LIBRARY
$lM0lfl!jiaJ £ tmimwy,
PRINCETON. N. J T
Division Ji
No. Case, 11*1 1".
No. ShelC SectjoD !7.
No. Book,,,, -----
CHRISTIAN WORK
A MAGAZINE
OF
For 1865.
* Fly happy, happy sails and tear the press,
Fly happy -with the mission of the Cross ; Knit land to land, and, blowing havenward, Enrich the markets of the golden year."
LONDON :
PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF " GOOD WORDS,"
56, LUDGATE HILL.
LONDON :
BRADBURY, EVAN?, AND CO., PRINTER?, WITITEFR1AES.
INDEX.
PAGE
Hawaiian Islands, The. By a Passing Voyager -489
Hayti, Roman Catholicism in, since its Independence .... 537
Himalayas, Moravian Mission in the 4S6
Italy, Religious Tendencies in . .97
Jamaica, Moravian Missions in. By A Resident in the Island . . . 397
Knapp, George Christian, and his
Missionary Pupils .... 293 Kols, A Year among the . . . 450
Medical Missions 19, 64, 114, 163, 211, 262, 308, 357, 407, 453, 501, 548
Mission Voyaging. The Dayspring in the Xew Hebrides . . . 541
Mohurrum, as observ ed in India. On the. By the Rev. Robert Hunter I (formerly of Xagpore) . . . 152 ;
Midler's, George, Orphan Homes . 3S5 j
Xordland, A Communion Season in. By the late Rev. C. E. Oakley . 546
PAGE
Sandwich Islands, tForty Years in the. By the Rev. W. Fleming
Stevenson 49
Sclavonic Christians in Turkey, Edu- cation among the, especially Fe- male Education 4S1
Sicily, Notes from. By the Rev. A.
H. Charteris, of Glasgow . . 2S9 Social Questions, Papers on— Early Labour. Part L By Isa Craig . 260 Part II. . . • . . . 353 The London Dressmaking
Company . . . .150 Marriages and Means . . . 404 Protection for the Friendless,
and Rescue for the Fallen . 337 " These Little Ones." By Isa
Craig 20S
Societies, The Meetings of . . 241 Societies, Our Religious— The Reli- gious Tract Society . . . . 495 Syria, American Mission Work in.
By the Rev. Dr. Jessup . . . 110 Syria, Proposed Xew Mission to . .492 Svrian Protestant College, The. By "the Rev. Daniel Bliss . . .206
PAGE
African River, Mission Expedition on an. By the Rev. Samuel J.
Whiton 202
Ansgar— The Apostle of the Xorth . 392 Apostolic Missionary of Recent Times, An 156
Basle Mission in Carina, The . . 433 Basuto Mission, Persecution of the
German 446
Bengal, Native Society in . . 344 Bost's Institutions at Laforce . . 305 Buddhism and the Burmese . .491
Chota Nagpore Mission, The. Its Origin and Present Need . . 108
Damascus, A Year's Missionary Life in. Parti. By the Rev. Jules
Ferrette 193
Part II 299
Part III 34S
Deacons and Deaconesses— Their Mission and Progress on the Rhine. By the Rev. J. E. Carlyle 14
Educational Missions . . . . 439 Egypt as a Field for Mission Labour 539
Friendly Islands, Ten Years in. By W. Fleming Stevenson . . . 529
Glimpses of Christian "Work in the East during the Autumn of 1864. By the Rev. A. W. Thorold, M.A.
Parti . i
Part II 52
Part III 101
Orissa, Life of a Xative Preacher of. 198
Peking, The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in. By the Rev. W. Swan, late Missionary in Siberia, Author of " Letters on Missions, " <fec. . 7
Prison Life, A Reminiscence of my. By Manuel Matamoros . . . 5S
Rhea, The Rev. Samuel, of Oroo- miah. By Justin Perkins, D.D. . 533
Turkey, England, and Protestant- ism. By Jules Ferrette . . . 145
United States Christian Commission, The. By William Gilbert, Author of "Shirley Hall Asylum," " Dives and Lazarus," <fec 60
United States Christian Commission 159
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
EUROPE.
England, 21, 67, 115, 165, 213, 265, 310,
360, 410, 455, 504, 551. Scotland, 23, 69, 118, 216, 267, 312, 457,
553.
Ireland, 25, 70, 120, 166, 217, 316, 362,
412, 459, 507, 554.
France, 25, 71, 121, 168, 220, 267, 318,
413, 459, 509, 556.
Belgium, 27, 123, 170, 222, 270, 320, 365,
558. Holland, 367.
Switzerland, 72, 124, 320, 366, 560. Germany, 29, 75, 125, 172, 224, 270, 322,
368, 415, 461, 514, 564. Hungary, 126, 369. Bohemia, 173. Sweden, 76, 174, 463, 566. Russia, 465, 567.
Italy, 28, 73, 126, 175, 272, 324, 370, 464,
487, 511, 562. Greece, 563.
Turkey, 30, 77, 177, 275, 373, 465.
ASIA.
Syria, 465, 516.
Persia, 77, 127, 226, 326, 419.
Kafiristan, 421.
India, 31, 79, 128, 179, 227, 276, 327, 374,
467, 517. Ceylon, 136. Burmab, 36, 83.
China, 36, 86, 135, 182, 229, 279. Borneo, 469.
AUSTRALASIA.
Australia, 87, 281, 470. Xew Zealand, 375, 472, 523. Xew Hebrides, 282. Loyalty Islands, 37. Friendly Islands, 470. Samoa, 470, 523. Fiji, 89, 470. Tahiti, 41. Micronesia, 424. Melanesia, 39.
AFRICA.
Egypt, 41, 282. Abvssinia, 230, 332, 424. Algiers, 90, 330. West Africa, 475, 524. South Africa, 429, 524. Madagascar, 182, 375, 526.
AMERICA.
United States, 2S3, 332, 376, 475, 567. The Confederate States, 93. Mexico, 527.
British Columbia, 42, 1S5. Greenland and Labrador, 230. Jamaica, 94, 477.
Suggestions and Replies : — i3, 95, 1S6, 238, 335, 378, 478, 527, 569.
In Memoriam.
Graul, Karl, 140. Hoge, W. J., 1S8. Taylor, Isaac, 3S0. Wright, A. H., 188.
iv
INDEX.
LITERATURE.
