February 1890
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1890
VOL. XIII. No.2.-01d Series.--FEBRUARY.--VoL. III. No. 2.-New Series.
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THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD. VOL. XIII. No.2.-01d Series.--FEBRUARY.--VoL. III. No. 2.-New Series. I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. PROTESTANT MISSIONS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW RESPO:NSIBILITY AXD ENCOURAGEMENT. BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., LONDOX, E:NGLAXD. In our pamphlet, "A Century of Protestant .Missions," we fixed ou the year 1786 as the period of their commencement, and. we have seen no reason to alter that date as a fair approximation. Foul' of the greatest missionary societies ill the world can trace their 'origin to within a few months, if not to that very year; not in the f
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PROTESTANT MISSIONS A Ht:NDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIII. No.2.-01d Series.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. III. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. PROTESTANT MISSIONS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW RESPO:NSIBILITY AXD ENCOURAGEMENT. BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., LONDOX, E:NGLAXD.
In our pamphlet, "A Century of Protestant .Missions," we fixed ou the year 1786 as the period of their commencement, and. we have seen no reason to alter that date as a fair approximation. Foul' of the greatest missionary societies ill the world can trace their 'origin to within a few months, if not to that very year; not in the formal organization of their outward framework, but to what is the true birth of missions, the union of spirit for prayer on behalf of the heathen, and the earnest desire for their conversion by the preaching of the Gospel. Not only the fathers of the Baptist Missions, but the founders of the Church Missionary Society, and the London Missionary Society, had their spiritual birth at that time; and the Rev. Dr. Coke was sent out to found missions among the heathen in our colonies in the West Indies that year by vVesley and his fellow laborers.
Missions, like their ~Iaster, are born f!'Om above. . Born of the Spirit, and that was the period of the Epiphany of the missionary spirit, which is ever latent in the Christian Church, though it may long lie dormant, and even seem to die. .
It has often been in my heart to follow up that pamphlet, "Century of Protestant Missions," which was of set purpose written to arrest thought on the great work which still remains to be done in the vast unoccupied fields of the heathen world, by another, showing the means for a much greater work in the future, and the encouragements to prosecute it with new vigor and hope. "A CentUl'y of Christian Progress," which came ont in an ill complete form, owing to the pressure of other duties, was confined to oue aspect of the subject; and the limited time at my disposal will ollly allow me now to put together a few facts, which may, with God's blessing, stimulate aud strengthen the Churches of Christ; in the words of Carey, "to attempt great things for God, and to expect great thing~ from God." I.-THE lI11SSlON ~'IELn.
Let us glance at that field, which" is the world." The first thing that strikes us is the great increase of our knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. A hundted years ago the vast regions of heathenism were comparatively a blank to the minds of most Christians. Of the hundreds of millions in China, we knew little beyond the meagre inf()rmation to be gathered f!"Om the journals of The Polos, and of Roman Catholic Missions, and from a few traders on the coast, ignorant of the language of the people. Vast tracts of India were untrodden by the feet of our countrymen, whose almost sole concerns were trade and conquest. Africa was a terra incognito beyond a few miles from Egypt and the Cape, except for a few bold but imperfect explorations up the Nile and the Niger. Our maps of the interior were either a blank or a blunder-deserts and plains, wbere lakes and rivers, a~d mountains ha,'e been discovered, with a teeming population and fertile soil.
This vast increase of our knowledge acts ill a two-fold way on the Christian Church. First, it excites interest in, and sympathy for, the poor and the perishing; and second, it awak.ens a sense of responsibility for those with whom we seem by our knowledge to be brought into personal relations. The qnestion, ""Vho is my neighbor?" acquires a new meaning and a wider scope. Our fellow man who has fallen among thieves, is now found by the Samaritan spiI"it in the Church, not on the way down from Jerusalem to the neighboring city, Jericho; he is found wounded by sin".and robbed of his Divine inheritance by the idolatries of heathenism and the deceptions of the false prophet in all lands.
This feeling of sympathy and sense of responsibility are greatly intensified by the facilities for eagy and rapid communication with all parts of the world. It makes us realize that we are now in that period of prophetic history, when "many shall run to alll~ fro, and knowledge shall be increased." The whole world is now at our door. It is only a few weeks easy travel by land or sea to reach the most distant parts. By post and telegraph we know daily what takes place in the most remote regions. ';Ve seem to hear the sounds of sorrow and woe in the dark places of the earth, and to feel the anxious beating of the hearts of the thousand millions of the world's inhabitants wh'o are ignorant of God and of His Christ.
n.-THE OPENINGS IN THE MISSION FIELD.
If we compare the world a hundred years ago with what it is now, the calls to work and sense of responsibility will be intensified a thousand fold. When our Protestant missions began China was hermetically sealed. It was death to preach the Gospel in Japan. India was closed against all missionaries; even our own countryman, Carey, had to seek shelter on a little plot of ground owned by a foreign power. South America was tabooed by the Church of Rome. T~e difficulties experienced by African travelers were enough to deter the most adventurous, and Asia Minor was inaccessible, while Mohammeda.nism stood in its pride and independence.
These countries from which the missionary was thus excluded were peopled by the highest and most advanced races outside the pale Qf the Christian Church. Almost the only peoples accessible to the missionary were the inferior and debased races, inhabiting the soft and enervating islands of the South Seas, or the freezing latitudes of the Polar regions; races living under conditions inimical to a high development, and, in most instances, races which were dying out under the double pressure of native vices and the evils attendant on modern «ivilization. Along with these, missionaries had access to certain tribes of Africa, on their native soil, or transplanted to America and· the 'Vest India Islands, under the degrading influence of slavery.
These were not the races whom the wisdom of man would have selected, and but for the overruling providence of God shutting up the new energies of the awakened Church to the degenerate and apparently hopeless specimens of the human family, they would proba.bly have been thought beneath or beyond the reach of the Gospel remedy. That such beings have not only been delivered .from idolatry by the simple prea'ching of the Gospel, but made to shine with the beauty of holiness, giving all the evidences of a nature regenerated by the spirit of God, and abounding in the fruits of righteousness; the strongest proof of the Divine origin and power of Christianity on the one hand, and the clearest demonstration of the disinterested character and aim of Protestant missions on the other. There was nothing to be gained by the churches from conquests over such as these, save the blessing of the Lord on those who obey His commands, and thus enjoy His favor.
But now the whole world is open to missionary enterprise; we can not even name the countries which have been thrown open. It would occupy too much of your space. There is only one isolated little nook from which missionaries are absolutely shut out-the one exception which confirms the rule, and, if we mistake not, even that one exception is likely soon to cease to be one. By her insults to Britain's power and attacks on British interests, Thibet is preparing the way for the overthrow of her clerical exclusiveness.
There is one feature of the great change which has come over the world during this last century, for which the Church is not sufficiently grateful; of which, in fact, no one seems to take note, viz.: that among the nations of the earth thet'e is not one Kingdom ruled over by an independent idolatrous Ruler. The small States in India, under Hindu Rulers, are no exception. They are all under British dominion or influence. EYen .Assam, Tonquin, Corea, and such like powers, are directly uuder the influence or control of the Briti~h, French or Chinese governments; and even the last is monotheistic in its national worship. Thibet, the one apparent exception~ is under Chinese protection. The tribes under the yoke of naked savages we do not reckon among the nations and kingdoms of the world. This overthrow of idolatrous rulers is not the work of Christian missions; but it has been chiefly brought about by Christian powers~ and is surely a part of the Di vine purpose for preparing the way of the Lord. 'l'hat the rulers of all civilized or semi-civilized nations- ill fact, all nations with anything corresponding to or resembling civil government-are monotheists, is well fitted to encourage the mission- ary spirit, and the hopes of the Church. He who has put down the idolatrous power will fulfill His prophetic word, «the idols he will utterly abolish."
HL-THE ENLARGElIIENT AND INCREASED RESOl7RCES OF THE CHURCH.
The altered position of the church in relation to the heathen world, is a cheering fact, and should be a powerful factor in the future. A hundred years ago the numbers of professing Christians of all the three great sections of the Christian Church, were less than 200 millions, now they are over 430 millions; and of this great increase in a hundred years, by far the larger share falls to the Pro- testant Church. vVhile the Roman Catholic and Greek churches only doubled their numbers, the Protestants multiplied nearly foul' fold.
The numbers, as given in our" Century of Christian Progress," stand thus: 1886, Increase 4 fold. less than 2 fold', 1786, 137,000,000 205,000,000 2 fold, Protestants. ' …..•…. 37,700,000 89,000,000 Roman Catholics …… 117,000,000 Greek Church, … , …. 46,000,000 200,700,000 431,000,000 In our brochure, "A Century of Protestant Missions," we called attention to the fact, that while Protestant missions had gathered three millions into the fold of Christ ill a hundred years, the heathen hall increased, by the ordinary birth rate, by 200 millions, in the same time. But if we take the entire increase in the nominally Christian population, which was in the same period 230 millions, we alter most materially the relative numbers, and find that the Christian is rapidly overtaking the heathen and :Mohammedan popUlation of the world. . In 1786 the entire population of the world was probably about ·1,000 millions, of which profesl'ling Christians were 200 millions, forming 20 per cent. of the whole, and 25 per cent. of the 800 millions of heathens and Mohammedans. In other words, the Christians were 1 in 4 of the heathen and Mohammedans. In 1886 the population of the world was estimated at 1450 millions, but the Christians of all ~enominations had risen to 430 millions, that is, 43 per cent. of the 1000 millions of the heathens and Mohammedans, or about as 1 in 2, .or more nearly 1.02!-.
If we take only the Protestant population at the two period,s, the relative change is more striking still. In 1786 the 37 millions of Protestants were to the 960 millions of heathen and Mohammedan population only 4 per cent., or as 1 in 26. In 1886 the 137 millions were to the 1313 millions, 10 per cent., or as very nearly 1 in 10. But the gain is not only in numbers; in learning and science, in wealth and power the gain is greater fat·.
Take this rapid and great increase in the nnmbers and resources .of the church in connection with the opening up of the whole world to evangelistic enterprise, and have we not a clear instruction of the ~esign of God? The one condition, without the other, would have had little significance. If the world had been open, but the church poor and weak and few in numbers, there might have been an excuse for indolence, although the memory of Pentecost and the little company in the upper room, might have inspit'ed even a feeble few to sttempt great things in the name of a risen Redeemer. If the church had been large and strong, but the world closed, she might have taken it as a plea for attempting little. But when we see an open world, .easy of access, and a church so prosperous and powerful, there is not the shadow of an excuse for idleness. There is every encouragement, snd the loudest call to a supreme effort for the evangelization of the world. The heathen are calling, God is commanding His people to srise in His might, and to take possession of all nations, in His name. It is at her peril that the church of Christ neglects the call of Provi- (lence, which is the voice of God.
IV.-FACILITIES FOR lIUSSION WORK NOW, AXD A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The advantages for a new crusade are inconceivably greater in .our day, as compared with what they were in the days of our fatherR. Then the work was new and untried. The few specimens of work (lone were not models of wisdom, or examples of success. Some were .of value as a wal'l1ing, rather than encouragement. Everything was new and strange, all had to be built up-the very foundations had to be dug. Can we wonder that mistakes were made? It would haye been a miracle if they had not. The condition of the savage tribes smong whom they began was so entirely different from anything in bome experience, we can only wonder at the co.)urage, and faith, and wisdom, of the early founders of our missions.
The tools with which they were to work had to be invented and nlade. Languages had not only to be leal'l1ed, they had to be fashioned and clothed in the forms of written speech. The fleeting sounds from the lips of savages had to be coined into visible words, snd construed in harmony with the strange usage8 of people innocent of grammatical rules. Dictionaries had to be made out of the crude materials of these hitherto unformed tongues, requiring the greatest nicety of ear, and the utmost accuracy in reducing sound to its equivalent in words; and last, but not least, the translation of the Word of God had to be made unto these newly formed languages, and fickle and restless savages had to be taught to read the sacred page.
The amount of this kind of work that has been accomplished is. almost incalculable and incredible. All this is clear gain, which does not need to be repeated in these languages, which now number probably 400, in all parts of the habitable globe. New missionaries, going to these nations and tribes, find their work in acquiring the language of the people comparativaly easy-a clear gain to the church in time and money and men; making spiritual results, under God, more easy and rapid.
Compare also the present with the past in respect of the numberof laborers with which we start this new era in missionary effort. Our fathers had to begin with a mere handf~l of laborers, untrained and inexperienced, with no knowledge of the habits and customs and modes of thought of the various peoples among whom they werll to· work. They had no native helpers or preachers to assist them in theirwork. Everything was against them. The possibility of the preach· ing of the Gospel saving and sanctifying such depraved natures as· those of cannibals, was an untried problem. The natural way would have been, like the first Moravian missionaries, to prepare them by education and civilization for the Gospel message. But, with a sublime faith in the Divine commission to preach the Gospel to ever.1f creature, they went forth with no weapons of modern science or learning, but with the sword of the Spirit, and with that they fought and conquered.
Now, how different are the conditions in the mission field, with 7,00(} European and American missionaries at work, half the number ordained ministers, and nearly all of them educated men and women, acquainted with something like 400 languages, or distinct dialects. But what is a greater advantage than these for aggressive work, ~re the native evangelists, now making little short of 30,000, and of these, nearly 3,000 are educated native pastors, placed over congregations of their countrymen. Greater than even these advantages, arc the three million of converts, two-thirds of whom are either active or passive witnesses for Christ iu the midst of their heathen countrymen -lights, all the more conspicuous from the darkness which surrounds them.
Take in connection with these advantages in the mission fields of the world, the vast increase in the number and resources of missionary societies at home, with the augmented means, their more complete organization, their knowledge and experience of the methods.
DR. PIERSON'S JIlISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND
which have heen lllostowned of God for the conversion of the heathen, their closer touch with the churches, the increase of missionary spirit in England and America, the great wealth in the hands of Christian men, the favorable disposition of most of the ruling powers of the world,-and we have a condition of matters such as could not have been dreamed of a hundred ycars ago, and which lays an immeasurably greater responsibility on the Christian conscience and on the churches of Christ; while they are fitted to put doubt and unbelief to shame, and to inspire the greatest courage and hope in the breast of missionaries abroad, and Christians at home. Surely God is speaking loudly to all, to seize the present opportunity, and make a supreme effort for an advance along the whole line.
We close with a word of wal'lling. There is a danger of trusting to the great increase of knowledge, and numbers, and wealth, and :power. We do well to remember the words, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." We have enough to h-Jmble us in looking to our sinful neglect in the past, when we tr.ink of the generations of men we have allowed to go down to the grave in darkness, while we had the light. We have enough to Bol.emnize us, when we look to the work which lies before us in the future; not only the one thousand millions of heathen and Mohammedans, Christless and hopeless, but the hundreds of millions of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, corrupting the truth of God and dishonoring the Lord who bought them. Let our attitude be that of humble, earnest, prayerful effort, and devout, hopeful expectancy, trusting "in the living God who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
DR. PIERSON'S MISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND.
[It is known to most of our readers, that in compliance with the earnest request of the leading friends of missions in Scotland, our Associate has gone there to complete the work he began after the rising of the London Conference on Missions in 1888. We give below the first of a series of letters on his mission and its results, which will appear in successive numbers ·of the REVIEW. If all of them shall possess the extraordinary interest of the first, they will surely be read with heartfelt interest and gratitude to God. We invoke the prayers of our readers in behalf of Dr. Pierson in this mission of love, for such it is, May the reflex influence of this mighty wave of missionary interest on the other side of the ocean reach our shores, and mark a new era in the history of the cause among us !-J. lI1. S.] Jfy Dear Dr. Sherwood: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, Nov. 27, 1889.
There was no need of coming to Scotland to " kindle the flame of a Missionary Revival," as the brethren of the Committee were pleased to suggest. It is quite obvious to me that a revival of missions is already in progess, and that all I can hope to do will be to feed ancl fan a flame already burning.
The good ship Etruria had a very rough passage, through a very "choppy" sea. 'Ve were rolled to and fro, and tossed up and down, and found it quite har.} to keep ollr.~elvei> in 0111' berths at night ,or maintain our standing, or even our sitting, on deck by day. N evertheless we landed at Liverpool quay at about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening, November 16th. The brethren came to meet and greet Ufl, and bid us " Welcome in the name of the Lord," and cheered us as a similar embassy comforted Paul at the "Three Taverns." There is no disposition either in England or Scotland to allow our sojourn to be one of idle lounging or pleasure seeking. Ve found arrangements made at Liverpool for a series of meetings, beginning with one on the very night of our arrival. In fact, no time could be spared even to attend to "customs," and so leaving our kind host with }frs. Pierson to look after the luggage, I was hurried off in a cab to Gordon Hall, where a large and select company of the Christians of Liverpool were gathered to offer a cordial welcome. Canon Burbidge was in the chair, and the familial' face of ~lr. Reginald Radcliffe beamed close at his side. At this meeting I made a brief address on the "Present Aspect of }fissions," and was greatly cheered by observing a very manifest spirit of prayer prevailing. This was my first impression, and that impression has been constantly emphasized and intensified during these eleven days.
As I intimated, my sojourn on this side of the water is not likely to suffer by lack of employment. I left Liverpool for Edinburgh on Wednesday morning, November 20, having already held in that city seven meetings, closing with a grand and enthusiastic gathering in great George Street Chapel, which will hold easily two thousand people. The attendance at all these meetings evinced an intelligent and hearty sympathy with the }fissionary cause, and furnished an auspicious forecast and foretaste of the gratifications in store. In Edinburgh, on the night of OUI' arrival, a marvellous assembly convened in the Hall of the Church of Scotland, Principal Cairns in the ohair. Rev. Dr. Lowe, Chairman of the Committee, having direction of the meetings, remarked to me that no more significant gathering had ever met in Edinburgh. The various denominations, which have been divided by conscientious differences of opinion, and have sometimes waged wars, not without much bitterness, came together with a profound and sincere sympathy, to further the common cause of a world's Evangelization. }fen that had met in the arena of theological and ecclesiastical controversy, and engaged in fierce conflict, came into that Hall on a common footing of cordial good will, rallying around a humble advocate of world·wide missions, forgetful of all past issues and minor differences in the one absorbing object-giving the gospel to tMs generation.
The Chairman was Dr. Cairns, a very proper man about whom to gather; It has been said of him that "no man carries under his hat, through all Scotland, a bigger brain." Eminent as a preacher, a writer, a teacher, an ecclesiastic, he is eyen more conspicuous as a. Christian. His charity is pre-eminent, and in the atmosphere of its gentle glow, the ice of antagonism and apathy may well mdt away. The students made a sort of cartoon, not long since, in which they represented "Principal Cairns' introduction to the Devil." He is made to say to his Satanic Majesty, that he has "heard very unfavor- able reports touching his moral character," but that he has "no doubt these reports are very much exaggerated, and that on furthel' acquaintance they will be able to get on together very well." The jest, as Horace intimates, hides behind a laugh a serious truth; for the dear Doctor is always looking for and hoping for the best from everybody.
The object of this first meeting was to express a hearty welcome from all the bodies represented, and to assure me of the most cordial co-operation in the purpose of this Mission Tour of the (;hurches. The welcome was given with all the enthusiasm of true Scotchmen. These people are not so easily moved as some, but when they do move it is with great momentum. Meeting after meeting followed, the details of which space does not allow m.e to give; suffiJe it to say, that, as in Liverpool, they have followed each other in quick succession, on Thursday in the great Synod Hall, on Friday in the Free Assemhly Hall, mainly for )Vomen, on Saturday morning in Moncrieff Hall, fO!' the students, when even the standing room was all in demand; then after two sermons on Missions, the Sabbath evening found me confronting an immense audience at the U. P. Synod Hall, where the most marked movement of the Spirit of God which I have ever witnessed in such a gathering, subdued and melted all hearts. My subject that night was" Individual Responsibility with reference to Missions," and as the duty and privilege of individual giving', and especially prctyill[J, was urged, and the grand promises to prayerful souls were arrayed before us, a sudden hush fell upon the whole assembly; there was a. painful silence, and many bowed in tears before God. As fOI' the speaker, it was with him as with Daniel, when, in his vision beside the Hiddekel, "there remained no strength in him." (Daniel, x :8.) The sense of the divine presence was positively overwhelmillg; no man could produce such an impression; it was manifestly of God, and all felt it to be the gateway of Heaven.
Such a meeting has but one explanation. Ever since it was known that this Mission Tour of the Churches was determined on, and that arrangements were definitely made, there has been an unusual spirit of prayer. Those who on their hearts bear the precious interests of God's kingdom, in this land of Martyrs and Missionaries, began praying in secret and praying in little circles, for a mighty manifestation of God's presence and power. Instead of looking to any man, there has been a disposition to fix the eye of faith and prayer on God alone, and those that honor Him, He will hOllOI'. Of all the meetings I have ever attended, I remember not one in which God more plainly set all human instruments aside, to speak for Himself in the language that has no human speech as its expression and can be heard only by ears open to the still small voice. Some persons were so moved that they had to leave the hall. When the meeting adjourned all left in silence, and since then, token after token of the blessing keeps coming to our knowledge. The next day we received a note in a lady's hand, enclosing the money which would buy "one pail' of four-button kids," in response to an appeal which I made to Christian women to forego luxuries for the Lord's sake, and turn the money to His treasury. The same day brought a half sovereign, the expression of like self-denial; and a letter, enclosing two pounds, ten shillings, the proceeds of a bracelet, sold for the I"ord's sake. These are but a few signs of God's presence and of a coming harvest of missions. Every day brings increasing encouragement. "Ye can only praise God, and give glory to Him.
With Sabbath evening's meeting the series of gatherings in Edinburgh closed for the present, fifteen meetings in all since the Etruri(t anchored in the Mersey River, eight days before. 'Yith Monday we began, accompanied by Mrs. Edge, recently returned from Canton, China, and Rev. Henry'Rice, on a furlough from: Madras, India, to visit cities and towns in the neighborhood of this Scotch Athenl'l. On Monday we held two meetings in Leith, on Tuesday in Peebles and bnerleithen, and to-day in Dalkeith. The afternoon meetings are principally for the women, and the evening assemblies, held in the largest available places, are crowded to overflowing. 'Ve were told yesterday that meetings so large have not been known even in times of great political excitement. Surely God is marching on, and a new departure in missions is at hand.
'Ve cannot bring this letter to a close without remarking upon the grand men and women who in this great Scotch metropolis are arrayed on the side of Christian faith and Christian Missions. 'Ye seem to be back in the times of old when there were "giants on the earth in those days." Think Qf a series of meetings in the interest of }Iissiom~, held day after day, with such men as Principals Cairns and Rainy, and Sir 'Villiam Muir, in the chair; when such men as Rev. Dr. Andrew 'l'hompson, George Smith,LL.D., Dr. 'Velsh, Professors Laidlaw, Blaikie and I.indsay, and 'l'homas Smith, D.D.; Reverends 'Vm. Balfour, tVm Stevenson, 'Vm. Robertson, John McMartrie, Dr. Norman McLeod and Dr. Alison; Duncan McLarew, Esq., and John, Smith, Esq., Professors Calderwood and Johnstone and A. R. Simpson, M.D.; with Reverends W m. Grant and R. Craig, and I . ord Kinnaird, from I"ondon, Principal Simon, Mrs. ,Jane .Millel', representing the Friends, and a host of others, came together to OffCl' the right hand of fellowship in behalf of all branches of the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist~, Episcopalian~, Friends, etc. The Committee having in charge the details of my Tour of the Churches have made singularly complete and satisfactory arrange- ments. They have secured one or two 1'Iissionairies, now at home from their fields, to accompany me. Mrs. Edge is a ready and accomplished speaker and gives vivid glimpses of Chinese home life and sociallif~, showing the marked influence of the gospel in modifying and transforming especially the women and girls of the Celestial Empire. Rev. Henry Rice is one of the most fluent, intelligent and strik~ ing speakers on Missions that it has been my good fortune to hear. He touches with rare skill the salient points of Missions, and gives both picturesque and impressive views of East Indian religions and customs. His book, recently published, on " Native Life in India," printed by the London Religious Tract Society, compresses into a brief Rpace an immense amount of interesting and instructive matter. He is full of missionary zeal, and zeal according to knowledge. It is with not a little gratification that we add such a man to our REVIEW list of Editorial Correspondents, and announce a series of articles as ab.out to appear in these pages from his instructive and attractive pen.
The details of these meetings we have given to some degree, because these pages will be read not only in Great Britain and the United States and Canada, but in far off lands where Christ's Godly messengers are telling the old, old story. Such a movement at the great centers of Christendom will be felt at the outermost bounds, as a mighty heart throb pulses warm life blood to the extremities of the body. And we bid all missionaries in God's name, "Be of Good Cheer." There is a revival of missiollary knowledge and zeal at home, and it means blessing abroad. The key note struck at the opening meeting was" the gospel to be published through all the world in this generation," and this thought seems to be taking possession of the most earnest, prayerful and consecrated men and women on both sides of the sea. God has given us a thousand facilities unknown to our ancestors. lIe has thrown open the doors to the nations and challenged us to enter in and possess the land. "Vhat are we waiting for? AU things are now ready. A united movement all along the lines-more men and women to the front, and the Church of God backing them up with more money and prayer and sympathy; more Godly parents giving their children to God and to Missions from the cradle; morc enterprise for God, pushing the conquests of the cr08S as we push seculal' and scientific endeavor for objects infinitely less i~portant – who can tell what glorious and speedy results may follow a true awakening of the Church of God to the duty and privilege of proclaiming the gospPl to every creature!
THE CHARITIES OF GERMANY
THE CHARITIES OJ!' GERMANY.
BY REV. A. n. BRADFORD, D.D, ~rO~TGLAIR, X. J.
[We offer no apology for embracing "C'harities" in the gospel of Missionary work. The mission of the Master did not overlook them-nay, specially honored them. The Church of Christ has ever been foremost in this work, The true Missionary will find work to do wherever the poor, the suffering, the unfortunate and criminal classes are found, and they are found in great numbers in, Christian lands as well as in heathen. We are sure this paper will be read with ini!erest,-J, M. S.] I Christianity has been called "the romance of the poor." What- ever controversies have marked the history of the Church, and how- ever deeply stained its pages may be with tears and blood, from the first its progress may be traced in the development of charities. It created charity. Paganism had no place for the aged, the infirm, for children without friends. It peopled its schools of gladiators and houses of prostitution from those who, in our time, are beautifully called "the children of the public." Charities are the necessary fruit of Christianity. ,'rhe world has not yet grasped the significance of the incamation-God entering into human conditions to save the outcast and the sinful. 'Vherever Christ has been preached, instantly there have arisen institutions whose object has been the amelioration of human suffering. Philanthropy and Chl·ist.ianity are inseparable.
Lecky, in his History of European Morals, says: "The high conception which has been formed of the sanctity of human life, the protection of infancy, the elevation and final emancipation of the slaveclasses, the suppression of barbarous games, the creation of a vast and multifarious organization of chllxity, the education of the imagination by the Christian type, constitute together a movement of philanthropy which has never been paralleled or approached in the Pagan world." * One form of Christianity devotes its energies to making conver- sions; another form seeks by Christian nurture to place around the children of the poor and vicious such conditions as shall make the new life a second and better nature.
Dr. Channing, in an eloquent passage, says: " Society has hitherto employed its energies chiefly to punish crime. It is infinitely more important to prevent it. And this I say not for the sake of those alone on whom the criminal preys. I do not think only or chiefly of those who suffer from crime. I plead also, and plead more, for those who perpetrate it. In moments of clear, calm thought, I feel more for the wrongdoer than for him who is wronged. In a case of theft, incomparably the most wretched man is he who steals, not he who is robbed. What I want is not merely that society shall protect itself against crime, but that it shall do all that it can to preserve its exposed members from crime. It ought not to breed monsters in its own bosom. If it will not use its prosperity to save the ignorant and the poor from the blackest vice, then it must suffer, and deserves to suffer, from crime. If the child be left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker, of its relations to society, in an atmosphere of profaneness and intemperance, and in practice of falsehood and fraud, let not the community complain of its crime. It has quietly looked on and seen him, year after year • '.,1. II, p,lUO, arming himself against its order and peace; and who is most to blame when at last he deals the guilty blow?"
The conception of Christianity which recognizes in it a gospel for the whole life of man, for man physical as well as spiritual-this gospel of a healthful environment as well as of free forgiveness-is day by day coming into fnIler recognition.
The subject of Charity in Germany is too large for one paper, and. therefore this is chiefly limited to those forms of philanthropy which are known as "Child-saving." 'rhe one exception is that universal chai'ity at Kaiserswerth which could not, with propriety, be classified in any department of philanthropic work but seems rather to embrace them all.
