The Missionary Review of the World — August 1891

THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

VOL. XIV. No. S.-Old Series.–AUGUST.–voL. IV. No. S.-New Series.

THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. XX.

[EDITORIAL, A. T. P.] THE DAY-DAWN AT THE HAWAIIAN GROUP.-II.

IN 1808, thirty years after the diticovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain Cook, a lad was brought to the United States by a shipmaster of New Haven.

His name was Obookiah, and he had been trained by his uncle, a pagan priest, to the practice of idolatry. On the eastern shore of Kealakekua Bay, opposite where Cook was slain, may yet be seen, rising above the ruins of a small heathen temple, a cocoanut tree planted by that boy when as yet he had never heard of J esns.

Obookiah was intelligent, and not long after his arrival at the City of Elms, Mr. Edwin W. Dwight, passing the college buildings, saw him seated on the doorsteps weeping because the treasures of learning, so freely opened to others, were 10ckAd to him. Sympathy led Mr. Dwight to become his instructor, and he was the instrument in his conversion. The next year Samuel J. Mills, the father of modern American missions, wrote to Gordon Hall, from New Haven, suggesting a mission to the Sandwich Islands. Eight years latAr a foreign missionary school was established at Cornwall, Conn., of which Mr. Dwight was the first teacher; and fiye 'It the ten earliest pupils were Hawaiians. Obookiah, while being taught here, died in 1818, aged 26, and that which seemed a sad blow to the prospective missionary work among his countrymen God nsed as the means of awakening greater interest by the published account of his life and death. Hiram Bingham, a student at Andover, offered to go as a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, and found in Asa Thurston, a classmate, a worthy colleagne. These two men were ordained as evangelists, and on October 15th, 1819, in the Park Street Church, Boston, a mission to the IIawaiian Islands was organized with the following members: Messrs. Bingham and Thurston, ministers, with their wives; Messrs. Whitney and Ruggles, teachers j Thomas Holman, physician; Elisha Loomis, printer; Daniel Chamberlain, farmer, with their wives, and three Hawaiian young men from the Cornwall Missionary School. These seventeen went forth, having among themselves the essential elements for creating a Christian civilization upon pagan shores, for they represented the Gospel, the common school, the printingpress, the medicine chest, and the implements of agriculture.

They set sail from Boston Octobel' 23d, 1819, and reached the Hawaiian coast March 31st, 1820, after somewhat more than five months. They had expected a long, hard struggle with paganism, with its human sacrifices, bloody rites, and deep-rooted prejudices.

But God had prepared their way. Only ten months before, Kamehameha I. had died, and, strange to say, forbidden human sacrifices during his illness or in connection with his obsequies; and so the people offered three hundred dogs instead. This first blow at the idolatrous customs of the people had been dealt by a professed idolatcr! Liholiho, his son, succeedcd, Kaahumanu, the king's widow, sharing the government during life. The king's mother, Keopuolani, saw foreigners violating the sacred r'lles of the tabu system with impunity, and even the natives, when intoxicated, trampling heedlessly upon them, and yet no divine wrath pursued the violators; and satisfied that her fears were groundless, she herself dared to break over the sacred limits and eat with her son. Such an example would naturally find followers; other chiefs, and finally the king, yielded, and then began a ruthless disregard of these tyrannical caste restraints. They saw that the gods did not punish their profaning of sacred laws, and naturally concluded that their gods were but the creatures of their superstitions j and thus the chiefs actually led in a revolt against the national religion, ordering the tabu system to be disregarded and the idols burned and temples razed. Stranger still, the high-priest resigned his office, and " first applied the torch to this Hawaiian structure of an idolatrous faith !" He was Joined by many of the lower pries~hood, so that, before the arrival of the missionaries, idolatry was abolished by law, and heathen temples were laid in ashes. Perhaps for the first time in human history idolatry threw down its own altars, and a nation was without a religion. Moreover, in the civil war that had followed this abolition of the national religion, God had given victory to the king, and thus established the new order. The newly arrived missionaries found the old religion abolished, but no desire for a new faith. The king objected to giving up his polygamy, and feared the effect of an American mission on his political relations. The old high-priest, however, favored the missionaries, and the king's mother counselled toleration j and, after twelve days, royal consent being given for them to reside on the islands for a year, they disembarked, April 12th, 1820. Part of them were ordered to Kailau and part to Honolulu. Mr. and Mrs. Thurston and Dr. and Mrs. Holman for a time abode in one small thatched hut assigned by the king, which was less than four feet high at the foot of the rafters, and had neither floor nor ceiling, windows nor furniture, in the centre of a noisy, filthy village! Those at Honolulu likewise found themselves destitute of common comforts j but, as God's providence dispersed them among the people, they went without fear, and were kept from all evil. The king, his brother, his wives, and other prominent persons became their pupils. After two years the printing-press was called into use in re- ducing the language to a printed form. The Hawaiian tongue having but twelve letters-seven consonants and five vowels, every letter having bu~ one sound, and every syllable ending with a vowel-it was easy for the na- tives to learn' to read and write, and a large portion of them made rapid progress. Thus a foundation was laid for introducing the Bible in the na- tive tongue. Unfriendly foreigners represented the missionaries as politi- cal spies, and that their presence would be offensive to the English king, who bore to the Hawaiians the relation of protector, and declared that the missionaries at the Society Islands had robbed and enslaved the people j but these falsehoods were exposed at the very crisis, when the king threat- ened to banish the missionaries. An English vessel, touching at the Hawaiian port in 1822, had on boardfrom the Society Islands two chiefs on their way to the Marquesas group as missionaries, and had also on board a deputation of English gentlemen, who had been "isiting the islands on a missionary tour; and so the exact means were suddenly supplied to expose the false statements made by the enemies of the missionaries. Who could so well tell the true influence of missions in the Society Islands as the two converted chiefs! and who represent the feeling of the English Gov~ ernment so well as these men from British shores! God thus directly interposed at this juncture! Meanwhile, the wife of the late king made a tour of the i:>lands, searching out and destroying idols. Hymns were written in the native tongue; in 1823, twenty-four chiefs, male and female, were learning to read and write, and the missionary band was reinforced. The same year Keopuolani died, the first convert, baptized. In this daughter of a kingly race, wife of a king lJ,nd mother of two other kings, the Sandwich Island church began visibly to exist. She forbade the customary heathen abominations to be practised at her death, and from that day dates their permanent decline. Liholiho, in this same memorable year, visited America and England with his wife and two chiefs. The whole party were attacked with the measles in England, and the king and queen died. Liholiho had already, before leaving home, declared his belief in Christianity, attended public worship, and urged it on his people. At his death the favorite wife of his father became regent, and gave emphatic support to the Gospel and schools. Kapiolani, a female chief, made a journey to the great crater of Kilauea, where the great goddess Pele was said to dwell, and there purposely set at naught the power and wrath of the supposed deity to show the people their superstitious folly.

At the time of the visit of Lord Byron, in the British frigate which brought the royal remains, the government had begun to assume a Christian character, and the council formally acknowledged the authority of the Christian religion. Efforts were made, with royal sanction, to prevent murder, theft, infanticide, Sabbath desecration, licentiousness,. and drunkenness; and Kauikeaouli, the heir to the throne, now nine years old, was put under the instruction of the missionaries, that he might shun the errors of his deceased brother! A little more than five years after the first missionaries came, Kaahumanu, the regent, and nine chiefs were received into the church, and afterward died in the faith-a rare instance of a pagan govern- ment embracing the Gospel in advance of the people! Yet there was never a formal nnion of Church and State, but only concurrent action.

At Kawaihae 10,000 natives assembled, in 1826, to hear the Gospel. Governor Adams, the same year, built at Kailua a rude house of worship holding 5000 people, and at its dedication the rulers of the nation pledged it to Christianity. Schools were already in every district of the islands, with 400 teachers and 25,000 pupils, mostly adults. Such marvels had God wrought in six years!

At the regent's request, a second reinforcement was sent out in 1828, and another house of worship built at Honolulu. Another prominent chief, Kalanimokll, died in 1827 a triumphant Christian death, and during the three succeeding years, Governor Adams and other persons of great influence joined the church.

In 1832 Kaahumanu died, universally lamented, and the young prince of eeventeen, on assnming the sceptre, replied to the godless chiefs who sought to turn him against Christianity, " The Kingdom of God is strong!"

It bas sometimes been said, " Civilization first, Christianity afterward. " But on these islands Christianity far outran civilization. In 1836 the young king and chiefs applied to America for a carpenter, tailor, mason, shoemaker, wheelwright, paper-maker, type-founaer, agriculturists skilled in raising sugar-cane, cotton, silk, etc., cloth manufacturers and machinemakers; but already for ten years the Christian religion had been espoused by the government.

Rev. Mr. Richards was released from the service of the Board to act as Minister of Instruction, and Rev. Dr. Armstrong became Overseer of Schools. Dr. Judd, a physician, also retired from the missionary service to aid in administering the goverument finances, and it was he who, during the strange usurpation of the government by Lord Paulet in 1843, withdrew the national records to the royal tomb; and there, with the dust of dead sovereigns around him, using the sarcophagus of Kaahumanu as a table, for weeks he passed his nights in labors for the Hawaiian Government and people! To such aid and counsel of pious men, in secular affairs, the Hawaiians owe their progress and civilization.

As early as 1825 the spirit of God had begun to work conspicuously upon the Hawaiian people. In not less than fifty families in Lahaina morning and evening prayer ascended to God, and the number daily increased. Mr. Richards was interrupted every hour by calls from earnest inquirers. He woke in the morning to fi~d people waiting at the door; during the day the house was never empty, and even up to midnight there were those who came to ask the great questions of the soul! Six months before, he says that he wOl~ld have been satisfied if assured of such results aftflr the lapse of a whole generation! In 1835, when as yet the missions had been established barely fifteen years, the American Board felt their work to be fast drawing toward its elOISe. They looked forward to the Christianization of these islands as a glorious example and proof of the Gospel's power and as the greatest incen- tive to missionary zeal, but they dared not look for this result in less than a half century.

In hope to hasten this consummation, it was determined to concentrate efforts for a time upon this field, and in 1836 thirty-two additional laborers were sent out, and had scarce been distributed over the islands and begun to use the strange dialect, when a wave of spiritual influence, like the billows of the sea, swept over the islands, bore before it all traces of idols and idol temples, and left the Hawaiian people virtually cleansed of their pagan superstitions.

The first sound of its approach was heard in the general meetings of the missionaries in 1836-37, in resolute, importunate pleading for the conversion not of these islands only, but of the whole world j and a printed appeal to the churches of the United States was sent forth from the mission press.

Among the natives this great work of reformation began in 1838 at Waimea and at nearly all the stations on Hawaii, as also on Maui, Oahu, and Kaui. The power of the work left no doubt whose work it was! Dull and stupid, imbecile and ignorant pagans began to think and feel; grovelling, vile, and wretchod slaves of lust and passion began to aspire after holiness and rise out of their dust and degradation j hard and insensate consciences began to suffer pangs of sorrow for sin, and manifest the quickening of a sense of duty, and proved a' force at work, higher in source, deeper in reach, than any that man can wield! The islands became vocal with the cries of penitence and prayer! Crowds flocked to hear the Word. Intoxication became rare, Sabbath observance well-nigh universal, and family worship common, even among those who had not as yet publicly professed faith in Jesus !

In 1839, May lOth, the whole Bible was given to the people in their own tongue, and the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures greatly promoted the work of evangelization. Three years afterward the number of professing Christians had reached 19,210, nearly sixteen times greater than five years before. In one year more there were 23 churches, with an average membership of over one thousand! and during this season of extraordinary interest, the congregations at Ewa, Honolulu, Wailuku, and Hilo numbered from 2500 to 6000. From 1838 to 1841, 8000 were added to the church, from the districts of Hilo and Puna whose whole population was but 14,000. Mr. Coan admitted 5000 in one year and 1700 in one day; and only after eareful inquiry into each individual case.

When before did a half century produce such changes! They were idolaters of the grosser sort j human sacrifices were common; they worshipped the great volcano, had their Poison God and War God, and Tiari, with inferior deities and licentious revels. They lived under a tyrannical tabu system, were sunk in ignorance, without a literature or even a grammar in their own tongue, or a knowledge of the simplest principles of arithmetic. They were savages of the lowest sort, living in grass huts, almost naked, without the arts or sciences j superstition was their religion, absurd fancies had all the power of facts, and they lived in fear of their own thoughts. Government was the strong oppressing the weak, and subjection was slavery.

Shameless nakedness has disappeared j the people are decently clad j respect is paid to the natural, social and domestic relations, and wholesome statutes with appropriate sanctions sway the people.

Forty years ago it had become rare to see a drunken native! and the average morality and practical religion was as high as in any other nation. The arts of civilized life were practised j the laws protected and encouraged virtue.

Thirty years ago R. H. Dana, Esq., wrote to the New York Tribune: " The missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. have, in less than forty years, taught this whole people to read, write, cipher, and sew j given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary j preserved their language from extinction, given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science, and entertainment, etc. j have established schools, reared up native teachers, so that the proportion of the inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New England. Whereas they found these people halfnaked savages, living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish, fighting among themselves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality, we see them decently eIothed, recognizing the law of marriage, knowing something of accounts, going to school and public worship with more regularity than people do at home, and the more elevated part of them aiding to conduct the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies!

"In every district are free schools for natives, where they are taught by native teachers reading, writing, singing by note, arithmetic, grammar, and geography. At Lahainaluna is the normal school for natives, in which the best scholars from the district schools are carried to an advanced stage of education, or fitted for teachers. At Punahou is the college, now having 70 students, and the examinations in Greek, Latin, and mathematics, which I attendcd, were particularly satisfactory. In no place that I havc visited are the rules which control vice and regulate amusements so strict, so reasonable, and so fairly enforced. A man may travel in the interior alone, unarmed, eYen through wildest spots. I found no hut without its Bible and hymn-book in the native tongue, and the practice of family prayer and grace before meat."

When Rev. Dr. Anderson visited the missions, in 1863, he bore witness that the government rests upon an avowedly Christian basis, and the Magna Charta of the kingdom is worthy of any government on earth, re6ognizing, since 1840, three grand divisions of a civilized monarchy: king, legislature, judges j and going beyond our own in declaring that no law &hall be enacted at variance with the letter or general spirit of the Word of God. In 1846 the religion of Christ was established as the national religion, and freedom of conscience in faith and worship, Sabbath observance, etc., were guarded from invasion.

These people have from the first profited by a literature in their native language, learning to read and write, and evincing capacity for literary culture not only by eagerness to read, but by original contributions to the press, and by grappling successfully with the problems of arithmetic, algebra, surveying, geography, etc.

From the beginning the Bible has been a text-book in morals and religion.

How can such results be regarded with indifference ~ An organized Christian government, with a constitution and laws accordant with the Word of God j nearly onethird of the whole population numbered among the members of Protestant churches j native education provided for by the government j houses' for worship everywhere built, and regular service maintained-in a word, all the requisite machinery for healthful, intel~ lectual, social, and spiritual development, and all this as the fruit of less than forty years of toil !

Well has it been said that, as to the progress of this nation in Christian civilization, the history of the Christian church and of nations affords nothing equal to it.

A CALL TO NEW PRAYER AND EFFORT.

A MEMORIAL from the Presbytery of Los Angeles, California, was sent to the late Presbyterian General Assembly at Detroit, asking for the issue of a Pastoral Letter, addressed to the churches, and calling upon pastors and people to make the coming ecclesiastical year-the year 1891-92-a year of specific, continuous, prayerful, and hearty endeavor for the salvation of souls. Though this is always the chief business of the Church of Christ, the General Assembly is entreated to give special emphasis to the enforcement of this duty now. Facts and figures are given to show how vast is the work before the Church, and how inadequate are the efforts to overtake this work. The memorial urges the need of a great, powerful, all-pervading Revival of Religion, which is to be looked for only through the "ministry of personal, systematic, untmimf!us work for souls."

When such a story as this of the Hawaiian Islands is before us, and similar marvels of grace in modern missions, one is disposed to ask, What is to pre'ent such mighty works in our day, and in every part of the habitable globe ~ Surely God's arm is not shortened, nor is His power straitened. We are straitened in ourselves. Let unbelief, prayerlessness, and selfishness be put away, and mighty prayer go up to God.-EDITOR.

PRAYER ANSWERED IN MISSIONARY WORK

PRAYER ANSWERED IN CONNECTION WITH MISSIONARY WORK.

BY MISS HELEN L. BURNET, NEW YORK CITY.

THE explicit declaration of Scripture that God i3 the Hearer and the Answerer of prayer. coupled with the experience of " those who humbly try to do His will," brings rest to the trusting heart, although this subject is hedged about with philosophical doubts and difficulties whioh reason cannot fathom nor wisdom solve.

In addition to instances already published in these pages, the following cases of great emergency in which the faithfulness of our prayer-hearing God has been put to the test by His people will tend to confirm the faith of every devout Christian reader : 1. Dr. Chamberlain, a veteran of the Areot Mission in India, relates that while on an extended missionary tour, he found himself overtaken by the rainy season on the outskirts of the jungle, where the ground was covered with water, and where lurked fever and man-eating tigers, from fear of which his guard of coolies soon ran away. With difficulty he procured mother escort for sixty mi:es, where he expected to find a boat which would float him down the river. "Above the cataract not a boat could be found, and the river had overflowed its banks. All day they waded in the jungle under alternations of heavy showers and a boiling, sickening sun. Toward evening nothing but water, and endless stretehe!1, of it, appeared, and not even a hillock on which they could spread their tents for the night!

" Must he and his band perish ~ In this extremity, the doctor, on the back of his horse, prayed to his covenant God for help as His ser"ant, and in obedience to whose call he had come to India to preach the Gospel. Immediately an answer came, distinctly pronounced in the ear of his soul, , Turn to your left, go to the river, aud you will find that which you need I ' "

Twice he consulted his guides, who assured him that rescue from that quarter was impossible. But a second and a third time the voice came with the same explicit direction. " Then, as master in command of the company, he gave the order to turn to the left, and, coming to the river-what did he see ~ The very thing he needed most-a large flat boat, and in it two boatmen, who, mistaking him for an English officer, began to apologize for the boat's appearance in such a strange spot. They said the flood in the river had loosened the boat from its moorings, and that the' devil himself seemed to be in the boat,' for, despite their efforts to the contrary, it persisted in floating to the spot where it was found."

Dr. Chamberlain, armed with authority from the English Government, took possession of the boat, which he found just broad enough to allow the spreading of his tent, under which they safely rested that night undisturbed by the hungry tigers, who were heard howling in the jungle. The next morning they began floating down the river, and continued fioating till they came to the next cataract, where they found another boat, and with it relief from all anxiety.

2. Aniwa, in the New Hebrides, is a coral island on which there are no streams, lakes or springs, rain water being the sole dependence of the people. One morning their missionary, Rev. John G. Paton, said to one of the chiefs, '" I am going to sink a well deep down into the earth to see if our God will send us fresh water up from below.' They looked at him in astonishment, and said, in a tone of sympathy approaching to pity, , 0 Missi! wait till the rain comes down, and we will save all we possibly can for you. Rain comes only from above. How could you expect our island to send up showers of rain from below ~' But, " he writes, " I started on my hazardou!! job, selecting a spot where my prospective well might be useful to all. I began to dig with pick, and spade, and bucket, an American axe for a hammer and crowbar, and a ladder for service by and by. The good old chief now told off his men in relays to watch me, lest I should attempt to take my own life, saying, 'Poor Missi ! That's the way with all who go mad! ' "

Becoming exhausted under that tropical sun, he for a time secured the aid of the natives, by the promisc of English fish-hooks, in taking out buckets of earth, although, he continues, "the shaft seemed to lower very slowly, and my fish-hooks were disappearing very quickly. I was thankful one evening to find that we had cleared more than twelve feet deep, when, 10 ! next morning one side had rushed in, and our work was all undone. The old chief and his best men remonstrated with me very gravely, assuring me for the fiftieth time that rain would never be seen coming up through the earth on Aniwa! 'You are making your own grave, Missi, and you will make ours, too, for when the man-of-war ship comes, and we tell the captain that you are buried in the well, he will think that it was our work and will kill us.''' Mr. Paton quieted these fears, and constructed a sort of derrick, so that, with pulley and block, the bucket could be lifted from the bottom of the well. But not a native would enter that hole. Day after day, digging with his own hands till he was fairly exhausted, he reached the depth of about thirty feet. He says that the phrase, " Living water, living water," kept chiming through his soul like music from God as he dug and hammered away. At this depth the earth began to be very damp, aud he believed that he was nearing water, but he had coustant fear that it would be salt water. One evening he said to the old chief, "I think that Jehovah God will give us water to-morrow from that hole." The chief said, "No, Missi j you will never see rain coming up from the earth on this islanrl. 'Ve expect daily, if you reach water, ta see you drop through into the sea, and the sharks will eat you. That will be the end of it j death to you, and danger to us all. " "I still answered, 'Come to-morrow. I hope and believe that Jehovah God will send you the rain-water up through the earth.' At the moment I knew that I was risking much, and probably incurring sorrowful consequences had no water been given; but I had faith that the Lord was leading me on, and I knew that I sought His glory, not my own. Next morning I went down again at daybreak and sunk a narrow hole in the centre. about two feet deep. The perspiration broke over me with uncontrollable excitement, and I trembled through every limb when the water rushed up and began to fill the hole. Muddy though it was, I eagerly tasted it, and the 'tinny' dropped from my hand with sheer joy, and I almost fell upon my knees in that muddy bottom to praise the Lord. 11; was water! It was fresh water! It was living water from Jehovah's well. True, it was a little brackish, but nothing to speak of; and no spring in the desert cooling the parched lips of a fevered pilgrim ever appeared more worthy of being called a well of God than did that water to me. The chiefs had assembled with their men near by. They waited on in eager expectancy. It was a rehearsal, in a small way, of the Israelites coming round, while Moses struck the rock and called for water. By-and-by, when I had praised the Lord and my excitement was a little calmed, I filled a jug which I had taken down empty in the sight of them ali, and ascending to the top, called for them to come and sec the rain which Jehovah God had given us through the well. They closed around me in haste, and gazed on it in superstitious fear. The old chief shook it to see if it would spill, and then touche4 it. At last he tasted it, rolling it in his mouth with joy for a momp.nt; he swallowed it and shouted, 'Rain! Rain! But how did you get it ? ' I repeated, 'Jehovah, my God, gave it out of his own earth in answer to our labors and prayers. Go and see it springing up for yourselves.'

" And then they went and saw, and marvelled and gave praise to God, and company after company returned to the spot loaded with their gods of wood and stone and piled them in heaps amid the tears and sobs of some and the shouts of others, in which was heard the oft-repeated word, , Jehovah, Jehovah.'

"The old chief said, ' Missi, I think I could help you next Sabbath. Will you let me preach a sermon on the well ?' 'Yes,' I at once replied, , if you will try to bring all the people to hear you.'

" , Missi, I will try,' he eagerly promised. And preach he did a rousing sermon, closing with these words, 'The Jehovah God has sent us rain from tbe earth. Why should He not also send His Son from heaven? Namakei stands up for Jehovah!' In those intensely exciting days we sat still and saw the salvation of the Lord. "-From Autobiography of Rev. John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides.

3. "One evening, after commending ourselves, our friends, and the mission to God, I went outside my house, and right under my window was a tiger about twelve feet off. My first thought was to turn and fiee, but fearing that he would jump on my back and shake me by the neck, as the cat does the rat, till I was dead, and seeing that I was too near to fiee, I resolved to walk straight np to him, and begged Jesus to go with me and preserve me. What a blessed thing that my soul was in my Saviour's keeping! On the veranda was lying my Scotch dog, who rushed at him and barked furiously. The tiger had never seen impudence like this. He had taken his prey from his youth, and had always seen dogs taking to their heels much faster than he cared for. He snarled at us and went a few steps on one side, and I made a shave between the wall and the tiger, praying all the time. I expected every moment that he would paw me, but after walking twenty yards I realized that I was safe and thanked God, and ml dog, saved also, was barking at the far-off tiger. "-Rev. .A.

Haegert, in the Missionary. 4. In 1885 the work of the Church Missionary Society, London, Eng- land, having greatly increased, a special day was appointed to pray for workers. The evening previous more than one hundred graduates of the University Church assembled who desired" to dedicate themselves to foreign missionary work, ready to go at the command of the Master when their studies were completed. Thus the meeting which had been called for prayer became a meeting for thanksgiving." "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isa. 65 : 24).

5. In 1872 a missionary in the city of Cadereita, Mexico, made it a special subject of prayer that the Lord would open the way for the return of himself, his wife and child to the States for a little season, the circumstances seeming to indicate this as a duty. The needed means were provided, but the country was in a state of revolution, and his friends tried to dissuade him from going, as General Cortinas would probably cross their path, who was a murrlerous man and regarded as having a special hatred for Americans. He determined to go forward, however, trusting to Divine protection, and they started for Matemoras, some three hundred miles distant, two hired men and their wives accompanying them, the brethren " promising to pray daily for their safety." "The third morning, after commending ourselves as usual into the care of our covenant-keeping God," he relates, " we started on our journey, and soon espied the troops of General Cortinas two miles distant marching toward us. We again all looked to God for protection, then went on until we met the advanced guard, who commanded us to halt and wait until the general came up.

" Riding up to our company with the usual salutation, he asked whence we came and whither we were going; he then asked the news from Nueva Leon. After replying to his question, the missionary inquired if the road was safe between his party and Matamoras. He replied, ' Perfectly; you can go on without any fear, and as safely as you would in your own country;' then, bidding us good-morning, he rode on, not even inquiring about or examining any of our baggage. " Upon reaching Brownville, Texas, friends pronounced the conduct of General Cortinas as truly a miracle, for they " could not have believed him capable of such kindness to Americans so in his power."

6. A missionary of the Amcrican Board among the Maharattas in India once wrote thus: "The first Monday in January, 1833, I shall ever remember. At our morning prayers, in the native language, three strangers were present who said they had come to inquire'about the' new way.' At ten 0'clock Babajee returned from his morning visit to the poorhouse in an ecstasy of joy, saying, 'The poor people all come about me inquiring, " What shall we do g" , I appointed a meeting of inquiry at three o'clock to-day, and to my joy and surpl:ise there were sixteen present. A heavenly influence, I am persuaded, was with us. Our Christian friends in America must be praying for us." Although unknown to the missionary, that very day" had been set apart by the General Assembly in the United States and by other bodies of Christians as a day of fasting and of prayer for the heathen world."

7. A friend of the Rev. Benjamin Slight, of the Methodist Church, while journeying as a missionary in Africa" came to a fork in the road, one branch going round a hill, the other np the hiII." Hesitating which to take, he besought the Lord to give him direction. He was decidedly inclined after prayer to take the up-hill road.

Reaching the summit, he saw clearly on the rejected path several large lions. Making a memorandum of this remarkable escape from certain death, he had occasion on his return to England to refer to it, and learned that on this very day his friend was so impressed with the thought that danger threatened his missionary brother that he had" made him a subject of earnest intercession. "

8. Many years ago, in a New England village, the widowed mother of a large family in narrow circumstances was called upon for a contribution for missIOnary purposes. She went about sad-hearted all day because she had so little to give in aid of a cause so near her heart. Calling her children together for family worship, she brought her burden to the Lord, and prayed that He would accept one of her children for such glorious work. A daughter was much impressed by this prayer of consecration. This daughter afterward became Mrs. Wilder, a missionary to India, wife of the late editor of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, and in her old age and widowhood she returned to India with her young daughter to labor on till life shall end among the people of her love, soon to be followed by her son, who has also given himself wholly to the work.