ENGLISH. page
Alexander (J. A.), D.D., on Isaiah. 240 Alford (Henry), D.D. New Testa- ment 431
Anderson (R.) on the Hawaiian Islands 45
Beecher's (H. W.) Sermons. Vol. I. 47 Bickersteth's (Maria) Araki, the
Daimio 240
Binney (T.) on Money . . .47 Blaikie (W. G.), D.D., Heads and
Hands 381
Bonar's (Horatius) Word of Promise 47 Brown (J. Baldwin) on Sin . . 47 Brown (Robert). Gospel of Common
Sense 47
Chamba Mission, The . . .46 Charnock (Stephen), B.D., The Works
of . . 431
Children's Wrong, The . . .192 Cumming's (John), D.D., Life of our
Lord 191
Dale (R. W.). The Jewish Temple 191 Day (Maurice F.). The Gospel at Philippi 3S4
Etheridge's (J. W.) Targums of On- kelos, <fec 191
Finished Course, The . . . . 239 Fuller (Thomas), Selections from Writings of 431
page
Goodwin's Works. Vol. IX. . . 47
Hodder's (Edwin) Tossed on the
Waves 47
Hodge (Charles),D. D. ,on the Romans 240 Horton (T. G.) on the Eighth of Ro- mans 191
Howson (J. S.) on the Character of
St. Paul 45
Hull's (E. L.) Sermons, <fec. . .384 Hunter's (Eliza B. ) Joe Witless . . 192
Irving (Edward), CollectedWritings
of, Vol. IV 384
Italy, from Dawn to Dark in . . 47
Jacobus's (M. W.) Notes on the Gos- pels 47
Jallot(Mdlle.) Ripe for the Sickle . 190
Kirkpatrick (W. B.). Memorial Services 144
Laforce, Institutions of . . . 3S2 Letters to Friends the Lord has given
Me 3S4
Ludlow (J. M. ). Woman's Work in
the Church 96
Luther's Letters to Women . . . 239
Macduff (J. R.), D.D. Ripe for the
Sickle 190
Malan (Caesar). Conventicle of Rolle 143
Mimpriss's Gospel Treasury . . . 47
page
Morgan (James), D.D., on the Holy Spirit 240
Palgrave's (William Gifford) Cen- tral and Eastern Arabia . . . 52S Paton (J. B.) on the " Vie de Je"sus " 47
Sanitary Commission of the United States Army 46
Saphir (Adolph) on Conversion . 191
Stanford's (Charles) Symbols of Christ 384
Stevenson's (John), D.D., Second Advent 143
Studies for Stories . . . . 47
Thompson's (J. P.) Band of Christian
Graces 47
Triidel (Dorothea) 143
•
Vinet's (Alexander) Outlines of Phi- losophy and Literature . . . 431
West's (Thomas) Ten Years in Poly- nesia 528
Wilkinson's (W. F.) Personal Names in the Bible 192
Young Cottager in Rhyme . .192
7
Swiss Literature . . 48, 2 S
January 2, 1865.]
CHRISTIAN WORK
A M AGAZI N E
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST DURING THE
AUTUMN OF 1864. BY THE REV. A. W. THOROLD, M. A. —Part t
The title of this paper will explain itself. It aims at nothing more than a plain and accurate narrative of what came under the writer's notice in relation to a definite subject, while lately travelling in the Levant. The few incidents it contains are mostly threads in the web of the i story, and may add colour to dry details. If the reader is occasionally invited to sit down and rest, for a brief musing over times long past, and men long dead, those times, it must be remembered, have been singularly wealthy, both in men who mark their age, and in results which are for all ages. Besides, in the now silent, but once restless East, the mind is set thinking in a direction it does not commonly take at home. The missionary in- formation is all, of course so far as facts are con- cerned, second-hand. In every instance, however, it has come from persons of intelligence and ex- perience, who have resided long enough in the country to make their opinions reliable.
A party of four, we left England towards the end of August, and made our way to the Levant by France and Sicily. Our route lay almost exactly in the track of the third crusade, and from our starting point in London to our northernmost limit at Smyrna, or our southernmost at Alexandria, we were never out of the limits of the Roman empire at the time of Christ. We visited Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt ; and as week by week we neared the East our tour seemed to multiply in its points of interest, till at length it culminated in the city of the Great King. At Athens we came j across St. Paul. Smyrna was the scene of the martyrdom of Polycarp. At Ephesus we stood over the grave of St. John. At Damascus we descended into the vast plain where Abram may in.— 1.
have routed Chedorlaomer, and where Elijah was sent from Horeb to anoint Hazael. But at Paneas, we stood under the shadow of Hermon, where the Saviour was transfigured, and at Tiberias the ministry of Galilee lay before us in a mirror, when we looked down on the gray mountains and on the sleeping sea. At Cana we drank of the delicious water, drawn from the well whence eager hands once drew it for the wedding feast. At Nazareth we were in the Lord's birthplace. At Bethany, if we could not believe in Mary's house, the ever- lasting hills are the same. For superstition, though it can spoil many things, never can rob us of the realities of nature. The Sepulchre may be here, or it may be there, but we are perfectly certain about Kedron and Olivet. The traveller who journeys from Bethany to Jerusalem by the lower road that winds round the mountain, and comes suddenly into view of the city, has probably walked over some of the very stones which Jesus walked over, has certainly gazed on the same spectacle which made Him weep.
The four points of chief interest in our tour also happen to be missionary stations. They indicate moreover, with tolerable pi*ecision, not only the various Protestant communions, which employ agents in these countries, but also the methods which they severally adopt.
At Athens, the schools have been hitherto main- tained by the American Episcopal Church. At Damascus, the missionary, whose acquaintance we had the opportunity of making, is seut out by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. At Nazareth, the agency is that of the Church Missionary Society. At Jerusalem, where that Society has also a station, the missionary operations, which are most extensive,
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN
and perhaps most prominent, are those of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. Let it, by the way, be distinctly understood that this list is not to be supposed to include all the many excellent missionary agencies in these parts. Far otherwise : nor would I have it thought, that, in uot enumerating them, I am ignoring them. I wish to write of those only which we visited ourselves, and of which I have a personal knowledge.
At Athens we passed five days of intense interest, in which the ancient was mingled with the modern, and where we could not forget Thucydidcs, though we loved St. Luke more. It was not only enjoy- able but instructive, to plunge back into a world and a life buried, except in books and stones, for the best part of 2000 years, and on a spot singularly suggestive of hard problems, not so much to discover how God rules the earth, as to trust Him in ruling it. You must come to Athens to appreciate its greatness.
Standing on the Acropolis, and gazing on the splendid fragments of art, which help us in some degree to realise the magnificence of its first glory, we felt, I think, all of us, that the Athenians were justified in their proud claim to be masters of j Greece ; and that the men who could cover that rock with those inimitable buildings were lords, even to the ages after them, of force, and concep- tion, and skill.
But the Gospel was foolishness to them, and they perished. "When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked." We read their books, for they instruct and delight us. We still go to Athens to school, for with all our progress in the natural sciences, in some things we are not an inch further on, than when Alexander was the pupil of : Aristotle. Yet nothing we find there helps us to ! account for the evil that is in the world, or directs us how to escape from it ; and a little child in the American school knows more of the way of salva- tion and the character of God than all the authors of Greece from Homer to Plutarch.
The missionary work at Athens has been mainly in the shape of Scriptural education, and for years to come will endear the memory of Dr. and Mrs. Hill to all who care for Greece, and who love the Gospel.
When Dr. Hill came here in 1832 from the Morea, though the war of independence was just over, Athens was but a village of mud cottages, and not one of the houses, which now constitute that glaring and dusty metropolis was in existence. He and Mrs. Hill, in the first instance, took up their abode in a ruined tower, where they remained for a considerable time. School work they instantly saw to be the tine method of raising the population into what might deserve to be called the faith of Christ. Avoiding considerately any methods which might too hastily destroy existing establishments, they began in the first instance with a school for girls. Their efforts were so successful, that, as the town grew, and people of a better sort came to
WORK IN THE EAST. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1805.
reside there, an earnest request was made to them to open a school for a higher class of children, who would pay for their instruction. The Hills imme- diately did this ; and also kept on the other school i which was entirely free. At one period a thou- ' J sand children were in the schools, and the present \ Archbishop of Corinth was one of Dr. Hill's pupils. { At this time there are over 200 children under instruction. There is an infant school, a school for more advanced pupils, where they read and write, I and are taught the first rules of arithmetic and plain sewiug. There is also a higher class (some of whom are afterwards employed as under-teachers and sempstresses), who learu the rudiments of grammar and geography, and all kinds of needle- work. The Bible is the book principally read.