The work of child-saving was begun in Germany in 1695, by August Hermann Franke, in the city of Halle. Franke was a German minister and teacher, and Professor in the University of Halle. "He commenced with a capital of three dollars and a half. ,Vhen he received it, he said: 'With this I must do a great work.'" Halle is a beautiful city of about 70,000 inhabitants, ill N orthel'l1 Germany. It is best known as the seat of one of the largest German Universities. It has always been a center of evangelical theology. It must be rememc bered, however, that that term is more inclusive ill Germany than in America. The University has been a favorite with American students, especially in its theological department. Halle is distinguished not only for its institutions of learning, but equally for its orphan asylums, which Ol'iginated as fullows: It was the custom for beggars, on certain days, to seek alms at private houses. Not satisfied with merely giving them bread for their bodies, Franke began to catechise them, both the old and the young. He discovered among them such utter ignorance of religion that he began to think of providing a school for them. "He opened a little school in his study; in less than a year he found the place too small. He was pained, however, to see that the children's home-life destroyed what his school had builded up. He therefore formed the idea of taking the entire training of a few children upon himself. A house was purchased for this school; twelve were received into it. The next year a new house was purchased."
Rapidly the institution grew. There was no capital, and yet the work flomished. Faith and prayer were his capital. Franke himself said: "From week to week, from month to month, has the Lord crumbled to me, even as one crumbles the bread to little chickens." A Home for Unmarried Women followed the Orphan Asylum; then a Home for Widows. Around these centers schools were founded in which students of the University became teachers. One curious means of help was devised by an eminent physician who gave the institutions the receipts for some very valuable remedies. The sale of the medicines added greatly to the revenue of the charities. They were widely sold in Germany, and even in America and Africa. Another auxiliary enterprise was the Orphan House Book Establishment, conducted by a man named Elers, who put his income at the disposal of the Orphan House, and was content to receive clothing and food. The work among the orphans and the poor at home was followed by Missionary and Bible work in Germany and foreign lands.
There is little about the managem'ent of these charities to distinguish them from others. Dormitories, laundries, school rooms, and play grounds are everywhere the same. The difference between institutions of this kind is chiefly in the system. The congregate and the cottage systems both have their advocates. The Asylums at Halle belong to the former class. His friend Elers once asked Franke as to who had taught him this work. His reply was, "My mother's love." The secret of his marvellous career is in that answer. When King Frederick William first saw the Orphan House, 1713, and was conducted through the book-stores and the warehouses, he was amazed; and he asked Elers how much he got out of all tIllS r " Your Majesty," replied Elers, "only just what you see." Then the King clapped Franke upon the shoulder and said, "Now I see how he accomplishes so much. I have no such servants."
The establishment still remains, and its influence is boundless. The buildings are a quarter of a rile in length, and six stories high, built around an oblong court-yard. In the court-yard is a bronze statue of Franke, by Rauch. In the Asylum are sheltered about 500 children, while schools, a labratory, a printing office, and many charitable associations find a home under its hospitable roofs. If Franke had been a soldier and displayed such courage and zeal, his country would have built him a splendid monument in the capital. If he had been a Romanist, he would have been enrolled among the saints. He was both a soldier and a saint, but he needs no monument and no canonization, for his works do follow him.
The ancient city of Erfurt is picturesque and quaint. It is chiefly celebrated because of its connection with the history of Luther. There he was a monk and a professor. There he had that terrible inward conflict which ended with his discovery of the Bible in the library of his monastery. In that old church he preached. There are still the cells in which he lived and worked. '1'he very place where he found the Bible is still in good preservation. If you would find that old church and monastery ask almost anybody for the "Martinstift." The monastery has been born again. It is now a school, and a home for poor children taken from the streets and prisons. The principle of management is not different from that of other institutions of the kind, and the advantages offered are not so numerous as in some other homes. As in the asylums at Halle, the congregate system is in uSe. Two things especially distinguish this home and school. First, it is not only for children from the street, but from the prisons also. A prison with children in it is a school where criminals are trained. This was clearly recognized by Rector Charles Reinthaler, who founded the Martinstift in 1819. The second fact which distinguishes this institution is that it is the noblest monument to Luther in all Germany. Germany honors Luther as Scotland honors Bruce; His figure in the attitude of a preacher, or a doctor of philosophy, is at Eisenach, at Eisleben. at Erfurt, at Wittenberg; but this home for the homeless, which is nobler than any bronze, is his most appropriate memorial; for it is an unfailing benediction to those who are as desolate as he was in Eisenach, where Frau von Cotta was charmed by the sweetness of his voice, and divided with him her living.
Vienna is, in many respects, the most beautiful, and I think in all respects, the most corrupt capital in EUI·ope. Its buildings surpass even those of Paris. St. Stepheu's is hardly inferior to Notre Dame, and the Votive Church is, in its way, quite as wonderful as La Made- leine. The University buildings are the most splendid for the.purpose in the world.
Two facts conspire to make "child-saving" especially imperative and especially difficult in Vienna. It is imperative because of the vast number of illegitimate, and consequently neglect.ed children. There are about 50,000 women in Vienna licensed to lives of shame, and, perhaps, as many more who are not licensed but whose lives are equally illicit. The number of homeless children where such moral conditions prevail is always large; and to care for them without increasing vice or diminishing the con- sciousness of responsibility on the part of those who bear children, is always difficult. The difficulty is increased by the poverty of the lower classes. There are rumors of dynamite conspiracies in Vienna. They were to have been expected. People who are oppressed, as the poor are there, . will sometimes break their chains and rebel. Women who work all day on buildings, doing what we call hod-carrying, get 40 cents; masons get 75 cents a day. Women who make shirts get 75 cents a dozen. Farm-laborers are cared for, and get from ten to twenty cents a day for doing what, in this country, in harvest time, a man would get $4 for doing. Meat costs about the same there as in New York, but meat is not for the poor. Nowhere in the world is woman's labor so poorly paid. Women in the postoffice and telegraph departments get from $5 to $7.50 a month, and "find themselves." They never have a home furnished with their work; that favor is only for men, and rarely for them. On the other hand, there are numerous day-nurseries, or creches, provided by the government, where the children of the poor may be placed while the parents are at work. Crime and suffering are compulsory where such wage~ are paid.· When pe0ple thus treated learn their power, the existing social order always trembles. That time has already come in Vienna.
Seeking what was being done in that city of splendor and infamy to relieve or to prevent pauperism and crime, I was directed to the Waisenhaus, a Roman Catholic institution, under the direction of " The Brothers of Christian Love." This, in its equipment, is the most complete institution of the kind I have ever seen. It is supported by its endowments. The congregate system is in. use. It has four dormitories, and provides a home for three hundred and sixty boys. After the uniform excellence of the appointments, that which especially distinguishes the institution are the facilities afforded for education. For instance, in the musical department I counted six pianos and three organs, in as many rooms. In other rooms were other instruments. The Museum of Natural History, one of the best equipped in the city and filling a;n immense space, is in daily use. The wash rooms are as interesting as the school rooms. Each boy has his towel and his box: of toilet articles, and the neatness and order are perfect. The older boys rise at five, and those younger a half-hour later. Their study-hour is from quarter before six to quarter before seven. A very large proportion of these boys are waifs. They have no idea of any other home. No motives of love inspire them. The poorest learn trades, and the higher class prepare to be clerks or to enter the army. The fact that they do not know their parentage does not indicate that their parentage is unknown; on the other hand, it is often known, and it is no contradiction to speak of waifs of "higher" and" lower" classes. The order and advantages of the institution were well nigh perfect. The Brothers were exceedingly courteous, and yet there was something about them which was positively repellant. I left the place feeling that it was not good to be there. "The Brothers of Christian Love" are evidently affected by the moral atmosphere around them. The Superior, for instance, spoke of woman, and of unfortunate children, lightly and flippantly. He seemed to have no profound appreciation of the misery he was seeking to relieve. I may do him injustice. Individuals often receive the censure which belongs to the social order. The Waisenhaus is a wonderful institution, but splendor of equipment and perfection of organization can never compensate for the absence of moral earnestness. Thus one of the most splendid charities in Europe made on me the impression of being simply a great machine for providing for illegitimate children. "The Brothers of Christian Love" may be the noblest and most self-sacrificing of men, but the environment of corrupt social life seems to have affected their ways of looking at things. if not· their characters and principles of work. It could hardly be otherwise.
The location of Hamburg is as beautitul as are the buildings of Vienna, and its residences, especially around the Alster Binnen, are worthy of this location. It is the commercial center of Germany, to that Empire what Glasgow and Liverpool are to Great Britain. A few miles out of Hamburg, at Horn, is the Rauhe Haus, which divides with Kaiserswerth the glory of being the most prominent charitable institution in the nation. It consists of a series of buildings around a small park. Each house is a home by itself. The dor- mitories and school rooms have nothing peculiar about them. "Vhat especially impressed me there was the attention given to industrial training, and to the religious nurture of the children. There is a ~ystem of mutual education going on all the time. The teachers, ", Brothers" they are called, who have charge, a,re preparing for other work. They are to be city missionaries and are serving their apprenticeship with children from the lowest and vilest city wards. A man who knows a street boy knows a city's darker side. The boys are training the men and the men are trainiJlg the boys. The " Brothers" remain, I think, for three years.
Three characteristics distinguish the Rauhe Haus. It is a congeries of families, each with its 110me and home-life; it provides industrial education of a very thorough kind; and is a place for the training of city missionaries as well as outcast children. It has it higher department called the Pensionate, where those fitted for it receive the same instruction as in the best German Gymnasia. This institution was founded by Dr. John Henry Wichern and his mother, in November, 18;:13. Dr. Wines says: "The fundamental idea of the Rauhe Haus is that of the famil:y, and it is the mother of all those child-sa,ing institutions, of which the number is continually increasing, that have since been organized on the family plan." Perhaps the finest example of the perfection to which this plan may be carried, is the village of Girls' Homes, at lIford, Essex, neal' London, which is a part of the wonderful sPl'ie~ of charities founded by Dr. Bernardo. There are thirty beautiful brick houses built around a small park, each with its own "Mother," and family from the London slums. But the Rauhe Haus antedated Dr. Bernardo's Homes by at least forty years.
Some one asked Dr. ",Yichern how he was able to produce such wonderful changes in the conduct of children under his care. His reply reveals the secret of his success: "By the word of God and music." The religious training of the children is given the first place. Everything is made bright and beautiful. When possible, each child has its own flower bed; flowers help in the work of educa-. tion. Dr. Wichern once said that "the man who cannot play and enter into the plays of chhhood with his whole heart, is unfit to be an assistant in a child-saving institution." I cannot better describe the spirit of this institution than by quoting words spoken at a public meeting held in Hamburg prior to its opening, by Syndic Sieveking. He said: " The children's institution was not to be a workhouse, nor an orphanage, nor a place of punishment, nor a house of correction; but an institution that allied itself to the family, to the gospel, to the forgiveness of sins, to the first and last thought, that is to the essential nature and work of Christianity." * It is impossible even to mention all the names of the distinguished workers in the field of Charity in Germany. Pestalozzi, the founder of the Kindergarten, did a noble work, but in it the religious element was lackin£,. "At the age of eighty he saw for the first time what he had been striving for for his whole life, when, in 1826, he visited the institution of the venerable Zell'er at Beuggen. When the children of that institution presented him with a beautiful wreath, as they sang one of their sweet hymns, Pestolozzi said.to Zeller: 'This is what I wanted to accomplish.' His mistake was that, in his school at Stanz, there was no place for religious instruction." t In these child-saving institutions in the German Empire, there are' fewer girls than boys. Some of these Homes are managed by the State, and children are sent to .them as punishment; but these must not be confounded with what is done by individuals. There were about three hundred and sixty of the institutions in 1880. Wurtemburg leads all the German States in this work.
" The Deaconess Institution of Rhenish",Yestphalia," at Kaiserswerth, is the most remarkable charity in.Germany, if not in the world. On a dismal day in August I visited Kaiserswerth. The ride from Cologne by train is about one hour to Calcum, and then about a halfhOllr by carriage. The country around is flat and damp, like most of • Wines' State Prisons and Child·Saving Institutions, p. 74. t Wines' Child-SaVIng Institution, p. GOO. that along the lower Rhine. We were set down at the post-office, and then sought the institutions. We could find little besides; they make the town. There is a famous Roman Catholic church, but it attracts little attention. But first, how did we come to be interested in Kaiserswerth? By reading the lives of Elizabeth Fry, Agnes Jones, and Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth Fry unconsciously inspired its ol'lgm. Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones both resided there and received the instruction and studied the examples which were to stimulate their lives of heroism and sacrifice. A young German pas- tor, Fliedner by name, was settled in Kaiserswerth about fifty years ago. A period of financial depression compelled him to seek foreign help for the continuance of his work. He went to England. He met Elizabeth Fry who was in the midst of her career in the London prisons. From her words and example, Fliedner was moved to go home and attempt the same work. Soon after his return a degraded woman, named Minna, a discharged prisoner, came to him for help.
There was no room in his own house, but there was a little summer- house adjoining. He gave her a home in that, where she could be under the watchful eye of his wife. Soon another homeless and abandoned woman came to him. She, too, was sheltered in the sum- mer-house. There was no place for them to sleep except an attic in the same building, to which they climbed by a ladder. When they reached this place of rest the ladder was removed. That was the beginning of the Deaconess Institution at Kaiserswerth. Now it contains the following departments of philanthropic work: The Mother-house and Hospital where the deaconesses chiefly reside; the Penitentiary where women discharged frolll prison find a home until they can get a new start for a better life; the Training College for teachers, with an infant school; the Orphanage; the Lunatic Asylum for women; the House of Evening Rest for deaconesses no ionger able to work; Paul Gerhard's Home for women, chiefly invalids; a school f()r the training of deaconesses; a school for girls; numerous hospitals, etc., etc.
The exterior of the buildings is severely plain and simple. Many of them are connected. The halls are apparently endless. All is quiet, cleanly and cheerful. In one room children are taught; in another, babies are tended; in another, the sick are nursed; in another, girls just out of prison are trained to industrious and virtuous habits; in another, surgical operations are performed; another is a chapel; another is a parlor for old women; all around are little bed-rooms; and in all is the appearance of a charming and beautiful home. Our guide through these institutions was Sister Charlotte Drude, a tall, gaunt, angular, but exceedingly attractive German woman who has been long in the Sisterhood. Her hospitality and enthusiasm were boundless, and her love for philanthropic work an inspiration. The present Director at Kaiserswerth is Julius Disselhoff, a son-in-law of the founder; and a son, a second Pastor Fliedner, is the chaplain.
Kaiserswerth has literally reached around the world. It is now fifty years old. The Training-school for Nurses, at Salem, near Rati- gen; an Orphanage at Altdorf; a Boarding-school at Heldern; the :Martha'sJIome at Berlin, with infant and elementary school attached; the :Martha's home at Dusseldorf, with infant school; the Home for Prisoners, and the Asylum at Brandenburg; the Convalescent Home for Deaconesses and Children at ""Vallbaum, are all owned by the same society and managed and served by these Sisters. Outside <>f Germany, there is the Talitha-cumi Hospital and School at J erusalem; the School and Orphanage at Smyrna; the Hospital at Alexandria in Egypt; the Orphanage and Boarding-school at Beyroot, in Syria; a Boarding-school in Florence; and minor stations in almost all lands. The Deaconess work of modern times was begun at Kaiserswerth. It has increased marvellously. In 1880 there were fifty-three Central Deaconess institutions, with more than forty-eight hundred Deaconesses working in more than fifteen hundred different places. They were like angels on German battle fields. They nurse, and they preach; they bind wounds, and tell "the old, old. story." For both <>ffices they are trained. No vows are taken. At the consecration to the office, the new Deaconess _promises to be true to her calling, and to live in the fear of God and according to His holy Word. They nurse over 50,000 patients annually, and consequently preach Christ to at least the same number. Theyare the most persuasive preachers, for their message goes to hearts already opened by gratitude. They can leave when they choose, to go to their friends, to marry, to do what they will. Few choose to return to society. Those who wish to become Sisters pass through a course of preparation extending over five years, under the direction of those with whom they are later to be associated. They can be sent anywhere, but may decline any service. N one do decline. They realize that their place is in the midst of the world's suffering, and they covet the hardest posts, like soldiers in battle.
The rooms for the Deaconesses are plain, but comfortable. One into which we were shown was decorated with flowers for a Sister who was, in a few hours, expected home from work in a foreign land. She was worn out and sick, and was coming home to rest; and it was a place as sweet and inviting for one weary with anxiety and labor as the most exacting could desire. The Sisters receive no pay fOJ: anything they do. Their only reward is the consciousness of serving Christ and humanity. They are cared for while they live, and buried when they die; God takes care of the rest. Some belong to the nobility, some to the middle classes, some to the poor, and all to the Kingdom of God.
This Deaconess institution has started others like it in different parts of the world, and thus its work is both direct and indirect. In England and the United States similar Sisterhoods are already in operation, and the sphere of woman's work in the amelioration of human ills is without discernible limit. The seed sown by Pastor Fliedner has grown beyond his most sanguine dreams. Incidentally he came in contact with Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones. The
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
former has revolutionized the war-hospitals of England and all the colonies, and effected sanitary reforms wherever the English armies have gone. The latter, in a few short years of service in the Liverpool workhouse hospital, effected reforms among workhouse hospitals hardly less remarkable in their way than those of her more illustrioU'S sister. The influence of these women is felt in almost all institutions for child-saving and for the alleviation of pain, and the reform of criminals in Great Britain and America. The mustard seed which Fliedner planted is already a great tree whose branches reach into all lands.
No attempt has been made in this paper to compare the methods of charity in Germany with those among English-speaking people. In many respects they are radically different, but in more respects alike. It is enough to say that charity is the expression of love, and love is not limited by social or racial distinctions. Its forms of manifestations are everywhere the same, and so charity employs substantially the same methods and works toward the same ends among all people.
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WAI~ES.
In November, 1839, fifty years ago, the" Apostle of Polynesia'~ -John Williams-gave his life in an eNdeavor to pioneer the gospel of Jesus Christ in the islands of the New Hebrides. He had heard of the savage cannibals of Eromanga, and of the many atrocities committed by them; but as he knew the effects of Christianity on some of the Polynesian isla-nds, he was anxious to extend its blessings .to other groups. He had awakened an immense interest in South Sea Missions by his visit to England and by the publication of his "Missionary Enterprises." No book of its class ever created so great a sensation. The Archbishop of Canterbury, after perusing it, declared that it read like a new chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peers and Peeresses not only read it, but sent their donations to aid the work of evangelization in Polynesia. The press reviewed it with favor. In a few years 40,000 copies were sold. John 'Villiams became the hero of the hour, and many sympathizing friends breathed their benedictions as he sailed away on his new mission for the extension of the gospel among the isles of the Pacific. It was not long after his return to the scenes of his triumphs in Raratonga and Samoa that he set his heart on a visit to the New Hebrides. It had been one of his philanthropic utterances: "It is our duty to visit surrounding islands. For my own part, I cannot content myself within the limits of a single reef." He, therefore, took twelve native teach('rs as pioneers and sailed in the Oamden, under Captain Morgan, for the New Hebrides in 1839. As the vessel neared the group he was all anxiety as to whether the savages would receive him in a friendly spirit, and allow the landing of a few of the teachers to prepare the way of the Lord. The first island of the grOtlp at which the vessel touched was Futuna, a huge rock which rises up 2,000 feet above the sea. The natives there were friendly, but there was not opportunity for making arrangements to locate teachers. It was otherwise at Tanna. The harbor of Port Resolution was a safe anchorage, and had been visited by European traders. The chief promised protection to the Samoan teachers, and three were left. To Mr. Williams this was a notable event. lIe wrote of it in his journal thus: "This is a memorable day, a day which willbe transmitted to posterity, and the record of the events which have this day transpired will exist after those who have taken part in them have retired into the shades of oblivion."
He little thought that the very next day would be rendered still more memorable, not indeed by the landing of teachers, but by his own martyr death at Eromanga, on the 20th of November, 1839. He landed, along with Mr. Harris, a young man sailing in the Camden, and seriously thinking of giving himself to missionary work. CaptainMorgan and Mr. Cunningham also landed. All seemed pleasant at first, and the party proceeded inland along the banks of the river at Dillon's Bay. Suddenly a shout was heard. The natives became hostile, and it was necessary to seek safety in the boats. Captain Morgan and Mr. Cunningham were nearest to the shore and got into their boat. Mr. Harris was struck and fell into the river. Mr. 'Vil- Iiams was clubbed just as he reached the bay. No help could be given, and their friends in the boat saw the natives spear and kill both Williams and Harris. Arrows flew around the boat, and the men had to pull for their lives. The bodies of the martyr pioneers were dragged into the bush by the infuriated cannibals for their horrid feast. When the vessel reached Samoa great sorrow was awakened by the heavy·tidings of the death of John ·Williams. From island to island the wailing cry arose, "Aue Williamu! Aue Tawa!-Ala~, Williams! Alas, our Father I"
But as of old, "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the <lhurch." It was at once resolved by the mission brethren in Samoa that another effort should be made to place Christian teachers on blood-stained Eromanga. The Rev. T. Heath offered to lead the forlorn hope on the condition that if he also fell, another man should take the colors. He succeeded in his effort, and in 1840, six months after the death of 'Villiams, two Christian Samoan teachers were landed. A veteran survivor of that eventful period, the Rev. A. ,Yo Murray, author of the "Martyrs of Polynesia," "The Bible in the Pacific," and other works on missionR, visited the island in 1841, when Mrs. Williams was on boanl the mission vessel on her way to England and saw the scene of her devoted husband's death in the cause he loved. The teachers were fOl:nd alive, but they had a tale of living martyrdom to relate, and had experienced so many sufferings and hardships that they had to be removed. In England, after the sad intelligence of the death of the heroic vVilliams, it was also resolved by the directors of the London ~lissionary Society to· endeavor to plant the standard of the Cross at once as near as possible to the spot where the apostolic pioneer had fallen. Two young missionaries, with their brave wives, were forthcoming, ready to take their lives in their hands and go on the perilous enterprise. Messrs. Nisbet and Turner reached Tanna in June, 1842, and got what seemed a hopeful reception from the chiefs and natives of Port Resolution. "But," Dr. Turner says, "we had not been twenty-four hours on shore until we found that we were among a set of notorious thieves, perfect Spartans in the trade, and like the ancient code of Lycurgus, the crime seemed to be not the stealing, but the being found out." For seven dreary months the little mission party tried all their arts of conciliation in vain. Difficulties increased, and their lives were in imminent danger. At last, in dead of night, they had to seek safety in an open boat, but they were driven back. It was a critical condition for them to occupy; but providentially a trading vessel called the next day, and they got a passage to Samoa, where for many years they rendered fruitful service to the work of missions, and in the closing years of their residence trained many native teachers ana pastors and aided the work of translation and revised translations of Scripture, till thcy carried through the press an edition of the whole Bible with references in the language of Samoa. The London Missionary Society'S vessel from year to year sailed through the New Hebrides group, and the deputies on board, as Mr. Murray minutely testifies, watched for opportunities of locating teachers on several islands. Much is due to the brave enterprise of these devoted brethren in connection with the New Hebrides .Mission, and it becomes us, as we recall the work of fifty years ago, to record the fact that it was the London Missionary Society that pioneered the gospel to these islands where, in subsequent years, the Presbyterian missionaries had their trials and triumphs. It was their vessel that conveyed the first Presbyterian missionary. It was one of their missionaries that stayed with him during his first year. By their deputies he was visited and cheered from time to time. The Jubilee honors and rejoicings of the mission mu~t, therefore, be shared by that great society.
The first resident missionary on the New Hebrides was a Presbyterian-the Rev. John Geddie. He was a native of Banff, in Scotland, but had been taken in his infancy to Nova Scotia, where he became, in course of time, a student for the ministry. He was licensed to preach when he was only twenty-two years of age, and was ordained as a pastor at Cavendish, in Prince Edward Island, within a year thereafter. He was connected with a church compara- tively small and poor, and unable to afford more than a scanty income, often much in arrear', to its ministers, yet he had the courage to pro- pose that a Foreign Mission should be adopted. It is recorded that when he made known his views" there was not a man in the church who thought it practicable. Many looked upon it as utterly chimeri- cal, and were ready to pour contempt upon it as folly, while even his f~iends received the proposal with a smile of incredulity." The Church had in all only thirty congregations in the Provinces, and most were poor and str·uggling. Mr. Geddie, however, persevered, and in the course of a few years, carried his motion in the Synod. Vhen the proposal to seek a missionary was made, it was carried only by a majority of one! The attention of the Board was directed toward the islands where John Villiams laid down his life, and at length it was agreed that New Caledonia should be the field of their mission. That island had been named by MI'. Villiams to the Secession Church in Scotland as a sphere that might be occupied by their agents. Mr. Geddie belonged to that branch of the Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia. He offered himself to the work~ and was accepted. He knew how little could be expected in the way of support; but he was not to be daunted. After visiting all the congregations of the Synod, and endeavoring to excite a prayerful and liberal. interest in the mission, he stw.died medicine for a time. In November, 1846, he sailed along with his wife and family. He was detained at Boston for two months before he found a vessel sailing for the Pacific, and even then the port to which a passage could be got was Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, far from the contemplated sphere in the South Seas. Six dreary months were spent in rounding Cape Horn ere they reached Honolulu, and seven weeks passed before a passage could be got to Samoa. Mr. Geddie had, however, an opportunity of seeing the working of the IIawaian Mission, and afterwards that of Samoa. Vhen he reached the latter place, he found that no opportunity could be got to reach New Caledonia 01' the Loyalty Islands for six or seven months, when the mission vessel John TVilliams wottld call. Besides, there then seemed no opening in these islands, as the energetic Bishop of New Zealand (Dr. Selwyn) had expressed a wish to conduct missionary work there. One of the islands of the New Hebrides afforded a single gleam of hope, and Mr. Geddie, with the advice of brethren at Samoa, agreerl to undertake a mission there. The venerable MI'. Murray, who still sllrvives, was a chief adviser and helper of Mr. Geddie during this period. It was proposed that one of the Samoan missionaries should accompany Mr. Geddie for a year, and the Rev. Mr. Bullen was chosen to do so, but amidst preparation for the expedition Mr. Bullen died. The Rev. T. Powell at the last moment offered to go with Mr. Geddie, and they left in July, 1848., They reached the most southerly island of the New Hebrides-Aneit- yum-where some native teachers had been settled, but what was the surprise of the mission party to find eight Roman Catholic priests and eight lay brothers already established in the island! The mission vessel then cruised throughout the group, calling at the stations where native teachers had be~n left. It was hoped that Mr. Geddie might find a home on the island of Fate. An awful tragedy had, however, taken place there the previous year when the British Sovereign had been wrecked. The crew were all saved with one exception. The natives appeared at first to treat them kindly, but it was only to allay suspicion. The whole of the survivors, twenty-one in number, each being placed between two savages in a march, on a given signal were brutally massacred, and their bodies, divided among the villages, were cooked and eaten by the cannibal people. It was selfevident that a missionary could not at that time be safely settled in that quarter. The mission vessel returned to the South, and Mr. and Mrs. Geddie, with an assistant, found an opening at Aneityum, where they settled under the protection of the chief at the harbor. The Rev. 'r. Powell remained with them for a year. The Roman Catho- lic priests and brothers left soon after and never returned. The Geddies had to pass through a hard and trying expet:ience in dealing with a people so low and savage. Their property was stolen, their hollse threatened with fire, and their very lives imperilled. Meantime the horrid custom of strangling widows on the death of their husbands continued. Inter-tribal fighting was chronic, and people wel'e afraid to go from one side of the island to the other for fear of being killed, cooked and eaten. There was little to encourage the mission party. They were, however, cheered by a friendly visit of Bishop Selwyn, who remained a fortnight on the island, and traveled on foot with Mr. Geddie to see as much of native life as he could. He kindly offered the use of a cottage at Auckland to Mr. or 1'lrs. Geddie should they need a change for a few months to recruit their health. On his voyage in 1852 the Bishop conveyed the Rev. John Inglis and his wife, with all their furniture, house and luggage, to Aneityum. Mr. Inglis was a minister of the Reformed or Covenanting Church in Scotland, and it was a pleasing circumstance that an Anglican prelate thus aided the Covenanter. Bishop Selwyn ever after kept up this friendly relation, and also introduced Bishop Patterson to these brethren. He even asked Presbyterians in·New Zealand to contribute, and on one occasion brought over £100 to Messrs. Geddie and Inglis.