9. It is related that Dr. Adoniram Judson, while laboring as a mission- ·ary to the heathen, felt a strong desire to do something for the salvation of the children of Abraham according to the flesh. But it seemed that his desire was not to be gratified. During a long course of years, even to the closing fortnight of his life, in his last sickness, Dr. Judson lamented that all his efforts in behalf of the Jews had been a failure. He was departing from the world saddened with that thought. Then, at last came a gleam of light which thrilled his heart with grateful joy. Mrs. Judson was sitting by his side while he was in a state of great languor, with a copy of the Watchman and Reflector in her hand. She read to her husband one of Dr. Hague's letters from Constantinople. The letter contained some items of information which filled him with wonder.

Ata meeting of missionaries at Constantinople, Mr. SchaufHer stated that a little book had been published in Germany, giving an account of Dr. Judson's life and labors; that it had fallen into the hands of some Jews, and had been the means of their conversion; that a Jew had translated it for a community of Jews on the borders of the Euxine, and that a message had arrived in Constantinople, asking that a teacher might be sent to show them the way of life.

When Dr. Judson heard this, his eyes were filled with tears, a look of almost unearthly solemnity came over him, and clinging fast to his wife's hand, as if to assure himself of being really in the world, he said: " Love, this frightens me. I do not know what to make of it." " To make of what 1" said Mrs. Judson. " Why, what you have just been reading. I never was so deeply interested in any object; I never prayed so sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came-at some time-no matter how distant the day-somehow, in Borne shape, probably the last I should have devised, it came !" What a testimony was that! It lingered on the lips of the dying Judson; it was embalmed with grateful tears, and is worthy to be translated as a legacy to the coming generation. The desire of the righteous shall be granted. Pray and wait. The answer to all true prayer will come. In Judson's case, the news of the answer came before he died, but it was answered long before. So we may know the results of prayers and toils even while we sojourn here; but if not, what sweet surprises shall await us in the great beyond !-JVorthwestern Christian Advocate. Queen Mary trembled at the vrayers of John Knox. What a quaking in the kingdom of darkness would come if our great sisterhood of churches would band together to fathom the meaning of that glorious promise, " All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive !"

The conviction grows upon us that upon a revival of the praying spirit everything else depend!! in the further prosecution of missions. Hence we give space to the testimonies of a prayer-hearing God. vYe hope to publish still other papers, from time to time, which put on permanent record the remarkable interpositions of God in the critical and pivotal periods of missionary work. These proofs are countless, but they are scattered through various biographies and narratives, and hence lose their cumulative force. In these pages we hope to gather them, and thus give them fuller opportunity to impress the hearts of our readers with their joint testimony. To know and feel that God is a present living and faithful God, that Christ is with us on the battle-field as He is with the Father on the throne-who shall say what new energy and power would come into all work for God if this conviction could once more become the ruling thought of the Church in her work for souls !-[EDITOR.]

"A FEW PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS."

"A FEW PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF THE HUGUE- NOTS,"* BY EUGENE BERSlER.

BY ALICE BERTRAND.

THERE is hardly a more melancholy definition of death than thls expression of the Psalmist, The land of forgetfulness. Few of us aspire to a posthumous glory but whose heart does not yearn for a kindly remembrance ~ We are then happy to think that the memory of Eugene Bersier seems as yet far from sinking into oblivion. A full year has elapsed since his death, and never, perhaps, has he been more present in the hearts and thoughts of all.

On the mournful anniversary of November 19th a crowd filled the Etoile Church and, moved to tears, assisted at the inauguration of a black marble slab which had been placed under the pulpit" in memory of thE) first pastor and founder of this church."

Almost at the same time a little black and gray volume appeared in the windows of all Protestant booksellers-and very soon disappeared, too. The friends of the regretted preacher had gathered together a few lectures delivered by M. Bersier on different occasions and entitled them, " A Few Pages from the History of the Huguenots."

The Huguenots! Eugene Bersier, in relating their sufferings, was not only accomplishing a useful task, he was almost performing a filial duty. This descendant of French refugees, though born in a land of exile, was proud to feel the blood of martyrs still running in his veins. But, recalling the tortures of his ancestors, there was no bitterness in his heart. He loved his country too dearly to bear her any resentment. And if a word were needed to give the substance of this book-and perhaps of the whole life of M. Bersier-no better could be chosen ~han this motto : Faith and patriotism.

M. Bersier's favorite hero was Admiral Coligny, undoubtedly because he thought with the historians, Michelet and Henri Martin, "that Coligny was the best Huguenot and the best Fren~hman of his time." He commenced a history of Coligny of which, unfortunately, we have only the first volume. But this was not enough. M. Bersier, thinking of the statues of poets and orators which crowd the squares of Paris, resolved that Protestantism should be represented in this army of the illustrious dead. , And Coligny was destined to stand up once more for his religion before the people of Paris.

It was precisely to defray a part of the expenses occasioned by the erection of this statue that M. Bersier delivered a remarkable lecture on Coligny in many towns of France and of foreign couutries.

An analysis, somewhat complete, of this conference would either be too long or too dry. But a few facts will suffice to throw some light on the noble figure of the admiral.

• Paris, Fischbacher, 0telques pages deB l'histrnre' de Huguenots, par Eug. Bersier, with a remarkable preface by Professor Sabatier. Gaspard de Coligny was born (1519} at Chatillon, in the green valleys of western France. He was brought up in that solitary castle by his pious widow mother, who had quitted the brilliant court of the Valois to devote herself to the education of her three sons.

Gaspard was, from his youth, eminently qualified to be a soldier. He had nothing, truly, of the knightly valor of a Due de Guise, but his strength of character, his indomitable perseverance and, above all, his unselfish patriotism, were unparalleled. But alas! fortmie had few smiles for him.

" Gentlemen," said M. Bersier, in opening his lecture, " I am about to relate the history of a vanquished soldier."

His two great deeds were two failures. IIis plan-wonderful for the age -of establishing a Huguenot colony in Florida wretchedly failed. The Huguenots were murdered by a band of Spaniards, who hung them on the neighboring trees, with this inscription, " Not because they are French- men, but because they are heretics. ,.

The defence of St. Quentin was more glorious. The north of France was threatened by an invasion of Spaniards, directed by the" iron-headed general," Philibert-Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy. Coligny, though sure of being defeated, went to the little town of St. Quentin to oblige the Spanish general to besiege it. On the duration of the siege depended the salvation of France. Coligny knew it, and resisted heroically. The town was taken by the Spaniards, and Coligny sent to jail; but the French king had had the time to assemble the troops and to protect Paris. Yes," we feel that some defeats are more glorious than victories, and that true heroism is sacrifice. "

But the bitter cup had to be drained to the dregs. Coligny heard, in his dreary captivity, that the Duke of Guise, haviug possessed himself of the admiral's own plans, had taken the town by surprise, to the enthusiastic admiration of France. " God, in chastising Coligny, had, as Calvin said, called him aside, that he should better listen to the heavenly Voice." The admiral's brother, a prisoner like himself, had sent him a copy of the Holy Scriptures, which Coligny studied with the greatest care. He then began to correspond with Calvin, and soon after his release he openly entered the: ranks of the Huguenots. .

M. Bersier, who had shown the patriotism and courage of the Frencn soldier, dwelt here on the simple faith and the austere piety of the Christian. It would have been interesting to have followed him in that beautiful castle of Chatillon, ornamented with the sculptures of Goujon and the paintings of Primatice, and which is now, alas! little more than a heap of ruins. It was there that, under the superintendence of a learned and pious tutor, the young Colignys received a sound classical education, for their father, says M. Bonnet, the Protestant historian, hated ignorance almost as .

bitterly as he did ungodliness. Every morning and evening the children and servants gathered in the great hall to hear the family prayers said by the chaplain, or, in his absence, by the admiral himself. But whereas, peace and happiness were reigning there, on the other side of France, in the village of Vassy, a hundred Huguenots had been murdered while they were singing their psalms in a barn.

This news caused an immense sensation. What could the Huguenots do 7 Clamor for justice 1 Alas! the government was openly with the murderers. The Protestants had no choice left, except death or fighting. " Ought not religious liberty to be defended as other liberty is 7"

However, such a decision could not be lightly taken, and we fully understand the hesitation that tortured the admiral's noble mind.

One night Coligny, who was awake, heard the sobs of his wife, the Lady Charlotte de Laval. "I regret," said she, " to disturb your rest. But think, my lord, that while we are reposing here in luxury, the bodies of our brethren, our own flesh and blood, are lying in prisons, or in the fields, at the mercy of dogs and ravens. I tremble to think that your prudence may be worldly. Oh! my lord, the blood of our dead weighs heavily on my soul !"

Coligny explained to her the difficulties of civil war, and added, "Put your hand on your heart, and think if you would have the courage to endure flight, exile, shame, and hunger not only for yourself, but, what is worse, for your children; if you will suffer death by,the hand of the public executioner, after having seen your husband exposed to the mockery of the rabble, and your children servants to your bitterest enemies. I give you three weeks to decide, and if your heart is strong enough to bear all this, then will I go and die with you and with your friends. "

Charlotte de Laval answered with these sublime words: "My lord, these three weeks are over !"

Death was merciful to the heroic woman ; it spared her most of the calamities of the civil war, and the direst of them all, the murder of her beloved lord.

The Protestant nobility had been invited to meet in Paris, on the occasion of the wedding of Margaret, Charles IX.' s own sister, with their prince, young Henri de Navarre, who became afterward King Henry IV. Coligny had joined them. But it is not only in poetry that a dagger is hidden in the jewel casket of a bride. This maniage was but a snare to entrap the Huguenots.

A few days after the religiotls ceremony, the bell of the Church St. Germain l'Auxerrois rang for the massacre of the Huguenots. It was about two o'clock in the morning. Coligny, hearing a great noise and cries in the house, understood at once that his last hour had come. "Monsieur Merlin," said he calmly to his chaplain, "will you pray with me~" Then -he begged his friends to leave him and save their own lives, for he was too ill and weak to escape. The murderers soon rushed into his room. "Art thou the admiral ~" cried one of them, called Besme. ., Young man," answered Coligny, "how-dare you attack an old and wounded man 7 However," added he, with resignation, "you will not much shorten my life." BesUle, swearing fearfully, pierced him through with a spear. The body of the admiral was then thr.own out of the window. Henri de Guise turned it over disdainfully with his foot.

]?ut, thanks to M. Bersier, France has now, in a certain measure, atoned for this oqious crime. A beautiful statue of the admiral, which M. Bersier had the happiness of inaugurating some months before his death, now adorns the Oratoire Church, on the side toward the Rue de Rivoli. Coligny stands in a proud attitude, one hand placed on his heart, the other grasping his sword.

M. Bersier read, on that occasion, a speech which might, ioo, be r.om- pared to an antique statue for the perfection of its form, with something, if I may say so, of the coldness of thc marble. Tuese were the concluding words of his speech: "It is worthy of a great nation to honor those who have served her, as Coligny has, with this noble aim : The glory of God and the public welfare !"

The following lecture is a description of the intellectual candition of the French Reformed Church in the seventeenth century. With patriotic pride, M. Bersier enumerates our glorious Protestant academies of Nimes, Sedan, Caen, and Saumur, where Dubose was professor, that same Dubose of whom Louis XIV. once said, "I have heard to-day the best orator of my kingdom." And the illustrious pastors of Charenton, Daille, and Claude, the worthy rival of Bossuet in theological controversy. . . . But why are they so little known 1 It is not because of their lack of learning. Professor Samuel Petit, listening accidentally to a rabbi's attacks on Christianity, retorted on the spot by an extemporary Hebrew speech. It is more probably on account of their heavy and somewhat provincial style, bnt, above all, it is because they were too conHcientious to be very fashionable.

The Protestant erudition proved to be favorable to Catholic theology. Thanks to frequent controversies, the Scriptures were attentively studied, stupid legends became discredited, and a great reform of the doctrines and of the morals of the Gallican Church was at hand.

But the Revocation, like a deadly wind, soon blasted these fair promises of a rich harvest.

The 18th of October, 1685, Louis XIV., incited by the clergy, as,M. Bersier has proved once more, revoked the famous Edict of Nantes, which granted to Huguenots the free profession of their faith. This revocation had been prepared by petty cavillings whic~ deprived Protestants of many legal rights, and now this last safe-warrant was taken from them.

H the Roman Church did not lay claim to infallibility, she would feel a pang at the thought of the persecutions of the seventeenth century, for she then not only tortured the body of the heretic, but attempted to disunite his family and to destroy his conscience.

We know what the Protestant homes were, for historians have told us of the austere piety of the wife and of the mother, of the authority of the father, a priest in his own house. • •• Now, a troop of drunken soldiers invaded this holy of holies, insulted the women, and tortured children be- fore the eyes of their mothers.

Poor mothers! a decree was issued at that time, which authorized the legal kidnapping of children, that they might be brought up in the Cath- olic belief. .

But some persons think that, at least, the inmost recesses of the con- science were respected during these persecutions. The facts prove too clearly, alas! the worthlessness of this opinion.

" What can we say," writes M. Bersier, " of these peasants of Saintonge, forced by the swords of dragoons into Catholic churches, to receive there what was told them to be, the holy body of the Lord? Horror-stricken, they spat it out of their mouths, as soon as they were unobserved. . • .

Do not be mistaken, this is the greatest of all crimes, the attempted mur- der of the soul !"

But no one-the victims excepted-dared to protest publicly against those iniquities. Nothing bnt praises were to be heard. The greatest orators, Bossuet (who calls Louis another Constantine), Massillon, thc mystic Fenelon himself, La Bruyere, the moralist; La Fontaine, the poet- all congratulate the king of having accomplished such a great deed. The women are not more tender-hearted. Witty Mme. de Sevigne gayly writes, "The dragoons have been such very good missionaries j" and Mme. de Maintenon, the granddaughter of the noble Huguenot d' Aubigne, is not ashamed to affirm "that it will soon be quite ridiculous to profess that religion. "

" This universal approbation is certainly one of the scandals of history. ,.

But is there not a compensation for us in the praises given to our Hugue- not refugees by foreigners 1 " Oh!" writes M. Bersier, in a page which is one of the most eloquent of our Protestant literature, " they must allow us to exclaim in the bitterness of our hearts, It is no consolation for us !

We know that France has received a deep wonnd, out of which a large stream of blood has flowed. . . . Aud we needed these lost riches! these severe virtues! Tenacity in trial, respect of liberty, austerity iu conduct- all those traits are now missing in our national character.- " We have often lamented it in many a terrible crisis, in many a battle that our people fought to conquer their rights and their liberties. In these dark hours we look for our absent ones, we call to our dead, and, as Augustus to Varus, we cry to him who exiled our fathers, ' 0 king, give us back our legions!' "

These legions were not, according to an opinion generally accredited, an army of noblemen. M. Bersier, in a most interesting essay on " The French Refugees and Their Trades," has victoriously proved that, as Coligny used to say, "The little ones are before us in the kingdom of heaven."

Thanks to their rare holidays, to the practice of lending money on in- terest, and, above all, to their intelligence and industry, they soon became the first manufacturers of France. Their cloths, made at Sedan or Elbenf, their Lyons silks, their Angouleme paper, etc., were universally appreciated. And the Caudebcc hats were quite a celebrity. The cardinals themselves, in spite of their dislike for heretics, would wear no others.

The Revocation was the death-blow of all this prosperity. But Huguenots were not men to be easily disheartened. Facing the greatest dangers, they fled from their ungrateful mother-country. Whole families sailed on the ocean in a small boat; men and women hid in empty wine-casks; little children-Bonnet, the future founder of New Rochelle, was one of themcrept into vegetable baskets, at the risk of being wounded by the dragoons' long lances. Most of them reached the hospitable lands of Switzerland, England, and Holland. These strangers, moved by a noble pity, did their best to assuage the sufferings of their martyr brethren. And a great reward was in store for them.

Thanks to the Huguenots, Geneva was endowed with its now worldfamed watch-making. But the "Ark" of the refugees was Holland. They were in such a wretched state when they arrived there that most of them had no other food than the snails which they picked up in the woods. However, before many years had eJapsed, they had founded the famous mannfactories of paper and of that yellow velvet known as Utrecht velvet. And England! I am sorry for Albion's pride, but the list of her debts to the refngees is far from being a short one j it is sufficient to mention Sheffield cutlery. Irish lace, mutual help societies, etc. We might note also that a great many members of the House of Lords and the qneen, Victoria herself, are of Huguenot origin. Of Huguenot origin, too, alas! the famous ox-tail soup. They were such very good housewives, these poor Huguenot ladies, they knew how to make use of everything, and when the butchers threw away the tails of oxen, they bought them and made this soup, which all loyal Britons believe to be a national dish.

These discoveries may be a little hurtful to national pride, but, seriously speaking, are they not, as M. Bersier observes, far more painful for our own patriotism? And when we remember that we have wantonly despised these treasures, it is sometimes rather hard to find comfort in saying, " Our Huguenots have well deserved the gratitude of mankind."

But all the Huguenots could not flee. The rich only-rich in money, heroism, or health-could face such perils. What became of the others ~ Ah! this is the dreary story of the Church of the Desert, of nightly assemblies -held in the woods, of pastors sent to the rack, of women shut up for life in the Tower of Constance. Persecutions slackened little by little, but in the middle of the eighteenth century Protestant marriages were as yet illegal; the austere Hnguenot lady was considered no better than a mistress, and her children were bastards, incapable of inheriting their father's fortune.

M. Bersier enumerates the efforts made to obtain, at least, the legal marriage of Huguenots. Rousseau, alleging his bad health, civilly refused to lend a helping hand to his brethren. But Voltaire roused Europe to

LETTER FROM MRS. HELEN W. GIBSON

indignation about the unjust sentence of the Protestant Cal as. It was not, however, without many difficulties that the Toleration Edict of 1787 was issued. It granted to Protestants legal birth, marriage, and burial, and the right of trading in the kingdom. Two years later, under the Revolution, they enjoyed at last the benefits of a full liberty.

The best conclusion of this volume is in the words of M. Bersier on the Revolution, but which might apply still better to the history of the Huguenots, " We must pity them who have not learned in those tragic scenes the respect of the human soul and the hatred of all religious oppression."

MRS. HELEN W. GIBSON, of Pari.s, writes as to " a call from over the sea :" "all true followers of Christ are missionaries, and devote their lives (in one form or another) to carrying the glad tidings of salvation, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, to those that are ' without.' These outsiders are found crowding the boulevards of Paris, as well as turning off prayers by machinery in China; they are found wallowing in the slums of our civilized cities, as well as vegetating in the wilds of Africa. Wherever exists a soul ' without hope and without God in the world,' there is a mission field for the Christian worker. The' all the world' of Christ includes the places nearest home, as well as the far distant 'regions beyond. I How many in civilized France are bowing down to stocks and stones! After having during several years burnt, broken, and thrown away the relics of their 'former ignorance' given to us by our converts, we are just now beginning to form them into a little museum. The people cling to such' heips' only until they get the real thing in their hearts; they then feel them to be 'hindrances,' and hasten to put them away.

" God has greatly blessed our mission work lately, especially in Paris and its suburbs. The old Methodist mode of after-meetings and direct personal dealing with the people is employed, and with marked success. We have no parti pris as regards these meetings, otherwise they might become formal and defeat their own end. We sometimes close up with the first service, but always try to lay hold of the people as they leave, and get one here and there into a corner (in a double sense)! Then, if we find, as we often do, that the Spirit of God has been beforehand with us ih preparing the way, we are soon down on our knees together.

" When the people give evidence of sound conversion to God, or even when they seem to be sincerely seeking, we invite them to the classmeeting held in connection with each hall, where they are further instructed in the Bible and helped by the i~terchange of experience, and last, not least, taught to give systematically. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered to the members every month in the various halls, and is always a time of blessing. These dear French converts live well; many of them have the old Huguenot spirit of endurance. They stand not only open persecution, but the annoying pin-pricks of domestic taunts /lnd mockings; and they die well; one of our members has just gone home proclaiming her joyful faith in Christ as the only Mediator, though the priest stood by her bedside cursing her, and telling her she was damnee and' going to hell!' Two young men, also, saved at the eleventh hour through the visits of another of our converts (himself a bigoted Romanist up to last November), have just died exulting in Christ, but followed to the last by the threats of the priests. The work is precious in France. I wonder when I look at the recent successes of our little mission, which has been hitherto almost unknown outside of English Methodism. We are a mere handful of workers, and most of our helpers are ignorant and milearned men and women; but they are full of faith and the Holy Ghost, such agents as God can best use, and He opens doors before them everywhere. The fact is that every human heart is craving for God in Christ, but His professed disciples show Him up so poorly that the weary seekers turn disappointedly to the world. If we Christians would best see our duty and then tarry on our knees till we receive the power from on high to do it, there would soon be a universal revival.

"There is no room for details in a short article. Let our American friends come and see and hear for themselves! Let them listen to the glowing testimonies and the fervent prayers of men and women who a fe". months or. weeks ago were, some of them, on the brink of suicide, and all of them either defying God altogether, or mumbling over their beads to the Virgin! I earnestly beg that visitors to Paris from all churchesfor surely we may make common cause against the errors of Romewill call at our headquarters, 4 Rue Roquepine, and ask to see my husband, Rev. William Gibson, conductor of the mission, who has his bureau there. We need sympathy, and we need practical help beyond what our own. people can give. The conversion of Romanists appeals equally to all churches and to all Protestant countries. May God awaken an effectual response !"

Rev. Dr. Gibson supplies to us the following further facts as to Methodist Evangelization in France among Roman Catholics : " The. Methodist Evangelistic Mission in France, under the direction of the British Conference, consists of Ii stations: 8 in and around Paris. 2 at Rouen, 2 at Havre, 1 at EIbeuf, and 1 at St. Servan.

"During the last three or four years the work has made great progress, and some of the stations have been marvellously blessed. The methods employed are: Lively popular Gospel meetings, followed by aftermeetings, in which the people are spoken with personally on the subject of their salvation; women's and children's meetings; and the Methodist , class,' in which the converts are trained and led on higher. All these meetings are aided and followed up by assiduous visiting and tract distribntion. Our journal, La Bonne Nouvelle, of which we distribute about 10,000 monthly, is of great help to us.

"The mission costs yearly $11,000, of which $5000 is ' granted' by

NEWS FROM CONGO AND ANGOLA

the Wesleyan Missionary Committee of London, and the remaining $6000 is provided (mainly collected in England) by myself. The substantial premises in Rouen, which have cost £4000 for the building and £2000 for the ground, are composed of a large shop on the ground ftoor, the rental of which will, with the collections, make the station self-supporting j a handsome hall for public services, good reading-rooms for French and English sailors, and ministers' and evangelists' houses.

" About £1000 had already been collected in January, 1871, and the debt on the ground can be paid off by yearly instalments; but for the remaining £3000 I am personally responsible, and it is in a great measure the pressure of this burden which brought me to America. The work is, as far as possible, to be made self-supporting. A missionary restaurant has been opened in connection with our principal hall in Paris, and promises to be a help financially as well as spiritually to the station. I believe that France is on the eve of a revival. Already we have felt the first drops of the showe,r in the numerous and satisfactory conversions from Romanism to Christ that we have seen with our own eyes. Methodism suits the French temperament. Our converts are prompt and fearless in their testimonies, delight in prayer and praise meetings, and soon become active workers according to their light and opportunity. Two of our evangelists were brought to God in the mission.

, , We are in urgent need now of generous help for Rouen, as well as fOf many other objects less costly but equally important. We also earnestly request yearly subscriptions toward the support and extension of the work. Doors are opening all around us j France is craving for the Gospel as perhaps never before since the days of the persecutions; her fields are white unto the harvest j disgust of snperstition is hurrying her along toward atheism; nothing can save her but the pure Gospel of the grace of God, preached and applied to the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost."

NEWS FROM CONGO AND ANGOLA.

From Banana, mouth of Congo, April 14th, Bishop William Taylor writes: " Last night I slept aboard our steamer, the' Anne Taylor.' No snch cabins on any other river steamer on the Congo. This steamer will be the best and cheapest sanitarium for Congo workers this side of Europe or America. She has made one trip to Boma and return. We go on to Angola in the Gaboon. I will visit our mission stations in that province, and hope to return in five or six weeks to open new fields in the North Congo region.

" We anchored at St. Paul de Loanda, Angola, April 16th. Rev. A. E. Withey, our presiding elder for Angola district, came aboard and remained all night. He is looking well, and reports general good health among our people and prosperity in their work, including abundant selfsupport in all our Angola stations.

"Thursday, P.M., April 17th, arrived at the Missio 'Americana. Brother Burling and family all well."

THE GOSPEL IN BPAIN

THE GOSPEL IN SPAIN.

* BY J. E. BADGETT MEAKIN.

I.-INTRODUCTORY.

SPAIN! What an array of historic associations is brought before the mind in dwelling upon the connection of this stronghold of popery with the light of the Gospel, and how black they look! Instinctively one thin;s je, of the fiendish Inquisition, of the brutalities of the autos de and of the more recent but no less determined efforts of the priestcraft to stifle the voice of protest which has earned for us our distinctive title of Protestants. In the study of the blood-stained pages of her past history one is apt to think that in this day of progress and religious freedom, Spain has marched forward with her compeers, and that now her spiritual condition must be more or less that of other countries equally advanced in civilization. But this is not. the case, and the only vital difference between religious Spain to-day and the religious Spain of three centuries ago is the lack of sufficient temporal power to carry out all it could wish.

For some time past the country has been split up into two pretty sharply divided parties, the priest-ridden monarchists and the atheistical republicans. It is the history of France and of Italy repeating itself. The one party, ever on the decrease, includes most of the wealth and political influence of the kingdom, and the other comprises a large proportion of the poorer classes, and those who may be fitly described as " Adullam- ites. "t The vast majority of these, disgusted with the inherent rotten- ness of the phase of Christianity presented to them by the Church of Rome, have rejected religion entirely. Even among the ranks of the first party are numbered thousands whose only ties are those of position and politics, and whose religious opinions only remain unchanged on account of their indistinctness. If they think at all, the result is almost inevitable. They either turn to the truth in the measure in which it has been ~evealed to them-by human agency or not-or they lapse into the condition of infidelity so prevalent around them.

Between these two, which are no less than manifestations of the crumbling to pieces of the State religion, there is an open door for the Gospel. It is true that the task of entering it is one of difficulties and discouragements, but " if God be for us, who can be against us ~" Would to God that there were this day more laborers in this vineyard, for the harvest truly is plenteous, and ripe withal. Here and there, scattered up and down the Peninsula, are bright and shining lights to guide the wanderer home, but oh, how few and far between in comparison with the need for them!

Having just concluded a five-weeks' tour through Spain, from Cadiz to * For some years editor of The Times qf Morocco.

t .. Every one that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented" (1 Sam. 22 : 1, 2). France via Barcelona, during which I have visited all the mission stations I could bring within my course, I"will endeavor to give some idea of what is being done, and what opportunities this country offers for Christian effort. After what I have said, there is no further need to dwell upon the need, and our marching orders are to "all the world." I may mention that a knowledge of the lang.uage of the country, and a previous residence of some years among Spaniards, have placed me on a better footing than the majority of travellers to judge of the state of the country and the value of what is being done, while it also enabled me to gain some personal experience from attempts to make known the Good News on my way.

n.-THE AGENCIES AT WORK.

At present there are no less than tweh-e foreign societies more or less engaged in work in Spain and the Balearic Islands, mustering among them some eighty preaching places, while there are about forty more managed independently of any society. Owing to the number of agencies at work, exact statistics are very difficult to obtain, especially in connection with the independent workers, who, it will be seen, occupy about a third of the field.

The eighty stations were thus distributed when the last general survey * of the work was made two years ago, and since then very little change has taken ~lace, insufficient to warrant the labor of going over that task again.