After all, mere statistics, whether of children or of years, tell but little. If we would at all adequately appreciate the benefit to the country from these institutions, we must not only count up the heads which have attended them ; we must think also of the families and the homes, into which day by day by their means, for many quiet years, the blessed Gospel has secretly distilled iuto the hearts of parents and kinsfolk, has rested as the dew of Hermon on many a housetop where ! before was dryness and barrenness. Not a few of the young women instructed here have been em- ployed for years past as school-mistresses in village schools all through Greece, with the entire approba- ! tion of the native clergy. The editor of Murray's Handbook for Greece, in a generous eulogium on Dr. and Mrs. Hill's exertions, takes occasion to mention that, " with one single exception, all the Greek ladies who have been, and who still are, maids of honour to the Queen of Greece, were also educated under the same roof." It is, moreover, a matter ]of real eougratulation, that Dr. Hill, whom no one that , knows him will for an instant suspect of compro- mising his principles to please anybody, has for all these years worked steadily on, without let or i hindrance, and that his labours, so far from being i disliked by the Greek hierarchy, have been cor- dially approved.
From Athens we steamed up the stormy Archi- i pelago, disappointed to find the Church Missionary Society's schools at Syra closed for the vacation. WTe had heard of the solid good effected by them, and of their progress.
At Smyrna we were prevented from visiting the j missions, but we made an expedition to Ephesus, which, though utterly disappointing to an anti- quarian, suggests much on the subject of missions. There are numerous fragments of ruins of no great interest, scattered at intervals over the vast marshy plain, which stretches from the mountains to the Mediterranean, but it is very difficult actually to identify anything, and archaeologists are quite at fault about the site of the Temple of Diana. Per- haps the only spot of importance of which we can be perfectly certain is the Amphitheatre, which, as was usually the case, occupies a commanding posi-
christian workman. 2,18*5] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK W THE EAST.
3
tiou over the town in the direction of the sea. Even here, however, though I got off my horse, and scrambled down some way among the thorns and briars, I could make nothing out of the marble seats and stairs once used by the luxurious Ephe- sians ; and all I was sure of was the outer rim of the enclosure, and the direction in which the seats sloped down towards the plain.
If at Athens we learn that some things last longer than others, [at Ephesus we learn that there is no certainty of anything lasting. At Athens we see that the most perishable of all things is man himself ; that far longer lived than he, though still perishable, are the works of his hands ; and that the thoughts of his brain — in proportion as they are beautiful, and useful, and true — are for ever. Aristotle and Plato are still the masters of thought : and though the Parthenon is in ruins, Phidias survives in the splendours of Paris and St. Petersburg.
But at Ephesus, where St. John lived and died, and to which the Saviour sent His solemn message, and the memory of which is imperishably bound up with that profound epistle, which in the nature of its contents bears unerring testimony to the advanced spiritual life of the community which it addressed, the churches are gone as well as the temples ; the faith and worship of the Lord Jesus in that burning, fever-stricken campagna, are as much things of the past as the name and shrine of Diana. Yes, for where love dies, life dies ; and He, who cares only for the heart, and not for the lips, sometimes permits the fabric to decay, when it has come to be a tomb. Thus may we not also see that in the long course of the Church's history, the most promising missions, however well conducted at the beginning, may, under certain conditions, come to nothing ; and that, though the Church cannot die, but springs up elsewhere ; though the truth is not lost, but is simply transferred to those who will value it ; when the light goes out, the candlestick is flung away, and may never be restored.
From Smyrna we steamed back down the Archi- pelago, passing Patmos during the night, but touch- ing both at Rhodes and Cyprus. Rhodes is a sunny dull town, built of bright warm stone on the edge of the sea, fringed pleasantly with trees and gar- dens, and ornamented by picturesque old walls. In the course of a short ramble, coats of arms in stone on several of the houses reminded us that we were in the territory of the Knights of Rhodes. They also suggested the width of inter s-al, both in senti- ment and policy, which separates the age of the Crusaders from the generation of Queen Victoria — the men who honestly thought that the kingdom of the Eedeemer was to be won and protected by the sword, from us who, on the strength of the Lord's own word, firmly maintain that it can only be extended through the truth.
Cyprus, where we again came on the track of St. Paul, looked a hot and uninteresting island, and Larnaka, where we landed, with its long thin row
of yellow houses, aud verdureless burning hills behind, reminded me almost of a squalid village on the coast of Egypt.
It was a pleasant feeling all that hot afternoon while we were lying off the island, that it was our last day at sea for some time to come ; and when we went up on deck next morning, we feasted our eyes with the white villas, and broken hills, and fertile gardens, and crowded harbour of Bey rout, where numbers of graceful palm trees shoot up into the sapphire sky, mingled with stone pines and mulberry trees ; and where the grand background of Sunnin, rising 5000 feet over the sea in a long unbroken out- line, gave some of us our first glimpse of " the glory of Lebanon." Our stay at Beyrout was short, but we determined to make time for Mrs. Thompson's schools : and it was a great disappointment to us, after a broiling walk up a shadeless hill to find that she was away in the mountains, and that the school was closed for a holiday. However, we visited the house, standing by itself id a pretty gar- den, high up over the sea, with Cyprus, like a faint cloud in the distance ; and I do not see how a better building could be procured for the purpose, the rooms being lofty, and conveniently separated from each other, so as to prevent clashing among the different departments.
English people are now tolerably well acquainted with the merits and object of this institution, and there can be no need to add anything to the well- weighed words of just praise, which Mr. Tristram has written of it in his 1 ' Winter Ride in Pales- tine."
In two days we left Beyrout for the mountains, a goodly cavalcade, with nothing wanting for conve- nience or enjoyment. Our staff comprised an English courier, a dragoman (Michael Hane ; fortu- nate the traveller who secures his sendees), a cook, a waiter, and divers grooms, muleteers, and boys. Our beasts of burden, including horses, mules, and donkeys, numbered twrenty. We were lodged in four tents, three of which were sent out from England, and so long as strength holds out, and the weather is fine, that out-door life is singularly en- joyable. Up often at five, we breakfasted in the open air while the tents were taken down and the mules packed. Between six and seven we were in the saddle, and rode on till one, mostl}' at a foot's pace. Then we halted for lunch by a running brook, or under a rock, or near a tree, and after a short meal and a nap, and such "heart affluence o* discursive talk" as occasion suggested, had a quiet read in the book we loved best, giving and receiving in. turn. Then wc rode on till sunset, when we came up with our tents, generally ready to receive us, and after dinner we were glad to get to bed.
On Sunday morning we had full service, and the chaplain of the party preached to a select but atten- tive congregation on some subject connected with the place. In the afternoon we always received the Lord's Supper. In the evening we had a quiet ramble while the sun was going down, Dr. Bonar's
4
OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18fi5.
hymns and "the Book of Praise" being our usual companions. Our horses were all the fresher on the Monday for their rest on the previous day ; and though far from the associations of an English Sun- day, and of home worship, I doubt if we ever felt condemned to a "dry and barren land, where no water is."