By the time Mr. Inglis had settled on the opposite side of the island, the tide had turned in favor of Christianity at ~fr. Geddie's station. Fifteen had been baptized, and the I.ord's Supper had been observed on the visit of the London Missionary Society's deputation that year iu the John Williams. The two missionaries occupied different sides of the island, but labored with equal zeal and great cordiality. They preached, taught in school,., translated Scriptures, composed, and Mr. Geddie printed a class-book, built premiseA, and exercised an influence for good all over the island. Young people were all taught to read and write, congregations were organized with elders and deacons, fifty day-schools established, and over 2,000 persons admitted into the visible Church by baptism. The whole people were evangelized. It was a marvellous change in a degraded and cannibal people. At length the whole Scriptures were translated, and first the New, and ultimately the Old, Testament were printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London, but paid for by the contributions of arrowroot from the Christian converts. After a visit to Nova Scotia in 1863, where he got the translation of the Book of Psalms printed, Mr. Geddie returned with the honorary degree of D.D., from the Queen's University in Canada, to resume his labors. But he had to retire in 1872, prematurely aged by his toils and exposures. He died at Geelong in the end of that year, leaving a widow, one son and four daughters. Two of the latter were married to missionaries on the New Hebrides. He was a noble, self-denying pieneer, and led many into the fold of Christ. He had a happy way of dealing with the natives, and was also very handy in work. It was my privilege, by the kindness of a few friends, to place a wooden tablet to his memory on the wall of the stone church he had erected at Anelgauhat, Aneityum. The record of his labors, inscribed on it in the native language, concludes with these words, " ,Vhen he landed here in 1848, there were no Christians, and when he left here in 1872, there were no heathens." Since first published, this inscription has gone round the world, increasing in value, as it was retold, until the latest account makes the tablet marble and the letters gold!
Mr. Inglis continued at his station till 1877, and then retired to carry the Old Testament through the Press in London. He also published his translation of the Shorter Catechism and Mr. Geddie's abridged translation of the first part of the" Pilgrim's Progress," and some hymnl'l. He added a Dictionary of Aneityumese. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, and in a green.old age still served the mission both by speech and by books in Scotland. His patient toil, his wise management, his clear style of instruction, and his benevolent life, aided by his late excellent wife, did much for the Christianity of Aneityum. It is meet that both Dr. Geddie and Dr. Inglis should be held in grateful remembrance for their successful efforts in bringing a whole island of cannibal people into the peaceful fold of the Good Shepherd. Ainidst a decreasing population the cause of Christ has flourished on the island, and the contributions ot
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
arrowroot from the Christian church at Aneityum nearly supported their resident minister-the Rev. J. H. Lawrie. 'fhis church was the first of the Papuan race embraced within the visible kingdom of God, and it became the pioneer of others among the thirty islands of the New Hebrides.
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
BY REV. J. HUDSO"Y TAYLOR, OF THE CHINA I"YLAND MISSION.
We are nearing the close of another year, and of an important decade in the history of Missions. In our own Mission the last ten years have been specially important; at their commencement the pioneering journeys of ~fr. (now Dr.) Cameron and others of our brethren were not yet completed; woman's work in inland China was barely com- menced, and not at all in the western provinces; during this period the number of our stations and out-stations has been about doubled, and the number of missionary workers more than trebled, for in the year 1880 we had but 91 missionaries, including wives, while now it considerably exceeds 300. This decade has witnessed the out-going of the 80 missionaries whom God gave us in response to our prayers for the 70, and in the following year of 40 others, among whom were the well-known Cambridge band; many prophesied the early return of the members of this band, but we are thankful to know that they are all engaged in diligent service in inland China, and that each one has been blessed and made a blessing.
Then we have to praise God for the 100 missionaries given us in 1887, and for the more than fifty who followed them last year, including the first American party. 'Ve rejoice in first fruits gathered in many of the more recent stations, and that over 1,000 were added to our native churches by baptism during the years 1887 and 1888, with continued additions during the current year. 'Vhile some converts have undoubtedly been received prematurely, causing subsequent trial and disappointment (a result which the experiencc of the oldest missionary cannot always avert), a large proportion are showing by the fruit of the Spirit that they have really been born of God. For the 80 little missionary churches now connected with the C. 1. M., we give to God unfeigned thanks, as also for all those gathered in other districts by His honored servants, the missionaries of the various European and American societies.
When we turn, however, from the total number of Protestant communicants-under 40,000-to think of the population of China, the contrast is appalling; double, treble this number to include adherents, and suppose each adherent to be a centre of light to ten of his countrymen, and you reach but 1,000,000 of China's vast population. The Master's words are" to every creature;" how far we are from fulfilling them! In 1877 thc Confercnce of Missionaries assembled in Shanghai appealed to the Christian Church to evangelize China in the present generation, and many hoped it would be accomplished within the present century. More than half the time before the close of the century has passed, and not one-hundreth part of the people have been reached, y~t this generation is the last of sixty since our Saviour gave the command, which, as Dr. Pierson has well pointed out, has laid the responsibility on the church of each successive generation to give the gospel to each individual living in its own period.
How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ in reference to this command? Shall we definitely drop the title Lord as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour Jesus, so far as the eternal penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to recognize ourselves as bought with a price, or Him as having any claim to our unquestioning obedience? Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to recognize something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He do not ask too much; our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His; we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His commands that do not demand too great a sacrifice? To be taken to heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us.
The heart of every true Christian will unhesitatingly reject this proposition when so formulated, but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though" it were a proper ground to take? How few of the Lord's people have recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all! If we can judge God's Word instead of being judged by the "Word; if we can give to God as much or as little as we like, tlien we are lords, and He the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole, obliged by our compliance with His wishes; if, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" "If ye love Me keep My commandments." Thank God, an increasing number of His children are truly seeking to crown Him Lord of all, and are searching the Scriptures daily that they may know His will, in order to do it, praying continually, "Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end."
To all such the Master's command, "To every creature," will come with great power; knowing it to be His will that every living human being shall be evangelized, everything that prayer and effort can do towards its accomplishment will be felt to be a privilege as well as a duty; each will ask himself, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" Will not the very youngest believers pray and give, and interest their young companions? and what mighty power there is in the simple, trustful faith of a little child who believes in Jesus! Will not those who are older recognize the probability of their being personally called to missionary labor and make definite preparation for it, that if pcrmitted a share in this holy enterprise they may be the better fitted? Shall it not become a holy ambition to all who have health and youth to court the Master's approval and tread in His steps, in seeking to save a lost world? and shall not Christian parents encourage their enthusiasm, feeling that they have nothing too precious for their Lord who gave himself for them?
There is no impossibility in our Master's command. Were the Government of England to determine on the conquest of a distant land, they would think it a small matter to land 10,000 troops in any part of the world's circumference; and the Church of God to-day could easily, within the next five years, effect the evangelization of everyone of China's millions. No very great effort was needed in America to secure the signature of over 3,000 college students to a pledge that if God opened the way they would devote themselves to missionary enterprise. Were the enthusiasm and devotion of all our churches aroused, and not merely that of a few individuals, more than that number of effective workers might easily be found on each side of the Atlantic for China alone. But no such numbers are needed in order that every man, woman, and child in China should hear the gospel once, at least. If, in addition to the workers now in the field, one thousand whole-hearted evangelists, male, and female, were set free and kept free fur this special work, they might reach the whole number of China's millions before the e::rd of the year 1895, and this allowing two years of the five for study of the language and preparation for the work. Estimating the population of China as we do at 250,000,000, there will be about 50,000,000 of families; if fifty families were reached daily for one thousand days by each of the one thousand evangelists, every creature in China could be reached in three years' time, leaving the evangelists two or three Sundays for rest each month. If it be said that unexpected hindrances would be sure to arise, it should be noted that this calculation takes no account of the help to be given by the one thousand missionary workers now in China, mainly devoted to pastoral work, to shepherding and feeding the converts; and it takes no account of the help to be given by native Christians, which would, of course, be immense and invaluable. Shall a work which one thousand workers might accomplish in three years of steady work, after two years of preparation, be thought of as chimerical, and beyond the resources of the Christian Church?
But is it reasonable to suppose that a missionary evangelist could reach on an average fifty families a day, and this all over China? In reply we may draw attention to the fact that a large proportion of thc Chinese live in courts or quadrangles containing from four to ten families each; were five the average, then to take the gospel to ten such courts would accomplish the necessary task. And this would llOt nee<1 to be uone unaided, for each missionary evangelist would easily secure the companionship of one 01' more .native Christians as helpers. There are, it is true, a few (though but a few) parts of China where the people are so hostile that we can scarcely' call them now open to this kind of effort; but it must not be forgotten that the Opener, who still holds the key of David, has given His word of promise to be with such workers "all the days." And no such effort could be made without an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church universal, which would include the native Christian churches of China, and make the tens of thousands of native Christians, apart from the foreigner, a mighty power for the evangelization of their .own people. God gives his Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Even if the churches were unwilling to take it up, are there not 500 Christian workers in Europe who might go out at their own charges and do this grand work? But shall we suppose that the Episcopalians of England, and the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, have. not each among them 100 men and women fit for this glorious enterprise? that the Methodists of the United Kingdom could not provide another 100, and that Congregationalist and Baptist churches could not each supply a similar contingent? VlTe may feel well assured that the United States of America and Canada would not be behind, and thus the 1,000 evangelists might easily be forthcoming.
How shall a project like this be translated from proposition into practice? First, by earnest, believing prayer; this was our Saviour's plan, and it has been left on record for our guidance: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send fOl·th laborers into His haryest." 'Vhen we sought for the C. 1. M. the 70 and the 100 in prayer, and accepted them in faith, we received them in due course from His mighty, loving hand.
Then, if there is to be the fullest blessing, there must be the united simultaneous action of the whole body of believers; it is by "the effectual working in the measure of every part" of the members of the whole Body that its growth and building up are to be effected.
Third, There must be intelligent co-operation and such division and sub-division of the field that one part have not an undue share of workers while other parts are neglected.
Fourth, There must be Christly giving on the part of individuals and churches of their real treasures to the Lord for His service, and Christly service by those who go forth in His name. By Christly giving and service, we do not mean that which is done for Christ's sake merely, but that which is done after Christ's pattern. His service began with emptying Himself, involved toil and suffering all along the line, and enrled only with the perfect accomplishment of the object for which lIe came iuto the world.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM
Fifth, There is no time to lose, for if we commence at once, millions of those now living in China will have passed away before the message can reach them.
Will each of our readers join us in prayer that God will send out 1,000 evangelists for China very speedily, and personally ask Him the question: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Let us not forget that to preach the gospel to every creature, is not a mere human project, but a divine command.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
The credulity of unbelief has become proverbial. There are instances which would be amusing if the subjects were less serious, and their treatment less bitter. Almost as a rule the wildest and most preposterous theories are held by men and women who have made shipwreck of faith. They above all others are ready for a seven-fold possession.
A remarkable instance of excess of faith was brought to myatten- tion not long since, in a book entitled" The Bible in India." Looking on the title page for the authorship, I at once recognized the familiar llame of Louis J acolliot, an intense French infidel whom Professor Max Muller had mercilessly ridiculed in his lecture on "False Analogies." The book was published by a well-known firm in New York, and has doubtless given great comfort to many a foe to Christianity_ M. J acolliot, while acting as a judge in the Courts at Chandel' N agore in the Madras Presidency, warmly embraced the idea that all the religions of Western nations had been derived from India, and that a little searching would find the sources of the Old and New Testaments in the Sanskrit manuscripts. He gave his leisure hours to Sanskrit. He found pundits who were even more ready to promote his purpose than he had imagined. They produced manuscripts, he translated, and the bonanza which he had struck well nigh turned his head. He had not learned, as had others who had preceded him, that a two-fold appeal to the race pride and the cupidity of the impecunious pundits would bring forth Sanskrit treasures of any desired variety or extent.
The essential history, the ritual, and many of the important prophecies of the Old Testament, were found in a Hindu mould, and the god Krishna, 01', as Jacolliot spelled it for greater effect, "Christna," was clearly foretold. New Testament parallels in abundance were also produced, and the mercurial Frenchman was in ecstacies. He could not satisfy his enthusiasm with a plain statement of results; he must work off his overpowering emotion by the following apostrophe to India: "Soil of ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! Hail, venerable and efficient nurse whom centuries of brutal invasions have not yet buried under the dust of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry, and of science! May we hail a revival of thy past in onrWesternfutnre. I have dwelt midst the depths of yonr mysterious forests, seeking to comprehend the language of your lofty natnre, and the evening airs that murmured midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whispered to my spirit these three magic words: Zeus, Jehovah, Brahma! ..• "
"How often have I heard on the evening air, hoarse moans, wailing complaint that seemed to rise from desert marshes, sombre pathways, rivers' banks, or woody shades, etc.! Was it the voice of the past returning to weep o'er a lost civilization and an extinguished grandeur ? Was it the expiring groan of Sepoys mowed down pele mele by grape, with their wives and, children, after the revolt, by some red-jackets who thus revenged their own pain? "
. . . " Then it was that I sought to lift the obscuring veil from the past, and backward trace the origin of this dying people, who, without energy for either hatred or affection, without enth~iasm for either virtue or vice, seem to personate an actor doomed to act out his part before an audience of statues. How glorious the epoch that then presented itself to my study and comprehension. I made tradition speak from the temple's recess, I inquired of monuments and ruins, I questioned the Vedas, whose pages count their existence by thousands of years, and whence inquiring youth imbibed the science of life long before Thebes of the hundred gates or Babylon the Great had traced out their foundations . . . "
"And then did India appear to me in all the living power of her originality -I traced her progress in the expansion of her enlightenment over the world- I saw her giving her laws, her customs, her morals and her religion to Egypt, to Persia, to Greece and to Rome. I saw Djenimyand Veda-Vyasa precede Socrates and Plato-and Christna, the son of the Virgin Devanagny (in Sanskrit created by God), precede the son of the Virgin of Bethlehem."
J acolliot's theory applies to the Greek and Latin classics as well as to the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The civilization of Egypt has also been borrowed from" the fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry and of science." The Justinian Pandects of Rome were traced to the Laws of Manu, and all the best institutions known in Europe were shown to be parts and parcels of the one great heirloom.
The facile adaptation of derivative names was enough to astonish the most learned philologists. They are generally thankful for slight analogies between European and Sanskrit roots, but no sooner had J acolliot's pundits been made acquainted with the renowned names of the Greek classics, and furnished with some historic clew, than they brought forward original Sanskrit counterparts whose verbal resemblances and whose meanings were startling.
Hercules was derived from Hara-Kala, Rhadamanthus from Rhada manta, Andromeda from Andha ra meda, Centaur from Kentura, Minerva from Mana rava, J upitel' from Zupitri, Pythagoras from Pittia-guru, and Pl'otagoras from Prataguru. Otber nations of Europe had been favored with vocabularies, and had dared to make only the slightest possible changes. Odin came from Yodin, Swede from Suyoda, Scandinavian from Scanda-nava, Celts from Kallata, Gauls from Galota, Baltic from Bala-taka. Philologists have found in true Sanskrit abundant resemblances to roots of European languages. Each branch of the race developed many changes, but that one of them furnished names to order for all the others is a unique hypothesis. It is to be regretted in the interest of the theory that the resemblances had not been toned down to fainter lines; the average credulity of readers is ovel·taxed; the clever work is over- done.
After witnessing the completeness of this linguistic performance no one will be surprised to know that the leading New Testament in- cidents are reproduced almost entire. 'Vhat is known as the" Krishna Cult" is worked to the greatest advantage. Nothing of originality is left to the Christ of Judea.
Among the demigods of the Hindu mythology Krishna figured as a good-natured and rollicking Bacchus. Nothing is known of him in the earlier Sanskrit literature, but in the epic known as the :Mahab- harata and in the Vishnu Pm'ana he appears· as an incarnation of Vishnu. After the rise of Buddhism, Hinduism had discovered its lack of a more sympathetic being than had yet appeared-a god among men who should unite with the powers of deity something like the Buddha's sympathy and pity.
Around Krishna, therefore, there grew up an increasing interest- not that he furnished an ethical model, for his history corresponded very nearly with that of the lascivious satyrs of the Roman mythology, but because he was warmly and sympathetically human. The Krishna Cult was not fully developed until the early centuries of the Christian era, and it pl'Oceeded along two lines. In its popular aspects it kept pace with the growing corruptions which appeared in the Tantras, and were illustrated in the immoral orgies of Siva worship. The festivals in honor of Krishna were, and to a very recent date have continued to be, occasions of unspeakable vice.
The other line of development was theoretical; Krishna was treated as a Divine Counsellor and friend in the Bhagayad Gita, whichthough embracing older materials-was probably composed about the fil'st or second century of our era, and the Bhagavad Gita has, in its. high ethics, often been compared to the New Testament, though falling far enough below a parallel. But the legends by which Jacolliot matches "Christna's" life with leading incidents in the life of Jesus were partly the growth of those later centuries in which Hinduism was brought in contact with Christianity in Southern India, and partly the probable work of our author's own subsidized pundits. Even if the scholarly criticism of Max :Muller had not befaJIen this unfortunate author, the Frenchiness and pruriency with which he clot{led the story of Adam and Eve (" Adima and Heva") ill the Garden, as well as the general extravagance of his statements, would have aroused suspicion. The learned Oxford scholar seems to have felt that some sort of apology was necessary for treating with seriousness so absurd a case of pedantry, and he found it in the fact that so much credence was given to the book. But he proceeds to say that" many of the words which M. J acolliot quotes as Sanskrit are not Sanskrit at all, others never have the meaning which he assigns to them, and as to the pas- sages which he assigns to the Vedas, they are not from any old Sanskrit writer, they simply beloJig to the last half of the Nineteenth Oen- tury." lIe regards them as "simple in:ventions of some slightly mischievous Brahman who took advantage of the zeal and credulity of his employer." And he adds" that such is the interest, or rather the feverish curiosity, excited by anything that bears on the ancient religion, that J acolliot's book has produced a very wide and very deep impression. .In fact, 'if anytldng were wanting to show that a general knowledge of the history of ancient religions ought to form Ct part of our education, it was tlie panic created by tlds book."
But there had been earlier instances in which zealous opponents of Christianity had sought and found the evidence which they desired to prove that Christianity was a plagiarism upon the Sanskrit literature of the Hindus. Voltaire was carried away with enthusiasm when some one presented to him a copy of a portion of the Veda which corresponded in a remarkable degree with the teachings of the Bible. No time was lost in turning this new evidence against Christianity to the best possible account.
But after a time it appeared that an overzealous Jesuit missionary, thinking that the end would sanctify the means, had written certain Sanskrit texts designed to convince the Hindus that the Bible and the Vedas were to a large extent in harmony. This very immoral and fallacious project, however, proved most futile, and the only result was to dupe the arch infidel, Voltaire.
Some years ago Lieutenant "Wilford, who had read Sir ·William Jones' theory that Greek mythology was largely borrowed from that of India (a theory which Sir William finally abandoned), conceived the idea of tracing the teachings of Christianity from the same source. He proceeded to persuade the Brahmans that a thorough search among their ancient records would disclose not only the Greek mythology, but the Old Testament history. He was persistent against their reserve and reticence. He related to them the principal events of the Old Testament record, and at the same time promised ample rewards for their labor. At last the pundits yielded. They resolved that what he so eagerly sought should be supplied. 'faking his stories from the Pentateuch, they adapted them to the Sanskrit style, and brought forth astonishing results. Even Sir ·William Jones was COI1vinced, and congratulated Lieutenant vVilford on his success. The story of Noah was reproduced with a truly Indian picturesqueness. But when at last it was found that a forgery had been committed, that upon leaves which had been inserted in the ancient manuscripts the pundits, under pressure, had rendered in correct Sanskrit all that thev had heard about Adam and Abraham, Lieutenant Wilford did n;t hesitate to confess publicly that he had been imposed upon; yet, as Professor Max Muller says in his account of this matter, the mischief had in the meantime been done. Lieutenant vVilford's Essays had been read all over Europe; they retained their place in the volumes of the" Asiatic Society," and to the present day some of his state· ments and theories continue to be quoted authoritatively by writers on ancient religions.
Speaking further of J acolliot, Max Muller says" he has no doubt found out by this time that he has been imposed upon, and if so he ought to foilow the example of Colonel Wilford, and publicly state what has happened. Even then I doubt not that his statements will continue to be quoted for a long time, and that Adima and Heva (supposed Sanskrit for Adam and Eve), thus brought to life again, will make their appearance in many a book and many a lecture room."
The whole theory of those who would make India <, the source of all faith and love anu poetry and science," rests upon an erroneous assumption as to the antiquity of Illdian chronology. Sir VilIiam Jones was among the first to fall 11I1~ler this errol', and all his dates have been rectified by the consensus of later scholarship. As for the position assumed by Jacolliot, that Egypt b01'ro"ed her faith from India, it need only be said that the chronology and the monotheistic faith of Egypt can be traced from a period at least several hundred years earlier than any well esta.blished date of Indian history. There is ]]0 certain evidence that either the Yedas or any national records were committed to writing much earlier than 300, B. C., and it can only be a matter of conjecture that Europe or Palestine possessed any extended knowledge of India before the invasion of Alexander and the revelations concerning her institutions which were made by IVlegasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucos, his successor.
It may be said, with great propriety, that Christians,' as well as skeptics, have sometimes been very sanguine and even credulous in regard to those phases of heathen faiths which seemed favorable to their views. Max Muller mentions some instances among the earlier Jesuit Missionaries in China. 'l'here were certainly some serious mistakes of the kind on the part of the early Spanish Padres, who fancied that they found many elements of their faith in the traditions of the Aztecs of Mexico. Within our own generation illusive hopes were very generally entertained in regard to the Christian tendencies of the Brahma Somaj in India, and especially the remarkable utterances of Cheshub Chunder Sen. But no such elaborate theories as those of J acolliot have been built upon these fond hopes, which were "too
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM
good to be true." The persistency and intensity of such illusions can be found in full force only in the minds of those who are too wise and cautious to believe the Christian revelation. Any misrepresentation of missionary enterprises, or of the truth which missionaries teach, has always a charmed vitality.
A malicious story which I found more than a dozen years ago in Japan in relation to the building of a Missionary chapel, has been refuted at least a hundred times only to spring up with fresh life again and again. The scene at first was laid in Japan and concerned the Reformed Mission in Yokohama, but I have since seen it re· produced in new dress, located in Shanghai, and published with great particularity as an incident in the American Episcopal Mission of that city. Two years ago my attention was called to an ar~icle in a sporting paper in New York, entitled "Outing." There I found the same old story with the scene laid in Chefou, and given with all the gusto of some ignorant and conceited globe-trotter who had probably either I forgotten where he had heard the story, or where it belonged, or who had located it where he was more familiar with the ground or could present it with the most picturesque effect. The story, though false to the core, is annually heard by hundreds of Pacific steamer passengers who receive it as a clear, straightforward record of truth and verity.
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM.
BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINIT.
A lady missionary, returning from China, says: "One does not to have to be a hero any more in order to be a missionary; one goes forth prepared endure all things heroically, and finds that friends at home have so thought of and cared for every want that there is scarcely any call for heroism at the station." That is as it should be. Those who remain behind by " the stuff" should bountifully supply every need of those fighting at the front. But there are fields of labor, which, even in this day of easy and rapid communication and transportation, and in spite of the warm love of Christian friends at home, remain heroic in every sense of the word. Let the following simple historic narrative of one of the newest of the missions undertaken by the Moravian brethren witness to that. Missionary heroism is still extant among these pioneers of modern missions.
In the winter of 1884 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of the Presbyterian Church, appeared in Bethlehem, Pa., to plead for a missionary to the Eskimos of Northwestern Alaska. He presented the oouse to the Moravians in this wise: That these Eskimos were so degraded, so debased; that the conditions of missionary labor among them were so severe, so dreary, so cheerless; that these forlorn people were literally so God-forsaken, that he could find no one who was willing to carry the 116 THE MORAVIAN lIIISSION ON THE KUSKOKWDI. [Feb.
gospel message to them in their inhospitable regionR, where they dwelt in unspeakable degradation. 'As a last reso~·t he came to the Moravians. No man cared for the souls of these degraded heathen savages-would they have mercy upon them? That was an appeal which the Church that had sought out the Hottentots of Africa, and the Innuits of Greenland and LabradOl', could not resist. Five of the students who were to graduate from the Theological Seminary that year expressed their willingness to go. Two were afterwards chosen.
First an exploratory tour was undertaken by a veteran missionary, accompanied by one student. They found, as is usual in such northern climates, the Eskimos living o~ly in small groups here and there, scattered over a wide stretch of country. The description of their degrada~ion had not been exaggerated in the slightest degree. Filthy and disgusting in their habits, to an extent that forbids description in public print; their morality at such a low ebb that they may practically be said to have none; parents willingly making prostitutes of their daughters from nine or ten years on, ruthlessly taking their daughter from one man and giving her to another, if they thought they could make more by it; the related crimes of killing off helpless aJ;ld old people and unwelcome infants being considered the incontestable right of the persons otherwise responsible for their support; and so on through the revolting catalogue. Their form of religion was so low that it could scarcely be dignified with the name. Priests they had none-only "sachemR," i. e., medicine men. They live principally on fish, of which, in the short summer, a sufficient quantity must be caught to last through the dreary winter. However, they met the missionaries in a friendly manner, and the latter felt justified in selecting a site on the Kuskokwim river for a mission station.
Now that it has become fashionable to run summer excursions to Alaska, it no longer seems so out of the world; but these excursions run only to Sitka. Few have any clear idea of the extent of the territory. Roughly speaking, Alaska is as large as all the Northern lakes east of the Mississippi; and the Moravian mission station on the Kuskokwim is as far from Sitka as Baltimore, Md., is from Minneapolis, Minn. There are no means of communication with the station, except once a year, and then only through the kindness of the Alaska Commercial Company. When once there the missionaries are absolutely separated from all civilization, from all help, from all supplies, for a whole year. Everything must be taken along, as nothing but fish and some game can be procured there.
Nothing daunted by this report, the little band of missionaries prepared to start. On account of the low moral condition of the people, and the unfortunate relations existing between the few white traders and the natives, in order to avoid all possible suspicion of evil, as well as for many higher and nobler reasons, it was absolutely necessary for the missionaries to go out married. They were all young people-the men just a year out of the seminary-and all leaving the refinements of civilization for a desolate country, where they would first have to build a house with their own hands before they would have where to lay their heads. The ordination service of these two devoted young men was impressive beyond description. Their names are worthy of record: The Rev. "William H. Weinland and his wife, Caroline Yost; the Rev. John H. Kilbuck and his wife, Edith Romig. The former had been on the exploratory tour. The latter is a full-blooded Delaware Indian, the son of a chieftain. He had received a full course collegiate and theological education. He is probably the first Indian ordained by the Moravian Church. Now he, as a representative of the Church which had reclaimed his people from heathenism, in turn went forth as an apostle to a much more for- saken and degraded people. There is a true apostolical succession! "He had served one year among his own people in Canada in the ab- ,sence of the regular missionary upon the exploratory tour mentioned before. His wife is an American, who married him in the genuine old- time Moravian spirit, being filled with an unquenchable zeal to serve the Lord in this forsaken corner of the earth. One lay brother, Hans Torgessen, leaving his family behind, accompanied them, in order to help them in building a house.
June 19, 1885, the little band reached the Kuskokwim. Battling their way up the river in a violent storm, Hans Torgessen fell overboard and was lost! A year must elapse before help could reach them, yet strong in the strength of Christ these young men, fresh from college though they were, girded themselves to erect a house, and with their young wives prepared to face the unknown horrors of an Arctic winter, ill provided, on account of the loss of time caused by this accident, both in provisions and in shelter, for its hardships. 'rhe Church at home waited the outcome in dread suspen,se-a year. Then came the heroic message: 'Ve are, thank God, alive; and we will·remain. Send us help and we will start a second station! The history of that and succeeding winters was full of thrilling incidents -lack of space alone forbids their narration. There was no wood at hand, the woodland beginning far inland, and laborious journeys up the river had to be undertaken ~o gain fuel as well as !ogs for building purposes.
In 1887 a second station was begun at Nushagak, and in 1888 an assistant sent to the Kuskokwim, but the two stations afforded little companionship to each other, as nearly 200 miles of almost impassable ~ountry lie between them. That on the Kuskokwim has been christened Bethel; that near Nushagak, Carmel.
In spite of tremendous obstacles missionary work was at once begun. Of course, in order to gain the adults, the language had first to be learned, but for the children a school was at once opened. Only the history of the station on the Kuskokwim can be followed. The missionaries were not in a populous country, as China, Japan or India; the children had to be laboriously sought from village to village, and the only way to teach them was to keep them at the Mission House. That meant to board them, to clothe them. The task thus set the noble wives of the missionaries can scarcely be appreciated by us dwelling amid the conveniences of civilization. All were thus brought into constant personal contact with the most disgusting features of the most degraded heathenism. The work, however, went bravely on.
But, alas! the vessel which brought the new missionaries to Carmel, to the consternation of the Church at Home, was compelled to bring Mi~sionary Weinland and his family back to the States, completely broken down in health. (He has since undertaken a mission among the Indians of Southern California, in the San Jacinto Valley, made famous by H. H.'s "Ramona.") The Kilbucks heroically resolved to remain alone and hold the post until re-enforcements came, or death called them away-Mrs. Kilbuck the only white woman in that desolate region among degraded heathen.
