The Missionary Review of the World — September 1888

THE CENTENARY CONFERENCE OF MISSIONS

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

VOL. XI. No. n.-Old Series._ _SEPTEMBER, _ _VOL. I. No. 9.-New Series.

I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.

THE OENTENARY OONFERENOE OF MISSIONS. SECOND EDITORIAL LETTER FROM REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.

LONDON, June 26, 1888. My DEAR DR. SHERWOOD :-This great World Oouncil impresses me as, so far in history, the climax of a series of astounding developments, which, like a pyramidal structure, have been rising from the broad base laid a century ago in the recognition of duty and debt to this lost world. 'These developments may especially be noted in seven directions or successive stages. First, there came the opening of doors till the whole world is now practically open. Then the organization of Missionary Societies and Boards now numbering over two hundred. Then the revival of the doctrine of divine stewardship and the consequent consecration of money; then the multiplication of laborers until the church knows not how to send those that offer. Then the development of the woman's agency in direct mission work. Then the bestowment of a new spirit of united prayer, and now the exhibition of the essential unity of all true disciples in what seems to me the most important and thoroughly ecumenical council that has ever yet assembled. The greatness of this gathering grows upon us all. Babel's miracle was reversed at Pentecost-the confusion of tongues that divided and dispersed mankind was offset by the tongues of fire uttering in every language the wonderful works of God. But here we have an advance even on Pentecost. Then and there, disciples could do nothing more than utter the gospel message, each in his own tongue. Here, from the east, west, north, south, the scarred veter~ns from a thousand fields have come up to the metropolis of the world, to translate into our one English tongue the stupendous triumphs of this gospel as wrought under their own eyes, in the isles of the sea, in India and Ohina, Japan and Burmah, Turkey and Syria, Africa and Papal lands. But though we have reached a climax of development, the topstone and capstone have yet to be laid before the pyramid of wonders is complete. The 1JJhole world must now be taken possession of and occupied for Ohrist. Without this grandest result, all else is comparatively not only unfinished, but is failure. To this end all elsc points and tends. For this God led His people to see and feel their debt to a dying world. For this He opened wide the doors, led to the organization of societies whose network of effort should encompass the globe; for this He led disciples to give money and offer themselves; for this ·He brought woman to the front, gave a spirit of prayer and manifested the essential unity of all true disciples. And if now, with all these encouragements and helps, we do not go up and possess the land and drive out the sons of Anak, it will be the most faithless and cowardlyapostacy of the ages! Never came the words of the inspired apostle with more force to the church: "See then that ye walk circllmspectly, not as fools, but as wise, buying up opportunity, because the days are evil! Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine, wherein; is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." Eph. v. 15-18.

Another impression most profoundly made by this Oonference is the necessity for a positive, aggressive type of Ohristian faith and life. The gospel needs no defense-if it does, the best apologetics are found in ener·getics. ;, To use the spade and throw up defenses may be well enough for those whose principal thought is to put up a barrier and a rampart between themselves and the foe. But whenever an enemy can put the opposing army on the defensive an immense advantage is gained. The only hope of successful warfare is to carry the war into the enemy's country-give him all he can do to take care of himself, press him to the wall, divide his forces, giving him no chance to combine and concentrate; compel him to garrison every imperiled point, not knowing where next you are about to strike. God never meant that His troops should busy themselves throwing up intrenchments and hiding behind defenses. To attempt to defend the Bible is a confession or concession of its weakness, or rather our own. Ohristian missions have shown that the gospel needs no defense. It is the power of God unto salvation, and the wisdom of God, too. All we have to do is to let philosophy, speculation, doubtful hypotheses alone, and simply, persistently, faithfully, lovingly, positively preach Ohrist, and the gospel will assert its own authority and vindicate its own divinity. There is such a thing as obscuring its glory even by the smoke of the incense of our own praises. There was one paper read on the work in the Fiji Islands; it occupied but twenty minutes, yet that twenty minutes, packed full of simple facts, carried conviction not to be produced by a half a day's subtle reasoning. The logic of events is the demonstration of the Spirit. The world may dispute the conclusions of argument: the keen edge of the metaphysician's sword often only whets the edge of his antagonists. But there are wonders of God's power that compel even Oharles Darwin to say, with Pharaoh's magicians, "This 1:S the finger of God." Those facts, modern missions must multiply and spread before the people. We nc:cd not yoke our arguments to God's chariot: only gather out the stones and give it free course and it will be glorified.

Another profound impression left by this World Oouncil is that of the. marvelous celerity of movement in this march of the ages. Truly God is marching on, and he who would keep pace with God must not lag behind or lack for energy and enthusiasm.': This is an age of steam and telegraph. There has been an amazing development of human invention and discovery. The march of humanity has been so rapid as to leave every other age far behind in rate of advance. Within a quarter of a century changes have taken place which have revolutionized human society. The spectroscope has been added to the telescope and microscope. The telegraph has yoked the lightning to its chariot, and now outstrips even the wings of the wind. We have devised photometers so delicate that stars which the greatest telescope cannot reveal are detected by the delicate instruments that betray the presence of the faintest light.. 'The deaf are almost made to hear and the blind to see. The most terrible surgical operations are performed while the patient is wholly unconscious through the beneficent action of anmsthetics. But if the march of man is rapid, how much more so is the march of God. He never falls behind. ~'The faster man moves the faster God moves. The celerity of His march is always in proportion to the preparation and capacity of His people to follow. And hence we may expect Him as leader to move onward and forward with more and more astounding rapidity as He gives us facility and opportunity for a corresponding rapidity of advance.

The unthinking man and even disciple may sometimes become discouraged and complain that it is impossible to meet the growing demands of the constantly advancing and enlarging work of missions. But such forget two things. First, this is the comincing proof that it is God's work and He is in it. No human power could have opened doors as He has done it, or swept away obstacles such as He has removed, or insured such miraculous swiftness of movement. In every part of the world-field God is manifestly working, and because He is working, His church finds new developments perpetually challenging her attention and response. While hurrying to occupy one new point and post of advantage another and another invite immediate occupation. While going up to possess some fair land that has suddenly been thrown open, fresh territory on every side commands and demands our prompt entrance, lest the enemy go in before us. While we are hurling back one wing of the enemy, the other gives way and the very center reels and staggers, and God sounds the trumpet call for fresh battalions to come to His help and complete the route of the foe. All healthy work and successful war makes constantly increasing demands on our resources, our sacrifices, our energies, our endeavors. A healthy boy will outgrow and outwear his old clothes, in fact they never get old, for while yet comparatively new, he gets too big for them, or his very activity quickly wears them through or tears them through. But no sensible mother ever complains because her boy is growing. A poor sickly cripple may wear the same pants till they rot from mere age, but the cripple does not grow. Because missions represents the healthy offspring of the church in her best type of life, the work of missions will always astonish us by rapidity of development. The more rapid~ the more normal and healthy and hopeful.

Secondly, let us not forget that it is the salvation of the church to be il'l, stra£ts. Laodiceanism is always already developed whenever and wherever disciples become rich in goods and easy in mind, as those that have need of nothing, or are sufficient unto themselves. Emergencies drive us to God for new help and strength, as they drove Moses and Joshua and Hezekiah to the throne of grace. To feel deeply our own inadequacy to the task; to be consciously in the minority; to be humbled by our own weakness, poverty, jgnorance, infirmity-this is the first condition of real power. If our trust in God be only as great as our distrust of ourselves, there are no triumphs impossible.

It is an indisputable historic fact that the eras and epochs of the greatest power in the church have been those when the exigencies and emergencies have been the most trying and desperate. The very fires which, by a seven-fold t"rial in the furnace, kept the Huguenots and Waldensian churches pure and true, were the fires of persecution. The most startling supernatural deliveranccs were wrought when every human hope had been crushed by apparent and overwhelming disaster. The church of God will never be in easy circumstances. Whenever J eshurun waxes fat he always kicks. Whenever God's people get in comfortable and especially luxurious circumstances, then evangelism declines, worldliness creeps subtly in, devotion dies, and the church has but a name to live. But to see a host of foes in our very front, which we cannot meet in our own strength; to behold a work whose very opportunities far overtax our available resources of men and means; to find God's chariot hastening on at such a rate that at our utmost speed we can barely keep it in sight-ah, this deepens the spirit of prayer, evokes consecration, and compels close fellowship with each other and with God.

Another impression left by this conference is the necessity of closer and more acUve fell01lJsMp among disciples.

Much has been said of our un'ity as expressed and developed in this great conference. Let us not forget that the very emergency of the church compels unity. Our opportunity and our peril alike make unity absolutely necessary. Before a united, determined, malignant, desperate foe, marshaling all his hosts and concentrating all his force against the Bible, the Ohrist and the instItutions of the gospel, we cannot afford to be divided. We unconsciously and involuntarily draw together in presence of a common danger. When the ark is in danger, we forget our tribal standards and close up our ranks about the tabernacle of God, until we touch shoulder to shoulder and forget our tribal allegiance in our anxiety for the treasures of our faith and hope. Macaulay says that in presence of men that worship a cow, the differences between evangelical disciples become positively insignificant. We add that to magnify and emphasize them till they become separating barriers and dividing lines, in the presence of foes that, like Herod and Pilate, become friends for the sake of crushing Ohristianity, is positively criminal. I take no merit or credit to myself that in this great conference I have forgotten my own country and my father's house, and almost lost my own identity and denominational connection. In the presence of issues so vast, and perils so tremendous, and work so herculean, and foes so colossal, all has been driven from my mind save the fact that I am a servant of God, and am standing with other servants of God, watching the imperative signals of His hand in the crisis of the opportunity of the church and the destiny of the world. And if, in- presence of such an enemy on the one hand and the Jehovah of the covenant on the other, I could not forget all else but this, that we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one common cause, hope, and home, I should doubt whether, after all, I am a disciple. A man who, in such a presence, magnifies his denomination is only a fossilized ecclesiastic-a mere mummy.

In connection with this necessity of closer fellowship, one other impression this conference has graven on my heart, and that of many others, as with the pen of iron and the point of adamant: The voice of God to-day commands active co-operation among disdples in mission qoork. Here for ten days we have met from every quarter and every evangelical branch of the great Ohurch Oatholic, and not a discordant note has been sounded. Brethren may dwell together in unity, may talk freely and frankly of things in which there is wide difference of opinion, and yet feel one heart-beat of responsive sympathy. This harmony of feeling and concert of action would continue if the contact and fellowship could continue. But there is danger that when we separate, diversities of sphere, denominational view and practical working may leave the way open for misapprehension and possible conflict. Oan we not perpetuate this contact and preserve this fellowship? The conference has bound itself by wholesome restraints not to open the door to resolutions. But even wholesome restrictions must not become a yoke of bondage.

I am fully persuaded that there is at least one way in which we may preserve certain links of contact and co-operation. We have spent hours upon the discussion of missionary comity, and in it we were touching the very core of practical mission problems. Now the only hope of permanent adjustment of missionary comity is by a missionary committee. Change the emphasis of your accent and you have the remedy suggested. This blessed contact which has developed such overflowing charity it would be a disaster to have broken and lost. Could there not be a committee, not legislative but advisory, representing different denominations and societies, to whom might be referred any questions pertaining to the adjustment of our common and co-operative missionary work? What if such representative men as Sir John Kenneway and Eugene Stock, Wardlaw Thompson and A. C. Thompson, Ellenwood and Gordon, Hudson Taylor and Wm. M. Taylor, Bishop Wilson and Ninde, could be organized into an interdenominational and international missionary committee, to keep up this blessed contact and counsel with each other by correspondence or converse as new exigencies arise I Let me mention one direction especially in which such a committee would be pre-eminently helpful: the occupation of fields for Ghrist. First, as to fields already fairly preoccupied, it could be determined to leave them to those now working in them, unless too large. So has the Nile Valley been practically left to the United Presbyterians, Turkey to American Congregationalists, Palestine to English Churchmen, and Siam to American Presbyterians.

Second, as to fields now open but unoccupied, whose very vastness demands division of labor, such a committee might aid in securing prompt and united occupancy without overlapping and interference.

Third, as to fields not yet opened fully but just about to be-like Korea and Thibet-preparations might be made by which both delay and waste of material might be prevented. So important does this matter seem to me that I can think of no other work more important, and for the sake of doing this any man might feel honored if he were called of God, to lay down any other and separate himself unto this. I am painfully conscious that the occupation of the world-field, vast as it is, is not a matter of numbers. There is an enthusiasm of mere numbers that is often misleading and mistaken. God can work by a few humble faithful consecrated souls better than by a vast host of nominal disciples. Quality is far more important than quantity. But the fewer the heroic souls ready to dare the self-denying work the greater the need of preventing waste. We shall need all the men and women and all the money and means which can be obtained for the Lord's work. Let us have wise and holy counsellors, who act for the church and the Lord Christ, in mapping out the world-field and distributing the workmen widely and wisely.

But above !}ll our eyes need to be turned to the Lord. In the year-1863, in the midst of the great war for the Union, the ordinarily rainless summer in Nevada was suddenly interrupted by a

THB TRAINING OF WORKMEN

densely dark and threatening sky of storm-clouds. So heavy the pall that rested over Virginia City that Mount Davidson could scarcely be distinguished in the distance from the black masses behind it.

A remarkable phenomenen then appeared. Upon the very summit a little tongue of golden flame swayed to and fro like some weird supernatural signal; strange flame, indeed! for it neither waxed nor waned, but steadily burned on. It was the flag of the republic. There chanced to be a rift in the dense clouds, and the setting sun through that unseen rift flung its radiant beam upon that nation's standard and transfigured it to golden flame, an(l for an hour that burning bauner held the charmed gaze of the multitude. And, stranger still, that very day marked the fall of Vicksburg and the victory of Gettysburg!

Darkness that may be felt overspreads the earth, and gross darkness the people. The black clouds of skepticism and infidelity, irreligion and idolatry gather their awful masses in our sky and threaten a destructive storm. But on the very summits of Pagandom, in the midst of the death-shade, waves God's own signal. '1'he flag of the Cross burns in the ray of the Sun of Righteousness, the glory of God transfigures it. Even while we gaze upon it Satan's strongholds are giving way before the onset of God's missionary hosts, and the very tide of battle is turning. We have only to keep our eyes fixed on that banner, . and by that sign we shall conquer!

THE TRAINING OF WORKMEN.

• BY HENRY GRATTAN GUINNESS, LONDON.

[Dr. Pierson writes, concerning this paper, read at the London Conference and furnished 08 by the author for publication: "Clear, practical, pungent and powerful, it captivated the Rssembly. "-EDS.1 WE have in thiJ'l year 1888 reached an important crisis in missions. A hundred years of missionary labor lie behind us, and we gather at this International convention from east, west, north, and south, to study its records, and to learn its lessons, that we may start with the fresh knowledge and renewed energy for our still unreached goal-the evangelization of the world.

The century has been a glorious one in gospel work. After ages of apostacy-followed by stormy times of Reformation-the church awoke a hundred years ago to its duty to publish the gospel to all mankind. During the century, thousands of devoted laborers have gone forth; hundreds of heathen languages have been learned; the Scriptures translated into them; the Wora of God widely proclaimed, and some three millions of heathen converted to Christianity. Among all people the gospel has proved its soultransforming power. A co-operative providence has opened the world. Railways and steamers traverse it in every direction. Meanwhile Protestant Great Britain, America and Germany have largely increased their Ipopulation and their wealth. England alone, after spending freely on necessaries and luxuries, hoards annually now no less than 240 millions of money (1,200 millions of dollars). The means to accomplish our God-given work are increased and increasing. What we want now, and what we seek, is full purpose and resolution to use the powers we possess. God grant that this conference may be, as it ought to be, a tUrning-point in missions-a stage from which the church will make a fresh start, and push on her glorious warfare against sin and Satan with tenfold courage and energy, l'esolvingby divine help to evangelize the world before the present generation has passed away!

If this is to be done it is clear that there must be an enormous increase in the missionary army. The non-Christian nations number over a thousand millions. To give no more than one missionary to every ten thousand of these we should need a hundred thousand missionaries. There are at present only six thousand-in the entire field-men and women, all told. A new era, however, seems dawning-witness the hundred missionaries added to the China Inland Mission in 1887, and the thousands of undergraduates in England and America who have recently pledged themselves to missionary work.

God is evidently answering prayer, and thrusting forth laborers into His harvest.

We gather here to-day at the outset of this convention, to consider the qualifications and training necessary for missionaries. Four points al'e raised for discussion-the first as to mental and spiritual qualifications; the second a as to special training at home; a third as to training in the field; and fourth as to the advisability of establishing missionary lectureships in our colleges. I take up here the first two of these points-the testing of candidates to ascertain their suitability for the work, and their training after acceptance, and before being sent out.

And firstly as to the qualifications required. A missionary is an ambassador for Christ to the heathen-or to any non-Christian people. It is of necessity, therefore, that he be a true Christian-an anointed man, one called of God to the ministry of the gospel, and sent forth by Him. The church cannot create such laborers; only He who made the world can make a true missionary. No training can manufacture him; no human ordination can fit him for his work. The best musical education cannot make a musician of one who has no ear, nor the ablest instruction an artist of one who has no taste. It is clear that we cannot create even genius, how much less grace. A true missionary, like a true minister, is a supernatural gift to the church and to the world from the ascended Saviour. He ascended np far above all heavens, and gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He alone gave them then, He alone can give them now, In considering the application of a candidate, therefore, the question to be settled is not, Can he be made into a missionary? but, Has God called him to be such? Have the necessary qualifications been bestowed? Only where this is the case can the training be of any use. If a man or woman is to become a true and useful missionary, there must first be not only genuine convel'sion and sincere personal piety, but whole-hearted self-consecration to the work of God, and a call to His holy service; including a strong inward sense of vocation, together with providential indications and adaptations. There must be mental and physical fitness for foreign service, and abQve all the spirit of Christ, for no matter what other qualifications So mah may have, he will never be a missionary unless he is filled with Christ-like compassion for the lost, and with a burning desire to seek and save them. This should be the ruling feature of his character. With this almost any special talents may be utilized in missionary service; without it, even the most brilliant are useless, If the heart be intensely set on the salvation of the perishing, love will teach ingenuity, and lead to painstaking and perseverance. Love will overcome all obstacles, and accomplish its object. The love of souls, the longing for llalvation, is one of the leading qualifications that should be looked for. But even the presence of this does not make testing needless, for there may co-exist with it physical, mental or moral disqualifications. Delicate or unsound health, a nervous irritabitity or desponding temperament, a lack of vitality or vigor, personal defects of a serious character, hereditary or acquired tendency to any dangerous malady or bad habit-these are so many physical disqualifications. So again, a prevailing mental obtuse~ess, the absence of general intelligence and common sense, the want of good memory, of the power of attention and observation, of ability to distinguish between thin~ which differ-to reason correctly and to reach right conclusions-any conspicuous defect in these mental requisites should create grave hesitation as to a candidate's fitness for missionary work.

And there are moral dejects also which would hinder usefulness even if body and mind were all right. Pride, obstinacy, want of docility, of meekness, of sympathy; habits of exaggeration, misrepresentation, or mischiefmaking; indolence, selfishness, rashness, levity of character, lack of patience and perseverance, of faith and courage, of self-denial and prayerfulness; all these are prohibitory defects, and the candidate in whom any of these are observed should be recommended at least to wait till he has grown in needful grace.

On the other hand, it should be noted that there are defects of a different character, which constitute no real disqualification, because training may, to a great extent, remedy them. Ignorance, lack of habits of study, or of experience, narrow-mindedness arising from want of intercourse with various classes of men, awkwardness of manner, and many and similar faults, indicate only a candidate's need of education and training, and should not stamp him as ineligible.

2. We turn now to the subject of the TRAINING of accepted candidates. The question stands in the prospectus, "Should there be special training for the missionary service in addition .to general education?" The answer is, ttndoubtedly. God always trains His instruments. Every true missionary must be specially trained for his work, though not all in our schools. God has His own schools. They are very various, and some of them strange and severe. Moses was trained to be the deliverer and lawgiver of Israel in the courts and schools of Egypt, and in the mountain solitudes of Midian, for eighty years. David was trained to be king over Israel by years of spiritual experience, and by many dangers and toils. Daniel was trained for his wonderful prophetic office by his education and career in Babylon. Any training that we can give to a volunteer for missionary work will form at best but a small part of a greater and more effectual training which God himself bestows. We can do something to help, though not much. Let us see to it that what we do be done in harmony with that which is done by the'great Master. Our Lord himself carefully trained His apostles for the great work He committed to them-;-the evangelization of the world. His example is full of instruction for us.

Christgave His disciples a threefold training-theoretical, moral andpractical. This was one of the principal works which He accomplished in the world. He prepared the instruments, He trained the men who should afterwards evangelize it. He chose them, called them, kept them, taught them, prayed with them and for them, impressed Hisspirit upon them, breatheditinto them : He corrected them, expanded their minds, exalted their conceptions, and purified their motives and purposes. Before He sent them forth into the world He kept them for over three years with himself, during which He set before them His own glorious and sacred example. What a development of soul! What a training for service! "Follow me," He said, "and I will make you to become fishers of men." "Take up your cross and follow me." "Learn of me." " Abide in me."

Besides this He imparted to them priceless instructions. He tanght them the nature of His divine kingdom, His own personal character and claims, the nature of true holiness, the simplicity, spirituality and power of prayer, the excellence of humility, the essential duty and blessed results of self-sacrifice, the sin of hypocrisy and formality, the spirituality of worship, and the supremacy of the Word of God over all human tradition,;. He revealed to them also the future, unfolding the prospects which lay before the church the Jewish people and the Gentile world. He revealed the advent and th~ work of the Comforter, to whom they were in future ,to look for guidance and help. It was by these instructions and influences that He fitted His disciples to be the promulgoators of a pure, spiritual, universal religion, with charity as wide as the world, with consciences sensitive about sin, yet free from superstitious scruples; with habits of obedience to the divine law, though emancipated from bondage to human customs, and with characters cured of pride and passion, impatience, selfishness and self-will. Christ employed as His first ambassadors God-given, God-taught and God-sent messengers, and even these He had both sifted and trained.

Hence it is evident that the development of spiritualli!e is the great thing to be aimed at in missionary training. Woe to the church if she neglects this, or gives it a secondary place! Her messengers will be of little use, for un_ spiritual agents can never accomplish spiritual work. Are we not building up a spiritual temple? Must not each stone of it be a living stone, seeing the house is to be the habitation of God through the Spirit? If, then, the end in view be spiritual, so must the means and methods be-we must follow the example of Christ.

The effect of this training was to transform the men who received it. They became a wonder in the world. Men marvelled at these Galilean fishermen -ignorant and unlearned as they were in earthly things-that they should possess such spil"itual light and love, such wisdom and boldness as they evinced. Men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Yes, they had been with Jesus. That was the secret of their power; that was the method of their training. The society of Christ was the school of their apostleship, the college in which they graduated. They had been with Jesus, and as the Father had sent Him so He sent them into the world, promising himself to be with them, and with their faithful successors even to the end of the age.

The calling, qualifying and directing of the laborers thus commenced by our Lord was afterwards continued by the Holy Ghost througoh the church. He sent forth missionaries unto the Gentiles. The Apostolic Church acted directly under the Spirit's guidance. " As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Then the church fasted, prayed, laid their hands on those men and sent them away. That is, they set apart and sent out those whom God had qualified and called. The Lord was with these missionaries and wrought glorious things through their instrumentality.

We cannot improve on this example of the primitive church. The Acts of the Apostles form the best guide-book for missionary societies and missionaries. The impulse and the energy must always come from heaven. Successful missionaries are God-appointed men. We must pray for such; watch and wait for them; welcome them and utilize them as they are given. Yes, for the thousands of workers still needed in the mission-.!ield we must first of all pray-pray as Elijah prayed for the rain, fervently, effectually, incessantly tIll the prayer is answered; pray as the church prayed for the promised Spirit before Pentecost. Such prayer would bring another Pentecost, and we need such a season to-day. We want the world to be evangelized, but we must remember that He who redeemed it and commanded His apostles to evangelize it, forbade them to leave Jerusalem on their glorious mission till they were endued with power from on high. They obeyed Him; the power came, and thousands were converted by it. But there never was and never will be any substitute for this spIritual power, this holy anointing. Without it evangelistic or missionary work must be in the deepest sense a failure.

With these sacred examples before us we cannot but ask the question whether our mode of testing missionary candidates is sufficiently careful and thorough, and whether our plan of training them aims, as it should do, at the development of the moral and spiritual naturH even more than at the invigoration of the mental powers, and the impartation of mere knowledge. Do we seek and select in the first place, and cultivate in the second, the type of character which Christ cultivated? Are we guided in our selection mainly by the spiritual stature of the candidate-by his humility, patience, prayerfulness, and faith-by his possession of the Spirit of Christ? In our training, again, is our aim the right one? We educate abundantly, and education is undoubtedly a good thing, but it is a poor substitute for grace exercised and spiritual gifts strengthened by use, for habits of practical devotion and self-denying labor formed and established. Collegiate study and examinations are not enough. Degrees are no criterion. Men of high scholastic attainments have been sent out in our own day to convert the heathen, who have been converted by the heathen, or rather perverted by them from the truth. As Gideon tested his three hundred, so do we need to test and sift our missionary volunteers, and the testing should include the Oross. "Master," said one of old, "I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests," was the answer, "but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." That is, Christ intimated to the would-be disciple that to follow Him, he must be prepared to share His lot." No training that misses this element is worth nluch.

'fhe reality of the missionary's devotedness is best proved and developed by hard a.nd humble work among the ignorant, the prejudiced, the poor, the degraded at home. If a man objects to, or slurs labor among them, as beneath his dignity or disagreeable to his tastes, it is useless to send him forth as a missionary. Selfishness may make a good student, natural ability an acceptable speaker, but only distasteful service puts to the proof a man's grace, his sense of duty and strength of principle. Fifteen years' experience in the training of young men, and personal dealing with more than three thousand volunteers for missionary service, leads me to urge the importance of this test. Next, perhaps, in value to spirituality may be ranked evangelistic gift and ability. How is this to be developed? In the same way that skill in any other line is imparted-by instruction and practice. The preparation for all ordinary work consists in the actual doing of it, not merely in gaining a theoretical knowledge of how it ought to be done. No one would employ a mechanic who had never worked at his trade, nor an architect who had never erected a building. No one would employ a doctor who had not treated the sick, nor should we ever send out missionaries-preachers and teachers for the heathen-who have not done teaching and preaching work, and been blessed to the conversion of souls at home. If a man is not a successful soul-winner in his native land, he is not likely to become such in China or Africa. It is surely unwise in a high degree to commit to unproved men one of the most difficult of tasks. Unless a man has succeeded in turning others to righteousness in these lands where it is comparatively easy, what reason have we to conelude that he will do so in heathendom where it is much more difficult? There are home heathen enough in our crowded cities to afford practical training for missionary students. Just as medical students walk the hospitals, so should om' missionary students learn their future work in our courts and alleys-in the centers where sin-sick and perishing souls needing the gospel remedy congregate. East London, for instance, with its vast and varied population, is an admirable training ground for missionary students. It was this fact which led uS,many years ago, to plant there our Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, from which, during the last fifteen years many hundreds of missionaries have gone forth. We have more than a million of the working classes in this quarter. We have infidels, Romanists, English and foreign Jews, French, Germans, and Italians; Africans and Asiatics, including Chinese, Hindoos, and other nationalities. We nave drunkards and paupers, and multitudes who are heathen in their habits, if not in their creed. Among these the evangelist can prove his gifts; he can either deal singly with indiVIduals, or preach to companies gathered in rooms, mission-halls, lodging houses, or on board ships; and above all, he can address crowds in the open air.

The value of open-air preaching as a preparatIOn for missionary work is exceedingly great. It cultivates aggressiveness, boldness, simplicity, directness, and earnestness of style, an extemporaneous delivery, and an interesting and striking manner of presenting divine truths. The open-air preacher 'must first gather his congrq'ation, and then hold it in spite of surrounding distractions, with nothing but the simple power of his words. He must suit his style to the roughest and shrewdest of his auditors. He must promptly meet objections, answer questions, and quiet disturbances, as he seeks to win an entrance to unwelcome truths in the hearts and minds of neglecters and rejecters of the Word of God. He has to face opposition, and enaure at times contempt and shame for the Master's sake. It is not easy work, and there is nothing in it to foster conceit or gratify self-esteem. It is really hard, self-denying service, more analogous to that which would be required of a missionary in the streets of India or China than almost any other form of gospel labor.

To preach from a pulpit to orderly congregations, prepared to listen re- spectfully and sympathetically, is no preparation for labor among the heathen. There is no trouble in gathering the people under such circumstances. Everything in their surroundings helps religious impression, and intelligent attention is bestowed on the preacher.. But there is nothing of this sort in heathendom lOne who is only up to work of this conventional type might almost as well stay at home. The missionary has to press his message on mim who have no notion of its importance, no disposition even to listen to it, no substratum of religiOUS knowledge on which to work, no enlightened conscience to which to appeal, no habits of reverence or decorum, no sym- pathy with the preacher's mode of thought, and but an imperfect compr~hen­ sion of his language. Like the open-air preacher, the missionary must not expect either to be sought, appreciated, or thanked for his service, nor to find in it any other gratification than that of serving Christ and saving men. In this and in other similar efforts to raise and transform degraded and sunken populations at home, the missionary candidate is not the best trained for his future work, but best tested, best proved fit for it.

In addition to such experiences a missionary needs, of cours'e, knowledge of various kinds. Education of the mind has its place, though it be not the first place. The higher the mental qualifications of a man or woman (other things being equal) the better. But here it should be clearly stated that the nature of the case indicates that only a certain proportion of missionary workers require what we call a thorough education. Do we not limit too narrowly the class of men from which we select missionary agents? Do we sufficiently remember that the first missionaries were mostly poor and uninfluential in worldly position, ignoran t and unlearned as regards mental attainments, not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble were called. For one learned Paul of Tarsus there were elev.en plain men of no special erudition, fishermen and men of that class whose principal education was that which they received from Christ himself. The army requires more privates than officers; and one architect can plan a building which will need many hands to erect. Some highly-cultured men are of course needed in a mission, and are essential to its highest prosperity; they are needed to do literary work, reduce unwritten tongues, and translate the-Scriptures; to train and teach native evangelists, to lead and organize, to direct and to originate. But are they the only men needed? Did any army consisting of officers only ever march to victory? Are not rank and file required as well? and does not the mission army need hundreds and thousands of privates? Is it essential that all, or even the great majority of missionaries, should be scholarly gen- tlemen who have studied from boyhood to maturity at heavy expense of time and money? Do the ninety per cent. of thc population of China who cannot even read, 01' the savages of Central Africa or the New Hebrides, de- mand teachers of a higher stamp than do the working classes in these coun- tries? Should we not elSteem it a great waste of rQsources to insist that all home and city missionaries should be classical scholars? And are not work- ers of all classes required among the heathen as much as at home? May not many men without either the leisure or the means, or perhaps even the incli- nation for a long and elaborate course of study-intelligent artisans, young clerks in banks, in offices, assistants in shops, the sons of farmers, mates of vessels and skilled mechanics, tradesmen, teachers and others-be well suited to serve Christ among the heathen, to preach the simple gospel to the masses of the people?

On the other hand, to send out ignorant and untrained men to undertake missionary work were clearly folly. "Let such first be proved," is a dictate of common sense as well as a precept of Scripture. Paul said to Timothy as regards the truths of the gospel which he had taught him, "The same com- mit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." Of all men a missionary should be a man of general intelligence and fertIle resources. Without a measure of cultivation it is impossible that he should be this. Knowledge is power, and missionaries as a class should know something of everything. A missionary has to travel, and should understand geography. He may perhaps have to build his house, to make his own furniture, to till or direct the tillage of his garden, the cooking of his food, to work the printing- press. Knowledge even on such matters will therefore be valuable to him. He may be situated far from any skilled physician, and ought there- fore to have at least some elementary knowledge of anatomy and physiology and of the use of simple surgIcal and medical aids; The more grammaticaJ, knowledge he has the better, for he will have to learn and use a foreign tongue, and possibly to translate into it the Word of God. He ought to know enough of nature to appreciate the works of God, and enough of history to perceive the background of Bible facts. As he has to teach Christianity, he should know something about the history of its planting, its early sufferings and triumphs, the origin and progress of existing apostacies, and the story of the Reformation. He should also be acquainted to some extent with the history of modern missions, including the lives of eminent missionaries. But above all, he ought to be well acquainted with the Bible. That Book will have to be the companion of his loneliness, the guide of his perplexity, the support of his life, the instrument of his labors. It should be the chief subject of his study. His mind should be familiarized with the sacred text, with the evidences of its lDspiration, and with the varied doctrinal and practical truths which it reveals. He needs to be rooted and built up in Christ, and established in the faith, and the aim should be to give him afirm grasp of the teachings of Scripture, and instruction; as far as possible, in the whole counsel of God.

