to the stock of a fallen Grecian idolatry and the other grafted on to that of a Homan system. The writer quoted has pointed out how that the Oriental divine, with his speculative theology-as exemplified in the Athanasian Creed-succeeded to the sophist of Greece, while the Latin divine, with his disciplinatory and logical theology, succeeded to the Roman advocate.
At the same time it must be remembered that just as the civilization of ancient Greece was in many ways the parent of that of Rome, so. have the institutions of the Christian Church of Greece been parent to some of the most typical of Romish institutions. The very name of pope is a Greek word, and by it is called every pastor in the Greek Church to-day, not to speak of other Christian pastors in Greek and Turkish lands. I was assured only a short time ago that I was a " papas," a pope, myself, since in these countries people think no one takes real interest in religion who is not well paid to do so. Fourteen of the Fathers of the ancient Church were Greeks,· and so were many of the early popes themselves, Constantinople having been the first great Christian metropoli!!. To this day it is in this Church alone that the New Testament is read in the original, though even there the changes in the spoken tongue have rendered it as unintelligible to the uneducated as Latin is to the Italians; and, of course, in Russia and other countries whcre Greek is _not spoken there is not even the philological link to recommend it. The Sclavonic alphabet, however, is an adaptation from the Greek. and many Latin words have been imported into the languages using it. On the other hand, Rome, and we through it, have borrowed from the Greek Church some of the commonest religious terms, notably those describing monastic institutions-a development of Asiatic fakirism borrowed via Egypt by the Eastern Church-e.g., hermit, monk, monastery, ascetic, abbey, etc.-all of Greek or Syriac origin.
As the followers of Rome spread to the West, those of Greece spread East, till they to-day stretch from Siberia to the Adriatic, and from the White Sea to Abyssinia. The divisions which have arisen within it almost equal those which have arisen within the Western Church, the only difference being that while in the West more energy has been displayed, those who protested protesting chiefly against departure from biblical teaching, in the East the protesting parties have usually striven against departures from the ordinances of man. Thus, for instance, the introduction of a more rational style of Western painting in the place of the archaic Byzantine style, and the use of Western music, or the use of music at all in worship; the cutting of the beard, and the use of potatoes or tobaccQ have seemed to rend the Russian Church to the core. No details of daily life seemed too minnte for the discussion and decision of <Ecumenical coun- cils, documents of which remain, legislating even for the dressing, cooking, and doing the hair. Such were the points on which dissents arose. The Raskolricks, or dissenters, as those who oppose all progress are called, are an important body in Russia. considering themselves to be the only ortho- dox. Even the return to primitive simplicity, of which an example has been set by our brethren the Stundists and the Molokans, are objected to by them as much as any other sort of reform.
Those who may be considered to pertain to the Orthodox Greek Church are the people of Russia. Georgia, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro. Those of Syria, Egypt, and Abyssinia may be considered as Nonconformists. Of the peculiarities of these last the limits of this article do not permit of any treatment, so that the Church of Russia will be dealt with more especially as typical. Bulgaria also possesses its share of this Church, and so do Wallachia and Moldavia, which, though of Latin origin, follow Greek ritual and doctrine. In Hungary, too, we find districts adhering to this Church, while in Bohemia and Poland is a Sclavonic race with a Latin ritual. But it is in Russia par excellence that we feel an interest in the religions system of which the Czar is there the chief, and in the name of which such bitter persecutions are being carried on.
The history of the introduction of Christianity into Rnssia, and of the various dissensions which have arisen there, is too long even to be epito- mized here, but it is noteworthy that there never seems to have been any llpiritual foundation, no converts from conviction, snch as alone can build up a living church. It was the magnificent display, the solemn music, and the incense of the Byzantine Church which are said to have decided the emissaries of an early heathen monarch of Russia to recommend it to their master in preference to that of Rome or Islam, when the three were com- peting to secure his adherence. From that time, when to the heathen Rus- sians were brought so-called holy pictures for their adoration, they have fallen down before them as to gods ~f wood and stone; and still, in this nineteenth century, they worship their icons (pronounced eekones) with a fervor which we cannot understand unless we see it. "No veneration of relics or images in the West can convey any adequate notion of the vener- . ation for pictures in Russia. It is the main support of their religious faith and practice." Iu watching the reverence paid to them, I have wondered what. advantage this travesty of Christianity had been to the worshippers. No Roman ever adored his Jnpiter and no black African his fetich with more earnestness than they do these curious ancient paintings. As a rule, they are half-length representations of Christ, Mary, or saints, of all sizes possible, covered over with silv~r, with the exceptiou of the hands and the face. These parts are in very yellow oils, the features hardly recogp.izable. Some are richly adorned with pearls aud precious stones. Those which are supposed to have worked miracles are adorned with iilver silhouettes of • limbs and persons, hung around them, just as in the Romish Church wax models are used. Often the picture is protected by glass, which is opened to polish up the silvrr before the great feasts. In war time the icons have served as standards, and have been carried to the fight as was the Ark of old. The virtue attributed to those brought back by a victorious army will be understood, and one or two such have a na~ional reputation. Not- withstanding the use of these icons, statues in the churches are strictly prohibited. As for the ceremonies attendant upon their worship, which cannot now be entered into, they exceed the Roman ceremonies in display and pomp as much as those exceed the average Anglican servipe, yet the Coptic still exceeds this, and the Abyssinian is more showy still if possible.
The churches in which they are performed are more or less of the Byzantine style, with a vast open space in the centre, admirably suited for display and for the use of incense. They are usually very much over- decorated according to our ideas, both outside and inside, but too often the finery is tawdry, and does not in any way bear inspection. The use of gilding is excessive even with so much color. The people are fairly regular church attendants on holy days as well as on Sundays, and as they pass the icons they cross themselves. Exhortation or preaching is rare, the service being confined to ceremonies and to the administration of the sacrament on certain occasions. In this exists a noteworthy difference from the Romish ritual, for only leavened bread is used.
In many points of ritual it is worthy of note that they often adhere more closely to primitive practices than do the Church of Rome and its offshoots, as migM be expected from so conservative a body. " The straws to show us which way the spirit of an institution blows," says Dean Stanley, and he instances the retention of immersion as the only form of baptism: "There can be no question that the original form of baptism (the vcry meaning of the word) was complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters, and that for at least four centuries any other form was unknown, or regarded as an exceptional, almost monstrous case. The Greek Church adheres to this and ignores sprinkling, using a threefold plunge. " Confirmation is simultaneous with this rite, and children are permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. The elders are still called in to anoint the sick with oil, and to pray for them. Standing is maintained for prayer.
The fasts enjoined by the Greek Church are long and severe, but excessive drinking is permitted during them. Lent is seven weeks long. There are two or three weeks' fast in June, and again from the beginning of November to Christmas. Besides at these times animal food is abstained from every Wednesday and Friday. Pilgrimages. are also often undertaken. Of the Bible a lamentable ignorance prevails, though it is not a prohibited book.
The theology of the Greck Church is not systemat.ized as in the West, and is not dogmatical. He who complies with its forms may hold pretty • much what private opinions he likes. Laymen, too, have their place in the Church in a degree unknown under the pRpacy. The Nicrean Creed is, of course, strictly upheld, but without the addition of the words" Filio- que" in the Latin, made by the Romish Church after the famous council had drawn up the Confession of Faith, and still the great bone of conten- tion between the two churches. But for this it iii probable that a reunion would have been effected centuries ago, at a time when it seemed to be greatly desired on both sides. A patriarch of the Papal Church assured the writer recently in Rome that his Church regarded those who refused this expressiou to be as great heretics as the Protestants, who accepted it, but who repudiated other dogmas. The point at issue is the expression, " I .elieve in the Holy Ghost, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son," the words in italics being rejected by the Greek Church. Probably no more bitter religious controversy ever raged round any point than round this one expression.
Notwithstanding all their ordinances, the greatest indifferenr J to the private lives of their flocks is observed by the Russian clergy, and it is the same with their private opinions if they do not affect their contributions.
"So long as a member refrains from openly attacking the Church, and from passing over to another confession, he may entirely neglect all religious ordinances, and publicly profess scientific theories logically inconsistent with any kind of religious belief, without the slightest danger of incurring ecclesiastical censure." * This is a most important fact to be borne in mind in studying the position of the evangelicals in Russia. If the Church stood without the State we should hear of none of these persecutions.
From the very commencement, however, as the Church became a power in the land, it became practically inseparable from the State, l)otwithstand- ing the strained relations and even serious ruptures which at times have intervened between them. A perusal of the history of these struggles, once or twice exceeding sore and bitter, causes wonder that the two should ever have become reunited as at present. Ivan IV. strangled the famous Metropolitan of his day, and flogged hundreds of priests to death at Nov- gorod, compelling oocumenical councils to sanction his practices and doc- trines. But though the Czars found themselves stronger than the Church.
they found tha.t they were weak without it, and by the adoption of a wiser policy they have secured to themselves the position of its head,. and have found it the grea.test support for their authority, since it invests them with the same sacred power whic~ is the strength of the Sultans of Turkey and of Morocco. The Czars, as earthly monarchs, have assumed heavenly attributes.
" Muscovy," writes Stepniak, "became a veritable theocracy, but theocracy means stagnation." The clergy, "like the odor of rancid oil, penetrated everywhere, soiling everything they pretended to bless." t Peter the Great only succeeded in his reforms by " dragoon- * Sir D. M. Wallace, in his "Russia," 2d ed., vol. 2, p. 193.
t .. RllBsia nnder the Tzars." ing" the Church, replacing obstructionists by members of the orthodox Ukranian Church. For this he was denounced as Antichrist, and indeed the strength of the opposition which he had to overcome, even in making the slightest change, gives one an idea of the strength of his character. Up to the time that he broke loose from all restriction and acted according to bis own discretion, he, like his predecessors, llad been fettered by rounds of religious observances and by the traditions of centuries. He complained that he was compelled to spend half his time in empty ceremonial under the name of religion. The practical influence of the Czar greatly exceeds the theoretical; it really lies in his power to nominate the synod, and to work it through a procurem, dismissing those who do not act in accordance with his policy. In the Eastern Church, out of his own dominions, he has no authority whatever. A striking feature of the coronation service is that the Czar crowns himself, as acknowledging no higher ecclesiastical dignitary within his realm, and then administers the sacrament to the bishop.
As the Church in the Middle Ages began to grow powerful in Russia, so it began to grow exclusive, and to form a class apart from the mass of the people, having its own interests, as distinct from those of the masses as fr6m those of any foreign country. Education was practically confined to the ranks of the clergy,. and they showed no desire to confer this or any other benefit upon the flock in charge of which they were placed. In the seventeenth century they had thus secured a position of commanding influence, political as well as social, and were the ardent supporters of the temporal powers, without which they could not have stood where they were. That they were extremely lax in their moral duties seems clearly proven, and it is to be feared that they have not much improved as a body since those times. As early as the ninth century an wcumenical council declared that they were many of them "clod-hoppers, unfit to graze cattle, much Jess to feed flocks of human souls." By the beginning of the last century a fourth of the people had thus come under the jurisdiction of this body, but since then its lands have been secularized, and it has thus been shorn of very much of its power. There still exist, however, some five hundred monasteries.
The clerical fanaticism of those early days, and their teaching of the great superiority of the Russians, led to the exclusion of everything foreign, thus raising a barrier which prevented progress from contact with the outside world, and it is mainly to be charged with the present backward condition of the empire. It was taught that dealings even with Romans and Protestants were sinful, and those who visited the country were shut up in their own quarters, with guards at their doors. When, in 1563, the first printing-press was introduced, it was closed by the clergy as a device of the devil, while the introduction of the Arabic numerals was not accomplished till five hundred years after they were common in the rest of Europe. The retention of the old style calendar is attributable to the same cause. The usc of gunpowder was retarded there by a couple of centu- ries. * When we come to more modern times we find that wonderfully little change has taken place. Till recently the absolute separation of the priest- craft from the populace was secured by the office being hereditary, and by marriages with other than priestly families being prohibited. Those who were born priests were praetical~y compelled to remain in the clerical ranks all their lives. The celibacy of the clergy is more forcibly repudiated by the Greek Church than by Protestants, for every priest must be married before ordination, though he is not permitted to marry a second time if left a widower. The parish priests, with whom we have more concern, are known as the white clergy, and may engage in manual labor with honor, but not so the monks, styled black clergy, with whom they maintain a constant rivalry. The white priest considers that he works to earn his livelihood, but that his brother of the monastery is a lazy pauper, content to live upon alms which ought to find their way into the pocket of the parish priests. The Russian priest may be a simple peasant, who follows his calling as he would a handicraft, exercising no more influence upon the community than if he were the village carpenter or barber, and enjoying no more respect than they might command. He may be absolntely devoid of general education, perhaps unable even to read the Scriptures. If he has a due acquaintance with the prescribed routine of ceremonies, and can perform the rites demanded by his parishioners, he is considered fully qualified for his post.
In the list of his duties the propugatioll vf even the teaching of the Gospel finds no place. The whole business is as dead a formalism as is to be found, probably, in any religion under the sun. Certainly there are many creeds in which the name of Christ is unknown, in the practice of which very much more fervor is displayed. It is only in the superstitious, conscience-stricken people that earnestness is to be found, but then, alas!
how misdirected! As to the personal characters of these pastors, no evidence could be qnoted with more effect than that given in a secret government report some years ago by an orthodox Russian, "celebrated for his extensive and intimate acquaintance with Russian provincial life. "
He says: "The people do not respect the clergy, but persecute them with derision. and reproaches, and feel them to be a burden. The people shun the clergy, and have recourse to them not from the impulse of conscience, but from necessity. Because it forms a class apart; because, having received a false kind of education, it does not introduce to the life of the people the teaching of the Spirit, but remains in the mere dead forms of outward ceremonial; because the clergy itself continually presents examples of want of respect to religion, and transforms the service of God into a profitable trade. Is it pos- sible for the people to respect priests who spend their time in the gin-shops, * Stepniak. write fraudulent petitions, fight with the cross in their hands, and abuse each other in bad language at the altar ~ Is it possible for the people to respect the clergy when they see that truth has disappeared from it, and that the consistories, guided in their decisions not by rules, but by personal friendship and bribery, destroy in it the last remains of truthfulness ~"
Such an indictment needs no commentary from an outsider. Even though the experience of some in individual cases might be to the con- trary, here we have the words of no opponent of the Church, or of one unacquainted with his theme. What more can be needed? Stepniak, another Russian, after pointing out the evil effects of the combination of this system with the State, remarks, " What more natural than that at the first awakening of political conscience in the instructed classes, their first words were words of malediction against religion ~ What more just than that now, when the first dream of the light of cultnre is reaching the people, they should abandon in thousands the faith of their fathers f"
What, indeed 1 And what is to be expected of such a departure if the Light of the Gospel be not carried to them, that its life-giving rays may do what the light of culture could never do, what the light of culture never did for the most refined of the nations of earth, with the most boasted institutions ~ What is there in Russia to-day to prevent that wholesale relapse into atheism and infidelity which is so noticeable in Roman Catholic countries, when the utter corruptions, the deception of the struc- ture in which they have hitherto placed their faith, is removed 1 It must come, it is inevitable, unless at this moment, when the bitter cry of dis- appointment is going up, when the trusted cisterns are seen to be dry, and no springs to quench their thirst are found, we, in the power of the foun- tain of Life, point them to the Well of Living Waters, whence they and all may drink and never thirst. In all their religion they have not been taught of Christ, they have never heard the simple story of the Gospel, without the embeIlishments and imaginations of man. "How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed 1 And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher 1"
Some may hope that there is a possibility of an awakening within the pale of this Church, but that is as hopeless as it is within the pale of Rome. Whatever might arise, as, thank God! it has done in the case of the Stundists and others, is at once disowned, and shown to be utterly at variance with the dearest traditions of that Church, and incompatible with any connection with it. One of the greatest authorities on Russian life, Sir Mackenzie Wallace, has expressed his conviction that " anything at all resembling what we understand by a religious revival is in flagrant contra- diction with all her traditions. Immobility and passive resistance to ex- ternal influences have always been, and are still, her fundamental principles of conduct."
It has been stated that "the Eastern Church is not misaionsry or persecuting, "* and though the first part of the assertion will remain undisputed, in the face of what we know to have occurred in Russia, and what is transpiring there still, the second part will be at once denied by many. This, however, will be from an inadequate acquaintance with the facts of the case. It is the opinion of those who know the people best, including that of Sir Mackenzie Wallace, personally expressed to the writer, that the Church in Russia as a body is wholly indifferent to this persecution, which arises from two causes, quite independent of religious zeal. The first is the feeling that loss of followers means loss of income and loss of influence, and the second is the national exclusive feeling which regards everything foreign with a bitter hatred and suspicion, which is shared by all propaganda among members of the national Church. It is these two influences, acting and reacting upon one another, which produce the persecutions at the tale of which the evangelical world weeps to-day.
Take, for instance, the case of the Molokans or the Stundists, between whom there is no great difference. The Molokans answer almost precisely in Russia to those who elsewhere bear the honored name of "Brethren." The Bible is their only guide, and they know it well. Their theology is in. a half-fluid condition, comprising no definite system, so that considerable independence of opinion is possible among the members. Their meetings are held in private houses, .and are directed by three members chosen as overseers-unpaid: Of the Stundists more is known abroad, though their separation is of more recent date-about 1860. These earnest, simple Christians closely resemble the Molokans, and would doubtless have been identical with them had they originated near the same time or place. Their irreproachable life is the admiration even of their foes, and their brotherly love and good deeds are marked by all. As learning to read and write for the study of the Scriptures, they are on a level higher than that of most of their neighbors. An enlightened government would have seen that here was the very pick of its subjectlil, the ideal of a law-abiding community.
But this is a class of people whose Jack of superstition makes them poor contributors to the maintenance of a religious system with which they have no sympathy, even if they consent to employ the priests more often than is absolutely enjoined by law, at all of which times they would have to pay for the services rendered. It is on the fees received for the performance of religious rites that the priests have chiefly to live, and often, regarding it as a mere matter of business, they will bargain over the charge, refusing to baptize an infant, to marry a couple, or bury a corpse, till the price they demand has been paid! They are the first, therefore, to complain against seceders from their church. In many instances complete immunity has been secured by the evangelicals by the simple expedient of contributing to the parish priest the sum he would in due course have received from them had they maintained their allegiance to the Church. But when this has been impossible, or when hiR greed in levying blackmail • Dean Stanley. has exceeded all bounds, though he cared not one snap for their belief or unbelief, he has complained to his bishop, who has handed on the charge to the eivil authorities. Thus has ended the religious side of the question, which has now developed into a State question.
Here comes into play the second cause of persecution. The Church, being inseparable from the State and its interests, those who Recede from the Church are considered rebels and enemies to the State. This is the national feeling which is the real power of the persecution-the quasi- religious feeling being only the ostensible cause. As a result of this, last July the evangelical~ were declared outlaws, and their employment was for- bidden. Those who have attended their meetings have been exiled to Siberia without a trial, and the wives have not even been allowed to follow their husbands as those of criminals could. Preaching or teaching their doctrines is dealt with as high treason-a strictly political, not religious offence-while a family refusing to employ the services of the clergy are declared to be civilly dead. * Here is the secret of the whole affair. If it did not affect the worldly interests of the clergy, they would never trouble about all the heretics in Russia; and though the State would still have its say in the matter; it is not likely that it would act as it does without some one to put its machinery into operation. Jews, Romanists, and Protestants may change their belief as often as they like, but no member of the" Orthodox" creed must leave the Church that supports the State. It is very much the same idea which prevails under the rule of Islam.
This, then, is the key to the religious situation in Russia to-day. It is not the opposition of a lively faith which the messengers of the Gospel have to meet, but the dead weight of a corrupting carcase, the keen defence of vested interests, and the suspicious, backward policy of a medireval government. What are all these in the sight of the King of kings, our Master ~ * E. B. Lanin, Oontemporary Review, January, 1892.
IMPRISONED FOR PROTESTANTISM.
Another case of religious intolerance is reported from Spain. A Catholic priest, the rector of one of the principal parishes in Malaga, published a violent pamphlet against Protestantism. To this a Protestant clergyman, Don Jose Vila, replied in another pamphlet. Thereupon the Catholic priest immediately asked the Public Prosecutor to take proceedings against the Protestant pastor, on the ground that he had criticised and attacked the State religion. This is an offence which the existing penal code punishes severely. The Protestant clergyman was tried in the Criminal Court at Malaga. His counsel in vain cited the Eleventh Article of the Constitution, which says no Spaniard shall be molested for his religious belief. The Court condemned the accused to two years and four months' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 250 pesetas and costs. The Catholic clergy are so powerful in the town, where the Republicans are, however, very numerous, that only one paper dared to report the case with~ut comment. The Protestant clergyman will appeal to the Supreme Court at Madrid, though the same class of offence has been often visited by heavier sentences against Spanish writers.
LENGTHENED CORDS AND STRENGTHENED STAKES
LENGTHENED CORDS AND STRENGTHENED STAKES.
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CENTENARY SERMON PREACHED IN HARVEY LANE CHAPEL, LEICESTER, JUNE 1ST, 1892, BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
When, a hundred years ago, it pleased God to wake from sleep a lethargic Church, from the belfry of the ages there rang out a signal sound, and William Carf)Y's hanJ was on the bell-rope. And these are the words which echoed over the Church of Jesus Christ: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" (Isa. 54 : 2, 3).
Those words have more than once rung out on t.his centenary, and they will more than once ring out again! But God's bell is not cracked yet, and it may be well for us, as the hundred years have brought their hands round on the dial to the even hour of the century, that we should humbly and reverently take hold of the same bell-rope and sound from the same signal hell the same impressive tones: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations!" for this is the most remarkable missionary text in the Old Testament.
I first want to vindicate this decision, which I make after many years of careful study both of missions and of the Word of God. In the first place, the position of this text in this prophecy of IsaIah is peculiar and unique. The last twenty-seven chapters of this prophecy, from the fortieth to the sixty-sixth inclusive, contain the most remarkable Messianic poem to be found ill the pages of the Old Testament; and it is quite noticeable that the very book that modern critics are seeking to pull to pieces shoul~ contain the sublimest of all Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. These twenty-seven chapters are, in the original Hebrew, divided into three books, of nine chapters each, as the chapter divisions run in our version, each book signalizing its conclusion by a certain refrain: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" and the last book concluding with the same sentiment, couched in more impressive phraseology: "Their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched;" "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." In the exact centre of the middle book of the three comes the fifty-third chapter, occupying thus the precise centre of the entire Messianic poem. That chapter contains twelve verses and fourteen distinct declarations of the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice. It is like a great radiant ruby, set in the front of a coronet with many jewels round about it, but obviously the central gem of them all, and its color is hlood-red. It is a remarkable chapter, so mysterious that even the Jewish Rabbis could make nothing of it, unless they understood it to prophesy two contradictory Messiahs-one a Messiah of conflict, and the other a Messiah of conquest; one a suffering and vicarious Messiah, the other a triumphant lind reigning Messiah. For this chapter opens with the servant of God standing alone, His reports unbelieved, and "the arm of the Lord unrevealed" to an unbelieving people; "despi~ed and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ;" persecuted, oppressed, taken from judgment to prison, and from prison to slaughter; dying, a young man without natural generation, which every Jew thought to be a calamity; and yet, as you come to the conclusion of this chapter, you find that this Messiah, who suffered and died for human sin, lived and prolonged His days to all generations; that this childless young man is the parent of a numerous offspring, and sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. And that is the reason why, in the fifty-fourth chapter, we find the sentiment so marvellously changing.
It reminds us of Ruth, the widow, bankrupt daughter of Moab, coming into the land of .Tudah, and becoming the wife of Boaz, the lord of the harvest, the dispenser of bread, and becoming the cheerful mother of children in the ancestral line of the Messiah. So the fifty-fourth chapter breaks out, "Sing, 0 barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." You see this precious, vicarious Saviour, who died without natural offspring, lived, notwithstanding death, and is the parent of an innumerable seed, notwithstanding His physical barrenness; and the Church that is His bride, entering into nuptial relations with Him, becomes the joyful mother of an immortal race. So we may understand the meaning of this text: " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them tltretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." For this is conformable to the customs of the nomadic tribes in Oriental lands. The tent is the simplest and most primitive form of the human habitation. Wherever a pole can be found, with cords or strips of leather, a little bark or cloth or canvas or skin, a tent can be set up-as easily struck as pitched, and almost as easily enlarged; for when the growing necessities of a family demand larger shelter and room, all you have to do is to get a little longer pole, a little thicker cords, a little more bark or skin or canvas, and you can stretch forth the curtains of your habitation to accommodate the needs of the growing family. And so this is made the type of the enlargement of the canopy of the Church over her growing family of children. "Thou shalt burst forth"-as the grand old Hebrew reads-" Thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left." A symmetrical growth in this direction and that direction alike; not a one-sided tent, not like a family that haR a one-sided development-the Church is going to gather her children from east and west and north and south, and every clime and every tongue and every people; and because her family is to come from all quarters of the earth, her canopy must stretch to every quarter of the earth to cover her increasing family. If a man ever came near being inspired-I never use the word" inspired" except in one peculiar sense-but if a man ever came near being inspired, it was William Carey when he was divinely guided to this very text, from which to preach that very sermon that was the foundation of modern missions; and we could not in the Word of God find another text more appropriate to June 1st, 1892, not less so than it was to May 30th, 1792. I am not ashamed to repeat a good thing: Sydney Smith said that for the purpose of public persuasion in oratory, repetition is the only figure of speech that is worth a farthing. Thank God, we can always use, and all of us use, that figure of speech! so I take this text, for it is the only text to take : " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." ..
Let me first call your attention very briefly and simply to the text itself. I would like to have you notice the grammatical and rhetorical structure of it, for all these things help exegesis and exposition. It is formed on the principle of the Hebrew parallelism. You remember how the Hebrew poets, instead of seeking rhyme and rhythm in words, sought rhyme and rhythm in thought, and that is one of the marks of the inspiration of the Word of God. If the poetry of the Hebrew depended upon words, their peculiar collocation and allocation, and rhyme and rhythm, we could not convey into another language, without much circumlocution, the beauty of the Hebrew original. But when the rhyme and rhythm are in the thoughts and not in the language they can be transferred into any other tongue. Now, looking at this as an example, you will find that although this little idyll or epic on missions runs from the first to the eighth verses inclllsive, the portion we are now to consider con- tains several couplets or portions consisting of two numbers each, and yet in parallels as well. I think you can notice this in the reading. There is first a double exhortation : "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." Then there comes a single phrase that has its correlative phrase further on-" Spare not." The correlative to that is, " Fear not," in the beginning of the fourth verse.
We shall see the relation of these as we go on. Then there comes a double injunction, showing the means by which the Church is to enlarge her tents, stretch forth her curtains: "Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. " Then there comes another couplet., the couplet of Divine prom- ise : " For thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. "
Now I think no man is competent thoroughly to expound Scripture that does not study its exact structure. There is a reason why this struc- ture is evolved in the very form of the text itself. God is showing us here what the duty of the Church is-to enlarge her canopy and stretch forth her curtains. He is showing the Church how to do this duty-there are to be lengthened cords and strengthened stakes; and He is showing the Church what her great peril is, that, in the first place, she shall spare-the Hebrew word meallS "grudge" -that is to say, that she shall be selfish and so grudging; and the other difficulty and danger is that she shall fear, and this strikes at unbelief as the other strikes at selfishness. And then He gives her the glorious promise to encourage her: "Thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles"- this was spoken to Jewish hearers, who had no idea of the salvation of the Gentiles; "and they shall make the desolate cities to be inhabited"- habitation in place of desolation 1 I have been somewhat tedious in bringing out the meaning, but the fact is, I havc great confidence in God's thoughts and I have no confidence in my own.
And now, to plunge directly into the heart of the theme, the whole text is vocal with enlargement, expansion: "Enlarge," " Let them stretch forth," " Lengthen," " Strengthen." You can easily see where William Carey got his famous motto: "Attempt great things for ·God 1" "Enlarge," " stretch out," " lengthen," " strengthen" : " Expect great things from God!" " Thou shall burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Carey may have been a genius, but it did not take a genins to get that motto out of the text, for it lies on the surface of it, though it did take some genius to frame it in such excellent and easily understood English, and in a proverbial form that could easily be carried in the memory and could not easily be dismissed from the memory.
What is the duty of the Church in these days 1 "Lengthen" and " strengthen." See how well the Holy Ghost chooses these words. The word" lengthen" suggests extensity; the word" strengthen" suggests intensity, and there is always danger in extensive lengthening that is not accompanied by intensive strengthening. You are lengthening your cords, but if you do not strengthen your stakes what will happen? Your lengthening your cords will be a disaster to you and the tent itself. How simple is the figure which the Holy Ghost gives us !
How shall we lengthen cords' By sending out our organizations in every direction-a cord here to Europe, another cord to Asia, another to Africa, and another to the islands of the sea. Toward the North Pole and the South Pole; in every direction, from the great centres of Christendom, let your missionary organizations reach! With the enterprise that has dash and push in it let these cords be stretched to the ends of the earth, until the network of missions Qverspreads the whole family of man! And let us understand that, if we are to have this lengthened cord you wust add your own length to it. As, when we rescue a man from a burning building, and the ladder will not reach those that are in peril, the fireman stands on the top rung of the ladder and adds his own length, over which men and women climb down into safety; so, if you are going to have this organization reach over the world in a spirit of hallowed enterprise till the canopy is co-extensive with the family of man, your length has got to be added to the cord. Yall have read of the self-sacrifice of the Carthaginian maidens when they cut off their raven ringlets that they might be braided into bow-strings for Hannibal's archers; or of the Tyrian maidens when they sacrificed their golden hair for cordage for the Tyrian Navy. I tell you solemnly, that the cords of enterprise by wl).ich this Gospel is to be carried to the ends of the earth are woven out of the very fibres of human hearts ! You cannot make them out of gold and silver, or braid them out of commercial interest8, or twist them out of public enthusiasm. They are woven on the loom of personal consecration in the secret place with God. We must not only have lengthened cords, but strength- ened stakes. If there is one weak stake on the circnmference of a tent, and it pnIIs ont or is broken, there is pnt a greater stress on the other tent pegs ronnd it, and one by one they are loosened or pulled out, nntil the whole tent coIIapses. What does that mean ~ It means that any Church within the circumference of Christian effort t,hat does not plant itself firmly to hold up the cord of organization is responsible for the collapse of Chris- tian missions. And it means that any man or woman or child in the Church of God, among God's professed believing children, that does not become a stake down deep into the gronnd and holding on, is responsible for any disaster that comes to the whole work of Christ by lack of personal co- operation. Until we get that truth down into onr hearts, until we get it inscribed as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, I have personally no hope for any great enlargement in the work of missions.
Now the question comes, How are you to strengthen the stakes ~ The first way of strengthening the stakes is by faith in Almighty God. This is His work; it is only my work because it is His work. I never would have touched it if in every fibre of my being I had not been convinced that it was God's work j and becanse I am a co-worker with God I am bound to work where and when I know He work;;;. You must have faith in this, that it is God's work. If you hang your faith on the superficial judgment of critics whose ignorance is yery extensive, but whose knowledge is very limited, you very likely will be discouraged. If you hang your faith on what your neighbors do for missions, you will very likely do little more than they, while perhaps they are doing very much less than they ought. If you hang your faith even on missionary boards, the best of them, they are all composed of fallible men. But if you believe this work is God's work, and that God is behind it and before it and round about it, and that the Irian who goes forth to " preach the Gospel to every creature" is buttressed in his work by that glorious declaration that comes before the command, "Lo, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," and by that other promise that comes after it, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age"-a man that goes forth in that spirit, or, being compelled to stay at home, nourishes the missionary cause in that spirit, is working with God. I do not care where he is-he may be down on his back, a bedridden cripple-but he is working with God. If he cannot do anything more, he can believe in the work, and believe in the God that carries on the work. And so he can add that second element in the strengthening of the stakes, the power of believing prayer. Oh, my brethren, if this were to be the last sermon I was ever going to preach, I would ask God to give me this privilege, that I might stir up this mis- sionary congregation to-day to determine that, whatever else is done, there shall be for the next hundred years, as far as we can control it, an entirely new baptism of prayer. There has not been a crisis in the missionary work that has not been turned in answer to prayer. You remember how, in 1858, God opened the doors to half the human race in answer to prayer; how again, in 18'78, when the prayers of some of God's saints were turned to increased sanctified giving, there were less than twenty people who in their united gifts gave nearly one million pounds sterling for foreign missions. When God's chosen few began to pray for more laborers, there came a knock froom more than seven thousand young men and women in America Rnd England at the doors of the churches and of our boards, saying: "By the grace of God we will go forth to the foreign field." And when I was speaking on missions in Scotland two years ago, the secretaries begged me not to appeal for laborers, for they said: "We have a great many more people applying than we can posRibly send with the means at our disposal." Every great crisis in the missionary field has been turned in answer to prayer, and yet the Church has not begun to know what the power of prayer is in waiting on Almighty God for a blessing.
Look at the second Psalm. It is not a prophecy of missionary triumph, although it is often quoted as such. "Ask of Me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." That sounds like a promise of world-conquest. Yes, but read the next verse: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." It is a promise and a prophecy that when the kings of the earth conspire against the missionary band, and against the Messiah that leads them, He, the King on His throne, will, in the emergencies and exigencies of such conflict, reach out His rod, not the golden end of grace, but the iron end of power, " and dash them in pieces like a potter's vesseL" And, as in the missionary world revivals have come in answer to prayer, so on the other hand the interpositions of God have come in the destruction of His enemies and the defeat of their armies and the overturning of their hostile conncils; and not until the Church believes that God is the answerer of prayer, and that God will interpose by His providence and by His grace, will the Church ever be a triumphant and conquering missionary Church. A beloved Japanese convert and trainer of native teachers, Mr. Neesima, said, with his dying breath, " Advance on your knees." That is the only way to advance in missions. And then I believe the third element by which the stakes are strengthened is a firm confidence in this Gospel as the Gospel of Christ, and in this Word is the Word of God; that i(is emphatically the Word of God, the only inspired and infallible Word of God; that, therefore, when I go forth and carry this Word of God, I have all the energies of the Godhead represented in the message that I am called to deliver. And then I believe there is another way of strengthening the stakes. We must have sanctified giving. We have never had such giving yet in the Church of God, except on the part of a few individuals. I do not hesitate to say this, and I hope that my words may echo round the Church, if not round the world-there has never been, in this last century of mis-" sions, consecrated gi~ing. Think of forty millions of ProteRtant churchmembers scattered throughout the world, with £8,000,000,000 sterling in the coffers of American and, British Christians alone, giving annually £2,500,000 sterling to carry the Gospel to one thousand millions of people! It is an utter absurdity. Why, my friends, more money is spent in drink in Great Britain in one day than has been spent in Chinese missions in five years. If we cannot have the whole Church we must have a band of Christian givers in the Church, that dare to deny themselves for the sake of Jesus Christ, and press their giving to the point of self-denial, which is the only point at which real self-gratification comes in the disposal of our goods. Look at Zacchreus on the day of his conversion! In the' first place, he restored fourfold to all he had wronged, and, in the second place, he gave half of his goods to fee-d the poor; and remember that the other half he had already reserved for restitution. If we could only have such a spirit as the spirit of Zacchreus in the churches, so that the day a man is converted he should restore to every man that he had wrongfully accused or robbed or in any way oppressed, and then beside give one half of what he originally had to feed the poor and carryon the kingdom of God, with what mighty strides would the kingdom advance!
We must also strengthen the stakes by holy living. There is nothing after all like holy living. When the Pharisees and Scribes saw the man healed they could say nothing againflt it. They might scourge the Apostles and cast them into prison and forbid them to speak in the name of Christ, but the sight of that man healed was an argument that could not be overborne by logic or opposition. And whenever you see a man or woman that is absolutely living to God, and has the radiance of God shining in the face and character, you have a walking argument for Christianity that is worth all the apologetics in the world. Stanley says that he owes to the months he spent with Livingstone the transformation of his character; and yet Livingstone never said a word to him directly about his soul's salvation: he lived out his remonstrance against iniquity, and he lived out his appeal for God. That is what we have need of-consecration through and through; consecration that touches our children, our property, our occupation, our influence, our time, our talents, our treasure. That is the way to strengthen the stakes. How would our missionary secretaries like to see the stakes strengthened in that fashion while they are trying to lengthen the cords ~ We of to-day may turn this text round. We have a different point of view from Carey's. He looked forward to a missionary conquest that had not beguu j we look back to a missionary conquest that has been partially accomplished. He could only expect great things from God in the line of missions j we can look back to great things and let what we have !leen behind us be the prophecy of what we shall see b.efore us. Have you studied the history o.f missions ~ It is an encyclopredia in itself. You would better begin soon, or you will scarcely go through the first chapter before you die. I have been studying it for thirty years, and I have not got beyond the middle of the second chapter. Why! these triumphs of missions are perfectly marvellous when we consider how few people have been engaged, and how little money has been spent. God has done exceeding abundantly above all that the Church has asked or even thought. A hundred years ago there were fifty versions of the Holy ~cripture j now there are between two and three hundred, and in all the gre~t langnages of the world. A hundred years ago a little band of Christian laborers essayed to reach a few of the heathen in the South Seas; now between six and seven thousand men and women, representing the Christian 9hurch j and, what is far more remarkable. 35,000 to 40,000 native converts raised up by missions, consecrating their time and their talents to the reclamation and evangelization of their own countrymen. So that the very missions that some people called a failure actually have multiplied the laborers on heathen soil, so that they represent six times as many as the whole Church of Christ sends out to evangelize the world!
Have you noticed what missionaries have wrought in different localities ~ Look at just a few specimens of what the hundred years have accomplished. Take the ninety-five years of mission history from 1797 to 1892 in the South Seas. Fourteen years without a convert! Then two natives in Tahiti that had been impressed in a missionary's family, during the absence of all the missionaries from the island, were found praying for the evangelization of their own countrymen. Those two converts of 1811 were leaders of a host now numbering 850,000 converts, and Western Polynesia is evangelized. Take the seventy-five years of the American Baptist Union. When Judson went to Burmah he was the sole representative of the Baptist Union, and Burmah was the sole field of labor j and he worked for ten years and had but one church of 18 converts to show for all his work. They wrote to him from America: "Well, Judson, how about prospects~" "Prospects! all right," said he, " bright as the promises of God." And now, looking back over those seventy-five years, what do you find ~ Taking into account those first ten years of comparative failure, there has been established a new Baptist church for every three weeks of the entire time, day and night. And there has been a new convert baptized for every three hours of the entire time, day and night. Who of us would not like to see a little of a similar" failure" here in Great Britain ~ Supposing we look at what fifty years have accomplished in various fields. Take the field in Turkey, for instance. The result of those fifty years has been twentyone versions of the Bible in the languages of living peoples. And among other great achievements Charles Wheeler dotted the Euphrates with actually self-supporting cHurches j and how many people do you think it took to constitute a self-supporting church ~ Ten. Can you show any- thiug like. that in Great Britain ~ These ten disciples said, "·We will each give one tenth of our income, and we will call a pastor to serve us who is willing to live on a level with us, and he will have his ten-tenths with one tenth to give away like the rest of us." So they began self-supporting churches with only ten members. Dr. Barnum, of Harpoot, told me that in fourteen years they had established fourteen preaching stations and raised up a native ministry, and the entire cost of the fourteen years scarcely equalled the cost of the church edifice that I then preached in. That was worth about £40,000, so that you know what that mission cost. Then, supposing you look ·at fifty years among the Karena. In 1828 the first Karen convert was baptized. When, in 1878, the jnbilee was kept by the erection of the Kho-Thah-Byu Memorial Hall with its central audienceroom, and its various rooms opening out for teaching and dispensary purposes, 60,000 Karens, either sleeping in Jesus or living to testify of Jesus, were the fruit of those fifty years. Sir Charles Bernard says there are today 200,000 Karens in the Christian community, and 500 self-supporting churches. Take the fifty years in China between 1842 and 1892. A little band of a few converts in 1842 when missionary labors properly began, and in 1892 nearly fifty thousand converts in China, and the ratio of increase during the twenty-five years beginning with 1863 was eighteenfold -mark it! 1800 per cent. Take the fifty years in Fiji from 1835 to 1885. When one of our missionaries, James Calvert, went to the Fiji Islands his first duty was to bury the skulls, hands, and feet of eighty different people ·who had been sacrificed at a cannibal feast. He lived to see the very people who had taken part in that atrocity gather about the Lord's table celebrating His death. In 1885 there were 1300 churcbes in the Fiji group alone, and out of a population of 110,000, 104,000 were habitual attendants at places of worship. Suppose we narrow down the period of time. Look at the twenty-four years of Dr. Geddie in Aneityum from 1848 to 1872. It is recorded on a tablet in the Memorial Chapel there: "When he landed here in 1848 there were no Christians; when he left in 1872 there were no heatheml." Take the twenty-two years of John Williams from 1817 to 1839, when he fell as a martyr, at Erromanga. Hear him when he wrote, in 1834, five years before his death, that the Gospel had been carried over a radius of two thousand miles in every direction from the Island of Tahiti, and not only had every considerable group of islands been evangelized, but every considerable island in the groups and the people had turned from idols and brought them to the missionaries, while the balustrades of pulpits were composed of the spears· that had been used in their former warfare, and Oro, the great war-god, was used as a wooden prop to sustain the roofs of the outhouses. 1 have been shortening the periods that you might see what great things God has done. Take from 1878 to 1892, and I reverently say there was nothing in the original Pentecostal days to exceed what fourteen years have seen among the Telugus. In one day in 1878 there were 2222 baptized. In six weeks there were 5000 baptized, and in ten months 10,000, and in the last current year 10,000 more. The largest church on earth to-day is not the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London; it is the humble church in Ongole, among the Telugus, for that has between 30,000 and 40,000 members, and yet missions are a failure! Go and read the story of tho~e seven years with William Johnson in Sierra Leone, and of the thirty-seven tribes of slaves in that colony rescued from slavery. See him laboring there to preach the Gospel among those people that had no language to converse with each other, unless it was a little bastard English; living in promiscuous concubinage ; warring on each other; committing every crime; having no respectable trade. Johnson died in seven years, but left a model State, with no remains of heathen orgies, with every trade and respectable calling represented; just as William Duncan, among the North American Indians, established his model State, and one of your most accomplished statesmen, a Governor.General of Canada, the ma8ter of eight different languages, went over there, and said he could not, find any terms in any language he knew to describe the greatness and glory of the Gospel triumphs in Metlakahtla. .But we may come down to shorter periods even than these. You can find within one single year in the history of missions triumphs that equal, if they do not transcend, the triumphs of the Day of Pentecost and the days immediately succeeding. Oh, for a believing Church! Oh, for a Church that knows the facts, and is inspired by the knowledge of them!
Now, as I draw this discour~e to a close, I desire only to add that there are two little sentences ill this impressive text that ought to furnish the motto of the new century. Carey did not emphasize them, but I want to emphasize them: "GRUDGE NOT," " FEAR NOT." The two obstacles to the missionary progress and triumph of the Church to-day-I appeal to you that know most about it-are they not these 1-a spirit of unbelief on the one hand, that fears to do great things for God; and a spirit of selfishness on the other hand, that makes it impossible to do great things for God. If God would cast out from us this day the demon of unbelief and the demon of selfishness, and all the other little demons that are their offspring, and like to inhabit the same house with them, what great and mighty things might be done for God! I proclaim my confidence that this Gospel is a supernatural Gospel, and, therefore, it must have a supernatural Spirit, for conversion is a supernatural work. Conversion is not reformation. The Word of God is not inspired as Milton was inspired, or as any other man was inspired, or his writings. The Holy Ghost is not a mere influence, but a person, and when you will give men this supernatural Gospel enforced by the supernatural Spirit, you will have the supernatural work of conversion. And we must have ~bsolute confidence in God, and so cast out unbelief. This world must be reached by the Gospel. Is not God mightier than man 1 Is not the Word of God mightier than the superstition of man ~ If God could make the woman bowed with infirmity stand straight, and restore the maimed limb, cannot He restore even a withered soul; cannot He give back lost faculties, where there is a moral and spiritual atrophy; cannot He give the roundness and symmetry of health, and even life from the dead 1 Faith must dare to do great things for God, and look for supernatural interposition. Weare to bring the five l@aves and two fishes first of all to a supernatural Saviour, and ask Him by a supernatural blessing supernaturally to increase them. Then we shall take up our twelve basketfuls of fragments after all have been satisfied. Oh, would to God we could understand this! If God is with a man He can put a thousand to flight, and two men can put ten thousand to flight; but if God withdraws Himself from the Church, that shall be reversed, and one infernal foe shall put a thousand disciples to flight, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. I thank God for one sweet experience that has made the last few years radiant in my own life. I never knew what it was to cast myself absolutely on God until perhaps the last three years, and I never knew what a God I had until I did it. Let the Church come right up to'this point, that without taking counsel with men, of difficulties and obstacles and embarrassments, she just casts herself with Divine abandonment on her God and says, " This is God's work, and God's power and grace are behind it, and God's commission and commands are in it, and therefore we will undertake this work to give the Gospel to the human race, looking to God for men, and for means," and the Church will do the work, and she will do it possibly before this century closes.
And then as to selfishness. That is the root of all sin. Did you ever think of this, that there is a danger in simple indulgence; that there is a risk in saying to myself, " I want this gratification, and therefore I will have it" f Very bad spiritual logic, by the way! Did you ever read that singular story upon which Balzac has founded one of his tales, that story of the magic skin that invested its wearer with a certain power to obtain whatever he wished, but which with every new gratification shrank in dimensions until by and by it crushed him to death 1 That magic skin is selfishness. You get your wealth, but you shrivel; you gratify your desires, but there is an atrophy takes place in your moral and spiritual faculties. Your eye gets blind to the vision of anything beyond your material interests, and your hand gets paralyzed as to reaching out blessings to other souls, and your heart gets too narrow to understand or sympathize or love. What selfishness is in the Chureh of God! Just think of our houses and lands and equipages, our libraries and works of art, our personal decorations, our ornaments and jewelry, the furniture and the garniture of qUI" homes, and then think that one thousand millions of the human race are yet without even the knowledge of God, and there are eight hundred and fifty millions that never heard that Jesus Christ died for men! "He
'tHE AN'l'I-MISSIONARY CRUSAnE !N TURKl!;Y
that saveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it."
Once more then with reverent hand I peal out from God's belfry: " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; fear not, spare not, lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt burst forth on the right and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. " We know God's season, that it is now high time, the very hour when we should awake out of sleep, for the end of the world is drawing nigh, ., And now is our salvation nearer to us than wheu we first believed. ~, Let us, as one man, covenant with Almighty God that from henceforth all we are, and all we have, and all we represent, shall be consecrated to the glory of this Gospel and the salvation of the lost!
THE ANTI-MISSIONARY CRUSADE IN TURKEY.
BY THE REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, BOLTON, ENG.
Expectations that the privileges which the Porte had granted to religious teaching and schools would be consistently maintained are not at present being realized. Throughout the Ottoman Empire there are distinct signs of the decay of religious toleration, as shown in the opposition of the Turkish Government to missionary work of every kind, and by the Sultan's endeavor to throw off the obligations which in past years he has accepted at the hands of the Christian powers of Europe ayd the United States. By different international conventions, such as the French Capitulations of 1740, the British Capitulations of 1809, the Treaty of Berlin, private agreements with America, and notably the Hatti-humayoun of 1856, at the close of the Crimean "Var, the Porte gave to missionaries the right of carrying on their labors in that country. To Roman Catholic clergy, American and English missionaries, every facility was granted in harmony with these treaties, and no ground of complaint had been raised. "Vithin the last three years the atmosphere has changed. Strong pressure in the shape of intolerant regulations, which are supposed to have been prompted from abroad, has provoked consternation in religious circles. Unfortunate as this is for the representatives of mission work, it must eventually, if persisted upon, be more disastrous to Turkey itself. The magnificent services which have been rendered by the Bible and missionary societies, conspicuously the American section, in the Turkish dominions cannot be ignored, and even the Turks are recognizing the power of an enlightened press. No doubt can be entertained of the vexatious and unfair nature of the measures taken agai,nst Christian institutions, otherwise .the officials of the American and English Bible and missionary societies in Constantinople would not have made the protest which is arousing widespread sympathy westward. Much less would most of the time of the United States minister have been occupied for the past two years in attempting to obtain permission to reopen schools :md churches which have been arbitrarily closed. It is said in some quarters that the Turkish officers attribute no little of the discontent and agitation among the Armenians to the teaching they have received in the American mission schools, which they are determined to put down at all hazards. In other directions it is surmised that, as the educated lIindoos are fearful for the futnre of their native religion because of the pervading spirit of Christianity, so th~ Turks are uneasy concerning the assaults of the same faith upon the prestige of Islam.
Turkey's antagonism strikes directly at the literature and church buildings of foreign missions. Of late the most annoying restrictions have been placed on the free circulation of books in the provinces, particularly the Armenian provinces, by the provincial authorities, even after these worb have received the official e,.ensor's stamp at Constantinople warranting their distribution. lIence, the stamp is 110 guarantee against the inquisition of any petty officer in rural districts. As much trouble is caused to travellers, who are perpetually annoyed by the detention or confiscation of their books. They often find a pocket Bible taken from their luggage for the examination of which two days is required, and it is next to impossible to get a book on geography or history through the custom house except it undergoes mutilation. A few facts on this point will illustrate the modus operandi of Turkish injustice and oppression. In December, 1889, at Derezor, seventy-nine copies of the Bible, or parts of it, and one hundred and seventy-nine volumes of other authorized works were confiscated and publicly burnt as "injurious," while Bibles, hymnals, and similar works are constantly described as pernicious and "seditious." Although the calling of colporteurs hali been officially permitted for upward of sixty years, over thirty cases have occurred in the last two years-most of these in 1891-of colporteurs being arrested, their books seized, detained, mutilated, or defaced, and no satisfaction ever offered. An agent of the Bible Society who was arrested in November, 1891, and his" authorized" stock seized is still on bail, and until February of the present year his Bibles remained under examination. It is no exaggeration to say that between 1889 and 1891 thousands of such books have been taken and destroyed. The official authorization of the literature in question by the imprimatur of the Minister of Public Instruction, which makes it a lawful article of commerce, is ignored by the local authorities, who seem to think that in proportion to their zeal in suppressing book circulation they will have the approval of their superiors in Constantinople. The position of the colporteurs is aggravated by a bill now under consideration, which unmistakably gives legal sanction to the restrictions from which the missionary societies are suffering, and prevents them, in common with the Bible depoi;s, frolll selling" authorized" books in any part of Turkey. AnoiLet' serious complaint against the Porte relates to the law of 1891 on the sllbjt·ct of church buildings, confirmed by a general order issued in February this year. It forbids missionaries to use their houses as churches or schools, save a special imperial firman is obtaincd. By such an enactment prayer-meetings and teaching in private houses are prohibited, which means practically the stopping of missionary evangelization altogether in districts where the people are too poor to pay for the erection of a licensed building. The difficulties in securing this permit are so great that friends of education and religion will be deterred from endeavoring to obtain it, and consequently the government's reprehensible procedure will close missionary establishments wholesale. Upon all of an alien faith, and the Armenians in particular, who are divided into many branches, this measure will tell with harsh severity. When means have been procured and plans for building adopted, the obstacles in getting a firman are then almost legion. The application must be approved by thirteen parties or persons il 'Viting, beginning with the neighbors of all- sects, the nearest Mohammedan notables, numerous functionaries, municipalities, courts, and councils, before it can be dispatched to the Council of Ministers who lay it at the feet of His Imperial Majesty. To show how hardly ihis will deal with communities in rural places, it has been pointed out that a rival sect has hindered for ten year!! the wealthy and influential Armenians of Constantinople receiving permission to erect a church. Similarly as regards missionaries, whether they are Catholics or Protestants, anyone acquainted with the Capitulations knows that the interdict is a violation of religious rights, and disabuses the hope that freedom in exercise of religious worship, which was exhibited by the Sultan's predecessors, will be honored by the Sultan and his government to-day. If it be correct that the Sultan, who reconfirmed the right of missionaries according to the Treaty of Berlin, has not been fully apprised of the shameful manner in which provincial authorities are treating some of the most loyal subjects of his empire, it will not be long ere the facts are presented for his consideration.
Rumors are current respecting the influence which France has been exerting at the Porte. So far the negotiations of the French Embassy have been strictly private, and are credited with matters bearing on Catholic missions only. More surprising is it that the American Minister, who-to his honor-has championed the claims of American missions, has been informed that the British Embassy entirely shares the Turkish view, and concedes vital points to the Turks. If this be so, British diplomacy, as it is remarked, has blundered, and, very early, British citizens engaged " in the most humanizing of all labors" will feel the f~ll force of a retrograde step which must soon engage Sir Clare Ford's attention. As the Vienna correspondent of the London Times states, "there is ample room for a little plain speaking on the part of the English Foreign Office," which, as a rule, is disinclined to espouse the cause of foreign missions. Onc thing is clear, the new persecuting measures affecting the subjects of
'l'HE CHURCH OJ!' RUSSIA
many nationalities will make it imperative upon the English, German, and American Governments to remind the Turks of their pledges, and to impress upon the Sultan the justice of defending the interests of missions, irrespective of the community or race with which they may be identified.
THE CHURCH OF RUSSIA.
BY W. ARMITAGE BEARDSLEE, YONKERS, N. Y.
ORIGIN AND EXTENSION.
There is an ancient Russian tradition, preserved by Nestor, which says that when St. Andrew, one of the twelve apostles, was making his mis- sionary tour across the Black Sea and up the Dnieper River into what was afterward to be known as Russia, he planted a cross on the hills when' the city of Kief now stands, and gave utterance to this prophecy, " Behold these heights, for they shall be illuminated by the grace of God! Here a great city shall be built, and God shall have in it many temples to His name !"
Nine hundred years were to pass in the dreary round of savage life on the Russian steppes before that traditionary prophecy shonld fin!i fulfil· ment, and the Russian Church begins its history with the baptism of the Grand Duke Vladimir, A.D. 988.
From that time until the present the Church of Russia has met with almost uninterrupted success, growing as the Sclavonic Empire has grown j first, reaching out beyond the principality of Kief and embracing the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, with its capital at Moscow j then, at the time of Peter the Great, it extended to the Baltic Sea and planted its cloisters and cathedrals in the swamps of St. Petersburg, and iu the present century it has found its way to the far-off cities of Siberia and even to the Aleutian Isles and Alaska.
GOVERNMENT AND MEMBERS.
It is the State Church of Russia, receiving its revenues from the imperial budget j yet in matters of doctrine and religious life it is entirely independent of the State. The final authority, after the Scriptures and the cecumenical councils, is not vested in the Emperor, nor in a pope, but in the Holy Governing Synod, composed of the leading ecclesiastics of the land, receiving their appointment from the Tzar. From those recommended by this synod the Tzar appoints· the bishops of the sixty-seven dioceses into which the empire is at present divided. Each bishop has a consistory, with which he must advise in the management of diocesan affairs. Aside from these officers of the Church, who are always selected from the black clergy-that is, those who live a monastic life-there is the great body of white or secular clergy, in actual charge of the parish churches. Of these there are over thirty-seven thousand, assisted by an almost countless number of minor officials, as deacons, readers, and vergers j while, according to the most recent reliable statistics, the number of communicants is not much less than seventy millions.
Here is an immense organism, extending over an eig~th part of the land of the globe, venerable for its antiquity, closely united to the Church of the Fathers by its lineage, its liturgy, its literature; with ancient cloisters and magni'ficent cathedrals; counting among its adherents many millions of men, some of them the purest and the holiest that ever have graced the Christian Church; yet the condition and the destiny of the Russian Church have received but little attention from Western Christendom.
It has been the custom roughly to divide all Christians into the two great bodies of Protestants and Romanists, and if the existence of the Eastern Christians was recognized at ali, they have been vaguely designated as " a more ignorant and debased species of Roman Catholics." Such a classification is quite false, and, at any rate, it is hardly fair so lightly to condemn the faith of seventy millions of professing Christians.
ITS PRESENT CONDITION.
There are two considerations that are fundamental to an understanding of the present condition of this Church. In the first place, we must not expect to find in Russia a Western church. The old Russian blood is Asiatic, and the spirit of Russian life to-day is more Oriental than Occidental. One of her princes has said that Russia might be compared to a grand building, the exterior of which -the fagade as it appears to the world-is indeed European, but the interior constructed and adorned in an Asiatic style. Again, Russia though territorially in Europe, has been isolated by its language. It was both to the gain and to the loss of the Russian Church that at the very beginning of its history the Greek missionaries, SS. Methodius and Cyril, translated the Scriptures and the liturgy into the Sclavonic tongue. It was well enough for the time that the vernacular shduld be used in public worship; but by that act the Russian Church was separated from th" rest of the religious world, and left to struggle forward as best it might. In the kingdoms of the western part of Europe, though for a time Christianity and civilization may have suffered from the universal use of Latin as the ecclesiastical language, yet in the end it proved a boon of incalculable value, for by it the West was bound together, and became an heir to all the thought and learning of antiquity.
As a result of these two conditions, the Church of Russia to-day is Romething very different not .only from the various Protestant bodies of Europe and America, but also from the Church of Rome, with which in the minds of many it has been confounded. It may seem strange to say so, but there is a more fundamental difference between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church than there is between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. for. great as is the difference between these last, they are both Western, both progressive, both adapt themselves to the changes and advancement of civilizatiQn. Action has becn their watchword, strife has been their history, the world has been their field. BOlh have been characterized by great intellectual and artistic achievement, by unflagging missionary zeal, and by vigorous spiritual life, manifesting itself in all manner of benevolent enterprises.
ORIENTALISM OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
The East, on the other hand, has had no history. Action and reaction, energy and progressiveness, are there uuknown. Centuries may come and centuries may go, but the Orient is still the same. Round and round in the same paths, the children walk where their fathers have trodden before th()m. Everywhere there is the same hatred of foreign influence, the same dislike of innovation, the same clinging to the venerated past. That which always has been is that which always should be. The earliest Christian basilica is the pattern for almost every church in Russia. The artist of to-day must paint the Virgin or the Saviour as the Byzantines did a thousand years ago, when the Russian Church was planted. That Church takes pride in calling itself the orthodox, the changeless, the immutable, the only one that has been faithful to the traditions once delivered to the saints. The Pope himself is regarded in the East as only the first of Protestants. The controversies, reformations, and revolutions that have disturbed or purified the Western churches have scarcely excited a ripple on the slumbering waters of Eastern thought and life.
EFFECT OF THIS ORIENTAL ISM.
This native Orientalism has fostered a tenacious adherence to every ancient rite and ceremony. It has magnified the importance of liturgical details until they have usurped the chiefest place. It has continued and cultivated the old Sclavonic heathen superstitions. So far has this blind reverence for the letter been carried, that when Nicon attempted, after the invention of printing, to substitute printed liturgies for the old manuscripts, which were full of the errors of ignorant copyists, many of the RU8sian clergy absolutely refused to receive the corrected editions, insisting that the old were better. Thus, contrary to the experience of the Western Church, the sects of Russia are the exponents not of" progressive ideas, but are the most ultra of all conservatives. The Protestants of Russia protest not against the corruptions of the established Church, but against the removal of those corruptions!
FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
This Orientalism, which has been so potent in moulding the destiny of the Russian Church in the past, which has left its water-mark on every Fage of Russian Church history, will it forever continue its sway, or is
CAREY'S COVENANT
there hope that some day the spell may be broken ~ It is impossible to foretell. The future of Russia and of ~he Russian Church is one of those fascinating yet elusive enigmas that invite thoughtful inquiry only to mock and evade the inquirer. There are hints and indications that may mean much, or they may mean little. Russia seems slowly to be yielding to the powerful influences of Western civilization. Schools and universities are being gradually improved. The widespread ignorance of both clergy and laity is being dispelled. A nllw ecclesiastical literature is springing up. Within the last twenty years a well-supported missionary society has accomplished wonders for au Eastern church; and, above all else, the Russian Church, though bound by tradition, is not, like the Roman Church, bound by an infallible decree. There is no RU8sian vicar of Christ. The study of the Scriptures in the vernacular, though sadly enough neglected, has never been forbidden; and though many corruptions both of doctrine and of practice were introduced from Constantinople at the time of the founding of the Church, 'lnd have been persistently maintained as of the esscnce of the faith, yet no Council of Trent, no Conclave of the Vatican, no infallible bull, has placed the Russian Church in a position from which it would be impossible to retreat.
" God be praised, " said a devout Russian churchman, " God be praised, it is still in our power to redeem the future I"
CAREY'S COVENANT.
A MISSIONARY MANUAL.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF It was October 7th, 1805, thirteen years, almost to a day, from the day when that first mission compact was signed at Kettering, that Carey, Marshman and Ward, at Serampore, drew up thcir famous spiritual " Covenant." It covered twelve printed pages octavo, and was read publicly at every station at least once a year. The fact that this is the centenary year in Baptist missions makes the publication of this Oovenant especially appropriate.
If anyone would see what sort of men God chose to lead the van of His modern missionary host, let him study that" Form of Agreement" respecting the great principles upon which the brethren of the mission thought it their duty to act in the work of instructing the heathen. Dr. George Smith calls it a preparatio evangelica, and well adds that it " embodies the Divine principles of all Protestant scriptural missions, and is still a manual to be daily pondered by every missionary, and by every church and society which may send a missionary forth."
We give its most important parts for personal reflection. It reads as follows: " It is absolutely necessary, " 1. That we set au infinite value upon immortal souTs. " 2. That we gain all information of the snares and delusions in which these heathen are held. " 3. That we abstain from all those things which would increase their prejudices against the Gospel. " 4. That we watch all opportunities for doing good. " 5. That we keep to the example of Paul, and make the great subject of our preaching, Christ the crucified. " 6. That the natives should have an entire confidence in us and feel quite at home in our company. " 7. That we build up and watch over the souls that may be gathered. " 8. That we form our native brethren to usefulness, fostering every kind of genius and cherishing every gift and grace in them, especially advising the native churches to choose their own pastors and deacons from among their own countrymen. " 9. That we labor with all our might in forwarding translations of the sacred Scriptures in the languages of India. " 10. That we establish native free schools, and recommend these establishments to other Europeans. " 11. That we be constant in prayer and the cultivation of PQrsonal religion, to fit us for the discharge of these laborious and unutterably important labors. Let us often look at Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen, without whose salvation nothing could make him happy. " 12. That we give ourselves unreservedly to this glorious cause. Let us ne'er think that our time, our gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our own. Let us sanctify them all to God and His cause. Oh, that He may sanctify us for His work! No privat.e family ever enjoyed a greater portion of happiness than we have done since we resolved to have all things in common. If we are enabled to persevere we may hope that multitudes of converted souls will have reason to bless God to all eternity for sending His Gospel into this country." In this solemn compact, which sounds like an apostolic document, twelve cardinal principles are carefully set forth: 1. Valuing human souls at an infinite worth. 2. Informing themselves as to their actual needs. 3. Avoiding all putting of stumbling-blocks in their way. 4. Watching opportunity to do good unto all. 5. Preaching Christ crucified as their one theme. 6. Inspiring confidence by a Christ-like life. '1. Establishing schools for Christian education. S. Watching over and training native converts. 9. Raising up a native ministry for service. 10. Translating the holy Scriptures into the vernacular.
ZARATHUSTRA AND THE ZEND-AVESTA
11. Cultivating prayer and self-culture in piety. 12. Surrendering self unreservedly to God and service. To this nothing remains to be added to give completene~s and symmetry. It reads like an inspired paper. The marks of the Holy Ghost are upon it. And we commend it to all friends of missions, and especially to all who have in view, or in thought, the field of missions. It need be no matter of wonder that-although the first Hindoo convert, Krishna Chundra Pal, was not baptized as a Protestant believer until 1800-fifty years after Carey's death the native Protestant community, in 1884, numbered half a million, with ordained native pastors outnumbering the missionaries, and every decade witnessing an increase at the rate of eighty-six per cent. Let this covenant be to the Church of Christ, as we start on a new century of missions, a trumpet peal of God for a new advance.
ZARATHUSTRA AND THE ZEND-AVESTA.
BY ALFRED HILLE BRANDT.
By Avesta or Zend-Avesta is understood the sacred books of the Parsis, who honor Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, as the Greeks cdl him, as the founder of the true faith. The Zoroastrians are no longer numerous. The tide of Mohammedan conquest which swept over Persia in the seventh century of our era uprooted the Mazda religion, and only a few of its devoted followers escaped to India, where they found an asylum among the tolerant Hindus. There they remained unmolested to this day, and the Parsi communities of Bombay, which number about 150,000 souls, constitut~ the bulk of the remnant of the once numerous followers of the Persian prophet. They are mostly merchants, occupying brilliant social positions and distinguiRhed for their liberality.
The religion of Zoroaster has little to commend itself to modern European sentiment, no letter of recommendation to present to us. Neither temple nor monuments bear testimony to its former might. Zoroaster taught men to pray to the Creator j made truth, in thought, and word, and deed, the basis of his ethical system j and taught that agriculture was one of the most honorable pursuits.
What remains of the Avesta text would hardly fill a large quarto, but the records of classic, as well as of native writers, leave no room to doubt that this is a mere fragment of a once voluminous literature, the greater part of which was probably destroyed at the Mohammedan invasion. The Parsis charge Alexander the Grecian with having burnt the State copy of twenty-one volumes with the palace of Pcrsepolis, but, at any rate, it is agreed on all sides that the Sassanides followed and supported the MazdGl religion throughout their dyna~ty. The fragment that has come down to us is written in the Pahlevi alphabet employed on the coins of the Sassanides. But the Avesta undoubtedly dates from a far earlier period than the Sassanian dynasty. The ideas conveyed in the text were thoroughly developed in the time of Philip of Macedon and earlier, and the account given of the Zoroastrian religion by Theopompus, born B.C. 380, agrees with the Avesta in all essentials.
1£ it had originated in the time of the Sassanides, it wonld naturally have been written in the old Sassanian language and not in an independent language intimately allied with the Old Persian and Sanscrit dialects. The Sassanides must, therefore, have received the text iu a foreign tongue.
From this we may conclude that the prieRts which taught this religion were foreigners. They were called Magi, and both Greek and Persian authors assign their origin to Media. Grecian writers speak of a race of Magi, and originally the term had doubtless a national signification. They differed from. the Persians not only in language, but in customs. Herodotus says that the Persians buried their dead, but that the Magi exposed theirs; a custom which became universal among the Sassanides. The Pushtoo, or language of Afghanistan, has a closer affinity to the language of the Avesta than any other known language. The term Zoroaster, like Christ or Buddha, is rather a title than a name, aud his origin is lost in the myths of, antiquity, in which he is rcpresented as the foe of the demons. All creation waited for his coming to put an end to the dominion of evil. He spoke the words that shattered the dominion of the devils by proclaiming the laws of Ahriman. But although his life is obscured in fable, there is no room to doubt that he was a real existence; the obscurity in which he is enveloped simply indicates the remoteness of his time. The names of his father and daughtcr and his own family name (Spitama) are preserved, and his writing indicates a marked individuality.
These writings are divided into two clearly distinct parts-the Gathas, and the remaining Avesta. The Gathas or songs embrace five. or, according to an internal division, seventeen chapters; they are in metrical verse, and written in an obscure dialect, constituting the most difficult text in the realm of Indo-Germanic philology. They are supposed to be more ancient than the Avesta, in which they are occasionally cited.
The Gathas are nearest to Zoroaster, and were compiled either by himself or his disciples. They represent him as a teacher of great gifts; he is evidently not merely the founder of a religion, but a leader and reformer who delivered his people from great evils. He regarded himself as one of the last of a long series of prophets, and came to restore order among the people of Ascharan the pious.
The Gathas treat of actual realities, free from myth or miracle, but indicate clearly a deep religious movement of which Zoroaster was the leader. The people who listened to his teachings were pastoral and agricultural communities, worshippers of the Devtas, between whom and the worshippers of the Ahuramazda, the Creator, there was a prolonged struggle.
OUIt INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS
'l'his earlier portion of the writings is distinguished as the Zend. The Avesta is of more reeent origin, but it, too, dates back to a common Indo- Iranian source, while its mythology is far more ancient than even the Zend, carrying us back to the worship of Mithras the sun-god. Some of this old mythology has been treasured up in the Avesta, and in our estimate of this latter it is necessary to bear in mind that it is an importation.
The utmost care is enjoined to guard against the pollution of the three sacred elements, fire, water, and earth, hence it is that the bodies of the dead may be neither burnt, buried nor thrown into the river, but must be exposed on the Towers of Silence to be disposed of by birds of prey.
The Pars! creed includes the doctrine of a judgment day, when the battle between good and evil will be fought to a close, the evil br.nished into darkness, and the world, being renewed as a kingdom of light, will endure in the sunshine of Ahuramazda's presence forever.-Nord und Sud, Breslau.
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESS~ INGS.-PART II.
BY REV. T. LAURIE, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
We have looked at the dwellings where Christ is not known, but the condition of the house determines the condition of woman, for she is the housekeeper, and when several generations cook, eat, and sleep in one room, such as has been described, and when wood is so searce that dried manure is often the only fuel, the influence of such homes on neatness and morality need not be told. Think of family prayer being observed by one of several families in such an abode! And if such homes are full of discomfort in health, what are they in sickness ~ Woman in her hour of sorrow often has no other sick-room than Mary fonnd in Bethlehem. Many are born, and many mothers die every year among the cattle. If the child is a daughter it is not counted with the family, but is matter for mourning and lamentation. Think of the mother in such circumstances! Then mothers who toil in the fields all day carry home their babes and heavy hoes at night, where they prepare food for their husbands, and wait till he has finished before they think of eating. If in Mosul a missionary had taken his wife's arm in the street a mob would have gathered at once; and when in Buhtan Dr. Grant fonnd a dormitory separated by a curtain from the rest of the apartment for the use of his host and hostess, he entered the fact in his journal as a very rare refinement. In the homes of the wealthy the visitor is entertained in the divan khanch or guest-room not only with coffee, but also with fragrant sherbets and costly perfumes, but no woman is to be seen, and no allusion to the ladies of the household would be tolerated for a moment.
On the country roada the fellah ridQs his donkey ilmoking his pipe, while his wife trudges behind on foot, and sometimes carries either a babe or a burden besides.
It might be unjust to say that this position of woman is wholly the fruit of Mohammedanism, but it is no injustice to affirm that the wrongs of woman are greatly aggravated by that system. 'l'h(l writer once fre~ quented a rnejlis of Moslem gentlemen to improve his Arabic, and he cOl~ld not help noticing that whenever woman was the topic of conversation, there was not one thought for her personal comfort or advantage, but she was viewed only as something available for man's enjoyment, just as a class among ourselves once talked about the slaves.
In 1843 Dr. Grant and the writer were one day busily making up our mail for the post, which then left only once a fortnight, when the wife of a rich Moslem led in her son for medical treatment. As she came frequently, she was without an attendant. She was about thirty years of age, unusually prepossessing in appearance, and her little boy was not far from ten years old. Dr. Grant asked her to wait till he finished his letter, but mistaking thia for a refusal, she began to plead with tears. "He is all I have in the world." "Are you not forgetting your husband Y" said the doctor. " Husband I" she replied; "can a husband love ¥ He is a stranger to me and I to him. The religion of Jesus does not allow such things as ours. " We knew that other wives had been added to the household, and they embittered a life that was already almost insupportable. Even her son had been trained to treat her with contempt, and while she pleaded for him as only a mother could, he mocked her and arrogantly ordered her to be still. After prescribing for the boy she told her own ailments, but they were not such as medicine could reach; only kindness from those who owed her kindness could remove her troubles.
Go through Oriental countries and you will see enough of the condition of women to make the heart ache; but however much is seen, behind those windowless walls is much more that is not seen, and known only to Him who bare our sickness and carried our sorrows; but mere bodily suffering or social distress is not the whole. There are wrongs greater than these.
Among all the Nestorians, whether in the mountains of Kurdistan or' on the plains of Persia, in the year 1835 there was only one woman who could read, and she was the sister of Mar Shimon, the patriarch; afterward her sister and a cousin followed her example. This is a fact whose deep significance few can appreciate. Ask one if she wanted to leal1l, and the answer would be," I am a woman," as though that fact settled the question. It is not strange, then, if in their ignorance they were lacking in those things that are lovely and of good report. As a body they were most unlovely. Their outbursts of passion were terrible. The list of wives who hated their husbands equalled the list of husbands who beat their wives. So said Miss Fisk in Persia; and a lady in Syria who knew them well said to the writer that the beatings were only too well deserved. When they begged Miss Fisk in the name of the Virgin Mary to help th~m, she answered, "I will save you from your husbands by helping you to love them." The writer had no conception how rapidly the tongue could run till he heard one of their outbursts of rage. No wonder they eould drive tax-gatherers from the villages. None who ever listened to those shrill cries and looked on their frenzied motions could ever ask, Why were the Furies described as women ~ It is a type of the nature and extent of the ehange wrought by missions, that at the jubilee in Oroomiah, in 1885, when the women who could read their Bibles were asked to rise, eight hundrerl women responded and were counted, but these were only representatives of a much larger number who had not only learned to read the Gospel, but had felt its power to sanctify.
Wherever the missionary goes in that land men and women learn how Jesus Christ creates blessed homes, filling them with His own peace. Woman there also as with us labors to impart to her sisters the same blessings she herself has received from her Saviour, and the work is much more extensive than appears.
In the year 1885 strangers from the vicinity of Lake Van brought an account of a woman in that region who, unlike others, read her Bible and lived a very blameless life, yet was treated with bitter hate. They told, too, how she wept more over their sins than over the treatment she endured. The missionaries resolved to search her out. So next spring one went to that part of the mountains and found Nazloo, a student who had gone out from Miss Fisk's seminary more than twenty years beforQ, and had long been lost sight of. She had married, and had led her husband also to her Saviour. Then under her inspiration they had gathered a school in their own home, thougb they had only two or three other books besides her Bible. and though they were poor themselves, yet to some who lived at a distance and wanted to attend the school they gave a home, sharing with them their own scanty means. Who can estimate the good wrought by this one woman in her poverty, far from all Christian fellow- Rhip 1 And what an encouragement to support missionary schools that thus reproduce themselves in spite of such discouragements, creating new centres of light amid the darkness! It seems as though woman in such lands, grateful for the priceless blessing Christ brings into her earthly life even before she enters heaven, goes far beyond us in seeking to impart the same to others. How small our benevolence appears by the side of the self-denial of Nazloo !
Signor Prochet, of Rome, mentioned that the very useful Bible wagon of the Waldensian Church in Italy is superintended by a Jew converted to Christ, who is remarkably efficient III the discharge of difficult and important duties.
Plt);I!IENT CONDITION OF TH); P);.A.S.A.NTS IN THJ: RlJlBUN EMPIIU
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
BY VICOMTE COMBES DE LESTRADE.
The emancipation of the Russian serfs by the Emperor Alexander II. was an act which filled Europe with admiration and his people with gratitude. But while no one doubts the liberality and beneficence of the Emperor's intentions, the so-called emancipation has proved only a delusion. True, the seigneurs were stripped of their authority, but, by the terms of the edict of 1861, the authority formerly vested in them was formally transferred to the Mir. This Mir is a village commune-an assemblage of families holding a certain quantity of land in common, bound to pay certain annual revenues on account of it, and in order to satisfy these obligations, invested in its collective capacity with powers over the individual equal to, if not transcending, those exercised by the seigneurs.
Under the old seignorial system the serfs had to render certain services to the seigneur, who was, of course, responsible for their support. To this end each serf had a certain portion of land allotted to him to be cultivated at his discretion. Under the Act of Emancipation the Government stepped between the seigneurs and serfs, paid the former an indemnity to compensate them for lost services, and transferred from them an area of land equal to what had been allotted for the maintenance of their serfs under the old system. The land thus allotted to the serfs was not allotted in severalty, but given in the lump to the Mir, which in its collective capacity exercises a despotic control over its several members, assigning to each family, according to its numbers, the land which it is bound to cultivate, and which may consist of, several parcels far removed from each other. The Government having indemnified the landlords for the loss entailed by the emancipation, arranged to recoup itself by a land tax, which, covering principal and interest, should extend over seventy-nine years. This tribute is exacted from the Mir in a lump, and the Mir apportions it among its several members, according to the extent and value of their several holdings. This division of the land has no permanency. Periodical redistribution was made the rule to provide for allotments to new-comers.
The cultivation of the village lands under the communal system for the equal benefit of all might have its advantages under certain social conditions, but the system of individual holdings, which ordinarily change hands every five years, can only be disastrous. '1'here is no encouragement for the peasant to improve his land, and, exceptio.g in those few districts in which the land yields a revenue over and above its burden of taxation, the peasants resort to a thousand artifices, and even to supplication, that less land be given them. The Mir, however, enforctls its behests rigorously, since lightening the burden on one man's shoulders could only be effected by adding to the burden of others, The Mil' has the power ot banishment to some other village-not a neighboring one-or to Siberia.
The law provides that a debtor peasant may withdraw from the Mil', if he wishes, but on the following impossible conditions: 1. He shall abandon his portion of land. 2. He shall put himself en l'egle as regards his military service. 3. He shall discharge, both he and his family, every debt, whether it be payable to the Mil', to the district, or to the commune, and pay the taxes levied for the current year. 4. He shall have no process pending against him. 5. He shall have no judgment against him unsatisfied. 6. He shall have the consent of his parents, no matter what age he may have attained. 7. If he leave children, he shall provide for their maintenance.
s. He shall pay all undivided claims (l'edevances affel'entes) on the land which he may have received in fee from the seigneur. If the peasant with his individ~al earnings and savings should succeed in paying off his personal share of the seventy-nine years' annuity on the land, he would become free of the Mil', and would still be entitled to take part in its councils. But if the Mil' buys up its own land with common funds, the lands remain communal and the peasants bondslaves of the Mil'.
Another phase of the situation is that the village domaiu is not always equal to the support of all its members, and in places where there are no local manufacturing industries, the peasants are driven to go abroad in search of work. No one may leave his village without the authority, of the Mil', and that authority may be revoked at any time; moreover, the wanderer may not take his family with h1m. The practical consequence is that if an absent member is doing well, he is heavily blackmailed for the continuance of the privilege of absence.
All the 40,000,000 peasants in Russia are not serfs. Some 11,000,000 are freemen, mostly enfranchised before the act of emancipation.
Theoretically the jlfir has much to commend it. Every laborer, whether in town or country, is member of a Mil' in which he can find shelter in sickness, and a piece of land for his support when he grows' old; but all that can be said in favor of this institution may, with equal truth, be said of the institution of serfdom. The act of emancipation did not change the rights and duties of the serfs in any way; it simply substituted the Mil' for the seigneur, and the Mil' has no bowels of compassion; it is as needy as the individ1'.al, and acts under pressure from above.
The commune is a su~vival from earlier ages, and the Russian Mil' i~ probably a close protot,ype of human society; but however charming in its simplicity may be onr ideal of the communal life of our remote Germanic ancestors, therfl is certainly not in th,e institution of the Russian MiT one single point in which liberty and the appropriation of lo"d would not be a thousand times rather to be desired.
AN UNIQUE MISSIONARY MEETING ON THE HIMALAYAS
Russia is a great country with a great people, put she can never enter the sisterhood of European nations until her rulers shall have given to her serfs a liberty that shall be not merely nominal, but real. There is no greater tyranny than that of collectivity.-Annals of the American Acad.
emy, Philadelphia.
AN UNIQUE MISSIONARY MEETING ON THE HIMALAYAS.
BY REV. JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, D.O., M.D., DARJEELING, NORTH INDIA.
Sir Charles Elliott, the Governor of Bengal, and Lady Elliott, last week sent out cards of invitation for a reception to all the missionaries of all societies now on these hills, numbering more than eighty, including those working at Darjeeling, Ghuru and Kalimpong, and those visiting this sanitarium for recuperation. The principal residents of Darjeeling, and tea-planters on the slopes of the mountains, and many officials up here on duty with the Governor, or on leave, were also invited to meet the missionaries.
Sir Charles Elliott has had long experience in India, rising from the bottom of the civil serville ladder up through the different grades by sheer force of character, until he has now attained, by appointment of the Queen- Empress, to his present exalted position. In Government official parlance, he is styled the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, because the Governor- General or Viceroy also has his headquarters in Bengal, and of course officially overshadows him; but Sir Charles is de facto Bengal's governor, having his own Legislative Council and his own corps of secretaries, or cabinet entirely different from those of the viceroy.
Darjeeling, on the Himalayas, from which eighty miles of perpetual snow is seen, is the summer capital of Bengal, and during the hottest months Sir Charles and Lady Elliott occupy" The Shrubbery," as the gubernatorial residence here is named, with its beautiful garden-park around it, and Government offices and chief officials' residences adjacent, and from here the affairs of this great Bengal presidency are, for the time, administered.
The cards of invitation read: "To a garden party on Wednesday, June 15th, at 4.30 o'clock, to be followed by a Drawing-Room, at which an account will be given of the progress of missionary work. "
A break had come in the monsoon weather, now upon us, and the clear day, with its view of the highest mountain range in the world, glistening in its mantle of snow, added to the zest with which all parties came together. The Governor and Lady Elliott were exceedingly affable, having pleasant words of cheer for each missionary, as they inquired after their work, and taking special pains to introduce the missionaries and officials, residents and tea-planters who were present. After an hour's very pleasant social intercourse, during which refreshments were served to all, Sir Charles passed through the company, inviting all to come to the H Durbar Jitoom," or reeeption hall used on State occasioDl'l, and the company was soon seated on sofas, divans, and chairs placed in an unconventional man- ner all around the spacious room.
Pleasant conversation ran on for a few minutes, and then order was called, and the Governor, stepping to a table at the head of the room, gave a brief address of welcome, which was so pleasant and so telling that I have wrhten it out briefly, that others, too, may enjoy it and be helped and stimulated by it.
Sir Charles spoke substantially as follows.
" Missionary friends, ladies and gentlemen, I wish, in a few words, to say what a very great pleasure it gives Lady Elliott and myself to welcome so many missionaries here as our chief guests this evening. Coming as they do from all parts of our presidency, as well as from other presidencies and provinces of India, and representing so IDany different missionary societies from so many different countries.
"Ve are very glad that so many missionaries can come up to this delightful climate from the burning plains for a little well-earned rest and recuperation after their soul-absorbing and arduous toil at their stations, for it will fit them the better for the heavy work ever before them.
" It gives us real pleasure to tender to them this small amount of hospitality, with a large amount of sympathy and good-will and of appreciation of the noble and, to India, all-important service that they are rendering.
" My long experience in India, in the different p·residencies and provinces, has taught me that the British Government in India cannot possibly do the work which, in the providence of God, is our only justification for being here, namely, the civilization, enlightenment, and uplifting of the whole people of India, without the aid of the missionaries. For extended observation and careful study of the people have produced in me the profound conviction that nothing can lift these millions of Hindus up to the standard of our Western Christian nations in probity, morality, and nobleness of life but that Gospel of Christ that has lifted us.
" I view, then, the missionary work as an indispensable, unofficial, and voluntary auxiliary of the Government in carrying out its highest aspirations-the ennobling of the whole Hindu people. Always, in our tours in the provinces, Lady Elliott and myself find our greatest pleasure in looking up and trying to help and encourage the missionary work of all societits wherever we go. We are grateful to you missionaries for your self-sacrificing labors, and for the help you thus render the Government, and assure you that you will always find sympathy both in 'The Shrubbery,' where we now are, and in ' Belvidere House,' in Calcutta, so long as we continue to occupy it.
" I wish, further, to say that Lady Elliott and myself have to-day invited you, the leading residellts and visitors at Darjeeling, and tea-planters of the district, that you may meet these missionaries and learn of their work, and learn to know them personally, and so, henceforth; take a much greater interest in their work, &nd render them the more liberal help. If they give their lives to the work, it is only fair that we should aid in furnishing them abundant supplies.
" I congratulate you all that the last census and the signs of the times all point to a very positive and somewhat rapid progress of the missionary work in India. There is unquestionably an undercurrent working among the higher classes in India toward Christianity, in spite of all the open manifestations against it; and we may look forward with confident expectation to the day when all India shall bow at the feet of Christ, who alone can uplift, purify, and save."
At the nomination of the Governor, Bishop Johnson, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India. then took the chair, and in a brief address, thanking Sir Charles for his outspoken testimony to the missionary work, and him and Lady Elliott for the kind conception and kind action which had assembled this company, went on to say that his duties as Metropolitan of India, taking him from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Karachi, on the Sea of Arabia, to Burmah and Assam, on the borders of China, gave him the opportunity of gauging any progress made in the missionary work not alone of the Church of England, but, to some extent, of all other societies within those wide limits; that when he first came to India a decade ago he did not at once appreciate the amount of preparatory work that had bflen done. Not to be tabulated in any statistics, not apparent to the eye of the casual observer, but which he now saw to be the chief element of hope for the speedy evangelization of India. He told of the numbers of educated native gentlemen who, to his knowledge, were now privately reading the Bible and endeavoring to conform their lives to its precepts, while still outwardly adhering to Hinduism. who, erelong, when the Spirit of God should mightily move among them, would come over as a mighty host into the Christian Church. He spoke of the wonderful uplifting power which Christianity had already manifested in the Madras Presidency, in those regions where very large numbers of converts had been gathered, and referred to the remarkable declaration of the Director of Public Instruction in Madras, in his last official report on the progress of education, to the effect that, if the percentage of increase during the last twenty years be maintained, the native Christian population of that presidency would, within the next two generations, have surpassed the Brahmin in education, in material prosperity, in influence, and in official position. He intimated that he had come to India interested, indeed, in missions, but practically a pessimist as to their progress; that a decade of close observation had converted him into an optimist, for the well-marked indications now were that India would, in the not very distant future, become an integral part of the kingdom of Christ.
Rev. Archibald Turnbull, B.D., the senior missionary in the Darjeeling district of the Church of Scotland, to w.hich seems to be committed the evangelization of the Eastern Himalayas, gave II terse and interesting account of the work going on among these hill people with their fifteen cate- chists and twenty junior assistants at Darjeeling, and twelve out-stations reaching to the base of the mountains-Nipali catechists for the Nipalis, who ha,-e immigrated in such numbers from the adjacent kingdom of Nipfil in connection with the tea industry; Lepcha catechists for the Lepehas from Sikkini, and a Bhutia catechist working among the Bhutias who have flocked in from Bhutan, and told of the little churches they had already established here with 600 commnnicants and 1700 adherents, with baptisms of new converts every month. He also spoke of the Scotch Ladies' Zenana Mission in Darjeeling, cons:sting of three Scotch ladies and one native woman, who carryon their work in four languages, and meet with much encouragement.
Miss Edith Highton, of the English Church Zenana Mission in Calcutta, followed with an intensely interesting account of their methods of work, their hindrances, and their successes.
Rev. F. B. Gwinn, of the Church Missionary Society, in charge of their Boys' Boarding-School and Training Institution in Calcutta, then told of his work, and instanced remarkable cases of conversion of young men of the higher classes from their study of the Bible in mission schools, who had indeed lost all, of property, position, and friends, but had gained Christ, thus effectually answering the oft-repeated taunt that Hindus only became Christians for worldly gain.
Rev. J. A. Graham, M.A., of the Young Men's Guild Mission of the Church of Scotland at Kalimpong, in British Bhutan, spoke of the exceedingly hopeful work in his mission, with two hundred baptisms of mountaineers last year, and told how the native Church had organized among themselves a Foreign Missionary Society to send the Gospel into the kingdom of Bhutan adjacent, into which no European can yet enter, and how the senior and highest paid native evangelist of the mission, who had commenced the work at Kalimpong twelve years ago, had now resigned his connection with the mission, that he might go forth as the first foreign missionary of the native Church to the turbulent and dangerous regions of Bhutan, receiving only the voluntary contributions of the native Christians to support him in Bhutan and his family in Kalimpong, since they could not accompany him.
He also spoke for the Scottish Universities' Mission in Independent Sikkim, now under the efficient charge of Rev. Robert Kilgour, B.D., of Glasgow University, who, with his fifteen native assistants, is pushing the work up into Eastern, Central, and Western Sikkim, building their little churches almost on the borders of the perpetual snows-for in Sikkim rise those giant mountains twenty-three, twenty-five, and twenty-seven thousand feet high, towered over by their Monarch, Kiuchiu, Janga, the " Golden Horn," 28,177 feet high, the second highest mountain in the world.
With a hearty vote of thanks to the chairman, the speakers, and to Sir Charles and Lady Elliott, and a cheering cup of coffee as we passed again out through the refreshment-room, we scattered with the intensified conviction and determination that from the eternal snows of the Himalayas to the scorching sands of Cape Comorin JESUS SHALL BE KING.
1892.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
– " Gloomy clouds are gathering more and more deeply on the firmament of the nations. The time when peace shall be taken from the earth appears to be drawing nearer and nearer. The beast out of the abyss displays his head with ever less disguise; the false and secularized church exalts herself more aIld more proudly; the spirit of the false prophet becomes ever more manifest. Can all these developments turn against the children of God, against the kingdom of our King ~ Oh, no! They have their Master's warning: 'And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. ' All this can but help to hasten their perfection and that of the kingdom of God. "-Mi8sion8- und Heidenbote (Neulcirchen).
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
-The Ninety-eighth Report of the London Missionary Society has some introductory remarks which are worthy of being reported at length.
"The present year marks a point of deep interest in the history of Protestant Christian missions to the heathen. In September next the Baptist Missionary Society will celebrate the centenary of the commencement of their great enterprise. Although before that society was formed the Moravians and Danes had been for many years devoting themselves to work among the inhabitants of Greenland and Labrador, and also in South India, with a heroism characteristic of their whole history, and which has made the story of their missions read like a romance of Christian chivalry; and some earnest attempts had also been made to reach the natives and the slaves in the North American colonies, and in the West Indies, by the Society for the Propagation of the G08pel in Foreign Parts, by John Wesley and by the Countess of Huntingdon; yet, by common consent, the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society has been regarded as the true beginning of the great missionary movement, which has been so marked a feature in the life of this most marvellous century.
" The record of the work of the Baptist Missionary Society, from the first days of the Serampore Mission to the late1;t development of its energy and enthusiasm for Christ in the Congo Mission, has been a splendid history, and the success which has attended .their work in every field is a witness to all the world of God's faithfulness to His promises.
" The London Missionary Society is the oldest of the societies which have been formed under the inspiration of the example l.Iet to the Church of Christ by the Baptists; and the directors rejoice exceedingly in all the blessing which has been bestowed on their brethren, and pray that larger usefulness, richer harvests, more rapid and triumphant progress may be their experience in the days to come.
" It was only fitting that a year of such special interest in the history of missions should be marked by special and enlarged effort for their advancement. The most conspicuous result of the first century of this , great enterprise has been to reveal its vast extent and the urgent nature of the world's need. This society has for years past been learning that the great fields are practically only just opening for serious work, and that the provision made in the past would be utterly inadequate for the new conditions which were being faced in every direction. In the first stage of missions few laborers can be profitably employed, because the peoples are not ready for the message they bring. There will come a third stage when few laborers will be required, because the Church of Christ in every land will be numerous, self-supporting, intelligently aggressive in native strength. Between these two stages comes a time of great responsibility, when the countries are open, when the vast extent of the field becomes fully apparent, and the variety and the power of the forces opposed to the Gospel are clearly recognized, and when by God's blessing the peoples in multitudes, though still in ignorance, are aroused to a sense of new needs, and stretch out their hands to crave a gift the real value of which they know not yet. This is the stage of the work upon which the Christian Church is entering at the beginning of this new century; and at this time practical wisdom suggests the necessity and expediency of reinforcing the staff of workers everywhere, and of occupying every point of vantage, in order that movement may be accelerated, opposition may be overcome, and the multitudes may be brought home to the fold of Christ. "
-We give some extracts from the Annual Report of the Church- Mis- sionary Society.
"The removal by death and sickness and other causes, in rapid suc- cession, of promising young laborers from the African missions has been a sore trial. John Alfred Robinson and Graham Wilmot Brooke, the devoted and gifted pioneers of a fresh effort to reach the Hausa Moham- medans, early called to their rest! The party associated with them broken up! Only two European missionaries at present on the whole Niger, and their stay precarious! In East Africa four young missionaries dead from fever within the year! But the committee cannot doubt that even these solemn providences will work for good. They are confident that many will be stimulated to step in and close the ranks, and if not, God's power to work, whether hy many or by few, will be vindicated.
" India absorbs the largest proportion of the society's men and inter- est. Blessings, if not in showers, at least in drops which promise showers, are vouchsafed here and there. In the city of Calcutta alone there were last year as many as 31 baptisms, chiefly cases of individual reception into the family of Christ, in the course of thirty weeks. The Bishop of Calcutta confirmed 100 candidates at Godda in the Santal Mission in January last. • A native catechist, formerly a Moham·· medan, was invited by a Maulvi to preach in a village mosque, and he preached Christ to 180 Moslems. In thirty-one years the native clergy in the Madras Diocese have increased from 27 to 160. • .
" In the Fuh-kien Province of China the adherents in the year have increased by 993. • . . Among the most hopeful instances of increas- ing interest must be reckoned the tidings which reach the committee from Cambridge and from Oxford. A letter has been received signed by fifty- four Cambridge university men, notifying their readiness, if God should open the way, to go forth to the mission field. The visit of Mr. Wilder, of the American Missionary Students' Volunteer Movllment, which has been fraught with wonderful results in America, gave impulse to the m~s sionary cause in both universities. As a fruit of this growing interest, the inquiries regarding personal service received during the year at Salisbury Square were more numerous than ever before. Of these 179 were investigated by the committee; 52 were accepted for training; 66 were accepted for immediate service, in addition to 6 in the field, bringing the number for the year to 72. Of the comparatively large number re- jected, the majority failed to reach the required medical standard.
"The committee deliberately adopted the policy four years ago of sending out all whom they believe to be duly qualified. assured that if God gives the living agents He will supply the means. The experience of the past two years justifies their confidence. Last year, when the staff of missionaries numbered 49 more than in the previous year, they were thankfully able to record a balance of £74 to the credit of the General Fund.
In conclusion, what policy have the committee to submit to the approval of the society in the face of unprecedented opportunities and hopes ~ " 1. God has owned old methods of work. Destroy them not, for there is a blessing in them. In the light of accumulated experience, and under the influence of new environments, the old methods have been and will be improved. God forbid that they should be abandoned.
,. 2. .The call has come for new methods and fresh experiments. That call can neither be lightly disregarded nor lightly obeyed. The committee are not frightened by the outcry against 'new departures.' Rather they thank God that the inereased interest at home and the growth of opportunities abroad necessitate' new departures;' but all such new departures must be jealously safeguarded by rigid adherence to the old unchangeable principles which, from its foundation to the present day, have been the glory and strength of the society.
" 3. In view of the rapidly rising tide of intelligent, self-consecrating interest at home; in view of the marvellous opening out of the field abroad, the committee are determined, God helping them, to be found ready, first for the consolidation and strengthening of existing work; then for further expansion, as God shall provide duly qualified workers_"
JAPAN.
-There are now, says the Spirit ofMissions, forty-eight Buddhist publications in Japan, most of them of recent establishment. Japanese Buddhism has no thought of dying without a vigorous contest for life. It is curious, but the Shin sect, which is fourth in the number of its temples among the Buddhist denominations of Japan, is extremely like Protestantism in its relation to the other Buddhist sects. It teaches justification by faith in Amida Buddha, instead of by works, opposes celi.bacy, monasticism, penances, pilgrimages, and amulets. However, it is no nearer to Christianity than the other sects. Equally with them it appears to be atheistical, and to hold the doctrine of extinction as the highest good. All the sects, however, appear to have adherents who incline more or less to a theistic interpretation. Buddhism seems to be a singularly elusive system, if it can be called a system.
The Shin sect is erecting a temple at Kyoto at a cost of $11,000,000.
-The Rev. T. P. Poate says, in the Baptist Missionary Magazine: " Let no one think that Japan is an easy field. It is far from it. 'l'rials from within and without multiply, and were it not that Christ strengtheneth we should despair."
-The Rev. E. H. Jones (in the Baptist Missionary Magazine) writes: " I have only baptized ten this year, the Union Presbyterian Church has less than half the number of last year, and there are a great many exclusions in all the churches. We ask your sympathy and prayers. We are not inclined to give up, but need great wisdom and readjustment of pl~ns to continue our work." – " The average wages of Japanese do not exceed ten cents a day, yet in the last year Japanese converts have given to mission work nearly $27,000. "-The Kingdom.
– " It is said that for what it costs to fire (IDe shot from one of our . largest cannons a missionary and his family can be supported over two years in Japan. Comment is needless."-Canadian Church Magazine.
-Bishop Hare, in the Spirit of Missions, describes the Synod of the Episcopal Church of Japan. It is modelled after the. American plan, the English and American bishops sitting with the others, but voting as a separate authority, and the two orders of clergy and laity voting separately when desired. "The conservative element is thus well provided for; and this is well, for the boldness with which all sorts of propositions are pre- sented and advocated strikes me almost painfully; but it is to be remem- bered that this is the early summer or late spring of Japanese life, and luxuriant growth of ideas is to be expected. The keen interest with which the laity take part in the debates and in the settlement of the Church in Japan is delightful to see, and I trust will continue when the novelty of the movement has passed away. "
-Mr. Towson, of Japan (quoted in the fllustrated Missionary News), says: "The 40,000 Protestant Christians in Japan of both sexes and all ages are outnumbl1red even by the priests of Buddhism. "
~The Missionary Herald for December, 1890, speaking of the island of Yezo, now called the Hokkaido, says: "This great northern island, which contains about one fourth of the area of Japan, being much larger than Kiushiu and Shikoku combined, though with a much smaller population, claims the attention of the friends of missions. Its resources are ample, and only need development to make it a most prosperous region. Our Japan mission earnestly calls for reinforcements sufficient for it to occupy at least one or two stations in this great territory. The climate of the Hokkaido is much like that of New England, and those who come thither from Southern Japan find it a pleasant health resort."
– " From all sections of Japan and from members of many missionary organizations the report comes that the outlook for evangelical work throughout the empire is much brighter than it was a year or two since. The attitude of the Japanese toward foreigners is more friendly. The native churches are recognizing clearly the fact that they need the counsel and assistance of missionaries from other lands. The theological unrest seems to have measurably passed away, and the apparent movement toward rationalism, which caused many fears, either was not so strong as was SIlPposed or has been checked. The native churches are feeling their responsibility for the propagation of the Gospel, and are entering upon the task with great self-denial and enthusiasm."-Missionary Herald.
– " Having recently visited Japan, I will venture to limit my words to that field. Though small compared with its gigantic neighbors-India and China-it is a l&rge empire in itself. Its area exceeds that of Great Britain and Ireland; its population is more than forty million souls. Now, if you had been asked to sketch an ideal land, most suitable for Christian missions, and when itself Christianized most suitable for evangelistic work among the nations of the far East, what, I ask, would be the special characteristics of the land and people that you would haTe desired 1 Perhaps first, as Englishmen or Irishmen, you would have said, ' Give us islands, inseparably and forever united-give us islands which can hold their sea-girt independence, and yet near enough to the mainland to exercise influence there.' Such is Japan-the Land of the Rising Sun. 'Give us a hardy race, not untrained in war by land and sea j for a nation of soldiers, when won for Christ, fights best under the banner of the Crossfor we are of the Church militant here on earth j give us brave men.' And such are the descendants of the old Daimios and two-sworded Samurai of Japan. ' Give us an industrial race, not idlers nor loungers, enervated by a luxurious climate, but men who delight in toil, laborious husbandmen, persevering craftsmen, shrewd men of business.' And such. are the Japanese agriculturists, who win two harvests a year from their grateful soil j such are the handicraftsmen there, whose work is the envy of Western lands; such are the merchants, who bold their own with us in commerce. ' Give us men of culture, with noble traditions, but not so wedded to the past that they will not grasp the present and salute the future. ' Such, again, are the quick-witted, myriad-minded Japanese, who, with a marvellous power of imitation, ever somehow contrive to engraft their own specialties upon those of Western lands. Witness their Constitution, their Parliament, their 30,000 schools in active operation; witness their museums and hospitals j witness their colleges and universities. ' But,' you would also have said, 'give us a race whose women are homespun and refined, courteous and winsome, not tottering on tortured feet, not immured in zenanas and harems, but who freely mingle in social life, and adorn all they touch.' And such, without controversy, are the women of Japan. Above all, 'Give us a reverent and a religious people, who yet are conscious that the religion of their fathers is unsatisfying and unreal, and who are therefore readv to welcome the Christ of God.' Even such are the thoughtful races of-Japan. "-The BISHOP OF EXETER, in Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer.
– " The faithful are not to suppose that the Indian Shaka was the chief and central manifestation of Buddha. India has no more claim than any other country to the possession of the greatest Buddha. Just as Buddha is known under innumerable names-Being and Not Being, One and Many, Finite and Infinite-so there is one Real Substance of which all Buddhas in all countries are but the local mauifestations. An article on , Nirvana' throws some light on the Japanese understanding of this muchdisputed topic. The basis of the writer's views is plain enough: that the univer~e is dependent on the mind for its existence. Outside phenomena exist only as related to our consciousness. Now when we are forming (as we daily do form) our judgments as to what we like nnd what we dislike. in this external universe, and are seeking happiness in one direction as an escape from hardship in another, let us remember how subjective and unreal is all this externality. For me nothing is; all is mere appearance. There is no such a predicate as • hardship' or ' happiness, ' Let us therefore not degrade ourselves by setting our thoughts on worldly matters, bllt keep from desiring anything greatly. Why desire what is not 1 Let us repress the passions of avarice, gluttony, lust_ Let us shun the five varieties of foolishness-empty conceit, prejudice, envy, obstinacy, and ascetici8m. Let us live in the world, but not of it. Thus shall we attain Nirvana here in this life. Better learn to realize the vanity of self now than seek to be bettered in some far-off future. Rightly understood, it is not happiness to have Nirvana. It is nothingness, and we may enter into it here as well as hereafter." -Baptist Missionary MafJazine.
INTERNATIONAL Di:PARTMENT. [O'teber
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Recognition of Roman Catholic Mis· claim that since the days of Luther it sionaries. has ceased to be a Christian church. The few Christians in its pale are such, BY REV. ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU, M.D., not because of, but in spite of their being there, just as there are children of God D.D., GAnOON, WEST AFRICA. outside of all church organizations.
Shall Roman Catholic priests in (2) I do not recognize his ordination. heathen lands be given religious or so- If he should wish to become a Protestant cial recognition by Protestant mission- clergyman, I would vote for his reordiaries? No. nation.