The next year brought electrifying news. Scarcely two years had the missionary been there, and he could but imperfectly stammer forth the message of the cross in that uucouth language of the North, when its stolid people awoke, and the bleak and desolate land began to blossom with the fruits born of such self-consecration. The simple yet wonderfully impressive Moravian Christmas, and especially the Passion Week services, made a deep impression on the natives. From far and near they gathered, besought the missionary to come to their villages too; that they would build chapels for him; that they "wanted a share of the blood of Jesus to take away their bad" (sins). In Greenland the Moravians labored five years before they made a single convert. When Karjarnak was baptized the hard-tried missionary sent the message home: "Sie wollen nem "-they want to be saved now. And when this historic message was sent from bleak Alaska, after two years' labor, the Church was thrilled with holy joy. The appeal sounded forth for re-enforcements, for aid for the noble woman, who, alone of her kind, was battling for the Lord in the stronghold of Satan in the North. Eighteen responded-four single sisters, three single brethren, one widower and five married couplessome of the latter volunteering to leave their children behind. But before the chosen ones could be sent, a terrible winter had to intervene. Mrs. Kilbuck became sick. It was evident that she would have to go back to the States, or an experienced nurse be sent to her. Think of the dreary months of waiting! This noble couple resolved to separate. The wife would travel as soon as spring broke to the
TRANSLATIOlS FROM FOREIGl :lIISSIONARY :lIAliAZDIES
States, with the children. The husband would not forsake the post, but labor Oil alone. Heroism has not died out, and the Moravians are still the gens eterna! This resolution had to be, if possible, communicated to the church. They heard of Lord Lonsdale coming down from the Arctic regions, and in the midst of winter Missionary Kilbuck had to start out to meet him. Seventy-three days elapsed before his return to his sick wife, left alone with the assistant. Terrific storms, temperature 59° below zero, tell the story. He was given up for lost. His noble wife resolved then, if the Lord gave her strength, to remain herself alone with Assistant "Veber at the post! But her husband, miraculously preserved, returned, the message brought by Lord Lonsdale reached the States in time. But there was no time for a new call for volunteers. Aid had to be sent at once. A person of experience was required. The heroine was found. The official item, without any ostentation, simply announced in Moravian style: "Sister Bachman has received and accepted the appointment to Bethel, Alaska, for one year"-that was all. But those who knew, knew that that meant that the wife of the presiding bishop of the church had been willing to leave her husband and family to serve the Lord among the Alaskan Eskimos!
The re-enforcements are now there. The last message proclaims Mrs. Kilbuck's recovery. With characteristic Moravian caution, only 22 converts have been actually admitted to church membership, but the awakening still continues. Another year must elapse before new information can be received.-So ends this narrative. It has been simply told. Lack of space forbids dwelling on single acts of heroism. All that must be read between the lines. But it shows that Mi8sionary heroism has not yet gone out of date; that there is no nation so degraded that the Lord cannot find some who will go as His apostles; and where His word is proclaimed, there it never returns void unto Him!
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
More and more it impresses itself on the minds of missionaries, how much less competent they are than the native helpers to reach the inmost minds and hearts of the heathen. These words of a native preacher give us a glimpse of this: "Agreeably to our missionary duty, we go so often as opportunity offers into the various villages and houses and preach Jesus Christ, the crucified. But the manner of preaching, as it is used in the ordinary congregations, does not please the Hindus. They are not accustomed to listen attentively to a continuous and somewhat lengthy discourse. Therefore, it is hard to obtain an auditory for such a sermon. And if any means are resorted to of enforcing attention, they endeavor to disturb the preacher by all sorts of objections. .At such times they all talk in a body, to no intelligible effect. Therefore, it is very useful to proclaim the gospel with intervals of hymns and psalms, sung to native melodies. All Hindus are delighted with such songs, even when they do not understand their purport. For the Hindus hold noth- ing so high as song. So often, therefore, as we go out to preach to the heathen, we first sing to the accompaniment of violin, cymbals, kettle-drum, and other musical instruments, hymns of our native composition, and thereupon we preach." It seems that in the Madura district the native helpers of the Leipsic mission go through the heathen villages three days in every week, preaching three times every day, relieving each other in turn. The presence of a white missionary, however, they say is a great additional attraction. "On one occa- sion, when a great idol feast was in progress, and we had {;:ome into the neigh- borhood with music and song, there appeared the priest of the pagoda with his son. They not only urged the nume;ous company of hearers to be seated and listen quietly, but made us sit in the veranda before the pagoda for three hours, sitting themselves as hearers. Finally the priest despatched his son to perform the ceremonies before the idol, and said: 'All that we do is only for our belly's sake. We know that all that you say is true, and that your Veda (the Bible) shows the way of salvation. Come back here every year, and teach the true religion.' As a farewell honor he offered all of us the usual tribute of betel and areca nut." .
-The Berichte of the Rhenish Missionary Society remarks, in speaking of the first Christian Chinese family at Bandjermasin, Borneo, of whom it gives a very interesting picture taken from a photograph: "The first Christian family in a church to-be newly established is of great significance. Even in the Acts we find names of the tlrst families tbat received baptism. So long as only men and youths become believers at a station among the heathen, the Church has no thoroughly constituted existence.. There is lacking to it its nerve, the family with its family worship, Christian training with prayer, in brief, Christian domestic life. "
-A Missionary of the Rhenish Society in Southwestern Africa, remarking that under the influence of Christianity the natives and half-breeds are becoming weaned from their nomadic ways, and are settling into more steady labor on their stations (aided of late by providential affluence of rains), adds: "That Christianity brings also earthly blessing is plain to be seen in the case of our Church, especially with those who have learned not only 'Thou shalt hallow the Sabbath day,' but also, 'Six days shalt thou labor.' He who learns this with us may assuredly hope for earthly blessing also."
-In view of the terrible increase of necromancy inour own country, thefollowing words of Missionary Fehr, of the Rhenish Society, on the Island of Nias, SJimatra, have more than a far-off interest: "The fact that, in all the sicknesses and distresses prevailing among us, no one of our Christians has allowed himself to be misled into sorcery and sacrificing, is a cause of thankfulness to the grace and protection of God. In such times of trial the thoughts and hearts of men are wont to be revealed, and it then appears whether or not the faith of Christ has already struck abiding root in them. And in truth it does require an energy of faith and no common confidence in God, for people who have grown up in heathenism and idolatry, when they see their nearest and dearest at death's door, to remain steadfast, and to refrain from resorting to any forbidden means of help. Herr Fehr says: "When people pass over from heathenism to Christianity they commonly suppose that the good God must now be especially gracious to them and bless them, because, they say, he is surely stronger than our idols. And how glad the missionary would often be, if, to such young beginners, especially in cases of sickness, the Lord would give experience of his especial help and kindness, that in this way, too, they might experience and learn that the Lord is the true Helper. But in many cases the Lord does the very opposite of this, that no one may flatter himself with false hopes, and thereby be misled into crooked ways. Here in Lololofaoso, for instance, there was a leading family, which, after long gainsaying, had tlnally inclined to Christianity, and had begun to visit the public worship. Soon after, however, their little son was taken sick, and, in spite of all medicine and all our prayers, died. Almost at the same time the child's grandfather was attacked by a very long and painful eye-trouble, so- that he was almost beside himself for pain. Under these circumstances the confidence of the family in the cause of Christianity suffered a great shock, yet thus far they have continned nniuterruptedly faithful in coming to church. How earnestly, in such cases, one is tempted to wish that he had the apostolic gift of healing."
-It is sometimes said that in Greenland the Danish Lutherans and Mora- vians have haptized the last heathen Esquimaux. This, 1 believe, is true as to the natives of the West Coast. But lately the natives of the East Coast have been coming across to the Moravian brethren. This inaccessible region was once far milder in climate, and was, as we know, the seat of a flourshing Danish colony, from which Eric the Red, or his son (1 am not sure which), is said to have come down along the shore of New England. But some 600 years ago a sudden lowering of the temperature took place; long piles of icebergs began to line the coast; the last bishop of the colony consecrated at Trondhjern, in Norway, set out for his diocese, but ~either he nor his people were ever heard of again. Whether these Eastlanders that are resorting to the Moravians are a mixed race of Eskimos (Esquimaux) and these old Northmen, or pure Esquimaux, 1 do not know. It is said that a European has lately made his way across Greenland from east to west. If so, we shall know more about the region so long mysteriously secluded. Missionary A. Riegel, in t¥ CalweJ' Missionsblatt of June, 1889, writes: "Having been able in my last report to give account of 6 newly baptized Eastlanders, this letter will report 50 additional baptisms of heathen. The first family dwelt very quietly among us, and we took a good deal of satisfaction in them, although they were little enough advanced in Christian knowledge. The man had a boat, indeed, but got little by it, so that the family was none too rich, especially as in the winter the man fell sick. The sickness increased till spring, and then the Lord took hhn to Himself. He felt disquieted in view of his family, but was glad to go home. The countrymen of this man, who had returned to the East Coast, kept their word and came back. In September they came to this station and made ready for living here by putting up three houses; expressing the desire to become Christians, they received catechetical teaching, and at Easter were baptized.
'Unhappily they were very sick and wretched, and several died; nor did they earn any too much, for there were fewer seals and birds than usual. As this naturally implied a scarcity of winter provisions, it came sometimes very near to famine with them. Since Mayall the people, the newly baptized among them, are at the summer-grounds, that is, the seaward islands; yet unhappily we only hear of a very scanty take of seals. This raises forebodings for the coming winter, yet the Lord may secure them an ample autumn fishery. How these neophytes will develop' spiritually, remains to be seen. We cannot expect that all will turn out to be of the best quality.
" You believe that there must come a time when the Greenlanders can maintain their churches and their Christianity without European pastors, even though under European oversight, 'and with European money.' If you had added this last, 1 too should not doubt of the possibility. That the Greenlanders will themselves voluntarily meet the costs of their churches and schools, only he can believe who does not know the Greenlanders. But it will be practicable to maintain paid catechists, upper and lower, at the different settlements, to work under Europear. direction. 1 believe that is the aim of the Danish Mission, because they can secure hardly any pastors or missionaries for Greenland. "
There we see Christiauity struggling to live, chiefly because the race that professes it is struggling to live. -Primitive, uncivilized natures, in whom self-control has never been devel- oped, are subject to very extraordinary mental affections, which, it is true, are sufficiently common among ourselves. In Amalienstein, South Africa, there lately died. aged 71, a cripple, Elizabeth Klaasse, doubtless a Kaffir or a Hottentot, who, in consequence of a church quarrel, in which she had taken part, had sunk into melancholy, and for nearly twenty years had only jumped along like an ape, muttering unintelligibly, and repelling all pastoral attention, until finally Missionary Schmidt succeeded in inducing her to pray with him, and to come to church once more. Thenceforth she was never seen sitting in the church otherwise than with a radiant face; "she followed the preaching as a bird of prey does his quarry, nodding in smiling assent to all that was said."
-Missionary Bieger, writing in the Mededeelingen of the Dutch Missionary Society, gives, in a single sentence, a powerful impression of the deadness of soul engendered by Mohammedanism, which knows absolutely nothing of inward spiritual experience, takes absolutely no account of it. Herr Biger has labored in Java, where the people are almost all Mohammedan, but has lately gone to the little island of Savoe, where they are or have been heathen. He remarks: "What I have not seen in Java in fourteen years, I have seen here in four months-a tear; the genuine witness of the fertilization of the sinner's heart by the seed of the gospel.·'
-Christianity in the East Indian Islands has the greatest prevalence in the Minahassa, the northermnost of the three eastward stretching arms of the island of Celebes. Heathenism being largely overcome, at least in various districts of the Minahassa, of course the number of adult baptisms will be apt to diminish. In 1887 there were in the Minahassa: Adult baptisms, 476; infant baptisms, 5,021; communicants received, 1,182; school children, 7,240; Christians on the Island of Savpe, 3,783.
-M. Duvoisin, of the French Basuto Mission, speaking of finding himself overwhelmed, in addition to all his evangelical cares, with the labor of building, says: "I have already passed through trials of many sorts, but there is one of which I had not yet had experience, that of feeling one's self overwhelmed on all sides, and of finding one's self anew, day after day, in presence of a task for which one is not made, and from which, on the other hand, he cannot withdraw himself. But I have found that this also is good. I have understood better than hitherto this word of St. Paul, • Cast down, but not destroyed,' and I begin to realize the fact that when the Lord invites us to cast all our cares on him, he doubtless means all, the task of building not excepted."
-The extensive awakening among the pagans of the Basuto country has declined, although not until after large additions to the churches. M. Duvoisin remarks: "The outward circumstances were only too favorable. In the Lexuto–as elsewhere, I imagine-temporal and spiritual blessings are a little like the two buckets of a well. Now the late harvest has been most abundant, there is in the country a great number of mabele; that is, for the pagans, numerous and riotous gatherings around great pots of yoala, gatherings which, too often, take place on the Sunday; and for Christians, leting, that is, mild ale, at discretion. Unhappily these latter have not yet learned to use all things as not abusing them." "Yet, if there is in our churches a current of evil which draws away more than one, others again yield to the attraction which draws them to the feet of the Saviour, and these latter, I will believe, are the more numerous."
-" The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS
This is painfully illustrated in the description given by M. Louis Jalla of the Barotses, the heathen dwellers on the banks of the Zambezi. "These people are children in many respects, but they are true savages, cruel, ferocious, even in every direction. Their pleasure lies in witnessing suffering. It is very hard to bring our boys to kill a hen before plucking it. How jolly it would be, said some men one day, if we could flay an ox all alive! When a man is condemned to death, they do not give themselves the trouble to kill him. They only half strangle him, fixing their nails in his throat, and then conduct him to an islet in the river, leaving him to die there of hunger."
Yet these same people, who are very fond of receiving visits, are, at home, polite and affable. The women also, at least those of the higher ranks, making an ambition of keeping their houses neat and in good order. They esteem themselves much honored by receiving visits from the missionaries, who seem to be slowly, but surely, weaving a network of Christian influences around them, in a dreary, unwholesome region, one of the most ill-provided in the world with the means of enjoying even common comforts.
-Our French Protestant brethren have a mission in the French possession of Senegambia. The following, by M. Escandre, is a lively description of the }fohammedan negroes, the chief part of the population of the town of Saint Louis: "A new comer recognizes them at once; you see them pass in the streets, furnished with enormous rosaries, which they are telling in a very absent-minded manner. Then, women, babies at the breast, all are loaded with gre-grees (amulets), enclosing fragments of the Koran, which, it appears, possess marvellous properties. Then, when the hour of prayer is called at the corners of the streets, on the square, and chiefly along the river, you perceive files of natives bending to the ground, like a thicket of reeds before a breeze. Take care not to enter one of their shops at this hour, for, in the very middle of your purchases, you would see the merchant leaving his business in the lurch and begin his interminable genuflexions, your objurgations not being of the slightest avail. You needs must summon up your best patience, or walk off, until his salaam is at an end. The other evening, from my balcony, I noticed a woman making ready for these exercises, and stationed myself to observe her. You would scarcely believe it if I should tell you that having had the curiosity to count on my fingers the number of times that she kissed the ground, I arrived at the respectable figure of thirty-one. Her salaam had lasted twenty minutes by the watch! She must have been, doubtless, a great sinner, some penitent Magdalen, or possibly she had terrible arrears to wipe off, for you are aware that the Koran authorizes such adjustments."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS.
" Upon the young men of this generation God lays a responsibility never before known." Who are the responsible young men of this generation? They are to be found in our educational institutions, and they represent a host. Two million young men will graduate from our schools and colleges in this generation, and, surely, we ought to be able to give one per cent. of this number to Foreign Missions, which would mean the "evangelization of the world." It does not seem possible that there could be 20,000 young men "willing and desirous, God permitting, to be foreign missionaries;" but the fact is, if the number increases as it has since this movement was inaugurated, it will not be long ere the pitiful cry that is coming from across the seas from the millions in darkness and death, will be heard by thousands of our best educated young men and ,,·omen. The number of ,olunteers up to the Northfield meeting was 3,847, of whom at least 1,000 are young women. Since that time, through the aggressive efforts of leading volunteers, the number has increased 500 more. Volunteers may now be found in nearly every country in the world; 195 have already sailed for the foreign fields. These 195 volunteers settled as follows: 29 in Japan, 28 in India, 12 or 13 in Africa, 46 in China, being distributed in 21 different fields, and representing 25 different organizations. Forty-nine institutions in the United States and 5 in Canada are contributing , to send out or support their representatives, pledging last year between $26,000 and $28,000, of which amount all but about $3,000 was pledged by students.
A remarkable fact, to be especially noted by those who are wont to criticise the movement in thinking that it is opposed to our Missionary Boards, is that, with the exception of five or six institutions, which are State institutions, and hence undenominational, all the money has been sent to the several Boards, and the missionary sent out is connected with the Board representing the church of which he is a member.
This, in general, is a bird eye's view of what is being accomplished by the movement. In particular, the work of Mr. R. E. Speer, the present traveling secretary of the movement, is very interesting and profitable. He has been speaking since Sept. 4 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and is now about to enter upon an active campaign in Ohio. During that time over 500 volunteered, and about $4,000 were pledged either to the support of some alumnus in the field, or to swell the funds for the Young Men's Christian Association building that is to be erec- ted in Tokio, Japan. Up to November 9, Mr. Speer had visited 27 colleges, 7 city associations, 17 churches, besides attending 5 State conventions. Among the colleges visited were 5 State universities and 4 normal schools, where the religious life is very low. In spite of this drawback, in these 9 institutions there were 65 new volunteers, an average of 7. At a normal school at Fort Scott, Kansas, there were 15 volunteers and $364 pledged, and at the State Normal School of Missouri, they intend to raise $500 for the Tokio building, three college professors have volunteered, and the Secretary of the St. Paul Young Men's Christian Association, who has a burning desire to.go to the Soudan, when he told his wife of .his intention, she answered, "Go! I'll go with you." A missionary of the Presbyterian Sunday School Union volun- teered, giving this as his reason: "The fact that the heathen could not get the gospel now even if they wanted it, was enough to call him fron: a field, needy, to be sure, but where the people could have the gospel whenever they wanted it." A lady physician, whose daughter had already volunteered, offered her services at a young woman's convention in Nebraska. Can any more beautiful sight be imagined than to see mother and daughter ready to leave home and friends for the sake of their dying heathen sister! At the Kansas young women's convention, the whole delegation, consisting of 36, vol- unteered before they returned home. St. Paul had so many volunteers, 26, that they intend to put some of their business enterprise into missions, by sending a Golony to the Soudan, and one gentleman showed a determination to have his representative in the field by signing the following paper: "I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to support a missionary from St. Paul." Minneapolis, St. Paul's great rival, has raised a large sum for the Tokio Young Men's Christian Association building. At a meeting in Iowa, an incident occurred which may affect not a few Christian parents. Mr. Speer was teil- ing the story of how an old l.o.linister appealed to an audience to make a per- sonal consecration of themseh-es to missions. When he finished speaking his
GENERAL ~IISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
own daughter came forward and knelt before him, but raising her the old man said: "I did not mean you, my daughter." The next day, after relating this in(:ident, an old gray haired man came to Mr. Speer, and said: "You have hit me. My daughter wished to go out from the Methodist Board. and they wanted her, but my wife and I held her back," and then he added signifi- cantly: "We have not felt so well as before." How many parents there may be who are thwarting the will of God and are saying in their hearts, "vVe have not felt so well as before."
It will no doubt be interesting, now that so many volunteers are in the field, to hear what they think of the battle while they are at the front.
Mr. F. W. Brown, a volunteer from Hillsdale College, Michigan, writes from India, while on a mission boat on the Byturney river, near Orissa. He says: "How goes the work? Here I am in this hot ]jed of idolatry. We feel that we are on the eve of a big break here, and are looking for it soon. The Lord hasten it on. I went to Puri to the Ratti Jutra; I saw enough to tire my soul. They stoned us while preaching. I have the stone that a wall opposite me kept from hitting me on the head." Mr. S. R. Gulick writes from Japan calling for 34 volunteers to go out under the A. B. C. T. M. He says the movement is an inspiration to the soldiers in the front, and they are looking b~ R~R n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
ACrica.-Mr. Stanley has emerged in his path, and which to the average on the western shore of the Indian man would have seemed insurmount- Ocean from his marvelous mid-Afri- able. True, he is as yet his own hiscan march, the most successful ex- toriographer, but there is no reason to plorer in the world. It would be diffi- doubt a narrative the very simplicity cult to imagine a narrative more and modesty of which gives it the wonderful or fascinating than that of stamp of tJ,"uth, and in which the his journey from the Aruwimi to the humblest of his followers is made to Albert Nyanza, through a forest larger share in heroism with himself. There than France, and through the matted is no attempt at advertisement. "Nothundergrowths of which the starved ing happened," he writes in his acand dwindling column crept at the count of the march from the Albert rate of less than three miles a day. Nyanza to the coast, "save a fight or That awful itinerary, filled with fever two with theWanyoro," though on that and fighting and hideous sufferings, march he discovered that the Muta continued for more than five months Nize was the source of the White Nile, before the hundred and more thin a discovery which other men would skeletons emerged into the plain re- have deemed glory enough for a life gion; and with food and plenty about time. And yet there is a full apprethem, began to take heart and hope. ciation of the horrors of the journey, But more fighting awaited them, with and of the importance of its results, the dreary counter-march back to the as well as the expression of a reverent Aruwimi, disappointment and waiting and unfaltering faith in God, who had and horrors on end, consuming nearly led him on his way, and turned what a year more, until, in February last, seemed defeats into success. No other the explorer met Emin and forced his explorer has endured and overcome reluctant consent to be relieved. Dur- so much, adding to his own burdens ing all this time Mr. Stanley never lost responsibility for others and for rehope or changed his tone, or permit- sults, and yet has so steadily grown in ted himself for a moment to be over- himself and in the estimation of the come by the new obstacles that rose world. Great cities vie for the honor of entertaining him, and nations, with the journalistic reporter who went to find Livingstone at Ujiji in 1872, and African possessions to develop, are the wise, hardy, heroic, broad-minded and indomitable rescuer of Emin bidding for the assistance of the boy Pasha and discoverer of the heart of Africa, is far greater than usuaUy befrom the Welsh poor-house. For he longs to human life. Few men so distinctly find their mission, or reis pre-eminently a man of action, ceive such enhancement of personal power and character from rendering with a genius for the government of the service to which they are called. We may well enter his name in the barbarous peoples, and it is on the list of providential men, like Colum- bus, William the Silent, Washington organization and government and de- and Livingstone, raised up for a i7eat purpose and divinely guided till their velopment of the black races that the work is done. It is not the least strik- ing part of our first messages from world must rely if anything is to be this man, as he emerges again into the light of 'blessed civilization,' accomplished in Africa. But while that he recognizes the divine' hand in the thrilling experiences and delivermankind will not withhold its meed of ances of these three memorable years. And it is an eminent sign of the place praise from Mr. Stanley, there is a he has won in the popular judgment that the secular press, no less than the darker side to his success-the fact religious press, takes note of this de- vout acknowledgment and justifies it. that in its first great contest with the "For the moment the withdrawal of Arab for control of the Dark Conti- Emin Pasha leaves the vast and popu- lous territory of the Soudan stripped nent, Europe has suffered defeat. of every civilizing, restraining and uplifting influence from without, and The gallant explorer has survived the opens the way for the Moslem faith and the accursed slave trade to revive march through the tangled forests of and flourish in that imperial domain without let or hindrance. But this the Aruwimi, but the darkness of situation cannot long continue. Stan- ley's exploit has powerfully drawn night has closed in behind him, and the thoughts and interests of the civ- ilized world to this great center; and of aU that Europe has won in the past it is next to impossible that some one of the great powers should not assume ten years, nothing remains but Egypt, the responsibility of giving order and stable government and protection to the scattered stations on the Congo, the native tribes, and access for for- eign commerce and missions, throughand a few points on the shores of the out this splendid country. It will be thought an intolerable thing that the Indian Ocean. Wadelai, Darfour and path thus first broken by this intrepid explorer should be closed up as soon Khartoum are garrisoned by Arab as it has been opened, and one of the richest and most populous parts of the armies, as are the Central Soudan States; and encouraged by their recent successes, they are bent on the con- quest of Abyssinia, and the re-conquest of Egypt. The tide will turn, of course, for Africa will not be aban- doned to barbarism, but more vigor and means will have to be put into the task, and the fact brought home that civilization can march only where there are highways.-The In- terior. I -" Stanley and Africa."-Dr. Jud- son Smith, in the Oongregationalist, writes most intelligently on this sub- ject. We have space for only his closing words: "What results may we expect from this great expedition? It is too soon to ascertain all the facts, or to draw aU the inferences. Without doubt this brilliant and heroic exploit will distinctly add to Stanley"s steadily rising repute as a man, a philanthro- pist, a scientific explorer, and a mili- tary leader. The contrast between whole continent left to fall back again the Arabs were up in arms. The into primeval barbarism, or the deadly blockade of the coast maintained by blight of Mohammedanism and the Germany infuriates the rebels because infamous slave traffic which it fosters. it stops their traffic, and they will, it The challenge to the Christian world is feared, massacre all the missionaries to enter this fair domain, and fill it on whom they can lay hands.
with the Christian faith and the benefi- Missionary interests have become cent institutions which flourish wher- very extensive in East Africa. The ever that faith holds sway, is as bold Church Missionary Society and the'
and inspiriting as we can well con- Universities Mission, of the Church of ceive. England; the Established and the "Almost the last word which we Free Church, of Scotland; the London have from Stanley declares his convic- Missionary Society, the United Meth- tion that the mantle of Livingstone has odist Free Churches, and the Church fallen upon him, and his purpose to of Rome, all have missions on the devote his life to the exploration of coast or in the interior. The Church Africa. We would fain believe that Missionary Society has two distinct above this man's thought presides the lines of missions-one with its basis same divine purpose which controlled at Mombasa, in the English Sphere of his predecessor's life and shapes the Influence, with eight stations, some fortunes of the nations and the ages, of which are on or near the coast and and that through all his varied and some in the interior. One is in the heroic efforts that which was the in- neighborhood of Mount Kilimanjaro.
spiring aim of Livingston's marvelous The second line of stations is that career-the evangelization of Africa- which stretches from Zanzibar to shall be hastened apace. May the. Uganda. There are nine stations in Church of Christ, in all lands, give this line. The Universities Mission heed to the solemn and imperative has twelve stations, one ~ Zanzibar, call of the hour, and see to it. that four in the Usambara country north along the track which has thus been of Zanzibar, four on or near the River broken the light and freedom and Rovuma, and three on the east shore heavenly hope, which are the one of Lake Nyassa. The two Scottish priceless treasure of history and civil- Churches have the Free Church five ization, shall press in with resistless stations on Lake Nyassa, the Estab- power to scatter the darkness and lished Church one on Lake Shirwa, at redeem the nations !" the south of Lake Nyassa. The route -Missionary Interests in East to this region is by the Zambesi and Africa.-The massacre of German Shire rivers. The London Society missionaries at Dar-es-Salam, on the goes further west than any of the East African Coast below Zanzibar, other societies, and plants two sta- has been followed by the massacre of tions on Lake Tanganyika. The an English missionary named Brooks, United Methodist Free Churches have with sixteen of his followers, at Saad- two missions in the Mombasa region, ani, a point nearly opposite Zanzibar. and one in Gallaland. Three German These massacres, committed by the Protestant Societies have five stations Arabs and natives under their control, -three in gaIIiland, one in Zanzibar in the rising against the Germans, and one in Dar-es-Salam, where one were not unexpected. The course of of the massacres took place. It is the the Germans, who had no experience Berlin Society which maintains the with African Arabs or natives, was last two stations. These are all the Pro- such as to provoke hostility. They testant missions between Wito and the established their commercial enter- Rovuma River; but there are German prise last August, and in a few weeks and French Roman Catholic stations. In all, there are 13 missions-six congregation also was urged to estab- British, four Germans, and three lish a fellowship meeting for the study French. One society, the Church of Scripture on Sabbath morning. A Missionary, alone has spent $500,000 proposal to visit every household in in the last 30 years in East Africa.- South Formosa was well received.