It is a serious question whether in our training of missionaries we give the Word of God the place which it deserves. Is not Bible study in our colleges apt to be too cramped, and too merely critical? We teach our stu- dents to dissect the Scriptures, but are they taught to dissect their own hearts, to understand themselves? We teach them the letter of Scripture, but do we lay due stress upon the posession of its spirit? We teach them to judge the Book, but they should he taught to let it judge them, and by its light to judge of all things. Is not God's Word a fire and a hammer? Woe to us if by our processes we strip it of its sacredness and strength. Let us give the Word of God its propel' place, and own its supreme authority, pre-eminence. and power.

It is the desire of this conference that those who take part should contribute to the general stock the,results of their experience, suggesting for the con- sideration of their brethren the chief practical conclusions to which they have been led. I may mention, then, that guided by the principles indicated in this paper, we founded, fifteen years ago. in East London, an institution for training' and helping into the foreign field young men who desired to be mis- sionaries. We subsequently added a country branch of the Institute, and later on a Training Home for Deaconesses. During these fifteen years we have dealt with more than three thousand volunteers for missionary work, have re- ceived on probation between eight and nine hundred, have trained and sent out five hundred missionaries, and have now about a hundred students in the Institute. Our plan is to give the students, where they require it, preiimi- nary secular instruction in the country branch, and then practical training in East London, including missionary, evangelistic, linguistic and medical de- partments. All our students receive from a qualified medicaJ man the train- ing of the ambulance corps, the results being tested by a public examina- tion. The deaconesses, in certain instances, are sent for three months to live in hospitals where the maternity cases are treated. Students going to Africa receive instruction in the treatment of tropical fevel's, and where there has been special fitness we have given students the advantage of a four years' medical course in the London Hospital. In almost every case these have be- come qualified medical men, and are now in the mission-field. The time spent by students in the Institute has varied according to their age and needs. Our system has been an elastic one. We have tried to give to each the help he or she was capable of receiving, and to introduce each to the sphere in which we saw they could best do good gospel service.

The results have not disappointed us. We have received men of all nationalities and all classes, as well as of all evangelical denominations. We have trained them for all countries, and former students are now working in connection with between twenty and thirty societies and organizations, while many of them have founded new and independent missions. As a rule they had done well, and given much satisfaction in the missions they have joined. There are exceptions. Every rule has such, but we thank God on remembrance of the majority of them. They have gone into every country in Europe. They have gone to the roughest and most westerly parts of North America, to the negroes in Jamaica, and to the Roman Catholics and English settlers in South America. They have evangelized in Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Egypt, in North Africa; have established missions in Cape Colony, Natal and Kaffir-Iand; and have penetrated the heart of equatorial Africa, founding fresh stations, reducing the languages of the people to writing, translating the Scriptures, and turning hundreds from heathenism to the knowledge of God. They have suffered, literally, thousands of attacks of fevers, and many of them have laid down their lives in the service of Christ and for the gospel. They have founded medical missions in Constantinople, Syria, and Armenia ; have evangelized in the wildest parts of the HaUl'an, have preached in the crowded cities and mountain wilds of India, and opened many mission-stations in the most distant provinces in China. They have scattered the Word of God in every province in that vast empire, and have traversed in their missionary labors almost every country in the world. Our experience has shown us that there are thousands of devoted young men and women suited for missionary work, and desirous to give themselves to it, that they are capable of rapid improvement under Christian training, and willing to go anywhere for the sake of the gospel, that there are open doors in all lands, and fields waiting for reapers, white to the harvest, and that the Christian Church may increase with appropriate effort the number of its missionary laborers to an almost indefinite extent.

Allow me, in conclusion, to summarize what I have said, and to emphasize certain points.

First, we agree most thoroughly with our highly esteemed and respected friend, Dr. Pierson, in his published opinion that "if we would largely increase the missionary force we must in some way lessen the time and cost of preparing the average workman.. . A most formidable barrier to the work of evangelization is that even where both men and money may be obtained it takes too long a time and too costly a culture to train the average workman; and this one obstacle often overtops all others, and is practically insurmountable. •• There ought to be a change in our ecclesiastical tactics; our system of training for the mission-field must be more flexible and more economical of. time and money, or we cannot send workmen mto the great world-field in adequate numbers." Without any rigidly uniform system.of training, we must encourage every willing soul to do the work for which he 01' she is best fitted, and endeavor further to fit eaeh for their proposed sphere of labor, and we must shorten and simplify the course of training.

Secondly, no candidates whatever should be accepted for training save spiritually-minded men and women, possessed of good health, good common sense, devotedness to God's service, and a divinely indicated call to the work.

Thirdly, such persons should be thoroughly tested, and carefully trained.

THE WORK AMONG THE FIJI ISLA.NDS. [SlU"f

Their training should be adapted to develop the unworldly spiritual character which missionary work requires. It should always be adapted to the individual case. All missionary students should be trained in laborious and self-denying habits, and exercised in evangelistic work among our own lapsed masses, especially open-air preaching.

Lastly, every missionary student should be furnished with the practical instructions of the ambulance corps, as to how to deal with accident cases; while those who are prepaung for labor in Central Africa and other parts of the world where no qualified medical aid is to be had should receive, in addition to other teaching, special medical instruction of an elementary and practical nature, and in those instances where there is marked aptitude and desire for it, the missionary student should have the advantage of a full medical course.

THE WORK AMONG THE FIJI ISLANDS.

[A Paper read before the London Conference by Rev. John Calvert.1 [The facts concerning the missionary life of this remarkable man, stated in a note to Dr. Pierson which we give below, will add interest to bis paper.-J. M. S.

.. DEAR DR. PIERSON: .. SEVENOAKS, KXN'!', June 19, 1888.

"IN 1838 I went to Fiji with John Hunt. 1n 1856 I came home with the printed New Testament and MS. of the complete Bible, and was four years in England. In 1860 I went again to Fiji with several younl!; missionaries newly married. Iu 18721 went to South Africa for nine years. In May, 1886, I went on a visit to Fiji and returned through America, and I am now settled down here as supernumerary. 1 have lately supplied twenty cases of Bibles and Testaments, from the Bible SOCiety, and four cases hemispheres iu ziuc cylinders to keep them safe, when not used, from the cockroaches, And I am now putting to press Hunt's Theology, Hymns. Catechism and Book oC Offices. .. Affectionately yours, "JAMES CALVERT."] OF all the many Oceanic missions in the Pacific, I am here to represent but one, in which a. great part of my life has been spent-the Mission to Fiji. This large and beautiful group, which lies 1,800 miles northeast from Sydney, and 1,200 north of New Zealand, consists of some 200 islands and islets, eighty of which are inhabited; and the two largest are ninety miles in length. The islanders are a fine race, of fair intelligence, and, according to the measure of their own simple wants, very industrious. Having been left to themselves and to the undisturbed control of bad influences in all the past, they became extremely vile and degraded. Cannibalism was a recognized institution among them and practiced to a frightful extent. Infanticide was a general custom, and the burial of sick persons before death was common. Cruelty of all·kinds abounded; and polygamy, with its inseparable consequences of evil, was established throughout the group.

The condition and claims of Fiji were brought urgently before the Chris- tian people of England, and particularly before the Wesleyan Methodist Churches, about fifty years ago. Already two white missionaries were doing noble work in the Islands. They were re-enforced from time to time. They never exceeded thirteen at anyone time-now they are only nine; and this number will probably be still further reduced, the work being carried on chiefly and successfully by agents raised up among the people themselves. Happily we have always been heartily one, so that our prayers and. labors . have not been hindered, but greatly helped. Regular weekly English wor- ship and the class-meeting among the mission families were of the utmost value in keeping our own souls alive. God chose the men employed; none of them extraordinary or great, but suitable, well adapted, ready to rough it and go on heartily with every branch of the work that had to be done, making little of difficulties, dangers and affiictions, but the best of everything and everyone. And all our work personally, and in the training of native agents, has always been done in the Fijian language, and interpreters not employed. On a recent visit to Fiji, my heart was gladdened at finding the same stamp of men supplied by Australia, carrying on the work successfully. A very great help to our progress was, as I believe, that we had the whole field to ourselves, and our laborers were not interfered with, by the presence of any other Protestants. The Romanists came too late, arriving after we had got a good footing, and supplied the Scriptures. They avowed themselves as our opponents, and relieved us of a few troublesome persons. They have never succeeded. to a large extent, and are now losing ground, though they have zeal and self-denial worthy of any cause.

The vital, experimental and practical truths of God's Word were explained, applied and enforced. Christ, the living Saviour of all, especially of them that believe to the saving of the soul, was shown to be all in all, able and willing to save to the uttermost all who came to Him. The divine personal Spirit, in all His glorious energy and saving power, was prominently set forth, and He was ever present, convicting of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Great numbers from the beginning of our work, and, thank God, to the present time, were thoroughly awakened by the truth and by the Spirit. They sorrowed after a godly sort, turned from sin, and turned fully to God through Christ alone. And such penitents in very large numbers have, throughout the whole history of the mission, found peace with God through believing, and have shown to all men the evidences of life renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Old things passed away: behold all things became new. On several occasions, on many of the islands, there have been special outpourings of the Divine Spirit, when considerable numbers were saved, and all ~ere quickened into life and prosperity.

The spirit in which they endured trials, persecution and loss, and their steadfast aim with all kindness to do good to anyone by any effort or sacrifice, proved the truth, depth and excellence of the religion they experienced, enjoyed and practiced.

Many of these new creatures in Christ Jesus, quickened and raised into newness of life, began to speak, and testify and entreat as the Spirit gave them utterance. It was more than meat and drink to them to spread among their relatives and countrymen the religion that was such a reality and boon to themselves.· Thus the truth and saving grace of God spread from one to another, from village to village, from tribe to tribe, from island to island. None could gainsay or resist their testimony in holding- forth the Word of life. The missionaries and our mission needed no better or stronger commendation. These real converts have been and are" manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written with the Spirit of the living God," "an epistle known and read of all men." And by their agency a most substan- tial, most blessed and extensive work of God has been wrought in all direc- tions throughout Fiji.

On my last visit I was d4llighted with the grand sight I witnessed at the District Training Institution. There I found 109 fully-devoted men, selected from the institutions in each circuit, under training as preachers of the gospel: fine, strong, whole-hearted men, who 'cheerfully surrender them- selves to the cause of Christ in Fiji or elsewhere. To the oversight of this vastly-important branch of our work are devoted a missionary and his assist- ant, a native minister, who are specially qualified and adapted. Since my return an appeal was made to these students to hazard their health and lives among the dangerous people and in the unhealthy climate of New Guinea, where Fijian teachers have already been sacrificed. Fifteen were asked for: forty volunteered! eighteen were chosen, and sent forth.

Mission work in every-conntry must mainly be done by the converts them- selves. The foreigner is an expensive agent, with the many real and im- aginary wants of himself and his family. His continuance is often inter– rupted, and his stay shortened. And he can never manage the climate and customs, or find out and adapt himself to the native character, so well as one of themselves. The native agent was well-known before the glorious change that has renewed him on the spot before their eyes: and he is a liv- ing specimen-well studied-of the power of the gospel to transform. He is already there without any expense, can be employed at small cost, and that raised mainly by those for whose benefit he labors: and mission funds are not required for his removal and sustenance should he fail. With only 9 white missionaries, we have 3,505 native preachers: 56 ordain{>d, who take full part in the work of the ministry with the English missionary, 47 catechists, 983 head preachers, with 1,919 ordinary local or lay preachers. There are 1,268 chapels and other preaching places; 28 English church members, 27,097 full native church membQrs. These are well cared for by 3,480 devoted class-leaders. There are 40,718 scholars in our 1,735 day and Sunday-schools, taught by 2,526 teachers; and 101,150 attendants on public worship. The jubilee of the mission was lately held. Fifty years previously there was not a Christian in all Fiji; then not an avowed heathen left! Canibalism has, for some years past, been wholly extinct, and other immemorial customs of horrible cruelty and barbarism have tiisappeared.

Behold! what hath God wrought! A nation has been born at once!

"Instead of the thorn the fir tree came up: and instead of the brier came up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for aname, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." "The wilderness has become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted for a forest." "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel [and of all nations, great and small], who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen."

Though poor, the people are most liberal in contributions for carrying on their own work, building all the schools and chapels and teachers'

houses; and they give generously, at much personal sacrifice, to the general mission funds. Had it not been for the business calamities that have come upon Fiji, as upon most parts of the world, the mission promised well ere this to have been self-supporting. Their deep poverty is borne well: and the riches of their liberality abound. I was delighted now to find them thoroughly good and fully devoted to God and His cause. Their religion is a grand , and powerful reality in very trying circumstances.

When this mission began, the Fijian language had never been written; the missionaries, therefore, had to supply it with an alphabet, and reduce it to a written form, and then to set to work to explore its grammatical structure, so as to give the people in their own tongue the Word of God, and furnish them with a useful literature. Very early in the history of the mis- sion the printing-press was brought into use.

When our printer failed in that far-off and out-of-the-way place we were in great difficulty, as a new edition of the New Testament and other books were urgently required. We ordered a man from London who would rough it, be content with the poor fare and small pay and hard work we were ac- ';:l!stomed to, but slch a man was not found. Then it came to pass that il! French count, an infidel, who was wrecked from an American beche de mer vessel, was thoroughly awakened, and sought and found mercy and saving grace. He was completely reformed and wished for employment with us. I taught him printing and book-binding, which he quickly learned; and just then, when we were in deepest need, he became a most efficient laborer wIth us. He could make sails, splice a rope, pull an oar, sail a schooner, floor a house, put in windows, make a door and fit it in. He became a teacher in our schools, and a good local preacher. The people felt that he loved them, and the best of our converts from any part of Fiji were cheerfulJy ready to settle down and work with him, so that we had a good staff of earnest and cheap workers in our printing and book-binding establishment. A new edition of the New Testament and all the books we required were well done and quickly supplied, helping on the work amazingly: A wh'ole-hearted man like that was beyond all price. Had one been made to order on purpose for our needs and work, he could not have been better adapted. And the case proved to us the all-sufficiency of God's resources; and just at the right, the very best time on the spot the demand was supplied, and without any cost. Oh, that we looked more to God for all we need I Then we printed innumerable portions of the Scriptures, catechisms (one especially, consisting o~ passages of Scripture only, which was invaluable), reading, and other books, as well as an excellent and immensely valuable system of theology, prepared by the eminent John Hunt when his heart and mind were in their best state, and when he had gained an excellent knowledge of the language; also an invaluable dictionary and grammar, provided by David Hazlewood, a man not known to fame, but whose record is on high, who did service of immense value in the language and translation department.

Since 1856 large supplies of Bibles and New Testaments in good bold type and strong and some elegant binding are constantly forwarded by the British and Foreign Bible Societies, on which many missionary societies are largely dependent, and from which all are cheerfully and promptly supplied with all they require. These Scriptures are highly l)rized, eagerly purchased and diligently read, the natives in many instances depriving themselves of the conveniences of life that they may secure and possess God's Word. The proceeds of these books are returned to the Bible House. They have supplied two editions of the completed Scriptures and fifty-six thousand of the New Testament in six editions. Other books in large quantities are also supplied fl'om England, better and at less cost than they can be printed and bound in Fiji, or obtained from the colonies.

Though Fiji is small when compared with the great nations, yet it affords a specimen and example of what can be done by the Word and Spirit and Providence of God, and it enheartens and encom'ages all to attempt and expect great things for all the nations of this sin-stricken, redeemed world. Ample provision for all our race has been made in the grand atonement and all-prevalent intercession of our great and loving Redeemer, who by the grace of God tasted death for every man, and wills that all should be saved in the gift of the life-giving Spirit who works mightily and can renew every depraved heart; and in the glollious gospel which saves all who believe, God intends to save our fallen race, and will do it. His glory shall be revealed antl all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. He hath said it, and He will assuredly bring it to pass. Christ must reign over all. Let us then go fOJ;'th in faith and preach the gospel to every creaturel feeUng sur~ tbat we have strongest ground for ille utmost hopes iu Him who has said: "And I, if 1 be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." And again: "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and 10, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

SEVENOAKS, KENT, June 1,1888. JAMES CALVERT.

THE KARENS.

[Paper read belore the Conference by Mrs. W. F. Armstrong. It made 8 deep impression.-Ens.J THE only apology for my appearance here this evening is that I am the only Karen missionary attending this Conference, and so noble a people should not be passed by unnoticed. Thousands of them are praying for us, and it is right that we should remember them.

The Karens were once the hill tribes of Burmah, treated by the Burmese with the greatest injustice and cruelty. While they were under the Burmese Government they hid themselves in the jungle on the mountain sides, con- cealing the paths to their bamboo homes, and constantly moving from one place to another to avoid detection. They were content to live on the pro- duce of their gardens, to weave their own clothing, and to be as independent in the forest as the birds or the bees.

Their religion was peculiar to themselves. They lived pure, honest, truthfullives-I speak advisedly-they were unbounded in their hospitality, had no idols; but made offerings to propitiate the demons whom they feared.

They had no books, but they had carefully preserved traditions of a book they once possessed to which they were disobedient, and it was taken from them. Some day-so their legends ran-their white brethren would come across the sea in ships and bring back the book which told of the Great Father. They retained much of the moral and historical parts of the Old Testament in sayings of theil' old men, and it seems probable that tpey had at some time had access to its sacred pages.

No wonder such a people should receive the gospel when it came. No peo- ple have ever been discovered who were so prepared for it or whose very prejudices were on its side. When missionaries came among them their old men said, This is what our fathers told us of, it is this for which we have so long waited; and they flocked by hundreds to receive it. Not without change of heart. Their simple faith took Christ at ilis word; the Spirit accom- ied that word. Though they were ignorant and untaught in schools, they came forward eagerly to learn, believing with all their hearts, and re- ceiving the promise of God" to everyone that believeth."

An entire change has been wrought among them in the last fifty years.

Now there are over 450 Karen parishes, each one of which supports its own native pastor and lts own village school, and many subscribe largely to send the gospel farther on. !

There are about 30.000 baptized communicants, and fully 100,000 nominal Christians, about one-sixth of the whole tribe in Burmah.

A marked characteristic of their Christianity is that th.ey are earnest for- eign missionaries. They have their own foreign missionary society and send out their own young men to distant countries and other languages, support- ing them there and re-enforcing them as the need arises. These have opened up new fields of labor where other missionaries could not reach; they have tuken educated <Lnd devoted Karen wb'esto assist them, and have undergone

HOME WORK FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

much hardship and privation with a true spirit of heroism worthy of any Christian nation. One instance, which I was personally cognizant of, and I have done.

I loved the people dearly; I looked upon them as brothers and sisters indeed, but when my husband went to the Telugus I went too. One of my teachers, who had traveled with me in many a jungle tour, and who loved souls as well as I did, who had risked her life over and over again for Christ's sake, was moved to go wIth me. This Karen girl went to India and learned the Telugu, both written and spoken, and this more rapidly than any missionary I have ever known. She started a girl's school among them, teaching them in Telugu more efficiently than any of their own people could do on account of her previous training. Of course I speak of work in a new station where mission work had to begin from the foundations. She won many women and children to listen to the gospel, and was everywhere treated with respect. The natives giving her the same title they applied to myself. Indeed, she proved herself in all respects a genuine foreign missionary.

She is now living in Rangoon, where she is married, and works among Burmese, Telugus and Karens, as she has opportunity. She is Secretary of the Karen Women's Foreign Missionary Society, which supports and directs its own Bible women. She is not in mission employ, but is supported by hel" merchant husband, who also is an educated Christian Karen, speaking daily for his Master during business hours and giving nobly to the cause of Christ, as you in this country do.

I always felt that work among Karens was only half way to heathenism. Among the Telugus I saw many debasing influences of idolatry which I did not find among Karens. In the estimation of those who know them best they are the most remarkable of all Eastern tribes. God has surely some wonderful purpose for them in the future, and we see a forecast of this in their eagerness and ability to work as evangelists among other nations.

Another conference, I trust, may see some of them in your midst to speak for themselves.

HOME WORK FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.

BY REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D. [A paper read at the World's Missionary Conference on Monday. June 18.] WHAT the source is to the supply, the motor to the machine, the home church is to the foreign field. The vigor of the heart's beat determines the ' pulse beat at the extremities. It is of first importance that, at home, work for missions abroad be continuous and constant, healthy in !one and spiritual in type.

How shall the churches be raised to the degree of consecration required for the evangelization of the world? Sheldon Dibble used to say that two conversions are needful: first, to Christ as a Saviour from sin; and then to missions as the corrective antidote to selfishness. A century ago William Carey felt the thrust of the keen lance of Sydney Smith, who, by his unsanctified wit, proposed to "rout out thai nest of consecrated cobblers"; and Carey had to fight for fifteen years the apathy even of his own Baptist brethren. Dr. Judson's hand was nearly shaken off, and his hair shorn off, by those who, in the crisis which can be met only by self-sacrifice would, to save themselves, willingly let missions die.

Foremost among the means by which deeper devotion to the work of eV'an~ gelization is to be secured, I would put the education of the chu1'ch in the' very principle of missions. Where the hearty acceptance of this is lacking, the impulse and impetus of missions are wanting. The church of God exists, not only as a rallying, but as a radiating, center. It is indeed a home, but also a school; a place for worship, but not less for work. For a society of disciples to be engrossed even in self-culture is fatal to service, and even to true sanctity. The church is no gymnasium where exercise is the law and self-development the end. The- field is the world, and each sower and reaper. while at work for a harvest, gets in his exertion the very exercise which is needful to growth.

So important and so fundamental is this principle of missions, that any church which dj!nies or practically neglects it, deserves to be served with a writ of quo warranto. This law of church life must be constantly kept before believers, enforced and emphasized by repetition-that upon every believer is laid the duty of personal labor for the lost. This conviction must be beaten in and burned in, till it becomes a part of the very consciousness of every disciple, until the goal is seen to be not salvation or even sanctification, but service to God and man in saving souls.

In the educatiop of a church in foreign missions, nothing is more essential than that the missionary spirit burn in the pastor. A stream rises no higher than its source; and, ordinarily, the measure of the pastor's interest In the world-field determines the level of his people's earnestness and enthusiasm. He ought to be a student of missions, an authority on missions, and a leader in missions. He is not the driver of a herd, but the leader of a flock: he must therefore go before. His contagious enthusiasm and example must inspire in others the spirit of consecration. The personal character of the man gives tone to his preaching, and is perhaps itself the best kind of preaching. That must be a frozen church in which a man, alive with intelligence and zeal for the work of God, could not warm into life and action under such a pastor as the late W. Fleming Stevenson.

The rudiments of a true education being laid, we must go on unto perfection; and among all the means of this higher training we put, first and foremost, a knowledge of the facts of missionary history and biography. Information is a necessary part of all university training in missions; not a partial, superficial impression, but information-a knowledge of missions complete enough and thorough enough to crystallize into symmetrical form in the :mind and heart. Facts are the fingers of God. To a devout student of His will they become signs of the times, and signals of His march through the ages. Like the gnomon of a sun dial, even their shadow may mark the hour in God's day. Prince Albert used to say to the young men of Britain: " Find out God's plan in your generation and never cross it, but fall into your own place in it." There is a pillar of providence, the perpetual pillar of cloud and fire, whereby we may be led. That pillal'is built up of facts, oftentimes mysterious and dark, like a cloud, yet hiding the presence and power of Him who dwelt in the cloud and made it luminous.

To a true disciple missions need no argument, since the chm'ch has what the Iron Duke called her" mat'ching orders." But duty becomes delight, and responsibility is transfigured into privilege, when it is clearly seen that to move with the missionary band is to take up march with God. The apathy and lethargy prevailing among believers upon the subject of missions is to me unaccountable in view of the multitude and magnificence of the facts which demonstrate that in the movements of modern missions, more <han in any other of the ages, there has been a demonstration and a revelation of God.

We are observing the centenary of modern missions. But the most amazing results of this century have been wrought during its last third, or ihe lifetime of the generation now living. This World's Conference is simply the church coming together at the Antioch of the Occident to hear those whom the Holy Ghost has chosen and the church has separated unto this work, rehearse all that God has done with them, and how He has opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Who dares to say, in the light of modern missions, that the days of supernatural working are passed? So far, as in primitive days, the disciples have gone forth and preached everywhere, it has still been true that the Lord has wrought with and confirmed the Word with signs following-signs unmistakable and unmistakably supernatm-aJ. Doors have been opened, within fifty years, that no human power could have unbarred. The mighty moving of God can be traced back through the centuries, long since g'iving Protestant England a foothold in the very critical; pivotal center of Oriental empires and religions. The necessity of protecting her Indian possessions, of keeping open the line of communications between London and Calcutta, determined the attitude of every nation along the water highway. Then from beyond the Pacific another mighty, puissant people, the offspring of Protestant Britain, moved forward thirty years ago to turn the extreme eastern wing of the enemy while Britain was piercing and holding the center. Commodore Perry knocked at the sea gates of Japan, and in the name of a Christian Republic demanded entrance. Rusty bolts that had not been drawn for more than two centuries were flung back and the two-leaved doors of brass were opened to the commerce of the world. Rapid has been the progress of the march of God. Japan unsealed her gates in 1854. From that time not a year has passed without some mighty onward movement or stupendous development. In 1856 the g-reat breach was made in the Chinese wall, and by the treaty of Tientsin one-third of the human race were made accessible to Christian nations, and, as Dr. Gracey says, that wide door was opened, not by the vermilion pencils of the Emperor, but by the decree of the Eternal. The same year, 1856, also saw signed and sealed the Hatti Sherif in Turkey, by which the Sultan, at least in form, announced the era of toleration. The next year the mutiny in India changed the whole attitude of the East India Company towards missions, and prepared the way for the surrender of its charter to the Crown of England.

Let us leap the chasm of twenty years and nole the progress of eventR on the Dark Continent. In 1871 Stanley pierced the jungle to find the heroic Livingstone. In 1873 Livingstone died near Lake Bangweolo; in 1874 Stanley undertook to explore equatorial Africa; in 1877, after a thousand days, he emerged at the mouth of the Congo. At once England took up the work of following the steps of the explorer with the march of the missionary, and now, ten years later, the missions of the great lakes in the east, and those of the Congo basin at the west, are stretching hands to link east and west together. Give us ten years more and Krapf's prophecy will be fulfilled: "A chain of missions will cross the continent." In 1884, fifteen nations, called together by King Leopold and presided over by Bismarck, met in Berlin to lay the basis of the Congo Free State; and in that council not only Protestant, but Greek, Papal, and Moslem powers joined I Such are some of the great providential signs of a supernatural presence and power. What shall be said of the gracious transformations that have displaced cannibal ovens by a thousand Christian churches in Polynesia; that reared Metlakahtla in British Columbia; that made Madagascar the crown of the London Missionary Society; that turned SielTa Leone into a Christian state; that wrought mightily with Hans Egede in Greenland, Morrison and Burns in China, Perkins and Grant in Persia, Carey and Wilson and Duff in India, McAll in Paris, ,and a host of other missionaries!

If disciples are indifferent to missions it is because they are ignorant 'of missions. A fh'e needs first of all to be kindled, then to be fed, then to have vent. The only power that can kindle the flame of missionary zeal is the Holy Spirit. The coal must be a live coal from God's altar. But, having that coal and a breath from above, all that is needed is fuel to feed the flame, and that fuel is supplied by a knowledge of facts. Too much care cannot be taken to supply these facts in an attractive, available form, at the lowest cost. The women's boards and societies have done no greater service than in providing and distributing a cheap literature of missions. The printed facts that are to do this work of education must be put in the briefest and most pointed form. This is an age of steam and telegraph. While Methusaleh turned round, we have gone around the globe. Men need now what they can catch at a glance. Ponderous volumes may do for ponderous men, who have leisure for prolonged study and research, but the bulk of people must get their knowledge of facts in a condensed form. Our bulletins must be bullet-ins. Some of us must skim the great pan and serve up the cream in a little pitcher, rich and sweet; we must boil down the great roots and give others the sweet liquorice in the stick, so that a bite will give a taste and make the mouth water for more. Students of missions will read with avidity the Ely Volume, and" the Middle Kingdom,"and kindred books that are the authorities on missions; but students of missions are not made by this process. We must feed first with milk, and not with strong meat-and by the spoonful, until both capacity and appetite are formed.

The value of simultaneous meetings, missional:y conventions, and other special services consists perhaps mainly in the wide, rapid, and attractive and effective dissemination of intelligence. Truths and facts are brought before the mind with all the help of the enthusiasm of a public assembly. The eye helps the ear in producing and fastening impression. The hearer comforts the living men or women who have come from the field, perhaps with the very idols of the heathen in their hands, or the relics of their superstitious practices; sometimes the native convert, or preacher, himself pleads for his benighted fellow countrymen. And so the most apathetic soul, III whom grace has kindled the fire of love, finds the fire burning, spreading, consuming selfishness, and demanding a proper vent in Christian effort! This is the way that missionaries are made.

In 1885 there assembled at Mr. Moody's boys' school at Mount Hermon, in Massachusetts, about 300 student." from the various colleges for a few weeks of study of the Word of God. A few who had in view the foreign field greatly desired a missionary meeting, and all the students were invited. There was not even a missionary map to assist in impressing the facts; the speaker drew on the blackboard a rude outline of the continents, and then proceeded to trace the great facts of missions, and so deep was the interest awakened, that meeting after meeting followed; from about a score, the number who chose the mission field rose to a hundred; then certain chosen men resolved to go and visit the colleges and carry the sacred fire; they went, met their fellow-students, and brought out the leading facts of missions; and to-day, in America and England, a band of probably no less than 3,000 young men and women stand ready to go to the foreign field if the door shall open before them. If disciples do not wish to flame with missionary zeal, ~hey must avoid contact and converse with the facts and the heroic souls who are the living factors of missions. It is dangerous business to trifle with the combustible material, unless you are quite sure there is not even", spark of life or love in your soul!

Among the means of education we mention last what in the order of time and of importance belongs first: the influence of Christian women in the home life. If God has shut out the ordinary woman from much participation in public life, and shut her in the home, iii is because her sphere makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. Here are life's arcana, veiled from the common eye; the home is the matrix of character. The faith of the grand- mother Lois and mother Eunice still descends to Timothy. Anthusa and Monica still give the church her golden-mouthed Johns and her giant Augustines. To one woman may be traced the rise of the seven kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy. At evet'y stream there isa point where a human hand might turn its current, and at that point in human lives the wife and mother presides. The heathen rhetorician Libanius exclaimed: "What women these Christians have!" And, if the secret things were brought to light, it might be found that many, beside Morrison and Burns and Lindley and Pat- teson, have owed their saintly character and missionary career to the sanct- ity of a mothet'. Even before birth, maternal character leaves its impress upon the unborn, and at the mother's breast and knee the earliest lessons are learned in piety and prayer and personal consecration.

The nursery may be the garden where the precious germs are first nourished from which develop pillars of cedar and olive for the temple of God. The Earl of Shaftesbury learned of humble Maria Millis the first lessons in living,which made his influence capable of being measured only by parallels of latitude and meridians oflongitude, and its results only-to be computed by the :eons of eternity! My sisters in Cht'ist, do not hesitate to break on your Master's feet your alabaster flask; though it may seem but as waste to some, the house shall be filled with the odor of your consecration, and you shaH at least create in the home a mighty mould of chat'acter from which shall go forth men and women whose words and deeds shall shake the world: Here, in the home, if prevailing selfishness and extravagant self-indulgence are to be correctea, must be taught first lessons in giving, the divine doctrine of stewardship, and the responsibilities both of wealth and poverty. Munificent legacies cannot atone for parsimonious gifts. It is not God or His poor who need our gifts, so much as we ourselves need to give. Giving is the sovereign secret of serving, but also of getting and growing. To deny self and help others is God's antidote to that monstl'ouS sin of selfishness w,hich is the root of all others; and soit is more blessed to give than to receive. And if there ever was an altar that sanctified, magnified, glorified the gift, it is the altar of missions. Let the ethics, the economics, the :esthetics of giving be taught at the mother's knee, and we shall have a new generation of givers.

Too much emphasis cannot be laid on placing at the center of the family a consecrated woman. She is like Goethe's mythical lamp, which, set in the humblest hut of the fisherman, changed all within it to silver. She pours on the root of the cocoanut-tree the water, which comes back, by and by, sweetened and enriched, in the milk of the cocoanut which falls from the top. A selfish, sordid woman, presiding in the home, perverts child-life; in such a household there is a malign influence, which, like the mirrors in the temples of Smyrna, represents the fairest images distorted and deformed, and makes even piety seem repellant. The more I see of woman's influence on the whole structure of society the more I feel the stress of the apostolic injunction that the believer should marry only in the Lord.