This is not a paper of travel, and I must not di- gress to relate incident or describe scenery, except in connection with our subject. I may, however, say thus much about the Lebanon, in which we spent twelve days, that its scenery is so utterly different from what English people are familiar with in Switzerland or the Tyrol, that it would be quite unfair to compare them. In some respects, too, the autumn is an unfavourable time for visiting it, the country being browned and parched through uninterrupted drought. During the first day of our ascent, after leaving the Dog river, wc were continually winding round terraces of highly culti- vated country, where the vine and the maize alter- nate with the fig and the olive. White and smiling villages, with solid and well-placed convents at fre- quent intervals, give the landscape an air of wealth and security. The flat-roofed houses recalled the housetops of Scripture, though being used for the drying of grain, and requiring to be frequently rolled with a stone roller, they are more substantial than the roof of mud and reeds broken through for the paralytic. Industry and abundance met us everywhere. The grapes, not yet ripe, marked the elevation of the mountain above the plain below, where they were nearly over. Much silk is made and spun here, for the Beyrout market, and on one occasion we dismounted and went into an extempo- rised hut to se j the process of uuwindiug the cocoons. Almost the pleasantest sight of all was the lovely dark-eyed children, gaily dressed, healthy, merry, and kindly mannered, who constantly ran out to give us their greeting, and who remiuded some of us of children like theni far away at home.
As we got higher up the mountain we came to a j singular lime-stone formation, where the grotesquely j shaped rocks suggested all kinds of odd similitudes from a wolf's head to an Egyptian temple. Pre- j sently the country became less populous, the passes more difficult, and the riding, always rough enough, occasionally was daugerous where the path, hang- ing possibly over a deep chasm, was broken away to the width of a knife-board. At Afka, where Constantine abolished the abominable rites of Venus and Adonis, the ruins of the temple pulled down by his command are a great addition to the sublime scenery. A magnificent ridge of cliffs, rising perpendicularly to the height of a thousand feet, beetles over a silver cascade which dashes down from under a dark cavern, and makes its way through oue of the grandest gorges in the Lebanon, till it plunges into the sea. The valley through which this gorge descends by three succes- sive depressions, is on both sides over-arched by lofty mountains, and only wants wood to be beauti-
ful as well as sublime. Here, moreover, is the point where the country having reached the height of wreariness and desolateuess between the Natural Bridge and the Honey' Fountain, begins to put on a garment of greenness and fertility , until it termi- nates in the valley of the Kadisha.
Sunnin, with patches of snow, was behind us, and Tripoli and the sea at our feet, the day after leaving Afka. Soon the long range of the highest ridge of the Lebanon came full in view, more jagged and broken than its southern extremity, but bare and verdureless to the last degree ; its great charm, and indeed original feature being its delicate pink colour. Can this be the meaning of the sentence in the Song of Solomon — "His countenance is as Le- banon ? " At the convent of Dinan we had a fine view of the Kadisha.
Towards the west it tumbles down towards the sea, past a convent of Justinian, wrho here, as else- where, could build up the material church, if he could not do much for the spiritual. Eastward it descends through a valley of exquisite richness from the foot of the great mountain wall, which, in the peak of Deir es Khatib, rises to ten thousand feet ; and halfway up the mountain a small dark patch is pointed out, which the traveller refuses to believe can be the Cedars of Lebanon.
We spent a couple of pleasant hours in the con- vent with the Maronite Patriarch, who, in com- pany with some of his clergy, makes this lovely spot his summer residence. He hospitably entertained us with sherbet, sweetmeats, pipes and coffee, and through a monk who could speak French and Italian, we had a good deal of conversation. These Maronites claim to be the original Church of Syria, and are the principal religious communion in the Lebanon. There is some doubt as to which of two men, called Maronius, their church owes its origin : one of them, an orthodox believer, having lived in the third century, the other, at a later period, being strongly tainted with Arianism. Of late years, however, it has been found convenient to trace their descent from the purer and more ancient source.
The Maronites have been in communion with Kome since the time of the Crusades ; and that world-wide polity — so wise in her generation — per- mits to these secluded but resolute mountaineers an independence which she cannot prevent, and among other innovations sanctions the marriage of the clergy. The liturgy is in Syriac, but though the vernacular is Arabic, public worship can hardly be said to be offered in an unknown tongue, as the sermon and the Scripture lessons are in Arabic, and the Syriac is understood by the people, it being the first lan- guage taught in the schools. There is really a very complete parochial system here. A priest and schoolmaster reside in every parish, and children whose parents cannot afford to pay for their teach- ing, are instructed gratuitously. The clergy gene- rally are of a very inferior class, and their income, paid by their parishioners, ranges from 20/. to 40/. a
Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1863.] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST.
5
year. They are appointed by the Patriarch, and before ordination go through a fourteen years' j course'of study at a college near Beyrout, entirely free of charge. The churches are plain even to i\ shabbiness, far balder and uglier than anything to T be seen in Wales or Cumberland. Mostly they are nothing but a whitened cube of coarse masonry, with a small bell-turret, apparently placed with the object of making it all lopsided, and there is invari- ably a real human skull on a conspicuous place in the wall.
On the other side of the" mountain is the fertile plain of Bukaa, in ancient times known as Ccele- Syria. It runs north to south between the Lebanon and Ante-Lebanon, and is possibly iden- ; tical with the "valley of Lebanon," mentioned in \ Joshua xii. 7. This is the more likely, as the " Baal Gad," mentioned in the same verse, and in the chapter following, where it is added, "under Mount \ j Hermon," is quite possibly the Baalbec, which, in 1 I some of its remains, evidently dates back to very ancient times indeed, and which, long before the \ Romans, must have been a place of importance. There are three temples here ; and, Palmyra excepted, they are the grandest ruins in the East, : out of Egypt. This is not the place to describe j them; but if the "Temple of the Sun" was ever j j completely finished — and Antoninus Pius has the 1 : credit of it — what a work it was to accomplish when | ' Paganism was fast decaying, and the temple was '' j undermined by the Church ! All through our tour j we came continually in contact, not only with the } i traces of Roman civilisation, but also of Roman , ! religion. The Romans not only conquered em- i pires and made roads, but they built temples and : | propagated religion. It is nothing to the purpose ' i that they were idolaters. Gibbon's remark may j have some force in it, that the Romans were equally j indulgent to all religions, because they were ! j equally indifferent to all ; and that while the Pan- I theon expressed the idea of a philosophical hospi- tality to the one spirit of religion, draped under all ! varieties of expression, it was only consistent to re- sent and to destroy the unsocial religion of Jesus, which, in denouncing all others, deserved to be de- ! nounced itself. Whatever, however, may have been the motives of the Romans, and however false their ' creed, they were neither ashamed of it, nor unwil- ling to incur great cost to promote it. If Rome did j so much for the worship of devils, England might ' do more for the honour of God.
One long day is sufficient for the ride from the \ temples at Baalbec to the mulberry trees of Zebe- , j dani. The road is uninteresting, though it crosses ! the j Anti-Lebanon. Beyond Zebedani, a rich and ! beautiful village, we came on the Barada, the Abana of Scripture. At first it dashed along in a head- strong tumultuous way, as if it knew where it was going to, — over rocks which fretted it into foam ; | under grand cliffs which echoed back its displeasure, but could not drink in its moisture, sculptured, by the way, some of them, by these same wonderful
' Romans, who meet us even at the ends of the ! earth.