Tlw Independent. • With. a view to its being carried into China.-One of the most success- effect, it was resolved that each ful of the Chinese Missions is that con- preacher on his return to his station 'ducted by the Canada Presbyterians should make out a list of the towns and the English Presbyterians in the and villages in the neighborhood; that Island of Formosa. Mr. Mackay, of the preachers should bring these lists the Canadian Mission, has been from to the next meeting of preachers in the first as one of the people, and has May, so that the field may be divided taken a wife from among them. He out among the various churches. The is a man of apostolic devotion and subject of self support was most ear- simplicity, and has wrought a great nestly discussed, and a determined work among the Formosans. The effort to increase the number of self- English Presbyterians occupy a dif- supporting churches was agreed to.
ferent part of the island, that to the To this end the church where the con- south. They, too, have made large ference met agreed to help out a use of native talent in the spreading neighboring church at Kio-a-thau by of the gospel. Recently they held a contributing what it lacked. After conference of preachers and office- the conference, when the preacher bearers, all the preachers except one for that station returned to his work, being present. They were examined he told his people that it had been carefully, and good reports are given arranged that for the four months.
of them. In the conference these they were short they were to look, native preachers spoke earnestly in not to the home church, but to the favor of self-supporting churches, and church in Taiwanfoo. This caused stated that they would rather receive them to reconsider the matter-it their salary from the native brethren seemed a shame to get money from a than from the Missionary Board. neighboring congregation; and they Though the money comes to them sent back WOl'd that they would not more promptly from the Board it need the money, that they would be often subjects them to the taunt, responsible for the whole twelve " You preach the foreigner'S doctrine months themselves. This released the because you eat his rice. " Each church at Taiwanfoo, and it gave the church represented in the conference help it had offered to Kio-a-thau to sent a dollar toward the expenses. another struggling congregation.
The missionaries gave a dollar each -Uneasiness at Pekin.-We learn for the preachers, and the balance, from Pekin that there is a feeling one dollar, was contributed by the there of great uneasiness as to the sta- church where the conference met. bility of things in China, The young The conference agreed to recommend Emperor and Empress are believed to each congregation to follow the ex- be unlucky, as there has been nothing ample of one station, where the but disaster since their accession.
worshippers are classified as readers There is no loyalty in China in our and non-readers, and one of the for- sense of the word, and there are great mer told.off to teach one of the latter. fears that troubles will arise from the In this connection the importance of general distress inevitable in this com- a large-type Romanized New Testa- ing winter; and if there were any man ment was mentioned, for which ar- of eminence who saw any advantage rangements are being made. Each to be gained from raising a rebellion it would go haru with the present dy- hope that this mission would be auded nasty. The misfortunes which have happened since the present Emperor's to the other missions carried on by the accession have revived the discontent that was felt at the irregularity of his Reformed Church. Owing to its large succession, which found its expres- sion at the time, as will be remem- and growing indebtedness, however, bered, in the suicide of one of the Cen- sors. We would earnestly echo the the Board of the Church felt com- remarks of our New Chwang COlTe- spondent, and impress upon the naval pelled to decline to assume this new authorities that no treaty port in the empire ought to be left without a man- responsibility, while at the same tllle of-war this winter. There is no special antipathy to foreigners; but expressing a great interest in it. their safety may easily be involved in some tumult that has arisen from Hence the present character of this causes entirely unconnected with their presence.-North China Herald. miSSIOn. The funds for its support Egypt.-The Rev. James Cantine, are contributed upon a syndicate plan.
the first missionary of the recently or- The mission has found a number of ganized Arabian Mission, sailed on the City of Rome last month. He will warm friends and supporters in vari- . spend the winter in Syria carrying on his Arabic studies. In early spring he ous denominations, and the work is will be joined by Mr. S. lf. Zwemer, of the Theological Seminary, New progressing in a very encouraging Brunswick, N. J. The two will then proceed to their field of work-South- manner. J. G. L. western Arabia-in connection with Keith-Falconer Mission of the Free Eng-Iand.-Letter from Bishop Church of Scotland. The chief object of this mission is to do pioneer work, Taylor.-" I have just arrived from and especially (i. e., not exclusively but equally) in behalf of lIoslems and the Congo. My principal business, on slaves. The brief history of the Keith- Falconer Mission shows alike the great a hasty trip, to return to West Africa need and great encouragement for undertaking this work at once and in a few weeks, is to complete ar- carrying it forward vigorously. This mission is for the present, at least, in- rangements with the builder of our dependent, in the sense that it looks for its support to any without refer- steamer to send a master builder from ence to denominational adherence. This was not the prefelTed way of his yard to put her together and see founding anu carrying on the mission, but it was the way to which the found- her afloat as quickly as possible. Hap- ers were shut up if the work designed and desired was to be accomplished. pily, delays are not always failures, It was hoped that this mission would be founded by and under the charge but often essel1tial conditions to ulti- of the Reformed Church. The action of the last General Synod led many to mate success. I believe it will be so in regard to our unexpected delays with the steamer.
" The teaching force of all the facts in the case brings us clearly to the conclusion that the planting of mis- sions extensively in the great and populous countries of the upper Kassai and Sankura, requires that we have a chain of missions, and a transport agency and facilities, extending from the sea to the centre of the Con-· tinent, giving us, by the way, a neglected, densel}: populated region, belonging to the Congo State, on the north side of Lower Congo,100 by 250 miles in extent. The older mis- sions are working on the south bide of the Congo, so that we shall in no way encroach upon them. So, as a part of these foundation alTange.ments on the Lower Congo, essential success on the Upper Congo waterways, "'e find that our steamer is needed, by twenty to one, more on the Lowpr Congo than upon the Upper. We shall build her at Vivi, to carry mission- tricts they come after, but often asso- ciate with the mayor, the doctor and aries and mission goods from ship'il the priest. The Sta,te considers them to be of such importance that it frees side at Banana 100 miles up the river them from military service, pays their salary, and at the age of sixty grants to Vivi. them pensions. The number has be- come so large that some have asked if "In connection with this we will the work of the Normal schools should not be suspended. At this time, when build a steel launch, to be propelled the enemies of the Republic try to underrate the services she has renby oars and sails, to carry up river dered to France, I feel it a duty to vindicate the good work she has done. ' cargoes through the middle passage Her efforts to raise popular education have not only been great, but very of Congo, 88 miles, from Isangila to successful. "
Manyanga. When this is developed, India.-A Hindu Lady Reformer. -During Bishop Thoburn's recent then we shall require a small steamer visit to Bombay he caned on the Pan- dita Ramabai at her own home. This for the Kassai and the Sankura. vVe lady's name is almost a household word in England and America; her needed such a boat in 1886, when we devotion to the women of her country is well known. He thus describes his had a force waiting at Stanley Pool, visit: "I found her busy, but not care- worn, in the midst of her various who would have met Dr. Summers, projects for elevating her race, and especially those of her own sex. One who entered by the Angola route, of her cardinal ideas is that the status of Indian women must be raised to at Luluaburg, but we could not on the level of true womanhood. Her little daughter was in the room, and any of the five little steamers on the I asked her name. ' I can her Mano- ram,' she replied. 'The birth of a Upper Congo, about the time of his daughter is considered a great ca- lamity in India, and so I named her arrival, get a passage for one mission- " Heart's-delight " as a protest against the bad notion.' The Pandita is giving ary. Now there are a dozen little special attention to temperance re- form, and I was only too glad to steamers on those waters. and we can promise her whatever assistance I might be able to render her in her get passage to take up a successor to good work. She is I;>eginning to real- ize that her work will encounter diffidear Dr. Summers and others also, culties in its progress, but thus far she shows no sign of discouragement. to keep our promise to the Bashalange Her chief enterprise, that of founding a home for Indian widows, has not people and other nations beyond, till yet passed beyond the experimental stage, but she seems satisfied with the we can complete arrangements below, success thus far achieved."-The Har- ~'est Field. as aforesaId, for planting of missions in those far interior countries on a broad scale. WM. TAYLOR."
France.-Rev. J. C. Bracq says: "The public 8chooois of France have never before approached their present state of thoroughness and efficiency.
It i8 to the credit of the Republic that she has made greater efforts in that direction than in any other. She has increased her war budget only two- thirds, while that of popular educa- tion has risen from 24 millions of francs to 130 millions. The teachers have better preparation in the Normal schools, larger salaries, better houses to live in, while their school buildings form a pleasant contrast with those of the past. They have also large as- sociations for mutual improvement and for the defence of their interests that could not have existed under former governments. Their social position is equal to that of teachers in the United States. While they are much respected in cities, in rural <1i5-
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS
South America.-The Ameri- fact that during the past ten years 264,542 copies have been circulated, can Bible Society reports that Bible of which 90,484 belong to the first distribution was fifty per cent. larger half of the decade, and 174,038 to the last year hi South America than in last half. These figures are exclusive any former year. The number of of the work of the Valparaiso (Chili) Bibles, New Testaments or parts dis- Bible Society, which sold during the posed of by sale or gift (mainly the year 4,563 copies, and during its exformer) was 51,862. That this large istence of 28 years has distributed increase was not the result of mere 54,417 copies in the Republic of Chili. spasmodic effort is evident from the I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Brazil. candidates for the Gospel ministry. To the churches of this Presbytery were added during SAO PAULO, Oct. 17, 1889. the last year 133 infants by baptism and 187 DEAR DR. PrERSON: Knowing you to be an on profession. Permission was granted to ardent friend of foreign missions, I take the organize two new churches. The reports of liberty of sending you an item of news. all the pastors were very cheering; each one reporting fields much too large for one man During the late sessions of the Presbytery to occnpy. of Sao Paulo, its licentiate, Senior Benedicta Ferraz de Campos, was examined for ordina- This Presbytery, in harmony with the Standtion. His final examinations and sermon gave ing Committee on Home Missions of the evidence of 'Very fine talent. His knowledge Synod, is seeking for means to sustain and in Greek was especially noteworthy. A very teach a class of eleven young men, married large congregation assembled on a Monday and single, for a year, in purely Biblical innight to witness the ordination, when the struction, and then send them out to occupy pastorof the church, Rev. E. Carlos Pereira, the many places where the good seed of the preached the sermon, and Rev. Carvaihosa Word has been planted and is bearing fruit. gave the charge to the candidate. Both sermon and charge were especially appropriate Yours truly, to the occasion, but the crowning act was the . J. B. KALa.
final setting apart of the candidate by the Ohina. laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. By invitation of the Presbytery, the repre- [Do not fail to read this letter from sentatives of other Presbyteries and of the a remote corner of this vast empire. Methodist and Episcopalian Churches, were -EDS.J invited to take part; so that upon the head of SINING, &AusUH PROVINCE, N. W. CHINA., the young candidate were laid the hands of Sept. 24, 1889.
different representatives of the Christian DEAR EDITORS: Your April number of THE Church. 'Twas a beautiful sight and one MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLn contained which made a solemn impression upon all: an article on "The China Inland lIiission, " by that union of sympathy and brotherly love, ( Prof. Hulbert)in which are a few statements which could lay aside all differences and ..nite which require some modification.
in so solemn an act. The candidate was very He says:" Wben I say the work is compre- deeply affected. We certainly have reason to hensive, I give no idea of the vast area covered believe that" the laying on of hands" in this by the Inland lIIission. Its laborers may be case brought with it the blessing of the pres- found from the borders of the Mongolian desert ence of the Holy Spirit. Wbat an inspiration and the boundary line of Siberia on the north, our newly ordained brother has received! to the banks of the Bramapootra river and "May the Holy Spirit ever bless his ministry." the valleys of the Himalayas on the south; The two young men, Messrs. Morris and Kin- from the Pacific ocean on the east to the solineg, sent ant from the seminary at Alexan- borders of Tnrkestan and the unknown pIa· dria, Va., are winning for themselves and the teau of Thibet on the west." Mr. Stevens, of church they represent golden opinions. They this Mission, is located at Bhamo, on the banks expect to accompany the newly ordained min- of the Irriwady, in Burma. 1111'. Geo. Parker ister, Mr. Benedicto, to his field of lahor, and has recently returned from a journey across there study the langnage, after which they the desert of Shamo to Hami, Urumtsi, and expect to choose for themseh-es a good wide Iti, making only a few weeks' stay there, and field of labor, of which there are many. then returning to Lanetes. He also visited The Presbytery of Sao Paulo recei,ed three KokomoI' with a Russian exploring party. With others he crossed the border and entered into Turkestan, as far as Kashgal' and Yark, Jllongolia for a few days, from Ninghia amI and a fourth to Kokonor and Tsaidami. It Rweihaachenj, in N. Kausuh and N. Slausi. matters not which side of the Atlantic you live, come and be spent for Jesus, and take pleas- Possibly the Mission may be contemplating ure in ,', necessities" for Him. Sell all you further extension. But at the present I be- have, if needs be, to pay your passage out lieve I am right in saying that, with the above here, and what you haven't got ask God for, exception, the work of the Inland Mission is and tell his people. Get one of these places entirely confined to the provinces of China right down into your heart, find out every properl I suppose it takes as long to get to scrap of informa(,!on you can about it, wrestle Sining as to any place in China-four or five in prayer for it night and day, aud the proba- months' journey from the coast. Coming here bility is that every obstacle now in your way we crossed no excessively dangerous moun- will be removed, and you'll be out, where your tains, and no burning deserts. I have not heart has been already, before many months heard of any brethren of this Mission who had have passed. That is something like the way I came to China, and now am being drawn to· any experiences very much out of the com- Thibet. mon, though we settle often in teeming cities. I have not heard of any member of the Mission For Thibet, lIIongolia and Turkestan, the attaching himself to Nomadic tribes of Chinese language would be almost an essen- Mongol Tartars, living in miserable tents, and tial, for they are a part of the Chinese em- roving from place to place, with no fixed home, pire. The Turkestan party might commence no familiar fireside, but wandering over the in the Mohammedan towns of this province Tartar plains at the will of wild chieftains, or (Kausuh), getting their Chinese education as the scantiness of pasturage for flocks de- while picking up useful hints for Mohamme- mands. dan work. 'Ve have Turks, called Salah, within four days of Siuing. A knowledge of There are members of the Mission on the Arabic would be useful. Persian is more use- Chinese border of Kokonor, and let us pray ful in Turkestan. Mongol could, I fancy, God that before long Christianity may be easily be picked up here. knocking at the doors of Slamaistic faith; but though in many cases the Slamas are friendly For Thibet, at present, the Indian door and and kind, I have never heard of any workers Sychnan are closed to us. To work Thibet any- of the Mission having had the opportunityoffer- way, will require much prayer; the Chinese ed to them, by Thibetan officials, of entering are very suspicious of us; but this Kausuh the country of the grand Slama quietly amI border appears the most open, Passports without danger of molestation. lIfr. Gilmour. would be required for all these, and we must of the London MiSSion, is pioneering in Eastern pray hard that that difficulty may be removed. Mongolia; haven't you got a score of young Don't let us mind about fixed salaries. Get fellows wishing to join him? Then the Mora- the money to bring you out, and then look to vian Mission at Leh, and a Bible agent at God for the rest. 3Iarried or single, come Iskutsk in S. Siberia. With these exceptions, along. £100 per man should bring you from am I not right in saying the whole of Thibet, England to this corner of the empire, and Mongolia, Turkestan and Siberia are without give you a bit in hand. Look all the difficula Protestant missionary. "There remaineth ties well in the face, and then make up your yet very much land to be possessed; let us go mind. If you can't trust God, don't come. up at once and possess it, for we are well able, because the Lord of Hosts goeth forth with Yours, in the Lord's service. our armies." We haven't got to wait for orders to go forward; they were given more than CECIL POLHILL TURNER. 1800 years ago. When acting in obedience to Him, t~e power of God, the Holy OPENING OF WORK IN KIRIN. Ghost, is upon us, and then there is no room Our work gradually grew and people begun for failure. You will probably receive this to see we had not come to do them harm, but letter as the new year opens. Suppose all who good, One little boy, whose parents were read it pray for at least 20 workers each for dead, had for some time been troubled with Thibet, Mongolia, and Turkestan-in all 60- sore eyes. He spent nearly all his spare before the close of 1890. Let us ask for men money (3s. or so), a great deal for him, upon full of the Holy Ghost; men willing to rough native doctors. to no avail. By God's blessing it for Jesus; men who don't mind being cold, on our treatment, he was soon made all right. hungry and wet, and robbed, and, if need be. He, of course, could not k""p the good news to <i¥ing, because death brings glory. himself, but published it abroad, and soon Dear brother, who reads these lines, come great numbers came thronging to us to have out and join our band. Then let us go two by their eyes cured. We were very closely two through Thibet, to Slaosa, and on to watched by government officials in every Rashmir; along the high-road through Kausuh thing we did. Soon their favorable report to Hami, Urumtsi, Iti; another lot branching brought us invitations from Mandarins and off to the north to Kobats, Uliasutai; It third gentlemen of all ranks. Thus did God open up our way befon' 1)S. 'Ve then sought and gained an interview with July 9. -At evening service the church and one of the chief magistrates, and through yard were so full the pulpit was placeq in the him got permission of the Governor·General open door that all might hear. The Lord to come and establish a Mission and hospital. helped while preaching from "What shall I do to be saved?" All who were seriously After spending a few days longer looking thinking about their souls were asked to raise out for a suitable house, which, however, we hands; nearly 100 responded. did not find, we again returned to Monkden. Thus, through the Divine blessing, the way July 10. – A meeting for men only, but about seems clear for our going up, perhaps early 200 women came begging to stay; talked next year, and establishing ourselves in this about "Saving faith:' Two young men, large city of Kirin, the capital of the northern doubters for two years, de<'ided to serve and province of Manchuvia. confess Christ.
A RESIDENT MISSIONARY. July ll.-A mother's meeting; 400 present; many remained for inquiry meeting; over 20 Turkey. took part; earnest prayers in Turkish, Arme· nian and English, offered with tears of re- THE GREAT REVIVAL AT AlNTAB. pentance, reminded us of "Pentecostal Days. " I too could not keep back tears of joy; 35 [So remarkable a work deserves the arose, giving themselves to Christ. "Not unto fullest information. Although we us, not unto us, 0 Lord, but to thy name give have given some account of it already, glory." P. M.-Another woman's meeting. To we are quite sure our readers will be my surprise the church and yard were full; greatly interested in this detailed 1,600 to 2,000 present, most of whom were record of it, taken from the diary of Gregorians; 8 Mohammedans-a large gather. Rev. H. G. Jenanyan, of "St. Paul's ing; pulpit moved to the door so all could Institute," Tarsus, who took an active hear. part in the revival. We are indebted to his wife for this graphic view of the July 12.-The Holy Spirit's work among inmemorable scenes.-EDs.] dividuals is wonderful. Thus I am taught W/Ult and how to preach. Henceforth our serv, Aintab, July 2.-Having an urgent invita· ices will be union in the First Church, which tion from the pastor of the Third Church, the holds 2,000 to 2,500. The women's side is smallest one, with a congregation of about smaller, but to-night they filled their own and 200, to hold special service, this evening I one-third of the men's. " Not by might, nor preached my first sermon; only 150 present. by power." 'Text, "To think of latter end." July H.-At morning, in the Third Church, July 3.-Preached to about 300, one half of two new Sunday-school classes organized. whom were Gregorian Armenians. All listen- Church members promised to visit two by two oed attentively to, "Son, give me thine heart,~' the neighboring houses. Evening service in ~nd the Lord gave the words to speak; hoping the First Church. From 300 to 400 could not for great results, I pray and believe. enter the full house, but crowded near win- dows and doors. "Almost persuaded" was July 5. -This evening preached from, "Thy my subject; asked those who would like to sins are forgiven." God gave a blessing to have a prayer meeting to remain; only a few -over 500 present. My heart is rejoicing. An hundred left, but their places were at once inquiry meeting, 22 decided for Christ; 15 filled by the waiting throng outside. In this backsliders returned to the Lord; an infidel meeting over 100 rose deciding for Christian youth is earnestly seeking the light. life. This was the largest congregation to which I ever preached. I better realize the July 7, Sabbath. -Morning preached from power of simple gospel preaching. "Christ our pattern;" over 1,000 present; church full; hundreds in the yard. Evening July 15.-Much time is occupied with callservice in First Church; 1,600 present, one-third ing, conversation, preparation and preaching. of whom were Gregorians. "Jesus" was the Morning scrvice for women in Second Church: theme, and the eagerness with which they lis- 60 remained for inquiry, most of whom gave tened was an inspiration to me. "O! Lord, good proof of conversion. Afternoon met bless, encourage, and fill me with thy Holy with Christian Endeavor Society, giving a Spirit." Bible reading, "Christ our example. " These are good workers among the women, and their July 8.-Went to church one hour before numbers are now doubled. The following day service-was surprised to find both men and I preached in the First Church to a full house; women's side filled with women coming early 30 arose for prayer. to find room, thus crowding ant the men. At once began preaching; dismissed the meeting July 1/.-Morning held a service in the Grethat the women might go and the men come gorian house in the city suburbs; over 300 in; but most of them kept their seats on the present; every corner full; a few Protestants, :IIoor; the men were obliged to stay in the yard several Mohammedans. Afterward called on while I preached a second sermon for all. two palsied women confined to their beds for The need, desire and interest is wonderful. years. Among those who called. one man July 26.-Rev. T. D. Christie, of Marash, said: "I have done all known wickedness, hearing of this revival, came to help us. We been in prison three times-one Sunday I are very glad, for there is great need, and he heard you preach, since then I am surprised has large experience, and is very valuable in at the change in me; can't tell what and such work. Ever since the Adana revival, where I am-never prayed before, now pray- where we were together, I have greatly ening always; would like to tell others of this joyed working with him. He will give much change but fear they will not believe, but will of his time to personal work among new contry and show them by my life." Evening verts and inquirers. A large gathering in the meeting with young people; two pastors and First Church, Mr. Christie taking part; 45 exone college professor took part-it was a pressed desire for salvation. To-day a youn", season of great blessing. man came to a missionary, returning several small articles stolen at a fire eight months July 19.-Many young people come for per- ago. He confessed his sin with tears, saying sonal conversation-three boys and two girls he could not rest till his conscience was clear, earnestly pleading to be taken in our Tarsus he having recently given his heart to Christ. school. Thus far 17 applications from this city, and if we only had accommodations it July 28, Sabbath.-Morning attended First would be a grand thing to give a Christian Church Sunday-school; found 26 children had education to these young converts, who could decided for Christ; their tearful confessions be the means of blessing to their people. and simple faith was such that I went to the " My Lord, thou knowest and seest the need, adults, related the fact, while Pastor Mardagive opportunity as thou givest desire, grant ros earnestly spoke on "Where art thou ?". enlargement and blessing to St. Paul's Insti- The meeting was very solemn and blessed;' tute, take away all obstacles for its progress." many hard hearts were melted. Afternoon Evening meeting, where the three pastors Mr. Christie and I preached; at the close' took part. Their faith has been greatly nearly 500 remained for a testimony meeting; strengthened by seeing what the Lord has 28 took part, giving interesting accounts of done in our midst. their conversion. All hearts are grateful for such an outpouring of the Holy I::lpirit. July 21, Sabbath.-After Sunday-school and a good prayer meeting, a woman came, say- July 29.-By invitation, went to an Armeing, "Here are three Mohammedan women who nian meeting; was permitted to speak some would like you to talk and pray with them." words of truth, to which all listened atten-' I gladly responded, going to where they sat, tively; 5 priests expressed interest. Afterlith faces veiled; knelt down and prayed. noon 22 children and 14 young men came to I Evening, large meeting in First Church, more inquire the way of salvation. Missionaries, Gregorians came than ever before. Previously and native pastors are working heartily and they besought their priests to invite me to in full sympathy. preach in their church, but a few wealthy members objecting, the people came to our July 30 to Aug. 3.-These days have been church to hear the tl"".1th. This has been a especially devoted to church examination. day lonj:( to be remembered for its fullness of Preached only once; in the three churches 267.' blessing. came forward. So many interesting facts and testimonies, I cannot begin to write them. July 22.-Women's meeting. Holy Spirit, at Enemies are reconciled, notOrious crinlinaIs the close of sermon. asked all who wanted to converted, drunkards reclaimed, parents re-' come to Christ to arise; 22 responded, one of joicing over wandering children, whole famiwhom, 80 years old, was a great opposer to lies coming together to unite with the visible the truth, but now her groans and tears melt church. Said Pastor Mardaros: "I have been many hearts. Afternoon, 11 callers, compan- here thirteen years, and can it be possible ions in wickedness, now Christ's followers. that this great blessing has come to this city, Said they: "A month ago if anyone would even on Aintab!" "Yea, this is the Lord's tell us of such a change we would not believe, doing and wonderful in our eyes." now we tell others but they believe not." Aug. 4, Sabbath.-This is the crowning day July 24.-Children's meeting; 500 present. of the revival. At morning, by invitation, Theme, "Christ and the children;" 150 re- went to Episcopal Church; small congregamained for inquiry meeting; many prayed, tion; large building; unfinished for lack of confessing their sins. We hope all these are money. I preached, •. Fear not, little lIock." accepted by·the dear Saviour. Union service at noon; large attendance. I preached to those who will to-day join tl,e July 25.-Missionaries and natives urge me church, .. Lovest thou me?" (We all felt the to remain that these services may close with Holy Spirit's personal presence.) The reply a communion season and accept new converts. on hundreds of faces was, "Thou knowest that We all hope for a grand harvest. Evening I love thee. " After the sermon those who will service for new converts; 400 present. The unite with the church arose, 248, a large band prayers and testimonials were very interest- ready to serve Christ. They all repeated ing: over 25 took part, even 4 women ventured together after me the three verses beginning, to pray. "Who can separate us from the love of for inquiry, most of whom found salvation.
Christ1" Any who were seeking Christ were Among the new converts are several who invited to remain after service; 140 respondAd lately mocked at religious things.
-22 by words and 83 by rising expressed Aug. 21.-Temperance day; I preached their new decision; among them were 20 from, "We will not drink wine." Reading a children, whose deep conviction was very few passages at the close, asked- those who, Dlanifest. Evening there was communion in like the Rechabites, would promise thus, to the three churches-new members accepted; express it publicly. Over 1,000 arose. What an former members more hmnble and grateful. encouraging sight. Next day, in the Women's It was a day of holy consecration for us all. meeting, Mr. Christie preached; 45 remained Aug. 5 to n.-The work is so interesting, for inquiry; many blessed prayers and con- the plea so urgent, we have decided to remain fessions. During these two weeks 365 came two weeks longer. This week I preached five for church admiSSion, far more than we, in times to full congregations; many new con- our weak faith, expected. The Lord is work- verts-one a noted gambler, another an infi- ing mightily.
del, whose public confession was touching to Aug. 25, Sabbath.-Union service at noon for many. I visited 20 houses with Pastor Gara- missionary cause. After preaching I asked bed. The pastors have decided to have the people, as a slight token of gratitude to another comnlunion soon. This gives me God, to organize a Missionary Society and hope that Vartina Bajis's (a good mother in support some preachers in needy cities. Mr.
Israel,90 years old,) expectation will be ful- Christie also spoke encouraging words. All filled. One day in church she said, "I am responded well; a committee was organized, a praying for 500 new converts." A good brother collection taken amounting to 2.400 piastres said, "You are expecting too many, mother.~' ($95); during this week the gift of 600 piastres "I have prayed for them, and they are sure to to Third Church poor pastor, 1,400 piastres come. " I quoted, "According to thy faith be debt to First Church pastor; and this contri- it unto thee." bution is, for these poor people, about the Aug. 12 to 17.-Examinations for church ad- same as $5,000 in Ami'rica. Can we ask a mission; a new children's society (Zion'8Mes- better proof of revival work?
sengers) organize(!; their work is to visit Evening communion in each church; 286 houses each morning and hold half-hour new members accepted, hearts glad, families prayer-meetings with the children; they also happy, and the day blessed, to be long, long collect money to purchase Bibles for needy remembered..
Sunday-school classes. This week I preached During this revivai 534 new members were four times and gave a Bible reading; 31; newly added to the three churches on confession of decided for Christ. Now I am preaching on faith, while many are secret followers, not the various dnties of church members. The quite ready to come out now. Such an addi- evening of the 13th the theme was, "Seek tion to the awakened churches will no doubt the peace of Jerusalem." At the close, asked prove a great power and advance Christ's all who would vow anew to fulfill their church kingdom in Aintab and vicinity. "So then duties, to rise. All members solemnly respon- neither is he thatplanteth anything, neither he ded, a sight that gladdened our hearts. We that watereth, but God that gi11eth increase."
hope, after this, the weekly meetings, which, The two following days I preached to many before the revival, were attended by from 10 hundreds.
to 20, will be crowded, and instead of a few, The sermOD, Aug. 27, "Go forward," was scores will take part in the blessed prayer- my last charge. I did not tell the people of meetings as they do now. A deacon said, "I our departure, that we might leave quietly.
have complaints to make against you preach- Next day we left Aintab for a season of rest ers; before this I could pray ten minute. and among the mountains near Marash. I am speak as long as I wanted in prayer-meeting, glad Mr. Christie could remain and carry on not taking anyone's time, but now so many are the good work. The pastors are working ear- ready and waiting to take part, I cannot find nestly, and we hope and pray that a greater even one minute to thank God for all he has bleSSing is still in store for Aintab. "0 Lord, done." carryon Thy work; visit the needy, hungry Aug. 18, Sabbath.-Two more new Sunday- churches, and glorify Thy almighty name."
school classes organized in the Third Church. TARSUS, Nov. 12, 1889.