The responsibilities of wealth are to be discussed by another in a separate paper.' BlIt I must add, to complete my own thought, that, among other necessary reforms in our church life, we must cease to depend upon the donations of the rich. It is alike harmful to them and to the church. God never meant that with such wealth of divine promises we should appeal to the rich, and especially the worldly wealthy, for money for the kingdom. Such appeals discount our faith, dishonor our Lord, and humiliate the church, while they inflate the rich with self-righteous conceit and complacence as patrons of the cause of God. Let there be a Bible type of systematic and proportionate giving by every disciple, and the treasuries of the church would overflow with voluntary gifts of disciples.

Above all other spiritual agencies affecting missions from the home side, we place earnest and habitual prayer. This is a supernatural gospel and demands a supernatural power, for conversion is a supernatural work. Not even a knowledge of facts can make a missionary or inspire a missionary spirit. The coal must be there, and the breath of God, before even the best fuel will take fire. A thermometer may be held in the direct line of the sun's rays and show but little rise in temperature, because the radiant heat is reflected from the bright, glassy bulb, like light from a mirror. Heat rays from the sun may pass through a lens of ice, and concentrated to a sufficient deeree to ignite, at the focus, combustible material, and yet those rays may not melt the ice of which the lens is formed. It is only when knowledge is sanctified by prayer that it becomes a power.

For one, I regard the increased-or rather the revived-observance of the monthly concert as a necessity to true home work for missions. It is now comparatively a thing of the past. Once it was a regular observance of the first Monday of each month; then merged into the first Sunday evening; then the first mid-week service; and in many cases, divided between home and foreign missions, it lost its original special character, and has now only a name to live, and is practically dead. I know a church member who thought the monthly concert meant a musical entertainment. To allow so valuable a help to the culture of intelligent interest in missions to he dropped from our church economy and become an arclu.eological curiosity is a fundamental mistake. It may be made both interesting and stimulating. I have found the most successful way of conducting it to be to divide the world-field among the church membership, so that every man and woman, willing to help, may have a special field from which to report from time to time, changing the fields once a. year, in order to broaden both intelligence and interest, Then have maps, and, best of all, maps made by the church members themselves. A man or woman who draws a map of any mission field will never lose the image of that field from the mind's eye. I have had a full set of fine maps made for me without a penny's cost, by members of my own congregation.

The lack of earnest, believing, united prayer for missions is both lamentable and fatal to success. Prayer has always marked and turned the crises of the kingdom. No sooner do devout souls begin to unite in definite supplication than stupendous results begin to develop. Fifty years ago the burden of prayer was for the opening of doors, and one after another the iron gates opened as of their own accord. Then the plea went up for larger gifts of money; and at a critical period, when the whole onward march of missions was threatened, God gave a spirit of liberality; in 1878, that annusmirabilis, some twenty persons gave about four millions of dollars. Woman came to the front, and showed how, by gathering the mites systematically, the aggregate of gifts may grow steadily year by year, and rapidly. Then devout dis-

1888.J THE HEROIC MISSIONARY SOCIETY

ciples were led to pray for more laborers, and especially for the consecration of our foremost youth; and now from the universities of Britain and America a host of three thousand young men and women are knocking at the doors of the church, saying, "Here we are; send us;" and even the church that has been praying for this very result can scarce believe that they stand before the gate.

Brethren, we shall have learned little at this Conference if we shall nothave learned new lessons of the power of prayer. Themistocles delayed the naval engagement at Salamis until the land-breeze blew which swept his vessels toward the foe, and left every oarsman free to use the bow and the spear. How much wasted time and strength might be saved if the church of God but waited for the breath of the Holy Spirit to provide the impulse and momentum which we vainly seek to supply by our own energy and endeavor! When He breathes and blows upon us, how tbey who have toiled in rowing are left free to wield the weapons of the Lord's warfare, to exchange secular anxieties for spiritual successes!

Zoroaster bade his followers let the fires go out periodically upon their hearthstones, that they might be compelled to rekindle them at the sacred altars of the sun. What mean the smouldering en;bers on our hearths and altars, but that we have forgotten whence come the live coals, and the breath which alone can fan them into an undying flame!

THE HEROIC MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

BY ROBERT N. CUST, J.L.D., LONDON.

(Ooncluded from page 603, August number.) I NOW pass to the Heroic Missionary Society. I take as my type "the Moravian, 01' the Church of the United Brethren;" for the church and society are identical. It was the offspring of a bitter persecution by the Roman Catholics in Moravia: a small remnant fled across the boundary of hated Austria into Lusatia, and settled on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, and founded their city of Herrnhut. I have lately visited it, sat in the councilroom, conferred with the leaders of the community, visited their widows and worn-out missionaries in their humble homes, and knelt in their great Freidhof: they were first in the Protestant mission field, they are one ot the few associations that have obtained a footing in everyone of the five portions of the world: and they deliberately chose the most debased and degraded tribes as the object of their love, because such as they seemed to need the gospel most; their agents in truth wore the garb of poverty, and were poor in spirit also; in the countries, where they worked among slaves, they became slaves also, even as our Lord took upon himself the form of a slave, "p.6p</>1JV dOVAOV Aaf3wv." With the poor Hottentot they were not ashamed to suffer hardship and persecution, and to maintain that these poor outcasts had souls for which Christ had died: with the Eskimo they lived as brethren, and won them to themselves, content with the poorest and most unsavory fare, laboring with their own hands, trying not to be a burden to their church, which was so poor that it has still to be sustained by the alms of universal Christendom, for they were doing work which no other society could do; they literally went about as the disciples of Jesus, without scrip 01' change of garment, and their examples of self-denial carried the hearts of their people by storm: in these last days they have opened an asylum for lepers at Jerusalem. Their doctrmes were as simple as their practice, "Nothing but Christ crucified"; they had a courage which no danger could daunt, and a love which no harsh treatment could efface; who ever heard of a Moravian appealing to public meetings, or a public press, to organize armed relieC-e:fpeditions, or avenge their slaughtered brethren? They took death and the spoiling of their goods joyfully; they had a quiet constancy which no hardship could exhaust; there were, and are, no Exeter Halls to trumpet their praise; in their church there are no rich men to sub- scribe annual thousands, and yet they have left a mark on the world which no time can efface. Their types were, ,singleness of pm'pose, simplicity of bearing, self-consecration, and contentment with a little. If I wished to praise a missionary, I should say that he is worthy of being a Moravian. Many societies have done well, but this has excelled them all, for it has most nearly approached to the ideal church, formed after the pattern of the Founder-first and foremost in the great battle-field, yet seeking the last and lowest among the ranks of men. "I was a stranger, and ye took me in; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." The blessings of those ready to perish have accompanied, and still accompany, the gentle footfall of the Moravian brethren, as they tread the soil of distant and inhospitable climes, unknown, unpraised, but not unrewarded, The mode of conducting missions must be heroic also. We have but one _.life to keep or lose: how can we spend it in the best way? If souls are to be won to Christ, it must be by men or women whose souls are overflowing with lo'e to Christ. We ask not for ascetics, nor adopters of the native dress, nor the turner of the formal prayer-wheel, nor the daily celebrant, but such an expression of character on the countenance, such a mode of utterance, such a voice, thoughts that move, words that burn, as display earnestness and that the soul of the missionary is on fire. All human talents are only so far profitably employed, as they are used to save souls; all human knowledge is of no avail, unless it conduces directly or indirectly to the extension of our Master's king- dam: the simple gospel outweighs it all, so simple that all can understand, so profound that no one can get beyond, ,The great he- roes of whom I have spoken, and the great missionary band of Moravian heroes, differed from each other essentially, but they had formed the same conception of Christ, and of their duty; they looked over the human fences of churches, and saw the awful vision of the face of Christ only; they had a burning desire to carry His message face to face, mouth to mouth, in i{s naked simplicity; they thought nothing of chapels, and altar-cloths, stoles, m.usic, painted glass and decoration; they took the living Word to dying souls, teaching the poor heathen to live decent, holy lives in this transitory world, and through faith to inherit eternal life hereafter. There was no necessity for hair shirts or flagellations, for long ceremonies or retreats; theirs was the daily round of holy duty, whether steering the mission-ship, building the mission-school, or preaching the mission-sermon, until the very hour that they are called away, which is the best proof that their allotted task was done. I would have you realize the dignity, the greatness of the office: it is not a romantic or sentimental employment, such as discoursing witb Brahmins under a tree, or gathering sweet little children in a school; there is much that is distasteful, and humbling, and sometimes a feeling of despair.

The hero must not be cast down, must not be diverted from his purpose, must not change his ground. We can admire the perseverance of a bad man in a bad cause, how much more 01 a good man in a good cause I The famous Las Oasas had a fixed purpose to protect the poor natives of America, and he IS reported to have done,something every day of his life to advance the one great idea which dominated his existence. Hudson Taylor has put it well, "GO· in glad obedience; in fullest confidence, without anxiety, to do a definite work." Such is the high type, s,uch the practice of those hero-missionaries, * * * whom I have noticed. (See our !August number.) Let me look at the subject from another point of view. How much do we read, in missionary letters and reports, of theirfamilies, birth of children,death of children, illness of wife, and domestic cares, while the reader is anxious to know how the gospel warfare goes on, what progress has been made. Only imagine the public dispatch of a general or governor in which such details were even alluded to! In private letters to friends such things might be noticed, but not in the documents placed before the dommittee. Nothing strikes a committeeman more than the preponderate proportion of the corre- spondence which is occupied with notices of the wives and children of mis- sionaries, as if the committee were a board of guardians of the poor. How often a missionary comes home in full health and vigor, leaving for a time, or forever, a field of work for which he is suited, and in which, after some years of pupilage, he has learned to be useful, because his wife is ill ! Would the general commanding an expedition, or the governor of a province, have done so? How often the Indian official, or soldier, has to ship off a sick wife and cannot accompany her! We have not far to look to find out what St.

Paul would have said, and what our Lord did say (Mark x : 29). Even in the life of John Williams we find mention of the illness of his wife brought much too prominently forward: he was !1lways anticipating the necessity of an early return to England for her sake: but he clung on for eighteen years, and she arrived home in excellent health, and outlived him some years. It is against this exaggeration of human affections that the servant of Christ should struggle valiantly and prayerfully.' * * * * There are giants amidst the body of missionaries, for whom nothing is too good, for they would in secular professions have risen to distinction and wealth, but to a very large proportion this would not have happened. The praise of the good, self-denying, consecrated missionary is in the heart of all who care for such things, and many, unknown to him personally, talk lovingly of him when he is absent, and sadly when he is dead; but the great missionary is thinking always of his own infirmity, of how much he has left undone, and how much he could have done better, and rejoicing that it is given to him to spend and be spent. There is in modern times a far wider spread of missionary spirit than in past years, but it is not so deep; it has become a fashion, not a revelation, in a man's mind.

We find no idle calls on the part of the heroic missionary society, or the survivors and relatives of hero-missionaries, for vengeance on the murderers of the slain; this is one of the features of the gradual degeneracy of the age and the overweening self-assertion of a certain section of the British middle classes. It is well to have a giant's strength, but it is not well to use it as a bully. Nothing would have been easier than to have swept the islands of Erromanga and Nikapu from sea to sea clean of all their inhabitants to re- venge the deaths of Williams and Pattison; but the missionary societies pro- tested against the very idea of retaliation, nor would tl:J.e British responsible authorities have tolerated it. The relations of the deceased did not gather excited meetings in British towns, and pass resolutions, as in later cases, to petition the Government to send expeditions of rescue or intimidation. Such weakness of faith, such want of sound judgment, such incomprehensibleruis- 1 We do not indorse all the strictures and criticisms of the writer in this paper, and think he is at times unduly severe and sweeping. Still, what he writes on mi.sionary subjects-and few write more-deserves careful reading and candid consideration. Missions and missiOnaries have not IL warmer friend thllIl he.-EDs. understanding of the duty of a Christian man, were reserved to a later age. On the platform the missionary proudly, yet humbly, professes that he C.al'- ries his life in his hand, ready to live, God willing, and ready to die: if this were not the case, how low the British missionary would rank after the Swede, the Norwegian, and the Swiss, who have no ships to send, and whose countrymen still are ready to give up their lives, and fill up all that remains of the sufferings of Christ. If a misdionary has not stomach for such warfare, he had better retire into the safe refuge of a London curacy, or a Lancashire manufactory, where he will find heathen to minister to, without risk to his life, or causing alarm to his over-anxious relations.

The hel'o-missionary remembers that his service is a life-sel'vice, not the pastime of youth, or the employment of manhood, until a good living and a pleasant home is provided for him in his native country. Nothing is so disheartening as to !;lee so many instances of this forgetfulness of their first love, and of the words of our Lord (Luke ix : 62), "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 'l'here should be no discharge in this warfare save death or certified ill-health of the missionary himself, not of his wife and his children. It is a matter of congratu- – lation that we have aged bishops content to occupy their posts until death, that we have missionaries who have not preferred tbe ties of blood or the claims of family to the work which has been the desire of their youth, the joy of their manhood, and the solace of their old age. The hero-missionary is tender in heart, gentle in words, slow to anger, and easy pacified. He is not insensible of the heinousness of sin, but his heart melts in pity towards the sinner. He does not strike with his hl),ud or stick the bodies of the poor natives whose souls he has come out to try to save; he does not usurp an authority over them because his face is white and he is one of a strong nation, as he remembers that he is their minister, the servant of servants, as was his Master, who washed the feet of His disciples; he doe~ not tie them up to trees to be flogged, and kept in durance for whole nights, but he .attaches them to himself by the silken cords of love.

He may be the son of a noble in his own country, and he is not puffed up, or he may be the son of a country shopkeeper, and he is not abashed, nor does he strive in his new profession to be coventionally treated as a gentleman, for in his humility he takes in either case the standpoint of being a Christian, occupying the same position that was occupied by Paul the great scholar and Roman citizen, and by Peter the humble fisherman : he seeks not high places, nor great companies, nor first-class accommodation in steamers or railways; he is economic of the funds of the good society which is his nursing mother; he is not always calling out for grants for his wife or his children; he does not dwell in a fine, comfortable house, for he minds not high things, and is content with men of low estate; his door is ever open to the people, whom he came to win to Christ; his attire is simple, and he seeks not the company of this world, though indirectly the type of the holy, upright man, which he presents to their eyes, has a reflex blessing on their souls; though silent, his life is a sermon to them. He acts up to the ideal of the Christian soldier which he had conceived in his youth when the message came to him, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed him; to be brave and strong, yet loving and tender; full of holy ardor yet self-controlled and free from spurious excitement; firm in convictions, yet tolerant; firm of purpose, yet merciful and considerate; meek and lowly, yet proud of his calling; fearing God, and fearing no one else.

~y friends, you must lJe thorou~hly equipfled for th«;l cQmbilot with something more than the surface teaching of the ordinary theological college. One of my fellow-students, forty years ago, at the East IndIa Cl>Uege, was a Jew, a believing Jew and a clever Jew, and he took the highest marks in PalPy's Evidences. I asked him whether he were not entirely convinced, and he re- plieu that it had not the least effect upon him. Such must often be the teach, ing of the oruinary missionary to a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Mahometan, and, to a certain degree, to the Pagan. It is always easy to speak with contempt of the Indian Fakir, smeared with ashes, and sneer at the pJ'ayer-wheel of the Buddhist (something very like which in kind is found ill many a Christian church) and point out the blots in the Mahometan scheme of salvation; it seems casy to show up the utter abomination of pagan human sacrfiices; but the missionary will find that behind these exoteric symbols there is a rad- ical misconception of the problem of human nature in the minds of the pro- fessors of a false religion, and behind the poor ignorant devotee he will flnd men with minds much more l;ubtle than his own, gifted with a power of argu- ment far .exceeding his own, appealing to authorities, of which the ITltssion- ary is ignorant. The idol is something more to the believer than a bit of wood and stone; the believers are not men of the nineteenth century, and with the impress of European training. To miracles and prophecies quoted by the missionary the teachers and believers of the false faith will quote prophecies and miracles of their own; to the words of the Bible and the claim of inspil'ation they will oppose the words of their own sacred books, and claim equal supernatural authority; the sequence of historical events and the facts of geography are unknown to them; it becomes at last a struggle for life upon the first principles of human existence, and the contest must take place upon an arena, of which the poor theological student of England never dreamt, behind the altar, out of sight of the church, in scorn of the Bible or any Christian authority, and nothing but the outpoUl'ing of the ,Holy Spirit can bring the unbeliever to see, and know, and bow to the truth.

The Hindu in his prolific literature works out his great metaphysical ques- tion, "What am I? whence came I? whither dol go?" , lIov yev6f1a1; 1f60ev ripl; rivo, XaplV i;')JJov, a1fij')JJov; and it ends in nothingness; his successor the Buddhist makes this nothing- ness the object, aim, and end of existence; the Mahometan boldly pillages the Old and New Testaments to fashion a system which can never respond to the yearnings of the human heart or satisfy its aspirations; the pOOl'

pagan in his blindness is so far ahead of the modern educated atheist, that he feels and admits the presence of the Deity and His omnipotence, and tries to appease Him by sacrifices; he is ready, however, to listen to some- thing better, and welcomes the teacher, who .comes with a semblance of greater knowledge of the great Unknown. We read how, when the first missionary arrived from Rome in Northumbria, and a council was summoned to discuss how be should be received, a wise old baron remarked, that the life of man seemed to them in their heathen ignorance, like the flight of a bird outo[ the dark winter outside into the warm and lighted chamber, and then out at a window into another world of dark winter at the opposite side; the passage of a moment from a long unknown past into a long and unknown future; the contemplation of this was crushing; and, if the stranger from Rome could tell them something a little more certain, he should be wel- comed. Such is the spirit, with which a teacher is welcomed in many a pagan community. But is the ordinary missionary equal to this occasion?

Bred up in an atmosphere permeated by Darwinism and atheism, in a church whel'!~ more value is plac~d on the human surroundings, the ritual and th~ externals than the eternal truth, can it be hoped that he will mount up to the level of the religion of religions, the object and aim of human existence, and with the Bible in his hand aRd in his heart, and nothing else, grapple with the Hindu, Buddhist, Mahometan, or Pagan on the common ground of right and wrong, truth and -falsehood, judgment and mercy, sin and repentance, pardon and peace, opening out new worlds of thought to his astonished hearers? The hero-missionary can do this. He exhibits his principles, and his doctrines in his Christ-like life and words, and challenges his hearers to show him a better way than the way of self-sacrifice, self-control, and selfconsecration, to procure a higher conception than that of the fatherhood of God, of faith in a Redeemer, of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit leading poor weak men to personal holiness.

There are plenty of men who will volunteer to go out and dwell a season amidst the polished Persian, the civilized Arabized races, the Indian, who, with all his faults, is gentle and reasonable, the intelligent Chinese, and the progressive Japanese. They represent nations on the highest roupds of the ladder of civilization, our superiors in many arts and graces, with their monuments of literature, and architecture, and their time-honored customs: they have centuries ago got beyond the epoch of human sacrifices or cannibalism; they have had in their midst great sages who felt after God, if haply they could find Him, men standing on the same platform as Socrates, and Aristotle, and Pythagoras. There is very little discomfort in such service, and no danger; mere worldlings dwell among such races for the purpose of commerce and the service of the state. We do not wish to undervalue such services, for such were the missionary operations of St. Paul among the Greeks and Romans. The process of sapping and mining has long been going on. Education has brought with it a contempt for idolatory, but civilization has brought with it a contempt for all religions, and a disbelief in the supernatural, a doubt as to the reality of a future state.

But this is not the higher order of service; it does not mean the same self-sacrifice; it does not approach so near the services rendered to man by our Saviour; our Lord abased himself when He took the form of a slave and became man for our redemption. He thought it not vile to dwell in the tents of men, and associate with the poor, erring children of men. Patteson and John Williams, and the whole army of Moravian missionaries, learnt to look over the-wall of partition that separates race from race, and to call no one common and unclean; there have been missionaries who have had the fortune given to them to go in and dwell among lepers, and have succumbed to the disease themselves; there are those who have found a grace vouchsafed to them to dwell among the POOl', dirty savage outcasts of the human family, to submit to insult, hardship and perils; to die in spirit every day, and at length breathe out their last breath in some round straw hut, looking to Jesus, yet still thinking of friends and home.

U Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos."

But there was no murmuring, for they knew how to be humbled but not ashamed, to be cast down but not disheartened, bearing about them the marks of the spear in their sides, and the print of the nails on their hands and feet. The service of such was great and noble; the heart of the worlding beats high when he hears of such achievements. Surely there must be joy in heaven w/len one of the miserable savages, to the outward eye nearer the beast than the man, is brought into the fold, and his body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, for Chris~ in very deed died for him also. The seU-sacrificing missionary teaches the men to lJe br(l.ve, yet not cruel, and the women to be sweet and affectionate, yet not unchaste; out of the stores of his acquired experience he teaches them humble arts, and the very rudiments of knowledge, the very fundamental of human graces, to be decent in act and word, to respect human life, to recognize property, to be sober and chaste, to love God as a father and cease to fear Him like a slave, to bow in gratitude to the free offer of pardon. And yet all this is possible: it has been done, it may be done again; it must be done by some of you who stand here and hear me this day: "EV 'TOV'Tr,J VlK(L."

It will be nothing wonderful, if in due time we convert the people of India, China, and the extreme Orient. They are not wiser and stronger than were the Greeks and Romans in the day of their greatness, and we know that the cross proved sufficient for their conversion. And experience has shown that the same cross is sufficient for races whom Cmsar never knew, of whose existence the Greek philosophers, and even St. Paul, had not the faintest idea. We thus begin to realize the full meaning of the prophecies of Isaiah, "The isles!lhaU wait for his law," and the words of our Lord, "They shall gather his elect from the uttermost parts of the earth," and again, in the Revelation, "Behold a great number, whom no man can number, out of every nation, and all tribes, and peoples and tongues."

There are three classes, in one or other of which you must, as Christian men, range yourselves : I. Whatever secular station you occupy, whether at home or abroad, you -must place the duty of assisting the evangelizing of mankind in the very first rank of duties, for nothing can approach it in impdrtance; if your lot takes you to non-Christian countries, you will find plenty of opportunities to serve the cause, and bitterly you will regret in your old age, if you neglect your opportunities.

II. If you have a call to go forth as a missionary to the civilized non-Chris- tian nations, if you find yourself in possession of special gifts, consecrate them; do not take a worldly view of the subject, and mix up a mission to a dying world with visions of early matrimony, social advantage, and a pleas- ant career. Mere worldlings act thus. Many a soldier, many a student of nature, ml:ny a ruler of men has risen far above such a low level of human aspirations. The athlete and the mechanic give you a lesson. Show to the heathen that you come among them unjerstanding the law of self-sacrifice, and that you come not, as the haughty Briton, one who lords it over, and sometimes strikes or ill-uses the lower races, but as then' brother and their servant for Christ's sake.

III. But Jet me show a more excellent way to those who are strong in body, strong in spirit, and also have worked out the sublime idea of self-sacrifice and self-consecration. The call will come to some of you, as it has come to others, in your dreams by night, in your visions by day, as you walk alone, or are in prayer, or in the midnight watches. It will gradually overpower you and make you captive, and at length you will call out with a loud voice, "Send me, Lord, for I am ready." For still many a sunny island of the South Seas, many a retired valley of the great central plateau of Asia, many a dark, forest-clad savannah of ,the great valley ot the Congo, many a wild tribe of South America, and, alas! our own fellow-subjects, the neglected, ill-treated Australian aborigines, and the poor Bushmen of the Cape Colony, are waiting, waiting for the moving of the waters of the fountain of life, and for some one to help them down; lifting up their eyes for the sight of the blessed feet of those who bring the gospel message; calling for their man, the Allen Gardiner, and Patteson, and Williams of this generation; they are standing in your midst, though not as yet revealed to the eyes of men. In the long course of centuries no prophet or evangelist has ever come near these poor heathen; they have laid out of the course of the revolution of the gospel; they are waiting for one who, in his life as well as his words, will illustrate to them the life and passion of our Lord and their Lord; they ask not for the refinement, nor the fantasies of modern religious thought and practice, but with dumb voices they ask the men of the nineteenth century and civilized Europe to teach them to clothe their nakedness, to dwell in decent dwellings, to cluster in villages, to live with one consort, and to respect human life, to do all things in a Christian way, and to realize the presence of the risen Saviour. In the last desperate struggling of heathendom it may be .:that the man of God, who thus appears like an angel among them, will be killed and devoured; but his death will prove the dawn of the new life; over the martyr-tomb will spring up the new chapel, and the younger generation, who witnessed the slaughter and partook of the ter~ible feast, will, by the grace of God, be converted and made new men, and, like St. Paul, become evangelists. When their day of grace comes, and they understand the matter, like the Jews at Jerusalem a few days after the crucifixion, they will be pricked to the heart. History is always repeating itself; but on this generation, the men of your age and country, rests the duty of completing the work, till the gospel cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. At the present moment there are regions still unevangelized, sufferings for Christ's sake not yet suffered, and crowns of martyrs and confessors not yet won.

Finally, my dear friends, suffer me to say to you one word more, and this word applies not only to the missionary, whose vocation is the highest of earthly vocations, but to each one of us, however humble and prosaic our special vocation may be. What were we created for? Why are we kept alive, except to do some special work which is marked out for us by the inexorable teaching of circumstances, circumstances wqich are controlled by the omniscience of God I How can we succeed in any work if our attempts are not sanctified by prayer! "Labora et Ora," for true prayer is somethmg done in the service of the Master, followed by praise for being selected to do it; not the empty litany or the conventional prayer-meeting. Say what we like, we are all day-laborers, and he serves his God best who does his day's work in the best manner and in the best spirit. None miss so entirely the mainspring of human action as those who strive to dissociate religion from the simple round, the common task of the most prosaic, the mostunroniantic, the most depressing lot in life.

It is not success that sanctifies the work, fot many of the best of us in our noblest undertakings do not succeed. We are thwarted by some narrowminded obstructers standing on the next round of the ladder above us; we are baflled at every turn, and at length laid aside by poverty, sickness or death. It is not striving that wins; the race is n()t to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. We must not look for the selfish satisfaction of thinking that we have done something; we must not hope for the applause of bystanders, for the foolish multitude generally praise the wrong person, or praise the right person for the wrong thing. We must find our reward in the work itself; something each day accomplished; something done; some kindly word spoken; some cup of water offered to the suffering; some noble thought cherished, some achievement, which the world ought not willingly to let die, shadowed forth, thought out, conceived, If not actually brought forth. Good work, earnest work, prayerful work, can never be without a

A TRINITY OF MONSTROUS EVILS DENOUNCED. 6'75

blessing to the worker, which will follow him after life's endless toil and endeavor to his rest, and what greater work than the saving of a soul I I once stood at the mouth of the great Panjab Salt Mine on the river Jhilam, and watched the long procession of women, children and men, of young and old, slowly advancing towards me, toiling up the steep incline, each with his head bent and back curved under the burden of rock-salt, which they brought from !he bowels to the surface of the earth. This was their hard and palpable day's labor. To the strength of each the burden was adjusted ; the young daily grew into capacity to bear heavier, the old daily felt their strength less equal to their diminishing load, but all rested night after night wearied with their daily round, and all each morning rose to the consciousness of a day's sweating and straining, and a risk of accidents and disease, and the dark river to be crossed at last. Tears started in my eyes as I thought of the sad procession of my contemporaries, whom dut'ing my own life I had seen toiling and striving, lifting their heavy burdens, or sinking by the way under them. I thought of the strong and enthusiastic, too eager for the strife, who fell years ago; the patient and uncomplaining, who toiled on till within the last few years; the yearly diminishing group of fellow-laborers, with yearly diminishing force, and the dark unknown future before me.

But there is no prison so deep that its depths are not reached by some ray of God's interminablfl day, and, as I looked into the faces of the salt-bearers, I became aware that one ray of light reached to the lowest slope of their dungeon, and, as they advanced upwards, it ever became brighter and brighter, shining hopefully in their uplifted eyes, and gladdening their hearts with the thought of home, and rest, and of labor, sanctified for the sake of the little ones, the old ones, the sick ones, to whose cOljJlforts their earnings ministered. The hero-missionary places the heathen, to whom he goes as Christ's ambassador, in that corner of his heart where other men place their families. Nay, more; God's greatlessons are taught in His works and in His creatures. As each laborer reached the outer world, and flung ((own his burden, his eyes insensibly turned up with a look of thankfulness and acknowledgment to the kindly light which had led him, and then each unconsciously shrouded his eyes with his hands, as if unable to bear the full glow of unutterable gladness, which the grace of Gcd sends to testify to the sanctity and dignity of labor, however humble and contracted the sphere: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things. 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

A TRINITY OF MONSTROUS EVILS DENOUNqED.

[A popular meeting of an extraordinary character was held on Wednesday evening, the twelfth dl>y of the session for the express purpose of giving public and indignant expression to the intensified feeling of the Conference in relation to three stupendous evils which had been brought to its notice during the meeting. It was not down on the programme, but the Loudon papers speak of it as a "magnificent dembnstration," and the most .. enthusiastic as well as the largest meeting of the series. Several of the speakers were Americaus-Dr. William M. Taylor of New York, Dr. A. J. Gordon of Boston, Dr. G. E. Post of our Syrian Mission, and our associate, Dr. Pierson of Philadelphia. We have full reports of the meeting in various English papers, aud proceed to give our readers a bird's-eye view of the great meeting, that they may feel the pulse of the world's missionary representatives in regard to such giant social, commercial and national sins as those here unauimously denounced by the largest and grandest popular council ever held. We follow chiefly the report in The Christian of London.-J. M. S,1 THE final meeting of the great Missionary Conference will not soon be fo.rgotten by those who were present. It was the largest of the series, and by far the most enthusiastic. The subjects under consideration-the Opium Traffic, the Drink Traffic, and Licensing Sin-naturally lent themselves to the expression of strong feeling; both speakers and hearers fully took advantage of the opportunity. The opinion was expressed during the evening that in the matter of the opium trade the Christian conscience of Great Britain has of late gone to sleep. The proceedings of Wednesday evening ought to do something in waki:e.g it up and keeping it wide awake till the cause for such wakefulness has disappeared. The outstanding features of the evening were the powerfully explosive utterance of Dr. Taylor, of New York, the remarkable reception given Mr. Alfred Dyer, on his return from India, and the heartiness of feeling shown towards our two eloquent American brethren, Dr. Gordon and Dr. Pierson.

"The chair was taken by Sir Arthur Blackwood, who was supported on either side by an array of gentlemen well known for their active interest in questions of national morality. In the opening prayer, Dr. Parsons, of Toronto, struck an appropriate keynote by his reference to the foes that oppose the kingdom of Christ and prevent the salvation of men.

SIR ARTHUR BLACKWOOD'S ADDRESS.

" After some remarks on the wisdom of the decision to hold such a meeting in connection with the Conference, the Chairman said: 'Not as part of a cutand-dried plan prepared beforehand, not as an outburst of hasty enthusiasm, but as the deliberate, solemn conviction of men and women qualified to judge, you have decided to speak out and denounce certain deeds and practices, and to deplore their terrible results. I a!ll sure I am right in saying that we do this in sorrowful confession of the blameworthiness of the churches, as well as in solemn condemnation of these practices. Were it not for lack of faithful testimony, watchful attention, earnest prayerfulness, courageous utterance, these things could never have attained their present magnitude. Surely the standard of morals in so-called Christian nations and governments must be low ir..deed, when practices like those cannot only continue unchecked, but be defended; and that not merely ou the ground of expediency, but of actual necessity. Where have the churches of Christ been in their testimony against these things? We must confess om' own guilt. We are not met for discussion; that time has gone by. Denunciation is our object to night-unanimous, I hope, and vehement if need be. What cause can demand it more? It is to be the denunciation of deedsdone contrary to every pre- cept of the gospel, contrary to the whole spirit of the Christian dispensation, and even protested against by the very heathen themselves. We are indeed deeply thankful that no sooner has one of those practices in its clear and ter- rible character been fully exposed and recognized than the British House of Commons resolved unanimously (for the few defenders of the practice dared not record their votes against the resolution) that this system should be abolished root and branch.* That proves, thank God, that the moral sense oC this nation is still alive with regard to such matters. But doomed systems often live long, and your denunciation and your protest to-night are none the less needful because, so far as that judgment has been uttered, this thing is doomed in all its horrible enormity and atrocity.