" ~ ~wl . OIl~ '§w w ~~ ~~ zj C2'5 :a~ QJ ~s"~ ~g s'5 " i " " ~]I "" ~ """"~A:;bll ~:l ~~ 0 A'5 E-< oj p.. oj 00 "".El 0 "'" ~ w'" ""E-< > p.. f"1 ::;J P'Ih :§ 00'" 0 — — — — — – — – – – –1– – AmerlcanCongregationalists 14 8 3 1250 413 14 4 11 262 215 13 20 466 American Baptists …….•.. 5 2 3 155 34 2 2 6 6 158 58 English Wesleyans ……•.. 20 6 9 1540 269 17 12 13 306 299 11 30 387 Church of England..•.•••.. 15 6 3 1884 1194 13 6 8 236 292 1 1 30 Scotch Presbyterians ..•••.• 4 4 1 290 284 8 4 4 256 118 6 25 276 Irish Presbbterians ……… 4 4 1 108 22 4 3 2 111 52 3 7 60 Dntch Pres yterians….••.. 3 3 127 67 5 3 2 75 68 2 7 165 Swiss Presbyterians …….. 6 .. 2 3 223 1922 9 5 6 120 104 11 23 310 German …. …………. 2 60 80 6 6 3 184 56 2 11 168 ~~~~~~-~~~~~l i~rl's~~~: 3 8 1425 154 7 3 4 118 92 3 5 91 2 1 27 15 E~IiSh Congregationalists. 1 2 4 '57 70 30 321 60 ll~ 2 – In ependent ……………. 35t 12 11 20351688 23 11 24 759 784 -2-0 -4-4 100.1 – – – — Totals ………. 114 54 35 9194 3442 111 61 78 2545 2095 80 183 3231 The general position may be briefly summarized thus: preaching places, 114 j t pastors, 54 j evangelists, 35 j attendants at divine worship, 9194 j eommunicants, 3442 j day-schools, III j day-school teachers, male, 61 ; day-school teachers, female, 78 j boys on the lists, 2545 j girls on the lists, 2095 j Sunday-schools, 80; Sunday.school teachers, 183; Sundayschool children, 323l.

The above figures are those which each pastor or evangelist supplied, and therefore rest on their authority. With reference to the number of * By the Rev. J. W. Brown, of Barcelona, to whom I am indebted for these figures.

t There are a few more of whicb no statistics were obtainable. commuuicants of the Church of England Mission, which is known in Spain as the Reformed Church, it should be mentioned that little care is taken in granting admittance to this church, as evidence of the New Birth is not consiaered necessary. 'l'hen again, though the numbers of school children in all cases are those on the lists, the average attendance is from three fourths to four fifths of this number. The average number of attendants at the services, too, is to a large extent conjectural.

In addition to these agencies, the British and Foreign Bible Society has a representative at Madrid, in charge of a central depot, with a body of colporteurs in various parts of the country, as also has the American Board.

The Religious Tract Society of London, too, has a branch in Madrid, with a committee of the leading workers of each mission, and a depot from which are issued periodically a vast number of most excellent tracts, booklets, and periodicals suited to meet the objections of Romanists and infidels. In addition to these there are published, in one place or another, one weekly, two fortnightly, and two monthly periodicals, devoted to Christian enterprise and the spread of Gospel truth, in Spanish.

I1I.""':"THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORK.

If my readers will open the map of Spain, they will have no difficulty in following me in an imaginary trip through the country, calling at all the principal mission stations, for I will commence with the northwest corner and take them in order as they come.

The province of GALICIA is almost entirely occupied by workers belonging to the Brethren community. At Ooruiia Mrs. ChAsterman, at Vigo Mr. and Mrs. Hoyle, at Marin Mr. Blamire, are all carrying on an earnest warfare for the truth, with out-stations at six minor towns, in all of which blessing has been received. There are schools for children of both sexes at Marin and Coruna. The only other station in this province is that of the Scotch National Bible Society, at Ferrol.

In ASTURIAS the only evangelical chapel and schools are at Besullo, under the direction of M. Fliedner, of Madrid, while there is work carried on at three smaller centres.

LEON, as a larger province, has more to show. The Reformed Church is here to the fore, with chapels at Salamanca and Villaescusa, in the charge respectively of Senors Antonio Garcia and Regaliza, who engage also in work of more or less importance in eleven neighboring villages. At Villaescusa the result of the work has been greatly exaggerated in some reports, but it is fairly prosperous, and a small church is being erected. In this province are also two out-stations maintained by Mr. Hoyle.

Several bodies are at work in the next province, OLD CASTILE. At Santander, on the sea-coast, is a station of the American Board, under a Spanish pastor, Don Enrique de Tienda, with chapel and schools. Owing to the efforts of the Romanists, during the sixteen years that this church has been in existence it has had to move seven times in search of a meeting-place, and was once nearly two years houseless. This is an in- stance of what goes on in most parts where the work is prospering, and the churches own no property of their own, showing how important it is that this need should be provided for. This mission has other stations at Logroiio, Pradejon, and Roa. At the first-named place Don Angel Dijon is pastl>r; a worthy old saint who founded the church at Saragossa was long in charge here, but has at length retired to the south to end his days with his family. At Pradejon, for the past year or two, opposition has been more than usually intense, owing to the arrival of a stern and bigot- ed parish priest. Nevertheless, progress is steadily made. Owing to lack of workers, this is in the same charge as the one previously men- tioned. Roa is able to boast of a purchased place of worship for the Protestants, but as yet it has no fixed pastor, and remains in the care of the evangelist from Pamplona, through whose means its church was founded. Mission work is also carried on at Oaniego.

The Reformed Church has a chapel at Valladolid, ministered to by Sr. Martinez, with mission work in six or seven villages round, and an out- station at Palencia. For many years a most valuable work was done here by Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, independent workers, who have now removed to Murcia to open a new station, leaving Mr. Macarthy here in charge of their chapel and schools.

In the little province of BISCAY is the head station of the American Board, at San Sebastian, nnder the direction of the Rev. W. H. Gulick, with a chapel and schools, one of the latter for the preparation of female teachers, superintended by Mrs. Gulick, being a most important work. In all there are about a hundred and twenty day. scholars and thirty boarders. There is another chapel at Sestao, and a mission at the mines of Triano.

The important town of Bilbao would seem wholly given up to Roman- ism, for though it is full of priests and nuns, and a vast amount of money is ever ready to add to its numerous Mary-temples, Jesuitical convents, etc., the Protestants have for two years been unable to secure premises for public worship. Is it not a disgrace and a shame to our wealthy Christians . that they are not forthwith supplied with funds to purchase a site and build 1 The work here is sustained by the Evangelical Continental So- ciety of London, but under the superintendence of Mr. Gulick. There is also here a mission for sailors of all nations.

The only miilsion station in NAVARRE is that at Pamplona, where a lit- tle group of faithful ones has existed for several years, often without the presence of a pastor, who is now maintained by the American Board.

In ARRAGON the same mission has a pastor, the Rev. Carlos Aranjo, with chapel and schools, at the idolatrous town of Saragossa, and an in- teresting out-station at Tauste. Mr. Armstrong had formerly a chapel here, but this has recently been given up.

The next province, CATALONIA, has a most flourishing work at Barcelana, one of the earliest attempted in Spain. Here several bodies are engaged. The Brethren are represented by Mr. Henry Payne, who, with Mrs. Payne, has labored here for nearly twenty years. Under their care are three chapels, each having its schools for girls and boys, which are supported through Mr. Muller, of Bristol. They have gathered around them quite a large number of souls plucked from the fire of Rome, and their schools are well attended. The Wesleyan Methodists have long been represented here by Mr. Simpson, who has, however, been for a year or two laid by in England, and his post ably filled by the Rev. W. J. Brown. Here, too, are good congregations and excellent schools, five of the former and three of the latter, with four out-stations. The Swiss Presbyterians have also their representative here, M. Empaytaz, who has grown gray in the work. Under his direction are chapel and schools in the town, four other chapels and schools in other localities, and three out-stations, two with schools. The Swedish Baptists support Mr. Lund, who has here a chapel and schools, and one out-station. Another important institution in Barcelona is a Protestant hospital, managed by a committee formed of the gentlemen named. This meets a deeply felt want, and is a work which should have the fullest sympathy. There is also a B1ble and tract depot here. Apart from the Spanish work there is an English chapel, and work among the Swedish and Norwegian sailors.

From various causes the work at this, the second city of Spain, has been proportionally more successful, perhaps, than anywhere else in the country. I was delighted to see the well.managed schools and earnest services, and the good attendance at lectures which I was asked to give in Spanish at two of the chapels. As I had visited nearly all the chapels and schools, I was able to form some idea as to their actual condition better than by the comparison of reports.

Near the famous shrine at Montserrat, the Reformed Church has a station at Monistrol and another at St. Vincente de Castellet, with chapels and schools at both places, and four out-stations.

At Figueras, farther north, is an independent mission carried on by the Rev. and Mrs. Lopez y Rodriguez, the latter being English. They are assisted by several English ladies and two brothers of Sr. Lopez, carrying . on work in quite a number of villages round. The American Board has also an evangelist and school at Figueras, and another at La Escala. An independent work at Villafranca concludes the list in this province.

In Y ALENCIA and MURCIA there are chapels and schools at the town of Valencia and at Carthagena, the one under the Swedish Baptists and the other under the Swiss Presbyterians. As already mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong are just now occupied in commencing work at the port of Aguilas. The only other work is at Sagunto, an out-station.

In the province of NEW CASTILE there is but one mission ceatre, except in Madrid, though here several agencies are busy. In the capital, again, the Brethren are to the fore with a chapel and three schools supported through Mr. Miiller, all excellently managed, and giving evidence of real spiritual blessing. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Fenn have charge of it, and have labored at Barcelona and here some twenty-one years. They are assisted by several English ladies. At· YunC08 they have an out-station, with schools, but work in the villages round the capital has all along proved very hard and unencouraging. The Reformed Church in Madrid is represented by the Rev. J. B. Cabrera, the bishop-elect, who has a chapel and a mission room with three schools. A church is about to be built for this congregation with funds from England, by which also the pastors and 8chool1l are supported. The Scotch Presbyterians had formerly a good deal of work here, but latterly they have been abandoning it piecemeal. The only remnant here is a good congregation, with schools, eloquently addressed at their services by the Rev. Sr. Tornos, and under the superintendence of the Rev. John Jameson, once supported by this Society, but now British and Foreign Bible Society agent. They have also an outstation at },{ocejon, with a bOYI:!' school. The Wesleyans have a chapel and a boys' school in Madrid under the superintendence, just now, of the Rev. J. W. Lord, but the work having suffered recently from various causes, has not come into Mr. Lord's hands in a flourishing condition. The remaining mission here is a German one, that of the Rev. F. Fliedner, assisted by a preacher, Sr. Vargas. He has a chapel and schools, with a small orphanage, accommodation for a few boarders, and a "sick bay" over them, as also a cottage near the Escorial as a country branch. Mr. Fliedner likewise directs the Protestant book-shop and tract-depository, and is honorary chaplain to the German Embassy. There is, too, an embryo Young Men's Christian Association here, which is at present in but a crnde state, though it should develop. For English-speaking people, there are formal services in connection with the British Embassy. The only other station in this province is at· Criptana, where Mr. George Lawrence is at work, with his three daughters, in chapel and schools j they are independent workers.

Sad to say, the adjoining province of ESTREMADURA is totally without evangelistic work, and only that of ANIULUCIA remains to be noticed. The Edinburgh "Spanish Evangelization Society" has several stations here, under the superintendence of the Rev. ·William Moore, M. A., at Puerto Santa Maria, close to Cadiz, where they have a school for the training of young Spanish converts for evangelists and pastors. This again is a most important branch of the work, as no one can reach people like their own countrymen when properly prepared. At Cadiz itself this society has a chapel and schools under the care of Don Rafael Bianco, with an outstation at Pto. Real. At Huelva the English residents set an excellent example by supporting a boys' school, which is under the same superintendence, the Rev. Antonio Jimenez being pastor. They have here also girls' and infants' schools. At Seville the Rev. Sr. Barroso has a small chapel alild schools under the same auspices, while the remaining station is at the village of Escornaz, near Granada, where there is a chapel and school. One or two out-stations are under the same society, which allo supporto the Rev. John Murray at Granada. The Irish Presbyterians have here taken over the work of their Scotch brethren, who had grown disheartened, and now maintain a mission in Jerez, where they have a wellbuilt chapel and schools, under the Rev. Jose Viliasid, and a chapel and schools at San Fernando, on the other side of Cadiz. Friends in Amsterdam support the Rev. Camilo Calamita at Utrera (chapel and schools) j the Rev. C. Carrefio at Oordova (ditto), and Sr. J. Alhama at Gmnada (chapel only). At Malaga Sr. Manuel Carrasco has a chapel and schools where good work is being done, and there is another independent worker. The Reformed Church supports the Rev. Jose Vila in this town, with chapel and schools, and in Seville the Revs. V. Baquero and Palomares, with built churches formerly belonging to monasteries, and schools, with an outstation at Triana. Farther north, at Sinares, Mr. Wigstone, of the Brethren, works both in Spanish and English, and at Algeciras, opposite Gibraltar, a new work was begun nearly a year ago, under the direction of an independent worker, Mr. Simpson, aided by several ladies. There are two more out-stations in this province.

IV.-CONCLUDING REMARKS.

This brings to an end the list of mission cent~es in the whole kingdom, and the reader will not have failed to note how far they are from supplying its great need for the Gospel. As forming part of the same domains, the Balearic Isles should not go unmentioned, for here a good work is going steadily forward under the Rev. F. G. Smith, Wesleyan minister at Mahon, who has nine chapels and five schools in his charge. At Gibraltar, too, there is work doing among the Spaniards, though on a small scale, by various laborers too much engaged in English work to spare much time for it. Just over the straits, on the Morocco coast, is a work among the Spanish colony at Tangier, which promises well. Mr. H. N. Patrick and two or three ladies, all under the North Africa Mission, are laboring there, and have a Gospel coffee hall, with services and night schools.

It will be understood, in the above brief sketch, that except when a " built church" is specified, the chapel and schools usually consist of one or more rooms in a private house, or of a store, the same apartment in many cases serving for both purposes. This is a very great dra.wback, as it is not allowed in Spain to put np any sign outside to denote an evangelical place of worship, and only special edifices will attract outsiders, unless they hear the singing as they pass. Then again, a large proportion of the people consider the present places" hardly respectable," who would be quite willing to enter a " regular church. "

Space will not permit of my discussing fully the various methods of work employed in Spain, or of the causes which concur to retard the spread of Gospel truth which it might lie in the power of those engaged to mini-.

PLANTING CHRISTIANITY IN GERMANY

mize or, in some cases, to remove. Though the vi8ible resnlts of the twenty years of toil which have been spent upon the country since its doors were opened to the Gospel are still small, this must not be made an excnse for staying our hand. We have sent but one company of soldiers to stay the on-rush of a mighty host. How can we wonder that they can do little else than keep their ground ~ Where one of the enemy falls there are ten to to rush in. If we want !lee results, let us send our thousand devoted men and woman to Spain not unprepared, but equipped with some knowledge of the language if possible. Let us not leave them struggling for lack of funds, but empty our full coffers and lay them at Jesus' feet. Let us break our pots of ointment and devote our strength to using in His service what is of greatest earthly value. How many who read this will accept the call and say, " Lord, here am I, send ME" !

PROTESTANTISM IN BELGIUM.

BY MARGUERITE DE LAVELEYE, SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER AT LIEGE.

Two Belgian monks, Henri VillS and Jean Esch, were burned alive in Brussels in 1523. These were the first Protestant martyrs in the Netherlands. The Spanish Inquisition continued its bloody persecutions till the Reformation was completely suppressed. During more than two centuries Belgium was thoroughly dominated by the Romish Church. In 1848 a society named Eglise Missionnaire BeIge was constituted at Brussels for the spreading of the Gospel.

This society comprises now 27 churches and missions in full activity in 170 communes composed o£ 7000 members, 420 only of Protestant origin. Thirty-eight clergymen and Bible-teachers preach the Gospel in private houses, churchyards, and in public, presiding as well over Sunday services and Bible classes.

The Belgian missionary church might rapidly extend its blessed work if it was not constantly prevented by the insufficiency of its means. It requires about 140,000 francs yearly, and as nearly all its members are poor workmen, the receipts are always much below the expenses, not to mention the requirements of the new missionary stations. In January, 1890, the deficit reached 45,000 francs, and the missionary society will have to diminish its activity without fresh help.

We therefore appeal to all those who take an interest in the promotion of evangelization on the Continent that they may" come over to help us. " The treasurer of the Belgian Missionary Church is M. Kennedy Anet, 123 Chaussee d'Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium.

PLANTING CHRISTIANITY IN GERMANY.

BY REV. HENRY GRACEY, GANANOQUE, CANADA.

IN contemplating the spread of Christianity in the seventh and eighth centuries among the barbarous peoples dwelling in the north and northeastern districts of Europe, one cannot but admire the energy, zeal, and courage shown by many of the missionaries. Their methods cannot always be commended, nor can all their doctriues be approved; still we must admire their fervor and glowing devotion. And our modern missionaries might find not a few things worthy of imitation in the conduct and character of those early heralds of Christianity. The tribes or peoples which inhabited at that time that part of Europe now known as Germany were fierce, warlike, and barbarous; and the first missionaries who went among them did so at no little inconvenience, and some of them at imminent risk of thcir lives.

We read of several attempts made by zealous missionaries to get a foothold among the tribes on the eastern borders of the kingdom of the Franks; but they met with comparatively little success. About the middle of the seventh century one Amandus, a bishop alDong the Franks, extended his labors to the Frieslanders, a fierce and powerful tribe occllpying part of what is now called the Netherlands, and also certain districts in Germany. Unable to subdue the barbarism and idolatry of the people, he procured an order from the Frankish king, Dagobert, by which all might be compelled to submit to baptism; but in trying to carry out this violent measure he raised such a storm of indignation against himself that he was in danger of losing his life. He was, however, a man of resources. By acts of benevolence, by redeeming captives, and by pretended miracles, he managed to recover his lost ground, and to persuade some of the people to destroy their idols and embrace Christianity. Another Frankish bishop who did something for the spread of the Gospel among the German tribes was one Eligius. He had been a goldsmith by trade, and was rich, benevolent, and very devout. "'hen engaged in his trade he spent large sums of money in the interests of Christianity. A favorite plan with him was to redeem captives, which he did in large numbers-sometimes as many as one hundred in one transaction-and after giving them some knowledge of the Gospel he would send them back to their homes, from which, hy the fortunes of war, they had been carried off. In 641 this pious and worthy man was appointed bishop of Tournay and Noyon, and during 18 years he continued to carryon missionary work in the neighboring territory. He was noted as much for his liberal and evangelical views as for his piety and generosity.

But the most extensive mission work among the German tribes in this seventh century was done by missionaries from Ireland. At this time the zeal, learning, and devotion of the Irish Church had attracted considerable attention. The religious schools there were noted for their many excellencies and their numerous students. The monasteries were said to be crowded in the fifth and sixth centuries with pious monks willing to engage in enterprises of Christian activity.

The first of these of whom we have information as undertaking mis- sionary work WaS one Columban, near the end of the sixth century. His method was very practical. Born in the province of Leinster, he was ed~ ucated in the famous monastery of Bangor. At the age of 30 he felt im- pelled to enter a larger field of usefulness than seemed open to him in Ireland, and taking twelve young men with him, he crossed over to the Frankish kingdom. Christianity had been established there. Still, find- ing a great deal to be done, and being entreated to remain within the king- dom of the Franks, he did so. His aim was to make his colony of monks support themselves by their own labor, and while doing so they could set an example of industry to the natives around them, teach them some of the arts of husbandry, and also the truths of the Gospel. Accordingly a suitable spot was selected at a place called Anegrey; a humble lodging was built as a monastery, and the forest was cleared by the labors of his monks. At first they had great hardships, and were reduced to the greatest straits for the very necessaries of life. But Columban was a man of great determination and courage, and his influence over his followers was lIuch that even in the greatest difficulties he was able to cheer them, and induce them to persevere. After a time the method and discipline of Columban became very popular, and families of every rank committed their sons to him for education; and so numerous did his monks become that he established several monasteries. Hard work was a prominent feature in his discipline.

But he had other difficultIes to contend with than the poverty and privation met with in planting his mission. His severity of discipline and the strictness of his morals were unpopular with the worldly and dissolute, and he became an object of dislike to many in high places. Then there was another cause of trouble. The usages of the Irish Church did not harmonize with those established in the Frankish kingdom. The most prominent di"ergence was in respect to the Easter observance. The feeling at that time was running strongly in favor of entire u",iformity in the Church. The popes Gregory the Great and Boniface IV. both pressed this matter very resolutely, and Columban was urged to yield and give up his practices imported from Ireland. This he could by no means be per~ suaded to do. And to the Pope Boniface IV., as also to the Frankish bishops, he wrote very earnestly, counselling unity in essentials, while divergence was permitted in such matters as were complained of. He disclaimed any intention of trying to change the customs of the Frankish Church. He only wanted liberty to follow his own methods in his own monasteries in the wilderness; and he intimated pretty plainly to the Frankish bishops that there were other matters of reform of more importance to which they might with profit to themselves and their flocks tum their attention. His appeal did not meet with their approval. A synod was called in 602 to deliherate on the matter. What the immediate result of the synod's deliberations. were does not appear; but shortly afterward a feeling of hostility to Columban sprang up in the Burgundian Court, within whose territory three of his monasteries lay, which became S'J strong that he was forced to yield to it and retire. An order was issued that he should be seut back to Ireland. This, however, was not carried OUL; but, on the invitation of the Frankish king, he removed to a place within the territory of Zurich, intending to carryon a mission to the Alemanui and Suevi, who dwelt in this district. But his zeal deprived him of the opportunity; for, unable to restrain his indignation against gross idolatry, he indisereetly set fire to and destroyed a heathen temple. This rash act raised such a strong feeling against him among the savage natives that he was forced to seek refuge in flight. The result was he forsook this region altogether, retired to Italy, and founded, near Pavia, the monastery of Bobbio. One Gallus, a disciple of his, resolved, however, to remain and continue the work. Following the method pursued by Columban, he selected a suitable spot in the forest, and gathering to him some monks, he set about clearing the forest and cultivating the soil, aiming in this at two things: First, he wished to secure a living for his missionaries, and second, to set un example of cultivating the soil that might be followed by the people. While engaged in these works of husbandry, however, he preached the Gospel. He described to the people God's plan for saving men, and told them that he and his associates were messengers sent to tell them about this great matter. He carefully pointed out to them the sins they were to avoid, reminding them of the judgment of God in time and eternity. By those means Gallus became very influential in the neighborhood, and established a great reputation for sanctity.

But other missionaries, resolved to engage in the same work, also came over from Ircland. In the seventh century it was a common thing for young men to go over from England for the purpose of leading a spiritual life among the monks of Ireland, or to gather learning in their schools. Such visitors were readily welcomed by the Irish Church.

Among these was a young man named Egbert, who, in a time of very severe illness, made a YOW that if spared he would devote his life to work among the heathen. Having recovered, he made arrangements to carry out his vow, and several others of kindred spirit resolved to join him in the work. For reasons that do not appear, Egbert, who originated the mission, did not go with it j but the others carried it out. One Wigbert became the leader j and the northern part of Germany, adjacent to the German ocean, was the field selected. But, on account of the determined and Ditter hostility of Radbod, a powerful native king, little was accomplished, and eventually the mission was given up. This failure, however, did not discourage, and shortly after the same enterprise was undertaken by another man from the same school. A young Englishman, named Willibrord, when about the age of twenty visited Ireland and spent twelve years in study there. After that, moved by the missionary spirit, he set out to prosecute a mission among the Germans where his countrymen had failed. By this time Pepin had subdued part of Friesland, and was able to give some protection to the missionary. Willibrord took twelve compan-

CHILDREN OF FOREIGN MISSIO!iAIUEIl

ions with him, and for more than thirty years he continued his labors amid distressing privations, and in the face of many great dangers and difficulties. King Radbod continued his implacable enemy j but although he threw many difficulties in the way of the missionary, he failed to dislodge him as he had dislodged his predecessors. A characteristic story is told of this king which illustrates his haughty spirit and the strong doctrinal convictions of the missionary. It is said that on one occasion the king presented himself to Willibrord for baptism j but before submitting to the ordinance he wanted to know whether the kings, his ancestors, were in heaven, and whether he might hope to meet them there if he were baptized and went to heaven himself. This question presented no difficulty to the missionary, who at once told him his ancestors were certainly all in hell, as they had died unbaptized. "What business have I, then," said Radbod, "with a few poor people in heaven 1 I prefer to abide in the religion of my fathers." And so he did; he could never again be induced to entertain the doctrines of the missionary.

Throughout the seventh century missionary work in Germany was carried on in a desultory fashion. There were a number of independent laborers, characterized by great zeal and self. denying devotion, yet having no bond of union and no common centre, nor, indeed, any means of sympathizing with and helping each other. There being no central authority, there was no organization, and the different missionaries labored under great disadvantages. And not only did these earnest men lack the stimulus of mutual encouragement, they lacked the help of material support and backing. They often found themselves without supplies in the midst of savage enemies. It can hardly be wondered at that in such circumstances, while many devoted men had engaged in the work there were no results that made a deep impression in respect to the conquests of Christianity. Yet the labors and instructions of these piom! men from Ireland, continued with varying snccess through the seventh century, prepared the way for the work of Boniface in the beginning of the eighth century, who has been called the Apostle of Germany; and to them belongs the credit of in~ augurating that great missionary enterprise and sowing the seed, while the harvest and the glory fell to Boniface.

CHILDREN OF FOREIGN MISSIONARIES.

BY A MISSIONARY.

One of the difficult questions foreign missionaries have to decide has reference to their own children. Climate, want of proper schools, and other canses compel them to pursue one of the following courses: they must either send or take their children home a.nd leave them to the care of others, or abandon their work at a time when best fitted for it, and when it may be most needed. This necessity is one of the severest trials mis- ~j.ollaries have to meet, and calls for strong faith and earnest prayer, It is difficult to see how the work can go on with efficiency if, as a general rule, missionary parents must permanently leave it when it becomes necessary for their children to leave the country where it is done. But is this necessary ~ May not these parents, having cons~crated their children to Christ, leave them, for His sake, to the care of others ~ Evidence of special care bestowed by the Master upon such children has not been wanting, as may be found, it is believed, in the following communication.

The writer has the names of all missionaries sent by the American Board to its different missions in India and Ceylon previous to 1874. And though he has not the names of all their children, he has known many of them, and had the means of learning much respccting the history of others.

While he was himself connected with one of these missions for nearly forty years, it was the practice in each for its members to observe a season of special prayer for their children at a particular time each week. How far the facts here given are the result of this concert of prayer cannot be told. But they are interesting and encouraging.

The following statement, though not claiming to be complete, is the result of careful notice, and is certainly within the truth. Of the sons of missionaries sent by the Board to India and Ceylon before 1874, twentyeight became foreign missionaries, seventeen clergymen in this coun'ry, and seven physicians. Fourteen, after graduating at college, became teachers, or engaged in other useful employment, and eleven are known to have become useful men without a collegiate education. One lost his life in the Union Army during the Civil War. Two died in college, and one soon after graduating. One was pursuing his studies in college a year ago, and three in theological seminaries.

Of the danghters of missionaries mentioned above, twenty-seven, as is known, became missionaries or the wives of missionaries, arid eleven others married clergymen or educated men in other professions. Ten, after completing their education, engaged in teaching or other useful employment, and three, not graduating at public school!'!, became uscful as Christian wives and mothers. One had just entered the institution at South Hadley a year ago, one was in her last year of study preparatory to Wellesley College, one was in an academy iu Massachusetts, and one in a normal school in New Yqrk City.