Our teacher of St. Paul's Institute has been much blessed in his efforts to work among WORLD'S CO)l'VENTIO)I' ON MISSIONS IN young people. He preached weekly in a Gre- 1892.
gorian Society of 200 young men; his visits LETTER FROM REV. WM. 11. M'CAUGHEY, PHILA.
and conversation brought many into these DEAR DR. PIERSON: With regard toa World's new Sunday-school classes and the church. Convention on Missions in 1892, there is a Union service at noon. I preached to a full movement on foot looking in this direction.
house. The following day after the sermon, In the Central Presbytery of Philadelphia Rev.
H Now is the day of salvation," 250 remained R. D. Harper moved that a committee of five
I~TER~ATlO~AL DEPARTMENT
be appointed to confer witll a committee of return you to your native land. I am, yours the Baptist brethren on this subject. The committee was appointed, and I have the honor truly, W. H. MCCAUGHEY. to be one of the five. The first meeting was held early in October. The Baptist brethren Rev. L. S. Tugwell, of the Spanish and were Russell·H. Conwell, D. D., Geo. C. Bord- Portuguese Church Aid Society, writes us to man, D.D., and John Peddie, D.D. Dr. Harper say: "You will be glad to hear that we are was made chairman and Dr. Conwell secre- receiving enconraging reports of the work in tary; and these were empowered to call a meet· Spain and Portngal from the Rev. H. E. Noyes, ing of representative men of differentdenomi- the editor of Light and Truth, who is now just nations. Such a meeting has been called to concluding a visit to our brethren of the meet at the Baptist Rooms Nov. 11th. Per- Spanish and Portuguese Reformed Churches. haps this is all known to you, but if not, I He has been greatly cheered by all he has know it will be a real pleasure for you to hear seen, and his highest expectations have been it. The plan, as projected, is on a large scale. Calling, as it does, for special buildings, it exceeded. One of the most hopeful features will require a great deal of expense and hard in this movement is the self-denying zeal, earwork; yet, with you, I feel that it would be nest devotion, and patient perseverance of the one of the grandest movements of the century. pastors, evangelists and teachers in their ardu- With an earnest prayer that God may bless ous but blessed work for the Master." your work while abroad, and in his own time [Dr. Gracey, in sending us this item, says: "Tugwell deserves encouragement, for he has had a long, hard pull. All the work of this society originated with him. "-J. M. S.] IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Our Relations with Latin America. It affords more miles of navigation than all The meeting of the Representatives the rivers of Europe combined, and more than the Mississippi with its several tributaries. of the Republics of the Three The tide from the Atlantic reaches two hun- dred and sixty miles up the stream, and ocean Americas-North, Central and South -in our national capital, forces to ships of twenty-four feet draught can find the front questions about the duty water enough the year round at a distance of which new conditions promise to a thousand miles from its mouth. Vessels impose on the Protestantism of of from sixteen to twenty feet draught can go 'twenty-seven hundred miles into the interior the United States toward the fifty of the Continent, and a comparatively small ,millions of people in Spanish America amount of money-a mere fraction of the -a population numerically about sum that has been spent upon the Mississippi- equal to our own j just below our will furnish a path for a four thousand ton horizon, Latin America contains vessel from New York or Liverpool to the very heart of Brazil, by way of Buenos Ayres. "
some three thousand natives of the The vast resources of these Southern United States and about ten millions Republics are certain to tempt Euro- of European subjects, the nucleus of pean immigration as well as com- the forces which are to make a new merce. The Italian Government sends world out of the " New World " Co- a steamer every month from Genoa to lumbus revealed four centuries since; Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, and for the Americas are being re-dis- another to Valparaiso, Chili. There covered. are five French lines of steamships If the reader has doubt of that, let connecting Marseilles, France, with him try a geographical study of South ports of Brazil, Uruguay and the America, and test whether he has Argentine Republic; and a line from realized its physical conditions. We Havre to the North and East Coast of venture to assign one lesson as a sam- South America. There are German ple, taken from a government docu- steamers running from Hamburg to ment: the West Coast of South America as " The Rio de la Plata, or the River Plate, as far as Guatemala. Belgium has a it is commonly known, offers a more extensive semi-monthly steamship service to system of unobstructed navigation than any Brazil and Argentina. The Pacific river in the world, and, with the exception of Steam Navigation Company has rethe Amazon, pours more water into the ocean. cently latmched four magnificent artificial land transportation, present steamers for England's South Ameri- and prospective. A railway from can trade, t,vo of them being larger Boston to Buenos Ayres seems vision- and faster than any hitherto in that ary perhaps; but it is worth fixing commerce, being of 6,500 horse power our thought on. Within three years and 6,000 tons capacity. past railroads have been actually built, and routes surveyed, for at least Of course, the concomitant of all one-third of the distance between this is an influx of Europeans into Buenos Ayres and Bogota-one-third, South America and Central America. and that the hardest one-third to con- The Argentine Government pays the struct, has been actually completed pasmga of the immigrant, keeps him or is constructing. for days after arrival, and forward:; him atgovernment expense by steamer There are two lines built, and two or train to the farms of the interior, lines for which concessions have been gives him land and seed, and six dol- granted, which, with shorter ones allars a month for the first year. This ready in operation, leave but about Republic received more European im- 2,000 miles of road to be constructed migrants in the first six months of to make the chain complete. That is last year than in twelve months of the no such task as was our Pacific Railprevious year. The Mexican Govern- road. The Republics along the line ment pays the steamship companies are anxious for its construction, and sixty dollars per head for each immi- are ready to guarantee five to seven grant landed in the next five years, per cent. on the capital invested. Some and an average of forty-five dollars five distinct routes are proposed for each for the succeeding ten years. this inter-continental railway, one of which leaves 3,252 miles to be built, These facts, and vastly more of the another 2,616, and two others, roundsame genus, plainly indicate that the ly, 2,000 miles. The route which immediate future is to bring new con- leaves the least mileage to be conditions to us on the south. It seems structed runs from Buenos Ayres to just as plain that America is to be Jujuy, thence to Bogota, and about evangelized by Americans. Protestant 1,000 miles are now operated. The Europe evidences little interest in the lines would pass throughout its whole spiritualizing of these newly-rising length through countries teeming people, and we have been laggard and with the most valuable articles of half-nerved in what we have done. commerce. These are the EI Dorado It is not an easy thmg to kindle enthu- regions of the ancients. "Stripped siasm about Protestant work in South of all poetry," says the Report of the American fields, though we do warm United States Government, "immense up a little more readily of late to work mines and deposits of precious metals in the Republic of Mexico. If the do exist in Bolivia, though too remote contact of steamer and rail accounts from highway and habitation now to for this it may not be long till we have be explored." largely similar conditions with the more southern States. The Director of the United States 1tfint said that under favorable cir- "Ve cannot enter into the political cumstances Chili, Bolivia and Peru question of the duty of the govern- might add fifty million ounces of silment to improve our ocean highway ver to the world's stock annually. conditions to South America; but, " Every spade that turns the clod rethat aside, the overland communica- veals the silver" in the basin of the tions are, prophetically at least, in Cerro Pasco in Peru. The region sight. At the risk of dropping some through which this proposed road of our readers at this point, we ven- would pass, when the other twoture to present something about the thirds are completed, yields even now, When a body as representative as apart from gold and emeralds and that sends out a manifesto, it should, diamonds, six hundred million dol- at least, secure the attention of the lars' worth of commerce annually. Christian public. It deals with some of the more recent criticisms on Mis- With the celebration in 1892 of the sions, and we may assume it, therefour hundredth anniversary of the fore, to be of wider interest than the discovery of this continent, we will circle of patrons of those specific be face to face with problems of pro- missions. They first emphasize the foundest importance in reference to fact that India is not one, but many this Western Continent. Whether we countries, with many languages and are to have a World's Missionary Con- an extensive literature, but partially ference at that time does not yet ap- explored. Omitting Moslems, the bulk pear, but that the Protestants of North of the population about Madras as a America ought to face calmly at that center are non-Brahmanical. But time the question whether the Ameri- Brahmans have grafted the Hindu cas are to be evangelical, we do ear- caste system on to Dravidian ancient nestly believe. It is sad to think of tribal systems. After describing modthe multitude to the south of us, weary ern Hinduism (the indescribable) they and sick with Popery and Jesuitism say that with the people about them to the edge of revolt against all truth, all thought is contemporary, presentand certainly against all ecclesiasti- ing an epitome of all thought, ancient cisms. This four hundredth anni- and modern, that of the West with versary ought to see the broadest and that of India 2,000 years ago. The best minds of Protestantism ready old social order has been infracted, with great schemes for the religious and hence disturbance and disintegrauplifting of those Republics, whether tion, and a social freedom without by missionary or merchant, by teacher, internal standard. Altogether they mechanic or farmer. A great upris- are in the midst of intricate condiing might be inspired, and a move- tions, and feel called to every possible ment organized for aggressive work. sacrifice. They then name the forms Hundreds of Protestant mechanics, of missionary agency which they Use. we are assured, can find a field where they may make a good living and find They venture to defend such of opportunity to help evangelize those these measures as have been recently lands. A council of eminent leaders and widely criticised. They say of should prepare for at least an Ameri- Higher Education that "the withcan Missionary Conference in 1892. drawal from the mission field of this agency, which, after all, absorbs but a Missionaries Answer the Oritics on small fraction of our numerical Mission Economy. strength, would leave a blank, for the filling up of which no hostile critic The Missionaries of the several Pro- has yet made any practical suggestestant churches in Madras, India, tion." have sent out "An Open Letter to the Churches," which is signed by four Referring to the question of Missionmissionaries of the Church of Eng- ary Economies, they say the salaries of land Society, four of the London So- European Missionaries have not been ciety, six: of the Englis~ Wesleyan, six questioned in India, and they think of the Free Church of Scotland, three them fairly reasonable, no class of Enof the Church of Scotland, one Ameri- glishmen, not even artisans, receivcan Baptist, two American Methodist, ing so small allowances as Missiontwo Danish Lutheran, nine represent- aries. ing'the Madras Christian College, and one the Bible Society-38 in all. • The Salvation Army has been much lauded as illustrating greater pOSSIble economy in the conduct of Missionary opportunity to acquire language in so work. They say the results of the brief a period. The number has been Salvation Army labors are not tabu- terribly reduced, and the wear and lated, and hence a true verdict cannot tear of their way of living is largely be hoped for; but in their part of In- responsible for this. Their very plan dia the Army has not been successful. of operations increases health and life It has swelled its ranks from converts risk, and affords no corresponding in- of other churches, many of whom crease in efficiency, have returned to their old fold. It has They refer next to the Roman Cath- only labored where other Missions olic priest as a missionary model.
had planted themselves. They have The rate of increase for these missions found it easier to appeal to Christians has for twenty-five years been lower than to Hindus for support, and have than that of the Protestant missions.
diverted funds from other Christian The Protestant Church is not ready work-only the merest fraction of to insist that all its missionaries shall their support has ever come from non- be celibates. In<Ea has had enough Christians. The Army has carefully of asceticism according to prescribed avoided districts where no missionary Hindu rules, unless it should appear work is done by others. in the form of a great Hindu reformer.
Nor have the agents of the Army To Hindus generally, Western men g-ot into greater sympathy than others will not appear to be real ascetics, but with the natives. The text of the manufactured and spurious. More- letter on the matter of Europeans over, there is nothing Hindus corre- adopting native dress runs as follows: sponding to the Christian home, in .. For at least two cellturies. the Englishman which woman fills her place of honor, has been a familiar figure In India; to this gen· and where unity and affection dwell eration he ill! now almost as familiar as the Mus- together. Nothing is more necessary Bulman. To HinduB, his dress seems to be even and instructive to Hindus than the attractive. While no Hindu dreams of adopt· exhibition of that family life which is ing the Mussulman costume, thousands of Hin.
dus are now adopting the English dress. It is the rich fruit of Christian faith. Of impossible, therefore, that what is familiar and course, the other phase of an economiattractive can at the same time be specially reo cal agency implies that cheaper men, pellant. All who know anything of human na· men of less intellectual furnishing, ture will agree, that not by a particular dress, but by intelligence and true sympathy do we even of less moral endowment, may find access to the hearts of men. Soul must be used, that the standard of the mistouch soul, and eating curry and rice with one's sionary force might be lowered. Refingers and weaJ.ing long hair are poor substi. ferring to this, the open letter says: tutes for a. knowledge of the language and "Outer conditions will adjust themthoughts of Hindns."
But, after all, can there not be a selves and will never hinder mission- cheaper agency employed with ad- ary work if the agents supplied by the vantage in the mission field? That is churches are what they should be, l't current question. Multitudes of and here we earnestly plead that the thoughtful friends of missions are standard of attainment and efficiency asking that question. Does not the be maintained among all Europeans Salvation Army prove that? This who come to India as agents. If it be " open letter" replies that the cost of lowered, nothing can be gained, but its European agents in India has never . much may be lost. Imperfectly been made known. The number of equipped Europeans can only take a deaths among them is exceptionally place as the rivals of imperfectly large. The number disabled by sick- equipped native agents, than whom ness is very great, as compared with they will be more costly, and-less other missions. The average stay in effective."
India is very brief. They have little They say they need a class of native agents more highly trained than any lem by living as the Chillese live, eating their they yet have had. They appeal for food as they cook it, sleeping on their k'ang men to reach the thousands of Hindus beds. and very closely imitating their mode of who have been educated in schools life; but a part of these, at least, having decided and colleges, more or less acquainted that nothing is gained by such a life, and that with Christianity, and who have im- health and fitness for service are endangered bibed some of its moral thought, but thereby, have returned to a more Western man- 'who have not found the path to true Der of living. Simplicity is not imitation. We light. They wish, too, for some few are not Chinese, and no amount of imitation men of learned leisure to produce will make the people think we are." a Christian literature in the vernacular. "Year by year," they say, "the The other writer discusses the quesreading public increases, as does the tion of lower-salaried, and thus a less demand for Christian literature; but expensive, even if a less furnished miswe cannot give them the best, as we sionary agency. He does not think ought." that the nllssionary who uses the smallest amount of money is there- They say it has been matter of re- fore the cheapest agency. gret to them" that the criticism rece~ly bestowed on Indian missions so .. Commercially, the investment that brings in much has referred only to details of the largest proportionate returns-the largest secondary importance, and so little to percent.-is the cheapest_ So financially, and the essentials of the missionary prob- every other way, the missionary that accomlem." plishes the largest amount of efficient results is, as a rule, the cheapest. By' efficient results' They close their "open letter" say- is meant living, active, self-propagating ing: "The progress of Christianity is churches, a wise and earnest native ministry,etc. that of 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' The missionary that accomplishes nothing is breaking the spell of an antiquity not only expensive, but a •dead capital,' though which overawes, and scattering a he were to use only 100 Mexicans a year J while manifold error which has long bewil- one using 5,000 in successful work may be the dered men. And because we know cheapest." that here in India the battle is the Lord's, we rejoice in the certainty He affirms that sbtistics prove that that the victory is His also. And all the man or the Society that works flesh shall see the salvation of God." with least proportionate expenditure, reaches the least proportionate results, And now we have two other per- and that nine-tenths of the efficient resons discussing these features of mis- sults in China have been from Missionsionary economies in China whose aries who live comfortably, from their views are set forth in The Chinese own national standard of comfort. Recorder, the first we give being a There is little economy in a merely strong advocate for the simplest possi- numerical increase of missionaries. A ble style of living for missionaries, so few well-trained, suitably cared for, as to destroy the impression that mis- able to create and direct a native force, sionaries are lovers of good living, and are cheaper than many of the cheaper so as to avoid a style of living so far sort trying to do the work themselves. beyond the reach of the people as to It is on the line of this power to create arouse their cupidity rather than fur- the middle man, the efficient native nish them an example. But even tIllS force, that, he says, "comparatively a advocate of simplicity says: very small number of the number of foreign workers now in China have .. Living <u rimply as the average teacher or accomplished very nearly all the efmerchant, does not mean that we live as they ficient results so far. It is a notorious do. The former is practicable; the latter is im- fact that several of the smaller practicable, and, therefore, unwise. Some very societies have done some of the best earnest men have endeavored to solve this prob- and largest work."
He fortifies this position by quoting from Rev. John Ross, of Manchuria, speaking at the London Conference: "Let all the missionary societies manned, but is now in the same position as pick out, not as many men as they can find, but pick out a few, choice in Loando, awaiting good workers to man it. all respects, spiritually, mentally, in- tellectually, physically-let there be a Nhangupp<po.-From Dondo we .. take it few choice men, let these train the natives, and the natives will do the afoot" fifty·one miles over l1i1ls, monntains and work. It seems to me that this is the only way you can get the work vales, by the old caravan trail of the ages, to properly done." Nhanguepepo Mission station. Our property Bishop Taylor's Industrial Missions. there is worth about $6,000. It was deSigned Bishop William Taylor sent an ex- tended report of his work in Liberia, to be 8. receiving station, in which our new- and also in Angola, and in the Congo country. We condense the latter por- comers might be acclimatized, taught native tion of it, as this mission has attracted a good deal of attention and been the languages, and prepared for advauce work. subject of considerable criticism: Under the superintendency of Brother Withey Mamby.-Two days above Congo mouth we land at lIIayumbo, and proceed in boats seven- a great preparatory work has been done at this teen miles up an inland lake to Mamby, where Mi.s Martha Kah is stationed. When we settled station. It has, however, become specially a there it was in the bounds of the" Free State of Congo," but later the published decrees of the training school for native agency under the Berlin Conference putit under the wing of the French government. The French authorities leadership of one young mau of our first have recognized and registered our native title to 100 acres of good land, and are not unfriendly party from America, Karl Rudolph. We to US by any means; but .. by law" forbid us to teach any languag6 but French. Good has already have an organized Methodist Episcopal been done at Mamby, and is being done. Ow· ing to this disability, we have proposed to aban· Church at this station, composed of thirteen con- don it, but Martha Kah is entirely unwilling to leave, and as it is our only footing in French verted native men and boys. The work of each territory, and as they hold a vast region, peo- pled by numerous nations of African heathens, day is distributed; two of our boys called" pas· we have thought it best to hold on to Mamby. tors" have the care of about 100 head of cattle Loanda.-Passing the mouth of the Oongo River, we proceed by steamer over 300 mUes to belonging to the mission. Several boys are the beautiful land·locked harbor of St. Paul de Loanda. The Portuguese town bearing that taught to yoke and work oxen in sled or plow; name has many massive buildings. includillg churches in ruins, dating back over 300 years. several boys bave learned to be stone-masous,. It has an estimated population of 5,000, a few hundred of whom are Portuguese (one English and when I was there last were engaged in house of business), the rest being Negroes. From the beginning we have had adequate self· building a stone wall around the cattle" cor· supporting resources in Lo..nd.. from the Portu- guese patronage of our schools, and have now, ral." One boy is trained to business in the lit· but at present we lack the teaching corps requis· .; ite. tIe store. .
Dondo.-From Leanda we proceed by steamer Pungo Andongo.-Pnngo Andongo Station has oisixty miles" south by sea, and cross the bar into the mouth of the Ooanzo River, as large a8 the cro.sed the lines of sustentation and of abso- Hudson, and ascend 180 miles to Dondo, at the head of steamboat navigation. Dondo is a noted lute self-support, and is making money to open trading center, and has a population of about 5,000, mostly Negroes. We had a good property new statious in the regions beyond. in Dondo worth about $5,000. Its school work and machine shop were self-supporting when Malange.-An onward march of sixty·two miles brings us to Malange, a town of probably 2,000 population, and noted for its merchandise. Our people there are Samuel J. Mead, P. E ,"his wife, Ardella, retined, well educated, and a tine musician, at the head of our school work.
Willie Mead, head of the mechanical depart-.
ment; his wife is especially engaged in teach iug missionaries. Robert Shield, a young mis~ sionary from Ireland, who was brougl1t up at home for a. merchant, runs a small mission store at Malange, preaches in the Kimbunda, and has a growing circuit extending among the villages of the surrounding country. Uur na- tive Church, organized at Malange at the time of my visit, had" the number of twentY'one, all probationers, of course, but baptized and saved. Our property at Malange is worth prob- ably i6,~00. Samuel J. Mead has charge of a big farm, and making it pay. Brother fillie trained four native men to run two pit-saws, and in the last year or two has turned out $1,500 worth of lumber, which sells for cash at the saw·pits. These meu are also preachers, and preach several times each week in the Por~ tuguese language. In labor, money. and build· ing material, they have recently completed a new two-story mission house and other mission improveonents, amounting to an aggregate cost of $1,200, without any help from home.
LulU<.lburg.-From Malauge a tramp of 1,000 miles northeast will bring Us to Luluaburg, in the Bashalange ·country. discovered by Dr. Pogge and Lieut. Weismann in 1883. Th-: ..tot yet built a mission bouse in Pluky. Miss Governor-General of the independent State of McNeal teaches school in a native bonse in the Congo, at my request, gave to Dr. Summers. midst of the town, and preacbes on Sabbath one of our men from Malange. permission to days under tbe sbade of a bread-fruit tree.
found " station for our mission at Lnluabul'g. Her scbool house is crowded, and sbe has six of which he did, and built a couple of houses bel' boys and three girls converted to God, wbo on, it, and was making good progress when be testify for Jesus in bel' meetings, and belp her became worn out by disease and died. I bope in bersonl-saving work. Probable value $800, 80011 to send a suceeSBor to dear Dr. Summers. in land. Miss Barbara Miller assists her tem- Kimpoko.-From Luluaburg a week of foot porarily, but her specialties are kindergarten traveling northwest will bring us to Lueba, at and mllsic, awaiting tbe opening of the tbe junction of the Lulua and Kassai rivers. academy.
Tbence, in a little steamer descending tbe G'araway.-Twenty miles nortbwest of Cape Kassai river about 800 miles, we sweep through Palmas. Miss Agnes McAllister is in cbarge of U Qua mouth·· into the Congo, descending tbe station, and Miss Clara Binkley bas special wbicb 70 miles we will tie up at Kimpoko, near cbarge of tbe educational department, botb the northeast angle of Stanley Pool. We. working togetber as missionaries. Aunt Rachel, opened this station in 1886, designed as a way a Liberian widow woman, runs the farm and station for our transportation to tbe countries produces indigenous food enougb to feed two or of the Upper Kassai. At Kimpoko we made an tbree stations. This is a station of great irrigating ditch a mile long, drawing from a promise. Probable value, $1,200.
bold mountain creek an abundant supply of Matumba.-One hundred miles by steamer water to insure good crops at all seasons. We down tbe Congo to Banana brings us within an have there about ten acres ,under cultivation, hour and a half by cars of our mission station and grow in profusion all tbe indigenous food at Matumba. Miss Mary Kildare, a superior that we can ll.I!e. Brotber Burr, who is our pre- teacher, linguist and missionary, is our sole oc- siding elder at Kimpoko, writes that Kimpoko cupant of the station at Matumba. I bougbt of has been nearly self-sustaining from the be- the government nearly ten acres of good ground ginning, but entirely 80 since the beginning of there for nearly $120, baving previously bought this year. They are building a new mission- the native title. We bave a comfortable little bouse this dry season, about 15×80. In tbis bouse of galvanized iron, 22×24 feet, set on pil- work they may require a little help-a rew bales lars six feet above ground. Tbe bouse is divi- of clotb from borne. At a low e,timate our ded into two rooms, 12 x 12 feet, and a ver- property in Kimpoko is worth at least $1,000. anda 12×124 feet, enclosed by balu.trading and Manyanga.-From Kimpoko we go by oars or a gate, and is used for schoolroom. She bas steamer twenty miles to the lower end of Stan- now a scbool of twenty scholars. Sbe does her ley Pool at LefYjJoldville. Thence by foot 100 preacbing mostly in the villages; tbe bouse is miles to South Manyanga (which is called the in an enclosure of nearly an acre~ surrounded Nortb Bank route; by the Soutb route we walk by a bigh fence with strong gate wbich is locked from Leopoldville 231 miles to Matadi or Lower up at 9 P. 111. daily. Itook her recently a box of Congo), Liberian coffee seed, which she has in a nursery Isangila.-From Manyanga we go by a launcb growingbeautifully, and sbe bas a fruit orchard of three or four tons capacity, propelled by oars coming on.
and sails and currents, 88 miles to Isangila. We Our property at Matumba is wortb $1,000.
bave bad a station at IsangiJa for over two years, We, two years ago, started three stations be- on which we bave built good native houses, but tween Vivi and Isangila-Vumtomby Vivi, Sadi bad not bougbt the site of the Government till Kabanza, and Matamba. We built pretty good my last visit to the land office at Barna. The houses at a total cost of $30, not counting our site, containing 7Yz acres. cost us nea.rly $80. A labor.
good garden spot. Ollr bretbren dug a yam Since tbat, Brother Reed and wife and from their garden in Isangila when I was tbere Brotber Bullikist, very good people, sent out by a few weeks ago, which weighed twenty-two Dr. Simpson, of New York, have opened a pounds-more wholesome and delicious if pos- station nearly midway between Vnmtomby sible than Irisb potatoes. Our paying industry Vivi and Sadi Kabanz.., so when we get ready tbere will be in the transport line of business. to go out to found new stations, we sball prefer, instead of resummg work at those vacated, to • As our Vivi Station is at tbe higbest point of small steamer naVigation, so Isangila. is the go into the more populous regions of the inte· lowest point of the middle passage of the Congo rior. The Congo State bas a strip of country from Isangila. eighty-eight miles to Manyanga. densely populated, 100 miles from the north Our site at Isa.ngila_with improvemeuts 19 worth bank of tbe Congo, and extending from Banana $300. 250 miles to Manyanga, all unoccupied and open Pluky.-Across Hoffman river, from Cape to U~. except a few new stations near the Congo.
Palmae, is the beginning of our h.ru Coast line So God is opening a vast field for us 011 the of stations. Miss Lizzie McNeal is the mission- Lower Congo as well as on the Upper Congo ary. Though two years in the station, we have and Kassai. Death of lIfissionaries.-The list of writer that those societies who print eminent dead has been lengthened of full and succinct accounts of their late by the addition of missionary work in a variety of forms, and keep- names. ing the same 'steadily available to outsiders as well as their own sup- Mrs. SarahB. Lansing, wife of Rev. porters, become most fully established Julian Lansing, who for the past in the public confidence, and ulti- thirty years has faithfully labored as mately command the fullest support. a missionary in connection with the It is quite curious to watch the filter- United Presbyterian Mission of Egypt, ing process which goes on from these has deceased. She was born in 1820. prints, larger or smaller, through the She was a sister of the Rev. Dr. Dales, press and public assembly. of Philadelphia, Corresponding Secretary of the United Presbyterian Board -Now that the Christian world is of Foreign Missions. In her mission depressed, if not discouraged, by the work she has suffered many hard- entire collapse of England's policy in ships, and at one time, while at the Soudan for the suppression of the Damascus with her husband, had to slave trade, by extension of the Kheflee for life under persecution. dive's jurisdiction from Khartoum to the Central lakes, it is with peculiar Rev. C. W. De Heer, of long service interest and some fresh hope that we in the Gaboon Mission of the Presby- learn that the Sultan of Zanzibar has terian Church, died at Clifton Springs, published a decree that after Novem- N.Y. ber 1, 1889, all slaves entering his dominions shall be declared free; and The Methodists of India have been that after January 1,1890, all children sorely stricken of late in the succes- born of slaves in his dominion shall sive loss by death of Dr. McCoy, of Cal- also be free. A single generation will cutta; Rev. Mr. Gray, of Singapore, thus see the end of slavery in this and also Mrs. Rudisill, Mrs. Winter greatest of slave centres. The Arabs and Mrs. Hopkins. in Zanzibar do not seem to have waked up to the effect of these two edicts on The Church of England mourns the slave trade. the death while she rejoices in the life of Bishop Sargent. He was sev- -At the meeting of the Anti-Slavery enty-four years of age, and furnished Conference in Brussels the Belgian another illustration of missionary King said he felt hopeful in regard to longevity, he having served fifty-four the steps now being taken for the supyears in India. He went to Madras pression of the slave trade, though when barely twenty years of age, and he had little hope that domestic slavery entered the society's service. He has would be done away with for many served in the Episcopacy for twelve years to come. Perhaps not, but the years. On the celebration of his foreign market for slaves can be cut jubilee in the mission he addressed off, and if the foreign market for ivory 1,400 of a Christian community, of were cut off a large motive power of whom sixty were native clergy. the slaver would be destroyed. But, after all, there is a long, tedious task -The General Assembly of the ahead of the humanitarianism and United Presbyterian Church haf' for- Christian evangelism of Europe and mally requested Rev. Andrew Watson, America in uplifting this Dark Con- D. D., to prepare a history c f < their tinent. But it can be done, It must Egyptian Mission to be publishea by be done, and it will be done. It is their Board of Publication. This is being done. to be commended, and the example should be imitated by all societies -The Free Church of Scotland sends whose work is at all historic, even if out a leaflet appealing to the children it be small. A close observation of the subject for years has shown the
ThE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
to aid the Sheikh-Othman slave refuge. Woman's Board. There are five This is the present headquarters of the native helpers in this mission. Keith-Falconer Mission to Arab Muslims. It is a large native village about -A missionary in Korea, writing to ten miles north of Aden, with a fluc- us recently, says: "I hope I have tuating population. The children in convinced you that we have great enthis refuge now number sixty, thirty- couragements in regard to the work, eight boys and twenty-two girls. They notwithstanding all you may have were dragged over three hundred heard to the contrary. The work has miles to the African harbor called not stopped; it cannot stop. Even Tajora, whence they were being taken were we all to leave Korea to-day I in dhows to Arabia to be sold as believe it would still go forward, and slaves, but were captured by a British eternity show grand results from the gun-boat and taken to Aden, and the seed-sowing already done. Just now Government asked the missionaries to the obstacles do seem somewhat fortake charge of them. What is known midable. I want you to pray the obas "The Arabian Mission" of this stacles down, or pray us above them. country, of which Prof. J. G. Lansing, We read in the Book that there is a of New Brunswick, N. J., is an active 'faith which subdued kingdoms.' projector, has decided to co-operate That is the kind we want brought to with this mission at Sheikh-Othman. bear on Korea."