We are not only here to denounce, but to deplore the results, direct and in- direct, of these deeds and practices. The direct results, alas! who can esti- *This reference is to the formal licensing of harlotry by the British Government for the gratifiea- tion of the army in India. A fierce fight has been going on against the awful and scandalous in- Iqnity for months past, led on by Mr. Alfred S. Dyer, who in return has been assailed with as mnch bitterness as the Pall Malt Gazette once received for uncovering similar, though unlicensed, in- iquities in Lonaon. The British Parliament was finally forced by the terrible revebtlons made and the protests nttered to repeal the act, just as the Conference came together.-EDs. mate? Eternity alone will disclose the ruin to the thousands and thousands of bodies and souls of those amongst whom these practices have been carried on by members of so-called Christian nations-carried on by those who ought to have been the protectors and the friends and the saviors of the heathen to whom they went. The indirect results have been no less fatal. What might not the progress of the gospel of Christ have been among the nations of the earth had that gospel been commended and enforced by the lives of those who profess to be Christians? What can more effectually have barred its advance and have stayed its progress? I must allude here, for one mo- ment, to a challenge thrown down to you by the world. It is not often need- ful nor wise to pay much heed to what the world says about Christian work. Yet at times it is necessary, and I wish to draw your attention to the utter- ances of The Time8, which, in a leading article dealing with your Conference, spoke the other day in these words :- .. , Criticism cannot express itself aR altogether contented with the amoont of groond which has been annexed. • . • Before the promoters of missionary work can expect to have greater resources confided to them they will have to render a satisfactory acconnt of their trnst in the past. Their pro- gress, it is to be hoped, is sure; indisputably it is slow. A Congress like the present would be better employed in tracing the reasons for the deficiency in quantity of success than in glorifying the modi- com which has been attained. • • • The cause marches at a pace which, unless it is registered by the enthusiasm of Exeter Hall, appears little more than funereal. • • • For eyes not endowed with the second sight of the platform, the principal citadels of heathendom continue to 1lannt their banners as before. If some people profess to believe that they hear too much of foreign missions, the explanation is that they see too little of their results.'

"I think that demand is a fait- one, and that we are right in answering the challange. The world asks, Why have you not accomplished more? It says: 'Traae the reasons for your want of success, instead of talking about what you have done.' We have come together for that purpose to-night. Whilst . in the spirit of self-judgment and true humility before God for our well- known shortcomings in enthusiasm, in zeal, in self-denial, in prayerfulness, in effort, we declare before the world that, foremost, perhaps, amongst the causes which have hindered the progress of the gospel of Christ in heathen lands, have been the three practices which we desire to hear denounced to- night. How could it have been otherwise, when wherever the missionary has pitched his tent the rum merchant has sent his barrels, so that we have gone to the heathen in certain lands with the Bible in one hand and the rum-keg in another. What can those people have thought of the character of the Chris- tianity which thus presented itself to them? How can we wonder that the gospel makes small progress? With our cannon balls and bayonets we have forced the introduction of opium into China, and, alas! taught the popula- tion to grow the drug itself in order to oust our Indian products, thereby inflicting upon them irretrievable injury. What can that people think of the Christianity that came to them in that guise? And, again, when upon the defenseless, uneducated female population of India, a Christian government has fastened the horrible diabolical system to which allusion must be made to-night, and enforced it with all the tremendous weight of its authority; when side by side with the chaplain and the church has been the Govern- ment brothel, how can we wonder that there, in India, they have laughed at our Christianity, and cast contempt upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? If the world taunts the missionary enterprise with its little progress, and says, 'Find out the reasons for your lack of success,' we can indeed say, with all self-judgment as regards our own shortcomings, 'These practices, carried out by Christian nations, and authorized and enforced by so-called Christian governments, have much to bear of the blame for our want of success.' It is our business to-night to lift up our voices, and that with no bated breath; a.nd in no indistinct manner, to declare, in the name of the Lord, and on the ground of every obligation that we owe to Him who has redeemed-us by His blood, that, so far as lies in our power, so far as our protests and prayers can effect it, these deadly evils shall be stayed, and, by God's help, be impossible for the future."

THE CHINA OPIUM TRADE.

Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, moved the following resolution: .. That this Conference, representing most of the Protestant Missionary Societies of the Christian world, desires to put on record its sense of the incalculable evils, physical, moral, and social, which continue to be wrought in China through the opium trade-a trade which has strongly prejudiced the people of China against all missionary eftort; that it deeply deplores the position occupied by Great Britain through its Indian administration in the mauufacture of the product, and in the pr'Qmotion of the trade which is one huge ministry to vice; that it recoguizes clearly that uothing short of the entire suppression of the trade, so far as it is iu the power of the Government to suppress it, cau meet the claims of the case, and it now makes its earnest appeal to the Christians of Great Britain and Irelaud to plead earnestly with God, and to give themselves no rest until this great evil is entirelv removed; and further, that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for India.'

"Mr. Taylor observed that the fact that the opium traffic is a huge ministry to vice, and an obstacle to the evangelization of China, is surely sufficient reason why the subject should be brought forward and protested against by this Missionary Conference. He then said: 'I made the statement at a previous meeting, which I will repeat, that while the result of eighty years of evangelistic effort in China has brought us to rejoice in 32,000 converts to Christianity, about 150,000,000 of the Chinese have been either turned into opium smokers or have come to suffer from the opium vice, as husband, wife, father, or mothe)'. If the evil is so rampant, and it is most difficult to help the smoker or his unfortunate family, surely it is high time that our protest was raised against it, and that we did our utmost to bring the evil to an end.'

"Proceeding to quote from official documents and the writings of wellknown men, Mr. Taylor showed the iniquitous character of the traffic. Rev. Griffith John condemned it unsparingly, and appealed to 'the great heart of England' to remove the curse. Rev. Howard Malcolm, of the United States, remarked that' the proud escutcheon of the nation which declares against the slave trade bears in this trade a blot still broader and darker.' Mr. C. Aitchison, chief commissioner of British Burmah, in a memorandum addressed to the Government of India, speaks of the' demoralization, misery, and ruin produced among the Burmese by opium smoking.' After quoting other testimonials, Mr. Taylor contended that England is directly responsible for every acre of Chinese soil engaged in the cultivation of opium. We introduced the drug, and then the people of China raised it themselves. The Chinese appealed in vain to England's kindly feeling and sense of.rectitude; they appealed to every sentiment which was likely to move a professedly Christian people: but in vain. Then they came to the conclusion that Eng- land has no moral sense, no conscience, but only a pocket, and that the only way to move England was to prevent the money from reaching her revenue by China producing the drug at home, until the pressure of England is removed. , "The government of India is to a large extent the producer of the drug. More than half the drug manufactured in India is produced and sold directly by the government of India. It is said that we need the revenue. Remem- ber the well-known words of Mr. Henry Richard in the House of Commons. He said he had a firm conviction that no nation had ever been engaged in any business so absolutely indefensible on all grounds as the opium traffic: … It might be true that the power of England was forcing it upon the Chinese, and was spreading among them demoralization. disease and death-but there was the Indian Revenue. It might be true that the tralllc created an enormous amount of ill-will and heart-burning towards England on the part or the Chinese Government and the Chinese people, which had led to one war and might lead to another-but there was the Indian Revenue. It might be true that the traffic constituted the most formidable of obstacles to Christiauity among the Chinese-but there was the Indian Revenue. It might be true that it interfered with the development of every kind of legitimate commerce-but there was the Indian Revenue. It might be true that it dishonored the character of England in the eyes or other nations, and prevented her from protesting against similar practices elsewhere-bnt there was the Indian Revenue.'

"To put it plainly, as Mr. T. A. Denny had well put it, this plea amounts to this, that' the English nation cannot afford to do right.' I sincerely trust that this meeting will make it very plain that in its estimation the English nation cannot afford to do wrong. In conclusion, Mr. Taylor expressed a hope that the wrong may be put right while there is opportunity, and before the wrong-doer is visited by divine judgment.

Dr. James L. Maxwell, formerly missionary to Formosa, seconded the resolution. It is quite true, he said, that the Indian Government is the chief party to the evil. But before that there is a BritIsh House of Commons to be reached, and still before that there is the conscience of England to be reached, and, yet again, before that, there is the heart of the Christian church in England to be touched. The question is absolutely beyond discussion. We deliberately cultivate the poppy and minister to the vice of a heathen people; more than that, we fatten upon that vice, in spite of the fact that the rulers of the Chinese have again and again remonstrated with us, and in spite of the fact that our action is leading to the physical, moral and social ruin of the people. Of late years there has crept over the Christians of this country a very strange apathy in dealing with this opium trade. Intellectually we have acknowledged that it is wrong, and we have signed memorials against the traffic; but we have not kept it in our hearts as a burden upon our souls before God. Why do we not arouse ourselves? In this hall to-night, there is a constituency large enough, if set on fire on this subject, to begin to move England from end to end. Who dares to measure what the progress of speed in dealing with this would be, if each of us pledged himself before God not to forget the matter; but in private and in public so to move that this blot shall be removed from the nation? Only let us get to faithful handling of the evil, looking to God for help, and absolute suppression will in due course be reached." The resolution was carried unanimously.

NATIVE RACES AND THE DRINK.

Dr. W. M. Taylor, of New York, submitted the following resolution, which he supported, by a tremendous earnest and rousing- speech :'- " That the International Conference, compristng delegates from most of the Protestant Missionary Societies in the world, is of opinion that the traffic in strong drink, as now carried on by merchants belonging to Christian nations among native races, especially in Africa, has become a soarce of terrible and of wholesale demoralization and ruin, and is proving a most serions stumbling-block to the progress of the gospel. The Conference is of opinion that all Christian nations should take 8teps to suppress the traffic in all territories under their influence or government, especially in those under International control, and that a mutnal agreement shonld be made to this effect without delay, as the evil, already gigantic, is rapidly growing.

" After stating that he had received several pressing mandates on this topic, to be delivered to the Conference from Presbyterian bodies in the United States, Dr. Taylor said: 'We who look back to this as our dear old home-land have a very tender regard for her reputation, and we feel sad to have to hang our heads in shame over her when the opium traffic is brouglit up against her. But our hands in America are as deep in this drink traffic~ yours are, and we come here to beseech you a!ongwiih us that the Christian Church of Europe and America as a whole shall advertise itself out of this business, and shall declare that whosoever hereafter is responsible for its continuance, that responsibility, by the help of God, shall no longer lie at our doors. I protest against this traffic because of the demoralizing effect it has on the native races. We know something of what it does at home, but these effects are far more tremendous abroad. These native races are in the position of minors or infants. If we insist, and rightly insist, that those who sell liquor to children and minot'S shall be punished, shall we force this traffic on those nations that are composed of minors altogether? I protest against the traffic, also, because it is destructive of legitimate commerce. The expenditure of resources for the gratification of the drink appetite renders it impossible for the natives to deal in more wholesome articles of trade. I ask you, in the name of common sense and righteousness, if you are going to allow this one deadly traffic to deprive you of honest gain in those countries which in so wonderful a way have been opened up to trade in modern times? If you force rum upon them, you cannot give them cotton, because they have nothing to buy cotton with. But stay, there is one trade that may be Improved by the rum trade. I saw in one of your morning papers this week a paragraph with reference to King Quamin Fori, and a visit paid to him by Sir Brandford Griffith, Governor of the Gold Coast: 'All that King Quainin Fori asks is that Her Majesty's l'epresentive will instruct the merchants of Addah to pay for palm-oU in cash instead of gin.' The Governor, III answer to this appeal, said he could not interfere with the course of trade. The last sentence in the paragraph is to the following effect : of .. The prevalence of the habit among Christian traders in that region paying the heathen for his goods • in gin,' may possibly have something to do with the curious circumstance that king after king with whom the governor held a palaver, during his official progress, appears to have asked for a supply of handcull's,"

"Yes, the trade in handcuffs is one that is stimulated by the gin traffic. Here is a trade-mark for the gin bottle. Handcuffs! Handcuffs ! Yes, handcuffs that enslave, handcuffs that degrade; 0, yes, put it on the gin bottle everywhere.

"I protest against this traffic because of the retribution wbich it is sure to bring on the nations who protect it. I rejoice in the ringing words quoted by Mr. Hudson Taylor from Mr. Henry Richard: 'The government of God is real; the government of God is moral; the government of God is retribu- tive.' Has Great Britain forgotten to read the lesson of the Indian mutiny? Has America forgotten to read the lesson of the civil war? Shall we allow ourselves to go to sleep agamover an eVil like this, folding our arms and saying : ' Let it alone; it will take care of itself'? The Governor of the Gold Coast said, 'We cannot interfere with the course of trade.' This has been said again and again in history. It reminds me of the passage: 'Yet a little more sleep, a little more slumber . . . so shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man.' Oh, that armed man! We saw him in America twenty years ago, and Gettysburg was the retribution of letting it alone. You saw it in the Indian mutiny away back among the fifties, and that fearful time was the retribution of letting it alone. Are we to let it alone again, and bring down still greater retribution upon our heads in America and upon you here?

" Once more I protest against this detestable traffic because of its neutral- izing effect upon the efforts of our Chrlstian missionaries. Why should we go to the heathen handicapped and hampered by men who have no care but to make money, and who have yoked the motive-power of appetite to the car of Mammon, that they may ride the more surely over men? Oh, brethren, as the representatives of the Missionary Societies of the world, let us rise in our might and say: 'It is time that we should be unlimbered and unhampered and delivered from this terrible evil.' If the churches of England were united, and in earnest, and right, no government would be able to resist them. If the churches of England, of Europe, and America were united, and in earnest, and right, no evil in the world could stand before them. Let there be no pessimism among us in regard to this. PessimIsm is lor those who have no Christ; courage is the characteristic of those who know they have Him with them and in the midst of them. But we must ourselves have clean hands. Let us labor, and pray, and determine in the might of God to lay low everything in the shape of demoralizing traffic with these native races. Let us knock it on the head, and sweep its kennel clean out. The resolution was carried by acclamation.

KING LEOPOLD AND THE TRAFFIC.

" A third resolution, recognizing the benefits that have already accrued to Africa in connection with the founding of the Congo Free State by the King of the Belgians, invoking his aid in suppressing the drink traffic, and appointing a committee to proceed to Brussels and lay this important matter before his Majesty, was submitted to the meeting by the Rev. Dr. J. Murdock, of Boston. In doing so he mentioned an incident told in New York by Mr. H. M. Stanley. When that explorer met the King in Uganda, the King asked him many questions about Queen Victoria, the Emperor of Germany, and others i then he said, •What tidings can you bring me from above?' Mr. Stanley, unhappily, was not an expert in these matters, but he gave the King a New Testament, which he declared contained the only answer which man could ever receive to that most momentous inquiry. After a long passage across the continent, Stanley came at last to meet with the colored people of the Western Coast, and the first question they asked of him was, 'Have you any gin?' That, said Dr. Murdock, is the difference between heathendom pure and simple and heathendom as touched by the curse of Western civilization. It was in order to touch this evil at its very core that the matter would be laid before the King of the Belgians. The resolution was seconded by Mr. H. Grattan Guinness in a paper full of startling facts, most eloquently and impressively stated. The resolution was heartily agreed to i the gentlemen appointed to carry out its provisions being Dr. Murdock, Mr. Grattan Guinness, Mr. J. Bevan Braithwaite, and Mr• .Alfred Baynes.

L!OENSED VICE IN INDIA.

"The fourth and last resolution was moved by MI'. Alfred S. Dyer, who, as the Chairman remarked, had only a few days before returned from India. On rising, MI'. Dyer was greeted with oft-repeated rounds of cheering, and it was some time before he was able to speak. He read the resolution as follows: " That this Conference has heard with shame and sorrow of the extensive system of State·licensed vice carried on throughout India by authority of the Indian government; that at the same time it desires to place on record its deep sense of the great service rendered to the canse of morality and religion by the House of Commons determining the repeal of all legislation which anthorizes and en· courages vice; and it confidently expects that Her Majesty's government will now take Immediate measures to abolish what constitutes a social degradation, and so remove a stnmbling-block to religion, and the dishonor to the name of Great Britain which have resulted from this system; and further. that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Prime :Minister and the Secretary of State for Indis.

"The time being far spent, Mr. Dyer had proposed simply to read the resolution, leaving it to speak for itself without any advocacy of his own. In response, however, to the calls of the audience, he said: The uppermost feeling in my heart is one of unbounded thanksgiving to God for the great victory which has been gained in the House of Commons in this cause of social purity. I honor the noble men in that House who have stood faithful to this cause amid so much ridicule. I honor them in that they have been • faithful to the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I look upon this victory entirely as an answer to the prayers that have been offered up. We have been praying about it in India. Not a day passed that I did not pray for it, so that I feel, as I have said, unbounded thankfulness to God, while I thank those members of Parliament. After seven or eight months' patient investi- gation in India, and coming into contact also with the drink traffic, I have come to the conclusion that the two great obstacles to the success of mission- ary work in India are the systems of licensed vice and of licensed drink. I would only add that we must see that the resolution of the House of Com- mons is carried out in India. I hope in a few weeks to go back there; and I intend to stay there, to act as your representative, to exercise a due vigil- ance, and to see that the system of licensed Ivice is abolished. While I am there, I shall also make it my business to investigate further these questions of the drink traffic and the Chinese opium traffic, and to see if I can help you to get rid of them.

"Rev. G. E. Post, M.D., seconded the resolution. He said: 'It was with extreme repugnance that I undertook to speak. My repugnance arose from the fact that I felt myself to be a citizen of another land, and that this was a question which primarily concerned Britain. But in presence of such a ques- tion you are not Eng-lishmen, and I am not an American, but we are all of us citizens of the commonwealth of man, and endowed from heaven with the freedom of the city of God. I take that freedom to protest against the worst form of outrage that has ever been perpetrated against a defenseless people, Anglo-Saxon fathers, hang your heads with shame for the cause that brings us here to-night. Anglo-Saxon mothers, turn your hearts away from your husbands and your sons; you cannot look them in the face as you discuss a question like this. Anglo-Saxon daughters, draw your veils over your eyes lest you put me to silence by ihe mantling blushes on your cheeks. Twelve years ago the civilized world was stirred to its depths by the story of the Bulgarian atrocities. A few undisciplined Bashi Bazouks, elated by victory, were guilty of atrocities which brought down upon their country a desolating war, which dismembered it, and which drew from one of your statesmen that famous utterance that the Turks must be driven, 'bag and baggage,' out of Europe. We have been guilty of an atrocity which surely might justify the statement that we ought to be driven, 'bag and baggage,' out of Asia. This, moreover, is not an atrocity by a few guerilla soldiers, but by a Christian Government, with its two estab- lished religions and its numerous churches and chaplains. We have gone into India in an official capacity, to degrade, first our own sons, and then the daughters of the weak subject races. It is with shame that we confess that our race has sunk to such a degradation as that. Turn to a lIlore cheerful aspect, and reJoice at the action of the House of Commons. All honor to those noble men who have stood up and vindicated the right. I repudiate, and never will believe, the accusation, that the medical profession stands behind these acts. I have been a member of that profession for twentyseven years. I say that when you press this matter on your legislative bodies, you may rely upon the medical profession being with you. And let us press forward in the consciousness that God is with us." The resolution was carried unanimously.

CLOSING WORDS.

The evening was now far advanced, but the Chairman called out Drs. Gordon and Pierson for brief addresses.

Dr. A. J. Gordon said: "It has been said, and I think truly, that there is enough sentiment, and conscience, and enthusiasm, and spiritual power in this audience to move our governments to the abolition of these terrible iniquities. Let it be remembered for our encouragement that in England, when the slave trade was to be abolished, agitation began with only two or three men, who carried it to a successful issue. I remind you also that our great conflict in America began with two or three men, who for years stood alone. Again, remember that the leader of that movement placed on his banner the motto, 'Immediate, Unconditional Emancipation,' and in spite of all ridicule and all abuse, and all dissuasion, he never would take that motto off his banner, but carried it forward until at last the whole nation followed him, and we swept the curse of slavery from our land. I suppose it will be admitted by our American brethren that the most eloquent man America has produced in modern times was Wendell PhiUips. He stood side by side with Lloyd Garrison-the two stood alone for years. I remember the time when they could not rally twenty men in a city to listen to them, eloquent as they were. This, however, is what I am going to say: Dh, English women! oh, American women! do you know what you can do? Just before Wendell Phillips died, I had a memorable conversation with him. Knowing that he had sacrificed social position, and much besides, I had the curiosity to ascertain what led him into the agitation. He had an invalid wife, who for years never left the house. I asked, 'What first led you to espouse the cause of the slave and to stand by him? ' He replied, 'My whole career is due to my wife. She said to me before the thought had ever touched my conscience, 'Wendell, you must take up the cause of the slave,' and I did it at her request, and I fought it out because she stood behind me.' There is a lesson for Christian women! And now let us remember that if two leaders can. finally bring a whole vast nation to follow them in deIpanding the abolition' of such an evil, we are more than two, and we have had as eloquent men leading us to-night as either of those I have named. Let us follow them. There is nothing that ca'n stand against iteration and reiteration. Suppose you suspended a piece of iron .weighing a hundred pounds In the midst of this hall, and, when it was perfectly poised, you brought a schoolboy to pelt it with pieces of cork. At first there would be no impression, but if the boy kept at it long enough and directed the pieces of cork at one point, the time would come when the whole mass would begin to mo,'e. In like manner, our testimony may in itself be very weak and unworthy, but let us bring it to bear long enough-testimony after testimony, protest after protest, demand after demand, abhorrence after abhorrence, expressed in the intensest terms against these evils; and by and by the great mass will begin to move, and it will be swept out of the way. Let us not be disheartened. Let us take courage from the assurance that God will bruise Satan under our feet shortly."

Dr. A. T. Pierson, lD the course of a stirring address, said: "If I had time I would like to take up the challenge thrown down in that secular news-

MISSIONARY MONTHLY

paper. For I reckon that it knows a good deal more about the kingdom of Britain and other kingdoms than it does about the kingdom of God. We stood this afternoon in the London Missionary Society's premises, and had rehearsed to us in brief outline the wonderful story of the progress of the gospel in Tahiti and the neighboring groups of islands. The missionaries labored in Tahiti for years without any apparent results, but then within a very short time the people became so thoroughly Christianized that they sent to the otqer groups, and within forty-four years the regeneration of Polynesia was accomplished. And yet this newspaper thinks that the progress of foreign missions has been funereal! Having told of wonders wrought in China, Dr. Pierson said :We have spoken much in this Conference about the union which has been exhibited. I want to say that I take not the slightest credit to America or to myself for this unity. If in the presence of the gigantic foe that unites all its forces and masses all its hosts against the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, I did not forget that I am an American, and also forget the denomination to which I belong, I should consider myself a fossilized ecclesiastic, and not a disciple at all. When Herod and Pilate are made friends in order to crush Christ and Christianity, it behooves all true disciples to stand shoulder to shoulder, and to close about the ark of God. The fact is, our unity is largely the involuntary unity of those who in the presence of the adversary have come together because they cannot help it ; and I think that the methods and manner adopted by our foes make it clear that we can pursue no successful policy of warfare but an aggressive one. We had better stop throwing up defenses, and carry war into the enemy's camp. A positive, aggressive gospel is surely the one that is going to win the day."

THE MISSIONARY MONTHLY CONCERT.

BY DR. JAMES L. PHILLIPS, CHAPLAIN TO STATE INSTITUTIONS, R. I. ALMOST a century ago a few earnest Christians in England founded the Monthly Concert of Prayer for Missions. To this day it is faithfully observed in many churches of the mother country. More than twenty years ago, when I was a student in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, this monthly concert was regularly held in many of the New England and New York churches; and while visiting friends in the Western States, before embarking for India, I found it in some of the churches there. On coming back to America I have been making many inquiries, and regret to learn that there seems to be a marked falling off in the observance of this missionary service. The history of this meeting for nearly a hundred years affords ample proof of its importance. Its real value cannot be estimated, for facts and figures can neither detect nor determine the full benefit it has brought to the church of Christ at home and abroad. The journals of missionaries in foreign fields, and records found in our best periodical missionary literature, and in the memoirs of men who have been valiant pioneers in extending the triumphs of the kingdom of God on earth, yield abundant and remarkable testimony to the benefit and blessing that this monthly concert has been to Christian toilers in many lands. It is very cheering to find THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD calling attention regularly every month to the Concert of Prayer, and the following incidents may serve to illustrate and impress the importance of this service. Ten years ago, when at home on furlough before, one of the last things I had to do was the raising of an endowment fund for our Bible School in India. While engaged in this work, which occupied several months, I was traveling much and met with many very Ct9nvincing proofs of the educating power of the Missionary Concert. One of these I wish to cite, because it illnstrates how the regular observance of this monthly meeting tends to plant the habit of cheerful giving, one of the hardest habits, so the pastors tell us, for Christian disciples to acquire.

The committee sent me to some strange spots for money. Everyone who has done such deputation work among the churches on either side of the Atlantic knows wh~t surprises, pleasant and otherwise, drop into this line of service, and some of these become the salient points of the scene as you look back upon it in after years. One week day evening I had an fLppoint- men t in a village of Central Ohio. On stepping off the train, and looking over the place from the railway station, and there learning that the church to which I was sent was without a pastor, I wondered how this appointment came to be made. The outlook was anything but bright.

The hour for the missionary lecture found about seventy people seated in a plain house, the women on one side and the men on the other. They listened admirably to what was said about gospel work in India, and the demand for. trained native helpers. A stranger minister had offered the opening prayer, and no one volunteering to take pledges or the collection for my endowment, I asked my brother to wait upon one side of the house, while I did on the other. Catching up paper and pencil, he straightway went for the men, fancying no doubt that the pocket-books belonged on that side of the house. For once it wasn't so, for in cash and pledges together moire . than ten times as much came in from the women's sIde as from the men's side of that small congregation. I shall never forget the very first woman whom I asked for money that evening. Her quick answer to my question, "Would you like to help our Bible School?" was significant and cheered me so. Looking up through her glasses squarely into my face, she said :- "Indeed, I should, sir," and she gave me fifty dollars. Anotherlittle woman gave me twenty-five dollars, and still another ten. On reaching my lodg- ings I learned from my kind hostess that these three women were sisters, and naturally I was curious to know their history. One of them lived close by, so the next morning on my way to the railway station, I called upon her and thanked her and her sisters for the good cheer they had given me at the meeting. And from this humble Christian woman I learned these facts. Their childhood home was in Western New York, and they used to attend a Presbyterian church. Their pastor never failed to observe the monthly concel·t of prayer for missions, at which service he regularly brought be- fore his people the conditions and claims of the pagan nations, the freshest news from the front ranks of Christ's advancing army in all lands, and also the duty and the privilege of helping on this grand movement for the world's evangelization by earnest prayers and cheerful offerings. That faithful pastor had reached his rest and reward in heaven, and I, a stranger from the opposite side of the earth, had been permitted to reap' some of the golden harvest for which through years of patient toil he had sown the seed.

Another incident of more recent date illustrates the other side of the ben- efit that accrues from thIS missionary concert, that is the cheer it carries to our brethren across the seas. On the 6th of March, 1887, the concert topic in quite a number of churches was New Fields, and particular men,tion was made in the addresses and prayers of a little station recently opened on the Orissa coast. The young missionary planting this station had met with serious obstacles. A cyclone had blown down his first buildings, there had

ISLAM AND CIVILIZATION

been lack of funds for pushing on the work of rebuildhtg, and other discouragement. He did not know that on the first Sabbath of March we were to offer up special prayer lor him in our monthly concert. But the blessing came just the same.

In a private letter this missionary writes: "On the 6th and 7th of March I received a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Such courage I have never felt in my work, and all the native Christians felt more or less the same spirit of consecration. The following Sabbath I baptized six, and there are a number among the Hindus and Telugus here who, are seeking Christ. Wherever we go, the Spirit of the Lord seems to be going before to open up the way. It has been surprising to me, and the native workers have remarked a number of times, how wonderfully the people accept the gospel."

By the slow course of an ocean mail, our brother on that Ori!'sa coast learned on the 3d of April, from a Boston newspaper dated February 24th, that the missionary concert of March 6th was to make him and his field the special subject of prayer. Whereupon he writes: "Then it flashed upon me like light from heaven that my wonderful blessing on the 6th and 7th of March was a direct answer to your prayers, and I went into the service and told the Brethren. Instead of preaching, we had a consecration meeting, in which the power of the Spirit was wonderfully manifest. It was a blessed day. I believe the prayers offered there for this special field were answered. Today the hardest man in this place sent to buy a New Testament. God's Word will make its way, and His kingdom prevail."

These words from a lone man on a far-off shore speak volumes to every pastor in America and Europe. Would that all pastors, in city and country alike, could be of one mind in observing this Monthly Concert of prayer for Missions. How the church at home needs the quickening and refreshing it would surely bring! One of the most interesting sessions of the Convention of the International Missionary Union, held at the Thousand Island Park in 1887, was devoted to discussing ways and means for stirring up our home chnrches to persevering prayer and systematic beneficence in behalf of the millions still in pagan darkness. Over and again during this discussion, it came out that wherever the monthly concert was regularly kept up, the interest i,missions was intelligent and aggressive. Beloved pastors of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout all lands, will you revive and sustain this MONTHLY CONCERT, and so teach your people to obey His great command to disciple the nations?

ISLAM AND CIVILIZATION. "THE recent controversy as to the comparative merits of Islam and Christianity raises issues deeper and wider than the so-called' religious world.' It is not Christianity alone, but civilization, which is involved in the issue. I believe that under Christianity alone can man reach the perfect development of his nature. • . • Islam can raise to its own level tri,bes lower than itself in the scale of humanity; but this it does at the terrible cost of petrifying them at that level forever-the level, that is, of the barbarous Arabs of Mahomed's day. For, except in the matter of idolatry and infanticide, Islam, as we find it in Mecca, its metropolis, is not in advance of the social and intellectual condition of the Arabs of that time; and inasmuch as the Koran claims to be the last declaration of the divine will to man, it follows that any progreiis beyond the Koran is not only superfluous, but impious in addition. And the history of Islam all ovel' the world proves to demonstration that what was antecedently to be e~pe~ted has in fact occurred. • • • The Koran, in Islamic belief, was written by the finger of God in the highest heaven before all time, every word and letter of it, in the Arab tongue; was· then, at the predestined time, taken down to the third heaven by the angel Gabriel, and there recited, word for word, to Mahomed in an audible voice in 'suras' or chapters, as occasion required, and was by him miraculously re- produced from memory. This is an article of faith throughout the world of Islam; and as the Koran professes to be the last revelation of the divine will to man, it follows, of course, that nothing which is sanctioned in the Koran, explicitly or implicitly, can· ever be abrogated, altered, or become obsolete.

Nobody who realizes this fact will believe that the Koran can possibly be a preparatory discipline, like Greek philosophy, for Christianity.

There is no living voice in the church of Islam to reconcile the past with the present and make provision for the future. It claims an infallibility more sweeping and more rigid than that of the Vatican decrees, but it is the in- fallibIlity of a dead pontiff, an ignorant and immoral Bedouin, who died twelve centuries ago. . . . As a spirtiual force, in so far as it ever was one, Islam is not advancing, but retrograding. The Musulman world contains no longer a single center from which radiates any intellectual light 01' any sign of material progress. There is not one Mussulman state in the world which wields independent sway-which, in fact, does not exist solely by the suffer- ance of Christendom. A creeping paralysis has fastened upon Islam, and the shadow of the devouring eagles may even now be descried on its horizon.

How stands the case of Christianity in comparison? Its Pattern Man is not only to the Christian, but to the great mass of intelligent and educated un- believeJ's, the highest and noblest ideal of humanity that history records or the human mind can conceive. His teaching and example are the most per- fect exhibition of human virtue that the world has seen. . • . As to the comparatively slow progress of Christianity and its imperfect success, even within the frontiers of Christendom, we must distinguish between the essence of a system and its separable accidents. Islam, at its best, bears within it the incurable germ of inevitable decay and dissolution. The hin- drances to the spread of Christianity, on the other hand, are but parasites whioh cling to it and which it may shake off. They may be summarized as follows: "1. The divisions of Christendom. Islam, too, has its sects, and many of them; but they close their ranks and present a united front to the 'unbe- lievers.' 2. Faulty methods of propagandism, such as neglect of rearing in foreign lands a native ministry, while importing European habits, customs and dress among native converts. 3. The discredit cast upon the Christian name by the lives and demoralizing traffic of professing Christians. 4. To which may be added, as regards India, the active discouragement and even resistance which, until a recent period, a professedly Christian government offered to the propagation of Christianity. . It is a superficial view which would confine the comparison between Christianity and Islam to the numerical proportions of their respective adherents, though even on that score Christianity has no reason to blush, as I have already shown, and as Sir William Hunter has explained with respect to India. At the time of Christ's dea.th, 'the number of names together,' who owned themselves His disciples, 'were about an hundred and twenty.' Was that a fair test of the success of his ministry? The apparently signal failures of Christianity have generally been the preludes to fresh victories. So it may be now. The suc- cess of Christianity at any given time is not to be measured by visible r~sults.