The following account is confined to the children of a single company of missionaries who went out in the same ship. The company consisted of four men, with their wives, and an unmarried lady. About two years later the young lady was married to a missionary. Fifteen sons and eleven daughters born to this company lived to adult age: All but two or three were sent or carried home by their parents and left in the care of others. These would have been thus left had not their parents been prevented by other causes from" returning to their work in accordance with their earnest wishes. All early became members of the church. Ten of the sons graduated at college. . Six of these became ministers, of whom three went abroaJ. as foreign missionaries, and another would have gone but for the failure of his health. Two engaged in journalism. One studied medicine, and settled as a physician in New York City. One, ha,'wg taught for five years in a college in India, ill now studying in a theological seminary in the United States. Of the other five, one died while a senior in college. One. having graduated at a medical college, is a practising physician in Massachnsetts. One, an eldcr in a Presbyterian church, is a journalist in one of the principal cities of the Northwest. The two others, in useful callings, are active workers in the Sunday-school. Of the eleven daughters, two, after several years' work in a foreign mission, became the wives of missionaries. One graduated at Mount Holyoke Seminary, and went to Ceylon as a missionary. One, after graduating at the same school, engaged in teaching in New York City. One died not long after her marriage to an educated Christian man. One, graduated at a normal school in Massachusetts, taught five ycars, and married the pastor of an important church. One, having received an education in other schools of high standing, graduated at the vYornan's Medichl College, in Philadelphia. One graduated at W cHesley College. taught six or seven years, and is now giving assistance in missionary work in Spain. The other three are all useful as intelligent Christian wives and mothers. These accounts are given with the hope of affording encouragement .to missionaries called for the sake of Christ to put their children from them, and to those who give them sympathy and help. Does not the Lord care for such children?

DECEMBER, 1890.

THE ANATOMY OF NATIONAL LIFE.-In a recent lecture on " Oriental Thought," Professor E. P. Thwing, M.D., of Brooklyn, Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, drew attention to the initial elements, the physical fa!tors revealed in the geographical position of a continent, its climate, scenery, and soil. He quoted the remark of Dr. Coan, of the Sandwich Islands, that the Gulf Stream gave Europe its ,present civilization, and the occlusion of the Pacific at Behring Strait made Polynesia what it is. Volcanoes and seismic disturbances and typhoons, are related, he said, to the abnormal development of the imagination, and the thanatophidia of the East to demonology. Thermal extremes produce indu8trial and so moral instability. The study of physical geography and ancillary themes is fundamental. Only by a patient analysis is a true synthesis and so a rational science gained of human ciyilization. Buckle drew notice to this method thirty years ago, but modern research hal> illuminated the subject and emphasized its importance to every student of ethnology.

ISIDOlt LOEWENTHAl•

ISIDOR' LOEWENTHAL.

BY ROBERT MORRISON, FULTON, MO.

In the Youth's Companion of April 23d ult. there is a quotation from a book entitled" Stories from th,e Battle Smoke," as follows: " A missio~ary to India was shot, as he sat in his veranda in the dusk (If the evening, by bis own chowkeydar, or watchman, whether intent iollally or hy accident will never be known. Near a public road stands hi~ solitary grave. On the stone at the head is the inscription: SACRED TO THE MEMORY of the REV. – – SONNENTIIAL.

J[e tran8lated the Script7£res in the Afghan tongue, and wa.~ I1hot by his own chowkeydar.

, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' "

The above epitaph recalls a flood of memories of the years gone by. The real name of the missionary refeITed to above is Isidor Loewenthal.

God's dealings with him were so strange that a sketch of his history . ,,,n hardly fail to interest God's people of the present day.

lIe was born in Posen, Prussian Poland, A.D. 1826. His parents were .rews. His father knew but little and cared less about religion. His mother was a devoted follower of the traditions of the rabbis. She, however, endeavored to instruct her children in the principles of morality. These parents were in moderate worldly circumstances, and with eight children to rear and educate, of whom Isidor was the eldest, they were unable to give them a liberal or university education. They however did what they could, and did that fairly well.

Our young schoiar was sent to a Jewish school to learn some of the first principles of science, and to repeat prayers of whose meaning he knew nothing. There was no attempt to explain their significance or interest him about such matters more than would have been done to a pet parrot.

By and by he was sent to " a Christian school" -so, at least, in name. There religion, as the teachers understood it, was taught as an accomplishment to fit one for general society or for office in the government, and, of course, was taught in a very lifeless sort of way. There were 01]. this subject two recitations a week, and attendance thereon was optional. The Greek language was in the course, but no hint was ever given that the New Testament was written in that tongue. Hebrew was taught, and Isaiah was read and pronounced by the professor to be nearly equal in beauty and snblimity to Homer. Snch Jews as Philo, Spinoza, and Mendelssohn were commended in contrast to such Christians as Voltaire, Rousseau, Rume, and Bolingbroke. Milton and Locke were called fanatics, and while the learning and genius of Newton were admired, he was pitied because unable to free himself" from the common superstition of the greater part of mankind."

Being unable further to pursue his studies, young Loewenthal became clerk for a merchant; but selling goods was not to his taste. To be among books was his delight. He was a born student. Having no other work, however, open before him, he kept on with his clerkship, and becoming acquainted with some young men about his own age who were radicals in politics, met with them secretly for the discussion of political questions. At such times essays and poetry of their own composition were often read. One of these pieces Mr. Loewenthal was indiscreet enough to publish. Because it criticised the government, he indirectly learned that his arrest had been determined on. He knew the horrors of such a risk as that. This was but two years before the great upheaval on the Oontinent, of 1848. With haste he fled to Hamburg, and with a good deal of trouble secured a passport to New York, whither, in a short time, he arrived, a stranger in a strange land, with but a poor knowled,e of English. He had but little money left, and he hnnted for work very earnestly in New York and Philadelphia, but failed entirely. He then struck out to get work in the country, but failed there too. In despair, he invested -all he had in a small basketful of notions, and began the life of a peddler.

In Novemher, 1846, when but a little over twenty years old, he ealled one forenoon at the house of Rev. S. M. Gayley, near Wilmington, Del., drenched with rain and suffering with cold; he was invited to the fire and to stop for dinner. After dinner, when he had disposed of some of his wares to Mrs. Gayley, he rose to depart, but the kind preacher, noticing how thinly clad the young stranger was, invited him to halt for the night, which he readily did.

Upon inquiry he found, to his surprise, that the young peddler had studied some philosophy and seience, and was master Qf the Hebrew and several modern languages. The preacher became very much interested in his guest, and persuaded him to stay with him until he eould see if some more suitable employment eould be found for him. This he soon seeured in having a elass formed for him in modern languages in Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa., and which he took charge of January lst, 1847. The few weeks, however, that he spent at the house of his benefactor were eventful times to him. Writing to Mr. Gayley some time afterward, lle says: "It was at your house, by your earnest prayers (at family worship), to which I first went half from curiosity, half from politeness, by your humble supplications, that I was first awakened to apprehend my danger, to consider that I had an immortal soul. I began to open the Bible. I was astonished. I waited with eagerness morning and evening for the summons to family worship to hear you pray. I was more and more convinced I was on the wrong path." During the young professor's absence at col-

tsmon

lege, Mr. Gayley followed him with kindly religious counRel, which, though a bow at a venture, proved under God to be the right things said at the right time, and in the autumn following Mr. Gayley baptized him as a member of the Presbyterian Church.

In the fall term of 1847 Mr. Loewenthal entered the senior class in Lafay- ette, and graduated in the June following. Shortly after graduating the Rev. Samuel Miller offered him the position of a teacher in the collegiate school at Mount Holly, N. J. This he accepted and retained for three years, when he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he took a full course and graduated with great credit in 1854. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. While in the seminary he taught classes in the modern languages in the college of New Jersey. He was an early riser and a tireless worker. As a linguist he had few equals and, per- haps, no superior, considering his age. He was a thorough student, at the same time, in mathematic1l and philosophy. There were plenty of open- ings gladly awaiting such qualifications as he had, hut he cheerfully offered himself to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church to go to the Gentiles of India, and was accepted and sailed for his field in August, 1855.

The Society of Inquiry of the seminary selected him as essayist for 1854, and his subject was India as a Missionary Field. The prouuction was one of great merit, and was soon after published in the Princeton Review.

He was below middle size in stature, but lithe and wiry. He had a large hooked nose, a fine black eye, and raven black hair. He was a quiet, modest man, and a man of thorougll consecration. All his powers were cheerfully laid at the foot of the cross.

At Peshawer, the advanced station of missionary enterprise in Afghanis,…, tan at that time, he landed in 1855. He was the pioneer there and alone, but he addressed himself in earnest to the acquisition of that difficult language, the Pushtoo.

Nine years of patient, hard labor passed, and he was able to preach in Pushtoo, Persian, Cashmere, Hindustanee, Arabic, and, in fact, in all the languages and dialects of that polyglot region which he had chosen as his field of labor. Besides this he had just completed a translation of the New Testament in Pushtoo, and was about to begin work on the Old Testament when his earthly work suddenly came to an end.

When in the seminary he was subject to terrible headaches, which caused him to rush out very early in the morning to take an airing, and Rome of the theologues who rose betimes in the mornings used to see him coming back from a walk of two or three miles just as they first looked out. One morning in July. 1864, about daylight he was shot by his own watchman, who said he thought it was a thie;: 'Vhether what he said was true, or whether he was paid to kill one who was hated and feared, as did some men of Asia who were not ahle to resist the wisdom of the Spirit by which Stephen spoke to thEm, will not likely be known on this side of eternity.

ISIDOR LOEWENTIIAL

Tt is hardly probable that that was the first time in all those years that Mr. Loewenthal had come home at that hour and in that way!

To human view it seems mysterious that one so gifted, so eminently fitted for such a field and on the ground and anxious to work, should be cut down. So, however, was it with another grand servant of Christ and misEionary to India, Henry Jl,Iartyn. Both were men of wonderful intellect and rare scholarship, especially in the line of language; and eaeh gave a final work of a New Testament of his own translation-the one to Persia, the other to Afghanistan. Each died young and alone in differents parts of the field, but Tocat and Peshawer are drawing nearer to each other, and hosts of pious dead will soon surround the graves of these young, brave, lonely pioneers.

From Chefoo, China, Mr. G. P. Bostick writes, April lOth, 1891 : " Rev. B. C. Henry says, , The Chinese dress too often means a Chinese house pure and simple, and native furniture, native utensils and native food.' This statement is unjust to a large number of missionaries who wear the dress,· which no more means, in itself, the other things specified than wearing a Prince Albert coat in New York City necessarily means a brown-stone front with all attending luxuries, or a plain dress, squalid poverty. Many who wear the dress live in good foreign style otherwise, and some of them under the same board with Mr. Henry. The C. 1. M. policy is economy, whether you wear the dress or not. I know some of them in foreign dress who live harder than some others who wear the Chinese dress. I know not how to account for Brother Henry's statement, unless he has not mingled with those who wear the dress. " I also read recently something like this, 'If you are shaking in yonr faith and tend to looseness of views, throw yourself into the mission on a foreign field and it will eure you.' Some haye tried this, resulting in their finally giving up the Bible, religion, and God. Work at home might have the desired effect. But for heathen lands we need men well grounded in the faith at all points; others, if not entirely thrown off, will get looser, and teach loose views to others. Faith of all workers on foreign fields will be thoroughly tried, and needs an immovable foundation. " I read also recently an appeal for sending out mechanics as missionaries, to establish all kinds of shops for the natives. In this part of China there is danger of burying the Gospel beneath the accompanying civilizing agencie~, so that God's power unto salvation will not be seen. My vote is, first and last and all the time, for men and women to preach the Gospel, pure and simple, and depend on God for results; already too much time and money are expended in heathen lands on thc side issues. " Amid the many societies undertaking to do the work of the churches, would it not be well to consider how much stress is to be put upon the individual Church-Christ's organization g"

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN l'EitIODICALB

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FORELGN PERIODICALS.

BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.

-The Annual Report of the National Bible Society of Scotland has a very "aluable letter respecting the state of France from Mr. Charles Faulk- ner, " whose long residence in that country, and careful study of events in it, entitle him to be heard on such a question" : " Pius IX. himself never made a greater mistake, and that is saying a great deal, than when he dro"e Jules Simon, one of the fairest, most moderate, and most religiously disposed men in France, from power; and he who would form a just estimate of the acts of the French Govern- ment in relation to the Church, is bound to take the 16th of May, 1877, into account. Passion is an evil counsellor, and the systematic persecution that followed was a great mistake; but the Church only reaped what she had sown. She had tried to strangle the Republic."

Mr. Faulkner then describes all the familiar outbursts of passionate hostility to clericalism, aud, in the train of that, to religion itself, and adds, "In all these respects there is a great change. The government is no longer professedly hostile to the Church, and makes an effort even to be fair, and this is true notwithstanding many seeming exceptions. The programme of an anarchical socialist meeting no longer of necessity in- cludes blasphemy. The administration has ceased, at least openly, to persecute. Priests are no longer eaten every day by the extreme Radical journals. Civil funerals are a diminishing quantity." Notwithstanding various measures bearing hard upon the re"enues and exemptions of tho clergy, Mr. Faulkner says that "there is reason to think that the re- ligious influence of the Church is greater now than it was when the Pope drove Jules Simon from power. In the matter of education she has estab- lished free schools, both primary and secondary, which, her opponents being judges, are a great success. In other departments of work there is the same energy, and it seems possible that the latest attempts to cripple her may have the opposite effect." The Jesuits having been greatly disabled, it should seem as if this revival was measurably independent of them, and guided rather by the deeper religion and stricter ethics of the Dominicans. This, however, is an uncertain guess of my own.

"The same is true of the Reformed Church of France. • .. Ten years ago, a few leading men determined to seek the reorganization of the Church by means of non-official synods, both provincial and general. The attempt was regarded by many with fear and trembling, but it has suc- ceeded beyond expectation, and three fourths of the churches are now formally connected with this revived organization, and the Church, as a whole, is throbbing with organic life as she has not done since the dark days of Louis XIV:'

Mr. Faulkner says, moreover, as fully attested by men of all schools, that" the educated French mind is in a marked degree turning its atten- tion to religious subjects, and that in no hostile spirit; indeed, one of the extreme Radical papers complained the other day that among periodicals such as the Revue des Deux ]tfondes there was not one that treated scepticism with due respect."

Is French Catholicism competent to detach itself from its accretions of superstition ~ It should seem not impossible, since, as Pere Hyacinthe attests, the doctrine of Transubstantiation has been there spiritualized to a degree which seeIllS to leave it hardly distinguishable from Calvin's own teaching, except that the presence of Christ is assumed as existing ante usum. The coarse medireval conceptions of t.he Roman Catechism in this Pl!rticular have never found much acceptance in France.

-The Societe des Missions EvangUiques mourns the loss of M. Eugene Casalis, the eminent founder, with M. Arbousset, of the admirable Lessuto .(or, as we sl,ould say, Basuto) Mission, in South Africa. He died March 9th, at the age of 79 years. M. Eugene Casalis, after his return from Africa, was director aud then honorary director of the mission house. The remembrances of the reawakening of French Protestantism, and of its first development of zeal for the extension of the Kingdom of God in the world at large, were peculiarly embodied in him. His missionary character, profoundly Christian, is described as being peculiarly French, marked by that pervasive sympathy and ready flexibility which distinguished St. Paul, and is a special French characteristic. He was distinguished also for his unmoved adherence to the central missionary idea, the salvation of men and the advancement of the kingdom of God, resolutely putting and keeping all the distracting invitations of science, civilization, national interests in their thoroughly subordinate place, " sacrificing, at need, everything which, in our hands, might become an obstacle instead of remaining a lIimple means."

Various children and grandchildren of M. CaRalis have been or are now his successors in Basutoland.

-The April number of the Presbyterian :Jfessenger, of the Presbyterian Church of England, has a letter from a Chinese graduate addressed to W. Faber, which is interesting, though certainly amusing, as showing the enormous over-valuation of mere literature which is characteristic of China, as, in a less degree, it has until lately prevailed in Europe. Says the worthy gentleman, "The excellent men who undertalw to propagate Christianity and are zealous for the salvation of the world have themselves, of course, good methods as well as beautiful intentions; and assuredly they are not waiting for any prosing of mine on the subject. Still, since Jesus, in revealing the truth of God, has eyen sacrificed Himself to save all mankind of all generations, with a tender commiseration which might move to gratitude even the creatures we eat, why is it that to this day so few in China follow Him ~ ". . . Good medicine is that which cures disease, but good medicine is, for the most part, not palatable, and people are apt to loathe it. If you can by any means make medicine smell fragrant and taste sweet, your use of it in the curing of the disease will be marvellously facilitated and quickened. The doctrine of Jesus is indeed beautiful and is indeed good; but much of the translations of it are inelegant and crabbed, and scholars despise it. If you could by any means impart to the translations a just amount of grammar there would be a rush of believers, and no holding of them back. I would, therefore, advise that the Old Testament be translated on the model of the earliest literature of China (that of the Three Dynasties), that the New Testament be translated on the model of the Han Wei and Tsin writings, that hymns be translated in imitation of our elegant praise songs and ceremonial chants, and that Christian literature generally be rendered in the style of the best masters of Pang (A,D.600-900)."

That translations and hymns should be thoroughly Chinese in form and genius is an altogether reasonable requirement. 'But assuredly the Greek New Testament is not written with any care to make it Attic. To some who complained that Salva tor was not classical, Augustine nobly replied, "Christ made it classical when He came into the world." But the letter, as a whole, which is long, is exceedingly good. The graduate points out how the charge brought against Christianity of neglecting an- cestral honor might be met by tracts showing the thousand ways in which, in Christendom, wealth is diverted from ceremonial wastefulness before the dead to a thousand forms of beneficence, public and private, toward the Jiving." Again, all that can be found in Chinese books which is in harmony with the doctrines of Jesus should be collected into a volume for distribution and for use in preaching." The author says, after speaking of the former prevalence of Buddhism, utterly foreign to Confucianism, " That the religion of Jesus should not mightily prevail in China is a thing totally unprecedented. For myself, I barely know the English alphabet, and have no acquaintance with European literature. Hitherto mathematical and mechanical studies have absorbed my attention and dragged me down, so that I dare not hope to achieve anything in the way of illustrating loftier themes. But I cannot help wiping my eyes in tlager expectation of a glorious moral advance and uplifting."

-The Messenger, speaking of the opium traffic, says, "With the great problems staring us in the face of the future of the Chinese race and of the Russian Empire, in both of which we are deeply concerned, surely it is time for us to set our house in order and get rid of the accursed thing. If we do this in the fear of God it will be the surest safeguard should the day of evil come."

– The Ohinese Recorder for March says, " There is an idea prevalent among foreigners that China can make no advance because she is unwilling to become westernized. If these Asiatics would only array themselves in broadcloth or tweed, and throw aside their strauge tongue and ancient literature for our classic English; or if they could be induced to ape our customs, buy our general merchandise to the exclusion of their own, and submit at once and utterly to the demands of the Westorn diplomat-then we might look for progress. But the fact should be emphasized that China's conservatism has an importance at least in potentia; and what- ever of value in our civilization and whatever of truth in our religion comes at length into her possession will be held with invincible tenacity."

-North Africa mentions t.hat a Shereef not far from Cape Juby, West Africa, has sent for" books and information about the religion of Je~us, the Son of Mary." Mr. W. Summers was expecting to visit him.

-North Africa gives an account of the baptism of EI Hansalee, a Moslem" saint" of Morocco, which reminds one of Simon Magus. He had long vainly striven to reconcile two hostile villages. At laRt the reconciliation was achieved by 1 simple Christian believer. EI Hansal!'!', finding that his power came from his faith in the Messiah, was baptized, but scarcely disguises the fact that it is in the hope of gaining, like Simon Magus, a new degree of " power."

-A Moslem .woman in Morocco,becoming a Christian, besought her husband with an honest but exaggerated zeal to divorce her, which he did, , though very unwillingly. She since supports herself by sewing. A Chris- tian desired to marry her, but desisted from his suit on learning that Christ forbids marriage with a divorced woman. Her husband still wishes her to return, and it is a wonder that her instructors do not refer her to St. Paul's teachings. It seems, strange as it is, that in Mohammedan Morocco Moslems are free to change their religion.

-It seems that there are various sects in North Africa which are almost or quite purely Unitarian, paying little or no attention to any historical claims of Mohammed, hardly as much as our Unitarians of the left pay to the claims of Christ. They will probably be found the least hopeful objects of Christian missions.

-The Calwer Missionsblatt for April, 1891, mentions that all the churches nnder the sway of the King Kscholokol, brother and successor of Sekukuni, have seceded from the Berlin Missionary Society, to set up an independent Basuto Church. The movement is headed by Herr Winter, a nnivcrsity man and a son-in-law of the director of the Society.

-The Mission Record of the Church of Scotland asks, "Is it possible to find healthy sites in Central Africa? On the low belt of country near the c9ast, along the banks of the great water-ways, or on the shores of the inland lakes, such places are rare, if they can be found at all. But on the great central plateaux above the level pf two thousand feet there are large districts where Europeans can enjoy health as good as it is possible to secure within the tropics. Such districts are de!jtined to be the great saving centres of Africa. As examples of such regions one thinks of the Shire Hills, the Lomwe Hills, the Angoni country west of Nyassa, and the lofty table-land lying between lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika. From these centres, when once missionary societies see the reasonableness of such a method, the Gospel of Christ will be carried all round until mission meets mission, with a network of workers allover the continent. The low-lying malarious districts, where no European can live or work, must be won by the native African Church, born and nurtured on these hill regions of Africa, and sent out in its manhood to win the rest of the Dark Continent for Christ. "

-It is known, bllt seldom fnlly apprehended, that the great bulk of the· people of Africa so"uth of the equator, belonging as they do to the Bantu race, are not negroes, though they may not inappropriately be called negroids. A traveller, quoted in the Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, says: "The Bantu is a fine, tall, upright man, with delicately small hands and well-shaped feet, high, thin nose, beard and mustache. They are not black, but generally of a warm chocolate. Some of the men are perfect Greek statues as regards the splendid development and poise of figure. They have pleasing faces because of the perfect good humor that'enlivens their features." One tribe, to the south of Stanley Pool, are described as having not a stupid face among them. The noble heads of the.men make thenl appear as if they were all "members of Parliament." Like the negroes, they are born orators, but apparently on a higher range. ,. A sermon that I heard from one of them," says a missionary, " was as fine as ever I heard in Europe or America, nut only in point of delivery, but in its clearness of reasoning, and in its profound perception of spiritual truth."

-The Moravian Missionsblatt, speaking of the Cafl're tribe of the l'embus, remarks discriminatingly: " The heathen is, on the one hand, not the devilish abomination into which sometimes he is disfigurEd in all good faith, out of pure ignorance, by those who in Christendom, so to speak, beg from door to door for pity on him. No; he has also redeeming traits, clearly discernible traces, though sadly marred and discontinuous, of the original imprint of God's similitude. But, on the other hand, assuredly he is far from being that uncorrupted, harmless child of nature that dimly dreaming worshippers of man would make him out to be. No j his true portrait does not merely include individual shadows and unclean disfiguring spots, Lut the whole foundation of his moral being is awry, untrne, impure, and unholy, plainly attesting his indispensable need of the redemption in Christ, that only through the energy of grace and the inner transformation wrought thereby can he be restored to his true temporal and eternal destiny. "

-The Rev. E. C. Gordon, in the April Intelligencer, gives a dismal picture of the devastations wrought in Uganda by the wars of succession. " When I read in the papers, of Buganda being a garden, and its population 2,000,000, I see what Buganda once was, not what it is now. It is very difficult to judge of numbers j still I do not fancy more than 10,000 fighting men could be found in the whole land."

-Bishop Smythies, before returning to Africa, was presented to the Emperor William. The latter remarked significantly, "The Mohammedan religion is a very simple one, and takes great hold on those who profess it. Surely in the face of it there is great necessity for Christian missionaries to act unitedly."

-The French missionaries of Lessuto are devoting special attention, by large ~ssemblies and otherwise, to the spiritual unification of their work, being convinced "that to have in a heathen country a church strong, compact, zealous, and pure is the best means of presenting to unbelievers the Gospel, with its most attractive and most convincing fruits."

M. Vollet, of the Zambesi Mission, has attended these reunions, and takes back with him Pauluse, a native Basuto evangelist, and his wife, to labor among the Barotsis.

-M. Boegner, Director of the Paris Maison des .Missions, well sums· up the difficulties of Northwestern Africa, "These African churches give you the impression of vaHt caldrons in ebullition j everything there is in fermentation, in conflict j good, evil, the influences of race, of environ- ment, and, above all, of Christianity. We have to belicve, to hope that this last will carry the day and bring forth noble fruits in the moral life, as it already does in the domain of religious feeling. The former are not lacking, but are behindhand. This is the characteristic trait of these churcl~cs: a retardation of character compared with sentiment and the manifestations of this sentiment. " – -Blantyre has had stroke upon stroke in the deaths of Dr. Bowie, Mr. and Mrs. Henderson, and the pioneer, the Rev. Robert Cleland. "But though the workman dies, the work goes on." A pastor and a physician in Scotland have already offered. The Free Church, which has already eleven missionaries on the banks of Lake Nyassa, sends out five mOle this spring. Adding the Moravian Mission and the Berlin Mission, about to be established here, Lake Nyassa will become an eminent centre of Christian effort in Africa, hesides the close connection of friendship hetween Blantyre and the Universities' Mission. As says the Journal des Missions, their numerousness is an added element of success. "Into these mUIder- OUB climatcs men should go in numbers, or remain away." _co As was to be foreseen," remarks M. Kruger, in the April J01J,rnal, " the great partition of AfriM in 1890 has given a new impulse to the zeal of the Christ.ian Church for the advancement of the kingdom of God in the Dark Continent. This fact attests anew that Christian missions do not hover in the ether of a faith detached and isolated from everything which agitates and interests mankind at large; they cling, by their natural fibres, to all the preoccupations of their time, to the character of the race, of the people, of the church which maintains them. But a supernatural principle, the Spirit of God, governs Christian missions, predominates over every other motive, and keeps in view, without suffering itself to be divested from it, the propagation of the Church of Jesus Christ."

-After thirty-six years of labor, the London missionaries have baptized a man and a woman, the first two converts of the terrible Matebeles, between the Zambesi and the Limpopo. Hitherto, whenever promising dispositions appeared in any way under the long tyranny of Mselekazi, the man disappeared. A second tyrant has sncceeded, but apparently somewhat less implacable.

-C. Busse, in the April Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrijt, says of Mackay, " Although he was not an ordained clergyman, his deeply rooted piety, his burning missionary zeal, his many-sided cultivation, his splendid adaptability, his inexhaustible energy, his blessed activity, and his childlike humility have given posterity the right to number him among the greatest missionaries-to set him by the side of his great. countryman, Livingstone."

-The Zeitschrijt just.ly designates the French mission on the Zambesi as " one of the most heroic of our day." It is, though now entirely diiltinct, an offshoot of the Lessuto (BaRuto) Mission. having been founded seven years ag-o "by the valiant COILLARD and his courageous wife." "The difficulties of this remote mission are enormous: a savage people, despotic princes, crnel manners, unbroken power of abject heathen superstition, frequent wars, a dangerous climate, a fearfully oppressive isolation -verily here is the patience and faith of the saints." Their firstling, Nguana Ngombe. gives them infinite comfort. The king's son, Litia, seems likely to be the second. Lewanika himself is thoroughly friendly, upholds the Sabbath and temperance, begins to be ashamed of plundering forays and of the cruelties of his old time, though he shows no signs of a renovated heart. Few missions, for their intrinsic interest, deserve more attention or sympathy of prayer."

-King Kharna, who has transferred his capital to the 20,000 strong town of Phalapye, at once proceeded to build a church for 3000 hearers, to which his subjects contributed about $13,000. This well-ordered Christian government, it is to be hoped, may survive the impact of white seekell! of land and gold. Khama is a convert of the London Missionary Society.