Of course, everywhere any civilized, (3) I do not recognize his baptismal and especially any Christian man, will, acts as valid. In our mission we always as he has opportunity, do good unto all rebaptize any who come to us from the men. In the limited membership of Roman Catholic Church. Two years white representatives of civilization in ago a young man came before my sesheathen lands, any white man is willing sion and, instead of saying, •• I wish to to aid in distress any other white man. unite with the church," said, " I wish In Africa, however bad a member of to come to the table." I noticed the the dissolute trade community may be, unusual form of application, and said I admit him to my table; and he, how- to him, "But you must first be bapel"er much he may talk against my mis- tized!" "I have been baptized." " By sion work, will aid me financially if I whom P" "By the priest." .. But I do be in straits. Between natives and bad not recognize his baptism." .. It is the foreigners I will help the latter; for I same as yours." " How?" .. He bap. can rely on their aid in return if I tized me in the name of the Trinity." should be in distress, while the former " When he baptized you, did he ask you will take advantage of that distress to anything about repentance?" " No." rob or make exorbitant demands. "Or about change of life?" "No." .. Unto what, then, did he baptize you ?" Of course, also, I would give relief, .. into the church." .. But we baptize medicinal or otherwise, on humanita. into Christ, for repentance unto eternal rian grounds, to anyone, native or for- life. His baptism and ours is not the eigner, even to a Roman Catholic en- same." emy. But, (4) Roman Catholic priests, with us, 1. I have no call or duty to visit the baptize the heathen dead, offering as a Roman Catholio missionary socially, or bribe to the heathen relatives that they to give "nd receive the friendly ex- will provide a coffin and decently inter changes of gifts and favors common the corpse. elsewhere among strangers. The native church.members know that we con· (5) They have gone through It village demn his doctrine, and that he de- with baptismal bowl and asked men, nounces us, even to the slandering of women, and children indiscriminately our private character. Any recognition to receive the rite. Our nltti ves will, of him would be quite understood by as far as they possibly can, try to please the natives, either as uncalled·for in. a white man; and the heathen will consincerity or unwise blindness. sent laughingly in a crowd to the priest's proposition, with little or no under- 2. Least of all can I give any recog- standing of what is proposed. They nition of the Roman Catholic priest as require no change of life. There is a Christian minister. simply a substitution gf a string of (1) I (personally) do not acknowledge his church as a Christian ohurch. I beads with medal of the Virgin instead defence of my several propositions. I of the fetich charm around one's neck. offer this paper simply as an entering The polygamist still keeps his women; wedge for discussion.* a slaveholder his slaves ; the thief and liar are unchallenged. Religious duty Rescue Wark in Western India. is fulfilled by occasional attendance at the 9 A.M. mass of Sabbath (~fter which BY MISS HELEN RICHARDSON, BOMBAY, hour one may hunt, fish, or do any- INDIA. thing in the line of secular work) and by confession at long intervals. In a certain quarter of the beautiful city of Bombay, India, there is a street (6) They slander our private charac- -a public thoroughfare-over which ters; denounce our married mission- hangs the pall of darkness and of death. aries as breakers of the seventh com- Its reputation for evil is almost worldmandment, the while that it is notori- wide, and still the sun rises and sets ous that .some of those very priests live day after day ; the weeks come and go ; in forbidden relations with native years are numbered and roll into eterwomen. nity, and its death-dealing traffic is not checked. (7) Roman Catholicism is the same at heart everywhere. If in civilized lands On one side of this street the houses the priests put on a Jesuitical cloak to are occupied by European girls; on the please weak Protestants, and even pass other mostly by natives of …arious themselves as friendly, I know that in countries, and these poor girls are the spirit they are the same as in the days dupes of men whose profession it is to of Alva and the Inquisition. In heathen amass wealth by the price of immortal lands they uncloak themselves and ap- souls! These houses are rented by pear in their nakedness of purpose. them for the purpose of carrying on their infamous traffic, and here young Under the French Government, which girls are decoyed from their homes unholds the country of the Gaboon and der one plausible pretext or another- Corisco MiSSion, in West Africa, the snitable employment, etc.-to become officials are at least nominal Roman sources of revenue to tbeir inhuman Catholics. I admit that some of them masters. would be impartial as between Roman Catholic priests and Protestant mission. And so the surge of sin goes on. aries; but they are not impartial as be- Nightly these men gather in their club tween Roman Catholic Frenchmen and and pass the hours until the early us Protestant Americans. They are morning, when, at about 3 A.M.-the jealous of us Americaps, as an English- night's dissipation being over-they go speaking nation, imagining that we fa- regularly around and collect from the vor England in her colonial acquisi- women all the money they may have tions. In that suspicion they are cor- obtained. Do you wonder that the rect, for France is a poor colonizing progress of the blessed Gospel is hin. power, doing little for the elevation of dered in the land where such a street her conquered tribes; though it is lies-in full view of the natives-lik& a equally true that England has no desire thoroughfare of blackness in this beauto seize that particular part of Africa. tiful city? And onr sympathies are always with Protestant England, who, with all her And do these deluded ones make no faults, does eventually benefit any struggle when the truth is revealed? country of which she takes possession. Yes, but often, alas, how futile! One, I have not said all on this subject • Read at International Missionary Unioll, that I might, and perhaps should have 1892. said, not having given all my reasons in explanation of, or in support and a Swiss girl. was brought out thus, and the temple-in other words, to a life 011. realizing the situatioll. after her ar· of sin and shame-one cannot but feel rival, threatened to commit suicide the enormity of this soul.destroying rather than submit to such a life, where. evil and cry out against it. upon she was conveyed by her master to Calcutta and there sold. In the year 1886, in response to an appeal describing the terrihle need thbt Another from Rome had been courted existed for Bome helping hand to be and married by one of the gang, who stretched out to tLose who were thus brought her to Bombay and speedily helplessly bonnd in this thraldom of disappeared, leaving her in the hands sin, I was led of the Lord to undertake of a new master, escape from whom was rescue work among these poor, sufferimpossible. This master stated that ing, sinning ones in Bombay. Renting he had paid 300 rupees, or about $120 a house I opened a little home and dedi. for her, and certainly would not readily cated it to the Lord for this purpose, relinquish his prize. One, an Austrian praying that He would make it a safe girl, after five months' detention, refuge for many needy ones. Not being learned the address of the Austrian under the direction of any board of misconsul and fled to him for protection. sions, I entered into and carried on the The recklessness of despair seems work by my own private means, feeling usually to take possession of them, it was a call I could not disregard. The however, after their first futile struggle. first to come for protection was ana· But should they escape, where will they tive girl, and though I had only expected go and who will receive them? to admit the English.speaking-not yet having a grasp of the language-I could Not only does this street stretch its not turn her away, so earnestly com· hideous length as an entrance to Hades, mitted her to the Lord. I asked that, but pitfalls aside from this traffic are as a token of His approval, she might made in all the saloons in the European be led to Himself, and in an almost portion of the city for unwary European miraculous way this was answered girts, where one or more are employed through the imperfect reading of the as bar.maids to draw oustom, and rooms Word and the repeating of a hymn in outside are rented in connection with her own language. the saloons to complete the work of ruin. Then, in the most public thor. From this beginning the work went oughfares of the city, along which run on, not large nor aggressive, but rather the cars to the market and the public tentative in its character. For three buildings, every evening room after years and a half I labored there, look· room is lit up in a peculiar fashion, ing over the ground and becoming betand native girls display themselves in ter acquainted with the need and how the opon doorways unblushingly, and to meet it ; but two years ago the Lord the public sentiment is' such as to permit of laid it upon me to go out and bring the it. Safety there is none. Every girl work and its needs before the people of in the city, Anglo.Indian, Eurasian, or England and America, as I must needs native, who is not thoroughly sur· have not only money, but the sympathy rounded by some wall of protection, is and prayers of all Christians in this 100Red upon as legitimate prey by pri. most difficult trust. It is very neces· vate individuals and as of marketable sary, on account of the excessive heat, value by others in the employ of the that doors and windows should be open, wealthy. and so the seclusion absolutely impera- tive in such a work could not be secured When one thinks of all this and of in a house on a public street in Bom. the fact that there are also thousands bay, as conversations with the girla of poor girls who, in the name of religion. from peraons in neighboring houses are dedicated by their ignorant and could not well be rrevented and were superstitious parents to tbe Ilervice of of a character often to undo much of the home since its opening, lind some the good done. have gone out to lives of Christian use- fulness. Then in such a work the nervous tension and strain upon those holding When God laid it upon my heart that positions of responsibility is great, and He would have me make this work and the opportunity for occasional retire- its needs known more widely in Engment from the observation of the house- land lind America, I obeyed, lellving in hold most necessary. charge my most efficient helper, Miss Walker, who is bravely holding the fort The separation and classification, of until such time as God shllll permit me the inmates is also most imperative- to return, which in His providence I the younger from the older, the native trust may be soon. from the European and Eurasian, and the native Christian from the non .Chris-· Educational Evangelism. tian. llY BEV. DAVID S. SPENCER, TOKYO, JAPAN. The reasons are obvious. As an illustration : An old country.born Eng· The objects of lin education are: lishwoman addictAd to drink and well 1. To develop mlln physically, intelknown in the police courts as personify- lectually, lind morally. ing many evils, was in the home and 2. To inform and enlighten the unbehaved exceedingly well, g,iving seem- derstanding. ing evidence of a change of heart, but 3. To form and regulate the princione day she disappeared, taking with ples of actions; to build character. her a young girl-not a strong charac. To answer intelligently our question, ter, but one for whom we had great we must consider the .material we have hopes-the older woman having been to work upon. We must judge whether influenced by the example of immoral the Japanese are so constituted, intelpersons living opposite. This is only lectually, physically, and morally, as to one of many incidents which might be make it possible to reap here the legitimentioned emphasizing the need for mate results of education. greater retirement and more suitable 1. In intellectual powers the Japanese bUildings. will compare favorably with the citizens of any other country. In general mental Realizing more and more how the make.up they are not unlike the French work was hindered by these preventable people, though differing from them in causes,I bought six acres of ground at some points. But the standings taken Poona, where good air, seclusion, and by Japanese students in the colleges room for the required buildings could and universities of Europe and Ameriall be secured. Besides the worker's ca, as well as in their own land, show bungalo a small hospital is required and that there is in these Japanese youth four buildings-to provide for classifica- good timber to work upon. tion as above specified-in separate dom- 2. The physical condition of the Japapounds, open only to the supervision nese is not what one might wish, and is of the workers. said to be retrograding. The average male Japanese is about five feet tVo It is still proposed to keep up a small inches in height, lind weighs about one house in Bombay for aggressive work hundred and twenty pounds, and has and liS a receiving home from which to not a strong constitution. Between draft into Poona. This home is not to the Japanese male and female is about supply II local need simply, but girls are the same difference as between the sent to us from great distances lind American male and female. But the from all the missions, as it is the only Jllpanelie does not know how to care home of the kind in Southern and Western India, and thus it supplements the work of these missions. Over one hundred women have been received in for his body. The missionary in Japan, Let us now conBider mission schools whatever his special sphere of work as evangelizing agencies. Much has been may be, has a great duty to perform in said pro and con mission BchoolB in teaching the Japanese around him how Japan. Dr. Ashmore, of Swatow, China, to take care of what Btrength thcy have, is responsible for the appearance in the and save further retrograding. The BO- missionary organ of his church of an cial habits of the young are by no means article which seemed to put at a diBcalculated to improve their physical count the educational work being car. condition. ried on in Japan, as compared with the evangelistic. He would have many of 3. The moral condition of the Japa- the educational missionaries here drop nese. On this subject, let the Japanese their school work and take up evangelspeak for themselves. Dr. Nishima istic. I will quote another who haB a was asked what were the prevailing sins world-wide reputation as an authority of his people, and he at once answered, upon these subjects, Dr. Abel Stevens. " Lying and licentiousness." The Jap- He saYB : "The chief missionary work anese are called a very polite people, now going on in all the East is by Chris. but a JapaneBe friend of mine, one of tian education. The old religions canthe most discerning I have known, de- not stand our better light; they are too clares that there is no real politeness legendary, too snperstitious, too conamong his people. Their politeness iB tradictory of science, to endure the ena mere conventional form. and decep- lightenment of the people. There is tive-on the surface, and not of the no end to our opportunities for schools, heart. With thiB Dr. Nishima agreed. especially in India and Japan, and we I could give the names of a number of can everywhere crowd them with eager representative Japanese whom I have pupils, many of whose families will pay heard say that of the JapaneBe young .UB for our labors. This is preaching men and women of the middle and the Gospel in the most practical and lower classeB, comparatively few reach effectual way for the Eastern populathe age of twenty socially pure. The tions. You teach them with the Bible experience of foreigners among the peo- in your hand and theirs. Your Bcience ple will substantiate, to a large degree refutes their legendary tradition withat least, these Japanese opinions. But out a word of allusion to the latter; what does all this argue? Simply this, your chapels are on the premises of that the Japanese need educating, need your schools, and your pupils, now lifting up, need the Gospel of Jesus your friends, throng them to hear your Christ. They are, generally speaking, proclamation of the Gospel." (Chrisno better Bnd no worse than other peo- tian Advocafe, 1889, page 635.) ple without the Gospel. The greater the need, the greater the responsibility And the same writer, regarding Chris. of the Church to help them. And let it tian success in the East, sayB: " We be borne in mind that the needed ref- must promulgate the Gospel there, inormation is not to be wrought in a day. deed, as the primary instrumentality of The people mUBt be educated to better our work; but how promulgate it? things. They must be given good and sufficient reasons for right doing, and " I do not doubt, after considerable this takes time. Reference will again local study of the question, that the be made to the time element. We now Christian school is the most effective desire to show the need. In intellec- method of its promulgation. Its pro. tual ability, in the need of physical mulgation in any way is what in the apostraining, and in the need of moral elA- tolic age was meant by •preaching' it vation, the Japanese offer a most invito (italics ours), and I am convinced that ing field for missionary labor. in India, China, and Japan ChriBtian instruction ill the beBt preaching and the school is the best chapel. We thus time to establish Christian character. This bring the young under our influence, is important. (See article by Dr. C. W. and the young in these three la.nds are Mateer, Shanghai Conference Record, our chief hope. Besides this instru- page 456.) mentality, we should have, and do have, the homiletic or pulpit mode of 4. The mission schools have sent out preaching. The two should be com- over four hundred and fifty Christian bined and are, in all our missions there. workers into all partil of Japan. The It should not be a question among us Doshisha alone has sent out over ninety which is the most dA~irable; both such. These are the men and women should be considered indispensable and who are to do the direct evangelizing, inseparable. But I am convinced that for whatever may be the case in other we could never be thoroughly success- lands, the Japanese must be evangelized by ful without the school." Japanese. The foreign missionary can do no higher work than to prepare the Dr. Abel Stevens has travelled care- leaders and to be their advisers. "It fully through all these Asiatic countries is as much his duty to prepare others to and knows whereof he speaks. Now, preach as it is to preach himself." what are the facts in Japan? 5. The majority of the revivals in 1. Missionary teachers a.re nearly Japan thus far have begun in the mis. everywhere direct preachers. They sion schools. As the work grows the preach as much as their surroundings proportion will probably become less will permit. Those who do not preach in favor of the schools. ought to do so. The missionary teacher who is not an earnest evangelist dis- 6. There is no better agency than the honors his calling. That these teachers schools to disarm prejudice. Many of do not preach to a constantly changing the students come to us for the sake of audience, and thus lose much vantage the English, but full of prejudices ground, should not be reckoned against against the foreign religion. Their them. close contact with foreigners in the school, visiting them in their homes, 2. Missionary teachers are indirect marking their conduct, acquainting preachers. Dr. Stevens states the fact. themselves with foreign thought, sends The teaching of true science is cou- them home disarmed of their old ha. stantly undermining the old faiths in tred, and if not personally Christians Japan. I can name many strong men they are no longer bigoted opponents. in the church in Japan who have been We meet them repeatedly after they brought to accept Christianity, and its have left school, and they are our Christ personally. through the slow and friends, often travelling long distances convincing process of the schools. True to see us, and showing us every mark science has made them true Chris- of friendship. tians. 7. The mission school is to the work 3. That missionary teachers have met in Japan what the hospital and dispenwith some success is shown by the fact sary are to the work in China-an enthat nearly two thousand of their stu- tering wedge. The school is frequently dents have gone out to stand for Chris- the only door by which the Gospel is tianity in Japan. Take this in connec- permitted to come in and reach the tion with the fact that the majority of people. The English language serves these schools have come into existence as a bait, and is in itself, as Dr. Stevens since 1885. There are no more intelli- says, a civilizer. It is furthermore comgent, stable, and earnest Christians in ing to be generally regarded as the best Japan than those who have come out of medium of theological instruction. the mission schools. The time commonly Most of the theological schools now do spent in pursuing a ccrurse oj 6fudy gives their ohief work in the Enilish. Estimating the Population of Ohina. purpose, as a considerable part of it is waste, owing to an old bed of the Yel- BY BEV. ARTHUB H. SMITH, SHANTUNG, low River which has devastated a broad band of land, on which are no villages. CHINA. There is also a canal leading from the Grand Canal to the sea, and a long de- The question of the population of pression much below the general aver- China is an antique, which seems to age, thinly occupied by villages, behave been viewed from almost every cauee it is liable to inundation, as in point of vision, with results extremely 1890. For these reasons it seemed deinharmonious. The reasons for this sirable to make a new count in a better are sufficiently well known, and have spot, and for this purpose a district often been explained at length in these was chosen, situated about ninety Ii columns. It appears to be well settled east of the sub-prefecture of Lin-ch'ing, that no real dependence can be placed to which it belongs. The area taken upon the Chinese official returns, yet was only half the size of the former, that they are the only basis upon which and instead of merely estimating the rational estimates can be based, and average population of the villages, the therefore have a certain value. So far actual number of families in each was as we are aware, all efforts to come at taken, so far as this number is known the real population per square mile to the natives. The man who prepared have proceeded from such extensive the village map of the area is a native units as provinces, or at least prefec- of the central village, and a person of tures, the foundation and superstruc- excellent sense. He put the popUlation ture being alike a mere pagoda of in every case somewhat below the popuguesses. Some years ago an effort was lar estimate, so as to be certainly within made in this district to make a more bounds. The number of persons to a exact computation of the population of " family" was still taken at five, though, a very limited area, as a sort of unit oi as he pointed out, this is a totally inmeasure. For this purpose a circle adequate allowance. Many" families" was taken, the radius of which was. live and have all things in common, and twenty Ii, the foreign residence being are therefore counted as one, although, at the centre. A list was made of every as in the case of this particulA.r indivillage having received famine relief in vidual, the "family" may consist of the year 1878, so that it was not diffi- some twenty persons. To the tr8…e11er cult to make a proximate guess at the in this region, the villages appear to be average number of families. The v~l both large and thickly clustered, and lages were 150 in number, and the aver- the enumeration shows this to be the age size was taken as 80 families, which, case. Within a radius of ten li (three allowing five persons to the family, miles) there are 64 villages, the smallest gave a total of 60,000·persons. Allow- having 30 families and the largest more ing six miles to be the equivalent of than a thousand, while the average is twenty Ii, the population of the square 188 families. The total number of mile is 531, or considerably above the families is 12,040, and the total number average of the Kingdom of Belgium (the of persons at five to the family, is 60,- most densely populated country in 200, or more than double the estimate Eu:rope), which had in 1873 an average for the region with twice the diameter. of only 462 to thtl square mile. At a This gives a population of 2129 to the distance of a few miles beyond this cir- square mile. So far as appearances go, cle there is a tract called the " Thir- there are thousands of square miles in teen Villages," because there are that Southern and Central Chihli, Western number within a distance of five Ii! and Southwestern Shantung, and North- This shows that the particular region IIrll H01l811, whllre tl1Q villaielil are as in which this estimate was made happens to be an unfavorable onQ for the thick as in this one tract, the contents eral calls to work in home field~. At a of which we are thus able approximately monthly concert Dr. Hitchcock read a to compute. But for the plain of North letter from Mrs. Lloyd, the daughter of China as a whole, it is probable that it Dr. Willard Parker, in which she narwould be found more reasonable to esti- rated the suhstance of a talk with' Jim,' mate 300 persons to the square mile for who was yet unconverted. To her exthe more sparsely settled districts, and hortations he replied by questions like from 1000 to 1500 for the more thickly these: 'Was you,r father a Christian?' settled regions. In any case a vivid Answer: 'Yes.' • Was his father a impression is thus gained of the enor- Christian?' 'Yes.' 'And his father? ' mous number of human beings crowded 'Yes.' 'Well, my father, and my into these fertile and historic plains, father's father, and my father's grandand also of the almost insuperable diffi- father were heathen, and you say the culties in the way of an exact knowl- heathen are lost. Now, why did not edge of the facts of the true" census." your grandfather come and tell my In the tables published in " Williams' grandfather the way of salvation, if he Middle Kingdom" (vol. i., p. 264), the believed the heathen are lost? ' population of Shantung for 1812 is given as 28,958,764, and that for 1882, from "The letter was altogether a powerthe Almanac de Gotha based upon the ful and striking one. After the reading Chinese Customs returns, as 29,000,000, there was silence in the assembly of or almost the same. The former is students. I rose and said: ' I will go. reckoned on the basis of 65,000 square Were I to refuse, after hearing those miles, and the average is found to be words, the earth would shake under my 4<i,4 persons to the square mile. A feet, and the heavens grow black over large part of Shantung is mountainous, my head.' I wavered no more. It was and much of this is wholly waste territory, but some of the mountain districts Zulu' Jim' that brought me to the dehave a numerous population tucked away in the valleys, and wherever there cision.' ' is a spot of arable soil sufficient to af· ford nutriment. The natives of such -" In order to the IlUccessflll prosecudistricts can with difficulty be persuaded tion of the work in foreign fields we to leave them and go elsewhere. One ought to have a sound policy and wise old man who had done so explained administration and all that, and yet the that when he was down on the plain, one thing more important than all else he felt" all-out-doors" (k'uan te huang), is, the illustration of religion pure and and had to come back! undefiled in the converts. In order to impress the unevangelized, the great -Among the points and sentiments thing is not a wise policy, but a holy at the International Missionary Union church in their midst. Without this, Conference, Clifton Springs, June, 1892, means and instrumentalities, however were the following by Rev. C. C. Tracy, well ohosen and well used, will avail of India: little."
" Father Tyler speaks of James Dube, -" We talk a great deal about apostothe Zulu preacher. That Zulu, 'Jim,' lio methods. Shall we attempt to do exmade me a missionary. Near the end actly as the apostles did? That would of my seminary course, at New York, require us to travel on land with oamels I was wavering in regard to the foreign and donkeys, and on the sea with sailwork. Though almost resolved to go and·oar ships. Is it precise apostolic abroad, I was shaken by what seemed methods that we want, or the apostolic insurmountable difficulties and by aev- spirit in the use of modern methods ?"
-MiBB Ella J. Newton, M.D., of Foochow, China, !lendin~ her congratula- the cemetery. 5he dip,d on the 23d. tions to the I. M. U., said: Her death was quite unexpected, but "It has been my privilege for the past two years to attend the delightful she was ready. iTnheMecxhiiclod.renTahreerehearre~ meetings of the Union, and I know of except the one but one thing better than to be· with you this year, and that is to be just four daughters and two sons-all single. where I am, on the field at work. Brother Mellen had worked so hard " I shall think of you as you meet in that consecrated tabernacle and pray he was broken down ; but we did not that God's special blessing may be upon every session, that you may all be re- expect Mrs. Mellen to follow so soon. freshed by talking together of what God is doing in the wide, wide world. One I have had a long sickness, and have cannot well be narrow minded and think only of his own little corner in suffered very much. Was taken last the vineyard after mingling in such gatherings, and I wish every missionary October 21st. Am about much of the returning to America would plan his vacation so as to spend the second week day-walk, read, write, and work, but in June at Clifton. have a weak and lame back and shat- •, I have been at home for six months and am glad to report myself so weli tered nerves. Hope to improve-am (after ten months at Clifton) that I think it will not be necessary for me to go to gaining strength daily. America again for many years ; and if I may be allowed a word of advice to any Since we met last my son has gone of the missionaries who feel in such a hurry to return to their fields, it is stay to East Central Africa as a medical misat Clifton till you are well, and see if you do not find it the shortest road sionary under A. B. C. F. M. back to your home and work. Your brother, .. One cannot be away from China now very long without noticing changes. GEORGE THOMPSON. In spite of the loud rumors of expulsion, war, and riot with which the air Intercommunioation by Speeoh and was filled last autumn, the attitude of Letters in Ohina. the people is exceedingly friendly, and the results of work are rapidly growing BY BEV. W. H. LINGLI, LIEW CHOW, C:!IINA. larger and more satisfactory. The day of China's redemption draws near. I have just read in the May number !'raise God with us and ask Him to be- of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW a statement stow richer blessings on this great by Professor Kirchoff that ., Chinese is land." the most popular language in the world; that Chinese is spoken by four hun- Note from a Veteran Afrioan M;ssion- dred million persons." If all Chinese ary. spoke one language, the statement of Professor Kirchoff would be very nllarly OBERLm, 0., July 27, 1892. true; but as it is it is very far from the truth. People cannot fairly be said to DEAR BROTHER: Yesterday we took speak one language unless capable of the remains of our dear Mrs. Mellen to being understood among themselves when they do speak. It is exceeding doubtful if there are a hundred million people in China who speak a language or dialect sufficiently similar to be able to be understood among themselves. One might just as well speak of the language of India being spoken by two hundred and eighty-five millions of people as to Bpeak of Chinese being spoken by four hundred million per. sons. Anyone who has travelled any in China knows that there are many languages in China as well as in India. Often the people of one district cannot understand the language of another. ful if one in ten gets anything like a There are provinces which speak their clear idea of the meaning.
own language. I am writing from Liew These are rather lengthy remarks for Chow, near the border of Kwangtung, me to make, but they may give a better Kwongsai, and Hunan Provinces, and idea in regard to the language of China.
a man from either province will not If it is not clear it is not strange, for understand a word spoken by a man the language or languages of China are from either of the other provinces, un. a monstrosity.
less he hll.s heard it before. Our native pastor here is from the Kwangtung Prov· ince, but when he speaks to a brother An Anoient Karen Hymn. from the interior of the Hunan Provo ince he speaks through lin interpreter. Father God is very near, Lives He now among us here; There is a very erroneous view abroad God is not far off, we knowalso in regard to the Wenli or classical Dwells He in our midst below. language of China. Before coming to China I was misled by it myself. I 'Tis because men are not true read in missionary literature and peri. That He is not seen by you; odicals that the Bible was now trans. 'Tis because men turned to sin lated into the WenIi language of China, Now no longer God is seen. and could be read by four hundred millions of people. It is true that it is All upon the earth below translated into that language, but how Is but God's foot.rest, we know; many people are there in China who Heaven in the heights above can read it in that language understand. Is God's sllat of truth and love. ingly? For an answer, I refer you to the report of the Shanghai Missionary -Baptist MiSSionary Magazine Conference of 1890, page 67. A high estimate made by Rev. John C. Gibson, The Prayer League and the witness of Swatow, of the number who can read to the need of a consecrated living and intelligently in China is twelve million giving, which we printed in the Edito three hundred and seventy.five thou· rial Notes of the last November issue, sand. page 862, has had a wide acceptauce, and many friends have sent to us their J nst following this you will find the signatures, in token of a hearty co·oper. estimate by Dr. Martin, of Peking, ation. Among others, F. A. M;cGa.w, which is very much lower-less than six Augusta, Ill.; William C. Conant, New millions in China who can be said to York; D. L. Barackman, Alexander read any language. The Wenli is not Collins, Clara M. Collins, Jennie Col. a spoken language at all in China at lins, M. J. Barackman, Hannah Will. prespnt. It is the language of the an· son, Mrs. E. A. Stewart, John H. C~l. cients ot' this empire, and therefore a lins, James Kelly, W. R. Wilson, Mrs. foreign language to the present gener. W. R. Wilson. ation. Again, if a man from the north of China were to read the Bible in Wenli to a man in the south of China, the southern man would not have any more idea of what was read than if it Bishop Potter, in a recent sermon in had been in Sanscrit or Hebrew, if he behalf of New York City missions, said could not see the characters. The great that the Church he represented was majority in any place are just about preaching the Gospel in that city" not the same. When the Bible is read to only in almost all the tongues of Europe, our congregations in WenIi without but in those of China, Armenia, Turkey, words of eli:planation, it is very doubt· and Persia. "
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
I1I.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR AAfOS 11. WELLS.
Probably of no event that ever oc- eties during the first three weeks of Cllrred in the religious world have such July. That does not look as if the de- extensive and so many reports been nominational plan of organizing young given by religious and secular journals people for the Lord's work was to suas of the great New York Christian En- persede the interdenominational plan. deavor Convention. The Christian Endeavor missionary The uniform prayer-meeting topics journey on which Dr. Clark has started of the Christian Endeavor societies have should make this, even more than last for many months run parallel to the year, a missionary twelvemonth in all topics of the International Sunday- Christian Endeavor societies. The walls school Lessons. Notwithstanding the of Christian Endeavor convention halls, many obvious advantages of the plan, of Endeavor prayer-meeting rooms, some have thought that it would be even the Jetter-heads of Endeavor stabetter to have topics wholly distinct. tionery, have long borne such mottoes At the Boston headquarters, 47 Frank- as "Missouri for Christ I" "Brooklyn lin Street, they are taking a postal-card for Christ!" "Our Land for Christ!" vote on this question, in which all who Let those stand; but place above them are interested are invited to join. this, "The World for Christ !" Adopt Mr. Fulton's two-cents·a-week pledge- Dr. Clark's departure from this plan, or any other scheme of d¢nite, country on his around-the-world tour systematic giving. Form live missionary in the interests of the Christian En- committees. Inaugurate some plan of deavor cause was attended with many reading of missionary books. Get into demonstrations of affection and esteem. ~ommunication with the missionary At the Jersey City railroad station h! secretaries of your own denomination. was given warm greeting by a throng Do something, Make a beginning, howuf young people, and presented with a ever little, and it will grow. . beautiful Christian Endeavor monogram badge, set with diamonds and pearls. More petitions for the Sunday closing At Chicago, Denver, and the chief cities of the World's Fair were sent to Conin California, enthusiastic meetings gress from Christian Endeavor societies were held. 'Dr. and Mrs. Clark, with and conventions than from all other their son Eugene, set sail for Australia bodies put together. Surely a large August 19th. Many meetings are al- share of the encouraging result is due ready planned for New Zealand, Aus- to these young people, and to the active tralia, Japan, China, Ceylon, India, head of the National Committee, Rev. Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, R. V. Hunter, of Terre Haute, Ind. and England. California has already organized a A remarkable proof was lately given committee and raised a large sum of of the self-acting power of the Christian money in order to secure the Interna- Endea vor idea. A missionary in Mada- tional Convention of 1895. gascar, previously unknown to Dr. Clark, wrote him about the growth of the Among the many remarkable tributes movement in that far.distant island_ to the power of the New York Conven- He gave the astonishing information that tion were two made by two prominent thirty societies of Christian Endeavor Hebrew journals, which mourned the already existed there, It was not known lack of such consecrated enthusiasm before that there was a single society among the Jews. Another earne~t trib. on the island. ute along similar lines was made by a Roman Catholic paper. A net gain of over one thousand soci· Under the leadership of Rev. S. E. Young, Christian Endeavorers in all the of wise counsel and the inspiration of seaooast and lake States are organized experienced leadership_ for carrying on religious servioes in lifesaving stations. Rev. W. B. Floyd, who carried to Canada the Christian Endeavor banner J ue Hawk, the eloquent young China- for the greatest gain in societies during man whose address at the New York the year, won from Pennsylvania by On- Convention was received with such tre- tario, was twice delayed by failures of mendous enthusiasm, has been oalled trains, and forced to remain all day Sunby the American Baptist Missionary day in Oswego, as, of course, he could Society to work among the Chinamen not carry that banner on a Sabbathof New York City. breaking train. He thought that the banner was loth to leave the country. One society we know of has been It was given a hearty welcome in a making extensive repairs in its chapel. great meeting at Kingston, Ontario, and Instead of taking a vacation during the was slowly unrolled during the singing period of disturbance, it is visiting the of the hymn," Blest be the tie that other societies of the town in regular binds." order, expeoting to reap a harvest of new ideas. The pastor should be in closest touch with his Endeavor society. Whenever Few facts show more forcibly the a pastor complains of his young pepple, hearty acceptance given the Christian calls them headstrong, conceited, and Endeavor idea by the various denomi. the like, it will be found on investiganations than the following. Over sixty tion that he rarely attends his young religious journals in the United States people's meetings, takes no active part al'.d Canada have regular Christian En. in their work, and merely criticises deavor departments. These are all in. from the outside. There are such tiuential, standard journals. There are " pastors," though they are mercifully in addition a host of bright church pa. few. The pastor should hold occasional pers published by local Christian En. meetings with all the Christian Endeavor societies. These sixty papers deavor committees. Especially to the are quite evenly divided among all prayer-meeting and lookout committees evangelical denominations. is his counsel and encouragement indis- pensable. If the society is nut too At New York the Friends and the large, let the pastor oooasionally invite Methodist Protestants formed denomi- it to hold a prayer-meeting in his national Christian Endeavor unions. house. Let him open his house to The Cumberland Presbyterians have committee meetings of all kinds. If also formally adopted the Christian En. he is the right kind of pastor, neither deavor principles and name for their he nor the young people will feel any young people's societies_ Thus de. embarrassment when he thus presses nominationalism, ardent and wise, and into their counsels. It is his rightful interdenominationalism, cordial and and natural place. helpful, go hand in hand. "The verdure-clad pledge;" that's Many societies allover the land held what they call the '" cast-iron pledge" rousing meetings in which t~e New in the Sandwich Islands. York Convention was reported; and now that great meeting is being still The Review of Reviews calls the Chrisfurther multiplied in hundreds of thou. tian Endeavor sooieties a Salvation sands of young lives stirred to hesh Army, "with the Corybantio qualities endeavor. eliminated. "
The fall Christian Endeavor conven- Let it never be forgotten that no s.otions are now upon us. Let every pas. ciety is properly a Christian Endeavor society if it is undenominational. Here tor attend them, to gain new courage is where the advocates of sectarian and cheer from the fresh-faced youthful host, and to give them the direction young people's religious societies get This gave three hundred of those poor muddled. A Christian Endeavor so- little folks a most delightiul excursion ciety is everything a denominational on the Hudson River. This little inci.
society can possibly be, and more; it is dent is worthy of a place by the side of also interdenominational. the stirring time in the rally of the Dis- Here are some cheering facts. Chris- ciples, when money enough was raised tian Endeavor societies last year con- to finish their Japanese mission house tributed, so far as can be learned, to and insure the building of their mission the Women's Baptist Foreign Mission- church in Salt Lake City.
ary Society, $562.77; to the Cumber- land Presbyterian Board, $495.37; to For several years a Christian Enthe Board of Foreign Missions of the deavor society has existed in the Wis- Reformed Church, about $600 ; to the consin State Prison. For obvious rea- Board of Domestic Missions of the Re- sons, this society is never represented formed Church, $545.03; to the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian at Christian Endeavor conventions; and Church, $4621.46 ; to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian yet it has a great deal of genuine Chris- Church, $9035.60; to the Woman's tian Endeavor enthusiasm, and is doing Presbyterian Board of Missions of the a good work. When the society voted Northwest, $1702.98 ; to the American Congregational Union, $961.94; to the on the Sunday-closing question, 51 vot- American Missionary Society, $2117.60 ; ed to close the World's Fair on the to the American Baptist Missionary Union, a large amount of money, whose Lord's Day, and only 7 against it. A exact amount Dr. Mabie cannot ascer· good sign for the real usefulness of the tain from the data at hand; to the Congregational Sunday-School and Publish_ society is that during the last half year ing Society, $398.03 ; to the New West its membership has fallen from 191 to Educational Commission, $504 ; to the 77, on account of stricter requirements. Foreign Christian Missionary Society, $1385; to the Woman's Board of Mis- Christian Endeavorers are glad that sions (Congregational), $2738.72; and the New York Convention aroused the to the American Bome Missionary Society, $4300. These figures are only ire of infidel papers. The more such approximate, as in many cases the con- papers rail at the movement, the better. tributions sent by the societies do not One of them scoffed at the great throng indicate their source, and some boards are not heard from. They are delight- of young people as a crowd of " sourful and inspiring figures, and show the faced and one-idead strangers," and young people working ardently and loy- went on to give a caricature of the meetings. As to the Convention's in_ dorsement of the Sunday closing move- ment, the editor remarks, ,. Perpetual ruin and blight has been brought upon many a land by the constricting and im- bruting despotism of just such meddlers as these;" and after reporting the war- cry, raised so often and so vigorously by the Ohio delegation, ally for their own denominations and W" Oe w-honi-'tOg~ the cause of Christ in all the world. To the World's Fair Next year may all these figures be more than doubled! If it's kept open Sunday Or if liquor's sold there," A pleasant incident of the New York Convention was the visit paid by a the editor adds : "The long ears of the crowd of Endeavorers to the children's hearers, as they took in these strains, service of song at the Fhe Points House nodded in approbation; subdued brays of Industry. After the service a brief, of concurrence arose and died away; a impromptu appeal to the Endeavorers smile of confidence diffused itself on present was made by one of them, and their not over-intellectual visages. and more than $168 were raised on the spot. a twinkling in their eyes told of aug- menting hope of gratification of their desire to bully and domineer,"
18112.J EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IV.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Missionary Lectureships. 10. Providences in missionary his- It may not be known to readers of tory, how difficulties and disasters, etc., the REvmw that, by a singular coinci. have worked good. dence, four of the editorial staff of the REvmw have been called to deliver lec· 11. Specimen heroes and heroines. tures on missions in course. Rev. Dr. Name a number, and dwell upon a few. A. J. Gordon last winter before the Theological Seminary at New Bruns. 12. Summary of successes, the outwick gave a series of six lectures on The look, and the task to which we are Holy Spirit and Missions, of which the called. highest commendation has reached our ears. The editor-in-chief has given a The editor·in·chief is debarred by series at New Brunswick on the Divine numerous duties from attempting Enterprise of 2fIissions, and expects to courses of lectures elsewhere; but he ventures to suggest that if either of the colleagues mentioned can be ob- tained, these lectures may accomplish gi ve another series in Scotch capitals vast good.
in February and March, 1893. Rev. Dr.
J. T. Gracey has likewise been giving Oo-operation Between Missionary Boards a series at Syracuse and elsewhere, and and Oommittees. • has other series in preparation; and For many years we have been deeply now Rev. D. L. Leonard, D.D., our able impressed that, if there could be fre- statistician, is to give at Oberlin a se. quent and frank interchange of views ries of lectures on the following top- between representatives of the various ics. There is no reason why Drs. mission boards, great economy of time, Gracey, Gordon, and Leonard should money, and labor might be secured.
not be invited to give their admirable For example, take the estimates of series in other cities and before other ea'!pense in conducting work on anyone educational institutions. field. Let us suppose that the leading Dr. Leonard's course embraces Lec- societies of the world should confer as tures on History of Modcrn Protestant to the scale of expenditure for build- Missions. ings, salaries, and general cost of mis- 1. Introductory. Christianity a mis- sion labor in Japan, China, India; and sionary religion, and missions before determine a minimum or maximum, to the Reformation. which all might seek to conform. Sup- 2. Missions before Carey, and why so pORe again that the practicability of few and fruitless. employing paid native agency, and to 3. Carey epoch, why so called, and what extent and under what restrictions, causes which combined to produce it. might be discussed and agreed upon.
4. Origin and spread of missionary Suppose, again, that the proportion of zeal in Great Britain and on the Con· salary to be paid to missionaries on tinent. furlough–the mileage allowed for trav- 5. Origin and spread of missionary elling expenses, the amount and kind of zeal in the United States. labor to be expected of them'while at 6. Missions in India, growth and re- home, and the intervals of ordinary ab- sults. sence from their fields, with the limit 7. Missions in Africa, growth and re- of time of such absence-might be de- sults. cided on, etc. Again, suppose that 8. Missions in China, growth and re- modes of sending money and supplies sults. to missionaries in the field might be 9, Missions in islands of sea, growth, adjusted on a uniform system, so that etc. one set of agencies might be used uni· formly. These are merely a few of the are making to add to its attractions and scores of matters requiring comity and resources. Among other new features co.operation in order to economy both will be a department of Christian En- all of labor and of other costs. deavor, edited by Professor Wells, in In fact, we see no reason why in which we hope to see communications matters of general int.erest there might from Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., now on not be this conference and common his world tour. Dr. Clark, of Bos- basis of operation. Banks have their ton, D. S., the founder and president clearing houses, railroads pool their of the Young People's Society of Chris- earnings, great commercial systems tian Endeavor. is going on a tour round compare results of diverse plans of the world in the interest of the En- working and so come to common agree- deavor movement. He sailed from San ment, abandoning what is found to be Francisco on August 19th. and purposes practically wasteful and adopting what visiting the Sandwich Islands, Australia.
experiment proves to be a saving of ex- New Zealand, Japan, China, India, pense an-i material. Why may not the Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and great departments of Christ's benevo- Spain, returning home by way of Eng- lent work get a common basis of eco- land about the middle of next June.
nomical business methods ? We are The REVIEW is not a moneymaking unable to see why often several minor project. It is founded and maintained agencies might not be combined at for the dissemination of all missionary least under one treasurer and clerical information and inspiration. No cost system, greatly diminishing cost of ad- is spared to secure the fullest and most ministration, and so commending them- accurate statements of facts from every selves to the business judgment of wise field, and the best contributions to its and thoughtful men. literature from the pens of the most able and gifted men and women through- out the world. We must depend on The effort is now making with re- the reader to help us in this matter.
newed energy to enlarge both the scope One subscriber known personally to the of this REVIEW and its sphere of actual editor sends his REVIEW to a score of service.' Were its number of readers non snhscribers too poor to pay for it, ten times multiplied, the labor of edit- for reading each month, pasting inside ing would be not a whit increased; the cover their names and the order in and even the cost of publication would which it is to be passed from hand to be but little increased, since it is the hand. If that were done by every sub- composition and electrotyping which scriber, the number of readers would at constitute the main expense; and when once be multiplied twentyfold. Ap- once the plates are paid for, the only plications are constantly coming to us cost for an enlarged edition is the out- for gratuitous copies from parties who lay for presswork, paper, binding, and by a trifli ng effort might raise the mailing. If the publishers could secure needed subscription price, even if more a large enough list of subscribers, the than one party shares the expense and cost of the REVIEW would be corre- the benefit. Is there not too much ten- spondingly decreased. They have gen- dency to get our blessings without cost, erously offered to put the REVIEW at and is it altogether a wholesome ten- $1.50 if 50,000 subscribers can be got. dency? In what way can we build up and the editors hope their effort at a real missionary zeal more effectively much increased list of paid subscrip- than by wide dissemination of compact tions may be successful. and carefully edited missionary infor- Meanwhile the editors are seeking to mation and matter pertaining to the make the REVIEW more and more indis- world-wide work? We ask all our pensable to the reading public. Efforts readers for their help. The Petition of the WorId's W. O. T. U. Panjab a normal school or training in- stitution of some kind, at which native for the protection of the home, ad- converts of the various countries which dressed to the governments of the it is desired to evangelize might receive twhoerlsdt~bndeasredecohfetsheealcahw ruler " To raise to that of Chris- s'uch training as would best qualify them on their return to their native tian morals, to strip away the safeguards countries to preach the Gospel to the and sanctions of the State from the people. We might begin with Afghans drink traffic and the opium trade, and ~nd Baluchis and get young men from to protect the homes of the people by among the Brahues, the people of the total prohibition of these curses of Katiristan, Turkistan, etc., as God gave civilization throughout all the territory them to us. The question of the locaover which his or her government ex- tion of the institution would be best fixed tends. " after a consultation with the Panjab This petition has lately received Corresponding Committee and Missionhearty indorsement from the Inter- ary Conference. Perhaps, however, national Missionary Union, composed Peshawar would best fulfil the condi· of missionaries from many lands, and tions required, as it is at thllentrance the YDung People's Society of Christian to passes through which at least Afghan- Endeavor, at their annual meeting held istan, Chitral, and Kafiristan can be in the city of New York. easily reached, and is at the same time These, . with indorsements from connected with the Baluch frontier and churches, missionary societies, peace' the Persian Gulf by the railway to and other moral associations, the Salvation Army, Good Templars, Y. M. C. A., Karachi and the frequent steamers from that port. In this way it might be and other bodies, aggregate millions possible to train converts there for who have thus said, We desire the complete banishment of intoxicants, opium, work in the Arabia, Mesopotamia, and and other narcotics, and with the Persian missions as well, if found desir- Woman's Christian Temperance Union able.
" 2. Students would, of course, need appeal to the rulers of nations to exer· small scholarships for their support cise all power in them invested to ac- during training, but would live in simcomplish this deliverance. ple native style. They should, when We therefore most earnestly request that all these will unite with us in properly trained, be able to gain their prayer; that as leading Christian wom· own support among the people to whom en, in the presentation of this petition, they are sent. Whatever training may stand face to face with rulers, pleading be found necessary to enable them to for the protection of their homes, the do this should be given. The experi- ence of missionaries and travellers- Spirit of the Lord will move upon royal hearts to grant their request. e.g., Mrs, Bishop in her recent journey through Mesopotamia, Persia, etc.- MARy A. WOODBRIDGE, shows that the most useful of all arts in order to gain a welcome is the pos- Secretary World's W. a. T. u.
se!lsion of some knowledge of medicine.
Mrs. Bishop tells us that again and .. Oentral Asia. for Ohrist." again when she asked fanatical tribes – generally Mohammedans – whether In the O. M. Intelligencer for April they would receive a resident mission.
Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall propounds a ary if sent to them, their invariable an- plan by which he believes Central Asia swer was, 'Yes-if he is a doctor.'
may be won for Christ. We all remember that our Lord sent " 1. The C. M. S. should establish at out His first disciples to heal the sick one of our froutier stationll in the alii well alii to prelch tho Gospel, and than this we can have no better model. The Uganda Troubles, In order to give the students some The following summary of the history knowledge of medicine a fully qualified of the Uganda Mission, sent to The European doctor should form one mem- Manchester Examiner by Rev. C. Sut- ber of the missionary staff of the insti- cliffe, of Holy Trinity Vicarage, Staly- tution. This would also make the in- bridge, deserves to be carefully studied: stitution known far and wide, and "We must go back to the days of would enable the missionaries there to 1875, when Gordon was Governor of enter into friendly relations with many the Soudan, whose efforts to put down distant tribes. the slave trade on the Upper Nile led "3. The language in which lectures him to the very confines of Uganda, would be giTen would be Persian, which and during which year he sent Colonel is known very extensively in the regions Long, one of his officers, to visit King which we qesire to evangelize. It is a Mtesa, of Uganda. That same year most copious and elegant language, and Stanley made his second effort to cross is easily acquired. the great continent, and leaving Zanzi- " 4. The missionaries engaged in the bar, arrived at Mtesa's capital in the work of the institution would naturally month of April. During his stay there endeavor to learn as many as possible he wrote what has now become Itn his- of the languages of those among whom torical letter, which appeared in The they would be laboring. After Per- Daily Telegraph of November 15th, 1875, sian, Pashtu would be needed; then asking in the king's name that Chris- the acquisition of the Baluchi, Brahue, . tian missionaries and teachers might and Kafiristani languages would enable be sent to Uganda. That letter evoked them to translate the Oracles of God such sympathy that a sum of £12,000 into tongues in which they are not yet was offered to the Church Missionary found. A grander sphere of work for Society if that Society would undertake able linguists and devoted Christian the work.
missionaries could not be discovered. "To the honor of its committee " 5. The staff of the institution should (among whom was that eminent states- consist of not less than two thoroughly man, Lord Lawrence), this letter was qualified clerical and one medical mis- answered in the affirmative. Seven sionary. This would be the minimum, suitable men were at once selected, in- and more would be desirable. Those cluding the saintly Alexander Mackay, sent should be in every respect picked and sent out. The reply letter to men. They should be (1) born teachers Mtesa, which was signed for the com- -which, we must remember, every uni- mittee by Arcbbishop Tait, of Canter- versity graduate is not. (2) They ought bury, and the Earl of Chichester, con- to have shown some ability in the ac_ tains a pregnant paragraph: 'We hope quisition of spoken languages. Of the that very soon the Word of God, which higher, spiritual qualifications needed is the foundation of England's throne it is superfluous to speak-the love for and England's greatness, will be trans- souls, the consecration of life and tal- laten into the language of Uganda, and ents to the Master's use. On no ac- that it will be the means of establishing count whatever should the men, when a lasting friendship between the king.
once appointed, be called away to other doms of Uganda and England.'
work. Their number should be aug- "Now, this letter, relln in the light mented, not diminished. of recent events, is very snggestive, for . "6. The work thus undertaken' must it tskes us back to the time when there have a good trial with the right men, was no British East Africa Company and must not be hastily given up when formed, no communication of a politi· the seed has been sown and before it tal charscter between our country and hali appeared above ground.' " Uganda, nnd, what is still more ~ignificant, when the French Jesuits, or (British and American) in their opera- 'White Fathers,' had not even ap- tions, so that if the French Jesuits had proached the Victoria Nyanza. The adopted this course no such trouble as Church missionaries in 1876 went to that before us would have been eXDeri- pe~etrate the East Coast, as others had enced. penetrated the West Coast sixty years before, with no weapon in their hands " From that time to this there have but the Word of God, and with no been constant feuds, the Jesuits at- other motive than that of carrying the tempting to oust the 'heretical teach- Gospel messaae to the benighted people er,' while the latter, with the English- of those far·off lands. man's tenacity and fervor, has held the fort up to now. But it is since the " The history of the mission is full of time that the petition of Africa became pathetic interest, and may be had at an accomplished fact, and Uganda was the C. M. S. House, Salisbury Square, found to be in the sphere of British in- E. C.; but it is to the entry of the fluence, that the spirit of Jesuitical op- French Jesuit priests, in 1879 (two position has been more prominently years after the English Church mission- displayed. They would seem to think aries), that especial attention should be that English authority is synonymous given. Up to that time, notwithstand- with Protestant bigotry and intoler- ing the heavy losses sustained by the ance, as they seize every opportunity of mission, the work at the capital pro- undermining it. What, then, is our gressed with such success as could rea- duty? It is to wait patiently for Cap- sonably be expected. It is quite true tain Lugard's report, which I have no that the king was fickle and trouble- doubt will clearly vindicate his course some; but Mackay and his fellow-mis- of action. If he has deposed Mwanga, sionaries (some of whom were personally the king (Mtesa's son), who is nominally known to me) quietly won their way a Roman Catholic, it is because the amid the fierce and subtle opposition of king has allowed himself to be used as the Arab slave-traders, who ever were a tool in the hands of designing men and must be the natural foes of Chris- who are hostile to British authority, tian teachers. Greater men than Mwanga have had to be removed from their kingly position "But on the arrival of the Jesuits when their weakness or vacillation has another source of trouble presented proved them to be a source of danger . itself to the mission, for although pro- to the State. Certain we are of one fessing to be a Christian body, their thing, that England's authority has al- main aim seems to have been to under- ways been on the side of religious and mine the influence of the Protestant civil freedom; that whether its sub- missionaries, to draw away their con- jects be Mohammedans, Hindoos, Ro- verts, and to set up the Roman system manists, or Protestants, it holds the in the Court of Uganda. Here, than, scales with unflinching equality, only is the 'bone of contention.' Many one condition being imposed – that think that the Jesuits had no right to they shall be loyal and true to the power invade that country as Christian teach- that shields them."-The Christian. ers, since the work had already been undertaken. Moreover, an informal Missionary Dress and Food. conference had been held on the coast near Zanzibar two years before, when In justice to all parties, we publish the English and French missionaries the following : agreed not to trespass on each other's pastures, in the face of the dense heath- HONG-TONG, SHANSI, CHINA, enism of that continent. This has ever in the main been carried out by all the December 30, 189!. lP'eat Protestant missionary societiell DEAR DR. PIERSON: In the March, 1891, iSiue of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, p. 226, statements by Rev. B. C. Henry, terior Chinese dress. It seems strange regarding the wearing of Ohinese dress, living in Chinese style, etc., might lead that the majority of missionaries would, some readers to believe that mission. aries adopt the native costume at the of their own free will and choice, fol. peril of their health and lives. Obvious reference was made to the China Inland low this example if it was a pernioious Mission in the following words : one. "The statistics of the great society, whose name is synonymous with the As for living in Chinese houses, I highest oonsecration and self.abnegation, show a terrible sacrifioe of preoious have yet to see a mission station not material. It is said that one.half of those who enter China under its aus· fixed up in as cosey, comfortable man· pioes return within two years, either to their homeland on earth or to the ner as could be desired. This is, of home above, and that the average term of service for the whole body is only oourse, a matter which each missionary three and a half years." must decide for himself; but here, as These erroneous statements regarding statistics have been answered by the at home, one could easily run to no end Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, in the Mission· ary Recorder; and that letter quite effec. of extravaganoe if one so desired. It tually deals with the " statistics" state. ment. is, however, sincerely to be hoped a I have met considerably over one standard of living will be maintained hundred missionaries of the C. I. M. and other societies, who wear the that will not put us oompletely beyond Chinese dress, and know only one who wholly confined himself to Chinese oos· the touch of the natives, with their tume and food. He did it because it was more expedient, not that he ob- simpler habits. The native houses, if jected to foreign olothes or food. AI. most invariably the Chinese dress is chosen with proper oare, are better for simply worn as an exterior, underneath being the usually worn foreign gar. all practicable purposes than foreign. ments. This, surely, oould have no ill effect on the health. Again, as a built houses, the latter, as a rule, caus· rule, it has been observed the Chinese olothe more warmly than Amerioans; ing only suspicion and doubt in the this surely would not oause poor health, or, if so, it is ea.sy enough not to follow minds of the people, who look at any de· the example. parture from usually recognized cus· Not only members of the C. I. M., but now of nearly every other society, toms as lacking in respect, to say the realize the great advantage of dressing in the native costume; and to.day there least. is soarcely a society working in interior China, away from treaty ports at least, Regarding food, there is no lack of some members of which do not wear the Chinese costume; and as yet I have good, wholesome, nourishing food, namet none, nor have I heard of any in North China, who do not w~ar an Ill;· tive production, to be rrocured in al- most any place at about one half the home prioes. It is as easy to have it oooked in English as in Chinese fashion.
This oity, at a very high estimation, has only twenty thousand souls; but we can I rooure the following articles, all native, and there is very little differ· ence between this and any other plaoe in North Chinn except that in larger oities the variety is greater: Good wheat flour. . It cents per lb.
" cornmeal. ~ .. !o cent Oll.tmeal. …….. . -I1J "
Pears ……….. . -!rr Grapes………. . It cents Persimmons….. . 15 for 1 cent.
Cabbages ……. . ! cent each.
Arrowroot…….. . -h " per lb.
Potatoes…….. . 32 cents 1001bs.
Sweet potatoes … . 60 Mutton ……… . 4t " lb.
Beef…………. . 2 ""
Chiokens…….. . 3 " each.
Phea.sa.nts…•..•. 2t " Wild geese…….. 4 cents each. Dr. John G. Paton, the well·known missionary to the New Hebrides, was a Hare …………. 4 delegate to the Pan·Presbyterian Coun. Eggs. . . . . . . . . . .. cil, that met in Toronto, Canada, during Turnips. . .. . . . . . 3t .. per doz. September. He was to spend a few weeks yams …………. in the United States, and endeavor to t cent " lb. influence our Government to act in ac· cord with other great nations in pre· ~ " venting the traffic in slaves and rum at the New' Hebrides. The remarkable These are only samples, and by no sale of his autobiography has enabled Dr. Paton to give $25,000 to his mission means exhaust the list of productions. work; and we would be glad if every one of our readers who does not yet own Besides these common articles can be this, the greatest story of modern mis. purchased dried fruits, apples, apricots, sions, would buy one and so help Dr. Paton to give away another $25,OOO! nutmegs, cinnamon, spices, pepper, If that book has its due influence on those who read it, Dr. Paton will not white and brown sugar, candy, cakes, be the only giver.
etc., all very cheap, and all as good as Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, Eng. land, writes as follows about Rev. M. L. similar articles at home. In the shops Gray, Salisbury, Mo., and the Cross. bearer's Missionary Reading Circle: can be purchased foreign cotton cloth "This is an admirable idea. When it enters upon a vigorous stage of activity and calico of almost any grade, clocks, it will become a path of light between the watches, canned milk, thread, needles, home churches and the heathen world. The history of the kingdom of Christ in revolvers (!), etc. So it can be seen modern times is being written on the there is really no necessity of bringing high fields of missionary enterprise in letters of glory, and to the shame of the a thing from home; and the missionary Christian Church, it is largely passed by and unappreciated? To lessen this who depends on what can be purchased reproach the Cross-bearer's Missionary Reading Circle is a feasible course. on the ground is not so very badly off With its speedy adoption both the spiro itual life of the members will be quick. after all. ened and the cause of missions receive It must ever be borne in mind that a grand impetus. The plan is laid on broad, evangelical lines, independent the work of many C. I. M. missionaries of creed, Church, or organization, which in the past has been .. spying out the will secure eventually a larger number of members whose reading will embrace land." While many other societies a wider missionary area than a particu. lar society with which they may be in· have settled down near the coast or in timately acquainted.
the open ports, the missionaries of the Those who desire particular informa. C. 1. M. have felt led to plunge into tion in regard to this course of reading may obtain it by addressing Z. M. Willthe untravelled interior, enduring the iams, A.M., St. Joseph, Mo.
hardships of itinerating work in order to secure foothold for station work. Other societies have as w~ll availed themselves of the advantages afforded by this pioneer work, and to·day settled station work in many places is made possible as the result. This work was necessarily most trying and wearing, but it was absolutely indispensable for the future work; and as the skirmish Hne in an advancing army are the first to fall before the enemy's fire, so those who went boldly forward were neces· sarily under greater trials than those who followed in their wake. It must not be inferred that C. I. M. mission.
aries were the only ones to do this pioneering work; many others from other societies have shared in this grand 'fork, but perhaps in not so great a proportion as the C. I. M.
Most truly in the Lord, E. M. McBRIER.
THE MON'rHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
v.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY BEV. O. O. STARBUCK, ANDOVEB, MASS.
Mission Work in the Levant. Eastern Church vast masses of her mem- The name Levant (Levante, the bers, and had prostrated her whole do- Sun.rising) is applied by the Italian main under the power of an alien and traders more especially to the coasts of intensely hostile creed. Even earlier Syria and Asia Minor ; but in mission- than that, the vehement disputes re- ary regards it may be extended well specting the relations of nature and enough to the whole of Southeastern personality in Christ had rent away the Europe and Western Asia, in view of a Monophysite and Nestorian churches general unity of religion and civilization from Eastern Catholicism, which, thus in these regions. Here is the main seat weakened, was the less able to resist the of Mohammedanism, and of the most inroads of Islam. These divisions sub· anoient now existing form of Christian- sist to our day, and though perhaps the ity-that is, the Greek Church. doctrinal differences are rather nominal Christianity, after the apostolic age, than real, they still keep Oriental Chris.
rapidly deolined into its secondary form tianity weak before the common foe.
of the Catholic Church, which, as reo Moreover, the jealousy of the two less marked by the late Bishop Ewing, of numerous churches toward the Eastern Argyll, regards the Gospel chiefly as an Catholic or Greek Church inclines them institute, while Protestantism views it strongly to lean upon Rome, who, since chiefly as an experience. In this form, the Crusades especially, has been intent as the Church of the Martyrs, Christian- on securing dominion in the Levant.
ity won the victory over paganism in She offers the Monophysites and Nes· elle Roman Empire (though not without torians liberal terms, on condition of many injurious accommodations to it), acknowledging her supremaoy. They and established itself firmly in the are allowed to retain their own rites, to world. oelebrate them in their own languages, Of the five great bishops of the early and, aooording to the general Eastern Churoh, the patriarohs of Rome, Con- discipline, to have the servioes of a stantinople, Alexandria, Antiooh, and married priesthood, though of an un· Jerusalem, the first, as bishop of the married episcopate. Priests who lose Imperial City and the assumed suocessor their wives arll required to beoome of Peter and Paul, was universally ao- monks. As their ordinations are un- knowledged as the prinoipal. Being disputed, their clergy are reoeived by the only patriaroh in the West, his pre- Rome without any diffioulty as true eminence slowly mounted there into su- priests and bishops. In this way she preme dominion. The East, however, has seoured the accession of large num- whose churches were more anoient, bers of Monophysites, Nestorians, and many of them apostolio, and whose even members of the Greek Church.
theologians were far more numerous Six or seven millions of her two hun· and for the most part more eminent, dred millions of nominal members, or and whioh was the seat of the six great about one thirtieth of the whole, be- Councils, had no thought of allowing long to these various Eastern rites. If her four patriarohs to beoome mere sub- we assume the number of praotioal jeots of the Bishop of Rome. There Roman Catholios as being one hundred were constant jars, frequent interrup- millions, the Eastern adherents would tiona of communion, and at last, in the amount to about one fifteenth How year 1054, the definitive schism which these compare with their neighbors of rent asunder the East and the West. the independent churches in point of Previously to this, however, the rise of Christian experienoe, I cannot undertake Mohammedanism had reft from the to say; put it is allowed that their intercourse with the West has had a very 000 in the states which have been lately favorable effect on the development of set free from it. In Russia, besides the intelligence and character among them. 65,000,000 adhering directly to the Or- The Mohammedan conquests would thodox Church, there are some 10,000,- doubtless have ruined the Greek Church 000 or 12,000,000 Raskolniks, or Old but for the mighty accession received Believers, who, for the most part, differ in the conversion of Russia. This took from the rest only in an intense attach- place about the year 1000. The new ment to old-fashioned usages, and in a religion was imposed upon a passive refusal to acknowledge the established and barbarous nation by the mere com- hierarchy, although, it is true, their iso- mand of its monarch. He had at that lation leaves their doctrinal beliefs ex- time only the centre of Russia under posed to various aberrations.
his control, but as his d9minions spread, Russian Christianity has taken so Christianity spread rapidly with them, faint a hold on the higher thought of or, indeed, before them, being alto- the nation since it began to think, that gether in the line of historical develop- most of the educated, it is said, are sim- ment. The Russian Church has re- ply atheists and materialists. This is mained very much what it was at its perhaps an exaggeration. At all events, first establishment, more a system of Russia as a nation is devoted heart and gorgeous and elaborate ritual than a soul to the maintenance of the Ortho- principle of either individual or Boci,al dox Oriental Church. Her mighty sup- regeneration. And indeed it may be port it is which enables the Patriarch said that the Oriental Church at large of Constantinople and the 10,000,000 of has for a great many ages, relatively at his spiritual subjects in Turkey to bear least to the West, been stagnant. To up against the tyranny of the Moham- call her absolut,eiy stagnant would be medan Caliph and against the purposes uncharitable and unreasonable, as the and pretensions of Rome. Under her acknowledgment of the one Creator, the wide regis we do not know what career righteous and loving God, of the one may yet lie open before the Eastern Saviour, the Holy Jesus, the one Spirit Church after the thousand years of near- of Grace, together with the constant di- ly suspended animation which has suc- rect and indirect influence of the Scrip- ceeded to the greatness of her early cen- tures and of Christian history, and the turies. ~ inculcation for many ages of Chris- The schism of 1054 between the East tian morality, cannot but have had a and West involved no change in the purifying and elevating effect, however Eastern Church. She retains the form it may have come short of its just meas- of Catholicism, in doctrine and rite, ure under the excessive attention given very much in the stage which it had to theoretical disputes and to ritual reached at that time, and has been but observances, and under the great neg- faintly affected by the developments, lect of education, both of the clergy and either for good or evil, of her imperious of the masses of the laity. Still the in- Western sister. On the one hand, she tellectual character of the Greek mind has had no Inquisition, and on the other has never, even down to our own day, she has had no sllch varied activity of altogether belied itself. thought as the West, and no such rich The Greek Church, or, as she calls variety of male and female saints devot- herself, the Holy Orthodox Oriental ed to the spiritual and temporal good of Church, .counts in all about 85,000,000 their fellow-men. Of the two great members, of whom some 65,000,000 are principles of Catholicism, Unity and in Russia, 1,500,000 in the kingdom of Orthodoxy, the East lays chief stress Greece, 3,000,000 in the Austro·Hun- on Orthodoxy and the West on Unity.
garian dominions, some 10,000,000 in The Greeks regard the Roman Catholics the Turkish Empire, and about 6,000,- as heretical in a less degree than the Protestants, but still BS heretical. They rested originally, it is true, on a pro- call the Pope" the first Protestant and found sense of God's ind welling in His father of modern rationalism." They people, who in Christ become partakers doubt both the baptism and the orders of the Divine nature and of the Divine of the Roman Catholics, while these ac- dominion. But it soon reached an exknowledge unhesitatingly both the bap- tent which thrust God and Christ into tism and the orders of the Greeks, and the background, and declined largely do not impeach them of heresy, but only into mere image worship, almost into of schism. fetichism. Against this relapse into semi.paganism, Islam had an immense Mohammedanism, more properly Is- advantage. Though divided into very lam, that is, Resignation, originated, as many sects, yet over against Christianity is known, about 622, and represents these appear as a unity, except that of monotheism in a stern and unfruitful the 200,000,000 Moslems, the Persians, extreme, separating God from man so and some others, about 15,000,000 in utterly as to preclude all sense of His all, reject the Sunnite traditions, accuse Fatherhood, all possibility of His per- the Sunnites of having lost the true sonal union with humanity, all assur- apostolic succession, and have developed ance of His benignity, all belief in a a form of Mohammedanism which is so true free will, and almost all sense of speculative and mystical that the Sunan inward Divine assistance and spir- nites brand it, and not quite without itual regeneration. The Koran pre· ground, as altogether spurious. scribes charity, justice, and benevolence, but says little or nothing as to Islam acknowledges the Scriptures, how we Bre to gain these. It makes lit- and thereby signs its own ultimate tle account of the inwBrd state, and death-warrant. It honors Jesus as Mesgives so sensual a description of para- siah and the Word, and acknowledges dise all to make interior chastity very His sinlessness, but denies Him to be nearly an impossibility within its range, the Son. The Koran teaches that anaggravating this evil by its sanction other was crucified in His stead. and given to slavery, polygamy, concubin. that He was taken up into heaven. It age, and arbitrary divorce. Being agnos- loves the sword, but hates the cross. tic as to the ideas of God in nature and When it loses temporal supremacy (as it history, it is hostile to thought, and is rapidly losing it) its life will be long; even the ,brilliant outburst of Arab but by its own principles, which make genius under its first victories could no distinction between things spiritual not permanently maintain itself. The and temporal, its life will then be a conditions of salvation being purely slowly advancing death. When Eastern arbitrary, can be imposed on men by Christianity under Western Protestant the sword, and although Islam has influence shall have cleared itself of its shown no small missionary energy, yet depressing superabundance of ceremony the sword has been its preferred agent and of its exaggerated veneration of of propagation. All who worship one palpable symbols, it will be prepared in God and have a sacred Book are tolerat· a nobler form to reassume control of ed. but, where possible, reduced to those Eastern regions which have so servitude and tribute, and treated with long gasped under the suffocating pressinfinite scorn. Indeed, Islam is the ure of Mohammedanism. The Eastern most extensive and compact incarna- Christians, though so heavily overlaytion of spiritual pride that has ever ing the Gospel, have never denied it, been seen in the world. nor have they allowed the family to be corrupted by the admission Of poly- The victories of Islam were greatly gamy, concubinage, and arbitrary di. advanced by the internecine conflicts of vorce, while they freed themselves ages Eastern Christianity, and by its exag- ago of slaveholding. gerated veneration of the saints, This The main form of Protestant missions in some parts on cordial termo with the in Turkey and Persia has been that of Protestants, and even more 01' less hold the American Board, whose Persian and joint services with them. UlllJ>11>pily Syrian missions, however, have b6en this good intelligence is not as widely assumed by the Presbyterian Church. extended as we could wish, or as it is The American Board had mainly and hoped it may yet be. Among the Nestoultimately in view the evangelization rians, it is known that a considerable of the Moslems, who number about number of the native clergy-deacons, 16,000,000 out of .the 22,000,000 of priests, and even some bishops-have the Turkish Empire, since the Chris. encouraged the missionary work. The tian principalities have been detached. precise forms of the work in the future Incidentally, however, the missionaries may be left to the wisdom of the Head. aimed at reviving and purifying the It is certain that it will not relapse into Eastern churches. The hostility of the the deadness of the past, and that a government has hitherto confined direct debt of lasting gratitude will be owing operations mainly to the latter object, to the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, though the missionaries have never lost and United Presbyterians of our counthe former out of sight. The Board has try, for Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. not had in view, and does not now have in view, the propagation of Protestant- If we should estimate the number of ism as such. So far as spiritual life is Protestant communicants at 50,000 in revived, and superstitions done away, European Turkey, Bulgaria, Asia Minor, and spiritual despotism transformed Syria, Egypt, and Persia, this would be into brotherly service, so far as burden- an exaggeration which the fact is rapidsome observances are abolished and ly moving to overtake. In Bulgaria the faith manifested in charity and pure American Board and the American morals, the intended work is done. The Methodists are at work; in European elder churches are so deeply intertwined Turkey and Asia Minor the American with the Christian memories of their re- Board; in Syria and Persia the Amerispective nations, above all of the Ar- can Presbyterians; in Egypt the United menian nation, which professed the Presbyterians of our country (not to be Gospel the earliest of any people in the confounded with the entirely different world, that we can easily understand Scottish church of the same name), and and sympathize with their desire to the movement proceeding from the admaintain the elder organizations. Un- mirable schools of the Misses Whately, happily, however, most of the Mono- daughters of the former eminent Archphysite and Nestorian bishops, espe- bishop of Dublin. In Palestine all cililly the former, and still more most of Protestant movements are only initial, the Greek bishops, have shown them- the Church Missionary Society leading, selves hostile to any innovations, how- though rather crossed than aided by ever necessary for intellectual and spir- Bishop Blyth, a worthy man, but infatuitual revival, and so persecuting toward ated with a somewhat fantastic dream those of their people who desired a freer of "corporate unity" with the Greek and more living Gospel, that the organi- Church. In other parts of Turkey also, zation of Protestant churches soon and in Persia, there are disintegrating showed itself a matter of necessity, al- interferences, some from England and though the influence of Protestantism some from America, which seem to have is far from being confined within its ritual propagandism more deeply at own avowed limits, but is extending heart than the advancement of living farther and farther within the elder faith. Yet the main work is not very churches, especially within the Armenian Church. The Gregorians, as the greatly put back thereby.* members of this Church are called, from its apostle Gregory the Illuminator, are * The different statistical anthorities are more or less in conflict, which will account for some inconsistencies of statement.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, Oberlin, O.
-The Statesman's Year·Book is au- vocabulary of 250 languages? Who cre- thority for the statement that the ated the science of anthropology? The densest population of the earth, over 400 mISSIOnaries. Who rendered possible to the square mile, is confined to Java, the deeply important science of com· Ohina, Japan, the northeastern and parative religion? The missionaries.
southwestern portions of India, Eng. Who discovered the great chain of lakes land, parts of France and Belgium, the in Central Africa on which will turn its Nile Valley, Italy, Portugal, a small future destiny? The missionaries.
strip of Germany, and a small section Who have been the chief explorers of in the vicinity of New York and Boston. Oceanica and America and Asia? The The Beginning of the End.-Three missionaries. Who discovered the fa· phases or stages of missionary toil mous Nestorian monument in Singar may easily be distinguished. At first Fu? A missionary. Who discovered and of necessity all the forces, whether the still more famous Moabite stone? personal or financial, originate in Chris. A Church missionary. Who discovered tian lands. But presently native mis. the Hittite inscriptions? A Presbyte. sionaries of every grade begin to take rian missionary."
the place of the foreign supply, and -The 1892 Year.Book of the Young native contributions steadily increase. Men's Christian Associations of North Thus last year of the $11,500,000 con. America gives the following statistics: tributed for foreign missions, upward 1140 secretaries; 268 buildings valued of $1,300,000 were derived from regions at $11,902,520; 814 Associations with lately heathen, while to the 7800 mis. a total membership of 1,763,950; 400 sionaries were joined upward of 37,000 college Associations (64 organized last native helpers, of whom nearly 3000 year), 362 with a total membership of were ordained, and quite a large pro- 24,819; 97 railroad branches with a portion of the 11,000 churches are en· membership of 20,530; 12 Associations tirely self.supporting. As examples of for Germans, membership 2654; 34 for the third and final stage, we see the colored men, chiefly in educational in.
Hawaiian Islands not only sustaining stitutions in the South, membership •• home missions" among the Chinese, 2137 ; and 22 Associations for Indians.
Japanese, and Portuguese, but also In the world are found 4651 Associa- sending their representatives by the tions, of which 83 are in Canada, 627 score to Christianize Micronesia; the in the United Kingdom, 898 in Ger· London Society seeks in Samoa and the many, 641 in Holland, 86 in France, Hervey Group a supply of teachers for 112 in Denmark, 131 in Norway, 67 in pagan New Guinea, while by the Wes. Sweden, 43 in Italy, and 381 in Switzer· leyan Society Fiji and other islands have -land. .
been turned wholly over to the care of -The Young People's Society of the Australasian Conference. Christian Endeavor, with its growth -In setting forth the debt of science since) 881 from 2 local societies to 22,.
to missions, Archdeacon Farrar offers 000, of which 648 are found in foreign these telling interrogatories, with their and missionary lands, and a total memo answers: .. Is it nothing that through bership of nearly 1,250,000, divided their labors in the translation of the Bi. among 30 denominations, must be ble the German philologist in his study counted a phenomenon among Chris· may have before him the grammar and tian institutions; and the possibilities of pow.,r in this a~d other kindred or- was standing by whispered, " It might' ganizations, as touching the world's be too much for a white man to give, eva!lgelization, are just beginning to ap- but not too much for an Indian who pear. Such items as these are fast be· has this year heard for the first time of coming very common : the love of Jesus."
"The Christian Endeavor Societie~ -The American Baptist Missionary sent $3405 to the Presbyterian Board Union reports an income of $589,773 of Foreign Missions for the year end- last year, a total preaching force of ing May, 1891. They increased that 947 in hQathen lands, or 1834 laborers amount so as to make $9036 last year.•. in all, 83,597 church-members, 692 " The Christian Endeavor Society of the churches, of which 351 are self-support- Presbyterian Church of. Watertown, ing, 10,971 baptisms in 1891, 1188 N, Y., has secured $500 for the support schools 'with 22,284 pupils, and the con· of a missionary in the foreign field. tributions were $59,922. Evidently Their missionary is the Rev. Kali Churn missions are not a "failure" among the Chattergee, Hashyarpur. India." "The Telugus with 47,458 in the churches and Endeavorers of the First Congregational 7905 added last year, nor in Burmah Church, Cleveland, raised double the with 30,253 and 1936 baptized last year. usual amount for decorating the church for Easter, and then, instead of using it -The Baptist women have an eastern for church decoration, gave it to the and a western Foreign Missionary So- American Board as an Easter offering… oiety, the first baving its headquarters " At the Baptist Young People's Con- at Boston, and the other at Chicago. vention in Troy, N. Y., a resolution The eastern society last year expended was adopted indorsing the plan to sena $88,476 in Burmah, Assam, the Telugu out 100 new missionaries and raise country, China, Japan, Afrioa, and Eu- $1.000,000, and pledging the support of rope. The society of the west, with a the young people in raising the fund." year's expenditure of $49,290, employed last year 41 missionaries and had work -Says the ]J}xaminer: "Not all the for 13 more ; sustained 30 schools in Chinese carry all their money to China. the mission fields, with 82 native teach The 161 Chinese Christians of California ers and 2234 pupils, and had 53 Bibleraised last year for benevolent purposes women in commission, with 49 other $6290, or $39 for each; for the expenses Christian women under training for of their own Association they raised an- work. other $2029, or $12 for each member. They raised $1913 for home missions -The Methodist Episcopal Church and $2181 for foreign missions. One appropriates $500,000 for home mis- Chinese Sunday-school (30 members) in sions this year, of which sum these are Brooklyn, N. Y., has given, the last the more prominent items: Scandinayear, $150 for foreign missions. A vian missions, $57,950; German miil- Boston Chinese Sunday-school gave sions, $50,250 ; Spanish missions, $14,- $114 for the same work." 000; Chinese missions, $11,400; boo sides some $22,000 for missions among -One day an Indian asked Bishop the Japanese, Welsh, Frenoh, Bohe. Whipple to give him two one-dollar mians, Hungarians, Italians, and Porbills for a two-dollar note. The bishop tugnese. asked: "Why?" He said: .. One dollar for me to give to Jesus and one dol- -The United Brethren Board of Mis. lar for my wife to give." The bishop sions, at its last annual meeting made asked him if it was all the money he appropriations of $89,000 to its African had. He said: "Yes." The bishop missions, $2000 to those in Germany, was about to tell him: "It is too $400 to the Chinese mission in Walla much," when an Indian clergyman who Walla, and liberal sums to various domestic missions. The reports of the -According to the fifty·seventh an- Woman's Board represent it as having nual report of the Society for Promoting had an active and prosperous year. Female Education in the East (in ze- Two young women were appointed mis· nanas, harems, and schools), the income sionaries to China. The Board of last year was $31,435. Its fields are Church Erection received $12,207. found in India, Africa, and the Levant.
-'l'he women of the Canada Presby. A force is maintained of 39 missionterian Church sustain two societies, the aries, 8 assistants engaged in the couneastern and western, the first named try, and 76 other native helpers; and covering the maritime provinces. The in the 74 schools (with the 64 more as· western section had its beginning only sisted) are found 10,112 scholars. In 16 years ago, and has grown rapidly particular the Protestant orphanage for ever since. From 49 auxiliaries, in girls in Nazareth belongs to this society, 1881, the number has now become 519. and 2 day·schools for girls and 5 others The first year's income was but $1005., in neighboring villages. 39 ; in 1890 it had increased to $31,107, and last year passed the $3:),000 mark. -A few weeks since the twenty-sixth anniversary of Dr. Barnardo's Homes was held in London. Exeter Hall hav· EUROPE. ing proved too small for the accommo· dation of the thousands applying for Great Britain.-The late Mr. Doug- tickets, the Royal Albert Hall was se· las Henty, a brewer of Westgate, Chi. cured. Since the beginning of this chester, has left benefactions amounting philanthropic work $656,836 have been in all to £50,000 to the British and received for all purposes, 19,000 boys Foreign :Sible Society, the Church Mis- and girls have been rescued from pov· sionary Society. the London City Mis- erty and moral degradation, and 5015 sions, the Irish Church Missions, and have been placed out in the colonies. the Moravian Missions. Last year 5416 children were wholly maintained and 803 others were par- -During the last four years the tially fed and clothed and placed under Church Missionary Society has accepted training.
267 candidates, more than double the -By the Established Church of Scot· number in the four years preceding. land 7 new parishes were erected and Six hundred clergymen are found among endowed last year, and the whole num· its representatives, of whom 280 are ber created and endowed since the natives. Of its 360 missionaries, in- .. scheme" for that purpose was set in cluding laymen, 153 are university grad- operation has been 397, and the cost uates, no other large English society of this great permanent work has been having a proportion so large. Of its $6,800,000.
missionaries 23 have been made bish- The Continent.-Between 1838 and ops. The baptisms of adults were 3250 1858, or between his sixty.fifth and his last year. eighty.fifth year, Gossner, the founder -The Wesleya:n Missionary Society of the missionary society which fittingly cannot be set down as a" failure," if bears his name, paid from his own reo this statement is true: ,. There can be sources 33,000 marks, and received traced to its work a constituency repre- 300,000 from others. Besides, he sent senting about 2000 circuits, 11,000 out to the heathen world 141 mission· chapels and preaching places, 2592 mis- aries. Surely this was bringing forth sionaries and ministers, and 430,247 fruit in old age. What honorable names members." Its Fiji achievement ranks are his and Pastor Harms's!
among the most notable in the whole -The Rhenish Missionary Society history of missions. (Barmen) had an income last year of 422,580 marks ($105,650), and in South Persia, not a missionary! The great Africa, China, Java, Sumatra, and New oasis of Feraghan, at a height of 7000 Guinea had 65 stations, 118 out-sta- feet, with 680 villages craving medical tions, 92 missionaries, 213 native help- advice, never visited, scarcely mapped! ers with 429 more unpaid assistants, Then Juifa and Hamadan, with their and 43,912 adherents. The additions few workers, almost powerless to itinerby baptism were 5525, and 522 were ate, represent the work of the Church confirmed. The communicants num- for the remainder of Persia! Two ber 11,907, and the catechumens 6869. million nomads never touched !" The additions in Sumatra alone were 3945 from among the heathen and India.-A Hindu and aNew Zealander Mohammedans. In New Guinea 1 mis- met upon the deck of a missionary ship. sionary died, 2 were compelled to leave They had both been converted from on account of sickness, and 2 were heathenism, and were brothers in murdered. This society has a training Christ, but they could not speak to each college at Barmen with about 40 stu· other. They pointed to their Bibles, dents, mostly from humble spheres of shook hands and smiled in each other's life. The course of study covers six faces ; but that was not all. At last a years. happy thought occurred to the Hindu. With sudden joy he exclaimed, " Halle- -Between 1870 /lnd 1888 the Russian lujah!" The New Zealander, in de- (Greek) Church baptized 71,272 heathen, light, cried out" Amen !" 8,597 Jews, and 4294 Mohammedans, 84,163 non-Christians in all. In Japan -India's population (almost 300,- missionary operations are pushed with 000,000) constitutes a sort of social, vigor. political, and religious Babel. The re- cent census was taken in 17 different -By the new census of Spain the languages. The blanks issued numfact appears that out of a population of bered over 80,000,000, and those used 17,500,000, only a little over 5,000,000 weighed 290 tons. If put end to end can read and write. Six millions can they would reach more than half-way only read, leaving 12,000,000 who can round the world. There were 950,000 neither read nor write. Bad as this enumerators, and the whole cost of the showing is, it is a little better than the censutl was about $1,000,000. figures of 1877, when 72 per cent of the population were found to be unable to -This is a strange story to come read or write. from a land so populolIS, and that has been inhabited for thousands of years. -The annual report of the European " Official returns for 1891 show that no Turkey Mission of the American Board less than 24,841 people in British India shows that 117 persons were admitted were killed by wild animals during that to the churches during the year on pro- year. By far the larger portion of these fession of faith, an increase of about 14 (22,134) were killed by snakes; 928 by per cent, and making the whole number tigers, and the remainder by wolves, 940. leopards, elephants, and other animals. It appears, too, that the destruction of ASIA.. life from this cause is on the increase."
-Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop says: -It is officially stated that last year "Just think: from Karaohi to Bagdad, in 138,054 public and private educaamong the populous cities and villages tional institutions reported, there were of the Persian Gulf, of the Tigris and 3,368,930 boys and 313,717 girls, an in- Euphrates, throughout Arabia, through. crease of girls of nearly 20,000 over th{; out south and sonthwest Persia, not a previous year. Of these 350,000 were missionary! ' From Bagdad to Teheran, studying English. Of the whole 68 per almost the most populons district of cent were Hindus, 23 per cent Moham- has reached 3606, without including many who have emigrated to Borneo, medans, and 2l per cent native Chris- Australia, Honolulu, etc. Fifteen are being trained at the preachers' seminary tians. at LUong for the pastoral or teacher's office. -Last year, when the late Prince Albert Victor was in India, 3000 native Japan.-In 1860 one Murata, a mili- Christians, headed by Bishop Caldwell, tary retainer of the Lord of Saga, in met him some three miles out of Tin- the island of Kiushiu, went to Nagasanevelly, representing 95,000 souls nn- ki, and one evening, as he was crossing der Christian influence, of whom 77,000 the harbor, he picked up a book that were baptized and 113 native clergy. was floating about the water. The The prince expressed his great satisfac- writing ran from side to side, .. like the tion at so substantial a result of Chris· crawling of crabs," and upon sending tian missions. The statement placed it to one of the Dutch settlers, he in his hands showed that since a similar learned that it was the Christian's Bible, demonstration greeted the Prince of then a proscribed book. Curiosity Wales, in 1875, the number of native spurred him on, and he had one of his clergy had increased by 109 per cent, of assistants learn the language, and transnatives under instruction by 57 per late it for him sentence by sentence. cent, and of communicants by 95 per His study was continued in secret with cent. a few friends after his return home. When a difficult pas~age was found, a -In the North India (American messenger was sent to Dr. Verbeck, a Methodist) Conference from January to missionary then in Nagasaki, for its in- May 3500 have been baptized, 800 by terpretation. Murata was afterward Rev. Ibrahim Solomon in the Rampur baptized, and his name now stands first Independency, and he confidently ex- on the roll of Protestant Chnstians in pects 2000 within the next few months. Japan.
-The Sialkot Mission (American AFRICA. United Presbyterian) contains 13 ordained missionaries, 26 women, and 2 -Between the extreme limits of the physicians, a total of 41. There are Dark Continent north and south stretch also 10 ordained natives, 236 native 5000 miles, and almost as !!reat a space helpers in all. Work is done in 554 parts its extreme eastern and western villages, while 6894 church-members confines. The total number of square and 10,632 adherents have been gath- miles embraced within its bounds is ered. To the churches 525 were added about 11,000,000, giving it the second last year. The schools number 143, place among the continents. Europe and the pUI ils 9262. includes 3,800,000 square miles; North America, 7,400,000, and Asia, the only -Rev. H. B. Lapham, of Ceylon, continent that exceeds it in dimensions, states that in that island are found 80,- covers only 13,000,000. 000 Protestants and 220,000 Roman Catholics. This makes one tenth of -It was in 1742, or 150 years ago, the 3,000,OUO Christians. that George Schmidt gained his first convert, and now the Moravian Mission China.-The Basle Missionary So- in South Africa has 3352 communicants, ciety is at work in the province of Can- 650 catechumens, and 13,000 adherents. ton-over against the island of Hong Kong, and partly on that island, with – The "lflssion Field states that the 24 missionaries, with 90 native help- Dutch Reformed Church stands at the ers. The head stations number 13, the head in S'luth Africa, having some 298,- most northerly one being 300 miles 000 adherents, of whom 220,000 are from the coast; there are also many sub-stations. The number of converts Europeans. 'fhe English Church stands been baptized. Last year from 30 to second, with 139,000 adherents, of 40 of the native Christians went out whom one half return themselves as Sunday after Sunday to preach, walk- Europeans; the other half consists of ing for the purpose 8, 10, 12 miles in Kafirs, Fingoeli, and 46,000 of mixed a broiling sun. There are 32 schools blood. The Wesleyans and other Meth- taught by about 150 native teachers. odists number 109,000, of whom 22,000 Several of the 8 languages spoken about are Europeans, 63,000 Kafirs and Fin- the lake have been reduced to writing. goes, and 19,000 of mixed colored blood. There are 66,000 Independents, 32,000 -Miss M. Copping, of Fez, Morocco, Presbyteriant!, and 17,000 Roman Catho- writes of treating 54 women and chillics. dren in one day, some coming as early as five 0' clock, though the dispensary -Rev. Mr. Davidson, a missionary was not open until 7.45. During Janof. the Scotch United Presbyterian uary, February, and March the attend. Church, reports a remarkable occur· ance of patients was of men 856, of rence in connection with a wedding at women and children 1275, or a total of a farm in Adelaide. The bride and 2131. bridegroom were servants on the farm, and after the ceremony the people Australia.-The Moravian Mission suddenly, unitedly, and eagerly called among the aborigines of North Queens. for a religious service, and some 200 land is supported financially by the sat down on the grass, listening while Presbyterians and Lutherans of Austra- Mr. Davidsoll preached. The people lia. Though their numbers have been were deeply stirred. An hour or two so fearfully diminished, the aborigines after he had reached home a messenger are estimated at not less than 150,000. was sent for the evangelist to come and hold another service in the evening. -According to the recent census of the religions of Australia, the Church -It is Rev. B. F. Ousley, fOl' seven of England has by far the most numeryears missionary of the American Board ous following. Of Episcopalians there among the Batswa tribes in East Cen- are 503,084 ; Roman Catholics, 286,917 ; tral Africa, that was owned by Joseph Presbyterians, 109,383 ; Wesleyan Meth. (not Jefferson, but his brother) Davis, odists. 87,489. There are other Methand is now translating the Bible into odists to the number of 22,589, with the Sheetswa, a cognate of the Zulu. 24,113 Congregationalists and 13,118 He is a graduate of Fisk University and Baptists. The greatest gain exhibited of Oberlin Theological Seminary. by any denomination is shown by the Church of England, which has increased -The North German Society has a from 342,359 to 503,084. mission upon the Slave Coast, and adjoining that of the Basle Society upon Madagascar.-In September last a the Gold Coast. At the end of last year Christian Endeavor Society was started the number of converts was 891, as at Ambohipotsy, which now numbers against 800 twelve months before. about 70 members, and in the nearer churches of the district 10 branch soci- -Rev. Dr. Laws, of Livingstonia, eties have been formed. At a united gives these facts concerning the growth service for the 11 societies more than of the Free Church Mission on Lake 300 members were present. Nyassa. The first missionary party arrived in 1875 and found all utterly –Though there are now in this island heathfm. Since then the first station, 1360 self.supporting Christian congre. Cape Maclear, has developed into 6 gations, it must not be inferred that centres occupied by Enropeans, and Madagascar is already Christianized; 165 men, women, and children have for out of the 4,500,000 inhabitants there are prob~bly 3,000,000 still living in heathen darkness. -Now that in this generation Aus- as circumstances will admit. The re- tralia has come to be numbered among turns show a steady increase in the the continents, New Guinea (Papua) is whole number of Japanese church-mem- the largest island in the world, having bers and a slightly increased staff of a length of about 1400 miles, a maximum clergy, the total being now 50, of whom width of 400, and an area of nearly 300,- 13 are Japanese. English lay workers 000 square miles. The population num- number 37, and of these 32 are women.
bers not far from 1,000,000. Bya" par- At least 50 more workers could be profit- tition" the Netherlands rule the western ably employed in strengthening existing portion, Germany the northern half of mlSSlOns. It is stated by it contributor the eastern portion (King William's to the Berlin Das Echo that Buddhism Land), and Great Britain the southern is steadily declining ill Japan, according coast and the adjacent groups of islands. to observations taken in Kyoto, gener- The Utrecht Missionary Society has ally regarded by Japanese the head- occupied the Dutch, and the Rhenish quarters of that faith. The returns of Society the German domain, while the 1877 gave 3737 Buddhist temples, and English is cared for by the London, in 1891 only 3256, a loss of nearly 400 the Propagation, and the Wesleyan so- within the space of fourteen years. Nor cieties, the three having agreed upon a is it possible to judge of conversions to division of territory. Christianity among the Japanese by the German, English, and American reports British Foreign Missions. By Rev. James alone, inasmuch as these are confined Johnston, Bolton, England. to the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Indian Missions.-A number of various Protestant missions, all of which friends of missions in India recently belong to a Western European type. weloomed home Dr. Pentecost and the Far greater successes are credited to the Hon. Emily Kinnaird, and also bade Russian Church -of an Oriental caste, farewell to Miss Cornelia Sorabji, B.A., which being unaffected by the earlier the first girl graduate of the Indian Em- Western Latin and Teutonic nations is pire, in Cannon Street Hotel, London. supposed to be better qualified than the In speaking of their missionary experi- Latin or Protestants to reach the Asiatic enoes in India both Dr. Pentecost and mind.
Miss Kinnaird agreed that the average Notable MiS!lionary Farewell.-At Anglo-Indian showed considerable op- the end of June good. by was said to 46 position to missions and missionaries. missionaries, male and female, who This position was oontroverted by Sir were proceeding to India, China, and W. Muir, who maintained that the great Africa to take part in the evangelization bulk of the Europeans in India were of the world, on the completion of their friendly disposed toward Christian en- studies at the training colleges under terprise. Miss Sorabji gratefully ac- the presidency of Dr. Grattan Guinness.
knowledged the kindness of the English It is reported that t.he Guinness family during the time that she had been pur- have been instrumental in equipping suing her medioal studies. The collec- 1092 missionaries for the foreign field tioll on behalf of the zenana Bible and ill connection with the noble institu- medical mission realized over £4000. tions of Harley House and "Doric Japan.-Bishop Edward Bickersteth, Lodge." respectively occupied by male of Japan, in addressing a pastoral letter and female students. A hundred misto his clergy, says that the spiritual sionaries and their wives of various sowants of English people residing there cieties are stationed on the Congo.
and of the continually increasing num- Uganda.-Respecting the position in ber of -travellers who Rojourn in that Uganda, an important paper is forth- empire, are as adequately provided for coming from the pen of the Rev. W. J. Smith, an active member of the Church Welsh Churches and Foreign Mis.. Missionary Society's Committee. He sions.-There is every probability that will endeavor to show upon the strong. the Welsh Nonconformists, who have est evidence that French influence has been accustomed to send their contribufor a long time been used in plotting tions for foreign missions through the against the British power in Eastern channels of English societies, will ere- Equatorial Africa, and that the hostili. long arrange to have their distinct orties are due far more to political intrigue ganizations in the Principality. The than to religious strife. There is every Welsh Calvinists have for some time probability tliat the Uganda mission- adopted this procedure, and the Baptists aries will endeavor to remain in the are beginning to follow on the same country even though the British East track. Africa Company resolves to withdraw at the close of the present year. Bequests to Missions_-By the will of Mr. Douglas Henty, a Chichester Missionary Re-enCorcements. – It brewer, who died last February, and has recently been decided by the Board who at one time had several race·horses of Directors of the London Missionary in training, a sum of £50,000 comes to Society to locate the 100 additional mis- five missionary and Bible societies. On sionaries, whom it is proposed to send the settlement of the estate being comout in the course of the next four years, pleted, the executors are to give priority approximately as follows: China and to legacies of £15,000 to the British and India, 35 each; Maaagascar, 10 ; Africa, Foreign Bible Society, £10,000 to the 15; Polynesia and New Guinea, 5. London City Mission, £10,000 to the Late appointments include three Welsh Irish Church missions, £10,000 to the students for work abroad. By the im- Church Missionary Society, and £5000 petus of the "Forward Movement" to the Moravian missions. chiefly, the funds of the Society" have arrived at a condition hitherto unpre- A south of England member of the cedented during its whole history," an Society of Friends has just given the increased income of £35,000 for the large sum of £20,000 to erect and endow year being reported. a home for the training of missionaries.
A feature of the celebration of the The late Mr. Gawin Kirkham.-To hundredth anniversary of the founding this faithful preacher of the Cross, of the Baptist :Nlissionary Society was whose lamented death in May laqt dean international gathering over which prived the Open-Air Mission in England Dr. George Smith, the Foreign lfission- of its director for thirty years, some ary Secretary of the Free Church of form of memorial is contemplated. In Scotland, presided, and America was conjunction with Mr. John Macgregor represented by Dr. Pierson, to whom so (" Rob Roy"), Mr. Kirkham wa~ one of much of the current missionaryawaken- the pioneers of opell..air preaching, and ing in Great Britain is attributed. The scarcely, at one time, was there a race Centenary Fund has reached £85,000. or fair held in any part of Great Britain The Society has accepted for foreign where Mr. Kirkham might not have service Mr. Cannon for South Africa, been found preaching with intense ferand Mr. T. Randall for Balololand, both vor to hundreds and even thousands of students at Regent's Park CoJlege. listeners. He travelled on the same er- rand over the continent and in distant In view of the approaching jubilee of colonies. His journeys in 1891, in pur the Primitive Methodist Missionary So- suit of his all-absorbing vocation, ex· ciety, a special fund for extension work tended over 12,600 miles, during which of £50,000 is to be raised. toward which he addressed at least an aggregate of £14,000 was promised at the conference 43,000 persons. By rare organizing in Norwich during June last. gifts and unwearied devotion, Mr. Kirk- . ham gave prominence to the Society, States has been until recently carried on which to-day has an effective roll of under several independent boru:ds, rep- 1123 members. A man of fervid zeal, resenting as many synods, or in certain he yet always avoided friction with the cases unions of synods. But the proc- authorities, and simil9.rly urged his co- ess of consolidating it into a single workers to adopt the principle of mod- whole, which has been going on for eration. The office of secretary, which several months, was completed April he so ably filled, has been undertaken 19th, when the last of the separate by Sir Robert Phayre, whose services boards closed its accounts, and was in- will be gratuitously rendered. corporated with the general board.
The Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, -Rev. John Mackie, of Kingston, England, has been appointed a member .Ont., has received $10,000 from a genof the Advisory Council by the General tleman of that city for the home and Committee on Religious Congresses, foreign missions of the Presbyterian which will be held in connection with Church of Canada. the World's Columbian Exposition. South America.-Information comes Monthly Bulletin, that a missionary of the American Bible Society, Senor Aristides Castro, has -Miss Emma Bradley, of Chicago, been mobbed in Ayacucho, Peru. He has founded a mission school at her had been sent to that city with six own expense in the slums of that city. boxes of Bibles, which he tried to sell, She makes her home in the rear of the when the inhabitants began to protest.
school building, and shares her food At last he was compelled to seek refuge with a number of poor people, and this in his lodgings. One afternoon the at her own table. house was broken into by an armed· -Wooster University, Ohio, exhib- mob. Senor Castro was not found, but ited its missionary enthusiasm when it the stock of Bibles and his personal gave Dr. S. H. Kellogg, a LL.D., as he property were taken out into the street was about to return to India, and sent and publicly burned.
the honorary reward of toil and scholar- –In Paramaribo the work of the Moship, D.D., to two of its foreign mis- raians continues to be highly blessed. sionary graduates, J. M. Kyle, of Brazil, No fewer than 97 persons were at one and J. N. Wright, of Persia. time recently added to the communi.
-At the Catholic Cathedral in Mil- cants.
waukee, not long since, 110 children, Great Britain.-A most impressive 60 girls and 50 boys, were confirmed by scene was recently witnessed in the Archbishop Katzer. The archbishop committee-room of the Church Misaddressed the children on "The means sionary Society. No fewer than 20 of preserving the grace of confirma. ladies, who had been accepted for ser· tion," and on the following day pledges vice, were introduced to the committee. of abstinence from intoxicating liquor Never before have so many recruits and tobacco were administered to the been welcomed in one body. boys who the day before were con- firmed. -India has sent a missionary to Eng- -The Presbyterian Church, South, land, Miss Soonderbai Powar, a native sends out this year 17 newly appointed high caste Hindu, who comes to point missionaries, distributing them between out the evils of the opium traffic. She Mexico, Brazil, the Congo, Japan, and wears an Oriental costume, but speaks Korea. English fluently.
-The missionary work of the (Ger- -Gospel meetings at the races. A man) Reformed Church in the United strange combination, but it is what a band of English Methodists, under the comes that a scheme will soon be inlead of Josiah Nix, are holding. The augurated to annihilate this form of band is composed of young men who Christian teaching and practice from dress in the latest style, but are devoted the empire. Christians. They camp on the Derby racing grounds, distribute Gospel tracts, -The Rev. George S. Davis, Superand during the intervals between races intendent of the Methodist Episcopal sing hymns and give talks. They have church in Bulgaria, states that he has done this for several years with good received from an elderly and friendly results. Four young men of Chicago Bulgarian, for the Missionary Society, have undertaken a similar work. the equivalent in property and cash of 16,000 francs. This witl net in Ameri- -Again has the Salvation Army been can gold $3112.84. under deadly fire, but has come forth unscathed. Arnold White, a man thor- Palestine. -A great sensation has been oughly competent, and with eyes only caused in Jerusalem by the introducfor the facts, has made searching in- tion of the electric light into a new and vestigation and finds only the strictest flourishing flour-mill lately started close business integrity in the handling of to the Damascus Gate. The Arabs and funds, and scaTcely any lack of busi- Jews are much puzzled to a.ccount for a ness sagacity. In particular he finds light in 'a lamp in which there is no that the Booth family either bestow oil, and while gazing with wonder, keep their services without a penny of pay, at a respectable distance. or receive but the most meagre of salaries. India.-Mr. J. N. Farquhar, of the Lon- don Society, states that" since December The Oontinent.-The French Govern- last there have been 11 baptisms from ment has conferred on the Rev. Mr. Hinduism and Mohammedanism in con- McAll the decoration of the Legion of nection with the two Bengali churches Honor. His twenty years' work for in the centre of Calcutta. Among them the evangelization of the masses in are a man, his wife, and their son, who France is expressly given as the ground were devil.worshippers, two Hindu for the distinction. widows, and a medical student. Nearly all were led to Christ by natives of the -The Rev. Max Christlieb, son of country." the late Professor Christlieb, of Bonn, expects to sail next year for Japan as a -Is it mixing politics and religion missionary. when regularly that native minister connected with the Madura Mission in -Dr. Baedeker recently gave a report his morning service brings before the in London of his travels among the per- throne of grace" the Empress of India secuted Stundists in Russia. Many of and her Parliament, the American these have been exiled to Siberia simply Board and its officers, the President of because they hold the truths of the the United States and his Cabinet, and Bible. One man, who had been in ex- all the children of the missionaries ile for four years, on returning to his throughout the world" ? native town was required to sign a paper, pledging himself not to teach, or -Rev. Abraham William, one of the preach the Gospel. The man took the oldest native pastors in the Arcot Mispaper and commenced to write, but sion, who died suddenly May 27th, ~as this was what was found on the paper: born a high.caste Hindu and became a "I, –, cannot pledge myself." He most devoted Christian. He was an was immediately marched off to Siberia untiring worker, and a preacher of for four years more. And the report power. Seldom anywhere does a man fall whose plaee it is so difficult to. fill. -It is stated that at Hyderabad, -In the Camermlns District of the a photographic studio has been opened, Basle Society 13 chapels and 2 teachers' in which the operators are all wom- houses were built last year, largely by en. The Koran forbids the making the natives, and 80 persons were bapof portraits, but the muftis have de- tized. At one dedication a chief anclared that photography cannot be in- nounced his determination to become a cluded in the prohibition, since the Christian, and straightway gave up his prophet knew nothing about it. idols and fetich objects to be burned.
-During the winter of 1891 a band -It is pleasant to read in the Pacific of 35 to 40 Ceylon Christians went at Baptist that on the Congo the deaththeir own expense on a tour to the vil- rate is less than one per cent higher lage of Liyanwala and the surrounding than in the other tropical fields occudistrict, teaching, singing, and preach· pied by the Missionary Union, Japan ing the Gospel. included. The conclusion is based on th e figures for the last seven years. -One of the latest applicants for baptism in the Wesleyan Mission in Bur- -A missionary steamer has lately mah is a niece of the late King Theebaw, been launched in Scotland for use on a bright girl of seventeen, a pupil in the Zambesi and Shire rivers_ the mission school. Ocean Realms.-A young English mis- Africa. – Thirty-six English mis- sionary to the New Hebrides, Mr. Sawer, sionaries are threatened immediate ex- who had been only two days married pulsion from Algeria by the French to a. lady who went out to become his Government. This is in order to pre- wife, was killed by cannibals. They vent trouble with the Mohammedan shot him through the heart, and murpopulation. The French Government dered and feasted on the bodies of two declares in a dispatch to Lord Salis- natives who were with him. His body bury, that they hold their own people was recovered and brought to Tungoa. (French Catholics) to the same rule, and they cannot allow of an exception -Mrs. Allan, of the Allan Steamship in favor of strangers. Line, has given $2500 to begin a Chris- tian mission in the Loo Choo Islands. -The French are pushing ahead their railroad across the Sahara. Two hun- -In 1863 the American Board retired dred and fifty miles tliwe been laid, and from the Hawaiian Islands with the the trains are running regularly from EI thought that self-support and self·man- Guerrah, on the Atlas Mountains, to the agement would be best for the Chris- Oasis of Biscara. It is proposed to end tians there. Some years since it was the line near Lake Tchad. concluded that that step was premature, and aid was once more bestowed; and -A railway which is to traverse the all along of latA in certain quarters, both African continent from east to weBt has high and low, a. reaction has been at been opened as far as a point near Ca- work toward idolatry and superstition, zengo, 140 miles from the starting. showing itself, among other ways, in point, St. Paul de Loand.a. resorting to native doctors-that is, to sorcery and the aid of demons. -King Hodge, at Bigtown, his head place, near Cape Palmas, has built a -Among the foreign contributions church, and in it personally conducts which came for the new Moravian the services. Several years ago this church at Springfield, Jamaica, was the ruler and three of his chiefs were con- sum of £6 128. 2d from the little island verted, and soon after bis wife and many of Ramah, off the Moskito Coast. It of hi~ leading people also accepted the was the result of a collection, when the Gospel; and now the whole tribe is Ramah Indians willingly contributed practically Christian. according to their ability.
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1892
THE DEPAR'l'URE OF CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No. 4.-0ld f!eries.–APRIL.–VoL. V. No.4.-New Series.
THE DEPARTURE OF CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The giant cedar of Lebanon has fallen, and the crash of its downfall has sent a sound of thunder echoing over the continents. Anchored to the soil by countless and far-spreading roots, who can measure the widespread desolation and devastation which such a downfall of one of the monarchs of the forest leaves behind ~ Look at the institutions inseparably bound up with this marvellous life! A church of nearly six thousand living members, with its vast Sunday-schools and missions; a pastor's college, with more than a hundred students in course of training, and eight hundred scattered over this and other lands preaching the old Gospel; the Stockwell orphanages, with their hundreds of inmates, and thousands more who have now Christian homes or are heads of pious families; the almshouses, with their aged folk; all the thousands and tens of thousands of weekly sermons published in a score of languages, and read not only in homes, but in places of worship, scattered from the Chinese Sea to the Straits of Gibraltar, and still westward from the St. Lawrence to the Pacific, and from Siberia to the Cape of Good Hope and Terra del Fuego.
Has there been anyone death in the century that has left such a vacancy in the world? In March, 1791, John Wesley died, just a little more than a century ago, and history strangely repeats itself. Who can think of John Wesley and Charles Wesley without thinking of James Spurgeon and Charles Spurgeon-in each case two brothers intimately associated in their great work, and singularly fitted to supplement and complement each other's qualities and activities' Wesley and Spurgeon, separated as they were in theology, the one a leader of the Arminians, the other of the Calvinists ; the one a Methodist, the other a Baptist-how strangely do their careers compare and contrast! Wesley was a reformer, an organizer of congregations, a builder of chapels; he appointed lay preachers and set them at work; he formed classes for the instruction and development of converts and the maintenance of strict and orderly discipline j he went about tirelessly exhorting and preaching, perpetually travelling, and holding religious services almosi beyond calculation j delivering from two to five sermons a day, writing works on divinity, ecclesiastical history, biography, as well as sermons, and expending life in an endless rour.d of sanctified activities.