In India, in Japan, in China, in Africa, throughout the Turkish empire, it is

ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK

silently sapping the foundations of rival religions. Its ideas and principles are in the air, like those minute yet potent germs of which physical science tells us. Only they are germs of health inoculating diseased organisms with the seeds of a. regenerate life. Christianity is impregnating Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Paganism, with hopes, aspirations, ideals, principles, which are gradually but surely disintegrating the old order of things, and preparing the way for the reception of Christianity."-Malcolm MacOoll, in Oontemporary Review.

n.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.

Established Ohuroh of Scotland. crease in the membership of the church to the number of 7,973_ The total number of commu- AT its recent session the Foreign nicants is 579,002. In 1873 the membership was Mission Committee reported to the 460,464, so that there Is an increase of 118,538 in General Assembly 827 baptisms as fifteen years. the fruits of the labors of their missionaries during 1887. Of these The Free Ohuroh of Scotland. 676 were in the Punjab, around Sialkot; 120 in the threefold Darjeeling GEN1IRAL abstract, showing the sums raised Mission; 13 in Madras, and 13 in Ar- for the various objects of the church for tbe konam; 4 in Calcutta, and 1 in Bom- year, from 31st March, 1887. to 31st March, 1888: bay. To these add 1 at Calcutta and 2 at Madras, in connection with the I. Sustentation fund ………… £167,37474 Ladies' Association. There are at II. Local building fund. . . . . . . . . . 65.689 8 IIJ-ii present about 3,000 baptized persons III. Congrega- In the Church of Scotland's missions to the heathen in India, Africa and tional fund. £16:>,005 8 5J-ii China. Congrega- RECEIPTS. tional mis- cellaneous The Foreign Mission Revenue from all sources objects …. 43,123 12 6 in 1887 was £43,399. This sum inclndes income – – – – 208,129 0 llJ-ii IV. Missions and education.. . . •. 117.916 5 1 at home, £24,481; income abroad, £10,799; in- V. Miscellaneous ………….. 33,746 3 2 terest on J1lvested funds, £1,267; income of Total……………………£592.855 5 1 Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, £6,8,;2. The missionary receipts were as follows: Revenue at Home…………………. £50,295 As regards income, results, and additions to the Revenue Abroad………………….. 33,5UI For tho Conversion of the Jews…….. 8.682 sta1l', 1887 has been the most prosperous year ill Making the whole missionary revenue the history of the Foreign Mission. of the Free Church of Scotland for – – 1887-8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £100,756 The total contributions to the various schemes of the church for the year amounted to £151,805, an Increase on the previous year of £9,293.

DUring the past year there bas been an in- United Presbyterians of Sootland.

SUMMARY FOR 1887.

Annual Income, '£43,430 13s.• Including a Small Expenditure in Spain.

No. of Com- Native Fields of Labor. Sta- Foreign Workers. Native Workers. muni- Schools. Schol- Contri- – – – – – – – – tions. cants. ars. butions. ——— —— — — — Or- Fe- Or- !~~. dained. Lay. male. dained. Lay.

Jamaica ………… 46 19 . …. …… 13 82 ………… 8,796 68 £ Trinidad ……….. 3 2 "2" 1 ··42" 359 2 5,967 6,000 Old Calabar. 6 6 7a 4 "iil' 269 ]6 Kaft'raria ……….. 11 11 3 76 1,426 India…………… 10 15 10 ….2· .. 65 2,180 3'~ 517 194 195 1,482 1,266 .. ..2.. 15 2 445 92 5,029 . 217 ..2… …1… 499 5 – – – -13- – – – – – – – – – – – China ………….. 43 -3-90 Japan ………….. 4 –** – ** 80 – -ll!2- Totals………… 84 61 7 21 22 389 44 12,938 210 13,071 £9.325 *Not reported.

The Income as given above IS over 1886 gaye, and 161 more native com- .£3,800 more than our report for municants. Irish Presbyterians. Total home receipts .. " ……•.. £124,581 19 fa FORTY-SIXTH annual report on FOREIGN RECEIPTS.

Foreign Missions, presented to the Mission districts auxiliaL·'ls…… 5,803 0 6 General Assembly in Belfast, June, Total ordinary receipts. . •. . •. . 130,337 19 8 1888. EXTRAORDINABY RECEIPTS. The report is encouraging. The Contributions for special missions year 1887 has been a notable one in the Indian Mission. There were 147 in UpperBurmah, Central Atrica, baptisms, and an increase of communicants, and two natives were China, India, etc…………… 1,508 18 6 ordained over congregations of conveds from heathenism. The outlook Ditto, for St. Vincent Hurricane in China to.day is more hopeful than it has been for many years. The in- Di5tress Fund…. …………. 20 4 4 come of the Society is also steadily, though not rapidly, increasing, as Total Income ..•…………. £131,867 2 6" the figures below will show: PAYlIlENTS. Total sum raised 1884-5, £11,130 5s.; 1885-6, £12,032 lOs.; 1886-7, £12,728 18s.; 1887-8, General expenditure …………. £136,124 8 0 On account of Special Missions, £13,054 16s. If we add to last year's sum the £2,000 raised etc ……………………… . 1,529 210 Ditto,Ladies'AnxiliaryCommittee 313 19 5 for the Stevenson Memorial Fund, it would Total expenditnre ……….. £131,967 10 3 make the sum total above £15,000. From which deduct ordinary and Presbyterian Ohuroh in Oanada. extraordinary receipts for the year.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. . 131,867 2 '> THE report made to the General Leaving a deficiency on 1887 Assembly, which met in June, is account of……………. . 6,100 7 9 highly interesting and inspIrIng. To which add the debt of 1886.. . 10,768 19 11 Decided pl'ogress is reported in all Leaving a total deficiency of. £16,869 7 8 the Missions under the Assembly's GENERAL SUMMARY.

care. Missions nnder the immediate direction of the Wesleyan Missionary Committee and British According to the returus the Canadian Pres- Conference, in Europe, India, China, West byterian Church now embraces 1831 churches 4(rica, the Transvaal, B,"itish Hondura8, and stations, with 793 ministers. The active and the Bahamas. membership aggregates 76,226 families, 13,261 single members, while the church-goers number Central or Principal Stations called Cirahout 400,000. There are 112,940 Sabbath cuits ……………………………. 336 scholars, and 12,976 teachers, having the privilege of libraries containing 183,471 volumes. Chapels and other Preaching Places in The income of the Church last year was $1,772,- connection with the above-mentioned 000, against $1,215,000 in 1881. Last year Central or Principal Stations, as far as $738,000 was paid in stipends, or an average of ascertained.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .. . 1,338 $943 to each minister. $112,000 was also subscribed last year towards Home and Foreign Missionaries and ASSistant-Missionaries, missions; $86,866 for foreign missions, as including Supernumeraries.. . . . . . . . . . . 333 against $69,000 last year. Knox and Queen's College each have sent out and support a mis- Other paid AgentR, as Catechists, Inter- sionary to China. The Women's Foreign Mis- preters, Day-school Teachershetc…… 2,000 sionary Society contributed over $23,000, as against $18,500 last year. Unpaid Agents, as Local Preac ers, Sab- bath-school Teachers, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,859 Wesleyan Missionary Sooiety. Full and accredited Chnrch Members…. 32,lt?O THE seventy-fourth annual meet- On trial for Chnrch-Membership…….. _ 4,1114 ing of this society was held in Exeter Scholars attending either the Sabbath or Hall, London; April 30. The abstract of the report shows that the Day·schools… . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . .. .. .. . … 59,388 Society's debt has been increased by £6,100, and is now £16,869. Unless Ohurch Missionary Society. there is an increase of income this year it will not be possible to main- THIS society, which has the largest tain the existing missions of the income of any missionary society in society. the world, held its eighty-ninth an- niversary in Exeter Hallin June. Its income for the year was £221,331 ($1,106,655). We give an abstract of the financial report: Last year the committee reported the larg- est ordinary income on record, viz., 207,7931., the advance being mainly due to an exceptional amount of legacies. This year the total is only 191,557l., the lowest in the past five years; but this again is due to a falling-off of nearly 14,- ODOl. in legacies. The receipts from all sources except legacies, viz. 173,7561., are the highest in the past five years. The committee therefore feel constrained to utter a note of heartiest thanksgiving. Moreover, some of the most im- surplns of one year and being charged with the portant gifts of the year do not come nnder deficit of another, is entirely exhausted for the ordinary income. The Extension Fund has re- first time since it was formed, in 1880. Judged, ceived, 8,6791., including a benefaction of 5,5OOl., therefore, from a business point of view, the po- specially allocated to Japan and the Punjab. sition is a seriOlls one. Yet the committee dare More than 4,0001. has been received for the Ny- not send back the candidates for missionary ser- anza Mission. The contributions for the Winter vice who are coming forward in increasing Mission to India amounted to 1,700l.; and 700/. numbers, and who are plainly brought by the has beeu given towards the proposed Hanning- Lord of the harvest to be thrnst forth into His ton Memorial Church at Frere Town. The total harvest. Nor do they believe it is necessary to receipts from all sources amount to 221,3311. do so. If only there is faith to roll upon Him the whole burden, and to follow in simple obedience Nevertheless, the facts remain that the defi- the clear indications of His will, there is no ciency in legacies has diminished the resources cause for fear. But the committee are bound to at the committee's disposal for carrying on the state the case to their friends exactly as it stands. work by Over 13,0001. ; that the expenditure of Put in one sentence, it is this: to replace the the year is more by 2,333l. than that of last year, Contingency Fund, and to cover the estimated and though considerably under the estimate, expenditure of the current year, will require a sum exceeding the income of the past year by I has exceeded the receipts by 12,oool. ; and that 3'.ooOl. the Contingency Fund, which is always the bar- ometer of the Society's position, receiving the Fields of Labor. – – ——– — – – ——– – – No. of Com- Schol- Native Sta- Foreign Workers. ars. Contri- tions. IDuni- Native Workers. Schools – butio-ns. cants.

Or- Lay. Fe- 01'- J..ay. Fe- £ dained. male. dained. male. West Africa…….. 42 10 14 49 151 75 9,598 96 6,995 7,875 East&Central Africa 11 14 11 1 Egypt aud Arabia .. 2 2 14 ..7 281 .. 8 528 95 Palestiue ……….. 9 6 13 1 1 '5 2 140 9 11 45 1,875 266 48 12 885 Persia and Bagdad. 2 4 1 .. 1 11 11 93 8 309 Poenrslyia } 343 India…………… 91 Ceylon………….. 12 109 1..2 12 137 1,724 421 24,531 1,314 47,089 6..,8..73 Mauritius ………. 6 12 250 93 2,009 192 9,793 …… China ………….. 20 18 1 ..1 29 1,470 Japan ………….. 5 3 52 4 16 3 421 115 2,007 New Zealaud……. 42 10 5 N. W. America ….. 31 23 3 I .. 242 16 2,570 129 North Pacific……. 7 8 '43 11 ~17 ~415 is 336 1;211 15 I .. 122 2,562 1,115 227 2 .. 92 201 7 268 Totals………. 280 247 40 22 265 2,881 653 4i,115 1,859 71,814 £15,452 The London Missionary Sooiety. and kindred societies to preach the The ninety-fourth annual meeting gospel to the heathen." The plea of this society was held in Exeter Hall, May 10, under the presidency of Lord Brassey made for the extension the renowned traveler, Lord Brassey, K.C.B. The testimony of the chair- of the work was very effective. man, who has had such exceptional opportunities for witnessing the " Iu the report reference is made to the splenwork of missionaries in different did success which has attended the work of lands, haviug, as he himself indi- your Society under those illustrious missioncated, seen the work in Labrador, aries, Lawes aud Chalmers, iu New Guinea. We Terra-deI-Fuego, in Turkey, India, have very interesting details with reference to Tahiti and elsewhere, is very valua- the progress of the work iu Iudia and in China; ble. He admits that there have been and as a most remarkable instance of the sucindiscretions in some cases, but he cess of our work, let me refer once more to that adds: "I venture to say that few in- devoted zeal which is shown by the native misdeed are those instances of indiscre- sionaries who are recruited from the South tion in comparison with the mass of Seas. I do not know any evidence more imnoble work which has been done for pressive of the good results of the work which generations by those who have been is done by this Society than this most telling sent forth under the auspices of this fact, that the work which is being carried on by those 160 devoted men and women, who have gone forth from this country, is being supple- mented and carried forward by no less than 1,000 native ordained ministers, and 6,000 native preachers. Aud looking to another and per- haps a less impressive circumstauce, is it not ex- ceedingly grat!(ying to observe that the statement of income which this society has at its dis- tary (Dr. Green), set forth that: posal for its good work contains an item of nO less than £17,000, which Is subscribed by the The receipts from !Ill sources during the year, native people from theIr limited aud narrow re- ncluding the balance at commencement,. were sources,to carry forward the missionary work?" £211,108. There was a net increase on the year of £9,098. The total expenditure had been The total income of the society Cor 1887 £208,662. The number of new publications isamounted to £157,000. But uo less than £27,000 sued during the year amounted to 757, of which of this sum came from legacies, which is £16,000 214 were tracts and leafiet.. The circulation above the yearly average, necessitating mnch had reached 61.061,050, including 24.590,600 more liberal giving the current year to avoid a tracts. To this number must be added that of heavy debt. the Issues from foreign depots, estinlated at 15,- 000,000; the total amount being 76,061,050, a Religious Traot Sooiety. slight diminutiou upon the whole as compared with the issues of the previous year, although EXETER was crowded on the occa- the circulation of the tracts has shown an insion of the eighty-ninth annual meet- crease of 870,300. In the year 1887 no fewer than ing of the Religious Tract Society. 222,000 of the London Board School children Lord Balfour, of Burleigh, presided. were presenled for examinalion in Scripture, of The annual report, read by the secre- whom 5,555 received prizes and certificates.

Methodist New Oonnenon Missionary Sooiety.

Annual Income, £7,106.* No. of Ad- Com- Native Sta· herents. Contribu- tions. muni- cants. tions. Fields ofEntered Foreign Native Schools. Schol- Workers. Workers. arB. —- —- I ;LaY'1 – – — – – – – Labor.A.D.

— £ daOiure-rl. Lay. • mFaele-.

Ohina …. 1859 50 6 1 47 3 2,436 1,218 6 162 388 *Iucluding the sums spent in Ireland, Canada and Australia. The Missiou in Canada 1D 1874 united with the various other Methodist bodies in the Dominion, and thus was formed '.' The Metho- dist Church of Canada."

United Methodist Free Ohurch Missions.

Annual Income, £21,876 178. 9d. * No. of Foreign Native Com- Schol- Native Sta- Workers. Workers. muni- ars. Contribu- tions. cants. tions. — – – – —- – – – – – —- —- Entered A.D. Fields of Labor. Schools.

'– Ordained. Lay. £ China ……………… 1864 3 3 11 306 4 77 34 East Africa ………… ]861 5 4 9 180 5 241 24 West Africa………… 1859 6 5 92 2,894 11 1,122 641 J-am-aic-a .- – ……. – – ……..- -1838- -10- – -9 – – -48 – – – 3,342 -31- -1,-924- -1,-188- – Totals ………………… 24 21 160 7.622 51 5,864 1,893 * This total includes the sums expended in the colonies of Australla and New Zealand, as well as in heathen lands and in Jamaica.

The Southern Baptist Oonvention Maryland. . •.. . . •. . •.. . •••. •.. . . . .. .. •.. .. 2 M!ss?u~i…………………………….. held its forty-third anniversary in 4 MISSISSIPPI. .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . .. .. . .. . .. • 3 . ~r::i~i~· …………….:.:::.::::::::::: 1~ Richmond, May 11-15.

Total income from April, 1887 to Western Arkansas and Iudian Territory.. 15 Western North Carolina……………… 18 April,1888 $86,385,66 West Virginia………………………. 1 Total expenses 84,848,34 Total………………………… ~ Actual balance for the new ••• WORK DONE. MISSIonarIes ………………….. '" year – $1,748,60 287 Churches and stations …………… . 1,114 The number of missionaries in the employ of Baptisms ……………………… .. 4,857 the Board during the past year has been as fol- Reeeived by letter……………… .. 2,63n Total additions . . . . . . . . . . . " ……… _ '1,4H6 lows: S. S. organized ………………….. _ 431 Arkansas ……………….. ~………… 22 Cuba………………………………. 17 Teachers and pupils ……………… . 17,240 District ocColumbia……… …. …….. 1 Churches constituted……………. . Houses of worship built………… ,_ 306 FlOrida…………………………….. 37 Georgia…………………….. …….. 5 64 Iodi!,,! Territory. . .. .. . … .. . . .. . .. .. .. . . . 15 Cost of bouses of worship ………..• $54.068 LOulSlana………………….. ……… 21 Pages of tracts distributed……….. . 442,852 Bibles and Testaments …………… . 1.769 Total Snnday-school publications…. . 4,754,000

CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

III.-CORRESPON DENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

The Jews of Morocco. or forced outside the city walls and there m~ dered in cold blood. Their hodies were then cat By Rev. E. F. Baldwin, our Ed- into pieces, and their clothes as well. The money itorial Correspondent at Tangiers. that each one had was put into hi. hands, which MOGADOn, MOROCCO, May 25, 1888. were severed from the bodies. Their headlcss DEAR EDITons.-Although I am working as trunks, their heads themselves, their hands and a missionary among the Moors aud Arabic- feet were laid in order in a long ghostly row.

speaking Berber races of this great empire, yet The scene of lamentation and woe the next morn- I feel great ,interest iu the Jews which are found ing, when the entire Jewish population poured crowded tcgether in all its many cities. A few out to behold the harrowing sight, was inde- notes respecting them will doubtless interest scribable. The heads only conld be recognized.

your readers. It was impossible to know to which of the mur- Large numbers of these ancient people of dered men the severed members belonged.

God are supposed to have been settled in Moroc- Doubtless the Jews often exasperate the co from the earlier centuries of the Christian era. Moors beyond endurance by their nsurious if They were greatly increased by the influx from not dishonest extortions. The following incident Spain about the end of the fifteenth centnry. was just told me by a credible witness. In an When Columbus was sailing westward to dis- inland Morocco city a Moor died, leaving a wid- cover a new continent many scores of thousands ow and three little children. Before there had of wretched Israelites were sorrowfully making time elapsed to bury him, a Jew appeared, de· their way out of Spain and Portugal, where they manding from the widow the sum of $600, which had been enslaved and persecuted, and from he clainaed was dne him from the deceased. The which they were now finally banished. Spain had widow protested that it could not be so or she long afforded them an asylum. To them is would have known of it. She had nothing to largely due the attainment in arts and letters pay. He was one of the protected Jews referred that marked the period of Moslem conquest and to. At his demand the body of the dead man rule in Spain, and which has been so vaunted by was brought out of the house which had bethe admirers of Islam, which in itself is incapa- longed to him, and his widow and her children ble of aught but blight and ruiu. The descend- were also ejected. She buried her husband and ants of these forlorn Jews are now found then made her way to the house of the chief throughout Morocco. They densely fill the sep- rabbi of the Jewish community. She was ad- arately walled off portions assigned to them in mitted, her children being with her to add force the Moorish cities. These Jewish quarters are to her appeal. She tcld hina her piteous tale.

called the Mellahs or places of damnation. Into He was an upright man. He sent her away to these they are shut from sunset to sunrise. They return after three days. That night he called are downtrodden and despised. They formerly together the leading Jews of the place, the of- were compelled to wear only black garments. fending Jew among them. The rabbi, when Also when outside their Mellaha in many towns the Jew persisted in its being an honest debt, they must go in their bare feet. Neither may counted out before him the $600 in gold from his they ride through the Moorish part of the town. own store, and, placing their Scriptures before They are in constant dread of the Moors, who him, demanded of him that he shonld swear tc oppress and maltreat them. The Jew never the righteousness of his claim and then take his makes the least resistance. The fear of the na- money and restore the widow her house. He tions among whom they dwell is indeed upon refused to swear, from which his gnilt was evi- them as foretold. dent. The next morning the rabbi sent for I recently heard from an eye witness of an mules, and began lading them with his goods, appalling circumstance that occurred in Fez, the saying he would leave such an iniquitous people northern capital of Morocco, now less than a year before it was smitten with the wrath of God.

ago. ·Several Moors, it is asserted, had been The Jews gathered about hina and entreatedhina thrown into prison on false claims for debts and entreated him to stay, but without avail. brought against them by Jews who had the ben- Then they insisted on the offending Jew leaving efit of foreign protection, that is under the pro- the town, hanishing him from their midst. Upon tection of one of the foreign consuls. Such pro- this the old rabbi consented to remain. The tected natives, whether Jews or Moors,cannot be Moorish authorities were appealed to, and the called to account for their actions by the Moorish addule, or Moorish officer who conspired with authorities, being only answerable to the minis- the Jew and gave him a false paper on which he ter or consul who gives them protectIOn. The made his claina, was arrested, and on confessing friends of the agrieved Moors took summary his gnilt was thrown in prison, where he still re- and dreadful vengeance by waylaying nine of mains. the chief men of the Jewish community, includ- On the Jewish Sabbath just passed I accoming some of the offenders. They were on their way from the business part of Fez to the Mellak, panied a missionary of the Jews who is laboring In the gathering dusk, when they were enti~ed here to the Jewish synagogues, and there saw much the saml) scene as was witnessed when the Lord and IDs apostles were on the earth. sible tiDle; and to this end it is the duty of There was the venerable rnier of the synagogne. Christians to give personal effort and money. Then, too, after their reading of the law and Besides. this there are some things that need prayers it was virtually said to the friend I was special attention. One is to sonnd out a strong with, "If ye have any word of exhortation for voice against the Drink Tramc in the Free Congo tile people, say on." Whereupon he preached State. Such a protest will be concurred in by Christ to them from their own law, much in the the leading inlluence of the Established Churches same way that Paul did in Antioch, in Pisidia. of England and Scotland. At the same time, The place, the faces, the dress, the manners, the however, the arts of the opium trade aud use in service were all Oriental, Jewish and full of China and India, and of the free still system of Scriptnre suggestions. I noticed also that" when India'ought to be noticed as great hindrances to they heard that he spake in the Hebrew ton!(ue the evangelization of the 600 millions in these to them, they kept the more silence." The two lands. brother I speak of was a converted Persian Jew who is the assistant of Mr. Zerbib, the mission- Another question in relation to which the ary of the London Jewish Society for Promoting Conference should give expression is this, viz.: the Gospel among the Jews_ He succeeded Mr. What shall be done with converts who have, in Guinsburg, who was long here, but has now accordance with the laws and us~ges which prebeen removed to Constantinople. He was much vail in China and India 'from the days of Abrabeloved in this field. ham, and before them, two or more wives. The present prevailing usages of different mission- I have no space to speak of my own work, ary societies is to require them to put away aU which is among the Moors and other Arabic- wives but one. I think this contrary to aposspeaking races of this vast and almost entirely tolic usage. I think they should be permitted til unevangelized empire. I have recently come to retain their wives till separated by death. I Mogador in the sonthern part of Morocco, from seud you a printed copy of my views. Tangier, where I have been working for several years. The outlook is full of promise. We are The estimated number of Buddhists. EdwlJ: hoping soon to be joined by others. Perhaps I Arnold, in his .. Light of Asia," states the num ought to mention that I am an independent missionary, unconnected with any society, and ber to be 470 millions-the greatest number or therefore looking to the Lord alone for needed direction and supplies. But we find it true that religionists of one sect in the world_ Others, al "He is faithful that promised." Mr. Eugene Rev. James Freeman Clarke, in his" Ten Great Levering, 2 Commerce street,Baltimore, receives Religions," states the number to be 300 millions, and forwards funds for me, Dr. John Peddie, and others at 250 millions, and so on_ These pastor of the Fifth Baptist Church, Philadel- statements are made with a view to discredit phia, and Rev. A. C. Dixou, pastor of the 1m· our holy religion. I regard these statements as manuel Baptist Church, Baltimore, know me entirely unwa'/"1"anted and uiuJUpported by facts well. The church of the first licensed me to and principles which guide in classifying re preach, and in the church of the second I was ligionists. I inclose a pamphlet in which I dis- ordained. My father was formerly a pastor in cuss the subject and give my reasons for fixing New York city. the number of Buddhists at 8eventy·two millions. Prof. Monier Williams, who is a very much Ohina. more reliable man than EdWin Arnold or Dr. Freeman Clarke, states, as his opinion, that 100 LETTER from Dr. A. P. Happer: millions would be a large estimate of the Bud- [This lp.tter was written before the dhists in the world. It is too bad that Christian writers should accept and publish the opinion of meeting of the London Conference, skeptics and infidels on this point when there is and contains several important sug- positive testimony. If the Conference should appoint a committee on this point who would gestions in relation to its action, most publish a report, accepting Prof. Monier Will- iams's estimate of the number of Buddhists in of which received due attention.- the world, viz., 100 millions, it would be ac- cepted by Christiau writers as a reliaQle state- EDS.] ment, and do away with this infidel reproach to Christianity. For, with Protestant, Greek and CANTON, April 30, 1888. Roman Catholic followers, Christianity has the My DEAR DR. PIERSON.-THE MISSIONARY most numerous following lin the world, and au REVIEW OF THE WORLD for April has just ever increasing multitude. I include a pamph- reached me. I suppose you expect to be in Lon- let on this subject that may go into the hands of don from Juue !l-19th at the World's Missionary such" committee. Conference. I pray that the Spirit of God may be poured out upon the members with great Iu this day of multiplying the number of mis- power. sionaries, I think it specially importaut that There are some things that should have con- sideration of the Conference. First, and above some arrangements should b'e adopted to give all, it will seek to deepen the conviction in the whole Christian church that it is its duty to them some distinct and practical instruction aud evangelize the whole world in the shortest pos- training regarding the work to be done, and the best way to do it, by missionaries, men and women. :Many men and women come out with In what lis God glorified t 1110 being kTI(JWn. the most indefinite idea of what they are to do, A biographer. in making people adniire his hero, or how to do it. I inclose a pamphlet on this does a great deal of "touching-up," cutting paint. I do emphasize !uno it may best be none. down faults and expanding virtues. A homan I favor a professorship in existing institntions, character suft'ers by being perfectly known. But though a distinct institute for that purpose may the glory Of God is in being known. Our busibe best. ness is simply to cry with Isaiah, "Behold your God! " One cannot look at the sun without Some of these papers may be of use to you, if Beeing ItB brightness. One cannot look on Jethese pOints come up in the Conference, and I hovah without beholding His glory. noticethat several ofthem are on the programme. The drink trade in Africa, and the opium trade If, then, we would be God-gloriften, we in India :and China, I observe, are not down, must be God-revealers. Isa. ii : 9-" The earth but I think they ought to be acted upon. The shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." number of Buddhists is a matter of fact, and it Hab. Ii : 14-" The earth shall be filled with the somewhat concerns the honor of our Lord, and knowledge of the glory of the Lord." The two it is easy to vindicate that point from the taunts are one. To know Him is to know His glory. of infidels by Btating the fact. . When His glory is known, then He is glorified. The end of creation and redemptionis attained. With best wishes, and praying that a special In both passages it is written that this knowlblessing may rest upon the Conference and the edge is to fill the earth "as the waters wver the Spirit of God direct all their counsels. sea." God has set the limits of the sea, and from limit to limit the waters sweep. The Yours in Christian work, limits of the gospeJ.sea are uothing short of the A. P. HAPl'ER. limits of "the earth." "As the Waters Cover the Sea." Here, in India, we have tracts nearly equal to FROM Rev. John M. Forman. London in population, which are unoccupied. FATERGARR, N. W. P. INDIA, May 26, 1888. In China there are a thousand counties, averag- .. What i8 the chief end of man!" "To ing in population about the same as English glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." counties, unoccupied. The Soudan, with about To ENJOY GOD. 1. The Christian is sure of 70,000,000, occupied by two young men I If all heaven, and the JOY of heaven is God. So, as this extent is to be filled with the knowledge of to future enjoyment of God, he is certain. Let the King of Glory, we must be at work. him, then, be glad of what he has, and go on to " As THE WATERS COVER TI'IE SEA."-The the next point. waters fill every crack and crevice. How differ- 2. The present enjoyment of God. Any child ent from the knowledge of God thus far. Look at London, Boston, New York, Chicltgo and the knows that when he takes candy into his mouth he need not try to enjoy it. The enjoyment is Great West. The number of unfilled corners is iuevitable. A man who tries to be happy is un- allpalling. Then look at our nominallyoccupud happy. But even an atllicted and sorrowful fields in India, China, etc. Here in the district soul, when once occupied in seeking to make of Fauakhabad (one of our oldest mission-fields) others happy, is itself happy. When the enjoy- we have yet some half million practically unment of God is our aim, we fail to eUJoy Him. touched. If this world is really to be filled with Simply because the aim is selfish, and selfishness the knowledge of Jehovah we must be up and is sin, and sin hides God from us. doing. "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion." A man who carries the name of Christ The way to enjoy God is so to live that He and does not try to fill the earth with the gospel enjoy us, i. e., to please Him. There is no ques- is a clog to the wheels. He is a destroyer… He tion as to Enoch's having a keen enjoyment of also that is slack in his work is brother to him God, as he walked with God; for in that walk- that is a destroyer." ing he had "witness borne to him that he had been well-pleasing unto God." But wbat an inspiration in this prophecy I It will be fulfilled. The sea bed with all its rough- The way to enjoy God is to please God. The nesses,ups and downs, is covered by one great way to please God is to fall in with His plans. ocean. So this earth, scarred and furrowed and The consummate plan of God is God's glory. valleyed by sin, is to be covered by the glory of Then, though man has two ends, he must have but one aim. That one conscious aim or pur- the Lord. And when we look we Bee His glory, pose Is TO GLORIFY GOD. glory; nothing but a sea of glory I Praise the Lord I "Let us fall in line with God's plan, not :Many Christians think this savors of tran- with theories but with work, giving first of all . scendentalism. But Paul, by the Holy Ghost, makes it a plain, business·like. every-day prin- our own selves unto the Lord. " ciple. "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, ·do all to the glory of God." "Now concerning the collection," give cheer- Our first petition must be, "Hallowed be Thy folly, give liberally, give to the last cent. What uame." Christ's loftiest prayer is "Father, is holding the wealth of a million millionaires glorify Thy name. And there came a voice from compared with knowing that we have" fellowheaven saying, 'I have both glorified it, and I ship with God" in His glorions purpose! When will glorify it again.' " Alexander Duff was a yonng man he locked his closet door and said," Silver and gold have I years, at last will throw open the doors to none, but such as I have give I thee; I give thee missionary efforts over the length and breadth myself." Young man, young woman, go and of Dutch India. Being thus challenged to send do thou likewise. And let the mother teach her out more missionaries it is to be confidently ex- child from infancy that the only thing worth liv- pected that the Christians of Holland w!ll, in the ing for is to fill the earth with the knowledge of name of God, accept the challenge. So be It.

God. Japan . .. What Beest thou 1 And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree (shaked). Then said the Lord LETTER from Rev. C. S. Eby: unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I watch (shaked) over my word to perform it." As TOKIO, June 23, '88. sure as God is sure, this earth is to be filled DEAR BRETHREN.-I "m not sure whether I with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as have not already sent you a copy of my " Appeal the waters cover the sea. Brother, if you are for Japan," at all events I send you a copy each not striving for foreign missions, you are miss- by the present mail, and also a copy of the ing the purpose of your creation. course oflectnres delivered in the Meiji Kwaido in 1583, English edi!ion.

LETTER from Rev. F. Leon Cachet: I am delighted with tl:.e MISSIONARY BEVIEW OF THE WORLD, and wish it godspeed ; it will [Foreign Secretary of the Dutch do much to stimulate the missionary zeal of the Reformed Missionary Society, Rot- churches and to promote the missionary revival terdam, Holland. The news it con- almost upon us. God grant that the real misveys will carry joy to the missionary sionary age may soon dawn when the efforts of world.-EDS.] the churches will be commensurate with their AlIlLITY and with the OPPORTUNITIES of the DEAR EDITORS.-Will you allow me room in hour.

your highly valued REVIEW to state that the Rev. The " Appeal " will speak for itself. I do feel Mr. Cook's' powerful appeal,' which you give in that the imperial opportunity in Japan is not your June number (p. 448), respecting the want being fully met by ordinary methods, arid tre- of missionaries in Dutch India, and which ap _ mendous forces of prejudice and unbelief and peared at length iu The Straits Times, is bearing imported misbelief run rampant and almost un- good fruit alre!,dy. You must know that there rebuked, except in a small way. A large and was a change of government in the Netherlands bold movement" takes" with the Japanese as a few weeks since, and one of the first official well as with any people, and through the central acts of the new Secretary of State for the col- institution piIrpose we shall be able to speak so onies, Mr. Reuchenius, was to send a circular as to be heard by an empire.

to all the Protestant mission society in the Neth- Will you give the aid of your powerful advo- erlands, of which the following is a translation: cacy? Surely there are devoted men of wealth "COLONIAL OFFICE, No. 46. who would invest. May our common Master THE HAGUE, May 8, 1888. guide.