-The Basel Mission in Cameroon (West Africa) in 1890 lost four laborers by death, while the superintendent was obliged to return for awhile to Europe. Nevertheless, says the Zeitschrijt, a series of joyful expcrieneps hal:' in a measure given compensation, and awakens excellent hope for the future. The mission has grown both in influence and extent. A number of out-stations have been added to the four main stations, while " from almost all the towns of tue country men resort to us to learn about , God's matters.'" In many places there are formed societies of "men of God"-i.e., seekers for the truth. More than twenty native hclpers, a number being of marked capacity, assist the missionaries.

-The sad experiences which the Church Missionary Society has had with its mission on the Niger have led it to decide on supplying hereafter the principal stations with Englishmen, to whose oversight the colored clergy lire to be submittcd. The aged Bishop Crowthcr, remarks the Zeitschrift, seems thereby to become rather ornamental than effective. No charge lies against him, however, except too easy a discipline, and the 8US- pension of his 80n, Archdeacon Crowther, has been annulled by the Society. The Zeitschrift well says, "Go forward in the use of native helpers, but make haste slowly."

-The Allgemeine Missions·Zeitschrijt for April says, "In reatling the books of modern African travellers and contrasting them with Livingstone's journals, we cannot avoid a feeling of sadness on a double account: first, that they have not kept their hands frce from the shedding of hnman blood, and then, that in their reckoning, modesty does not appear to count for a virtue. "

-Tho colonial politicians of Germany seem to have concluded an alliance offensive and defensive with Roman Catholic missions, which lend themselves very easily to political schemings. Of this the hard-hearted and almost wantonly mnrderous Dr. Peters is a notorious example. lIe boasts of having persuaded Mwanga to ordain" that Mohammedanism should be absolutely forbidden, and made subject to the punishment of death 1"

-Stanley is said to be sufficiently open to blame for recklessness of human life; but Peters actually taunts him with cowardice, because he not unfrequently, in order to spare bloodshed, preferred circuits, and sometimes paid toll, etc. 1 Any way seems to be the object of contempt to Dr. Peters which is not cloven right through human bodies. Have the Germans reverted to the heathenism of thAir ancestors? But against all this cruelty the leading missionary magazine of Germany, with the missionary magazines generally, raises an unfailing protest.

The Ohurch Missionary lntelligencer for April remarks, " Although the name of the United States does not appear among the Powers whose , spheres of influence' and protectorates arc being so carefully marked out upon the map of Africa, the American' sphere of mis.~ionary influence' is neither small nor unimportant. On the north, in Egypt, the United Presbyterian Church has a vigorous mission, with over thirty·five missionaries from America, and over 3000 communicants in their churches. Their educational work is far advanced, and in the regions about Cairo and As~iout Christian enterprises are successfully prosecuted. Down the west coast, at Mendi, there is an American mission, while in the Republic of Liberia (whatever its shortcomings may be), the Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, and American Presbyterian churches are all hard at work. At Muhlenberg, on the St. Paul River, the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod has a prosperous work, while the Presbyterian Board is located at the Gaboon and Corisco. On the Congo the American Baptigts find a congenial field of labor, while on the Lower River and in Angola, Bishop Taylor is established. To the south of Angola lies the West Central Africa Mission of the American Board, which after only ten years of labor gives promise of great efficiency. The work of the same Board in Natal, where it has been established for fifty.five years, is well known. I~ has now sixteen churches wIth nearly 1200 members. To the north of Natal again the Board has its East Central African Mission, near. Inhambane, whence it is purposed to push forward into the interior. There are in all nine American missionary boards laboring' for the redemption of the Dark Continent, with 204 missionaries, 359 stations, and an annual expenditure exceeding $237,000."

-Th~ Burma Bible and Tract Society, in its Annual Report for 1890, says, "How every true heart is pained at the thought that the two great English speaking nations that are doing so much to bless heathen lands, are at the same time doing so much to curse them! Oh, that they would cease to do evil, and learn to do well! Then would they bless only, and not curRe ; and in blessing they wonU be blessed. But in cursing, they shall certainly be cursed. The God of the terrible Civil War in the United States, and of the Indian Mutiny, is unchangeable and cternal." ~Te notice that Sir Charles II. T. Crosthwaite, Chief Commissioner for Burma, is President of the Society.

-The Indian Witness statell that the Viceroy, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and Lady Lansdowne, have taken particular pains to manifest, by personal attendance and otherwise, their interest in Dr. Pentecost's labors.

-Bishop Thoburn, quoted by the Bombay Gum'dian, avows that there is one Hindu notion to which he is a good deal of a convert-namely, that there is religious merit in planting a tree. "In India it certainly ought to be everyone's aim to plant as many trees as possible, in every place where they can have a chance of taking root and growing, either to yield fruit or shade to generations yet unborn. Every missionary should see that his compound is well planted with trees; and there are hundreds upon hundreds of small plots of ground under the control of missionaries in villages and country places where valuable trees might easily be planted and cared for. "

-Here is a pleasing piece of information from Kaukab i Hind (Star of India), "During the past year the profit on opium for the Government of India fell much below the estimate, and for several years the cultivation of opium in Cawnpore District has been a losing business, and consequently the offices have been closed and the buildings will soon be sold."

-The Harvest Field, published by the Methodist Episcopal brethren of Madras, opens, in its March number, with a paper by the Rev. G. Pittendrigh, on the New Testament place of preaChing in the New Testament as a means of propagation of the Gospel. The author, before taking this up, lays strong and, as it appears to us, just emphasis on the entire flexibility of methods allowed by the New Testament, so that the object is the same, and of course that possible aberrations are continually checked by a Christian instinct kept fresh from the New Testament. He signifies that to worship the mere Jetter of "apostolic methods" is something that is thoroughly unapostolic. The Lord God of the prophets and apostles is still with His people. And lie who gave wisdom to Paul to work in the Jewish and Roman world will not withhold it from Paul's successors, who are called to work in the Indian world. New Testament method, are often inapplicable in new conditions; New Testament principles are always supreme.

Mr. Pittendrigh believes that educational and medical agencies in India are largely leavening the Indian mind, and preparing a class a good deal like the imperfec.:,t proselytes of the Empire, among whom, in the fulness of time, as among them the word of preaching will run like fire among dry grass.

-The Harvest Field says of this REVIEW, "The tone of the magazine is healthy. the articles readable, the information generally fresh, and it is unquestionably the best missionary magazine."

-Mr. Whitton, writing in the Helpmeet, the women's organ in connection with the Free Church of Scotland, says, "You will have heard of the bill at present before ·the Viceroy's Council to raise the age of consent ftom ten to twelve. I am sorry to see that the Calcutta native press are almost universally against this change. Calcutta is gaining an unenviable notoriety by its resistance to all reforms. I hope the government will stand firm, and that the bill will soon become law. The law will do good in many ways. Among others~ it WIll tend to keep girls longer at school, and so help on the great cause of female education."

-The Rev. William Stevenson, of the Free Church, says, "Every Hindu girl of respectable family must be married, not merely as soon as she reaches maturity, but long before it, while she is still a mere infant.

The higher the caste, the earlier does tyrannous custom demand the cele- bration of the ceremony. The origin of this extraordinary system is attributed to the old times of disorder and insecurity, when there was no safety even for little girls, save under the legal protection of a husband.

However the custom may bave first originated, it was established at a very early period in the history of Hinduism, on a more sacred foundation.

It was declared to be a divine ordinance and incorporated with the most hallowed rites of their religion. The dogma that underlies this iustitution, as well as the other outstanding institutions regarding women in India- their seclusion within the zenana and perpetual widowhood- is the thorough and irredeemable depravity of woman's nature. Hinduism first publishes the grossest libel on woman, and then treats her as if it were true. It de- clares her utterly incapable of freedom, and then enslaves her. Notbing is too bad to expect of women, and accordingly the only guarantee for the purity and respectability of the family is the maintenance of a system which marries them as infants, secludes them 'as wives, and practically entombs them as widows. And this system is guarded in every part of it by the most sacred sanctions of religion.

"Strange as it may appear, the women who suffer are themselves the main upholders of the corrupt idolatrous system that enslaves them. They hug their own chains, and bind even the men in the same bondage. But it is because they do not know any better. Their life is entirely centred in the home, and all the reverent instincts of their heart cling to the sacred traditions of their caste. To them, hid in their prison houses, Christianity is invested with all the terrors of the unknown. But let its pure and gra- cious light shine in upon them, let them see their own dark customs in the brightness of its beams, and their hearts will respond, their consciences will spring into activity, and the woman's influence, which is ever the subtlest, most penetrating, and, therefore, most powerful force for'the elevation of society, will erelong dissolve the ancient system of corruption and cruelty.

For this let us labor and pray." , -The Marchioness of Dufferin, whose husband has been Viceroy of India, says, as quoted in the Church of Scotland Mission Record, "In Oriental countries generally emancipation from the strict rules of the purdah, and the education of women, are apt to mean dissipation and French novels; but in India tbey seem really to lead to a bigher life. The educated Indian ladies I bave met retain all the remarkably feminine character of their race; they lose none of tbe modesty of their demeanor, and I have never seen a sign nor have I ever heard the faintest whisper of any levity of their conduct."

-The Mission Field says that a native Christian, who had been very unwilling to make the customary annual offerings, but had done »0, paid the next year three or four times as much as was looked for as bis tithe on plantain cultivation. "I have realized," said he, " the blessing of making God my partner."

-The late Bishop Sargent's venerable coadjutor in the fruitful field of Tinnevelly, the eminent Bishop Caldwell, wbo bas so long worked for Christ there, in connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, as Bishop Sargent in connection with the Churcb Missionary Society, has at last felt constrained by the burden of age to lay down his episcopal cbarge. Both these bishops have been, in form, coadjutors to the Bishop of Madras, but each has in fact had a distinct episcopate over the converts of his own society.

-The Ohurch Missionary Intelligencerfor April, 1891, has a profoundly interesting article by the Rev. G. Ensor, explaining more thoroughly than anything we had seen before the slow but irresistible advance of Brahmanism, and the gradual way in which, in a large part of India (especially in the Ganges valley), it has so interwoven itself with" the kindred points of heaven and home," tbat the influence of the medireval priesthood of the west, though supplying to Mr. Ensor various illustrations of startling force, appears in the comparison a light and shallow thing. Anyone that will read this article on the Sanctions of Sapinda will rather wonder that Chris- tianity has made so many converts in India than that it has made no more. That the fortress has not been found altogether impregnable seems to have been largely owing to the fact that the Dravidian South has never yielded to the full force of Brahmanic pretensions. And the Aryan current, in sweeping over the Punjab, had not yet developed its sacerdotal strength. But between the Five Rivers, the Eastern Sea, and the Vinethya Mountains . there was seen in full force that junction of the king and the priest, out· giving in fact the proud theories of Boniface VII!., and of which Sir Henry Sumner Maine says (as quoted by Mr. Ensor), "A more awful tyranny never existed than this which proceeded from the union of physical, intel- lectual, and spiritual ascendency." And though the teeth of the lion have been drawn by the island conquerors, yet the terror of a hundred genera- tions of subjection still weighs the people down.

It should appear that, by a canonical though neglected doctrines of Hin- duism, referred to in a government decision quoted in the Bombay Guardian, native Christians ought to be accounted equal to Brahmans. The Shastras, it seems, declare that the caste of the monarch, be it what it may, is always equal to the highest!

-The fluctuations and gradual advance of an Indian mission are in- terestingly illustrated in the table of average annual increase of communi- +, +, +, cants in the Ahmednagar Mission of A. B. C. F. M. during twelve quinquen- nial periods, beginning with 1831. It is as follows: 3 3 1'1 +, +, +, H t, 1'1 74 51 42 +, 92, l46, 149, 171 -r. .

1891]. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

BDITED A!{D CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.

The Internationa.l Missionary Union-Eighth Annual Meeting, [J. T. G.] It was a great meeting-that of the ble of covering with its spacious verano International Missionary Union at Clif- das a thousand persons. There must ton Springs, N. Y., from .June 10th to have been that number seated in the 17th. Many things which have inter- audience the evening it was dedicated by ested the cider members of the Union the President of the Missionary Union, took on more satisfactory and definite when the beautiful service which had'" form. The Union has from its begin- been arranged was presided over by ning been" on wheels." These were that widely known and everywhere loved taken off, probably never to be used servant of all who come near him, Rev. again. The Union has determined to L. Bodwell, chaplain of the Sanitarium. meet always at Clifton Springs, and al- We will not try to describe the taberwayson the second Wednesday of June. nacle itself. It is not like the taber- One object of this is, that persons may nacle of old, but no architect gave the know without notification, in making pattern, and yet it is perfectly adapted their alTangements for returning from for all the purposes for which it was de· their foreign fields, where and when they signed. A double ·roof secures ventilaare to meet with this grand body of their tion when the glass doors are closed on fellow-laborers from all quarters of the account of chilly weather, and the tranglobe, for a week's consultation, devo- soms further this object. All can be tion, and fellowship. It is well to say thrown open, and the freest circulation now to all missionaries abroad that they of air secured as needed. Members of need not wait for invitations to the the Union in every land will rejoice, and meeting. Service in foreign fields con- all missionaries will recognize with gladstitutes any person a member of the ness that there is here a great centre Union on signing the Constitution. where the entire mi,ssionary force is They should come without ceremony. afresh made to feel that they have a but not without notification to the Presi- home. dent or Secretary, unless that is really unavoidable. The number of missionaries in at- tendance this year was slightly in ad· There were advantages attached to the vance of any former year. Ninety·two .. movable feast," but there are greater missionaries who had rendered an aggrein the settled life of the Union, as things gate of perhaps twelve hundred years are possible that were not under the old of service in connection with the sevplan. But how has all become possi. eral societies were present. They came ble? Just this way. Dr. Henry Foster from fields stretching from Hudson's has loved the Union and built them a Bay to Buenos Ayres, and from the tabernacle and asked them to be his great wall of China to the Sandwich guests always. That seemed wonder- Islands; from the Bosphorus to Ispafully in the order of God's Providence. han, and from Africa on the Zambesi, and the union accepted the proposal the Gaboon, and the Kongo, and the with more gratitude than often gets form Cape of Good Hope. It was a polyglot in words. The tabernacle itself was crowd. speaking, singing, and writing formally tendered on the evening of its more languages than could perhaps be dedication, Jnne 9th, and the action of spoken by any philological society in the Union formally announced to the the)and. if not more dialects than any public with grateful phrase to Dr. Fos_ learned society ever used in assembly. ter at the closing session of the meeting. It represented very widely all depart- And what a beautiful edifice it is! capa· ments and branches of the General Church of the United States and Cana- others we have no room to write. da, and even took its members from Neither can we do more than mention the English Presbyterian, and the Free the excellent symposiums of the ladies' Church of Sootiand, in its noble repre- meetings, in which vast stores of insentative, Rev. Dr. Narain Sheshadri, formation were disclosed, and much of Bombay. 'l'hey only tarry. Three heroic work reported. We may furnish fourths of the number are expecting just one illustration of the work which to return to service in the foreign field, these and other missionary ladies have and to do yet more to hasten the con- done beyond their usual lines: version of the benighted peoples of the 1Imh. There were two new missionaries ,Mrs. Mix, of the Baptist mission in who had just been appointed by their Burma, took the manuscript of the Sh~n boards to enter upon foreign service. Bible, beginning with the New Testa- ment, and gave it a careful reading after The papers which were read were of it had been compared with Dr. Cusha high order. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin pre- ing's own copy, and was supposed to be sented two, one on "Proportion and perfect, and before it was sent to the Harmony in Missionary Work," and printer. She found many mistakes to one in connection with the able sym- correct, and frequently found places that. posium presented one day by Dr. Kel- she wished to change in expression. logg, of Toronto, Dr. Hamlin, and Mr. Dr. Cushing accepted and incorporated William E. Blaokstone, of Chicago, on many of her suggestions. the Jews. That was in every way a remarkable discussion. Sometimes she took charge of the printing for a short time and gave Dr. Among the papers was one by Dr. Cushing a chance to take a much-needed George W. Wood, giving some special change. When she had finished the features of the History of the American reading of the, New Testament and be. Board; one by Rev. J. Taylor Hamil- gan on the Old Testament, Dr. Cushing ton, Secretary of the Moravian Millsion- said he had no time to look at the arySociety, on the Leper Hospital at "copy" and she must compare it with Jerusalem; one from Professor Gil- his and make it ready for the printer. more, of Rangoon: on the New Tide of This she did with about half of the Old I=igration into Burma, and its Bear- Testament before leaving for Amerioa. ing on the Future of Missions in South- During her stay here she has underwestern Asia; one on the Present taken the reading of the stereotyped Movement among the Pariahs of South- proof.sheets of the Shan Bible in order ern India, in Relation to the Christiani. to make it as perfect as possible, and zation of the Country, by Rev. Dr. has read all of the New Testament and John McLaurin, for many years a mis- more than half of the Old Testament, sionary in India, now Secretary of the the reading of which she expects to Baptist Missionary Society of Ontario finish. and Quebec. This paper contained most fundamental theories of mission- The discussions on how to increase ary development, and awakened great the intelligent interest in missions in interest and discussion, receiving most the home church was opened by Dr. hearty endorsement. The Rev. J. M. Nevius, in reporting the Students'Vol- Allis, D.D., of Chili, furnished a good unteer Meeting at Cleveland, and speakpaper on Missions to tbe Iberian Peo. ing on the Movement in general. The pIes. Rev. Dr. Happer, of Canton, and consideration of this subject was broad- Rev. Dr. Shedd, of Persia, also sent ex- ened into a general conversation on cellent papers. ways of stirring up the churches, the young people as represented in Young Of the many able addresses by such Men's Christian Associations, Christian men as Drs. Nevius, Jessup, Chamber- Endeavor Societies, and similar organi. lain, Kellogg, Hamlin, Sheshadri, and zations. The platform meetings were of a high order, not one dull nor tame Kelsey, M.D., Japan; 1883, Rev. W. C. Longden, China; 1883, Mrs. W. C. Longspeech being made in all the week. den, China; 1847-54, Mrs. D. D. Lore, Argentina; 1879, Mrs. A. W. Marling, The following officers were elected for W. Africa; – – , Rev. J. McGuire, India; 1870, Rev. J. T. McMahon, the coming year: President, J. T. India; 1851-76, Mrs. L. W. Mellen, Natal; 1879, Mrs. B. ,T. Mix, Burma; Gracey, D.D., Rochester, N. Y.; Vice- 1873-83,Rev. James Mudge, D. D., India ; 1868, Miss Isabella A. Nassau, W. Africa; Presidents, Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., S. L. 1881, Rev. F. L. Neeld, India; 1881, Mrs. F. L. Neeld, India; 1853, J. L. Bald.win, D.D., M. H. Bixbee, D.D.; Nevius, D.D., N. China; 1853, Mrs. J. L. Nevins, N. China; 1876, Rev. A. A. Secretary, Rev. William H. Belden, Newhall, India; 1879, Miss Ella J. New- ton, China; 1882, Miss Mary W. Niles, Bristol, Conn.; Associate Secretary, Mrs. M.D., China; 1872-89, Rev. Albert Nor- Dr. C. C. Thayer; Treasurer, Rev. James ton, India; 1883-88, Miss A. E. Ottaway, Mudge, D.D., Clinton, Mass.; Librarian, Guatemala; 1880, Miss F. E. Palmer, C. C. Thayer, M.D., Clifton Springs, Burma; 1866-86, Rev. H. T. Perry, Tur- N. Y.; .Executive Committee, Rev. E. P. key; 1884, Miss Fidelia Phelps, S. Africa; Dunlap, Rev. J. A. Davis, D.D., Re,.. 1878, Miss Harriet P. Phillips, India; M. H. Houston, D.D., John McLaurin, 1882, F. D. Phinney, Burma; 1879, Rev. D.D., C. W. Cushing, D.D., Mrs. O. L. N. J. Plumb, China; 1878-80, Miss Mary George, Rev. Henry T. Perry. Priest, Japan; 1880, Rev. E. H. Rich- ards, Zambesi, Africa, and Upper Kon. A farewell meeting was had the last go ; 1878, Rev. W. H. Roberts, Burma; evening to bid God-speed to the large 1878, Mrs. W. H. Roberts, Burma; number of the misRionaries present who 1885, Miss Eva L. Rolman, Japan; expect to return to their fields before the 1884, R9v. W. B. 8cranton, M.D., next annual meeting. The Secretary, Korea ; 1884. Mrs. Mary F. Scranton, Rev. Mr. Belden, having been detained Korea; 1883, Susan A. Searles, Japan; by illness, the Rev. James Mudge, D.D., 1869, Rev. D. Z. Sheffield, N. China; served in his stead during the week with –, Rev. Narain Sheshadri, D.D., marked efficiency. India; 1886, Miss L. B. Smith, Japan; 1870, Miss Fannie J. Sparkes, India; The following missionaries were present: 1874-78, Mrs. S. C. Adams, Ja· • David Stevensoii., M.D., China; pan; 1874, Thomas Barclay, Formosa; 1874, Mids Mary E. Tulmage, China; 1886-87, Mrs. G. A. Bond, Singapore; 1874, Miss K. M. Talmage, China; 1864, Mrs. T. W. Burkholder, India; 1868-73, Rev. C. C. Thayer, Turkey; 1853-83, Mrs. Albert Bushnell, West 1868-73, Mrs. Mary F. Thayer, Turkey; Africa; 1862, Rev. G. W. Chamberlain, 1883, Mrs. M. T_ True, Japan; 1871, Rev. Brazil; 1862, Mrs. G. W. Chamberlain, L. M Vernon, D.D., Italy; 1867, Miss Brazil; 1879, Miss L. B. Chamberlain, Isabella Wat8on, Bllrma; 1872-90, Mrs. Turkey; 1884, Rev. Charles T. Cocking, Rev. J. E. Walker, China; 1882, Rev. Japan; 1884, Mrs. Oharles T. Cocking, G. L. Wharton, India; 1880, Rev. W. Japan; 1879, Miss A. M. Oolby, Japan; J. White, China; 1880, Mrs. W. J. 1878, Miss Edna S. Cole, Siam; 1882-86, White, China; 1849-89, Mrs. A. T. Mrs. S. Cross, Siam; 1878-79, C. W. Cush- Wilder, Natal; 1880-90, Rev. O. W. ing, D.D., Italy; 1881, F. W. Damon, Willits, China; 1838-86, Rev. G. W. Hawaiian Islands; 1884, Mrs. F. W. Wood. D.D.. Turkey, and Mrs. G. W. Damon, Hawaiian Islands; 1875, Rev. Wood; 1881-89, Miss M. P. Wright, E. P. Dunlap, Siam; 1882, Miss Anna Turkey; 1862-68, Rev. Egerton R. S. Geisinger, India; 1874, Mrs. O. L. Young, Hudson Bay, and Mrs. Egerton George, Burma; 1861-68, Rev. J. T. R. Young. Gracey, D.D., India; 1861-68, Mrs. J. T. Gracey, India; 1881, Rev. G. H. SUMMARY Oll' MISSIONAllIES PRESENT. Gutterson, India; 1874, Rev. J. G. Hall, Mexico; 1837-77, Rev. Cyrus By Fields: India, 16; China, 15; Hamlin, D.D., Turkey; 1883, Miss M. L. Hammond, Guatemala; 1866, Japan, 12; Turkey, 7; Persia, 1; :Rev. V. C. Hart, China; 1864, Rev. A. Africa, 7; Burma, 7 ; Siam, 5 ; Korea, Hartmann, Australia, and Delaware Ind- 3 ; South America, 3 ; Central America, ians ; 1864, Mrs. Mary Hartmann, Aus- 2; N. W. America, 2; Australia, 2; tralia and Delaware Indians; 1879-89, Miss Mary E. Hartwell, Siam; 1879, Miss Italy, 2 ; MeXiCO, 2 ; Syria, 2 ; Hawaiian Ada Haven, N. China; 1881, Rev. J. W. Islands, 2 ; Syria, 2 ; Mr.laysia, 1. To- Hawkes, Persia; 1846-76, Rev. S. R. tal missionaries, 91 ; newly appointed House, M.D., Siam; 1881, l'[iss oJ. H. Honston, Mexico; 1887-89, Miss Meta missionaries, 2 ; grand total, 98. Howard, M.D., Korea; 1862, Rev. Samuel Jessup, D.D.,Syria; 1862, Mrs. AnnieE. Jessup, Syria; 1864-76, Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D,D•• N. India; 1878, Miss Adaline Action had by the L M. U. on Public in that country, so vast in possessions Affairs. and so rich in promise.

TEE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S PAT- American Relations with Ohina.