Charles Spurgeon was in all essentials a pastoral evangelist, the organizer of the largest congregation of any denomination in the world; the builder of the greatest Nonconformist chapel; the trainer of lay preachers and ordained ministers j the head of an aggressive work whose outreach no man can measure; the head pastor of a well-ordered and disciplined body of believers; who in one great tabernacle has preached for nearly forty years to an average of 7500 different people each Lord's day; who has published thirty-seven volumes of weekly sermons, written books and tracts by the score, and edited a monthly magazine; who has given sermons and addresses on countless occasions, and in the midst of opportunities for boundless personal aggrandizement and enrichment, has conscientiously and liberally expended his income in works of charity and mercy known only to God Himself. Surely no ordinary observer will dispute the similarity of these two careers, thus separated by a century. Yet there are a few contrasts almost as marked. Mr. Wesley was really, by his own confession, an unconverted man until he was 35 years old j he married at 46, and lived so unhappily that the union was terminated by separation 32 years later. Mr. Wesley had a public career after his conversion extending over 53 years, dying at 88. Mr. Spurgeon was converted and baptized at 16 years of age, was most happily married before he was of full age, and died at 58, having had a public career of about 40 ,years. Who can tell what he might have accomplished had he been permitted to live to be as old as Wesley, or to add to the years of his public life thirteen more, so that he might have enjoyed as long a term of service as Wesley subsequent to 'his conversion ~ As we look at Wesley we involuntarily connect him with his posthumous work. Charles Spurgeon's posthumous work no man can foresee. What a hundred years more may reveal as to the subsequent outcome of his life of faith and consecration God alone can prophesy. We must wait for History to write up her scroll. One thing we already know : not even Mr. Wesley had more unlimited control over his followers than Charles Spurgeon has had over his disciples in the faith and the students he has sent into the ministry. Wesley's virtual rel1Unciation of the Anglican Church, first in his protest against existing abuses and afterward in actually ordaining preachers, and even consecrating a bishop on his own responsibility, reminds us forcibly of Mr. Spurgeon's determined and intrepid stand against the current loose notions of theology, and his bold venture in separating himself even from his own denomination for the sake of what he believed to be the truth.
There is a curious coincidence, also, to which we have referred, in the association of the two brothers Wesley and the two brothers Spurgeon.
A GENEHATlON O~· CIlUI8TIAN l'UOGHffiSS IN INDIA
Rev. James A. Spurgeon is yet alive, and it would be indelicate to say much about him. But in my judgment he has been of much more use to his brother than the public are as yet aware. His peeuliar combination of capacity and sagacity, his more thorough and classical education, his peculiar, business-like habits of mind, his aptitude for organizing and managing great institutions, his umpirical judgment and legal knowledge and acumen, his singular tact and practical uncommon sense-these, with many more cOllspicuous qualities that come not with observation, have done more than most people apprehend or appreciate to make his more" popular" brother the man he was. It reminds one of the association of Moses and Aaron, and their joint work. Mr. James Spurgeon's true work and worth have yet to be written. Close association with him in the work of the Tabernacle for months has revealed that his skilful hand is on the helm of many of the most important interests of which his brother was the visible head. He was content to be in many things a helper of his illustrious and dearly loved brother Charles. All this we have written for a Missionary Review. Four months in the heart of this work havc satisfied thc writer that the head of one of the grandest missionary organizations in the world has fallen when at midnight of January 31st Charles Spurgeon entered the glory. Here is a fountain of home missions and of foreign missions. From this spring a thousand streams go forth to water the garden of the Lord and to turn the desert into the Lord's garden. In fact, the missionary character of this Metropolitan Tabernacle Church so impresses me as to suggest a separate treatment hereafter when the facts are more fully known. But at this time, and before closing this brief article. it mnst be added that such a man as Spurgeon was one of God's missionaries, and himself a trainer of missionaries. Scarce a month passes without either a farewell to an outgoing mi ssionary or a welcome to a returning or visiting missionary; and in most cases it is one who has in this great Church or its college received his first impulse to the field. And what an individual church can do to stimulate everything good and pure and unselfish is abundantly exhibited and illustrated, as we may hope to show hereafter, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and in its departed, lamented, and never-to-be-forgotten pastor and president.
A GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS IN I~DIA.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F.S.S., LONDON, ENG.
Human impatience frets at what it considers the slow rate of progress in Christian and beneficent enterprise in a country like India; and because we do not see great results after a brief bnt what may seem a tedious effort we are apt to be discouraged ; and if we do not despair and abandon our work, it is carried on in a hllguid and despondent way-a way fatal to all success. JIope and ~vu1iJencc are essential to successful work, especially in spiritual enterpriseR, which are in their very nature works of faith, as well as labors of lovc. Even love grows cold when faith and hope are dead.
Of all countries in the world India is the last in which we should expect rapid results from spiritual labor, for -many reasons-its great extent, t.he numerous and dense population, tbe close and intricate way in which they are bound together by religious and social customs, the practical way in which a degraded and flesh-pleasing idolatry is woven into every act of social, domestic, and personal life j the debasing influence of books regarded as sacred, but filled with accounts of gods and heroes whose cruelty, treachery, falsehood, and lust corrupted the whole moral nature, and almost obliterated the distinctions of right and wrong and of truth and falsehood; while some of these sacred books contain truths so divine and beautiful ail to give a sanction and authority to the whole.
To convert such a people is a task which even the Apostolic Chureh had never been called upon to attempt j and how is it attempted by the Christian Church of our day ~ One or two men are sent out af a time, followed by two or three more at long intervals. They are scattered far apart one from the other; or, perhaps, two or three different missions are set up side by side, with little or no sympathy the one for the other, if, indeed, they do not form hostile camps, to the dishonor of Christ and the perplexity of the heathen i and yet men complain of the slow progress of Christianity in India.
But we are far from admitting that the work of Christian missions in India has been slow or discouraging. When compared with the means employed, the results have been greater than we had any right to expectfar greater than is generally supposed even by the well informed, vastly greater than is dreamt of by the careless and ignorant.
It has been' my privilege to see India at such im interval of time as to allow of a fair and, at the same time, striking comparison-an interval of what may be called a generation, though over the usual time allowed for the average term of life in England and still more over that of India.
I would not attach much importance to even two visits to a foreign country and "Mange people as a means for acquiring accurate information or for drawing reliable conclusions, but to one who has made Indian questions a life-long study they are of great value. It is on this ground alone that I do attach importance to my visits to India in the years 1853 and 1889-90. I shall only give the facts and impressions then received, with a comparison of the results in regard to the purely religious aspects of the progress of the people during the generation which had passed in the interval. I need not say that they struck me much more vividly than if I had been a resident and had witnessed the changes passing gradually before my eyes from day to day. The mere facts could be gathered at home, but the impresRions received and the opinions formed were of far more value than the pure statement figures could convey. RELIGIOUS RESULTS OF THIRTY· SEVEN YEARS.
Mere statistical figures do not give the highest resultR, but they are well worthy of study. I take them from two reliable sources: First, the Gov- ernment Census for 1881, which also gives the numbers in 1871 for com- parison. The census for 1891 is Dot yet published, but we have it on the highest authority that the rate of increase in Christian converts is fully maintained. Second, the elaborate and careful statistical returns prepared e,-ery ten years by a committee representing all the Protestant societies at work in India_ These extend over the three decades 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881. As another decade has nearly run out, it is easy for anyone familiar with the missionary history of the period and accuAtomed to statistical in- quiries to form an estimate for the year 1890. As the first visit was so near to the returns for 1851, we give these without any estimate for the two years from 1851 to 1853, so that the period will practically extend over thirty-nine years-rather a long generation. The following are the numbers for the Protestant Christians of all India~ without including Ceylon and Burmah: Native Protestant converts, 1851 (from returns), 91,0!)2 ; 1881 (from returns), 417,322 ; 1890 (estimate), 720,000-that is, an increase of EIGHT·FOLD in fort'years, or seven times in a generation.
The estimate is a low one-only at the rate of 70 per cent for the decade.
It was 86 per cent for the previous ten years.
It may be put in the Graphic form, thus: The Native Church in India in 1851 (a small church spire), and in 1890 ______________________________________________ (a tall spire 7 times the height of the other). But what is more important–showing that the increase is not merely in numbers, but is an inward as well as outward growth-is the fact brought out in the tables giving the increase in the number of communicants, which is greater than in the number of professing converts. The numbers were: 1851, communicants returned, 14,661 i 1881, communicants returned, 113,325; 1890, estimated, 215,000. The estimate is based on the low rate of increase of less than 80 per cent in the last decade, while it was 115 per cent in that from 1871 to 1881. This gives an increase of FIFTEEN-FOLD in 39 years, or they have multiplied thirteen time, in a generation.
Rut a higher proof of church organization is seen in the increase of native pastors and evangelists. The former, especially, have multiplied at an astonishing rate, implying an increase of intelligence and character in the members of the Church, and a much greater efficiency in ecclesiastical work. Forty years ago there were only 21 ordained native pastors in all the missions in India. Now they cannot number fewer than 700 or 800. Thus: 1851, native pastors (returned), 21; 1881, native pastors (ro. turned), 461; 1890, native pastors (estimated), 750.
These invaluable agents have multiplied THIRTY-SIX TIMES in 39 year!> -or, say, thirty-threefold in a generation. This is also strong proof of the happy relations in which the foreign and native workers stand to one another, when the former raise the latter to the highest positions of power and honor. It shows also the confidence they place in the converts.
Lay preachers have not increased so fast, but their numbers are also rapidly growing, thus: 1851, lay preachers (returned), 493; 1881, lay preachers (rei.umed), 2438; 1890, lay preachers (estimated), 3000.
Here thl) Church has a cheap and efficient agency for the spread of the truth-cheaper and better far than uneducated men sent out from this country, who rarely acquire an accurate knowledge of the language or of the modes of thought and feeling of the inhabitants, and cannot live long in that climate on native fare and after native habits.
iNCREASE OF CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE.
The place which Christianity holds as a power in India struck me, on my second visit, as far more wonderful and hopeful than the numerical increase of the converts. Christianity is no longer held in contempt. Its position and character are recognized. In Madras they are looked upon as leaders in social movements. They take their place in literary and scientific pursuits, and hold their own in t6e learned professions, and some have risen to high positions under government, with the approbation and encouragement of their unconverted brethren. In Southern India they take the first place in the number of the educated, as compared with their num_ bers in the population, and in the North they come next to the Parsees. I would only say that while the native Christians have multiplied eight-fold and communicants fifteen times during the period covered by my two visits, the influence oj Ohristianity as A LIVING POWER is a hundred times greater in 1890 than it was in 1853.
THE PLACE WHICH CHRIST OCCUPIES IN INnIA.
I close with a word on the place occupied by Christ in India. The change during this generation is wonderful. None but "those who can compare the present with the state of matters thirty-seven years ago can form any idea of its extent. In 1853 the knowledge of Christ was considerable, but there was little idea of Him as a living power or authority, to be reckoned with outside the classes directly under the influence of missionaries. He was not widely looked up to with either love or reverence. Now the knowledge is far wider, and the character of Christ stands out in bold relief against the character of the gods of India. His superiority is generally acknowledged by the great body of educated natives, and the devotees of the old religion tremble for their systems of idolatry and hate the Author of the rl'ligion which they feel is destined to supplant their own; while the enlightened look upon Him with reverence and admiration, and many with sincere affection. In fact, Christ is now the central figure to educated Indians, and these now nQ.mber not fewer than eleven or twelve
BENliY MAliTYN
millions, while their number is being increased every year at the rate of another million as they issue from the schools and colleges. It is a rare thing for the youths who go through the higher schools and colleges to leave without a feeling of admiration for the character of Christ, unless they are so depraved as to hate virtue because they love vice. There is much searching of heart about the person and work of Christ. It is in India as in Judea, Christ" is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. " But that He shall be recognized as the Saviour of India is as sure as the promises of God.
HENRY MARTYN.-PART 1.
BY REV. JOHN RUTHERFORD, M.A., B.D., ROTHESAY, SCOTLAND.
The life of He·nry Maltyn is one of three or four books which Professor 'Marcus Dods, of the New College of the Free Church of Scotland, .J!:dinburgh, teUs us have had a lasting influence in moulding his mind and character. And this testimony is not a solitary one, but there are very many others in all the churches who have drawn from the simple records of Henry Martyn's pen an enduring inspiration of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zinzendorf's motto was, Ohristus crucifixu8 passio mea. A perusal of Martyn's memoir will show that this was also the secret of his life, that wherein his strength lay-Christ crucified was his ruling passion.
The life of Martyn is, like that of Robert Murray McCheyne, of Dundee, a life whose secret was unbroken communion with God, and whose influence, therefore, still lives on like ointment in the hand which bewrayeth itself (Prov. 27 : 16).
,. The thought of God Filled him with infinite joy; his craving soul Dwelt on Him as a feast. "
As is well said by Canon Edmonds, in the Church Missionary Intelligencer for January, 1891, "From first to last men loved Martyn. He kindled their interest. He called out their admiration. He won their regard. His memoir was extensively read. It deserved to be. It was far more a sermon than a manifesto. It went with men into hours of retirement. It was the Sunday book of a considerable period. It sank into the hearts of young men. It kindled with its hallowed fire other fires as burning as its own. It carried across the Atlantic a current of glowing piety, and reproduced there the same gracious effects. In both hemispheres for a long time it is hardly too much to say that, among people interested in the work of missions, two names were written each on a white stone of holiest veneration-the name of David Brainerd and that of Henry Martyn."
The sweetness of his character and the lofty purpose of his life breathe through his well-known memoir from first to last. As Sargent, his friend and biographer, well says, his excellence consisted in a renunciation of himself and a compassionate love for mankind. But yet it Was not always so with him. for in his case there was a marked turning to the service of Christ-a time when, as in the case of Paul, it pleased God. who separated him to Himself and called him by His grace to reveal His Son in him that he might preach Him among the heathen.
Martyn was born at Truro, in Cornwall, on February 17th, 1'781. His father was John Martyn, who, from a humble position in connection with some of the Cornish mines, had risen until he became a merchant's clerk in Truro. Henry, as well as his other brothers and sisters, was of a weak physical constitution; all accounts tell us he was a weak and ailing boy. When he was seven years of age his father placed him at the grammar school of the town, then taught by the Rev. Dr. Cardew, who found the boy to be" of a lively, cheerful temper," and of excellent mental abilities.
At the age of fourteen he offered himself as candidate for a scholarship in Oxford. The fact that he did so at so tender an age shows us (,f how great promise he was. But the prize fell to some one else. Here is his own comment upon this incident, written years afterward: "In the autumn of 1'795 my father, at the persuasion of many of his friends, sent me to Oxford to be a candidate for the vacant scholarship at Corpus Christi. I entered at no college, but had rooms at Exeter College by the interest of Mr. Cole, the snb-rector. I passed the examination, I believe, tolerably well, but was unsuccessful, having every reason to think that the decision was impartial. Had I remained and become a member of the University at that time, liS I should have done in case of success, the profligate acquaintances I should have had there would have introduced me to scenes of debauchery, in which I must, in all probability, from my ~xtreme youth, have sunk forever. " This disappointment that befel him was overruled by God both for his personal advantage and also for the purpose of preserving him to be a witness of the cross in far-off lands.
In 1'797 he entered St. J obn's College, Cambridge. Here he worked with great diligence. Hitherto he had been a stranger to any experimental or personal knowledge of salvation. There is an occasion recorded when, carried away in a fit of passion as he sat at table, he threw a knife at one of his companions who in some way had offended him. Fortunately the knife failed to reach its mark; this painful incident caused him most deep regret and humiliation. A college friend attempted to persuade him to better things. and that even his reading should be with a view to the glory of God. This advice, he says, ., seemed strange to me, but reasonable."
The most powerful of those influences which affected him for the better was that of one of his sisters at home, who lived a consistent servant of Christ. She did not cease to urge upon her brother the supreme claims of Christ. This she took special occasion to do during a visit home which Henry paid at the time of a college vacation. But, as he writes in his journal, he steadily resisted his sister, and paid no regard to his father's counsels. "I left my sister and father in October, and him I saw no more. I promised my sister that I would read the Bible for myself, but on being settled at college, Newton engaged all my thoughts."
Returned to Cambridge, he soon received news of his father's death. The bereavement was bbssed to him. He took up his neglected Bible; but how f~int was the light in his soul may be perceived from what he tells us: "I took up my Bible, thinking that the con8ideration of religion wat-l rather suitable to this solemn time. . .• I began with the Acts, as being the most amusin.q, and while I was entertained with the narrative I found myself insensibly led to inquire into the doctrine of the apostles. It corresponded nearly enough with the few notions I had received in my early youth. I believe, on the first night after, I began to pray from a precomposed form, in which I thanked God in general for having sent Christ into the world. But though I prayed for pardon, I had little sense of my own sinfulness; nevertheless, I began to consider myself a religious man." A copy of Doddridge's" Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," which he read at this time, touched his conscience to the quick and caused him much searching of heart-'-" it appeared to make religion to consist too much in humiliation, and my proud, wicked heart would not bear to be brought down into the dust."
Though this in itself was an unsatisfactory beginning, it was nevertheless the turning point of his career, as he himself writes to his sister: "After the death of our father you know I was extremely low spirited, and, like most other people, began to consider seriously, without any particular determination, the invisib~ world to which he was gone, and to which I must one day go. Yet I IItill read the Bible unenlightened, and said a prayer or two rather through terror of a superior power than from any other canse. Soon, however, I began to attend more diligently to the words of our Saviour in the New Testament and to devour them with delight; when the offers of mercy and forgiveness were made so freely, I supplicated to be made partaker of the covenant of grace with eagerness and hope, and thanks be to the ever-blessed Trinity for not leaving me without comfort."
Another most helpful influence at this time was that he was in the habit of attending the ministry of the Rev. Charles Simeon, at Trinity Church, in Cambridge. Simeon's influence was wholly good, both in the promoting of evangelical religion and spirit.ual life and also in fostering the cause of foreign missions, then in its infancy, so far as England W<.lS concerned. Five Cambridge men, all of them disciples of Simeon, had a most important share in the work of making the Gospel known in India. These were, in the order of tlieir arrival abroad. Brown, Buchanan, Martyn, Corrie, and Thomason. Thomason was Simeon's curate from 1796 till 1808, when he sailed for India, and Martyn from 1803 to 1805, when he left for the same destination. But this is anticipating the course of events.
Martyn's pre-eminence as a student is seen in the fact that in the public examination for his university degree, in January, 1801, before he had completed his twentieth year, the highest academical honor was adjudged to him-that of Senior Wrangler of his year. His college friends would crowd round him with warm congratulations, but his own thoughts were these: "I obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to find that I had grasped a shadow." As the result of another examination he was chosen Fellow of St. John's College in March, 1802, and soon thereafter took the first prize given to graduates for the best Latin prose composition. In 1803 he was appointed by the authorities of his college public examiner in classics and, in 1804-, examiner in philosophy. At the close of the same year he was a third time selected as one of the examiners in St. John's College.
A renewed sojourn in Cornwall and renewed fellowship with his Rister were greatly blessed to him. "Not till then (1801)," he writes, "had I experienced any real pleasure in religion."
His intercourse also with Mr. Simeon was made of much use to him, under whose fostering care the spiritual life of Martyn's soul continued to grow. And now he abandoned his original intention of being a lawyer, and consecrated himself entirely to God's service in the ministry of the Gospel.
All the members of Christ in all lands form but one body; and it was the perusal of Jonathan Edwards's memoir of David Brainerd, the missionary to the North American Indians, that largely helped to lead Henry Martyn, the Cambridge student, to offer himself for foreign service. The immediate cause of this decision, however, was a sermon preached by Mr. Simeon on the subject of foreign missions, in which attention had been drawn by the preacher to the good effected for the natives of India by the Baptist missionary, William Carey. Brainerd's memoir quite attracted him. He felt a oneness of soul with the young American who, almost at bis own age, left home and the comforts of civilization to enter alone, for Jesus Christ's sake, the dark forest of Indian superstition and sin, and who, like Martyn, finished his course with joy at an early age-be was only thirty-two. Brainerd and Martyn were both intensely introspective; both were fired with love to Jesus Christ and a yearning love for souls. •• Fatigues and hardships," writes Brainerd, " sene to wean me from the earth, and, I trust, will make beaven the sweeter." Martyn read such heart-breathings of the apostle of the North American Indians, and found in bim a kindred spirit. The decision was made; he, too, laid his life at the feet of Jesus, that Jesus might use that life in any way He saw fit.
•, In labors abundant." The successful worker for Christ at home is the only one who is warranted to look for God's blessing abroad. Sargent gives UII a sample of Martyn's work in England. He visited many of the poor, the afflicted, and the dying; he warned numbers of the careless and profligate; often did he redeem time from study, from recreation, and from the intercourse of -friends that he might enter the abodes of misery. Many an hour did he pass in a hospital or an almshouse; and often after a day of labor and fatigue, when wearied almost to an extremity of endurance, he would read and pray with the servant who had the care of his rooms.
He now offered himself to the Church Missionary Society, one of the noblest of all societies at work among the heathen. It was formed in the year 1800, and the name of Charles Simeon is among its founders. Events, however, proved that it was not under the Society's auspices that Martyn was to go to India.
On October 22d, 1803, he was ordained deacon in the Church of England, and in due time began his ministry as curate to the Rev. Charles Simeon, with whom he earnestly labored in Cambridge and the adjoining village of Lolworth until the next year, 1804.
In that year the appointment of a chaplaincy in India was offered him by the directors of the East India Company. This appointment was accepted by him. In March, 1805, he was ordained a presbyter at St. James' Chapel, London, and after the ordination the University of Cambridge conferred on him the degree of Bachelor of Divinity.
" I see no business in life but the work of Christ, neither do I desire any employment to all eternity but His service." In this frame of mind did he look forward to leaving England for India; in this steadfastness of purpose he was conscious that the Lord had called him to preach the Gospel to the heathen.
He set sail from Portsmouth on board the Indiaman, Union. The yesse! put in for a brief stay at Falmouth, and this gave him an opportunity to meet once more-it was their last meeting on earth-a lady for whom he had the strongest attachment-Miss Lydia Grenfell. Only last year- 1890-were extracts published from the diary kept by this lady, and these throw a flood of light upon the relations of those lovers. Mr. Sargent describes her as "one of whom less ought not and more cannot be said than that she was worthy of him." Martyn deeply loved her, and proposed that she should go to India to him; but she declined to do so. Years before she had been engaged to another, and though this individual married some one else, still Miss Grenfell felt bound to her word while he lived. And" thus, to Martyn's heart-break and her own pain, the only woman that he loved never became his wife." However, she continued to correspond with him as a sister, and this correspondence helped to alleviate the loneliness and pain which fell to his lot. Miss Grenfell survived him till 1829. "At nine in the morning," he writes, "I was sitting at ease with the person dearest to me npon earth, intending to go out with her afterward to visit some perRons with her and preach on the morrow; four hours only elapsed, and I was under sail from England." The ships had sailed in haste, and it was with difficulty Martyn reached the Union in time.
A voyage to India in those days was something to be remembered; not as now in first-class steamers, luxuriously filted up like floating hotels, so that an Indian voyage becomes a delightful holiday. Very different was the state of things then. The ship in which he sailed was one of a fleet consisting of fifty transports and five men-of-war, besides the Indiamen ; for England was then at war with Holland and France. Added to all the discomforts of the voyage was the extreme length of it; from the time he sailed until the ship arrived in India was nine months! The disrespect shown to him by almost all on board was a severe discipline for his spirit, but it became a means of grace. On Sabbaths the captain would not allow him to preach oftener than once. He saw, therefore, that his usefulness greatly depended on his private ministrations. He therefore made it his daily habit to go between decks, where he assembled all who were willing to attend, and read to them some religious book and made comments upon it. "Some attend fixedly," he writes; "others are looking another way; some women are employed about their children, attending for a little while and then heedless, some rising up and going away; others taking their place, and numbers, especially of those who have been upon watch, strewed all along upon the deck fast asleep; one or two from the upper decks looking d('wn and listening. " And on Sabbath things were no more encouraging. "The passengers were inattentive; the officers, many of them, sat drinking, so that he. could overhear their noise, and the captain was with them." " I seemed uneasy at the thoughts of calling forth the hatred of the people to-morrow by preaching to them unpleasant truths." But even in so unpromising a field the good seed took root and grew; there were visible resulti of tho grace of God.
It was a most eventful voyage, its chief incidents being an attempt at mutiny by the crew; four days spent at Funchal ; a short stay at San Salvador, in Brazil, where Martyn landed and engaged in conversation in Latin with some Roman Catholic priests, seeking earnestly to lead them to Christ; and the arrival of the feet at the Cape of Good Hope. This formed a remarkable episode, surely, in a voyage to India. The purpose and meaning of this putting in of the fleet at the Cape was that the south of Africa then belonged to the Dutch, and the fleet was conveying British soldiers to fight the Dutch and to capture the place. Martyn, in his capacity as a chaplain, was actually on the field of battle, in which the Dutch were defeated. There he moved among the wounded and the dying, speaking to the wounded of the blessed Gospel and beseeching them to look to Jesus Christ for salvation. As he was thus engaged he nearly lost his life, for a drunken Highland soldier, taking him for a Frenchman, presented his gun at him. Martyn sprang toward him, and told him if he doubted his word to take him prisoner to the English camp, but that he certainly was an English clergyman. This pacified the soldier, and thus Martyn's life was saved.
Resuming his voyage, India was reached at last. The sickness in the ship had been very great. Shortly before reaching the Cape the captain had died, and now there was more ill health than ever. Throughout it all Martyn was ever at the hedside of the sick and dying, adUlinistering to them every temporal and spiritual comfort.
On April 22d, 1806, the ship anchored in Madras roads, and next month arrived at Calcutta. "Oh, if I live," he writes, "let me have come hither to some purpose !"
Mission work in India was at that time carried on under peculiar diffi- culties. Those in power showed the bitterest hostility to the preaching of the Gospel to the natives. If we would understand the devotion of men like William Carey and Hemy Martyn, let us first realize what were the prospects of missionary success while India was ruled by the East India Company. The British flag was the emblem of a determined opposition to prevent the news of salvation from reaching the ears of the Hindus. Probably the met.hod by which India was then held would have squared badly wit!l the precepts of Christ; and those in power seem to have felt this. Carey, :Iarshman, and Ward were not allowed to live in British India at all, but were forced to reside at the Danish settlement of Seram- pore. It is milch to the credit of Denmark that her rulers were in their friendliness to the Gospel so different from the British authorities of that time. Martyn's position as a chaplain gave him certain advantages, for he had permission from the East India Company, as their chaplain, to preach to the English residents; but it had its disadvantages, too, for he was under military rule, and must obey as much as any private in the ranks. The evangelical party in the Church of England was then regarded with contempt and ridicule. Martyn was a representative of that party, and the same scorn which he had met with on shipboard awaited him in India.
Arrived in Calcutta, he was warmly welcomed by the Rev. David Brown, who received him with true hospitality. Here he worked incessantly, acquiring the Hindustani language. It would be impossible for the East India Company to keep this chaplain within regulation rules in regard to not preaching to the natives. " I lay in tears," he says, " interceding for the unfortunate natives of this conntry, thinking within myself that the most despicable soodar of India was of as much value in the sight of God as the King of Great Britain. " The idolatrous rites of heathenism which he now witnessed filled him with horror. A Hindu widow, burning to death on a funeral pile beside her husband, he made an ineffectual attempt to rescue. His heart was pierced with the sound of the cymbals and drums calling the natives to the worship of the idols. And when he saw them prostrate before an idol which was surrounded with burning lights, he was moved with compassion, while he "shivered as standing, as it were, in the neighborhood of hell." As he wrote in connection with another matter, " Let me never fancy I have zeal till my heart overflows with love to every man living."
His ministerial brethren did not relish the new preaching; the doctrine of justification by faith they could not endure. Accordingly, Martyn had
MAWl'YX
to undergo much personal abuse even from the pulpit. "These clergy," writes Martyn, "denied in the pulpit, one by one, all the lmding doc- trines of the Gospel, as well as abused the newly arrived missionary." Martyn was wise enough when he preached not to make the slightest allusion to those philippic sermons.
This is a sufficient glimpse of the determined hostility then at work everywhere against the Gospel, as well as against all who preached and loved it. Spirituality was the one and only thing that was not tolerated.
An appointment soon came, under which Martyn was ordered to proceed to Dinapore, a military station up the Ganges. Travelling up river was accomplished in boats called budgerows. Embarked in one of these, Martyn used the time in the study of Sanskrit, and afterward of Persian, and also in beginning the translation of the Scriptures with the native moonshee whom he had engaged to help him in this work. An in~resting incident occurred as the boat passed Serampore. Mr. Marshman, one of the Baptist missionaries, could not resist coming down to meet Mr. Martyn, and after accompanying him a little way, left him with prayer. This is the true communion of saints.
Going on shore from time to time during this river journey, he found himself on one occasion in the midst of a crowd of Hindus engaged in the worship of idols. With the presiding Brahmin he engaged in earnest conversation, and though he had not yet a sufficient hold of the language, nevertheless he was able to make known the truth of God. His comment upon this incident is: "I learned that the power of gentleness is irresistible. "
The boat arrived in dne time at Berhampore, the first military station, where he landed and visited the sick in the hospital. His journal shows us the kind of reception he so often met with. " Rose early, and was at the hospital by daylight, but after waiting a long time, wandering through the wards, hoping the men would get up and assemble, I went away amid the sneers and titters of the common soldiers. It is extraordinary that I seldom or never met with contempt on account of religion except from Englishmen, and from them invariably."
Resuming his river journey, he worked assiduously at Bible translation, even wearying the moonshee with the labor, and endeavoring to impress the man's heart with Christian truth. He also made it hiil practice to distribute tracts in the adjacent villages, though in this he received but little encouragement from the recipients. The burden of those Christless souls ever lay beavy upon him. "I was much burdened," he writes, "with the consciousness of blood-guiltiness, and though I cannot doubt of my pardon by the blood of Christ, how dreadful the reflection that any should perish who might have been saved by my exertions." At length he arrived at Dinapore, which was to be his permanent residence for a considerable time. Here his immediate objects were three-fold, to establish natiye schools; to attain such fluency in Hindustani as might enahle him easily to preach the
BENRY
Gospel to the natives and to prepare translations of the Scriptures and of tracts.
As he sailed past Patna, the sight of the multitudes in that city almost overwhelmed him, and his own bodily weakness and pain oppressed him here. He was to suffer more and more from this cause until his earthly race was run. The intensity of his soul consumed the earthly tenement in which it lived.
His work among the Europeans in Dinapore was begun under no more encouraging auspices than he had hitherto enjoyed. At first when he assembled the soldiers for worship he was desired to omit the sermon. Many of the European families took offence at his preaching without a writ- ten sermon, alld a letter was sent him requesting him to cease from extem- pore preaching. Though at first inclined to resent this interference, yet in order to conciliate them he complied with their wishes.
Working daily with the moonshee at Bible translation, he tried to do the man's soul some good. One day, speaking of the divinity of Christ, Martyn told him that he should pray that God would teach him what the truth really is. The man said he had no need to pray on the subject, as the Koran was express. Martyn asked him whether some doubt ought not to arise in his mind as to whether the Koran is the Word of God. The moonshee grew angry. Martyn felt hurt and vexed. "If any qualification," he writes, " seems necessary to a missionary in India, it is wisdom operatiJlg in the regulation of the temper and improvement of opportunities. H In his work as chaplain at Dinapore he continued to be grieved by the neglect, levity, and profaneness of many of the English there. In vain he attempted to speak of religion in the houses of the wealthy: "The manner in which it was received damped all further attempt." Still he labored on, sometimes making long journeys in pursuit of his pastoral work j one journey of seventy miles is mentioned to perform a marriage.
On February 24th, 1807, he completed the translation into Hindustani of the Book of Common Prayer, and a few Sundays thereafter commenced Divine worship in the vernacular. " The spectacle," says Sargent, " was a8 novel as it was gratifying to behold two hundred women, Portuguese, Roman Catholics, and Mahometans, crowding to attend the service of the Church of England, which had lost nothing, doubtless, of its beautiful simplicity and devout solemnity in being clothed with an Oriental dress." Soon thereafter he finished a commentary in Hindustani on the Parables. His moonshee's private thoughts on this work may be seen from his remark to Mr. Martyn that, after that generation had passed away, a race of fools might perhaps arise who would try to believe that God could be a man, and man God, and who would say that the Bible is the Word of God. The bitterness and disrespect of the moonshee only made him resolve that in future he would be surprised by no appearances of the same temper in others.
His Sabbath duties had grown in his hands. They now consisted of a
MO'I'IYES '1'0 MfRSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN
service fur Europeans at seven in the morning, another at two in the afternoon, for Hindus; then he attended the hospital, and in the evening he ministered in his own rooms to those soldiers who were interested in Divine things. Regarding the English service of a particular Sabbath he writes: " I preached on Luke 22 : 22. As is always the case when I preach about Christ, a spiritual influence is diffused over my soul." This patient, unremitting labor for Christ, apparently so barren of result, was yet not allowed to be without fruit. Both among the privates and the officers some hcarts were touched by God's grace, and with these he enjoyed true fellow. ship. ilis heart was refreshed; his lahor was not in vain in the Lord.
(TO BE CONCLUDED.) MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN.
BY REV. HENRY E. ROBINS, D.D., LL.D., ROCHESTER, N. Y.
A paper read before the Autumnal Meeting of the AMERICAN BAPTIBT MISSIONARY UNION, at Buffalo, N. Y.
Upon what motives may we rely to incite the people of God to a rigorous prosecution of missionary work among those who are destitute of the light of Christian truth as conveyed to us in the Christian Scriptures?
The real motive of human action is always within the soul, never without. Outward conditions, often in common speech called motives, are only occasions by which the internal motives are brought into play, and can be called motives only in a secondary, nut in a primary sense. Money as external, to me is not my motive in seeking it, whether I seek it for worthy or unworthy ends j it is rather my desire for it, that I may use it to sustain and enlarge and enrich my life and the lives of others; or that I may hoard it to gratify the passion of mere possession, or pervert it to secure power or station or luxury-self-gratification in one or more of its protean forms.
Bearing ill mind, then, that the motive which we seek is within, we are ready to say that God Himself is the foundation of missionary motive. " God," said the Great Teacher, "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." God loves and desires to save a world of sinners; this fact, declared so impressively in the passage which we have quoted, is everywhere either expressly affirmed or implied by the general tenor of the Word of God from beginning to end. The love of God, not His complacent but His pitying love-to make a distinction upon which the theologians rightly insist-the love of God toward a world of sinners is the one only motive sufficiently adequate in vitality and force, persistent in its energy and comprehensive in its scope, to inspire the Church to her stupendous task of the conquest of the world for its Lord. A plan which the Infinite God only could conceive, He only can execute. A snpernatural work requires a supernatural motive.
But, you say, the love of God for sinners is a motive for His action, not for ours. Let us see.
The love of God found its first manifestation through Him who shared it with the Father from the beginning, even the incarnate Son of God, especially in His atoning death, by which God's gracious relation to sinful men was justified and made possible. The love of God toward a world of sinners was the motive of Christ's action. But, you say, the motive is still within the sphere of the Divine nature. Admitted, but notiee. It is God's plan in making a channel for His love that, by union with Christ, by faith through the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost, sinful men shall become partakers of the Divine nature, children of God, so that the impulse of saving grace which wrought in the Father and in Christ shall be operative in them also-each one of them " No blind, unsharing instrument, But joyful partner of His pu~pose."
Accordingly, our Lord said to His immediate disciples, and through them to ChristianR of all time': "Ye are' the salt of the earth. " "Ye are the light of the world. ~'. They are constituted salt in order that, since it is of the nature of salt to save, they may save the earth. They have been constituted luminaries in order that, since it is of the nature of light to shine, they may enlighten the world. It is of the very essence of salt, as Bengel suggests, commenting on this passage, to have savor and to give savor, to have it in order to give it. If it neither has it nor gives it, it is not salt, and is good for no economic use, fit only to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. So lamps are lighted, as the Great Teacher affirms, not to be put under a bushel, but on the stand, that they may shine unto all that are in the house. In harmony with this teaching of our Lord, God's promise to Abraham, called the father of believers of all time, since in spiritual character they were to resemble their great progenitor, was: "I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing." "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God's purpose, we see, is not attained when the individual soul is made Christian. A man is regenerated rather in order that, while he himself is" being sa"ed" (Acts 2 : 47), while the process of salvatio,') is going on in him, and ideally inseparable frOID it, he may save others also:); so that, at last, the Kingdom of God in the new redeemed race shall be established. God's ideal plan is that His redeeming love, kindled as a flame in the hearts of Hill redeemed children, shall run like a prairie fire, each ignited blade of grass kindling its npighbor until the burning circle extends the whole horizon round. The Divine impulse of God's redeeming love for sinners within the believer can be limited in its scope only by his ability; howe,'er the envil'onment of immediate duty may restrain him, his love, since it is the love of God, emhraces the world. He is in fellowship, communion, or, as Dr. Hackett used to emphasize the thought, he is in co-partnership with God j what God loves, he loves j what Gcd seeks, he seeks. _In a word, he is a channel of Divine grace, as ChrIst was. We have in this manner disclosed the supreme, the only real motive upon which we must rely, and to which we must make our appeal. '1'he love of God for a sinful world inspiring a regenerate Church in conscious, living union with her Lord is the sole hope of missions among the heathen.
But there is a fact, attested by current observation and Church hIstory, which, carefully considered, puts a strong emphasis upon the truth Fe have discovered-viz., that missionary zeal of a certain sort may De awakened and missionary enterprises may be prosecuted by appeal to motives operative in the unrenewed heart. Destitute of love, a man may bestow all his goods to feed the poor, may give his body to be burned, may compass sea and land to make proselytes. Accordingly, missionary work may be vigorously carried on, but in a loveless spirit, burdened by unconsecrated workers, unconsecrated money, unspiritual methods, and unspiritual ends. You willllllow me to say, my brethren, that it is my conviction that in these loveless helps, in the alien spirit, we find our chief hindrance in our work. A sort of moral paralysis seems at times to steal over us, making our efforts abortive, so that results are far from commensurate with the money expended and the machinery set in operation. I speak as unto men spiritually wise j judge ye what I say.
Passing this important point, deserving a fuller discussion, with this hrief allusion, let me now pass to say that we are to seek by every means to awaken the regenerate Church to her sublime privilege and responsibility, as put in trust by virtue of her regeneration with the redeeming love of God toward a sinful world. And this we may do by making it evident that, since Christ is the God of providence, Head over all things, administering the government of the world in the interest of redemption, all the vast resources of our material civilization are, so far as they are within her power, facilities granted to the Church with the express design to enable her, as trustee of that priceless thing, to make known God's love toward those, the world over, for whom Christ died.
When on one occasion that seer of God, the late Jonah G. Warren, stood watching a company of missionaries standing upon the deck of a steamer just putting to sea, he is reported to have exclaimed, as if at th.ut moment profoundly impressed with the thought: "That is what steamers are for!" Yes, that is what steamers are for in God's intent. The IIleans of transportation, which mark our age above every other which has prec,~ded it, are highways which Christ has cast up fodeet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace j the means of communication of intelligence so wonderful that a whisper may be heard from city to city, and the touch (j.f II child's finger speed a message around the globe j the accumulations of wealth in Christian hands greater than ever since the Babe of Mary awakened to His mission in the manger of Bethlehem; Christian learning wider in its scope, and more profound, and more exact in its acquisitions than ever before; Christian homes larger in number, and realizing the Christian ideal of family life more fully than ever since the Christian calendar began to witness to the Ilupremacy of our Lord j the social and political life of Christendom testifying-I will not say notwithstanding, but even in its conflicts and agitations to the resistless working of the transforming power of the Gospel-what are all these but means which God's love may use in pouring itself £01 th through His children, as Christ poured forth llis blood for the salvation of the world. The Church of preceding times was never so equipped. never had such resources at her command. The providential indications of God's purpose in redemption were never so clear; and hence Christians of earlier times were so far excusable for their misconception of the mission of the Church j but our opportunity is both index and measure of our privilege and our duty. Alas for us if we misinterpret Christ's meaning in blessing us so abundantly, if we fail to detect in the profusion of His gifts to us the yearning of His heart for lost sheep not of this fold. What He has done for us is but a declaration, a vivid portrayal before our very eyes, of what He desires to do for otllers through us. Let us tremble with a holy joy that the world's Redeemer dwells within us ; that it is His love for earth's perishing millions that moves us. Let us iIpprison our Lord no longer. Let us cease to restrain the Divine love that urges us along the pathway of the Redeemer's missiou. Is the printed Word of God a living thing to us, throbbing with the life of tr J living Word ~ Do we shudder with a sort of horror when we consider how darkened and desolate our lives would be without it? Have we seen Christ evidently set forth before our eyes crucified? Have we clearly apprehended the way of salvation through His atoning death? Have we known the holy joy, the sacred peace of forgiven sin? Have we known the sweet sanctity of the Christian home and the innumerable blessings of the Christian state 1 What are these but gifts of the love of the strong Son of God, impelling us by the very richness of these gifts to give ourselves no rest until Christ shall be to all the world what He is to us , May I quote here, as expressing my thought, from Dr. Storr's address, delivered at the eighty-second annual m~eting of the American Board, recently held at Pittsfield: "Our aim," he said, " is to brighten humanity, by maldng the heavenly temper universal among mankind j to make every house on earth a Christian home, and every community a Christian community, a perfect, vital, social organization. • . . It has been the idea in God's mind from the outset that the heavenly life should finally be experienced throughout the earth, until heaven and earth blend at the horizon, and the heavenly Jerusalem be founded on earth." Yes, it is the love of God in us for a world steeped in the guilt and misery of sin that prompts us to pray, taught by the Saviour of men Himself: "Thy Kingdom come j Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." Ollr transcendent privileges and the appalling destitution, both spiritual and material, of heathen nations, in their piteous ignorance of God and Christ, terrified hy the creations of their own darkened imaginations, the dense gloom, the very shadow of death in which they grope their way through life to hopeless graves, are fitted to awaken the Divine motive within us to its uttermost urgency.
Nor can any hope that, on scriptural grounds, we may cherish for the regeneration of individual souls among the heathen in any wise diminish the force of such an appeal to this motive. vVe do, indeed, rejoice in the fact that Christ in His death " is the propitiation for our sins j and not for ours only, hut also for the whole world" (1 John 2 : 2) j that the atonement is as extensive in its scope as human sin; that the ministry of the Spirit, made possible by the death of Christ, so to apply its benefits, is as universal as the scope of the atonement j that the entire race is thus under a real probation of grace, so that the death of Christ not only makes salvation possible for all, but certain for some in all ages and all lands. This, however, is only to say that there is peril of the loss of the soul, whether in heathen or Christian lands, and that whatever motive impels us to preach the Gospel at home has, if right, equal force at least in impelling us to preach the Gospel among all nations. Beyond dispute it is certain that the truths of the Christian Scriptures assimilated by faith, wrought into the life of the soul by the joint action of intellect, sensibility, and will, are essential to the realization among men of distinctive Christian experience, essential to the attainment of Christ-like character, essential to the purification and reorganization of social and political life according to the Christian ideal, and these in their turn essential to the realization of God's plan of the ultimate establishment of HIS kingdom in the heavenly state. The unfolding of the ages is, we all believe, as the Scriptures teach, " according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of IJis will" (Eph. 1 : 11). What we behold, then, of the triumphs of Christian civilization in the world is in fulfilment of that purpose. Reasoning from what we see that God has done, and interpreting accordingly the intimations of the future given in the Holy Scriptures, who will venture to say that the light which has already fallen from the Sun of Righteousness upon our darkened humanity is not the radiant dawn of a perfect day, when the brightest visions of inspired seers shall become accomplished fact 1 At any rate, we are working along the line of the Divine will, as unmistakably declared in the providence of God, when planting in the midst of the peoples churches of regenerated men and women, instructed in the Word of God, we carry to them the force, the only force which can both regenerate and civilize. Regeneration, evangelization first, civilization afterward as its fruit, if God will. God in the truths of Holy Scripture has committed to us the key of knowledge by which we have entered into the heaven of Christian privilege which we enjoy. In this sense, He has made the expression of His love to the nations dependent npon the fidelity of His Church. In this sense, we stand in the place of God to the heathen nations. Amazing responsibility! In view of it, how acute the senlle of our obligation! In view of it, are we not compelled to say that whoever neglects or refuses to obey our Lord's last solemn charge to His Church sets himself to resist rather than to hasten the coming of the day of God, assumes the attitude of an enemy of his race?
Weare thus led to fix the place of the command of Christ to disciple the nations as a missionary motive. A~ external to man, it is a motive only in a secondary sense. It can be a real motive only as addressed to a soul filled with the love of God for sinners. A command can never originate life; it can only guide it already existing. We may galvanize a dead body to a semblance of life by external appliances, but not so can quicken it to genuine activity. We may thunder the commission in the ears of nominal Christendom till doomsday in vain. It will never be heard save by those whose ears have been opened by the Holy Ghost. Quicken the life of God in the 1I0uls of men, and they will run in the path of His commandments, as the vine runs up the trellis, which guides but does not give its life, and covers it with the beauty of its foliage and the lusciousness of its fruit. To him to whom it has been given by Christ dwelling in him, the command to diRciple the nations is nothing less than a transfiguration; it is a summons to a fellowship in the purest, loftiest purpose that ever entered the mind of man. Interpreted by the declaration with which our Lord introduced it, "All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth," it assures love shrinking from her great task that thiR shrinking and apparently impotent love is nothing less than the infinite love of God Himself, energized with His infinite power to love in spite of demoniac hate and bitterest opposition, power to love even unto death, power to continue through the centuries to love until a rebellious race has been subjected by self-sacrificial love to her rightful Lord. Lifted, rapt by this Divine passion of saving grace above the possible plane of mere human action, the Pauls, the Coveys, the Judsons, the Livingstones, the Patons, the Cloughs go forth with the cross in their hearts, the cross in their lives, the cross on their lips, never doubting, despite all appearances, that He who inspires them and He who commands them will surely" not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth" (Isa. 42 : 4).
Your time will allow me to mention now only one more incitement to the great motive to missionary effort. That incitement is the fact that there is hidden in the heart of every gift of God to us a meaning and sweetness which only reveals itself when the gift is shared with others. Money hoarded notoriously makes a man a miser, makes a man miserable. Intellectual acquisitionil unused for the benefit of men only increase sorrow. Indeed, the best acquisition is secured in imparting knowledge-a practical wisdom that finds its expression in the proverb, "If you would learn a thing, teach it." And in the highest realm, the spiritual realm, the truth to which we call attention has its supreme illustration. No man knows
A GREAT ANTI-OPIUM MEETING
the possible sweetness of the Gospel until he has instrumentally carried it to other souls. It must be true, indeed, that no man knows anything whatever of the love of God unless he has the disposition, at least, to communicate it. It cannot, in the nature of things, be selfishly possessed. One of the mO<lt pregnant of our Lord's sayings is' the declaration of the principle of universal application. "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It is more blessed, because it is in giving that we get at the kernel of the gift to us. Every parent knows that if he would discover the superlative flavor of a fruit, he must taste it through the palate of his child. The alabaster cruse did not reveal the exceeding preciousness of the ointment which it contained until she of Bethany whose it was poured it forth upon the Saviour's head; then its exquisite perfume was for her and for all that were in the house. God's love for us sinners, His most precious gift to us, has within it, at its heart, a secret of blessing for us as individuals, as churches, as a nation, waiting to be disclosed in richness beyond our highest thought in proportion as we obey the Master's injunction, " Freely ye have received, freely give. "
A GREAT ANTI-OPIUM MEETING.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
On Friday evening, December 4th, 1891, every available seat on the main floor, on the stage, and in the galleries of Exeter Hall, London, was filled, and by one of the best audiences we have ever seen in that great gathering place.
The meeting was called specially to welcome Mr. Cheok Hong Cheong and Miss Soonderbai Powar, who came to protest on behalf of their fellow country people against the opium traffic; and two representatives of the Chinese Embassy were seated in the front row on the platform.
Rev. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Chairman, in his opening address, said he was prepared to unite in taking active measures to suppress the growth and sale of opium, except as needful for medicinal purposes; and proceeded to indicate the special linea of argument for the suppression of the opium traffic.
First, as to the financial objection that it is impossible to do without the opium revenue, if a thing be right to do, it matters not what it may cost. If our forefathers faced the cost to rid the nation of the sin of slavery, it is surely duty and privilege to make whatever sacrifice be required to set India and China free from this curse.
Further, there is the moral difficulty, that the consumption of opium invariably demoralizes, degrades, and lowers the tone and pllysique of those who use it. Here the speaker read from the High Commissioner of Burmah, now Sir C. Aitchison, a strong indictment against th9 Government and nation which permitted or encouraged such a traffic to the ruin of their own subjects. But the highest of all arguments is the spiritual. Like a wail of agony there comes to us the cry, "Come over and help us. We are hurrying fast to ruin."
It is impossible to be silent in view of this tremendous issue. Knowing that opium degrades and leads on to inevitable destruction, can we refraic from urging our Government and pleading with our God to deliver us from this dark stigma with regard to our dealing with the people of China and India ~ Cost what it may, we will dare to do righteouRly, and while sending the Gospel to these people, we will not be parties to their destruction for the sake of money.
Mr. Cheok Hong Cheong, Superintendent of Church Missions at Melbourne, Victoria, who is a model of public utterance in the English tongue, told how, in youth, a father's warnings had saved him from the degrading opium habit. Standing by the victims of this terrible poison, he has often been moved to the tenderest sympathy for men, self-convicted of sin against the clearest light, with a yearning to rid themselves of the injurious practice, yet bound by cravings as abject slaves.
The victims themselves say that the only measure adequate to meet the evil is the absolute prohibition of the traffic by Government. For twentyfive years Mr. Cheong has exhorted men resolutely to battle with their thraldom,'but the invariable answer is that it is hopeless to attempt it until the temptation to relapse is absolutely removed. Very rarely, indeed, have men succeeded by strength of will in giving up thi8 fascinating vice. A medical man used it to soothe his cough, and after a frightful struggle with th~ strong desire for continuous indulgence, brought a strong will and antidotes to bear upon the habit, and so escaped j but in other instances men have utterly failed.
A hopeful and intelligent nati ve, becoming interested in the services of the mission and in the Scriptures, broke the habit, but during a subsequent illness again yielded in a moment of weakness, and has had a complete relapse, it being very unlikely that he will have sufficient strength to undergo the ordeal a second time, with all its attendant agony and suffering. Another man of high reputation, when he found himself powerless to break the habit, sought relief for his misery in suicide.
Missionaries in China are convinced that opium has been well named the" great plague of Asia," and unless dealt with in time it may become the great plague of the world. Already two thousand Europeans in Australia, men of good social position, indulge in opium smoking, besides the large number of others who take the poison in the form of morphia.
From representations made to the Government of Victoria the executives have unanimously agreed that opium is nothing hut an evil, and have drafted a measure absolutely prohibiting the traffic. According to the provisions of this measure, no one is to grow or manufacture opium in Victoria except for medicinal purposes. No vessel arriving at any port of the colony is to carry more than fifty pounds' weight. Sellers of the drug, keepers of dens for its use, and opium smokers are to be subject to a penalty of £500, or twelve months' impriRonment.
Mr. Cheong's speech was very powerful. In course of it he compared opium to the octopus, getting hold of its victim and then extending its many arms in every direction throughout his body, mind, conscience, and will, until he hopelessly succumbs to the power of a victorious foe. The address will never be forgotten by those who heard it.
Miss Soonderbai Powar, an Indian Christian lady of Bombay, addressed herself to the task of delivering the many momentous messages which she bore from the women of India as!lembled in public meetings at Poona, Bombay, and Lucknow.
In her native land the drug is readily obtained by the poorest persons, and it is a fruitful cause of infanticide and suicide. Many families have to suffer privation and ruin because husbands and fathers spend the greater part of their scanty earnings in the indulgence of their depraved appetite. Some of the women said: "Tell the Engli!!h people that, if they help us in this time of difficulty, we should be so thankful that we would take the skin off our bodies to make shoes for them. "
In India, with its thirty-three millions of gods, the female idolworshipper!! said : "Tell the English people and Government that if they will stop this trade, we will regard them as our gods. " When missionaries go to the zenanas to preach, they are told : "Go and convert your Christian Government first, and then come and tell us about Christ." It is useless to spend money on missionaries, and to pray daily for the coming of Christ's kingdom, while the promotion of the opium traffic is delaying that kingdom. Some of the poor women said: " We know that all the Government wants is money, money, money. Tell them only to stop this wicked trade, then they may send their soldiers, break into our houses, and take all we have; for we cannot bear the utter ruin which this thing is bringing upon us!" High caste women are not allowed to work for themselves j and if the husbands spend their time in the opium dens, there is nothing for the poor women and children but to lie down in their dark zenana rooms and die.
The wretched sufferers, being unable to distinguish between missionaries and Government, cast the imputation of this terrible iniquity upon Christianity. If a man knocks down another and robs him because the first needs money, the aggressor is sent to prison; but what should be done to a Christian Government which is knocking down, in II very terrible and heartless manner, millions of men and women for the same reason?
While India and China are suffering these things, some persons say that those who agitate for reform are using !trong language j but Miss Powar prof~ssed herself unable to conceive the strength of denunciation which must come from tIle lipE of Him who gave His precious life alf,o for lands beyond the seas. Missionaries are saddened as they enter the filthy opium dens and see indescrihable scenes, living skeletons heaped one upon another, thousands of degraded beings going fast to hell, and the onlookers powerless for rescue. What is the use of preaching to men who have become idiotic? When they do understand tho message that is brought to them, they exclaim: " We don't want your religion~ The Christians have ruined us !"
"Woe to all who smoke opium," said another. "We did not wish for it, but we were coaxed into its use"-referring to the action of license- holders, who, unless they sell a certain quantity of the drug annually, have to bear a heavy fine j and so work hard in their evil occupation, ~ending their emissaries into the cities for the purpose of enticing young men into their dark and foul opium dens. H an Englishman poisoned his neighbor's children he would be hanged, but England, through her Government, is poisoning India and China j and from these countries, where unlabelled poison freely circulates among the people, there must and will ascend to God a continual cry for justice, until Enghtnd is converted from the error of her way.
Mr. A. S. Dyer followed, moving the following resolution: "This meeting,. representing the aroused conscience of the nation, in view of the fact that the traffic in opium carried on by the British Government of India, brings upon countless numbers of our fellow-men in China, India, and Burmah physical and moral degradation, and upon their innocent families unutterable misery and ruin, is a grievous hindrance to the spread of the Gospel, by identifying this professedly Christian country with the sin of propagating an odious vice, and also dries up the sources of legitimate commerce, calls upon the Government to immediately direct the stoppage of the growth, manufactnre, and sale of opium in India (except for strictly medicinal purposes), and its export therefrom, in harmony with the vote of the House of Commons of April loth last, which condemned this traffic as ' morally indefensible.'
"This meeting further expresses its conviction that the people of the United Kingdom will not hesitate to repeat a sacrifice similar to that by which they put an end to negro slavery in British colonies, and to give 8uch moderate temporary assistance to the Indian Exchequer as may be needed to enable the Government of India wholly and at once to dispense with the revenue from the opium trade, without placing any fresh burdens upon the people of that country."
Mr. Dyer said: " We have listened to the representatives of Eastern countries containing a population of more than six hundred million 80uls. Adjacent to these are other lands suffering from the curse of the British Indian opium traffic, of whose inhabitants these guests are also the repre- sentatives. The plea for justice which they have made is, therefore, a plea in the interests of peoples comprising half the population of the globe.
Considering the numbers affected or threatened by the opium scourge, therl:'
has never been a subject of greater magnitude before the public. May God burn it into the hearts of the people of this land, that the nation is re- sponsible for the greatest attack upon humanity that history records or that the world has known. When I first wcnt to India, rather more than four years ago, I had no idea that the British Government in that country wcre propagating the opium vice among our fellow-subjects there, in addi· tion to exportiug the poisonous drug to curse the Chinese nation. The facts in reference to the consumption of opium in India have come upon me as an awful revelation through careful and patient investigation. "
After showing, on the basis of official reporb, that the consumption of the poison had increased in the Bombay Presidency 549 per cent since 1876, while in other provinces it has also sadly increased, the speaker asked: " How was this increase brought about ~ The license to sell opium in any city or district is put up to public auction, or disposed of to the highest bidder, the Government having previously fixed the minimum sale, or the lowest quantity which the successful bidder must sell during the term of his contract.
" The form of license in use in the Bombay Presidency provides that if the holder of the license should fail to sell the stipulated minimum.amount of the poison he must pay (I quote the words of the license) 'penalty at the rate oj Rs. 5 per pound on the quantity oj opium required to make up the said minimum.'
" In the Northwest Provinces and Oudh the license provides that if one fail to buy of the Government the minimum quantity officially fixed to be retailed by him in each month, 'and the collector considers his explanation of his failure to buy the required amount to be unsatisfactory, the collector may resume the lease at once, and confiscate the instalments paid in advance by the lessee as security.'
"During the last three years the number of opium shops in India, instead of diminishing, increased by 1486.
" Preposterous statements have been made as to the increase of taxation that would be entailed if the opium traffic were abolished. But the legitimate revenue of India-i.e., apart from the opium traffic, has increased for a great many years past. During the last five years it bas increased at the average rate of seven hundred thousand tens of rupees per year. A careful estimate shows that all that is required to end the blackest chapter in our national history is a sum only equal to half the amount t!tat was given fifty years ago, with far less resources, to free the negro slaves in our "'Test Indian possessions. A subsidy of ten million ponnds to the Indian Exchequer, spread over a period of seven years, and divided into annual grants on a diminishing scale, would settle this infamous business; and it could be arranged in a manner that would cause the burden of this great act of justice to be almost imperceptible."
Rev. David Hill read an extract from a letter from a missionary brother a hundred miles from Hankow. The writer said: "I have bad news for you. I have seen the first poppy field in this part of the country." In all his travels he had never seen the poppy grown in that province before. Then in Hankow, forty years ago, one would see in every part of
AN UNCANONICAL MISSIONARY IN PALES'l'lNE
the city signboards with two Chinese charaders implying" Sz-chuen rice," that province growing so much rice that it could supply its own needs and send largely to other provinces. Now these letters have wholly disappeared, and in their stead stand two other characters implying" Sz-chuen earth," a Chinese euphemistic way of denominating the drug poil:!on grown in Sz-chuen.
Rev. John G. Gibson Raid: "The cause has been under trial long enough, and we have got a good verdict from an impartial jury, and demand that sentence against an evil work be executed speedily. We may discuss this qu"cstion on the basis of the Word of God, of Blue Books, of finance, of morality. of mercy, or of justice; but on any ground we have a good canse, and have nothing to fear from the fnllest discussion.
" ~~i!sionaries at home must be interested in this matter; for if it be a foul wrong, then we are sharers in it. Under onr system of government we are partners in the opium concern. Our capital carries it on, and our name and honor are by it put to shame; moreover, we have pledged ourselves to Chinese audiences to lift up our voices against this thing. Let us keep high the tone of this discussion. It is a crusade. The cross of Christ is in front. Let us resolve to follow in that faith which sees the end from the beginning, and that prayer which makes all things possible."
Rev. W. R. Winstone, from Burmah, said: "Practically, we find the people of Burmah on their knees praying us not to introduce the opium. We found, when we annexed Upper Burmah some years ago, prohibition the law of the land. Nominally it may be said to be still so ; but it is systematically broken, and with our own connivance. Our officials license Chinamen to sell the opium drug to their fellow-countrymcn in places where there is hardly a Chinaman to be found. and the smallest inquiry would show the plea to be only a pretence to secure the right of selling opium to the Burmese." The speaker concluded with a recital of English heroism at Manipur, and a call to similar determination in maintaining our protest against this national wrong-doing.
These resolutions being put to the meeting, were carried with much enthusiasm.
AN UNCANONICAL MISSIONARY IN PALESTTNE.
BY REV. J. K. WILSON, TAl.:NTON, MASS.
It must be confessed that he is not the typical missionary, either in appearance or apparent function. He is not dressed in ministerial gal b, or, indeed, in much garb of any sort. He was never known to preach a sermon ; he holds no credentials from mi~sional'y boards; I do 1I0t think that he could be made to see that he is a missionary at all, or even to understand what the word" missionary" means. "Vhen I saw him he was simply one of a gang of men, with picks and spades in their hands working on the Jericho road. And yet I am sure that, all unpromising as he may seem, and unecclesiastical as may be his labor, he has a large place in the enlightenment and evangelization of the land, his particular part of the work being. to preach the practical gospel of good roads.
As everybody knows, the word" road" means much less in Falestine than it does in America or in any other civilized country. There it is simply a trail over the rocks; a narrow footpath, worn hard by the trampling of the feet of men and animals for centuries. It is never cared for nor repaired; it has a curious fashion of getting its every inch covered with rolling pebbles,. or sharp, jagged stones; it is uncomfortable to walk on ; it affords often precarious footing for your horse; it is absolutely impassable for wheeled vehicles of any sort.
But poor roads mean segregation, isolation, non-intercourse. The man who lives fhe miles away from you, over a bad road, is not so really your neighbor as is he who lives ten miles down the turnpike, or twenty miles up the railroad. Distance is measured not merely by miles, but also by the difficulties by which those miles are traversed. This is 'ery clearly seen in Palestine. The little villages scattered through the land are cut off from each other by the difficulties of travel, and still more completely isolated from the few large towns and cities from the same cause. When fifteen or twenty miles constitute a day's travel, and when that distance must be covered on foot over rough ways, the average villager is not apt to get far away from his home. As a matter of fact there is very little of that knowledge of and relation with each other that is seen between the people of different towns in a land where communication is easier.
But latterly a change for the better is coming into the road system of the country. The Turkish Government is being forced to take up the work of internal improvement. It may be questioned whether it is the policy of the Turk to do anything to make Palestine more attractive than it now is j whether he would not rather leave it in its present bare and barren condition, lest, drawn by its restored beauty, heightened and increased by the recollection of its wonderful history, the world should crowd in and presently wrest it from the power of the Crescent. But whether he would or not, the Turk cannot well help himself. There is 1 strange restlessness upon the people. It is like the turning of a giant in his sleep. The Government must utilize it and control it, or be overthrown by it. One sign of this is the recent opening of Moslem schools for both boys and girls, 8S a kind of "back-fire" to missionary schools. The demand for better facilities for travel is another such indication. And so, probably more because it cannot help itself than because of any real interest in the matter, the Turkish Government is now engaged in an extensive work of road building. For years there have been excellent roads between Beyrout and DamaRcus, at the nortll, and Jaffa and Jernsalem, at the south. Now highways as good as are the majority of those in the best-kept portions of our own land are completed or are in process of construction between other towns and cities. From Damascus, going southward, you travel for four hours (twelve miles) over a road twenty-five or thirty feet wide. At Tiberias, on the shole of the Sea of Galilee, a road begins and runs for some distancce over the hills; and before you reach Nazareth you find the other end of it, running out as far as Cana (Kefr Kenna), and before long the two ends will be joined. From Nazareth a diligence road leads to Haifa, on the coast, another to Acre, and still another is finished southward as far as the edge of the great Plain of Esdratlon. A road is nearly completed between Shechem and Jaffa. I am not sure, but I think there is also a coast road from Jaffa, northward. In a few months the Good Samaritan might ride from .T€fusalem to Jericho with his coach and pair over a good broad highway j while to-day the traveller goes down into " the south country," and visits Bethlehem and Hebron and Rachel's Tomb, not as the fathers used to travel these ways, on foot, Of on camel-back, but in a modern, nineteenth-century" hack." On the way from Jerusalem to the sea-coast one crosses the roadbed of the new" Jerusalem and Jaffa Railroad." That sounds odd enough, doesn't it 1 But we must get used to it. After years of idle talk and futile plans, the railroad is at last a fact. On the track laid through the orange groves of Jaffa we saw one day last fall, with steam up, all ready for their trial trip, which was to be made that day, the three American-built locomotives, "Jerusalem," "Jaffa," and" Ramleh," sent out by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia. Just how soon the road will be ready for operation cannot be told with certainty. The French engineer in charge said in my hearing that he expected to run the Jirst train in July, 1891. So far as I know, that expectation has not been fulfilled. Hut it will not be long before the solitudes which have for ages wrapped the sacred hills as a garment will be startled by the engine's shrill shriek, and the watchman on the" towers of Zion" will look down upon that" modern miracle," a railroad train rolling into its depot hard by the Jaffa Gate of the Holy City. It is not hazarding much to prophesy that within five years one may land from his steamer at Jaffa, take the train to Jeruslllem, and thence go by diligence to almost every point of interest and importance in the land j and that he may do it all with scarcely more of fatigue or discomfort than was involved in a tour through Switzerland five years ago.
Now, all this would be interesting to the student of contemporaneous history, as showing the onward sweep of thought and life even in lands hitherto most rigorously secluded. But it means much more to the student of God's purposes-the careful observer of the workings. of His providence. It means the breaking up of the isolation in whic1J these villages and towns of Palestine have been lying from the beginning. It means an easier intercourse, and, by consequence, a quickened interest in and a broader intelligence concerning the things which lie beyond the narrow village limits. It means a progressive enlightenment and civilization for these people by contact with enlightening lind civilizing influences from without. And it means far more than this, too. It is a matter of history that God has a first mortgage on every foot of road made, and every rod of railload track laid. That history will not be falsified with respect to Palestine. The opening up of this land is the opportunity-the" great door and effectual"-of the Gospel. The" casting up of the highway" is the making of a path for the chariots of the Lord's purposes. The human agents and agencies for carrying the tidings of salvation are helped or hindered by whatever helps or hinders contact and association and intercourse. EvelY blow of the pick, then, cutting its way through the lOck has a higher mission than to contribute to the eaRe and comfort with which the casual tourist shall hereafter pass thf()ugh the land j it facilitates the work of evangelization; it hastens the time when 1he herald of the Cross shall be able to come easily and quickly to all parts of the country, and when he shall find awaiting his coming, not the ignorant and self-satisfied stupidity of isolated villagers, scarce knowing that there is anything to know beyond the childish traditions of the little place they call their home, but the quickened and everincreasing interest of people who are beginning to think and to question, and who in even this beginning of a social and intellectual awakening are prepared to hear and to ponder the message he brings.
Therefore I claim for my brother of the pick and spade a place among the missionaries of Palestine. I hail him as one of the forces by which the redemption of the Land of Promise is to be brought about. And I would give him a place among the chief workers and call him one of tbe mightiest forces, too. I am not unmindful of what has been done and is being done in the Holy Land by missionaries working toward distinctively spiritual ends. I am not disposed to undervalue results thus obtained, nor are my eyes closed to the many significant signs of the beginning of a new order of things in that little mountain kingdom. A marvellous change is coming to pass under our eyes. The scattered people are returning to the land of their fathers, and room and place is being made for them there. It is almost startling to read of 5000 Jews coming back to Jerusalem in a single month (August, 1889), the greater part to take up residence there. If you would have your faith in God's Word stimulated, and the prophecy of the olden time made to appear new and fresh-the making of contemporaneous history-take your Bible and go up upon one of the highest housetops within the walls of Jerusalem. Turn to Jeremiah's word: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, t11at the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord." And now close the Book and look down upon that newer Jerusalem which is growing up about the older, and listen while they who have studied most carefully
1892.J A 'rIlIRTEEN MONTHS' BISHOP
into this matter tell you that, so far as human scholarship has succeeded in ascertaining the location of these variou~ points named, the building is following exactly the lines of this Divine SU1·vey. All this means more than we are always willing to think or admit. And yet, considering these things, and conceding all that they can mean, it is my conviction that there is at the present time nothing relating to the opening and evangelization of the land of greater prophetic ~ignificance and importance than the work of road making which is going on under thA authorization of the Turkish Government. In itself, of courst', it is nothing; but in what it makes possible, in what it facilitates, it is much. It is but a preliminary work; but without it the progress of the Gospel in the land would be sadly hindered. It is characteristic of God's methods that they fit into the grooves which men have made for them. The voice of a new John is crying in the wildernesses of Judea and Samaria and Galilee, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God I"~ They who hear the voice are doing the bidding, not knowing whom they obey, or what it is that they do. But soon along these ways thus prepared, the messengers of the Gospel shall run to every city, and every village, and every home proclaiming again in the Lord's own land the Lord's grace and mercy and love. Thus shall He come" unto His own" once more. Will they refuse to receive Him as before!
Work well and faith full y, then, brother missionary of the Society of the Pick and Shovel. Strike sturdy blows; clear from the way all obstacles; make a good broad highway through the land. And be quick about it; for the King is at thy back. ,. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" for Palestine, as for the rest of the world.
A THIRTEEN MONTHS' BISHOP.
BY REV. C. H. MOCKRIDGE, M.A•• D.D., GENERAL SECRETARY OF MISSIONS OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA.
Some men are born with the missionary spirit strong within them. It is an impulse of their nature, and, take with them whatever for!D it may, it must assert itself. Such a man was Charles Frederick Mackenzie, who is brought before our notice first as a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, at a time when the attention of the people of England was being powerfully drawn to the subject of foreign missions. In 1854 a mission was organized in England for India, the particular point for operations being Delhi, where preparation for the .work had already been made. Two clergymen, Rev. J. Stuart Jackson and Rev. A. R. Hubbard, hoth of Caius College, Cambridge, lp,ft Englaud and undertook the work there. Mr. Jackson wrote back to Mr. Mackenzie urging him to find colleagues for him in England and to send them out to his assistance. Mackenzie undertook the work; but he saw at once that be could not urge others to such a task with- out engaging in it himself. He accordingly volunteered to go, but delays took place, caused chiefly by hIs friends, who seemed very desirous to retain his services in England, and with the delay came a change of design, Africa being chosen as a field of labor instead of India. Soon afterward the terrible Indian Mutiny took place, and Christian people, Ellgli~h people, men, women, and children were massacred right and left and felt the savage power of a revengeful and fanaticro race aroused to the highest pitch of fury. The missions of Cawnpore and Delhi were utterly de- stroyed, and all efforts at evangelization for tne time being were necessarily suspended.
Mr. Mackenzie, therefore, never went out to India; but he did not abandon his idea of undertaking foreign missionary work, for ill the year 1855 we find him in Africa assisting the Rt. Rev. Dr. Colenso, the first bishop of Natal, a name which the orthodox Christians not only of Africa but of the world have had every reason to deplore. Archdeacon Mackenzie, for such was the title bestowed upon him by his bishop, was at the head of a large training institution at Ekukanyeni, or the" Home of Light," and he had as his fellow laborers two men who afterward imprinted their names indelibly upon the missionary work of Africa. One was the Rev. R.
Robertsoq, who afterward labored in Zululand, and the other was a medical man, Dr. Callaway, remarkable in many respects. In him the missionary, the physician, the farmer, the printer, the ethnologist, the philologist were all combined, and in later life he added that of the priest, and a grateful people bestowed upon him the further office of bishop. It is only recently that this wonderful man, one of the greatest on earth, Bishop Callaway, died in England, to which country he went after his physical strength could no longer respond to the suggestions of his gigantic intellect and the mo- tions of his iron yet Christ-like will.
Such were the men who were destined to play an important part in the future work of bearing the Gospel torch into some of the dark spots of darkest Africa.
At that time the master mind of Livingstone was being expended upon that vast and gloomy territory. In 1856 the great explorer, after having labored for sixteen years in Africa, suddenly appeared in England and, of course, became at once the hero of the hour. He appealed powerfully to England on behalf of Africa, and some enthnsiasm, though not to any very great extent, was aroused. Though a Presbyterian, Livingstone felt the power and ancient status of the Church of England, and appealed to her universities for that help which he felt she should give as a powerful branch of the Church of Christ. In 1858 he returned to AfrIca somewhat crestfallen, as his mission seemed to have accomplished but little. Still he had left a f;park of enthusiasm in England whir.h WliS destined to be fanned iuto a flame. Dr. Gray, Bishop of Capetown, a man of apostolic zeltl and fervor, visited England to keep . alive the spark which Livingstone. had ~–~. , ~ kindled. The result was that in 1859 a meeting was held in Cambridge which led to the formation of a mission to Central Africa.
Strange to say, at that very time, quite unannounced anq unexpected, Archdeacon Mackenzie arrived in England from Africa. He had gone there to advise with the home authorities before starting, what he felt ought to be done at once, a special mission to Zululand, and he found that the very society he could have wished for had been formed as if ready for him. Here, then, was the work, and here was the man. The work was that suggested by Livingstone; the man was Charles Frederick Mackenzie, and in every way he seemed thoroughly qualified for it. He was a ripe scholar and popular in his university. To a spirit naturally inclined to missionary work he was now able to add an experience sufficient to promise great usefulness in the future. He had acquired something of the language of South Africa, and knew pretty well the customs of the people, and besides he had wonderful faith in God, so humble and childlike as sometimes to be amusing, and so profound and sincere as to win for him the admiration of all.
The missionary meeting referred to was a large and enthusiastic one. Grand speeches were made, and many boastful things said about the prospects of future tIiumphs for the Church of God-all so easy to talk about and yet sometimes so difficult to achieve. It was easy for men living in sunny England, far away from the darkness of heathenism, to talk of the grand work that was about to be done, but Mackenzie, fresh from the field itself, having been face to face with the foe, could not share altogether the enthusiasm of the hour. In the depths of his own humility he whispered to a friend, " I am afraid of this. Most great works have been carried on by one or two men in a quieter way, and have had a more humble beginning. "
Little did this good soul know at the time how bitterly this prophecy was to be fulfilled! But at all events Mackenzie was the hero of the hour. For nine months he travelled over England, speaking for missionary objects and winning, if not entire enthusiasm for the cause he advocated, at least deep admiration for himself and the work he had undertaken. A man of strong physical power, who had held his own in all manly sports and athletic exercises, commended himself and his undertaking to the ordinary English mind, and this, coupled with 11 deep spirituality of heart, had much influence with those who were full of Christian sympathy and love.
He left for Africa in October, 1859, and was consecrated on January 1st, 1860, "Bishop of the mission to the tribes dwelling in the neighborhood of Lake Nyassa and River Shire"-a title long enough to indicate far more work than the great and good man was allowed to accomplish.
The newly consecrated bishop lost no time in starting for his allotted work. He had with him a small staff, clerical and lay, and with them a laborer and three native converts that had been trained at Capetown. They made their way to the mouth of the Zambesi, and there, at Kongone, they met Livingstone, on whom, it is needless to say, they relied greatly for advice and guidance; but, strange to say, the sagacity of the great ex- plorer seemed to fail him, and the steps advised by him proved singularly unfortunate. He had at the time, for his own use, a small steamer called the Pioneer, which had been lent to him by Her Majesty's Government, and this he gladly pla~ed at the disposal of the bishop and his party, with di- rections to take the River Roovooma, along which, by a southwest course, they might reach Lake NyaHsa. But the river proved too shallow for the amount of water drawn by their boat, and they found that after three weeks' hard steaming they had only gone thirty miles; but at length, on May 1st, they began to ascend the Zambesi, and here the Pioneer had a bet- ter chance, but only for a time, for after a nine days' voyage they began again to encounter shallow water. The account of this voyage is full of interest, but at the same time sad enough. At intervals they had to stop and turn out into the woods to cut fuel for the steamer, which in itself would perhaps have afforded but amusement and diversion for them were it not for the deadly fever which in Africa seems with such terrible clutch to fasten itself upon the white mau. All of the party, more or less, suffered from it, but still they encouraged one another, and kept up their spirits as best tlley could. When, however, they again encountered shallow water they fretted under the delay, and it is little wonder that lonely, depressed feelings stole over them. In this matter Livingstone was again at fault. Two years hefore he had himself ascended the Zambesi, but he had not taken into account that his boat at that time only drew about half the water that the Pioneer, with its present load, was compelled to draw. This, of course, cauRed great delay and much annoyance and anxiety.
After two months battling with sand· banks and shallow water, stirring up the long undisturbed bed of the silent floViing Zambesi, they arrived at a place now known as " Chibisas." And here they determined to abandon their craft and strike inland on foot. Carrying out their intention, they made for the highlands which lay to the northeast of them. On their way they encountered several slaving parties, and took upon themselves to rescue from the slave-dealers their unfortunate victims. Few troubles ever laid upon man by his fellow man have ever exceeded those which the unfortunate African, seized to be a slave, has had to endure on his weary march to the ships that are to carry him away. Weighted with heavy forks fastened round their necks, galled as to their wrists and ankles with the grl/at chains which bind them together, panting and groaning under a hot African sun, goaded by their cruel driver~ into a pace far beyond their strength, left in the forest to die a lingering death if overcome by exhaustion, maimed perhaps beforehand lest freedom should be gained with returning strength, they suffer misery which perhaps is difficult to describe.
Livingstone knew how to deal with these men who thus enslaved and tortured their fellow beings, and, with the assistance of Bishop Mackenzie and his party, rescued the unfortunate creatures from their hands, removed the heavy yokes from their necks, struck off their chains and set them free. Full of gratitude, the liberated slaves joined their liberators and remained with them as their friends.
A friendly tribe of natives also crossed their path. They were called Manganja! and were overjoyed at seeing Livingstone, for they were suffering at the hands of the Ajawa, a hostile tribe who were oppres!ling them. He and the missionary party lent their assistance, and thus reinforced the Manganja effectually crushed their oppressors.
The party at length settled at Magornero. a beautiful place 4000 feet above the level of the sea, and here Livingstone left them to commence their work. It was now about the end of July. The outlook was not of the brightest. They had the slaves that they had rescued as their first material to work upon, and with them they commencid j but they had incurred the h?stility of the Ajawa, who at first harassed them considerably.
They commenced their missionary work by studying the languages of the natives, as the latter were busily engaged putting up huts and doing other necessary work. Daily services were commenced in one of the largest of the huts which, on account of these sacred offices, was called the chapel. Schools were established, and the little community commenced the ordinary Christian life. The natives were much impressed by the enjoined observance of the Sunday. Such order was at last obtained that one of the party wrote home to a friend, "'What a luxury a chair is ! what a rest it is! We have now a table, albeit a very rickety one, and our beds are off the ground-an approach to civilizatiorr which, with the sitting to take our meals, astonishes and delights our bones as much as it does the admiring group of natives. "
Magomero, though spoke n of as a beautiful place and high above the level of the sea, was not a healthy spot, because other places in its neighborhood were still higher than it, and left for it the designation of a " hole." Consequently the deadly fever began again its fatal work. In November the bishop took a journey to Chibisas (already mentioned), hoping to meet Livingstone, and there he met the Rev. H. Burrup, who had recently arrived to do missionary work, little dreaming of the dark cloud be was so soon to encounter. In the month of December the bishop, with Mr. Burrup, started upon another expedition for the purpose of finding, if possible, and conferring with Livingstone. The Ajawa still troubled him and had to be punished for an act of treachery. The journey undertaken was a hard one, and lay through morasses and swamps j nor were they entirely Rure of the route that had to be taken. In fact, after a weary trudge of eight days they found that they had been upon the wrong track and that it would be necessary for them to return to Magomero and start afresh. This they did, and then found that a journey of two hundred miles lay before them. Taking but one night's rest, the energetic bishop determined to make this journey, and in the morning, taking with him only Mr. Burrup and one of the Cape men, he started. They reached Chibisas again and there borrowed a canoe and made their way along the river. On the second night of this fatal journey their canoe upset, and themselves together with their blankets, and a11 things belonging to them, were thrown into the water. No place of shelter could be reached j no one was nigh to render any assistance. They were tired and sleepy, and in their wet clothes, wrapped in blankets which they had rescued from the water, and by no means dry, they passed the night as best they could. The grim spectre of the fatal fever threatened them and at once it commenced its attack. The quinine and other medicines, which must be used continually in that pestilential climate, had been lost when the boat upset, and in abject misery they felt themselves exposed helplessly to a fatal disease. And all too soon it came, and the bishop of God's Church fell a victim to it on a lonely island far away from the haunts of man. The feyer suddenly pulled down his great strength, and he quietly breathed his last on January 31st, 1862, just thirteen months after his consecration. The angels of God were near, no doubt, to see the dismal scene; but the only one in the flesh that was there to witness it was Mr. Burrup, the bishop's companion, who set about the mournful task of consigning the body to the grave. To dig a shallow grave and place the body in it was all that he could hope to do; and when his task was done the sun had nearly set. He was himself weak aud dying, for the fever having taken away the bishop all too easily fastened its fangs upon the priest. By the dull light of receding day he read what portion of the Burial Service he could and then he turned to drag his weary body, if possible, back to the mission-station. No doubt he turned to say a sad farewell to the little mound of fresh earth at the foot of an acaciatree which marked all that was left of the fine, robust Euglishman who had fallen in the wilderness a martyr to his Master's work. And then he turned away, and by painful journeys reached Magomero in time only to tell his mournful tale, when he, too, followed his bishop to the place where" the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
ThiE was the end of Bishop Mackenzie, but it was not the end of the mISSIon. The rest of the little band kept up their work as best they could. Some of them died and some were hopelessly shattered in health, but the work faltered not. A new bishop, Bishop Tozer, was sent out from England, and event.nally changed the headquarters of the mission to Zanzibar. Such was the commencement, mournful enough, of the Diocese of Central Africa, in which, however, never since has missionary work flagged or missionary. zeal grown cold. The thought of the lonely grave in the wilds of Africa has ever lent zest to the work, and good Bishop Mackenzie, " though dead yet speaketh. "
A lady, once of much poetic power, on hearing the writer of this paper tell the story of Bishop Mackenzie in public, wrote the following lines, which as yet, it is believed, have never been published, as soon afterward she herself was called away to her eternal hOllie : " On the wings of evening air Fall the sounds of pleading prayer ; 'Neath the acacia words are said For the burial of the dead. Now are past the hours of pain, Scorching sun and chilling rain; From the fever's wild unrest A bishop passes to his rest.
" Then for him there has passed a solemn throng Of the good and true, with their funeral song, And the sands are ploughed with the marks of feet Which have borne the chief in his winding sheet, And a white-robed choir with chant and hymn Have sung him to sleep with their requiem.
" No! one voice alone is heard Breathing forth hope's glorious word; One beside the dead has stood Through the fever and tho flood, Powerless the life to save- Able scarce to dig the grave, Cross the hands and breathe t}!.e prayer For the soldier sleeping there.
c. The death of a soldier, ah ! then will come The mournful throbbings of the mullied drum, And arms all reversed as the bayonets gleam 'Neath banners that over the dead man stream, And men's heads are bowed 'neath the sunset sky Round the loyal dead who could dare and die.
" No! St. Michael's host keep guard O'er the grave with watch and ward, For the march of angels' feet, And the roll of music sweet, And the welcome loud and long To the soul by faith made strong ; Echo in their power unpriced Through the palaces of Christ.
" Oh ! then in thy desolate tomb take rest, Thou knight of the Cross. Though above thy breast No kindred may come sweet flowers to plant, We enroll thy name in our holy chant. One day in seven ten thousands of tongues Arise to the Father in deathless songs, Saying or singing on land and on sea, • The noble army-of MARTYRS-praise Thee.'
" And the faithful men who stood Side by side 'mid storm and flood On the far-off English sod, Once had pledged their faith to God,
ARE MISSION CoNVERTS A FAILUJtlE?
Gave to Him their troth and trust, Shook from out their souls the dust And now in summer lands above Live the life of rest and love."
ARE MISSION CONVERTS A FAILURE 1 BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK.
A series of papers by Rev. Archbishop Turnbull, B.D., Darjeeling, India, appeared in the Church of Scotland mission monthly, which are here presented in substance. This condensation omits much matter intended for Anglo-Indians and for the English, but retains the substance. It does not need to defend the missions on the side of quantity. A hundred years ago Protestant mission converts were 300 j now they are 3,000,000, of whom one per cent are themselves mission workers. How as to quality? Such objections are common: "Colonel So-and-so, home from India, says that our converts are mostly shams." Now, if our converts are mostly shams, our missionaries must be mostly hypocrites. A serious conclusion, which we are not to accept without some cross-examination of our military witness.
We are concerned only with Protestant converts j with these only as a community,. and only with Ind,ja.
I. Assuming the good faith of these military disparagements of our converts, we are not obliged to assume their truth. For instance : A regiment from Benares, passing through Cawnpore, was entertained at dinner there. One of the captains was asked by a lady at the table what the missionaries were doing in Benares. He assured hcr there were no missionaries there. "But I pay an annual subscription for an orphan-house." " 'I do not doubt it–for an orphan-house which does not exist. Do you think I could have lived three years in Benares without learning of it 1" A gentleman sitting by, asked the captain: "Did you go to church in Benares 1" " Certainly-by orders." "But there is no Government chaplain there." " True j but the service was conducted by clergymen who were much beloved by our men." " Strange; you attended services conducted by missionaries, and did not know of the existence of these gentlemen. Now as to the orphan-house. Did you ever see the long building in the street leading by Sigra to Marawaddi f' "Certainly. I once rode into the compound after a fox. I found a heap of little black rascals, who grinned at me. They knew where the fox was, but would not tell me." " Then you were in the precincts of the orphan-house 1" " Indeed! I took it for an indigo factory, or something of the sort. " Now imagine this officer returning to Scotland, and in all good faith, on the strength of his own local knowledge, assuring the discomfited subscribers to Benares missions that there were there neither missionaries nor orphan -houses ! As Dr. Warneck pertinently quotes from Dr. Ellinwood, imagine a London sportsman spending a year in the New York club houses, or an infidel German spAnding a year in the New York hotels. How much would either know of the religious life of the city 1 Enough to echo the contemptuous declarations of his own circle, that the religious life of America is a pure deception, the clergy a band of ragamuffins, and the church-members a flock of hypocrites! But, now, suppose a deputy of the Scottish General Assembly spending only a few weeks in New York.
What a mass of facts as to the religious life of America he would have gathered in that time !
But even such witnesses as tea-planters, spending their lives among the natives, and often friendly with the missionaries, may eailily be no less incompetent. Such sayings as these prevail: "Only vile, lazy fellows be- come Christians." "Let India be Christianized, and good-by to English rule." A native Christian servant misbehaves. "See," says his Chri~tian maRter, " what sort of refuse these native Christians are I" .
Here we see the trail of that universal false persuasion, that the mis- sionaries hold out mercenary inducements to their converts. Now these receive absolutely nothing from them, but are expected to contribute to mISSIOns. The last calculation was one thirty-fourth of their total income.
ImJlgine European Christendom rising to that standard!
We cannot deny, however, that many Europeans in India have met with many native Christians, and have found them "mostly shams."
There will always be the careless or indifferent., who take no pains to pene- trate beyond the soiled exterior of native Christianity. Beyond the narrow path which they themselves have trodden hard, they know nothing, and care little to know anything. Moreover, we have undertaken to be answer- able only for the Protestants; and out of 2,148,228 native Christians of India, 1,600,000 are claimed by the Roman Catholic and Syrian churches.
Most of the Christian servants in India are Madrasis, a majority of whom are Catholics.
Moreover, even the Protestants among them belong to the class most closely connected with the Anglo-Indian community, and most slightly con- nected with the mission churches. The English official has more to do with forming them than the missionary. And their masters are very com- monly so entirely indifferent to their Christian advancement that even when near the church of their conversion, they might as well be a thousand millls away, for all the opportunities they have t.o attend. Outcasts among their fellow-servants because Christians, and outcaRts in their masters' and mistress's view, although Christians, looking in vain for the compassionate hand of the Master in one of His people, they fall back, and are reproached as shams because they are frail men who cannot live a Christian life when all Christian nurture is withheld !
There are, of course, eertain worthless Hindus, or Moslems, who, hav- ing lost the privileges of their old religions, resort to Christianity as a
THE INCUBUS OF' THE KINGDOM
cover. But as English by-ends do not discredit the existence of the genuine pilgrims, nor even prove them a minority, no more do Hindn byends. But let Christian servants have fair play, and there is abundant proof that they turn out as satisfactory converts as any. To be in a real Christian family, under real Christian care, cannot certainly be disadvantageous to native Christians.
II. Now as to positive evidence. 1. Sir William Muir, once Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces, remarking on the ever-increasing ratio of conversions, says: "And they are no~ shams 01' paper converts, as some would have us believe, but good, honest Christians, and many of them of a high standard." 2. The second witness-and after his evidence the case must be adjourned till at least next month-is the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (late Governor of Madras), thus reported in 1883 : " In justice to those natives who had adopted Christianity as their profession in India, he ought not to refrain from bearing his testimony to that which came more especially under the eyes of a governor-viz., their conduct in civil matters, as well as their conduct in religious matters. When they carne to large masses of the people, to whole villages which had adopted Christianity, then it was possible to those in authority to form some opinion as to whether the change of creed had conduced to the good conduct of the converts; and he must not refrain from saying that the tendency of the change had been decidedly for good." It is an obvious corollary to remark that if the character of the native Christian commnnity is satisfactory as a whole, even in the Madras Presidency the character of its members can scarcely be unsatisfactory as individuals.
Is it necessary to say, before closing, that this paper is in no sense designed as an attack on Europeans in India ~ Just as there are converts and converts, so also are there, of course, Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Indians; and among these the writer knows many a tea-planter, merchant, or soldier, whom he has reason to deem a far better Christian than himself, and to whom he owes eternal gratitude.
THE INCUBUS OF THE KINGDOM.
BY W. C. C.
It is generally admitted that the worldliness of the Church is the only obstacle to the immediate evangelization of the whole world. The work is well within our spare ability, and there is nothing in the way of doing it and doing it at once j only the people who profess to be doing it are not doing it, but, as a whole, are devotiug nearly all their time, labor, and money to the pleasures and vanities of this world" as the heathep. do." " The lust of the flesh" (luxury and pleasure), "the lust of the eyes" (refined IIlsthetic indulgences), and" the pride of life" (emulous style in our dwellings, dress and equipage) run all the way throug]! the ranks of Christian people, from the humblest to the highest, according to their several ability. To such things alone do we really give according to our ability; and so we " consume upon our lusts" the munificence of Him who "became poor that we, through His poverty, might be made rich," and have but a beggarly dole to spare for the vast majority of our race who have as yet tasted no share of the blessings purchaAed for them by the precious blood of Christ and entrusted by Him to us for distribution.
The present object in referring to this state of things is not so much to reprove it as to ask the cause of it. Can it be, I ask, that this state of things would continue if it were set before the members of our churches in its true light q In other words, if the theory and example of Christian living set before us by our teachers were essentially better than this our practice ~ Glorious was the Reformation that raised the Church out of dead works to a living faith and opened the Bible to the people. But who does not now see that what we call the Reformation was only a beginning of reformation ; the removal of a condition that made reformation impossible; leaving the great practical reforms to be wrought out by the unfolding principles of a resuscitated Gospel ~ Our thrl:le centuries of reformation have slowly accomplished a large development of the ethical consciousness of evangelical Christendom, and raised with it the standard of godly teaching and example. It is no longer suitable, for instance, to set forth the brandy bottle or to discountenance foreign missions at an ecclesiastical gathering. Far otherwise, indeed; and so of many other enormities that a century ago were not condemned as Church practices. But the fact remains that the worldly living, which the reader has probably thus far supposed to be what is meant here by " The Incubus of the Kingdom," is yet in the full fellowship of our churches and pulpits generally. Show me a Christian, layman or clergyman, who does not Jive up to the general style of his class in the income lists, but devotes more than his superfluity to the kingdom of Christ, and I will show you an exception marked and admired, and sometimes censured, as far as it is known. Show me a pulpit from which the 'consecrated self-abnegation of Christ is definitively enjoined and the lust of the flesh, and the eyes, and the pride of life are plainly denounced just as they are cherished in that particular Church, and you will show me an exception such as I have never yet seen, although I trust that such exceptions do exist.
On the contrary, it was not in a former century, but on a recent occasion that I heard from a very prominent evangelical pulpit, and from a still more prominent evangelical theologian, what I understand, as he did, to be the standard sumptuary doctrine of the Church-give liberally; but live liberally, too, if you can. It is but the unreformed doctrine that has been handed down to us through the comfortably good and pions dignitaries of an easy-going Christianity, but at the present day re-enforced against an encroaching consciousness of inconsistency with our Lord's d·emand of self-abnegation by the four following objections to obeying it, as form~lated by a chief rabbi of the Presbyterian Church on the occasion referred to : 1. You cannot draw the line. 2. It would tend to a rude asceticism. 3. It would impair our social influence. 4. Luxury gives vast employment to labor. As if inability to draw an infallible line between the claims of Christ and self were a reason for satisfying the latter first and at any rate! As if a holy self-denial were less refining than outward elegance, or as if no reasonable mean could be struck between sumptuous salf-indulgence and bare sustenance! As if every church and ministry th~t has been eminently mighty for God in the world, from the apostles down, had not been eminent for plain and humble living, as one great source of their reverence and power in the world! As if the wages paid to the servitors of luxury would not support an equal or greater number in the service of Christ and humanity! As if the Gospel were not the grand creator of and propagator of civilization, wealth, and prosperity wherever its power extends! I heard a Christian millionaire, " whose praise IS in all the churches" for eminent liberality, remark that the plumbing in his new mansion cost him seven thousand dollars. Every thousand that he ga'e to Christian work could have been ten thousand, without being missed as much as one dollar is by many a humble giver. Yet so far from reproof was he that it would be counted sacrilege to pronounce his sainted name in connection with this remark. But I can illustrate this subject with a brighter example-as much brighter as it is less known to fame-an example of consecration that fairly, and, alas! how rarely, translates into practice the literal sense of our Lord's condition of discipleship : "Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath," etc. Possessed of a large fortune, my lamented friend was only" rich toward God." For himself he lived like a comparatively poor man, that he might use all that he had in simple stewardship for his Lord's housein his own house having nothing that could seem suspiciously expensive for a bank clerk with a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. Not everything that might be argued conducive to personal welfare, far less anything dictated merely by the customary style of others in his circumstances, but solely what was necessary for !!imple comfort and simple refinement entered into the measure of his private expenditure; all the rest was, as the former indced was, only less directly so, the Lord's. My first acquaintance with him was by letter, in which he mentioned having been entrusted with some of the Lord's money, concerning which he was seeking the Lord's will ; and in much subsequent experience he was never found to have any other money or any other will concerning it than the Lord's. When the ambassadors of Christ shall dare to preach unambiguously and practice heroically their Master's demand on every disciple as it was .~
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN INDIA
illustrated by this faithful steward, and when their teaching shall be accepted-as that of the Master Himself is not-by those who profess and call themselves Christians, then and then only may the rich and poor clasp hands over the chasm that now threatens to be a bloody one; and for the evangelization of the world, if there shall remain any embarrassmont, it will he from the plethora of wealth and the crowd of laborers pressing into the harvest field.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN INDIA.
BY JAMES L. PHILLIPS, D.D., SECRETARY INDIA S. S. UNION, CALCUTTA, INDIA.
Some of our India churches have had Sunday-schools for many years. These have been for the Christian community alone. It was counted wellnigh impossible to open Sunday-schools for Hindu and Mohammedan children. The India Sunday-School Union was organized in 1876, and the missions taking special interest in this department of effort united under its auspices to improve and extend our Sunday-school system. Since its organization, barriers have yielded; the prayers of God's people have been answered in the remarkable opening of doors on every side for the Christian Sunday-school. At one Decennial Missionary Conference in Calcutta nine years ago, Sunday-schools received special attention, and thousands of Hindu and Mohammedan pupils were reported in regular attendance upon them. American mis~ions have always devoted much Jabor to this form of Gospel work; but now nearly all missions are coming to see its importance and promise.
There are now auxiliary Sunday-school unions in the principal provinces of India, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Punjab, Burma, Central Provinces, Rajputana, and the Northwest, all affiliated with the India Sunday-School Union, 80 that our work begins to take shape, and gives promise of large increase. I may say that there are really no serious obstacles now to the planting of Sunday-schools throughout this country. In some cases Hindus have come to our missionaries and begged for Sunday-schools to be opened in their villages. The Mohammedans are more conservative as a rule; but even they are glad to have their children instructed in the Scriptures. There was never so wide an open door, or so inviting, for Sunday-schools in India.
As in America and Great Britain, we have Sunday-school conventions in prominent places for discussing ways and means, for prayer and planning. These are attended by missionaries of all denominations, and other Christians, foreign and native j and this Sunday-school work is proving a bond of delightful fellowship among all disciples of our Lord in India.
I may cite two other good results of this rising interest in Sundayschools here. One is that hidden European workers are coming out into active service. We have not a few in India who were diligent workers in
MODERN INDIA
England, Wales, Scotland, and other places, but have been hidden and inactive since coming out here. For Sunday-school extension we are calling out lustily for volunteers; and I am very thankful to say some of these friends, who in this needy fidd had been idle, are now coming to the front and engaging in hearty effort.
The other good result is one that must greatly cheer all our friends in America and Europe-viz., a rising zeal for Christ on the part of our native Christians. There are things they cannot do and foreign teachers have to dn for them j but Sunday-school work is something they can do, and are learning to do with thoroughness and success. I cannot but look upon our Sunday-school enterprise as a capital school for training native Christians for effective service among their own countrymen. Tokens of cheer in this line already begin to appear.
Let India's Sunday-school workers be faithfully remembered in the prayers of Christians at home, and let special prayer be offered up for the early conversion of the children in our schools, and for their consecration to the Master's service in their own land. I believe that converted and consecrated children have a great work before them in hastening India's complete evangelization.
MODERN INDIA.
Sir William Hunter says: "I have often amusea myself, during my sohtary peregrinations, by imagining what a Hindu of the last century would think of the present state of his country if he could revisit the earth. I have supposed that his first surprise at the outward physical changes had subsided, that he had got accustomed to the fact that thousands of square miles of jungle, which in his time were inhabited only by wild beasts, have been turned into fertile crop-lands j that fever-smitten swamps haye been covered with healthy, well-drained cities j that the mountain walls which shut off the interior of India from the seaports have been pierced by roads and scaled by railways; that the great rivers which formed the barriers between provinces and desolated the country with their floods have now been controlled to the uses of man, spanned by bridges, and tapped by irrigation canals.
" But what would strike him as more surprising than these outward changes is the security of the people. In provinces where every man, from the prince to the peasant, a hundred years ago went armed, he would look around in vain for a matchlock or a sword. He would see the country dotted with imposing edifices in a strange, foreign architecture, of which he could not guess the uses. He would ask, What wealthy prince has reared for himself that spacious palace ~ He would be answered that the building was no pleasure house for the rich, but a hospital for the poor. He would inquire, In honor of what new deity is this splendid shrine ~ And he would be told that it was no new temple to the gods, but a school for the people." -Selected.
IS IT NOTHING TO YOU?
IS IT NOTHING TO YOU 1 BY G. P. T.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"-Lamentations 1 : 12.
Is it nothing to you, 0 ye- Christians, That millions of beings to-day, In the heathen darkness of China, Are rapidly passing away q They have never heard the story Of the loving Lord who saves, And "fourteen hundred every hour Are sinking to Christless graves !"
Is it nothing to you, 0 ye Christians, That in India's far-away land There are thousands of people pleading For the touch of a Saviour's hand 1 They are groping, and trying to find Him j And although He is ready to save, Eight hundred precious souls each hour Sink into a Christless grave!
Is it nothing to you, 0 ye Christians, That Africa walks in night ~ That Christians at home deny them The blessed Gospel light 1 The cry goes up this morning From a heart-broken race of slaves, And seven hundred every hour Sink into Christless graves !
Is it nothing to you, 0 ye Christians ~ Will ye pass by and say, It is nothing, WE cannot aid them! You can give, or go, or pray; You can save your souls from blood-guiltiness, For in lands you never trod The heathen are dying every day, And dying without God.
Is it nothing to you, 0 ye Christians ~ Dare ye say ye have nanght to do 1 All over the world they wait for the light; And is it nothing to you?
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERI0DICALS.
BY RE.V, C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The Rev. A. Bernstein, of the London Jewish Society, writes from Frankfort-on-the-Main: "One thing struck us very forcibly in all our travels-namely, that everywhere Jews are found who are more or less prepared to enter the Christian Church, and are only waiting for some great leader or event to give the starting impulse. IIJ fact, the Jews in Germany at the present time may begenerally compared to the generation at the time of our Saviour. Like Pharisaism and Sadduceeism then so now the , orthodox' and the ' reformed' parties have exhausted their forces, and as neither will give way to the other there is but a quiet watching and gathering of strength for some momentous event in the not distant future."
-The Rev. Alexander Robertson, in A Voice from Italy, remarking on the special honor which Venice renders to the Bible, says: "The lion is the symbol of St. Mark. This symbol, then, is everywhere throughout Venice. It is on the front of St. Mark's Church, on the clock tower in the Piazza, above tho entrance to the Doge's Palace, and it crowns each of the two great granite monoliths that adorn the Piazzeta. It is stamped on the town official papers, it is emblazoned on the city flags, it is carved on gondoliers, and is painted on the prows of ships. In every instance, too, the lion holds in its paw an open book-the Bible. This exhibition of the Bible throughout Venice was, during its best days, no matter of form. The Bible was in the hearts of the people as well as on their buildings, flags, and papers, and its principles guided their lives. Their contracts were made in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Texts of Scripture were carved above the doors of their houses. They witnessed a good confession. Very unlike some modern Protestants who, a(lcording to Mr. Ruskin, are the only people who seem ashamed oj anything that looks like a profession of their faith."
-As the papal influence grew in Venice (though it always met with much resistance) the biblical very naturally declined. But now the Bible is coming again to its old rights in Venice. Few Venetian families, able to read, says Mr. Robertson, fail to have a part of the Bible, or the whole. It is commonly Martini's. But the superior accuracy of Diodati's version is largely commending that to favor, even in Catholic families.
-The Rev. N. H. Shaw, in the General Baptist Magazine for Jnne, says, writing from Rome: "We have had scenes of bloodshed in our streets, and but a few paces from our doors. The poor workingmen of Italy are among the meekest of earth's children, but misery drives men mad. The condition of tens of thousands of poor people in Rome is pitiable in the extreme. Rent and living are (}ostly, and work there is none. And so it was easy for three hundred anarchists to bring about a conflict between the people and the military. Hence we have had streets barricaded, and knives and revolvers on the part of the people answered by volleys of musketry from the soldiery. It was painful to see groups of twenty-four or fifty soldiers stationed here and there in our streets with bayonets fixed, and an officer at the head of each group with drawn sword, standing the whole night through, ready for action at any moment against their own fellow-citizens. And yet the government goes on spending money in Africa, and in preparations for war at home! When is this wickedness to cease ~ We are living in a powder magazine, and if our rulers do not speedily learn wisdom, only Divine interposition can save us from something much more fearful than the explosion of the 23d ult."
-The Supreme Ecclesiastical Council of the Prussian Evangelical Church having declared that, to young men of regular university training, classical and theological, it would, after five years of foreign missionary service, assure a suitable church living at home, the representatives of the first thirteen of the above-mentioned societies assembled at Halle, in November, 1890, after consultation with a representative of the Imperial Chancellor, to which also Dr. Warneck was invited, unanimously presented to the Council an urgent representation of the injury which such a mea"ure was likely to inflict on the standard of permanency, faithfulness, effiJiency, and purity of motive in the missionary work. What the result has been we do not yet learn. But the overmastering anxiety to make missions a handmaid of colonial conditions in East Africa seems just now to be having a very bewildering effect on the minds of high authorities in Germany. We are happy to attest that it does not seem to move the missionary societies from the sobriety of their judgment. To us the si-ngular injudiciousness of such a proposition appears too plain for argument, although the memorial deals with it most thoroughly and temperately.
-The Rhenish Missionary Society is able to report 3000 baptisms for the last year, and a large extension of its range of labor in Netherlands India, New Guinea, and Africa. Of their 150 laborers (at least two-thirds in the tropics) only three have died within the year. In Netherlands India the government bas decided to give grants in aid, according to the number of children, to the Society's 90 schools in Borneo, Sumatra, and the neighboring island of Nias. M. Eugene Casalis, who bad come to France from Basutoland hoping to find his father, found only his tomb, into which he quickly followed him, of ~n unexpected cerebral hemorrhage. The blow is doubly felt, following so soon the loss of M. Duvoisin.