In an article, 'Netherland's India: An Ap- Spain. peal,' appearing In The Straits Times, a Singa- pore newspaper of March 6th, attention is drawn ~ur readers will recall the brief to what Dr. Schreiber, Secretary of the Rheney appeal we made in our July issue in Mission at Basmey, had pointed out ten years behalf of these heroic missionaries. ago, that the number of missionaries in Dutch The Lord gl'antedspeedy help, and we India should be greatly increased, in order to rejoice with His sel'vants.-EDS.] counteract the growing influence of Islam there: and it is further shown how great the need FIGUERAS, SPAIN, June 30, 1888.

yet is that the number of missionaries should he DEAR EDlTORs.-The pastor nnites with me increased. It appears to me that this article de- in thanking you very warmly for so kindly in- serves, in every respect, yonr attention, and I serting my last letter in your valuabie MISSION- therefore do myself the pleasure to offer you a ARY REVIEW. If you remember, it was there copy thereof. stated that we were anxious to build a Gospel I need hardly state that the government Hall in this dark Spanish town, and that £400 would valne it highly if the mission societies in was needed for a site. A friend, then traveling the Netherlands would put forth their utmost in Italy, most kindly wrote telling us to buy the efforts to increase the number of missionaries in land at once, adding, 'I will cover the cost.' The butch India, and to counteract the increasing pastor lost not a moment in trying to secure it, influenee of Islam among the heathen in the but the lawyer would not credit the assurance Indian Archipelago. that the money would shortly he sent from Eng- The Minister for the Colonies, land, and refused to draw up the legal document.

(Signed) " REUCHENlUS." The landlady, however, agreed to wait a couple This is a most important docnment, as it of week•.

shows that the Dntch Government, after having The Romanists at once seized their opportu- more than favored the Mohammedans for many nity. Deputations from the Societies of St. Yin·

INTERNATIONAL DEPAtfT:M:E~'t'. [SEP'l'

cont de Paul and the Holy CroBS, beaded by tbe returniug home iill after midnight. Will your rector of tbe largest church here, called on the readers praythat his precious life,and thoseofhis landlady and urged that she on no account be fellow workers, may be preserved. Our comfort gnilty of selling land for a Protestant capilla. At and conlldence is that .. not a shot cau hit till the same time they laid down the money (£400) the God of love sees lit." For the angel of the for·the site, and also £1,400 to purchase a house Lord eilcampeth ronnd them tbat fear Him, aud "nd garden adjoining, thus effectually shutting delivereth them. From month to month our the Protestants out on each side. All we could do little party give a hearty welcome to your valuwas to unite in prayer that God would undertake able and most interesting M,SSIONARY REVIEW for US and for the honor ofilis cause. The triumph OF THE WORLD. Wishing it increased blessing of the enemies of the trnth seemed complete. and a yet wider circulation, But, contrary to all expectations, a far better Yours faithfully, site was immediately offered for sale. It is EMILY LOPEZ RODRIGUEZ. situated in the principal street, in a central part of the town, having also the great advantage Afrioa. that it commands a back street by which many who, like Nicodemus, lack courage, may be LETTER from Rev. Jos. Clark: able to enter the hall unobserved. Our only dilllculty was that the price, including govern- CONGO, PACAVALA STATION, May 9,1888. ment payments and legal costs, came to £250 Rev. J. H. Weeks and Mrs. Weeks, also more than we had in hand. This we laid Rev. A. D. Slade, all of B. M. S. (English), arbefore the Lord in prayer, and He graciously rived safely at Bauana ou the 24th of April. Mr. answered by inclining the hearts of two of His and Mrs. Weeks spent some considerable time servants to come to the rescue. In addition to at San Salvador, Congo, and have beeu to Enga former donation of £100, a friend in Surrey land for rest and change. sent us £200 more, and another in Scotland Receut reports from Bishop Taylor's party £50. Thus the e:JJact sum needed arrived just state that M,.,.. Walker has been ill and delayed in time to make the purchase I Truly the in journey to Stanley Pool. When taken ill she Lord has made what seemed so evil to • work was fortunately able to be taken on to our Lu- together for good,' kunga Station. Messrs. Waiker and Burr are also there. About 600 loads of their steamer are What would not the Romanists give if they now at Isangila; none beyond. could take from us that precious site I But it French, State and trading steamers refuse to is legally secured. .. If God be for us, who can take Mr. Brooks and his companion to the falls be against us f" All that now remains for us to of the Mobangi, where he desires to be placed so do is to build the first permanent Gospel Hall as to work his way to the Soudan. They refuse in the province of Gorona. Being for the to leave him in any place except where there is Mastor's glory, we believe that through His a station with white men. servants He will provide the means. Recent news from Stanley's Aruwimi camp report the whites there all well, bnt a good deal Since writing the above we have heard, on of sickness among the Zanzibaris. No news of reliable authority, that a priest belonging to a Stauley. church quite near to our new site, said, 'I All well at various missiou stations. would gladly have given $5,000 to have 'Jre- May, 12, '88.-Mr. J. S. Cutler of Ohio, who vented the Protestants bnying that plot of land.' joined himself to Bishop Taylor's mission here, Last Sunday night, while we were returning died at Vivi on the 3d May of gastritis. He was home from the service, a man was seen hanging about 65 years of age. about our house armed with two long knives, and At Vivi aud Isangila the bishop's people are was arrested by the civil guards. We thank God working hard at getting the steamer up country, for what we have reason to believe was a narrow but they are hampered for trade goods (cloth escape. Of Rome our Lord's words still hold etc.,) wherewith to pay carriers. Those that good, .. The time cometh that whosoever killeth are left are not at all dismayed, though their you will think that he doeth God service." In numbers have been greatly reduced. If the preaching among the villages the pastor has to Methodist Church "Would only take up the work, drive along very lonely country roads, often not they have a grand opening before them.

IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."

The Medioal Work in Missions.* sityof urging the importance of the BY REV. EDWARD CHESTER, M.D., medical, in connection with other forms of mission work. And more INDIA. than ever before, most missions are feelIng that the medical work THE time has passed for the neces- must be cared for and }'alued, just *Read before International Missionary Union, Bridgton, N. J., 1888. as are the educational, the evan- Fourth, and lastly, the exigency of gelistic and the congregation and the times demands a much larger church work, and that for women force of medical men and women and girls. upon mission fields.

There will be cases where the par- 1. The medical work should be ticular circumstances of location, given a place in every well organized custom, a deficiency of funds, or a mission. I do not mean the having paucity of laborers may render it one or even more men in a mission almost impossible to carryon every who know a little about medicine, or form of mission work. But in a mis- even have a degree,. providing they sion with a sufficient force, not confine their medical work to the lim- cramped for funds, and with ability o its of their own family and servants, to undertake the various forms of or even the families of the catechists mission work, the medical work and teachers living at headquarters.

should be conducted with the same Nor do I mean an occasional taking care and energy as the educational up of the medical work for a week or or other form of labor. two, and then giving it up for months The statement that the medical at a time. With the same expecta.- work is very expensive, almost as tion of permanency as you would much so as the educational, will not commence a high school or boarding be found true in all cases. And it is school at headquarters, with the a question whether it may not al- same use of recognized appliances, ways be almost self – supporting. the same amount of energy and sys- Certain it is, that the medical man tem in carrying on the work, and the himself in each locality may do same generosity in the use of funds very much to make this work in a for necessary expenses, thus only, is mission inexpensive, and it depends it of any real use to conduct the greatly upon him whether it is pop- medical work in missions. One or ular with the people and a success more dispensaries at important cen- or not. tel's; a hospital, if the funds will I would start with the proposition allow, and accommodation in this for "that in organizing any new mission at least a dozen in-patients, a good in a locality where none had existed supply of inexpensive medicine, so before, the medical work should be. that all the out-patients as well, who given a place, as much as the educa- attend the dispensary, may receive a tional or the WOJ:k of preachmg. supply of medicme; a sufficient staff And even in missions of long stand- of native trained assistants to pre- ing, if the medical work has not been scribe, compound, and look after entertained, I would' urge a trial of surgical cases, with a sufficient stock it, with an eye to the great gain it of surgical instruments for all mi- would be to the mission. nor operations. All these are neces- My second point would be that the sary for a successful medical work in medical work in a mission must be a mission.

eminently evangelistic, and In har- I have for years, m my mission mony with all the other work of the work in India, found it wise, as en- mission. abling me to save myself for more A third consideration is that if the important work, to do nothing my- medical work is taken up at all in a self which could be about as well mission, it must be a thorough and done by a native. It is on this line efficient work-one which will com- that I have always had, in my work ..land the respect and regard of all in the Dindigal Dispensary, such a classes. staff of native assistants that I could trust the work to them for a few the relief of suffering and saving of days at a time, when obliged to be life. myself out in the villages. In short, I think that in the medical work 2. But I pass to the second point: in missions, as in the educational that the medical work in a mission work, those steps must be taken which must be eminently evangelistic and will insure success. The natives of in harmony with all the other work India are clever enough to know of the mission. The more skilful the which are the best schools, the gov- medical missionary as a physician, ernment or the mission schools, and the more clever as a surgeon, the choose the best, which are, as a rule, better for the work and for making the latter, even though they know it a success, so far as popularity goes. they will have to give an hour a day, But it will not be a success as a for five days of the week, to the study mission work unless the saving of of the Bible. And just so is it with souls is ever brought to the front as dispensaries in India. As a rule, the the main object to be accomplished, mission dispensary is the most popu- and unless the medical missionary is lar and has the largest attendance. eminently a spiritual man with much And it is good policy for any mission of the mind of Jesus. As in New to make its schools and its dispensa- England of old, the church and the ries the best in the market. schoolhouse were side by side, and each helping the other, so should the Tothe work of the dispensary and church and the schoolhouse and the the hospital already noted, I would dispensary, on mission ground, work add, to be attended to, if possible, into one another's hands and be emiby the medical missionary, the train- nently fellow-workers. In a mission ing of good native men and women dispensary, among out-patients and for the work of hospital assistants Ill-patients, there is ample opporand nurses. Then native Christians tunity for making known the goscould be selected, and a choice made pel. And oftentimes the patients among these, so as to secure those are in such a state of mind that they who would add evangelistic to their may truly be said to hear the Word medical work:. gladly. In every part of our mission work we turn to the Lord Jesus as I would give the medical work a our great example. But eminently place in every well organized mission, in the medical work must we follow because I believe that, in a very His example in striving to reach the specialdegree, it adds to the efficiency heart and save the soul by showing of every branch of mission work, and our desire to relieve suffering, to heal makes the work, as a whole, more the sick, to give sight to the blind, successful. and hearing to the deaf. The medical work in missions is nothing, save as I would do so, also, because I think it helps to show to the heathen that that it furnishes, in the course of a the divine Christ is the center, the year, a very large number of most at- soul anltthe life of Christianity, and tentive and mterested hearers of the that we are His disciples and followgospel, not to say scholars. I would ers. do so because I think it gives us an entrance into many houses, 3. Our third consideration is that and an intimacy and friendship If the medIcal work is taken up at all with many of the more intelli- in a mission, it must be a thorough gent, respectable and influential na- and efficient work, one which will tives, such as could be secured in no command the respect and regard of other WilY. And all this quite aside all classes. In all cases with which from the positivegoodresulting from I am acquainted in India, the medical form of medical disease and surgical, missionary has become proficient in of which our best American medithe vernacular, so that he speaks cal text books inform us. And a with his native patients without the medical missionary has seldom the help of an interpreter. 'I'his is sel- opportunity of holding a consultadom the case with the civil or govern- tion with a brothel' doctor, even in ment dispensaries. But this greatly a dangerous case, requiring, perhaps, pleases the natives, especially the a most difficult surgical operation. women. Then, with hardly an ex- The nearest European doctor, as in ception, the rule in a mission dis- the case of the writer, may be 38 pensary is one of kindness. Not only miles away, and the medical missionis the medical missionary very care- ary may have to treat all his medical ful to gain the affection of the native cases and decide upon all his surgIcal patients by his invariable krndness, operations entirely by himself. If a but he insists upon his native assist- mission would have the medical ants in the dispensary following his work a Slccess, it must be willing to example. And here the natives are take pains to secure a really efficient not slow to mark the difference be- workman and grudge no expenditure tween the mission and other dispen- which is necessary to secure him a saries. competent corps of native assistants and a fair supply of surgical instru- But, important as it is to let the ments and medicine. law of the dispensary be a law of love, other things must be added. The medical mission work has been The work of the dispensary must be found to pay, and to pay well, in all carried on with the greatest regular- cases where it has been conducted ity, precision and care. It must be properly and in a liberal spirit. Indecidedly first-class work. There is stances to prove this could be given no place here for half-way work, by the hour. Thorough work and skimping 01' sham. He who is not the best, carried on in love to Christ willing to give his whole time, his and souls, and for Christ's sake, this whole heart, and his whole love to must be the motto and life of all sucthe medical mission work, had better cessful medical mission work. leave it alone altogether. The loathesome leper must have our best care 4. Fourth, and lastly, the exigency as well as the simple cases of fever. of the times demands a much larger Case;; of cholera and small-pox can force of medical men and women in no more be avoided or neglected than mission fields. I can speak of India the farmer neglect to feed his horses from what I know of the state of 01' cattle. The best results, which mission work there, after an experionly follow the best service, must ence of twenty-eight years. But gain for a mission dispensary a good what I note of India, I think, I may, name. Let no one imagine that a with equal force and truth, say of mere smattering of medical matters, China, Japan, Turkey, Persia and the knowledge of medicine which Syria. Never before has there been would be picked up in reading a few such an interest felt in medical mis- pages here and there of the books sion work; never before such an denominated" Medicine for the Fam-' opportunity afforded for reaching the ily" would suffice to enable a man people through the dispensary. In to have charge of a dispensary in India the Lady Duiferin scheme has India, Japan, China 01' Africa, where, excited an intense interest through- in the course of a month, there may out the whole of India in the medical present themselves almost every work for women, and though more lady physicians have come out to India in connection with the various pensaries. Even for this purely evangelical missions during the past evangelistic work we need more medten years than in all previous years, ical missionaries. And I can speak yet it seems to-day as if there were from personal experience when I say places for scores more. And in the that with an efficient corps of trainmedical mission work for women, in ed native assistants in his dispensaall the countries noted above, there ries the medical missionary can do is, perhaps, the strongest argument a great d('al of evangelistic work. for the importance of the medical For 24 years I have been compelled, mission work, the strongest ground from th£' smallness of our mission of its great necessity as a part of force, to have charge of a large and mission work, than can possibly be important station, with its churches given. I need not take fl'om any and congregations and schools of table of statistics the proportion of various grades, and the work of the women to men in the population of itineracy, or preaching in heathen the prominent countries of, the East. villages, while carrying on all my Their number is immense. And with medical work. An English service all this countless number of women every Sunday evening, with an Engand girls there is no possible way of lish sermon, has been thrown in as a reaching them and influencing them, matter of simple recreation. It has and blessing them, which will com- truly, however, been a great pleaspare with that in the power of the ure. Christian lady physician. To ev('ry lady physlCian now on the ground, That my Dindigal dispensary has in the countries noted above, if there been of the greatest help to me in were ten, yes, a score, it would not my general mission work, I have had be one too many for the great and many proofs. I have gained the good impol·tant work the Lord is giving to will of the people; our native pastors just this class of Christian laborel's. and catechists can preach and sell Scripture portions and tracts in any And the number of male medical part of the station without any fear missionaries should be greatly in- of insult or opposition. They are creased. We can do much of our listened to with the greatest interest. work through our native Christians, I would receive a welcome in the but they require to be trained for house of any man in the whole of the special work. We can never, in any Dindigal district. I find it more easy, heathen or Mohammedan country, on this very account, to establish expect to have all the European or schools in the villages, and I receive American laborers required for the more money from the people for evangelization of these countries. their support. And the Dindigal dis- We must call to our aid the natives pensary and hospital, with about of the different countries. But for 9,000 new cases every year, and 20.- aid in Christian work the missionary 000 old cases, or those coming more must train them for each specific than once to the dispensary, and form of mission work. For the med- patients coming in the same period ical work, both among men and from 500 and more different villages, women, many more native men and have cost the mission nothing these women need to be carefully trained, 24 years, from the first year they and this is an important work de- were established. For my services, volving on the medical missionary. which I am only too glad to give gratuitously, the English Govern- I have already alluded to the large ment gives me the whole cost of the and appreciative audiences which the dispensary establishment, all the medical missionary has in his dismedicines required each year, and all about doing good to all. A mission the surgical instruments and hospital dIspensary on heathen ground is a. appliances. The American Board of beautiful and strikmg object lesson. Foreign Missions kindly gave me the It is ever educating the heathen in money for the hospital and dispen- the first principles of the gospel. Its sary buildings, which secures these golden word is "Love," its motto, permanently to the mission. " Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do And I see no reason why the Eng- ye even so to them." lish Government would not grant International Missionary Union, Fifth this favor in any part 0/ India, if Annual Meeting.

satisfied that a medical work in a As the International Missionary given locality is needed, and will be Union IS a unique institution, not yet carried on efficiently. fully understood in many quarters, and unheard of in some others, we After these twenty-eight years in may once more introduce it to our India, watchillg with intense interest readers as a permanent organization the work in various missions and va- seeking to accomplish in its measure, rious localities, I have been forced to the same general ends aImed to be the conviction that it is not best to reached by the great missionary undertake anyone form of mission conferences in bringing together the work at the expense of the others, missionaries of all societies, from all but rather have them all carried on fields, that they may annually comwith as much skill and energy as pare views on current developments possible, letting each help and sup- of Christ's kingdom in the several port the other. I would not, there- parts of the globe. The Union was fore, exalt the medical work beyond organized at Niagara Falls, Canada, others, which for many veal'S have in the summer of 1884, met there been found worthy of trial. I would, again in 1885, and at Thousand Island however, strive to have this work Park in the River St. Lawrence in given the place it deserves, and fairly 1886 and 1887. It is composed of re- turned foreign missionaries of all tried. branches of the Evangelical Protest- W hen we see m England and ant Church, temporarily or perma- nently in America. Its international America the splendid building's which character has thus far embraced are being erected for hospitals, when representatives of the British Empire we know what large amounts are and the United States of America. necessary to carry them on success- The constitution names as the object fully, we cannot believe that this of the Union "to promote the gen- medical work is being tried, and the eral cause of Missions in all possible large expenditure made without care- ways, chiefly by the diffusion of mis- ful consIderation. More costly hos- sionary mtelligence, the discussion pitals are being built and a larger of missionary topics, and the increas- expenditure incurred, because it is ing of mutual acquaintance among known that the work appeals to the missionaries of different churches interest and sympathy of the whole and countries." people. And none the less is this medical work needed in heathen The Union holds one meeting a. lands. We cannot conduct it on such year, as near August as possible, on a magnificent scale as in this country. invitation of such community as may It is not necessary. But we can show proffer entertainment to its members the heathen, in a much less expen- sive manner, the same lesson of the gospel, and how our Lord and Master cared for His fellow men, and went a.nd be easily accessible.Thetotal num- fifth annual meeting, held in Bridgel>er of missionaries now enrolled is 134. ton, New Jersey (1888), are found On the roll of attendance at the the following names: Years of NAME. Field. Denomination. Service.

1858–…•. Rev. H. N. Barnum. D.D ..•.•••………••.•…•. Turkey•••••.. American Board. 186(}-'64….. Rev. A. Bates …………•…•••.••…..••.•….• Ceylon.••…… American Board. 1879-·81. •.•. Rev. W. H. Belden…………………………. Bulgaria.•.•••. AmericanBoard. " ….. Mrs. " …………………………. Bulgaria..•…. American Board. 1861-·69•…. Mrs. M. H. Bixby………………………….. Burmah .•.•…. Baptist. 1S6{}–•…. Rev. E. Chester. M.D ..••••…•…•••••.•.•…… India ….••..•.. American Board. 1867-·74•…. Rev. M. B. Comfort ……………•.. , ..•••…… Assam•…•….. Baptist. 1878-'84•..•• Miss C. H. Daniells, M.D ……………………. India ……….. Baptist. 1869-'70….. Rev. J. A. Davis …………………………… China………. Reformed " ., … Mrs. " …………………………… China………. Reformed. 1834-'84•…. Itev. William Dean, D.D ……………………. China……… Baptist. 1883- – ….. Rev. N. H. Demarest……………………….. Japan .••……. Reformed. 1846- – ….. Rev. S. B. Fairbank……………………….. Iudia……….. American Board. Rev. L. A. Gould…………………………… China………. Baptist. Mrs. " …………………………… China………. Baptist. 1861-'68•••• Rev. J. T. Gracey. D.D ……………………… India ……….. MethodistEpiscopal 1856- – ….. Rev. R. H. Graves. M.D .•……………•……• China………. Southern Baptist. 1837-·77….. Rev. Cyrus Hamlin. D.D.• LL.D ……………… Turkey ……… American Board. 1885- – •…. Ira Harris. M.D.. . .. .. . . . . ••• .. . …………… Syria ……….. Presbyterian. 1884- – .•… Mrs. " ……………………………. Syria•…•…… Presbyterian. 1846-·72••••. Rev. Allen Hazen ………•••.•••…………•… India…..•….. AmericanBoard. M. B. Kirkpatrick. M.D …………………….. Burmah …….. Baptist. Rev. R. M. Luther. D.D. (Secretary) ………….. Burmah…….. Baptist. 1878-'83….. Rev. James Mudge ………………………… India ………. Methodist Episcopal 1870-'78….. Rev. R.E. Neighbor ………………………… India……….. Baptist. 1861-'82….. Mrs. S. E. Newton ………………. , ……….. India……….. Presbyterian. 1866- – ••••. Rev. H. V. Noyes ………………………….. China………. Presbyterian. 1872- -…. Mrs. " ………………………….. China………. Presbyterian. 1873- – ….. Rev. G. W. Painter………………………… China………. Sonthern Pres. 1570-'81. …. Rev. C. W. Park ………………………….. India ……….. AmericanBoard. 1885- – ….. Rev. J. L. Philli~s. M.D., D.D ………………. India ……….. Free Baptist. " ….. Mrs. ' ……………….. India ……….. Free Baptist. Regillald Radr.lilfe. Esq ..••.••..••…•.•…••…. Russia ..•••…. Church of England. 1877- – ….. Rev. J. H. Roberts …………………………. lJhina………. American Board. 1880-'86….. Rev. W. Royall ……………………………. China………. SouthernM.E. 1682- – ….. Rev. E. C. Scudder. Jr ……………………… India……….. Reformed. 1854- – ….. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, M.R.C.S.• F.R.G.S ……. China………. Inland Mi,sion, 1848-·56….. Rev. Geor~e Thompson …………………….. Africa………. Am. Miss'y Society. 188()…'87….. Miss Jeume S. Vail ………………………… Japan ………. MethodistEpiscopal 1846-·64….. Rev. Edward Webb ………………………… India ……….. American Board. 1872-·82….. Miss Lula Whilden …………………………. China………. Southern Baptist.

To this group of missionaries was heartily sustained the Executive added Rev. Dr. Wm. Kincaid, one Committee in the experiment of apof the Secretaries of the American pointing the meeting aw&y from pop- Board, who made a handsome ad- ular summer resorts, and though the dress, in which he recognized the spe- smaller number was doubtle·<s in part cial benefits of such a union, not only attributable to this "new departto the missionaries, but to missionarv ure," yet the meeting was acknowlsecretaries and other prominenthome edged as equal to any of the precedworkers for missions. Rev. Dr. ing meetings in all other respects, Luther, a member of the Union by and superior to them in some features. virtue of service in Burmah, is also Bridgeton, through its churches, Di&;trict Secretary of the American represented by their Ministerial Un- Baptist Missionary Union. Miss ion, became the host of the Union McIntosh was the only lady secretary from July 5 to July 12 inclusive. It is this year, and she represented the a beautiful, thriving city, with glass, young organization .of the Woman's nail and iron manufactures and ex- Board of the Southern Baptist Con- tensive canning interests, seminaries vention. No one was discouraged by of learning, a personally highly rethe small number in attendance, as spected mayor and council, and not a compared with previous years, but 8aloon! The hospitality was cordial, and the guests found themselves af- annual meetings are usually inaugu- fected with "enlargement of the rated served to stir the finest relig- heart" ; the local newspapers gave ious emotions. This "Recognition daily reports of the meetings; fast meeting," in which each missionary friendships were made, and we trust introduces himself or herself, stating both entertainers and entertained field, form and years of service, call were made mutually helpful to each to the work, special difficulties, trials other in spiritual things. It will not and triumphs, or other personalfacts, be surprising if a gracious revival of tends at once, and at the beginning, religion shall follow on this sweet to blend souls that have hitherto only season of the "communion of saints." known each other through remoter The devotional meetings which agencies in purest fellowship. Cloud- occupied the first hour of each day's pillar and fire-pillar, springs in the exercises sustained the character of desert, manna that "tasted to every those of previous sessions. Dr.Dean man like that which he liked best,"

pronounced them amongst the most dew on Hermon, vision, miracle, par- precious· of his experience, and de- able and prophecy-all were recalled clared that of Tuesday morning to or realized in this mosaic of Chris- be the best meeting he had beep in tian narrative. One becomes confi- since he returned from China. Of dent that neither the Acts of the course, it was with depth of tender- Apostles nor the eleventh chapter of ness that these members prayed for Hebrews is yet finished, as he listens missionaries' children. The session to these "testimomes." God does devoted to interchange of thought on "in very deed yet dwell upon earth the specific power of the Holy Ghost and among men.

was not only one of earnest self- Turning from this feature of the searching, but of discrimination be- week to the free" round table" con- tween even the most highly analyzed versations on practical problems, one moral character and power and the finds in these meetings What Dr.

supernatural c~:;erations of the adora- Chester would call "sanctified com- ble Spirit. mon sense." The hour given to the If ever, since Pentecost, a company consideration of the subject of re- of Christians realized more fully the production of western ecclesiastical unity of the Spirit, it wDuld be diffi- forms on foreign mission fields was cult for any who enjoyed these hours the most remarkable of its kind the to name the place or time. The writer ever knew.

deeply spiritual character of the de- It was much more remarkable than votional hours of the Union through any participating in it had planned its five annual meetings suggests that or could have anticipated. The frank- that they be placed in the list of ness and freedom, the manifest intent "movable feasts." It were worth· to lay aside as far as possible the bias traveling across the continent to ex- of education, association or other perience the indwelling, the abiding preference, that each might contrib- presence of the Holy One as it· was ute his quota to the honestest pos- realized at Bridgeton. One may go in sible inlook to the real needs of the the strength of such meat more than foreign churches; earnest Chris- forty days. Some of the addresses, tian rivalry in making concessions, eminently those of Rev. J. Hudson without yielding or expecting any to Taylor and his associate, Reginald yield what he was supposed honor- RadclIffe, Esq., only served, if possi- ably to maintain-all made this ble, to deepen the divine impressions company of ten denominations ap- of the devotional hours. Even the pear a charmed circle. The equal of peculiar service with which these it has seldom been experienced. If the spirit that pervaded that com- American Indian vernaculars by pany could become the spirit of the Rev. E. _Arnold, of the St. Regis churches everywhere it would make Reservation, caused considerable dis.

but a mite of difference what forms cussion and showed wide diversity of of church government and polity ob- view. The question whether it was tained. Herfil was a Congregationalist desirable to bring natives from the brother saying that in his district the foreign fields to give them an educa- churches would in his judgment soon tion in Europe or America developed form into a modified episcopacy, as a the existence of only one set of opin- form of government most suitable to ions. All declared against the course, the native mind ; and another, a Pres- as leading to most unsatisfactory re- byterian, declared to be, in fact, a sults.

bishop over the churches under his A paper from Rev. Dr. Cunnyng- care; and others, not Presbyterians, ham, formerly of China, now Secre- conceding that the Japanese would taryof the Sunday-School Union of probably prefer and possibly come to the M. E. Church, South, was read, demand a Presbyterian form of gov- and followed by healthy discussion ernment, and yet another declaring on the development of this and other that the Anglican Church in China agencies for increasing-the interest of did not aim to strictly reproduce the the home churches in missions. Rev.

Episcopal polity, but to recognize in Dr. Barnum of Persia, who contrib- it such modifications as might nat- uted much of wisdom and interest to urally grow out of its new relations. several of the leading discussions, Some oC the discussions were much read an able pap{'r on" Some points more formal than others, and were of comparison between the mission- introduced by able papers. One of ary work of to-day and the early these was by Rev. Edward Chester, planting of Christianity."

M.D., on "Medical Missions," to Women's work for -heathen women which we have given the position of was considered during one session, leading article in this department, and the missionary ladies took part and which it is possible may be in the discussion, rendering there, as printed hereafter in other form for they did at the evening platform general circulation. meetingsand specialafternoon ladies'

Dr. Cyrus, Hamlin's paper on services, the most helpful interest to "Five Hundred Years of Islam" the whole annual session. Their con- was a terrible impeachment of Is- tribution to the spiritual directness lamic civilization. We hope to be and power of the devotional exercises able to favor the readers of the RE- was of great worth.

VIEW with this paper, and some others The papers and addresses cannot also hereafter. The wide range oC be all recounted, though none were experience and observation, and the below the merit that would entitle intimate personal acquaintance with them to speCIal mention. The even- Islam in Turkey, Persia, Bulgaria, ing platform meetings were devoted Africa, India, China, Ceylon, and to countries or to subjects, as other quarters of the globe, by the "India," or "Medical Missions."

members present, made the discus- One whole evening was occupied by sion of the subject of "Islam as a Civ- Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, founder and ilizer" one of rare value a.nd interest. present Superintendent of the cele- A paper presented by the writer of brated China Inland Mission, in these lines on Bible and other trans- narrating his personal experiences lations in' the Mexican vernaculars, and the development of his peculiar and another paper on the narrow- work which challenges solargeatten- ness and the limitations of the North tion. The spiritual effects of the simpIe story were not the least of the Several missionaries not present results of the evening with this sent their congratulations, and made brother, who was admitted to mem- suggestions of value for the future bership in the Union. The Union usefulness of the Union. We furhad been represented at the World's nish herewith the personal letter of Missionary Conference in London by the venerable Dr. Wood to the meettwo of its members, Rev. W. H. Bel- ing at Bridgeton. den and Mrs. Belden, and an hour was profitably and entertainly spent LETTTR from Rev. George W. in listening to their report of the Wood, D.D., to the Secretary of the great meeting from the personal and International Missionary Union: social, as well as the more official side. They evidently absorbed much, Unable myself to attend yonr meeting last and were able happily to reproduce it year, I was glad that the missions in Turkey for the delight of others. It was to Mr. and Mrs. Belden that the Union were so well represented by Drs. Hamlin and was primarily indebted for the courtesy of entertainment in. the city Barnum; and I hope tbat they and others from where they reside. that field may be with you also at Bridgeton dur- The address by R. Radcliffe, Esq., before the Union, on his personal ex- ing the present week. It would gratify me highperiences as an evangelist in several countries in Europe, eminently ly to be with you in bodily presence, as I shall Italy and Russia, was instructive and practically suggestive. It was a be in spirit and fullest sympathy; but the ordersurprise to most of those present, surely, to be told that Russia is pEn'- ing of the Divine Will, ever wise and good, defectly free for any number of evangelists who may go from person to nies me this privilege. From my late temporary person, and do effectivework through interpreters. sojourn in Summit, N. J., I have come with my The officers of the Union were, in wife for a little visiting among relatives and the main, re-elected, but Dr. Dean was added to the list of Vice-Presidents, friends in Livingston County, N. Y., on our way a class which Dr. Hamlin already. graced. to Dakota and Montana, to spend the summer, if The Rev. Mr. Mudge says; the Lord will, with children whom we have in .. Notes can give but ltttle idea of the rich those Territories. feast that was spread before us for each of the seven days, enlarging our stores of information, The death of our brother, Dr. Byington, has qnickenlng our sympathies, broadening Our view, deepening our consecration, and intensi- brought a great a1lliction upon the missions in fying our love for the work of saving the nations. We lloated ou a stream 01 keen enjoyment where Bulgaria and Turkey. Cut off in mid career of the pOints of beauty .ucceeded each other with almost bewildering rapidity. The people of a most useful life, he speaks to us impreSSively Bridgeton, who opened their doors to us with most cordial and abundant hospitality, showed of the supreme importance of spiritual and eteralso by their attendance a high degree of appreciation of the great privileges thus brought nal realities as a motive power in all Christian withiu their reach. Their pulpits were nearly alllll1ed on Sunday by the ·misslonaries, and the activity, and in the spirit of a true consecration, testimony of the pastors was that an entirely new era of interest in lllissions among their of a wise husbanding of physical energy in order people would date from this Convention. The members of the Union will certaiuly hold in to continuance of service in a world where the grateful remembrance their unstinted kindness. " most that we can do in the longest period that may be allowed to any of God's servants, is so greatly needed. '

May I exprees in a word the joy which I feel in the multiplying evidences of a new uprising of a zeal, not blind or tranSitory, for the conquest of the whole world to the dominion of Imman- uel, our Saviour and Lord 1 The trend of divine providences over our entire globe and the work of the Spirit in its measure and fruits in the hearts of Christ's true disciples, while accom- panied with much that is painful, bring to the church an appeal which it becomes us to wel- come with cheer and thauksgiving, and glad re- sponse in the line of individual and organized efforts to which we are called. :May you con- sultations be stimulating and productive of richer results for good than in years past, when occasion for congratulation was so great. In the might of the forces of evll in our Own country and in other lands, let ns see no ground of dis- couragement; for greater is He that is with ns than can be all they who are against us. What- ever drawbacks or defeats may occur, these are permitted for benellcent ends to which they are noedful or may be made subservient. What we may not now understand, we shall see hereafter

70ti THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

With adoring admiration of the wisdom that Is Dege of carrying it forward to new triumphll higher than oura, May the, be wise, faithful and happy, lind ui As I look forward, knowing that my con their turn be succeeded by a generation who nection With present Corms of service Is com- Ing to Its termination, I desire, with penitent 'shall be more honored and blessed even than confession and supplication in respect to my own relations to the cause I love, to give the hand of they, as workers together with God for the fulfellowship, with words only of encouragement, to the young and vigorous who have the prv- filment of all that He has promised to do for men, With fraternal affection and regard, youra most sincerely, GEO. W. WOOD.