But as we neared Damascus, and the gorge ! opened out into a wide valley, villages sprang up on its banks, woods and orchards planted near its rushing stream showed no sign of summer heat, though, alas for us, their riches were spoiled, and their fruit eaten ; and when we left it, and rode out ; of the new French road to Beyrout (which for a little way runs along the side of it) to strike off on j the old track for one of the world's famous views j from the heights of Salahiyeh, it was like leaving the Weald of Kent for a Sierra in Spain.
And what a view that is ! On the left run low yellow mountains, beyond which is Palmyri and the Euphrates. On the right, a dull hot plain stretches away into the steamy mist towards the roots of Hermon, across which St. Paul came on his memorable visit to Damascus. Just beneath, the new French road winds like a dusty snake into the trees and houses. Iu front, until the eye, satiated with beauty, rests for relief on the far mountains of the Hauran is a tossing sea of emerald verdure, where the almond and the apricot, the fig and the chesnut, the mulberry and poplar intermarry their colours and their shadows, with a greenness and glossiness of foliage, inexplicable at the end of the dry season, but for the hidden fountains of which their greedy roots were drinking eagerly below. Out of this sea of emerald rose into the cloudless blue, in their imposing and delicate outlines, the : domes and minarets of the city, which at that distance, fair and golden to look upon, glitters ! in a stately repose. Dating back to Abram, pos- | sibly to S^em, after Constantinople, this is the fairest jewel in the Turkish empire, though to Western minds, the ideal of self-indulgence, of ; fanaticism and cruelty. Yet the yellow desert j surrounds and watches it on all sides. If there j were no snows on Hermon, there would be no city of Damascus. Ezekiel's words, continually recur- ring to us, here were almost more forcible than ' : anywhere : " and everything shall live whither the <■ river cometh. "
The town was unhealthy, and I thought the ! bazaars, though widened and more adapted for traffic, much gone off in brilliancy since my former visit in the spring of '48. Beyrout, no doubt, diverts much trade, and Aleppo is a formidable rival, but it is also to be accounted for by the mas- sacre of 1860. Previous to that time there were 35,000 Greeks in the city, representing a consider- able capital, and a genius for trading unsurpassed anywhere. They are now reduced to 10,000, partly through the massacre in which from 6000 to 7000 perished in Damascus alone, partly through emigra- tion to Constantinople and Beyrout.
One circumstance, however, marks an apparent diminution of fanaticism towards Europeans. A few years ago it was utterly impossible to obtain admission into any of the mosques. Xow, however, the principal mosque can be visited through the
q
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18P 5.
intervention of the consuls ; and though a small following (chiefly of hoys), went about with us, as we walked through the mosque, it was not to pelt, but to stare.
At Damascus we came into contact, not so much with Christian work, as with Christian workmen. Two Protestant missionaries are stationed here, one of whom was absent in the mountains. We had, however, much pleasant intercourse with Monsieur Ferrette, son of a French officer, and sent out here by the Irish Presbyterian Church.
Monsieur Ferrette in the course of his missionary labours is thrown into constant intercourse with the Greeks, whom he describes as always ready to welcome him, and to converse with zest and free- dom on religious subjects. There are three chief divisions of Greek Christians, — the Catholic Greek, who are in communion with Rome ; the orthodox, who are the Greeks proper ; and the Catholic ortho- dox, who were formerly in communion with Home, but have seceded from her in consequence of an attempt to impose upon them the Gregorian calen- dar. As to her doctrinal basis, the Greek Church is, with one exception, entirely sound. She differs, indeed, from the Western Church, in denying the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, asserting it to be from the Father only. This is, of course, at variance with those who hold the Nicene Creed. Otherwise, she is not com- mitted to any doctrinal innovations. The Third General Council, and the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures as a rule and guide, may be said to be her dogmatic position. Papal infallibility, the Im- maculate Conception, and the celibacy of the clergy are to the Greek Church as daring and offensive inroads on the faith and liberty of Christendom, as they are to ourselves. There is moreover no pro- fessedly official hindrance to the circulation of the Scriptures. Yet an ordinary observer going first into a Latin, and then into a Greek church, would
i find it hard to say in which the ceremonialism and
( the superstitiousness predominated. The G reeks use their pictures much in the same way as the Latins their images. In both commuuions the intercession of saints is recognised. However dis- posed we may be to hope the best, and to diminish to the smallest possible quantity the immaterial differences that separate the Church of the East from other Catholic communion, which, like herself, are independent of the Papacy, a great reformation must take place in her ceremonial, and a great shaking off of her traditions, before any Church in
I the least valuing the name of Protestant can con- sistently invite a closer fellowship. Whether she will ever reform herself in this direction would be an interesting question, if another question did not come first : Cau the Greek Church, with its masses of uninstructed and fanatical adherents, hope to free herself from this dead weight of mum-
| mery, without ensuring an euormous and irrepa- rable schism ? It is perfectly well known that the blasphemy of the Sacred Fire is a grievous sorrow
to the more enlightened and thoughtful ; but it is to be feared that it has gone on too long to be dis- continued ; and that the ceremonial of the Greek Church will cleave to her, as the poisoned garment of Nessus clave to Hercules, not to be washed off A with the honey and water of a Patriarchal edict ; V if torn off, only by tearing off with it the very tissues of the life.
Among other duties our friend here has literary work in hand, and no less a one than a new transla- tion of the Bible into Arabic. He proposes to tako for his basis the three existing translations, the most ancient of which is a translation from the Peshito, and he will print it from a new kind of type, of his own invention. My reason for mention- ing it here is, that on coming into contact with the inner life as well as the outer difficulties of an educated missionary, it forcibly struck me, as if for the first time, that literary work of some kind is an imperious necessity for a cultivated mind, living much alone, if it is to be preserved from rust and despondeucy. Xo man can be always teaching and preaching. There must be relaxation of some kind. How fortunate if this relaxation is in the shape of a changed rather thau a remitted labour ; if it takes the form of books, and becomes a legacy of re- search and experience for those who come after. It was impossible not to observe how happy Monsieur Ferrette was made by having this trans- lation before him ; how what he not unreasonably regards as a kind of life work, is to him in the place of a wife, or a child, or the society of intel- lectual men. What was the great work of Henry Marty n comes continually to be the work of other missionaries likewise. Who can doubt that God meets the student of His word, as He labours to make it intelligible to others, and out of the wells of salvation daily gives him a blessing?