-The Rev. William Boyd, LL.D , writes in the Free Church Monthly of tbe Waldensian Synod: "The work of the Synod was done thoroughly. A report of the spiritual condition of every parish was submitted and discussed. The work of each of the forty-four mission stations up and down Italy was looked into. Questions of finance were bravely faced. There was a lively debate on the tendencies of some of the churches in the direction of more tasteful buildings, a less antiquated service, the use of hymns and organ!!, and improvement in music. The valley people are very conservative, like our Scotch Highlanders, and deprecate changes j but there is in the Church a progressive party which asks for all lawful freedom. There were no doctrinal points under discussion this year, though, from conversations with some of the ministers and professors I can see that they are quite abreast of the controversies which excite attention in our land. They are, however, too busy in their great work of evangelization to waste time on the debating of spccuJativtl points, which can be wisely deferred till the Gospel hag gained a firmer foot in their country. Two things struck me as characteristic of the Vaudois Church-its missionary spirit and its evangelistic spirit. The people cannot give much for these ends. A.s a rule, they are poor, or at least wit~out a superabundance of this world's goods, but they give themselves. A.lmost every family has furnished ministers, mil'lsionaries, and evangelists, and the supply is only restrained by financial difficulties. Were the gifts for the evangelization of Italy doubled or trebled there could be no difficulty in finding a corresponding supply of able and godly Vaudois to do the work."
-The fact that the Evangelical Alliance met in Florence near the spot where Savonarola was put to death, who is increaeingly regarded among the orthodox Roman Catholics of Italy as a saint and martyr, suggests the question whether this common veneration for the great friar might not be made one point for securing a better mutual understanding. Father Curci (lately dead) was no more a Protestant than Savonarola himself, but he declared that until Italy has once more secured a grasp on Jesus Christ and His Gospel she may perhaps do well to " send her innumerable saints and Madonnas to the right about. " King Humbert, when Crown-prince, remarked to the Rev. Dr. Nevin, of the Episcopal Church in Rome: "If Italy is to have a religion, she must have one that is not so fearfully overdone. "
-The .Journal des Missions J!vangeliques for May has a full and loving tribute of remembrance to its great helper, Edmond de Pressense. Among other things it quotes the witness borne by him, in 1879, to the comprehensive character of the missionary foundations in France: "It has come about, by the rapid course of things here below, that I am now, if not in age one of the deans, at least in seniority one of the oldest members of the Missionary Committee. As far back as my remembrances go they are aSEOeiated with this sacred work. I still see its humble cradle in a then morally desolate quarter of Paris, where it already assumed that character which nowhere is lacking to it, of uniting home with foreign missions; for it is in the modest house of the Boulevard Montparnasse that a number of the most important undertakings of our evangelical Protestantism had their origin, and also the Church to which I have belonged for more than thirty years. • . . At that date, already remote, an upper chamber might have contained all the generous founders of onr evangelical movement. They then knew only one question, the grand, the immortal one-namely, the salvation of souls. . . • Their forces are not divided, but distributed, save at one point. Whenever their minds turned to the work of missions they were only one heart, one soul, one thought."
THE EAST INDIES.
– " Experience shows that a temporary withdrawal of the protection of the English Government, such M occurred in some parts during the mutiny years of 1857-58, so far from extinguishing Christianity, helps to spread it; and candid and thoughtful Hindus are not slow to perceive that even if the English were now to leave India, and were not succeeded by any other Christian power, it would still be impossible to counteract the destructive influences already at work, and that caste, as a system of impassable social divisions, must ultimately give way before the ideas which have taken root during a few generations of contact with Christian Europe."- SIR BARTLE FRERE, in Missionary Intelligencer, Christian Mission Board.
– " Whether in the wilds of Scandinavia, or among idolatrous Teuton hordes, in the cloister, in the camp, in the parliament, or in the guild of medieval Europe-or, in later agel, asserting by speech, by pen, or by sword, the rights and obligations of mankind-the strongest and most successful organizers and constructors, social as well as political, have ever been lllen of the "trong-est, deepest, mos.t earnest religious Christian convictions j differing, it may be, most widely as to particular doctrines of their common faith, or particular practical applications of their theories, but all deriving their inspiration from one common source, and refl'rring, as the ultimate authority for all they do, to one Book, briefer than the scriptures of any other faith, and which inculcates all its moral precepts with a clearness and simplicity which an intelligent child can comprehend as perfectly as the most advanced philosopher. "-SIR BARTLE FRERE.
-Herr Canne, formerly Governor of Westem Sumatra, gives an interesting description of the activity of the Rheni~h missionaries as he had become acquainted with them on his visits: "Scarcely had day dawned when from all sides you would see the sick hastening to procure help and advice. Such as were too sick to come to the house were visited at their own homes. Meanwhile, not only the sick, but all that needed help, came to the missionaries. All manner of disputes were Rubmitted to their arbitration. Their advice was asked about everything. A still further claim was laid on their time for the giving of instruction, ordinary and catechetical. From early morning till late at night they were busy. Their wives gave instruction in sewing and other manual arts. The households of the missionaries were in everything pioneers of culture, and a blessing to thousands."
-The Lutheran Brethren of Madras Presidency (Leipsic Mission) have ordained Samuel, a pariah, the first of this dishonored class whom they have admitted to the ministry. In his theological examination he showed himself the most thoroughly grounded of all the four candidates' for ordination.
-Mr. Larsen, in the J)ansk Missions-Bleld for June, gives an interestmg account of the conferences held in Madras with educated young Hindus, Christian and heathen. Once the subject was "The Ideal Life." A young Christian read a papcr upon it. Then a young heathen, an engaging person and fluent speaker, rose. He declared that one could not lead an ideal life without a visible ideal, and he could find no other than Jesus Christ. To the expostulations of his heathen companions, then and at the next meeting, he made no other answer than that so he thought and so he must speak. To the question now, whether he is about to become a Christian, Mr. Larsen replies :. " He may btl not far distant from desiring baptism, though I do not believe so. But certain I am, he has not a glimmering idea what it is to become a Christian. The distance is heavenwide between owning Christ as an ideal and accepting Him as a Saviour."
– " In the Times of September 21st there was published a very sympathetic sketch of the lives of three eminent Indians-representative types of the scholar, the statesman, and the recluse. It is to the last named only that we would here call attention. Pandit Iswura Chandra Vidyasagara was a Brahmin of the best type. Many years ago he braved the wrath of his order in espousing the cause of the Hindu child-widow. He brought the highest scholarship and an immense wealth of Sanscrit learning to bear upon the lifelong task of creating a healthy public literature for Bengal. But it is for his self-denying endeavor to realize the Brahmin ideal of selfnegation, alms-giving, and eschewing of worldly ambition that he is best remembered. Spending little on his own food and raiment, he gave every Sunday to all who came to his door, and took special pleasure in entertaining the poor j to widows and orphans, needy studentR, waifs and strays, and victims of the caste system, he was an ever-ready benefactor. His favorite form of charity was that of personal service-seeking out the unfortunate in their homes, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, speaking words of consolation, and performing ~he humblest duties for others. Brahmin though this man was in creed, in practice dOCR not his example put many professing Christians to shame ~"-The Christian.
-" It is encouraging to find that in the annual report of the ~farathi Mission for 1890 the number received on confession of their faith was not only larger than in any previous year, but that it is an increase of more than ten per cent upon the whole number of church-members at the beginning of 1890. The statistics show that the rate of increase within the last sixty years has been rapidly advancing. During the years 1841-55 inclusive, the annnal average increase was less than sixteen. . Since ] 855 there have been seven periods of five years each. During the first of these periods the annual average increase was 74; during the last period, 171. The mission may well say that' the foundations of our work are deeper and broader, its influences are more widely extended, and the way is being prepared for a larger success in the future.' "-Missionary Herald.
-In 1890 the renewcd Lutheran Mission (Leipsic Society) of South India had completed its first half century. It has now 14,084 adherents.
-The Harvest Field (Madras) says of Sir Charles EI!iott, Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal: "Sir Charles is, we believe, a decidedly Christian governor, and his courtesy to the people over whom he rules springs out of genuine intetest in them, and not out of any desire to secure personal popularity. There is an immense distance everywhere in India between the rulers and the ruled. It is politically expedient to lessen that distance, apart altogether from Christian considerations, and it will be a happy thing if Sir Charles Elliott shall have. even to a small extent, encouraged in Europeans a sentiment of sympathy, conrtesy, and love toward our native fellow-subjects. "
– " We called attention the other day to the pariah, and the helplessness of the best-meant legislation to deliver him from the disabilities of his painful lot. We pointed out that his hope and remedy for the futnre lay in the Gospel. Here is a testimony as to what the Gospel has done already. A writer in the Madras Times 8tates that twenty-five years ago he baptized a sweeper, and that that sweeper's son is now a successful schoolmaster, and has coached more than a hundred Brahmins and KpshatIiyas through the difficulties of high. school examinations; that sons of sweepers are in Government offices; that they arc pushing their way on the railways; that they are studying law and engineering as well as theology and medicine. Thus, directly and indirectly, for the pariah, 'Godliness hath promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' "
-The eminent Bishop Caldwell, of the S. P. G. in South India, has soon followed Bishop Sargent, of the C. M. S., to his reward. The first of Tamil Ilcholars, one of the best of administrators, and one of the greatel:!t missionary authorities in India, he leaves a great void; one of his last acts was to confirm 1500 candidates in the Chnrch Missionary Society's district of Tinnevelly.
-In India, during 1891, a flood of blessing came down in Teleguland j a rain of blessing in Rohilcund, Tinnevelly, among the Kols, Marathis, and in Kodakal, in the Baptist. Methodist Episcopal, Anglican, Gossner (Lutheran) American Board, and Basel Missions respectively. Elsewhere, for the most part, remarks the Zeitschrijt, the blessing has only fallen in a slow distillation.
1892.J IXT~RNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
The Great Pentecost in North India, mountains, and where millions from all India bathe annually. On the south- REV. HENRY MANSELL, D.D., CAWNPORE, east corner is Benares, the Jerusalem of Hinduism. Between these two points INDIA. are Garhmukhtisar, Rsjghat, Bithoor, Dalmau, ILnd six other bathing shrines, Three missions in India for more at each of which hundreds of thousands than a year past have been baptizing assemble annually to bathe in the sacred converts by the thousand. These are stream. Just outside this field, and the American Baptists, in the Telugu now occupied by the same mission, is country, in Southern India, the Ameri- Mutra, the birthplace of Sri Krishn, one can United Presbyterians, and the of the supposed incarnations of Vishnu, American Methodists, in Central and while within is Ajudhia, the birthplace North India and the Panjab. of Ram Chandar, another of Vishnu's incarnations, and Sumbhal, where the In 1890 the Methodists alone baptized Holy Incarnation is expected by the about eight thousand converts; and Hindus. Lucknow, one of the capitals within the past year this same mission of the Muhammadan dynasty, and sevhas baptized about eighteen thousand eral other important cities are within converts. this field. So, with its caravan routes to Cabul, Thibet, and Nepal, Mld its For such a glorious pentecost all Ohris- pilgrim routes to the sacred shrines tiMls ought to thank God, take courage, mentioned, it has more centres of reand go forward; instead of which ligions power and lines of religious indoubts have been expressed and criti- finence than any other spot of equal size cisms made, calling them "hasty bap- in the empire of India. tisms," and the converts baptized heathen. The provinces are very fertile, espe- cially Oude, "the garden of India." It is becausa the sympathy and prayers Wheat, barley, maize, and pulses of Illl of all Ohristians are wanted to help on sorts grow in abundance, as well as cotthis graciouB revival, to the salvation of ton, rice, sugar·cMle, and all tropical India and the world, that this brief his- fruits. It is capable of Bustaining a tory of the movement is attempted. dense population. Oude is, perhaps, more thickly populated than any other The Methodist missions in India were part of the earth. The people are in. founded thirty-six years ago by the Rev, dustrious, but mostly poor, of the lower William Butler, who selected an unoc- castes, and under the heel of the higher cupied field in North India, consisting caste Hindus and wealthy Muhammaof Oude and Rohilkhand on the plains, dans, who are their religions, as well as and two districts, Kumaon Mld Garh. their landlords and employers. This is wal, adjoining, on the lower Himalaya the cradle and real home of Hinduism. Mountains, containing thirty millions Bere also Buddhism was born, and of people, all without the Gospel. This Jainism, and several other religious refis for missionary work a most remark- ormations, all aiming at the death of able field. Lying on the north bank of idolatry, which has been kept alive by the Ganges, India's sacred river, and on caste. So the caste system has enabled the southern slopes and valleys of tha Hinduism to shake off all reforms and lower Himalayas, it contains the two remain strong to this day. most famous mountain shrines, Badrinath and Kidarnath, visited annually Into this interesting field entered Dr. by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India. On the plains is Bardwar, at the northwest corner of the field where the Ganges leaves the Butler, with Joel T. Janvier, a native helpers, and whence colporteurs-ccrried preacher, whom the Presbyterians south Scriptures and tracts to the villages and of the Ganges had given him, with much village schools. Many missionaries valuable advice and information. His preached daily in the bazaars and streets plan to settle twenty-five American mis. of the cities and near towns. Others sionaries in this field was hailed hope- made tours, preaching in the distant fully by all missionaries in India as a villages and melas at the heathen new departure in mission work, concen- shrines. Others still went in circuits to trating effort on fewer people. At that the country bazaars or markets within a time some kinds of mission work, such radius of ten or fifteen miles of the cen· as English schools for high caste natives tral station, preaching overy day to and preaching to European Christians, thousands who were scattered over had been discounted and abandoned by miles of territory, reaching hundreds of the American Board and others; but thousands every month. the broad-minded, large-hearted Dr. Butler, seeing that all kinds of mission Thus the Gospel was preached over a work alone in faith reoeived God's bless· great part of the territory now visited ing, inaugurated all kinds, and planned by this gracious revival. A very intelto put two missionaries in every large ligent native doctor once told the writer city and central station, that one might that the result of this faithful preaching look after schools, ziyats, colporteurs, and teaching was that forty thousand etc., and the other have charge of all of the inhabitants of Moradabad were itinerations, Mela preaching, and strict- no longer idolaters except in name. Yet ly evangelistic work. Before his first most of them and thousands of our reinforcement of two men arrived, the scholars, while believing Christianity Mutiny or Sepoy Rebellion broke out in the true religion, yet are kept, by caste fury. His house in Bareilly was burned and family govflrnment, from accepting and his work scattered. Soon after the it, and they die, leaving idolatry as a Mutiny, when he had stationed mis. legacy to their children. The missionasionaries at seven centres, a whole caste, ries were not left without fruit; but III! the Mazhabi Sikhs, announced that, a result of their faithful preaching and in accordance with a prophecy given by training their converts and native Guru Nanak, a reformer in the Panjab, preachers, they year by year gathered whence they had come, they must all hundreds into the Church from all become Christians. A few score of them classes, especially from the lower castes. were baptized in the Bijnore and Mo- yet they were not satisfied, but cried radabad districts, and had the mis. mightily to God for the baptism of sionaries been able to give them proper power to win the heathen by the thouteachers, thousands might have been sands. made Christians. Rev. William Taylor, now bishop in When Dr. Butler retired for other Africa, had written "Christian Adven. fields, after eight years of successful tures in South Africa." It gave an inwork, he left sixteen missionaries, four spiring account of about eight thousand ordained native preachers, and a number conversions in a few months. He was of unordained native preachers, el(hort- sent for, and much was el(pected from ers, and teachers, with a few hundred his visit. The result was not as expect. converts. Every form of mission work ed. The heathen were not converted by Was carried forward. There were schools the thousand. Only two conversions for the higher as well as for the lower from heathenism happened in all the classes, orphanages, churches, and book- Methodist mission; but what was far rooms where tracts and Scriptures could better, the missionaries and native be had, and inquirers examined and preachers were quickened and baptized prayed with by missionaries and their for the work, the only nominal Chris· tians were really con verted, and tile whole mission prepared for more spe- drias was far more aggressive, winning cific and aggressi ve work. many of his old followers, and gaining aooess to all classes and sects of Hindus. A zealous missionary of another mis- He spent all his time preaching and sion,returning to England for a short visiting the families and neighborhoods furlough, after twenty years' service, of his followers. He recited poems said to one of the Methodist missiona- written by his former teachers, in which ries ; .. I have never seen any real con- idolatry was ridiculed, gave the Bible verts, and do not expect to see any in teaching against idols, and then perthe present generation; we are sowing suaded them to give up idols and false the seed." After Mr. Taylor's visit aU incarnations and accept Christ the true. the missionaries and native preachers Then gaining a partial consent, he believed without a doubt that God would sit down and teach them orally would be pleased to have them convert (as none could read) a hymn in praise the heathen, for" Herein is My Father of Jesus, a short prayer, the Confession glorified that ye bear muoh fruit, so of Faith. then to those who remembpred shall ye be My disciples." Rev. Zahur- well the Lord's Prayer and the Ten ul Haqq prayed at one of Mr. Taylor's Commandments. He often visited from meetings, " 0 Lord, if Thou c~n8t not five to ten villages a day, and then he make me a soul winner, set me aside would go round again and again, asking from this calling and appoint others if they had kept their promiMe to give who will save these millions." Of up idolatry and worship Jesus. He course God honored sllch devotion, and would collect a few together and hold a made him a soul saver. All the mis· prayer-meeting with them, and thus he sionaries and native ministers went fOf- taught all the forms of the secret private ward with greater zeal and faith, teach· and public worship of Jesus. He went ing and preaching in bazaars, melas, on indoctrinating thousands. Other everywhere; itinerating through the native preachers moved on thus in villages, distributing tracts and Scrip- smaller circles, and the work went on tures, and after careful examination and with inoreasing but not marvellous suoinstruction baptizing all who came, still cess until two and a half years ago, hoping to see the non·Christians tum. when this great and glorious revival ing by thousands frOID idols to the liv- began. At that time there were about ing God, and asking for baptism in the ten thousand converts, five hundred na· presence of great crowds of their coun· tive ministers, preachers, exhorters, and trymen. teachers, twenty-eight thousand Sunday- school scholars. and seventeen thousand Some of the native preachers, before day scholars under instruction. All their conversion, had been wandering these, scattered among a population of preachers, proselytizers or teaohers thirty millions, carried on evangelistic among their own people, and knew the work in nearly one thousand centres. Indian methods of making converts. This work was all directed by twenty- One of these, Zahur-ul Haqq had spent seven American and forty· five native years at the Muhammadan mosque as missionaries. Muezin, calling to prayers and in reading and memorizing parts of the Quran The missignaries had learned from in Arabic, preparing to become a Maulvi. Andrias the Hindustani methods of He had learned how to proselytize. making converts, and made their schools Prem Das and Andrias had been propa· for the lower elasses all into Panthsgators of the teaohings of Kabir and i.e., theological schools, where the boys Nanak, and each had hundreds of fol· and young men learn firstall the modes lowers. These for the most part left of worshipping the gods and then learn their leaders, but were followed, visit- to read if they can. Dr. Goucher. of ed, and taught by them as far af< p'''Ri· Baltimore, had given help to establish ble. Prem Das won'a few of hi:>, .none hundted and fifty such schools in vice as well aB the doctrines of Christ Rohilkhand, and Dr. Frey, also of Bal- and the Commandments. Other mistimore, had given money to found eighty sionaries were called out to villages to in Oude. These schools taught thou- baptize converts, till nearly all the missands to give up idols and to sing hymns sionaries in Rohilkhand were evangelizof praise and offer prayer to the true ing and baptizing converts their helpers God in the name of Jesus. All the above had won. evangelizing agl'ncies were in successful operation when the revival began, and The work spread with such rapidity the way was prepared and all were ex- that all the students Dr. Scott, of our pecting fruit all the while. Bareilly Theological School, could spare were Bet to work, and all the teacher- Rev_ Mr. Knowles, of Gonda, had preachers Bishop Thoburn could combaptized a few score at the Ajudhia mand were teaching converts; then he Mela in the presence of thl! heathen. tried to call a halt in baptizing to teach He had ",isited the Tharus, a tribe liv- the converts more perfectly, but all ing in the wet, unhealthy jungles skirt- made answer: .. We cannot stop the ing the Himalayas, and had baptized baptism that way. The more we teach several whole villages; and all the mis- the more zealously the taught tell others sionaries wished such scenes might be and bring them in for baptism." multiplied. " Give us more teachers and preach- The revival, though expected, came ers full of faith and the Holy Ghost '" in an unexpected way. Henry Mitchell, was the universal cry. The .Bishop reo a native ordained preacher, who had ported this work at Northfield, and Mr. been picked up and supported a while Moody gave and collected enough to by the writer, then sent to the Orphan- Bend one hundred preacher-teachers. age and named for the son of his Pre- In one year he reported 1400 converts siding Elder in the Pittsburg Confer- as the result of these Moody schools. ence, was left without an appointment There are many most interesting incito fill a place expected to fall vacant. dents connected with this great pente- He was needed in another place, and cost we cannot recount here. In 1890 ordered by Bishop Thoburn to report at Dr. Wilson, of Budaon, in only 11 Roorkee. On his way he went with two months, baptized 1163. Dr. Butcher, of or three others to visit some of their Bijnore, baptized 583. Hasan Baza friends in a village not far from Roor- Khan, of Kas Ganj, haptized 415. filrakee, where he was invited to tell them him Solomon, a converted Jew, of Fathall about Christianity. He preached ganj, haptized 477. In 1889 there had faithfully, and as a result about seventy been 4000 baptisms. In 1890 there were persons were baptized. They said that nearly 9000, and in 1891 there have hundreds of others of their caste were been about 18,000, while in only a small ready to be made Christians. This part of the field 20,000 are reported a8 caused a great stir among missionaries as ready for baptism. Some villages have well as among tho heathen. sent pitiful letters, saying that for months they have gi",en up idolatry, and Bishop Thoburn, as usual, WbS quick begging the missionaries to come and to see the situation. He appointed .. make us Christians." The greatBst Dr. Parker, an evangelist. who select- enthusiasm prevails among all the naed several native preachers and started tive helpers to save the people. After out itinerating among the villages where these neophytes learn the way more the people were accessible and ready to perfectly, special services are held for receive the Gospel. He went to as them at the Quarterly. District, and Anmany villages as possible, preaching and nual Conferences ant: camp-meetings. baptizing hundreds, and leaving some Missionaries of other churches look on one to teach the converts more perfectly with wonder and praise as t):ley see the forms of Christian worship and serhundreds every day born of the Spirit younger men, many of whom but yesat these great annual Christian melas terday were riding on conservancy and commune with thousands of these carts, sweeping streets, cutting grasR, or saved sons and daughters of India. following the plough; now with clean This work will and must go on till India clothes without and clean hearts within, and the world ate saved. going here and there and everywhere supplant.ing Krishna with Christ, and The Quick Baptisms by North India proclaiming the religion of the Re· Missionaries. deemer iustead of that of Ram. .. But they are low caste." Yes; but they are BEY. T. J. SCOTT, D.D., PRINCIPAL THEO- on their way to high castehood. Did Christ select His apostles from among LOGICAL SEMINARY, BAREILLY, INDIA. the nabobs and milliollilires of Judea and Galilee? The masses of the world Listening to the remarks of those who of India are poor, are common people oppose quick baptisms on general prin- -low caste. Weare after them. Out ciples, one might be led to conclude that upon the misorable snobbery, the exethe whole thing-converts, converters, crable, pharisaical pride that would pass churches from Peter and pentecost by the million reachable and accessible down-was a dead failure, a rash rush- Brahman·Ramanuja, Gaur, or Kulin, or ing in of the impulsive, eccentric, and the self-satisfied MoslE'm, Shia, Snni inexperienced missionary novice who Wahabi, Moghal, or Pathan. does not know what he is about. But that is not in accordance with the facts. During the past two or three months While there may be a few cases where it I have seen practical illustrations of the would have been better not to have done growth of men under the influence of it, in the great majority of cases it has the Gospel that ought to convince the turned out well. What means this great most sceptical of the success of our aggressive army of twelve thousand or work. Take a few facts. On my last more in Rohilkhand, principally in the tour on the Ajmere circuit I met with Bareilly, Budaon, and Moradabad dis- eight men-Madhu, Samuel, Surta, Latricts? Where did these hundreds of chcha, Changa Lal, Bania, Chanda, and preachers, exhorters, teachers, colpor. YUilif–who but a few months ago were teurs, Bible readers, Zenana workers heathens. Now they are exhorters in the come from? The most of them came Methodist Episcopal Church, are full of from among the poor villagers, who, zeal to preach the Gospel, have been bearing the Gospel expressed a desire the means of saving scores of relations, for Christ Ilond conversion, and were ac- friends, and acquaintances, and who in cepted on the spot and baptized at once. a marvellously short time have learned Let us read Church history, not of the the leading facts of the Bible as taught conversion of Europe or of the Chris- in Mudge's Catechism and simpler portianization of Asia Minor, but the Church tions of Scripture. The Rupnagar quarhistory. concrete, progressive, irrepres- ter is a marvel. These men, seated on sible, recording itself all about us in the the ground, face to face with their rude person and work of our strong preachers instrnments, can hold a crowd all night and teachers-converts but a day or two listening to their quaint adaptations of ago from Hinduism and Muhammadan- •• Yisu Masih Mera Prana BachaSa,' '* ism, who now in the thick of the fight and other bhajans. These are the men show gleaming battle axes with blood who, on four or five rupees a month, on them, and ever unfurl to the breezes are to become the pioneers of a new era. the banner bearing the inscription, .•• In What does the clerically.dressed swell Hoc Signo Vinces." Time would fail me catechist on fifty or one hundred rupees to tell of Haqq, and Cutting, and Jacob, and H. R. Khan, and Mahbub Khan, * ".Tesus Christ has saved my soul. .. and Solomon, and Isa Das, and Stevens, and Chimman Lal, or of the scores of per month know or care about the me one of the men ready for baptism! masses surging about-sheep without a His pay is five rupees. The third man shepherd, driven here Ilnd there by is Isa Das, of GobardlUlD. Recently priests? Voracious and cruel wolves, there has been an ingathering at various who would leave them nothing but their sacred centres about lIuttra. On the bones. It is of these men that the ex- morning of June 8th I started at three perienced missionary, who dug them 0' clock in a tekha gari for Gobardhan, out, writes: "These exhorters are reli· thirteen miles distant. Soon after start. able, good men-our own converts; will ing a fearful storm arose. First dust stay with us for life, and work like came pouring in upon my recumbent heroes. They have passed good exami- person until I was almost suffocated. naUons in the Catechism and Gospel, Then down came the rain. The dust and will develop into good workers; in was turned into mud, and darkness covfact, are even now working well and en- ered all from the rude gaze of men. during hardships. Two of them, when But we pushed on. The morning I could not get a gari for my tent, shoul- cleared up. We had a splendid meeting dered it and carried it six miles to the in a native hut and baptized sixteen next village on June 1st last. That will adults, and among them two Bairagi give you an idea of the stuff they are gurus, one of whom is Isa Das. He at made of." I have three other men- once took hold. Has taught a school, living epistles-read and known of all. and has travelled among his friends in Lal Masih lives at Karas, a village near the surrounding towns. He has just Hattras. I found him and his wife at come in and reported a large number of Hattras a couple of years ago, when they inquirers at Digg, an important place were brought to me for baptism. They beyond Gobardhan in Bhartpore terribelonged to the sweeper caste. Imme- tory. We propose to save India through diately after baptism they set to work to such men as these. I am not crying learn to read. Lal Masih's growth was down education, I am only crying up marvellous. He soon was able to teach what the Lord gives us right at hand. a school. His wife also was able in a Let us go where He leads, and follow short time to ttlach the Christian girls hard after every indication of Provi· in her Mohallah. I gave him an ex- dence. horter's license. He sent his wife to the training-school, and she came back For those who do not think there can much improved. He now has charge of be much done in the hot weather in the a work of his own, and teaches a small way of evangelistic work, I would say school. He has been the means of sav- that we have had the greatest success in ing scores of souls. His pay is five the hottest months. Take the followrupees a month, and he never com- ing as specimens: plains. He has a beautiful voice, and great skill in conducting singing. June 8th, at Gobardhan, 16; June 16th, at Mohaban, 19; July 14th, at Masih Dayal is a convert from Muttra Danjee, 14; July 21st, at Hathras, 10 ; City. He has never given us a moment's July 28th, at Khalilganj, 19 ; July 28th, trouble. He first earned his own way at Jaleswar, 26. as a Chowkidar, reading during spare moments; then he was promoted to Upon these it may be remarked that teach a little school, then worked a few three of the ahove places are shrine cen. months in Agra. He now has charge tres, where there never were any con· of the Muttra book.shop, and is active verts before. Not one of these converts in all kinds of Christian work. Recent- come upon the mission for support. ly he accompanied me to Lucknow, and They are aU well looked after by experi. slept on the veranda with the Pankah enced men, and schools are started walas. On the second day he brought among them. It is a mistake to think that we baptize these poor people and let them go. We baptize them and hold on to them. Our policy is to have good an uncle and an only Hister, whom he strong men at the centres. I divide greatly loved. These two events, in my large circuits into sub.circuits, connection with his natural tendency to and put my strongest and most ex· meditate upon religious subjects, led perienced men over the sub.circuits, him to give up the gross idolatry of his then the cheap men under them. So people. He ran away from home to join there is system. "What I say unto you the mendicants and bands of men cele- I say unto all, Watch." The local brated for their knowledge of Sanskrit preacher watches the pastor.teacher. and Vedic lore. He spurned earthly The preacher in charge watches the local riches, and set his heart fully to seek for preacher and all below him. The pre- the true religion by means of a life of siding elder watches the preachers in austerities. When about the age of charge, and the bishop watches UB all. thirty he became possessed of the con- If there is any work in India more in- viction that he should devote his life to terlocked, more systematic, more care- the effort of bringing back his deluded fully planned, and more faithfully prose· countrymen to the pure monotheistic cuted than this I have not heard of it. faith of the old Vedic times, when Hin- Look at the meetings, and conferences, dustan was enjoying her golden age. and conventions held at all times of the year; quarterly, district, and annual His teachings. He taught that the conferences for business; camp meet- Vedas were the ultimate authority, and ings, district leagues, workers' conven- that modern Hinduism was a gross pertions, itinerants' clubs for spiritual and version of Vedic teaching. He deintellectual training; red and blue rib- nounced the early Brahmins as deceivbon, and Kauri armies for reform. ers of the people. Whatever otherR may do, I shall take advantage of all these and push ahead, Idolatry, early marriages, polytheism, believing that that is the direction in and caste are among the many corrupwhich lies success.-India Witness tions introduced by the Brahmins.
Hindu Puritan Reform-The !:rye. He agrees, with Islam, in Monothe- Some.j. ism, but offends Islam by his caricatures of Jesus their prophet. REV. F. L. NEELD, BARElLLY, INDIA. He agrees with Hinduism in holding The Arya Somaj is the most energetic to the Vedas, but strikes at the root of of the reforming Hindu sects. It is or- Hinduism by denying the possibility of ganized for aggression, and is full of en- an incarnation. terprise. His points of agreement with Chris_ The founder of this sect was Pundit tianity are along in the line of its ethics, Dyanand Saraswati, who died t'ight philanthropy, and spirit of progress; years ago. He was the son of a Gujarati but he parts entirely from Christianity Brahmin, and was born in the year 1825. by denying the possibility of an incar- At a very early age he began the study nation, and by holding that there is no of Sanskrit, and to read the Vedas. His forgiveness of sins. father was a worshipper of the great gvd Mahadev, and taught his son the same In his plan of salvation from the pun. worship. As the boy rea4 and observed ishment of sin, he teaches that works he came to th3 conclusion that idols are of merit are weighed against our sins, powerless creatures, and that it was a and a balance is struck. waste of time to worship them. He thereupon gave more time to the Vedas. So far as I can discover, there is no provision for changing the character of At the age of sixteen he lost, by death, the soul. The individual sonl is left to its own unaided powers in working out a salvation from the consequences of sin by works of merit.
What these works of merit may be can be learned from the Vedas; the Vedas are in the Sanskrit language, with him, and announced that Olcott's hence the development of Sanskrit and occult science was a " lie. " a knowledge of the Vedas was a prime neccBBity. His whole sYRtem stands or Although Dyanand was afterward falls with the Vedas. ashamed of himself for having been deceived, yet he had caught enough of In his reformatory movement his first Olcott's spirit to make him more anattack was directed against the Brah. tagonistic to Ohristianity. mins and the corruptions of modern Hinduism. His controversy was with It is now eight years since Dyanand the old conservative orthodox Pundits. the founder died. During that time the He failed to accomplish anything satis· Soml1j has grown rapidly in numbers factory in this line; the Pundits, espe· and influence. cially those of Benares, refused to accept his new and liberal interpretation of the Their forms of operation. They have a Vedas, and reported generally that number of officers and itinerant preach- Dyanand had been defeated in debate. ers who "travel throughout the connec- tion" and thus bring the local Somajes He then attempted to carryon his reo into unity with the genaral movement. form by means of schools. This plan failed. chiefly because he could not get They have their printing presses, teachers that could do his work. His which they use with marked effect. la8t plan was to travel from city to city, From these issue religious papers, books, establishing Somajes (societies) as work· tracts, hymn-books, etc. Their most ing centres. In some respects this is the vigorous centre is the city of Lahore, same method which the most successful from which they send out their leading missionaries had adopted in establish- paper, the Arya Patrika, printed in Enging indigenous churches. lish.
Dyanand came much in contact with They have quite a number of Arya missionaries and their work, and adopt. schools. Many of them are for girls ed some of their best methods of organi- Their efforts to educate their girls and zation ; and the order of worship in their women are worthy of all praise. Sevweekly meetings is partly an imitation eral orphanages have been started, and of Ohristian worship. In his visits to are well subsidized by Government these centres he found many educated gran t-in-aid. progressive Hindus who were longing to get rid of the absurdities of Hinduism; In the management of these agencies and from this class chiefly the Soml1jes they have the advantage which comes were formed; the Boml1j began with from positions of influence. Many of the most vigorous and advanced Hindus. their members are medical officers in the employ of Government; some In Dyanand's writings and in the tem- are members of municipal councils; per of his followers there is much bitter- they are in the judicial and revenue deness against Ohristianity. Very many partments of Government; in fact, so of his objections against the Bible are far as political influence is concerned, very crude, and based upon mistaken they have the advantage of the Ohrisnotions of its teachings. tians. The interests of the Soml1j are well cared for. His style of treating the Bible is very similar to that of Ingersoll. He was un· In view of these facts it is apparent fortunate enough to become associated that we have here a movement with with Oolonel Olcott, and to yield him- vitality in it; a movement which we self to his flattery for a time; but when cannot ignore. he discovered that Olcott was sometimes a Buddhist, sometimes a Zoroastrian, How should we interpret this movesometimes an Aryl1n Som!!ji, but on the ment? Is it, on the whole, to be rewhole an atheist, he parted company gretted, or should it be a source of en· couragement ?
1. I believe it to be encouraging ; it is most likely a result of the enlightenment of Christian truth. Christian Ministers educated in India will con- preaching, mission schools, Christian stitute the very best agency for guiding literature, and Western civilization have this movement toward Christ led them to reject the grossest and the most fundamental teachings of orthodox Hindui8IU. Rev. S. A. Moffett, writing fom Seoul, 2. It is a movement on the part of Korea, December 29th, 1891, says: what might be called the .. laity" of " Will you kindly call the attention of Hinduism, for the purpose of recover- those interested in the suppression of ing from the Brahmins the rights which the opium traffic to the fact that Korea that great sacerdotal caste had usurped. furnishes another argument for its sup- They claim the right of interpreting the pression.
Vedas for themselves. These men can " The class of Koreans who can afford do more to break the power of the Brah- to use opium are already weakened by mins, and to disintegrate Hinduism as every kind of sensual indulgence; and a system, than any other human or- now it appears that this worst of all ganization can. vicious habits is to gain a hold upon 3. Their work has already awakened them.
the orthodox to such an extent that they "I recently spent several weeks in have formed a society called the Dharm the City of Ein ju, on the Chinese bor- Sabha, for the purpose of resisting these der, and found that already this habit disintegrating and progressive tenden- has gained an entrance, and is rapidly cies. spreading, I learn, also, that in the 4. These two parties are in dispute capital and iI), the port of Chemulpo the over the question as to what the Vedas Chinese have established joints, which teach, and" What is True Hinduism?" are patronized by Koreans, while the This dispute has brought to light the number who secretly use it is reported puerility, absurdity, and obscenity of as increasing.
some parts of the Vedas, and will reveal .. With almost every other of Satan's more and more the false pretensions of devices to meet, we missionaries pray modern Hinduism. While this process is that this traffic may be stopped before going on, the missionary can attend more it becomes one of the hindrancel!l to the to the constructive part of his work. progress of the Gospel in Korea. Please What should we do to meet this move- add the voice of helpless Korea to those ment? raised in favor of the suppression of the 1. Get into closer touch with these opium traffic..
struggling men ; they are waging a hard- er and a longer battle than they know; India's Frontier and Missions, they will eventually have to look con- sciously to Christians for help and The Indian Church Quarterly Review direction ; and from these bolder spirits calls attention to the northwest frontier, we may yet receive some of our strong- which stretches in a long semicircular est and most aggressive preachers. line into Central Asia, and brings India 2. The immediate matter for our at- in contact with many countries and tention, in view of all the above, is the some of the most influential races in training of a native ministry. This is Asia. This line of fron tier station. • being done to some extent; but there begins with Kotgarh, near Simla, and are latent resources in our young native runs to Peshawur, and from there to Christian men that can be developed. Kurrachi – twelve principal stations, From the homeland there should be with a number of subordinate stations.
sent sufficient funds to greatly strength- 'rheae are the doorways to Beluchistan, en our theological scm inaries and Chris- Afghanistan, Kashmir, Persia, Turkis- tian colleges. tan, and that imperfectly defined line of country which lies in the very centre have been the beneficiaries of mission. of the continent. The Review says: "The position of these frontier mis- ary effort. With the facilities now existsions is unique, not only on account of their geographical position among so ing for rapid travel, it ought not to be many tribes and races in Central Asia, but because there are, with very few ex- impossible to secure, in connection with ceptions indeed, no Christian mis3ions beyond them. In the countries adjoin- the World's Fair, an Ecumenical Con. ing and beyond them there is nothing to be seen but Buddhism and Muham- gress of Missions. madanism, with all their desolations, which for a thousand years and more The papers and discussions will aim have devastated some of the most beautiful spots on earth. These missions to set forth the results of missionary are beacons of light which look out upon the widely extended darkness of activity in improving the moral and death." The Peshawur Mission, in its report, says that the mission is on spiritual condition of men; in con- Afghan territory, and that the nation which wins and knows how rightly to tributing to their intellectual advancemake use of Afghanistan will win supremacy in Asia. Nor is Afghanistan ment and the betterment of their mateof less importance to us religiously. We see from history how often Afghans rial conditions; in opening new chanhave planted and upheld for centuries the flag of Islam, both in many prov- nels to commerce and new fields to inces of India and in countries beyond it. When they once are Christians they ethnological and antiquarian research. will probably become the most zealous and energetic missionaries of Christian- It will be shown that diversities of race ity of all Asia. have not proved insuperable obstacles World's Oongress of Missions. to that feeling of brotherhood inspired As the missionary motive was one of the impelling forces that led to the dis- by the Gospel of Christ. But doubtless covery and settlement of the New World, one of thtl best uses of this Congress the Columbian Exposition, to be held will be the opportunity it will furnish in 1893, in a city whose first church was for fraternal intercourse and exchange planted only sixty years ago by a home of views on the vital questionll of life missionary, is certainly a fitting occa- and faith. Ilion to set forth the results of modern missions. The Auxiliary, under whose auspices this Congress will be held, has been The World's Congress Auxiliary an- recognized and approved by the Govnounce that to make thill exhibition as ernment of the United States. It has complete as possible, it will be the en- the support of the World's Columbian deavor of those having in charge the Exposition, whose Directory will pro- Congress of Missions to secure repre- vide places of meeting, and in other sentation from every important mission- ways contribute to its success. The ary organization in the world. They new Memorial Art Palace now in procwill also attempt to bring liogether ess of construction on the site of the representatives from the peoples who old Inter·State Exposition Building will be fitted up for the use of this and the other congresses. In addition to the IImaller assembly rooms, there will be two large halls, each holding three thou- sand persons, where popular gatherings may be held. 'I'his Congress will proba- bly be convened about the middle of the month of September, 1893. Societies and individuals interested in missions will makll their arrangements, natu- rally, to visit the World'lI Fair at that time.
Persons seeking fuller information about the Congress of Missions will please address Rev. Walter Manning Barrows, D.D., Chairman General Com- mittee on Congress of Missions, World'lI Congress Auxiliary, Chicago, Ill.
NOTE.-Missionary and other religious societies desiring to take part in the im- portant material religious exhibit, which i~ to be made in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, will communicate with Dr. Selim H. Peabody, Chief of the Department of Liberal Arts, Columbian Exposition,
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
1lI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Y. M. O. A. in India. stand and will understand still better when you get closer to the situation. I Mr. David McConaughy, Secretary' will give you a leaf, though, from yes· Y. M. C. A., writes from Madras, India, terday's experience. Before the Bible_ December 10th, 1891 : class last evening I had a talk with one " DEAR DR. PIERSON: The work here of our Hindu members, who has seemed goes steadily on. The second year has most unli1cely to receive impressions- been better than the first every way. en old student of the Christian college, Our need of enlarged facilities grows filled with ideas of Bradlaugh, Spencer, more and more pressing. We do so and Huxley, well read and keenly logi- need a building. With a paid.up memo cal, and philosophical to some degree.
bership of more than two hundred, our He had disavowed belief in God and im- quarters are exceedingly straitened; in mortality in talking with me ten days •August next our lease expires, and can before ; but to my surprise he opened be only renewed for a long term and at his heart to me last night, and said a rate at least double that we are now something like this: 'I have lately been paying. We know of no other place greatly exercised about my soul. 1 available; but we are led to believe that hoped that by severe and long-continued a building site very suitable might be contemplation I might attain the truth, obtained from Government if we could but I find my heart less satisfied than give assurance of erecting a good build· before. 1 have no faith in Hinduism.
ing. Our Hindu rival has just obtained I have studied Mohammedanism, but a site on the esplanade near by, and find nothing there. I have never read thus furnishes us a valuable precedent. the Bible, although when in college I We believe the Association has greatly had one of the books (1 think it was grown in the esteem and confidence of Luke, but I am not sure). Lately I the people of all classes. Lately we have found myself unaccountably think.
have added to our Board the Inspector. ing much about Christ I know noth- General of Ordnallce and the Assist. ing about Him save what I have gath- ant Adjutant-General, both out·and·out ered from fragments in various books I Christian men, with heart interest in have read. Yet even in my sleep I have the work. At home the International been dreaming of Him; and last night, Committee finds its hands so tied finan· when only half conscious, 1 found my- cially that my appeals for men for Cal. self crying out, " 0 Christ, save me '" , cutta and Colombo (and even for an as- This m~n lives in a Brahman hostel, and sociate here at Madras, to enable me to of late has spent nearly all his time in turn more attention to the Indian Na- our rooms, sitting often for hours at a tional Committee) are held in abeyance. time in a corner of the social room, It is useless for me to app-eal for money looking blankly at the wall, until we to build under these circumstances. feared his mind was going. Hence I Meanwhile, I am pressed overmuch with was the more surprised to find his mind the growing work, local and national, clearer than mine, and the Holy Spirit and still more oppressed by being working mightily upon his heart. Late- obliged to turn a deaf ear to calls from ly he has come within hearing (but out all sides. of sight) of our religious meetings. Last .. Meanwhile, our hearts are cheered evening, for the first time in his life, he by unmistakable signs of the spirit of came to a Christian gathering-the Bible God working with us. We cannot reo trainIng class-where the subject was port spiritual results, nor even say much 'What must I do to be saved?' AI· about them in print, as you call under- ready a change has been remarked in this man's face; and I trust erelong traffic' has grown until its proportions the light of life will be shining clear and have become very great. The year 18110 bright in his heart. saw no less than 160,000 Chinese coolies imported into Singapore from five or "Well, while we were talking to- six ports in China. The large number gether, the President of the Association of English and Chinese agents, both in came rushing upstairs with his face Singapore and in China, who carry on aglow, and said: 'I say, I've had the this vast and organized traffic are comhest talk to-night with S – (a Brah- monly spoken of as ' slave dealers.' man member) that I've ever had in these rooms; and he has opened his heart and "The way in which the coolies are told me that he is determined to follcw secured in China for the Singapore mar- Christ.' That means SO much for such a ket is this: The' agents' give striking man out here. He and my man, Dorais- descriptions of the successes to be obwamy Moodeliar, and three other Hindu tained by leaving China and going to members (one of the latter' a disciple, but Singapore. To millions of Chinese these secretly') were in the Bible class, and we , agents' have ready access. They are had a good hour. We believe we are very poor, and the' agents' agree to going to see' greater things than these, ' pay the passage of the coolies to Singaand that erelong. I have felt hitherto pore, upon condition that each man that what was required was building an signs a contract, which stipulates that association rather than an association the indebtedness to the' agent' shall be building; but now the need of enlarged recognized and refunded out of the facilities presses heavily. Will you not coolie's wages. So far all seems fair take this matter upon your heart and and above board. From the moment, join us in praying the Lord to provide however, the contract is signed, the the means?" coolie's liberty is a thing of the past.
Ooolie Slave Trade in Singapore. "On arrival at Singapore these un· told thousands of nearly naked Chinese The following are extracts from an' are drafted into large receiving sheds open letter addressed to the Marquis of and houses, from which they cannot go Salisbury by Mr. Henry Varley, Evan- away, though the actual indebtedness to gelist, who, having recently visited the' agent' seldom exceeds lOs. to 15s., Singapore, feels it imperative to bring or four dollars Singapore currency. before his lordship's attention the fol- Hundreds of the coolies are crowded lowing particulars. into carts and conveyed to empty houses in various parts of the city. Crowds of Mr. Varley calls attention to Singa- human faces peer through the iron bars pore as an island situated in the Straits of the windows of the rooms into which, of Malacca, and commanding one of the as human cattle. they are driven, in principal highways to China and Japan; which they are imprisoned, and from as a great coaling station and port of which there is no escape. call for hundreds of steamers and sailing vessels. "Tens of thousands of these coolies are, within a few daya, forwarded by He says: "Singapore has grown English steamers, at the will of the rapidly, and is increasing in importance 'agent,' to Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Joevery year. Already it contains about hore, and scorE'S of places in the East- 200,000 inhabitants, and as an Eastern ern Archipelago. Iniquitous and exrepresentative of imperial interests orbitant charges are made by these ranks high. As a great centre to which 'slave dealers,' and until their unjust Eastern produce and commerce con- demands are paid the coolies know no' verge, and into which great mnsses of freedom. The coolie does not hire him- Chinese and Indian life literally pour, self out. It, is the 'agpnt' who sells Singapore has few rivals and no peer. biB services often for a llIiso·l1ble wage.
"The 'Chinese coolie immigration The Chinese are thus committed to a and distrnst the Christian and mission- system of enforced labor, and where ary efforts of Britain.
they have no voice concerning their .. That this English slave trade in position, work, or pay. There are no Chinese coolies, which has existed for Courts of Appeal; and outside Singa- more than twenty years in Singapore, pore there is no English law either to has so seared the conscience of the colo- protect or to deliver the coolie. nial authorities, that the year 1891 sees ., The Chinese coolie immigration more than twelve hundred opillm dens traffic is a system of slavery with a thin in full blast in Singapore! These veneer over it, in order to its conceal- houses have been licensed by the Im- ment and indefinite extension. This perial Government in order to carryon conviction is common in Singapore, but this degrading traffic, and so abnorma.l the infamous traffic is profitable! It has been the growth and spread of this pays, and hence there is criminal silence traffic that nearly three fourths of the on the part of many who should speak total revenue of Singapore for the year out in words of burning indignation. 1890 was received from the licenses and .. A prominent Government official, sale of the deadly opium.
who for several years has had special .. The Imperial Government goes s~ill oversight and inspection in regard to fmther, and licenses a large number of the coolie traffic, admitted that • prac- immoral houses in Singapore. It is tically it is an organized system of slav- possible to.day for any man or wom- ery on a very large scale.' Referring an to apply to the representative of the to the contracts, he said, • I do not Imperial Government for a license to think they are instruments of oppres- keep a house of ill.fame, and it will be sion up to the point of arrival in Singa. granted. Whole streets in Singapore pore. It is after the coolies leave us are thus licensed for purposes of im- and are forwarded to the sugar planta. morality. In some houses from twenty tions, cotton gardens, and places of ser- to fifty girls, many of them mere chil- vice in the various islands where the dren, are kept in stock, and exhihited ,. agents" send them.' Exactly. Be- in their tawdry finery to all who pass yond the ten or fifteen shillings which hy. In the main they are imported from the coolie owes for his short passage China and Japan. Scores of them have from China, the • agent' has no just been bought, and in hundreds of cases claim against him. are the property of the vile men and .. This traffic involves every year the women whom English law has licensed, liberty of 150,000 Chinese subjects. and whose houses the police are in- Were such an infamous system at- structed to protect and regulate. From· tempted in regard to Englishmen in any Hong Kong, notorious for its degrading part of the earth, not only would the traffic in Chinese women, the bulk of civilized world rise in indignant protest these girls are shipped, and the im- against it, but the moral and material moral purpose for which they are forces of the British nation would com- brought to Singapore is perfectly well bine to overthrow and stamp out the in- known. They have been sold for money famous traffic. into a degrading moral slavery more " Can we be surprised at the strained terrible even than the traffic in Chinese relationships between the English and coolies.
the Chinese? That Englishmen should "Is it anything less than appalling to be spoken of as 'foreign white devils' find the Imperial Legislature of the first suggests, in the light of these terrib'e and greatest Empire in the world pro- facts, sagacity and truth, rather than tecting and tacitly recognizing human ignorant prejlldice, on the part of the slavery and slave – dealers, licensing Chinese. No wonder that they snspect opium dens. as also immoral hOllses, the national and commercial honesty, and their degraded keepers ?" [We feel constrained to say that the see their way clear to grant my request. above is one of the most terrible indict- It is not a very great one, especially ments ever brought against a Christian when they have in their hands about nation; and we cannot doubt the Brit- £40,OOO-jubilee collection – only my ish Government will institute an inves- own salary (single man). I have promtigation. – EDITOR.] ised them not to ask anything for build- ings, etc., for the first three years. Letter from Mr. Williams. I shall let you know again the deci- A short time ago I paid a short visit sion of our directors. Something will to the Lushai Hills, and was accom- be done at the General Assembly, which panied by Mr. Aitken, of Calcutta. It will be held in South Wales about the is my wish to go and start a mission end of this month. among the Lushais. I have already written home to the directors of our WILLIAM WILLIAMS. mission about the matter. If they cannot see their way clear to help me, I KRASI HILLS, ASSAM, June 18, 1891. may feel it my duty to go there without any guarantee of their support-simply Captain E. C. Hore, the African misrelying on the promises of Him who gave sionary explorer, will publish about the the great command: "Go ye, therefore, end of March a volume with the title and make disciples of all the nations." " Tanganyika; Eleven Years of Central African Work." It will be illustrated It is my plan to take Khasi teachers with a portrait, and eleven full-page and evangelists with me. Some of the illustrations from the author's own young men of' these hills have made sketches, surveys, and photographs. It great progress in education. One has will be a complete and concise account passed the Calcutta F .A., and is prepar- of the London Missionary Society's ing for his B.A. ; and the number of Central African Mission, accounting for thould who have passed the Calcutta en- each of its members and all its proceedtrance is increasing every year. ings from the commencement to the present time. We believe it will be the The Director of Public Instruction first report of the share that English Intold me the other day that the young dependents have had in tbe opening up men of our normal school were the first of the great new regions of Central throughout the province in mathematics Africa. Tanganyika is the only one of in the last examination ; and they were the great Central African lakes that has under a disadvantage, too – they had to been definitely surveyed, and this has do their work in English, a foreign lan- been done by Captain Hore, who may guage, while the Bengalees and As- be regarded as, in a great degree, the samees were doing it in their own. discoverer of the lake.
If the Khasis who are not Christians It is said that during the nine years can accompany our troops to Lushailand and six months preceding December, as coolies and harlots, surely the Khasis 1884, there occurred in Japan 553 earthwho are Christians can go there to teach quakes, averaging one earthquake for the people the way of life ! every six days and six hours. Professor Milne makes the average even greater The Government will be ready to give than this. He could trace an average of a substantial support toward schools. an earthquake per day in Nagasaki, in Without primary schools, it will be very the extreme south of the Japanese Archidifficult to carryon the work. The pelago. If the statistics were compiled schools have been the backbone of the from the returns of officials from all over mISSIon in these hills. and I do not the country, only those shocks which know how we could get on without caused loss of life or damage to property them. would be included.
I prayerfully hope the directors will
TIlE MO~THLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
India-Hinduism. to-day that are heathen and MQsiem than ever before, because of the birth· India still remains one of the greatest rate increase under the splendid protec- problems for evangelism the Christian tion and father-care of the British Gov- Church has to confront. Its vast extent ernment, the fact still remains that is still not realized by non-residents of there is less of Hinduism. It is greatly that land. It is not a country as one modified and moderated. It is less cruel, would speak of a country of Europe, leilS in force in its worst forms. It is but, rather, it is a continent. From less defended and seen more and .more Peshawur on the north, to Cape Como- to be less defensible; hence there is rin on the south, it measuree, in a really a different sort of Hinduism; straight line, 1900 miles. From Assam and every year sees more and more dison the esst, to Kurrachee on the west, position to find something that shall its extent is equal to its length. Leav- more commend itself to reason. ing out Burma, it is equal in length to the distance from Edinburgh to Con- THE lIOMAN AND INDIAN EMPIBES COMstantinople. Its breadth is equal to a line stretched from Sicily to Moscow. PAllED. Its popUlation now is known to number 285,000,000 of souls-souls for the re- We find in the Missionary Herald of demption of whom Jesus Christ died. the Baptist Missionary Society of Great Bengal has a population so dense that Britain so forcible a contrast between it seems impossible to take it in. It the Roman and Indian empires that we counts 500 persons to the square mile. venture to draw largely from it : The whole of British India counts 233 to the square mile; half the popUlation "Each empire. in a very wonderful of the empire is in the Gangetic valley, where accesil is easy to them. Madras way, grew gradually and inevitably from has more people than Italy aud Belgium; the Panjab has as many as Spain a very small beginning-the village of and Portugal; Bombay has as many as Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Swe- Rome and the handful of merchants in den put together. Of the total population of India perhaps 200,000,000 may India. In extent there is not very be put down as Hindus; 50,000,000 are Muhammadans; 25,000,000 are of the much difference between them. In ruder races, known as the Hill tribes or aboriginal tribes. These are the abo- each case a large number of different rigines of the country. Some of them have become somewhat Hinduized. It nationalities, with different languages, is a hard task to lead one Hindu to Christ; but there are not less than 200,- have been bound together under one 000,000 to bring over to Christianity. But year by year the people are less dis· political rule, and in each case the result posed to defend their own religion. The attendltnce on religious festivals is has been Romana pax, perfect order and less and less. Christian schools are making· a profound impression on the peace. Each military system has had native mind. Even if we recognize the fact that there are more people in India both foreign and native troops: the 'centurion of the Italian band' is, in modern parlance, a 'captain of an English regiment.' The Roman roads are paralleled by the Indian railroads.
The Roman proctor typified the English magistrate, and the principles of Roman and English law are not very different.
A magistrate in India would say: 'It is not the manner of the English to deliver any man to die befor9 that he which is accused have the accusers face to face.
and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.'
And if ssk(ld to interfere in a purely religious dispute between native and native, he would say: 'If it were a matter of wrong Moruwhaimckmedadlaenwsd, nreesas~o0n ye Hindus and would that I should bear with you; but if it be a question of words and nameR and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters.' • King' England. A Brahman named Charlu, Agrippa was evidently an inferior per- of Madras, was elected President of the sonage to the Roman Festus; just as an Congress. We do not know how many Indian Raja, with all his pomp and of the members were native Christians, titles, must be prepareCi to obey any but probltbly a goodly number, as the orders given him by plain Mr. John Congress of the year before had forty Smith, the English resident. The sllch members in it. spread of the Greek language in the l~oman Empire ill paralleled by that of Kristo Samiij.-A Christian conference the English language in India. Other has been held at the place of the meet· points might be noted, but these will ing of the National Congress. Last year suffice to show how much of similarity (December, 1891) brethren from the varithere is bAtween the two empires. From ous provinces-Bombay, BeIl{lal, Cena missionary point of view, however, tral and Northwest- met every morning there afe two important points of differ- at the Free Church at Nagpore. ence. In the first place, the population of India is more than double the estimat- On Tuesday morning Kali Charn ed population of the whole Roman Em- Banerji, of Calcutta, spoke on the Krista pire in the zenith of its power. And, in Samiij movement, and defined the selfthe next place, the religions of India. supporting church as one that can sup. when mission work was commenced ply spirituality on the conservative and there, were not somewhat effete, as was aggressive side, both to build up and the case with the popular religions of extend the Church. The usual idea of New Testament times. but both Hindu- a self-supportmg church was one which ism and Muhammadanism held full sway could pay its own pftStor, but if, instead in the hearts and lives of their respec- of putting the money question in the tive votaries, and to a large extent they front the man question was made the hold full sway still. The one word first thing, the question of self.support , caste' sums up a host of difficulties would be solved. which apostolic workers had not to encounter. The plan of the Krista Samaj is thus, explained by Mr. Banerji : "A number ,. The evangelization of India is, there- of us are banded together; we endeavor fore, a far harder and vaster task than to recognize gifts and utilize them. was the evangelization of the whole When we find a brother spiritually gift- Roman Empire at the time of our Lord. ed, we don't raise humun questions of education, ordination, or whether he n took three centuries to make Rome has passed through a theological course. We do not recognize technical conveneven nominally Christian; let us not be tionalities. A man that has a gift may discouraged if in less than one century be engaged in a secular calling; we do so little comparatively seems to have not allow these accidents to prevent our been done in India." using that brother. No one is accepted as a member of our Samaj who will not NATIVE POLITICAL AND OTHER DEVELOP- engage in personal work. Every disci- ple can do something. We are not sat- MENT. isfied with work by proxy; so when every one works and they do not look It is a mark of favor toward the Gov- for money, the church is self·support- ing. The money question is laid aside ernment of the British in India that the altogether. On the other hand, a per. son cannot claim a spiritual gift and natives should meet in council to debate thrust himself on the congregation. The call must come from the congreganational issues. On December 28th last tion. The great thing before us is to band ourselves together for the evan· the Native National Congress met at Nagpur, the capital of the Central Prov- inces. Eight hundred delegates were in attendance from various pl"Ovinces, and some four thousand visitors were present watching the proceedings. The Chairman of the Reception Committee spoke in the highest terms of the Brit· ish rule in India. He said the keynote of the movement was loyalty to the Crown and attachment to the British people to whom India owes her re-birth.
He declared they were desirous of an everlasting union between India and gelization of the world; we do not care The Opium Question.
to have everyone give up their differ- We have received from Mr. Alfred ences of opinion. Onr idea is to spread Dryer, of Bombay, some statements a canopy over all the tents, thus putting about the opium question, now being so them all under one roof." Surely this urgently pl'essed on the British at home, indigenous movement for unity on the which show that it is not merely a part of Indian Christians should call question of demoralizing China, but forth the active sympathy of all God's India has also come under the curse.
people. There has been a great increase in the Arya and Brahmo Samaj.-The Arya Indian consumption of the drug. Mr.
Sam!tj and Brahmo Samaj are new Dryer says, that "taking the official schools of Hindu thought causE'd by figures, we find thAt the consumption Christianity. Dr. Hooper, Principal of of opium in the Bombay Presidency in the C. M. S. Divinity School in Allaha· the financial year 1876-77, was 24,765 bad, states that a century of evangeliza- pounds. At the end of the next three tion in India has had a vaster effect on years it had increased 72 per cent. At the country than Islam ever bad. the end of the next three years it had "Indian converts to Islam became so increased to 275 per (lent over the total for the sake of the social rise it gave of 1876-77. At the end of the next them. They remained stationary in three years it had increased to 426 per numbers, and had no influence on sur- cent over that total; and at the end of rounding Hinduism. The Gospel, with the next three years to 494 per cent. In its hllif million converts, has almost the following year (1889-90), the last turned Hinduism upside down already." for which a report has been issued, The Brahmo Sam!tj has not gone beyond the consumption of the poison had the Bengllli race. It has intense faith increased to 549 per cent over that of in prayer and in Providence._ It speaks 1876-77. '
with the highest respect of Jesus. Its " In the annual official document en- main tenets are the fatherhood of God titled • Statement of the Moral and and the brotherhood of man. It is Material Progress of India,' issued last loyal to England. The founder of Ary!t May, it is shown that in the year nnder Sam!tj was Dayanand Saraswati, who report, the consumption of opium had died in 1883. Chrjstian missionaries now increased also in the Northwest, Prov- meet with this sect everywhere. By its inces and Oudh; in the Central Prov- name it professes to bonor Indian an- inces ; in Assam ; in Lower Burmah; tiquity. This school wishes to be what in Bemr, the assigned districts of the Aryans were when they came into Hyderabad ; and to a smaU extent in India. It rejects late del'elopments of Madras Presidency.
the Hindu mind. It is theistic, but in 1 Mr. Dryer says, further, that over cold and lifeless manner. It has noth- twenty·three thousand persons in India ing of the warmth of the Brahmo have set their signatures to one form Samaj. It rejects incarnation, atone· alone of petition to Parliament against ment, inspiration. and the miraculous the wrong done the country by the generally. It checks conversions to opium traffic, while nearly one hundred Christianity. At Allahabad in 1884 a newspapers and periodicals have issued convert who was baptized by Dr. Hoop- anti-opium supplements.
er, meeting with this school, apostatized The Great Religious Movements in India.
and never came, to the Lord's table. -We have two able articles in this num- 'fhis Sam!tj carries on its anti·Christian ber of the REVIEW on the great revival attack by preaching, tract composition, in North India. It is a wonderful pen- holding meetings and private conversa- tecost. Indications of the same thing tion-aU of them methods learned from elsewhere are fonnd widely over India, Christianity. especially among low-caste peopleI'. The Indian Witnes8 has the following: you do IJot come. We hltve no idols now, and yet we cannot be Christians. .. The four district conferences in What shall we do? Do come to us, and Rohilkhand – viz., Bareilly, Pilibhit, make us Christians.' Some people may Moradabad, and Amroha, met in joint smile at such a request, and only notice session at Chandausi on Tuesday morn- the ignorance which the request to ing of this week. The attendance was • make them Christians' indicates, but very large and the reports encouraging. for one I feel more like crying than ~'he Rev. P. T. Wilson, M.D., reported laughing when I hear the story. The 3485 baptisms in the Bareilly district. poor creatures are sincere, and their The Rev. Zahllr-ul Haqq reported 1884 ignorance only gives them a stronger from the Amroha district. The Rev. claim upon us. Had such a spectacle J. C. Butcher, M.D., reported 2200 from been seen thirty years ago, all Indio. the Moradabad district, while the Rev. would have heard of it, and missiona- Ibrahim Suliman brought up the rear ries would have competed for the opwith 1143 from the Pilibhit district. portunity of hastening to them with The grand total of baptisms reported help and comfort." throughout the four districts was thus 8712, a number which ought to startle Hinduism. those on whom the re8ponsibility of caring for these converts rests. The large Sir Alfred Lyell delivered one of a audience WIlS profoundly moved by these reports, I}nd several hymns of triumph series of addresses in Londo!]. on the were sung with great enthusiasm."
Referring to Bishop Thoburn's visits various religions of the world, all of which were given at South Place Instito these district conferences it further tute. The religion which Sir Alfred says: treated was Hinduism. It is a master. ly presentation of the complex system, " Since Bishop Thoburn left Calcutta or conglomerate of all systems and no he has attended district conferences at systems which we know as modern Hin- Hathras, Narsinghpur, Meerut, Bara· duism. We cannot even give an outline banki and Chandausi. The sum total of the lecture. In concluding, he said: of baptisms for the year officially re- "Hinduism has always been changing ported at these meetings is over fifteen thousand I"
Bishop Thoburn, writing of this reo more or less, and it will go on cbanging vival, says: faster than ever under the influence of " The whole atmosphere here seems contact with Europe. There has always full of the feeling that a great ingather- been a reforming school of Hinduisming is near at hand. The workers are a a desire to throw off the coarser ('on lowly company, and many of them but ceptions and practices, and to adopt half-taught converts themselves; but things more spiritual and morally better. when I compare them with the men we There have been recently attempts in had around us twenty-five years ago, I this direction ; there has been a desire thank God anew for everyone of them. to prove that the Vedas, the original They know nothing whatever of fail- sacred books, do not sanction the abuses ure or discouragement. They expect of Hinduism; that they may be intersuccess, and expect it upon a scale preted as again the prevailing idolatry, which those of earlier days never and that the real Hinduism prescribed dreamed of. In every direction the by Holy Writ is a much higher and fields are said to be white to the harvest. purer revelation. . . . He says tbat As the repol·ts were made, I at first " the leaf substance and mainspring of asked each man how many inquirers he Indian religion is not polytheism, but had in his circuit. The lowest number pantheism. There can be little doubt mentioned by anyone was two hun- that the whole edifice of polytheism is dred ; and when some began to speak likely to break up and melt off the sur· of thousands I ceased to ask the ques- face of civilized India; that their im· tion. memorial superstitions will collapse be- fore the steady maintenance of peace " Some of the calls which reach our workers are very urgent. Brother Hasan Reza Khan spoke of people who had sent to him, saying: 'Months ago we threw away our idols and sent for you to come and make us Christians; but and law, the advancement of learning roof to offer a hearty welcome to a and the influx of knowledge. . . . The Christian missionary, who has for his air is charged with spiritual enthusiasm, avowed object the pulling down of both so that no one can say whether some Hinduism and Muhammadanism. Had ardent faith may not suddenly blaze up it not been for the education that we in the midst of India that will shatter have received under this Christian Gov.
all the old fabric of religion, and lead ernment, and through missionary labors, away the great Indian multitudes in an I should have to-day been stoned by the entirely new direction." bigoted idolaters of my own religion, "Are We Really Awake ?"-This is the for having committed the most unpar- caption of an "Appeal to the Hindu donable crime of taking such a part in Community, ,. which has been largely cir- to-day's proceedings."
culated in India. We quote from it a A Moslem Convert.-Dr. Clarke, of the single paragraph: C. M. S. at Umritsur, says: " The life-blood of our society is fast .. Some time ago there was a young ebbing away, and irreligion is eating Muhammadan, the son of a great Mu. into its vitals. Looking beneath the hammadan saint and doctor, who had surface, we find the mischief under great anxiety of soul because of sin. He which we Hindus at present labor is read the Koran through and through owing chiefly to the influence of Chris- without finding light, when he found in tianity, brought steadily and constantly it an expression referring to the Old Testo bear on our national mind for ;nearly tament and the New Testament. The thought came into this young man's a century and a half… , The count· heart, 'If I can only get possession of II less Christian missions at work in this Bible, I might get what I need.' Most country, especially in Bengal, are in a wonderfully, two ladies happened to be fair way of achieving their object, not in the district, and he got what he so much, however, by carrying convic- wanted. He began with the Gospel of tion to our hearts about the superiority St. John, and by the time he got to the of their religion, as by slowly and im- third chapter he was a free man, and perceptibly changing our ideas with re- desirous of throwing off Muhammadangard to our moral, social, and domestic ism. When his father heard of it he life. The unflagging energy and the offered a reward of five hundred rupees systematic efforts with which these bodies are working at the foundation of our society will, unless counteracted in time, surely cause a mighty collapse of it at no distant date. "
A Kindly Feeling Toward Missionaries. to anyone who would kill his son, and -Some five hundred persons, among two hundred to anyone who would whom were representatives of all classes bring him the good news. For two of Hindus and Mussulmans, met in one years I had to watch over that young of the cities of India to welcome back a man, and then his father foun.d him, missionary who had been temporarily and with much difficulty we managed out of the country. A native pastor, to keep him lIafe. At last the old man writing an account of the occasion, says went hack with a New Testament. A that the chairman was a Brahman, who, • year after he came again and said that after stating how the people owed he had brought together other mullahs "much of the enlightenment of the and read it to them. He also said: • We present day to the indefatigable exer- have noticed that this ill the New Testa- tions of the Christian missionary," ment ; that shows me that there must said : "As II living instance of their be an Old Testament; and they have success, I point out to you our to-day's sent me to get the Old Testament.' I meeting. What is the scene that pre- had the pleasure of giving him one; sents itself to the eye? Hindus and Mu- and later on, he came with his son, and hammadans – the true descendants of said: • The God of my son, whom I the once Hindu bigot and the Mussul: wished to murder, is now my God; bap- man fanatic-have met under the same tize me too into the faith of Christ.' " .-~o« •o ·oj GENERAL ~1AP OF INDIA.
-On the Malabar coast is a commu- fused to receive an ambassador, but nity called Syrian Christians, who claim said: "Send me the Christian" (mean. to have been convE'rted by St. Thomaij, ing Schwartz); "he will not deceive whose tomb they point out south of me." William Carey and Thomas land- Madras. They number possibly 300,000. ed in India November 10th. 1793.
-The first Protestant missionaries to -The Roman Catholic religion was India were Ziegenbalg and Plutcho, who introduced by the Portuguese, who con· were sent in 1706 by the King of Den- quered Goa in 1509. Thirty years later mark to Tranquebar, on the Coroman. Xavier began an earnest mission work, del Coast. In 1750 the mission was subsequently continued hyothers. Acjoined by Schwartz. When the English cording to the census of 1881, they num· wanted to treat with Hyder Ali, he re- bered tl65,643.
18ii2.J GENERAL MISsiONARY INTELLiGENCE. a11
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work aad Sta.tistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. LeJna.rd, Bellevue, O.
-More than 2,000,000 barrels of beer with 200,000 B-:luare miles, have each were brewed in Milwaukee during last about 18,000,000 subjects; Spain, 115,- year. 000 square miles and 9,600,000 sub· jects ; and Portugal, 1:1000 square miles -The Mennonites, numbering in all and 850,000 subjects. but 41,451, are yet subdivided and reo subdivided into no less than 12 frag- –This is the way it looks to one misments, of which the largest has but sionary, the Rev. Frank W. Warm, Methabout 10,000 members, the smaller odist Episcopal, of Calcutta: "In the tapering off to 471 and 352, while the United States there are about 65,000,000 least, the "Apostolic Mennonites," to souls: and of these there are, according wit, has only 209! The phenomenon to the New York Independent, including must have giv,en a fearful strain to the Catholics, 20,000,000 communicants; risibles of the census-taker. which. with the 'children and those directly influenced, would easily make -Rev. George Grenfell, of the Bap- another 30,000,000, leaving only 15,000,- tist C.:mgo Mission, says that in Central 000 ; and it iii scarcely probable that Africa there is an area of 4000 square there are so many unreached. When miles larger than the whole of Europe one looks home and reads the Methodist still unoccupied by a single mission- Year-Book, an,] finds that for pastoral ary ; that the centre of Africa cannot support, church extension, freedmen, permanently be evangelized by white StlDday-schools, Bolard of Education, men, but the greater p,trt of the work Woman's Home Missionary Society, must be done by the natives themselves, superannuated preachers, church buildand the natives are showing their fit- ing, and local cnrrent expenses there is nesl'! for the task. used $19,678,000, which with the $460,- 000 of the missionary money used for -A pagan testimony and a pagan no- home missions makes a total of $20,138,- tion. Mr. Lawton, one of the China 000 and deducts from that the total given Inland missionaries in the extreme to foreign work of both the parent and northwest of China, on the borders of woman's societies, $686,000, it leaves a the great Mongolian Destlrt, received majority for the home work of $19,452,- from a pagan the offer of a beautiful 000 to do the Methodist part of the work anc"stral hall LJr a C<lristian church. among the 65,000,000 in America; hut Mr. Lawton expressed his surprise at in the foreign fiolds there are of the such generosity, but the pagan an- heathens easily 1,000,000,000 souls swered, "You are doing an excellent starving for the bread of life; and work here, and in helping you with my Christ says: 'Give ye them to eat;' best I hope to obtain a small part of and for these the missionary grant, in your merit." cluding both societies, is, say, $700,000. Brethren at home, if you could live a -Though the vast bulk of Asia is not number of years in the foreign fields exactly .. partitioned" out among the and be conscious of being surrounded potentates of Europe, yet reasonably by hundreds of million>! who know not large slices of territory are possessed by J eSUA, and then look at the Methodist several. Of course Great Britain leads, Church giving $20,138,000 for her part with 2,240,000 square miles and some of the work among the 65,000,000 of 300,000.000 subjects; the Netherlands America, and $700,000 for her part of bear sway over 700,000 square miles the work among 1,000,000,000 of starv- ~nd 30,000,000 suhjects; Russia, with 6,500,000 square miles, and France, ing souls, I think you would learn more the vast evils which spring from this lessons than did Mr. Bultil!lde in source, and of the dire calamities which Dick's school." opium entails upon the Chinese people. Those who live and work among the -Sabbath observance is finding favor people are, alas! only too conversant with the evils to health and wealth, and in an unlooked·for quarter. For even the moral and social degradation which follows the use of the drug. Smokers in Paris a movement is on foot to secure and non-smokers alike condemn the practice; the former wish to be free, the popular observance of Sunday, and and yet cling to the pipe as its slave; the latter acknowledge that interdiction a very strong society has been formed of the native growth would only increase the Indian import and cause still more to further this cause. The honorary silver to flow out of the country. Fifty years ago we had only to contend with president of the society, Senator Jules the foreign import; now we have in addition the large native growth. Then Simon, says: "We desire that our we had probably not over 2,000,000 of smokers; ,now 20,000,000 is probubly workmen may have a day's rest once a not an over-estimate.
week, and Sunday is naturally thfl day " The evil seems spreading more and more every year. It is slowly finding we have chosen. But our undertaking its way into agricultural districts. It is permeating all classes of society, and is is a difficult one, because it runs coun- not looked upon with the same abhor- rence as formerly. The legalization of ter to numerous customs and interests the import did much to spread its use, The growth of thQ poppy is, for the which do not like to be interfered with. same reason, extending also into new regions. At present our factory hands and shop " This gigantic evil pervades all classes. people work not only during the long The habit is particiIlarly common in the opium-producing regions, where, it is hours of every week day, but also on estimated, 80 or 90 per cent of the men above 20 years of age smoke, and 50 or Sundays. We do not wish to forbid 60 per cent of the women, not to speak of many young people in their teens. people from working on Sunda.y if they In the cities the practice is also com- mon. In the non-producing districts, wish to do so, but we aim to prevent the evil is chiefly confined to the cities; the villages are comparatively free. An them from forcing other people to official estimate for the whole Empire gives four tenths for the coolie class, six work." And Leon Say, the eminent tenths for the merchant class, and three tenths for the official class. In Canton political economist and deputy, who is over seven tenths of the officials smoke. In Hunan not one tenth of the same president of the society, says: "Our class are addicted to the pipe. In the 6 Boards at Peking there are very few society is the result of a congress of so- opium-smoking high officials. It is cheering to note, amid such a wide excilll economists held in Puris during the tension of the vice, that the Imperial exhibition of 1889. It was then unani- mously recognized that a weekly day of rest is indispensable to the working classes. We do not ask for legislation, but depend entirely for success on the power of persuasion. Two years ago our society numbered 20 persons; to- day we count over 2500 members, made up of repUblicans and monarchists, Catholics and Protestants, bishops and free thinkers. We have already achi eved some practical results. In the post- office we have got the hours shortened ownithSuthndellrY~ilr-oalnldd we lire now lllboring companies." In Ger- mllny 1I1so a similllr agitation has been begun.
-Says John Dudgeon, a mediclIl missionary at Peking: "The evils of the use of opium in China are everywhere apparent. Every heart that is not dead to the sentiment of pity must be filled with commiseration at the prospect of family, and the high officers of State, the money is spent" in his station. The in the capital and throughout the Em· total transactions for the yearamounteq pire, may be said to be free from it." to about $8500; of this nearly $2000 came from native interest and co-opera- And it further appears from the fol- tion in educational work, a small sum lowing statement, that the opium being secured from outside sources. scourge is by no means confined to The remaining $6550 was charged to Ohina: The Oalcutta Medical Record, the Presbyterian Board. Itemizing this the principal medical periodical in In- he shows that less than $2000 was ex- dia, says: ., Dreadful as are the evils pended for the salaries of missionaries, of alcohol, the pernicious consequences rents, and repairs; $3300 was paid as of indulgence in'opium are more vastly salaries to 36 native preachers and terrible. By it human life is shorn of teachers ; $350 went for the assistance every vestige of nobility and moral re- of 35 boys to enter college and boarding sponsibility. The mind is rendered in- schools; $160 for educating 2 men in sensate to every ennobling desire or the theological seminary; $300 was sentim'lllt, and the moral nature of man spent by the missionaries and helpers is unfathomably degraded to even great- in touring, and $300 more for rents snd er depths than brutishness. Digestion repairs of churches and schools and a becomes steadily and speedily impaired, dwelling in the village, while $140 was and the whole physical sequellre are expended in postage, messengers, medi- those of emaciation, attenuation. and cine, and miscellanies, including stoves, devitalization of muscle, nerve, and benches, clocks, chairs, maps, etc., for brain. Opium numbers its victims by 23 schools and 18 Sunday-schools. The thousands in Oalcutta alone, and every total force supported by this expendi- city throughout the length and breadth ture consists of 2 ordained American of this vast empire of India and Bur- missionaries with their wives, 36 native mah yields a condemning freight of evi- helpers, 3 of whom give all their time to dence of physical suffering, moral deg- preaching and touring, and 21 preach radation, and social ruin, which none on Sunday and teach through the week; but a callous Government steeped in the the remaining are other assistants. The luxuries of an irresponsible bureaucracy preaching is condncted in 19 centres, would dare to despise. Yet this awful and more than 50 villages are visited. stigma attaches to the Government of There are 2 organized churches with 155 India, that it not only freely permits the members, 23 schools, and one book- sale of a pernicious drug, but protects store. Half of the salary of the keeper and encourages the continuance and of the store and the whole of the salary permanency of its ravages among a peo_ of the colporteur are met by the Ameri- ple whom it has been called upon to re- can Bible Society_ Not one cent has generate and save." gone for any purpose except the work of preaching and teaching the Gospel. -" To what purpose is this waste ?" is the perennial exclamation of all such -The following survey of the work of as have little faith and love, and even the Foreign Sunday-School Association less knowledge, concerning missions. is given in the Independenl: Germany But nothing is more certain than that has now more than 3000 Snnday-schools, there is no-waste to speak of" not even with 30,000 teachers and 300,000 much lavish expenditure, bnt about every scholars. So completely has official opdollar is wisely and economically placed. position ceased, that some years ago the Let one case stand for a host: The Rev. highest Ohurch Oouncil of Prussia or- F. E. Hoskins, missionary of the Pres_ dained that all candidates for ordination byterian Board in Zahleh, Syria, gives, should be trained in organizing and conin The Ohurch at Home and Abroad for ducting Snnday-schools. Besides the 'January, an interesting resume of " how Central Oommittee at Berlin, local sonal' , congregations. In addition there unions exist in various parts of Germany are 36 places where public Protestant where teachers meet for discussion of services are held each Sunday_ Of these methods and comparison of experience. 20 are in institutions of various kinds, The first great National Sunday-school the remainder are the gathering places Oonvention ever held on the European of the City Mission Society. In recent Oontinent was the Jubilee of German months 7 new churches have been Sunday-schools, which was celebrated at begun, of which, however, 3 are to Berlin, October 7th-9th, 1888, while take the plac~s of existing churches. commemorative services were held si. Aud in this connection the statement, multaneously in many towns and cities surprising, and almost incredible to pf Germany. American readers, is made that, if it had not been for the personal intervention of France has more than 1100 schools, the Emperor and the Empress probably with 4500 teachers and 115,000 scholars; not a single one of these 7 new Switzerland, 1500 schools, 6522 teachers, churches would now be in process of and 97,890 scholars;· Holland, 1400 erection. Permission to build a new schools, 3800 teachers, and 150,000 church in Berlin can be secured only scholars; Sweden and Denmark in when the proposal is passed npon nearly equal proportion. In Roman favorably by no fewer than 19 offi- Oatholic countries peculiar difficulties cial bodies and persons-an unheard- have been encountered; but Italy, of amount of red tape! Many of these Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the re- bodies and persons, that range from the publics of Oent1"al and South America Emperor down to the sanitary police, are have many faithful teachers, who, with antagonistic to the interests of the the aid of attractive little papers sup- Church, and, if possible, delay or de- plied by the Association, have won the feat such project.s. In this way, only hearts of the children about them, and recently, two of the best building places are doing untold good. 'fhe Sunday. in the city were lost to the Protestants schools on mission ground, though not and secured by the Catholics. 'fhe larg- originated by the Association, have been est of the new churches has a seating largely aided by it in supplies of papers capacity of 2000 and cost 400,000 marks. and hymn-books, and its correspondents are found on every continent. – The" Encyclopredia of Missions" gives statistics of 8 societies doing mis. -The Catholic clergy of France num- sionary work in Mexico. They are ber 55,540 men. Among these are found these, and arranged in the order of the 18 archbishops, 69 bishops, 3420 pastors importance of their work as determined of various ranks, 182 vicars.general, by figures; Methodist Episcopal, South, 31,255 assistants, 7109 vicars, and 700 Methodist Episcopal, North, Presbyte- other ecclesiastics. The Reformed and rian, Presbyterian, South, Southern Bap.. other Protestant clergy number but 720. tist Convention, American Board, Asso- The religious budget-the amount the ciate Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and Government appropriates for the bene- Cumberland Presbyterian. In all, these fit of such denominations as are" recog- societies employ 51 male aud 78 female nized"-for 1892 is 45,057,::'57 francs. missionaries, with 128 ordaiued natives The foreign clergy who hear mOfls in any lind 199 other native helpers. In the other language than French are not paid 201 churches are found 13,263 members, out of the State treasury. and 6363 pupils in the 145 schools.
-Berlin has for its 80,000 Jews, 8 -Rev. M C. Harris, Methodist Epis- synagogues; for its 120,000 Catholics, copal, San Francisco, writes: .. In 1877 . 10 churches and chapels; for its 1,250,- the first Japanese knocked at the doors 000 Protestants, 44 churches and chap. of the Chinese Mission of this city. Dr. els-namely, 32 parochial and 6 •• per- Otis Gibson, superintendent, kindly ad- "During the 81 years that have elapsed mitted them to the evening school. since its organization, the American Kanichi Miyama was the first convert. Board has sent out 2083 men and women. He is now a member of the Japanese The force now in the field numbers 200 Conference, doing grand service for the men and 333 women, distributed over 22 Master. The work has prospered from mission fields in the Turkish Empire, the beginning until now. Within the British India, China, Japan, Africa, and past year 100 were baptized, and 127 re- in Papal lands. The receipts from donaceived into full membership. Conver- tions and legacies aggregate about $25,- sions occur daily. The last month they 000,000, while the regular receipts and have averaged above 1 per day. For two expenditures of the last five years have years there has been a continuous re- averaged not far from $700,000 a year, vival. A church has been formed and exclusive of native funds received and organized for work, and is looking for- expended in the field. No fewer than ward to self-support in the near future. 475 churches have been organized, into The members give gladly of their sub- which have been received on confession stance. In liberal giving it would be of faith not far from 110,000 souls. hard to surpass them. Upward of 20 The missionaries of the American preachers have been sent out from this Board have reduced 28 different lanmission to Japan and the Sandwich guages to writing among the ruder races, Islands as evangelists to their people. In these, and still more in the languages Some 25 more have been called to the of the civilized races among whom misministry, and are ready {or service. sions have been established-as in India, Here is a great opportunity to honor China, and Japan-a missionary liter- God and save thousands. Who will ature has been created, including gramhelp us? For the past six years the Mis- mars and dictionaries, translations of sion has carried on its work in leased the Scriptures, and educational and rebuildings. It is recognized by all who ligious works, amounting to more than understand the situation that a church 2,000,000,000 of pages. Higher Chrisbuilding is a necessity. The Japanese tian education has constituted an im- Christians are deeply interested. They portant agency in the work of the have pledged $5000, and will raise it. American Board, especially during the They are contributing toward this sum last twenty-five years. During this by the month. A goodly sum is already period the number of higher institucollected and invested in the savings- tions for Christian education has inbank, where it is drawing interest. They creased from 18, with 437 pupils, to are mostly poor students, and can give 122, with 7780 pupils. Who can estibut little. The estimated cost of the lot mate the influence of these young men and building is $25,000. We must ap- and yOtlllg women, now brotlght under peal to the friends of the cause in the daily inflllence of cultured Christian America. Who will consecrate some- teachers, on the thought and life of the thing to build a house of God for the next generation of their countrymen?" Japanese in San Francisco?" -The Censns Bureau has recently -One feature at a church entertain- published some intereRting statistics rement in a certain place not long ago lating to the Lutheran Church in the was a native Indian woman engaged in United States. From these it appears basket-weaving; A little maiden, after that this branch of the Protestant comwatching her movements a while, looked munion, upon variolls grounds, is sepaintently at the pleasant, dusky face, and rated into 12 independent synods. The exclaimed: "Why, mamma, she iBn't total of all the subdivisions is 1,199,514 like an Indian at all ; she loves God just members. The Synodical Oonference the same as we do I" numbers 357,153 ; the General Council, 317,145; the General Synod, 164,640; in British Columbia, $4323. The num.
the United Norwegian Church of Ameri· ber of missionaries maintained is 414, ca, 119,972, etc. According to language with 118 assistants, 47 teachers, and 15 employed in public services, the Lu- interpreters-a total force of 594 paid therans are divided as follows: Synods agents. The membership of the mis.
having 454,005 communicants are al- sion churohes is 44,500. In Japan are most wholly German; 232,512 are partly 28 missionaries, a total of 62 paid agents, English and partly German, while but and 1819 church·members.
198,997 are wholly English. Besides, there are 190,154 Norwegians, 88,700 Swedes, 13,674 Danes, 1991 Icelanders, British Foreign Missions. By Rev. JaB.
and 1385 Finns. 'l'his denomination Johnston, Bolton, England.
has its organized representatives in al. Death of Dr. Samuel Adjai Crow· most every State and Territory, Ptmnsyl. ther, Bishop of Niger.-At the end of vania leading with 219,069, Wisconsin December last this well.known colored standing next with 149,071, and Minne· Bishop of the Niger Territory passed sota following hard after with 143,503. away. His connection with the Church -The Protestant Episcopal Church, Missionary Society began in 1822, when through the Spirit oj Missions, keeps he was rescued from a slave.ship. In this appeal constantly before its mem- 1841 he accompanied the first Niger exbers: "Offerings are asked to sustain pedition, and in 1843 he was ordained missions in 13 missionary jurisdictions both deacon and priest by Dr. Blom. and 34 dioceses; also among the Ind. field, Bishop of London. and afterward ians and among the colored people in returned to Africa, where he entered our land, as well as missions in China, upon mission work at Freetown, Sierra Japan, Africa, Hayti, and Greece to pay Leone. For twelve years he was an the salaries of 16 bishops and stipends active missionary at Abeokuta, subse· to 1000 missionary workers, Rnd to sup. quently for one year at Lagos, and, port schools, hospitals, and orphanages. later, he gave seven years wholly to the Five hundred thousand dollars are asked mission in the Niger Territory. On for this year." Of this sum desired and June 29th, 1864, he was consecrated in expected, $246,193 are appropriated to Canterbury Cathedral, Missionary Bish. domestic, and $198,583 to foreign mis· op of the Niger Territory, and in the sions. For missions among white peo· same year received the honorary degree pIe, $118,400 are designated; for mis. of D.D. from Oxford, followed in 1883 sions among the Indians, $41,045, and by a like honor from Durham Univerfor missions among the negroes, $55,950, sity. His bishopric, covering twenty. For the school in Greece, $2300 are set seven years, has been marked by great apart; for the African Mission, $31,700 ; organizing capacity. In Great Britain, for the Chinese Mission, $53,557, and which he visited on ten occasions, for missions in the Haytian Church, Bishop Crowther was a notable figure, $7720, etc. his advocacy of missions and Bible cir- culation on platform and in pulpit being -The Methodists of Canada are, and singularly effective. Among other for eight years have been, wise and works, he was the author of a " Yoruba happy in being thoroughly united in mis. Grammar and Vocabulary," an English sionary toil. By a strong pull all together and Yoruba dictionary, and" Elements they raised last year $243,015, and be· of Nupe Grammar." His translations stowed upon domestic work $88,842; included portions of the Old and New upon Indian work. $42,862 ; upon for· Testaments into Yoruba, Book of Com- eign work in Japan, $26,523; upon mon Prayer into the same tongue, and French work in and about Montreal and a portion of St. Matthew's Gospel into Quebec, $8643 ; and upon Chinese work the Nupe language.• Few men have done nobler missionary service in the A scheme is on foot, writes the Bishop present century. of Tasmania, for the completion of St.
David's Cathedral, Hobart Town. Only English Church Missionary Intelli- the nave and transept are built, although gence. -It is proposed to constitute a the work was begun eighteen years ago.
new missionary diocese in Southeast It is now proposed to erect the choir Africa, to be called the bishopric of Le· and aisles, also a tower and cloister at bombo, which will include South Gaza- considerable expense. With the year land, Delagoa Bay, and the districts of 1892 coincides the jUbilee' of the dio.
Lydenberg and Zoutpansberg, and thus cese, Bishop Nixon having been conse- complete the diocesan organization on crated in 1842. This event has a fur- the southeast of Africa from Cape Town ther interest from the fact that 1892 to Zanzihar and the mainland opposite marks the two hundred and fiftieth an- that island. The Synod of South Africa niversary of the landing of Tasman's ex- will constitute the See as soon as an en- pedition on the island. It is suggested dowment fund of £10,000 has been col- that the laying of the foundation-stone lected ; and happily the Bishop of Cape of the cathedral tower should commemo· Town has already received and invested rate these two events, the ceremony with trustees £7850, chiefly subscribed taking place carlyin the year, and when within the limits of the province of the Australasian Association for Promot.
South Africa. This excellent endeavor ing Science visits Hobart.
to meet the growing responsibilities of The Bishop of Calcutta, on his recent popUlation and empire in things spiro return to India, promised the sum of itual in British South African territory £5000 toward, the endowment of the merits generous support. Lucknow bishopric, provided that the The Bishop of Madras, in referring remaining £2000 required is raised last December to the difficulties relat. within twelve months.
ing to the partition of the diocese by the Concerning African missions the Cor- creation of a bishopric at Tinnivelly, respondence Committee of the Church said that he could not resign a portion Missionary Society have just accepted of his trust committed to him by letters Mr. E. Millar, of Trinity College, Cam- patent except a special Act of Parlia- bridge, for the Victoria Nyanza Mission, ment authorized him. For this reason that gentleman going out at his own he declined to accept the £15,000 which charges. In connection with the Niger had been promised to him by the So- Mission the resignation of the Rev.
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, F. N. Ellen, late Vicar of St. James's, the Society for the Propagation of West Hartlepool, has been accepted.
Christian Knowledge, and the Colonial Bishoprics' Council, and therefore The Risings in China.-After wished to resign rather than deprive months of unrest and alarm, caused the diocese of that substantial aid. At by turbulent outbreaks in various provo It meeting of the Diocesan Council deep inces of the empire which began last sympathy was expressed with the bishop summer and have been frequent since in his trying position, and a request that date,the Government of Pekin has made to him to submit the matter for satisfactorily endeavored to adjust the the consideration of the archbishops difficulties with the European powers, and bishops of England. There is a chiefly arising from the attacks on for- strong feeling in Madras that the bish- eigners at several points on the Yangtse op's views are sound, morally and legal- River. Order has been restored in the ly, and that the assistance which the affected region. no riots having occurred magnitude of the diocese demands at Tchang since September last. To re- Khould, as heretofore, be rendered by pair the damage done, and to prevent a suffragans. repetitiou of recent troubles, the Chi· nese Government has adopted the fol- a following of 37,287 adnlt native conlowing measures: Indemnities, amount· verts. ing in all to about £100,000, have been paid to the Christian missions of all London Missionary Society.- Aleaf nationalities and to the families of the is being taken from the Salvation Army only two foreigners killed-the mission. book by the directors of the society, supary, Mr. Argent, of the ,. Joyful News" porting a week of self-denial in February, Mission, and a customs official-both to raise the income £30,000 per annum. Englishmen. Severe penalties in the The Rev. J. P. Gladstone, of London, shape of imprisonment and capital pun- the author of the proposal, is sanguine ishment have been inflicted on officials of the result. If the Congregationalists and law· breakers, and stringent precau- who, it is said, number a million in this tions taken to defend the lives and country, and ~ho mainly belong to the property of Christians. The authors of middle classes, take up the idea, there is pamphlets inciting the people against no question of the money being speedily foreigners will in future be condemned raised.
to death, a form of justice already visit- The friends of the Rev. A. N. John- son, of Leicester, will be glad to read of ed on ringleaders of the Kolao·Hui or- his appointment to the important posiganization. The rising in Mongolia last tion of Home Secretary to the London November had no connection with the Missionary Society, succeeding the Rev. ovents in the south of the empire, its E. H. Jones, whose long and faithful object being pillage, without distinction services have endeared him to a wide between Christians and others. This constituency. lIr. Johnson's student fanatical local outbreak has been sup- career at King Edward's School, Birpressed. mingham, at Lancashire College, and Owens College, Manchester, was highly As the Belgian missionaries have suf. distinguished throughout, especially in fered considerably in China, it may be classics. At Trinity College, Cam. interesting to know that these workers bridge, he carried off a first-class in belong to a special congregation, whose the theological tripos of 1881 and other headquarters are at Scheutveld, near distinctions. In Manchester he was Dr. Anderlecht, where they acquire the Chi- Macfadyen'S assistant for a time. nese language, and at the age of twentyfive are despatched to their field of labor. Nyassaland.-News to hand (Decem- About eighty of them are at work in ber 29th) from Dr. Laws, Superintendent China under the superintendence of of the Free Church of Scotland's Nyassa three bishops, two of wl}om afe Bel- Mission, states that he has reached King gians, and the other a Dutchman. Be. William's Town, Cape Colony, on his sides preaching and proselytizing they way home. He purposed calling at render many charitable services to the Lovedale with four natives from Central population. They have opened hos· Africa for training. In the Colony he pitals and schools, and, in audition to will r£'main about six weeks to hold sev. teaching the children the ordinary eral conferences with the leaders of the branches of scholastic knowledge and Dutch Reformed Church at Stellenbosch, training them to trades, they subse- a church which co operates with the quently assist them in the choice of Livingstonia Mission on Nyassa. Dr. husbands and wives. Mr. Alexander Laws hus labored fifteen years in Africa. Michie, of Tien-tsin, whose book on missionaries in China is provoking com· Jewish Migration to the Argentina. ment, says that in China proper the -On authority the Jewish Ohronicle an· Catholics have 530 foreign missionaries nounces that Lieutenant-Oolonel Albert and 525,000 native converts, including Goldsmid will take charge of the archildren, compared with the Protestants, rangements for the colonization of Jews who have 1296 foreign missionaries and in the Argentine Republic upon lands acquired by Baron de Hirsch. Colonel nothing less than Article 31 of the An- Goldsmid hopes that it will be shown glican Liturgy. It is only in the course to the world, after the inevitable troubles of 1891 that the Methodist community, in the first settlements have been over- which has been steadily growing in come, that Jewish agricultural colonies numbers and inftuence in Austria, hall on a larger scale than have hitherto acquired a fixed place of worship been attempted are quite practicable. through the generosity of the Baronesil Telegraphing from Jerusalem, Mr. von Langenau, a convert from Luther.
Scott Moncrieff says that a great snow· anism. Opposition to Methodism ap.
storm fell there on Christmas morning. pears to have emanated from various covering the ground six inches deep. quarters, not particularly the Roman The distress in the city environs among Catholics, and to have been increased the poor Jews, ill clad in wretched gar- by the interest of Sir Arthur Blackwood ments, without warmth of any kind, is in missions to postmen while attending pitiful. Besides the crowd of poor ever the Postal Congress in Vienna, and in a state of chronic starvation there are hence, when a formal application was many famishing refugees. The condi- presented for the recognition of the tion of those" outside the city" is de· Methodist Church, the allthorities were scribed as " dreadful," whose wants the led to examine her statutes, with the re- Society for Relief of Persecuted Jews sult that the chapel was closed and the (Syrian Colonization Fund), Parliament minister, the Rev. Friedrich Roesch, Street, London, is generously alleviating inhibited from preaching anywhere in to the utmost of its capacity. the city. Other conditions of a pecu.
General Booth in India.-On Decem· niary nature which have to be fulfilled ber 28th the" General" concluded his before a church can obtain recognition Madras campaign by expounding the in Austria will readily be met by the ideas of his social scheme at the Ban- liberality of the baroness. Evidently queting Hall before an inftuential gath- the Austrian Methodists are passing ering, which included the Maharajah of through some of the troubles which the Mysore. This was followed by an ad- 1Yloravians and old Catholics have had dress on similar lines to a meeting com. to face and valiantly overcame.
prising 1000 of the leading Hindoos, over which the, Dewan Raganath Rao Monthly Bulletin.
presided. The" General" also opened India.-The Christian Vernacular the Army's new headquarters and hall, Education Society for India has when liberal subscriptions were made, changed its name to the more approone gentleman alone contributing 11,000 priate form, The Christian Literature rupees to defray the mortgage. At the Society for India. Since its organiza- Memorial Hall he addressed the native tion in 1858 it has issued 15,500,000 Christians, and afterward had an inter- books and tracts of all kinds, and 1,000,. view with the Governor, Lord Wenlock. 000 were published last year alone. Its Methodism in Austria.-A vexatious work of providing pure literature for piel'e of persecution has been committed the 12,000,000 readers in India who on the Methodists in Vienna by the have been educated in the Government Public Prosecutor, because an article in schools. is exceedingly important and the Methodist Discipline denouncing valuable.
"the sacrifices of masses as blasphe- -The Church of England Zenana So- mous fables and dangerous deceits" is ciety, working in connection with the regarded as .. an insult against one of Church Missionary Society. though hav- the religions recognized by the State"- ing an independont organization, has, namely, the Roman Catholic. The arti- during the past ten years, increased its, ~le in question, it may be observed, is force of missionaries from 36 to 142, with a large number of Eurasian and and only 4 were HindUd. Among the native helpers. Its income has not, 739 pupils attached to the different inhowever, increased proportionately, and dustrial schools of the Madras Presiit finds itself in financial straits. dency, 357 were native Christians, 75 were Vaisyas and Sudras, 17 we~e Low -The revival of hook.swinging in Caste, including Pariahs, and only 5 Southern India is detailed in a letter were Brahmans. This progress of edufrom the Rev. John S. Chandler, of Ma- cation will eventually give them an addura, and illustrated by two photographs vantage for which no amount of intelin the Missionary Herald for January. lectual precocity can compensate the Application was made to the English Brahmans. authorities to prevent the barbarous exhibition, but they declined to do more -Bombay has always been considered than to discourage it. What that a hard field for mission work. The amounted to is evident from the fact time was when the progress there was that the plan was carried out in the slow and the results were meagre; but presence of more than 10,000 people. that day is past. In a letter written in 1848, it was stated by the Rev. Mr. -Dr. George F. Pentecost gives Hume that during nine years of hard and some interesting figures, in the inde- prayerful work, he had but twice had pendent, from the last census of India. the joy of seeing anyone brought into The English have built and are operat- the Church from the heathen world. ing more than 16,000 miles of railroad Of these two one had already gone back in that country. All the railroads are to heathenism, and the other was then under the supervision of the Govern- an unworthy member of the Christian ment. There are now opened in India Church. At last a change carne, and 26,000 miles of common roads, most of faithful work bore fruit. The number them smooth and hard as a floor. There of churches, of Christians, of schools, are 34,000 miles of telegraph lines, with and of Sabbath·schools, has, during the 116,000 miles of wire. Three milli.on past fifteen years, at least trebled, and in messages are transmitted annually. The some departments the work has multitelegraph lines are also under the super- plied fifty-fold. In giving, in Christian vision of the Government, constituting, activity, in knowledge of and in faithas in England, part of the postal sys- ful adherence to the Word of God, that tem. There are 71,000 miles of post- church in Bombay would be an ornaroads, with more than 8000 post-offices. ment to any city in this country. On There are 95,000 Government schools of the average those Christians give at all grades, in which are more than 3,000,- least 1 month's salary out of the 12. 000 pupils 'of private schools, mostly Almost every member of the Church is missionary. There are, besides, more actively engaged in preaching, in teach. than 40,000, with above 500,000 schol- ing, in Sabbath.school, or in some kind ars. The English language is spreading of evangelistic work. The children and among the people. This, Dr. Pentecost young people are constantly and faiththinks, is one of the greatest missionary fully instructed in the Bible. forces in the country. ~TheArcot Mission of the Reformed , -The conspicuous place in higher (Dutch) Church at its semi-annual meeteducation taken by the native Christian ing in Madanapalle, issued an earnest women of India is illustrated by the fact appeal to the American churches for that of the 19 successful female candi- help for the sufferers from famine in dates for the matriculation examination the Madras Presidency of India. in 1879, 7 were native Christians, while Almost all the 6000 people immediately none were Hindus; of the 234 candi- connected with the mission need assistdates examined for the higher education ance. of women, 61 wero native Christians,
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1892
THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING cmNA FOR CHRIST
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No. 2.-0ld Serics.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. V. No.2.-New Serie&.
THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING CHINA FOB. CHRIST.
BY REV. JOHN R. HYKES, KIUKIANG, CHINA.
1. China is to-day the great mission field of the world• .Whether we consider the extent and resources of her territory, the number of her population, her antiquity, or the character and possibilities of her people, she is unquestionably the greatest and most important field for misl!ionary operations on the planet.
1. Size.-In the Chinese Empire we have one of the largest domains ever swayed by a single power in any age or any part of the world. Ac- cording to the most careful estimate it comprises a continuous area of more than five and a quarter million square miles. It is one half larger than the United States with Alaska thrown in. It forms one third of the entire Continent of Asia-one tenth of the habitable globe. In extent it is equal to a Europe and a half. Next to Russia it is the largest empire that has ever existed.
2. Resources.-In this vast territory the greatest mineral and metallic wealth of the world is stored, and it is practically untouched.' Gold and silver are abundant; the diamond, ruby, sapphire, topaz, garnet, agate, and other precious stones are known and used ; tin, zinc, lead, nickel, and all the common metals exist in vast stores. Coal and copper are found in every province, and it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that there is enough coal in China to supply the world for the next twenty centuries. In the Central Provinces men dig a shaft a hundred feet deep, carry the coal up the incline in baskets strapped to their backs-fifty and sixty pounds at a time-and call the proces!! mining ! Water is baled out by buckets handed from one. level to another, or it is pumped to the surface by a series of rude bamboo pumps, and when these primitive methods fail . to keep the mine from becoming flooded, it is abandoned and a new shaft sunk. Yet so abundant is the supply that immense quantities of coal are mined in this rude and laborious way.
The agricultural wealth of China is proverbial. In many parts of Far Cathay it is only necessary to " tickle the soil with a hoe and it willlaug-h ~ 11l~rve(j~." The great plaill~ 1l/l <jqltivated like gardl:qs (indeed1 th; Chinese are rather gardeners than farmers), hills are terraced to their summits, and in the Central and Southern Provinces the soil will produce three crops a year. In many parts of the Empire one acre of land is sufficient to support a family, and the happy possessor of five acres is in affluent circumstances. Judged by her resources, China is pre-eminently a great country.
3. Population.-The population of China is, beyond all question, enormous, " constituting by far the greatest assemblage of human beings, using one speech, ever congregated under one monarch." According to the lowest estimate the population of China is one fourth of the human race, six times as many people as there are in the entire United States- 350,000,000 souls, men with moral accountability, intellectual activity, and immortal destiny. It is a number inconceivable in its vastness, so great that it staggers the imagination. Think of it Christian men and women!
4. Antiquity.-China is unique in her antiquity. Her authentic history dates back more than 4000 years-303 years subsequent to the deluge, 47 years before the death of Noah. If you were to undertake to write the history of China you would have to take the tenth chapter of Genesis for thc first chapter of your history of the wonderful sons of Ham. It is a nation hoary with antiquity and marvellous in its preservation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all the great nations of antiquity, arose, flourished, entered the charnel-house of departed empires and there mouldered into almost utter forgetfulness, and China alone remains of them all; and from present indications she is destined to go on down through the centuries. Why this marvellous preservation?
II. The greatest problem before the Church of Christ to-day is the conversion of China. . It is an extremely difficult task. No one who has lived and worked among the Chinese would minimize it; and yet there are some people who would have us believe that the evangelization of the Chinese is an unnecessary and presumptuous task. They say: " The Chinese are good enough ;" "They are vastly superior in civilization and morality to many other heathen nations;" "Let them alone. Keep your meddlesome and fanatical missionaries at home and give them work among the slums of New York;" "They are perhaps better off in their beliefs than we are in ours. ' , Let us see.