V.-THE- MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

BY A. T. PIERSON, D.D.

JAPAN. of fellowship." What a scene was that to betoken the change that ABOUT twenty-five years ago a twenty-five years had brought I native of Japan, not known by name to modern history, conceived the The whole nation is awake and adidea that for his country to open her vancing. In 1872 the name of Chrisgates to Occidental civilization would tian was odious in Japan; now there be a benefit and blessing, and with are 16,000 who are loyal to Christ, a the prophetic foresight of a practical multitude of students there are waitpatriot and statesman, he dared pub- ing to learn of this new religion; and licly to advocate the abandonmen~ thousands are on the very pivotal of the exclusive policy hitherto pur- point of destiny, the question must sued by his nation. For such advo- speedily be determined whether they cacy he became so obnoxious to his become Ohristians or agnostics and countrymen that it was resolved to atheists. Years ago a school for put an end to his influence by put- boys and girls began in Yokohama; ting an end to his life. On a great now 'the boys' school is moved to festival day, when Japanese came Tokio, and becomes the Union Colfrom all quarters to do honor to the lege, with 300 students, under presigods of the kingdom, three bands dency of Dr. Hepburn; and the girls' prepared to waylay him: he escaped school remains at Yokohama as the the first, but fell into the hands of Isaac M. Ferris Seminary. Christhe second and perished. tianity is penetrating to the very borders of the land of the Rising A few months ago, a native pastor Sun. The Government itself offers was celebrating the Lord's Supper in to aid teachers while they are studyone of the Christian churches of the ing the Japanese tongue, and the island empire. He was a relative of door is wide open to Christian misthat murdered man who was the sions. Five denominations are united first modern martyr to his country's in the Union church, which is repreadvancement. In the congregation sented in the Union College. Young an old man arose and begged to be men are so anxious to get an educaheard. He said, "I am one of those tion and be fitted to preach to their who murdered that man, twenty-five countrymen that they resign lucrayears ago, and I want to confess my tive positions, or refuse tempting part in that crime. " The young pas- offers for secular positions, in order tor said, "By all the ancient customs to fit themselves for Christian serof Japan, I am bound to avenge that vice. Who shall guide these inquirblood-feud by plunging my dagger ing, intelligent minds and encourage into the throat of the man who was these young disciples, unless the the murderer of my relative. But church in this land supplies men and Christ's blood reconciles all blood- means? Was there ever such opporfeuds, and in Christ's name I wish to tunity offered by God 'for the evan~ extend to this brother the right hand g'elization of an empire containing on a persecution, and the Catholic thirty-eight millions of people I How converts recanted or fled to China, slow we are to go in and possess the or endured torture and martyrdom. 131nd I With a proper, prompt, ener- In 1835 Roman Catholic missions getic occupation of these wonderful again found a way into Korea by way fields of Christian labor, we might of China and Mantchuria, and the turn the whole future of the Sunrise Jesuits claimed 15,000 converts even Kingdom in the direction of the as late all 1857. cross: Not only is all antagonism abated, but Japan actually invites But we are especially concerned Christian teaching and missionary with the late opening for Protestant labor. The plowman may overtake missions. Japan in 1876 made the the reaper, and the treader of grapes first complete treaty with her neighhim that soweth the seed. The sower bor across the channel; six years' must carry the sickle. later, partly through the aid of the great Chinaman, Li Hung Chang, a KOREA. similar treaty was made with the United States. In 1884 the Presby- AFTER a strict isolation of centuries terian Board, at the solicitation of this hermit nation is open to the Rijutei, a Korean of rank, who was gospel. Its territory is partly penin- converted while representing his sular and partly insular; the penin- government in Japan, established a sula is about 400 miles long and 150 station at Seoul, H. N. Allen, M. D., miles broad, and is shaped like Italy. a medical miSSionary in China going Numerous adjacent islands constitute there. The American resident minthe Korean archipelago, chiefly of ister, General Foote, gave him an granite rock, some rising 2,000 feet appointment as physician to the above sea-level. The population legation. Dr. Allen was simply numbers from 8,000,000 to 12,000,000. tolerated at first by the Koreans; but during a revolt 10 Seoul, he skilfully The predominant religion is Bud- treated several persons of rank who dhism; though there are some follow- had been wounded, and saved the life ers of Confucius, as in China, and of the king's nephew, Min Yong Ik. some of a religion similar to that of He found the native doctors and sur- the Sin-tu in Japan. Indeed, Korea geons trying" to staunch the wounds seems, in some respects, a cross be- with wax, and his own scientific tween these two immediate neigh- treatment won the admiration of the bors. In 1882 Korea was, by treaty, Koreans. The king's nephew de- opened to American commerce, the clared they that believed him" sent key used by God to unlock this em- from heaven to cure the wounded." pire to the gospel was the medical His medical services to the royal m~88ton. Somewhere between the family led the king to build a gov- sixteenth and eighteenth centuries ernment hospital, which he named Romanism was carried into this Hay Min Lo, House of Civilized country by papal converts from Virtue, and which he placed under Japan and China. About one hun- the care of the Presbyterian mission dred years ago, Senghuni, a distin- and the supervision of Dr. Allen. guished official, professed conversion The mission finds in Rijutei a true and was baptized under the name of helper who has devoted his energies Peter; the missionaries were popu- to giving the Koreans the New lar, and the more educated classes Testament in their own tongue. Mr. saw that even this corrupted form of Arthington, of Leeds, gave the money Christianity was an improvement to pay for printing 3,000 copies of the upon "paganism. The government Irospels of Luke and John; and so became alarmed; the priesthood led the last door is opened by this her- change in public opinion, we would emphBSlm mit nation for the admission of the this fact, which very much simplifles the probgosPIlI. The working force has been lem : that you are not now asked to build and increased by the addition of Rev. Mr. furnish school-houses, supply native teachers, Underwood and Dr. Herron and his pay annual detlciencies, etc., but simply to fur- nish and support lady teachers to work witla wife; and some are so sanguine as to sympathetic Japanese in giving the girls ot Jwhope that God is going to work a pan .. Christian education. The ripe opportlD" greater and more rapid change here ity consists in this-that not only Christian than in Japan. Fragments of evan- clmrches, but non-Christian philanthropists, are gelical truth, brought by stealth from looking to Christianity as to the ouly force they the· Sunrise Kingdom, found their know of that will lift woman ont of her Ignoway to the heart of Rijutei. Years rance and degradation, and enable her to exert passed by, and the crisis came. such an Influence in the home as do the womell Rijutei was the means of saving the ot Christian lands." life of the queen, and so earned favor with the king. At once he went to Dr. Wm. Fleming Stevenson, while Japan, where he learned the way to Christ more perfectly, and so was an enthusiast in Missions, said to his led to undertake, like Luther, to give brethren: his own countrymen the Word of God in their own tongue. Here is .. We must not be over sanguine as to the rll' another pruof of God's seal on the ception given to the gospel in heathen communiwork of missions. A few years ago ties, as in Japan. It is partly of an Athenian type, born of cnrioslty and love of novelty; and we were just beginning missionary partly the result of proverbial politeness, giving teaching in Japan, and now Japanese courteons audience to a foreigner; and partly converts are proposing to go to the fruit of a Progressive, aggressive spirit, Korea as evangelists I which, especlaily in educated people, takes to Occidental civilization; and partly the movement SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. of governmental policy. From motives of State, neutrality is exercised. The Sabbath is ob- Desire of Japanese Philanthro- served in Japan only in government omces pists.-The Rev. J. H. De Forrest, a where are many foreiguers. The edict against missionary in Japan of the American Christianity Is not repealed, and much real Board, says in a recent letter: hostility hides behind the veil of indifference."

"Thoughtful Japanese have long been watch- The Mildmay meetings and all the ing missionaries and their methods of work; and when they compare the gifted women en- great religious societies' anniversagaged in school and evangelistic work with the better classes of women here, tbey see tbat ries held in England and America, in something-either that Christianity or civilization-has given tbe women of the west a posi- the month of May, have already their tion that excites their admiration and earnest longing to bave the women of Japan gain a sim- counterpart in Japan. This year the ilar place of influence. They also see that unless some way of elevating woman is systematically tide of these has been at its flood for uudertaken, Japan cannot push forward into the position of a truly civilized country. Hence it nearly the entire month in Tokio and happens that woman's work is now attracting tbe thought of philanthropists, who are asking vicinity. The meetings may be said in pnblic and in private that we aid them, espe- cially in the establishment of Christian girls' to have commenced with the fourth schools. We have already at hand importnnate calls for lady teachers from TokiO, Okayama, biennial meeting of the General As- Takahashi, Matsuyama, and other large cities; and what &11all we do in the face of these re- sembly of the United Church in qnests? Professor Toyama vehemently says, •It is an opportunity that missionaries cannot Japan, when fifty-seven churches, afford to lose.' In asking you to do all you an to take advantage of this unexampled represented by their delegates and a nearly equal number of natives and foreigner ministers met in Tokio, and a large number of clergymen of other churches were invited to sit as corre- spo n ding me m be-rs-. – .

. Mistaken Devotion.-In one of the great temples in Japan the devotion of the worshipers consists in running around the sacred building one hun- dred times, and dropping a piece of wood into a box at each round, when, the wearisome exertion being ended, the worshiper goes home tired and 000, about that of the United States very happy at the thought of having in 1845. done his god such worthy service. Are there not some Christians whose How the Gospel was first Planted activity is very similar to this, and of in Korea.-This incident is related about as much value? They are on by Mrs. Fannie Roper Feudge, Balthe street, running to all sorts of timore, Md. : meetings, and ever bustling from place to place. They feel and talk as .. Among many efforts made during the presif they were rendering most valuable ent century to carry the gospel into Korea, and service, and solace themselves in their weariness with the comfort that with little apparent success, one seed ot sacred they are doing great good and will have a rich reward. Yet really they truth was planted by a little Chinese lad shortly are accomplishing nothing. Their before Korea was opened to missionary effort ; exhausting labor is really only run- and this, so far as we know, was the first in nil ning round and round the temple; the hermit kingdom to spring up and bring forth no cause is advanced by it; God's fruit to the glory of God. This little boy's name name is not honored by it. was Ah Fung. He had been taught at one of the mission schools at Ningpo to read the Bible, Every indication goes to show that and to go to Jesus iu prayer whenever he was the Hermit Nation, as Korea is called, in need of help. When he was about nine years is rapidly leaving the hermitage and of age, his father took Ah Fung with him on one coming to the fore. The United of his trading expeditions to the Korean capital. States steamship Omaha has just By some mishap, while there, the boy was stolen arrived at Yokohama from Korea, and sold to the governor, who presented him to and Captain McNair reports his ob- his wife. She made him her page, and he would servations from a visit to that coun- often attempt to tell hili young mistress of the try, at whose capital, opened up to Saviour he loved and trusted, but withont avail, Americans by the treaty of 1882, he until one day the reaper Death took away her met the American Consul. For baby girl ; and then, in her great loneliness and miles, in the journey to Sevul, the sorrow, she recalled the words of her little page capital, the country looks like one about Jesus and His love, and asked him to teU vast cemetery, with its thousands of her the story agalu. Day after day did this green mounds on hillsides where Christian child talk of the Saviour, until she, too, sleeps the dust of more than ninety came to love this same Friend." generations. The crops are grown, the trades flourish as they do here. TEXTS AND THEMES. They have crime and criminals just as we do, but unlike our own courts, Zech. iv : 6-" Not by might (num- Korea punishes thieving with decap- bers), nor by power, but by my itation, consequently a great many Spirit." heads roll about wanting bodies to fit them. Remington and Martine rifles, Zechariah is encouraging Zerubbawith Gatling guns, the telegraph and bel,who was disheartened in attemptelectric lighting abound in parts of ing to build the second Temple by Korea, so rapid is the march of civil- paucity and poverty of the returned ization. Mission work is just begin- captives, who must be his human dening to occupy the ground, and no pendence. God assured him that not doubt there it will meet with great by a host of people, nor by human' opportunity for spreading the gospel, resources, but by His Spirit, all although at flrst the work will have work for <Sod is to be accomplished. to be limited to the youth. Korea When His Spirit moves, the most now contains a population of 20,000,- colossal mountain of obstacles be- comes a plain.

To enforce and illustrate this, the vision of this chapter is portrayed.

The candelabrum represents the church of God-God's golden light- bearer. The reservoir of prophecy supplies the lamps with oil. _ But the reservoir itself must be supplied by golden pipes, and these must connect with the living trees, which are per-

PROGRESS AND RESULTS 01' MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN

ennial oil-producers. These trees, personal influence more obviously represent Jesus Christ in His royal appear. This compels us to shout and priestly offices as Mediator, in " grace! grace!" all the way from which offices He was typified in Ze- cornerstone to capstone. rubbabel and Joshua. Exodus xxxviii: 8-" And he made The way to build and nourish the laver of brass . . . of the churches is to depend on the Holy looking glasses of the women assem- Spirit. The foundation must be laid bling." in Jesus, and then the structure carried from corner to capstone as a The banished metal mirrors of ~he work of grace. Let us not despise women were contributed to be melted the day of small things. If the seven and cast into a laver for God's tabereyes of omniscience are supervising nacle. What a sacrifice of vanity! our work, and the seven hands of and what a lesson for us on the way omnipotence are building for us, to furnish God's house with needed even the feeblest, faintest body-a supplies! mere remnant-can build the temple of God in a strange land. This has 1. We ought to sacrifice our luxbeen the hope of missions always. uries. Not one step has ever heen taken successfully in d~pendence on num- 2. Common things may be put to bers or wealth or social patronage. uncommon uses-a brazen mirroJ' In no work does the Holy Spirit's becomes a brazen laver.

2. The instruments of vanity unto the sacred vessels of the tabernacle.

VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.

Africa•…,..Mr. Moil', of the African The native church among the Hydahs, Rev. J. Lake Company, states that at least Loomis Gould, missionary, has 42 communiten thousand slaves cross Lake Ny- cants. At the communion of the Thllngit Presassa every year. "I once looked into byterian Church, Sitka, on May 5th, Rev. A. E. the hold of a slave-dhow," he says, Austin received six adults and baptized four "and saw eighty or ninety little chil- infants. dren there. Oh, friends, if you had seen those eyes gazing up into yours, Austria.-The British and Foreign you would pray earnestly that this Bible Society distributed by sale and 'open sore,' as Livingstone called it, gift 20,597 Bibles, 102,01l Testaments might be healed."-Spirit of Mis- and 45,391 portions, making a total sions. of 167,959 volumes. The largest number was in the German language, -The first Christian church in the the next in Hungarian, then Bohe· Congo Free State was organized in mian, Hebrew, Roumanian, Servian, November of last year, and there are Polish, etc. now 1,062 converts in the Congo Mission. Burmah.-Sir Charles Bernard, wbo has two sisters working as missionaries of the Alaska.-The reports of the churches in South- Church of Scotland in India, has recently stated some interesting facts a.bout the east Alaska are f8ll of encouragement. Rev. S. Christian Karens of Burmah. He says they number about 200,000, that is, about one- Hall Young reports from Fort Wrangel47 com- third of the Karen people. There are from 500 to 600 congregations practically if not municants ; 7 added on examination and one by entirely self-supporting. It is their practice to set apart as much produce of their land certificate; adult baptisms, 7 ; Infant baptisms, as will support their native pastors,and this they do before appropriating any of the har- 4; enrollment of Sabbath-school, 50 ; collections vest for themselves. They also sen4 mig. sionaries into Siam, and support them fully. Corall purposes, $277. Rev. Eugene S. Willard -The annual meeting ofthe Bassein reports from the native church, Jnneau, com- Sgau Karen Churches was held remunicants, 'rI ; 'added on examination, 14, and by cently. During the year, 562 have certficate,13 ; adults baptized,14, and Infants, 1 ; enrollment of Sabbath-school, 80. Rev. Alonzo E. Austin reports from the native church, Sitka, communicants, 222. Added on examina- tion, Ill, and by certificate, 1. Adults baptized, 108, and Infants, 75. Enrollment of Sabbath- school, 175. Collections for all pnrposes. $70. been baptized on profession of faith, given away, the rest sold. The of whom an unusually large number American Bible Society has also have come from the heathen. The made a grant of $1,500 to the Evantotal contributions of th(l churches of gelical Society of France to aid in its work of Bible distribution. That the association for the year amount society has had in its service durto Rs. 41,000. The pupils in the town ing the year 42 colporteurs, and high school have increased to 400, the distributed 28,745 volumes of the largest number ever known in the Scriptures. history of the Bassein Sgau Karen Mission. Besides the Sgau Karen Germany.-Fifty years ago seven Association, there is a Pgho Karen Association having about 1,500 com- shoemakei's in a shop in the city of municants. The Henthada Karen Mission numbers 2,000 communi- Hamburg said, "By the grace of cants. These Christians have taxed God we will help io send the gospel to our destitute fellow-men." In themselves voluntarily to raise Rs. 5 twenty-five years they had estabper member toward new school buildings in the town of Henthada. Al- lished fifty self-supporting churches, ready Rs. 7,000 have been paid in, and the rest ,will be forthcoming had gathered out '10,000 converts, soon. It must be remembered that the great body of the Karens are had distributed 400,000 Bibles and small rice cultivators, yet they are willing to bear heavy burdens in or- 8,000,000 tracts, and had carried the der that their children may receive gospel to 50,000,000 of the race. It would take only 150 such men to carry the gospel to the whole world in twenty-five years. • -Pastor Rohrbach, of Berlin, said that he an education.. . gaioed his first ideas of evangelistic work from China.-The news from Central Mr. Moody, and when he read of the work of China, received by the China Inland Robert Moffat in Buchuanaland, he asked, Mission, is very cncoura.ging. Mr. " Cannot the same power be' brought to bear Stanley Smith reports 210 baptisms upon Germany Y" He was glad to say that the at one time, and as many inquirers. initiatory work of Dr. Schluembach, Dr. Somer- The Rev, G. Clark tells of preaching ville, Dr. Ziemann, and others, had done a great deal for the caose of evangelization. to immense audiences, sometimes as Hawaiian Islands.-Seventy years many as 4,000. It is stated that "a ago the inhabitants were depraved few as influential men as the empire has produced have embraced Christi- heathen, and human sacrifices formed anity, others are ready to do so, or a part of their religion. In 1820 the wish to reap the benefit of its civiliz- American Board sent the first mis- ing influences." Nine men have been sionaries there. From that time baptized and admitted to the Lord's Supper by the China Inland Mission there was steady progress; at one at Honan. This is stated to be the first Christian church founded in time, during a great awakening, 1,700 this province of 15,000,000 souls. The only other society at work in persons being received into the the province IS the Baptist Mission- church in one day. The time came ary Society, and there are but three when the islands could be called European agents in all this vast Christianized, and in 1863 the Amerpopulation.-O. M. Intelligencer. ican Board closed the evangelizing agE:ncy, continuing only the educa- China Inland Mission.-Ohina's Millions for tional, and an independent self-sus- taining native church was formed July says of last year's labors: "Looking on under the name of "The Hawaiian the work of the whole year, we have to praise Evangelical Association." From a report of the Association made in God for the addition of between five and six 1886 we gather the following: There are fifty-eight Hawaiian churches hundred members to the churches-a larger ac- connected with the Association re- porting 5,387 members, who paid cession than we have ever yet had to report. $8,463 for pastor's su~port; $9,829 for church building; $3,655 to send We look for yet greater results this year. All the gospel to others; $5,593 for misthe stations and oot-stations can be better cellaneous purposes; a total in one year of $28,142. worked by our augmented numbers."

France.-By the aid 01 the Ameri- Holland.-The Ministerof Colonies, can Bible Society the Bible Society of France has printed 10,000 copies of the New Testament, and distributed by sale and gift 13,938 volumes, of which 196 were Bibles, 9,486 Testa- Mr. Keuchenius, has sent a missive ments andS,487 portions. About one third of the entire number were to the various Missionary Societies in the Netherlands, declaring in it, that 8,523 probationers and 10,180 Chris- tians. This is Bishop Thoburn's the Dutch Government should like to " diocese."

see if the societies 01' unions afore- At the Conference on Foreign Mis- sions in London, Sir W. W. Hunter said could contribute largely to in- saId that while the ordinary increase of the population of India had been crease the number of missionaries in 10~ per cent. the increase of Chris- tians had been 64 pel' cent. in the last the Dutch East Indian Archipelago ten years.

and to stop the progressing influence -The Indian census shows that the native Christians are increasing of Islam among the heathen popula- fifteen times as fast as the general population. tion of these islands. -The Maharajah of Darbhauga, of N. D. SCHUUMANS. Bengal, has given $25,000 for a hos- HAARLEM, July 5. pital and dispensary in connection with Lady Dufferin's medical work. -The evangelical population founded a union His gifts for benevolent purposes the last eight years reach fully $1,- for the purpose of establishing schools independ- 700,000.

ent of the State becanse of the law forbidding Italy.-In this stronghold of Ro- man Catholicism the work of the the reading of the Bible and Christian teaching British and Foreign Bible Society has met with marked success during In olllcial schools. These independent schools the past year, the distribution being 83,349 copies in advance of the year are prospering; at the end of 1886 there were preceding. The figures are: Bibles, 7,322, Testaments, 18,885, and por- 441, In which 71,000 children receive a good ed- tions, 102,821; total, 129,028.

ucation.-JOIIN1Cil Reli{lieux. -A Japanese correspondent writes India.-The Hindus are not disposed to the Christian Union: to allow Christianity to win a victory " Sunday, March 25, was another rad·letter in India without a struggle. Publica- day in Kyoto. Twenty-five yonng men and tions in defense of Brahminism are eight young ladies, students in· onr Doshisha scattered widely over the country. schools, publicly confessed Christ as their Just now we hear of a Hindu Tract Society started in Madras, which is Savionr. This, with six young ladies baptized issuing large editions of handbills monthly, in which the Christian re- in January, and forty-three young men baptized ligion is furiously attacked. The English missionaries report that all In December, makes eighty-two accessions from this is working for good, and that "the Tamil country is being stirred the school during the current school year. Ten as never before." These conflicts are rousing men from their indifference, were received Into one of the city churches on and will lead to decision, either for Christ or against him. the same day. One of the young men joini~ -A Parsee Student. A Parseegirl in from the school is a son of one of the most fa- India named Sorabji has become mous men in Japan. The Osaka Church will quite distinguished for her intellec- dedicate a very large and commodious chnrch tual ability. In her University course April 5."

she has gained scholarships each Jews.-The number of Jews in the world is estimated by the Hebrew year, and has kept at the head of the .Annual at 6,500,000; of these 800,000 list of competitors in English. She are in Palestine. The largest disperhas recently graduated in the first sions are in Russia, which contains class. Only six students in all, of 2,550,000, of whom 766,000 are inRuswhom the remaining five were men, sian Poland; in Austria-Hungary, succeeded in obtaining this degree. 1,645,000; Turkish Empire, 800,000; Miss Sorabji is the only" girl gradu- Roumania, 265,000;· United States, ate" in the Bombay Presidency. 230000, and Abyssinia, 200,000. Best of all, she is a Christian, and the child of Christian parents, one of -Alexandria Reports for 1887. The seven sisters, all of whom have been Rev. William Kean, the head of the well educated and are doing good station, givesa frank statementof the service as educationists. Her mother difficulties of work among adult Jews. has established a successful high Miss Kirkpatrick reports continued .chool in Poonah. success in the two schools under her charge, the fees of the girls' school -calcutta has 200,000 Mohammedans and one not only paying:aU expenses, but with ordained missionary to them.-Indian Witness. £25 from the Glasgow Ladies' Associ- -The Methodist Episcopal Church has in India foreign, native and zenana missonaries, 4,450 members, ation, meeting all the requirements rents, $32,986, and the remainder ~m mis_ of the pOOl' school in the Jewish cellaneous sources. The appropriations already quarter of the town. Mr. Douglas pledged by the Board for foreign work during Dunlop, the head of the boys' school, the coming year amounted to $183,076. To reports 251 pupils (124 being Jews) translate, publish and distribute 500,000 volumes enrolled in the boys' schools, 190 be- of the Scriptures In foreign lands, $143,570 was ing in attendance at St. Andrew's paid. school. Of the 190 there were 63 Jews, 42 Roman Catholics, 31 Protestants, -The address ofthe Methodist bishops 24 Moslems, 23 Greek Church, and at the Geueral Confereuce shows that In the 7 Copts; 01', with regard to nat:ion- past few years 450,000 souls have been brought ality, 51 Egyptian, 45 British, 25 into the church, and the membership Increased Greek, 25 Italian, 20 German, 11 from 1,769,534 to 2,093,935. Receipts for mis- French, 8 Austrian, 3 Spanish and sionary work last year upwards of $1,000,000; 2 Swedish pupils. The ages of the approprlatlons for next year, $1,200,000. The pupils were remarkable. Of the 190 church claims 12 theological semi)laries, 54 colenrolled in St. Andrew's school 6 leges and 120 seminaries, with a property valua were over 20 years of age, or 21 over tion of $25,000,000. seventeen, or 42 over fifteen, or 78 in all over thirteen. The New Testa- -'l'he General Assembly of the United ment is carefully read and explained Presbyterian Church of North America recently in various languages every day, and held its sessions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ten all the Jewish boys without exception Synods and 61 Presbyteries belong to the Assemtake full part in the devotional exer- bly, with 753 ministers, 3,580 elders and 9S,992 cises and religious instruction. At members. The contributions of Sunday-schools the Sunday-school there is a good at- and missionary societies frp: the past year tendance of Jewish boys-sometimes amounted to $1,019,937. a dozen of them senior pupils. The basis of the success of the school is -The foreign missions of the Protestant the solid and high-class commercial Episcopal Church report communicants as foleducation provided, for which £347 lows: Liberia, 472; China, 374; Japan, 429; were realized in fees in 1887.-0hurch Haiti, 855; total,1,730. The income was $175,- of Scotland Record. 84S.46, including a balance of $20,739.51 from last year. There is a balance of $44,974.3Sln the -The Mission work among the treasury. 6,400,000 Jews of the world has been developed with especial rapidity -The English Wesleyan MisBiona.ry since 1881. An investigation made Society expended last year $700,000, and reports then showed that there were engaged statistics as follows: Stations, 339; preaching- in it 20 societies, employing 270 mis- places, 1,224; missionaries and assistant mis- sionaries. Statistics recently pub- sionaries, 324; other paid agents, 1,825; unpaid lished report the existence of 47 so- agents,3,651; cburchmembers,31,26S; scholars, cieties, with 377 missionaries. The 58,10S. increase in contributions has not been proportionally large, being only -During the six years, 1881-7, the North- about $96,000. Of the $432,000 which ern Baptists expended for Home Mission work, constituted last year's income, $363,- as shown by the receipts of the "American 163 were given in the British Isles. Baptist Home Missionary Society," $2,256,656. The missionaries make their head- For the same period they expended for foreign quarters at those cities where the missions, as shown by the receipts of the Jews chiefly congregate. Fifty-eight "Baptist Missionary Union," $2,327,289. The work in London; 14 in Buda-Pesth; Southern Baptists duriug the same six years 33 in Constantinople, and 28 in Jeru- contributed for Home Missions $455,399, and for salem. A proportionally smaller Foreign, $472,411. number of wQrkers are stationed at the less important cities. -The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, reports a total of members and preachers MISSIONARY SOCIETIES' RECEIPTS FOR of 1,107,456, an increase of 41,079. It has 11,364 churches, valued at $15,204,883. 1887-8. -The United Presbyterian Church of -The seventy-second annual meeting Scotland reports 565 congregations, an increase of 1, aud 182,170 members, an Increase of 107. olthe American Bible Society, New York, was The total congregational Income the past year held May 10. The cash receipts for general pur- was $1.603,500. -The German Evangelical Luthera.n poses amounted to $557,340, and disbursements, Church Synod embraces 246 ministers, 387 con- $506,443. The receipts from legacies for gen- gregations and 38,000 members, 219 parochial schools, and an average yearly attendance of eral purposes amounted to $113,778; from 6,427. churches, individuals aud auxiliary donations, Russia. – Rabinowitz. The Free $85,405 ; from books and the purchase account Church of Scotland Monthly contains $296,540 ; from trust funds, etc., $23,944; from a letter-written by Rabinowitz tp Dr. ary who came to this country to ob- Wilson of Edinburgh, dated March tain funds for the erl'!"ction of a Chris- 12. Dr. Somerville, who will be re- tian high school in Bangkok, has remembered as the Scotch minister turned to his field of labor. He sewho has preached in Constantinople cured $15,000 in this country, to and in various parts of the world with which the King 01 Siam will add such good effect, had visited Rabinowitz at Kischineff, which is the capi- $5,000. The erection of the school is tal of Bessabaria, some eighty-five thus made possible. miles northwest of Odessa. Dr. Somerville stayed with this Christian Sweden.-The Swedish Magazine, Israelite a few days, preaching, as Lunds-Missions Tidring, gives the Rabinowitz says, "to a house crowd- present number of baptized converts ed to overflowing by children of of the Berlin society as 16,539 at 47 Israel coming to see the eminent and stations. The last year's contriburespectable doctor." And he adds: "Dr. Somerville was 'moved to his tions of these amounted to $3,780. very heart, seeing how here the Jews, Syria.-The Quaker women have a with God's Word in the hand, are seeking the Lord their God, and "Syria-Ramalleh Home." They pro- David their King, Jesus Christ." pose to build a girls' training-school there, for which ,3,000 is raised, twice -Lord Radstock gave some interesting in- that amount being needed. Sybil Jones was the first woman to preach stances which had come under his notice. Two the gospel in the land since the apos- tles' day. They have a school at prominent workers had heen banished; one had Mansnrieh, near the Svrian Mission, on Mount Lebanon. The Philadelto walk 1,000 miles in chains to Siberia, bnt his phia Society supports a Bible woman in this mission. joy was that he would" now have the privilege -The Mission at Brumana on the of preaching the gospel to the prisoners," who heights of Mount Lebanon. overlook- ing Beirut, is under the joint mancould not otherwise be reached. In St. Peters- agement of the Society of Friends in Great Britain, Ireland and the burg the" open meeting" principle works ad United States. There is a training home for boys, with 30 inmates, and mirably, hecause when the gatherings are broken for girls with 20, and a well-ordered hospital with 15 beds, besides disup by the police-as is invariably the case when pensary, open five days a week. The mission has the charge of various discovered-the converts are each competent to day-schools for both sexes in several surrounding villages, in which more minister the Word to others, and thns, as in the than 300 children are under instruc- tion ;, it also employs a colporteur early days of the church, the scattering of the and several Bible-women. There are people secures the scattering of the seed. In also two mothers' meetings, which in earlier days had sometimes to be fact, on one occasion a number of imprisoned shortened becaulile of fights among the women, but which now are comconverts were released, hecause by their testi- posed of large numbers who delight to learn texts of Scripture, and be mony " they did more harm in prison than out." read to, rather than give vent to evil passion.-Presbyterian. Scotland.-,At the first meeting of the National Bible Society directors -The Pilgrims to Mecca this year for the new year, held in Glasgow, the from Syria are very few. The steamtotal income for 1887 was reported to ers offer great inducements, but as be £33,432 7s., being only £335 Is. less the pilgrimage takes place in June than the income of 1886, which in- and July the people dread the intense cluded £4,875 ofa fund raised in heat of Mecca and stay at home. A honor of the society's semi-jUbilee. Moslem of Beirut was asked, "Are The expenditure had been £30,992 6s. The issues in 1887 were 6a2,073 copies many of the Beirut Moslems going or parts of Scripture, including to Mecca this year?" "No," said he ; 164,729 Bibles, 180,662 Testaments, "only about ten." " Are those who and 286,682 portions. Though some- go generally made better men by the what less than the exceptional circulation of the last two years, these fig- pilgrimage?" " Better I They are uresare considerably beyondany form_ worse. Mecca is the wickedest place er record. The issues at home were in thQ East; full of robbers, thieves 220,754 copies, and abroad 411,319. and pickpockets, and everything vile.