While at Damascus we went to see a sight which Ins often been described before, but which in its particular aspect of a religious service, and its bearing on the prospects of a country where such things are not only tolerated but admired, deserves a moment's attention. Most people have heard of the dancing Dervishes. They are the fanatics of Mohamme- danism, and arc partly supported by fees, partly by endowments. They marry, arc often engaged in trade, and are scrupulously honest. They have places of worship of their own, and their per- . formances are attended by a numerous congrega- tion. During their dance, their head-dress is a sugar-loaf hat of brown felt, and a white kind of gown, like an inverted umbrella well puffed out with wind. While the music played they were immersed in thought. Theu (they were about twelve or fifteen in number, and fenced off from us in an inner enclosure) they went round this place bowing to each other, until at last they went up to the chief Dervish, and bowed to him. Then began this frantic fetish dancing, which can be best described by calling it a series of rapid circular whirls, like so many Catherine wheels spinning round, in some
Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1865.] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
7
cases reaching forty revolutions a minute, the whole body being whisked round, yet contriving to get round the room in its proper orbit, the eyes shut, and the brain evidently becoming excited to a frightful degree. They never ran against each other, and an old man on the verge of the grave (oh, how we pitied him) who went in and out among them with real dexterity, to make one go slower or another go faster, was never jostled, much less run down. Evidently the Dervishes themselves considered this an act of religion ; evidently some of those present regarded it in the same light. What we felt was, "Is not Satan here, deluding these victims with the thought that they are pleasing God ? " What we also asked our- selves was, "By what spiritual methods, by what reasonings and statements of truth shall we exor- cise, not only from the men who practise such things, but also from those who believe in them, such a miserable and detestable superstition ? Here of course we are on Mohammedan ground ; but whether with Mohammedanism, or pure Heathen - ism, or Christianity heathenised, the power of the prince of this world in these distant lands is far greater than some of us suppose : 1 this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting.' "
To go back to Monsieur Ferrette, in addition to his two Arabic services on Sunday, and his work of translating the Bible, he interests himself with schools. At the present time he has seven at work in different parts of the country, and the average attendance at each is twenty-five. This may seem small, but I for one could see no littleness in the faith which expected God's blessing on a humble beginning ; and the men needed for Christ's work in a country like this must be quite willing to do small things, and to wait a long time before much comes out of them. One advantage of visiting missionary work on the spot is perhaps this, that though at first we are appalled by the vastness of the work to be done, and dismayed at finding the results so few — Ah ! so much fewer than at home we had ever thought them to be ! — a day's walk, or
an hour's conversation throws a flood of light on the whole subject. When we come to ask if we ourselves could do it better, or to thiuk how we ourselves could make it bigger ; when we touch, and handle, and weigh, not in the paper and ink of a report, but iu the living masses of unconverted souls in the thorough- fares of a mighty city, the practical difficulties of the missionary ; then our first feeling is of wonder that any one can accept the duty, or at least perse- vere in it, then we thank God with quite a new kind of thankfulness for the simple, patient, humble devoted love, which constrains a cultivated and intelligent man to exile himself in a distant country for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. Instead of asking cold questions about success, and results, which probably he is more anxious to ensure than we are, we will encourage him with sympathy, we will secretly remember him in prayer. We cease to complain of small beginnings, and to despise the day of small things. Knowing that the will of God underlies all success, and that though Paul may plant, and Apollos water, it is God that giveth the increase, we increasingly honour those whose chief present comfort is the sense of the Saviour's love, and their great encouragement the hope of glory ; we are sorry and ashamed that we ever permitted ourselves to despise the small ness of the grain of mustard seed.
Nevertheless, it is a vast work, and flesh and blood may well fail at the thought of it. Whether in the crowded bazaars, or in the long monotonous streets, or among the leafy groves, or in the yellow desert, when the Christian traveller thinks but for a moment of the enormous distance between Damascus and the China sea, and that all over there the world for which Jesus died lieth in the wicked one, his heart would sink within him, but for Christ's blessed sentence, " Other sheep I have which are not of this fold ;" his comfort is iu re- peating to himself the sentence of the Nicene Creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life."
THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
BY THE REV. W. SWAN, (Late Missionary in Siberia, and Author of " Letters on Missions," &c.)
The history of the Christian Church is very de- fective in one important point — the introduction of the Gospel into the various countries where it has taken root. How vague are the accounts handed down to us of the first missionaries to our own country ! how little is known of the early attempts to carry the truth to Scandinavia, to France, to Spain, to the East, to the South ? No doubt some ancient narratives have perished, but the scantiness of our information is, perhaps, in a great degree owing to the fact that first efforts were so feeble,
and drew so little notice at the time that no record was kept of them ; and afterwards, when the re- sults' were manifest, and a history of the whole desiderated, it was found that many facts had already become the prey of oblivion, and that all that could be gathered up was some uncertain tra- dition or some broken hint. Besides, there were in many of the early manifestations of the aggres- sive power of Christianity, a variety of agencies employed, each contributing its quota to the ulti- mate success. But it might be difficult, in the
8 THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL
MISSION IN PEKING. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
lack of contemporary and authentic information to estimate the respective share of each of these various agencies in contributing to the end that was ultimately accomplished.
Unfortunately the want of authentic accounts of the introduction of Christianity into countries where it has long been known, has given occasion to all manner of absurd traditions and legendary tales, many of them the invention of the monks who lived at the distance of centuries from the periods of which they gave these fabulous histories. These were palmed off upon the people as veritable facts, and the ignorance or credulity of those ages too easily admitted as truth whatever the monks told them. No doubt there might sometimes be a modicum of truth mixed up with the inventions of those chroniclers, but, unfortunately, it is now almost impossible to separate the true from the false in these histories, or ascertain where fact ends and invention begins.
These remarks have occurred to us in connection with the growing interest which attaches to the Empire of China, and the efforts now made to carry the light of Christian truth into that populous but long doubly sealed and jealously guarded country. The history of the introduction of Chris- tianity into China, and its spread there, will doubt- less form one of the most thrilling and remark- able chapters in the history of the world's evange- lisation, and it is not too soon to try to gather up some fragments in danger of being lost, which bear upon that longed-for consummation.
The Russian branch of the Eastern Church has done comparatively nothing to send the Gospel to heathen nations. Even the numerous pagan tribes within the boundaries of the empire itself have been left very much to retain their own supersti- tions, or to become nominally Christians by enter- ing the pale of the Church by baptism ; but the absence of all systematic efforts to multiply such converts, and the neglect of all means to instruct and 'guide them as Christians, too well suffice to account for the small progress made in extending the boundaries of the Church.
The fact that there has been in Peking, ever siuce the time of Peter the Great, a Russian Eccle- siastical Mission, is not very widely known, even in well-informed circles in this country ; and how that mission came to be established in the metro- polis of China, and what are its objects very few have ever inquired ; or if they have, no very satis- factory answer to their inquiries could be obtained. There are, indeed, scattered through the literature of the last century, various works about China, and among these, upon a close search, some in- teresting particulars might be found, concerning the residence in China, and the proceedings there, of the missionaries of the Propaganda. Du Halde's, Grose's, and other works on China are well known ; but little or nothing can be learned from such pub- lications of the relations which have so long sub- sisted^ between the Chinese, and their northern
neighbours the Russians ; and any hints about the residence of the descendants of Russians in the Chinese capital rather stimulate than satisfy curiosity. We propose, therefore, as briefly as pos- sible, to give an account of the circumstances which led to the formation of a Greco-Russian Church in Peking, and to the maintenance of a staff of ecclesiastics, and of students there, from the period when they first obtained access to China down to the present day.