-The Friends Mission at Ramsallah, -We gave a full account in former Palestine, ten miles north of Jerusa- numbers of the Patna case, as it is lem, founded by members of the called; that of Luchnion, the Hindu Friends' Society in England, has re- girl who fled to Miss Abraham to escently been transferred to the New cape the bondage of a so-called mar- England Yearly Meeting, and is now riage, but which in fact was a sale of known as the" Eli and Sybil Jones her person to a life of shame. The Mission. " The General Board and Calcutta Missionary Conference petithe Woman's Society of that yearly tioned the Government of India to remeeting co-operate in this work. verse the decision of the magistrate There is a Friends' Church at Ram- remanding her to this ignominious sallah, and twenty-five to thirty ap- bondage. The Government replies plicants for membership are now that it is unable to disturb the finding awaiting admission. There are five of the Courts in the case, as it was schools, two in the village for boys supported by the testimony. The and two for girls, also a training home High Court acknowledges the wrong just opened, with about eighteen done, but cannot see any "possible jimpils. There are three lady mission- measures that are practicable to undo aries, all of whom sailed from New that wrong." This is a most humili- York since June. Two of these ladies, ating confession for a strongChristian the assistant physician and the teacher Government to make in the premof English, are in the employ of the ises, and the matter ought not to rest here.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLI1'WOOD, D.D.
The Religions of Ohina. the hills; every store and shop has its In one sense there is no country so little altar with burning incense to the full of religions as China. The gods god of good luck; every house is built and shrines are, if possible, more with reference to geomantic influence; ubiquitous than in India. Gods of the " fung shuay" is consulted in all mat- river, gods of the trees, gods of the tel'S of life; the whole land teems with hearth, gods of the kitchen, gods of the emblems of polytheism. First is TA01TIS!.1. Nevertheless, the Taouist priests have To this system the above named remained as a power in China. The in- liuperstitions chiefly belong. Its tellectual classes would disclaim any founder, Laotze, lived about 500 years confidence in them, and there are few B. C., and was already a public of the laity of any rank who would call teacher when Confucius was born. themselves distinctively Taouists, yet But Laotze's system, which was all classes, high and low, resort to these rationalistic and highly mystical, was professional necromancers on special above the comprehension of the people. occasions, and particularly when in Its ethical standards were pure and trouble. lIen claiming to be Confu- lofty, but cold and censorious. It had cianists are Taouists by turns, and no element of sympathy. Its philos- many costly Taouist temples have ophy was impracticable, as compared been built by the gifts of the wealthy with the precepts of Confucius, and in extremis. Much is given also by its discouraged and disgusted author way of financial ventures, as the god of died at length a voluntary exile in a wealth falls into the Taouist category.
remote western province. Laotze was The whole Joss business belongs to a true philosopher, propounding orig- this system, and it constitutes a large inal theories, while Confucius had lit- element in the practical religion of the tle originalty, but was a skillful com- Chinese wherever they are found.
piler of the ancient observances and CONFUCIANISM.
traditions. No uninspired teacher has " Quong fu tze" was a cotemporary ever taught a more exalted system of of Laotze, though several years private, social and political ethics younger. Attracted by the fame of than Laotze, but his transcendental- the great philosopher, he went to hear ism had little power with the people, him. Bnt there was little sympathy and the virtues which he commended between them. Confucius seemed to were disproportionally of a negative the older and morbidly critical Laotze kind. He feared the effect of general as only an ambitious and conceited education as fostering conceit, and young pedant. On the other hand, civilization as leading to corruption. one visit to the old philosopher seems His only god was reason (Taou), and to have sufficed for his young rival.
the mystical and pantheistic character Confucius gaye his attention to the with which he invested it-its imma- ancient records and traditions, and, nence and indwelling as an efficient winnowing out the abundant chaff, force in all things animate and inani- presented what he considered the mate-opened the way for the count- wholesome wheat. The Ancient less superstitions which now bear the 81100 King he rednced from 3,000mon- Taouist name and fill the land. His ographs to about 350. Unfortunately, successors fell far short of his sublime in his strong leaning toward Agnos- philosophy and his moral purity, and ticism, he is believed to have ruled out only preserved his mysticism as a most of the passages which related to basis for every species of jugglery and the worship of the Supreme Being.
imposture. The all-prevailing " Taou" 'Vhat he sought to establish was a took the form of spirits dwelling in purely ethical system bounded by the Ih'agons, in men and lower animals, confines of the present life. He ig- and even in trees. Certain uncanny nored all that related to the unseen animals are especially regarded as world or to the hereafter. Beginning embodiments of spirits. It peopled with the domestic and social relations, t118 land with elves and hobgoblins. he endeavored to build up society as As a disembodied essence it also ap- a pyramid, with the King or Emperor peared in the vague influence known as the head. The State was his uni- as " fung shnay." verse. In reply to some questions about the unseen world he said: eties of Buddhism. The most popular " We do not know life, how can we form of Buddhist worship is that paid know death." He magnified the re- to Quanyin, the " Goddess of Mercy." spect due to parents and to all ances- She is supposed by Beal to be identical tors, and .that came to be the only with the Avolokitesvara of Northern real worship of strict Confucianists. India and Thibet. Avolokitesvara is His ethics were out of true proportion. a later mythical personage of whom The rights of the father and the hus- Gautama knew nothing. He is a livband were exaggerated even to tyran- ing god, and therefore able to hear ny, if not to the power of life and prayer, while the Buddha is extinct. death. Woman, as woman, was not He is a Bodisat (one who will become duly honored. Only as a mother, or an incarnate Buddha at a future time). the mother of a husband, did she re- When Fahieu, the Chinese pilgrim ceive respect. As such she might even who visited India at an early day, was bea tyrant. overtaken bya stormat seaheprayed to Avolokitesvara for real help: prayers That Confucianism is a mastBrly offered to Buddha are only expected to piece of statesmanship, that it solidifies produce reflex influence on one's own the whole fabric of authority and uni- heart and promote self help. fies all the forces of the home and the social bond, none will deny, but it In China this Bodisat is worshipped is not a religion. Its ethical stand- under the conception of a virgin ards are for the most part high, and princess who won Nirvana, but postall history represents its author as a poned it, and still lives in one of the virtuous exemplar as well as teacher. heavens to bless suffering humanity. This worship is wholly alien to primi- Confucius found his country dis- tive Buddhism, but it is more sympatracted by social and political dis- thetic and seems better adapted to orders, and he confidently offercd his human necessities. i services to various provincial princes as a governmental adviser. His suc- There is also in China a popular cess was not great in this attempt, Buddhist worship of Amitabba, anand he was obliged to be content with other Bodisat, ·.,yho presides over a gathering about him a multitude of real heaven beyond the setting sun. disciples, to whom he taught that The chief hope of the masses is not ethical system which, since his death Nirvana, but a re-birth into one of the and through all subsequent ages, has heavens, or at least into a higher and exerted so vast an influence. more favorable earthly state. The number of those who may be regarded Confucianism is the controlling sys- as distinctiv'ely Buddhists in China is tem of China. small, beyond the limits of the mon- astic orders. Those who are at times BUDDHISM. Buddhists, and who cherish some Bud- dhist hope for the life to come, are This system was introduced from mostly concerned in this life with the India early in the Christian era. countless popular superstitions of Through successive centuries Chinese Taouism. They may frequently be scholars and religionists went to India found consulting' the Taouist jugglers to study its teachings on its own soil. or in the joss houses offering paper The type of Buddhism introduced into money to the god of wealth. China was chiefly that of the Mahayana, known as the Northern Bud- All the religions of China are overdhism, and which was already depart- lapped and blended together, and we ing from the atheism of Gautama and must remind those apologists who are promulgating various theistic doc- anxious to swell the comparative forces trines. of the non-Christian religions, that it China is now said to be the theatre of more than a dozen different variis not good arithmetic to set down the is so much easier to reiterate than to whole population of China to each of investigate and learn the truth. the three systems. Other doubts are raised of a pre- THE PRIMEVAL FAITH OF CHINA. cisely opposite nature.. "Are not the noble Confucian ethics all sufficient A presentation of the religions of for China?" "The Chinese are astute, China would not be complete without reflective, proud of their country and at least a brief reference to that im- their creed, why not let them alone ?" pressive imperial worship which is Thus, from the extreme position that paid by the Emperor in the Temple of all effort in their behalf is bootless, Heaven in Peking. The subject is owing to their depravity, we are carworthy of an extended paper, but there ried to the opposite and contradictory is only space to say that it is believed, assertion that it is gratuitous, as they with apparently good reason, to be a have a philosophy of their own which l'elic of that primeval worship which we could scarcely hope to improve. was rendered to the true God. The Then there is the still further question prevalence of polytheism has not whether it be possible to change the wholly eradicated the conception of religion of a nation so populous and so One self-existent and ever-living God, vast, and whether with all our effort the Creator and upholder of all things. and sacrifice, the total result is not The offering of a whole burnt offering ridiculously inadequate. Yet notonce a year by the chief ruler, as the withstanding all this variety of dark King of Salem was once the " priest of prophesying, China is, perhaps, the the Most High God," seems indeed a most important mission field of the relic of something of which we would world to-day, and lays a larger degladly know more. Drs. Martin and mand than any other upon the faith Legge, two of China's foremost for- and effort of the Christian Church, eign scholars, do not hesitate to regard andespeciallyof the American Church. it as an obscure perpetuation of the primitive worship of Jehovah. Alas! First. In common with the other that it is an imperial monopoly, fm' Mongolian nations, China presents a even the common people often seek very significant claim by its geosomething iligherthantheir basesuper- graphical position. As the Missionstitions. The sailors of the Fukhien ary Churches of Europe look eastward Province, when overtaken by a storm, toward these Mongolian races, they make offerings to the gods of the sea, find a twofold barrier in their way. but when that does not avail, they Russia on the north and the Mohamthrow them all away and pray to the medan powers on the south rise up Supreme God of the Heavens. like mountain ranges to shut them off. An oyerland propaganda seems im- CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. possible. Russia is quite as impenetra- ble to western Christianity as the EYer since the publication of Mr. Turkish Empire, while farther south, Pumpelly's " Across Asia and Ameri- even to the southern point of Arabia, ca," his example has repeatedly been Mohammedan fanaticism raises its followed in the cheap assertion that formidable barriers. India might find no Chinaman is ever really converted access from the south, but the Himto Christianity. He is too material- alayas rise between. Burmah may i"tic to appreciate spiritual truth, it is one day open a passage, but Burmah said, or he is too crafty to be credited itself is dark. The highway of salvain any profession he may make, or he tion to China is by the sea, and it is is too stolid to be aroused from his straight across the Pacific that our Confucianphilosophy. It is hard to re- path lies open. Yokohama and San fute false utterances of this kind when Francisco -are now separated by less once they have gained currency. It than thirteen days. As in all the lands men and women of a higher past, so now the indications of Provi- type than I met in China, of a finer dence all point westward, and our spiritual experience, of a higher spir- American people, with their wealth itual tone, or of a nobler spiritual life, and intelligence and Christian in- and I may say with conviction that fluence are in the van, or should be, there are in the native churches in of this great movement for the con- China not only the elements of stabil- quest of the Mongolian races. ity, but that steadfast and irresistible Second. The character of the revolution which will carryover the Chinese presents a special argument whole empire to the new faith."
for a forward movement. Like the Rev. Jolm L. Nevius, D.D., who Anglo-Saxons, they are aggressive and has spent over thirty-five years in cosmopolitan. Their industry and China, declares that he has nowhere enterprise reach out over the world. found a higher type of manhood than They are found, whenever permitted is presented by the native Christians to enter, in all North and South Amer- of Shantung, and he has given many ica, in the island groups of the Pacific, proofs of their Christian fortitude.
in Australia, in New Zealand, in Sin- Nowhere in our generation are there gapore and the Straits of 1I1alacca. more striking instances of the genu- They are everywhere remarkable for ineness and self-help of Christian con- their thrift, and in spite of all the hin- verts than in China, considering their drances that can be interposed, this great poverty. In large portions of wonderful race is sure of great future the Shantung Province churches are influence in the world. No other na- almost entirelyself-supporting, though tion is so industrious, so frugal, and, poor to a degree which Americans considering its age, so well preserved cannot realize. As a rule, they have and so likely to continue in power provided their own places of worship.
and influence. Instances such as these are given: Just now China is awakening to a Of a Taouist priest in a country vil- new sense of its latent possibilities and lage, who, on becoming a Christian pressing to the forefront of the great convert, at once began to preach to empires. Moreover, in spite of all that his neighbors without salary, and is said of the deceitfulness of the China- he gave not only his time and man, it may safely be said that the men 'labor, but the principal part of his of no other race are more fully trusted house for a chapel; of a poor man in whatever industry they undertake. who, out of his narrow means, recent- No others are so law-abiding and ly gave a cottage for a school and peaceful as citizens, and that even chapel; of a woman who, though the without the privilege of citizenship. only believer in her village, persevered In places of trust they rival the Jap- till she had secured a Christian school, anese even in Japan. The thrifty in- which grew into a church; of a little dustries of Singapore, and Malaysia, congregation which, upon its organi- and the Sandwich Islands, are largely zation as a church, subscribed upon in their han,p.s. the spot the whole salary of their pas- I Third. The Chinese will compare tor for a year; of an intelligent widow favorably with any other race in their who left her home and went to Peking capacity for strong and controlling to learn more of the gospel, that she Christian faith. This point has been might teach her neighbors. ,Could all abundantly attested. The late Fleming similar annals of the Church in China Stevenson, who had visited the mis- be gathered together they would form sion fields of China in person, gave a large and interesting volume.
the following testimony: Fourth. The numericalresultswhich " I have found nowhere in Christian have been gained in the Protestant missions of China within the last Thibet and its Religion. few years are certainly remarkable, Perhaps in no country has Buddhism and only excelled, perhaps, by those of become so intrenched, no where else Japan. Two years since it was stated has it so monopolized all thought and at the annual meeting of the Ameri- aspiration, or so molded and concan Board that in a single decade trolled the people, as in Thibet. At the number of converts in the dif- the time of its introduction from India ferent missions of China had increased by way of Kashmere-it had scarcely from 13,000 to 32,000, and this ill spite gained a footing before the seventh of bitter persecution on the part of century-the system of Gautama had relatives and friends, and notwith- undergone important changes. It had standing the prejudice created by the drifted from the atheistic position of wrongs and outrages committed by the early Buddhists of India and Cey- lon and had adopted a vague and fan- Christian nations. II tastic theism, at the same time that it had received various admixtures of Fifth. There is great hope for China devil worship and sorcery. It had and great encouragement for mission- developed a trinity of supernatural perary labor in the new order of things sonages, who were destined to become which is fast placing her abreast with future Buddhas, though not until Vestern nations. The railroad and after various incarnations for particuthe telegraph line have come to stay, lar service~ on earth. This proved a national defences are in progress, min- convenient doctrine for the priestly eral wealth will be developed, and magnates of Thibet. It encouraged education is to be encouraged in all the claim now set up, that two of these practical Sciences. The late Viceroy beings are incarnate in the Grand of Canton, in a memorial to the Gov- Lama at Lhassa and the Puntsheu ernment, asking royal sanction for a Lama at Kroshis Lunpo. railroad from Peking to Hankow, The Thibetan King Srong Tsan said: "For China to return to the iso- Gampo, who introduced Buddhism lation of her past is a hopeless task. 622, A. D., was the first to be wor- It only remains for her to assimilate so shipped as a divine incarnation. In much of modern progress as will enable 822, A. D., the second son of the last her to outwit her astute Western com- King of Thibet instituted a bitter perpetitors." He adds: "I was myseff. secution against the Buddhists, and opposed to the introduction of rail- they were mostly driven from the ways at first, but when I came to country. Civil disorders followed till Shanghai and saw the progress possi- the Buddhist missionaries, Atisha and ble, I could not deny the sight of the Brom Ston, regained the best ground eye." The imperial permission has and restored prosperity to the Buddhist been given for building this road, and order. But what proved still more if the conservatists have burned the important to the stability of the sys- Temple at Peking in the hope of scar- tem was the fact that for ages there ing the Government with the supposed has been an alliance between Thibet displeasure of heaven at these innova- and the Empire of China. In the tions, they are too late. The shadow thirteenth century, A. D., Kublai on the dial of the nineteenth century Kahn, grandson of Jenghiz Kahn, is too far advanced. China is open to made the Lama at Lhassa " Tributary the gospel now; it may not be so when Sovereign of the Country and Head she becomes strong enough to dictate of the Buddhist Church," and as a rethe terms of her treaties. She may turn he was officially crowned by the copy the exclusion laws of Christian Lama as sovereign oyer the vast Mon- America. She may rule out British gol E,mpire. Kublai Khan thus be- Christianity with British opium. It is the full hour of opportunity. came a convert to Buddhism, and the practice of polyandry. The Lamas are Lama of Thibet became high priest held in great reverence, and some of or spiritual head over all Buddhists of them are high-minded and good men.
the vast empire including China and As each Lama at death is supposed Mongolia. The Lama was simply an to enter into a new-born infant, whose ecclesiastic invested with these spe- identity great pains are taken to estab- cial powers. The seat of government lish, a long regency must in each case was, and still is a Buddhist monastery intervene, and this is filled by some -the Emperor of China being the real honored monk. The infant when ruler. found is addressed as if, he had just About 1390 Tsoongkapa, the Luther died and risen again. The following of Thibet, came forward as a reformer. is an illustration: He purged out the base alloy of Sakt- In 1774 WalTenHastings, Governor- ism (the worship of Siva and his wives) General of India, sent an ambassador and the low superstitions which had to Thibet. On his arrival, the Lama grown as parasites on a corrupt Bud- to whom he bore messages had died, dhism, founded many monasteries, but he addressed the newly-born suc- and reformed the observances of the cessor as the identical Lama, express- monks and nuns. His influence so ing the Governor-General's sorrow at weakened the supremacy of the Dalai his recent death, and his joy that he (Grand) Lama that, by Imperial edict, had again returned to fill the world his jurisdiction was divided with the with hope.
Pautsheu Lama. Both of these, as Time, that has wrought changes above stated, are incarnations of the and revolutions in the other nations of Divine Bodisatvas. the world, has brought little chang'e Lamaism might, therefore, be called to Thibet, and now in our day systems a sort of theocracy, subject to the of error like Esoteric Buddhism and Imperial Government of China. Ec- Theosophy, desiring to secure the very clesiasticismcontrols and characterizes highest authority for their wild as- everything. The great monasteries sumptions, are deriving that authority are the leading institutions, and their from the Mahatmas or monks of Thi- monks and nuns number thousands. bet. It is contended that there, by The inhospitable character of the long continued meditation and great country and the lack of encourage- bodily mortification, they have ac- ment for industrial pursuits seem to quired the power to discern the favor monastic life. thoughts of others, and that they are An astonishingly large proportion conversant with all that transpires in of the people of both sexes are buried distant planets. It is favorable to in these religious houses. An observ- these extravagant theories that Thibet ing traveler long ago remarked that is so far off, so high up, so snow-coy- this withdrawal of so many able- ered, so unknown. It would seem to bodied men from active pursuits is be one of the most difficult strongholds compensated by the fact that no army from which to dislodge a hoary system is necessary for defence, and there is of error. Buddhism in Japan is worn too great a torpor in both the people lightly by government and people.
and the spirit of their institutions to Buddhism in China is only a guest of think of conquest. There is little soil the nation, though having strong fol- to cultivate and no market for manu- lowing among the lower classes. The factures, and why not spend much of more intelligent resort to it only in the national strength in meditating on time of trouble. Buddhism in Siam the law of Buddha? is regnant and strongly entrenched, Population is kept down not only but not so deeply seated as to exclude by monasticism, but also by the s~range a liberal spirit. Siam is an open and,
EDITORIAL NOTES OX CURRENT TOPICS
so far, a welcoming mission-field. But Some encouragement has been met Thibet has little contact with the na- with by the faithful and self-denying tions, and is not touched by the spirit missionaries, and though the fruits of the age. Yet even Thibet has not are meagre tJ:1ey have no thought of been despaired of as a mission-field. retreat. They have translated por- tions of the Scriptures into Thibetan, The Moravians, whose province it and at two stations they have printing has been to enter inhospitable fields presses at work in mUltiplying copies which no others were likely to choose, for the use of the people. Rev. A. C. established a mission in the lofty Thompson, D.D., in his admirable mountain town of Keyelang in 1856. book on "Moravian Missions," says, They experienced great difficulty in very justly: "Seldom have Moravian reaching their chosen field, and when laborers had a severer trial of their settled at last they found themselves faith and patience than amid these at the great height of 10,000 feet strongholds of Buddhism. But in that above the sea. Dark skies, almost dreary , Dwelling of Snow,' near the perpetual snow, except in narrow headwaters of the Indus, the Sutlej valleys, scanty vegetation and general and the Ganges, they have enkindled gloominess and sterility are thenatural a beacon light; they are occupying characteristics of the country. The advanced posts and preparing a base pessimism of the Buddhist faith seems for movements into Thibet proper, and well suited to the general environ- into China from the west." ment.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Need of Oaution. last, wholly an individual work of faith, looking for support to no other In view of censure, already noted in orgauization, nor to any system of these columns, as rather freely applied solicitation of funds, public or private. in a certain quarter to a work of evan- It seems, therefore, to be in no proper gelization among the Jews which has, sense the "mission" of any other enjoyed the confidence of the Christian body, to which a' detailed account of ministry and people of all denomina- proceedings would be due; nor yet in tions in this city for a number of such a sense a child of the Christian years past, we have availed ourselves public at large as to invite an account of information from a disinterested of that sort, which might be thought source in which we have confidence, to savor rather of uncalled-for ostento the following effect: tation than of duty, precisely as it would in the case of a~y other of our The Hebrew Christian Church in city churches. Nevertheless, all con- St. Mark's Place, of which the Rev. tributions have been publicly acknowl- Jacob Freshman is pastor and founder, edged in detail, and the general dishas been organized about eight years, position of them explained in the during which it has steadily grown Annual of the church and in the quarup from the feeblest of beginnings to terly issues of The Hebrew Christian. an effective centre of evangelization, Contributions have thus been classed not only in this but in other cities of in three kinds: (1) All collections and this country, in Paris, and even in donations, not expressly otherwise Jerusalem itself. Although enjoying d3signated, have been devoted to the advice and sympathy of other church and missionary expenses, exchurches, through an invited Commit- clusive of the support of the pastor; tee of leading pastors and laymen of (2) such donations only as have been the several denominations, who have never ceased their fraternal interest ,expressly designated for personal use in its affairs, it has been, from first to have been appropriated to the necessi- tions towards reducing the mortgage ties of the pastor, leaving him wholly to a small encumbrance. J. M. S. dependent on the providential response to faith, without salary or visible We rejoice to see that Senator Mormeans of support, and subject at times to severe trials; (3) contributions des- gan, of Alabama, has introduced a ignated for the building fund, which are at once turned over to the bus- bill instructing the Committee on Fortees of the church property, for the extinguishment of the debt thereon. eign Relations to ascertain and repOlt To these may be added a fourth fund, now closed, 'which was confidentially the best methods for increasing trade contributed for Mr. Freshman's recent missionary journey to Jerusalem, re- and commerce between the Congo sulting in the establishment of a branch mission in that city under the Free State and the United States, and charge of a Hebrew Christian convert, supported by the little church in St. the obstacles, if there are any, in the Mark's Place and its friends. Further, concerning the accounts: to the trus- way of such trade and commerce and tees, who are men of well-known and high Christian standing, and also to other intercourse. The resolution is the distinguished clergymen and laymen who constitute the advisory com- timely, in view of the statement that mittee, full' and systematic book accounts are understood to be ahvays the United States did not formallyacopen, including the detailed expenditures to which invidious reference cept the conclusions of the Berlin has been made; and auditing committees have made actual examinations Conference, and therefore holds no and published reports thereon. It i~ possible that self-appointed investiga- political or civil rights for its people tors (perhaps unconsciously prompted through the malice of a certain crafty in tile Congo Free State. One of the Jewish Sanballat, or Gashmu) may have failed to obtain a search warrant avowed objects of Senator Morgan is which it would be impertinent to ask. It is well known that the Jewish per- to secure those rights; another is to secutor referred to has exerted himself persistently to undermine Mr. encourage the wealthy and enterpris- Freshman's work, not only by scurrilous articles in the savory columns ing negroes of this country to emigrate of the Truth Seeker, but also by cunning communications to the leading to the Congo Free State, and engage friends of the work, and to editors of religious newspapers, one of whom in trade or in such other beneficial enhas perhaps been induced to listen, in ignorance of the character and mo- terprises as may be open before them. tives of the man. In the interest of commerce and mis- The cost of the church property has been about $25,000, of which $15,000 sions, and especially of the future of have been paid, and substantial prog- the colored race, we hope CongreH>'I , ress has been made by recent subscrip- will rise to the dignity of such a sub- ject, and by prompt and enlightened action afford evidence that it under- stands and appreciates the significance of Africa's present condition, the result of a series of marvelous proyidential interpositions. We cannot but regard the opening up of the Dark Con- tinent by a brilliant succession of heroic explorations and the extension of European gm'ernments over im- mense areas of territory, and the in- troduction of railroads, enterpriHf', commerce and Christian civilization, as shedding light on the" Negro Prob- lem" among us. We earnestly hope that our Government will take a wise and active part in the matter of the Congo Free State, and in all otlwr feasible ways for the benefit of Africa. J. 11. S.
Facts from Mission Fields.