RONAGE OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIO Viewing the Chinese as a civilized though heathen people inhabiting a ABROAD. country in climate, soil, and many geo. graphical peculiarities like our own, The International Missionary Union with a population six times greater than would express its regret and amazement ours, with a power for muscular effort at the act of our Government through and endurance inferior to no nation on the Secretary of State, by which the earth -our neighbors on our Pacific Government has been committed to the shore-we lament the unjust and cruel policy of undertaking to increase the and, to us, disgraceful treatment which sale of the products of our breweries they have received at our hands. by officially introducing and commanding them to the favorable notice of the We view it as being unwise as well people of Mexico and other adjacent as unjust to provoke hostility and recountries. taliation from the greatest empire of the East, now rapidly adding the ele- It can scarcely be conceivable that ments of power in Western civilization the intelligent officers of the Govern- to-her own mighty system. It will be ment are ignorant of the fact that such to the great injury of oUr commerce, and action puts a serious obstacle in the other nations will reap the advantages way of the work of missionaries who that naturally belong to us. are laboring in those countries, since there is no greater hindrance to the Our very greatly extended and rapprogress of Christian work than the idly increasing Missionary interests defree use of intoxicating drink. serve the attention of our Government as well as our commerce, and our Gov- We therefore, as a convention of ernment has no right to break them up, missionaries, most earnestly beg that to the grief of many millions of Chrisour Government will adopt such meas- tians of all denominations in the United ures as will fully counteract the influ- States. ence of this most unfortunate transaction. We therefore, the missionaries of the International (and Interdenominational) The Brussels Treaty. Missionary Union, in Annual Meeting assembled at Clifton Springs, N. Y., do This Union is not undmindful that earnestly req]1est all our Missionary Secgreat interest has been awakened by the retaries in the United States of America fact that the United States Senate did to petition the Government at Washingnot see fit to declare in favor of uniting ton to redress the wrongs inflicted upon with other powers in Europe in what the Chinese, and to establish and seek to is known as the Brussels Treaty, the foster the most friendly relations with ostensible aim of which is to secure our great neighbor. the abolition of slavery, the suppression of the rum traffic, and the indis- Appeal to the Ohnrches. criminate sale of fire-arms in Africa. The International Missionary Union, to While we do not assume to be in possession of all the facts which would en- the Ohurches which they representable us to judge accurately of all the political bearings of this subject, we sin- GREETING: cerely hope that some adjustment may be made which will secure the full moral We, members of the International effect of the Government's participation Missionary Union. on behalf of the sevin the suppression of these evils, which eral missionary fields from which we are such deadl'y foes to all real progress have come, and in the name of our sociations and Christian Endeavor Sobrethren now laboring in those fields, cietie8, and similar organizations, and and of our former associates who have we would urge all Christians to unite fallen at their posts j and, above ali, in with us in the prayer that these organithe name of our blessed Lord, who has zations may be still more abundantly commissioned the Church to disciple blessed and used of God for the adall nations, make this appeal to the vancement of His cause in the future. churches which we represent. Finally, with a full conviction and We have fallen upon a time of great realization of the utter uselessnesfl of all privileges and responsibilities. The human efforts and pecuniary gifts, prayer of the Church that God would without God's presence and aid, we open the world t'1 Christian effort im- would call upon God's people to unite plied a pledge and promise on the part in earnest prayer, that the Holy Spirit of the Church to perform her duties as may be poured out on all nations; the way might be opened. that the Lord of the harvest may choose and send forth from Christian lands, At the present time world-wide op- and from converts in unevangelized portunities, and the possession by the lands, many laborers into His harvest, Church of men and means adequate to and that Bis kingdom may come alld world·wide efforts, give to our Lord's His " will be done on ea.rth a.s it is in command to evangelize the nations an heaven." emphasis and urgency hitherto unparalleled. Ordinary consistency and sin- The Outlook. cerity as well as loyalty to Christ, gratitude for our distinguishing mercies, Rev. J. L. Phillips, M.D.. recently compassion for the many millions of appointed Secretary of the Sunday- God's lost children, a sense of personal School Union of India, said: .. Reachindebtedness to them, and the fear of ing Bombay November 30th, 1890, I increasing God's displeasure and the began a Sunday-school tour of India, withdrawal of His spirit from our home and during these five months have churches by neglect or delay in the dis- travelled more than 9000 miles. India charge of present duty, conspire to never presented so many open doors as awaken us to immediate action, and now, and we could find places for thousuch action as shall b'e in some good sands of Sunday-school teachers within degree commensurate with our obliga- a week if we had them. Missionaries tions. of all sects and nationalities are giving our Sunday-School Mission a very We therefore request and beseech hearty welcome. Auxiliary Sundayall pastors and teachers to seek by the school unions have now been organized prayerful study of God's Word, and a in Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Punjab, and familiar acquaintance with the condi- Burma, and before long we hope the tion and needs of heathen nations, to Northwest Provinces, Rajputana, Cenknow more of God's will, and our duty tral India, and Ceylon will be similarly with reference to the world's evangeli- organized. At an annual meeting of zation, and to teach those under their the India Sunday-School Union, held influence the relations to the whole here in Calcutta last December, we world which are necessarily implied in started a Sunday-school journal in Eng- Christian discipleship, and the privi- lish for all India, which is being very leges and duties growing out of those kindly received and will' prove a stron~ relations. bond of union between workers in dis- tant parts. We recognize with devout gratitude to God the work for foreign missions " On returning to my own dear India which has been accomplished by Wom- I find II. very hopeful feeling among IUl'S Missionary Societies, the Students' Movement, Young Men's Christian Asmissionaries generally. The Lord is slave trade of East Africa, though dreadworking wonderfully in this land, and ful, does no~ kill souls, and the nations we look for larger ingatherings. The will soon stop it (not by Cardinal Lavinext Decennial Missionary Conference gerie's society-I distrus~ him; I do not will be held at Bombay at the end of favor his method). In my speaking 1892, and plans are already being made thus (comparatively) lightly of slavery, for it." no one who is acquainted with my poli- tics will misjudge me. But the rum -Rev. Dr. H. N. Barnum wrote from trade kills soul and body and all the Harpoot, Turkey: "I have not the time nations are guilty, America among the to speak of the work here, except to rest, Germany about the worst. HollIay in a general way that it is encour- land, the last to lately assent to a high aging; that prejudices are overcome, custom duty on liquors in the Kongo, and doors are opening much faster than does not, I think, deserve much praise. we can enter them. The greatest source Now the Kongo nation have learned to of discouragement now is the failure of like rum, they will have it at any cost. the home churches to appreciate the The only safety for the nation of Africa emergencies of the foreign field. The is prohibition. I am not radical on the rallying cry of the Student Volunteers, temperance question. I am unable to • The evangelization of the world dur- stand with the per se brethren. Pracing the present generation,' is the true tically I am a total abstainer, under one. Were the whole Church of Christ Paul's • weak brother' decision. It is aroused with this as her motto, she one of the regrets to me in the pending would be irresistible. It seems to me transfer of our African stations situated that the first, the most pressing need on French soil (Gaboon and Ogove) to now, is that the home Church be awa- the Paris Evangelical Society, that our kened to such a sense of personal re- natives will see the lower standard our sponsibility as shall lead ChrisUans to French brethren hold on temperance enter heart and soul into the work of and Sabbath observance. I beg to say giving the Gospel to the unevangelized we are not deserting our native churches nations at the earliest possible moment. simply because we are wearied with ab- We have prayed for open doors; the surd French colonial regulations, but prayer has been answered. 'Ve have because French pIIStors, as Frenchmen, prayed for re.enforcements, and they will be better able to save our native are coming six thousand strong. But Christians from often cruel injustice; how can they preach, except they be our appeals have little effect. The losent? How can they be sent, if their cal governors are vexed with our Engcoming involves the dismissal of native lish language, and think that we love laborers? This will be the result with- England more than we do France." out an increase of funds. Tbe silver and the gold which are the Lord's is Pressing Needs. kept back by His servants; it does not find its way into His treasury." REV. J. H. SHEDD, D.D., OBOOMIAH, PERIlIA.

-Rev. R. H. Nassau, M.D., of West [Among the excellent communica- Africa, sending salutations, wrote: tions to the International Missionary ., Were I with you I could tel you what Union, at its meeting at Clifton Springs, I would talk about ad fatigandum, THE was the following from Dr. Shedd :] AFRICAN LIQUOR TRADE. African domestic slavery is a very mild thing; it " It seems to me, if permitted to SAY corresponds in its deprivation of liberty a word to the Union, my first plea would to unrequited service to our criminals be in behalf of the missionaries in the in prison labor; and even the export work and the supply. I cannot say as to other fields, but in Persia the percentage of mIssIonaries, especially of the need the patient continuance in well- unmarried ladies, who are compelled doing that can even wait for results in to give up the work in a short time such a field as ours! God has sent very after they come out, is very large. The eminent missionaries into Persia, and young,man or woman in America joins noble men and women are coming still, the ranks of missionary volunteers, and but it is a subject that the International it seems that the great question is set- Union DIay well consider again and tled. But facts show that the real cru- again, and emphasize the qualities needed cial period is the first three years on in missionaries, and how our Boards are the field. Many break down in health to get the right men and women, and how or yield to discouragement before they see that each one is in the right place. I have acquired the language or know the am sure you will .pray earnestly for all joys and rewards of the work. in the field. You can realize, as those who have not tried it do not, the strain e. We are very isolated here in Persia and trial, the temptation to despond- -one thousand miles inland from Oon- ency and irritability and dissatisfacstantinople-three or four weeks' travel tion, and the danger of losing faith and to the nearest railroad or seaport_ The courage, and of failure of health and climate is not tropical, but it iii malari- hope-how helpless unless sustainell ous and most of the year very dry, and by the great affection for Christ and by the altitude on the plateau of Persia the power of God through His blessed is four thousand or five thousand feet. Spirit. These hard fields of Islam Our mission station is just now in must have patient, it may be long lagreat need of two single ladies to work bor. They are strongholds, and cannot in our girls' school. Our college in- be captured by a crusade of ill-prepared dustrial departmant seeks in vain, from though zealous missionaries, but by the thousands of volunteers, for the only the fullest offering of ability and right man to act as superintendent. devotion united. Consecrated artisans like Mackay, of Uganda, seem to be scarce in America. " Another phase of the subject is the The words of our Lord are often our relation of young men educated in prayer, 'That the Lord of the harvest America, but natives of the East, to the will send forth laborers into His har- Boards and Missions. Our station has vest.' The need is great of God-sent a large constituency of young men who laborers, who are called as Paul and Bar- have gone or are anxious to go to nabas were, and who shall be called by America. Some twenty of them are the Church, after full trial, beloved now in America, and hoping to come men who have hazarded their lives for back in some capacity to their native the name of our Lord .Tesus Ohrist- land. I send a paper prepared· by our I hazarded,' have given up, placed their station on the subject, which if you lives in a sense out of their own power, have time is well worth considering in fully surrendered all to Christ. Equally its bearing on all fields. important are other New Testament qualities of the true ambassador to the "My second plea to the brethren of unevangelized, such as Jives compleled the Union would be, I think, in behalf in Christ (Col. ii. 10), lives' fully dis- of the native church in our field. This ciplined, or self-control, self.mastery, was presented fully two years agothe temperance of the New Testament, what has been done for the Nestorian and oontentment or self·contained power people and the reformation going forto meet varied difficulties and emer- ward among them. The young misgencies and not become helpless as the sionary is sent out by the home dangers and trials increase, but such as churches. He considers himself as ca.n win their own way and help others their ambassador, and goes back after a to do the same. How much, too, we time to rehearse all that God has done with him, and how he has opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. But as held last Sunday, and it was a memoratime goes on and he becomes an old ble day-the communion Sabbath in missionary the relations are changed. more than twenty of our churches, and He is identified with the peopJe and nearly one hundred and fifty new mem-. church of his field, and is one in his bers received to full fellowship. I can interests with his brethren and sisters well recall the time when all the conand sons and daughters in the faith. verts came together in a single com- Thus in my own case. My church reo pany, but now the bands of believers lations are all here. The Iittle com· are two hundred miles to the west of U8 pany of communicants of thirty.two and still farther east. The outlook for years ago, when I entered on this work, the future is hopeful of rapid growth, have increased tenfold. Our evangeli· if we fail not in well.doing. cal Knooshya or synod (which uses the Aramaic or Syriac language, spoken by " The question of steady supplies to Christ and the apostles) now numbers meet the expansion of this work in co- 42 presbyters, 26 preaching deacons, 19 operation with the native church is allicentiates on trial, 90 elders in the ways with us. For example, in church churches, 91 deaconesses in the building there are twenty places in churches, and about 2000 other memo need, and for this year our two thirds bers, a total of over 2250 in full com· of the funds should be at least $1000 ; munion. This is a little company, but but the board can only say, • Alas! this it is big in its relations to the broad work must wait.' We have at our station field of millions of souls about us that the college and female seminary, with need a Saviour. Last fall I was chosen a united attendance of over 300 in the the moderator or president of the graded departments; 9 are in theology, Knooshya for three years. This means 6 i:a medicine, 50 in the college course, more than simply to preside at the 50 more in the seminary course, etc., meetings. It is an executive office to down to the lowest preparatory. Gardensee that the ecclesiastical affairs move ing, carpentering, sewing, housekeepon smoothly, and that the work of the ing, etc., are going on beside the medi- Church in its boards and missions and cal work. The press, with its monthly pastorates is carried out. At first it paper, school books, and Christian literseemed too great a responsibility to ature needs about $1000 a year to help add to my already full duties, but the it do its work; our church and evangegreat need and possibility of helping listic work some $4000 ; our educational our Church in flO many ways led me to work, $2000 for college ani seminary, accept. Now the words of the apostle, and $1200 for over a hundred other • The Ilare of all the churches,' have an schools; as much more for the hospital, emphatic ~eaning, and lead me to ask that has an aggregate of several thouyour special supplications for our native sand out-door patients and several hunministry and for the whole household dred indoor patients in the year. The of faith. Our Church has many ob- missionaries to keep all this work and stacles in its way, some within Rnd the woman's work over the field besides Bome without, in these lands of intoler- in motion, are now but four families and Illce and anti·Christian influence. The four single ladies. Outside of mission winter and spring just passed have salaries the native church supplies brought some signal blessings. System- about one quarter of the expense, and atic labors, in which missionaries and our mission three.quarters. When the native brethren worked side by side, word of retrenchment comes, • Cut have gone forward in many congrega- down 20 per cent or even 10 per cent,' tions, and always with more or less of we have a serious time, ani! pray more the power of the Holy Spirit. The earnestly that God would put it into Feast of the Resurrection (0. S.) was the hearts of His people to give us just enough steady supply to help on our work in co·operation with the native A NeN Churoh Edifioe at Constantinople. church, without these annual embarrassments and discouragements to us and Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, now mOle than to them as well. But the work goes on fourscore years of age, does not " die notwithstanding, and I ask again your at the top." He is one of the most prayers for our beloved native church vigorous thinkers of the age. But we and people. supposed his well-earned retirement was not to be disturbed; but he is earnestly " r meant to add a third plea for our at work trying to raise funds for a new church at Perea, Constantinople. He needy field of Persia. and Kurdistan. says: In its Christian population in many places it is ripe for the harvest. In " The building is designed for a place the tenfold larger field of Moslem and of worship, and for a church home for anti·Christian sects our native brethren the first Armenian or native Protestant say the spots of harvest are appearing. Church ever formed in the Turkish Em- In places the way is open. In places pire (1846), and for other uses which the way is strongly barred against Chris- will be mentioned. tian influence. One most interesting feature in our work the past year is the .. The history of the many efforts and spirit of a number of young men who failures for a church building cannot be are volunteer workers. Without asking here given, but the set time seems now any help they go from place to place to have come, after forty'. five years' wanpreaching Christ, both to Christians and dering in the wilderness, to cross over Moslems. They find the hearing ear, into the promised land. and are full of faith in the power of the truth and the working of the Spirit. I "This church building will be a hope, if spared till next year, to report monumental church in history. It will more fully of this part of our tield and commemorate the signal and singular work." triumph of God's providence over the well-planned measures of the Czar of -Rev. G. S. Wilder, of South Africa, Russia, to efface the Pl"otestant movewrote to the missionaries at Clifton ment from the empire, and at the close Springs: "I hope some member of the of 1845, the Emperor Nicholas, having Conference will think to submit, and obtained the most exact information of the Conference judge wise to pass, a the progress of the work and of the fail. resolution urging upon our next Con- ure of previous persecutions, advised gress the advisability of its reconsidering the Catholicos ofEtchmiadzin, the titular its late hasty action, whereby it refused head of the Armenian Church, to put to unite with the other powers in the forth his entire ecclesiastical power to convention to suppress the slave trade, efface this disturbing element forever to regulate the sale of fire-arms, and from the empire. the supply of liquor in Africa. Before the last Congress adjourned an honor- " Acting through the Armenian patriable member giwe motion to reconsider. arch and primates at Constantinople, However, it is not at all certain that sustained by the secret influence of the Congress will be ready to reconsider its Russian embassy, the ' Great Anathe. action. It seems to me that all mis- ma' was thundered forth, which de. sionary and religious conventions should prived every evangelical of not only his pass resolutions in strong terms on this spiritual but civil rights. They were subject, and if possible bring our Can. thrust out like Turkish dogs into the gressmen into the light before they streets. Sir Stratford Canning (after.. meet in December next." ward Lord Stratford de Redcliffe) im. mediately took up their case with that firmness, wisdom, prophetic insight, and unconquerable will which haVE) made his name immortal. Ho com· pelled the Sultan, despite all the dip. lomacy of .Russia, Austria, and France, pUblications, but that for the last twenty to organize Protestantism as one of the years her sight had not permitted her legalized religions of the empire. The to do this kind of work."-J. T. G. story is magnificent, but cannot here be narrated. The great emperor was foiled, -Mrs. Gracey. who prepared the artiand most singularly defeated. cle on the Women's Missionary SOCieties, has received the following from Mrs. " Under the new and surprising char- L. R. Keister, editor of the Woman'8 ter of freedom the first native Evan- Evangel, the organ of the Woman's Misgelical Church was formed July 1st, sionary Association of the United 1846. Instead of annihilation there was Brethren: life, there was joy, freedom, wonder, thanksgiving, triumph. What had God " In the May number of THE MISwrought! SIONARY REVIEW you have us reported as collecting during the year $4567. The " From this beginning more than 150 correct figures, as given in the June churches have been formed in the em· Evangel, are $14,567, a difference of pire-1I5 under the American Board- $10,000, probably caused by the accibut in this work the American and Pres- dental dropping of one figure by the byterian Boards were one; and yet this compositor. " first, this mother of all the churches, has no home of her own to this day, and This is the true explanation; but the no visible proof of her existence and his- result is a very great depreciation of the tory. That it has held together for forty- noble work of these good women. Let five years in a nomadic state shows a all persons who make up tables, or otherlife of inextinguishable vitality. wise study the figures, take note of this correction. It seems as if the Church .. It will cheer the whole Protestant on earth was like the Church in heaven, body throughout. It will prove to all in one respect at least, it is a company the world at that central point that the that no man can number, at least not Protestant Church has a permanent and exactIy.-J. T. G. solid existence, which to this day many affect to doubt because its first organ- -It really seems amusing to mark ized body has no sacred temple. the sensitiveness of the English over the wounding of the sensibilities of Moham. " It will be a place of worship for as medans in India by the introduction of many languages as can find a suitable Mahomet into a play in Great Britain.- time on the Sabbath-the Armenian, J. T. G. Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, English. It is a polyglot capital, and religion takes in all the languages.

.. The native church in its poverty has done nobly in pledging $11,000. "- J. T. G.

-Bishop Thoburn, who has recently -On the 17th of February last the been in Rangoon, Burma, says: largest missionary party ever landed in China arrived at Shanghai from San ,. I enjoyed the delightful privilege a Francisco. It was composed of thirtyfew days ago of calling upou Mrs. Ben- five men and women, who were to be nett, of the Baptist Mission, now in her followed the next week by ten or fifteen eighty-third year and in the Hixty-first more, the whole being a party of misyear of her residence in India. She sionaries sent from the United States seemed to be in excellent health, cheer- by the Scandinavian churches of this ful and hopeful. She remarked that for country to labor in Hudson Taylor's twenty years she had worked every day China Inland Mission. correcting proof of Karel! or Burmese

EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS

1II.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

The success of the MISSIONAlIY REVIEW on the mission field, or preparing for it, seems now to be assured. For the past who are unable to pay for the REVIEW.

three years the cost of production has We take pleasure in a public and for- been scarcely covered by the subscrip- mal acknowledgment of our indebted- tion list, notwithstanding the fact that ness to many subscribers who ha'l"e, of at least one of the editors, and he the their own accord, undertaken to induce one who furnished or provided nearly others to subscribe, and some of whom all of the literary matter for its pages, have sent us as' many as a score of did his work almost gratuitously, for the names. Acknowledgments are likewise sake of securing the permanent estab- due to others who have encouraged our lishment of a much-needed review of efforts by helpful, stimulating, and sug- missions that should be independent in gestive words, sometimes of approbation utterance, undenominational in char- and sometimes of advice and kindly acter, world-wide in scope, and cosmo- criticism. We have scarcely ever re- politan in sympathy. ceived a letter of causeless complaint or After more than three years Bnd a half unjust and harsh censure; and when since the REVIEW took its present form, one such has come to our table it has the income of this REVIEW begins to as- been buried under a pile offraternal and sure the publishers that the large amount appreciative commendations.

of money embarked in this enterprise is Just now we have been particularly likely to be returned through the increas- gladdened by receiving the sum of ing number of patrons who give these $207.80 in ope gift, to be applied to fur- pages a welcome to their homes and nishing the student volunteers and sim- hearts. To establish a first-class month- ilar intending missionaries with copies ly magazine of misRions ; to secure con- of the REVIEW. This is the largest sin- tributors to its pages of the highest gle contribution ever received by us for ability, accuracy, and authority from all this purpose. It has been our prayer quarters of the globe; to get an eqitorial that we might be able to put a copy into staff representing the great leading de- the hands of every student preparing for nominations, and a large corps of edi- the mission field at home and abroad.

torial correspondents scattered through We have from the first offered to send a all lands ; to command the support and copy for one year to some such person approval of the most intelligent and now preparing for the work, for every consecrated friends of missions; and dollar sent to us, paying from our own withal to undertake to compensate, even pockets the lacking sum to cover cost on an economical basis, those who write of production. But the aggregate 8um articles for its columns, was no small received to be applied to this object has venture, as we can attest, and it is with been comparatively small and inade- no little gratitude to God and the friends quate. The" friend" above referred to of missions that we now find the scale desired to go to the foreign field, but be- turning favorably toward self-support. ing providentially constrained to "abide Our readers have always outnumbered, by the stuff" instead of going into the four to one, our list of subscribers. Often battle, he sends this generous donation.

times one copy has found interested He will thus be the mesns of supplying perusal on the part of an entire family, the REVIEW to 208 persons not now re- or even larger circle of students in col- ceiving it. This fund we should like to leges or seminaries. With no little joy see increased to at least $1000 a year, as the editor-in-chief found one of the most we could well invest it in furnishing free busy and wealthy men of Chicago read- copies to students whose limited means ing aloud from its pages to his whole hinder them from paying even their cost.

household on a Sabbath afternoon; and H may not be amiss to add that ar- he informed me that he found no better rangements have now been made to have reading for such times, and that his a regular resume in these pages of the whole family regarded it as a privilege work of the foreign missionary societies to hear him read the REVIEW aloud. One of Great Britain. We hope soon to se- man in Montrose, Scotland, in his zeal cure equally satisfactory reports of the for the wide perusal of these pages, doings of all continental societies.

sends his copy every month to fifteen There is no design to be partial to any other persons, who otherwise would not missionary organization, field, or work, see them. Beside this fact of the com- or to treat otherwise than fairly every paratively limited Jist of subscribers, we brallch of the Christian Church. But have been at a disadvantage, pecuniarily, to present each month within the thirty in furnishing copies free of charge. or less pages assigned to the Department ot than cost, to the volunteers and others Missionary Intelligence a proper account of the work of some three huudred mis. ously blenderl, which the Alliance forms !lioniry organizations, though only in as a sign of peace, the brilliant French outline, requires unusualfacilitiesfor ac· colors should not be lacking. The cess to theirreports, and uncommon abil. presence of a goodly number of breth· ity for classification and condensation. ren from France and Switzerland was desired, and your attendance is a good Much of the missionary" news" in. omen for our meeting. evitably gets stale before it comes before the readers' eves. The weekly religious " Honored and dear Brethren of Hoi. press, not to say the daily newspaper, land, which was also, and in fact pre. easily anticipates us, as we appear but eminently, a refuge of the Reformation, once a month, and it requires at least with whom could we group you? In ten days after the matter is in the print. everything you are yourselves, only er's hands to set up, correct, electrotype, yourselves. Therefore we, specially do tbe press work and binding and salute you. The absolute tenacity of mailing. But with God's help and our the ancient faith is still seen in your readers' indulgent sympathy, we shall Protestantism, while at the same time aim to make this REVIEW more and more we behold the extreme daring of modern the indispensable inspiration to all in. thought. You bring to the Alliance the telligent and aggressive missionary work benefit of two extremes, namely conat home and abroad. stancy of faith and freedom of thought, both so dear to us all, and so needful This number being especially devoted for the times. to papal Europe, we pu· here for per. manent record the admirable address of "Honored and dear Breth.ren of th.e the President of the Florentine Com. mittee on the reception of the Evan. German tongue, one of the richest of langelical Alliance at the Ninth Universal guages, in which the Gospel resounds Conf(;renoe in Florence in April last: with such force, and yet with such sweet· ness, in consequence of the Reformation ., Honored and dear Brethren: It is an of your Luther, who by the power of his event, a benediction, a festa for the speech was a true king without a crown, Evangelical of Italy, tbis solemn reunion you form a vast group comprehending of distinguished co-religionists from in language and doctrine brethren of every land, froIil Greece, Turkey, Egypt, various countries to the South, to the India, Australia, Austria, Germany, Rus. North and to the West of Germany. sia, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Spain, Britain, North America and "Your thought is as rich and com· Canada. plex as your language, and your immense periods. In your books and your Uni. .. 01 611'0 T~~ ITaAia~ a<J1rlii;ovTal VflU.~ : versities we all drink at the fountain of Those of Italy Salute you, and heartily bid your profound knowledge. you all welcome. "Religic.n among you blossoms and "Languages distinguish us, but they abounds not less in erudite theology do not divide us ; rather they unite us, than in poetry and music, which pro. forming special groups. Permit us to ceed from the heart and rise sublime. place together the delegates of countries where the same language is spoken, and " Your good part, which shall not be to address to each group a few words: taken from you, consists in heart, in sentiment, im GemiUhe, and it is this "Honored and dear Brethren of the that brings a blessing and is your most French tongue, in you we salute, 011 the precious gift to our Alliance. one hand. the descendants of the heroes of the Reformation, who with unheard. •• Honored and dear Brethren of the Enrl· of constancy have fought and suffered lish language, you COIlle from all parts for the cause of "the Gospel; and, on of the world; your group comprises the the other hand, the sons of generous Globe, now made small by your active Switzerland, refuge of the persecuted enterprise. You cover the earth with and bulwark of liberty, who received Bibles, translated and printed in all with equal affection the emigrants of languages, and sow the seed of the King. France and of Italy. dom of God among all nations.

"The Reformation did not become " You have mllltiplied denominations. national in France, but its effect has pushed individualism to extremes, and been universaL It founded the rights of man with respect to his fellow·man and shown a divided Protestantism; yet, on to the State on the Sovereignty of God. the othel' hand, you seek after anrl mani· fest unity through the Evangelical Alli. .. That principle, still worthily repre. ance, of which you al'e the strenuous sented by you, is essential to Protestant. and constant promoters. Unity through ism, and necessary to the Alliance. In liberty, this is God's way, and it is also the rainbow of variollii tints harmoni. the way of the Alliance, of which you are the advance-guard.

" And those of us who are but small minorities in the midst of catholics, both strive to attain. But these principles Roman and Greek. and likewise in the of Evangelical Protestantism, and these midst of Turks and Heathen, brethren only are universal, truly catholic, comof Italy and Spain, of Belgium, of mon to Christianity, which holds the Greece, of Turkey, and of other coun- Lord Jesus Christ as the only MaBter. tries, we are all born in the arms of the Mediator and Saviour; and these ends Alliance; we too are welcomed here, so are all included in the universal applimuch so that on this occasion we the cation of that supreme precept of the last have become the first. Law and the Prophets, which suffices to establish and maintain the best rela· " Honored and dear Brethren, we have tions between man and man, between not yet in Florence a temple large family and family, between chureh and enough to enable us to receive you in a church, between nation and nation: consecrated place. Not unfrequently a , Whatsoever ye would that men should temple is transformed into a theatre; do unto you, do you even so unto them. for a few days let us prove that a thea- for this is the Law and the Prophets.' tre may become a temple. We begin by reading from God's Word, Matt. xvii. 1-5. "' Protestantism, founded upon tho Holy Scriptures, rule of faith and life, " Our earnest desire and prayer, be- has various forms, among which each loved brethren, is that by the presence one may find freedom and a suitable of the Lord, by the Spirit of grace by sphere of action, and it has no need to the joy of fraternal communion, you be transformed or reformed; it needs may feel that it is indeed good to be only to be transfigured, so that the glory here, that you wonld even pitch yonr of Christ may shine through all these tents and abide with us, that no one various forms in justice, truth and holiwill regret having come. ness. Thus unity is manifested in diver- sity. Thus the ideal is realized, and "' Is there less of blessing here than the Kingdom of Heal'iln is advanced. upon the Mount, whence the disciples were loath to descend? Nay, there is " May these reunions strengthen our cven more and better. Lifted up on ties, leave among r's blessed traces, and high infinitely above all, behold the Mas- give fresh power to the Gospel everyter, our Lord Jesus Christ, in His pres- where, among all the churches, and in ent glory, His eternal glory, of which that which shone forth on the Monnt all lands. was but a symbol, a momentary sign. "Is it really in Itily, in Florence, only "On the right, and on the left, be- a few steps from Savonarola's wool1-pile hold Moses and Elijah, the Law and the and the Bargello, that we are assembled Prophets, which testify of Him, and re- for this work of liberty and faith? Is it mind us of the Golden Rule, to do unto really in Florence, where the Madiai for others as we would that they should do the sake of the Gospel, in August of the unto us. Below, the disciples looking year 1851. were arrested, and in June of up humble, attentive, ecstatic, repre- 1852 condemned for years to the galleys; sent the attitude that becomes us in the where an honored deputation of the presence of our Lord Ilnd His HolyWord. Evangelical Alliance came to implore from the Grand Duke their liberation, " The souls of the three disciples ex- and could not obtain an official henring ; ulted at the sight of the glorious specta- is it on this very spot that we open this cle. Here we are, hundreds of disci- free Conference of Evangelicals of all ples, representatives of thousands Ilnd nations? Scarcely can we believe our millions, who, from all parts of the eyes. Never did Italy in the times of World, look up with us to Jesus Christ. her republics, never did this classic Joyful day! Glorious spectacle! Should land, never did Florence, tbe most libnot our souls rejoice? eral and the most cultured city of Italy, ever enjoy religious liberty, the highest "In the Transfiguration beheld by and the holiest form of liberty, until tho the first disciples, we see the ideal, into entire nation rallied around the house which the sad reality ought to be trans- of Savoy, which with firm hand held formed, into which it has already in part been transformed; the ideal which is the sceptre of i ustice. gradually being realized by the fulfilment of the V'w and the Prophets, by " Hence we could not inaugurate the the Gospel of Christ, who with righteous- present Congress, which to the eyes of ness 8S white as the light clothes every all is a great event in the cause of libsoul that calls upon Him. erty, and to our e:res greater still for the " The Evangelical Alliance in its sol- Gospel, without heartily exclaiming: emn assemblies represents that ideal, , B:GESSINGS FOREVER REST UPON and by its labors seeks its realization. THE HOUSE OF SAVOY AS IT NOW " The Alliance has principles which it Jll~st maintain, and !)Jlds whieh it mllst REIGNS AT ROME !' "l'AOLQ GE}Cr.roN4T, P.D."

THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

Italy, France, Spain-Papal Eurape.

[EDITOBllL.-A. T. P.] -Papal Europe embraces about 150,- independence, declaring to all offers of 000,000 of Roman Catholics, who con- outside help, "L' ltalia fard da se," in stitute, in all Germany. over 52 per cent plain worda, "Italy is able to take care of the population; in Bavaria, 71 per of herself."

cent; in Austria, 76; in Ireland, 82; The year 1848 was a year of earth- in France, 96; in Belgium, over 99; quake in Europe, but it broke the bonds and in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, twenty of Italy. Liberty awoke, and Sardinia years ago, almost the entire body of became the asylum of such heroes as people. While geographically Protes- Gioberti, Tommaseo, Manin, and even tantism is dominant in the north and the Vaudois martyr saints were preach- northwest, and the Greek Church in the ing at Turin. The Act of Emancipation east and southeast, Romanism holds came in 1848. Ten years later and sway in the south and southwest. It is more thrones fell, and 6,000,000 more also to be noted that the principal re- Italians found the joy of freedom; cen- ligious faiths thus correspond not only tral Italy began to rise into the at- with certain geographical limits, but mosphere of liberty. In the town of with certain race features. While the Aoste, at the descent from Great St. Ber- German races are mostly Protestant nard, a memorial of persecution be- and the Sla~ic mostly Greek, the Latin came a monument of emancipation.

are mostly Roman Catholic. When Calvin crossed the Alps to bear Our space forbids that we should do the cross into the land of the crucifix, more than throw out a few outline facts he set up his standard in the Cite and hints, especially as to the condition D'Aoste, and for a time lived there.

of Italy and France. But afterward he fled for his life, and 'Ihe history of Italy and France for his flight was kept in remembrance by the past seventy-five years has been full the enemies of the archheretic, who set of interest. Victor Emanuel I., by the up a column opposite his hired house.

treaty oj Vien-1a in 1815, was restored When the Waldensians gathered the to his kingdom of Sardinia, and six converts into a house of prayer, they years later was succeeded by that stupid observed-what they had not before per- monarch, Charles Felix. Then the very ceived-that directly opposite to the word" liberty" was proscribed in Italy, memorial column that told of the and Alfieri's tragedies could not appear Romish persecutions of three hundred on the stage, lest that Italian Shake- years before, they had set up the cross speare should kindle a new fire of love of Christ, and were preaching the apos- for freedom. It was a double despot- tolic gospel! From that year (1858) ism of kingcraft and priestcraft. A Italy's progress has been upward. Vic- book was a rarity; a Bible or testament tor Emanuel recognizeq the rights of was seized even from a traveller's conscience, and defended them against satchel, and the Inde:c Expurgatoriu8 it- interference by magistrates or ecclesias- self was forbidden, lest people should tics. Baron Ricasoli supported religious desire books because forbidden. equality. Count Cavour, whose public Charles Albert succeeded to the life reached from his eighteenth year to throne, and in 1847 left to his country his death at fifty-one, as soldier, jour- the statute or constitution, to which his nalist, deputy, minister of agriculture son, Victor Emanuel II., faithfully ad- and commerce, of marine, of finance, hered. In the revolution of 1848 Charles as premier, directed as well as originat- Albert became the champion of Italian ed the Sardinian policy, improvedfinan· cial conditions, introduced free trade, being enlightened. The day has dawned consolidated constitutionalism, weak- on fair Italy.

ened clericalism, and achieved eminence The Waldensian Synod multiply their in Italian history as .. the pure-hearted, missions, evangelists, and colporteurs, broad-minded, sagacious leader in the and could they have the money they field of diplomacy and statesmanship need, might plant one hundred centres for the reviving and reunited Italy." of gospel work where they now have As Dr. Richard Burgess finely said,* five. The Israel of the Alps desire to .. The polluted streams of an idolatrous take possession of all Italy, from tho religion had, like burning lava, pro- Alps to the sea.

duced moral devastation in Italy among The changes taking place before OUl"

twenty generations." eyes we do not appreciate, The travel- Some hope for Italy came with the ler in Italy in 1850 passed through the revolutions of 1848-58. Liberty of con- dominions of nine enthroned rulers be_ science, worship, speech, was pro- tween the mountains and the southern claimed from the Alps to the Straits of cape. Now the Pope whines because Messina when Italy became united and he is " imprisoned in the Vatican," and free. But the spirit of Romanism and Humbert rules Italy. Temporal domin- Jesuitism is not dead. Pope Gregory ion is gone and gone forever, notwith- XVI. and Pius IX. after him pro- standing frantic efforts to recover it; nounced liberty of conscience a dream, and if th9 common school and an open a delirium, and liberty of speech and Bible continue, the Pope will lose hi!!

press the mother of all heresies. Never- spiritual sceptre too, or radical reforma.

theless, the triumphs of freedom move tions must take place in the papal on. At Perugia, at Turin, at Naples, at church.

Florence, at Rome itself, have been Meanwhile we call attention onCQ printed attacks upon the Church of more to the fact that since Luther Rome, her priests, her saint worship, nailed up his theses, the balance at masses for the dead, papal bulls, etc., power has been transferred from papal as bold as the utterances of Gioberti or to Protestant Europe by sheer infertility- Tommaseo. To-day, where forty years of papal communities in offspring.

ago no Protestant worship would be The revelations as to France's decline.

allowed, there are thirty pht.ces within in population, which threatens soon to sight of St. Peter's dome, where Prot- take the appalling form of there being; estants worship and preach unhindered; more deaths than births, are made still.

and Siguor Arrighi predicts that before more startling when a comparison is; long the Evangelical Alliance, that met made of France's relative position in in May last at Florence, may yet short- the past. A century ago France had a lyassemble in St. Peter's, and Bend its population of 26,000,000; Russia had delegatus to lodge in the Vatican. only 25,000.000; Austria, 17,000,000; A few years ago the Bible was hunted Prussia, 15,000,000 ; and England 12,.

by spies from the Alps to the GuU of 000,000. To-day Russia possesses 90,- Tarentum; now it is freely bought and 000,000 inhabitants; Germany, 46,000,.

read, and was printed by sections in a 000; Austria. 38,000,000; and France.

daily paper. Signor Capellini's Sol- 36,000,000. The birth-rate is 6.7 pel'

diers' Church sends out hundreds of 1000 in Italy, 10 in Germany, 12.9 m converted cadets every year into the Russia, and 13.7 in England, and it does homes of Italy after the military service not exceed 1.19 in France.

is fulfilled. An ignorunt people is being Austria has been shorn of much of educated – a superstitious people is her strength, and she no longer COD- trois or leads the great German Empire.

Poland haR disappeared from the roll of .. Exeter Hall Lectures, 1865. nations. England, then so feeble, has spread over 1Il1 lands. Prussia has be- ligions orders-an army of at least come a giant, and Russia, then un· 123,131." This vast host moved obediknown, is in numbers almost equal to ent to the supreme pontiff sooner than the whole of papal Europe. Rome, the h the word of the king, or even the seat of ecclesiastical power, is now the written Word of God. capital of an united and free Italy, over which the Pope has no political control. The traveller in Italy and France and These wonderful changes have in no way Spain observes that papacy has now lit· strengthened the papacy or enlarged its tie hold on the more intelligent part of influence among the nations of the the people, especially in France. A earth. It has been weakened by each. man may go to his first communion, but The very efforts put forth to augment he seldom enters a church or the con· its sway have in the divine orderings fessional, or sees the priest until per. enfeebled it. haps he gets extreme unction on his death·bed. France is no longer Roman Protestantism has not only grown Catholic-France is without a faith! politically, but numerically in Europe. Spain is scarcely Roman Catholic- Compare Spain and Great Britain. At Spain is dead of spiritual torpor and the Reformation the one was greatly sloth. There is not energy enough to 'superior to the other in numbers and breed another Torquemada. In that political influence. Now Spain has just Land of the Inquisition, where in 36 about one half the popUlation of Great years, from 1480 to 1517,13,Q.00 persons Britain, while in this period the latter were burned alive, 8700 burned in effigy, has peopled Australia, New Zealand, and 169,423 variously pnnished. you United States, and other countries. may now buy a Bible on the street cor· During the last fifty years, England has ner! increased her population 119 ; Prussia, 72; Austria, 27; and France, 12 per Dr. John Cumming used to say that cent. This difference led a French it is essentially popish to sacrifice truth Roman Catholic to write, a few years to uniformity, to make men tell lies, and ago, as he called attention to it : "On then hide reality in order to keep np comparing the respective progress made the appearance of unbroken nnity with since 1814 by non·Catholic Christian a central regulating power -like atnation3 with the advancement of power tempting to make clocks strike everyattained by Cath~lic nations, one is where the noon honr when the great struck with astonishment at the dispro- pontiff at Greenwich signals the merid· portion. • . . Unquestionably since ian, although the earth does take 1789 the balance of power between twenty.fol'lr hours to move ronnd, and Catholic civilization and non·Catholic any spot fi$teen degrees away from civilization has been reversed." Greenwich must be an honr away in time. The relative growth of Protestantism is much greater than that of Romanism. Every year in the church hf Ara In 1825 the Protestant population stood Cee/i, at Rome, takes place a, sort of to the Roman Catholic as 3 to 13 ; now child's religious filte. A chapel is ar· it is as 1 to 2. ranged as a stall, in which are wax fig- ures of the Holy Family and the beaRhl Dr. Burgess called attention a qnarter about them, etc. Decoration and wax of a century ago to the vast hierarchy of tapers abonnd, and hundreds of chilwhich the Pope was the head. "A dren are brought there to adore the string pulled at Rome moved the follow· B,lmbino, or wax image of the Holy ing puppets: 6 cardinals, 15 arch. Child. All day long, too, little folks bishops, 69 bishops. 158 vicarR.general, are set up on a pulpit, one ata time, to 660 canons, 3396 higher clergy, 39,630 speak their little speeches in honor of priests, 3000 seminarists preparing for the sacred doll. prie"thood, and 50,000 members of re- This wax baby is a " miracle work. er;" and when anyone is ill who can otherwise of Lord Archibald's asser· afford so costly a. doctor, this figure is tion. Bent for, and by the monks brought with all solemn formality, followed by Here are two extracts from .. The a bill for the visit the next day. Since Glories of Mary," a work heartily com· a woman attempted to pass off a new mended by Cardinal Manning, and wax doll for the old one, the Bambino stamped by papal infallibility: is suffered to go out only in his own carriage with guards. "0 Lady in Heaven, we have but one advocate, and that is thyself." I think it was about thirty-two or thirty-three years ago, when the tax put "Thou, 0 Mother of God, art om· upon bread, in the Eternal City, excited nipotent to save sinners." the indignation of the Bambino, and on the principle that even the" stones cry Rev. Frank H. White well says, "In out," he lifted up his voice, and in an view not only of the blasphemies poured awfully solemn way enjoined on the forth by the Church of Rome on this government to remove the bread tax. subject, but also of the incl'easing ten· One wonld think he had got hold of a dency in the Church of England to an copy of Adam Smith's ,( Wealth of Na- idolatrous exaltation of the Virgin, it tions." His utterances caused, of would be well if this tract were more course, a serious stir; and a day or two widely circulated." after, in order to emphasize the warning, the wax doll again spoke. The Dr. George W. Chamberlain, of San government proposed to be supreme, Paulo, Bra:<il, likewise testifies that in and to hold even the Bambino in sub. Brazil St. Joseph is held as of practically jection ; and so the police informed the higher rank than the Virgin Mary or monks who take care of the Bambino Jesus, inasmuch as " she,like an obedithat no such miracle must henceforth be ent wife, submits to her husband; and allowed-it might create a revolution. Jesus, like an obedient Son, submits to Once again the baby spoke, and this her ;" and such was the public teachtime· the message was peremptory and ing of the archbishop in Rio Janeiro final. The head of police sent at once when he returned from the festival of to infonn the monks that if the doll the" Immaculate Conception." opened its head once more, they would be turned out of their situation as Those who think Roman Catholic nurses; and remarkable as' it mayap. lands need no missionaries should read pear, the Bambino's mirq,eulous utterances the letter which appeared in the New ceased from that very day I York Trib'tme,* written from Siena, where dwelt the famous "Saint" Cath. As to Rome and Mariolatry, Lord arine. If the Roman religion was the Archibald Douglas, in his pamphlet en- same then as now, it passes comprehentitled « A Voice of One Crying in the sion how its practice could make her Desert," declares that .( the Roman " holy." Catholic Church upholds the Bible in its entirety," and" hates" priestcraft "I stepped into a church where mass and Mariolatry. was being celebrated. There were fif- teen priests in the chancel and three If our readers will look at the four. persons in the congregation. 'fhe acopage leaflet "most respectfully ad. lyte who rang the bell appeared to neg. dressed to all sincere Roman Catho- lect his duty, for the celebrant turned lics," entitled .. Which is Right-the and shook his fist at him. The boy re- Ch1IrCh of Rome or the Word of God?" taliated, after the priest went to the published by the Irish Church Mis. altar, by running his tongue out at him, Flion, 12 D'Olier Street, Dublin, all can which seemed to give convulsions of then judge for themselves the truth or quiet laughter to the priests near the altar who sang the responses. A French lady came 'Up to me and expressed her indignation. and said that there was no religion in this country. I assured her • September 7, 1890. that our Irish and American Catholics As to the l'[cAlJ missions in France, 'Would not tolerate any such irreverence in church. She answered that nllither they are remarkable for their number 'Would the French, and that here many and influence. They are spreading all of the educated people were infidels be. over France. and are the most powerful cause of the irreverence of the priests. Protestant influence of modern times in Yet the Italians pay an immense price for their religion. that RepUblic. Some trace this movement to that " In France, where there are 35,000,000 inhabitants, there are 60,000 priests, bold enthusiast, Napoleon Roussel, who, paid wholly, or in part, by the govern- in about 1830, scattered the fire of a ment. In Italy, with 29,000,000 inhabitants, there are 250,000 priests. In true religious zeal. Roussel came of e. France there is a priest for every 58;j of noble stock of Protestant martyrs. At the population, and in Italy one for twenty-five he was spiritually aroused every 116. More than one of our Roman by the great revival then spreading over Catholic churches in New York have 10,000 parishioners of all ages. Such all Switzerland and France under the parishes, according to the Italian ratio, leadership of Robert Haldane and would be obliged to maintain 86 priests. others. Roussel had been a close stu- Siena has 62 churches for 23,000 inhab- dent from his youth, and was quite itants. familiar with the whole religious status of Europe, and especially of France. " I went to the cathedral t""qee the festivities of the Assumption, said to ex- oeed in pomp those of any other festi- When, therefore, set on fire by the Holy val. The cardinal was seated on his Spirit, he was soon zeady by his scholar- – throne, lind they were robing him for ly education and theological training to the oelebration. A little ohild was seat- stand forth as a target for the Roman ed on the floor playing with a doll and singing to himself. There is oeaseless Church. He feared nothing, shrank movement of people, and everybody is from nothing. and went through France talking, so that you hear nothing from as a firebrand. His preliminary work the chancel. There are many priests was done in PariR, as editor of a in the congregation and some monks.

On the right of the chancel is a high religio-political paper. But PariR and platform for the orchestra, and the cele- the editorial chair could not long hold brated tenor and soprano of the city are him. Where there was the greatest to sing. The orchestra begins. It sounds persecution and the greatest call for like a military march, and gives a crescen- do to the conversation about me. The hard work there was Rouosel, till finally tenor is fine. When will this ceaseless clatter of talk and movement end? Is in 1847, returning to Paris, he estabnobody going to pray or pay any atten. lished a school for the instruction of tion to the celebration? Occasionally Protestants for the ministry and for some one bows for a moment toward mlssIOnaries. Out of this grew many St. Catharine's chancel and then rises small churches in and out of Paris. and salutes some friend with lond talk. But the revolution of 1848 seriously em- This continues throughout. 1t did not b:llT8SSed his efforts, and finally Napostop when the Host was elevated! At the moment a lady in front of me was pre- leon III. arbitrarily prohihited his senting a gentleman to a friend with great clatter. A few were kneeling on noble work. Seed, however, had been my left. I heard laughter on my right, sown which sprang up later as the McAll and turned to aee what occasioned it at Missions. There are now more than such a solemn time. A priest and a 130 of these in France, each the nucleus young man were playfully contending for a chair that a lady had just left. of saving power for the multitude. n The music was finely rendered. The is now eibhteen years since this Inove· orchestra and the two soloists did most ment became a vital power. For the last of it. The chorus parts were weak. few years it seems to be setting all There was no preaching. But after the cardinal had been unrobed and gone France in a blaze. Each mission is a out, I did not feel that I had been in a radiating point of such extensive work place of worship, but that I had seen a and numerous bands that make the spectacle unsurpassed in scenic splen. number of meeting-places and street dor in a place that the artists had abandoned for 600 years." services almost innumerable.

GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, Bellevue, O.

-The population of Europe may be -From the organization, in 1848, of set down in round numbers as 350,- ' a society called ,. Eglise Missionnaire 000,000, and is divided religiously about Beige" at Brussels, there have sprung as follows: Roman Catholics, 165,000,- up 27 active churches and missions 000; Protestants, 90,000,000 ; members with 7000 members, the greater part of of Oriental' churches, 85,000,000, and whom are converts from the Romish about 5,000,000 each of Jews and Mo- Church. There are 38 preachers who hammedans. Italy with 31,000,000 as are spreading the Gospel throughout well as Spain and Portugal with 25,- the country. The yearly expense of 000,000 are almost wholly Catholic. this work-about $27,000-exceeds the Belgium with 6,000,000 is papal about receipts, which come mainly from per- twelve to one. In France out of 39,- sons of limited means, and outside help 000.000 less than a million are Protes- is being solicited.

tants. Austria contains some 37,000,000 -The Free Church of Italy recently inhabitants, of whom 12,000,000 are held its annual convention, 37 delegates non-Catholic. In Switzerland nearly representing 40 congregations and 7 two thirds of the 3,000,000 accept the stations being present. There were Reformed faith. The German Empire reports of progress from nearly all holds 30,250,000 Protestants in a total places. The convention decided upon of 48,000,000. Denmark, Sweden, Nor- the name of .. Evangelical Church of way and the Netherlands, with a com- Italy" as their official title in the future_ bined population of 13,;;00,000, are al- Among tho representatives of other most solid against the papacy, the latter Protestant bodies present were two being overwhelmingly Presbyterian, from the Waldensian churches, who and the others Lutheran. Great Britain declared that their communion still and Ireland are Protestant by 29,620,- cherished the hope of being able to 000 against 5,640,000. Of the Catho- unite with the Free Church. lics 1,370,000 are found in England and Wales, and but 330,000 in Scotland. -In 1850 the Oatholic Church in In Ireland are found 1,155,000 Protes- Denmark had 3 missionaries, 2 stations, tants and about 4,000,000 Catholics. and 300 members. Now it is repre- Russia and Greece have a population sented by one apostolic prefect, 37 of 100,000,000, of which two thirds be_ missionaries, 14 stations, 3700 mem- long to the Greek Church. Moham- bers, and more than 150 members of medans comprise about one half of religious orders. In 1856 there were Turkey's 5,000,000. no Oatholic churches in the kingdom; -The Catholic missions in Bengal now there are 10 churches, 6 publio under the conduct of the Belgian Jesu- and 6 private 'chapels, a Jesuit college, its have been very successful. Com- and a high school for boys. Nowhere mencing in 1881, the first year for in the world are the spiritual interests which we have exact figures, we find of Catholics so well provided for, there the converts amounted to 16,149. In being a clerical representative for every 1886 their numbers had increased to 18 members and a church for each 168.

20,000, and in 1888 these had advanced -·According to the latest synodical to 53,281. In 1881 baptisms num- reports the Waldensians have, outside bered 378, in 1886 they had increased of the hiBtorio valleys, 44 congregations to 3274, while in 1888 .they reached the and 36 pastors. In addition to these total of 35,000. there are 46 preaching places. The regular pastors are Ilided by 20 evan· 000. Mr. MUller planned to go out as gelists, 68 teachers, and 14 colporteurs. a missionary to India, but insuperable The total number of communicants is obstacles prevented. But, remaining 4266, an increase of 192 in the last at home, he has been able to raiSe anlI tweh'e months. 'l'he reports complain distribute for missions $1,116,800. that Catholic parents send their children to the elementary classes of the -The Denmark societies in 1888 con- Waldensians, but withdraw them as tributed to foreign missions $33,422.64. soon as they are old enough to partici- The Danish Government has a mission pate in the religious instruction of the in Greenland with 6 stations and 6 orschools. dained toilers, and the Danish Mission. ary Society has 7 ordained men in -The Methodist Episcopal Church India. has 6 missionaries in Italy and 24 native preachers, and a church member- -In 1889 the Netherlands Reformed ship of 743 with 198 probationeril in Society had in Java 60 churches with addition. The Southern Baptists oc- 5937 members distributed throngh 397 (lUPY 12 stations with 15 ordained mis- villages, and last year the number had sionaries, and have gathered 272 into increased to 70 churches, 6794 memo churches. The American Board sent bers, in 411 villages. The contribu. its first representatives to Austria in tions of 18 Netherlands societies to for· 1872, and now sustains 2 with 17 native eign missions amounted to 315,134 helpers. The 3 churches have a total gulden ($137,319). of 364 members, and the schools have 104 pupils. -The Protestants of Germany and Germau Switzerland are said to con· -No less than 15 Protestant societies tribute for foreign missions at the rate are at work in Spain, occupying 115 of but 12 centimes each, and those of houses or rooms as chapels and school France but 45 centimes. Now the buildings. The American Board has 3 centime is only the one hundredth part missionaries and 33 native helpers, 18 of a franc, or the fifth of a cent! churches with 349 members, and 604 pupils in schools. The American Bap- -The Society for the Propa~ation of tists in Spain and France together have the Gospel held its 190th annual meet- 18 missionaries and 13 churches, with a ing May 7th. The receipts reported for membership of 900. the year were £164,382, an increase of £26,000 over the previous year. As a -In nineteen years the Protestant consequence, the Society had enlarged churches of the United Kingdom con- its work, especially in New Guinea and tributed to foreign missions £21,166,- Korea. The number of ordained mis- 164. During the last half of the period sionaries, including eight bishops, on the gifts were greater than during the the Society's lists was 660-in Asia, first half by £665,315. The increase 220 ; in Africa, 142; in Australia and was 64 per cent on the part of the the Pacific, 17 ; in North America, 215 ; Church of England, and on the part of in the West Indies, 34; and 32 in Eu. the Dissenting churches was 24 per rope. Of these 127 were natives laborcent. ing in Asia and 29 in Africa. There were also in the various missions about -George MUller has under his care 2300 lay teachers, 2600 students in the 75 schools, of which 13 are in Spain, Society'S colleges, and 38,000 children 2 in Italy, 2 in the East Indies, and 7 in the mission schools in Asia and in the English colonies. In May of Africa. The Bishop of Calcutta in an last year these schools contained 6250 address called attention to the very im· pupils, and the total number since the portant position of India as resulting first one was opened in 1834 was 112,. from the fact that her popUlation were ~37, The expenses have been $489,- spreading so widely over the globe. In -The Wesleyans of Great Britain the West Indies there were 280,000; in have a membership of 424,303. The Mauritius, 2<15,000 out of 500,000 in. total receipts of their missionary sohabitants were from India, and South ciety for 1890 were £122,072, and the Africa was swti.rming with them. expenditures were greater by £10,813. Missions are sustained in EU1'ope, India, -The Anglican missions (Church China, West Africa. the Transvaal, eto. Missionary Society and Society for the The principal stations number 363 with Propagation of the Gospel) in the Tin. 1572 chapels and other preaching Develly district, South India, in 1888-89 places, 338 missionaries and assistant covered 1636 villages, with 113 Dative missionaries, ann 2163 other paid clergy; tho schools contained 23,52<1 agents, 34,722 church members, and pupils; the churches, 20,024 communi. 5250 probationers, and 65,803 in Sabcants, with 18,396 catechumens, 77,171 bath and day schools. baptized persons, and 95,567 adherents.

-The latest report concerning the reo -The. Society of Friends in England lci~"vieoruss condition o f the Fiji group and America, though numbering but the year 1889. The total area is 1u0p0~0a0r0d oontribute to foreign missions about the sa.me as that of the State of of $90,000 annually. A begin_ Massachusetts. There is a European ning was not made until 1866, and since population of about 2000, whilo tho na· then representatives have been sent to tives, including other Polynesians ancl Syria, India. China, Madagascar, Mexi.

Indian emigrants, number 123,000. Of co, and the American Indians. Their this native population, 103,775 worship Woman's Foreign Missionary Union in the churches of the Wesleyan mis- raised $23,164 last year. Though effi- sion, while 10,302 attend Roman Catho- cient work is done in other fields, yet lic churches. The Wesleyan mission Madaoascar has been the scene of their has 10 European missionaries and 72 great:st successes. Entering the island native ministers, 49 catechists, 1838 in 1868, they now have 18 missionaries, local preachers, and 1095 teachers; 40 native pRstors, and 37(1 other native these laboring in connectbn with 909 assistants. 130 churches with 4000 mem- churches and 414 other preaching bers and 40,000 adherents, lind 132 places. In the schools of the WeslAyan schools with 14,600 scholars. Special mission are .ro,667 children. The Ro· emphasis is laid upon educational work, man Catholic mission has 18 European and they are gen~rous contributors to ministers, with 148 Dative teachers, and the funds of the missions of other 76 native churches and chapels. Aside churches.

from the 18 Roman CatholIc priests -This table gives a partial statement of the work of 18 German missionary there are 3 lay Europeans and 14 female societies as it stood at the close of 1888.

Europeans.

SOCIETIES. MiE'sion- Co~~~.ni. Adherents. Receipts. aries.