When the Russian Cossacks were gradually sub- duing the numerous tribes that inhabited Eastern Siberia, aud bringing them under the yoke of Russia, they were obliged to build fortresses or walled vil- lages for their own safety, as they proceeded with their conquests. Leaving a portion of their uumber to occupy these fortified places, and keep the par- tially subdued natives quiet, a kind of advanced guard went forward, pushing their adventurous way to new fields, and bringing under their power tribes, or portions of tribes, that hitherto had been inde- pendent aud free. In this way they penetrated at last to the banks of the river Amoor, and having, either by negotiation or force of arms, brought into subjection a native chief, named Albazi, they pro- ceeded to build and fortify a village for their resi- dence, from which they could make excursions into the surrounding country, and to which they could return as their desert home. They gave to their village, which soon became a town, the name of Albazin ; and they found in agriculture and in the chace, the means of living in abundance and com- fort. Albazin was situated on the southern bank of the Amoor. about 500 miles from Nertshinsk.* Some of the Cossacks who had settled there had, in their exploriug career, sailed down to the mouth of the river, where it falls into the eastern ocean ; but their frail, flat-bottomed boats, rudely constructed, and having nothing stronger than wooden pins to hold their planks together, were ill-fitted for the navigation of the open sea, and they returned to their old quarters at Albazin. At that time their possession of the country was little questioned. They could go in all directions hunting the sable, of which the richest specimens were abundant, for the region of the Amoor was tacitly reckoned, by them at least, as belonging to the Russian empire ; but that country was, in fact, the disputed territory between Russia and China — the Cossacks had only the right of conquest and possession ; not, as yet, of prescription. If they had had only the native inhabitants — the Tungusians and Mongolians — to deal with, their claims might have remained undis- turbed ; but as the government of China regarded their occupation of the banks of the Amoor as an invasiou of their country, they, after a period of delay and inaction, sent an armed force against Albazin. The Cossacks had surrounded their dwell- ings with a stockade formed of great trees, and so had fortitied themselves against any sudden attack.
* Gedenstrom, p. 142.
christian work, Jan. 2, ism. j THE R USSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
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It appears from one of the Russian accounts * now before the writer of this article, that the Cossacks had frequent skirmishes with the Manchoo tribes in their neighbourhood, before the Chinese soldiery attacked them. They repulsed the first Chinese contingent sent against them ; and a second and more numerous body of troops met with no better success. The Emperor of China then sent a nume- rous army against the poor and weak fortress, which contained only about 500 Cossacks. They defended themselves bravely, so that their enemies were obliged to maintain a siege for months before they could subdue the resolute Albazinians. At last both provisions and ammunition failed, and disease hav- ing further weakened them, they surrendered at discretion. The Chinese then razed the town to its foundations, and carried the inhabitants prisoners to Peking. After the retreat of the conquerors, some few of the people who had been left set about re- building their dwellings ; but a few years after, when a treaty of peace was concluded between Russia and China, one stipulation was that the Russians should altogether abandon the locality. So those lingering remains of the dwellers at Al- bazin were compelled to seek a home elsewhere. M. Gedenstrom, a well-informed man who spent many years in the Russian service in Siberia, when relating these events, in a work + to which we are indebted for some of the facts here adduced, bursts out in a style of eloquent eulogy of the brave men who penetrated to those remote regions, built there a town, and defended it so resolutely and so long against great odds. " Thus fell Albazin !" he ex- claims, ' 1 the never-to-be-f orgotten memorial of the matchless enterprise and fearless daring of the Sibe- rian Cossacks ! " But we cannot afford space for more of this patriotic effusion.
These events had a far more important bearing than at first sight appeared. The Chinese expedi- tion, winch effected the destruction of Albazin, was followed, ere long, by political negotiations and amicable treaties between the two empires. A meet- i ing of plenipotentiaries from St. Petersburg and Peking was held afl Nertshinsk, charged with the delicate and difficult task of settling the boundaries between the two powers. In those days communication with the respective capitals was ' tedious and fatiguing, a whole year being con- '< sumed on the journey to St. Petersburg, and of course another year on the way back. Peter the Great was at that time much occupied with mat- ters which seemed to him of far greater moment, ! and so the Siberian and Chinese boundary ques- j tiou was not expedited as it might have been. At last matters were arranged for the despatch : of an officer of high rank. This was the Boyarin Golovin, as chief plenipotentiary. The Chinese I representative was strengthened by the presence I and counsel of some Jesuit priests, then high in
St. Petersburg, f Sketches of Siberia, St. Petersburg. 1830.
* Newest account of Eastern Siberia. 1817.
favour at Peking. But in addition to all other means of securing an adjustment of differences favourable to China, that government thought proper to back the arguments of their diplomatists with a formidable array of soldiery. Poor Golovin found himself unable to cope with such argu- ments, and was obliged to agree to terms highly favourable to China, but less unfavourable to Russia than he once feared ; for there was reason to apprehend that the Chinese would claim the whole region lying to the south of the Lake Baikal.
From that period, not the Amoor, but a range of mountains far to the north, was made the boundary line, giving to the empire of China an accession of territory greater than all Great Bri- tain and Ireland. Nor was the value of this ad- dition to the Chinese dominions to be measured by its mere geographical extent. The country on the northern banks of the Amoor up to the roots of the Yablonuoy mountains, is extremely rich and fertile. The soil is highly productive ; the climate healthy, and the cold moderate ; the lofty mountains that skirt the northern side of that beautiful region, screening it from the piercing Minds that blow from the icy ocean. As a proof at once of the fertility of the soil, and the excel- lence of the climate, it is affirmed that around the ruins of Albazin the corn-fields of the old settlers there produce to this day crops self-sown and unreaped, for the place is still uninhabited. This statement is made on the authority of M. Gedenstrom, an author already referred to.
These particulars concerning the region of the Amoor, and the unsuccessful negotiation of Russia to have it acknowledged by China as belonging to the Tsar, will be regarded by our readers as doubly interesting now that this very disputed territory has been given up by China, and ceded to Russia by recent treaties. What could not be effected in the time of Peter the Great, is accomplished under the reign of Alexander the Second. Such an ad- dition to that already vast empire is important, both as being a region of great resources yet un- developed, and as affording to the power that commands the' Amoor free access to the Eastern ocean, and so opening up facilities for trade and commerce, which the enterprise of our Northern neighbours will doubtless, ere long, turn to valu- able account.
It is interesting to compare the statements made by Russians of these affairs, with the accounts given by others, and especially by those who lived and wrote nearer the time when the events oc- curred.
Our countryman, John Bell of Antermony, who accompanied an embassy from Petersburg to Peking during the reign of Peter the Great, gives a graphic account of his intercourse with the descendants of the captive Russians of Albazin, and he narrates the circumstances connected with their being brought to China, pretty much as we have stated them. So
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THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
[Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
that the honest Scotchman's account confirms the view we have given of the destruction of Albazin as derived from Russian sources. Mr. Bell says that the Emperor of China had attempted by urgent re- presentations, of his right to the country invaded by the Cossacks, to induce the Russian govern- ment to withdraw from their usurped possession ; but these peaceful measures having proved fruit- less, "the Emperor at last, impatient of longer delay, sent an army of above one hundred thousand men to do by force what could not be accomplished by negotiation. They invested the place on all sides, and raised batteries against it. After a vigo- rous defence, the garrison, consisting of 300 or 400 Cossacks, was obliged to surrender for want of pro- visions. No terms could be obtained, and all the Russians were made prisoners of war."