The year 1889 is the fiftieth anni- versary of the martyrdom of John "Villiams. who fell on Erromanga. relating to their own missions, which It is a very remarkable and significant we give from month to month. Its fact that his murderer's youngest son plan of sending out monthly a letter is to-day, as a professing disciple, ad- giving in condensed form the latest dressing crowds in Sydney, New South news from their various fields, is an Wales; and his oldest son, now past admirable one, and we wish other so- 60 years, has asked to be instructed in cieties would follow the example. It the way of salvation, and is now being is, in fact, an advance sheet of fresh taught by the missionaries on Erro- and important news, and the facts are manga the way of life! What hath eagerly caught up by busy editors and God wrought! Truly the "field is given to the public. J. M. S.
the world, and the good seed are the " The American Board Almanac of children of the kingdom /" John Missions" for 1890 is a thing of beauty Williams died and was buried as God's as well as utility. It is crowded with seed, and here is a part of the visible matters of interest and information harvest. respecting missions. It is sent by mail Hayti presents in its past history for 10 cents a copy, $1.00 a dozen, $6 and present condition one of the worst a hundred. Send orders to C. E.
types of paganism. Cannibalism of Sweet, 1 Somerset St., Boston. See our the worst kind prevails. Not simply advertising sheet in January number are human beings eaten, not only are for fuller account. J. M. S.
those who are devoured captives or prisoners taken in war or by violence Our associate, Dr. Pierson, is meet- ing with great success in London and forcannibal purposes, butfamily feasts Scotland. Enthusiastic crowds, fill- ing the largest churches and halls in are held where those who partake ac- Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and wherever he goes, flock to hear his tually eat the flesh of a member of the addresses. He has averaged two or more addresses a day, we believe, family / Children are devoured as a since he landed at Liverpool. In his last letter he says: " Every day is filled delicacy by their own mothers, who with engagements to the 1st of May, and even June if I will consent to reassert and justify their right thus to ap- main." The interest is intense. All ranks and classes and denominations propriate the fruit of their own womb. are engaged in the work, and impor- tant results must flow from it. This is under no pressure of hunger or J. M. S. want. .It is simply a proof of the fact that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cmelty. An attempt was made by a governor of Hayti to suppress the atrocity by exe- cuting those engaged in such a canni- bal feast, but he was driven from the throne and compelled to take refuge in the neighboring island of Jamaica, the condition of which, under the in- [We have received a letter from an fluence of a pure gospel, is a sufficient aged minister of Christ, in the course of which occur the following signifi- . refutation of the charge that missions cant words.-EDs.] are a failure. These two islands, side " My attention has for forty years been fixed upon those professors of religion who may be by side, are a standing monument of called •average Christians.' They compose a very large part of the Church, and questions the respective influences of the gospel like these have often arisen: Are they Chris- tians? Are they a help or a hindrance to th" and paganism, even when a nominal cause of Christ? Ought not special efforts to be made to reach them for their own sake and Christianity like Romanism touches for the sake of the cause of Christ?
its awful death shade. A. T. P. "I was not a little surprised some time ago to find in Dr. Geikie's • Hours with the Bible" We desire here to express our indebtedness to the Baptist Missionary Union for various missionary items the following very strong endorsement of this sionary MassConvootion of the Northclass (p. 317): ' No career could have been west," under the auspices of the Methmore uneventful than Isaac's, but it showed at odist Episcopal Church, to meet at least that a path of modest retirement may Clear Lake Park in July of this year: honor God as much as one of more prominent "Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D.: action. Our Lord's authority is vouchsafed for his having passed from earth to heaven at ,, Your suggestion some time ago his death.' It seems to me that there is great that the Church should gather toerror just at this point through all branches of gether an Exposition of 'the Results of the Church. I have no recollection of seeing Missions from all parts of the world, anything published bearing upon it except in and the suggestion of the Spirit of a volume of discourses by Dr. Skinner, en· Missions that at the next World's titled 'Religion of the Bible,' issued about Fair would be a good place for the the time I left the Union Seminary in 1841. In display of such an exposition, ought the first discourse, on 'Spiritual Religion,' he to be acted on, and that without dequotes Dr. John Mason Good as saying, on his lay. Three years would be short death-bed, 'I have taken what unfortunately enough time to gather and arrange the generality of Christians too much take-I the materials. We are 'about to gather have taken the middle walk of Christianity.' the material for a Missionary Museum The discourse which follows is a description of on an extensive scale at Clear Lake, spiritual religion, not of the 'middle walk.' Iowa, for use in our Annual Conven- It seems to me an appeal to average Christians tions. I think that our Missionary urging them to consider the nature and re: Secretaries could be interested in the sults of their religion; might be made that matter and all materials gathered would have a great awakening effect. Just could be used at the World's Fair, and here is one of the chief reasons why the cause then be dispersed to our different Misof missions is not more flourishing: average sionary Centers for continued and Christians regard missions as something which perpetual use. You ought to be able may be passed by without endangering their from your central position to interest standing in the Church or their final salvation. all the Missionary Boards. I would It seems to me, judging from the fullness and like to be informed of the prospect, pungency of your writings on missions, that and would be glad to assist. We could this whole subject must have passed through interest all our missionaries. Let me your mind. An article of yours in the' New hear of the prospect." York Observer' of July 25, entitled' First the Kingdom, 'bears in that direction and encour- A subscriber congratulates the ages me in asking you to put before the Church, editors upon their success during the in the form which seems best to you, an appeal past year, and says: to average Christians. You have the eye and ear of the Church, and can make yourself " You have given us a magnificent heard as few others can. Will you not try i11" magazine. I hope you will be pros- perous and successful in the coming We feel such sympathy with the year. If you would place before us above, that we purpose in due time to for Monthly Concert in tabulated form, the complete missionary forces prepare for these pages an appeal to in the respectiye fields presented, you the average Christian. It is the great would give what is greatly needed. body of the Church that need arous- What the more progressive friends of ing, and that, so far, are doing next to missions desire is not simply their respective denominational forces, sucnothing for missions. Out of a con- cesses, cost, etc., but with their own gregation that numbers from 4,000 to that of all other societies-' the u'orld 5,000, it has been found, by actual in- rather than the society view of the vestigation, that only 386 are known to work." contribute anything regularly to the support of the Gospel! How large then We think our brother scarcely ap- must be the proportion in all Christendom who have no active interest, by gifts or even by prayers, in the great mission work of the world!
We have received the following suggestion from Rev. S. P. Marsh, of Iowa, Corresponding Secretary of the "Mispreciates the imnl>nse labor he would earth," they ,"vould exclaim: "What lay upon our overtaxed shoulders hath God wrought!" That first con- when he asks each month a complete tribution of £13, 2s. and 6d. has showing of each field treated. More- grown to between two arid three mil- over, one entire department of this lions of pounds a year. That cottage REVIEW is given up to the exhibit of is, we understand, still to be seen.
just such facts, so far and so fast as The English Baptists ought to buy it we are able to gather reliable figures. and make it a missionary museum Vould it be wise to encumber our where the relics of idolatry and super- pages with such repetitions? By a stition might be preserved as a witness little careful search in these pages any of what God has wrought. A. T. P.
pastor may collate on anyone field all the figures at our disposal. A. T. P. Asceticism in Missions."
The crisis of missions is evidently [Our editorial correspondent and translator of our foreign magazines upon us, and this seems to be the grow- sends us the following, which also ex- presses our own jUdgment.-J. M. S.] ing conviction in every part of the " I am glad to see Dr. Ellinwood's field. A missionary who has labored sound and healthful paper on Asceti- cism in Missions in the January RE- 26 years in India says: "India is now VIEW. There seems to be setting in a craze for this. But, at home or abroad, ready for our work, and if this crisis asceticism for asceticism's sake is neither Protestant nor Evangelical. is not met by the Church at least two For a definite end, individual or social, it may, like everything else, or three generations will pass before be sometimes eminently serviceable, but to set it up in a vague way as an equal opportunity can be offered." a model to strike people with admira- tion, is really nothing but a particular From Brazil the word comes: "This fashion of " striking an attitude." It is the beginning of all the wretched land is ready; thousands would accept uneasiness and trickery of self-salva- the gospel if they only had preachers."
One writes concerning China: "A thousand missionaries are worth more now than ten thousand ten years from now. As for Japan, it is melted and waiting for moulding. What shall the mould be: Christianity or infidel- ity?" A.T.P.
1892 ought to be kept as a great an- tion.
niversary, and Kettering ought to be " It is a wonder that those who are the place of pilgrimage. disposed to think that it is a source of When we think of foreign missions strength in Roman Catholic Inissions we must not forget that, strictly speak- do not consider that their mission- ing, they are the outcome of the aries are unmarried, not because they present century. It was in 1792 that are missionaries, but only because twelve Baptist ministers met in the they are priests. And as to asceti- little cottage of Widow Wallis, at cism generally, the Jesuits-the mis- Kettering, and formed the first En- sionary order by pre-eminence in that glish society proper for" propagating Church-are, for Roman Catholics, al- the gospel among the heathen." most the least disposed to asceticism Since then what marvelous Iniracles for its own sake. They are ready to have been wrought! What gigantic undergo any amount of privation in strides taken by this magnificent the way of their work, but are very movement! If these twelve men little given to affecting it where it is could come back to-day and see how not providentially imposed. Sim- the little "mustard seed" has de- plicity of living is a Christian and a ,eloped till it has become a mighty missionary obligation. But an affec- tree ., whose branches co,er the tation of luxury and an affecta-
1:;6 QROAXIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
tion of squalor are the two opposite producing, he yet adtls: "To the great evils which the Christian and the mis- laboring, toiling mass of the Indian sionary ought to avoid, although people there could be no more benefi- doubtless he ought to incline rather to cent influence than the daily coming bareness than to sumptuousness. Dr. in and going out among th~m of a Ellinwood's article is just the right Christian missionary and his wife thing. CHARLES C. STARBUCK. and children. To millions of their " Andover, Mass." Indian fellow-subjects the missionary We add a word on the subject from family was the great daily object Sir William Hunter, who is constantly lesson of the Christian life. But referred to as the highest authority on besides these millions there were hun- civil and political matters in India. dreds of thousands of men of a cul- In a recent address before the British ture which demanded another method Baptist Missionary Society he defines of attack." "This certainly," says " Asceticism" as "merely a life of the Missionary Herald, from which quiet self-denial." He speaks of it as we get this testimony, "is a weighty one of the methods to be employed, testimony, and it commends itself to and by no means the sole method. all who hold the doctrine set forth by 'While he bears solemn witness to the Paul, • I am become all things to all ,aluable results which the celibate men that I might by all means save luission brotherhoods in India were some.' " T. M. S.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. * Woman's Missionary Societies of Oanada. general society. They have a successful work in India-schools and Bible women-but no I. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety Presbyterian Church in Can- statistics are at hand. Income for the year, ada. $5,000. WESTERN DIVISION. Ill. Woman's Baptist Missionary So- Secretary, Mrs. Shortreed, 218 Ontario St., Toronto, Canada. ciety of Ontario and Quebec.
Periodical: Monthly Letter Leaflet, Toronto. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H. H. Fields-The New Hebrides; Trinidad, Brit· ish Guiana, West Coast; China, Honan; For· Humphrey, Toronto. mosa; Central India, and Indians of Canada. Ho-me Force-Presbyterial societies, 25; aux- We are obliged to use last year's annual re- iliaries, 4m'; mission bands, 156. Income for port, as that for 1889 is not issued at the time the year, $80,000. we write, and as the society is organized into EASTERN DIVISION. provincial divisions it is not quite easy to pre- Mrs. Burns. President, Halifax, N. S. sent a summary of their work in our brief This division has 9() auxiliaries, 35 mission space. bands, and 4,000 members, and income for the year $6,000. During the year two Presbyterial Field.-The stations in India occupied by societies have been formed and six auxiliaries organized. Fields the same as Western Di- this society are Cocanada, Samulcotta and vision. Tuni. . II. Woman's Baptist Missionary Union of Maritime Provinces. IV. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada. Corresponding Secretary, lIIrs. John March, St. Johns, N. B. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. E. S. Strachan, 113 Hughson St., Hamilton, Onto This society occupies the same fields as the This society is divided into five branches. [* The Home Work of the M. E. C. in our There are 800 auxiliaries, with 7,173 annual and 39Q life members, and 123 mission bands, January number, page 76, second column, 20th with 3,511 members. Income for the past line from top to 32d line, inclusive, got mis- year, $22,806; an increase of $8,285. placed in the make-up, and connected with that of M. E. C. South, whose Home force was This society has work among the Indians, already stated. Please connect it with the the French, the Chinese in America, and previous Society, No. XII.-EDs.J Japan. Four ladies were sent to Japan this past year. They have a very successful board- ing school at Tokio, with 150 boarders. A new school has been opened at Kofu.
Publication department in the missionary Outlook. V. Woman's Auxiliary to the Board N. ,V. Periodical: OurSistersinOtherLands of Diocesan, Domestic and Foreign Missions, Church of England. 14 Paternoster Row, London. '
The headquarters of this auxiliary is To- Fields and Force- China, Swatow, For. ronto. They collect about $15,000, and have a departmeut in the Canadian Church Magazine mo~a, Amoy, the Haka Country, Singapore, and Mission News. No report of distinct work. IndIa, Rampore, Bauleah. No summary of European Woman's Missionary Sooieties, statistics is available. They conduct board- I. Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. ing, day and Sunday· schools, and hospital 2 Adelphi Ten'ace, London, W. C. Periodi- work. Income, $3,755. cal: The Indian Female Evangelist; quarterly. V. Central Committee and Church Woman's Association of the Scot- Fields and Force.-Bombay Presidency, 13 stations: Madras, 2; Northwest Provinces, tish Episcopal Church. 9; Orissa, 1; Punjaub, 1. Missionaries and assistants, 63; native teachers and Bible women, ~onvener, Miss H. Mackenzie, 28 Nelson St., 175; Zenanas visited, 1,353. Eight years ago Edmburgh. Office of ASSOCiation, 122 George the mission staff numbered 106, now 238; St., Edinburgh. Periodical: The Jllission then there "rere 26 schools, now 66. Then, Chronicle. total under instruction 1,296; now 4,150. Medical treatment in 1888 given to 9,338 Fields-South Africa and India. That in patients. In 1881 the income was $34,710. In Africa was begun in 1873. and lies in Indepen- 1888 it was $67,885. dent Kaffraria, a district about as large as Scotland; that of India is at Chamba, a dis· II. Ladies' Society for Female Edu- tant part of the diocese of Calcutta. The pres· cation in India and South Africa. ent number of members co·operating with the (Free Church of Scotland.) committee is 3,080, and the annual subscrip- tion amounts to $1,925. Offices of Free Church, Edinburgh. Periodical: Woman's Work in Heathen Lands; qnar· VI. Ladies' Association for the Christerly. J. and R. Pro'lane, Paisley, Edinbnrgh. tian Education of Jewish Females (Church of Scotland). Fields and Force.-India and Africa. In India five principal stations, includiug Cal- Secretary, Miss Tawse, 11 Royal Terrace, cutta, are in Bengal; Western Indian ineIudes Edinburgh. the stations Bombay, Poona, Berar, and Jalno. ~ladras and Nagpore are centres with Fields-They support schools in Smyrna, a variety of work. Africa includes Kafraria Salonica, Alexandria, Constantinople and Beywith Lovedale and other stations, Transkel rout,with missionary ladies at each place, and and NataL a total of 16 assistant teachers.
The grand total of missionaries is 34, of VII. The London Bible and Domeswhich 13 are in Africa; native Christian agents tic Female Mission. number 181; total, 215. The pupils count 6,738, of ,vhich 1,758 are in Africa. Income, Office, 2 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, London, $44,065. W. C. Periodical: Bible Women and Nurses. Cassel & Co., London and New York. III. Church of England Zenana Mis- sionary Society. Besides a large and most noble missionary work in the poorest parts of London, carried Office, 9 SaJisburySquare, London, Periodi· on through Bible women and Bible women cal: India's Women (bi-monthly); Daybreak nurses, this Society operates on some foreign (for young people, quarterly). JaB. Nisbet & fields, but we have no data of that part of its Co., 21 Berners St., London, ·W. work.
Fields and F01'ces-India, China, Japan. VIII. British Syrian Mission Schools Missionaries 105; assistants 57; Bible women and Bible Work. 139; native teachers 368. Over 7,000 children in scbools. Medical work also is carried on. Corresponding Secretary, Bliss Poulton, 18 This year the Society has commenced work in Homefield Road, Wimbledon, London. Peri· Ceylon for the first time. Income 1881, $68,200; odical: Daughters of Syria. Seeley & Co., 1888, $138,265. Essex St., Strand, London IV. Women's Missionary Associa- Tbe mission originated to relieve the con- tion of the Presbyterian Church of dition of the 20,000 widows and daughters of England. the Maronites and Greeks, whose husbands and fathers were massacred by the Drnzes in President of General Committee, I<lrs. H. 111. 1860. The work has been extended and ar· Matheson, Heathlands, Hampstead, London, rests general attention, Fields and Force-It operates at Beyrout, Damascus, Hasbeiya, Mount Lebanon, Code- Syria and Tyre. The Jllount Lebanon depart· ment has 7 stations, making the total of sta· tions 12; foreign workers 21; native workers 120; adherents 920; schools 29; scholars 2,779. The income is $1,120 IX. Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wes- ants, 30; native Bihle women, 55: native school leyan Methodist Missionary So- teachers, 59; boarding and day schools for ciety. girls, 50. They have a normal school for training Bible women at Calcutta, also one at President and Treasurer, Mrs. Lidgett, 69 Delhi. Income, $31, .55. Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath, London, S. E. Issnes quarterly papers. XIII. Church of Scotland Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, Fields and Force-Europe, Spain, and Italy, India, Ceylqn, China, Africa, South and West. including Zenana Work. It supports 86 missionary workers. The annual report has no su=aries, hence it is Periodical: News of Female Missions. R. difficult to properly present this work. They and R. Clark, agents, Edinburgh. report checkerd success in India. At Negapatam, India, the members of the Hindu Tract Fields and Force-India, Calcutta, Madras, Society have been lecturing and distributing Poona (Zenana mission, orphanage, female tracts, warning their fellows against Christian medical mission), Darjeeling, Sialkott, Chamschools, with only too painful success. ba; Africa, Blantyre. Missionaries appointed in Scotland, 15; in India, 11; native agents, Their income has slightly fallen off this year, 6; male, 76; female, 82; non-Christian, 24; being $38,140, and they close the year with a scholars, 2,522; Zenanas visited, 59; houses small debt. regularly visited, 200; patients at Poona dis- pensary, 2,526. Income, $33,450; the largest in X. Ladies' Committee of the London its history. Missionary Society. XIV. Zenana Mission of the Irish Office, 14 Biornfield St., London Wall, Lon- Misswnary Society_ don. Periodical: Quarterly News of Woman's Work. John Snow & Co., London. We have only the local report of the mission in Gujerat and Kattiawar with the Zenana Field. and Force-China, India, and Mada- Mission before us. It appears from this that gascar. Lady missionaries, 36; wives of there are two missionary ladies engaged in missionaries, 45; schools, 148; pupils, 7,507; educational and Zenana work at Surat, and native teachers,l38; Zenana agents, 114; Ze- one in medical work; als02 assistants and 6 nana pupils, 2,982. Income, $28,760. native Christian agents, and 15 non-Christian teachers. At Borsad there are two mission' XI. Ladies' Association for the Pro- aries. At Ahmedabad there are others; also motion of Female Education (So- a medical mission, and 8 native Christian ciety for the Propagation of the agents, with 9 non-Christian teachers. Anand Gospel). and Broach also appear as stations.
Office, 19 Delahay St., Westminster, Lon· XV. Miss Walker – Arnot's Tabitha don, S. W. Periodical: The Grain of Mustard Mission at Jaffa. Seed Gardner, Darton & Co., 2 Paternoster Building. Hon. Secretary, Miss E. Walker-Arnott, 24 St. Bernard's Crescent, London. Fields-India, following the lines of the Dioceses of the Church of England, including that This simple organization has been in existof Rangoon, Japan, Tokio and Kobe; Mada- ence 25 years. The field is designated in the gascar, four principal stations; South Africa, corporate title, which we give above. The following the lines of the five Episcopal dio- boarding school numbers 60 residents, of whom ceses; Capetown, Zululand, etc., India. Mis- 12 were Javesses, and the day schools 100 sionaries, 45; native teachers, 85; Japan mis- pupils. The receipts last year were $4,825. sionaries, 3; native teachers, 2; Madagascar missionaries, 6; native teachers, 14; South XVI. Helping Hands Zenana Asso- Africa missionaries, 7; native teachers. 4. ciation (Young Ladies)_ Total missionaries, 61; native teachers, 105. It speaks well for the ladies of England, that Office, 42 B. Fulham Road, London, S. W. of these, 12 are honorary missionaries. Publication: It utilizes India's Jewels for pub- lication of its correspondents. XII Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Bible The society co-operates with the Indian Fe· Women in India,-Baptist_ male Normal School and Instruction Society at Jaunpore, Benares and Lucknow; "ith the Mrs. Angus, Honorable Secretary. The Col- Church Missionary Society at Brindabun: with lege, Regents Park, London. Periodical: Our the 'Church of England Zenana Mission at Am- Indian Sisters; quarterly. Elliot Stock, 62 ritzar, and with the Ladies' Association of Paternoster Row, London. the S. P. G., and the London ~1issionary Society at Belgaum. The distinct branch, Fields and Force-Stations in India, at prin- known as the Nurse's Missionary Association, cipal cities, 18; lady Zenana visitors, 42; assist- trains as nurses those who wish to assist mis- sions abroad.
1890.J PROGRESS OF MISSIO.TS-lIIO.TTHLY BLLLETIN
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Afrlca.-The Niger Mission. Rev. W. -A general conference of Chinese mission- Allan, of West Africa, thus summarizes the aries will meet at Shanghai May 7, 1890, and vast changes that have taken place since the continue for ten days. Rev. J. R. Goddard, of Gospel was first preached at Bonny, in Africa: Ningpo, is the secretary.
.. The worship of the iguana is overthrown, -The totals of missions in China are: 39 the priest is a regular attendant at the house societies, 526 male missionaries and 597 of God, and the iguana itself converted into an women; total, 1,123 miSsionaries; 162 native article of food. The Juju temple, which a few ordained helpers, 1,278 unordained, 34,555 comyears ago was decorated with twenty thou- municants in the churches, and 14,817 pupils sand skulls of murdered victims, I found rot- in schools; $44,173 were contributed by the tingawayin ruin and decay. Ipassedthrough churches the past year, and the net increase the grove which was formerly the receptacle in membership was 2,295.
of so many murdered infants, and I found it France.-The Statistics of France for had become the regular highway from the 1888 contain some sad facts respecting family town to the church, and that the priest was life. Compared with 1887 the decrease in mar- now a baptized Christian. I went ashore and riages was 212, while there were 6,360 less than addressed 885 worshippers, including the in 1886. There were 1,702 more divorces than .. king, the three former heathen priests, chiefs, in 1887, and 1,758 more than in 1886; the total and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful number waS 4,708. The decrease in the num- to ascertain that the work of conversion was ber of births since 1887 was 16,794. Since still going on; for. in addition to 648 persons 1884 there has been an annual decrease in already baptized, of whom 265 are communi- births. In 1884 there were 937,758 births ; in cants, there are over 700 at Bonny alone who. 1888, the number was 882,637. In illegitimate are now under instruction. " – Missionary births there is, however, an increase. In 1881 Herald. they were 7.5 per cent.; in 1888, 8.5. In the -In Northern Africa has lately been dis- Seine department 25 per cent. of the births covered a river that has worn a bed through were illegitimate. The official report states the rock 300 feet deep, and then makes a per- that if it were not for the illegitimate births pendicular leap 650 feet, while all around are there would actually be a decrease in the deep, yawning chasms and gigantic peaks. population of France.
-The pupils o{the Huguenot Seminary at -Miss Grant Brown, who with two other ladies lately made a mission tour in Corsica, Wellington, South Africa, have formed the Huguenot Missionary Society, which sends out reports that wherever they traveled they held from its ranks missionaries to labor among the daily meetings which were thronged by people heathen in Africa. The lady principal, Miss eager to learn the truth. The work met with Ferguson, and the other teachers, are all much opposition from the priests; but the earnest' Christians, and seek to lead all the civil authorities were generally friendly, and pupils to Christ. in several villages the mayors offered the use – The Moravians have projected a mission of rooms. In one village three men volun· teered to stand every Sunday in the market on the Victoria Nyanza, but have been unable place, and read the Gospel to their countryto establish it by the lack of funds. Just be- men. There is no Protestant church on the fore the opening of lheir General Synod this island. year news was brought that a legacy of be· tween $25,000 and 30,000 had fallen to the Germany.-According to the Statisti- Church, and it is probable that the work will cal Year Book of Germany for 1889, the latest speedily be carried forward, as the men are data on the religious status of the country are ready. these: 29,369,847 Evangelicals, 16,785,734 Catholics, 125,673 other Christians, 563,172 Deymah. -A Mission School is to be established by Rev. E. W. Kelly, of lVlandalay, Jews, 11,278 confessors of other religions or on the very spot where Dr. Adoniram Judson, professing no religion at all. The Evangelicals the first missionary from America, suffered include Lutherans, Reformed and the United the cruel imprisonment at Oungpenla. Church, .:. e., the union formed in 1817 in Prus- Chlna.-Rev. J. W. Stevenson writes sia and sorne other States between the two from Shanghai: "I am happy to report 27 Protestant confessions; the Catholics include 'baptisms this week, viz., 12 at Gan-ren, 7 at Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics and old Nan-k'ang, by Mr. McCarthy; 3 at Chau-kia· Catholics; the other Christians represented k'eo, by Mr. Coulthart; and 5 at Ning-hai- are United Brethren, Baptists, Mennonites, chau, by Mr. Judd. Mr. McCarthy baptized in Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists.
all during his tour in Kiang-si 66 persons, and Quakers, Irvingites, German Catholics, Free he reports quite a number of inquirers. At Religionists and Dissenters. In 1871 the pro· Chau-kia-k'eo a great fire has devastated the portions were these: 25,581,685 Evangelicals, place, and 3,000 families are said to be burnt 14,869,292 Catholics, 82,158 other Christians, out of house and home." 512,153 Jews, 17,156 of other or no religion. The most noteworthy features of these figures pany did everything possible to keep mission- is that while the Evangelicals and the Catho- aries out of India; now the British East African lics have grown in equal proportions, the Company has invited the Church Missionary number of " other" Christians has increased Society to place missionaries at all the stations in much larger proportion. This is evidence of the company as fast as they are opened. sufficient that the propaganda made by the various denominations of England and Ameri- Italy.-Ten thousand Italian priests cain Germany has not been unsuccessful. This have secretly signed a petition to the govern- is one of the factors that is slowly but evi- ment praying for protection against the tyr- dently surely at work toward the disestablish- annyof the Vatican. They have been prom- ment of the Protestant Church of the land of ised assistance by several deputies, who will Luther. plead their cause in Parliament.
-The Sixty-sixth Annual Report of the Japan.-It is said that there are more Berlin Society for the Promotion of Christian- than 1,000 pnpils in a single, rapidly-growing ity amongst the Jews shows than two mission- Sunday-school in Okayanla, Japan. aries and one colportenr are employed by the Society, and that its income during the year -Results oCa Japanese Earthquake, Ac- 1888 amounted to 25,593 marks 42 pfennigs cording to the official return of the damage (about £1,279), which, with a balance of caused by the recent earthqnake at Kumamo- 46,34i marks 54 pfennigs from 1887, made the to, in Southem Japan, the loss in that pre- total receipts of the year 71,925 marks 1 pfen- fecture alo!le-an area ronghly equal to that nig. The expenditure was 41,219 marks 46 of a medium-sized English county – was as pfennigs, leaving a balance of 30,705 marks 55 follows: 234 houses completely ruined; 239 • pfennings in hand. Pastor Hausig, a former partially destroyed; 19 persons killed, and 58 missionary of the London Soci8ty, is secretary injured; at 893 places there were fissures in of the Berlin Society. the ground; roads were destroyed iu 137 places; forests injured at 17; building lots and – The Gustavus Adolphus Society, to carry cultivated land at 3,336 places, and embank- the gospel into Catholic countries, last year ments at 45 places; 24 bridges were entirely received $230,000, 01' $5,600,000 since 1832. The destroyed and 41 damaged, and the water in society has had 1,444 applications for aid from 138 wells became muddy and unfit for con- Roman Catholic countries. sumption.
Indla.-Perhaps one ofthe most notable Korea_A traveler in Korea writes: testimonies to the success of miSSionary labor "Buddha 'worship, as conducted among Koin India and other countries was made during reans, is a species of idol-worship. Diviners the recent Baptist Union Conference at Bir- walk the streets in the persons of blind men mingham, when Sir W. Hunter, before a gath- lTUh long staffs, W]lO anllounce their pl'esenee ering of 4,000 people, gave his experience of with a peculiar professional cry. Demonmissionary work. He simply dealt with the worship prevails in various superstitious pracnlatter as, to use his own term., "' a secular tices, to ward off disease and other ills of life." man and a layman," and in doing so pointed out that during the ten years from 1871 to 1881 Russia. – Twelve hundred converts the Christian popnlation of India had increased 64 per cent. as compared with the 11 have been baptized in the Baptist Mission in per cent. increase of the general popnlation, Russia in the past two years. The lliission is and that the Indian native Protestant Chris- principally among the German colonists in tians had now grown up into a native Protest- South Russia. There is also a snccessful misant Church, with their own pastors, number- sion in Ronmania and Bulgaria. ing 576, and their own native lay preachers, 2,756 in number. "Missionary work," he 8weden.-The minutes of tile Swedish added, "is one of the greatest and best works Augustana Synod gives 291 ministers, 582 conat present going on in India; it has been rich gregations, 425 church edifices and 191 parsonin results in the past, and is fraught with in- ages, valued at $2,503,304; 74,2,'J4 commnnicalcnlable blessings for the future." cants, 5,935 baptisms, 3,263 confirmations, 288 parochial teachers, and 11,506 pupils. Synodi· -The Mission College at Ahmednugar has cal treasury, $1,526.44; education, $16,414.4f; won for itself such a high place among the home missions, $15,901.63; foreign mission" govemment officials that they have increased $6,60•.39; orphan homes, church extensioll, their grant-in-aid nearly fourfold for a term etc., $27,749_54; congregational expense", of five years. The school for girls nnder the $511,986.40; total, $580,823.58. charge of the Misses Bissell, in their fine new. building, is a busy hive or Christian instruc- -Baptist progress in Sweden is one of the tion, full of hope and cheer. Five new village most remarkable religious movements of the churches have been organized during the year present time. Revivals are constant. In in the vicinity of Ahmednugar, Mr. Robert twenty years the nnmber of church members Hume.being specially active in mission work has advanced from 7,900 to 32,308. The bapin these rural districts." tisms in 1888 were 2,390.
-Seventy years ago the East India Com- -Swltzerland has 1,162 Sunday·schouls, with 5,459 teachers, and 84,000 scholars. Sweden has 3,340 Sunday-schools, -with 15,000 teachers and 220,000 scholars. Austria' has 140 Sunday-schools, with 312 teachers and 4,51!) scholars.