1. Moral conditiQn.-What is the moral condition of the Chinese people q It is most accurately described by St. Paul in that wonderful first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. That terrible description of human depravity is no libel upon human nature. The black picture is not overdrawn. It is true to the life. Heathen character is no better to-day than it was in the time of St. Paul. It is worse, for there is no such things as stand-still in vice. In the mission with which I am connected, it was necessary a few years ago to tear down one of the mission houses, and it was erected on a different site at an additional expense, because the occupants could look down upon the Chinese courtyards below, and seo enacted before their very eyes some of the vilest crimes enumerated in tho first chapter of Romans. Dr. S. Wells Williams says: "They are vile and polluted in a shocking degree; their conversation is full of filthy expressions, and their lives of impure acts. By pictures, songs, and aphrodisiacs they excite their sensuality, and, as the apostle says, e receive in themselves that recompense of their error which is meet.'
Female infanticide, in some parts openly confessed, and divested of all disgrace and penalties everywhere; the dreadful prevalence of all the vices charged by the Apostle Paul upon the a:ncient heathen world; the alarming extent of the use of opium ; the universal practice of lying and dishonest dealings; the unblushing lewdness of old and young; harsh cruelty toward prisoners by officers, and tyranny over slaves by masters-all form a full, unchecked torrent of human depravity, and prove the existence of a kind and degree of moral degradation, of which an excessive statement can scarcely be made, or an adequate conception hardly be formed."
And yet. there are people who say the Chinese do not need Christianity!
2. What have existing religions done for them ?-There are in China throe sects or systems of belief which have moulded the religious faith of the Empire. They are Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
(1) CONFUCIANIsM.-Confucianism, or the Church of the Learned, is the State religion of China. It takes its name from the great eage, but it dates away back to the early dawn of Chinese history. Confucius was, as he himself says, merely a reviver of the usages of the ancient kings, a transmitter of the doctrines of the ancient sages. He was a 1·eviver and transmitter-an editor rather than an author. Confucianism cannot prop- erly be termed a religion (indeed, there is no generic word fol' religion in . the Chinese language), ·but it is rather a system of ethics and political economy. An eminent authority says: "The State religion can no more be called the religion of the Chinese than the teachings of Socrates could be termed the faith of the Greeks." It is silent on the great questions of human origin and human destiny, and it teaches nothing of the relation of man to a higher Power. "I know not life, how can I know death! " was the unsatisfactory answer the sage gave to the disciple who ventured to ask about death; and when asked in his last illness to whom he would 8acrifice, he said he had already worshipped.
Ancestral worship is the keystone of the Confucian arch. This is a most ancient cult, dating back at least to the time of Shun (B.C. 2250), and the sages are responsible for perpetuating it. One writer say!!!, they " have bound upon the millions of China a most degrading slavery-the slavery of the living to the dead." The worship of ancestors is the stronghold of Confucianism. This is the real religion of the Chinese j and the hardest thing for a convert to Christianity to give up is his ancestral tablet. These little boards, containing the legend of the two ancestors, of which there are perhaps seventy millions in the Empire, are" more potent for evil than all the idols in the land."
Confucianism contains many beautiful sentiments, as: "O,'erflow with love to all;" "Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you j" "I love life and I love righteousnet!s, but I love righteousness more than life j" it is a splendid system of ethics, but it contains no hope, for ordinary mortals either in life or in death. It has been a conserving intellectual force, it has inculcated and enforced filial piety, it has kept alive a belief in the futllte life, it has exerted an immense influence for good, yet after forty centuries of trial it has failed to elevate thtl nation morally and spiritually.
(2) BUDDHISM.-Buddhism was introduced from India about the year A.D. 67. According to the Chinese historians the Emperor Ming Ti, in consequence of a dream in which he beheld " an image of gigantic proportions, resplendent as gold, " sent an embassy to the West which returned with teachers of the Indian faith. The remarkable saying of Confucius, "The people of the West have sages (or a sage)," doubtless influenced the emperor's vision j and it would be interesting to know just how far it wat! excited by tidings of the advent and death of Jesus Christ.
No religion could have been propagated in any country under more favorable circumstances than the new faith in China. Introduced under imperial patronage, supplying a felt want upon the part of the people in its tenets respecting a future state and the nature of the gods, it gradually worked its way into popular favor. Emperors became the patrons of the new faith, and more than one occupant of the Dragon Throne entered the monastic order. One emperor gave nearly 4000 ounces of gold to have the sacred hooks transcribed in characters of that precious metal; another contributed 300 tons of copper to be cast into images, and only 200 years ago the renowned Kang-hsi gave the yellow porcelain tiles which cover the temples on the sacred island of Pootoo. And yet after more than 1800 years of trial, under circumstances most favorable, Buddhism has failed to elevate the Chinese to a higher life aud nobler purpose.
(3) TAOIsM.-Taoism, or the sect of the Rationalists, is a native faith dating back to the sixth century before the Christian era. It is not a religion. The philosopher Laotsz had no intention of founding a religion. It is a school of philosophy, an abstruse system of metaphysics, but it has few, if any, of the essential elements of a religious faith. The ancient Taoists were alchemists. They" sought to transmute the baser metals into gold," and professed to have diRcoyered the philosopher's stone. They discourse wisely upon the" Pill of Immortality"-a " golden elixir" which confers immortality and insures a place among the genii. The priests of to-day pander to and traffic in the superstitions of the people. They live upon the credulity of their fellow-men. A large part of their businQsll it:l tQ lU!'tlufa«tul'e and. lIell «barms to w(lrq ott all 50rts of m!1!die5 and evil influences. Some years ago there was in Southern China w:hat is known as the "Queue-Cutting Mania." Men in the fields, boys on the streets had their queues cut off, but how or by whom none could tell. Cattle pasturing in the fields lost their tails, fowls had their tail and wing- feathers mysteriously clipped. There was intense excitement throughout the Empire. In the city of Kiukiang, where I was living, two men were beheaded on a charge of cutting off queues by magic !
The priests of Tao rose to the occasion and devised a charm, which, braided in the queue, would protect that ornamental appendage from the "magic scissors" which were flying through the air. It was a great harvest for them. The head of the Taoist religion-the Pope of Tao- the" Heavenly Teacher" Chang, whom I once saw in his palace at the Dragon and Tiger Mountain, is the great wizard of China, and his charms are eagerly sought by the people. Taoism is a failure as a religion. There i~ nothing in it to comfort or elevate mankind, and the Chinese are no better for its twenty centuries' influence upon them. What China needs above everything else is the religion of Jesus Christ. It is her only hope.
There are persons who would have us believe that the conversion of China is an impossible task-that missions are a failure and should be abandoned. They argue very wisely that Christianity is not adapted to the Chinese mind, that there is something peculiar in the Mongolian ca~t of mind (the result, possibly, of his environment for the past forty centuries) which makes it utterly impossible for the religion of Jesus Christ to reach him. "The Chinaman," they affirm, " cannot be converted." If this is true the Church should know it j common honesty would demand that the missionaries admit it. If we are engaged in a hopeless warfare in the Chinese Empire the' sooner the Church recalls its forces from the field the better.
Let us look at the sources of information. These are, first, "Globetrotters;" second, naval men on the Asiatic Station.
We see two classes of travellers in the East. One, and, unhappily, much the larger class, go around the world to " see the sights" and have a good time generally. They do not stop long enough in any country to form an intelligent opinion of the people or their customs. They get their information from boon companions on the steamers and at the ports, who do not Rpeak the language of the people, have little sympathy with anything that is good, and who consequently are always ready to decry missionary work. They see nothing of missionary work for themselves. They get their information at second-hand from persons who evolve it from their own inner consciousness, and then they set themselves up a8 authorities in everything pertaining to the Chinese and pose as critics of missions! I mt't a specimen of this class when I was returning to China eleven years ago. In the same car in which we were crossing the continent we had as tra~'elling companion an elderly and intelligent man, Judge – – , several young ladies, evidently in his charge, and a youth who entertained the company with marvellous accounts of a recent trip to China. He told them all that he had seen in the far East, and, for their entertainment, a great many more things which he had not seen. After a while the judge asked him about Christian missions. Bc went glibly over the stock criticisms of missionaries, and pronounced them first-class frauds and their work an utter and hopeless failure. The judge said very emphatically: "I have been an ardent admirer of foreign missions. I have always given liberally to their support, but I have given the last cent I shall ever contribute to this cause." The next morning the judge, the youth, and myself met in the smoking-room. I told him how happy I was to meet a man who had been in China, and asked him in what part of China he had been. " Hong- Kong," he replied. "How long?" "Six weeks." "Did you visit Canton ~" " No." "Did you call at Shanghai?" " No." "Are you acquainted with any of the missionaries in Hong-Kong?" " No." " Did you see anything of the work of the Basel Mission in that place ?" " No." "Heard nothing of their schools and orphanages?" " No." " Ever been to a chapel~" "No." "Ever seen the outside of a missionary's house~" "No." "Well, you are a fine fellow to set yourself up as a critic of missions. You have never been to China at all, only to the Briti!lh colony of Hong-Kong, have never seen a missionary, a missionary's home or chapel, and yet you pose as an authority on Chinese mISSIons. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." And to his credit, I think he was j for the young ladies could not get him to say a single word about China from that time until we reached San Francisco. These are the men who know all about missions.
The other class of travellers is interested in everything that is good. They take nothing at second-hand which they can possibly get direct. They visit the missionaries in their homes, attend services in their ch3pels, and visit their schools and hospitals. A part of their business is to study this great problem of missions. It is a suggestive fact that these persons who know about missions from personal observation and. study are their most enthusiastic supporters. I met a man at Northfield last summer, who some years ago visited most of the mission fields of the world. He spent several days at Kiukiang, where I was then laboring. He was all on fire with enthusiasm for missions. He told me that since their return from abroad he had made missionary addresses in 1100 churches and his wife in 1500. Whose testimony is to be received?
It is a very unpleasant and delicate task to refer to the other critics of missions-viz., the naval men. I would be sorry indeed to think that they are all Lieutenant Woods or Captain Marthons. No man is more highly respected by the missionary body in China than Commander Barker of thll United States steamship Marion. He studied missions in every port he visited and wrote to the home papers commending the work. It is, however, an exception for an officer from a man-of-war to visit a mission chapel. Not long since the~e was a letter published from Captain Marthon, of the United States steamship Palos, in which he says that he has yet to see the first Chinese Christian. This letter was written from the city where I labored for eighteen years, and immediately after the Palos returned to Kiukiang with the victims of the Wusueh massacre. The writer must have known that the three children of the Wesleyan Mission at that place were rescued from the burning mission house, in the face of an infuriated mob, by native Christians, at the risk of their lives; that one of them when pressing through the mob with the four-months'-old infant of my friend Mr. Boden, and finding that he could not possibly save its life, tossed it over the heads of the rioters to a native Christian woman, who two hours later restored it to its mother. No Christians in China! There were Christian heroes all around, but he was too blind or too prejudiced to see. The Chinese can be converted, and a man must be incapable of finding anything if he cannot find Christians in China.
It is a common, flippant remark that more die in China every year than are converted in a century. This is not true; although it is not always easy to answer the sneers of the godless, who too often" salt their wit in the brine of our tearA." The work goes on; and it will go on, until" the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. "
III. The conversion of China is unquestionably the most important work of the Church in this age.
This iA not so much on account of the greatness of the country and the vastness of the population as on account of the future of the Mongoliall. race. The" Chinese Question" is destined to become one of the difficult problems for this or the next generation to solve. He has emigrated to all contiguous countri~s, Japau, Siam, the Straits; he has crossed over to Canada, Mexico, the West Indies; he has settled in the Sandwich Islands, Australia, and the United States, and from present indications he is destined to overrun the world.
He is creating a general feeling of uneasiness wherever he has gone j and that not so much on account of his bad qualities as his good. Many of the objections urged again~t the Chinaman in this Christian, libertyloving country and the last decade of this marvellous nineteenth century, are trifling and childish in the extreme. The truth of the matter is, the Mongolian has by his patient industry, temperate habits, and careful economy become a successful competitor of the intemperate, extravagant, and too often vicious laborers from other lands.
John Chinaman has become the agony of colonial and American statesmen. The Australians are more anxious to get rid of him than of their pestifer~us rabhits. The United States feel that the safety and perpetuity of this Great Republip. and its magnificent institutions depend upon the exclusion of the Mongolian ! We can assimilate anything else-the Italians, Hungarians, Catholic Irish-but somehow we can't quite digest the Chinaman; and so we pass iniquitous Exclusion acts which wili put our children and grandchildren to the blush. They are a disgrace to the 'honor of our country, blots upon our national escutcheon, relics of barbarism only fit to be classed in the same category with burning witches in New England. The quicker they are repealed the better.
John is irrepressible; he is like Banquo's ghost, he won't down. Why 1 1. God has some great destiny for the Chinese race. 'I'hey have not been preserved so marvellously as a nation 4000 years for nothing. God does not work in that way. There is no waste of force or material in God's economy j and so the preservation of the Chinese down through the ages has been a conservation of a mighty force to be used by God in the consummation of His plans for the race. Neither is it for nothing that beneath the broad domain of China the mineral wealth of the world is stored.
2. The Chinese are capable of great things. They are slow, solid, aggressive, a people that will abide. They are patient, economical, filial, aDd they are pre-eminently a determined people. Some years ago China was devastated by a terrible rebellion. The southern half of the Empire was wrested from the Imperial sway and in the hands of the Taipings. The Mohammedans in the Northwest took advantage of this state of affairs and rebelled. "Aided by the reckless and seditious of all clans they drove out the governmental minions" and China lost Turkestan. At the same time Russia seized Kuldja. In a moment of weakness the Czar promised China that he would restore Kuldja as soon as China should reassert her authority in those regions and reconquer Turkestan. The attempt to restore prestige in a territory where every hand was turned against her seemed indeed hopeless. Her resources were exhausted, treasury aepleted, foreigners were within her gates, the distance to be traversed was immense, and no one dreamed she conld succeed. The Emperor sent for Tso Tsung Tang, one of his ablest generals, and asked him if he could reconquer Turkestan. Tso replied that he could. " But," said the Emperor, "have you considered that your operations will be so far removed from your base that the mules will eat up all the provision!! before they reach your army ~ Have you thought of that~" "I have," answered the redoubtable warrior, " and I have my remedy. We will push forward as far as we can as soldiers, and when our supplies are becoming exhausted we will squat as farmers and till the ground as many years as are necessary to raise supplies. We will repeat the operation as many times as are necessary, and Turkestan will be restored to your Majesty's sway." And they did it! I have intense admiration for such dogged, persistent determination -a determination to succeed in a well-nigh impossible undertaking if it took five years or fifty years for its accomplishment. Dr. S. Wells Williams says: "The history of the advance of this' agricultural army' would, if thoroughly known, constitute one of the most remarkable military achievements in the annals of any modern country." 3. They are a "brainy" race. There is no question that the Chinese are the most intellectual of all the Asiatics. They are the bankers and the wholesale merchants of the East. Some twelve years ago when General Grant returned from his tour of the world, he said that in his travels he had met three great men, three men who towered head and shoulders above all others, "with whom there were none to compare." One of the pre- eminently great men was Gladstone, England's great statesman; another was Germany's great warrior, Bismarck; and the third of these incompar- ably great men was Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chili and Prime Minister of China. A Ohinaman! There is to-day no man better versed in state- craft, there is no more shr~wd diplomat than Li Hung Chang.
4. The Chinese are a nation of students. In what other country in the world will you find 25,000 students competing in one examination-hall for literary honors ~ Last month iu the city of Nanking there were between 29,000 and 30,000 students attendiug the triennial examinations. Men will attend the examinations year after year until they are bowed and decrepit with age in the hope of obtaining the coveted prize. It is not an unusual thing for men of seventy-five and eighty years to be found at the;r place in the hall. So anxious are they to obtain an education, that a man who is too poor to buy oil will steal his neighbor's light through a knot- hole in order that he may study.
Is there no destiny for such a people ~ 5. China is arousing herself. Some people have an idea that China is dead. She is not dead, or if she is, I;he is a very lively corpse. She is not asleep, she is shaking off the lethargy of the centuries and arousing herself as a mighty giant for a coming struggle. She has a magnificent fleet of merchant steamers, large dockyards, arsenals, and a complete net- . work of telegraphs over the entire Empire. She has, it is true, but a few hundred miles of railroads, but railroads are coming and they will be built with native material and Chinese labor. 6. China is destined to become one of the great factors in the .future development of the world. I do not agree with Lord W olseley that she . is to become the great military power of the future, conquering Russia and India, and crossing swords with England and the United States. This seems to me extravagant; but if Genghis Khan in the beginning of the thirteenth century swept with his Mongol horde from the mouth of the Amoor to the sources of the Danube, what might not an awakened, civil- ized China do with a possible forty millions of soldiers ~ For the above reasons I repeat: The evangelization of China is the most important work of the Church of Christ in this age. Christianizing China is the only solution of the" Chinese Question." Exclusion Acts will not do it. This great problem is thrusting itself upon us. What are we going to do about it ~ We cannot ignore it-we dare not if we could. We cannot keep them out. We close the front door, but the back door is wide open, and it would take a much larger army than we have to efficiently guard it. Besides, the" Son of Heaven's" claim to universlll empire is a factor which has not been sufficiently con- sidered. The time will come when the Chinese will try to make it good.
Self-preservation demands the evangelization of the Chinese. China is destined to become either a conservator or a menace to Christendom. Which it shall be depends largely upon the missionary effort of this century. When the time comes, as it inevitably will, when an outlet must be found for the swarming millions of this land, and when they may try to make good their claim to universal empire, it will be well for us if she is a Christian land.
IV. Reasons for hopefulness. I see strong reasons for belieVing in the speedy evangelization of the land of Sinim. 1. The opening of the country. Only a little more than 300 years ago Francis Xavier, the noted Catholic missionary, stood bp.fore the walls of the Middle Kingdom vainly seeking admittance. It seemed to the devoted Jesuit that it was surrounded by a wall of exclusion as high as heaven and as hard as adamant, and he called out in the agony of his soul, " 0 rock, rock 1 when wilt thou open to my Master I" Humanly speaking, there was little prospect of ever penetrating this wall of exclusion, yet three centuries has seen it broken down, removed, entirely swept away. The mi!l8ionary to-day has access to the entire eighteen provinces of the Empire. 2. There is better feeling upon the part of the people. I make this statement with a full knowledge of the recent disturbances in China. Were there not better feeling there would have been fifty Tientsin massacres since last May. The!e troubles in China have been greatly misunderstood in this country. They are not "Anti-Missionary" riots, but an insurrectionary movement upon the part of :it treasonable secret society. The Emperor's edict is an inspiration to all who believe in the providential ordering of events. It is a distinct recognition of Christianity, and assures protection to missionaries and native converts. 3. Increased wiIlingness to hear the Gospel. There has been a notable change in this respect in recent years. There is no trouble to get large, . attentive audiences to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. 4. Success.-Twenty-five years ago there were less than 500 converts in the whole Empire. Thirteen years ago there were 13,000 communicants; now there are 40,000. In 1878, 13,000 native Christians contributed $9000 to the support of the Gospel. Last year the 40,000 converts gave $40,000 ; and the beginning of modern missions dates from the opening of the country in 1860. Besides, it must be remembered that success in missions cannot be computed by arithmetic. You cannot count heads and say this represents the results of missionary enterprise. There is an unknown quantity to be taken into consideration. You cannot measure in a table of statistics the breaking down of prejudice, the removing of
A MEMORABLE MORAVIAN ANNtV'ERSARY
opposition, the dissemination of Christian truth. In 18'15 another missionary and myself were mobbed in a certain district, barely escaping with our lives. There was no more turbulent district in all China. In 1889 I travelled through the same country with my wife and children, and did not hear a single disrespectful word in a ten-days' journey. Can such a change be measured by statistics ~ 5. A remarkable door has been opened to the dominant class. A few years ago the Emperor introduced Western science into the competitive examinations. The result is an increasing demand for this knowledge which can only be got in mission schools. It has been sneeringly said, "Mi8sionaries only get the scum." They generally get just about what they fish for; and if in future they only get the scum in China it will be their own fault.
6. Increasing momentum of truth. Truth, eternal, irresistible, unconquerable truth, is moving forward with increasing momentum in these laLter days of the nineteenth century. The Lord may seem slow in the accomplishment of His purposes, but He is not slow as some men count slackness. He will make short work in these last days.
I see no reason why China may not be CODverted in the next fifty years, if the Church awakens to a full sense of her duty and responsibility. We are on the verge of a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit upon the Land of Sinim. Why does it not come ~ Because we have not prayed for China as we ought. The great need of China is not more men, or llJore money, but united, earnest, agonizing praytlr for a copious outpouring of God's Spirit. Oh that Christian men and women would agonize in prayer for the salvation of this the greatest of all heathen nations!
A MEMORABLE MORAVIAN ANNIVERSARY.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The Unitas Fratrum, the Moravian Brotherhood, may well provoke to emulation all other bodies of Christian disciples, for their consecrated zeal in the work of missions.
The whole Church is a missionary body. No board, society, or committee shoulders the responsibility and monopolizes the privilege of procuring laborers and providing for them. The entire Brotherhood is engaged in the work, and there is no thought of doing it by proxy. The Mastership of Christ is a practical article of their creed, and the last command and commission of the Master is not forgotten by the disciple. Rev. Archibald J. Brown, of London, tells how his daughter was led to give her life to Inland China. She said: "I have long known Jesus as my Redeemer and Friend, but when I fell down before Him and acknowledged Him as my Jfaster, Ho said to me, 'Am I then your, Master ~ Then go thou to China.''' Thll Moravians regard as impertinent &nd irrelevant such questions as these: Do foreign missions pay 1 Are they expedient 1 Will they be successful ~ for the Master has left His marching orders, and that settles all controversy. .
Obedience to this Master is the principle of the whole body of the United Brethren, prompt and implicit compliance with His will as expressed in the voice of His Word and the vote of His Church. Count Zinzendorf said to a Moravian believer, "Will you go to Greenland~" "Yes." " When 1" "To-morrow I" What readiness to obey, what immediate obedience to the heavenly vision! And think of a whole Church trained from infancy to this sense of individual duty and promptnpss of obedience!
The "regions beyond" represent the preferred sphere of Moravian mISSIOns. Not where Christ has been named, not building on another man's foundation; but they would help fulfil that prophecy, .. To whom He was not spoken of, they shall see: And they that have not heard shall understand."
Mary Lyon used to say to her pupil-daughters, " If you would heroically serve Christ and humanity, seek not easy fields of labor, but go where no one else will go I" And just that the United Brethren do. No field so far off, so difficult, so inaccessible, so walled in with adamant, so shut in with gates of steel; no people so repulsive and so hostile or oruel, that to that field and people their missionaries will not go. It may be the stupid, stolid Esquimaux, the slaves of the West Indies, the blear-eyed cretins of the Alps, the disgusting lepers of Africa, the cannibals of the South Seas -but anywhere and everywhere they rejoice to go and plant the cross. And the fact of greater distance, degradation, destitution, depravity, constitutes with them only a mightier appeal and argument for going where the neglect iR apt to be the greater because of such repellent features. They have learned that it is not charity, but selfishness, that" begins at home," and stays there; and, like Redslob and Marx who, during the past year, passed from Leh, the mountain outpost of Little Thibet, up to their glorious reward, the most self-sacrificing post of duty is the sentinelbox for this vanguard of the Church's army!
This noble Unitas Fratrum cultivate heroism. We have often feared that in these days the heroic spirit is fast being eliminated from modern mISSIonS. One argument often urged upon young people for devoting themselves to the foreign field is, that they will find little self-denial in such a course, since in most countries the highest civilization has found its way, and thej will find the comforts and conveniences and even luxuries of their homes still available. To our mind this is the worst sort of appeal -it is addressed to se1fishness, and leaves out the very heroi!.lm of sacrifice. A people that, in their very Litany, insert the petition, " From the unhappy desire of becoming great, good Lord deliver us I" is not very likely to court worldly comforts, honors, dignities and indulgences. And where the law and even love of self-abnegation for Christ are at the bottom of all missionary endeavor, we may well feel no surprise to find that b,y far the largest proportion of laborers in proportion to their numbers, and by far the largest average of gifts in proportion to their means, this little Moravian Church offers to the Lord's work. It is from Benjamin that the leader comes who stands above all the rest from his shoulders upward.
The Moravian Church is not only least among the tribes, but poorest. Yet out of their poverty have abounded the riches of their liberality. They put to shame the richer bodies of disciples and tempt us to t>elieve that riches bring the Laodicean spirit with them. and are a curse instead of a blessing, judged by their fruits in church life. Certainly the United Brethren are a standing testimony that small numbers and little money cannot prevent consuming zeal for missions and burning passion for souls, when in all the work the chosen formula and motto is "IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN."
This paper was begun, however, with a purpose of glVlng som'.l brief account of the Third Jubilee of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospe'! among the Heathen, which anniversary was lleld in the Moravian chapel, Fetter Lane, London, on Thursday, November 19th, 1891, at 6.30 P.M.
At this One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary it was the privilege of the editor-in-chief of this REVIEW to be present and deliver an address. The place was interesting, an oid-fashioned oblong building, hidden behind other structures, and approached through a long hallway-a building perhaps forty by sixty feet, with heavy, stately galleries, and plain board pews, and a high semicircular pulpit of evident antiquity, where Wesley and Baxter and Bradford have more than once preached the old Gospel.
The programme was interesting, announcing that "The Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel was founded in 1741, with a view to entertain and assist Moravian missionaries passing through London to their various mission fields. It was reorganized in 1768 in order to establish the mission in Labrador. By God's goodness in protecting the ships used in this service, and in blessing the trade carried on with the natives to help iu supporting this mission, it has almost entirely been maintained by S. F. G. to the present day. The Society also endeavors to spread missionary information by publishing the quarterly' Periodical Accounts,' and in other ways contributes to the extension of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." Hymns composed by James Montgomery, himself a member of the S. F. G., for the centenary in 1841, and by Harvey, Spangenberg Doddridge, James Hutton, firEt President of the S. F. G., as well as by Ellis and others for the present occasion, were embraced in the programme and sung. After an appropriate Scripture reading from Romans 1 and 10 by Pastor Hasse, who presided, and ~he openiD~ pra~er was ofiered, Rev. B. Latrobe, Secretary, presented warm salutations by letter from the Unity Elders' Conference at Berthels- dorf, an apostolic greeting signed by James Connor; then from Bethlehem, Pa., U. S. A., the headquarters 0: the American province, salutation!! on the sesquicentennial; from Labrador'R largest congregation, at Okak, and the Missionary Conference at Hebron, Hopedale, etc., and from Bishops A. C. Ha!.'se and Joseph Latrobe and Brother J. England, etc.
Pastor Hasse, who gracefully presided, made the usual "chairman's address." He dwelt on the modern aspect of the Society's work, as confined chiefly to Labrador. This field is its special feature, but though primarily restricted to this land of eternal snows, equally sympathizes with all missions. Mr. Hasse touched briefly but effectively on the moral and economic features of the Labrador field, vindicating missions to a people who were a century and a half ago without light or help, and are still a classic and standing example and representative of the charter right of the Gospel: "The poor shall hAve the Gospel preached to them." A situa- tion radically worse, and a type of humanity more degraded, could not elsewhere be found when missions were begun in Lahrador and Greenland. And these facts emphasized the duty of bearing to these remote shores the tidings of salvation.
As to the economic side, Mr. Hasse explained the office of the S. F. G. as a training society. The Esquimaux must primarily be fed, clothed, and sheltered if they are to live. It is desirable not to make them paupers, however; and hence they must be taught to give an equivalent in the produce of the country. The summer trade is a revel; the winter is a time of starvation ; and as the starving time covers eight or nine months, extinction would result unless trade were carried on, and it is important that such trade be in hands that will conduct it on Christian principles and so elevate and improve as well as preserve the Esquimaux race. Mr. Hasse canvassed the common objections to such mission work and appealed to the future for its vindication, remarking that the' full recognition of its value might come, perhaps, only after another hundred years had swept away. By that time, it is believed, a new people, a mixed race, may have grown up, a Christian people, stronger, more intelligent, more capable, an . Esquimo-Enropean race, to take their full place among the family of nations.
Mr. Hasse explained the nature of the Society, as first a training society, and secondly as furthering on their journey brethren who pass throngh London en route to mis!lion fields. It is a committee deputed by the whole Church, a delegation; "in our estimate," said he, " the whole body is a missionary society, and the S. F. G. is made up of officers whose position specially qualifies them as leaders; but the army is the Church itself. "
Bishop Taylor followed with some historical statements, calling attention to the pictures hung on the walls and pillars-pictures. of Bishop Stevens, the Waldensian, the first converts in Greenland, George Schmidt teaching the HottentDts, Schmidt and Nitschmann in prisDn, etc. He also. traced the SDciety's name tD3 JDhn 6: 7, 8 (Greek), and explained its dDuble purpDse, first to. suppDrt the GDspel in LabradDr, and secDndly to. further the GDspel by helping Dn their jDurney after a gDdly sort, brethren who. fDr Christ's namesake went fDrth, taking nDthing frDm the Gentile un- believers.
Then Mr. LatrDbe rehearsed the sto.ry Df the Harmony and its recent visit to. the coast statiDns Df the nDrth. Ten vessels have been emplDyed in cDnveying LabradDr missiDnaries, and the present ship is the fDurth bearing this sacred name. She has retul'ned frDm her thirty-first vDyage, but this is the Dne hundred and twenty-secDnd made to. these shDres by the MDravian vessels. He mentiDned the singular PrDvidence that has watched Dver these vessels, and said: "As the SDciety meets fDr its annual thanksgiving service, cDmbined this year with its third Jubilee, precisely the same language as was used at the Centenary will review an added fifty years o.f these special mercies: 'During this IDng periDd no. fatal accident has been permitted to. befall this favDred bark, Dr thDse whDm she was cDnveying acrDSS the bDisterDus and Dften ice-bDund deep, and alDng a CDast bristling with rDcks and abDunding with peculiar perils; nDr has the cDmmunicatiDn between the missio.naries and their brethren in EurDpe been in a single instance interrupted.' Partial failures have been experienced. In 1816, the Jemima landed the needed sto.res at Okak and Nain, but was cDmpelled to. leave HDpedale unvisited. The mDst seriDus failure was in 1853, when DUt o.f four statiDns the third Harmony was o.nly able to. reach HDpedale, the mDst sDuthern. In bDth instances persistent gales drDve the ship DUt to. sea. The extraDrdinary perils Df ice and war and Df the numerDUS rDcks alDng that still unsurveyed CDast have never been suffered to. cut o.ff the communicatio.n with the missio.n statiDns.
" The develDpment Df the missio.n and o.f the trade, which partly sup- Po.rts it, made it necessary in 1870 fDr the So.ciety to. purchase a secDnd vessel. The Oordelia was run do.wn by a steamer Dff the NDre in 1881. No. lives were lo.st in this, the mDst seriDus disaster in the one hundred and twenty years during which S. F. G. has been a shipowning firm."
Mr. Latrobe repDrted the deaths of valued native helpers, like the faithful Abraham Df Nain, and Hulda eightY-Dne years DId, and the aged Martha; at HDpedale, BDaz and his sister Bertha, wife Df JDshua, nDW tDD crippled to. be Df use. The epidemic influenza at HDpedale has taken nDt a few valued church-members away. The evangelistic tDurs by sledge were referred to., cDntinued for three weeks, with no. sleeping places at times but snDw.hnts ; the grammar Df the Esquimaux language, a wDrk Df twenty years by Dr. BDurquin, and which has been received with great thanks, was cordially mentiDned; and the Esquimaux tDngue was cDmpared to. a pDlar bear gnashing its teeth within the bars Df its cage, against the man who. wDuld seek to. bring and confine it within the rules of grammatical o.rder and regularity. Various remarks followed as to the trials of the native Christians, the long winter, the failure of autumn fisheries and sealing, and consequent lack of stores, the absence of reindeer Ilear the stations, and the good help of God at all the mission centres waR gratefully recorded.
About forty missionaries ar~ on the list, and the people may be regarded as almost altogether Christian. I n fifteen years they have contributed to outside and mission purposes out of their poverty, about £210 sterling, or upward of $1000.
Rev. W. Fuller Gooch gave a brief address, in which he referred to the eminently biblical lines on which the whole mission work of the Moravians is carried forward, as shown even in the fondness for scriptural names- Nain, Hebron, Ramah, etc.; and remarked that the mastership of Jesus was recognized even by the captain of the Harmony, who regarded himself as under orders from the Higher Captain.
After a few remarks by Rev. A. Kleinschmidt, who represented the Holland Society, the" Zeist," W. V. Drury, M.D., spoke for the London Association in aid of Moravian Missions, which for seventy years has contributed in all a quarter of a mmion of pounds sterling. It shows the confidence felt in the work of the United Brethren, that this Association, composed of all denominations, has for so long given such assistance to this small and comparatively poor body of disciples in carrying on their self-denying work. This Lovefeast, at Fetter Lane, fittingly came to a close in the Doxology, which as a unique specimen of the simple Moravian liturgy we append to this paper. Such a doxology is itself a constant reminder of the privileges and obligations of Christ's redeemed people to spread the good tidings of the Gospel; and is a noble conclusion to the brief and beautiful form of public prayer which is full of petitions for a lost world and for the Church in its missionary capacity.
DOXOLOGY.
[Italics represent the response of the congregation.] Unto the Lamb that was slain, (Rev. 5: 12.) And hath redeemed us out of all nations of the earth j (Rev. 5; 9.) Unto the Lord who purchased our souls f6r Himself ; (Acts 20 : 28.) Unto that Friend who loved us-and washed us from our sins in His own blood; (Rev. 1 : 5.) Who died f6r us once, (Rom. 6: 10, 11, 12; 2 Cor. 5: 15.) That we might die unto sin j (1 Peter 2 : 24.) Who r6se for us, That we also might rise j (1 Cor. 15.) Who ascended for us into heaven, To prepare a place for us j (John 14: 2, 3.) CHOIR. And to whom are subjected the angels, and powers, and dominions (1 Peter ;3 ; 22.) To Him be ~lory at all times,
HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN CillNA
In the chu1'clt that waiteth for Him-and in that which is around Him, CHOIR. From everlasting to everlasting :- Amen. MINISTER. Little children, abide in Him; that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. (1 John 2: 28.) In none but Him alone I trust for ever, In Him, my Saviour.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee j The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace: IN THE NAME OF JESUS: AMEN. LONDON, November 20th, 1891.
HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN CHINA.
BY REV. JOHN ROSS, MOUKDEN, NORTH CHINA.
Six years ago a young Bannerman of Chinese ancestry joined our then small church in Moukden. His father was a native doctor, who from a sense of sinfulness was deeply interested in the more earnest Buddhist sects. He had been a listener during th,e angry discussions raging against Christian doctrines when they were first introduced here. As a result he cut himself off from every form of idolatry. He had never spoken to either the foreign missionary or the native evangelist, but on his death- bed he recommended his two sons, and especially this younger one, to carefully examine Christianity for themselves, and not allow themselves to be carried away with the all but universal execration to which Christianity was then held up_ Young Jang was also a man with a sensitive conscience, and he, too, was anxious to rid his soul of sin. This, combined with his father's dying advice, led him to the chapel, where he became an inquirer as eager as he was intelligent. Being a fair scholar he soon became acquainted with the leading truths of Christianity and was baptized.
His new faith not only removed the former trouble of his soul, but filled him with a joy which nothing worldly could bestow. The fire so burned within that he gave up the situation he held, and went to the city immediately north of Moukden to impart his newly-fonnd treasure to his elder brother, a doctor in this city of Tieling.
The first news we had of the journey was when, on his return, with a face shining with joy, he informed us that his brother was a believer, and that he, his whole family, and a few intimate friends who had heard and become believers, were all applicants for baptism. My young colleague, Mr. Webater, had by this time come to Moukden, and it was deemed advisable that he should go north to investigate the facts of the story. R·, 800n returned and joyfully confirmed the statement of young Jang. On account of our strict rule for probation of intending members, no one was then haptized; but on a subsequent visit Mr. Webster baptized nine individuals, and took steps to open a station there. Two senior members, one, a convert of the late Mr. Burns, from Peking, and the other a Moukden man, were sent to initiate work in this apparently hopeful station.
Mr. Webster having accompanied me on the journey to the Corean valleys, already referred to in the REVIEW, suggested on our return jOlll'Iley, that instead of going back directly to Moukden, we should make a detour and see how it fared with the young station in Tieling. When we arrived at an inn on the outskirts of the city we were informed that the chapel had been attacked by a mob and wrecked. Desiring to know what amount of truth there was in the statement, we rode in to the chapel, but found no one there. We discovered that one of the two men in charge had fled, and the other was living in a neighboring house ae the chapel was uninhabitable. This man had already stood painfully severe persecutions. We found that the chapel door had been broken open, the windows smashed to pieces, and every perishable article of furniture completely destroyed. The streets were placarded with prominent "postE'fS" containing the wildest accusations and vituperations against the foreigners who had dared to intrude into the city. It transpired that the principal authors of this excitement and the chief leaders in the riot, were men from the magistrnte's office, which was bound, when necessary, to take steps to keep the peace. Therefore we inferred that the rcal cause of the outbreak was our old acquaintance, which for years had been our chief foe in Moukden-viz., the belief that we were there as political agents to crpaie a party which would be traitorous to China and friendly to foreign powers.
To do something to remove this evil prejudice we had the boards block. ing up the broken wiudow taken down, and we stood on the ledge exposed to the street. In a few seconds the street, which ordinarily is a busy one, was so crowded that there was no passage for man or beast. A dense mass of well-dressed men, mostly young, stood fronting us as closely packed as they could stand, filling the breadth of the wide street and stretching away to right and left. From the window-ledge, which was about three feet high, we could see and be seen by all the crowd. There we preached to the people for about an hour, always keeping in view, but never even inferentially' referring to the cause of the general excitemel)t. We preached the doctrine of Jesus, the Saviour from all sin and for all men. without distinction of nationality or condition. As both caution and explanation were essential to our position, and especially to our cause, we had to enter into minute details regarding the vital doctrines of Christianity, on account of which WP, had come to their "honorable" country. We were impressed with the death-like lltillness of the crowd. As far as indications of life were concerned they might as well have been cut out of stone. Every eye was unfalteringly bent on the two foreigners; not a head, not even a lip, as far as we could see, moved in that crowd while we remained face to face.
At length we descended from our pedestal, and gently wriggling our way through the crowd, we reached the two men who were holding our ponies. But as soon as we mounted and got just clear of the crowd, the unusual silence was broken by loud laughter, bitter mockery and reviling language, and by what was still more disagreeable, a shower of eithcr small pieces of brick, or of earth which, by the keen frost, were like so many stones. Our ponies soon trotted us beyond the reach of the missiles; but we had to go through a mile of street lined on both sides with shops which seemed crowded with human beings, who greeted us as we passed with mocking laughter, shouts of angry defiance, or revilings of the grossest kind. We were not much affected by this kind of thing which " breaks no bones," and soon we found ourselves in our inn, somewhat fatigued with the nervous excitement rather than by the labors of the day.
The young doctor had been boycotted and left some time before for his native viIlage.
Exactly two and a half years after that visit of ours, during which we were so unceremoniously treated, Mr. Webster stayed in the same inn, and walked that mile of street between it and the chapel. As usual, at most of the shop-doors stood some of the men in charge of the shop. Many of these men bowed to him as he passed, with a smile of recognition, inquired after his own welfare and that of his family left behind in Moukden. He entered the compound of the small chapel, where he was met and joyfully welcomed by a considerable band of men who had meantime become members.
Next day he dispensed the communion to a congregation of fifty baptized men and women. The" bread" was handed round in a plate, which he used for his food on the road, and the wine was drunk out of his breakfast-cup, as the most respectable vessel available. "But," as he stated in a letter written at the time, " the Holy Spirit of God was there." The emotion was profound. Men and women as they thus for the first time touched and tasted the tangible tokens of their Redeemer's dying love, did so with bursting sobs and with tears flowing down their cheeks. Those only who know the stolid nature of the Chinese, and their remarkable powers of self-control, can alone fully appreciate the significance of such uncontrollable emotion.
Two years later I was there dispensing the communion to a company of about double the number, and one which would have been much larger could all the members in the outlying villages connected with Tieling have been present. The members have had to take a second and larger chapel, but this was Sl) full that a number of men had to stand during the entire service, though these were then mostly applicants for baptism. On a subsequent visit a couple of months later there were twenty-seven persons baptized. press of time prevented ~e then from going to the villages where a number of women believers, unable from household cares, to go to the city, are awaiting baptism. Every year sees a larger number than the preceding enter the Church, and every year sees an enlarged number of villages taken possession of by one or more of the disciples of Jesus. One vil!age, about seven miles from Tieling in a beautiful valley, is wholly Christian, its inhabitants being all either baptized or applicants for baptism.
Instead of the former vituperation, the foreigner is now saluted by the more respectable citizens with kindliness, the magistrate is well disposed, all the lower officials are glad to be on friendly terms with the evangelist and the deacons of the church; and there is not only no avowed hostility of any kind against those who have become members, or obstacles placed in the way of those desiring to become Christians, but the " whole city speaks we]) of Christianity."
No Christian man will be at a loss to set down all those changed condi· tions to the power of Him who works through the preaching of the Word; but He who is the Almighty, and who does what Be wills, has willed to do thIS kmd of work only in conneetion with human agency. He gives the increase, He demands that Paul plant the seed. Whose eloquence wa.'! employed, whose lives were influential as the immediate came in producing this wonderful change-amouuting to a contrast–between our fir8t visit and my last· 1 The change has not been effected thr01}gh the preaching of the foreigner, nor solely by his life. As the work was begun by that youth scarcely SIX years ago, so has it been carried on all but exclusively by his countrymen who were or have become believers, and latterly by himself, who is now-and appropriately-the trained evangelist in charge of the station.
" He who runs can read" the lessons of stimulus, lessons of faith. lessons of caution, lessons of fear and of joy, which the above very brief narrative, which could be repeated of other places not a few, presents to all sections of the Christian Church doing work for the Master among the Chinese. And in connection with this story may I be allowed humbly to rebuke the unbelief of many in our home churches, and among many of our leading clergy 1 They tell us our duty is to preach, but not to expect conversions. I would never have myself come to China did I not believe it my duty to expect hearers of the Gospel to be born again. I have expected, always, undoubtingly expected, conversions. At this moment I expect more than ever before, and I know I shall not be disappointed, for " faithful is He that hath promised." Christians in Christian lands expect conversions! There is something, whatever it be, radically wrong jf there be no conversions under the proclamation of the message of God to man. Expect conversions. Pray for them earnestly, but pray in faith, believing that ye shall have what ye ask; if not, your prayers are in vain. Act for them solemnly, and act with wisdom to take away those things which hinder the conversion of hearers. "Open thy mouth," open it wide, :;u~q see if God, the ~aithfl,ll and the trte~ will not,fill it.
FORmIGN INFLUENCE IN CHINA
FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN CHINA.
BY REV. A. P. PARKER, SHANGHAI, CHINA.
Very few people in Western countries have any adequate idea of this great Chinese Empire, of its size, the character of its people, the strength and extent of its civilization. To many, as Professor Max Muller says, the Chinaman is a joke. To others he is uncivilized or only half civilized, and but little removed from the Hottentot or the American Indian. A dozen years ago, the Supreme Court of California, in its zeal to bring a law to bear against the Chinese, held that" the term Indian included the Chinese or Mongolian race." "It thus upheld a wrong," says Dr.
S. Wells Williams, " while it enunciated a misconception. It placed the subjects of the oldest government now existing, upon a parity with a race that has never risen above tribal relations. It included under one term a people whose literature dates its beginning before the Psalms or Exodus, and containing authors whose words have influenced more human beings than any other writings, with men whose highest attainments in writing have been a few jlictures and tokens drawn on a buffalo robe. It equalized all the qualities of industry, prudence. skill, learning, invention, and whatever gives security to life and property among men, with the instincts al!d habits of a hunter and a nomad. It stigmatized a people which has taught us how to make porcelain, silk, and gunpowder, given us the compass, and shown us the use of tea, by classing them with a race which has despised labor, has had no arts, schools, or trade, and in the midst of the Californians themselves is content to dig roots for a living." So long as these wholly unjust and inadequate conceptions prevail, so long will the people and country be treated with contempt on the one hand, while, on the other hand, the Church will fail to compre- hend the vastness of the work of evangelization to be done here and the immense outlay of men and money and prayer that are necessary to accomplish it.
China is a great country, great in size, great in history, great in civiliza- tion. Extending over 71 degrees of longitude and 34 parallels of latitude, it covered, in 1840, an area of 5,300,000 square miles, a territory a third larger than the Continent of Europe, and nearly half as large again as the United States, which covers nearly 3,700,000 square miles, including Alaska. This vast area has been reduced, during the last fifty years, by about a half a million square miles, ceded to Russia and England. Reach- ing from the frozen snows of Siberia on the north, to the tropical regions of the eighteenth parallel of north latitude on the south, China affords as great a variety of climate and production as any other country in the world. Vast mountain chains, wide and fertile plains and valleys, numer- ous lakes and great river systems, are some of its physical features. It contains a population, according to Dr. S. Wells Williams, the best authority on Chinese subjects, of 380,000,000, in the eighteen provinces, and 23,000,000 in Manchuria and the colonial possessions, or a total of 403,000,000. It yields every kind of mineral, vegetable, and animal production necessary for the sustenance of its teeming population and for the development of the arts of civilized lifc-a country complete in itself.
It is the oldest country in exi~tence that has a history, covering a period of more than 4600 years without a break in its continuity. Contemporaneous with Egypt, and Nineveh, and Babylon, it has outlived them all. While these mighty empires have sunken in oblivion and heaps of rubbish mark the forgotten scenes of their power and grandeur, China has continued on her way, and is to-day one of the great,nations of the earth, whose powerful influence on the destiny of the human race it is impossible to forecast. One of the oldest books in the world, outside of the Hebrew Scriptures, is the Shu King, one of the Chinese classics, which contains a record of events that occurred in this country B.C. 2300. The dim dawn of Chinese history reaches back to 2800 B.C., or, according to Dr. Hales's chronology, 350 years after the flood, and more than 1600 years after the creation of man. The period of authentic history may, according to the most reliable evidence, be placed at about B.C. 2300, in the reigns of Yao and Shun. Everything in this country is old. Centuries are but as years and years are but as days in the history of China, as compared with the mushroom growths of America and modern Europe.
Possessed of a knowledge of letters, architecture, agriculture, and civil government, two thousand years before our era, Chinese civilization was old when Greece and Rome were young, and ten centuries ago China was the most civilized nation in the world. At that time, and subsequently, reports of the wealth and power and Oriental splendor of the Chinese Empire created as much wonderment in Europe as the Chinese of the present day experience when they hear of the power and grandeur of Western nations. Without discussing in this connection the elements of Chinese civilization, we may note the fact that it has wrought out one stupendous result that may well challenge our admiration and invite our studious attention. It has kept nnder one government, under one homogeneous set of civil institutions, the greatest mass of human beings that has ever existed under one government in any age of the world. In view of this fact we might well inquire what are the elements of its strength that have served to accomplish such a result. Geographical isolation, filial piety, industry, innate strength of character, all these have been offered in explanation of this wonderful phenomenon. Perhaps they have all combined, under the over-ruling providence of God, to produce a result that is the marvel of the foreign student of the. history and institutions of this country.
But while this is a highly civilized nation, perhaps as highly civilized as any heathen nation has ever been in the history of the world, yet it is 1I nation of idolaters, sunken in gross and degrading superstitions. Reaching its highest point of development a thousand years ago, it has been on the down grade ever since in all the elements of mental and moral progress, with only occasional periods of temporary recovery. A discussion of the moral and spiritual condition of the Chinese, which I may take up in a future paper, would show that with the multiplication of idols there has come a decrease of moral force, and the .gathering gloom of superstition has so darkened the minds of the people as to practically arrest their progress in material, mental, and moral improvement. The facts that lie on the very surface of their past history and present condition indicate that they have, somewhere in the past, reached a stage of arrested development, and idolatry and superstition are largely the cause of it.
We cannot doubt that it is in the purpose of God that this nation is now being brought into close and vital contact with the great Christian civilization of the West, in order to arouse her from her mental slumber and moral deadness and start her again on the path of progress. It becomes us, therefore, to inquire what are the influences that are being brought to bear upon this great mass of civilized heathenism, how far the people are yielding to those influences, and what is the outlook for the future.
China's relations with foreign countries have been more or less desultory until within the last fifty years. Geographically isolated from the rest of the world, so that she was very difficult of access before the age of steam, she has been left alone, largely, to work out her own destiny, almost wholly uninfluenced by any other than inferior peoples. " But to-day she stands face to face," in the language of one of her most eminent statesmen, "with a condition of things unprecedented in the history of the country. It is the decree of Heaven and we cannot close our doors and refuse to receive foreigners or fold our hands and have nothing to do with them. "
There is reliable evidence that the Chinese had trade relations with the Roman Empire' as early as A.D. 150, but the long and perilous journey to China uver the mountains and high table-lands of Central Asia made the trade uncertain and fragmentary. In the latter half of the ninth century the Arabs carried on trade with the Chinese by means of junks, crossing the Indian Ocean, passing through the Straits of Malacca, and on up the eastern coast of China as far as Hangchow. The visit of Marco Polo to China in the thirteenth century, his long residence here, and the accounts he gave of his observations and experiences, on his return, brought the great Mongol Empire vividly to the attention of Western Europe. One result of this was the sending of Roman Catholic missionaries to China to convert the heathen to the Christian faith. Great success, apparently, attended the labors of these missionaries, but their work was destroyed with the overthrow of the Mongol Dynasty.
In the early part of the sixteenth century Portugal and Holland sought to open up trade relations with the country by sea, and succeeded to some extent in accomplishing their object. It is noteworthy that up to the advent of the Dutch and Portuguese and Spanish traders the country was practically open to foreign trade j but the conquest of Malacca by the Dutch, and of the Philippines by the Spanish, and the taking forcible possession of the region now known as Mac.ao by the Portuguese, together with the buccaneering exploits of the traders from these countries along the coast of China, excited the suspicions of the Chinese, and the country was subsequently closed to foreign trade, except at the port of Canton. British trade with China commencing in the middle of the seventeenth century, and resulting in the Opium War of 1842 and the opening of China to foreign residents, though beginning later than that -of any other nation, has exerted a greater influence on the country than all the other nations of the West combined. Without, however, going into the details of the earlier attempts of the nations of Europe to open up diplomatic and commercial relatious with the Chinese, suffice it to say that it is only within the past fifty years, or, more strictly speaking, within the past thirty years, that the country has been really open to foreign intercourse. The Opium War of 1842, at the conclusion of which Christian England forced heathen China to pay $11,000,000 for the opium which British merchants had smuggled into the country, and which the Chinese Government had seized and destroyed, and also $10,000,000 for war expenses, while it was an act of the grossest injustice, yet in the wonderful providence of God it resulted in a great blessing, not only to China but to the civilized world, in that it opened China to foreign intercourse and to the introduction of Christian missions into the country.
By the Treaty of Nanking, entered into at the close of that war, five ports were opened along the coast of China where foreigners were to be allowed to reside on Chinese soil. Before the opening of these five ports -Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Tientsin-and since the closing of the country against the Dutch and Portuguese traders and the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries, no foreigner had been allowed to reside on Chinese soil, except within the narrow limits of the little compound known as the .. Factories" on the bank of the river at Canton. But now by the terms of this treaty, foreigners, whether missionaries, merchlnts, or government officials, were allowed the right of residence within the borders of the Celestial Kingdom, subject, indeed, still to their own laws, but guaranteed protection to life and property by the Chinese Government. This is not the place to discuss the subject, but a review of foreign intercourse with China shows that at no time, particularly within the last three hundred years, since foreigners have sought to open up trade relations with the Chinese, would it have been safe to have allowed unrestricted intercourse with the peoples of the West. The flagitious conduct of many of the traders that have come to these shores, and the intriguing schemes of the Jesuits for political power and interference with the civil authority, have been entirely sufficient grounds for the fear and suspicion of foreigners entertained by the Chinese, and show only too clearly that had the foreigners been allowed free access to the country, in all probability the government would have crumbled to pieces and the country would have been divided up between the three or four most powerful nations of Europe, especially as it was the general belief in Catholic countries that all pagan lands belonged to the Pope and he could give them to whomsoever he pleased.
At the conclusion of the war between China and the Allies, England and France, an additional number of pClrts were opened to foreigners for residence, and again, in 1876, at the conclusion of the negotiations consequent on the murder of Margary, an English commissioner, by the Chinese in Southwest China, still another number was added to the list of treaty ports, so that now there are twenty-one places on the coast of China and up the Yangtse River where foreigners are allowed to reside, own property, and carryon trade with the Chinese. Originally missionaries were restricted to these treaty ports, but they have long ago overleaped these bounds, and are now to be found in every part of this vast Empire carrying on their work.
In the resistle!!s march of events of this wonderful nineteenth century, the mighty momentum of Christian civilization has struck this country, startling the Chinese out of their mental and moral lethargy, and while they have striven, blindly and foolishly at times, to rcsist the invasion of foreigners and foreign innovations, they have latterly begun to accept the situation and try to adapt themselves to a condition of things that they have found it impossible to avoid, and are, in a word, yielding to the pressure of foreign influence that has been brought to bear upon them with ever-increasing force.
The pressure of foreign influence has been delivered upon the Chinese along three general lines-viz., political, commercial, and missionary. The governments of the West have been urging upon the Chinese the necessity of receiving ministers, consuls, and government agents at Peking and the treaty ports, and of sending similar government agents abroad to the treaty powers, thus entering into the comity of nations, adopting the great principles of international law, and reaping the immense advantages growing out of intercourse with various countries of the world.
Merchants have brought innumerable cargoes of the products of field and factory, of mine and machine, to this country, urging upon the Chinese the advantages of purchasing these goods and of selling to the foreigners their productions, such as silk, tea, porcelain, etc. The merchants have brought here specimens or models or descriptions of nearly all of the principal inventions of the great West, the steam-engine, the steamship, the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, the dynamo, the printing press, mining machinery, etc., :lnd have urged upon the Chinese the necessity of employing these wonderful machines to develop the resources of the country and become great and powerful among the nations of the world. Missionaries have been pressing into the country proclaiming hope for lost men through the Gospel of the Son of God; showing the folly and sin of idolatry; urging the p,eople to forsake their idols and tum to the living God; establishing churches, schools, and hospitals; translating into the Chinese language, religious, educational, and general literature, sC8ttering miIlions of pages annually of Bibles and Christian books over the land, and bringing to the knowledge of the people the wonderful discoveries in religion, science, and general knowledge that to-day constitute the precious heritage of Christian nations. It has required steady pressure and persistent effort to do this work. The Chinese are full of suspicion as to our purpose in coming here. They are ready to attribute to us every motive but the right one. It has been exceedingly difficult, in many towns in the interior, to rent houses, or purchase land on which to erect mission buildings. A fear is entertained by some of the Chinese that when a piece of land is bought by a missionary it thereby becomes a bit of foreign territory. The missionaries are accused of the vilest crimes in the calendar; of kidnapping women and children j of gouging out the eyes of children with which to make medicine to Bend to foreign countries; of being spies in the employ of foreign governments seeking to gain a foothold in the country in order to its ultimate conquest; of trying by the dissemination of strange and pernicious doctrines, to break down all the sanctions of morality and destroy the foundations of social and civil order, etc.
But notwithstanding the difficulties in the way, notwithstanding the fear, the suspicion, the self· conceit and the inertia, the pressure of foreign influence has been l!teady, continuous, and increasing, and we see the result to-day in the movement that is manifest on every hand. The Chinese are yielding to the pressure, slowly, it is true, but nevertheles~ surely. Many whose information is more or less superficial, think: that the Chinese are so proud and self-conceited, so bound to their ancient traditions and averse to anything new as to be altogether impervious to any influence coming from other countries; or else that they are so stolid and sordid, flO gross and material, so sunken in superstition and intellectual stagnation, as to be utterly incapable of being raised to the high plain of thought and spiritual conception contemplated in our Christian civilization. But a nearer view of the history of the Chinese, a closer acquaintance with their national life and character, would serve to dissipate many of these false notions, and give a clearer idea of the nature of those influences that are needed to hring about that improvement which every well-wisher of the race so ardently desires to see.
When we consider the, to the Chinese, long and glorious history of China in the past; the volume and range of her literature, which represents the gathered treasures of forty centuries j the long roll of illustrious sages, statesmen, military heroes, scholars, poets, and philosophers, that adorns the pages of her history; her long-established institutions and the practical outcome of these in good government and social order; we cannot wonder that she is somewhat slow to yield to those influences which come to her from outside nations, whose boasted superiority is bat a growth of yesterday, and the conduct of wh~se people in this country has, in hundreds of instances, flagrantly violated those high moral teachings claimed to be contained in the holy books of the Christians.
But a few facts, out of many here briefly stated, will suffice to show that the Chinese are yielding to the pressure that is being brought to bear upon them, and are moving as fast, perhaps, as it is safe for them to move. Much more rapid movement would bring with it the danger of social and civil upheaval and disintegration. The people must be gradually prepared for the changes before these can with safety be brought about.
In the first place they are yielding along the line of political pressure. Minister, consuls, and other government agents have been received at Peking and the treaty ports from the various treaty powers j Chinese ministers and consuls have been sent abroad to the various governments of Europe and America; in the early part of the present year the Emperor granted an audience to the foreign ministers resident at Peking, and hereafter a similar audience is to be granted to all the ministers of the treaty powers. And to-day these various treaty powers, instead of being looked upon as tributary countries, stand recognized by the Chinese as independent sovereign powers and are treated with on terms of equality and respect. Wheaton's and Brul).tscheIIi's treatises on International Law have been translated into Chinese by Dr. Martin and others, and the leading Chinese government officials have read them and can quote tbe principles of international law as readily as anyone; as, for instance, in the case of the discrimination against the Chinese as compared to other nations, shown by the action of the United States Congress in arbitrarily restricting Chinese immigration, either with or without negotiation with the Chinese Government.
Again, tbe Cbinese are yielding along the line of commercial influence. An immense trade bas grown up with foreign countries. Millions of dollars' worth of goods are brougbt here annually from all tbe countries of the world, principally, of conrse, from Europe and America. The Chinese know a good thing when tbey see it. They know the value of a dollar as well as any people in the world, and when they Bee the abundance, the excellence, tbe cheapness, of the goods tbat are brought to them from foreign countries, they buy them readily and in great quantities. National prejudice, self-conceit, suspicion, and distrust, all' go down in one common ruin before the mighty force of the desire for material gain. The products of the looms of Manchester and Massachusetts are displacing the coarser and more costly native hand-made fabrics; kerosene is superseding the vegetable tallow dips and rushligbts ; Yankee clocks and watches are taking the place of the native sun-dial and the incense time-stick; while California flour and foreign groceries and hardware in great variety are coming in to supply the wants that the native products fail to meet. A fleet of some twenty steamers, owned by the Chine8e Government, and commandp-d by European officers, does a large part of the carrying trade along her fifteen hundred miles of coast line j a short hne of railroad, eighty miles in length, was built in 1888, in North China, from Tientsin to the Kaiping coal mines, and recently steps have been taken to extend this road to the northeastern boundary of the Empire at Shanhaikwan ; two years ago the Emperor issued a decree in which he said that railroads were necessary in order to develop the strength and resources of a country, and ordered the construction of a line of railroad from Peking right down through the centre of the country -to Hankow on the Yangtse River. This road has not been built, owing to the bitter opposition of the members of what may be called the Conservative party among the Emperor's advisers, who have succeeded in staving off the work of construction for the time being. But it is the general belief, both of Chinese and foreigners, that this road will be built before very long. The tele~ graph was introduced in 1881, consequent on the fear of a war with Russia, and it has been gradually extended to every part of the Empire, and has been an important means of strengthening the power of the central government over the provincial governors and viceroys. Mining machinery has been introduced for mining coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, etc.; last year a mint was established in Canton, the machinery of which was purchased in Europe, and already silver dollars and small coin, the product of the mint, are being put into circulation j and as the result of the wars between China and foreign nations, several large arsenals and navy-yards have been established where arms, ammunition, and gunboats are being manufactured after the most approyed European models.
The yielding of the Chinese along the line of missionary pressure is very marked and very encouraging. About fourteen hundred Protestant missionaries, to say nothing of the numerous Roman Catholic missionaries, are established in various parts of the Empire, not only at the open ports, but also away in the interior, in Northern, Western, and Southwestern China, gathering churches, carrying on school and hospital work, and going everywhere preaching the Word by the living voice and the printed page. The various Protestant churches number some forty thousand Christians, which with the baptized children, the candidates for church-membership, and the nominal believers, make up a Christian community of not far short of one hundred and fifty thousand. Three thousand native assistants, preachers, exhorters, licentiates, colporteurs, and Bible-wo~en are helping in the great work of making known the Gospel to their fellow-countrymen; more than fi;e hundred churches have been organized, about one ,fifth of which are self-supporting; there are about seventeen thousand pupils in the various mission schools; three hundred and fifty thousand patients were treated in 1889 in more than one hundred hospitals and dispensaries; and six hundred and sixty-six thousand Scripture portions-that is, whole Bibles, Testaments, Gospels, etc., were sown broadcast over the land. But besides these figures there are numerous indications that the power of the Gospel is being felt in this country, which cannot be tabulated. The pure life, the fervent devotion, the patience under persecution, the triumphant death, of the native Christians prove the genuineness of the work of grace in their hearts. A great change has taken place in many of the older mission centres in the sentiments of the masses of the people toward the missionaries. Instead of being called" foreign devil," we are more frequently greeted with" Mr. Foreigner;" the pcople listen longer and more attentively to the preaching in thc chapels; they are bolder to come to our hospitals for medical treatment and surgical operations; parents are more ready to send thcir children to our pchools, and the people buy and read our books more readily. All these and many other facts, which there is not space to detail here, show that the Chinese are yielding to the pressure. The Gospel is the power of God to the salvation of this people. One other fact ought to be stated in this connection, a great improvement is going on in the educational system of the country, as the combined result of foreign influence. In 1887 Western science and mathematics were, by Imperial decree, introduced into the government examinations ; government schools have been established, with foreign professors, for teaching these subjects and the principal languages of Europe; the government has established a translation department in which foreigners acquainted with the Chinese language are employed to translate works on history, science, mathematics, military tactics, naval architecture, etc., from English and other languages into Chinese; and these translations are being published and disseminated far and wide throughout the country.
The future is full of hope. The tremor of new movements is in the air. We who are here and have a finger upon the pulse of the country, can feel the throb of the new life that is being poured into its arteries. Those are most hopeful who have been longest here and know most of the people, of the difficulties in the way, as well as of the forces that are needed to overcome them. Revolutions never go backward. Progress will be onward and upward. The recent anti-foreign riots along the valley of the Yangtse River will give a temporary check to missionary work, but this check will only be temporary. Foreign influence will be strengthened, ultimately, as the result of these riots, and especially will Christian missions receive a great forward impetus by them. We are already reaping some advantage from these riots. The decree of the Emperor, issued on account of the disturbances, places us in a stronger position than we have ever occupied in the history of mission work in China.
Thus every difficulty will be but the stepping-stone to higher achievement. The work of awakening and improvement is bound to go on Machinery will be introduced and produced in ever-increasing quantities j the material resources of the country will be developed; mines will be opened for coal, iron, copper, silver, gold; improved methods of agricult~re will benefit the farmer; railroads aud steamers will afford raJ;lid cOIll-
THE GREAT MISSIONARY UPRISING
munication and vastly increase trade and production ; the great changes that are even now taking place in the educational system of the country will improve the character while they extend the benefits of education; the newspaper" the telegraph, the telephone, will, as they are already doing, spread general intelligence among the people; while above all, and better than all, the Gospel of the Son of God will go on with ever-increasing power from the vantage ground already gained, until this shall become a Christian nation and the last stronghold of Satan will be captured.
But the Church must rally to the work with her men, her money, and her prayers. We mUl!t haye enough men to do the work. Four hundred millions of people cannot be evangelized by fourteen hundred missionaries. One missionary to fifty thousand people would require eight thousand missionaries for China.
[NOTE.-A copy of the above paper was sent to the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review also; but was intended for insertion in both Reviews. -ED.] THE GREAT MISSIONARY UPRISING.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, BELLEVUE, O.
In Great Britain as the centre, and intimately connected with the organization of the London Missionary Society in 1795, but powerfully affecting also all the Protestant churches of the Continent, and of the United States as well, for years William Carey had stood almost alone in English-speaking Christendom. a voice crying in the wilderness. His heart was well-nigh the only one all aflame for the conversion of the world. Even when the Baptist Society had been formed and Carey had sailed for India, the interest was confined to the Baptist churches of Britain, neither numerous, nor strong, nor held in much repute, and only to a very limited extent even in their membership. Hence, after the long and dreary night, it was but the rising of the day-star that appeared, at most but the day-dawn, or the first blossom of the spring. The glorious sun, the lovely season of buds and flowers, had not yet made its advent.
But under the guidance and inspiration of the Divine Spirit, various cooperating causes had long been preparing the way for a majestic and widespread onward movement in behalf of missions. For fifty years the Wes- 1eyan revival had been turning the religious world upside down and had been kindling on every hand boundless love and zeal, desire and devotion. As far back as 1744 had been originated in Scotland a plan, which was soon adopted by many churches, both in the Old World and the New, for the frequent and regular observance of a day of "extraordinary prayer" for the descent of the Spirit and the spread of the kingdom throughout the whole world; and of late such gatllerings had become much more com- won. In addition, the unexampled missionary activity of the entire Mora,- vian Church ever since 1732, and the self-denying apostolic labors of such as Ziegenbalg and Schwartz in Tranquebar, beginning in 1705, as well as of Brainerd and Edwards (1741-58) among the American Indians, had sup- plied noble examples. Then finally, helping in the same direction, came Carey's great sermon, the sublime act of faith performed at Kettering, and his setting forth for the ends of the earth.
" The first two English missionaries to India seemed, to those who sent them forth, to have disappeared forever. For fourteen months no tidings of their welfare reached the poor praying people of the midlands, who had been emboldened to begin the enterprise." But at last, July 29th, 1794, letters arrived for Ryland, of Bristol, who read them and sent at once for Dr. Bogue, of Gosport, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Mr. Stephen to rejOice with him. First, they all gave thanks, and prayed for a blessing upon the Baptist Society, and then the two latter called upon Mr. Hey, a leading minister, and it was determined to begin at once to agitate for the organization of a simila: society. though with a much broader ecclesiastical basis. Suiting the action to the word, Dr. Bogue prepared an article which appeared in September, in the Evangelical Magazine, addressed to "Evangelical dissenters who practice infant baptism," urging all such to bestir themselves; arguing that the time to begin was fully come; ex- pressing the conviction that many would be found willing and eager to assist if only a few would step forth t6 lead, and that funds sufficient could be gathered to support at le!lst twenty or thirty missionaries. Such in God's hands was" the little fire" which kindled" how great a matter !"
The effect of this clarion call was immediate and profound. The next month it was further stated in the same periodical that, if a society should be formed upon a large scale and upon a basis so broad as to unite Chris- tians " without respect to different denominations, or repulsive distinctions arising from points in dispute between Calvinists and Arminians," one man stood pledged for £100 and another for £500 to equip the first six volun- teers for a mission to the South Seas. Some weeks later appeared the suggestion o,·er the signatures of eighteen Independent, seven Presbyterian, three Wesleyan, and three Episcopal ministers, for a meeting for consulta- tion, urging that in the mean time local and district gatherings be held to stir interest, collect funds, and choose delegates. In July, 1795, another article reached the public from the glowing pen of "T. R." (Raweis, a Church of England clergyman, whose influence through all the years next ensuing was unequalled in raising enthusiasm to the sticking point), " showing the very probable success of a proper mission to the South Seas," giving a long and glowing and inten~ely rose-colored setting forth of the situation in those remote parts, proving conclusively the islands to be a very terrestrial paradise, and the people the loving and lovable inno- cent children of nature. ~ Thus, at length, all things being read)", September, 21st, the mo- mentous meetings began in London. At the very outset subscriptions were made by the country ministers amounting to £750. Many encouraging letters from all parts of the island were read j it was announced that several men were ready to offer themselves, and the vote was unanimous to organ- ize at once. This" fundamental principle" was adopted: "The design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of church order and government (about which there may be differ- ence of opinion among serious persons), but the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the heathen j and it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of His Son from among them to assume for themsel ves such form-of church gov- ernment as to them shall appear most agreeable to the Word of God." For three full days the gatherings continued, with two sermons each day upon pertinent themes from eminent divines, and to audiences" immensely great." It seemed like a new Pentecost" with Christians of all denomi- nations for the first time in the same place, using the same hymns and prayers, and feeling themselves to be one." Two hundred ministers sat together in the galleries j and Dr. Bogue said : " We are called together for the funeral of bigotry j and I hope it will be buried so deep as never to rise again." Vhereat" the whole vast body could scarce refrain from one general shout of joy. . . Such a scene was never, perhaps, before beheld in our world j and it was a foretaste of heaven. • . . We shall account it through eternity a distinguished favor, the highest honor, that we appeared here and gave in our names among the founders of the society. This will be ever remembered by us as the era of Christian benevolence. "
The flame thus kindled in the metropolis quickly spread throughout all Britain j and, of course, it followed at once that money in abundance began to flow in from all quarters. One church in Southampton subscribed £270, and from Market Harborough came £83 Is. 7d. with this word: " No event in life has given me more pleasure than this glorious attempt to send forth the Gospel." The children in a boarding-school, unasked, gave £1 98. 6d. Scotland too was aroused. Missionary societies were formed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, ani before many months had passed nearly £12,000 had been forwarded to the London treasury. Earnest souls upon the Continent dispatched their contributions, amounting erelong to upward of £1500 j so that by the end of October, the directors had £3000 in hand, which, three months later, had more than doubled, and in June, 1796, they could report the receipts at £10,000. Missionaries, too, had offered themselves in encouraging numbers. By midsummer it was decided to purchase a ship and found missions in Otaheite, the Friendly and Pelew Islands, and the Marquesas, with projects looking toward Madagascar, the West Indies, and the north shore of the Caspian, so great was their faith, and so enlarged were their ideas and longings. And thus early the prophetic hope was expressed that this uprising for the world's redemption" will spread to every Christian bosom, to the Dutch, German, American, and all Protestant churches, till the whole professing world shall burn with fervent love, and lab'or to sprelld in every heathen land the sweet savor of the Redeemer's name."
Accordingly, the Duff was purchased at a cost of £4875, and furnished for her long voyage at an additional expense of more than £7000, several years' supplies for the missionaries included. A profit of £5000 was expected from freight to be brought upon the homeward trip. A call was made, and nobly responded to, for books, tools, cooking utensils, instruments, seeds and other supplies; and one poor man expended £2 28. upon six spades, nine' hammers, and four thousand 6d and 10d nails. July 2Rth, 1796, the twenty-nine chosen were solemnly set apart-six of them married, with two childIen, only four of them ordained, one a physician, and the others artisans. Thousands joined in the novel and most impressh'e service, and no less than ten clergymen-Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Independent, Seceder, and Methodist-sharing in the exercises, "showing that affection is increasing between ministers of different denominations, who, previous to this institution, had neither fellowship nor intercourse." In reference to the religious situation it was written soon after: "In no instance in the limits of our recollection has such a ~pirit of prayer and supplication been poured out upon the churches, or such general approbation been discovered. The greatest kindness has been displayed in all departments of the Government. Neither the Council Board nor the Custom House would accept fees." Wednesday, August 10th, at five A.M., the Duff' dropped down from B1ackall to Gravesend, a vast multitude beholding, and came to anchor at t!pithead the Tuesday following. The East India convoy having already sailed, she was compelled (since the French wars were raging) to wait six weeks, at Portsmouth, for the Adamant, a fifty-two gun ship. September 22d found her at St. Helen's. The following day her anchors were finally hoisted and her sails spread for the Antipodes. Thus the great undertaking, followed in Carey's path, three years and a half later than he, and yet-in some respects at least-even outdoing that immortal founder and pioneer. It was now that one moralized with altogether pardonable exaltation of feeling: ., It is highly probable that since the Lord and the apostles, the bosom of the deep has never been graced with such a vessel," or one" in which so many thou~ands of Christians embarked their hopes and followed with their prayers."
What remarkable and rapid growth may be discerned during the period under view! How different all this, for magnitude of operations and for eclat, from the deed of those twelve obscure NorthaUJptonshire Baptist ministers, and their subscription of £13 28. 6d., over whose utter inadequacy and insignificance Rev. Sydney Smith half a generation later could make exceeding merry! For nearly two years, until May, 1798, not a word was heard from Captain 'Wilson and the tremendous ventures made by faith. Leaving the Duff t.o battle for weeks with fearful storms off Cape Horn, and then, baffled, to beat her way past the Cape of Good Hope through 262 0 of longitude, let us glance at certain step8 .:,f progress meantime taken at home. Measures were immediately "et on foot to start a mission in the Foulah country, some 250 miles from Sierra Leone, for which GlaRgow and Edinburgh offered two men each, and the London So- ciety was to add the same number. Plans were also soon laid for a mission to the Cape. In January, 1797, it could be affirmed: "Christians in every corner of the land are meeting in a regnlar manner, and pouring out their souls for God's blessing on the world." And again: "The efforts most successfully made to introduce the Gospel to the South Seas have had a most powerful tendency to unite the devoted servants of Christ of every denomination in the bonds of brotherly love, and to awaken zeal to help the perishin!! multitudes in our own country, and 'also the Jews." ~onth by month came tidings of both local and district movements to raise missionary funds, and to multiply toilerfl at many points in the foreign field, and in every destitute region at home. For this purpose scores of organizations were formE'd in every denomination. In America similar interest prevailed; in Ma8~achusetts and Connecticut, at New York, Philadelphia, and othE'r parts of the country. .Nor waR the enterprise Jess upon the Continent; in Germany, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland associations were also formed. With all these societies, as well as with various individuals, the directors of the London Society opened correspondence for mutual instruction and encouragement. Von Schirnding, a German nobleman, was delighted to hear of the evangelizing projects Oll foot j for years he had been cheriRhing similar schemes. and aided liberally with money and men. Vanderkemp, in Holland, a famed scholar and soldier, and aforetime a pronounced sceptic, offered himself as a messenger of glad tidings to the heathen, and proceeded at once to organize the Netherlands Missionary Society. Inspiring letters came from BasIc, which since 1771 had been the seat of a widespread movement" to maintain evangelical doctrine and piety." Certain devout German brethren sent their congratulations in this fashion: "It is like the dawn promising a beautiful day after the dark night. It is the beginning of a ne,w epoch for the kingdom of God on earth. Your undertaking and its success fills our hearts with joy and our eyes with tears. The history of Great Britain is sanctified by this unparalleled mission. What harmony among different perRu!lsions! You call on the wise and good of every nation to take interest in the work and bear a part. Such a call was never heard of before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be distinguished by it." So it was that the tide of zeal rose and spread.
It was not until May, 1798, that, in a letter from Captain Wilson; written at Canton six months before, the first tidings came from the great missionary venture in the South Seas; and in July following the Puff lay at anchor in the Downs. And now came the climax of exultation and buoyant hope. "Never, perhaps, was an undertaking more completely accomplished. Fifty-one thousand miles have been traversed without the least material loss vr damage. The winds eonE'pired to waft them safely and swiftly to their desired haven. Everywhere they were reeeived by the natives with reverence and delight. All are settled in the islands they preferred, and apparentl.y in the greatest safety. At Otaheite, a most fertile district was bestowed upon them, and a commodious building." Dr. Haweis did not fail to surpass the most fervid and fanciful in his setting forth of the past, present, and future of the mission, in a public address to Captain Wilson.
But the directors well understood that something besides pooans of gladness were in order, and therefore, immediately after a day of thanksgiving had been devoutly obsHved, they met to plan both how to maintain communieations with the brethren already sent forth, and also to found other mISSIOns. Their faith hesitated not to survey a field as broad as this: " Hindustan, the Sandwich Islands, and other groups in the Pacific; the Creek Indians, Canada, the Bermudas, and any West India islands, and any coasts of America or Asia." And presently they notify the churches: "We must have an enlarged supply of money and men. We expect a body of German missionaries, anu we plan to engage a great company and teach them both theological knowledge and also occupations adapted to the islands. " But just now all their energies were bent upon preparing for a Recond voyage of the Duff, with Captain Robson in command. On N 0vembcr 13th, forty-six were in readiness (nineteen single men and ten married, with seven children), and were set apart to their sacred task. On the 20th, the Duff dropped down the Thames and ten days later weighed anchor. December 8th found her with seventy ships at Spithead, where she layover two Sundays on account of fogs; on the 21st a southwest wind was so fierce that the fleet put into Portland Roads, and a day or two later was off under convoy of the frigate Amphion. In the same company sailed the Hillsborough, bearing some hundreds of convicts bound for Botany Bay I and also Dr. Vanderkemp and three companions-Kircherer, Edmonds, and Edwards-en route to found a mission in Cape Colony.
Hitherto, for five years, the tide of good feeling and expectation of large results had heen steadily rising and swelling with scarce a refluent wave. Not a threatening storm-cloud had croRsed the 5ky. But, of course, such conditions could not always continue. This is not God's way with His kingdom. As might have been expected, and as was every way best, a series of trials and tests now ensued in the shape of serious reverses and failures apparently disastrous, coming from yarious quarters, of divers kinds, and in quick succession. The current emotion contained much unhealthy excitement; zeal was ardent, but was not all according to knowledge, and many of the expectations fondly cherished were unreasonable because without groulld. The millennium had not yet dawned, and the victory was not to be won without a fight long and most arduous. It had already been noticed, and with deep anxiety, that scar0ely a minister, and none of note and influence, had of fered himself to go wherever the Lord, through the Society, should send him. 'L'hey who came forward were laymen from the common walks of life, of humble gifts and attainments. Even these had not been sifted with sufficient care, and quite a number proved incompetent, and some even morally unworthy. First, trouble broke out in the company which had been sent to the Foulah country. They separated, some died, and war breaking out among the savages, others left, and so the mission came to grief. Next, early in August, 1799, the directors were stunned by the intelligence that the Duff had been captured by a French privateer in Feb- ruary, when off Rio Janeiro, and had been taken to Montevideo and sold as a prize. The missionaries would be sent home, but the mere money loss was £10,000. On the heels of these evil tidings came the further calamitous news from Otaheite that most of the missionaries left there, their lives in deadly peril, had fled the island, and, by a chance vessel, had transferred themselves to Port Jackson, in New South Wales. Likewise at Tongabatoo calamity had befallen, for some had died, some had fallen into lewdness with the natives and been cut off from fellowship, and civil ~ar had broken out, in which the brethren had been robbed and then expelled. Only from Vanderkemp came words of cheer. He could write that he had made a beginning, and that a " singular interest" had appeared. The" Spirit had begun a good work in some of the most abo ject and uncultured of the race." But there was no flinching or turning back in consequence; without a moment's hesitation, either on the part of the directors or the Christian public, the task was resolutely taken up, both of repairing the damage and of sending reinforcements to the Sout h Seas and to South Africa. By May, 1800, a contingent of sixteen men had been dispatched.
For lack of space I can follow no further the thrilling story of the London Society, wh08e beginnings were so glorious, as well as of such moment both to Christendom and to the whole heathen world. It was not long after the hopes of so many of the earnest-hearted had been so rudely hurled from the zenith to the nadir, that theY'began again slowly and steadily to rise.. One by one the various denominations which had been in hearty co-operation began to withdraw, and, as perhaps was wisest, to set up societies for themselves-the Episcopalians in 1799 leading the way, and finally the Independents were left practically alone. The South Sea~ proved to be no 8inless, stormless Eden, and their inhabitants to be of a piece with savages elsewhere. Many reverses were yet in store, and long waiting for the first-fruits was required. But island after island, continent after continent was occupied for the Magter, and by such heroes of faith as Ellis, Livingstone. Moffat, Milne, Morrison, Medhurst, Vanderkemp, and John Williams the martyr of Erromanga. Early in the century, India, China, and the West Indies were entered-Madagascar (a shining marvel
AN EVANGELISTIC 'l'otrn !N .tAPAN
among missions) in 1818, and others subsequently. As late as 1810 the income was but $5298 ; in 1856 it had risen only to $8233.; but in 1890 was upward of $600,000, with one sixth of the amount derived from the mission stations. The four ordained and one medical missionary of 1795 have increased to 159, with 1202 ordained native pastors. Thongh various missions have become self· sustaining, or have been turned over to other societies, almost 70,000 members are found in the churches and 110,000 pupils in the schools. No m.ortal can say how many organizations, both in the Old World and the New, owe their origin directly or indirectly to that great missionary uprising in the last decade of the eighteenth century, of which the London Society was both the effect and the cause.
.AN EVANGELISTIO TOUR IN JAPAN.
BY REV. FREDERICK s. CURTIS, HIROSHIMA, JAP.A.N.
Early in June, 1891, in company with a Japanese brother, I left Hiroshima for a two weeks' trip among the villages in the vicinity. The first village, two hours' ride by jinricksha from Hiroshima, is Kabe, where we opened the work a few weeks ago. After weeks of effort we were at length able to secure a small house here, which will serve as a preaching place for a time. Immediately after our first meeting, Buddhist lecturers were summoned, who were expected by their harangue to nip Christianity in the bud. But though much opposition has been raised, the handful of Christians remain steadfast, and a few inquirers regularly attend the meetings. We stopped at Kabe for an hour and talked with the leading Christian there, who was formerly an elder in one of the Tokyo churches. As we were about to leave, he desired that we should have a brief prayer together, and prayed for the blessing of God upon this evangelistic tour. It was with overflowing heart that I followed him in prayer. I am rejoiced that the Japanese brethren are so ready for prayer at all times. I am rejoiced, too, that through the example of a brother missionary I came to see the importance of learning to prllY, even before learning to preach or to converse, in Japanese. There are few rarer pleasures than this, to unite one's heart in supplication to our common Lord with those who have been rescued from the darkness of heathenism.
A few miles beyond Kabe we overtook two others travelling toward the same destination. One of these proved to be a man who had come to my house a few weeks before to inquire about'Christianity. As we journeyed together we talked further of the way of salvation. The other travellera member of one of the Osaka churches-with his friend, came to our hotel in the Qvening, when we talked and prayed together before going to the theatre meeting. In the theatre a few small lamps suspended here and there, and a candle placed on the speaker's table, with now and then the glare of a match used in lighting the pipe of a hearer, supplied all the illumination. Since the building was about as large, and resembled in other respects a faif-sized barn, one may weJl imagine that it was far from being well lighted. Here some 250 people assembled, and, seated on the hard floors covered with coarse matting, listened with the utmost quiet and attention. We returned to our hotel rejoicing in the blessing of God, for we had heard that Yoshida was a hard place, and had gone to the theatre prepared for a noisy time-opposition from the Buddhists. However, next day pushing on to Miyoshi, a place of about 20,000 people, and in the evening holding another meeting with about the same attendance as at YoshIda, we found here the opposition we had expected at the former place. In these large meetings the Japanese usually speak first; otherwise some of the people go away after they have seen and heard the foreigner, who is still an object of curiosity in the country.
OUf speeches were frequently iuterrupted by cries in English of " No, no!" or in Japanese, " The Jesus religion won't do," or " Cast this foreign religion out of our country!" Also by various quotations from the sages, with other remarks mnde to cause a laugh.
The next day at our hotel we talked with quite a number of inquirers, and held a meeting with some of these and the two or three Christians we had found. I spoke especially of the Scripture proof of the immortality of the soul and of the divinity of Christ. Later, when the question of the use of "sake" (Japanese wine) and tobacco, came up for discussion, I explained the principle upon which we must judge; that since our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, in God's sight all is sin that injures the body. I felt much blessed in thus speaking, also in prayer. Before the theatre meeting of the second evening in Miyoshi, we took the precaution to provide a larger number of lamps, that the Buddhist priests and young men who were inclined to make a disturbance might not do so unobserved. While waiting for the people to assemble (a thing often done in Japan) I sat near the front of the platform and chatted with the boys about America, in which they seemed greatly interested.
I followed the Japanese speaker with a short sermon, and we were about to dismiss the meeting, which had been a noisy one, but when I saw that the majority of the 500 seemed disinclined to go, I determined to make a venture, so I told them that the whole meeting thus far having been much shorter than nsual, if they so desired I would speak again. To my surprise the entire audience sat down and called for the speech. After I had been speaking for a few minutes, or, rather, reading (for thus far I have been obliged to read the greater part of my sermons), it came over me with great power that I mnst speak, so I cast myself on the Lord and spoke as the Spirit directed. In one of these extemporaneous parts, desiring to illustrate the heinousness' of the sin of rejecting Christ I told the andience that the sin of the Japanese policeman who near Kyoto recently attempted to kill the Prince Imperial of Russia, was not nearly so great as that of rejecting the Prince of Life. As I thus spoke there was the great- est attentiun, and I trust also some impression was made. Though I had been working at the language for three years, and recently had spohn quite often, I had not felt at all sure that the masses understood me ; but now becoming fully convinced of this, and being so filled with joy that the audience had asked me to speak the second time, I could scarcely slee"p. At the close of the service the Christjans and a number of inquirer!! accompanied us to our rooms, and as usual remained till midnight talking of the things of the Kingdom. Among these inquirers the most interesting case was that of a young Buddhist priest named Chiba, who at the age of eleven took up his calling at the instance of his father and elder brother; but some time since in Kyoto, having come into posse~sion of a Bible, and learning something about Chris!ianity, he had come to us to learn more. In reply to my question as to the object of his search, he said that since he heard of Christ he could not be satisfied with Buddhism.
This young man is now twenty years of age, and next year is entitled to take charge of a temple. That he will not do this we fully believe.
The following morning we retraced our steps, and stopping to preach at Kabe, chiefly to the handful of Christians there, I returned to Hiroshima that night.
The following day, with the same Japanese brother, after teaching the teachers' meeting, we took the steamer for I wakuni. That evening at Shimminato, the seaport of Iwakuni, we hired the lower floor of a hotel .. and advertised a lecture on Christianity. In this rough place some 150 people crowded into the room and listened attentively. Going on to Iwakuni I preached to the Christians about finding Jesus in the Scriptures, and in the afternoon had a long converl3ation with some of the brethren in regard to persecution. Even in Japan persecution is no small matter. In the experience of many of the Japanese Christians a man's foes are they of his own household. In the early evening I called to see one of the officials who, with his wife, is searching the Scriptures. They seemed delighted to see me, and it was a matter of great regret that I had so few minutes with them. I urged them to make a practical test of every new truth they found, prayed with them, and went on to Imadzu "illage to hold a preaching service. In the meeting-place some 200 people gathered. Heretofore I had always read at least the greater part of my sermon; but here, for the first time, with the Japanese New Testament and a brief outline, I spoke extemporaneously; and, though conscious of some grammatical errors, I felt much blessed in thns speaking. The following day returning overland, and remaining over the next night at y'okkaichi, I had the privilege of speakiug at the first Christiau meeting ever held there. About 500 crowded into the single room and overflowed. In the midst of my sermon some one cried out, "God made the body but not the soul." I replied that we were not there to argue that point; but to tell them what Christianity taught. The Japanese speaker who followed
ONE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE LAND
me told the audience that he would answer any questions III regard to Christianity.
There was a little hesitation; but finally some one said, " Is Buddha the savioar of Mida~" (Amida). He meant to say," Is Buddha the sa.·iour of men ?" At this the audience laughed heartily.
. The speaker replied, "I suppose you meant to say men instead of Mida ;" and went on to give a brief history of Buddha, showing him to be but a man, and therefore unable to save the soul.
Going on to Takewara, we held a large meeting. My subject was "Sin"-something very difficult for the Japanese mind to comprehend. In fact, as has so often been said, there is no word in the Japanese lan- guage to adequately express the Bible term sin. Before I preached, thrce boys delivered addresses on Christianity. The precocity of Young Japan may be fairly illustrated by the fact that these boys, aged eleven and twelve years, had chosen their themes' and prepared their addresses with but little help from others. These addresses, though short-·about three to five minutes each-werp. really very good, and delivered with absolute composure. Is it any wonder that the Japanese nation thinks it can do anything?
The subjects treated were: "The one true God," " All the blessings of mankind come from God," and" Pride makes men blind."
The following day, with the Japanese preacher located at Takewara, I .. went to a place called Mitsu, which being off the main road, it is probable that no foreign face had el'er been seen there before. Accordingly the people flocked to see me, gathering in front of the hotel and at the theatre. In this place we had two direct answers to prayer-in regard to the renting of the theatre and the attention of the people. The next day (Sunday) I spent in Takewara, and admitted to the communion two in addition to seven received early in the year.
On Monday I returned to Hiroshima, during the two weeks having held 15 meetings, with an aggregate attendance of 2500 people. In all prob- ability the majority of these had never heard of Christ before. I thank God for this privilege of preaching the Gospel where Christ had not been named.
July 10, 1891.
ONE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE LAND.
BY C. J. vas KAMP, CANTON, CHINA.
On September 29th, 1891, our beloved pastor, Wong Kong Fuk died. He was one of the few faithful in the land; a man full of energy aM talent, who truly loved his Saviour, and labored in the service of the Mas- ter with his whole heart. He accomflished great things in his missionary station at Fayen, forty miles north of Canton, and many heathen were . converted through him. In the first years of my sojourn here I was permitted to make a few tours with him into the villages of the district of Fayen so as to preach the Gospel to the heathen. I see him yet, sitting in the tents of the Chinese, the gracious smile on his lips, surrounded by his eager listeners, to whom he is showing the nothingness of idolatry and the riches of the Saviour's love. How eloquent were his words! How well he knew how to captivate his hearers by new illustrations and skilful reasoning! How the Christians loved and honored him! With what a great respect the heathen regarded him! He brought Christ's name into his missionary station. One seldom heard a reviling word in the places where he preached. Thus the soil was prepared for the Gospel; ahd we may hope that many more in that field will find their eternal and full salvation.
A few days ago, as I was travelling toward Fayen with four students of our theological seminary, to conduct the funeral service of Wong Kong Fuk, I stopped at the large village of Thaiwuschak. Here, forty-three years ago, Wong Kong Fuk was born, and here he died. Here he also heard from the mouth of the Rev. Hauspach the words of l!fe which have been dear to him since his conversion as a stronghold in life and in death.
The narrow streets of the village, with the huts of limestone, were almost deserted. Only a few half-naked children play at the pond by the bamboo grove. I enter the open square with my companion, the student Khyamfuk.
Two high, red-painted poles point out to me the ancestral hall. A few Christians who are standing there hurry toward me, and, bowed and silent, extend to me their hand, and lead me into a hut where they offer me a cup of tea. Meanwhile the brethren, who have gathered from the most distant villages to the burial, come to greet me. A deep sorrow rests upon the men because of the death of their beloved spiritual leader.
" We are assembled to the funeral service," says Tschin. I put on my gown, tak~ the Bible and the Chinese hymn-book and stepped out into the open square in front of the ancestry hall. It was yet early in the day ; the sun had not yet sent down her beams in full force. There stood the coffin, covered with a blue bier-cloth, on which were embroidered Chinese char- acters. Dear disciples of the Saviour had sent it to their brethren in China as a greeting of the Risen One who also shall resurrect His own. There are also the large banners with the promises of comfort out of the Word of God concerning victory over death and immortal life in Christ. Com- pared with the heathen" Firlefanz," with which the heathen are buried, how delightful to eye and heart stand these banners with their beautiful Chinese characters. '
Several months before, when we buried a Christian in Canton, several scholars carried this banner through the city. They attracted the attention of the people, and many stood staring. "They appear as though they would like to march out to war," said a farmer, who had earnestly studied the text, and to whom the words, "I live, and ye shall live also," " The wages of sin is death," " Christ is the life, death is gain," and other words,
'rilE CALL TO pnAYElt
were a riddle to him. "They appear to be actors," said a second. A reader of books declared, "They are Christians," "adherents to the Jesus-religion." "So they are Jesus-people!" said the others, gazed once more upon the wonderful banner, and went their way.
Eight musicians were present, and with their funeral melodies accom- , panied the dead to his grave. These were engaged by the heathen elders of the village to render final honors to their dead.
We began by singing a song of life and resurrection. A large crowd surround the coffin. The immediate relatives of Wong Kong Fuk wear straw garments. a wreath of straw in their hair, and in their hands they carry a short bamboo rod, bowed and crooked; according to custom they thus escort their dead. A blue ribbon-the emblem of mourning-is braided in the queue just as we wear a band of crape about the arm or hat. The Christians wear white garments and caps, and they are a large number who have confessed the name of Christ in Fayen. Many of the heathen stand in the rear j for all knew and loved the Shepherd Wong. I made a short address based on Rev. 14 : 13 : "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." There was much weeping among the people, and tears fell from the eyes of many of the heathen. The Chinese know so well how to control their emotions j but here was refiected in their tears the love they felt for the dead. Tschin spoke after me, and mentioned his dying words: " Willingly I depart, for God will care for mine. Do you faith- full y carryon the work." The assistant, H yn, then offered prayer, after which I advanced to the coffin and pronounced a bJessing Over the remains.
The service made a deep impression on the heathen. How different this sorrow blessed of God from the cry and tumult of a hpathen burial, which only reveals fear and confusion before the King of Terror! The coffin was lifted, and the long procession started. The shrill tones of the bamboo fiutel' mingled with the clanging of the gongs. The Chinese music seemed to me a distressing discord, but I was obliged to endure it in silence. .
On the hill opposite the village is the grave in which we laid the body, and beyond lies the land where the light wrestles with the black darkness of heathenism. God grant His Word power and a triumphant ·ictory !
[Tran8lated from the German by M. M. Minnassian, A.B.] THE CALL TO PRAYER.
[EDITORIAL, A. T. P.] The editor feels the profoundest respect and reverence for that foremost of all missionary organizations, the Church Missionary Society, and a1though it is somewhat Jate to refer to this, its day of intercession for foreign missions in 1890 furnishes an example for all of us to follow.
The m'e of St. Andrew's Day, November 29th, and the week which it introduced, were made a period of special prayer for missions, and the prayer of Asa was adopted as a fit motto. We venture at this late day to make quotations from the re~arkable circular issued by this grand society in connection with this movement : " Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power. Help us, 0 Lord our God j for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. 0 Lord, Thou art our God j let not man prevail against Thee. "
"This prayer of Asa, when going forth agamst overwhelming odds, may well stand out prominently in the minds of all who are taking an intelligent and prayerful interest in the carrying out of the Master's great missionary commission, as they thankf.lily approach the observance of the Day of Intercession, and realize that a great coneert of prayer will be ascending at that time, not simply from the world -wide Anglican communion, but also from almost all Protestant Christian communities, who find in the active work of proclaiming Christ's salvation a common interest, and at the throne of grace a common platform where all can unite, and thus co-operate in one common object."
" Asa's prayer is very apposite to the present position and opportunities. Fresh fields for conquest opening on all sides; 'many adversaries' more. busy and persistent than ever; only too successful attacks of the great enemy on infant Christian communities; his devices manifest in complications and difficulties even among brethren, overwheliiting demands which the very success of the work and growth of interest in it impose, requiring prayerful patience and earnest deliberation j these are some of the marked features of the time, calling for a large exhibition of the spirit breathed in Asa's prayer as he faced the great emergency with " The Cry of Faith, ' Help us, 0 Lord our God. ' " The Repose of Faith, , 'Ve rest on Thee.' " The Energy of Faith, ' In Thy name we go.' " " The remarkable appeal, signed by several prominent friends of the society, who met last July in private conference at Keswick, calling on the committee to organize' an advance on a large scale, under the directing hand of God,' is based on a review of the' needs of the heathen, and of the marvellous openings which God is providing at this time.' There are indeed marvellous openings. Africa is becoming accessible in all directions. Let special prayer be made for the Nyanza party uuder Bishop Tucker; for the Upper Niger and Soudan Mission, where an attempt is being made, fraught with promise, and with early tokens of the good hand of the Lord upon the workers, to penetrate the Central Soudan. The Imperial British East Africa Company is opening the direct route from Mombasa to the Nyanza, known as Bishop Hannington'tl route, and are cordially inviting the society to avail itself of the opelJings. China is an open field to all who will venture in. Calls reach the committee to man vigorously the frontier stations of the Punjab and Sindh Mission, so as to be in readiness as Central Asia opens its doors for the evangelist. In countries already occupied, the opportunities for evangelization demand large reinforcements; and prayer should earnestly be made that the native Christian communities in these countries may themselves be privileged to supply in large measure . the missionarieR needed in order that their own countrymen may be evan- gelized. The very magnitude of the work opening up might well appall, but for all which is implied in t.he liberty to cry, ' Help us, 0 Lord our God.' "
" A favorable symptom, as evidencing the reality of the work and the impression that is being produced by it, may be found in the increasing hostility manifested to the spread of the Gospel. In many of the older misaions of the society tho missionary may truly say, ' A great door and effectual is opened, and there are many adversaries.' This is especially noticeable in many parts of India, particularly at present among the Mo- hammedans in the Punjab, who have taken vigorous steps to stop the work carried on among their women by the Zenana missionary ladies. But the saIne spirit is apparent elsewhere, and is developing markedly in Japan and in Bagdad after the baptism of a Mohammedan convert; while political opposition is hindering the work in Palestine. Prayer is especially needed for the guidance of the missionaries by the holy Spirit, that they may act with judgment as well as with zeal j and for all inquirers after truth, and for those who are convinced of the truth, that they may be enabled to withstand the fiery ordeal of persecution, and to come out boldly to confess the faith of Christ crucified, even though it be unto death."
" The marked growth of interest in the cause among Christians at home, while full of encouragement, and a:/l.,ding ground for devout thanksgiving, brings with it special dangers and difficulties, and may well demand a large share in the prayers of God's people. The number of home workers, or professing workers, is largely increasing. This is evidenced by the increase, both in the number ,of unions of various kinds, and by the increase of their members. The Gleaners' Union, every member of which is pledged to do something for the cause, now numbers 28,000 enrolled members. If all are doing each what he or she can in the name of the Lord, and relying on the Holy Spirit's enabling grace, what may not be effected? Prayer with reference to all these tokens of growing interest is suggested in a twofold direction : " (a) That there may be no disposition to trust in mere numbers, remembering Asa's prayer: 'It is nothing with Thee to help, whethp.r with many or with them that have no power. '
" (b) That God the Holy Spirit may sift the workers, and bring to the front those whom He is calling aud equipping for the work. Of Gideon's army of 32,000 there were left but 300, the faithful few by whom the Lord would save Israel and deliver the enemy into their hands."
" Quality, rather than quantity, is needed. Let earnest supplication be made that a vast number of volunteers both from England and from every congregation in the mission field may be raised up duly qualified, and may abide the Lord's test. "
"The present position, difficulties, and opportunities of the society may well cause all who realize what is the present demand. in the Church of Christ to cry, ' Who is sufficient for these things?' 'Our sufficiency is of God. ' Let this period of intercession send His people to their knees with the cry of faith, 'Help us, 0 Lord our God j , and bring to each one the Repose of Faith which a realized dependence on Him must bring, • We rest on Thee j' and send us forth with the Energy of Faith, th<1t rests not, to stop and weigh the difficulties of the situation, but boldly takes as its watchword' In Thy name we go.' What encouragements may be drawn from the experience of the past j what incentives from the bright outlook of the future I"
" And in adopting Asa's prllyer, what reason there is to add his son Jehoshaphat's method, who, in similar straits to those of his father, followed his example of prayer. 'Oh, our God, we have no might, neither know we what to do j but our eyes are upon Thee; , and then, going in the name of the Lord, and when he had taken counsel with the people, , appointed them that should sing unto the Lord and praise the beauty of holiness' as they went before the army, and sang, 'Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.' "
"Compassed with the Song of Praise the Lord's army shall go forth , steadfast, unmovable,' always abounding in the work of the Lord."
" Let earnest prayer be made that. all who engage in any department of this great work may indeed, filled with the Energy of Faith by the Divine Spirit, go in the name of the Lord-in that all-victorious name to which every knee shall bow, and through which God giveth the victory. The work is not man's but God's j the object is not of human will, but of Divine purpose, for His glory in the conversion of souls and the building up of His Church. The issue must be sure, for the appeal. be. the ad versary who he may, is conclusive, , Let not man prevail against Thee.' "
A little lad who had become interested in gathering money to send the Gospel to the heathen, hit upon this happy device. He rummaged in the garret and found an old-fashioned powder-horn. which he decided to make into a missionary box. His older brother Raid he might have the horn, but wondered what he was going to do with it. The large end of the horn had a wooden bottom, and Eddie scraped it smooth, and asked his brother if he would cut some letters on it. " Yes," said his brother, and Eddie gave him these words: " Once I was the horn of an ox, Now I am a missionary box.·'
Eddie inked the letters, and then as he showed his box to his friends they were all so pleased with his ingenuity that they all put something into it, and he became a large contributor.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. CO. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
CHINA.
-The Rev. Timothy Richard, in the May Missionary Herald of the English BaptiRts, says, writing from Tientsin: "From a political point of view, China has had a sad year. The population of China increases at the rate of/our million8 a year-forty millions (as much as all the Germans) every ten years. Without new means of support, this increase of population means the increased poverty of the existing inhabitants. As these arc already as poor as they can be and live, every increase means death. This is literally true. Under various names-droughts, floods, etc.-about twenty millions must have perished from starvation during the last dozen years. This year, in the province where Peking and Tientsin are situated, we have great floods such as they have not experienced here since the memory of the oldest living, and a few millions are expected to die before next year's wheat harvest. The saddest thing about all this poverty and starvation is that not one in a thousand of the Mandarins either knows the cause or the remedy. Such as did know, like the Marquis Tseng, who had been Minister to England, and his uncle the Viceroy of Nankin, and especially the Emperor's father (the Seventh Prince) have suddenly been cut off by denth. Now, alas! few of the remaining Manllarins know how to save their country."
-There having been a renewal of disgraceful calumnies again~t the Christian missions, especially the Roman Catholic, the Shanghai Conference has appointed seven to publish a refutation of them.
-Dr. Russell Watson, English Baptist medical missionary at Tsing Chu Fu, reports their having trp.ated over 12,000 cases during the year.
-China'8.JIillion8 for May announces the arrival, and gives portraits of 35 Scandinavian missionaries (17 male, 18 female) who arrived at Shanghai in February from America, and the names of 8 gentlemen and 7 ladies who arrived in March. "Part of the coming thousand." Sixteen of the Scandinavian brethren from America (C. 1. M.) had left Shanghai for Shan-se, under Messrs. D. Lawson and Peat. where Mr. Russell would snperintend their studies, locating them in little parties in small places within easy reach of Hiao-'i.
-The Rev. W. S. Swanson, formerly missionary at Amoy, said, at the anniversary of the London Missionary Society: "In 1800 of east longitude it does not seem to matter whether you are an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Congregationalist. You are face to face with the great work of Christ, and your confession of faith may be summed up in this: that all men are sinners, and Jesus Christ, God's only Son, is able to save to the uttermost. That is a working creed. "
Mr. Swanson added that" there were five hundred millions of Chinese in the world. The Chinaman was an individual with some backbone in him; but the Chinese woman had several backbones in her. If they could get the women of China to become Christians they had solved the question. "
-The Roman Catho;ic mission in South Shartung, under BiRhop Anzer, has exchanged the French protectorate for the German. The Catholics in China seem to have a great many diplomatic difficulties which, as the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift suggests, can hardly be very advantageous to Christianity. "The less inclined missionari~s are to invoke diplomatic intervention, the mme rarely the strong arm of a Western power interposes in their affairs, the better. The broken reeds of Egypt have always shown themselves to be an ominous support." The same hishop (we think it was) probably accomplished more for the Gospel when he sold his house and offered his jewelled mitre for sale to find bread for the famishing.
-We know that " Christianity has materially modified the languages of the West, and that it is modifying, and will still further modify, the language of China. We know that Chinel:le is not so inflexible as the scholars of China believe it to be. If it were so, the Chinese could never possess anything but a stunted and attenuated Christianity, for at the present moment it has no fit terminology in which to express properly many of the grandest and most important thoughts that God has given to us through the Gospel of His Son. But all modifications of language must be within certain limits, and, moreover, they must be a gradual growth. "-Chinese Recorder.
– The Chinese Churchman (cited in the Spirit of Missions) remarks that for the first time, in Government proclamations, Christianity has been raised above the category of " Little Teaehings;" and for the first time our Lord Jesus Christ has been given a higher place t:18n Mohammed.