—-·———–·i–·– —- —- —– Moravian Chnreh ………….. …….. .•.. 1IM03 3101..509812 2827,,216832 $18607.412280 Basel Society…………….. ………… 75 10.735 35.7"01 79,120 Rhenish Society … : . . . •. .• …….. …… 0 0 0 ' 5 068 38 461 HermannBburg SOcIety…. ..•. ……….• 71 (1)7. .. . 61'""" 2616 170,.0358;4) 2113..191422 ~2,8.71"!)'8"1 Berlin Society……………….. …. … 12 000 c 36 000 Leipsic Society- . . . . . •. . . .. ……………. ou NG~~~~eG':rSmoacnIestoyci~iy:':: :::.-:::::::.:::: 1118 c., . '71707 1213',,010046 SchleBwig·HoIBt~in. Society…. ……….. ~~ 408 Nine smaller sOcIetIes…. …….. .. …… 200 660 30,993 ________ – I 89,452 – – 5 6 1 Totals ………………………… 232,714 $599,677 =firlrlng 1890 there were built in the contributions are $53,351,103. He United States 8500 churches; ministers also concludes that the other evangeli. to the number of 4~00 were ordained, cal denominations just about double anI a membership, in all denomina. these figures, and hence these and tions, of 1,090,000 added. those together number 13,000,000, and have.invested for the maintenance and -It is computed that the English spread of the Gospel $800,839,154. If tongue is now spoken by nearly twice the same rule be applied to the annual as many people as any other European contributions they would aggregate language. The estimated ligures are: $106,702,206. English, 125,000,000 ; Russian and Ger· man, 70,000,000 each; French, 50,000,. – World· Wide Missions sends out a 000; Spanish, 40,000,000; Italian, ringing caIl to the Metbodist Episcopal 30,000.000; Portuguese, 13,000,000• Chnrch for a grand, general uprising . At the beginning of the century Eng. under the head of Financial Possibili. lish stood only fifth, being exceeded by ties, and with One Penny a Day as the French, Russian, German and Spanish. watchword. bespeaks the speedy ap- pearance of a second Wesley to inaugu. ~Well might Dr. R. S. Storrs say, in rate the revolution, to trans{orDl the a recent number of the Sunday.School scheme into solid fact, and presents nmes, .. It is something that Ameri. some astounding figures which would can missions alone now occupy more result, such as $3,UOO,000 for mis. than 4000 stations in unevangelized sions, $1,000,000 for evangelistic work lands, with 2350 missionaries Rtmt from in cities, $750,000 for Freedmen's Aid, this country and more than 10,000 nil.· $400,000 for the Women's Foreign Mis. tive helpers; that there are at these sionary Society, etc. The total, $10,- stations more than 2700 churches, with 000,000, though so great, is yet a smaIl nearly 237,000 communicants, of whom one for the vast Methodist host, num· 26,000 were added last year; and that bering 2,783,967. $4,000,000 are contributed annually in our country to carryon the work. It -At the 75th anniversary of the is something, certainly. that all Protes- American Bible Society the last year's tant missionary societies have now 46,- receipts were reported as $512,388.18, 000 missionaries and helpers in the and the issnes of Bibles, Testaments, field, ministering to nearly 700,000 and portions as 1,497,637, of whiah oommunicants and to more than 3,000" 524,096 were for circulation in foreign 000 of adherents to Christianity, and ex· lanrls. Sinae 1816 over $20,000,000 pending every year at least $12,000,000 have been received, and with these in the distant and costly work." 54,000,000 copies of the Sariptures have been printed and distributed. The -Mr. Charles A. J. Marsh, of Minne. legacies of the first quarter century apolis, has gathered with great oare reached $109,504.57, and grew to $3,204" Bome interesting statistics relating to 460.68 in the third quarter, and the the money investments made in behalf churoh coIlections inoreased from of the Lord's kingdom by four of the e28,938.04 to $353,307.29. leading denominations of this country, the Methodist!! (North), Baptists, Pres· -The reoeipts of the Southern Bap. byterians (North), and Congregational. tist Convention for last year were $113,- ists. He finds that they have 67,274 522.37. Its missions are found in Afri. churches with a membership (,January cB, China, Japan, Haly, Bral'lil, and 1st, 1891) of 6,500,000 ; that they hold Mexico. The principal stations are property worth $359,828,994, with en· 38. The miRsionary foroe numbers 86, dowments (,f colleges, eto., amounting with 23 ordained and 53 unordained na. to $40,590,000, or a total of $400,419,. tive assistants. Into the 67 churohes 577 thus invested, and that their a.nnual 2377 have been gathered, 'and 361 were received in 1890. The church-mem- reassuring. The cruel King Mwanga, bers in China are 790, and 98 were now restor~d to his throne, is evidently added last year. forgetful of all his pledges to be a bet- -The American Presbyterian Church ter sovereign. He is also being mahas in its Clanton mission 35 mission- nipUlated by the French priests_ The aries from the United States, and 3 or- little band of Protestant missionaries dained and 94 unordained native assist- which are striving to carry on the work ants; 10 churches with 690 members, of the noble and lamented Mackay have of whom 95 were added last year; 3 a friend in the Prime-Minister, but the boarding schools with 231 pupils, and outlook is grave with such a selfish and 3a day with 864 pupils. The medical revengeful man on the throne as· work of the mission is set forth by 63,- Mwanga. Meanwbile this fair province 785 visits to out-patients and 3489 sur- in the heart of Africa suffers in every gical operations. part because of the bloodshed and deso- lating warfare of recent years. -The Marathi mission, India, of the American Board, covers 17,000 square From Uganda, Africa, letters are miles, embraces Bombay, Ahmadnagar, printed in England showing that there and 8 other cities, besides 3600 villages, is a genuine progress in all Christian and a population of 3,286,889, of whom enterprises. The peril from persecu- 285,000 are Mohammedan. This field tion has entirely ceased, but peril of an is held by 33 missionaries, 18 native exactly opposite character has arisen on pastors, and 19 native preachers. The account of the outward advancement 35 ohurohes have 2306 members, of of the Christians, who are becoming whom two thirds have been received rich and powerful. during the last ten years, and 215 last year. The schools number 200 and the American Indians.-Many methods pupils 3382. In the hospitals 12,289 have been devised for raising money have been trealed. The native oontri- for benevolent purposes, but some IndbU'tions were $1617 in 1890, ian boys in the Northwest have hit upon the newest plan. They were very poor, but wished to pllt some money in the collection. They saw a premium offered Monthly Bulletin for killing gophers. The gopher is a mischievous little animal, devouring a A£riclI..-Since the partition of Africa large amount of wheat, com, and other the governments of England, Germany, grain every year. The farmers pay two Italy, and Portugal have made an agree- cents for each dead gopher_ The proof ment for the reciprocal protection of that the gopher has been killed is his their missionaries in the Dark Conti- tail. Now these little Indian boys had nent. Armed with a passport from the been so interested in the story told of government to which they belong, the the work being done by the Snnday_ missionaries will enjoy the proteotion school Society that they spent their of each of these powers, Saturday afternoon holiday lnaring gophers_ They brought the tails in the One of the methods which Bishop envelopes of the Society as their oon- Taylor is said to be employing to some tribution. elltent in carrying on bis work in Africa is unique in the elltreme, Young negro girls are purchased, the market price Brazil. – The Methodist Episcopal being $30 a girL When introduced into Mission in Rio Grande do SuI, Brazil, the mission schools their families and is finding speoial opportunities for friends have no further claim on them, work among the immigrants that come and Chri!ltian influences can be brought pouring in in hundreds. While the to bear on them much more effectively. work at the capital is conducted in Latest tidings from Uganda are not Portuguese, that in the colonies is in Italian, and is under the care of a na- Peking; Methodist Church, North, at tive of Italy. In two of these colonies Nanking; Methodist Church, North, at there are organized churches which have Fuhchan ; Presbyterian ()hurch, North, secured ground. (Jut timber, and securcd at Shantung; Presbyterian Church, material for chapels. North, at Canton.

It is said that the Catholics of Brazil Dr. Judson Smith SBYS: " The Chi. have been very much opposed to the nese are manifestly the governing race provision of the Constitution of the of Eastern and Central Asia, They evi- Republic, which deprives pdesta und dently hold the key to the future of al. employes of the Church of the right to most one half the unevangelized people vote, and also debars priests from be- of the globe; so long as they remain coming members of Congreas. It is without the Gospel. the great bulk of understood that the reason this pro- Asia will be pagan; when they are evan. vision was inserted was that the officers gelized, the continent will be Christian of the Church really held their allegi. and the world will be won." unce to their spiritual superiors us stronger than their allegiance to the There is need for yet more mission- State, and therefore are not such true aries. Kweischow and Kan-suh each citizens of the Republic as would entitle has only three missionaries for 3,000,000 them to a voice in its governments. people. ShenBi has ten lllissionarie';l This provision, however, has been Bome- for 10.000,000, Yun-nan has four miswhat modified. sionBries for 6,000,000.

Brazil, with its fourteen millions, is Dr. Happer writes from Canton, far behind the age in education. With China : "I am preparing to take my ninety-nine per cent of its population fourth and last departure from China. rated as Roman Catholics, it reports It is a terrible work to tear up the eighty-four per cent as illiterates. The roots that have been growing deeper priests have not taught the people mo- and deeper for forty-seven years. But rality, and they in their blindness and as the Lord has laid thc necessity upon ignorance have followed their leaders. me, I can only say, in humble gratitude But a reaction has come, and they are for the privilege of laboring so long in seeking light and life. The Presbyte. this populous land, Thy will be done. rians lire making an earnest effort to When the gracious Lord called me to put upon a good foundation a thor- return to Amel'ica, in former yeBrs, Hd oughly equipped Christian university. each time gave me the privilego of working there, I trust and pray He Canada.-Two Chinamen were re- may give me the privilege of working cently received into the membership of still in some quiet way, as my strength the Church of Christ in Knox Chnrch, may enabl" me to do. I am sending Winnipeg. They had both been under my books home, and hope to resume Christian instruction for several years my studies and use my pan, or do what and had given good evidence both of my hand may find to do." their acquaintance with the great truths of the Gospel and of their desire to Egypt.-M:r. L. D. Wishard, who is lead a Christian life. travelling in the East in the interests of the Young Men's Christian As- China.-The condition of Christian sociation, was recently in Cairo, Egypt., education in China is encouraging. Be- and the United Presbyterian missionsides the Imperial University at Peking, aries there tried the experiment of of which Dr. W. A. p, Martin is presi- advertising a lecture on the relations dent, there are no less than seven other of Christianity to American civilization, colleges-viz., St. John's Episcopal, at The result was an audience of above Shanghai; Southern Methodist, Bt three hundred young men, who listened ShBnghai; Methodist Church, North, Bt attentively. although the lecture was in- terpreted. This is most gratifying in a city like Cairo. Many of the young helpmate, that a woman's condition, men were Moslems. whether as wife or widow, can become more honorable and more worthy of reo The Rev. William Harvey, for many spect." Lady Dufferin gives the opinyears a faithful missionary of the ion that the velY best way in which we United Presbyterian Church in Egypt, can help our Indian sisters is by sup. is at present in this country for a brief plying them with medical relief: 1. visit. He is continually engaged, how- Because it aims at diminishing suffering ever, in making missionary ad(hesses, and at saving life. 2. Because education and will return to Egypt during the and general enlightenment must follow present year. He is at Monmouth, lll. in its train. 3. Because it encourages and inculcates respect and considera- Formosa.-The Rev. Mr. Mackay tion for women. 4. Because it brings has recently written from the island of cultivation and learning in contact with Formosa, to the Canadian Presbyte- the Zenana; and 5. Because in medi. rian Mission with which he is connect. cine and nursing Indian women will ed, concerning an extraordinary turning find professions in the exercise of from idols on the part of the people of which widows, deprived 8S they are of Ka-le-oan, a village, or rather a con- home and family ties, may fill their geries of villages, recently visited by lives with all the interest, occupation, him. A native assistant had com- and honor so sadly wanting in their mtlnced work in that district, but Mr. present state, Mackay had been hindered from going there, though he had had the matter in The census of India, recently com· mind for a dozen years. On his recent pleted, shows that the tolal popUlation visit he found many of the people hav- is now 285,000,000, an increase of 30,- ing a clear idea of Gospel truth, while 090,000 in the last decade. Of this inall of them were wearied of idol wor- crease 3,000,000 is due to accessions of ship. The three main facts in the case territory by conquest. It is calculated Mr. Mackay states thus: 1. Nearly five that the population of India is about a hundred idolaters cleaned their houses fifth of the whole human race. of idols in our presence. 2. ~'hey declared themselves anxious to worship The comments of the Calcutta press the Lord, the Redeemer. 3. They gave on Dr. Pentecost's evangelistic work in a temple built for idols as a house of India are full of appreciation. The worship for the living and true God. editor of the Statesman of that city, and also the missionaries of different de- The Rev. Mr. Jamieson, of the Canada nominations, unite in saying that few Presbyterian Mission in Formosa, died preachers if any have produced such recently at Tamsui, He was a native a profound impression for good upon of Scotland, and went to Formosa in all classes of people, including the 1883. lIe was a devoted missionary, European residents, as Dr. Pentecost. and his death is a sore loss to the work. A society has been formed in Eng- India.-Lady Dufferin, writing in Jand called "The India Widows' the Nineteenth Century on "The Women Union. .. It is an organization of Chrisof India," expresses the fear that their tian women for the purpose of improvsocial condition cannot be modified to ing the condition of Hindu and Mohamany great degree by legislation or by medan widows in India. The membErS outward reforms. She says: "It is are widows only, but any Christian only by the education and elevation of woman may becom!' an associate memwomen that any change can come OVEr ber. They pledge themselves to pray the feeling of the people with regard to that God will break the yoke and set marriage, and it is only when public the captive free. They raise money to opinion ceases to regard her as a chat. be expended in training widows to usetel, and begins to recognize her as a ful industries, and they gather and diffuse information with regard to the people. Nearly ten dollars was saved condition of the widows. in this way.

Dr. George F. Pentecost. who went North Sea."'-The Sailors' Magazine to India last fllli on an evangelistic mis- sllys : "One hundred thonsand dollars sion, took Mr. and ~s. George C. Steb- were contributed in England last year bins with him to lead the singing. to sustain missionary operations on the After laboring a few weeks in Calcutta North Sea among English deep-sea among the Europeans, it was decided fishermen. Ten fully equipped evanto turn to the ed ucated nati ves, and the gelizing vessels, three of which are hossingers left Dr. Pentecost and accom· pital ships, are employed in the work. panied Bishop Thoburn in a visit One of the fishermen" greatly moved by through the country, travelling several the earnestness of a woman missionary, thousand miles and singing in all the expressed his B1lfprise and gratitude principal cities of the Empire. On that she' had come out to do us North their way home they will stop in Egypt, Sea dogs good.•• , P4lestine. Italy, Germany, and England, reaching homo by midsummer. Palestine.-A Scotch missionary at Tiberias says that whereas almost every The New York Evangelist, in a brief Jew in Sated and Tiberias understands paragraph on ,. Hinduism and the Signs Arabic, not more than twenty or thirty. of the Times," says: "An encourage- out of five or six thousand understand ment to missionary effort is found in Judeo·Spanish, and a preacher in that tb.e increasing number of Somaies and language would in truth be "a voice Congresses for securing healthy reforms crying in the wilderness." Two of the in the social life of the Hindus, and in missionaries there are prepared to the preceding changes which made pos- "quote Hebrew" and to conduct sersible the establishment of those asso- vices in it whenever that is seen to be ciations. The time has now come when necessary. To hold Hebrew services Hinduism finds fulfilled in its history would, he insists, be absurd, as the the prophecy of the Christ, 'A man's Jews do not use the language, and very foes shall be they of his own house- many do not understand it. The mishold.' Its most decided and efficient sionaries have thought it wise to conantagonists are the converts from its verse with the Jew'! in the ordinary ranks to Christianity. Under the in- language of every·day life-i.e., with creasing number of these, and of others the Sephardim in Arabic and with the who, while abjuring Hinduism as the Ashkenazim in Jargon, but to preach result of Christian labors and influAnces, only in the language that all could unare not yet fully prepared to embrace derstand. Christianity. Hindu society is comiug to understand its needed reformations; The many recent movements among the Hindu conscience is awaking from the Jews cannot but attract attention. its long slumber; child marriages and Among others it is announced that an the rigid enforcement of caste rules association for the colonization of Palwill be things of the past within the estine has been successfully established lifetime of mllny now living, and the by the Hebrew Workingmen's Club. of end of Hinduism will not be long de- London, which is situated in Whitelayed." chapel, one of the most densely popu- lated districts of the metropolis, where Japan.-It is reported that when the thousands of Hebrews carry on their people in Kobe, Japan, were suffering occupations. The association is sendgreat want, several starving to death, ing shiploads of poor Hebrews from the students of the Kobe Girls' Scho<>l London to Palestine, and will provide for three weeks ate nothing for break- them with funds with which to purfast but rice and pickles, that they chase land and start a home. might save something to give to poor Patagonia.-There has been little into th~ mission field in a place where mission work accomplished in Pata· they can live a community life and work gonia, but the Roman Catholics have a together. They take no vows or permission centre at Viedma, in the south- manent pledges, and receive merely ern part of the country. ~hey have what is necessary for their support. twelve colleges with 5000 students, and The offer has been accepted, and four an industrial school with thirty appren· men are ready to go. The field of thtlir tices of carpenters, blacksmiths, boot- missionary work will be Chota Nagpore, makers, tinkers, and tailors. They a district in India, lying twenty-five have also a dispensary and the only miles west of Calcutta, about as large hospital in the territory. as all England, and containing peoples speaking twenty different languages. Russia.-The persecution that the poor Christians in Southern and Cen- " Missionary teas" have become poptral Russia are suffering should excite ular, and are found a means of drawing wide sympathy. The name " Stundist" larger numbers of people together to was given to them originally on account gain intelligence of missions. and thus of their meeting for an hour for reading increase the interest. The English the Word of God. The first who did have long availed themselves of this so were emigrants from South Germany, means of making meetings of all kinds who called their meeting from the Ger- more popular. The trouble of preparman word sluMe, for hour. Although ing the very slight refreshments is a the persecution has hardly had a par- mere nothing compared with the results allel in Europe since the Reformation, in awakened interest by the good feelthe adherents of this movement are in- ing engendered by the simple breaking creasing rapidly, now numbering many of bread together. thousands. The" Brotherhood of the Sea" is the Spain.-There is news of a triumph name of a new society of two hundred for the cause of mission work from a Norwegian sea captains, who have town in Spain-Rosas-where the peo- pledged themselves to have regular reple elected the Protestant pastor mayor; ligious services on board their ships, and when, on account of the pressure and to conduct everything there and on of his own work, he was obliged to re- shore in the fear of God. fuse the office, his brother; an evangelist, was accorded the honor. The American Board has given out a summary of the results of Protestant Turkey.-The ravages of the cholera missions in recent years: In Japan the in Central Turkey, though extensive twenty-seven Protestant missions have among the Moslems, have not greatly a total adult native membership of affected the Protestants. In noting 28,977. About 5000 members were this fallt a Moslem official exclaims: added to the church rolls during the " How is this, 0 Christians! has God past year. Of the 300 members of the spread a tent over you, out of all the new Japanese Parliament which was people of this city, to preserve you elected last July, twelve are professedly from death ?" Christians. There are about 527 Prot- estant missions in Japan, the first ar- General.-A new missionary move- riving in that country less than twentyment has been inaugurated within the two years ago. In China there are 1295 walls of the University of Dublin, in Protestant missionaries, while the num_ connection with the Society for the ber of adult native communicants is Propagation of the Gospel. A number 37,287. In India and Ceylon the re- sults are the most satisfactory of all, the at young men have approached the Uni- nativA Christians in the schools alone numbering 74,386, though the number versity Auxiliary Committee of the So- of missionaries is less than 300. A ciety, intimating their desire to go forth summary of the number of missionaries to Christian intelligence an aggregate in foreign countries supported by Prot- of not much less than 600,000 children estant societies in the United States, and youth. together with the number of churches, native communioants and contributions The receipts of the Presbyterian for the year 1890, shows the following Woman's Board of the Northwest for totals: 2350 missionaries, 2721 churches, the year recently closed reached the 236,187 native communicants, of whom handsome total of $91,069.70, which 25,963 were added in 1890; $524,217 was made up as follows: Cash from contributed by natives, and $3,977.701 auxiliaries, bands, and Sabbath-schools, contributed in the United States. $77,018,69; legacies, $12,581.96; in- come from real estate, $954.89; mis- According to the American Baptist cellaneous, $199.86 ; with balance from Year Book for 1891, the Regular Bap- previous year, $314.30. tists have in the United States 1382 associations, 34,780 churches, with a mem- Some very humble CJ;1ristians make bership of 3,164,227, an increase for the noble confessions of Christ and become year of upward of 94,000 members. most efJ'ective missionaries. He was only a cabman who died the other day The annual meeting of the Woman's in Edinburgh, but he did not consider Board of Foreign Missions of the Pres- his vocation bcompatible with the serbyterian Chnrch was held recently at vice of his Master. His cab bore the inscription, " What think ye of Christ ?" Auhurn, N. Y., with an attendance of and in the hayloft of his stable he used to hold meeHngs for prayer and testimore t1:an two hundred missionaries, mony. His mates called him" Holy delegates, and visitors. The reports Peter." It was the kind of holiness showed sixty-four missionaries and which attracts and does not repel. He twenty-six Bible readers in the employ " reached th/l masses" withont making of the Board in Africa, South America, any fuss about it. Mexico, China, Japan, India, Korea, Siam, Persia, Syria, and among the Christian Endeavor.-The plan of North American Indians. The receipts attempting to raise a half million dolwere $67,000, an advance on the pre- lars yearly for missionary work through vious year of $10,000. The employ- Christian Endeavor SocietieR, each ment of female physicians was specially member giving two cents a week, is mentioned, and regret expressed at the meeting with greRt success. One hunnecessity, through lack of funds, of dred and fifty societies report 5000 closing a hospital in Persia. names-that means $5000 ; which sum will support seventy first-class native Some one states St. Paul's missionary preachers in India and China. creed thus: 1. I believe that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord A son of a Modoc chief is the presishall be saved. 2. I believe that no dent of the Christian Endeavor Society heathen will call on Him in whom he in Yainax Indian School, Bly, Ore. has not believed. 3. I believe that in order for the heathen to believe the Henry M. Stanley tells that oncey Gospel they must hear the Gospel. 4. in the heart of Dark Africa, a native I believe that the heathen will n(Ver was dragged before him by some of his hear the Gospel till a preacher preaches followers for stealing a gun. Stanley it to them. 5. I believe that a preacher, looked at the gun; it clearly belonged in order to preach to the heathen, must to his expedition. The poor man who be sent to them. This creed is found had it was frightened at the mention of in Rom. 10 : 13-15. Stanley's name, and could hardly 'find his voice or say a word, only, " I am a The sohools Bustained by the various son of God, I would not steal!" This American missionary societies contain almost 175,000 pupils, and the 12,000 Protestant missbn schools are training he repeated again and again. It was have given cause for offence quite apart all he could say. from their being Christians. It is so hard ever to get at the truth underlying Stanley was interested, and it dawned apparent facts. Anyhow we often talk on him that this man was probably one as if there were no more martyrs. Are of the converts of some of the mission. not these poor people hungering on the aries laboring in that region, and he mountains, almost within sight of their accordingly gave him the gen, and 0.1. old homes, martyrs in the truest sense? lowed him to go, while they pursued There are very many Roman Catholics their way. here, and fuey seem to be a power in the land, which in itself must be an At the next station where they stopped offence. But other Christian bodies they found the gun waiting for them. seem making good helldway."-China It appeared that the gun had probably Mail, April, 7th, 1891, Hong Kong Pape1·. been lost. This man had found it, and when he was set free he at once went The Christia~ at Work will pay a with it to the missionary for instruc· liberal sum for information giving the tions, and by his directions it was sent names of the United States senators where Stanley would get it. who voted against the ratification of the Brussels Treaty formed for the sup. But what a light must have touched pression of the African slave trade, the that darkened son of Africa, who, abolition of the rum traffic, anu for. though brought up in all vileness and bidding the selling of fire-arms to the theft and sin, had come to realize the natives. glorious dignity of a divine paternity, and say, " I AM A SON OF GOD; I WOULD A missionary from China says" that NOT STEAL !" if there is anything which lays hold on the poor people there, it is the simple A Chungking correspondent of the story of the crucifixion of our Lord North Carolina Daily News writes: Jesus Christ. It is not the morality, or " When not schwa-ing, the people here the miracles of the Gospel, or even the seem by preference to go in for a little wonderful saying and speeches of our bit of persecution. Last July only Lord Jesus Christ, but the old story of sixty miles from Chungking, Pere Pons, the cross, of the blood, of the sacrific!", one of the Roman Catholic Fathel's of the satisfaction of Christ in dying here, was suddenly warned to fly, He for sinners on the tree-that is the could not believe it, But, happily for power for good in touching the heart him, he did fly when he heard the guns and awakening the conscience." firing. The mob had risen, and eight Chinese were killed, and their bodies The Scotch missionaries in the burned in the fire of their burning Punjab of Indio. rejoice over a rich har. houses, The others fled, and some vest of souls. At the station of Sialkot 2000 native Christians are still starving they baptized thirty converts four years upon the mountains but for the help ago; but last year the number was 0.1. sent to them from time to time, What ready eight hundred, and the blessed makes it specially hard upon the poor work is going on increasingly. people is they had just got in their crops. The Chinese authorities have The Baptist Missionary Union sent to punish the offenders, and it sends out this year the largest number seems one or two poor people have been of missionaries ever sent in a ~ingle pnnished, but not the ringleaders, so year. Forty-four of the sixty are newly the poor refugees dare not return. appointed. It is wort.h noticing that The Chinese authorities say they dare the largest band-eighteen-go to Bur. not do more, because the whole district mah, that field where Baptist effort has is incensed against the Christians. been so greatly blessed from the begin. This may be only an excuse. On the other hand, the Roman Catholics may' ning. Ten go to the Teloogoos of India, .. It is with missionary work a8 with eight to Assam, and the remainder are everything else. ThQse who know lit- scattered in China, Japan, and Africa. tle, care little and give little. Those who know most are most interested, and Missions and Commerce.-At one give liberally." time it was thought that the money given to the cause of missions was At a recent missionary meeting of wasted. No intelligent man thinks so the Reformed Church at Saugerties, Mr. now. England gives more for missions Scoville said: " We hear the complaint than all the rest of the world combined, of draining a country or community of but English commerce has gained ten needed funds. Listen to the telephone pounds for every pound England has of the ages, ' Why was not this ointinvested in missions. Christianity and ment sold for three hundred pence and commerce go hand in hand. The Gos- given to the poor?' Would it have pel is God's power to save from sin, and been? The blessing of missions is from all the imbruting and degrading that it is the work of the Church. consequences of sin. The Gospel un- Why was it not completed before this derlies our commerce and our civiliza- age? Because this age needs to do it. tion as a root underlies a plant. – A. Missions now are a test of Christian McLean, D.D. character. The Church needs a touch of heroism in it. Is the cross an orna- There are, so it is said, five hundred ment ot the declaration of a princimillionaires in New York, lIome of them ple ?" worth from one hundred to three hundred millions of dollars. We suppose A Japanese converted to Christ these men are-Buddhists! seems at once to betake himself to the labor of teaching the truth to his During the last four years seventy- friends at home and at a distance, and nine English university men have be- thus is the way prepared for the mincome missionaries. ister of Christ. No wonder that with such preparatory service the truth is •• You wish to teach our women to running in that land, and being gloriread, do you?" scornfully said an offi- fied. cial of the Hindus to a missionary from America, and added, .. Next you will There are those who wish to be seek permission to teach our cows!" Christians in secret, and those even in But what good has come to the Hindu lands where it is deemed no reproach by his supreme selfishness toward to follow Christ. But we hear of a mother and sister, daughter and wife? Japanese workman, who was necessarily He has not progressed one inch in thou- away from his shop most of the day, sands of years except as men who look who put the following notice on the upon women as their equals have placed door: .. I am a Christian; and if any in his un~killed hands the inventions of one likes to go in and read my Good Occidental civilization and taught him Book while I am out, he may. Buddhour ideas of literature and law, of art ist priests need not come here. I do and commerce. He has not risen one not want them any more." hair in the scale of being except as our missionaries have brought to him that There is but one lake on the surface Gospel which says, .. There shall be no of the globe from which there is no more curse, for the former things are outlet, and that is the Dead Sea, which passed away," and which restores the receives much, but gives nothing. joint headship set forth in the Divine Such a lake is a perfect illustrfltion of a words: " Let us make man in our im_ church all whose efforts termi nato upon age after our likeness, and let them have itself. Around it there will be desodominion," lation, and in it there will be no life.- William M. Taylor, D.D.