Siam.-At a meeting of the Pres- Hardly a man goes but is robbed." bytery of Siam, it was reported that an addition of 48 members by confession, and five by certificate, makes the Whole number of communicants in connection with this Presbytery now 881. One new church was organized and one student licenl:!ed to preach the gospel.

-The Rev. Mr. Eakin, the mlssion~ Swltzerland.-The Basle Mission native Bible readers, and more'than has 111 missionaries and European 150 schools. teachers in its three fields, and 489 native pa.stOl'S, catechists, evangelists -The Woman's Foreign Missionand teachers. In 1884 there were ary Society of the M. E. Church just made to the quadrennial conference, baptized in Africa, India and China is full of encouragement. The re- 531 adult heathen,204 heathen chil- port covers the past four years. dren and 773 Christian children. The Basle Mission Church numbers to:day The society now nUlllbers 4,888 auxiliaries. with an annual membership of 115,228. The 17,053 members. German work had fnlly justified the expectations Turkey.-We are beginning to hear of the originators and had grown constantly. The last report gave a total of 104 auxiliaries, of spiritual result'i following the ad- with 2,694 annnal members and 19 life members. ministration of relief to the famine The aggregate recelpte of the last four years sufferers in Turkey. In some places have been $658,898.77, an increase over the pre· portions of the Scriptures have been vlous fonr years of $154,314.23. distributed with needed bread for the body. Mr. Gates of Mardin reports -The Woman's Society of theAmerican Bapthat in one village a man said, after tist Missionary Society received, East, $55,880 ; an earnest discussion: "It is nothing West, $25,882. other than the words of this book -Reports of the Five Women's Foreign which have sent us this aid." A Mos- Missionary SOCieties of the Presbyterian Chnrch lem at one village affirmed: "I know Cor the year ending May 1, 1888, namely: that the Protestants are the best of all the sects." " How do you know Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the that?" said a bystander. .. You are Presbyterian Chnrch, Philadelphia: Receipts, a Moslem. What do you know of the $149,640, a gain of $19,821; Anxullarie., 2,000, teachings of the Protestants?" The gain, 221; Missionaries, 133; Native Teachers and Bible Women, 91. Moslem replied: "I know by one sign. If I go to a priest, he says to Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions or me, Give. If I go to a Moolah, he the Northwest; Receipts, $132,472, gam, $15,412; says to me, Give. If I go to an offi- Auxiliaries, 1522; Missionaries, 6~; Native cial or a friend, they say to me, Give. Teachers and Bible Women, 49, All;ay, Give. The Protestants alone say, Take. Theil' schools say, Take; Women's Board of Foreign Missions of the their teachings say, Take; their Presbyterian Chnrch, New York: Receipts, charities say, Take. By this I know $62,544, gain, $12,407 ; AUxiliaries, 900, gain, 76 ; that they are the· best." Mr. Gates Missionaries, 41; Native Teachers and Bible reports that villages are asking for Women,3D. teachers, and that the evangelical Woman's Presbyterian Foreign Missionary helpers are honored wherever they go Society of Northern New York: Receipts, $10among the mountains.-Mi88ionary 418 ; Auxiliaries, 118, gain, 14; MiSSionaries, 5 ; Herald. Native Teachers and Bible Women, 13.

Women's Missionary Work.-The Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions of Women's Foreign Missionary So- the Sonthwest: Receipts, $7,217, gain, 503; ciety of the Presbyterian Church in Auxiliaries, 47, gain, 8; Missionaries, 7.

Canada reports $10,058 as the amount Total receipts, $812,286, gain dnring the year. of last year's receipts. Its foreign 848,143; Auxiliaries, 4,587, galu, 319; Missionwork is thus summarized: Three aries, 254; Native Teachers and Bible Women, schools for our Own Indians in the 83. Northwest, one girls' school in Formosa, six schools under the care of -The Fifteenth Annual Report of the Woour ladies in Central India, six native man's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presteachers assisting in these schools, byterian Church of the Pacific Cocst Is an ex- ceedingly Interesting one. The receipts from two Bible women, general mission- all sources were $10,700.4Q. ary work in the hospital, villages and zenanas, three missionary teachers, -The Woman's Union Missiouary SOCiety of one medical missionary, one lady America has In Calcutta and the villages south ready for the work, one lady in of It 22 schools with 1,178 girls, and 114 zenanas Canada receiving medical education, in which are 130 regular pupUs. A Bible lesson donation for Trinidad. Is given every day in the schools and at every visit in the zenanas. -The money given by the women of the Presbyterian Church in the -At the recent annual meetIng ofthe Chnrch United States during the past sixteen of England Zenana Missionary Society It was years amounts to $2,150,000, repre- stated that there had been good success at al- senting the entire support of more most every station. The receipts for the year were $133,000. There are now at home nearly than 200 women missionaries, 200 900 ass,ociations, and upward of 600 working parties in support of the mission.

'716 STA.TISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS

VlI.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.

WORLD – WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF THE The issues of the Hibernian Bible So- 59,105 ciety for the same year were as fol- BIBLE. lows: Bibles, 20,897; New Testa- ments, 25,862 : Portions, 12.846. To- [Rev. John Wilkinson (London) has tal…. ….. ….. ………. …. …..• published a powerful tract with the Portions reduoed to Bibles, 402, which 46,661 above caption. We avail ourselves with Bibles and New Testaments of his statistics relating to Bible dis- make a total of Bibles, New Testa- ments and Portions reduced to Bitribution.-EDs. ] bles, of…………..••…..•……• REv. JAMES JOHNSTON, in his" Centnry of The Issues of the American Bible So- ciety, as given in the report for the Christian Missions," puts the population of the same year, were as follows : Bibles, world at about 1,470.000,000: Protestants, 135,- 369,714; New Testaments, 598.515; 000,000; Greeks, 85,000,000; Papists, 195,000,- PortiOns, 469,211. Total……….. 1,437,440 000; Jews, 8,000,000; Mohammedans, 173,000,- 000 ; heathen, 874,000,000; altogether about Total Bibles, New Testaments and 1,473,000.000 as the world's population at present. Portions reduced to Bibles. . . . . . . . . . 982,892 The Mohammedans and the heathen together The report states that "there are at least make 1,047,000,000, besides about 11,000,000 of .Tews. These 1,058,000,000 are unevangelized. twenty-five German Bible SOCieties. Some of Besides, there are millions of Greek Catholics them are very small." Only four or five-occupy and Roman Catholics as destitute of the Bible as a prominent position. These are: (1) the Prus- 8re the Mohammedans and the heathen. sian Chief Bible Society, for the eight original provinces of Prussia; (2) the Wllrtemberg It is esthnated that there are yet more than Bible Institute, for the kingdom of Wiirtem- 3,000 langnages and dialects into which the Holy berg; (3) the Saxon Chief Bible Society, Cor the Scriptures have never been translated. kingdom of Saxony; (4) the Nuremberg Bible Association, for the kingdom of Bavaria; and A.t the head of the list of agencies for the dis- (5) the Berg Bible SOCiety, on the Rhine. The tribution of the Bible is the British and Foreign circulation of the Prussian Chief Bible Society Bible Society. According to the report of 1886 for 1885 reached 97,400 copies; SO,694 of them the issues of the Society were as follows: Bibles. None of these were issued by the From the Bible Honse, London: Bi- British and FOreign Bible Society, but were ad- ditional. " The other four Societies mentioned bles, 636,411 ; New Testaments, with put into circulation, in 1881–39,539,20,731, 6.752 or without Psahns, 1,100,891 ; Por- and 17,477 copies respectively. About one-half tions,365,517. TotaL………… ..• 2,192,819 of these books were supplied by the British and From depots abroad: Bibles, 195,102 ; Foreign Bible Society. The work of the re- New Testaments, with or without maining twenty Societies was limited in extent, Psalms, 625,295 ; Portions, 1,110,688. and comprised but few of the British aud For- TotaL…………… …………… 1,931,085 eign Bible SOCiety's books. "

Total for the Jear, of Bibles, New Now let us gather the sum total of Bible cir- Testaments and Portions. . . . . .•. . . .. 4,123,904 culation by these German Bible Societies: First we have the Prussian Society… 97,400 Total portions, 1,476,205, divided by 82, Then we have the Wilrtemberg,Saxon, and thus reducing them to whole Bi- bles, make 46,181 ; which brings out Nuremberg, and Berg SOCieties, al- the following total of Bibles, New together 84,499; from these we must Testaments and Portions reduced to deduct half, as reckoned to the Bibles: Bibles, 831,513; New Testa- British and Foreign Bible SOCiety's me nts,l,816,186; Portions, reduced issues-so these four Societies cir- to Bibles, 46,131. TotaL…. •. . . . .. 2,693.830 culated ………………………. . 42,250 We put down for the other twenty The issues of the National Bible Soci- 645,662 small Societies a circulation of….. . 60,350 ety of Scotland for the same year, 1886, were as follows: Bibles, 154,- 450; New Testaments, 256,507 ; Por- tions,234,705. TotaL…………..

Total portions, 234,705, divided by 32, 418,692 This will make a total for the twenty- and thus reducing them to whole Bi- five Societies of………….. …… 200,()()(1 bles, make 7,335; which brings out The Trinitarian Bible Society's report fOl the following total of Bibles, New Testaments, and Portions reduced to 1887 says: "The circulatiou of Scripture dur Bibles: Bibles, 154,450; New Test- ing the past year has been as follows, in twenty aments, 256,507; Portions reduced languages" :- to Bibles, 7,335. TotaL………… Bibles, 3,354; New Testa- ments, 11,038; Portions, 96,620…•…•••.•.••Total 111,012 Special sale or HebrewNew PRESBYTERIAN MISSION OF NORTHERN BRAZIL.-STATlSTICS FOR 1887. Testaments, 75,000; special NAlIlE OF grant oC Hebrew INew CHURCH.

Testaments, 25,000..Total 100,000 Recife ………. 1~ ~ ~'i 25 58 39 . . . . . . . . Total circulation, sales, and grants… . 211,012 Goyanna……. 11 •. 32 29 1 …. 1 8 The Portions, 00,620 rednced to Bibles, i" .. Fortaleza. . . . .. 9 .. 1 47 40 27 " .. 1 1 by being divided by 32, make, In Mossoro.. .•. . . . 5 20 21 12 ……. . Parahyba .•…. 11 3 1 1 16 ~~ <I I ….. . round numbers, 3,020; which with Maranham….. 1 1 …. 15 …. 1 ..

the Bibles, New Testaments, and Pao de Assucar. 8 7.. .. … IS 17 .. 1 .. ·. Maceio……… 8 1 …. ,.. 3 1 1 ….. . special 100,000 oC Hebrew New 8146 3 3 108 215 143 3 1 2 2 Testaments, make the total……… 117,412 Totals. Catholic and Protestant Converts.

British and Foreign Bible -DR. WARNECK, who also is a lead- Society – Bibles, Testa- ments and Portion: issued ing authority on mission matters, from the London House and from def.ots abroad.. 4,123,904 has compiled some statistics on the The same tota , with Portions reduced number of converts reported from to Bibles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . •. •. . .. 2,693,830 Catholic and from Protestant socie- National Bible Society ot ties. His summary is that the former Scotland-Bibles, Testa- ments and Portions. . . . . . 645,662 reports 268,700 converts in Africa, The same total, with Portions reduc- 2,000,000 in Asia, 55,000 in Oceanica, ed to Bibles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . •. . . • 418,692 330,000 in America, or a total of Hibernian Bible Soclety- 2,053,700. Protestant societies report Bibles, Testaments and 577,000 in Africa, 700,000 in Asia. Portions. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 59,105 280,000 in Oceanica, and 688,000 in The same total, with Portions reduc- America, or a total of 2,245,700. Dr. ed to Bibles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . •. . . . . 56,661 American Bible Society- Warneck remarks: Bibles, Testaments and Portions ………………. 1,437,440 .. I must confess that these figures sur- The same total, with Portions reduc- prised me. Considering the grand and im- ed to Bibles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • 92,982 posing organization of the Catholic Church. The twenty-five German Societies…. 200,000 the larger number of its missionaries, their Trinitarian Bible Society- rapid method of receiving into church com- Bibles, Testaments and munion larger numbers, and the great ad- Portions …………. , . . .• 211,012 vantage enjoyed by the fact that they have The same total, with Portions rednc- been at the work many centuries before our ed to Bibles…………….. ……• 117,412 work began. I had thought that numerically Grand total, InclndingBibles – – – their mission success would vastly exceed Testaments and Portions. 6,477,123 that of the Protestants. Leaving ont of consideration Asia, where chiefiy those who The same total, with Portions rednc- are descendants of converts of earlier cen- ed to Bibles.. ………………… 4,4.59,487 turies in China and India swell the number in the Roman Catholic reports. it must be Only frrur-and-a·1uJlj' milliOns of Bibles are seen that everywhere else the mission work being prodnced a year, while the annual increase of the world's popnlation is estimated at twelve of the Evangelical Church is far in advance mUli0n8! of that of the Roman Catholic."

BlBLE WORK IN CHINA IN 1887.

B. & F. Bible Soc. North China. …… ~~ 790 75,228 76,212 Central .. . . . . . . . 839 83,652 84,664 – – Sonth " .. . . . .. …. -. .-. . – -. . . -. 91,010 TotalB. &F….. 367 1,629 158,880 251,886 Scotch Bible Soc. -Mission work ofthe Catholic Church North China. . . . . .. …. 136 7,229 7,366 Central" ….•…… 1,952 168,859 170,31J is in the hands of the Propaganda Total N. B. S. S.. 2,088 176,088 178,176 Society, In the periodical Kathol- iscke Missionen recently this Society Amer'nBible Soc. 80 689 713 1,482 Sales-Depot …… . ]20 2,082 29,932 82,13'" makes its report for 1886. 77 2,059 :103,782 205,918 h Missionaries. 35 121 1,145 1,301 According to this France furnished about 48 899 9,837 10,784 two-thirds of the funds needed Cor the work. " Colportenrs.• namely. 4,855,658 francs; Germany contrib- Donations-Depot .. 72 1,184 1,256 uted 409,271 francs; Belgium, 358,767 ; Elsass " Missionaries. and Lorraine, 286,987 ; Italy, 382.214; Great " Colportenrs.. Britain. 166,319; Switzerland, 77,139; the Total Am. B. S . . 360 5,922 246,593 252.875 Netherlands, 112,551 ; Spain,97,522; Portugal, 47,249; Austria, 88.403; Hungary. 3,952 ; Bnl- SgacrainadainnadviRaonnmcoaunnitar,ie5s0,0;84R7u; ssAiaSlia5,288;,4t0h5e; Grand total, 1887. . . 727 9,639 581,581 682,937 Total, 1886… . . . . . .. 1,019, 14,256 493,678 583,429 Africa. 35,373; North AmerlCa.l00,928; Cen- tral America, 566; South America, 55,569 ; – Chute8e Recorder. Australia, 14.519. ' .Je'll'I.-lI'rom the HelJrsUJ Annual we learn A.merlcan Baptflt 1Illmoa&l]' tlnton• that France contains 000,000; Germany. 562.000, of whom 89,000 inhabit Alsaee and LorraIne; REOAPl'rULA'rI01I'. Austria-Hungary, 1,644,000, of whom 688,000 are in Galicia and 638,000 In Hungary; Ita!;!'l to.QOO ; The Burman Ml88ion.-51 mll!l!Ol1aries, 1ft Ns~'e!Ith~e~r,laOnOdOs, 82,000; RPooluamnda,ni7a6,8,2O6OO5~U;WTu; r~kUeIyI­, men and 85 women (including wfflllJ of mis- (Russian sionaries) ; 13 Ordained and 89 nnordalned na- SloWotlutuzuerilanBde,lg7iu,0m0,0; 3,O:Kl ; Bulgaria, 10,000; tive preachers; 21 churches, 1,680 members, Denmark, .,000; Spain, 150 baptized in 1881. 1,900; Gibraltar, 1,500 i. Greece, 8,000; Servia, 3.500; Sweden, 3,000. m Asia there are 30,000 TAe Karen .Mi8rion.-47 missionaries. 15 men of the race. Turkey In Asia has 195,000, of whom and 82 women; 10 ordained and 851 unordained 115,ooo are in Palestine, 407,000 In Russian Asllr, native preachers; 494 churches, 26.008 mem- 18,000 In Persia, 14,000 In Central Asia, 111,000 In hers, 1.877 baptized In 1887. India, and 1,000 in China. In AfrIca 8,000 Jews lgievrel~In.60E,0g0y0pitn, 55 000 In Tnnisia, 35,000 in AI- TAe Shan Mi88ion.-6 miSSionaries, 2 men Morocco, 6,000 in TrIpoli, and and 4 women; 7 unordained native preachers; 2OO,uuu In Abyssinia. America connta 280,000 2 churches. 42 members, 1 baptized In 1887. i;rg~clr:; g}::n:ee~~~s ~l~em~':ts~fIa:ll:; continent, while only 12,000are scattered through TAe Kachin MiBrion.-2 missionaries, 1 man Oceanica. The entire total ~f the Hebrew race and 1 woman; 2 ordained and 1 unordained na- tive preachers; 3 churches. 39 members, 3 bapon the surface ot the globe Is estimated at tized in 1887.

6.300.000. TAe Ohin'Miasion.-5 missionaries, , meB and 3 women; 15 ordained Bnd 16 unordalned -The French Protestant mission- native preachers; 7 churches. 174 members. 62 aries among the Bassutos of south- baptized In 1887. eastern Africa report for 1886-7 as follows: The M8Gme8e .Mi8sion.-9 missionaries, 8, men and 6 women; 2 ordained and 9 unor Stations……………… . 17 (Same as previ- dained native preachers; 15 churches. 786 mem- ousyear. bers, 37 haptized In 1887.

Out-stations…………. . 89 Increase of 5 The Garo MiBrion.-4 missionaries. 2 men and 2 women; 5 ordained and 6 unordalned na- Native helpers•……….. 160 18 tive preachers; 10 churches, 986 members. 165, baptized in 1887. Marriages…………… .. 109 14 TAe Naga .Mi88ion.-8 missionaries. 4 men InCant baptisms.. . . .. . .. . 322 64 and 4 women; 6 unordalned native preachers; 8 churches. 70 members. 6 bap.tized In 111117. Catechumens.. . . . . . . . . . .. 2.245 387 The Tcl'U(fU Mi8sion.-44 missionaries, 19 men Communicants. . . . . . . . . . .. 5,525 385 and 25 women; 56 ordained and 137 unordalned native preachers; 52 churches. 68.629 members, Total number adherents… 7.770 672 2.321 baptized in 1887.

– – – Scholars….. . .. . .. . . . 4,066 982 The OAineBe MiBBiOn.-1IOmi8sionaries,12 men and 18 women; 7 ordained and 33 unordalnod Congregational Statistllll. native preachers; 19 churches, 1.568 members. 51 baptized in 1887. Chur~hes: whole nnmber………. .. 4.404 new ………………. .. 246 TAe Japan MisBion.-2/i missionaries. 8 men gain in number……… . 127 and 17 women; I) ordained and 21 unordalned Mell!.'>ers: whole number ………. . 457.584 native preachers; 11 churches, 770 members, added on conCession…. . 41,156 211 baptized in 1887. .. by letter …….. .. 26.185 total [189 not di- T1Ie Congo MilI8ion.-28 missionaries. 17 men vided] …………. .. 67,530 and 11 women; 4 churches, 248 members, 1111 removed…………… .. 38,644 baptized in 1887. apparent increase ……. . 28,886 gain [actual. comparing JiJurqpean Ml&siom.-1I72 preachers; 654 totals] ………….. . 21.200 churches. OO.14l1 members, 5,532 baptized In difference [due to Inacu- 1881. rate report<! …….. .. 7.681 BaPHsms : I!-dult………………. .. 20,123 In the missions to the heathen there are 60 mfant……………… .. 11,1166 stations and 831 out-stations. Including those Families reported.. . .. .. .. .. . .. …. . 268,775 now absent from their lI.e1d8, there are 282 mis- Sunday;~chools. me.mbers ……….. . 551.691 sionaries. including 159 single women lll!d 84 gam in members … . 29.704 wives of missionaries. " average attendance . . 324.719 united with the church In an the missions there are 262 misaionarles from……….. .. 18.399 (Including la1 evangelists), 1.798 preachers, 1.296 benevolent contribu- churches. and 127.208 members; 10.602 were tions ot…. ….. . $162,012 baptized in 1887.

BENBVOLEN'r CON'rRmU'rlON8 oJ!' 'rHIII I1IJIJ'tWUe frum laBt Slear.-14mia8Ionaries, 31 OHURCHES: churches, 8.678 members.-8eventy;fourth ~ lIual Report. For the year 1887 only………….. $2.095.485 Increase over 1885.. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. (18,275 O~,which lor ~oreign Missions. . . . . . 319.404 ~ucation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.287 .. .. Church BuildiIlg……. 122,590 Home Missions…. . .. . 436.577 .. A. M. A…… ………. 151,698 .. Sunday-schools……… 28.986 .. New West………….. 43.960 .. Ministerial Ald….. …. . 9.138 " •. Other ob,tects……….. 787,731 Legacies paid. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . 829,663 !lome Expenditures……………… 5.078,980 Increase. . . . . . . . . 1,100,750 U U – Congregational Year-Book JfYr 1888. " Faetl COllCemiDg the COllege Department of or more tl'&veling secretaries, and the Interna- YOlIIIg lieD'. Christian As.oelatloDs of North tional Committee's secretarial force numbers America. 14. 77 or these associations are engaged 231 college associations are In existence. specially in work among raUway men; 10- 41 have been orgallized within the year. , among German-speaking young men; 273 are in ' 179 have an aggregate membership of 9.863. colleges; 29 are colored and 18 Indian. 226 203 have an active membership of 8,699. associations report educational classes in trom 174 have an associate membership 0(2,240. one to fifteen branches of study; 287 report 177 have 2,570 members serving on committees. special attention to physical culture through 143 expend annually $6,067. gymnasiums and out-door sports; 898 Bible classes, 367 Bible training classes, and 661 4 haTe buildings; Princeton, valued at $20,000; Hanover, '$1000; Toronto University, weekly prayer-meetings are among the services $7,000, and ~"e University, $50,000. Cor young men only, which are reported.

59 have rooms devoted exclusively to their UStt. -In heathen countrie. Protestants occupy 54 have furniture valued at $20,732. 100 separate mission fields, containing 20,000 18 have libraries of 8,655 volumes, valued at mission .tations, supplied by 40,000 missionaries. In these 20,000 mission stations there are 500,000 $3,577. Sabbath-school scholars, an average or 25 to 27 had 101 lectures during the year, and 68 ha. each station. In the 20,000 Protestant mission stations there are 1,000,000 of native communi- 144 sociables. cants, or an average of 50 to each etation. There are also 2,000,000 of adherents who are friends BELIGIOUS MEETINGS. of the evangelical faith and hearers of the gospel preached from tbe Bible, an average of 100 to 87 report 98 Bible classes, with a total average each station. Including all classes, there are attendance of 1,688. now identified with Protestant Christian mis- sions 3,500,000 persons, served by 40,000 mis- 59 report 99 traiuing classes, with a total aver- sionaries. The nationalities friendly to Protest- age attendance of 1,024. tant Christianity, or nominally Christians, contain a population of about 150,000,000, or 188 report 198 prayer-meetings, 147 ofwhich have one-ninth ot tbe whole population of the earth, a total average attendance of 3 998. ' covering 14,000,000 of square miles, or one-fourth of the whole geographical surface oC the globe. 84 report gospel meetings, 50 of which have II The Greek and Roman Catholic churches cover total average attendance of 1,481. 18,000,000 square miles in nations friendly to them or dominated by them, and have 250,000,000 23 report song services, 13 of which have a to- of adherents. The Mohammedans bave a fol- tal average attendance of 394. lowing of "bout 200,000,000 nominally. Strictly pagan conntrles, therefore, have yet a popula- 80 report missionary meetings. tion of OM bution souls who are not reached by 3 report daily prayer-meetings. Mohammedan, Catholic, Greek or Protestant 19 report 21 cottage or neighborhood prayer- churches.

meetings. -Statistical tables In the Baptist Year-Book 8 report meetings In almshouses, jails and hos- show the total number of members In the 31,891 Baptist churches to be 2,917,815, indicating a pitals. gain of 184,745 members during the year. Tho 18 report 27 Sunday-schools conducted in their number of baptisms reported is 158,373, which ia 2,995 more than were reported a year bofore. members. 137 881!OCiations observed the day of prayer for -" The Presbyterian Church of the United States, ,,11 branches, have over 15,000 churches, colleges the last Thursday in January, :1886. 11,500 ministers, 1,500,000 members, and ex- 181 observed the day of prayer for young men, the second Sunday In November. 200 report 81,420 young men as studenta In their colleges. 157 report 9,956 young men, stndents of their colleges, 8S members of evangelical churches. 150 report 1,7~ professed conversions during the year. 161 report that 2,750 students in their colleges intend to enter the ministry. 48 report tbat 135 or these have been convocted since entering college. 24 report that 86 of these have been converted the past year. 19 report that 64 have been inflnenced in their , decision for the ministry by tbe work of the College Association. 59 report that 126 students in their colleges In- tend to be foreign missionaries. 4 report that 5 of these have been converted the past year. 3 report that 16 of these have been influenced in their decision for the forei!(n field by the missionary department of the College Asso- ciation.

– The International Committee of Young pends annually in her work 816,000,000 ; has also Men's Christian Associations at 40 East 23rd 46 colleges, with 5,000 students; 20 theological street, New York, bas just issued the Associa- seminaries, with 1.900 studenta ; 34 female sem- tion "Year-Book for 1888." There are now, inaries, with 4,000 pupils."-Dr. G. P. Hay,.

according to this annnal report, 1,240 associa- -The statistics preseuted at the last Interna- tions in America, aud 8,804 in the world. The tional Sunday-school Convention show that American associations bave a membership of whlle there are in the Sunday-schools oC our 170,000 ; they own buildings valued at $5,609,- country and the Dominion of Canada seven mil- WS, and have a total net property of $7,261,658 ; lion children and youth, there are more than IIIstyear they expended $1,181,888 In local work, nine million outside of the Sunday-school. Dr.

~d $104,949 In general work. 752 men are de- Worden stated that of this number 800,000 are In voting their entire time to the local, State and New York State,575,OOO In Pennsylvania. 440,000 IIlternational work as secretaries and assistants; in Ohio. 365,000 in Kentucky, 840,000 in Indiana, ~here are 23 ,Btate committees that employ one 600,000 in DlinOi8, 550,000 In Missouri, 228,000 In Kansas. In three years the gain In" Sunday- l!'aith in foreign /parts was organized in L7ona.

school membership has been nearly 500,000 ; but France, in 1822. Since that time it has received an aggregate of 220,000,000 francs, mainly in this ill small, compared"with the gain in our pop- small amounts. Its receipts during the past year were 6,648,000 francs, of which 4,850,000 ulation, which Increases more rapidly every were drawn from France.

year. -According to the Directory of the Roman Catholic Church for 1888, there are, in England -The Weilih Calvinistic Methodists embrace aud Wales,2,314 Catholic priests to 1,728 in 1876, and these preside over 1,:lO* churches, chapels 1,:e20 churches, 129,000 members, 1,012 minis- "nd stations. Scotland has 5 bishops, 324 priests and 237 churches aud chapels. The R0ters, aud 1,450 Sabbath·schools, with home and man Catholic population iu 1887 is given as 1,354,000 in England and Wales, 326,000 iu Scotforeign missionary societies. land, 3,961,000 in Ireland. Together with the colonies, the number of Catholics under British -The German Evangelical Lutheran Chureh rule is 9,682,000.

Synod embraces 246 ministers, 381 congrega- -New England Catholic statistics count up as follows: Priests, 906; seminariaus, 233; tions, and 38,000 members, 219 parochial schools, churches, 602 ; chapels and statiOns, 133; col- leges, 7 ; academies,38 j parochial schools, 205 ; and an average yearly "ttendance of 6,4'l7. pupils, 69,105 ; charitable institutions, 36; Cath- olic population, 1,185,000. This estimate is -The African Methodist Episcopal Chureh, based on the reports of the parish priests to their ordinaries. It is rather uuder thau over the fig_ whose General Conference recently in session at nres. Exceeding care is taken in making this ceusus. Estimations are generally based upou Indianapolis, reports 1 membership of 408,351, baptisms, marriages, etc., which yield a certainty on the safe side, but which exclude that host and the total of money raised for all purposes of Catholics who hold their religion loosely, who seldom attend church, who frequently neglect to during the year 1887 as 51,064,569. There are have their childreu baptized, yet who are sub- stantially Catholics, if anything, and who some- 3,394 churches and 660 parsonages, valued at times, soouer or later, return to the faith of their rathers. There are at least a million and a half $5,340,889. There are 11,009 stewards, 14,190 Catholics in New England. It has been assertsd, without contradiction, that over half the popustewardesses, and 14,778 class-leaders. lation of Boston are Catholics.- Catholtc Re- view. The statistics of the United Presbyterian – In 1881 the 1,200 members of the United Church for the present ecclesiastical year are: Presbyterian Board in Egypt-most of them very poor meu and women-raised more thau 1887. 1888. $17 each, for. the support of churches and schools. Look on this picture, then on that. Total membership… . . . . . . • 94,641 98,991 Christians in America give 50 ceuts each to mis- Total congregations" . . . . .•. . 885 1107 sions. Christians in poor Egypt give $17 each Total pastoral charges…… 618 708 for missions, and yet America is considered" Total contributions ………• $977,860 $1,019,937 Christian nation -Presb. CoUtge Journal.

-According to the Year-Book of the Disciples -The wealthof church members in the United States of America in 1880 was 8,723 m!llion dolof Christ for 1888, they have 6,437 churches, lars. Of this pne-sixteenth of one per cent. or one dollar out of $1,586 is given in a year for the 620,000 communicants, 4,500 Sunday-schools, salvation of eight hundred million heathen.

with a membership of 318,000, and a teaching – I t is difficult so learn thstatistics of J emsa- em. Probably as reliable information as can be force of 33,340 ; number of preachers 3,263. The secured is given by the Bote aus Zion, a carefwly edited German Protestant quarterly, published value of church property is $10,368,361. in the Holy City. The Mohammedans number about 9,OOJ, the Jews 18,000, and the Christians -In Germany and Switzerland there are eigh- 7,000, making a total of 34,000. The Jews genteen foreign missionary societies, with betweeu erally claim more, making the estimate as hlgil 522 and 550 missionaries in the field, and with an as 30,000.

Income of about $720,000. The particular cir- cumstances of their origin, no doubt, account for this state of things, bnt it certainly ought now to be possible to consolidate the smaller so- cieties, and thus save the expense of so many different officials.

-Mr. David McLaren has made II careful ex- amination and analysis of the home contribu- tions of four great missionary societies and of the British and Foreigu Bible Society during the ftftyyears of the present reign. The annual av- erage amount of the five societies for the last ten years was £556,631, shown as follows: Baptist Missionary Society. . . . . . . . . . . .. £57,229 Wesleyan Missionary Socie!y………. 109,433 Church Missionary Society…………. 193,670 London MisSionary Society..• , . . . . . ••• ro,742 British and Foreign Bible Society. •.•• . 109,557 The total contribntions for the IIfty years were £10,798,160, being about the amount spent on drink in this country in sixty days.

One feature bronght out by the examination is that, when al large sum has been raised for a special object, the income of sncceeding years has not suffered In consequence.

-The Roman Catholic Propaganda of the