-The New York Recorder (iikewise quoted in the Spirit of Mi88ions) says, with reference to recent troubles: "The American Govemment should not be precipitate in dealing with China in taking' joint action' with other Powers, in any policy that looks like what the London Times advises as ' severe measures.' Joint action, and especially under the lead of France, as is proposed, would be a surrender of whatever little influence we possess in that empire. It would be the furtherance of European Bmbitions in China, which would do no good either to our commerce or national prestige."
-The London MiRsionary Society has reconstituted its Board of Directors on a more thoroughly representative basis, tal_ng precautions against giving London too large a proportion, and making arrangements for a more frequent attendance of the directors from the provinces. In view, also, of the danger that the society may become merely Congregationalist, they have invited each of the three Preshyterian churches of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland to nomi.nate a director.
-George Miiller, in his address on Faith, at Basel, reported in the Neukirchene1' Heidenbote, takes pains to correct an opinion which many may have derived from his course. He says: "To make known the pecuniary wants of benevol(nt enterprises to their friends is something which I do not regard as unscriptural. Still less do I regard it as a sin. But I have refrained from it for this reason-naulely, because through my pastoral activity and my wide correspondence, I had learned, that of nothing is the Church of God so in need as of a greater faith. Many things were needed, but nothing, nothing, nothing so sorely as an iMrease of faith. And therefore it appeared to me, if I could carryon the work of the Lord without appealing to anyone except God for help, that would be a proof that even in the nineteenth century the living God is still here, that even, although the prophets have fallen asleep, yet the God of the prophets lives, and that the Lord and Master of the apostles yet Jives."
-" Certain languages are mighty conquerors. They almost divide the world between them, while others are fast dying out. The whole Bible has been provided in all the great conquering tongues. "-Ohurch Missionary lntelligencer.
-Northern Africa ~ays: "In those churches where there is good teaching as well as good working, we generally find good candidates and the most liberal givers. Of the twelve it is said that He ordained them that they should be with Him. They were then prepared not only by his teaching, but by watching how He Himself worked. We feel the need of just these two things in candidates-they need good teaching and they alRO need to be shown how to work by Rome one able to work efficiently. In our evangelistic missions there may have been great blessing by preaching some truths that had been much neglected, but tllere has also been a danger of neglecting and even despising dry theology, which is now producing a shallow type of Christian. Might not a good deal that is now left to colleges" (i.e., seminaries) " be done in the churches l May God help us to maintain the balance of truth, and in cvery way so to teach and labor that a generation of sturdy and consecrated men, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, may be prepared for the foreign and home fields. "
N01·thern Africa, speaking of its work among the Arabs, says: "The Church seems, like Hagar of old, to have left Ishmael to die, but the God of Abraham has not forgotten the prayer offered more than three thousand years ago by him whom He deigned to call his friend, 'Oh that Ishmacl might live before Thee,' a prayer that is to be answered not only in respect to the lad, but also his descendants."
– " Modern missions have been long favored to carryon their work in all quietness. Their voice has not been heard in the street. For decadeR the world scarcely took note of them, unless, indeed, to mock at them. This place under the cross has been both a defence and a blessing. Yet even this beautiful time of youth had its drawbacks. Doubtless it involved a certain narrowness-flight of the world, as they say now. Yet of this they have no great occasion to be ashamed j it is a reproach which they share with the apostolic age. But with all their imperfections they laid hold of the mission work in its innermost essence, extended the Kingdom after the manner of the Kingdom, saved souls, laid the One Foundation Jesus Christ, wrought from below up, and went from small things to larger.
"This time of stillness and neglect on the part of the world is now gone by for missions. Doubtless there is here anadvance ; the child has become a ma,n, who takes a place in the world's history. The world, therefore, naturally finds now occasion to define its position as to missions. Missions must be carried on ; that is now agreed. But the world is not at all pleased with the way they are carried on. It seeks to influence them, to give them a totally new direction, to alter them fundamentally, and 80 to trouble them in their very end."-Dr. VYARNECK.
-Men would have missions, remarks Dr. Warneck, leave the apostolic for the mediooval method. That explains why, especially in Germany, Rome and her methods are coming to be so vehemently admired, and the patient humbleness of evangelical missions misliked, as by the world" thc folly of the cross" has ever been. But the end of missions, as given by Christ, is as fixed as the methods of missions are left by Him flexible. Jesus is not only the origin, He is the prototype of the work. As Luke says, He began to do and teach, and after Pentecost He proceeded to do and teach through His messengers. The work which is a continuance of His is the work of Christian missions; no other is. Forgiveness of sins and eternalli{e are what He came to bring; that must be, fundamentaily, what they go to offer. " The foreign mission work differs from the pastoral work in this, and this alone; it is a new "message. This involves many differences in form, but none in substance. The salvation of souls is the central work at home and abroad. The degeneration of the work of" Christ's menssengers begins when, either here or there, this is thrust out of the centre.
-The Indian Watchman, of Bombay, and the Kaukab i Hind plead for a larger incorporation of Eurasian Christians in mission work. Their mixed blood makes them natural mediators between Europe and Asia.
-The LeipRic Missionary Society is entering on thc second half-centuryof the renewed Lutheran Tamil Mission in the Madras Presidency. This mission is hot one of the most showy ones, but its work seems to be marked by a decided measure of what the Germans call Gediegenheit-i.e., well-compacted solidity and scripturalness.
-Awake, the little magazine for children published by the Church Missionary Society, in a very animated description of India, quotes thc remark of a great French writer: "Hinduism is, perhaps, the only system of belief that is worse than having no religion at all. "
-Dr. Hooper, in the Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer for March, 1891, remarks that while Christianity has shown an extraordinary power in leavening other religions whose basis remained irreconcilable with it, Islam, equally theistic, has had no leavening power at all. Sikhism has been greatly modified externally by it, but internally remains as intensely pantheistic as any other form of Hinduism.
Arya Samaj. which is rather waxing, while Brahmo Samaj is rather waning, is, unlike the latter, cold in its theism, unfriendly to British rule, and hostile to Christianity, to which the Brahmo Samaj, as a body, has always been cordial. But the extrav!lgant misinterpretation of the Rig Veda on which Arya Bamaj rests contains, remarks Dr. Hooper, the certainty of its ultimate break-up. Meanwhile .Arya Samaj does not hesitate to revile Christianity, and our Lord Himself, in the most scurrilous way, and is meeting with a good deal of present success, especially by its appeal to national feeling.
-The Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missionsblatt says, what in our smiling, we might say smirking age, we seem desperately determined to forget. "We know from the Lord's parables of the fourfold field, of the tares among the wheat, of the broad and narrow way, that He has never expected the conversion of all men. Where He and His messengers sow the good seed, there the enemy follows on the traces, sowing the evil seed. Alongside of the mission of Christ there goes through all peoples and ages a mission of the devil, which is quite as successful, nay, outwardly seems often iar more successful than the mission of Christ." It if! not every place of which Christ says: " I have much people in this city.o, It surely should be enough for the messenger of salvation, as the Missions- " blatt says, to know that God's ,Vord will infallibly accomplish "that whereto He sent it."
-Alfred S. Dyer, in National Righteousness, writing of "The Great Plague of Asia," says: "He is no friend of God or humanity who attempts to underrate the gravity of the opium scourge, which is not now confined to China alone. India, Burmah, Ceylon, arid other parts of Asia are involved. In and from every British port, from Bombay to Shanghai, the plague is spreading." The curse. therefore, which India, under British compulsion, has sent out to China, appears to be returning to plague herself.
-The Monthly says: "A grave discouragement to Christian workers in Palestine is, that it has attracted and is attracting to itself many spiritual eccentrics who surround earnest Christianity with disastrous, and sometimes with ridiculous associations. The Holy Land has a strange mystic charm for many sorts of romantic souls, from Lady Hester Stanhope to Israel Pick and the American Adventists."
-IIenri Draussin, in L'Eglise Libre, referring to the pompous and almost impiously sycophantic reception given to the Protestant queen of Madagascar, at the opening of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Antananarivo, says: "At the risk of being stigmatized as hopelessly English, we avow that this sort of politico-religious manamvring, this shrewd medley of mass and flattery, this accommodation of the anathemas of Catholic dogmas against heresy to the interested designs of a propaganda which is bent at all costs on winning over a crowned head, seem to us of ill augury. " Especially does M. Draussin censure the complaisance of the national agents toward designs so unfriendly to freedom and to a free Gos'pel.
-Le National, in its frantic hatred of the Protestant friends, French and English, of Hova rights against French aggressions, is not ashamed to renew the charge againilt the Rev. Mr. Shaw of having poisoned the wine of the French soldiers in Madagascar! The slander is too idiotic to deserve any worse epithet. It blames their admiral for not· having shot him on the spot. We owe the sight of both the above quotations to the kindness of the Maison de.~ Missions in Paris.
-The Calwer Monatsblatter for March, 1891, consists of an article on our Indians, which for thoroughness, compactness, lucidity, and fairnes~ equals anythin£!: we have seen on the subject. It would be worth circulating in English among ourselves.
-Considering the curious attempts making now to bring about· a nondescript amalgam of Christianity and Buddhism, the following brief antithesis, quoted from the Literary World by the Christian, is worth considering. However widely concrete Christianity may have diverged from this type, even for long ages, the Son of man has always been at hand to bring it back. "It does not seek to trample under foot the natural emotions and desires of man j it does not seek to withdraw him from the world in which he has been placed. It does not disparage either the dignity or the beauty of life."
Those high-bred circles which have at length discovered that culture alone does not bring blessedness, may have Buddha and Schopenhauer, or they may have Christ. But assuredly they cannot have both. It is not strange, therefore, that the" sympathy of religions," which has been lately set forth ill Japan, is said to be inclined to leave Christ altogether out of mention.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Japan Earthquake, lihood, the interruption of business, the general alarm of an earth-wave which [EDITOBIAL.-J. T. G.] produced a variety of phenomena over twenty thousand square miles or more The calamity that has befallen Japan of territory, all make an extraordinary is more than a national misfortune. In phase o( the world's history. these days when all the world is thrown into such near neighborhood, one mem- Japan has done nobly for the instant ber does not suffer, but all suffer. A relief of the sufferers. The Emperor and half million of houseless, homeless, Empress gave at once $20,000 to the redazed, bereft people, stripped of their lief corps. Nobles, lords, foreign resiproperty, with business interrupted and dents, and natives generally came to temporarily at least, destroyed, appeal the aid of the bewildered people, but to the universal heart of the civilized the whole is not equal to the necessities world. The Johnstown flood disaster of the case. Nor will the demand for met with sympathetic expression from aid be met for many a day to come. It large parts of the world. The Chris- is not too late, even after these lines tians of Japan took up a collection and shall be read, for contributions to be of forwarded it, through the Japanese value. We make no appeal for moneys Methodist missionary at San Francisco, to be added to any specific fund. Any for the Johnstown sufferers. But of the treasurers of the great missionary neither the Johnstown flood nor the societies will, we are sure, gladly be the Chicago fire are to bj! compared with custodians of money for the relief fund the reach of the wretchedness of this in general, for native Christians in parseismic disturbance of nearly all the ticular, or for reparation of losl! to prop- Island Empire. The hundreds of shocks erty. They will faithfully carry out left the people too much 'llarmed to re- any instructions of the donors so far as enter the houses which were left stand- lies within their power. We say this ing, and drove them to sleeping in the without having a word of consultation open air in the cold nights. The with them, and without knowing what American Charge d'Affaires at Tokyo, measures, if any, they will take officially anu Admiral Belknap, of the United in the case. But if any persons prefer to States Navy, in charge of the Asiatic send their contributions through secular Station at Yokohama, unite in an appeal channels, they can do 80 directly to Adto th'l. people of the United States to miral Belknap, at Tokyo, for the send relief. Ninety thousand houses ., Earthquake Relief Fund." It will destroyed, perhaps thirty thousand be well that whatever is done be done more badly damaged, eight or ten thou- at once. sand persons killed, carrying grief into the hearts of tens of thousand more, So far as we are able to recall at presand ten thousand badly-injured people ent, the missions at Nagoya and vicinto be cared for, make such conditions ity-the centre of the devastated disas should send a thrill through Christen- trict-are those of the Methodist Episdom, and at once meet with a hearty copal Church, the Presbyterian Church response in practical sympathy. No South, the Methodist Protestant Church, battle-field could furnish such heart- and a lady missionary of the Cumberrending sce.nes as have been witnessed land Presbyterian Church. The Southin connection with this disaster. The ern Presbyterians are also at Kochi. subsidence of the land, the destruction The only one of the foreign missionaries who sustained injuries, so far as we have of factories, removing .the means of live- ~earned! was the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke. of the Methodist Protestant Mission. Rev. eased, the clean and the unclean, the Mr. Miyama, of the }Iethodist Episco- patients who refrain from crossing jt pal Mission, and his wife were also in- and the ministering Christians who freejured. He has been a very active ly cross over to the lepers for their conworker among the Chinese in California stant labors of love to souls and bodies. and the Sandwich Islands. A Japanese At the left of this wooden railinK are pastor of the Presbyterian Chu.rch South the quarters of the nursing staff, also was instantly killed. There are many the workroom, kitchens, bakery, etc. Christians among the sufferers. To the right of it are the quarters of the lepers. The women live all together in The Leper Hospital of the Moravian a suite of large rooms; and two or three Ohuroh at Jerusalem, men generally occupy one ohamber. These apartments need to be light and REV. J. TAYLOR HAMILTON, SECRE1'ARY airy, owing to the nature of the disease, MORAVIAN BOARD, BETHLEHEM, PA. which becomes more and more offensive to sight and smell. They might seem A traveller in Palestine, when jour- bare to a European, but are fairly furneying to· day from Bethlehem to Jeru- nished for Orientals, especially of the salem, will very probably notice a large, class from which the patients are mainsubstantially·b~ilt modern edifice as he ly drawn." nears the Holy City. It is a stately structure for Palestine-in part two, To the story of this hospital I invite and in part three stories high as it rises your attention for a brief while. A above the Vale of Rephaim_ Over the peculiar interest attaches to it from its main entrance he will perceive, carved being the only institution of the kind in in large Roman letters, the words, aU the land in which our Lord, when Gn ., Jesus Hilfe," .. The Help of Jesus." earth, cl<lBnsed lepers among thobe Stimulated by curiosity, he may pass whom His word of power savingly through the open gate of the garden and healed of their diseases. ascend the steps to the front door. There is, indeed, another shelter for He will meet with a cordial welcome these poor outcasts; but the very confrom a German missionary, who will trast it offers to the home in which gladly make him acquainted with the Christian sympathy seeks to relieve misinstitution over which he presides-that ery and anticipate the wants of the is, on the supposition that the stranger's body, ,and at the same time breathe oourage is equal to the ordeal; for this hope into the despondent !!Ioul, argues is the Moravian Leper Hospital, just forcibly for the need of just such an inoutside Jerusalem. stitution Sf! the" Jesus Hilfe."
He will find that it is a quadrangular Eight years after our home had begun building "surrounding a large oourt- its work of mercy, a oertain Pasha gave yard, in the middle of which is a huge orders for the erection of a building for cistern. This cistern may well be large, the reception of lepers at the oost of the for in this land there is no rain for half State. It is not far from the village of the year, and wat~r is a main neoessity Siloam, and is" a low building of only for such an institution. Everything in one story, lit up by five windows which and around the house and in the yard serve for as many rooms. Eight lepers is scrupulously clean." He will notice are supposed to occupy each of thes(', especially the wooden railings that run and thoy are small for the purpose. right across the middle, dividing the The roof of each room is vaulted; in court as well as the passages. "True, the walls are niches; the floor is formetl the gates stand open, and, indeed, are of a stone pavement. On this floor low never closed; yet there it is, the bar- pillars ar" erected which are bollow in· lier between the health! and tJ~e (lis. side, and serve the double purpose of store-~laces for the fruits ~athered b! the lepers, and also to mark out the " On the other hand, a peculiar char. space appropriated to each patient. acteristic of the disease, as it now oc· Nothing buL an old thin straw mat is curs, is the insensibility of the skin, exspread on the hard, cold stones. Here tending inward so far that the knots the poor creatures lie in a room dimly which form under the surface could be lighted by only one window, and in an cut out without the patient feeling any atmosphere rendered pestilential by the pain. Of this feature there is no men· breath of many diseased persons. As tion in Leviticus. Lastly, the leprosy soon as the sun is up, life begins to stir of the present day seems absolutely in these five apartments, and whoever incurable by any medical art, while the of the inmates has still the power of law of the old covenant makes proyi. movement leaves the house. Those sions for cases of healing. who are unable to walk are obliged to remain indoors, and are left without " We cannot but conclude, therefore, any help or care, for no one has either that leprosy has changed its character time or inclination to tend the suffering in the course of centuries. It has be. or comfort the dying. Thl! most that come more ineradicable and more de· can be expected to be done by those structive. Observation of individual who leave the house in search of what cases bears this out. Careful treatment may be obtained by begging, is that and constant cleansing of the sores at they divide a piece of bread with some the very beginning of the disease will more unfortunate companion, and place check its course for years, while neglect, a jug of water by his side." Thus one especially if united to insufficient diet, after another gradually succumbs to the will quickly aggravate its destruative awful disease, and with severe strug- character. The above-mentioned knots gles and great pain closes hopelessly a under the skin begin to suppurate and life from which hope had long since fled. turn into deep and spreading sores, de. stroying the flesh until the bones are Leprosy still remains one of the most laid bare." loathsome and awful visitations that can well befall a human being. Of the form Whether or not leprosy, as it exists of the malady to be met with in the to-day, is infectious, is, I believe, some_ Orient, Dr. Einszler, the honorary phy- what of an open question. Certain it sician of our hospital at Jerusalem, is, that of the Moravians who at dif. writes as follows: ferent times to the number of about 25 have ministered to the wants of lepe,ril, "Neither the description of leprosy in connection with leper homes, not given in Leviticus 13, nor the signs there one has contracted the malady. Never. given to the priest for the discernment theless, it needs a most devoted spirit of the disease at all agree WIth the symp. to care for lepers in every stage of toms of leprosy as now existing. The the loathsome disease. Think what it , plague in the skin of the flesh' is not means to spend day after day in contact now 'in sight deeper' than the skin with such woe; to witness the intense surrounding it, nor does the hair on the sufferings and hear the moans of those diseased part turn white. On the con· victims for whom the diseas'l is reach· trary, it remains unchanged in color at ing a vital part ; to breathe the air made first, but after a time it becomes brittle offensive by the eftluvium of leprosy, and falls off, as the skin loses vitality and wash and bandage the sores repeat. and the roots of the hair die. In the edly; to know that the most which can Old Testament the expression repeated- be done is to mitigate the awful suffer· ly occurs, 'a leper white as snow,' ings and for awhile postpone the end, That evidently implied that the skin of happy even in the being able, by Gurjun the person so atRicted appeared remark. and Chaulmoggra oils, to afford some ably white, which, however, is not the temporary relief. And with it all, the stupefying dulness of intellect induce:::' case in leprosy of the present day. by the physical conditions not seldom reached America 10 sisters in Germany' proves a hindrance tothe reception of the and 2 in England '6xpressed their willhigher consolation. So atvarious points ingness to go. the ministering Christian is baffied. As the work of the hospital widened, Though the Moravian 'Church was its noble foundress began to perceive active among lepers in Cape Colony that its steady maintenance would from 1822 to 1867, the present under- greatly tax her ability, and that it was taking dates only from the last of those desirable to provide for its permanent years. Two years prior to this-viz., in continuance. Hence, on January 1st, 1865, the compassion of a German Baron 1881, she made it over altogether to the and Baroness was excited by the miser Mission Board of the Moravian Church. able plight of the lepers whom they ob- The local committee, with Mr. Frutiger, served when on a visit to Jerusalem. a German banker in Jerusalem as treas- On their return home they determined urer, still continued to "have the immeto do what lay in their power toward diate oversight. The prElsent building, the founding of a home for the outcasts. erected on a new site at a cost of about The Baroness von Keffenbrinck-Asche- $20,000, was opened on April 24th, 1887. raden especially interested herself, and The missionary now in charge is the Rev. devoted her energies to the carrying out Carl Schubert, who was installed only of their design, so that she rather than last Easter, having shortly before graduher husband has been regarded as the ated from the Moravian Training School founder of the noble charity. A com- for Missionaries in Germany. Bis exmittee for the more immediate supel·in- cellent predecessor, the Rev. Fritz tendence was formed in Jerusalem, con- Mueller, had served seven years; but sisting of Bishop Gobat, the German the health of his wife had become very consul, the pastor of the Evangelical precarious. German congregation in Jerusalem, and two others. A suitable plot of ground Varying slightly from time to time, was bought outside the Jaffa Gate, and the number of inmates at the close of the Moravian Church furnished the mis- last year was 18-10 males and 8 females, sionaries, the Rev. F. Tappe and wife, 9 Moslems and 9 Christians. Their ages who had previously served for thirteen varied from 19 to 71. One had been a years ill Labrador. The Home was con- patient for 17 years, but most of them secrated on Ascension Day, May 30th, for less than 3 years. 1867. So deep, however, did the Mohammedans' distrust and hate of Chris- It may be asked what are the results tians prove, added to the dislike of any- of all this Christian effort, aside from the thing that resembled restraint and the alleviation of physical suffering and deprivation of the old privilege of beg- want? ging, that not one leper would at first avail himself of its advantages. But Besides making use of opportunities gradually prejudices were overcome, so that present themselves in private conthat by the end of the first year there versation, the missionary conducts rewere 12 patients. In due time two ligious services daily in the chapel of nurses from Germany came to the as- the hospital, and twice a week an Ara· sistance of the manager and his wife, bic catechist, Daughan by name, renders who have besides the help of a man-ser- valuable assistance. And their efforts vant. But there have very naturally have not been in vain. been times of great perplexity. In 1887, for instance, the staff of nurses com- The Rev. Dr. Rondthaler, of Salem, pletely broke down. A call for volun- North Carolina, who visited the hospital teers was issued by the Mission Board several times during a stay in Jerusalem of the Moravian Church, and before it two years ago, said that two thinglil im- pressed him greatly : 1. That the patients of the house are very grateful and as cheerful as possible under the circumstances. 2. That many of them have a hope shown us hitherto. We have found & home in your benevolent hospital, in and an expectation beyond this life, so which we are well cared for.
saddened and darkened for them. Of a You already know what v.e have to go through. God the Highest has visited farewell service which he conducted he us with t.his painful disease. The bur- den which He has thus laid upon us is writes: "How they listened as I read great and heavy, and at times scarcely to be borne. Sometimes we toss about 1 John 1, and went on to tell in simplest on onr beds with inexpressible aches and pains such as human understanding language of the love and sympathy of can scarcely comprehend. But we are comforted, and bear our misery with the Saviour, and how it is expressed in patience, for our kind reception into your hospital has shown us that we are the kindness of His people to them. not forsaken by God the Highest. Here you not only care for us, but have sent Some are still Mohammedans; but.these us such dear house-parents, who do in- deed thoroughly take a parent's place children of Ishmael shared in the audio toward us, and day by day point us to Him who said: "Come unto Me, all ye ble 'Yes, Yes,' which often showed that that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That affords us they understood." comfort and confidence in the hope that the dear Saviour will once grant us rest The Rev. S. J. Blum, of Philadelphia after this pitiful life, for we also shall have a place in His kingdom. Our who visited the hospital last year, was hearts, honored friends, are full of joy and delight that God still loves us very much struck with the absence of though the world hates and despises us. Yes, we are glad that when our all cries for " bakshish" on the part of Saviour was on earth He always pitied and healed the sick. Those who thought the inmates of the home whom he met they had no need of a physician kept away from Him_ We know, indeed, in the garden of the institution and in that we are sinners, and, therefore, we need a Saviour who will make us free their rooms. He regarded it as a very from sin, and that Saviour is Jesus.
marked evidence of the change in char- And now we beg you to intercede for us that God will grant us grace and paacter ths.t hs.d come over them, for else- tience in our sufferings as long as we continue in this world, and above alJ. where lepers were most importnnate. that He will give us everlasting life. Do help us. Pray fervently that we Had I time I might adduce a number may not perish in our great sufferings.
of happy death-beds that have cheered With heartfelt greetings ft·om all, SALIER. the missionaries during their years of labor. Last year, for example, a young man of twenty, named Beschara, was released from his life of sufferings, re- peating the twenty-third Psalm as the farewell confession of his faith. And others like him have died in confident expectation of that life where leprosy will be unknown.
True, here as elsewhere, there have been some keen disappointments for the Christian workers in oharge. Yet on the whole they have felt themselves re- paid for their self-sacrifice. .
The following letter of thanks, com- posed by Salieh, one of the patients at the tim e of the consecration of the pres- ent building, and signed by all his com- panions, is s.n evidence that some of the poor unfortunates deeply appreciate what is done for them in the name of Christ: DEAR FRIENDS: We who have to bear Then follow the names of all the pain our bodies the wounds, and pains, tients. and whatsoever troubles this leprosy brings ~i/;h it, send you our heartfelt Thus charity that never faileth, by thanks for all the kindness. you have the grace of God implants in the hearts of these benighted outcasts a deep calm and a mo~t Christian resignation, pre. lepers, if the judgment of the medical paring them for the day of heavenly officer of the principal one of these in- health. firmaries is to be relied on. It is fair to emphasize that both these are esti· mates. No census has been taken, nor Leprosy in a. South Amerioan State, probably could be taken owing to the There is ever a melancholy interest in secrecy observed by the victims of the the subject which Dr. Taylor treats in disease and their friends, though there his article on the ., Leper Hospital at seems to be much less dread of the dis- Jerusalem ;" but the time has come for ease here among the popUlation in gen· something more that a morbid sympathy eral than in any other land of which we with lepers. The impression that lep know. The most notable thing about rosy is an exceptional and limited form the consul's report is that regarding the of human misery has perhaps caused the climatic effect on the disease of a local- modern scientist and humanitarian to ity some 1400 feet above the sea with a neglect such investigation into it as they temperature of about 82t0 in the district are accustomed to make into the more of Tocaima, about three days' journey widespread forms of human ill. But from Bogota, where there ~8 a leper asy·, the time has come for special inquiry lum at a place called Agua de Dios. It into unusual, and, as is supposed, infre. was discovered a hundred years ago that quent maladies. Pasteur, for instance, this climate arrested the progress of the is doing this for the malady arising from disease, so that lepers who remained rabies. We learn that there is a com- here rarely if ever died of leprosy, but of mission of specialists appointed for some other cause. There are sulphur England and India to inquire scientifi· springs in the locality, but the lepers cally into leprosy. But that is not broad do not use them. Other people resort enough. It looks as if such a commis- there, and quite a population has grown sion ought to be international. Certain- up about the lazaretto, and the people ly facts which may be said to have been mingle freely and without let with the recently brought to public notice, if lepers. The lepers do not now consti- indeed that is not a rhetorical state- tute more than one third of the resident ment of the extent to which they are population. The healthy people of the yet made known, about the United States locality intermarry with the lepers. The of Colombia, in relation to the preva- marriage does not result unfavorably to lence of leprosy, would suggest that a the healthy party to it; but the children great deal of important knowledge might born in this wedlock generally develop be gathered in that quarter. the disease in a few years, even little The British Consul at Bogota is author. children of four and five years being ity for most startling statements as to victims of it. On the other hand, the the extent and spread of leprosy in that case is given of a leper who bad been State. It appears to have been slowly nearly forty years in this locality who spreading for about two hundred and had passed through several stages of fHty years in that region, though in the the disease, but for the last eighteen last twenty years it cannot be said to years had had no pain or inconvenience have extended slowly, but very rapidly. from it. The mortality of the lepers, A medical review is published in Bogota, however, is far above the average of the the editor of which is recognized as a other people living there. They usually well·known physician, and he makes die of dysentery, fevers, and pulmonary the statement that of the one million complaints, The astounding thing ahout population of Santander and Boyaca, all this is the lack of restraint on the one tenth-which would be a hundred population with a view to limiting it.
thousand-are lepers. The lazarettos of If, >as the Consul says, the people believe ~l;lese districts contain thirty thousand it is both contagious and hereditary, and if from the introduction of a single case scared, haunted, held fast, the African's into Antioquia thirty years ago there can life begins and ends in fear. The chill be now counted eight hundred, what- of fear strikes it at birth and leaves it ever are the authoritiE's about that they only at death. Want, pale daughter of do not set up some kind of hygienic murder, aids to enlarge the depopulated regulations of it? If they are not finan· areas ; the knife of the cannibal threatcially able to isolate the lepers, they can ens them all-unhappy knife, the last have help from the outside world on the weapon of African atrocities! . . • simple ground of ordinary humanity, Sisters of America, shall your souls and and that not of the picture pocket-hand- ours keep silent? In the presence of kerchief sort either. It is not a case so this despair shall we look on with inmuch of sympathy as of decent humani- difference? Have our hearts nothing to tarianism of the common-sense order. ask, our energies nothing to do at a mo- We are near enough neighbors to Co- ment when great work should begin? .. lombia to take a lesson or two from her All Europe is stirred. . .. The past notebook on the subject of national of America gives assurance that it will carelessness on this matter of disease not be distanced by Europe in this great importations and inoculation, and near humanitarian movement. • .' Amerienough, too, to respond to a missionary ca, who sends her missionaries to equacall for aid in carrying the load of a torial lands, will not be indifferent to smitten population in districts where the efforts of the Old WorId, the lands one in ten of the people are suffering of their ancestors, whose conscience is the worst of human maladies. now aroused and whose valor is united for the suppression of the slave trade in J. T. G. Africa.
"An Appeal to the Women of "Sisters of America, your sisters in America." Europe rely on your i.lelp. Christian women of America, the hope of the dis- THE COUNTESS OF GASPARIN. tressed in Africa is in you."
'Ne have received the" appeal" sent The Men Who Ma~e Islam, out by the Countess of Gasparin to the women of America, on the subject of Whoever stops with the life of Muham- African slavery, in connection with the mad and the Quran will not come into a Brussels Treaty; but our space forbids knowledge of Islam, for the Quran alone using it all. We make from it the fol is to no Moslem the sole rule of life; lowing selections, translated perhaps, a and though the Sunni sect may spit little freely : upon the grave of the Khalifs Abu Bekr and Omar, yet without these men Islam "American sisters! Slavery is not would not have survived the death of dead. Nor have its abominations oeased Muhammad. To know Islam one must to dishonor the earth, nor its murders know the immediate successors of Muto stain it with blood. Extinct, is it? No! a thousand times No ! . .. Daugh- hammad-each at once king and pope ters of the continent of light, give it your pity." (Here follow descriptions – who carved out of the broken pieces of the horrors of the slave caravan.) of empire which Muhammad left strewn over Arabia, a strong State, and out of "Slaves of the Arab brigands, the his most casual utterance a canon for African people, small and great, are the the consciences of millions yet unborn. slaves of fear; the slaves of ferocious More splendid illustrations of bold, hatred, man against man, tribe against prompt decision in court or camp, one tribe. Slaves of bestiality, of falsehood, will look far afield to find than are reand of wicked spirit.s led about by storms corded of the four great khalifs, .the and hid in the forests. Slaves of the only" successors" of Muhammad. The devil, the monarch of the dark continent, very peril '-_ the first hour after Mu- that Muhammad could not die. When hammad's death only afforded such men the rumor spread that the great man opportunity to snatch triumph from was no more, the wildest excitement wild and hopeless disorder and over- swept the town, and the crowd that hanging ruin. gathered at the mosque was dazed as with delirium. c. Among them Omar The biographies of Muhammad are arose, and in a wild and excited strain past count. There are as rich resources declaimed that the prophet was not for the reproduction of every detail of dead, but in a trance, from which he his life as of any man that ever inhabit- would soon arise and root out the hypoed the earth. But for what followed crites from the land." Abu Bekr, who Muhammad ?-for knowledge of the men had been for an hour away from the who carved Islam out of the material prophet on a visit to his sick mother, which Muhammad left to them we have came hurrying back to the mosque; to resort to much painful picking in crossing the court he had stopped to dust-bins and out-of-the- way annals. kiss the prophet's face: "Sweet wert Few men are furnished for excursio"ns thou in life," he said, .c and sweet thou of this sort_ The learning, the literary art in death." Finding Omar still qualities, as well as the moral qualities haranguing the people when he reached for original researches of this kind are the mosque, he put him aside with the rare. It is with a sense of obligation memorable words: .. Whoso worshippeth which the literary and religious world Mahomet, let him know that Mahomet is should acknowledge, that we turned dead; but whoso worshippeth God, let him into and have come out of, Sir William know that God liveth and dieth not. " Omar Muir's latest studies into the fragments was speechless .. My limbs trembled, of scattered Arabian lore, which he andIknewoia certaintythatMuhammad prosecuted to furnish to the world a was dead," he would Ray in after years. portraiture of the great khalifs (Sir William persists in the old Romanizing The citizens of Medina had instantly .. caliph") of Islam; or, rather, to be assembled to select a successor to Mumore exact, to give us a noble volume of hammad, and the report of their gather. some six hundred pages, entitled ., The ing was made known at the mosque. It was a critical moment. The mantle of Caliphate :1ts Rise, Decline, and Fall. "* the prophet must fall on one and one only. The sovereigntyoflslam demand- One will search far for more graphic, ed an undivided khalifate. The die bold, and comprehensive historical must be cast and must be cast at once. grouping than is instanced in the first The men of Medina demanded that he few paragraphs describing the death of should be of themselves, for their good Muhammad, and the selection on the swords had saved Islam. spot of his immediate successor. •• Every word wnich ye men of Medina Muhammad died a little after midday have uttered in your own praise is true," in the midsummer of 632 A.D. It is said Abu Bekr, .c and more than true; doubtful if the devoted followers of the but in noble birth and influence th!l prophet had allowed themselves to con- Coraish are paramount, and to none but template the event of his death; and, them will Alabia yield obedience." like Napoleon, he seems never to have " Then," said the men of Medina, .. let thought of what would become of his there be one chief among you, and one faith or his kingdom when it should from among us." .. Away with you," fall into o~her hands. Some of his more said Omar; "two cannot stand todevoted adherents seem to have dreamed gether." The heat of the altercation was great when Abu Bekr arose. .. Ye * .. The Caliphate: its Rise, Decline, and FaIl.,. see these two," said he, pointing to Omar and Abu Obeida, .. choose ye now From Original Sources, by Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D:C.L. The Religious Tract Society, London. Fleming H. ReveIJ Co., New York and Chicago, sole agents. which of them ye will, and flalute him this book of Mr. Muir's wholesome if as your chief." .. Nay," answered not palatable reading. -J. T. G. these men both at once, ,. t/Wu hast already, at thl! prophet's bidding, led the The Situation in China. prayers, and art our chief. Stretch forth thine hand." He did so, and they We wrote in the November, 1891, REstruck their hands on his, as is the Arab VIEW of "Some of the Causes of the Discustom, in token of allegiance. The turbanoe in China." We have little need men of Medina did likewise, and the to modify the statements there made. supreme power passed without let or But new factors have come into the hindranoe into the hands of Abu Bekr. problem. The" Eastern Question" has become" The Far Eastern Question." It was to no bed of roses that Abu Europe is "fencing" on the Northern Bekr had been elevated. It took a year border of China from Manchuria to the of hard fighting to reolaim the penin- corner-post of India Eussia and China, sula alone. at Pamir. The European nations are not so busy settling treaty matters with There was nothing effeminate about China as they are in playing a larger ~ha men that made Islam. Sir William game for supremacy in Asia. Hence ':links Khalid. the dashing general who the gunboat masquerade in Chinese '''ands in the foreground of these early waters is all that we seem likely to have :r 11 de days of Islam, an extraordinary just at present, while the several Eurown.rrior. "His conduot on the battle- pean powers are coquetting with China fidds whioh deoided the fate of the Per- instead of bullying her. Great Britain, sian Empire, and of the Byzantine rule who was just now trying to determine in Syria, ranks him a; one of the great- with what sauce to begin to serve Prince est generals of the world." But those Chung, has gone to hold a love-feast were rough men made for war, heedless with him in the Imperial Yemen. The of spilled blood; and Khalid, "the London Daily Telegraph found out that Sword of the Lord," as they surnamed it was manifestly the policy of England him, could wed the widow of one enemy .. to be on the friendliest terms with on the field still sodden with his own China, the 'vast realm of the oentre,' soldiers' blood, and later marry another which by the foroe of dominating cirwidow of Ibn Noweira, whose blood was cumstanoes has beoome our [England's] yet fresh upon the spot where by his natural ally in Asia, the interests of both own order he had been slain. But all empires being menaced by the same this study is not mere ourious delving potential foes;" The Speaker gave vent into antiquarian bone beds. It is by re- to the sentiment that it "is of muoh search such as this that we learn what more importanoe to make use of her blam is, what inherently and essentially limits it as a civilization. The [China1against Russia than to trouble dead hand of the prophet stretched out to be taken by the caliphs of four dynas- ourselves about missionaries . . . who ties, reached still further by the par- have no business to go where they are alyzing hands of the four Imams, and likely to be killed." The Western Daily sterility must reign wherever the soep- Press came to see that bullets and bayotre of the Moslem reaches. There is nets were of doubtful utility, because here no germ of popular institutions. " China may be a valuable ally for Eng- Erery year the politioal ascendenoy of land if Russia should ever overstep the Islam gives increasing evidenoe of being bounds of prudence in furtherance of doomed. There has been no progress, her designs in India." The Globe, the there can be no change. Islam stands- Saturday Review, and other leading still. Innovation is worse than a mis- papers write in the same strain. China take. Canon Taylor and his brood of is as muoh afraid of Russia as she is of second·hand critics of Islam will find anything else, and muoh more so when a.ny internal troubles of her own create she will gain the utmost possible for her an occasion for intermeddling with her own and other missionaries; for, with- affairs. Besides, if she can set these out being over· scrupulous about the European powers watching each other spiritual side of their work, she has long they will be the less troublesome to her ago reckoned the missionary as one of for the immediate present. the great factors in her colonial policy But that is not all the change that as well as in every non-Christian land.
has developed. It seems as if there Gltimately all that Great Britain gains were a division of policy among the by courting in North China will be made Chinese rioters themselves. Hunan has to inure to the advantage of the mis- had but one policy. As late as Sep- sionary. But if she and others should tember a conclave of Hunan leaders was utterly fail to protect the missionaries, held at Woochang. They passed a reso· it is not to be forgotten that the Roman lution to drive out all foreigners from Catholics stayed there two hundred the three provinces, Hunan, Hupeh, and years without any treaty; and Protestant Kiangsi. That may be called the Hunan missionaries may find greater defence programme. But if the information is from the fine diplomacy of Divine Provi- reliable, there is a Chinkiang section dence than from all earthly potentates.
which have a different view. These pro- Jesus Ohrist is not dead, and He will overturn and overturn "till His kingpose to lower the tea duties and favor dom comes."-J. T. G.
foreign trade, to employ foreigners ex.
tensively in the army and navy and cus- -Sad news comes from the Rev. Mr. toms. They would build railroads and Annand, in the New Hebrides. The apportion the land tax justly. Some of death of a child of Rev. Mr. and Mrs. them would employ foreign help in in- Lawrie, of the Scotch Free Mission, so augurating successful rebellion. These seriously affected the mind of Mrs. Laware not anti.Christian, nor anti.foreign, rie as to result in insanity. The wife nor anti-progressive, but are against the of Rev. Mr. Leggatt, of the Victoria present Government. church, hung herself in a fit of tem- porary insanity. A young Englishman We have traversed this mainly to show -Mr. Sawer-who had just married a that a good deal of the case has passed lady who went out to become his wife, beyond the provinco of a missionary re- was killed by bushmen, who sent a bulview. For those,who prize military and let through his heart, and killed and naval defence for missions, the imme. feasted on the bodies of two natives diate results of the political jugglery is who were with him. Mr. Sawer's renot altogether satisfactory. The Wuhu mains were brought to Tangoa by Mr. riots occurred last May, but six months Annand. He had been married but two days, and great sympathy is expressed for his young widow.
went by and nothing was done ; Wusueh -The Ohurch M"Ulsionary lntelligencer saw two wretches punished who proba. bestows high praise on the" Cycloptedia bly were not near the place at the time; of Missions," published by Funk & but no dignitary was degraded. The VIagnalls. It says: " This is far and Ichang riots occurred right under the away the most important work on misnose of the imperial representatives of sions yet published. . .. The amount the port, and the rioters were them- of information packed into the closely selves government troops. The brigadier·general stood by and saw the Oatho- printed 2700 pages is enormous ; and lie nuns driven to a horrible death, 'and one is staggered to think of the labor did not turn a hand to pre.ent the out- that must have been involved in its rage. Dr. Greig was tert'ibly maltreated production. It is worthy of AmeriIJa. in Shantung by officials and soldiers. In England we have nothing at all like We have no great grief over the diplo- it." It remarks on what is not in it, matic situation. If Great Britain be- but adds: .. We are afraid these criticomes an ally of China, sooner or later cisms will detract somewhat from our praise of the work; but W(l do praise it, nevertheless, most warmly." Men will feel, it says. that they can no more dis- pense with it than they can with Smith' 8 ,. Dictionary of the Bible."
1892.J EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IlI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
What is the Next Step? cree, we know, t,ook less than ten months to run from the palace at There has been during the past ten Shushan to the limits of the Persian years a widespread echoing of the cru- Empire. Here is a world about twentysade cry: "Let us in our generation five thousand miles in circumference, carry the Gospel around the world!" inhabited by about one thousand mill- It has been discussed in pulpit and ions of people, yet unreached with the press, at home and on the foreign field. Gospel. Christianity holds the strategic Animated and inspired by this motto, centres. Even Africa is girdled and the missionaries in far-off lands have penetrated by missionary bands ; Asia met to consider what ean be done; is occupied, from Turkey to Japan; have held great conventions like that South America is imperfectly supplied at Shanghai last year; have issued their with Christian missionaries, but two of loud calls for" a thousand more work- the greatest of Christian nations occupy ers" at once to enter the field, etc. The the territory north of the Gulf of Mexi- China Inland Mission, Church Mission- co; we have a band of six thousand ary Society, London Missionary Society, missionaries, of six: times as many na- English Baptist Society, etc., have all tive evangelists and teachers scattered appealed for more men and women and over the pagan and heathen world. In money, with a view to the immediate the Protestant churches of Christenoccupation of the fields as yet unsup- dom, exclusive of the Greek and Latin plied, and the vastly increased occu- communions, and Oriental churches, we pancyof fields in which at present there have over forty millions of professed is an insufficiency of laborers. What is disciples who have thousands of millions the next step? of dollars at their command. All the appliances of the nineteenth century are I think we need first of all to realize in their hands, for they represent the that the evangelization of the world in this intelligence, enterprise, and enlightened generation is not a mere wild dream, but force of the world. Who can tell how may be made a fact if the Church of rapidly the Gospel message might be God will have it so, and use the means diffused over the habitable globe if all God has given her. Great things may this available material could be utilized? be done in a very short time if there be a determination to do them. and a After twenty-~ve years of constant proper energy, promptness, and co- study of this subject, and conference operation in action. When the English and correspondence with hundreds of Government wished to take the census students of missions and missionary of India, February 26th, 1891, it was all workers, I am more and more satisfied done in six hours when the appointed that if the Church would but imitate the time came. Arrangements were so com- laudable .. push" and .. dash" of the plete that at the set hour, from aU quar- men of this generation, the children of ters, the agents of the Government light would flood the world with the moved forward within their limited ter- Gospel in as little time as Ahasuerus ritory, and the proper inquiries were disperscd his royal decree from the made and answered and the records BosphoruR to the Indus. Will anyone made. tell us why not?
We have often called attention to the .. Where the word of a King is, thelre energy and celerity with which, in the is power." .. And the King's busines!! days of Ahasuerus, three times the en- requireth haste." These two texts tire empire, that reached from the ought to be our motto and our warrant Golden Horn to the Ganges, was reached for doing this work now and for the with a royal decree; alld the third de- whole world. Back of the Kiug's word lies the authority and the assurance of among people of all classes and denomi- Divine co-operation; the very fact of its being the King's business is the all-suill- nations: cient warrant for haste. Nineteen centuries have sped by, and the King's DEAR BRETHREN : "Elect according to business remains undone; the power the foreknowledge of God the Father, back of the King's word has never yet through sanctification of the Spirit, been fairly tested and proven. Oh, that unto obedience and sprinkling of the the children of God in our generation blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you would at least honestly undertake to see and peace be multiplied." that the Gospel is borne to " every creature" in "all nations" before the gen- Not being" ashamed of the Gospel of eration passes to the great account that Christ," when brought into comparison fix.es eternal destiny! with all the heathen religions of the world, and believing that Gospel to be To my mind, one step that can be the "power of God unto salvation to taken at once toward this world-wide everyone that believeth," we desire to evangelization is to gather for prayerfUl call your attention again to the last conference, at an early date, the leaders commandment of our risen and ascendof modern missions. Perhaps the first ed Lord; " All power is given unto Me conference might be comparatively a in heaven and in earth. Go ye, thereprivate one, in the parlor of some de- fore, and teach all nations, baptizing voted servant of Christ. Why not call them in the name of the Father, and of together such men as Dr. A. J. Gordon, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teach- Dr. C. C. McCabe, Dr. Arthur Mitchell, ing them to observe all things whatso- Dr. Judson Smith, D. L. Moody, Bishop ever I have commanded you; and, 10, I Ninde, Bishop W. R. Nicholson, the am with you always, even unto the end Bishop of Huron, Ontario,J. Hudson of the world. Amen." Taylor, F. B. Meyer, Robert E. Speer, etc., and prayerfully consult as to the In order, therefore, to aid all our wider measures necessary to be insti- churches and Missionary Boards in tuted in order to secure larger results? carrying out this Great Commission, an There are men on both sides of the sea, enterprise has been inaugurated called and women too, who, after a godly sort, the" Cross-bearers' Missionary Reading have been studying this question, upon Circle, .. a course of systematic reading whose minds it has been a burden for and study on the subject of Missions, years, and who have been praying over embracing a period of three years. This it. Some of them we have mentioned movement has been before the churches because we know they are alive with in- about a year, and has received the en telligent zeal for a world's evangeliza- dorsement of many leading men in tion. We yearn to see some such meet- many lands. ing called, where at least united prayer may be offered for the speedy inaugura- The Board of Directors, therefore, tion of that new effort-shall we not say make the following appeal to faithful new era ?-of world·wide missions. Christians in all lands : The Crossbearers' Missionary Read- liirst. For one hundred thousand read- 109 Circle is a growing institution, and ers and students in the" Crossbearers' has undoubtedly a future of usefulness. Missionary Reading Circle," before the end of the nineteenth century. The following is an appeal recently sent out by them "To Faithful Chris- Second. For contributions from those tians in all Lands," with a view to who love the cause of Missions, for the ,"wakening greater interest in Ilissions purpose of establishing this Missionary Reading Circle upon a firm financial basis.
Third. For the hearty co operation of the Christian Ministry in this work throughout the world.
Fourth. To the American and English religious press for the publication of this appeal.
Fifth. That all who desire information concerning the" Crossbearers' MiHsion- ary Reading Circle" should address Pro- fessor Charles R. Foster, A.M., Fayette, Mo., U. S. A.
NOTlll.-The course()£ reading for this year is as follows : 1. "Life of William Carey," seventy-five cents; 2. ,. The Comin~ Kingdom," Jtev. W, W, Wld<lworth, $1 ; 3. .. Life of James Hanning. in London for preparation; meeting in ton, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Af. their rooms for apportionments; cor· rica," Re". E. C. Dawson, M.A., $1; 4. respondenc,e with a few eminent socie- ,. The Great Value and Success of For· ties abroad for work among the actual eign Missions," Rev. John Liggins, heathen.
seventy.five cents; 5. The MISSIONARY The work of divisJon should be ac- complished with urgent prayer and dis- REVIEW, Funk & Wagnalls, per year, patch. I deem it the first and best $1.50 ; 6. Initiation fee, per year, fifty thing to do and be done in Christ's cents. Kingdom. We append a portion of a letter This matter requires no ponderous recently received from the originator of organization, but plain and lucid statethe readulg.circle idea as applied to mis. ments, loving, intelligent minds and sionary literature: hearts. BAREILLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BAREILLY, N. W. P., INDIA, Provision were easily made to wel- Aug. 24, 1891. come all workers in the unoccupied dis- DEAR BROTHER: I have received your C. M. R. C. handbook, and am rejoiced tricts of great areas; thus there would beyond measure that your project has taken such good shape. Something be ample room for all existing and aris· like this has been a dream of my heart for years. You have fully taken it up, ing workers, and the very fact of the and it remains for you to fully demon· strate its practicability. I pray that division and nominal assignment being God may help you; for I think there is great power in the idea. It will in· made, and being known widely in all augurate a new erafor missions.. the evangelical Christian communities, You will require tact and push to make a first-class success of it. Nov- would probably increase and arouse to elty may wear off. Pastors may be in. different. Even missionary secretaries effective endeavor for realization. may not see much in it; but you must push right on till the ball is rolling Our Duty in Danger. welL God will help you. Interetlt will grow. Leading men will see and be- The following is a letter sent out by come convinced. J. Hudson Taylor, to the missionaries I hope your movement may send a deputation to the next annual session of the China Inland Mission, in regard of the International Missionary Union, and urge this matter on them. That is to the recent troubles in China: a place in which to .. strike the centre." You will most of you have heard of May I ask the prayers of your Circle the time of excitement through which for the great work going on in this mis· many stations in the Yang.tse valley sion in North India. We are baptizing have passed. -old and young-more than a thousand souls a month. It is hoped that the danger is now passing away, though some fear that Yours, In His Name, one of the secret societies may yet cause T. J. ScoTT. further trouble. The present time seems, therefore, opportune for consid. An Organized Effort. ering the course that we as missionaries should adopt in times of excitement and The subject of" evangelizing the world danger, and several have said that they thought it would be helpful if I gave in this generation" is more and more be- you my thoughts on the subject.
ginning to occupy the minds of men. First, then, let me remind you of the importance in this day of the command This is shown by the following sugges· not to speak evil of dignities, but, on the contrary, to pray for those in autions from Mr. Robert Arthington, of thority. The rulers of this land have often a difficult path : it is not easy for Leeds: them to take our part against their own To partition the world for evangelistic people, and we do well to ~ray that they purposes would seem quite easy and may have courage and WIsdom to act withQut m~terial expense: by interviews firmly and justly; such prayers should be public as well as private. Much may depend on their finding that Christianity promotes loyalty to tl;u~ powers that be, and the giving of honor that," Sufficient is His arm alone and to those to whom it is due. our defence is sure."
Then we do well to recognize that we What a loss it would be if any of them are not here as representatives of West- should t.hink that we relied more upon ern Powers, and that our duties do not a gunboat or a band of soldiers than correspond with theirs. We are here upon the living God! Years of teach- as witnesses and representatives of the ing would not impress them as our con- Lord Jesus Christ. •• As my Father hath duct at such times may do. Moreover, sent Me, even so send I you." Once their sympathy will be drawn out for us disciples mistakenly would have called when they see us willing to suffer for down fire from heaven to avenge the the Gospel, as they so often have to do_ Master Himself; but He rebuked them A time of danger is a grand opportunity and said: " Ye know Dot what manner of being an object-lesson to the native of spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is Ohristians.
not come to destroy men's lives, but to III. The moral effect of our action save them." And again, when the sol_ upon the heathen will, to a considerable diers would arrest our Lord, one of His extent, be the same as upon the con- disciples drew his sword in His defence, verts. A calm and confident demeanor but our Saviour said: ., Put up again will go far to disarm suspicion. The thy sword into his place; for all they people will not be slow to observe t.hat that take the sword shall perish with we are not afraid, and to conclude that the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot we have no reason to be. But if we flee, now pray to my Father, and He shall they are sure to conclude that we are presently give me more than twelve guilty of some of the charges brought legions of angels?" We may safely against us, and will be emboldened to conclude that our use of any weapon of attack and loot or destroy our premises.
defence, whereby another might be in- Even a dog will run after you if you run jured, would misrepresent our Master, away from him!
whose own distinct command to His _ Some of the older members of our disciples was: "Resist not evil, but mission have passed through more seri- whosoever shall smite thee on thy right ous times of excitement than the pres- cheek, turn to him the other also." ent. We have never at snch times re- If, then, it would not be consistent tired from a station; and though hold- for us to use weapons for our own de· ing the fort, has not always secured ns fence, it may be asked, Should we not against a riot, it has often done so, and leave our stations for such places as are, has proved abundantly fruitful in or can be, defended by the officers of strengthening the faith of our native our respective governments? It seems converts.
to me that there are several important An objection may arise in some minds reasons against taking this course, un- that we are directed, if persecuted in less absolutely compelled to do so. one city, to flee to another; to which I. We are in our stations at God's we would reply that we are not told to command, and as His ambassadors, and flee through fear of possible persecution.
therefore have both promise of, and If the Lord suffers us to be driven away, claim to, His protection. We have as St. Paul so frequently was, the re- many of us gone to places far removed sponsibility will then rest with Him; from foreign protection on this very and He will surely work out His own ground. Our risen Saviour has told us purposes through the trial. But let us that all power has been committed unto not retire ourselves from fear of loss or Him; and that, because this is so, we danger; and so doing perhaps leave our are to go everywhere, reckoning His un- Master's sheep just when they most need failing presence better defence than that the shepherd's presence and care.
which the arm of flesh can provide. We conclude, then, that the right We have a rIIre opportunity in times of course, and the best policy alike, is to danger of proving His promises for our- remain at our posts, whenever this is selves, and before our converts. possible. We may well rejoice that it is II. We are continually encouraging so, and that duty does not require the our converts to brave persecution and suspension of our work, for life is short, to snfferloss for Christ's sake, and they and daily the people are dying without are very apt to think that it is easy for God.
us to speak in this way, seeing that, as To us all is given the dignity of be- far as they can tell, we are well-to.do ing ambassadors for the King of kings; and exposed to no danger or loss. When and all His power is at all times behind then we are in danger they will mark us. We may therefore boldly say, very closely our conduct, and judge for "The Lord is on my side; I will not thexnselvEls how far we really beliElve fear. What can man do unto me I"
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Ohina, Eto. is destroyed, and hundreds of them are fugitives from mob violence. It is too CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE CONVERTS. often forgotten that persecution is the normal condition of the Chinese con- One of the most marked signs of the verts to Christianity. We hear of these times is the altered tone of the secular persecutions only whl'n they touch the press toward missions. A noteworthy foreign missionaries; of the daily and illustration is the championship of the sporadic outbreaks against the native modern mission by the London Times. Christians we hear nothing, for it only The great "Thunderer," eminently concerns the Chinese themselves. To since the death of Bishop HRnnington, support the hatred and social ostracism, has lost no prominent opportunity to with which, as the writer admits, the say a strong word for missions and their converts are regarded, there must be results in Africa and Asia. Its leader genuine, energetic conviction. The'tens some while since. on the" unique and of thousands of converts scattered all extraordinary interest" of the recent over China, with their numbers daily India census, showing the strength and increasing, could not, indeed, be mainculture of the native Christian com- tained for a week from the missionary munity in India. is a masterly presenta. funds sent from abroad, even if these tion of some of the salient points of wer€! devoted to no other purpose. The that new factor in Christian statistical fact appears to be that these converts economy, stout enough in its pleading contribute liberally, and in some cases to have been delivered at an Exeter Hall wholly mo.inta,in their own native pas· missionary anniversary. It is with tors and places of worship." great pleasure that we turn to its editorial rejoinder to a correspondent in THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN NORTH CHINA. its columns, who signs himself ,. A Chinese," who raises the question whether One cannot but ask whether the the great Christian governments will churches in Christendom are awake to find it worth their while to defend the the fact that "this Chinese Empire may missionaries in China, when they come see a great uprising one day, and that to know that their converts are from the in the near future. for which these lower orders of society only, and arc led churches are in nowise prepared. We to em brace the Christian relIgion from have seen the mighty movements in the low motive of pecuniary compensa- Indio., the great turning to the Lord in tion for their allegiance. The Times Ongole, and the equally sweeping reanswers with the following knock-down vival in the lYlethodist missions of sort of logic: "If the Christian converts North India, and we have stood bewilare the needy and the viciolls, and iftheir dered before' them. The truth is, as motives are wholly those of gain, why Bishop Thoburn says, the people must should it be necessary to persecute them learn to familiarize themselves with the so cruelly, in order to drive them from idea that God intends to save the world; a faith which means nothing but a lit- and if there is a shred of truth in that tle money to them. The descriptions statement, we must prepare our minds lately published in the East of the per- for the contemplation of victories on a secutions of the little Christian com- scale far transcending the little work of munities in Szechuan and Yunnan, dur- to day. "If this world," he says, "is ing the past two years, are heart-rend- to be saved, there must come a time ing. Men, women, and children are when the heathen shall be gathered in murdered by Bcores, their little property by the hundred thousand-by the million." We have somehow at last got a about five hundred inquirers in his field.
glint that this sort of thing may occur which did not cover IDore than about in India; bnt as to China, we have sup one fourth their mission territory. This posed we must wait for generations yet is a fact that Dr. Nevius, with his great before this mighty mass of deliberative cautiousness, says he has not made pub- people can be expected to move, save in lic lest he might seem to be inflating the slow and tedious way with which the prospects. Dr. Nevius is confident we have already grown familiar. that the number of applicants for bap- It seems as if God were about rebuk- tism is understated at fifteen hundred.
ing that sort of timid faith, or, perhaps, But our eye is not merely on that fif- shaming it into bolder belief. Bishop teen hundred. They will not be bap- Goodsell, of the Methodist Episcopal tized without another fifteen hundred Church, just having returned from an standing behind them, waiting their official visit to the missions in China, turn. Any such facts as these mean says boldly that the MethodiGt brethren a movement and mean a movement there have baptized hundreds, and might in which God is. Dr. Nevius speaks have baptized thousands, as the breth- cautiously; and so we may pause to ren have done in India, only that they ask if the present disturbed state of thought it wiser to keep them longer the country, and especially of the North under instruction before baptism, of China, where we read of sanguinary Whether they are pursuing the batter battles just now, in which opposition to course may be questioned; each mis- all foreigners and their religion is one sion must be the judge of its own duty, of the points of contention, will serious- The fact remains that here'is the indica- ly arrest this movement and blot half tion of what may come any day in this of these inquirers off the evangelist's great empire. The English Baptists of "little book." PersonalIy we do not North China are meeting with like en- expect any such results. The Chinese couragement. Applicants al'e standing have known all along that there was at their doors begging for baptillm. The nothing in the foreign treaties of worth Presbyterians in Shantung face a similar to them. They have not been unfaruil- problem. They are going cautiously, iar with persecution, They can furnish and yet the pressure is on t~em. Last a martyr roli,. challenging comparison year's raport showed that they had with other parts of the mission field.
yielded so far as to admit some five hun- We know those who have illustrated dred converts to baptism. But that did this already; and the Chinese Chris- not show the wonderful work of the tians are not given to" backsliding."
Lord, for that was the report for the They have not had easy conditions on current year; and just after that, most which to make their trial trip. It has of the missionaries started out on mis- nowhere put them on a bed of roses to sionary tours, during which large num- accept the Christian faith.
bers were baptized, so the whole num- But it is not that we are concerned ber baptized in twelve months WdS over about just now. Here is the intimation one thousand. Besides these, there -more than that, the prophecy-of were not less than fifteen hundred more what God may do in pouring out His on the rolls of the missionaries as in- Spirit on China. There is already a quirers, or candidates for baptism, many mighty turning to the Lord; and it has of whom would have been baptized had occurred without a great leader, But not the brethren extended their term of let some Chinese Luther appear; let probation quite recently. This is not some Mongolian Wesley send out a all; the eminent missionary, Dr. Nevius, trumpet call; let some mighty leader tells us that he reoently reoeived from a arise like those with which the history native evangelist a "little book" con- of God's great doings has familiarized taining the names and residences of us elsewhere, and tbill revivAl in the North may sweep like the Tartar hordes in a Christian home; with the issues down on the rest of China. The Chi. of the press in every province, ex.
nese characteristics cannot be pleaded cepting not even Hunan, and every.
as against this, for this people is the where more or less knowledge of the mightiest homogeneous mass of human. Christian faith-in the fllce of all this, ity on t.ho globe, and they are not unac· it is not only the triumph of faith, customed at times to being swayed en but the dictate of reason, that in China bloc by great impulses. we should "attempt great things for It may be a chimera of the imagina· God, and expect great things of God. "
tion that a European writer suggests that a Chinese general may arise, who, THE MISSIONARY IN CHINA.
flushed with successful revolt against The London Times, in the article we the Manchu dynasty, shall sweep the have already alluded to, in reply to the French into the sea at Tonquin, break criticisms of .. A Chinese" in its col.
Russia in Asia in two, or lead a half· umns, says the writer is evidently in disciplined horde into Burma and In. ignorance of what the missionaries have dill. ; but we are, in China, dealing with done for China, and advises him to con~ a people whose history records great re· suit a catalogne of their pUblications in ligious movements. The people that Shanghai and elsewhere, which, the edi~ could furnish a leader competent to tor says, will show him that, ,. whatever overthrow Confucianism after it had knowledge of any of the sciences, arts, been established in the land for six cen· or history of the West his countrymen turies, burn its sacred books, put to possess, they owe wholly to missiona.
death all who were supposed to have ries." Then occurs the most emphatic any special knowledge of it, and tram. statement, which we choose to italicize, pie it under foot for two whole centu· that" the only real interpreter oj the thaught ries ; the people that could import a and progress of the West to the millions of foreign religion like Buddhism, and in China is the mi.~sionary; and when we one year take to its bosom three thou. remember that European knowledge of sand of its priests to teach the " doc· China is derived almost wholly from the trine;" the peopl<l who could raise a works of missionaries, we may fairly Peter the Hermit like 'rai Ping Hung, say that these men stand as interpreters to rally a crude, motley mass of half.in. between the East and the West." Refer.
formed people, who, baptizing each ring to the charitable work of missiona- other in the name of the Trinity, should ries, the editor says China "had no rush forward in a " Christian" insurrec· efficient hospitals or medical attendance tion with a religious.enthusiasm that in. until the missionaries established them; creased their bravery in battle, and and, in truth, she has no c:'ther now; trained them to self.denying discipline and when her great men, such as Li till they gave the Tartar dynasty the Hung Chang and Prince Chung, are in rudest shock it has as yet experienced- serious danger, they have to go to the such a people must not be counted as despised missionary doctor for that effi.
unsusceptible of great religious impres. cient aid which no Chinaman can give sions and wide.reaching display of re· them."
ligious energy. The Chinese nation may That is not the testimony of a mis· yet take up the religion of the Bible, and sionary magazine, it is the utterance of sweep half of Asia with it. In the face a seclllar journal whose judgments are of the seed that has been sown by mis. supposed to be impartial and weighty.
sionaries and native teachers, and iso· We could fill pages with similar testi.
lated Christians, who are scattered along mony from missionary sources. Rev.
the entire coast, till, journeying its Timothy Richard, in the Chinese Re· length, a traveller may sleep every night corder, for November, makes many sim. ilar assertions. His illustrations are THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF CHINA. much of the same sort, such as that the scientific, industrial, political, and It seems as if we would never have historical books, as well as those on mathematics now in use in China, are done vying with each other in our attranslations made by the missionaries ; and the reverse is true; most of the tempts to show how important a factor translations of Chinese literature into Western languages has been done by China is in the work of this world's mISSIonaries. The mines, steamboats, and railways of China were projected evangelization. We strain after imagery by men trained in the mission schools. The !lducational mission to America and comparisons that shall enable us to was led by a Chinese Christian. The medical schools and high schools in the make real to ourselves what this great interior, in which modern education is had, are illmost wholly those established empire is. From a great collection of by missionaries, and these missionaries are the advocates of reform which will, pamphlets before us, kindly furnished Mr. Richards says, bring an annual in- Come of $1,000,000,000 to China. U8 by the principal societies for this We are very strongly tempted, while study, we select two illustrations. Here writing of this theme, to quote wholesale from a little tract, " The Missionary In- is the last Annual Report of the Amerivasion of China," of the Congregational Honse, by Dr. Henry D. Porter, can Baptist Union, "hich puts the case of North China, other illustrations in point. He says the missionary be- thus: comes the necessary creator of a new secular literature. The first missio!lary "In the past. other Asiatic nations from America gave the Chinese a history have attracted the attention of the civilof the United States and a version of ized world in a greater degree than the Bible. Weber's" Universal His- China, owing to special and temporary tory" was translated by a missionary. causes; but as the whole of the East is Mr. J. Freyer has prepared fifty or sixty becoming better known, and the real standard text·books on various subjects character of its various peoples more of Western science. Dr. Martin's work correctly understood, it is acknowledged on physics is the .special source of in- that China dominates the East, and the formation relied on by Chinese officials, conversion of China means the triumph as well as his three great treatises on of Ohristianity in Asia. The reason for international law. Kerr, Osgood, Dud- this lies not onlv in the immense size of ~eon, and others have published valu- the country and the almost inconceivable works on Western medical science. able multitude of the people. in the The natives have some appreciation of strength of their intellectual and moral this sort of thing, for one hundred and character, and in their indefatigable intwenty literary graduates appended their dustry, but also in the fact that they are names to the request that Dr. Happer making a peaceful invasion of all the would establish his college at Canton, other countries of Asia, and by their rather than at some other point of in- superior ability and industry capturing fiuence. The son of a viceroy, who the commercial and industrial activities learned to read through the New Testa- of those countries from the nerveless ment, thumbs a dictionary made by a hands of the natives. The business of millsionary. Siam is almost wholly in the hands of the Chinese. The sllmt! is largely true of the Straits Settlements and adjacent islands, and they are becoming increas- ingly influential every year in Burma, India, and even in Japan. It is saying very little to observe that the evan- gelization of the Chinese is more im- portant than that of any other race. "
Rev. Dr. Judson Smith, in a stirring pamphlet entitled" Our Missionary Op- portunity in China," has the following: ., The Chinese are at once the oldest, the most numerous, the most exclusive,. the least understood people on the face of the earth. The interval between the thoughts, the traditions, the tastes, the aspirations of this people and those which make up our inner life is nearly as great as can well be conceived. Here in the centre of the Oriental world, fac- ing the sea along a coaa~ of above three thousand miles, in a territory, the natu- churches, as to their rites, teaching, ral Beat of empire, which exceeds the and books. Let the Emperor then send whole continent of Europe in extent and forth his royal decree explaining the constitutes one tenth of the habitable teachings and meaning of the missionaglobe, amid natural conditions of cli- ries through all the eighteen provinces, mate and soil which have made inter- and cause this imperial decree to be encourse with the rest of the world need- graved on stones and placed throughout less, and which have sustained a teem- the provinces in every yamen, college, ing population for a pel'iod far outrun- private school, public hall, in every vilning the entire history of the longest lage, market town, and city, and in lived states of ancient or modern times every great ancestral hall. .. Weare -here this nation has dwelt since quite sure we would like to Bee the Abraham went out from Ur of the Chal- throne thus doing a good missionary turn; but the force of the preacher's dees, and here it abides to·day with un- logic is rather irresistible to the Chinese failing numbers and unbroken strength. It il:l the only spectacle of tho kind which history presents or the world has ever seen."
-There is plenty of uneasiness in taxpayer when he says it would be China; but Dr. Legge says that fifty much more economical for thc Govern- years ago one of the common sayings he ment than to continue to pay so much learned in China was this : "However out of the public treasury for destroyed the empire be disordered and convulsed, missionary buildings and other indem- the Changs and the K'ungs have no oc- nity, for which really the people have to casion to be troubled." He says that he pay in the form of taxes. He assumes then understood that the K'ungs were tllat the foreigners cannot be driven the descendants of Confucius entitled away, for" when stopped one step, they " Dukes," and were endowed with ex- have always gone beyond and taken .tensive estates; but it was a consid- two," so they might as well provide for erable time before he came to understand their remaini~g in some more economi- that the Changs were the Popes of Tao- cal way to the country.
ism. The headship of 1'aoism has been -We are, from various sources in in the Chang family since the ~rst cen- China, hearing of the excellence of a tury of our era, with the exception of book published at Shanghai, of which one interruption. The spirit of the first our bright and brainy friend, Rev. Ar- Pope is supposed to have transmigrated thur H. Smith, of P'ang Chuang, Shanfrom one chief to another down to the tung, is the author, entitled, .. Characpresent time. For now, close on to teristics of the Chinese." We had the nine centuries, these popes have had pleasure of reading some advance sheets large landed estates about the Lunghu of the book, and appl'eciate the high Mountains as an endowment. Weare praise it is receiving. Some American all the while thinking of Confucianism publisher should by all means bring out as the religion of the State in China; an edition of it. It is not a passing but we forget that the temples of all the book, but will be among the standard State gods are in the hands of Taoist literature of the world on China and the ministers. Chinese. Whoever knows the author -A native Chinese preacher has made will be ready to believe in advance that a proposal which the Chinese Recorder there cannot be a dull line in the volume.
translates. It is that •• all the ministers -The Presbyterian Mission at Canof the Western nations at Peking unite ton has resolved, if the way shall open in requesting the Emperor of China to for it, to erect a memorial chapel to send one of the most intimate, greatest, Rev. Wellington J. White,. at Sanui, and most faithful officers in person to the and to develop work around It as a cen- Western portions of China, to examine tre ; they will accept gifts from friends fully the Roman Catholic and Protestant toward the memorial, that thUH, Brother White being dead, may yet I!peak, -The Chinese clearly distinguish Bl. All along the coast the missions have read, between the spirituality and been scarcely at all disturbed. All this worth of the Romanist and Protestant may seem a Chinese puzzle, but the Chi. forms of Christianity. Dr. Stuart says nese are always a puzzle to foreigners. no Protestant chapel was disturbed at Iehang, nor in other cities where the The Chinese Recorder says: ,. Some Protestants had been long enough for things are clear to the understanding of the people to become familiar with every intelligent and candid observer: them. Rev. Mr. Cockburn, of the (1) Preparation 'for the destruction of Scotch Mission at rchang, writes to foreign property had been going on for Dr. McMurtrie: " The American Episco- years under the observation of officials, pal Mission in a native house within the without any serious attempt on their city, the Roman Catholic Mission within part to stop it ; (2) the movement is not the city, also in II native house, and the distinctively anti-missionary; (3) , Chi- Church of Scotland Mission Station out- na exclusively for the Chinese' is the side the North Gate, are all of them safe. idea-official or otherwise, or both ; (4) No protection was given, but everything the Imperial Missionary Decree seemed was as quiet as on ordinary occasions. If to indicate a change of policy at Pekin; Christianity be offensi ve to the Chinese, but the fact appears' that the edict aDd and mission work felt to be a grievance, its publication in the Gazette were ob. it is passing strange that the very centres tained with great difficulty,' and to all of proselytizing should not have a single appearance it has failed to command stone cast at them. What happened at the influence we had a right to expect Ichang should convince all parties that from a document of the kind, bearing it is not this or that individual class of the seal of higbest authority. It is Europeans that is aimed at, but all J!Ju.ro· more than probable that tho issue of the peans, without dis/inction of nationality or hour for us who are in China will be in. occupation." The Roman Catholics are definitely postponed through a combinamore obnoxious because of their large tion of 'circumstances fortunate for the ownership of tracts of land and exten- Government, and as the due reward of sive trade, combined· with their often a finesse that has often proved more incautious. if not questionable, ways of than a match for Western diplomacy." securing childr~n for their schools and orphanages, and the secrecy with which The Recorder also gives the transla. they conduct both trade and schools, tion of a Hunan manifesto: '" With one and also in the very objectionable way heart we offer up our lives … ' they say. in which they meddle with Government The principal points of agreement are in their own interests, than because of the ostracism of individuals and famitheir religion itself. Riots or no riots, lies 'bewitched by the spies' of the the fact is, the work even in the dis- Christian religion ; the expulsion of susturbed centres was only interrupted for picious travellers within the borders of two or three weeks in the latter part of Hunan; the offer of money, war mate- May and early June. Schools, chapels, rial, and troops to carry out any comand even street chapels, and hospitals mand the Emperor might make for the have been opened, and surgical opera. chastisement and extermination of fortions performed as usual. Only in one eign powers showing practical animosity feature does the work vary from ante- against Hunan; also the non-burning riot days-that of the extension into of churches and chapels, because of dan. new stations in the Yangtse valley. The ger to adjoining native houses; all such Roman Catholic missions in North China buildings should rather be handed over are reported to have suffered locally, to the authorities to be sold for the but the work of the American Board in benefit of the revenues." North China has not been interrupted.
….. ~
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. i51
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by .Rev. D. L. Leonard, Bellevue, O.
-Scarcely a lie can be named, among America in zeal and liberal giving in all the hundreds afloat concerning mis. behalf of world·wide missions, though sions, more utterly without foundation, to them belongs the honor of being but,. nevertheless, frequently repeated pioneers in the work, and from first to and widely believed, than this; that last they have supplied perhaps tbeir every dollar sent to the heathen costs full proportion of men at once gifted, the sender another dollar. Among consecrated, and successful in reach. others, Chaplain McCabe, on several ing the hearts of the heathen. Ger. occasions, has undertaken to capture man societies number 16, of which 9 and slay this rascally offender, but he (Basle, Berlin, BrecklulD, Gossner's, still lives. The real facts in the case as Hermannsburg, Leipsic, the Moravian, to the economy of administration on the North German, and Rhenish) may be part of our missionary societieEl appear called the prinoipal ones, and 7 le811er in these statements, which, though re- and newer ones, and who8e accessible lating to but four, will stand for all. In statistics are but fragmentary. Tbe ago the Methodist Church (North), of every gregate of ordained missionaries is about dollar received, upward of .95 go direct 525, with 108 ordained natives, and a to the missions, and but .0066 are total working force of 5213. The com. ., sunk" in office expenses, such as sala· municants number not far from 100,000, ries of secretaries, clerks, etc. The the schools 950, and the pupils 50,000. Amet'ican Board sends to the heathen The annual income from all sources is .9225 out of every dollar paid into the nearly $950,000, of which sum about treasury, the Missionary Society of the $200,000 are derived from the mission Reformed (Dutcb) Church .948 of every fields. dollar contributed, and the Presbyterian Board (North) .955 of every dollar. Thus, -The Basle Society had its remotest tell it all abroad tbat it costs fi ve cents beginnings as far back as 1780, founded on an aVbrage to sl'nd a dollar to the a school for the training of missionaries ends of the earth. in 1816, and sent out its first men in 1821. It is undenominational, and reo -For several months the New York ceives support from Protestant churches Independent has been supplying its read· of almost every name in Central Eu. ers, in most liberal monthly instal· rope. Missions are sustained in China, ments, with the freshest intelligence India, and West Africa (Oameroons and from all lands. And among these ap. the Gold Coast). In 1890 the income peared a quasi-supplement of 13 pages, was $230,047; the missionaries num· wbich set forth the home missionary bered 133, with 92 women and 738 na· doings of the various denominations of tive helpers in addition; the communi. the United States. At least 23 of these cants were 11,584, and the school cbil· were reported; or, counting all subdi· dren 10,500. The home training-scbool visions of such as the Methodists, Bap. has an attendance of 80 to 100. Varitists, Presbyterians, etc., tbe number ous industrial and commercial institu· was about 50. A statistical summary tions are sustained in the mission fields, was appended, from which it appears whose aggregate income amount;; to that $5,818,000 was the not insignificant nearly $50,000, and from which a hand· sum expended in 1890-91. some profit is each year derived.
-The Protestant Christians of Ger. -The Berlin Society (for the Promo. many can scarcely claim equality with tion of Evangelical Missions among the their brethren in Great Britain and Heathen) was organized in 1824, and at first undertook only to raise funds and native helpers. The income in 1890 supply men for other societies, in 1829 was $19,400. opened a seminary, and sent out its first representatives in 1834. The course of -The Rhenish Society is located at study extends over five years, and the Barmen, was formed in 1828, though funds are gathered by means of auxiliary the influences from which it sprung societies, of which there are upward of began to operate more than 30 years be- 300 scattered throughout Germany. fore. Its efforts are bestowed upon The income was $79,637 in 1890. In South Africa, the Dutch East Indies its Chinese and South African missions (Borneo, Sumatra, etc.), and China. (Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, Orange With an income amounting in 1890 to Free State, etc.) are 54 ordained and 8 $111,414 ($17,698 from the field), it BUS, l1nordained miss~onaries and 11 artisans, tains 83 ordained and 4 unordained mis. with 430 native helpers. The number sionaries, 13 ordain~d natives, and 558 of. baptized persons is 22,349, of com- other helpers. In the 170 churches are municants 10,892, and in the schools 11,556 communicants, and in the 350 3966. schools are about 6000 pupils.
-The Leipsic Society dates from -Hermannsburg Society was organ- 1836, was founded at Dresden, but after ized by Pastor Harms in 1849, was sus· -about ten years-was removed to the tained by the gifts of the poor, and its city to which it owes its name. In missionaries received none of the culspirit and methods it is Lutheran, and ture of the schools. South Africa and was designed to comprise and express South India are the fields upon which the missionary zeal of that church in the bulk of self-denial and humble zeal Germany, Scandinavia, etc. Its prin- have been bestowed. The churches cipal field is South India, in the Tran. gathered number 53, with 26,940 com· quebar region, the old-time seut of the municants ; and the schools 60, with Danish Halle Mission of Ziegenbalg and 4000 pupils. The 58 ordained and 4 Schwartz. The income in 1890 was unordained missionaries are assisted by $81,090, and $2600 from the mission 240 natives. In 1890 the income reached field. With this sum 25 ordained and 2 $51,792, and the native contributions unordained ·missionaries are sustained, $15,179. as well as 17 ornained natives, and 453 other helpers. In the 148 churches are -On June 11th, 1890, the Norwegian 6911 communicants, and in the 183 Evangelical Lutheran China Mission schools 4753 pupils. Society of America was organizt'd, and soon dispatched its first representatives -The North German Society is Ioeat. -3 men-to China, sending after them ed in Bremen, was organized in 1836 also in 1891 a reinforcement sufficient from various smaller bodies (" unions") to raise the number to 12, including 4 which for years had been in existence; children. Hankow is the seat of the the next year an institute was started at mission. Hamburg, aml the first men were sent forth in 1842. The only field occupied -Over 16,000 Indians are now citi· at present is in West Africa, upon the zens of the United States. During Gold Coast, where, from the first almost the year patents to land have been until now, untold sufferings and dis· issued to 2104 persons; 2830 patents couragements, especially from sickness are ordered, 1520 are approved, and and wars, have been heroically endured. other allotments are in progress. The At the 3 stations are found 442 com· amount of acreage in the 138 reserva· municants, 14 schools with 353 scholars, tions in 1890 was 104,314,349 acres. 9 ordained and 4 unordained missiona· That has been reduced some twenty ries, 1 ordlloiued native, and 26 other million acres. The appropriations for educational work the past year were $2,216,650, or an increase of 20 per 51,410. This is, for both membership cent; for contract schools. $601,000. and families, an increase of about 17 The total enrolment is 17,926-1549 per cent. But the statistics of foreign more than last year; and 100 indi- missions show that in every single par- viduals are in public schools paying $10 ticular this rate of progress has been far per quarter. -yes, many times, outstripped. This table tells the story : -The Foreign Christian (Disciple) Missionary Society lllet for its annual 1881 1891 Iner'se Perc't. meeting at Alleghany City, Pa., Octo ber 20th. The report presented by the Stations…………. 9 15 6 66 Secretary, the Rev. A. McLean, D.D., Out Stations.. ……. 109 166 57 52 was heard with much iuterest as indi- Missionaries . … , . . . . 15 27 12 80 cating good pr0gress in every part of the field. In China the number of Lady" …….. 18 38 20 111 members has increased from 16 to 41, Natlvepastors…… 14 33 19 135 in Japan from 179 to 245, in India from Other helpers, male.. 118 218 100 84 40 to 50, in Turkey from 664 to 691, in U female. 12 63 51 425 Denmark from 131 to 141. The Sabbath- U school scholars number in China 226, in Japan 136, in India 567, in Turkey Chnrches …. …… 35 53 18 51 600. At the two dispensaries in Nan- Communicants…… 2357 5214 2857 121 king, China, 2936 new cases and 6276 Academies. ….. .. 4 14 10 250 old cases have been treated. The expenditures for the year were $71,004. Pupils in Academies. 129 604 475 868 The total receipts from churches, Sun- Day Schools……… 49 119 70 143 day·schools, Endeavor Societies and in- Day Scholars .. …. 1866 4074 2208 118 dividuals were $59,365. The bequests Theological Students. 13 43 30 231 showed a marked falling off, only $1000 Contribntions of Na· having been received as against $12,000 last year. The donations, however, tive Chnrches ..•.. $2372 $7648 $4916 179 showed an increase of $7259. -The gross income of the Missionary -The general statistics of the Evan- Society of the Methodist Church in gelical Association for 1891 show 26 con- Canada for the last year was $143,000. ferences, 2062 churches, and 150,234 members. There are 1227 itinerant -The growth of the work of the Brit· preachers and 619 local preachers; 2535 ish and Foreign Bible Society in 40 Sunday-schools, with 177,639 scholars. years has been remarkable and in every. The collections for the missionary so- direction. In 1851 the year's issues ciety were $134,443. These statistics were 1,137,617 copies; in 1891 the year's show an increase over last year of 19 total is 3,926,535 copies. 'rhe receipts churches, nearly 2000 church members, for 1851 amount to £128,023 2s. 8d.; and over 1000 Sabbath-school scholars. in 1891 they were £285,437 48. 10d. The Of the conferences three artl in foreign expenditure bears much the same prolands, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. portion: for 1851 it was £103,543 lOs. 10d. ; for 1891. £231,583 16s. 9d. The number of versions was then 148 ; now there are 292. There were in 1851 7 foreign agents, and 2 subsidized for oc- casional servIce; in 1891 there were 27 agents in various foreign countries. There were but 5 district secretaries, with 3 local agents ; there are now 13, with 4 recognized assistants. The local societies in affiliation were than 3809 ; now they are nearly double that num· ber, being 7178.
-Thesn figures relating to the growth -There are about 3,200,000 Presbyof a decade in the Reformeil (Dutch) terians in Scotland. There are 1650 Church cannot but be full of cheer to all places of worship in connection with who examine them. The increase in the Church of Scotland, and 1575 in membership has been but 13, 732-from connection with the Free and United 80,591 in 1881 to 94323, according to Presbyterian Church-in all 3225, or the latest figures-while its families more than 1 church for each 1000 of the have increased but 7452-from 43,958 to population. -The Primitive Methodists of Eng. 11,019 ; and Protestants, 124,,623. The land report 192,652 church members, Dutch Missionary Society occupies this 104,3 ministers, 16,256 local preachers. field.
The missionary society has an income -In 25 years the Leipsic (Lutheran) of £11,099, and an expenditure of £10,. Mission in South India has increased 4,77, Aside from this there was tho from 12 to 27 stations, from 262 to 613 special income of tbe African fund, village~, from 18 to 28 missionaries, amounting to £3313. with an expendi. from G to 17 native pastors, from 75 to turo of £2263, The work of tho society 183 schools, from 94, to 311 teachers, and is carried on entirely in Africa in tho from 1687 to 4753 scholars. Kaifraria mission at Aliwal, North. An increase of 150 members was reported. – The census of the important Basle The Zambesi mission had entailod con· West African Mission, made up to Janu.
siderable cost and some reverses have ary 1st, 1891, gives the following reo had to be encountered; but tho party suits: On the Gold Coast the number sent out by the Board have crossed tho of baptized amounted to 964,7, the in.
rivor and aro now engaged in real mis. crease for the year being 738 ; in the new sionary work. field of Kamerun the baptized number -In 1890 tho Ohurch Missionary So. 256, an incr6ase of 97.
ciety accepted 80 candidates. 31 being clergymen, of whom 24, were graduates; 30 were women, and 19 were laymen. British Foreign Missions. By Rev, Jail. Within 5 years the society has sent out Johnston, Bolton, England.
130 university men, 66 of them gradu. The Niger Mission.-·Though the ates of Cambridge. Church Missionary Society is sending out a deputation to West Africa to ar. -In 1890-91 the· China Inland Mis· range matters on a more satisfactory sion could report 407 baptisms, and the basis, information has just been rec6ived addition of 66 new workers and 19 as· in England from Lagos, through a pri. vate channel, that the native churches sociates, n coming from England, 15 have resolved to secede and to work on independent lines. Unless Bishop from America, 12 from Australia, 9 from Crowther is willing to postpone this Sweden,4 from Norway, 3 from Ger· many, and 1 originally from Holland. The number of communicants is 3000.
-Of the 285,000,000 in India it is course in order to discuss tbe situa. reckoned that only about 11,000,000 can tion with the English deputation, the read. The census of schools registered new arrangement will be in force on by Government (only about half of all, January 1st next. Who the delegates but the most effective half) is, for 1888- from England will be has not yet been 89, in the three presidencies: Madras, published. Much patience and guid. schools, 18,931 ; scholars, 552.152 ; but ance are required in the development a year later. 20,512 and 600,551 respec· of this important field, which is des. tiveJy; Bengal, schools, 64,,628 and tined to become a centre of missionary scholars. 1,4,82.150; but 66,285 and influence.
1,4,91,923 in 1890-91 ; Bombay, in tbe The London Missionary Society's former year: scbools, 17,732 and schol. Report.-There comes to hand the reo ars, 582,853; and in the latter year, port of tbis Rociety, showing that the schools: 11,716 (1) and scholars, 591,627. total income last year was £121,4,55; of -In the Minahassa, the Christianized this £76,313 was subscribed at home, district of Celebes, and upon the north. exclusive of special funds, dividends, ern end of the island, the statistics of and legacies. The native congregations population for 1889 were: Catholics, raised £22,500. On its foreign church 3896; Mohammedans, 5784; heathen, roll the society has 68,000 members, and another 250,000 adherents, with some been called a "black grant" of £2500 1200 native missionaries. There are has been made; and for a period of five about 200 English missionarieB, includ- years the society has ~'mewed its grant ing 37 ladies; and as the centenary of of £500 per annum to the Archbishop'S the society two years hence is approach- Mission to the Assyrian Christians. It ing, a call for" 100 more" missionaries will be sincerely hoped that the grounds is being made, with every promise, from for the recent complaints of the Amerithe appearance of the first-fruits, of a can Presbyterian missionaries respectgoodly harvest of laborers, accompanied ing the attitude of the representatives by B generous liberality. The Chronicle, of this mission may be wholly removed which the Rev. George Cousins edits at an early date. The society has also with sterling ability, will next year be promoted medical mission work by its considerably enlarged, have more illus- grants on behalf of the medical and surtrations, and contain a series of articles gical training of women. covering a wider area of topics than has latterly been possible. Progress in Nyassaland.-Veryen- couraging accounts are told of the phys' Contributions to Church of Eng- ical and civilizing development of the land Missions by the Society for Pro- region about Lake Nyassa. The white moting Christian Knowledge.-At one influence is united, native tribes are at time and lI.nother the society has helped peace, and have confidence in the white in the endowment of 44 colonial and man. Vice·consuls are being appointed, missionary bishoprics, and, this last while" customs," police, and postal matyear its grants for church operations ters are in process of establishment. abroad have been made on a liberal For the fertile land there is quite a rush scale. It has promised a grant of £5000 among the traders and others, and agri. toward providing Tinnevelly with its cultural prospects are cheering. It is own bishop, reviTed a lapsed grant of now proved, after fifteen years of ex- £500 toward the endowment of the perience, that Europeans caD. live in bishopric of St. John's, Kaffraria, and comparati ve health on the uplands in has voted £750 toward the additional Central Africa. Dr. Kerr Cross, who endowment of the see of Mauritius. In returned this year with his bride-a aid of the initial expenses of the New daughter of the late Dr. Turner, the Guinea Mission H has made a grant of famous South' Sea missionary, whose £500, and placed £1000 at the disposal death occurred this last summer-says of the Bishop of Mashonaland toward that one can sail from England up the the expenses of his new diocese. For Zambesi and Shire to the foot of the the dioceses of Colombo, Athabasca, Murchison Cataracts. He believes that and Mackenzie River the eum of £1500 Africa can only be developed by Afrihas bE-en voted to meet sums otherwise cans, and hence it is the duty of the raised, and, in assisting the building of planter to persuade the natives to labor, churches, chapels, and mission rooms build, and live on his or their own and stations in foreign lands as much as plantations. In this direction the civ- £10,615 has been voted to upward of ilizatory part of the missionaries' task 130 cases. These buildings range in at Blantyre and Bandawe has been most size from log churches to cathedrals, successful, to which Mr. Joseph Thomand the grants cover all parts of the son, who has just returned from Lake world as widely apart as the back settle- Bangweolo, pays a glowing compliment. ments of Northwest Canada, the islands Missionary friends in Scotland are eagerof the Pacific, the palm.set plains of lyanticipating the arrival of Dr, Laws Southern India, and the wide stretching this year. veldt of South Africa. To help in the training of a native ininistry, what has Welsh Calvinistic Methodist For- eign Missions.-Two missions are supported by this branch of the Church- member which they contribllte to the one on the Khasia Hills, in India, and bep.eficent work of the Church. the other in Britanny, the former being established 50 years ago. The native -The Northern Presbyterian Church churches number 80, with a membership has 4 presbyteries in the synod of the of 6190, including communicants, pro· Indian Territory–in the Choctaw, bationers, and children, while the total Chickasaw and Creek nations-includnumber of those who frequented the ing 62 churches and 1823 members. services and had renounced heathenism None of the churches have ministers, was 8900. The total income of the mis- but they are served by home missionasionary society amounted last year to ries and stated supplies. The Southern £7952 from collections, donations, and Presbyterian Church has 1 presbytery other sources. For the mission jubilee in' the Territory, with 13 churches and fund a sum of £25,000 had already come 637 members. The Spencer Academy, in to hand, and not improbably before the connection with this preshytery, is an Bubscription list was closed, the figure important element of its work. of £35,000 would be contributed. -The American Board has put up Miscellaneous. – There is slight $1,000,000 as its goal in annual receipts doubt that the Baptist Centenary for foreign missions. It hopes to reach Fund will reach £100,000, toward which this mark by constant advances, and as a large proportion is announced. Some the missionary impulse grows stronger handsome gifts have been recently made in the Congregational churches. The by the leading Baptists of Lancashire. Methodists have fixed their high.water The autumnal Baptist gatherings in Manchester in October were fully availed mmiasrskioants$, 1~2n5d0't0h0e0yfowrilhlomreeacahnditf.oreTighne of by the missionary wing, and a pro. nounced impetus given to the claims Presbyterian Ohurch has proposed of foreign missions. The Society of $1,000,000 for foreign missions as its Friends, it is reported, is beginning to aim. It is creeping up slowly to that plant itself in the East, particularly in point, having contributed over $900,000 Philippopolis and Constantinople, the last year. ground for a new meeting-house having just been purchased in the first.named -The schools sustained by the vari· place. ous American missionary societies con- tain almost 175,000 pupils, and the Monthly Bulletin. 12,000 Protestant mission schools are training to Christian intelligence an ag- United States.-The Methodists are gregate of not much less than 600,000 jubilant over the fact that their mis- children and youth. sionary society is free from debt for the first time in twenty·five years. Greal, Britain.-By way of inaugurat- ing the effort which has been resolved -The Methodists in San Francisco upon to raise $500,000 as a special fund have had, for five years, a Japanese Mis- to celebrate the centenary of the Eng. sion, an outgrowth of their Chinese lish Baptist Missionary Society, the Mission in the same city. There were treasurer of the society, Mr. W. R. 175 Japanese members a year ago, and Rickett, of London, has just intimated their church is known among themselves his intention to give $25,000. as the Take-a-seat church. -At the recent meeting of the Con. -The Dakota (Indian) Presbytery far gregational Union of England and Wales, exceeds the others of the Synod of Professor Armitage spoke on The For- South Dakota in the average per church ward Movement in Foreign Missions. He called upon his hearers to face cer· tain facts with contrition and sorrow. In 1841 English Congregationalists had 192 missionaries in the field, and in -Two educated negro women at 18lH only 197. He said: "For 50 years Vasten have begun to issue the first we have locked up our hearts in aliena- newspaper in the Congo Free State. It tion of sympathy-not entire alienation, aims to .. enlighten the souls of the but surely a very deep and real aliena· black-skinned. " tion. But a change has come. The Lord has opened the windows of heaven, -The Central Soudan has at last been and now we are discussing the enthusi- penetrated by two English missionaries. astic proposal to send 100 men and Messrs. Harris and White have gone to women into the field." found a mission at Lake Tchad. On their journey, which they made on foot, -Former students of Mansfield Col- they were hospitably entertained by the ege, Oxford, now on the mission field Arabs, being greatly assisted by Mr_ are never allowed to feel that they are White's violin, to the accompaniment forgotten by their alma mater. Each of which he sang the Gospel tunes. term the college appoints a correspond- The valley in which lies Lake Tchad is ing secretary whose duty it is to write east of the Niger valley, and has never to each of the brethren abroad, tell him before been visited by a missionary. of the latest college news, inform him as to the new men who have come, as -The Muhlenberg Mission of the to the old ones who have gone, and en- Lutheran General Synod in Africa pays deavor to make him feel, though far a large proportion of its expenses by away, that he is still a member of the the sale of coffee, which it raises on its college fold, that those with whom he own plantation in Liberia. once studied are men that live in living affection with him and love to hear of Pacific Islands.-Miss Charlotte M. his weal. The absent one in turn Yonge, the writer, recently subscribed writes to the college and keeps it fully $10,000 for building a missionary colinformed of his trials, success, needs, lege at Auckland, New Zealand. and thus feeds the flame of missionary enthusiasm within scholastic walls. -The Presbyterians of Australia and Tasmania are planning to establish a -Two hundred and twelve thousand mission among the aborigines of North copies of the New Testament in Hebrew Queensland. have been distributed among Jews in all parts of the world by the Mildmay -The miSSIOns Qf the American Mission to the Jews. Board in the Pacific Islands are thus described: .. The institute in the -The Irish Presbyterian Church has Hawaiian Islands for the training of always given effective support to :its a native educated ministry is commend- Foreign Missions· Committee. It is now ed for larger support. At Ponape the trying a new experiment with regard to work has been interfered with by Span- – its agents Up to the present its male ish persecution. The summary of the missionaries in India have all been or- work of the Board is as follows: Five dained university men, and their allow. hundred and thirty-eight missionaries, ance has been about £350 per annum. 2648 native preachers and teachers, 410 An influential section of the general as- churches, 38,226 communicants, andl sembly has lately organized the , ••Tun- schools of various grades with 46,403 gle Tribes Missions," the agents of pupils, are the salient and expressive which are to he earnest, well-educated figures. " laymen, with allowances not exceeding one-third those of the present ordained -The Free Church of Scotland. with mISSIOnaries. They propose to begin 335,000 members, raised last year, from their work among the Bhils, and the all Bouwes, a total missionary revenue first laY' a!1ent p.as aJready sailed. for the evangelization of the world out- !!ide the United Kingdom of £113,431. 16s. 3d. ($567,155). Its native com· ing the more popular language of the municants in aU foreign fields aggregate two. The spirit of missions, at home 6620. It supports 51 ordainedmissiona- and abroad, manifestly perva.ded the ries, 8 medical missionaries, and 23 pro. body. Two students came back who fessors and teachers. had been at work on distant fields, one -Next to the Moravians the United in AbYRsinia and the other in America. Presbyterians of Scotland are the mis- Their ordination diffused a glow of missionary church, Their 570 churches, sionary enthusiasm among the pastors with 185,000 members, contributed and elders, and reports from forty-four $400,000 last year, and the gain of mission stations in Italy quickened the converts was 600 during the year. evangelistic fervor. A Scotchman who was present at the Synod has written -In an interesting paper in a recent home that" almost every family among number of The Church of Scotland Home the Waldensians has furnished minis- and Foreign Mission Record, Rev. Dr. ters, missionaries, and evangelists, and Mackinnon, of Heidelberg, calls atten- the supply is only restrained by finantion to the thoroughness with which cial difficulties. Were the gifts for the German missionaries are trained for evangelization of Italy doubled or their work. Their systematic method trebJed, there could be no difficulty is said to be remarkable indeed in com- in finding a corresponding supply of.
parison with the lax preparatory train- able and godly Vaudois to do the work.' , ing in some other countries largely en- The progress of the Church of the Vaugaged in missionary effort. After satis- dois, in Italy, is slow, but it is steady, factory proof of their fitness for the life, and the Church is in no mood to retreat the candidates in Germany are admitted from the old contest with Rome.
to attend the Mission House one even- South America.-Rev. J. MIlton ing in the week for a year. They are Greene, of Mexico, is translating into then entered upon the books of the pre- Spanish, to publish in his paper, El paratory school for two years for in- Faro. Dr. J. H. Barrows's book, "The struction in Latin, etc. After this they Gospels are True Histories." have a. course of instruction of a theo- logical nature, including the study of -The Methodist missions in South the Bible in the original tongue, and a America propose to prepare for the Co· few sessions of medical training in the lumbian Exposition an exhibit showing hospital. The years thus spent are use· the progress and results of their work ful in developing in the future mission- on that continent.
ary many qualities which are of the ut- -Dr. J. M. Allis, of the Chilian Mis· most value in the mission field. The sian, says that " if Balmaceda had been result is that men are sent out who are trained under biblical influence, and if in every way worthy of their work, and his proud nature had been disciplined who undertake it thoroughly equipped by Gospel instruction and Christian for the Master's senice. teaching, there is not the slightest ques- tion that his history and the history of ltaly.-The Waldensian Synod was Chili would have been decidedly differ. held last month. Professor Geymonat ent." was Moderator. He presides so well that he is re elected from year to year.
The Waldensians have a fine" Synod- -The Salvation Army has secured a house," erected a few years ago as a strong foothold in Buenos Ayres. Dur- memorial of the "glorious return" of ing the financial troubles it was able to the Vaudois. It was noticed that in the help thousands of men thrown out of Synod the speakers are apt to glide away work to food and shelter. It has a from the use of the French into the thriving farm colony, and is training Italian tongue, which is rapidly becom- Spanish.speaking cadets. -The Synod of Brazil recently hand- reach up to and beyond the average of ed over to Episcopal missionaries in Rio Christian giving of Chinese Christians.
Grande a church with forty members, a The most recent figures for Swatow, day school, and a fund for erecting an supplied by Mr. Maclagan, of our mis- edifice; and did it gladly, willingly, sion there, are 1543 members, who duro and in the spirit of comityand·economy ing the year have contributed $1925.
which Secretary Clark, at Pittsfield, said 'I'he Formosan churches do quite as was so necessary. well; and in Amoy the annual contribu- -Mission work in Brazil by the Pres· tion of the church members is at the byterian Church (North) has been car· rate of more than $2 per head. Chinese ried on principally in the southern por- liberality will always seem to those who tion of. t.he country. But there is a know the Chinese money-making and great field in the north. The southern money-saving propensities, one of the Presbyterians have long been active most convincing proofs of the reality of there. The vast field lying between the Chinese Christianity."
San Francisco River and the Amazon is -Dr. Griffith John, the veteran miscomparatively little known to the Chris- sionary to China, is full of jubilation at tian world. Pernambuco is the chief the recent imperial edict opening the centre of this region, a city of 120,000 province ot Hunan to Christian teachinhabitants; in commercial importance ing. He says that its people are brave, one of the first in the republic. It' is manly, and straightforward, occupying the centre of the great sugar tr~de of the very highest positions as civil and Brazil. and the port of three States- military officers. They are proud, ex· Rio Grande do Norte, Parahyba, and elusive, and anti-foreign to a degree Alagoas. Three railroads in operation extraordinary even in China. But now unite there, connecting the city with that the door is opened they will be acthe northern, central, and southern cessible, and when once converts are parts of the State. Mission work is won and a footing gained there the adbeing prosecuted here with vigor and vance will be rapid.
success. -There is an apparentlywell-ground- ed expectation that the cultivated classes -The natural result of the growth of of Japan are only waiting for the con- Protestantism in Brazil is an urgent, an sent of the Mikado to embrace Protestant irrepressible demand for more ed ncation Christianity in a body. The Deshisha, -higher education. Under ordinary founded by a Japanese boy, converted circumstances the absence of such a de- by rpading a single leaf of the New Tesmand would argue the failure of the tament and educated in Phillips' Acadwork. By God's providence a new emy, Amherst, and Andover Seminary, order of things has been set up in Bra- has more students than all three of the zil, for which the ProtAst.ant ferment is institutions named. in some measure responsible. This in- tensifies the urgency of the demand. India.-A Moravian missionary named Letzen, with his wife, certainly ought China.-The Presbyterian missiona- to be written with those who love their ries in Manchuria have encouraged the fellow· men. }'or thirty years he has native Christians to form a native pres- been preaching and working at a stabytery.
-The Presbyteriom, Messenger, organ tion in the Thibetan mountains, with- of the English Presbyterian Church, out the sight of a European face, and says: ,. Without entering on any jeal- with the post-office fourteen days' dis- ous comparisons, it is permissible to re- tant, separated from them by the high joice in the fact that the members of passes of the Himalayas and dangerous our own churches in China and Formosa streams. -A native Christian, to the saliMfac- work upon it. The brickmakers and tion of the bar, the bench, and the pub- bricklayers, the painters and carpenters lic, has just been appointed Adminis- wele natives trained in the mission; trator-General of Madras, India ; and a and the hewers of wood and drawers of native Ch.ristian girl··-a graduate of one of the Christian colleges-has been ap- water were the very men who a few pointed to the charge of the post.office years before had sought to destroy the at Mandapasali. work. On May 10th the work was com- -The Gospel of Matthew, now being pleted and the church dedicated. It printed at Bangkok by the American will seat in the nltv!) and transept 200 Presbyterian Mission press, is the first move toward giving the Bible to the people with eltse, and 400 could be oro- Laos in their own language. This is vided for without passing the chancel. printed i)1 Siamese letters, but it is The wi.J.dowB are mostly memorial winhoped in the near future to give the same in the Laos letters also. dows of stained glass, and most of the fittings have been presented, including -A •• prayer-meeting" attended by handsome lamps, draperies, a bell and Hindu students of the several colleges chairs, communion table and readingin Lahore, India, is held in Mission College boarding-house every Sabbath after- desk. noon. This is in no sense a Christian prayer-meeting, and with it the college -An English Baptist m1ss10naryauthorities have nothing whatever to lir. Stapleton-writing of the ferocity do. The Mohammedan community, of the Bimgala tr1bes on the Upper too, is similarly affected.. A recent organizatiou, caJled the" Young Men's Congo, among whom he and his associ- Mohammedan Association," the secre- ates are attempting missionary work, tary of which is a graduate of a COllege, reports a .:£!gut between two villages, in announces as its object the spiritual and which thi/women took part, after which mor!>l welfare of the young men of the community. "Divine service" is regu- the victors danced in high glee, and larly conducted in four or five different brought in the bodies of those they had halls of that city; and the newspapers tell us of the" impressive sermons" and slain, presenting a sight so sickening the" earnest prayers" offered on such that it was difficult for the missionaries occasions. to eat or to sleep. The conquerors 4frica.-A very practical demonstra- cooked the bodies of their victims; and tion of the progress of missions is gi ven in the view published in various Eng- two days aft€r a lad walked into the mislish journals of the Scotch Presbyterian sion statio'l carrying on a plant.ain leaf Church, recently completed at Blantyre some of the flesh that had been roasted. in East Central Africa. The mission established seventeen years ago has passed Mr. Stapleton says: through every stage of discouragement and prosperity. At one time the fierco ., One of the men killed at Mampoko tribal antagonism threatened to extin. was a slave of the chief. He had worked guish it; but though the whole surround- for us some three months, and but the ing country was raided, the mission and I>vening before was engaged on the sta· the mission people were respected. In tion. In the morning he is killed, and 1888 the foundations of the new church in an hour or two tossed into a grave wefe laid, and !lince the!). !Ill have been at , unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' The people wanted to eat him, and would have none so, but his master refused to cut off his head, a necessary preliminary to the feast. Another man comes to the fight in full vigor; in twelve hours h1s bodv is cooked and eaten; while to burn alive a poor, sick, deserted woman is regarded as a huge joke. Yet usually these Bangalas are merry, manly fel- lows, very friendly in conversation, and quite demonstrative in their affection; but when the 1118t of blood is upon them deeds which fill us with horror are the merest incidents of the fight to them. "
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1892
NARAYAN
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No.l.-0ld Series.–JANUARY..–VOL.V. No.1.-New 8erie3.
THE MIRACLES OF MISSlONS.-NO. XXI.
[EDITORIAL, A. T. P.] THE BEGINNING OF MODERN WONDERS.
The Society Islands were so called by Cook in honor of the" Royal Society j" and the largest, having a circuit of one hundred and forty miles and containing about six hundred square miles, is known as Tahiti. It consists of two rounded peninsulas joined by a narrow isthmus, and is crowned with a majestic peak called The Diadem. The name was a prophecy, for this island furnished the first conspicuous diadem of modern missionary labors.
It was first seen by an English Captain-Wallis-in 1767. The inhabitants were tall, stout, brown skinned, with dark eyes, and seemed unusually good.natured and playful j but they were thieves, liars, and murderers.
When the knowledge of the Tahitians reached England, the directors of the London Missionary Sooiety determined to send the Gospel to this island, and at last found thirty men who were willing to go, four of whom were ministers, the rest tradesmen ; and six of them were married. A ship called the Duff was bought, and pious Captain Wilson took charge of it.
This memorable missionary band left the Thame.s on August 10th, 1796. A purple flag waved in the wind, with three' doves bearing olivQ branches as its device; and as they set sail they sang the hymn, " Jesus, at Thy command we launch into the deep."
A seven months' voyage brought them to the shores of Tahiti. and they were welcomed by about seventy-five canoes, whose natives clambered over the ship's side, and in various ways expressed their joy, hoping for knives and axes and other useful implements. They had brought with them hogs and fruit for the purpose of barter; but as it was the Sabbath day the missionaries tried to make them understlOlnd that they neither sold nor bought upon the Day of Rest. Most of the natives returned in their canoes, but about forty stayed on deck, and the missionaries had a service. While they prayed and sang the natives looked on in silence.
Two white men were already at Tahiti, one of whom had been shipwrecked, and the other left on shore a few years previous. Their names were Peter and Andrew, and they were. clad like savages. Being able to speak some Tahitian, they served at first as interpreters between the mis-
MIRACLES OF MISSIONS
sionaries and the natives, but they turned out to be very wicked men, though born in a Christian land.
An old man, Mane-mane, was high-priest to the idol gods, and was held to be some great one. A chief showed the missionaries an empty house about one hundred feet long, but unfurnished, which he said should be given to them. 'Upon thsir arrival on the beach they were met at once by strange customs. They found the king, Otu, and his queen both riding on men's shoulders. Wben those that carried them changed the burden to other shoulders, the royal feet were not permitted to touch the ground, because whatever land they touched would become their own, so they jumped over the head of one man upon the shoulders of another. For the same reason, when the king and queen visitcd the ship, they refused to go on deck, because if they touched the ship it would be theirs, and none but their own servants might dwell there or eat there henceforward. Afterward, when Mr. Lewis unfolded his umbrella, they warned him not to hold it over their heads, as it would thenceforth become sacred to their exclusive ust'.
Thc missionaries found dancers on these i~lands called Areois, who were a most wicked set of people. Their bodies were blackened with charcoal and their faces dyed red. They committed murders, killing their little children as soon as they were born. They had no occupation but dancing, boxing, wrestling, and sporting.
The first night, in presence of the natives, the missionaries sang and prayed and thanked God for inclining these strangers to receive them so kindly; and the first Sabbath they turned their dwelling into a chapel and Mr. Jefferson preached, being interpreted by Andrew, the Swede; and so through the vehicle of an ungodly man the first impressions of the Gospel were made upon these natives.
The father of Otu was called Pomare. He was a very wise man; had formerly been not only a chief, but the supreme king of the chiefs of the island. He had, however, many fauIts. He was a liar, a glutton, covetous, and pre-eminently selfish. On the second Sabbath, however, he attended the service of worship, when Mr. Cover preached from that text which has been probably the subject of more sermons than any other in the Bible-John 3 : 16-and after the service Pomare pronounced what he had understood very good.
The favorite g')d, Oro, was simply a log of wood about the size of a man, kept in a shed among trees surrounded by a stone wall. . In this place were altars on which lay pigs that had been dead for months, and it was called a Marro, and was a habitation of cruelty. Men were sacrificed and their flesh hung in large baskets on the trees around till it decayed. No woman was counted worthy of the honor either of approaching the Marre or being sacrificed in it. The priests used to roll themselves up in a great bundle of cloth, and in a squeaking voice pretend to represent the gods; and though tlw people knew that it was the priest that was speaking, they dared not disobey. They kept in their houses some of their gods, and fancied them to be in disposition like unto themselves. Hiro was the pro- tector of thieves, and when they went out to steal, they promised Hiro a part of the booty if he would not expose them ; and the missionaries found that the natives were very much like the god th'ey worshipped. Nothing was safe within their reach. Murder was quite as common as stealing; and one Sunday Mr. Lewis preached upon the commandment, " Thou shalt not kill." Mane-mane advised the people to leave off their wicked ways, yet he had not left off his own; and when he wanted to kill a man, drank wine to keep up his courage for his horrible work. His own wife killed her offspring, and when remonstrated with, said she would keep the customs of the country and defy the missionaries' displeasure.
Some of the idols were made of stone, but most of them of wood, or of a kind of string made from the outside of the cocoanut. Sharks and birds were worshipped, and there were more than one hundred gods. When 9 sacrifice was demanded for Oro, it might be the guest who was eatir.g beneath the roof of a chief. If one man of a family were offered, the people of the same household were usually chosen until the whole was destroyed. When the beating of the sacred drum gave the signal that II human sacrifice was required, the natives would flee to the mountain dens and caves for refuge. The Tahitians believed that at death their spirits went to cruel gods, who first devoured them three times over, after which they passed into the body of a beast, bird, or man, and lived again on earth.
If thus cruel to their friends, their cruelty to enemies may be inferred; their bodies were left unburied to be devoured by beasts and birds. Sometimes a hole was made through an enemy's body, and he was worn as a Tiputa by the man who slew him. The conquerors destroyed all the women and children of their foes, and taught their own little children to kill those of whom they would naturally have made playmates; and sometimes these little children of conquered foes were strung on a spear like beads.
Among such a people these missionaries began their apparently hopeless labors. Three weeks had not passed before they were robbed, and, because they did not punish the offenders when detected, they were regarded as cowards; but they sought to win by kindness, and determined they would not seek to defend themselves, but confide themselves entirely to the keeping of Jehovah. They placed near their house a hospital, and offered to nurse all who would come. Though many natives were suffering from terrible diseases, they would not accept the proposition. Satisfied with food and raiment, the missionaries gave up their blacksmith shop and store room to Pomare, and even offered to surrender to him all their own private property, but he would not accept it. During the first year there was a quarrel between Pomare and Otu, and, as Mane-mane had stirred up the rebellion, Pomare order~d him to be killed. Thus perished the wicked old priest, the great man of the Tahitians. The more the missionaries saw of Otu the more wicked he was found to be ; and the continued unbelief of the peo~le was a source of much heavi- ness to these servants of God. Nothing offended the natives more than to rebuke their wicked customs. rdia, the queen, bad destroyed three chil- dren of her own within three years after the missionaries had arrived.
On March 5th, 1800, three years to a day from that when the mis- sionaries first saw the island, the first wooden posts or pillars of a Christian chapel were reared; and they besought God that these, like the pillar that Jacob set up at Bethel, might be a memor.ial of the presence of God.
The next June, in the Royal .Admiral, eight new missionaries arrived, and were welcomed by Pomare. It was agreed by the brethren that Mr. Nott should go around Tahiti to preach to all the inhabitants. He was accompanied by Mr. Elder. Sometimes Mr. Nott preached three or four times a day. They lodged in the houses of the natives, and took with them on the journey some of the Tahitians themselves, who thus had the advantage of hearing him preach during a five weeks' tour, and UpOll his return he found that they were able to give a clear account of the Gospel truths they had heard. Constant prayer went up to God that He would pour down His Rpirit from on high. The missionaries endured great suffering for the natives' sake, especially in consequence of desolating wars. When the natives were entreated to believe in Jesus Christ, like ancient unbelievers, they asked, " Has Pornare or any of the chiefs believed 1" They were, in fact, the greatest enemies of Christ, and discouraged the natives from attending to the Gospel. The tenacity of idolatry seemed to make preaching a hopeless task.
The natives had great confidence in the power of red feathers, attributing large success in fishing to their presence on the canoes, but had little conception of the soul or of duty, and while faithless toward God they were credulous toward the most absurd imposture, placing their trust in fortune. tellers, dreams, and signs of good or ill luck.
While Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Scott were travelling in Tahiti and lay down to rest, a chief invited a guest to go with him to the beach, killed him with stones, put his body in a basket of cocoanut leaves, and sent him to Pomare as calm and unconcerned as if he had only killed a hog.
In 1803 Pomare himself suddenly died, and the wicked Otu had more power than during his father's lifetime. He styled himself Pomare II. It was he who was destined to be the first convert of the Gospel work at Tahiti. He had taken pains to learn to read and write. He was greatly feared, and it was believed that he could kill a man by his prayers and imprecations. In the spring his queen had a child, and he himself was privy to its death. The queen died in 1806.
In May of this year a day of fasting and prayer was appointed by the missionaries, and particular pains were now taken to teach the children. They learned to repeat a short catechism by heart, and in November Mr. Davies opened a school in the new houee, and invited the boys who lived near by to attend it on three afternoons in the week. A month afterward they asked to be taught oftener, and were instructed daily. They learned to read and write, being first taught to make letters on the sand. Spelling- books !lnd Bible histories were made for them and sent to England to be printed. A!I the missionaries began to be 'familiar with the language, they discovered that it was unfitted for the expression of Christian ideas. There was, for instance, no word for "thanks," and no proper expression for " God."
A vessel arrived from the directors of the London Missionary Society, bearing a letter in English for Pomare. He was pleased with it, answered it courteously, and consented to the request of the directors, and promised to banish Oro from the island. He acknowledged that his land was a bad land, a foolish land, and one that knew not the true God ; asked for a large number of men, women, and children from England, and said he would adopt English customs. This letter appears to have been insincere, for shortly afterward he desired thai a man might be killed at Atehuru as a sacrifice, and taken in a canoe to another place ; and he sought to conceal it from the missionaries. He seems to have made his fair promises only as a "loak for his covetousness.
In 1807 another war broke out at Tahiti, which lasted about three years. The missionaries were obliged to leave the island, Mr. Nott and Mr. Hayward going to Huahine near by, and all the rest to Port Jackson in New South Wales.
The king, who had. gone to Eimeo, invited the missionaries to come to that island. There were now seven missionaries in Eimeo-Nott, Hayward, Bicknell, Scott, Wilson, Davies, Henry. They had settled at Papetoai, and built a small chapel and opened a school. Events occurred which inclined them to stay in Eimeo, and they observed that the king appeared £0 regard idols less than he had done in times past. For instance, in 1812, when a sacred turtle was caught, instead of Rending it to the idol's temple, he had it dressed in an oven in his own kitchen, and served for his dinner, which was an ast.ounding blow at idol customs; and as no harm befell him, he was confirmed in his contempt of idols, and the power of the popular superstitions was greatly weakened. Pahi, the brother of the King of Raiatea. made a still bolder experiment-destroying in an oven a sacred log which had been worshipped, and then ate bread fruit that had been baked in its ashes.
Pomare declared that he would now have henceforth but one wife. He married Teara, daughter of the Raiatean king, and on the birth of her little daughter the customs of the ages were disregarded, which permitted no fires to be lighted for many days, nobody to leave the shore, and no persons to approach the child except sacred persons in sacred garments.
On July 18th, 1812, Pomare asked to be baptized, and declared his fixed purpose to cleave to Jehovah and His people. He said, " I wish you to pray for me," and proposed to build a larger chapel. He declared that he had tried to persuade the kings of other islands to do as he intended to do, and when they answered that they would cleave to Oro, he told them that was cleaving to Satan. The missionaries, full of joy, waited anxiously to see whether Pomare was really a converted man. Subsequently his grief for his sins, his observance of the Sabbath, and his efforts to persuade his friends to turn to God, convinced them that he had been changed by the .grace of God.
When the missionaries found the people in Eimeo ready to attend their instructions they heard that the people in Tahiti were likewise inquiring after Jehovah, and Mr. Scott and Mr. Hayward were sent to see whether the joyful report was true.
Missionary labor at Tahiti was apparently in vain for from fourteen to sixteen years, and, notwithstanding untiring, earnest, and faithful effort, but one solitary instance of conversion had taken place. The wars of desolation continued, and abominable idolatries and iniquities reigned. " The heavens seemed as brass and the earth as iron i" and when God's time to favor the work in Polynesia came, the beginning was such as to turn all attention to Himself. For at the time the war had driven the missionaries from the island and cut off all communication. Two native servants, formerly employed in the missionaries' families, had, unknown to them, received favorable impressions, and had united together for prayer. They had been joined by others, and at the return of the missionaries to Tahiti, at the termination of the war, they found a number of praying people, and had little to do but to aid in a work which God had thus singularly begun.
These years of fruitless and apparently hopeless toil had almost determined the directors of the London Missionary Society to abandon altogether the work at Tahiti. Dr. Haweis, chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the founders of the society, and the father and liberal supporter of the South Sea Mission, earnestly opposed such abandonment of the field, and backed his arguments by a further donation of a thousand dollars. The Rev. Matthew Wilb, the pastor of Mr. Williams, declared with great emphasis that he would sell the clothes from his back rather than give up the mission, and proposed, instead of abandonment, that a season of special prayer should be observed for the divine blessing. Such a season was observed i letters of encouragement were written to the missionaries, andmark it I-while the vessel w~s on her way to carry these letters to Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid-ocean, which conveyed to Great Britain, October, 1813, the news that idolatry was entirely overthrown in the island, and bore back to London the rejected idols of the people; and so was fulfilled literally the Divine promise, " Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear."
We have already mentioned the fact that, while the missionaries were driven away from Tahiti, two natives had begun to call upon the Lord Jesus in prayer. One of these lads was named Tuahine. Another native, impressed by some remarks from Pomare, had gone to make some inquiries of Tuahine, who had lived for some time in the missionaries' families. Finding his mind was in a similar state they resolved to retire to some secret place to talk and pray, and after a little while several young persons united with them ; and this little band, without the guidance of any missionary, determined to abandon idols and the wicked practices of their countrymen, keep the Sabbath, and worship Jehovah alone. As Christianity spread, Tuahine helped the missionaries by directing inquirers, teaching in the schools, and translating the Scriptures. Sometimes he spent from eight to ten hours a day in this last work, and rendered invaluable counsel and aid to the missionaries. He proved himself to be a Barnabas and an Apollos both in one, and had a surprising gift in prayer. He discharged the office of a deacon with great faithfulness, and died about forty-five years old, a model of a converted native.
The chapel that Pomare had desired to be built at Eimeo was opened for worship July 25th, 1813, and the next evening thirty-one natives cast away idols, and their names were written among the disciples of Jehovah. Shortly after, the number had risen to above three hundred. embracing, among others, a priest called Patii, who led the way in the burning of idols. He brought out the gods one at a time, tore off the sacred garments and ornaments, threw them one by one into the flames, pronouncing their names, repeating their foolish histories, and challenging the people to observe what helpless logs they were. The joy of the missionaries may be imagined. The queen's sister about the same time publicly showed her contempt for the idol gods; and Pomare himself, though gnilty of many things inconsistent with the character of a Christian, made a tour of Eimeo, seeking to persuade the heathen to turn from idols.
Meanwhile at Tahiti persecution arose against the native Christians. They took refuge in the woods and lonely vaUeys at midnight for prayer. One young man suffered martyrdom, and another bore a lifelong sear received at their hands. The year 1815 was the most remarkable that had ever been known at Tahiti. A plan was laid to destroy the Christian natives entirely, and the night of July 7th was fixed upon, when the Christians were to be assembled for prayer. Having been adTised, however, of this conspiracy, they sailed for Eimeo, and their departure was the cause of a quarrel among their enemies themselves, in which they largely destroyed each other.
The missionaries at Eimeo received the Tahitians with great affection, but feared that the heathen might rise up in both islands and destroy all the worshippers of Jehovah. July 14th was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer. Soon afterward two chiefs from Tahiti came to Eimeo, inviting the Christian chiefs who had fled to return. The invitation was, however, a mere cover for a plan to destroy the king and his friends. A battle ensued in November, 1815, in which Pomare and his little army were victors. Instead of killing his enemies the king determined to destroy their idols. The multitude stood astonished, both at the helplessness of their gods and the audacity of their destroyers j and when the great god Oro was carried to Pomare's feet, he set it up as a post in his kitchen, fixing pegs upon it on which to hang baskets for food, and subsequently burned it as fuel. Such was the end of the great war god.
Mr. Nott and Mr. Hayward soon went to Tahiti, and made a tour of the island. They found the people busy in destroying Marres and build- ing little chapels. Pomare himself had written a prayer, which he often read in these places of worship-a prayer worthy of any Christian author.
The missionaries found the people very anxious to learn to read, and the king had not only destroyed his public idols, but now wished to part with the family gods, always kept in his house. He sent about twelve of these frightful little images to the missionaries in Eimeo, with a letter ask- ing that they might be sent to the Missionary Society in England, that they might know the likeness of the gods that had been worshipped in the island. The idols were accordingly nailed up in a wooden case and sent to the directors of the London Missionary Society. Family prayer became common, and the people retired to the bushes for private supplication.
The missionaries could scarcely get any rest, so continually were they besieged with inquiry. In every place they found chapels-sixty-six in all -in which the people assembled four times a week.
About this time a printing-press was brought to Eimeo, and from a neighboring Marre, polished stones-pieces of pavement upon which worshippers had knelt before the altars-were dug up and placed where God's Word was to be printed. Satan was robbed that God might be honored. The first book printed was the Baba, or spelling-book, and Pomare was permitted to aid in setting up the first page, and to strike off the first impression. The Tahitians were very anxious to have these printed.
books, and sent to the missionaries plantain leaves rolled up, with the request for spelling-books written on the leaves. This was the beginning of the spreading of the knowledge of God from isle to isle by the power of a sanctified literature. Catechisms followed, and little books containing col- lections of texts j schools were multiplied, converts increased, and there was a general spirit of inquiry. .
For years Mr. Nott had been translating the Gospel of Luke into Tahitian, assisted by Pomare, and while the book was in press the natives often constrained Mr. Ellis to stop printing to explain to them what they read. The missionaries wished to bind the books before they were dis- tributed, but the impatience of the people compelled them to give up wait- ing for proper binding materials. The natives, however, did not suffer these precious books to remain without proper protection j dogs and cats and goats were killed that their skins might be prepared for covers, and the greatest anxiety was manifested to obtain these new copies of the Gospel. Five men from Tahiti landed at Afareaita, and did not go into any house to lodge lest some one might anticipate them in the morning and buy up all the books, so that they should be compelled to return without any. Mr. Ellis gladly gave them copies of the precious Gospel, which they wrapped in bark, put in their bosoms, and set sail for Tahiti without having taken food or drink during their stay at Eimeo.
And now the brethren determined to form a missionary society in Eimeo, and on May 13th a great meeting was held, and numbers of natives came from Tahiti. The prayers began at sunrise, and long before the chapel service at three 0' clock they were obliged to leave the chapel for the grove outside to accommodate the crowds. The king was seated with the queen, her ladies, and many chiefs, and Mr. Nott preached from the words, "Understandest thou what thou readest~" (Acts 8 : 30,31.) 'An address from Pornare hims.elf followed, advocating the formation of the. Missionary Society, and hundreds of 4ark arms were lifted toward heaven in assent.
The" Royal Mission Chapel" at Tahiti, so called, was finished in the spring of 1819. It contained 133 windows, 29 doors, and was 712 feet long and 54 feet wide-212 feet longer than St. Paul's in London. As no preacher could speak loud enough to be heard to the end of the chapel during a whole sermon, three pulpits were placed in it, with a minister in each. Six thousand people joined in singing God's praise in this new place of worship, and three sermons were preached simultaneously.
The next day after the dedication service in May, 1819, laws were publicly given to the people, condemning murder, rebellion, theft, Sabbath breaking, these prohibitions being followed with becoming sanctions. After the law was read the king asked the chiefs, " Do you agree to this law~" and Tati, a ringleader among the rebels, held up both hands, and called upon the people to do the same. At the close of the Sabbath service, Pomare solemnly pronounced his faith in a crucified Redeemer. Let any reader consider how different were these assemblies from the feasts at which Pomare and his father had distributed the bleeding limbs of human victims as offerings to the gods.
The rest of the year was full of rejoicing; new customs obtained, and the preaching of the Word was greatly blessed. Pornare was shut up whole days with Mr. Nott, helping him to correct the translations of the Gospel of John and the Acts.
We can give no further space to this wonderful story. The king himself was a leader in all good works, and on December 7th, 1821, died in the faith of Christ at the age of forty-seven years. Though naturally proud, covetous, deceitful, intemperate, and treacherous, he not only believed the Word of God himself, but persuaded many others, while he forced none to turn from their idols, and we cannot but believe that, not- ,withstanding his many faults, he sincerely belonged to Christ.
A fitting conclusion to this narrative may be found in the coronation of the young king, four years old, on April 21st, 1824. He was dressed in his coronatiou robes in Mr. Nott's house, and borne to the church on the highest platform. A hymn was sung, a prayer was offered. and Mr. Nott
lIONQR OF' A MISSIONARY
made an effective address. The laws of the country were placed upon the table, and the young king was asked whether he would promise to govern the people in justice, and mercy, and obedience to these laws and to the Word of God; and he replied, "I do, God being my helper." Oil was then poured upon his head, and a blessing pronounced upon him by Mr. Davies. The crown was placed upon his brow while Mr. Nott spoke words of benediction, and the Bible was presented to him as the most priceless treasure in the world. From the platform of coronation, the procession went to the " Royal Mission Chapel," and the young king sat in the royal pew.
Contrast this scene with the coronation of Pomare II., who had been declared king according to the heathen fashion, robed in a girdle covered with red feathers, the ceremony attended by the slaughter of men and followed by the worship of the god Oro. Now a little prince began his reign with the sweet sacrifice of prayer and praise to the living God.
In the end of the summer of 1835 many people in various parts of the island were converted, especially by the preaching of Mr. Nott, at Papao, and in July, 1836, the queen found that only two openly ungodly persons were to be found in the whole district of Pare; and Mr. Davies was almost as much blessed at Papare as Mr. Nott was at Papao. The translation of the whole Bible into Tahitian was completed in 1836, the greatest part of the work having been done by Mr. Nott; and in February of this year Mr. Nott set sail for England. He presented the translation to the directors of the London Missionary Society, and remained in England for two years. He appeared at Exeter Hall at the great anniversary in 1838, and after showing the Ailsembly a copy of the Tahitian Bible, bade them a last though not an everlasting farewell, and returned to Tahiti, rejoicing in the privilege of spending the remainder of his days in the service of Christ in the South Seas.
HONOR OF A MISSIONARY.
I should not like you, if meant by the gifts of God for a great missionary, to die a millionnaire. I should not like it, were you fitted to be a miRsionary, that you should drivel down into a king. What are all your kings, all your nobles, all your stars, all your diadems and your tiaras, when you put them altogether, compared with the dignity of winning souls for Christ, with the special honor of building for Christ, not on another man's foundation, but preaching Christ's gospel in regions far beyond ~ I reckon him to be a man honored of men who can do a foreign work for Christ; but he who shall go farthest in self-annihilation and in the furtherance of the glory of Christ shall be a king among men, though he wear a crown no carnal eyes can see.-Spurgeon.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND THE HIGHEST USE OF WEALTH
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND THE HIGHEST USE OF WEALTH.
B. C. AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE A. F. M. AT PITTSFIKLD, MASS., OCTOBER 14TH, 1891.
BY PRESIDENT MERRILL EDWARDS GATES, LL.D., OF AMHERST.
The incarnation of the living God as the Redeemer of man has made it forever necessary that the man who would know God must see something of God in his fellow-men. In all ages the men whose hearts God has touched, whose eyes God has opened that they may see Him and make others see Him, have been men mightily moved in soul and heart toward their fellow-men. The nearer we come to God's view of human life, the purer and deeper and mightier will be our love of human souls and our pity for wasted. sinful. and benighted human lives.
LOVE OF GOD AND WORK FOR MEN.
There is a Divine revelation of the very heart of God Himself in the description Christ gives us of the scenes of division at the judgment. Our Master takes as His own not those who selfishly cry, "Lord, Lord!" and boast familiarity with God's power and achievements of their own in cast- ing out devils; but the men who have shown" the mind which was in Christ Jesus, " and under the constraining power of Christ's love have served Him by serving" in His name" their fellow-men for whom He died. It is by the faith that is in Christ Jesus that we stand; but the absolutely vital, the indissoluble connection of faith with love and with works of love and help- fulness and mercy, is made startlingly clear in this revelation by Christ of the things whi.ch shall be made manifest at that day. It is only by living out a vital principle of life to its issues that we can come to know it thoroughly. True Christians are men and women who are bent upon reducing right theories of life to right living. Life-power and moral truth are the mightiest forces in the universe. In Christian character these two forces are combined. God is life and truth ; godlikeness worked out in life is character; into sound character has entered the " omnipotence of a • principle," and the almightiness of God Himself is pledged to make char- acter, which is vitalized truth, the mightiest power within the control of man. And since God is Jove, and God in Christ is the supreme revelation of that holy and infinitely attractive love which spared not His own Son that He might be just and yet might Jove us out of our sins into lives of holiness, Christians can never Jearn large lessons of God's love in Christ without sharing in Christ's love for their fellow-men THE TEST-OUR FEELING TOWARD MULTITUDES OF UNSHEPHERDED MEN.
Always, then, for the individual Christian, and for any body of Christians who are acting together, there is a supreme test in the question, How deep a concern do you feel for the welfare of the great body of your fellowmen ~ What are your feelings, what are your purposes, what is your attitude of soul t.oward the benighted ones, 'our brothers and sisters, who are ignorant, debased, sin-burdened, and hopeless in the world ~ Sharp and clear is the contrast between the spirit of the Pharisees and the spirit of Christ in this matter of caring for crowds of the commou people. When their returning officers said, " Never man spake as this man speaks," and when "the common people heard Him gladly," the Pharisees waved aside the divine meaning of the message with that contemptuous phrase, the essence of selfish vanity and arrogant pride, " This people that knoweth not the law is accursed." But" the mind that was in Christ Jesus," the mind that dwells in every true child of God in richer fulness as the Holy Spirit shows him the things of Christ, is revealed in the words, " But when He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion upon them, because they fainted aud were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. " In those words speaks from the heart of God the loving voice of the Good Shepherd j and "His sheep know His voice and follow Him."
This mind that was in Christ, this deep yearning love for lost men, has always marked the true Church. It began its growth among men with the growth of the early Church at Jerusalem, and it had to break its way through that intense spirit of exclusiveness which, with the Jewish Church, had been a cult for centuries. For generations God had walled in His chosen people, had separated them from the rest of the world, that their knowledge of Him and their realization of His presence might be intensified by exclusion. In the fulness of time, when the Word was made flesh, when the love of God was poured into the life of men through the life and the words of Christ, this spirit of love for all mankind burst the cerements of the old dispensation, and the Christian Church began its wondrous growth on earth. It came into life, it grew and prospered under the teaching and guidance of the Third Person of the Trinity, the ever-living Holy Spirit, whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them to His followers, who is with us here to-day guiding His Church. Peter first felt the power of this mission-spirit of love for all mankind. Then the heavenly vision came to Paul, and flaming with the spirit of Christ's love he went through all the provinces, fiery-hearted with the spirit of missions. With the growth of the Church this spirit has increasingly prevailed; the walls of separation between nationil have been broken down by it. It is to the growing spirit of Christ, not to the evolution of a perception of a subtly selfish interest for the individual to be attained by the promotion of the we)£are of the whole-it is to the spirit of Christ and not to "enlightened self-interest," that we owe the deepening sense of the solidarity of the race which binds men together the world around.
In the history of the Church it is the men whose hearts have'received this spirit in the largest measure whose names illumine the annals of the Church and the pages of universal history. In their hearts was condensed so much of the thrilling force of Christ's love that heat passed into fiery rays of light, and they became beacons to men for all time. From Paul, longing to visit Spain, yearning over the Romans, melted with love for the Galatians, holding all Greece and all Asia in his heart, down through the glorious roll of saints and martyrs and missionary heroes till we reach the names of the missionaries whom we have seen in the flesh, and whom we love, hearts and lives on fire with the love of lost and benighted men have been the evidence of the spirit of life in the Church of Christ.
IN A LIVING CHURCH, ALWAYS A LOVE OF MISSIONS.
There can be no living Church without a glowing love for mlSSlOns. Christ has made this very clesr to us. In the glimpse He gives us of the judgment. in His parting words as He ascended, "Go ye and make disciples of all nations," and, ,. Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the world," we find the very essence of His teaching, the flowering of His spirit of service. To seek and to save that which was lost, was the mission that brought our Divine Redeemer from heaven to earth j and to seek and to save the lost is the Divine commission, from the glorified Christ in heaven to each believer who looks up to a Divine Redeemer for direction in a life of grateful service.
What has this to do with the question of money and its use ~ Let us ask ourselves this question thoughtfully.
MEN AND MEANS.
As members of the Church of Christ set to do Christ's work in the world, assembled here in the interest of one of the most important agencies in that work of evangelizing the world, which is pre-eminently the one work given by Christ to His people to do in His name, we are brought face to face with the question of the means to carry out this important work. Here, as in every other important undertaking which is to influence many lives, men and means are the essential requirements. Men never were offered to a praying Church in such numbers as stand confronting us today, saying, ' • We are ready, send us." Under the influence of the spirit of God, the immeasurable importance of bearing the glad tidings to the dark places of the earth has dawned upon young men and women in our· land with a vividness and a power never before seen or known in the history of the Church. Do you who are past middle age remember the " missionary concerts" of your youth, when prayers were regularly offered that God would" break down the walls" that shut Christians out of China and Japtm V That prayer has been answered. This year the Emperor of China issues a royal edict calling upon the governors of his provinces to protect the missionaries against misrepresentation and violence, and declaring that the object of Christian teaching is to make men better. We have been witnesses of this marvellous change. We have seen Japan rise suddenly to highest standards in civilization 'and ih government-a nation born in a day. Japanese Christians are setting the Christian world an exam- ple of unity and loving fellowship in work. The testimony of all observers is that never was a great nation in a more receptive mood for Christian truth than is Japan to-day. In India there is a special call for laborers.
Another generati0n of educated men, broken loose from the old faith, will soon be anarchic in morals unless Christianity shall supply the basis of morality in life. Ve need not raise any questions of a future hell; there will be hell let loose upon the earth unless Christian truth gets hold upon India, unless the love of Christ cherished in the heart shall more than make good the loss of restraints of the old order. In unharvested fields the grain, ripe and ready, falls to the earth in rich, decaying masses, un- garnered. Unless these years that are now upon us be used, the oppor- tunity is forever lost. It i~ now or never, for India! .
"TIME-VALUE" AND" PLACE-VALUE."
Political economists talk of a " time-value," which belongs to a commodity that is ready precisely when it is wanted, like seed corn in spring, and of a " place-value," which is the result of the presence of an instrument or a commodity at the precise place where it is needed, and at precisely the time when it is needed. The time-utility of missionary effort just now is immense. Who can estimate the place-utility of Christian effort DOW in Japan and in India ~ Of Africa I hardly dare to speak. Africa, no longer the totally" Dark Continent," first pierced through by the rays of love and light where Livingstone carried his well-read Bible that rayed out life for him and made his path a trail of love and light until that night when he knelt alone beside his cot under the great tree in the wilderness and, kneeling, met his God; Mrica, now slowly rising to a place in the world's history, but still as booty to be struggled for in a contest of diplomacy, if not of arms-to save and uplift Africa, what need of Christian giving, what a call for help from Christian America, who owes the heaviest debt to that continent which is mother of the race, long fettered and beaten with many stripes, whose unrequited toil made" cotton king" !
We see these open doors. We hear these calls from perishing men. We see the" time-value" and the " place-value" of efforts now put forth for Christ. Loyal subjects of Christ our King, we see clearly the importance of these strategic points to be seized now for the advancement of His kingdom among men. The old walls about the isolated nations, which our fathers and mothers prayed to have thrown down, lie flat before us. The opportunity 'is ample. The need is pressing. The demand from the field is imperative. The loss of life, the loss of souls, is deadly. WHAT HINDERS THE WORK ~ In those monthly concerts, when the walls about China and.Tapan had fallen, the petitions began to take on this stereotyped form : "Lord, raise up men and women who shall be uJilling to go into these opening fields.," The sacrifice involved in foreign mission work has always been immense, but the fruit of it has been abundant and rich. Partings with kindred and friends, departures into strange lands-these have always been essential to the propagation of the. truth since the time when God said to Abraham, the father of the faithful, " Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show you." By such self-sacrificing obedience to God's commands have new nations learned of that brotherhood of man which has no meaning, no power, save as all nations learn that they have a commGn 'Father, even God. Much of what is called the " spirit of the nineteenth century," this awakening of the world to the conviction that all men are of one blood, and that property in man is impossible, is the manifest result of mission work done by strangers who, for Christ's sake and at God's call, have sojourned in strange lands among despised peoples preaching peace and brotherhood through Christ. But the cost of leaving home and friends and native land, the sacrifice involved in expatriating one's self and one's children, has always been so serious 8 matter to contemplate that those who love their own ease have always wondered when the call of God has been potent enough to carry His consecrated servants as missionaries to foreign fields. The supply of men and women willing to go has never been equal to the need of the field, seldom to tbe means at the disposal of the missionary boards. It has been taken for granted by the Church for the last two generations, first, that the walls that shut in mighty nations could not be broken down short of centuries to come; and then, that laborers willing to go could not be found in sufficient numbers.
FACE TO FACE WITH ANSWERED PRAYERS.
But what is time to our God, when He wills to send His kingdom forward by a mighty unfolding into the growing season, into the flowering time! A thousand years are as a day with Him. He laid the walls level. He opened the way. His will and wisdom' brought in the age of steam. Railroads and steamship lines girdle His globe to make ready a highway for his messengers, " speaking peace to the nations." He sets a Stepherason and a Fulton, a Morse and a Bell and an Edison at His tasks when they know it not. Corporations of selfish men do His work, as heedless of the plan of God as are the stones which are framed into the mighty arch of the cathedral, or the liquid elements that are seized upon by the growing plant and drawn up into a place in the beauty of its unfolded blossom by a power utterly beyond their ken! Mission fields are open. The world is the field. AU fences are down. A Christian Church, the Church of America, stands to-day face to face with its answered prayers. It is as if a throng of men and women had been standing in the ante-room of the King's chamber, half drearily telling eachother in monotonous voices what they wished to ask for if the King would only give them audience. Suddenly the King steps in among them and declares, " I know your wishes j you have them now!" And with stammering voices and uncertain gestures the would-be petitioners stand abashed in the presence of a royal Giver, whose readiness to give exceeds their readiness to receive!
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEERS FOR MISSIONS.
For a generation the Church has been praying for men and women who were ready to go. The Holy Spirit hae tried the hearts and searched the spirits of young men and women at our higher institutions of learning. No one who bas been among them, as I have been, and has seen this searching work of the Lord, can fail to recognize it as God's doing, and as altogether wonderful and like His mighty power and the gracious constraining force of His own love, that to-day over six thousand young Christians of America are volunteers for Christian mission-work.
The years when young students look out upon life from the· mountain heights of youth are favorable to a clear vision of comparative values. While the wish is eager to make one's life count for the utmost possible in the service of God by serving one's feHow-men, those whose eyes God touches that they may truly see discern the truth that no other work compares in potent possibility for good with this light-bearing in dark places. Our" young men see visions;" and this is the fulfilment of God's glorious promise of rich blessing fO,r any nation. They see that the Holy Spirit describes the highest object of a liberal education, when He speaks of one who" has tbe tongue of the'learned to speak a word in season to him that is weary." And the spirit of God has so moved upon the young people in the Church of God in this land, that as a class of Christians they say today to the Church of God, " Weare ready to go. Weare eager to try within this next generation to fulfil the glorious command of Christ and , make disciples of all nations.' "
THE ALMIGHTY BANKER CALLS IN HIS LOANS.
Since the work is Christ's work intrusted to us, since the would.be workers are ready and call upon our mission boards to send them, since the great, the rapidly growing wealth of this Christian nation is in the hands of Christian men and women of mature years, my brothers, what answer can we give for ourselves before the jndgment throne of God, if this glorious work of preaching the Gospel of light to dying men is checked and dwarfed, and fails of its glorious pORsibility, because we who are God's stewards hold fast to God's money for our own selfish uses 1 There is a time when the Almighty Banker of the Universe calls in His lo~n81 There is a time when the Master, about to return from far countries, Himself makes rigid yet loving inquiry of every steward concerning the talents, be they one or ten, intrusted to his use. Are we so using the money God has given us as to give to Him" His own with interest" 1 But, some one will say, this is an unnatural view which you present. Christians are to use their money as do other men, subject to the laws of. political economy and in accordance with the general spirit of the time in which they dwell and with the standards that prevail in the grades of society where their lot is cast. Let us look at the question for a moment.
HIS PROPERTY IS.A MAN'S" OBJECTIFIED WILL."
A man's property has been said to be his" objectified will." Mere things, which apart from man are impersonal and utterly outside of moral and jural considerations, enter into the domain of rights, of justice, of morality, through their relation to the will of their owner. The object into which you have introduced your will, which you have willed and worked to make your own. has become in a sense a part of you. There is a true sense in which the man who touches your property toltches you. Property that is truly owned and used becomes in a sense a part of the owner and user. His intelligence permeates it, his will directs its use. Since wealth is often labor stored up in portable form, it has in it a man's life. It partakes of his personality. A man's wealth, through his acting in it. becomes a personal force in social life which may be used for the noblest ends or prostituted to the bagest uses.
No man can escape the fullest responsibility for the use he makes of his wealth, which is potential power of service. Every man holds all his powers in trust j for the use he makes or fails to make of each power, he must auswer at the judgment-seat of God. Our divine Teacher has warned us that in wealth there is a subtle and dangerous tendency which leads it to seek to escape this law of service. Wealth, whkh should be a useful servant, seeks to become a tyrannical master. Christ in His warnings to His followers personifies but one power in the universe as likely to become a dangerous rival for that throne in man's heart and life which belongs to God Himself. The subtle power against which He thus warns us is Mammon, the love of money. Between the mad pursuit of gain and the service of the living God, He warns us that every man must choose. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. " The property that you have must be as fully and entirely subject to the Jaw of the service of God in serving your fellow-men, as must your powers of heart and will and hand and head.
THE CONVERTED HEART INVOLVES THE CONVERTED POCKET-BoOK.
Talk of men as converted, as Christian men, who con~ciously and deliberately allow their property to be used for debasing and ruining their fellow-men! Imagine that a man'M heart and will can be converted to the service of God, and his property remain in the service 0" the devIl! 'Tis an utter imposRibility !
The cOllversion that does not reach a mall's use of his property is no true conversion. There is no truly Christian man who keeps an unconverted pocket-book or bank account. God'~ universal law of unselfish service is as supreme in the domain of material possessions-in the realm of that wealth which extends a man's power" to bring things to pass"-as it is in any other department of man's possible efforts. The unvarying law of God, which uttachcs an obligation to every opportunity and places a duty over against every right, makes no exception of wealth with its vast powers of service. God has so ordered the tiocial life of our race that no man can make the most of his powers of mind and heart and will until he employs those powers in the service of his fellow-men. This is an accepted law in the realm of mind and spirit. It is no less binding upon the power which material wealth places at a man's disposal. No man has the slightest light to say of his wealth, " It is mine; I may nse it selfi&hly if I will." No man has arrived at a true conception of the responsibility that attaches to the possession of property, until his relations through it to his fellowmen fill a larger place in his views of life than does his ability by his wealth to serve his own selfish ends. No man is free to make an option as to whether he or his property shall come under God's law of service. He and his property are under that law, of necessity, as he is of necessity a member of society and of the State, without his leave having been asked. In the use of his property, as of all his other powers, he olVes steady allegiance to that law of 5ervice, by virtue of the solidarity of God's universe of law; and though in managing his property he may disregard this obligation, he can never escape it.
Now, wealth must be used for service according to its own laws. Wealth is productive only as it is used. as capital-that is, as wealth employed in the production of new wealth, of new values. Since wealth is " the usufruct of skill, intelligence, and morality," it places its owner under obligation steadily so to use it as to reproduce morality, intelligence, and skill.
RESTRIOTED SERVICE, TO GAIN WEALTH.
My brothers, Christian men who have put much of your life into money-winning, as you remember how much of time and effort have been withheld by you from more definite Christian work that you might concentrate yourself upon money-winning, is there not an especial call upon you that you redeem (" buy back") the time that was withheld from God's work by you while you were making money ~ Take the case of a man who has won his wealth by years of concentrated effort. Often it is true that he has gained it by a constant withdrawal of his time and his strength from other occupations in which a generous, public-spirited man wuuld like to engage. "Follow this line of study with me," said a friend, in his early mallhood. " No; business demands all my time," was the answer. "Take hold and help us in thi.; effort at political reform in our city," said his public-spirIted neighbor. " I haven't the time, business claims me." "Will you undertake part of the work of special visitiqg to be done by our church people this winter ~" " Really, you must find some one else, my dear pastor, I am so pressed by business." It was by such restrictions of effort, by such exclusions of everything that did not tend directly to the winning of money, that he made his way to wealth.
But clearly, God meant that man to cultivate his mind, to be a useful citizen and a Christian worker. In some way, then, the time and strength withdrawn from other duties and from public service should be given back to serving the public, to the enriching of the life of others.
LET THE LIFE INVOLVED IN WEALTH-WINNING BE EVOLVED IN THE RIGHT USE OF WEALTH.
The time owed to distinctively Christian effort, to work for the good of his fellow-men, may be in part made good, if the wealth into which his efforts and time were coined is used nobly and wisely. And while no giving for Christian work can take the place of personal interest in Christian activity, yet many men could do infinitely more by free and consecrated gifts of large sums of money than they now do by formal expressions of their sense of unworthiness and lack of effort in the past, unaccompanied even now by any large use of their wealth for Christ's cause.
"Redeem the time" that was withheld from God's service by you while you were making money. Redeem it, buy it back, by using your money conscientiously and generously for God's work.
If you have inherited wealth, let the time and labor that were involved ill the rolling up and the transmission of a fortune, be evolved again in days and years of active philanthropic and Christian work, done by the Christian workers whom your money supports in mission fields.
" PECUNIA ALTER SANGUIS."
For everyone of us, a part of his life-effort is stored up in money-in his possessions. It is the clear perception of this fact that gives significance to the old phrase, " pecunia alter sanguis. " In the money your life acquires is stored up the life-blood of your effort; not because gold is as precious as one's life, but because the power acquired by past effort, stored up in money, enables you to set the efforts of others in motion to carry out your purpose and your will. How shall this life-blood of your past effort be kept pure and noble? How will you use it?
Wealth is concentrated power of service. Whether our wealth be great or small, it is still concentrated power of service. Is the wealth that is in the hunds of Christians also 0/ co.ns~cmted power service? Upon thi.~ blood of your past life, which has in it a life-giving power if used for noble ends, has there fallen the touch of consecration ~ Is it not an awful danger of our times, the greatest peril that threatens professedly Christian people, that though we are Christians, we 80 persistently ignore all true ends in the use of our money 1 Is it not too much our habit of thought to regard only those as people of wealth who have much more money than have we ~ When we read upon page after page of the New Testament the most searching warnings as to the use of wealth, is it not our habit to pass them on to the very wealthy, whose fortunes far exceed the means at our disposal ~ MAMMON MAY BE WORSHIPPED BY THE POOR AS TRULY AS BY THE RICH.
Yet the essential nature of wealth does not lie in its quantity, in the amount of money at a man's disposal. The god Mammon may be worshipped with a man's whole heart, though his business transactions be petty and his savings small. Some rich men give to good causes small contributions, with a hypocritical allusion to "the widow's mite i" but our Lord bestowed His regal blessing upon the widow's mite not because it was small, but because she gave her whole living to the Lord. And in the countless warnings addressed by Him who is the Truth to Hill followers, cautioning them as to the deceitfulness of riches, as to tho difficulties that those who trust in riches will find in entering the Kingdom of Heaven, the word used is one that does not lay stress upon great wealthis one that may be used of very small possessions. The essential meaning of the word is usable values embodied in material things. The warning is against trusting in material things for our happiness, our security, our power. Rather are we to trust in the living God, to use for the glory of God all the powers we have of body, soul and mind, every means by which we may bring things to pass in our life here. The warning is against the comfortable sense of safety that comes from" having means behind you." large or small. Whatever possession is capable of standing between a man's soul, and a vital living dependence upon God day by day, is to be suspected, dreaded, and used with fear and trembling as in the sight of a jealous God, who has personified this love of possessions as His great rival in the hearts of men.
" DECEITFULNESS."
The peculiarity of riches, great or small, ·lies in their deceitfulness. They that trust in possessions cannot enter into the kingdom, even in their conception of what that kingdom is, and of what are its powers. And the awful danger in dealing with riches is, that the material advantages they secure are so obvious. so universally recognized, that most men never get beyond these advantages in thought, desire, or fear. How lightly and apologetically we Christians are accustomed to deal with the awfu! emphasis which our Master has laid upon the perpetual, essential danger that lies in the use of wealth! Our Lord has spoken of this danger again and again, in words that stand out luminous with such lurid light as burns in His warnings against the unpardonable sin. Yet too often we hear these warnings tossed aside with a half smile, even by preachers of the Gospel who are accustomed to preach to the rich, as though they would say, " Of course, Christ said this j but what He meant was so essentially different from this that it need not for a momeut make you gentlemen with large bank accounts uncomfortable, especially if you respond kindly to the special appeal I make this morning, and drop into the box a contribution a little larger than usual." Let us, who believe in the living Word of the living God, take time to read together a few of the many utterances in God's Word which bear directly upon this point. Who c~n doubt that the iteration and reiteration of these warnings is, for us and for all Christians, profoundly significant ~ THE TESTIMONY OF THE WORD OF GOD.
" The rich man is wise in his own conceit" (Prov. 28 : 11). " Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12 : 20). "The deceitfulness of riches chokes the word" (Matt. 13 : 22). "But they that will to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Tim. 6: 9), "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after, have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Tim. 6: 10). " Let not the rich man glory in his riches." " Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly" (the Greek is [duskolos] dVC1,,6A.wS, meaning literally that his diet and his digestion are such as to put his life entirely out of harmony with the heavenly life j it " goes against his stomach j" before he can enter in, he must be fed upon other food !)-" shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19 : 23). " How hardly shall they that have riches" (the Greek is [chremata] xpf]/LaTrJ." not necessarily great riches, but possessions enough to trust in) "enter into the kingdom of God" (Luke 18 : 24). "Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God j that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate-that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. 6: 17, 18). "Go to, now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted; your gold and your silver are rusted, and their rust shall be for a testimony against you" (James 5 : 1-3). It is the rust, not the gold, that is the witness against them. Their means are not used for Christ, and the selfish rust on them" shall eat your flesh as it were fire." "There is a grievous evil which I ha,"e seen under the sun-namely, riches kept by the owner there9f to his hurt j and those riches perish by evil adventure" (Eccl. 5 : 13).
Can there be any question that these clear declarations of God cut sharply across the tacit assumptions of many of the Christian congregations of our times 1 CHRIST TEACHES CHRISTIANS TO USE ~~EALTJI, BUT NOT TO "TRUST" IT.
Yet this awfully dangerous power of wealth is entrusted to Christians. The parables and teachings of our Lord, time after time. hold up the property relation as the basis of a lesson in Christian living. The great majority of His parables deal with this relation in one form or another. Nothing can be clearer than that He holds every Christian responsible for the right use of all his possessions, however small, however large, they may be. For the right use of the ten talents and tho two talents, there is tht' same commendation, the same relative reward j while 1he awful stress of contrast is laid upon him who had but one talent heeause ho declined to use that one for his master. There is no one of us here present, then, who can feel that the warnings and the responsibilities that attend the possession of wealth for a Christian do not concern himself. For the right use of all his powers of service, God holds each one of us responsible; and certainly the income that each one of us receives, the property that each one of us possesses, has in it latent power of service for the promotion of the Master's kingdom.
Now the divine law of political economy applies to this whole matter. Dangerous as is the use of wealth, God calls upon Christians to URe all they have of it, be it little or much, in His service and for His glory. We sing in moments of devotion, " All that I havo I 0'11'0 to Thee, I hold it for the Giver."
The proportion which each man of us is free to spend upon his own personal gratification, upon the personal pleasures of his family, upon the embellishments of his home, we cannot determine for each other j but everyone of us is bound conscientiously to determine it before God, and under the searching vision of the Spirit of all Truth, whom no detail and no selfish motive can escape. The Holy Spirit in the heart of Christians can and does make " sumptuary laws" for us.
To HELP MEN TO HELP THEMSELVES.
When we become convinced that there is in our hands as stewards money to be used for our absent Lord-for om Lord in bodily presence withdrawn, in spirit dwelling in us-then how gloriously does the scope of this mission work open out before us ns wo look at the money in our hands! Wealth must be used for unselfish ends, or it cannot be used as the Lord wills. To help others, we must help them to help themselvcs. The greatest work which Christian wealth can do in the world is to bring men one by one under the sway of that one Supreme Personality, the Lord .Tesus Christ !
HELP THEM TO CHRIST.
The only hope for men is in a close personal relation with a personal Saviour. Not in masses will men be Iiftf~d out of vice and sin. Society will be purified, institutions will be made better and kept better, only as men are drawn one by one to IIim "Who has been lifted up." The grellt social discontent of our time, whose hoarse warning voice comes to our ear from every continent on the globe, finds its canse in thp. Jack of a true centre for each man's life in Christ. The pitiable, blind yearnings of socialism must touch the hearts of true Christians, because they are the gropings of men after that true brotherhood which men find only when they see the Fatherhood of God. Christ is the" Desire of the Nations," though they know Him not. The truest, wisest use of wealth is in promoting efforts to bring the Gospel of Christ home to the hearts of the people, and to bring the people home to Christ. "They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ranEOm for him." But the power of the Holy Spirit can transmute these money gift!;, wllich we here and now before God pledge ourselves to make for the promotion of His kingdom, into Christian influences which will win souls for Christ. Oh, what a glorious thought, that dead and wasted years, which have been coined into money, if that money be laid at the feet of Christ, may be made to live over again, His Spirit touching the dead past and quickening it into living service, as this money shall send to the dark places of the earth souls fired with the wish to preach Christ!
" Defer not charities till death," says Bacon, " for certainly if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth 80 is rather liberal of another man's than of his own." Be your wealth great or small, use it for Christ while you can yourself direct its use, while you ~an yourself see and enjoy the mighty moral and spiritnal values which are produced from the right use of wealth. Where is the man or the woman of large wealth who will set tlle world a Christian example of that free, cheerful, joyous giving which God loves (" God loveth a cheerfnl giver") by taking a whole mission station to snpport from his abundant means, as a rich man keeps a yacht" for his own pleasure" 1 vVho will thus prayerfully "rcde~m" large sections of his great wealth, of his coined time, by prayerfully using it for these noble ends 1 Vie look for the speedy appearing of such great benefactions, as the re-
THE GOSPEL AFLOAT
sponsibility of wealth comes to be more clearly felt. Meanwhile, let us see to it that by loving and free giving until we feel it in the sweet deprivations that we are willing to meet for Christ's sake, we each one of us show to the world something of that spirit that brings a blessing from the Lord, Who still" sits over against the treasury. "
THE GOSPEL AFLOAT. (With .Map.) BY REV. ROBERT W. :/d,ALL, D.D., PARIS, FRANCE.
[NOTE.-At the Editor's request Dr. McAll has sent to the REVIEW an account of the new enterprise for French waters, and a plate of the proposed boat.- EDITOR.] Not long since there WaS issued the following appeal for a McAll mission boat for river and canal-work throughout France.
Each summer, for many years past. the boats lent to the mission by Mr. Henry Cook (Seamen's Friend), of Portsmouth and Gosport, have visited various French seaports, and a remarkable blessing has resulted.
Last summer immense interest was awakened during the sojourn of the boat in Paris, moored for two months in the Seine, beside the celebrated Pont de la Concorde.
Henco has arisen our intense desire to have our own boat adapted to the system of rivers and canals which is spread like a network all over France, and which consequently could be used at all seasons of the year. By this means hundreds of hitherto umisited places can be reached with the Gospel message. The estimated cost of such a vessel, containing a saloon for meetings and seating 120 to 140 persons, with lodging for those in' charge, is estimated at £1000. Captain and Mrs. Pim, of Valence, members of the Society of Friends, generously offer to give their services during seven months of each year to carry out this enterprise. The annual outlay for dues, watermen, lighting, warming, etc., and the expense of an evangelist sent to aid in the services, will amount to about £200.
We plead earnestly for special donations toward building the boat, and annual subscriptions toward working it. Without these, this most desirable undertaking cannot be accomplished, the ordinary income being already taxed to the utmost.
While we were using Mr. Cook's boat, Le Bon .Messager, one writer, in a popular French daily newspaper, professing to be very friendly, asked, " What is to be done when, in a few days, this little ship.has to quit the Seine and put to sea again ~ A happy thought occurs to us, which we submit to the promoters of this effort. "Ve recommend them to engage a
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H(!c;~itecf D. by I~( ;;tale
THE GOSPEL AFLOAT
balloon and hold meetings in the air, high above the Tour Eiffel. The audience being thus already part way to heaven, it will be easier to guide them upward for the remainder of the journey."
This and similar pleasantries clearly attracted thousands to the boat, and numbers who came expecting to be amused remained as earnest listeners. It would be difficult to compute in how far we are indebted even for the new, permanen.t boat to the popular interest thus awakened, evidencing how especially this novel mode of evangelization is adapted to reach the French people.
When the ship was about to leave Paris, a pleasing little incident occurred. Mr. Henry Cook, of the Portsmouth Seamen's Society (who lent us the vessel), and our missionary, the Rev. S. R. Brown, had to go from one marine office to another to carry out some formalities. The distances were considerable, so they hired a small carriage, and were directed from bureau to bureau, a wearisome round. When it was finished Mr. Brown asked the driver what extra sum (beyond the small legal fare for a single drive) was due, on account of the many calls and long waiting. " Gentlemen," he said, his countenance brightening, " I will not receive one sou extra. It has been a pleasure and privilege to conduct you. I and my son have attended the boat meetings whenever we could, and have found great benefit there. I am only too happy to offer this small mark of my gratitude."
The new boat is now in process of building; the special donations have warranted ordering it, but there will be the annual cost of working it, river and canal dues, mariners' support and cost of sending evangeliststhough the good captain and his wife will receive nothing, not even their own support. We tried to believe the annual cost would not surpass £200, but to work well we must rather reckon on £300. It certainly promises to be the means of sending far and wide the Gospel message in France to numbers of places in which it is as yet never heard. We hope to launch it about the end of October.
From the Nineteenth Annual Report of the McAIl Mission we append a few statements which will interest all who are watching the new developments of this work. The missionary boat on the Seine has found the door open wider than ever in France. This was a new experiment in the heart of the vast city. Moored at the well-known Pont de la Concorde, it was wonde~ful to descend into the cabin on a summer afternoon, and find everything orderly as in a regular place of worship, and hear the hearty singing, and mark the reverent attention pervading the crowded assembly, composed chiefly of men; then, so soon as one meeting was ended, to see a new audience eagerly rushing in and filling the cabin a second, third, and even fourth time. What a resistless evidence of a widespread desire to listen to the Gospel message! The gross attendance, during the seven weeks, was 23,500, comprising all classes of society, and many, evidently, hearing the Gospel for the first time in their lives. By a vessel permanently connected with our work the G08pel could be conveyed not only to the cities and towns, but to ~ multitude of remote places where, as yet, its glad sound is never heard.
Every ycar brings new proofs that, so long aR the workers, whether for young or old, keep strictly to the faithful declaration of the Gospel, and the direct effort to win souls to Christ, the people will ncver grow weary of listening to them. Our special work during the" Exposition Universelle" evidenced this anew j each of our two temporary halls at the gate!! has ceased to be temporary. In each a little permanent cl)ngregation of residents in Par'is remained after the Exposition had closed. Were-entered the large salle of Avenue Rapp with the New Year, the influx of these new-comers having rendered the neighboring one of Avenue Bosquet too small, while the little room at the Trocadero has bcen retained. In both "We have the joy of recognizing a certain number of true converts.
Another striking indication that the present i~ a peculiarly favorable time for Gospel work here is found in the fact that in two of our central llalls in Paris-those of Rue Royale and Boulevard Bonue Nouvelle-the gross attendance during 1890 (omitting all extra mcetings) exceeded that of 1889 by 24,300, and this without any novelty of procedure or 8pecial attempt at publicity.
Mr. M. L. Dodds has written: "Never before did this 'Salvation Navy,' as the new~papers call it, attempt to take Paris hy storm, nor dare to cast anchor and hoist flag just below the Pont de la Concorde. Soon, however, the curious crowd gathered, and were welcomed to the nicely fitted-up saloon. The hours of meeting were at first from three to four and from eis-ht to nine. They were gradually extended, till three meetings occupied the afternoon, the saloon emptying and refilling each hourhardly emptying, for often there were a dozen or more people who did not stir, and whom the longest discourse did not frighten away; people who seemed rooted to the spot-both sexes. The greater number are men -men of all classes. One quite young fellow sat in his place from halfpast two till six, and again from eight to nine, magnetized, as it were, by what he was hearing. He was a Catholic, from the North) and had never been to meetings of this sort before. Many took the thing less seriously; they like to whet their intellects on the discourse. 'These are good things,' said a young man to his companion, as they went out, ' but one takes and leaves.'
" Anything like steadiness of attention did not, of course, come all lit once. At the first there was a grcat dcal of coming and going, ~ometimes II little staring and laughing; some were amused at the faint sickly swing of the boat IU! other vessels passed it. Some found the steep companionladder ridiculous-' fit for English people,' they said-these Parisians do not see these ladders as often as they do in England. Some tried to join in the hymns, and sang out of tune, amusing the others. Some came only frOID curiosity, which being satisfied, they retired, never to return. h short, the meetings on the boat began exactly as those first meetings in 1872 began. If anyone wanted to stand again, in imagination, at the cradle of the miRsion, he could have seen the same curiosity, the same criticism, the same bewildered qnestions, the same falling off of wayside hearers, the same process of selection by whieh others stayed, and returned, and listened, and wondered, and often received life for their souls. .
" The French daily papers, describing the work, gave us lengthy advertisements for nothing! Think of it! Advertisements are expensive in France. 'With what gold should we have bought a column and a half of the Figaro .2 " All the French papers were talking about our Bon Messa,qer. Under some such title as 'Le bon Dieu .~ur l' eau ' – ' La religion Ii voiles'- , Une cJwpeUe flottante,' they gave a piece of clever and not ill-natured banter, and llometimes of not too inaccurate description, which helped to send hundrcd~ on board. Le Monde Illustre had some capital comic ,;l:etehes. The crowd pressing down 'en queue '-the saloon filled with peopll1-the lady open-mouthed at the harmonium-the orator keeping time with his llymn-book-were all represented. Even the texts eould be deciphered in full in the pictures. Le Monde made a mistake, however, in giving us too many old ladies in the front seats j but that may be passed over.
" The Rappel said : •• • A yacht is moored below the Pont de la Concorde. To its masts is attached a large ensign, white, on a blue gronnd, " Evangelical meetings every day, free entry." A fixed gangway gives access to the yacht j by a steep staircase we reach the cabin, transformed into a meeting hall. " , A dignified English lady, a little leather bag hangin"g on her arm, gives you a red book. The title is" Popular Hymns." You are warned, by a notice on the cover, that the book is not for you. Comfort yourself -you will get other presents! There are tracts for all tastes.' Butenough. The speakers and players are in turn described or caricatured. Thc singing and reading is carefully described, then the address by M. Mabboux. Then it is naIvely remarked, 'The meeting is closed with a prayer, which must be said with the eyes shut j , for to elose the eyes during prayer strikes these people as a new and peculiar action. "The Figaro also describes the steep ladder, and the hall, 'which might contain about two hundred persons. It is a meeting hall, with a reading. desk at one end j wooden benches arranged in order, and all round the walls are little sentences setting forth the adyantages of having to do with God (commerce avec Dieu), such as "God is your refuge." Jesus Christ said, " Venez d moi vous tous qui etes travailtes et charges, et je vous s01dagerai. " " The Lord is my Shepherd," etc. These' go all along the cabin, in French and English.' "One tract was given down-stairs, and one Gospel on deck. The tract was usually offered by a lady to each one going out, and within its cover was placed a complete list of the mission halls in town, so that any one could choose the hall nearest to his place of residence if he wished to attend. On deck a young man offered a copy of a gospel. Some!imes curious but too rapid conversations took place with those going out.
" A lady, being offered the Gospel of John, said she wi&hed that of Matthew too. ' It is not here to-day, madam, but would you not like to buy a New Testament g, '" A New Testament g What is it g, " , It contains all the four Gospels, and other matter. ' " Ah ! then I should like that j is it expensive ~ , " , Four sous.' " And it was bought. "Miss B– gave a tract to a lady, who stopped, and said abruptly; " , Then, what must one do to get to heaven g, " , Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. His death saves you.' " , Yes-but what must I do g, " , Just what I have told you-believe.' " , And then ~ , " , Then you must read His Word and do His will.' " , Do you believe in hell and in purgatory? ' " , In hell I do, not purgatory.' " , According to that, we are all condemned.' " , We are. Only Christ saves us.' " , Are you saved g , "But a rush of people through the narrow doorway, up the ladder, separated the two. Others had to be attended to. Will she come back again and inq~ire further ~ Who knows !
" They get good speaking on the bateau, and they get plain speaking, too. These Frenchmen make a noble use of a noble language. Some came from the country to help, as Messrs. Mabboux, Vernier, and Sainton. When possible, four or five took turns in the course of the afternoon. And they rose to the occasion. The best gave their best here. I suppose the sight of those wistful faces appealed to them, and they , stirred up their gift.' What the people got was the simple Gospel, suited to their needs. Christ was exalted as Saviour and as King of kings."
M. J. Sainton, who labored very earnestly in the meetings, adds: "The audiences were very mixed, from the consequential lady and gentleman to the street urchin j but, with few exceptions, after the first moments of surprise, our listeners were respectful, attentive, and even sympathetic. By these meetings on the boat we have reached a new contingent of sinners in the midst of our Parisian society, till then strangers to the Gospel. lIad this been the only result, thc work carried on had been a real success, for we should have been carrying out the commandment of our Master, , Preach the Gospel to every creature.'
" But, besides this, we can say that from this time the work of God has begun in very many hearts, a work which the Holy Spirit will deepen unto salvation, "One day a young man, with a fine open face and well dressed, said to me, 'For several days I have been without work, my savings permitting me to wait and look out for a good place. Meanwhile, I am profiting by your good conferences, where I am glad to hear, in regard to religion, things quite new to me, and which I desire to know more about.' Since then I have seen this young man several times at our evening meetings. He has become one of onr regular attendants.
" Another young man, whom I had noticed at different times, and who always appeared most serious, said to me in reply to a question, • Yes, sir, I begin to understand that what you say is the truth.' Later on, I spoke to him again, and he said, 'Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. I want to live according to the Gospel, and not only that,' added he, with as much seriousness as naIve simplicity, " but I should wish to become a preacher like you. '
" Another day a young man came, accompanied by some companions, and with a mocking smile on his lips. By degrees his expression changed. After two or three meetings his companions dropped off, but he returned alone. He always sat in the same place, and sang and listened quite earnestly. I asked him one day about his spiritual state. He could not answer, bllt I felt that a good work was going on in his heart. He told me that since coming to our meetings he has ventured into II Protestant church, and that the simplicity and beauty of our religion had greatly impressed him. I gave him the address of the hall near which he lived, and he said to me that he would certainly attend the meetings there.
" Another time a gentleman, a merchant from the Provinces, waited for me at the door. That day we had to some extent touched on controversy on the subject of 'confession of sins.' • It is the first time,' said this gentleman, ' that I have been present at your meetings, and I wish to tell you with how much interest I have listened to you and your colleagues; but,' added he, • I should have liked to see our Catholic priests defend their points, and to know what you would have replied to them. ' , If the priests,' said I to him, • do not accept the Word of God as the common ground of discussion, we would not argue with them, for God has not given any other foundation for our faith in the doctrines of the truth. If, on the contrary, they accept it, all discussion is quickly settled, for not only can they not base the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on the Word 'of God, but they have against them numerous and striking texts.' Then followed a most interesting conversation, which ended in the gentleman declaring: 'I also have had religious convictions from my childhood. In youth I rejected certain ordinances of my Church without abandoning the faith, and I see to-day that I am much more Protestant at heart than Catholic.'
SOME HINDRANCES '1'0 THE WORK 01' FOREIGN MISSIONS
"Unfortunately I did not think of taking his address, and he has probably returned to the provinces, for I have not seen him again."
Pastor Aubanel, of PariiO, says of the missionary ship at Fecamp : " The meetings held at Fecamp during August, 1890, on board The Herald of Mercy, were specially noteworthy because of the number of hearers, and the earne:;t attention with which they listened to the fundamental truth of the Gospel. For some days they were led by Pastor Cresseil, of Paris, but he had to leave, to conduct the evangelistic work at Trouville during the bathing season. The committee sent me to replace him. Every day, aided by the captain and Mlle. M–, I held a meeting and proclaimed a free salvation through repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to a number of sailors and their families.
•, Perfect order reigned on board during the whole time. The missionroom was constantly full of attentive and interested hearers-often too slIlall to hold all who wished to come, so that the deck also was crowded with persons eager to hear the glad tidings-which they could do, as the skylights were open; many also stood on the edge of the quay. On those days it is estimated that as many as 250 were present. The average was 180.
" A plentiful distribution of tracts and Scripture portions was made at the end of each meeting. New Te:;taments were on sale at the low price of one penny for the small edition. The people were so eager to buy that the stock on board was soon exhaustcd.
" When I took leave of the audience after the last meeting, very many of them, with a warm shake of the hand, said how sorry they were that the meet.ing" were over, and how much they hoped that they would be begun agaiu in a ncar future. "
SOME IIINDRANCES TO THE WORK OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY REV. GEORGE W. NORTHRUP, D.D., LL.D.
[We venture to reprint from the Baptist Missionary Magazine the masterly address of President Northrup before the Se;"entv-seventh Anniversary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, held in Cincinnati, May 25th, 1891, hoping thus to bring it to the attention of some who may not have !lad an opportunity of reading it. -ED.] I purpose to speak of some of the hindrances at home to the work of foreign missions, or some of the causes of the comparative failure of the Church to evangelize the pagan nations. Before expres5ing my thoughts on this subject, I beg leave to uttcr a word of a personal nature. It is possible that my remarks may not Eecure the approval of all ; may, in fact, give offence to some who hear me. If such shall be the case, let me assure you that I am not mored by a pcssimi6tic spirit, nor by a disposition to disparage the missionary history of our people. I am not willing to admit that I am inferior to any of my brethren in loyalty to the denomination with which I have Leen identified for fifty years, and which I have served, in a public way, for more than a third of a century. The feeling which I am most distinctly conscious of, as I stand before you to· day, is that of heartache in view of the apathy of Christian people, and especially the apathy of our denomination, in regard to the temporal and eternal salvation of the vast population of the pagan nations. I have put the question to myself once and again, within a few weeks past: " What can be done to change this state of things-to awaken the feelinl! of love and compassion which ought to exist for the hundreds of millions of our felloW'.men involved in the darkness, degradation and misery of heathenism g I speak in behalf of a billion human beings, for everyone of whom Christ died, every ODO of whom has a place in the heart of God, everyone of whom is of as much worth in His sight as any citizen of the great republic. It is certain that God has done all that He could wisely do in bestowing grace UpOll His people. It is also certain that, if they would use the grace bestowed with greater fidelity, He would give more and still more-, " opening the windows of heaven and pouring out a blessing, that there would not be 100m enough to receive it." The speedy eVaI;gelization of the pagan world, and shall we not also Bay, their salvation, is, in a real and profound sense, in the hands of the Church.
1. Among the causes referred to, we notice, first, the departure from the method of Christ, in laying chief stress, not on salvation here and now, the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, but upon salvation in a narrower seuse of the term, as escape from the retrihutions of hell. To use the words of another: "It has been too much the habit of Christian people, in looking abroad upon the heathen world, to regard it, Dot as a kingdom to be congucred for Jesus Christ, but rather as a seething sea of drowning men, a few of whom might bo saved from the general wreck by those whom the Church sent out on her gallant life-boat service." But certainly this is not the conception which Christ empllasizes when He sets before men the object of their immediate aud supreme devotion. He hegan His ministry by preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye, and bclieve tho Gospel." He frequently called the kingdom which He came to establish the" kingdom of heaven." not because it is in heaven, but because of its heavenly origin and nature. The prayer given by our Lord indicates plainly the location ned nature of tho kingdom for tho establishment of which He enjoined His disciples to labor ~and pray: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done"-where g in heaven? " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The objects presented in these two clauses are identical; the petition, "Thy kingdom come," means" Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The end here presented-universal obedience among men to the will of God-is the burden of the Gospel which Christ preached, and which He commanded His disciples to preach to " all nations," "to every creature;" an end which includes the whole duty of man, and in the accomplishment of which the earth will reflect, in II degree beyond buman conception, the love, purity and blessedness of the heavenly world. True, in a few instances, Christ spoke of the infinitely diverse destinies of men in the future world; "but for once that He spoke about tho ';;iVing of the soul, lIe spoke fifty times about the kingdom." Since Christ's method is the wisest and best, in the measure that the Church has departed from this method, it must have lost in reli~ious power, llow much power, in the way of missionary appeal,' has the doctrine of the eternal perdition of the great majority of the pagan world 1 I received, a few months ago, a letter from a missionary in India, accompanied by a printed appeal to all evangelical churches, in which he states that, while last year (1890) fifty thousand heathen had been rescued, twenty millions had died, few of whom had heard of the love of God in Christ. And he exclaims- " Twenty millions of immortal souls swept into hell in a single year I"
It is probably an approximately correct estimate that, during the missionary year just closed, twenty millions of pagans, who had reached the age of moral accountability, have passed away, the great majority of whom never heard of the Gospel of the grace of God. Is there not, in this fact, considered in the light of the commonly received view of the Bible relation to the final doom of the heathen world, a power of appeal to the people of God sufficient to impel them to all possible labors and sufferings necessary to make known the way of eternal life to every pagan on the face of the globe 1 Rave they been greatly moved by this fact of overwhelming importance 1 Row much have the Baptists of the Northern States, numbering eight hnndred thousand, contributed to aid in sending the Gospel to the vast multitude who have passed to the awards of the eternal world since the Union met in Chicago, one year ago 1 If we allow to these twenty millions their due share of our contributions according to their number, it will appear that the members of our churches have given, on an average, not to exceed two cents for rescuing from hell a number of our race equal to one third of the population of the United States. Is not this an amazing fact 1 Does it not ~eem incredible 1 Does it not furnish a moral demonstration that the idea of the exposure to everlasting puni8hment of the pagan world has but an almost inappreciable influence upon the great body of Christian people 1 Brethren, I would submit the matter to you j I would ask you, each one, to state, clearly and fully, to his own mind, the considerations which render it credible that the Baptists, represented by the Union, believe what they profess to believe in regard to the final doom of the heathen world, and yet give, on an average, not to exceed one cent a week, to send the knowledge of the way of eternal life to a billion heathen, and not to exceed two cents to rescue from perdition the twenty millions whose day of probation has closed since the last anniversary of the Union. Would it not seem difficult to find eight hundred thousand non-Christian men, of average natural benevolence, who would not give as much, if necessary, to prevent the everlasting misery of an equal number of irrational creatures ~ 18 it a matter of wonder that the world does not believe in hell, or that it does not believe that the orthodox churches believe that the heathen" shall go away into eternal punishment'" Do you say that for the world to deny that Christians believe what they profess to believe on this point is to charge them with the most culpable insincerity-a charge which involveR, logically, universal historical scepticism, rendering it irrational to believe in the existence of faith and goodness among men 1 True, but we would inquire if the charge involved in the other alternative is less damaging-the charge, well grounded, of continued practical indifference, on the part of the great majority of the members of all evangelical churches, to the eternal welfare of a thousand million of their fellow-men, whom they profess to love, and whom they are bound, by the most saered obligations, to love as they do themselves.
We would not have you misunderstand us at this point-to regard us as doubting the reality or under-valuing the importance of salvation as escape from the retributions of the future world. We believe that everlasting punishment will last forever; and we believe this awful truth because it iii taught in the Bible; and we believe it is taught in the Bible because it is a fact in the universe; and we believe it is a fact in the universe because the infinite God, in the plenitude of His resources, conld not prevent its existence, acting, as it behooves Him to act, in accordance with the immutable principle of His holy nature; and we believe that this truth ought to have the same place of relative importance in the instruc- tions of the pulpit which it has in the Bible. And yet we affirm that Christ did not dwell chiefly upon salvation as pertaining to the future world, but as a good to be realized here, through the reign of love in the souls of men, constraining them to grateful and self-sacrificing labors that the will of God might be done everywhere on earth as in heaven. Salva- tion is deliverance from sin, and sin is of all evils the essence and the sum. "It brings present disgrace and ruin to body and soul, to home and country ; it breeds distrust; it enervates manhood and womanhood; it incitp.s to murderous revenge; it arrays class against class; it kindles the fires of volcanic social hate; it is a menace to peace, to social order, and to international amity; and from all this there is salvation only by that personal integrity and "ocial righteousness which are the gifts of God to man through Jesus Christ." Salvation in this world involves salvation in the world to come ; the kingdom of God on earth is the foundation of the everlasting kingdom of God in the heavens; and in the measure that salvation is wrought out here, and the kingdom of God extends among men, will the end be accomplished which Christ set before His disciples as the object of constant and paramount devotion. The whole ministry of Christ was a ministry of love to all the sinful, sorrowful, lost sons of men. He was moved with compassion for the multitude because He saw them "in distress," "scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd," living mean, ignoble, wicked lives, ignorant of God and of the place which they occupy in His infinite heart, with latent spiritnal powers capable of development, with solemn re!!>ponsibilities of moral agents, with features of the divine image not yet wholly effaced and that might he restored. How strongly did He nrge, by word and deed, in life and death, the duty of self-sacrificing love for men, not merely for the souls of men, but for men, women and children, in all the relations of life; and how impressively did He emphasize, in the sublime programme of the judgment day, the decisive importance of deeds of love and mercy. "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, y0 did' it unto Me." " Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto Me." "Come, ye blessed of My Father." "Depart, ye cursed." Who are the brethren of Christ in this judgment programme? His disciples ~ Yes, but not these alone. For the event which He describes is that of the general judgment, when all nations, all the generations which shall have thronged the globe, will stand before His judgment seat, among whom there will be countless millions who never saw one of His disciples. The brethren of the Son of Man are "the poor, suffering, sorrow-laden sons of men, and the principle on which the judgment proceeds is that as men treat those, they would have treated the Judge had they had the opportunity. "
Are not the heathen among those who are in greatest need of the offices of love? Are they not hungry, famishing for lack of the Bread of Life q Are they not sick, consumed by the fever and leprosy of sin! Are they not poor, bankrupt in estate and character? Are they not in prison, compassed about by walls which they can neither scale, nor dig beneath, nor break through? If this great passage does not teach that men are saved by works of love, it certainly does teach that a faith, which does not produce these works, is vain and dead, and that those and those only who possess the spirit aud do the works described by Christ, are justified in regarding themselves, or in believing that He regards them, as His true disciples. The question for us to answer, as Mr. Spurgeon is reported to have suggested, is not, May the heathen be saved without the Gospel, but, Will we be saved if we do not carry the Gospel to the heathen ~ And it may be confidently affirmed that those who cannot be moved with compassion, in view of the wrath of God which has come upon the heathen, will not be moved with compassion in view of that which is to come upon them; that those who will not make sacrifices to rescue the heathen from the hells in which they are in this world, will not make sacrifices to rescue them from the hell of the future world, which seems far off, vague, unreal.
What, 'then, is the greatest need of the Church to-day ~ We answer, A divine enthusiasm; a mighty passion for the kingdom of God on earth, embracing all the populations of the globe":"'all China, all India, all Africa, all Enrope, all America, and all the islands of all the oceans; a kingdom as wide-reaching as the manifold life of man, involving obedience to the will of God in all positions and relations-in the sphere of the family, of social life, of business life, of political life; a kingdom whose progress shall be marked by the growing consecration of the people of God, the preaching of the Gospel to the poor, the overthrow of oppression, the extermination of drunkenness and the passions of lust and the greed of gain, the destruc,tion. of superstition, idolatry and all forms of infidelity, the sway of truth, and love, and righteousness over all the earth, a divine enthusiasm-a mighty passion of love and loyalty, impelling the soldiers of Jesus Christ to conquer for Him all the kingdoms of the globe on which His cross of shame and agony was set up, and from which He uttered the cry of expiring and redeeming love.
II. We mention, as a second cause, the failure of the evangelical churches to apply at home the principle of comity which they recognize in their foreign mission work. .
It is estimated that there is, on an average, one ordained minister to every three hundred thousand of the pagan population of the world.
There is good authority for the statement that in China, and t.he popula- tion accessible to the American Board, there is only one missionary for every six hundred thousand people. Moreover, there are whole nations, numbering scores of millions, in which no disciples have been made. We are confident that all who have any adequate conception of the interests involved will admit that the two following statements are thoroughly reasonable : 1. "That the Christian churches of the world should be satisfied with nothing less than sending out one ordained missionary for every fifty thonsand of the accessible pagan population of the world."
2. "That no church ought to call itself thoroughly aggressive and evangelical that does not expend, for the support of missions at large, at least one dollar for every five it expends for itself. "
What would compliance with these propositions require of the evan- gelical churches of the world ~ Twenty thousand ordained missionaries instead of four thousand, as at present; an immediate reinforcement of sixteen thousand, of which the quota of our denomination at the North should be not less than twtlve lmndred, making our foreign force of ordained ministers at least fifteen hundred. This would require our churches to give annually five times as much as the committee planned for expending during the current year, as authorized at the last annual meeting of the Union, or $2,500,000, a sum which, large as it may seem, is $400,000 less thau would come, annually, into the treasury of the Union if. the members of our churches should give, on an average, one cent a day for the cause of foreign missions.
We ask you to consider most seriously the vast relative waste, in men and money, involved in the condition of things existing in all the Northern States-the part of the country represented by the Union.
To illustrate the matter which we have in mind, let us take an example of numberless cases, with many of which everyone is familiar. Here are five fields, each having a population of fifteen hundred, and five evangelical ministers-one Baptist, one Presbyterian, one Congregationalist, one Episcopalian, and one Methodist-twenty-five ordained ministers preaching the Gospel to seven thousand five hundred people. while on the other side of the globe there are twenty-five fields, each having a population of three hundred thousand, and but one ordained minister; twenty-five men preaching the Word to seven million five hundred thousand people-one thousand times as many as are under the care of the same number of religious teachers at home. We ask now, in all earnestness, Would it not be infinitely more reasonable and Christian, if these several denominations would apply at home the principle of comity which they recognize abroad, keeping five of these ministers here and sending twenty to aid their brethren, each of whom is confronted by nearly a third of a million pagans? If it would be wrong in the sight of God to put five ministers of different evangelical denominations in a village of fifteen hundred people in China, or Africa, or Burmah, restricting their labors to that locality, is it not wrong and equally wrong, yea, wrong in a greater degree, to do the same thing here, while hundreds of millions o£ our fellow-men are living and dying in the darkness and misery of heathenism ~ The field is the world. The whole world is missionary ground. Every city, every village, every neighborhood, in which there is one man, or woman, or child who is not a citizen of the kingdom of God, is a missionary field. We challenge any man to adduce reasons which will approach to a justification of the course of the Christian churches in distributing their forcet! over this common missionary ground-the whole world-in such an extraordinarily uneven way, putting one minister in charge of three hundred people, many of whom are Christians, and another, of no greater ability, in charge of three hundred thousand, of whom all, or nearly all, are pagans. If the great evangelical denominations would act on the principle of comity here suggested, it would be an easy matter for them to send an immediate reinforcement of sixteen thousand men, so that there might be one minister to every fifty thousand pagans; and it would be an undertaking of no difficulty for us to send our quota of twelve hundred, and to furnish them with adequate support.
Is it a violation of truth or charity to say that the existing state of things is a great religious scandal, an offence against God, and a crime against our brethren of the heathen world, sit.ting in the region and shadow of death, perishing for the lack of the Light of Life?
What are the lessons taught by these facts? What are the duties which they should impress upon us? One duty, and that of paramount importance, as clear to our mind as if it were written on the heavens in words of fire, is this: That the evangelical churches ought to emphasize strongly all points of doctrinal agreement and all methods of Christian work in which they can unite, coming as closely together as possible, and presenting a united front to the enemies of God. Consider, we beseech you, the most obvious facts of our condition. Here are the evangelical churches, in all but a few millions, confronted at home by three hundred million members of two powerful and thoroughly corrupt organizationsthe Roman and Greek hierarchies-and by vast masses of men connected with no churches, dominated by sensuality, greed of gain, lust of powcr, and social distrust and hate, tremendous principles of evil which have brought to untimely destruction cities and nations, many and great, all down the ages; and abroad, confronted by a billion heathen, all involved in deepest moral ignorance and most debasing superstition, and half of them held in the thraldom of false philosophical systems of extraordinary power; and joined with these forces, both at home and abroad, the spiritual hosts of wickedness, nnder the leadership of the god of this world. In such a war as this, fighting the organized evil forces of earth and hell, the combined powers of "the world, the flesh, and the devil, ,. united in the strongest compacts, shall we not, all soldiers of Jesus Christ, stand together in the closest relations possible, help each other heartily on the march and in the deadly assanlt, cheer each other amid the fire and storm of battle, knowing that the Leader is one, the army one, the foe one, the final triumph one, the eternal glory one-the glory due unto Him who is " worthy to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and blessing" ~ But we hear objections, many and plausible, urged against what some may be pleased to call an impracticable and fanatical appeal.
1. It is said that we, as a denomination, hold the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; that it is of supreme importance that we secure the widest possible acceptance of onr views at home; that we dare not compromise with error by consenting to give up any community, however smail, to the care of Predobaptist churches, etc.
The question, then, for us to consider is reduced to this: Shall we give over more of the population of our country to the Predobaptists, or more of the heathen world to the devil ~ Are we to regard the errors of all Christian churches, other than our own, as more destructive than the errors of heathenism ~ And, then, if we have the truth, in its purity and fulness, are we not, of all Christian bodies in the world, under the greatest obligation to go to the regions beyond ~ Surely, the very fact of the purity of our creed immensely engances the claims of duty resting upon us to secure its worldwide acceptance. What an inspiring and uplifting event it would be to the whole Christian world, if we should send out, at once, the number of missionaries suggested-twelve hundred-moved by the spirit of apostolic self-sacrifice and heroism, whose labors might be the means, under the blessing of God, of winning to our pure faith tens and hundreds of thousands in heathen lands, creating at many points, as among the Telugus, Baptist communities numbering fifty thousand! Furthermore, is it not evident that the fundamental principle of our people ought to constrain them to go, in large and increasing numbers, to the nations of the pagan world ~ For the fundamental principle of our churches, that of which. we boast and in which we glory, is loyalty to Jesus Christ, implicit obedience to His commands. We discard and repudiate all assumed authority of a human source, whether of popes, or councils, or traditions, or creeds. But loyalty to Christ, in order to be such in truth and not in name only, must include obedience to all His commands, especially to those which are of supreme importance, among which stands the Great Commission. Does our action, as a denomination, justify or contradict our profession of loyalty ~ What is the command of Jesus Christ, as distinct and imperative as if we heard His words ringing out from the height of heaven ~ Is it not, "Go ye, Baptists, preach the Gospel to every creature, make disciples of all nations~" Is it not the belief of our churches, that the Great Commission was given originally, not to Presbyterians, or Congre- gationalists, or Episcopalians, or Methodists, but exclusively to Baptists- the very people of whom we claim to be the only living representatives ~ The first body of Baptists were right loyal to their Lord; they went every- where preaching the Word; they carried the good news to aU quarters of the known worM. How is it with the people known as Baptists in the last quarter of the nineteenth century ~ Is their obedience such as to justify their claim to be the true successors of those early disciples of Christ ~ Have they discharged, are they now discharging, in any true and worthy sense, the high and imperative duty imposed by the risen and glorified Redeemer, loyalty to whom they claim as their distinction and horlor ~ Is it obedience to the command, "Go, make disciples of all nations," for a people, numbering eight hundred thousand, to contribute $400,000 a year-on an average, one cent a week-to give to a billion pagans a knowledge of the incarnate Son of God, who loved them and gave Himself for them, and through whom alone they can attain eternal life ~ Brethren, mere profession will not justify our claim of special loyalty to Christ, nor ~ill obedience to His requirements in the matters of baptism, communion and church government justify it while the great majority of the members of our churches are in a state of mutiny against the Great Commission, saying, if not in words, yet practically, We will not ourselves preach the Gospel to the pagan nations, nor will we make sacrifices to aid others in the work of preaching to them. .
How is it that the belief has come to prevail so widely, among all Christian people, that there is au enormous difference, in culpability and danger, between disobedience to Christ in rejecting what He requires them to believe, and disobedience to Christ in disregarding what He commands them to do ~ Why is it that the heresy of unbelief is regarded with such apprehension or alarm, while the heresy of inaction is viewed with comparative indiffer- ence ~ Is faith without works any better than works without faith ~ Are they not alike dead and displeasing to God-equally vain and perilous 1 To the heresy of inaction, far more than to the heresy of unbelief, is due the deplorable fact that the midnight darkness of heathenism still envelops nearly two thirds of the population of the globe. What, then, shall we do 1 The alternatives are: Either cease to claim to be the true successors of the earliest Baptist churches, or obey, with the devotion which char- acterized them, the Lord's command, "Go, preach the Gospel to the whole creation."
2. But we hear another objection urged with great frequency and confidence. It is said that the United States is destined to be the leading I nation of the future, that it occupies a position of immeasurable importance in the world's history; so that whatever we do, or fail to do, in relation to the evangelization of the pagan nations, we must seck, by all means in our power, to make our nation thoroughly Christian. What shall we say of this utterance, heard everywhere, especially on anniversary occasions, in the pulpit and on the platform ~ Is it not largely an utterance of national conceit, inspired by national pride and selfishness, and utterly opposed to thll example and teaching of Christ and His apostles 1 1. The ruling motive force of Christianity is love j and it is the nature, the irrepressible instinct, of Christian love to help the most helpless, the deformed in body, the feeble-minded, the moral refuse of. society for whom none care.
2. Jesus gathered around Him the weakest, the lowest, the" publicans and harlots," the social outcasts-the nobodies of ilis time, according to the prevailing standards of the world.
3. Does the Great Commission read, Go ye, therefore, make disciples of the leading nations, preach the Gospel to those who hold positions of great stategic importance? . This would seem to be the form of the Lord's final command as given in the English version most widely current in our churches. But the oldest manuscripts, beyond question substan- tially identical with the "Original Autographs" of Matthew and Mark, read very differently, as follows: "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations;" "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. "
4. The history of the Church justifies the method of Christ. Chris- tianity has won its most notable victories among peopla of little account in the judgment of the civilized nations, as among the Karens, the Telugus, the Sandwich Islanders, the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles, who, though they were regarded by the Romans as too stupid and brutish to serve as slaves, have built up the most magnificent empire known to his- tory-an empire upon which the sun never sets, which has endured for a thousand years, and is influencing now, as never before, the thought, and life, and movements of the world. .
5. The only principle of missionary strategy recognized by Paul, the foremost missionary of all the ages-as appears from the inspired record of his life-was to preach the Gospel where men were thickest. And for the adoption of this principle he had divine warraut j for when he was at Corinth, the Lord said unto him in the night by a vision: . " Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace j for I alll with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee; for" -what did the Lord say? Corinth is a city of culture, the eye of Greece, occupying a position of great strategic importance? No, no ; but, " no man shall set on thee to harm thee, for I have much people in this city."
o brethren, can we not hear our Lord calling us one uy one, by name, and saying, " I have much people in China, much people in Africa, much people on all the continents and islands of the globe?" Let us take deeply into our minds and hearts Christ's idea of the people! the people! the people! He accounted man transcendently great, not because of the external distinctions which gain for him recognition and honor in the world, but because of what he is as man, the divine image in him, his inherent powers of intellect, heart and will, which have revealed but an insignificant fraction of their latent energy, even in the case of those who stand forth in history as the greatest of the sons of men, and to whose expansion and growth there is no goal this side of the infinitude of God.
In Christ's esteem, all men, of whatever race, or rank, or condition, ar~ of equal worth in virtue of their divine endowments and immortal destination.
The people have been of but little account in the past. It has been the great ones of the earth-emperors, kings and nobles, the rich and the powerful j for these it has seemed that all things were made; for these the people have labored, and suffered, and died like the beasts of the field; but thanks be unto God for the signs, multiplying on every side, betokening the growing power of Christ's idea of the greatness of man as man, the worth and dignity of the people. It cannot be doubted that one of the chief causes of the agitations and revolutions which are taking place in all Christian nations, working the di&integration and overthrow of institutions of social and political wrong which have survived the destruction of dynasties not a few, is the growing conscionsness, on the part of the people, of their divine rights and powers of manhood; their dignity as moral agents-deep calling unto deep-the strivings and aspirations of the human soul, like the ceaseless ground-swell of the ocean, in response to the presence and quickening touch of the Spirit of God. And as the Christian idea, which is Christ's idea of the people, shall grow in power and splendor, it will mould more and more profoundly all social and political institutions, and will constrain all the true disciples of Christ to labor with equal love, devotion and joy for the temporal and eternal wellbeing of all men, irrespective of race, or nationality, or color, or sex, or social condition.
But who knows that the United States is destined to be the leading nation of the future, that the Anglo-Saxon race will rule the coming ages ~ To whom has the assurance been given that God will not build up in China a kingdom far surpassing, in intellectual and moral power, the British Empire or the great republic 'I Where is the prophet who can foretell the destiny of the " Dark Continent," having at the present time a population of two hundred and fifty millions-four times that of the United States ~ Who can forecast the turnings and overturnings which shall precede the coming of Him whose right it is to reign, and who shall reign over all the nations of the earth ~ Is it nrged that certain of the pagan nations and races have no future, that they are worn out, their powers of expansion and growth exhausted? We reply that the judgment of those who thus speak is certainly shallow, and probably false, because they fail to estimate adequately the restorative and re-creative power of Christianity. The error is like that involved in the conception of "a mechanical world and an outside God." The idea has widely prevailed that the material universe is a " closed system"-a system of finite forces, acting and reacting upon each other, excluding all divine causality-its goal quiescence and death. The conception is fundamentally false, because it does not include, as it should include, God as the universal and abiding ground of all being and all life, as immanent and active in all chemical forces, in all vital forces, in all souls-to His almighty will energizing throughout creation from the atom to the archangel." This view compels us to reject, as irrational and incredible, the notion that the goal of the material universe is quiescence and death, and to affirm that, through the immanent and energizing power of God, it will abide, and pass on from lower to higher stages, " from the nebulous matter to the glory of the new heavens and the new earth."
But God is in history in a sense infinitely more real and profound than He is in the realm of physical nature; and hence we believe that there are no effete and worn-out peoples, no races whose powers of expansion and growth are permanently exhausted. For though the words of the apostle that" all live and move, and have their being in God" declare a universal fact of history, yet, in these last times, God has entered, in Jesns Christ, into new and more vital relations with mankind, and is creating them anew by His spirit. awakening and invigorating their dormant and paralyzed powers, thus enabling nations and races, as well as individuals, to enter upon a new career, far higher and grander than would have been possible to them before the Advent.
In concluding these remarks, we desire to say, that we have spoken as truly and earnestly in beha!f of the work of missions at home as of the work of missions abroad. The cause of home missions and the cause of
MISSIONS AND THEm RESULTS
foreign missions are one in principle and one in interest. And, therefore, along with the motto, " America for Christ," but high above it, we should place the motto, "The World for Christ:" And the speediest and the only infallible way to gain America for Christ is to give to the world's evangelization the place of supremacy, in labors and gifts, which it holds of right. This our churches, this the churches of other denominations, have lamentably failed to do. The most general and conspicuous act of disobedience to Christ, on the part of the Christian people of the United States, is their deliherate and persistent refusal to discharge the high and imperative duty to evangelize the pagan nations-a work for the accomplishment of which, within the period of the past twenty-five years, their resources, in men and money, have been ample. It is, in our judgment, no exaggeration to say, that the Baptist churches of the Northern States could have done and ought to have done, during the past year, as much for the cause of foreign missions as has been done by all the evangelical churches embraced in the same portion of our country.
Brethren, I would that one half of the Baptist ministers at the North would give themselves to the work of evangelizing the heathen. Disastrous to our denomination at home, do you say ~ Impossible. It would bring to our churches an unparalleled degree of prosperity; the places left vacant would be filled by men called of God from the ranks of the laity; ministers of other denominations would be won to us, convinced that we were holding the truth in its purity, and living it with apostolic fidelity ; Christians of other names, moved by the power of our example, would obey in a worthy manner the Lord's final command; and this powerful missionary "movement" .would confound infidelity at home, would convince the world that Christianity is, indeed, what it claims to be, and would mightily advance the Kingdom of God in all parts of our country.
May the Divine Spirit enable us to penetrate to the heart of these great paradoxes in the kingdom of Grace-that we saVtl our life, not by seeking, but by losing it; that we become rich, not by keeping, but by giving; that we become great in moral power among men, not by self-assertion, but by self-abnegation, by self. sacrifice from love to others; that it is through our poverty that we are to enrich the world, according to the way of Him who, " though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich."
APOSTOLIC MISSIONS AND THEIR RESULTS.
BY REV. JOHN RUTHERFORD, ROTHE SAY, SCOTLAND.
" Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Such was the word of the Holy Ghost which came to the church in Antioch as they ministered to the Lord and fasted.
This was the actual beginning of Chris.tian missions; those two men were the pioneers of all in every age who have gone forth to carry the Word of Christ " far hence unto the Gentiles."
It was a vast work that lay before them. As Paul afterward wrote, " Who is sufficient for these things~" so would he feel now. Alone and single handed they were to attack the ignorance and superstition and vice of the world. Their difficulties could hardly be overestimated. What amount of credence were they likely to meet with from hostile Jews, from subtle Greeks, or from tl1e military Romans ? Was it probable that the minds of the heathen could be easily turned from the saturnalia and idol festivals to which for generations they had been addicted? Systems of priestcraft, of degrading mythologies, of widespread epicureanis~, of an utterly debased home life, of slavery and of revolting games and pleasures kept the world crushed beneath corruption and sensuality. And who, then, were Barnabas and Paul, to attempt to overthrow institutions venerable with the traditions of centuries? who were they to try to change the religions and social face of the world? "Two Jews of obscure name, of no position, without rank, without wealth, without influence, without either literary, political, or military genius, without any culture but such as a Roman noble would have despised as useless and grotesque." Yes, and even after years of working at this their chosen work, they did not find it either popular or remunerative, for it fell to their lot to approve themselves the ministers of God in affiictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in prisons, in deaths, being beaten, being stoned, being shipwrecked, Iiving in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness.
Were they sufficient for these things? sufficient to cope with false philosophy, with heathenism, with abounding moral pollution, with a world which knew not God? They realized that their sufficiency was of God j they had been called by the Holy Ghost.
And so Barnabas and Saul went forth from Antioch, taking with them as an attendant and companion John Mark. Barnabas was one of the noblest, most manly, gentlest, and most effective of all the apostolic band. A Christian of the highest type, he had already been of the greatest service to Paul on more than one memorable occasion, a man of large heart, of wide sympathy, of great generosity and liberality j devoted and earnest and Joving, a " son of consolation," a good man, who rejoiced iu all good by whomsoever wrought, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.
And Paul, still known by his early name of Saul, was a man whose character towers far above that of ordinary men j a gentleman in the true sense of the word j a Christian, devoted, body, soul, and spirit, to Christ; courteous and orave, tender-hearted and true, full of enthusiasm and of sobriety of mind j a man of the deepest power of thought, eloquent, persuasive, able to organize and to manage, able to bear with weaknesses and prejudices, a man whose life was yielded without reserve to the glory of Jesus Christ and the welfare of men.
These, then, were the first Christian missionaries. After a farewell meeting with the church in Antioch they made their way to the port of Seleucia, where there stretched at their feet the waters of the great welltern sea. Here they found a splendidly built harbor in which the ships were lying protected from the swell of the waves outside. The ruins of this harbor remain in great perfection to our own day, only silted up with mud. From just such a harbor and such piers as we are acquainted with in any of our great shipping centres, the first New Testament missionaries set sail. It was the noblest use to which the masonry of the port of Seleucia had been ever put, when it sheltered the ship into which Paul and Barnabas stepped as they went at the divine bidding to evangelize the nations. Their vessel sailed out into the west-westward was the call of God to the Christian Church for many a century, until Europe and America should have received the Gospel-and soon arrived at Cyprus. Arrived at length in this, the first country to which God had led them, what would the results be? What would be the results of discussions with unbelieving Jews and with opposing philosophers? of weary journeys on foot-journeys continued for weeks together, while the preachers endured hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and had no certain dwelling-place? what would be the result of their residence in foreign cities among neVI' faces, all of whom were alike ignorant of" this Jesus whom Paul preached"? 'Would the results be commensurate with the time and labor expended V Modern critics would say, No ; for upon their principles Paul would have done better if he had not interfered with other people's religion, if he had let the world alone, for the religion of Greeks and Romans, of Celts and Britons was no doubt good enough for them, and they would somehow or another all turn out right enough in the next world. It was not after this fashion that Paul reasoned or acted. No ; he had a gospel to make known'-" woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." To make all men know the mystery of Christ he was willing to be buffeted and reviled, willing to undergo abuse and bodily injury, willing to be scourged, to be stoned and left for dead, as he was at Lystra. What, it is asked, are men to undergo treatment like ihis for the sake of propagating the Christian religion? Here is his reply : "I count not my life dear unto me, that I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus."
But what were the results? A handful of converts in each of half a dozen or a dozen towns, and those converts by no means the mature, well-informed, experienced Christians who are to be seen in modern congregations. It is difficult to realize how inexperienced those converts were, how crude their ideas, how imperfect their morality ; they required mIlch patient teaching and exhortation; and even the best of them, who were appoicted deacons and deaconesses and elders, knew very little, for they had but recently turned from idols to serve the living and true God. All their previous life had the dead weight of heathen custom, heathen ideas, heathen morality, heathen vice; and it took long years of patient labor on the part of the apostles to raise their converts to anything like a proper appreciation of the behavior that is beeoming a Christian. Were ,OJ these results, then, worth the labor ~ WaR it worth while to have gained these new churches in heathen countries, when the gain had been achieved at the expense of such bodily injury to an apostle as had made him prematurely old and taken many years from his lif,e 1 Similar objections are constantly made against modern mission work-Is the conversion of a handful of Jews or of a few thousands of negroes or Hindoos or South Sea Islanders worth the life and the moncy that are spent in the process ~ and the verdict of many is in the negative.
But surely the actions of a divinely inspired apostle are a safer guide than any negative or hostile theories. Look again at Paul as he is returning from the second of his great missionary journeys. He has been away, from Antioch and his friends there for perhaps three years, and years and,hard work are telling upon him; he is not the same strong man he once was; no, he bears in his body the branding marks of the Lord Jesus. Since he and Silas set out-for Silas is now his companion-they have undergone the" shameful handling" which fell to their lot at Philippi; and violence of that kind no man can ever fully recover from. But Paul has a brave heart j none was ever braver than he. The devotion of his whole being to the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him, this personal affection to the Lord Jesus ever urges him on to spend and be spent for the glory of Christ and the salvation of man. He feels himself debtor to all–to slave and freeman, to Jew and Greek; and therefore as Jesus Christ's minister he is abundant in labors; life is too short and too precious to waste; eternity will give him rest. Therefore. does his heart bound onward to the work, although even in this second journey he has been in stripes above measure, in prison, in deaths oft, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the wilderness, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness.
Yes, this was the kind of life Paul chose for Christ's sake. There was then no other educated man of his position who was acting in this fashion. They looked on him as a fool, and regarded those journeyings of his as fanaticism. He knew that this was the estimate formed of him by his former associates, " Weare fools for Christ's sake j" but he had counted the cost, and Christendom of to-day thanks God for the sufferings, the journeyings, the fearless enterprise, the manly Christian resolution of St. Paul-a resolution to live not for applause either in the Church or outside of it; but to live for Jesus Christ alone and for mankind of every nation, for slaves and outcasts, for little children and for women, for those whom the world despised. One thing this Paul ever does, one thing engages his thoughts by day and his dreams by night, that Christ be glorified in his body whether by life or by death.
Was it worth while ~ Would Paul and Barnabas and Silas not have done better to have stayed at home and taught the home church ~ Suppose they had, where, then, would our European and American churches have been to-day ~ Simply nowhere. Had there been no apostolic missions, Anglo-Saxon Christianity would have been non-existent.
Are missions worth the money ~ Do they pay? Alas! that such a question should even be asked by a worldly church. Ask Christ, and listen to His answer, " Make disciples of all nations." Ask Paul, " I am debtor to all men." Ask the martyrs, they counted not their lives dear to them for the name of Jesus. Go with me to Central Africa, to Lake Victoria Nyassa, and see what divine grace can do for the most benighted races. One of the missionaries, Rev. Mr. Ashe, writes as follows: "Picture the tyrant playing the first act in the tragedy. One of the elder storekeepers, a Christian page, is brought into the royal presence. 'Can YOIl read 1 ' asks his majesty. 'Yes,' boldly answers the page. 'I'll teach you to read!' cries the king, catching up a spear and laying it about the lad's shoulders till it broke in two ; then, taking up the blade, he gashed the head of his faithful servant and kicked him, till in a state of exhaustion he handed the weapon to one of his chiefs nearly as cruel as himself, to continue the lesson. He then sent and had fifty of his pages arrested and cast into prison. After being imprisoned for a week thirty-two of them were burned in one huge funeral pile. "
The spirit which animated these martyrs was the same which inspired the early Christians, who endured a similar death, as Tacitus narrates, in the time of Nero. Wrapped up in sacking which had been previously smeared with pitch, they were hung upon trees in the royal gardens and then set fire to, there to burn to death, blazing as lamps in the darkness of evening; or again, encased in the skins of wild beasts, they were thrown to dogs and worried till they died. The early martyrs and the martyrs of the nineteenth century in Madagascar and China and Africa were faithful to Christ, faithful unto death. Most assuredly work which God blesses with results such as these is worth the while.
The work is Christ's. The command to carry the Gospel to every creature is Christ's command. It is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Jesus, who still breathes into His people something of the compassion of Christ for those who are even to-day sitting in the shadow of death; and the results of Christian ,missions are Christ's. The handful of converts in Cyprus, in Pisidia, in Derbe, and Lystra, and Iconium, a]ld Athens, and Corinth, and Rome, and Spain, and Egypt, and Gaul, and Britain continues to increase throughout the centuries, until in this year of grace, 1891, we have Christian churches everywhere, the prelude to the timc when the earth itself shall be full of the knowledge of God, when sin shall be made to cease out of God's world, when in the fulness of the joy of the wholo human race ccnsciously redeemed, the shout shall. rend the skies, " The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever."
NARAYAN BHESHADRI, D.D
NARAYAN SHESHADRI, D.D., THE BRAHMAN APOSTLE OF THE OUT-CASTE MANGS.
BY GEORGE SMITH, LL.D., EDINBURGH, SNTLAND.
[We venture to reproduce from the Free Church of Scotland Monthly a superb paper which many readers have not seen.-ED.] The same Scottish newspaper announced the death of two remarkable Asiatic converts of Dr.. John Wilson of Bombay-the Parsi, Rev. Hor- mazdji Pestonji, and the Brahman, Rev. Narayan Sheshadri, Doctor of Divinity of the University of Montreal. There still survives the oldest of all, the Rev. Dhanjibhai Naoroji, at the head of the native Christian community of Western India.
Vilhen, in 1839, Dhanjibhai and Hormazdji left the fire-worship of Zoroaster for the only Name given under heaven whereby men may be saved, Parsi and Hindu society was moved to its centre. In vain was the civil court appealed to. But the Institution was almost emptied. .tmong the few sons of caste and superstition who clung to it through ill.report were two Brahman brothers-Narayan and Shripat. What Dr. John 'Wilson and Mr. Nesbit began, Dr. Murray Mitchell continued, and the good work resulted in their determination to put on Christ by baptism. Narayan, who was confessedly of age and could not be hindered, became the first convert of the Church of Scotland, Free, in the year 1843, when Dr. Wilson and Dhanjibhai were in Scotland founding the home organization of the missions anew. Shripat was not sixteen years of age, and Sir Erskine Perry handed him over to the Brahman priests, with a sneer at the plea of the age of discretion. He was torn from Mr. Nesbit's arms, as he sobbed forth the question, "Am I to be compelled to worship idols ~"
While the younger brother was thus driven back by a Christian judge into Brahmanism, and submitted to the humiliation of swallowing the five products of the cow, that he might be restored to caste, the elder began that apostolic career which, for this life, ended in the committing of his body to the Atlantic on the 21st July last, in the hope of a glorious resurrection in Christ Jesus, at the very hour when the Foreign Missions Committee in Edinburgh, all unknowing of the fact, were discussing the arrangements by which Dr. Mowat was to share his toils next October.
After spending some years as a missionary teacher in the Institution and preacher to his countrymen, Narayan Sheshadri was ordained by the Presbytery of Bombay, and the highly educated Brahman became for the rest of his life the apostle of the Mangs, the out-caste poor of the Deccan centre of India. Leaving ordinary British territory, he resolved to annex the great native state of Haidarabad to the kingdom of Christ.
The year was 1863. As his base, he worked from Jalna, a military cantonment, in which mission buildings were easily acquired. Three miles south he gradually obtained three hundred acres of land, which forms the centre of the mission to the Mangs. As the Spirit of God blessed his incessant evangelizing, he made that spot the centre of what grew to be his extensive mission to the out-caste. He formed a Christian church and a Christian community, calling both" the House of God," but using the Hebrew" Bethel" rather than one of his own beautiful Marathi words. After ten years of blessed toil he visited Scotland and America, to tell the churches of his work and to raise funds for the necessary buildings. His winning face and irresistible personality, his native eloquence alike in English and the vernaculars, and his contagious earnestness, captivated not only Christians in all the lands he visited, but the Parsi official of the district, and even the proud Arab prime-minister of the Nawab, Sir Salar Jung. For the mission he received three hundred acres of gautan, or chnrch land, free of tax, and never to be cultivated save as a grass common; for the Christian peasants he was installed as patel, or headman, over six hundred acres, in which office his son Yeshwant-rao, lately agricultural professor in Nagpore College, has succeeded him.
Year by year the work went on increasing, when he paid a second visit to America and Scotland. The writer was with him a deputy to the Presbyterian Alliance at Philadelphia in 1880, and went up and down Scotland with him, pleading alternately for the Livingstonia and for the Bethel Mission. After his first visit some of our generous Glasgow elders, led by Mr. William Mitchell, formed a committee to' help his village mission. Congregations specially charged themselves with the support of his catechists. The children of the Free Church, above all, built him his church, and year by year supported some of his schools. By 1886-87 the work had so far extended that we published this appeal for him : " Before we pass away from these earthly scenes, we should like to see the thirty villages, wherein our Christians reside, supplied with pastors duly qualified, called, ordained, and settled over their respective congregations.. How is this to be accomplished 1 However, we have most encouraging promises in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. , I shall take out of them (namely, Gentile nations) for priests and Levites, saith the Lord.' Has He not given a full realization of this promise in the experience of once heathen European nations; and what He has done with respect to European and American nations, lIe is able and willing to do with reference to the Gentile nations of India, China, Burma, Japan, and all Eastern nations. We mean to submit to the Free Presbytery of Bombay a scheme of studies to train up village pastors in connection with our Bethel Mission. Last year we had the pleasure to dedicate a new church at Rewagao, two miles to the south of Bethel, to the worship of the only living and true God."
In 1888-89 our deputies visited the Deccan Village Mission, and Rev. Dr. Lindsay made this report to the children of the church: " First, there was a most interesting series of baptisms, with an address to the baptized; then the nsual service, when I preached and Dr. Sheshadri interpreted; and lastly, the communion service, at which I had the privilege of presiding. No pews exist in the Bethel churcb. The congregation sit on the floor in row after row, devout and attentive; and th,e babies, most of them without a stitch of clothing on, crawl about everywhere. An bour or so after service the catechists and Bible-women met in the church, and we had an interesting interview with them. A great number were present besides Bible-women and catechists, and I could only get at which was which by act.ually taking hold of each and finding out by question whether the person I had hold of was a catechist or a Bible-woman, and separating them from the rest.
" One or two of the Bible-women made a very great impression on us. Their story of work was simple, clear, and interesting. 'Have you made many converts ~' one of our number asked. 'There is one,' she replied, pointing to one of the men among the catechists. Mrs. Mackichan and Mrs. Daly examined these Bible-women, and their questions drew out very interesting answers. Mrs. Daly gave them some very sound practical advice, which produced more immediate results than longer sermons usually do. All the small children came to the Monday village family worship clothed, although most of them spent the hour of service in getting rid of their inconvenient garment. One small urchin, having divested himself, to his own evident satisfa~tion, of every vestige of garment, toddled to the church door, carefully put on the largest pair of shoes he could find, and then tumbled down the steps in them. When he reached the bottom he picked himself up, got into the shoes again, and shuffied off out of sight-a happy child 1 "Dr. Sheshadri sends his men out in small bands to preach in the villages round about Bethel, and in this way has formed small Christian communities in most of them. One sees at Bethel genuine native Christians, who preserve all their primitive habits, and who are not Anglicized by their Christianity. The evangelists all collect at Bethel on the first Monday of every month, and are regularly instructed by Dr. Sheshadri, who is a born teacher (to hear him give a Bible lesson to school children, and to see the small eyes twinkle with eagerness, is a sight not to be soon forgotten), in the interpretation of Scripture, and in the best ways of meeting the various objections commonly brought by Hindus and Moslems against Christianity.
" In the afternoon we started for the neighboring village of Rewagao. It possesses the first of those village churches which Dr. Sheshadri proposes to build in the principal hamlets in his district. A congregation of about ninety people gathered, and three baptisms took place at the close of the service.
"Dr. Mackichan and Mr. Daly returned in the evening from their visit, and reported a cheerful little Christian community in the far-off village they had gone to see. These Christians lived in a distinct quarter of the village,- and though greatly outnumbered by the heathen, were full of hope and courage.
" I hope that Dr. Sheshadri's plan of building ten or twelve village churches will .be carried out, and that each church will have attached a prophet's chamber, in which the missionary may reside when on his rounds. The great defects of our mission in the Bethel district appeared to be the want of adequate provision for the training of the children, and the wide extent of country which Dr. Sheshadri has to superintend."
Of converts still living in 1890, Dr. Sheshadri reported 1062 as the number, besides 649 adherents. Mr. A. G•.Mowat, M. B., C.M., was sent ont from Glasgow last year to work the northern division of the mission from Jalna, after learning Marathi with Mr. Small at Poona. He has just been instructed to repor~ on the whole mission, after a year's survey.
Accompanied by his son, Dr. Sheshadri left Bombay for Japan last February on sick leave, proceeded thence to America, preached almost daily, and addressed the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. He sailed for Glasgow in the (Jircassia very well,* even at his age; but as the result of a storm on leaving. New York, he succumbed to bowel disease, and was buried in mid-Atlantic.
It is a strange story from man's point of view. The Brahman lad, fruit of our educational Institution, who confessed Christ before thc Supreme Court of Bombay, was enabled by the Spirit of God to bring, from first to last, some two thousand of his countrymen to Christ, notwithstanding defects of a purely secular kind, which he was ready to acknowledge and bewail. He has left a goodly heritage to the Church of India.
Do we ask what is missionary work g Rather ask what is not missionary work g for wherever there are Bouls to be saved, ignorance to be enlightened, human wrong to be righted, vice to be uprooted, and woes to heal; wherever the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, is obscured by reason of darkness, there is missionary work; and wherever in the homes of Christendom there are hearts unrenewed, lives wasted in folly and trifling, God-given powers dying for want of holy exercise, money, time, influence and example diverted to unworthy objects, there is missionary work.
* This was his last letter to Dr. Graham, of Edinburgh, now ninety years of age : – " WALNUT STREET, PHILADE~pmA, July 14, '91.
"My DEAR FATHER GRAHAM: I see that in all probability you'll have me once more in my temporary home, Ashfield Villa, Greenhill Gardens, 1 Chamberlain Road.
"You and your dear minister, Dr. Wilson, and all inquiring friends in your beautiful city, will be gratified to hear that I have been restored to health and strength. I have been travelling from San Francisco to New York, and thence to Chicago, Washington, and Bostoll, very often preaching twice on the Lord's-day, and once or twice on week-days.
"We leave New York on the 18th instant by the Circassia, on or about the 29th in Glasgow. I shall let you know when we-that is, my son Yeshwant-rao and myself-will be at Edinburgh.
Morningside. With warmest love to you, Miss Graham, and Miss Martha, and all Inquiring friends, ever afi'ectionately yours, NARAYAN SHESH~DRI."
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The census just taken shows India to have a population of 285,- 000,000.
-The Report of the Free Church of Scotland remarks: "A work on which Dr. Duff laid great stress in connection with all educational operations in the country, from the lowest indigenous vernacular primary school up to the highest college class, was the compiling or selecting of good, pure text-books, thus superseding the impure, immoral rubbish which at one time prevailed to so large an extent in all schools in India. Of course a good deal of this work has been accomplished, but a good deal remains to be done. The Government of India has put itself in communication with all the local governments on this subject of pure text-books, passed resolutions and laid down principles for the guidance of the various educational departments throughout the country. One of these principles is to the effect that at least one half of every school-book used as a reader in English or in vernacular teaching should consist of lessons having a direct bearing on conduct, either by way of precept or of example. The fact is becoming more patent to missionaries every year that the progress of Christianity rests on a sensitiveness of conscience as to conduct. Wherever there is an indifference as to conduct, there can be no conviction of sin. Wherever I God or the Supreme Authority is regarded as indifferent as to whether actions are good or bad, and also wherever men are regarded as under the compulsion of fate, so that they can do nothing of themselves and are therefore blameless as to bad conduct, there can be no conviction of sin. Now these are two of the fuudamental principles of Hinduism, and taught in most of their school.books. Hindus are trained from their infancy on these Ii nes.' '
-Mr. F. N. Farquhar, B.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, has lately gone out to take up work in the London Missionary Society College at Bhowanipur, Bengal. He writes: "Nothing impresses me so deeply as the extreme difficulty of the work of leading the class of men we have to deal with-educated Bengalis-to become Christians. They are not only proud of their own hoary cult, and filled full of arguments drawn from the purer and nobler parts of its teaching, but their want of physical vigor and moral greatness makes them far more difficult to rouse than stndents at home; and the fear which is now felt by Hindus concerning the advance of Christianity has led them to form almost a sacred dread of allowing any shred of Christian teaching to find a place in their heart.
"Yet though this seems to be true of a very large number of these young Babus, there are many whose hearts have been touched, and who are anxious to learn more about Christ.
" My little experience and few scraps of observation since I came here confirm my belief that the educational work done here is of extreme value and importance. That these young Christians should be taught by earnest Christians rather than by careless Christians or by Hindus is of immense importance, o,'en if we do not consider the actual Scripture work and direct Gospel teaching. And the magnificent set of educated native Christians dependent upon our mission here is a proof of the power of Christian educational work. The native pastors and other educated natives have impressed me deeply; they are kings among the ordinary Bengalis here, and their Christian character seems far advanced, and is most beautiful, most helpful, and most encouraging."
-The English Baptists, in their Annnal Report, announce as their policy" Aggressive Concentration." "Ooncentration and consolidation of missionary effort, rather than unwise diffusion, are the methods most ownea and blessed by God in Indian mission enterprise." The report of their deputation says: "vVe have in India to-day just one thin long line of stations, in most instances with extensive distances between. We have located our brethren in great cities far distant from each other, and by so doing removed from them the strength and inspiration that come from working in touch and contact in mutual sympathy and brotherly counsel. We ha'e set one or two brethren down in a vast and densely peopled city, and written' Occupied' over the entire district stretching far away, until we have treated a similar centre hundreds of miles distant in precisely the same manner. • . , 'Spread the Light!' 'Spread the Light !' is a cry in which we would all thankfully join j but it is surely well to remember that the light of missionary zeal and usefulness resembles that of live coals, which if kept together may long continue to burn brightly and diffuse a genial warmth, but which if unwisely scattered will soon become dim and cold."
Says the deputation: "Even putting all distinctive missionary effort out of the question, the mere contact of Western thought, culture, and education is inevitably breaking up the older forms of Hindu thought. But it lies with us to say whether that contact shall be charged with infinite blessing, leading them on to a higher, deeper, truer faith, and a new national life j or whether, cutting them adrift from their old moorings, we leave them without Christ, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, to be ravaged by intoxicating drinks and made imbecile by opium."
-The Rev. L. P. Weinberg, of Jaffa, quoted in the Jewish Intelligencer for February, writes: "The general topic of conversation among Jews at the present time is Palest.ine, and almost every Jewish newspaper speaks of this country as ' the only place of refuge' for them." , Arias, missionary of the London Society for the Conversion of the Jews, reports a significant remark of some Italian Jews: "Till the Chris- tians treat the Jews well, we shall never beliE)ve that Jesus is our Messiah."
Most of the Italian Jews that he has met with seem to be in the dregs of Judaism, with few signs of longing for anything better.
-Professor A. R. Simpson, President of the Edinburgh Mediclll Missionary Society, says, most aptly, that in the Old Testament the" place of God's feet" is the Temple, but that the feet of the God-man are found most often "where the sick lay and the bereaved were weeping." ,. These were the places of His feet, who Himself bore our sicknesses and carried our infirmities; and these are· what He would seek our wealth to make glorious." Brave encouragement, Professor Simpson well says, to the medical missionary, to show him that he is in the track of the Saviour of the world.
-The West Himalaya Mission of the Unitas Fratrum was begun in 1853. Not until 1890 has a meeting of all the missionaries of the three stations been found practicable. Compared with the giant heights among which theY' live, saY's the Missions-Blatf, the Alps seem mere ranges of hills. And hardly had they broken up from their first meeting, when a veritable deluge converted the whole valley of Leh into a sea, swept away every bridge over the Upper Indus except one, and swept many persons out of the world. The Brethren do not seem to remit their ancient passion, " To plant successfully sweet Sharon's rose On icy rocks, and 'mid eternal snows."
– " See," said a sick child in India, "the goddess Kali's bloody tongue, wicked face, cruel hands. necklace of skulls; our gods are terrible; I cannot help screaming when I see them."-Canadian Church Magazine.
-Whether the late English reviewer, who is greatly displeased that Christians should endeavor to disturb the sweet calm of Buddhism, would be equally displeased that they endeavor to discredit the worship of the venerable goddess Kali, is not certain. Perhaps he would grudgingly allow this one exception.
-The Missions-Berichte gives a stinging remark of a South African Caffre, that among the whites they became acquainted with two thingsthe Bible, to save their souls, and brandy, to destroy their bodies. Butt he added, he was content with the former.
-In China, it appears, at least in some hospitals, wherever a patient. on returning home, expresses interest in spiritual things, an evangelist is sent after him, and thus, says Dr. ~iain, of Hangchow, much fruit has been gathered unto life eternal. E,'ery year there pass through that one medical mission 10,000 patients.
-The China Central Mission of the Presbyterian Church makes a very strong appeal for reinforcement. The field immediately accessible to them includes the whole great valley of the Yang-tse-Kiang, the" Son of Ocean." The four provinces of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Nganhui, and Chehkiang have 121,000,000 inhabitants within an area of 204,287 square miles.
There are signs of a sudden breaking-up of the fallow ground of general indifference. They want to be ready to answer spontaneous calls from all parts. The accession of a new emperor, and an uneasy expectancy of political change, join with an extraordinary frequency of natural calamities, of flood or drought, famine or pestilence, at once to unsettle and humble men's minds.
The province of Szechuen, on the Upper Yangtse, with some 45,000,000 of people. ought to be occupied in force. Untouched by the 'l'ai-ping insurrection, it retains all the glory and prosperity of ante-rebellion times.
The people are a hardy, straightforward, enterprising race, as is shown by their various and productive industries. For centuries they have been boring salt and gas wells from three to five thousand feet deep, and using natural gas for evaporating the brine pumped from the bowels of the earth.
Their bronze, silk, and white wax industries are noted over the empire.
Their language is Mandarin, in which a Christian literature is already prepared.
The Central China Mission statistics for last year show an increase of a little over eight per cent. Five of their fifteen churches pay their own pastors. Everything is encouraging. "Come .over and help us," they say. The great Church to which they speak wlll /.Issuredly not be heed- !es~! .
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Week of Prayer. begun; all the Protestant churches can scarcely muster 7000 men and women as [EDITORIAL.-J. T. G.] ,. witnesses to the uttermost parts of the It was at the request of a smr.ll band earth;" the members of the Church of of missionaries in the Panjab that the England in its richer portion alone have Evangelical Alliance originally appoint- an income of $1,750,000,000 annually, ed a Week of Prayer for supplication for but last year, 'gave only $1,450,000 to for.
the conversion of the world. Since eign mlSSlOns. What is true of them is then there have been many other weeks relatively true of the rest of the churches.
and special days set apart for the same The circular appeals for a fuller recog- purpose. The Church of England Mis- nition of the principle of the missionary sionary Society, for instance, has a entel'prise: ,. Missionary work is not a Day of Special Prayer, or, as they phrase voluntary, supererogatory work of a few it, of "Intercession for Foreign Mis- more devoted souls. It is a charge sions," and many other churches have which is given to all as Christians."
adopted more or less regularly, the cus- It also mentions as a matter of special om of a set time for united prayer for thanksgiving the altered tone of the pub- the same object. We note with pleas- lic press toward missions. It reads: ure several statements in the introduc- ., Since the death of Bishop Hanning- tion to the week's programme of the ton, slowly but surely much of the Eng- Evangelical Alliance this year, such lish press has changed its tone with re- as these: ,. The privilege of prayer rises spect to the missionary enterprise. How to the topmost height attainable on often now have we thankfully to ac- earth, when, in common with believers knowledge that current literature brings of every name the wide world over, the missionary subject before house- we agree to hold a concert of prayer, holds who otherwise would remain ab- so that the globe may be girdled with solutely ignorant of the work! How assemblies of believers of one heart often of late has the public press done and of one mind, interceding with signal service in defence of missionary God for each other, for the Church agency – notably regarding work in of Christ, and for the spread of the China, India, and Uganda! In this, Gospel. • .• Looking abroad on the with profound gratitude, let us distinct- world in the light of the Word, we see ly acknowledge God's gracious hand."
the predictions in the Holy Book being All this can be readily transferred to fulfilled all around us. Be it ours to the Universal Week of Prayer, and a wait on God and to v.ait for Him in holy study should be made of the topics concord of faith and prayer, 'looking named in the programme of the Evangel- for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus ical Alliance, and'illustrations searched Christ.' . •. Wherefore,' holy breth- for of the special topics mentioned in it.
ren, partakers of the heavenly calling,' To these suggestions we venture to as in the opening year we gird ourselves add that the Church of God on earth has anew for fresh service and faithful testi- good realmn to render praise for the mony, let us invite each ot'her again to workmen God has raised up. We ought gather unitedly before the Eternal to pause to shed a tear at the grave of the Throne in praise and prayer." missionary dead of 1891. The list is but The Church of England circular names an appendix to the eleventh chapter of groundlifor humiliation, as found in the Hebrews. Bishop French ascended from fact that nearly nineteen hundred years Arabia; Bishop Boone, ha.,-ing only for have rolled by since the Head of the a short time been enrobed in the mantle Church gave the great missionary com- of his father, the renowned missionary, mis!lion, and yet the work ill !lcarcely died in China; Newton, "the beloved,"
of the Panjab-" a man sent from God, Harmony and Proportion in Missions.* whose name was John"-was followed to beUer than India's palaces by Winter, REV. CYRUS HAMLIN, D.D., LEXINGTON, of the Delhi Mission, who loved his special work more than he did a bishopric. MASS. Amid the lamentations of thousands, that" good servant of the Lord," Bishop The foreign missions of the Church Caldwell, was laid to rest after fifty-four of Christ are becoming numerous and years of labor in India for India; Dr. complicated. Many missionary socie- Luther H. Gulick. the founder of a large ties are in the field, separated from each missionary family, went up to the other by differences of nationality, lan- "bosom" of the" Father of the faith- guage, and church organization. ful ;" and dear and great John Inglis dropped his finished transhtion of the When these different organizations ocvisions of him of Patmos to open cupy the same field there is, there must his eyes on the beatific vision of the be, more or less of denominational fric- Ancient of days; Red slob, the Mora- tion, sometimes of antagonism even, vian sentinel of the outer patrol limit of and generally there will be a want of Chri~tendom on the edge of Thibet, that co-operation that always constitutes awoke to know the richer meaning of strength and progress. In that wonder- Nam Thang Song, and to find it "all ful prayer in ?hich the Son of God bright again" forever; Mrs. Bennett, poured out His soul as His hour drew more than sixty years in Burmah, went near, He prayed most earnestly that the to join again the Judsons and the Father would keep His disciples" that Boardmans; Sheshadri, the first Asi- they may be one, as we are." .. Neither atic whom America ever honored with pray I for these alone, but for them also a doctorate of divinity, found a fit- which shall believe on Me through their ting sepulchre in the sea for his body, word, that they all may be one, as Thou, while his soul went to the .. sea of Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that glass;" and Goloknath of Jalander was they may be one, that the world may becarried to his burial by .. devout men," lieve that Thou hast sent Me." and honored by the presence at his funeral of European officials and a thou- The missionary work has given birth sand Hindus and Mohammedans. Time to a great measure of the true spi~it of would fail us to tell of others who have unity for which the Saviour prayed-a I gone from remotest mountains and val- unity which exists between true discileys, from the habitations of cruelty and ples, notwithstanding all this diversit;,r. spiritual solitude, to the .. general as- The existence of this International Missembly" and the" Church of the First- sionary"Cnio-n is an answer to the Reborn" on high. But surely in the crowd deemer"s prayer, and must be an object of our on-rushing thoughts at a season of His approving regard. like this, we can pause long enough to thank God for such examples of the In order to remove so far as pOBsible highest missionary spirit and loftiest the occasions of conflicting views and spiritual achievement, and to ask that measures which perplex and scandalize their tribe may increase, and the Church the heathen, it has been generally agreed universal catch the radiance of their that one society shall not interfere with lives and be inspired to emulate their another society's legitimate sphere of devotion and their deeds. labor, marked out by actual occupation. And as surely, turning from this missionary nave in the great Westminster Where the different societies are alof the Church, we cannot fail of interest ready intermingled on the same terriin prayer for the great host of stillliv- tory, there is danger of injury to the spiring missionaries, both men and women. itual element. One will say, ., I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos." It requires of the missionaries thus divided, great wisdom, prudence, and brotherly love. There is evidently a growing *ltead before the International Missionary Union at Clifton Springs, N. Y., Jnne, 1891.
ht-rERN.A.-rtONAL DEPARTMlllNT
spirit of unity on mission fields, and fields that some of them are a law unto those who intrude upon fields already themselves. 'rheyhavenotroubleabout occupied are guilty of a great sin. They proportion in their work. We have: become the authors of a great wrong and 1. The sslf-supporting missionary, injury to the Master's cause. The grow- who has property that makes him inde- ing spirit of harmony will make such in- pendent of missionary bodies and Bocie- trusions more and more difficult. De- ties. He may be a very happy, useful nominational friction will be avoided, man. If his means enable him to call and denominational comity as to enter- to his aid native helpers, he is equal to ing each other's field is becoming, or a whole station. In prosecuting his rather, I would say. has become a recog- work he is sole judge of the depart- nized international and interdenomina- ments of his work, and in what relation tionallaw of missionary strategy. to each other he will develop them. It Japan is now a field of special tempta- is impossible to work only in one.
tion, so many societies are earnestly 2. There are self-supporting missiona· engaged in the work. The Holy Spirit, ries, who depend upon their own indus- the Guide unto all truth, the Paraclete, try or upon some secular employment He alone can deliver the work from this for support. Their object is to exhibit danger of divided counsels and of weak- the example of an honest, industrious ened efficiency. Christian life, and lead the heathen both The law of proportion in the mission- by precept and example into the same ary work must be regarded as well as life. They would show them and help the law of harmony. them also to experience that disciple- There are many departments of this ship to Christ has the promise both of work, as preaching, education, the press, the present life and of that which is to the formation of churches, the erection come. Thls scheme of missionary work of buildings, the care for the poor and can be fruitful of much good only by suffering, anyone of which may be put combination. The Inland Mission in forward out of proportion and to the in- China is partly of this nature, but it re- jury of the rest. It requires great wis- quires the oversight and management of dom and judgment to develop all the in- gifted men, like Hudson Taylor and his terests of a mission so that no one shall compeers, to gu~e its affairs, direct its be neglected and no one shall overtop labors, and provide for expenses that the others. The missionaty needs to every progressive work will demand.
have" an unction from the Holy One, Bishop Taylor's mission in Africa is and to know all things." He must neg- of this partially self-supporting kind.
lect nothing, he must push nothing be- He gathers from Christian friends at yond its value. I think to a very re- ·home what is needed for the complete- markable degree this wisdom has been ness and efficiency of the work beyond given. the productive results of the laborers.
Where there is Episcbpal government I would bid God-speed to all such efforts, a great responsibility falls upon the and yet they must be exposed to certain 'bishop. He can more readily remedy infelicities. Untrained men and women mistakes and harmonize the depart- will be found in them who, when they ments, or, if he should lack wisdom, he encounter the grave difficulties of a for- may get them into a muddle. eign language and find the native proud But many missions are more demo- and contemptuous, will Boon be dis· cratic in their organization. They are couraged, and retire in black despair.
largely self-governed, although the home Such cases have too frequently occurred.
societies fix upon the general principles In future they may be avoided.
upon which they must proceed. 3. By far the greater number of mis· Let us not forget, however, that there sionaries on the field are supported by are so many kinds of agents in different _.. mi s -s-i-o–n-'a. ry s o c i e t ie s , The operatiDZ and ~ ";"' :' largely apportioliating power is in those established, and for a time, it may-be, societies. But the officers, being far chiefly officered by the best-educated from the fields of labor, must depend missionaries. But from the very begin- upon the missionaries for the facts, and ning the object to be aimed at is the upon their judgment as to the meaning raising of native laborers for every de- of the facts. WhilE! here is an oppor- partment of the work_ tunity for difference of opinion between ]'or a time the native agency, in press- the officers and the missionaries, which ing forward into new fields, must be perhaps sometimes occurs, yet there has supported in whole or in part by the been remarkable harmony on the whole. mission, otherwise it cannot exist at all.
When earnest discussion has arisen it A mission is prosperous only so far as it has been conducted in a Christian raises up an efficient, well-trained na- spirit, and has resulted in the advance- tive agency. One missionary with four ment of the work and in the settlement well-qualified native preachers will reach of important principles. Sometimes the people more widely and efficiently education has been too much pushed, by far, than five missionaries with no and sometimes preaching. In Buresal, nath's assistant, and the expense will India, preaching was almost the only not be half so great. The work will be- work attempted. Education was left come in this way self-developing and entirely to the native Christians. In self- perpetuating.
consequence the children were growing It follows then by necessity that when up in such deplorable ignorance that a the funds of a mission do not keep prog- general meeting of missionaries took up ress with the missionary work, the for- the subject and demanded that Chris- eign missionary should be withdrawn, tian education should accompany the that the native work m~y go on. If dur- Christian native Church. ing the past year the societies that have But the subject which is most exposed been compelled to cut down their ap- to disproportion has regard to the work propriations had, instead of doing so, of the native Church, with its pastors, refused to send out a single missionary, teachers, and helpers. Generally in all they would have saved their work from departments of the missionary work in a calamitous set-back. Some missiona- the ministry, in education, in editing ries have seriously contemplated resign_ and translating, the native factors must ing and leaviDg the field in order to be our chief reliance for ultimate suc- avoid this great evil.
cess. Fifty years ago the prevailing An early movement in the missionary idea was that the world is to be convert- work of sending ou~ laymen to teach the ed by the preaching of missionaries. various arts of ci vilized life proved a That idea is no longer held by anybody. failure; but the time has now come The nati ve Ohurch is to be the true mis- when there is a call for such co-opera- sionary Ohurch. Native preachers and bon. The converts from heathendom helpers are to go everywhere preaching must live by their own labor. The the Word. They are to do the chief sooner they are emancipated from many work of evangelization. The great work of the filthy modes in which all heathen. – of the missionaries is to bring forward, dam, including even the Chinese, live to educate, to train the native laborers the better for a pure and honest Chris- and native churches unto this work, and tian life. The glorious example and life give the whole over to them as soon as of Mackay of Uganda have taught us possible. This is the only way in which what a lay missionary-a mechanic, a the great work of the world's redemp- civiI-engineer-can achieve for Christ tion from sin and darkness can be ac- under the darkest prospects. The Lord complished. It is the most effective will have many Mackays ready when the and the most economical way. Ohurch shall really call for them. Mis- Schools, colleges, seminaries must be sionary societies must learn that CODverts must have daily bread not by hundred dollars a year for the support charit.y, but by their own labor. And of each one, three millions of dollars 8 all missionaries, men and women, year will be needed for their bare sup· should have that practical knowledge port, and certainly not less than nine of the common arts and activities of life millions more for the prOilecution of the which will enable them to gnide the work through native agency. Then the porsecuted and boycotted into inde. six thousand would soon be one hun. pendent self-support. dred thousand, and that number a mill- ion of native preachers.. By that time, There is great danger at the present moreover, the million would be mainly time of looking more to the number supported by native churches, and the than the quality of the laborers. Men promise of the Almighty Father to the of mere sentiment are sure to fail. Son, "Ask of Me and I will give Thee They find themselves confronted with the heathen for thine inheritance, and the difficulties. of an unknown, strange, the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy barbarous language, and by a proud, in. posse~sions," would approach its glori. solent, contemptuous people. After a ous fulfilment. year or two of heartless effort they reo treat in black despair or sink into a list. Ohinese "Blue-Books." [J. T. G.] less :Mfe. None but men who are strong in the Lord and in the power of His Whoever has carefully studied the might are needed in this work. splendid volume containing the Records of the Missionary Conference which met It follows, from all we have read, that at Shanghai in 1890 will have noticed in this great and marvellous movement the essay of Rev. Timothy Richards on among the youth of our colleges is " The Relation of Christian Missions to in danger of involving the Christian the Chinese Government," his reference Church in an unexpected embarrass- (pp. 407-10) to what he .is pleased to ment. To send out all who are willing style" Blue Books." It is a collection to go and are fitted for great usefulness of public documents on all State queswould necessitate the entire abandon. tions published in 1826, in one hundred ment of the element of native co-opera. and twenty books. It was republished tive help, of pastors, teachers, trans. by the Shaghai publishers in 1889; a lators, common schools, and, to some supplement to the same, also in one extent, of colleges and seminaries. A hundred and twenty books, bringing the greater catastrophe could not befall the subject down to date, was published in work. 1888. These books, he says, are in the catalogue of the books for sale in the What, then, is the meaning of this Government book.shop at Tientsin, and wonderful movement? probably in all the provinces. Two books of the supplement are devoted to It brings before the Church the tre. Christian missions. mendous reality of the missionary work. It cries aloud to all Christians, Aban. Mr. Richards proceeds to give some don your luxurious living, your piling idea of their "scandalous" contents. up of millions. Pour your millions into First, a history of the way in which the missionary work, und see if the Lord Christianity has gradually corrupted will not pour you out a blessing that China. This is followed by an attempt there shall not be room to receive it. to stamp out Christianity in the provo inces of Hlman, the source of the pres. But these six thousand crusaders must ent Ohinese riots, and Kiang Suo Sun. not be encouraged to go forth while the dry other documents follow. Mr. Rich. Church stands back and refuses to de- ards proceeds to recite that the books velop the work already in progress, having the evident blessing of God and the co-operating work of the Holy Spirit. Their going forth must be to aid, not retard the work. At an average of five affirm that six hundred years after Bud- able books translated; of the tens of dha all India followed the Christian thousands of youllg and old taught; ot'
religion. Among the statements are the hundreds of thousands saved from found assertions that the founder of death during famines, and of'the tomb- Christianity was a criminal, and Joseph stones of those who have given their was not his father. lives for the good of China, this collec- The great rebellions in the Ming tion of obscenities and lies is their dynasty and of the various secret lOects version of what we have done for in the present dynasty, with all their them."
, horrors, are attributed to these Western The relation of the State to these so- religions. It is an insult, the author called" Blue-Books," and of their rela- says, to suggest that all these vile here- tion to the present disturbed state of the tics could have 'had the same origin as country, as it originates in hatred of the Chinese. The writer says that four foreigners, has become the subject of taels were given to each convert, and considerable discussion in China. It is that the books of the Roman Catholics well known that the riots have been in- were full of obscenity, and that the Gov- cited by the literati and gentry of ernor Man of Chi Kiang memorialized China ; and it is this class that read the throne regarding their evil deeds, such statements as are contained in requesting to have their churches turned these books, Which, be it borne in into charity schools for a hundred years, mind, are for sale at the Government to cleanse away their moral filth. book-stores. It would seem, therefore, "After this," says Mr. Richards, of little avail that the imperial authority "follow scandalous quotations from Wei at the Peking Yemen should by royal Yuen, who says that men and women edict declare that Christianity was a re- sleep promiscuously together in the ligion of good moral influence, so long churches; that one hundred and thirty as it permits these documents to be taels of silver are given in three instal- placed on sale under its auspices. To be ments to the converts to help them to sure. it might be claimed that the edict do business; that the Christians' eyes counteracts their influence, and even are scooped out by the priest after that it was so intended. It is much death; that when these eyes are melted more probable that the Government up with lead, eight per cent of the lead chooses to blow hot and cold at the same is turned to silver; that a pill is given, time, for whatever else the West mlly which makes the convert pledge him- teach China, it is not likely to set it any self for life, and so bewitched is he that lesson in the duplicity of diplomacy.
the first thing he does is to destroy the In the North China Herald the vener.
ancestral tablets; that several other able and highly esteemed missionary, things are practised by Christians which Rev. Griffith John, calls upon the for- I consider too vile to print… Mr. Rich- eign powers to demand the suppression ards closes his remarks on the" Blue- of these books. He says that it is to be Books" with the following grave reflec- hoped that some one will take these tion: Ie Thus end the 'Blue·Books' books in hand and bring their vileness without the slightest acknowledgment of and falsehood to the light. He has any benefit derived from modern mis- afresh examined them, and declares that sionaries. They wish to convince their " anything more false, disgraceful, and people that Christian missionaries only inflammatory it would be difficult to come here for mischief, and that the find, even among the vile placards of converts are the scum of society! In Hunan." He deems it of the utmost im· face of about a million taels spent an- portance that their publication, as they nually for the good of China; in face of now stand, should be suppressed. He tens of thousands of patients gratuitous- concludes by saying that the Hunan ly healed annually; of the many valu- placards are intended for the multitude;
JartUBl'j'
these books are intellded for the officials out-patients belong to the Syongtn, or and literary classes. 'rhey are to be low-class people, many of whose wom- round in every yamen, and in thousands en, except the newly married or those of private libraries. The foreign powers of marriageable age, go out upon the have decided that the Hunan publica- street in the daytime. I would like to tions shall cease, because they poison open an evening olinic for those Korean the minds of the people. For a still women who must not be seen upon the stronger reason they ought to decide street in the daytime, and I want to that these" blue books" shall cease in open a dispensary in another part of their present form, because they poison the city, and perhaps one outside.
the minds of the officials and scholars. Quite often at my morning clinic I have Just how far the foreign powers had women from the higher class who should go in aUempting an " Index" of have come in closed chairs. They al- literature that must be expurgated in ways inform me that it is a great ell.cep- China, or whether they should attempt tion for them to go out, but their dis- at all to coerce the Government to cause ease was difficult, and they had heard certain parts of current literature to be that I was a very wise doctor, and there- suppressed, may be grave questions. fore came.
But that they might demand that their .. My out-calls have, many of them, sale should be prohibited in Govern- been to people of quite high rank-from ment book stalls would not appear alto- the daughter of a ' Chusa' to the moth- gether unreasonable as a political meas- er of the late Prime-Minister-but others ure or as a war measure, if you please. have been to those most miserably low We have not called attention to the mat· and poor. I, have visited a niece of the ter with a view to second the call to the late queen-dowager, living in a large foreign powers to demand their suppres- stone house built within two or three sion, but rather to show some of the court-yards, with foreign lamp-posts sources by which the prejudices of the here and there ; nice-sized rooms, easily literati and gentry are stirred against made larger by pushing back the Korean Christian missionaries. Perhaps we shove-doors and throwing two rooms may even come into greater charity into one ; large Korean screens here and toward some of those whose minds have there ; a fine mirror and Korean dress- been thus poisoned ; and perhaps we ing-case ; the patient and her attendants may come to better apprehension of clothed in spotless white, in mourning why the literati and gentry, rather than for tho Queen; the under-garments of the common people and the coolies, dis- the patient made of soft white Korean like foreigners and missionaries. At silk. She was covered with light downy any rate, if we are to proceed with judg- comfortables of colored silk, and lay ment, it is manifest we must become upon a soft mattress with a beautifully more closely acquainted with the in- embroidered Korean pillow on the warm· digenous influences affecting the people est part of a highly polished 'Rang'
of Ohina. floor.
" In the same afternoon I have visit- ed a poor sick woman of the Coolie class Medical Work for Women in Korea, in her little tive-by-eight room, with ceiling so low I could not stand up- We know so little of the" Land of right, one small window covered with the Morning Calm" that it is with inter- oiled paper, the patient lying on a small est we quote from a long oommunication mat and covered with a coarse cotton from Miss Rosetta Sherwood, M.D., of comfortable. The history of many of the MethodistEpiscopal MissilJll in that the wretched cases one meets with in a country, the following paragraphs: practice like this are appalling and "The majority of the hospital and heart.sickening. "
" Why is the Ohina Inland Mission Suo- mission in China, suggests that a longer period of time is required before we cessful?" can predicate success or failure of the mission in its evangelical enterprise. The editor of the lIarvest Field, the Wesleyan magazine published in India, " That it has heen a wonderful suc. some while since addressed the above cess at home everybody must admit. question to the Rev. David Hill, the The rapid pouring into one field of so Britisb President of the Shanghai Con. large a number of missionaries is un. ference of Missionaries laboring in exampled in modern times as far liS I India. We have so long heard and know, and demands close study. Two read conflicting statements of the effi. or three reasons for this success have ciencyand value of Mr. Hudson Tay. occurred to me : lor's methods, and those of his associ. ates, that it was with rather more than "1. The mission is steeped in prayer, usual interest we read Mr. Hill's reply, and its founders and followers have Ilnd we are so confident of a wide inter. boldly made the grand experiment of est in the subject that we quote the testing and trusting the promi~es of article bodily. Mr. Hill says: God.
"You inquire as to the reasons of the " 2. Appeals for men have been made success of the China Inland Mission. at meetings for entire consecration to The assumption implied in such in. God. This consecration has been quiry some would question, if it refer urged home first of all-then the de. to the work of the mission in China, mand to show cause why this consecra. and the number of members gathered tion should not flow in China cbannels into the Church. This is not large as has been made. Full surrender has compared with that of several other opened the ear to China's claims. missions having a much smaller staff of missionaries, and does not demon. "3. Speedy entrance on the work. strate Ilny very marked success. No protracted waiting for examination after examination, or for a long college "On the other hand, 2000 and odd course. This attracts men. Christians gathered into the Church in twenty-five years does tell of success, "4. Then the offer of a life of sacri. and that Mr. Hudson Taylor should fice rather than one of ease has a great have been used of God to this end is deal to do with winning the right sort matter for profound thankfulness. of men. Faith, too, fascinates. That it is not large may be accounted for by the perpetual pioneering of "5. Besides Mr. Taylor's magnetio many missionaries. In opening the influence, Mr. Broomhall's untiring way to regions beyond they have been energy and the broadcast sowing of llbundantly successful, hut this per. China's millions have marvellously aided petual" motion has not favored large the progress of the mission. harvests of converts. Where steady, persevering work has been the order of "These have appeared to me the the day, conversions have been most chief causes of success, and I as II numerous. Methodist feel I may learn a good deal from them." " Then the genius of the mission is so largely that of witnessing rather -Mrs. Maria T. True, of Tokyo, tem· than winning, of sowing rather than of porarily in tbis country, in writing to reaping, that that doubtless has had us says: "Some Japanese ladies have something to do with the comparatively purchased an acre of ground and built small ingathering. And the very large a small house for an industrial school proportion of new men occupying new for young women. About forty pupils places, as compared with any other are enrolled, and during tbe little more than one year since the school was opened they have by their own labor
liTElRNATlONAL :l)Et'Alt'I'MEN'l'
earned their board, and in some cases ful, as it is certainly entertaining, other expenses. The main industry is called" In Brightest Asia," which Mr. silk embroidery, but they also have in- Corthell, of Tremont Temple, publishes. troduced various other kinds of work, Its 127 illustrations are a panorama of and have still more comprehensive the trip and much besides. plans, to be carried out when the fund for another building have been secured. -Rev. Henry N. Cobb, D.D., Corre· This is a Ohristian school, and is blessing sponding Secretary of the Board of those who have established it and are Foreign Missions of the Reformed carrying it on as well as those who are Church in America, has started to make taught in it. a visit to their missions in India, China, and Japan. Rev. J. N. Conklin, "One of the native pastorR has also of the Arcot Mission, temporarily in been the means of opening an indus- this country, has assumed Dr. Cobb's trial home for young men. I know both official duties in his absence. We of these enterprises well, Bnd am sure learn from him that the native Christhey are worthy of our warm sympathy tians of this Arcot Mission are suffering terribly from food scarcity, and cholera " A letter just received from a Japan. is likely to follow. The report about esc minister contains the following: the cholera at Amoy, Mr. Conklin says, • This is my strong conviction: we can· has been greatly exaggerated. not evangelize Japan with a method like child's play; if we evangelize such a -Our Baptist friends are getting heathen country as Japan we must take ready for the observance of the great a gigantic method. The Bible and the Carey Centennial this year. A good Holy Spirit are the only weapons needed deal of literature will doubtless be forth. in our battle.field.' coming, which will be helpful to them, and to all of us. The American Baptist , • Then he goes on to outline a meth- Publication Society, Philadephia, has od by which he thinks work could be just issued ., A Century of Baptist For. carried on in every town and village in eign Missions," by Mrs. Titterington. Japan. He asks advice concerning It is an outline of annals, briefly stated, leaving one of the best churches in and with a list of questions at the close Tokyo in order to give his time to this of each chapter, suggestive of its being country work. used as a text·book. It is confined to American Baptist missions in Asia, .. It is ~ard to realize how heavily Africa, Europe, and South America. burdened the few earnest workers in Japan are, unless one has seen the con- -The Congregational missions in ditions there." South Africa have been the subject of many an inquiry with other than mis. -The Rev. Dr. Mabie, Home Corre- sionary intent. Ethn ologists, :philol. sponding Secretary of the American ogists, and others have found the mis. Baptist Missionary Union, presently sionary's arcana of knowledge the after getting well seated in his position, most valuable and resourceful that started on a trip round the world, chiefly could be investigated. There have to visit the Baptist missions in Asia. been heroes and statesmen among the About two hundred Baptist mission· missionaries of that country. Rev. aries were visited. They must have Josiah Tyler furnishes a fresh fund of enjoyed his calls, for there was nothing knowledge for mllny classes in " Forty of the bugbear of a .. deputation" in Years Among the ZulUB" in autobjothem. He did not go to make official examinations into their larders or their learning, nor with any authority to upset their plans. Dr. Mabie tells his side of the cheery journey in a sketchy way in a book that must be very help. graphical form of narrative. (Congrega- ent at the celebration of the sacrament tional House, Boston.) in a church other than their own; to have inter-mission discipline, by which -In April, 1890. Rev. Mr. Large, of an agent of one mission should not be the Canada Methodist Mission, in Japan, engaged by another until after mutual was murdered. The murderer has been, consultation, and strangers coming from as is supposed. found out, and on Au- another station should be provided with gust 25th was arrested. He is described letters, of commendation from the as a youth about twenty years of age. church which they had left; to foster At first it was supposed he was insane, social advancement by means of obtainbut fuller investigation does not sup- ing grants of land from the Government, port the theory. He is a native of the the endeavor to have Christian regiprovince of Kazuza. ments formed, the adoption of technieal pursuits, the encouragement of capital- -Rev. Dr. T. J. Scott, President of ists among Christians, the institution of panchayats among them, and the pur- chase of land in the villages as sites for schools and churches which should be the property of the missions."
the Methodist Theological Seminary at Bareilly, India, writes us: "God is -We have received the following com- wonderfully blessing the work in this munication from a representative of the part of India. Just think of a thousand Protestant native congregation at Bag- baptisms a month! At least ten thou- dad: sand will be added to the Christian •• I beg to inform you that there are community during the' year. What a work in supplying pastors and evange- about twenty houses of Evangelical Protlists! In places of course the devil estants here in Bagdad, reaching from rages. In AImorah, while a young man sixty to seventy persons, male and was being baptized in the London Mis- female. You will be very glad, of course, sionary Society's church, a mob smashed to know that there is such a light and salt the windows and doorl!. Dr. Butcher in such a. big city of Turkish-Arabia, had his "coat tOfn off, and would have where thousands of people are living in been brained by the mob had not Dr. darkness and the shadow of death. How Parker seized the ringleader and got Dr. many difficulties are on the way of the Butcher into the church. The colonel Lord's laborers in such places! But commanding the station got word, and faith, patience, and perseverance over- • doubled quicked' the Sepoys down; come everything that hinders the extenthe magistrate arrived, and the mob sion of the kingdom of our Heavenly quailed. The young man stands firm. Father. We hope we shall never fail in We may expect more mobs and more fulfilling our sacred duties toward our victory. Pray for us." God, ourseIve~, and our neighbors. For the establishment of this, our Protestant -Apropos of Dr. Hamlin's admirable native congregation in Bagdad, we need article, which we present this month, on to have soon registration, cemetery, "Mission Comity," we take the follow- school and church, without which we ing from the Report of the Church of cannot enjoy success and progress in Scotland Mission, setting forth an agree- such lands. To get what is mentioned ment to which the missionaries of the we must apply to the Sublime Porte in various societies in the Panjab came Constantinople and the Turkish auin a Conference of their members, held thorities here to get the necessary orders, last April : that we may possess all our national " At this Conference it was resolved rights. I am very glad to say that we to adopt a common course of instruction have already got orders for registration for inquirers before baptism; to admit and cemetery, so there is firm hope that and welcome to the communion mem- we shall get an order for school and bers of the various churches when pres- church too. Our registration was partly made by the local Government here; but I am sorry to say that burial-ground has not yet been given to us for ceme- tery, as we have not enough money to buy a piece of ground, to pay official fees, and all expenses concerning such serious matters, for our Protestants here are unable to provide the necessary SUUlS."
·EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
I1I.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Editor's Salutation. himself one of the tery foremost mis- sionary biographers of the age, the au- METBOPOLITAW TABEBWACLE, thor of the 'standard classic on Carey's life, will contribute a series of papers NEWINGTON, S. E., on the great cobbler of Hackleton, and LONDON, ENGLAND.
The editor salutes all readers of the other writers of scarcely inferior merit REVIEW and friends of missions with will take a part in this symphony of the most cordial good wishes for the testimony to the work of a world's new year! May it be indeed a Happy evangelization, and the duty and priv- New Year to us all individually and to ilege of the Church to push her COD- the whole Church of God! flicts and conquests to the extremities The year 1892 ought to be a year of of the globe.
grand advance all along the line. It is Once more we emphatically call our the centennial year of modern missions, readers and all who are linked with the • for it marks the hundredth anniversary work of missions to a new consecration of William Carey's great movement, the to prayer. Here lies the hope of the organization of the first distinctively Church and the world, in a new spirit foreign missionary society of Britain, of gracious supplication. God will be at Kettering, May 31st, 1792, and will be inquired of when He is to do great observed all over Britain, if not all over things. Our hope must be in no com the wider realm of Christendom, as the pleteness of organization, no abundance ~ completion of the grand century of of gifts, no sufficiency of laborers, no modem missions. multitude of agencies, but first of all But it ought also to mark the begin- in God, in the Providence that opens ning of a new century of far more in- doors and keeps them open, that pro tense Christian zeal and far more self- tects workers, that rrues even rulers and denying missionary effort. The open controls all things; and in the grace doors now before the Church, the sin- that works even mightier marvels in gularly complete equipment providen- anointing the messengers of Christ and tially given for world-wide work, the inclining lost sinners to hear and heed amazing successes of the century past. the message. Let us remember those the strange withholding of laborers and two wonderful words of promise: Matt.
gifts from the service of the Lord-how 17 : 20 and 18: 19, 20. One of them ought such considerations as these to reminds us that in faith there is the stimulate the whole Church of God to seed of God, the secret of divine life undertake new enterprises for Him, to and power to upheave even mountain lengthen her cords and strengthen her obstacles; the other teaches us the 8takes until the canopy of her mission- power of a symphony of prayer, when ary effort shall stretch over the Whole believers who live in the secret of God area of the unevangelized world.! are like keys of a musical instrument The pages of this REvrnw will be that the hand of God touches, and largely given up during the year to the which give forth a sweet chord in har- rehearsal of William Carey's life and mony with His will. To abide in God, work, and to the exhibition of its mag- and so have power in united prayer, is nificent results; While it will be our the first and last secret of missionary aim to suggest and inspire far larger success. This is one of the essential hopes, stronger faith, and wider en- truths to be impressed by perpetual deavor, in behalf of the coming of the repetition.
kingdom of our God! May the prayers Here in the great Tabernacle we have of every devout reader be with us! had an exhibition and illustration of ~eor~e Smith, LL.D., of Edinbur?h, the power of importunate and believing prayer. In May last pastor Charles H. 8th, to propose another union of prayer Spurgeon was attacked with a violent in tbat place. for the greatest outpour. and virulent influenza. After partial ing of the Holy Spirit ever yet known, recovery, in June he was the victim of upon all flesh. If this spectacle has a relapse that brought him to the very been sublime to angels and men, who jaws of death. His recovery was pro. can describe the sublimity of a holy nounced impossible by human means, agreement of all disciples in supplica. and this great congregation of six thou. tion for a worldwide effusion of the sand souls united in daily prayer to Spirit of all grace! God for him. For twenty.one weeks This Metropolitan Tabernacle is a daily meetings for prayer assembled in house of prayer most emphatically. the Tabernacle, early in the morning, Here are numerous rooms, under and at 7 o'clock, and again at the same hour around the great audience.room, where, in the evening. They were thronged, for almost forty years, this one servant and not only by Mr. Spurgeon's own of God has held forth the Word of Life; people, but by Christians of every name. and in these rooms prayer is almost No sublimer spectacle has appeared to ceaselessly gomg up. When one meeting human eyes since apostolic days than is not in progress another is. This is a this union of discipIes, in believing hive of bees, where there are campara. prayer. As for Peter when in prison tively few drones. There are prayer· awaiting Herod's axe prayer was made meetings before preaching and others without ceasing of the Church unto God after preaching; evangelistic associa· for him. Baptists of every "grade;" tions, zenana societies-all sorts of work Methodists, Primitive, Wesleyan, and for God find here a centre and all can· Episcopal; Congregationalists and Inde. secrated by prayer. Before I go upon pendents ; Presbyterians and Plymouth the platform to address these thousands, Brethren; even the members and clergy the officers of this great church meet of the Anglican communion were pres· me and each other for prayer as to the ent and participated. Meanwhile Mr. service; and one feels upborns on these Spurgeon was overwhelmed with per· strong arms of prayer while preaching. sonal and official attentions from all No marvel that Mr. Spurgeon's ministry classes and conditions of men. Up to has been so blessed. He himself at· the time of his departure for Mentone, tributes it mainly to the prevailing on October 26th, he told me that over prayers of his people. Why may not seven thousand messages of condolence the whole Church of God learn some· and sympathy, resolutions of various thing from the Metropolitan Tabernacle religious bodies, etc., and other docu. of London as to the power of simple ments, from the lowest and highest in Gospel preaching backed by believing society, had reached him. Fifty tele. supplication! grams of inquiry a day came to Beulah Referring to this great church, one Hill, until clerks were unequal to the cannot forget also its divine mission as reading of and the replying to these a standing protest against the secular. messages and inquiries. Even bishops izing of the house of God by the attrac· and archbish~ps called to offer not only tions of worldly art and restheticism. sympathy, but service, if such were Here is nothing to divert the mind from possible; and Jewish rabbis called to the simplicity of worship and the Gas· assure the sick man that all Israel was pel. No attempt at elaborate architec. praying to Jehovah for his restorl't· ture, furniture, garniture. A precentor tion! What wonder he was raised as leads con"gregational song without even from the dead-taken out of the jaws the help of a cornet; prayer and praise of the lion! In view of all this, I ven· and the reading of the Word of God, tured, in presence of a great congrega· with plain putting of Gospel trnthtion i:Q. t4e Tabernacle, on November these 4nve been Mr. StJur~eon's lifelon~ " means of grace" and weapons of war. a year of praise also, a new year of mis- And yet this remains to.day the largest sions, introducing a new century of mis- congregation in the world, even when a sion triumph and glory to God!
stranger attempts to fill the place left vacant by the pastor's withdrawal to a -The editors of American newspapers place of rest and recuperation. are, as a rule, a sagaeious folk. They This lesson has, in my opinion, a beating on all work for Christ, at home cannot be hoaxed. But not all of those and abroad. Our reliance is too much on the charms of this world, in drawing who have the l'equisite " nose for news" souls to the Gospel and to the Saviour. The Holy Spirit will not tolerate our are favored with the reciprocity of the idols. If we will have artistic and secular type of music, substituting unsancti- senses by which they" know news when :lied art for simple praise; if we will have elaborate ritual in place of simple, they see it." An instance is at han~. believing prayer; if we will have eloquent lectures in place of simple, ear- In, the summary of Dr. Pierson's open. nest Gospel preaching, we must not wonder if no shekinah fires burn in our ing sermon at the Tabernacle, made by sanctuaries. If Ahaz is allowed to dis· place God's plain altar by the carved, the Christian, we :find the following: idolatrous altar fro!ll Damascus, we need not be surprised if God withdraws " The Holy Ghost never tolerates idols His power. Perhaps the reason why the work of God abroad shows more in his courts. The success of this great signs of His presence and power than our sanctuary services at home is in Tabernacle is owing to nothing more part this, that our foreign mission work has never been embarrassed as yet by than to this-that the paster has preachthose elaborate attempts at resthetic attraction which turn many of our home ed the Gospel, and has never preached churches into concert halls and lecture saloons and costly club-houses. May anything else, for well.nigh forty years, God grant us to learn once for all, that nothing in our mission work can make He prayed God that some calamity might up for Holy Spirit power, and that Holy Spirit power itself makes up for the happen to the building itself before it lack of all else. If the angel troubles the pool, there is healing in the waters ; was ever prostituted by unsanctified and but if God's angel comes not down 'all the doctors in Jerusalem, with all'the secularizing methods of attracting the drugs in creation, cannot impart healing virtue. people. We want to keep out of our v.orship everything that turns away at- tention from God, or hinders the power of the Holy Ghost."
An irate reporter, by whom the" in_ terim" pastor declined to be interviewed rushed off and cabled to this countr; that Dr. Pierson had most wantonly and uncharitably attacked Mr. Spurgeon in his absence, and had ~harged his con- gregation with doing the very things which he had commended them for not doing. We extend our sympathy to so much of the secular press as became tho victim of this hoax and falsehood. Yet on its face they should have been able to recognize its improbability_ Even a caricature must be a likeness. But to present one who is '
LET us PRU! Oh, for a new spirit of " the president Of nobleness and chevalree" prayer to God! Oh, for a whole Church on its face before the throne, with in snch a roll was too much out of align- mighty pleading for a blessing as wide- ment to afford amusement or to do spread as the race of man, and as deep- harm. The editor.in· chief of this RE- reaching as man's depravity and degra- VIEW answers too closely to the en- dation, guilt and need! Let the year comium on Sir Philip Sydney, in hav- now opening be-whatever else it may ing ., mildness which is associated with not be-a year of prayer; so shall it be courage, erudition modified by refinement, and courtliness dignified by There is one preacher to eight hun. truth "to render it necessary to correct dred inhabitants in the home land; so m:mifestly gross a canard. It may one preacher to four hundred thousand be that he will not so much as thank us in non-Christian countries. for an allusion to it. [J. T. G.]. Estimated wealth of Evangelical Christians in United States•… $13,000,000,000 Increase of wealth last :year (sur- plus after paying all expenses Facts and Figures. of living and contributions for benevofent purposes)….••…. 450,000,000 REV. c. R. BELL, D.D. Contributions for Foreign Mis- sions during the year……… . Population of the world ……….. 1,500,000,000 Total foreign missionary contri- 5,000,000 Living in Asia •••.••.. 800,000,000 Living in Africa •.. •. 210,000,000 butions during the century …. 90,000,000 Living in Europe……. 350,000,000 Annual expenditure for home Living in America, churches….. .. •.. .. … …. .. .. 80,000,000 North and South ….. 110,000,000 Average per member. . •. . . . . • .• •• $6.00 Living in Island World 30,000,000 Annual expenditure for Foreign M.issions, per member (average) .37 – – – 1,500,000,090 Evangelical Christian Commnni- The annual increase of wealth was' ninety times more than the foreign cants………… …………… 35,000,000 missionary offerings during the year. Adherents.. … .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. . 105,000,000 The estimated increase of wealth of Total Communicants and Adher- 140,000,000 the evangelical Christian population of ents………………………. . 90.000.000 the United States last year was more 205,000,000 than four times greater than all the Greek Church……………. . .. .. 8,000,000 foreign contributions by all American Romanists…………………… . 175,000,000 Christians d~ring the entire century. Jews……………………… .. 882,000,000 Startling statements I M.ohammedans ……………….. . Pagan and Heathen………….. ..
Converts to Christianity in heathen 1,500,000,000 lands one hundred years ago did not exceed…… …. … …. .. .. .. 300 Communicants now………….. . 800,000 Adherents ………………….. .. 2,200,000 Total Communicants and Adhe- Signs of the Times. rents…….. ………… …….. 3,000,000 There are signs of a general upheaval Then there were very few Christian all through the pagan, papal, and Mosworkers abroad. and they were chiefly lem world. Japan has suffered from a peasants and artisans who accompanied recent earthquake, in which thousands enterprising merchants. Then the are said to have perished. China was Church for the first time began the visited by most destructive floods, and great enterprise of organized foreign now is the scene of widespread riot and missionary work. not a little bloodshed. South America -Brazil, Chili, and the Argentine Re. Now there are 170 missionary boards public-has been and is undergoing and societies directed by men, and 110 civil and political disturbances, which by women-all actively in service as in some cases amount to a convulsion. agents for their respective Christian Russia is expelling the Jews and preconstituencies. Now at work in non· paring for war, and all Europe is either Christian lands 7700 missionaries, male in a state of ferment or of uncertainty and female, consisting of and apprehension. No one on the con. tinent feels sure of the peace of Europe Ordained…………………… .. 3,482 for thirty days ahead, and a European La,Ylllen …………………….. . 829 war means a world's upheaval. Africa WlVes of missionaries…………. . has been the scene of almost continual Umnarried women…………… .. 2.005 conflict since the Zulu and Soudan 1,384 wars. Turkey is on the verge of per. petual disturbance. The isles of the Native workers ………………. . 7,700 sea are the scenes of repeated and some· Of whom 4,250 are ordained 36,000 times widespread antagonisms, either preachers within their own coasts or with foreign 43,700 foes. No one can predict how long Total force …………………. .. 13,500,000 UNITED STATES ALONE. 80,000 Evangelical church-members..•… Ordained preachers …………… .
Ordained preachers abroad……. . 1,000 Unordained missionaries, male and 1,750 female, abroad…………….. ..
2,750 Mexico and Central America, Burmah Pierson has met with the warm welcome /lJld India, Thibet and Korea will keep and hearty support of the officiary and their uncertain quiet. There are some congregation of Mr. Spurgeon's Taber- sagacious students of affairs who boldly nacle. Our English exchanges make say that never within this century has kindly mention of his entrance upon his there been such a general murmur of new responsibilities. The Ohristian says approaching conflict; and that only the of the opening service: "The great destructiveness of modern engines of building was thronged with worshippers war prevents its outbreak. In the re- in every part. At the opening of the cent naval exhibition, we saw a fac- service the crush was not BO great as we simile of a trial target upon which one have generally seen it, when Mr. Spur- of the largest of modern English ord- geon was the preacher; but before the nance, a HO-ton Armstrong gun, had commencement of the sermon there expended its explosive force, aud the were very few vacant seats." After giv.
ball-a conical one-had been driven ing a column to a synopsis of the in- through six feet of steel and iron, tell terim pastor's sermon from the admir- feet of oak timbers, five feet of solid ably chosen text Acts 10 : 29: .' There- granite, fifteen£eetof concrete, and six of fore came I unto you without gainsay- brick masonry, in all penetrating forty- ing as soon as I was sent for; I ask, two feet before its progress was arrested! therefore, for what intent ye have sent Meanwhile, let it be recorded with for me?" the editor says: "His brief thanksgiving that never has such a ministry at the Tabernacle has open.
spirit of benevolence been exhibited as ed auspiciously." He further quotes now among God's true children. For from a Tabernacle correspondent, who example, Mr. Thomas M. Russell, a writes: Scotchman, has just willed £60,000 ster- " • With the hour the man' is a prov- ling to Rev. John Wilkinson for his erb which hail received a very happy work among the Jews ; £8000 were con· illustration in the presence and minis- tributed by a. single donor in Australia try of Dr. Pierson as Mr. Spurgeon's to modern missions, and we hear almost locum tenens at the Metrollolitan Taber- every week of large gifts to home and nacle. The arrangement is according to foreign evangelizatIOn. A prominent Mr. Spurgeon's mind and heart; and, lady, a well-known countess, has sold judging from the welcome which has all her jewelry and ornaments except been accorded to our American brother, heir-looms, that she may send her valu- the indorsement of the church and con- ables to minister to God's kingdom ; gregation has been assured. Possessed and amid all modern apostasies in doc- of the rare qualifications necessary, there trine and inconsistencies in practice, is every reason to believe that Dr. Pier- there is a practioal protest of conse. son will fully justify Mr. Spurgeon's crated souls in the more complete self. choice, and his own acceptance of the surrender that includes property. Oh, appointment, and that the happiest re- for the new spirit of war for the Lord! sults may be expected from his three When will the world be convulsed not months' ministry. An enthusiast for by the preparations for gigantic de- missions, the aggressive work at the structive conflicts of arms, but by the Tabernacle is not likely to flag; an ear· universal uprising of the Church of nest and an able exponent of the Gospel, God in behalf of the world's conquest the living ministry which has been car· for Christ! ried on so long by Mr. Spurgeon is sure to be maintained."
On Sunday evening, November 1st, The Editor-in-Ohief Abroad. the audience numbered some 6000 per- Our readers will not bE' surprised, bu!; sons, 2500 of whom remained to the the,}' will be gratified to know that Dr. after-meeting. [J. T. G.)
18112.] THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY J. R. MILLER, D.D.
The World-Field-Hints for Prayer and Our very life must be in it, in the tem. Work. per of the divine self-sacrifice. But what a privilege and joy thus to work -An artist was asked, "What is your in it, with God Himself and all the best .picture?" He replied, "My saintliest spirits of the earth, now and next. " That was a good answer for an aforetime! Is it not the grandest testi. artist to make. When a man looks mony to the magnificence of human na. back for his life's best work in any ture that God made us co-workers, not line, his feeling should be that of the in the primary work of creation, but in other artist, who wept when he saw his the far grander work of redeeming the completed masterpiece, because his sat- world? In this work we can make isfaction with it marked the climax of our lives luminous in this world, and his lifework. It should be the same bright forever with a celestial glory in with 1>ur years; we should always look the next." to the next as our best. This is a good thought, too, for every Christian and -For a good while the burden of the every church with regard to the work prayers at monthly concerts was for the of missions-our next year should be opening of doors, the breaking down of our best. We should surpass our best barriers. Now from all the fields comes past in praying, doing, and giving. We the cry that the dOOTS are open everyshould make our monthly concerts for where, and that the want is for men to 1892 the best we have ever had. We go in and occupy them. Later the should become more familiar with the prayers were for men and women who needs of the mission·fields, and with would go to the opening fields. These the nature and extent of the work that prayers have been answered, too, in the Church is doing. We should seek most wonderful manner, and to.day to kindle missionary interest among there are 6000 young Christians in our our friends as in no former year. We country alone who have volunteered should pray as never before for the for mission work, and are ready to go cause of missions. We should give wherever they are sent; and now the more than in any former year. cry from all societies is for money. Thus the responsibility for the work is -One of the address!ls of President thrown back upon Christian people Storrs at the recent meeting of the themselves. God has done His part in American Board closed with these opening doors and inclining men and strong words: "It is a vastly critical women to be willing to go as mission.
time in the progress of Christ's king- aries; He has answered our prayers.
dom, with all the world uprising before Are we going to fail him now? Said us, with wealth enough and men President Gates, in an address at the enough to meet the need, with only last meeting of the American Board: the spirit to use them wanting. Let us .. Oh, my brothers, what answer can settle it in our minds that the world is we give for ourselves before the judg.
not to be converted to God by good ment-throne of God, if this glorious people sitting in pews and listening to work of preaching the Gospel of light sermons, even the best, or sitting in to dying men is checked and dwarfed, rocking-chairs and reading good books. and fails of its glorious possibility, be.
The work is vast, difficult, possible-a cause we who are God's stewards hold work that calls for the labor of enthu- fast to God's money for our own selfish siasm, for prayer and tears, for sweat· uses? There is a time when the AI.
drops, and, perhaps, for blood-drops. mighty Banker of the universe calls in Contributions of money are not enough. His loans. " 68 THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS. [January -There are indications that the time mooring from all its past, and is emis at hand for a great blessing in India. barking upon a movement that must This " slow old land" is beginning to lead on to the greatest of revolutions in arouse from her sleep of centuries and its internal life and external relations." respond to the tender touch of a faith He adds: "The time is most opporthat regenerates. Dr. Phillips writes tune for the pressing of missionary almost enthusiastically of the outlook. work at every point, in every. form, There are open doors on every side. with all our power. The present dis- Prayers are being answered and long, turbances, while not without elements patient labor is having its reward. All of anxiety, are rather symptoms of the India is ready for a forward movement. general ferment that is spreading than In Life and Light we are told of a wide- of a reaction, and will doubtless in the spread restlessness and a spirit of in- end lead to a far more open door for all quiry in India. In a Madras paper eTangelistic work. " these lines are given as the cry of a multitude to-day: -The condition of things in Japan is such as calls for much earnest prayer "We are weary of empty creeds, at the opening of a new year. The Of guides who show no man the way, country is undergoing a wonderful Of worship linked with lust and shame; transformation. Great progress is Life is an iiI, the sea of births is wide, being made in all departments of na- And we are weary-who shall be our guide 1" tional life. The influences of Chris- tianity and of civilization have swept Thank God for those consciously weary through the country in the last few and heavy laden, to whom the mission- years with marvellous rapidity, The aries may carry the pitying, "Come new empire with its constitutional govunto Me, and ye shall find rest for your ernment takes its place almost alongsouls." side the most enlightened European governments in its freedom and liber- -It is to be hoped that the troubles ality. In the Parliament of 300 memin China are not altogether discourag- bers, 13 are professedly Christian men. ing. May there not be an indication The work of Christian missions in that in them of the beginning of a change land has been prospered beyo'nd the in that wonderful country which shall most sanguine hopes of the Church. leave it a new China? Western thought is breaking in among the peo- But in the midRt of all this progress ple. Modern science is forcing itself and success there are dangers besetting through the old walls, and the country the interests of Christianity and of the is feeling its power. Telegraph wires empire, through which only the hand are stretching everywhere. Western in- of God can guide the country. Says ventions are revolutionizing everything. Dr. Ellinwood: "At the present time China is about breaking its old bonds. the forces which array themselves This is the fruit of Christian missions. against the missionary work in Japan The Bible is doing it. There is unrest are entering into a strong alliance, with for the time; there are persecutions a determination to resist the aggressive of missionaries; but while these things influence of Christianity. Very natuare disheartening in a sense, yet there rally the advocates of the old systems is in them an element of victorious- of Japan, as well as the converts to ness. The leaven of Christianity is various types of western infidelity, are working. Says one of the mission sec- alarmed at the influence which Chris· retaries: "Internal changes of striking tianity is gaining in Japan. . • . Books character assure us that this nation of also have recently been published by venerable antiquity and proverbial con- native authors, which earnestly advo· servatism, almost without its knowledge oate a union of all Buddhist sects and and against its will, is in reality unan alliance with the philosophies (in- worship and schools in their own fidel) of the West, in resistance to the dwellings, this order, whioh has not yet missionary efforts of the Christian been executed, but which at any time Church. Evidently Japan is now the might be, is one which may cause serio theatre of one of the most active con- ous trouble. These outcroppings of a flicts of religious and philosophical persecuting and intolerant spirit show thought that the world has known, and a disposition at least to trouble and in. the Christian Church needs to regard terfere with the work of missions in it the more seriously, from the fact that that old country_ Christian truth has no such advantage there as in countries where the momen- -Africa is wide open now to the tum of many generations of Christian Gospel. The explorations of the last influence constitutes an immense con- thirty years have revealed a heretofore servative force. All questions in Japan, terra incognita, and where the old maps to a generation which has had only the had" Great Afrioan Desert," the newer' antecedents of error, are open ques- maps have rivers, lakes, and mountains tions ; and Christianity must take its and great peoples. Rnilroads are being even chances with every other form of built to supplement the splendid water belief or unbelief, save as the omnip- highways whioh nature has provided. otent Spirit of God shall prompt and The doorl;! of language are also being direct the work in answer to the pray- opened ahd mainly by missionaries ers and efforts of His people. " themselves. Four hundred and thirty. eight languages and 143 dialects have There should. therefore, be earnest been oatalogued. Thus a new world is and importunate prayer for Japan, that open to the Gospel. In the Congo Val. wisdom may be given to the men called ley alone is a population equal to that to direct in missionary work; that the of the United States. Stanley travelled Christian Churoh there may be kept in 999 days 7000 miles and never saw from yielding to worldly influences or the face of a Christian, nor of a man counsels, and from all divisions and who had had the opportunity to become dissensions; that the cause of Christ one. Yet he moved among a populamay be advanced until the empire shall tion of fifty millions. What will the be indeed Christian. Church do to send the Gospel through these wide open doors into Afrioa in -There is trouble also in Turkey, 1892? appealing to the prayers of Christian people everywhere. The government -It used to be said that in India the seems desirous to check moral and intel- birds never sing, the flowers have. no lectual progress, and therefore is assum- fragrance, and the women never smile. ing an unfriendly attitude toward mis- No wonder the women of heathen lands sions. Several acts have been com- never smile. Their lot is sad beyond mitted whioh show this hostility. Mis. description, but a better day has come sionaries have been arrested without for them. The Christian women of cause and kept in close confinement, Christian lands are hastening to give as it they were guilty of some grave their sad sisters the blessed story of offenoe. The government also con· the Gospel. There are in the United fisoated a large number of hymn-books States 34 women's foreign missionary and Bible diotionaries belonging to the societies, 10 in Canada, 24 in Great Amerioan mission. In October last the Britain, 1 on the continent of Europe, Sublime Porte issued an order prohibit. and 1 in South Africa. The work that ing the holding of public worship or has been done by these societies, espe. conduoting of sohools in dwellinghouses. As many missionaries conduot cially for the women of heathen lands, only a desire to please white people in is one whose value and influence can- the awkward appointments of their not be estimated. It would be easy to home, they would be of little account; gather up and present here a table of but in many cases it is the outward sign atatistics (see page 954, December num- of a prooess of change which will eventber of REVIEW), but large as ,the figures ualIy rectify even their distorted family would be, they would give no adequate relationships-a heritage from their view of the resulta of the work which heathen ancestry. The desire for a woman, with her loving hear' and her better home life has somehow been imgentle touch, is doing for her sister planted in the young wife's heart during woman in darkened countries. One her school.life. looked at an opal as it lay on a jeweller's case, and it seemed cold and lustre- -Faraday showed that a drop of dew less. Then the jeweller held the stone oontains electrioity enough to rend a in his hand for a few moments, and rook. The Gospel of Christ has in it now it shone with all the colors of the all the power of God and can work marrainbow. It needed the touch of a hu- vels, as it has already wrought marvels man hand to bring out the iridescence. in saving men. Like that stone in its case are the millions of women in heathendom. Their -If we can do nothing else, or whatlives are dull and sad and without ever else we may do, we oan all pray beauty, but they require only the for the blessing of God upon the work warmth of the hands of Christian women of Christian missions, and prayer has to draw out all the beauty that.slumbers mighty power. The worship of Durga, in their nature. "Godly women have the blood.goddess of the Hindus, is atproved themselves the link, so long tended by the most terrible excesses of missing, to bring their sisters in East- sin. Some native converts have agreed ern lands to the feet of Jesus." that every evening this worship goes on they also will meet to pray to God to -The establishment of Christian put an end to the wicked practices. homes is one of the finest results of " Let us go on praying night after night missionary work in heathen lands, and year after year," they say, .. tm we hence the beauty of a picture which a have prayed down the Dllrga Puja. missionary draws of what is being done Let us pray it down. ' , Christians for Zulu girls in the Inanda Seminary: everywhere should join in all such The humble little home shows that the prayers. wife and mother has tried with the little means at her disposal to give a home- -Some idea of the difficulties of city like look to the place. There will be a evangelization may be gotten from a curtain at the window, a cushion on the statement, by the President of the wooden settee, and a bit of frilled cre- Methodist Church .Extension Society, tonne about the shelf which holds her that within one square mile of New lamp and a few books. If it be objected York City there are 20,000 people, nineby the wise in such matters that the teen twentieths of whom are foreign Turkey red and white of the window born and speak 30 different languages. decorations are not artistic, nor the Yet no work is more important just now friII of cheap cretonne, nor the patch- than that which needs to be done in work quilt whioh covers the bed, we our great cities if they are to be saved say, perhaps not, but the mark of the for Chrh!t. The real heathenism that woman's hand and care to our 'mind is found in many of them is appalling. make the dark little room much less One of the most hopeful of recent cheerless. If these things indicate movements is that which looks toward poses purely religious. Within the cen.
the regeneration of the slums. In Lon. tury now drawing to a close 150,000,000 don and now in New York there has copies of the Bible have been printed been an arousing of the people which in 226 different languages. Fifty years promises much. The work should go ago there were 502 mission stations in forward till all the cities have been foreign parts; there are now 5765.
cleansed. One of the saddest things Fifty years ago there were 653 ordained about the slums is that they are fed missionaries; to.day there are 6696 from the churches and Sunday-schools such servants of the Lord. Then there and from Christian homes. The peo. were but 1266 other laborers and help.
pIe there have fallen out and have ers abroad; now there are 50,552.
drifted downward to where they now are. Many of them have memories of -There is a view of the benefits of better days, even of holy things. In foreign missions which should appeal our prayers at the Monthly Concert, the even to worldly men. General Arm· efforts to evangelize our cities should strong says: "America, through the have a place. American Board, expended in fifty years a million and a quarter dollars to -As nearly as can be computed from evangelize Hawaii, and during that the reports of various societies, the fol. time has received about $4,000,000 a lowing summary of Protestant foreign year in trade. England's missions are missions is correct. From churches in said to bring back £10 in trade for United States, Canada, Great Britain, every pound given to convert the and Continental Europe there are in heathen. Christianity means a demand foreign lands 8048 stations and out- for clothing and utensils. The first stations, with 5594 missionaries, 35,343 sign of grace in a penitent savage is a native helpers, and 681,503 communi· request for a .shirt.- cants. The amount of money given last year was $11,429,588. Of COUlse -A writer in the Children's World this summary is incomplete, as there says: "Of every six infants in the are unreported missions and mission. world, one is born in India; of every aries. six orphan girls, one is wandering in India; of every six widows, one is -The reports of the Americsn Board mourning in India; of every six men give the following facts: The Board that die, one is passing into eternity in has under its care 21 central missions India. Think of it, and give India a with 97 stations, 1136 out·stations and part of your prayers•• , 1287 preaching places. A total of 538 missionaries are employed, with 2648 -After two missionary sermons in native laborers. There are 410 churches Melbourne recently a hard.working man with 38,226 church.members. During sent in thetitle·deeds of 93t acres offarmthe year the additions were 3554. In land, worth about $2500, to be divided schools of all kinds 46,403 pupils are between India and New Guinea. Being reported. Medical relief was given duro asked afterward about his gift, he said: ing the year to 100,000 patients. ." This is how I look at it. Supposing I were a boy and my father gave me $5, -The following figures are full of but afterward wanted part of the money interest. Seventy.five million dollars back again to help him in some work are contributed yearly in the United he was doing, and he came to me to States to the sustenance of the Church, help him, and I gave him a five·cent $31,000,000 more being given for pur. piece, what sort of a Bon should I be ?"
'12 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Orga.nized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, Bellevue, O. .
-Hermann Wagner and Alexander upon them as touching the redemption Supan have recently published a vol· of the world. All the more since they ume of statistics relating to the popula- are such inveterate and indomitable tion of the globe. Of course the figures travellers, traders, colonizers, and buildthey give for countries not a few are ers of States. Most of all is the call of but estimates, and sometimes are but Providence to British Christians to beguesses; but taken all in all are no stir themselves for the Master, since the doubt the best to be had. They fix the sway of their government is so supreme number of the human family at 1,480,- over so large a fraction of the human 000,000, Of these there are in Europe, race. 326,000,000; in Asia, 826,000,000; in Africa, 164,000,000; in America, 122,_ -India is ten times larger than Ja- 000,000 ; in Australia, 3,000,000; and pan, China nearly three times as large in the Oceanio Islands, 7,500,000. as India, and Africa twice as large as China has 350,000,000 and India 324,- India and China combined. The 000,000, of whom 286,000,000 belong to "Dark" Continent is of vast propor- British India_ Russia has 93,000,000 ; tions as well, and contains a vast multithe German Empire, 49,000,000; Aus- tude which is well-nigh altogether either tria-Hungary, 41,000,000 ; Franoe, and pagan or else Mohammedan. Call the Great Britain and Ireland, 38,000,000 population 164,000,000, acoording to eaoh; Italy, 30,000,000, and Spain, 17,- the latest estimate, that of Wagner and 000,000. But another authority, Pro- Supan, and what impression has been fessor Von Juraschek, gives 1,544,000,- made upon it by the Gospel? Accord- 000 as the population of the world, of ing to a Danish authority, the Rev. whioh Europe has 358,000,000 and the Dean Vahl, in 1890 there were laboring Americas 124,000,000. in Africa, and representing all Christen- dom, 1004 missionaries and 206 women, -" When Shakespeare lived and and 878 native missionaries with 8389 sang, 300 years ago, on the whole globe other native helpers, or a total force of there were less than a million more 10,477, and the fruit of their toil is English-speaking people than now in- found in 214,561 oonverts or communihabit London alone. There were be- cants; but the" Encyclopredia of Mistween 5,000,000 and 6,000,000. So re- sions" gives a list of 43 missionary socently as a century ago, even after this cieties at work between the Mediterrarepublic was founded, there were only nean and the Cape, with 611 ordained 15,000,000 English-speaking persons on men, 170 unordained, 387 women, 209 the globe. At the same date 30,000,000 ordained natives, 4891 native helpers, spoke French and 40,000,000 German. or a total of 6268 persons engaged in Now we find that While the French and bearing the glad tidings to the perish- German tongues are spoken by a rea- ing. Into 565 churches 101,212 souls sonably increased number of individ- have been gathered, 9439 were admitted uals in the world to-day, in Australasia, last year, and 53,235 pupils are receivthe British isles, and in America 115,- ing instruction in 861 schools. These 000,000 olaim English as their mother figures stand for what Protestant Christongue. This is 40 pel' oent of the in- tians are doing-that is, they have sent habitants of the oivilized world." If 1168 men and women to Africa, or such is the fact, it follows that Anglo- about one to every 150,000. Saxon, English-speaking Christians have a tremendous responsibility laid -Next see-one item from many- what the devil and his angels are doing to maintain his widespread and fear- single Christian of every denomination, fully well-established sovereignty over at least 2 Buddhist priests (not head- Africa. The following tabulated state- priests). So there is a population of ment, printed in the {!hristian Union and over 39,000,000 of Japanese without a obtained from the Boston Custom single Christian among them. Once House, shows the exportation of rum to more, if all the Christians in Japan were Africa from the Port of Boston during congregated· in the city of Osaka (500,- the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1891 : 000), there would be in that one city 4 times as many heathen as Christians, …. …. and not a single Christian in any other ;:~ :~ :: :: :: :. part of the country. No, Japan is not r … :: ::: yet a Christian country; and there is room and need for hundreds if not I thousands of missionaries and native evangelists, if this people is to be saved il ere the Lord come." Then ponder this concerning India: "Since 1881 the For two or three years this traffic, which population has increased by 29,000,000 partakes so largely of the inhuman and -that is to say, almost as many souls the hellish, was reported as steadily have been added to the people of India falling off, but now it has again reached in ten years as are comprised in the high-water mark. whole population of England and Wales. The total is now 286,000,000. India -More than one fourth of the earth's contains more people than all Africa inhabitants are crowded into China and and South America combined; more Japan, and more than one fifth into than all Europe, excluding Russia; India; but after all the phenomenal nearly ten times the popUlation of Engsuccess which the Gospel has had in land. Or take the provinces, Bengal Japan, but a trifling beginning has been alone has more souls than the United made. An English missionary states States and Canada combined; the Punthe following facts: "To-day there are jab more than Spain and Portugal ; the 40,000,000 in Japan, and not 40,000, Madras Presidency, equal to Italy and Protestant Christians-that is, one in Belgium together. Each missionary, 1000. For every 2 Christians there are on an average, has 250,000 Bouls to 5 Buddhist temples, not to mention reach." And then, as for China, "not Shinto temples. There are 10,000 more one in 10,000 has as yet ever even heard head-priests of Buddhism than there are of Jesus Christ." Among China's 350,- Protestant Christians, and for every 000,000, 30 ProtAstant societies sustain in all less than 1300 men and women (at the rate of one to 270,000 heathen), something more than 40,000 have been gathered into churches, and about 15,- 000 are receiving instruction in Chris- tian schools. Evidently the call for 1000 more missionaries to labor in China alone is a most modest and reasonable one.
-Or, glance at South America with 7,500,000 square miles and a popula- tion of about 35,500,000. Over almost the entire continent the papacy bears undisputed sway, and heathenism holds the rest. Including the American Bible committed to our trust-as contrasted Society, 8 societies are endeavoring to with the superabounding opportunities diffuse a pure Gospel-the Methodist of this Christian land, where one per- Episcopal Church, North and South, son in every 600 of its 63,000,000 is an the Presbyterian, North and South, the evangelical minister, and one in every Southern Baptist, -the Moravian, and 5 is a professed disciple of the Lord the South American Missionary Society Jesus Christ? Is $6 out of $100, $94 of England. The number of men and being retained for work at home, is $20 women at work is but about 325, and out of $100, $80 being retained for be- the number of communicants is less nevolent work at home, a fair propor- than 15,000. There remaineth yet very tion ?"
much land to be possessed. -0£ the 15,730,000 people of Hun- gary, 3,200,000 are Protestants. Of -Of course there should be some fair these again 2,030,000 are Reformed -that is, some truly Christian-propor- and 1,120,000 Lutherans. The latter tion established and maintained in our have 1195 pastors and 1433 congrega- churches between home expenses, home tions; the former 4241 congregations missions, and foreign missions; and served by 2283 pastors. The Unitarians hence these words of Secretary Alden, number about 1i0,000, organized into of the American Board, are well worthy 187 congregations with 107 pastors. of careful consideration. His figures The Protestants are very active in edu- relate to the Congregationalists. He cational and literary work. The num- says : " There are 4817 chnrches with ber of their schools is 3826, besides 14 a membership of 506,832, a Sunday- preparatory schools for teachers, 52 school membership of 613,810. The high schools, and 13 theological schools. reported contributions for 1890 for , home expenditures' in round numbers -Says Bishop Walden: "Italy has were $6,100,000, and for the several de- above 30,000,000 of people, of whom bepartments of home benevolence $1,900,- tween 25,000 and 30,000 are connected 000, a total of $8,000,000. The reported with some Protestant organization-not contributions for foreign missions were more than one in every thousand of the $350,000. Suppose we add the gener- population. In 1890, 6 Protestant bodies ous sum of $150,000, t6 represent possi- reported 23,452 members, but besides ble unreported contributions, and thus these there is the mission of the Plycall the contibutions to foreign missions mouth Brethren, a few small indepen- $500,000; we have then a total from dent missions, and the several Anglican benevolent contributions, excluding and other foreign churches. The entire legacies, of $2,400,000-that is, $80 out Protestant force, however, must fall beof every $100 is for work at home, $20 low 30,000. The Methodist contingent for work abroad. Bringing in, how- is about 2500, a little more than 1500 ever, the entire home expenditures, are found in the Wesleyan, and a little which is a proper thing to do, we have less than 1000 in the Methodist Episcoan aggregate of $8,500,000. On this pal Mission. The Waldensian Church basis, $94 out of every $100 is devoted began the work of evangelization in to the support of Christian institutions 1848, and reports 18,000; the Free and Christian bene,olence at home, and Church of Italy, united in one body in $6 for the corresponding work abroad. 1865, reports 1800; the Baptist less We ask, Is this a fair proportion? We than 900, and the 'Italian Catholic repeat the question, Is this a fair pro- Church' about 100. Such is the nuportion, particularly when we remem- merical strength of Protestantism in ber the perishing need of the unevan· Italy."
gelized nations-not less than 120,000,- -Belgium received its Roman Catho- 000 of their popUlation being specially lic impress under the iron rule of Philip of Spain, and is to-day, along with Agency, South Dakota, says: "We Spain, the country most devoted to the have just closed the convocation of our papacy, and is in the eyes of the Ro- Indian deanery, which, despite the late man Catholic Church, a true, ideal disturbances, was the largest in num- state. Among its 6,000,000 inhabitants bers and offerings we have ever had. not more than 20,000 are Protestant. Over 1500 people camped around an In 1837 a number of Protestants, among open circle. The women, representing • whom was the well-known Merle d' Au- 36 local branches of the Woman's Aux_ bigne and the church elder Mertens, of iliary, presented in cash $800, and the Breslau, founded the" Evangelical So· young men $170 for all sorts of chari- ciety of Belgium." In 1848 a church, ties, among them being work in Japan consisting of 49 converted Catholics, and China, missions in South Dakota, was organized upon a Presbyterian ba- the Episcopate fund, the native clergy sis, under the name of the" Christian fund, and other objects." Mission Church of Belgium." Accord ing to the statistics of 1889 it consisted -The secretaries of the Missionary of 2; churches, 22 ministers, 81 elders, Society of the Methodist Episcopal 104 deacons, 4 evangelists, 8 Bible Church have issued a circular letter readers, 5 colporteurs, and 4 students showing how the collections for mis- of theology, all under the direction of sions have been steadily advancing, bnt 3 local synods and one general Synod. calling attention to the fact that the In 1888 the number of communicants demand is advancing at a greater rate was 4396 ; Sabbath-schools, 59; schol- than the supply. The table appended ars, 2631. Besides this free church, gives a snmmary of the collections for there is also the Belgian National (Prot- the past seven years for the general estant) Church, whose ministers are work of the Society, both at home and paid by the State. abroad: -What a spectacle was beheld at the 3 … ""~~~o;~~&? :.''","e; Yankton Agency, S. D., a few weeks since, when 1000 Sioux, representing 0 8i~~~f8~~ 0~0 16 tribes-the Omahas, Santees, Yanktons, Yanktonnais, Brules, Ogalalas, E-< :l:g-o"o&'<5~ g,..f…,.t…§….,.,…g……,.,l……i…<is Minnecaujus, Two-kettles, Blackfeet, Hauhapapi, Sissetons, Wahpetons, As- … .,; &3~~8~~~ ~ siniboins, Rees, Mandans, and Gros … ~~E~~~~ <Xi Ventres-came together to hold an an- ~ ~'" nual meeting to tell and to hear the '" ~~~~"t:!~fi 0> story of the victories of the cross. And 0 Ui>""''''''''''' ,…. it was only a year before that the" Mes- c0>r siah crRZe" and the war were on. These were all Christian brethren and Presby- ~ terians and Congregationalists. Among the subjects in which the Indians took -"'" g;:ll~c;;188;g1~ an active and eloquent part were these: " How to Prevent the People from Being … .,S,-. ~_~_~_~_~_~.~_c:!~: Led Away by False Religions," " Should "'"::: 0 Mourners Refrain from Attending Pub- … ~ ":'g~<"o'&~5g"s'"'''','..'..'~'..S.'..;~lIo~ ~> lic Worship 1" "How to Make Prepara- 0 tion for the Sabbath," "The Proper 0 Uses which the Dakotas Should Make of Money Annuities." And further, Ii Bishop Hare, writing from the Rosebud ~ ~ E-< illi§JOCi§OJl&:51-2-O&O5~0g0 I ,…. ""'''''''''''''''''''"'''i?""t -The Presbyterian Church, North, is doing earnest work with excellent results in Western Persia, Rev. J, H. Shedd states: "Four of the churches, with professing Christians of the country.
an aggregate of 879 members, support The system of church polity, which has themselves, and 2 of them contribute slowly developed itself, is rather a com- largely for helping others; 5 other bination of Independency, Presbyteri- churches, with less than 100 members anism, and Episcopacy. An Anglican each, pay half or more of their ex- mission works chiefly on the East Coast, penses, and 28 others pay a less sum to with a bishop and cathedral at Antan- self-support. The tacit understanding anarivo. A Roman Catholic bishop is is that a church of 100 members ought also stationed at the capital. There to be self-supporting. There are some are about 28 missionaries of the London 20 other mission stations-for the nomi- Missionary Society in Madagascar, 10 nal Christians-home missions. One of the Friends' Mission, 10 of the Angli- fourth of this advance work is from the can Mission, 26 of the Norwegian Lu- native missionary fund, and three therans, and about 40 priests and fourths from our mission. The whole brothers of the Roman Catholic Mission.
of this agency cost the New York Board as well as sevflral Sisters of Mercy.
last year $3741, an average of $62 a The London Missionary Society has congregation, to help the development about 950 native pastors and about 100 of the native church and home mis- evangelists or native missionaries sta- sions. Last winter nearly 100 schools tioned in various parts of the country, and over 2000 pupils were cared for at many of them in quite heathen dis- an expense to the Board of $1582.50, an tricts. There are about 350,000 Protes- average of $16 to a school, about 75 tants and about 35,000 Roman Catho- cents to a pupil. To this should be lics. Five sixths of the Malagasy are added the sums given in self-support. still pagans. Schools have been estab- A few schools are entirely self-support- lished, and education is compulsory ing, and all pay some part of the ex- wherever the influence of the central pense, except in a few very peculiar government is effective. All the mis.
cases. In a few places Moslem pupils sionary societies at work in Madagascar attend. The higher education of the col- have colleges and high schools, the lat- lege or female seminary costs the Board ter both for boys and girls, in all of a larger sum. The number of pupils which education is given ~reely, with in the united schools, male and female, but nominal charges for books, etc. Al- was 337 the year past. Of these 202 most every congregation, except the were boarding pupils. The income smallest and the weakest, has its school.
from these is almost enough to pay for The London Missionary Society has their board. The charge to the Board also an industrial school for teaching aside from missionary salaries was handicrafts. Hospitals and medical $2200, which covers expenses of teach- schools are also connected with this So- ers, buildings, rooms, and some inci- ciety, as well as with the Friends, Lu.
dentals. It is about $11 a pupil for the theran and Anglican Missions, and boarding departments." there are now a number of trained doc- tors and surgeons. It is estimated there -A large portion of the Hova and of are about 1800 schools and about 170,- the other tribes in the central districts 000 children under instruction, but it is of Madagascar have been christianized, difficult to get the statistics of the Ro- and Christianity is acknowledged and man Catholic Mission.
protected by the government. There is no state church, although the queen -The Moravian (Bethlehem, Pa.) very and principal officers of the government properly, and in excellent spirit, calls are Qonnected with the churches formed attention to certain misstatements con- by the London Missionary Society, tained in the" October" number of THE which comprises the vast majority of MIsSIONARY REVIEW, "usually so accurate," relating both to the total expen- misstatement referred to is found not diture for missions made by that body in October, but in November instead.
of Christians aD.d the amount contrib- uted by friends from outside. Now, he who would knowingly offend in that way, and thus" belittle the liberality" Monthly Bulletin. of a church which just there comes nearest to the Gospel ideal, would by -News of the death of Miss Jennie the act prove himself the chief of sin- B. Small, a missionary of the Presbyteners. The mistake is deeply regretted, rian Board of Foreign Missions, at and originated wholly from partial and Petchaburee, Siam, on June 2, has been so defective information. However, received. Miss Small taught school for Borrow is not altogether unmingled several years in Mansfield, Allegheny with joy, since the opportunity is thus County, Pa.
afforded to present the facts, which for -The Zambesi Chief Lewanika has substance, The Moravian being author- sent his eldest son Litia to Morija, in ity, are as follows; "The total cost of Basutoland, to receive Christian inour missions in 1890 was $350,475. struction. The chief has many excel- The largest proportion of this-more lent parts, and for some time has been than two thirds-was raised in the mis- on terms of friendship with M. Coilsion fields themselves, through the con- lard, of the Paris Society of Missions, tributions of the converts and also from and Litia himself is a promising young the proceeds of trades carried on in man of Christian character. certain mission-provinces for the benefit of the missions. The sum of $24,060 -The London Christian says; "The is to be credited, as THE MISSIONARY Chinese Government is now taking very REVIEW puts it, to the ' Brethren's con- vigorous steps to suppress and to pregregations,' but this is not all. The vent attacks on missionaries. We may Labrador and the Alaska accounts do therefore reasonably trust that those not pass through our General Board. who are carrying the Word of God into Labrador entailed an outlay of $9800, that distant land will be in less danger Alaska of $8400. The gifts from friends than has recently been the case. This in Britain, including therefore those of is something to thank God for not only the London Association referred to were for the sake of the missionaries, but of $26,686 ; on the Continent of Europe, the future weal of China itself."
$22,656 ; in America, $285. [Total gifts -The work among the blind in Syria from friends, $49,627.] Mite societies is full of interest. The number of blind in the various Moravian congregations seen in the East is very distressing. contributed $3430. Legacies were receiv- There are blind schools at Beirut, Daed to the amount of $23,670, and the in- mascus and Tyre. Blind Scripture come from funded legacies was $37,264. readers have the entree of Moslem homes, How much of the last two items should a privilege which blindness confers. be credited to members, and how much One of the earliest pupils in the Beirut to friends of the Moravian Church, we Blind School, after completing his are not able to say. It may be added studies in Edinburgh University, has that the entire cost of administration been ordained pastor of the Presbytewas but $16,570, and that the total of rian church of Knox, in Brussels, Onadherents is now 90,020, while the tario. home churches number less than 35,- 000." It will be noticed that a portion -The first section of the little rail- of the $350,475 is derived from the road which is to connect Jaffa with Jern- " proceeds of trades." salem has been completed, and tourists Surely, humanum est errare, and the are now able to travel by rail from Jaffa to Ramleh, about one third the dis- Glasgow, said, at the annual meeting of tance. It will not be long before pil- the London Missionary Society, that grims to the Holy Land will be whisked missionaries did not sufficiently raise in an hour from the sea to Jerusalem, the veil and tell what Hinduism is.
to the ~reat disgust of camel owners One could not speak about it and and stage proprietors_ scarcely write about it. Almost every -Some of the Indian women on the temple in India had from 30 to 200 Yakama and Puyallup reservations have priestesses engaged in vice. That was asked that women evangelists be sent how Hinduism dealt with woman. to them, and in response Mrs. E. C. Miller has been sent to Yakama, and -The Bev. Allen Hazen, formerly a Mrs. Bell to Puyallup. The doing of missionary in India, and more recently Gospel work among Indian women will a pastor in New Zealand, has returned, result in great good. If they can be at the age of sixty-eight, accompanied taught the blessedness of peace, and be by his daughter, born in India, to re_ made to know the Prince of Peace, sume, at his own charges, his old work in the Marathi Mission.
Indian wars will soon come to an end. –In an interesting paper in a recent -At the "Keswick Convention," in number of The Church of Scotland Home England, there was a missionary meet- and Foreign XtSsian Record, Rev. Dr. ing, at which many addresses were Mackinnon, of Heidelberg, calls attenmade by missionaries from many lands tion to the thoroughness with which -among others, by Mrs. Grattan Guin- German missionaries are trained for ness, representing, as she said, mission- their work. Their systematic method aries on the Congo River, Mrica, and is said to be remarkable indeed in comby Mr. Robert Wilder, who described parison with the lax preparatory trainthe great volunteer missionary move- ing in some other countries largely enment in the United States_ A very gaged in missionary effort. After satispractical issue of the Convention was factory proof of their fitness for the the fact that a multitude of gifts, vary- life, the candidates in Germany are ading in amount from a few shillings to mitted to attend the Mission House one hundreds of pounds, and reaching the evening in the week for a year. They grand total of £1814, were sent in to be are then entered upon the books of the devoted to the cause of God at home preparatory school for two years for inand abroad. struction in Latin, etc. After this they have a course of instruction of a theo- -A Japanese converted to Christ logical nature, including the study of seems at once to betake himself to the the Bible in the original tongue, and a labor of teaching the truth to his friends few sessions of medical training in the at home and at a distance, and thus is hospital. The years thus spent are use- the way prepared for the minister of ful in developing in the future mission- Christ. No wonder that, with such ary many qualities which are of the ut- preparatory service, the truth is run- most value in the mission field. The ning in that land, and being glorified. rllsult is that men are sent out who are -Mrs. L. J. Newton, in a recent ad- in every way worthy of their work, and dress to the Missionary Conference held who undertake it thoroughly equipped at Chautauqua, speaking of progress in for the master's service. the Punjab, India, said: "We have $7000 invested in our church and hos- -The American Baptist Missionary pital at Ferozepore, every cent of which Union is supporting eighteen preachers was given by native converts." in Russia. One has been exiled to Si- beria for preaching the Gospel, and an- other sent out of the country with only -The Rev. Professor Lindsay, ..··of three hours' notice. -A Misil Agnew, of New York, it is cheerfully, 'and he lived there in the said, when only eight years old gave most frugal and primitive fashion. He her heart to· mission work. She went had no notion of being too valuable in to Ceylon, and spent forty-three un- Europe to be hidden away in the almost broken years. A thousand girls passed inaccessible uplands of Asia. He was through her school. She taught the a true Moravian.
children and the grandchildren of the first generation. The natives called -King Mwanga of Uganda has proher the mother of a thousand daughters. hibited slavery in his dominions.
IShe led six hundred girls to Christ. -The Queen of Madagascar, with They became the wives of the chief 200,000 of· her subjects, is ranged on men, and were shining lights. There the side of Christianity.
are also forty Bible women in India -At Oyamada, Japan, the church of who were trained in her school. 100 members has built a church costing -A few weeks ago a leading Brahman $1300, of which they paid $900 them· in Bombay, an official in the education selves.
department, married the widowed -England proudly boasts that the daughter of another Brahman prominent sun never sets on her dominions. The in the literary world. The ceremony United States may say as much, for was attended by many Hindoos of note. when the sun sets in Alaska it is an The other Sunday a Bombay pleader hour high in Maine. convened a meeting to get sentence of expulsion pronounced upon all the -A medical missionary in China reo Shenvi Brahmans who were present at cently treated fourteen men in one day the marriage. The temple was crowded, who represented eleven of the eighteen but it is a remarkable evidence of prog- provinces of the Empire.
ress that only nine persons voted with -The four gospels have been transthe convener of the gathering. The lated into Uzbek, the language of 2,250" Shenvi is one of the most powerful 000 people in Central Asia, and pub- Brahman castes in Western India. lished by the British and Foreign Bible -The Moravians are alive to their in- Society.
dividual responsibility concerning the -Tunis is under the protection of unevangelized nations of the world, and France. It has a population of 2,000,.
they hold themse~ves in readiness to go 000, mostly Mohammedans, among out as missionaries when called upon whom drunkenness is prevalent.
to do so. This is true of the most -The work of telegraph building in scholarly and distinguished among them South Africa is pushed far ahead of rail· as well as of others. Henry Augustus road enterprise. Savage Africa will Jaeschke, late Moravian missionary in thus be joined with civilization by elec. Northern India and Thibet, besides Ger- tric wire. man was master of Polish, Danish and Swedish, and was acquainted with Eng- -The first section of the Congo raillish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Latin and way has been completed, from Matadi Greek, and, after going to the East, al. to Leopold Ravine, and construction ready knowing Sanskrit, Persian and trains are running.
Arabic, and, no doubt, Hebrew, he -The Chinese Government has fully learned Hindustani and Urdu, and compensated the missionaries in Honan lastly Thibetan. He was likewise for the injury to their property by a versed in mathematics and natural sci. mob only three months ago. ence, especially botany. He obeyed the call of his Church to go to the -The Comber family will be noted Himalayan regions unquestioningly and ,. in the martyr list of Congo Missions, having given five lives already to that -The Rev. Mr. LeWis, of England, work: Dr. Sidney Comber, Thomas J. died recently. In 1842 he went to Comber, Mrs.' Hay, Mrs. Thomas J. India, and having reduced the language Comber, and Mrs. Percy Comber. of the Khassees to writing, he devoted himself to translations, and was able Ohina.-The 32,000 native Chinese without any help but that given by his Moravian Christians gave year before wife, to translate the whole of the New last $38,000 for missionary work. Testament into Khassei. From the work which he started have developed -It is reported that, as a result of 60 churches with a membership of 7000. the great assistance given to the faminestricken people of Shantung, in 1889, -The Rev. W. F. Bainbridge tells the when over $200,000 were distributed following touching story of a Brahmin and over 100,000 lives saved, a great convert hemet in India: .. Ashe talked many have been drawn to pay special of his work and urged me to labor hard attention to Christianity as the religion in the interests of heathen evangelizawhich influences people for such deeds tion, I felt that it was not he, but Christ of kindness and mercy; and during speaking through him. Last mgnth a 1890 it is said that over a thousand per- Conconada brother wrote me of his sons were baptized whose attention was death. He had just officiated at a weddrawn' to the religion of Christ by the ding. A sudden sickness came on befact that the missionaries were so promi- fore he had signed the marriage certifinent in securing this aid and distribut- cate. 'Just your name, brother,' they ing it. Not by any means were all these said, as they put the paper unner his recipients of aid, but they saw what was hand, and the pen between his fingers_ being done for their fellow.men, and , Name? • said the dying Brahmin, compared the fruits of Christianity with , name? There is none other name the fmits ,of heathenism. given under heaven among men where- by we must be saved.' • Yes; but we -It is stated by Dr. Joseph Simms, want your own name. Quick I Write it.' who has lately returned from China, , My name? I have none other name that at least 200,000 girl babies are than the lamb's name written in my brutally killed in various ways every forehead.' And the pen moved and the year in that empire, to get them out of hand dropped, and the spirit was gone; the way. In every large city there are and they looked, and he had written asylums for tl:ie care of orphans, sup- 'Jesus.' .. ported and conducted by foreigners, who save yearly from slaughter tens of thousands of female infants.
India_-Sir Charles A. Elliott, the new -The Methodist Episcopal Church Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, speak- has three conferences in India, North ing at Simla, has added his testimony India, South India, alild Bengal. The to the value of missions as judged from statistics have recently been published the standpoint of high Indian officials. of the three combined, together with cor- .. I make bold to say," were his words, responding figures for 1870, and the " that if missions did not exist it would growth of 20 years thus shown is most be our duty to invent them." This is cheering. The figures for two decades what was said by the famous men who ago are put in parenthesis: Missionbuilt up the administration of the Pun- aries, 72 (19) ; wives, 62 (17); Hindustani jab, and who, when it was !1nnexed in missionaries, 54 (5); Zenana mission- 1849, among their first requirements, aries, 33 (2); baptisms in 1890, 7661 along with courts, and codes, and roads, (471); native communicants, 11,991 and police, wrote home to the Church (600) ; day schools, 853 (117) ; scholars, Missionary Society for a supply of mis- 25,540 (4309) ; money collected in India sionaries. in 1890,217,287 rupees (24,478).