In Mr. Bell's time (1720), the descendants of these prisoners were, he says, "pretty numerous" and useful to their countrymen, the Russians, as interpreters (p. 282). Along with the other inha- bitants of Albazin their Priest Dimitri was carried to the Chinese capital. There he and his co-reli- gionists were allowed to observe the rites of their worship, and for that purpose an old temple of the Buddhists was assigned to them and converted into a Christian Church. It is probable that Dimitri was allowed to continue in his office all his days, and that not till after his death were arrange- ments made for procuring a successor from Russia, and for putting the establishment on the footing it afterwards assumed, and which has continued until this day. How this was effected wc shall now relate
The embassy, already mentioned, despatched from St. Petersburg to meet with the representatives of China on the question of the frontiers, was also empowered to settle all matters relating to the future management and maintenance of the Albazin captives. These negotiations were at last peacefully concluded, and among other articles of the treaty between Russia and China, it was agreed that the subjects of Russia who had been taken to Peking should remain there ; but as they were Christians of the Greco-Russian Church, it was stipulated that they should have a Church provided for the exercise of the rites of their religion— that a staff of priests and other ecclesiastics should be allowed to come from Russia and officiate in the Church at Peking ; that, moreover as it was desirable to have proper persons to study the Chinese and Manchoo lan- guages, that they might be qualified to act as inter- preters in the future business and intercourse of the Russians with their Chinese friends and neigh- bours, that a certain number of students should lie added to the staff of the mission ; aud, lastly, that the officials of the mission should be allowed to return to Russia at the end of ten years, to be re- placed by a new set of priests, students, &c. These terms were acceded to by the Chinese authorities ; and so, for the last century and a half, there has been au uninterrupted succession of Russian eccle-
siastics who have spent their appointed term of years in Peking.
According to the treaty the Russian mission was to consist of six ecclesiastics, viz., an archi- mandrite and five other priests of inferior rank ; also four lay members. The first to do duty alter- £ nately in the monastery of Candlemas and the Church of the Assumption, situated in the same quarter of the city ; the lay-members are the students who are obliged to acquire the Chinese and Manchoo langixages, and to gain au accurate know- ledge of Chinese affairs. They all reside in the Kouan, a vast building, part of which known by the name of the Court of the Embassy, is kept in repair by the Chinese government, and the other, containing the convent, at the expense of Russia. As above stated the members of the mission were to be relieved every ten years, but the correspondence of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the name of the Directing Senate, with the tribunal at Peking, is subject to so many delays that the abode of the missionaries is often protracted to a longer period. For instance, the members of the new mission who reached Kiachta in 1820 were then only on their way to relieve the former one that had been in Peking since the beginning of the year 1808. The maintenance of the mission costs the Chinese government, aunually, a thousand silver roubles and nine thousand pounds of rice, and the Russian government sixteen thousand silver roubles. Of this last sum one thousand roubles are set apart for the maintenance and instruction of the young Albazinians who live at Peking, the descendants of the original Cos- sacks.
It is no vain repetition but an interesting confir- mation of this narrative, to adduce the testimony of Mr. Bell, whose travels in Asia we have already referred to. Mr. Bell, after giving some parti- culars, in substance the same as those laid before our readers, adds, "the taking of these prisoners to Peking was the occasion of establishing the Creek church in China, which still continues to flourish, though its members are not very numerous. As one priest dies, another from Siberia succeeds him, who minds chiefly his own small flock, and thinks very little of making converts. This cir- cumstance prevents their being obnoxious to the Romish missionaries, who can have no suspicion of their interfering with the interests of their church. These missionaries are constantly employed in making proselytes, and their endeavours have been attended with some success " (p. 283). The testimony of a witness and observer, who lived so near the time of the first settlement of this Russian colony in the capital of China, possesses peculiar interest, and Mr. Bell's position as connected in a medical capacity with the Russian Embassy, gave him the best opportunities both of intercourse with the descendants of the Cossacks of Albazin, and of free communication with Chinese officials. Being in the suite of the Ambassador Valensky, he was
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865 ] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
11
present at all the grand receptions and interviews with the Emperor and his court. How well he improved these opportunities, his copious narrative of his residence in Peking abundantly shows. The glimpses he gives us of Chinese ceremonial corre- spond very much with the more recent descriptions given by more modern writers, and so we are the more assured of the accuracy of both. By means of the philological and political stores of knowledge gathered by the members of the mission, and trans- mitted to their superiors in Russia, there is now ac- cumulated in the archives and public offices of St. Petersburg, an amount of important and authentic information about China, Corea, Tibet, and the other dependencies of the empire, far beyond what is pos- sessed by any other European government. Some of the monks and other officials of the Chinese mission have been men of research, and of literary tastes, and they have done good service both while in China, and after their return to Russia, turning to good account their acquisitions, and enriching the literature of their country both with original works, and with translations from Eastern languages. But this has been done only to a small extent, consider- ing the advantages these men have enjoyed. It is matter of regret that the Russian government has kept locked up among its literary treasures the reports, journals, &c. of its agents in China. It may have considered it the w isest course to mono-
appeared in any language but the German." + Mr. Timkowski, the author of the work now referred to, was the officer in command of the Cossacks, charged with the duty of conducting the new mission which left Russia for Peking in 1820, and of bringing back the members of the former mission who returned from China the following year.
Among the members of the mission in Peking, who have made contributions to the literature of the East, the monk Hyacinth Bechurin holds an honourable place. Among other valuable works of his there is a detailed description of the country lying between Peking and Kiachta, on the Russian frontier. Another volume contains a description of Tibet, translated from the Chinese. A third con- tains a history of Tibet, also translated from the Chinese original. These works, and others bearing on the subject of this paper, are now before the writer, in the Russian language ; and to these docu- ments he has been indebted for many of the details now laid before the readers of Christian Work. Regret has been expressed that the Russian govern- ment has not given to the European public the valuable information acquired through the medium of the mission at Peking ; but, independently of reasons of state for keeping such knowledge to themselves, the members of the Russian govern- ment must have translated the manuscripts in their possession into some other European language,
polise the information thus obtained ; but certainly ' better known than the Russian, otherwise few it would have been a graceful and generous act, to j would have been able to profit by the publicatk
make public; for the use of the Western world, some at least of the various knowledge in social, political, and religious life in China, which the staff of priests and students there had doubtless communicated to their superiors on their return to Europe. We observe that this reticence on the part of Russia is referred to in terms of regret by the intelligent English translator of Timkowski's Travels, in his preface to that work.* He says : " It is natural to inquire what advantages literature and science have derived from the Russians having thus possessed, for a hundred years, an opportunity which no other Christian nation has enjoyed, and which, if allowed to natives of England, France, or Germany, would most probably have long since made us fully ac- quainted with everything relative to the history, the institutions, the government, &c. of that great empire aud its extensive dependencies. To this no satisfactory answer can be given. So far as we have been able to ascertain, none of the members of these successive missions have ever published any- thing on the subject of China, even in the Russiau language. Only Lawrence Lange, who accompanied the mission that went to Peking in 1727, did keep a journal, which was published by the celebrated Tallas, in his Hordische Beitriigc ; but it never
* Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China, and Residence in Peking in the years 1820-1821. By George Timkowski. With Corrections and Notes, by Julius Vox Klaproth. In 2 vols. London : Long- man, Rces, Orme, Brown, and Green. 1827.
It was a stroke of policy worthy of the character for able diplomacy the Russian government has long borne, to take advantage of the circumstance of certain Russian subjects having been carried captive to Peking, to gain a permanent footing in China for their priests and people, with fidl liberty to exercise their religion and maintain a church and a monastery, with all the privileges belonging to their religious profession. The proposal to attach a number of lay students to the mission was skil- fully managed, as the Chinese pride was flattered by the idea of these foreigners coming to Peking to lea/rn their language, and gain wisdom from their books and learned men. Had the Russians sought liberty to settle in China for the purpose of teaching, their proposal would have been rejected with scorn. There was, however, a covert design on the part of the Russians — as a person high in office in St. Petersburg assured the writer of these pages — to give the Chinese a favourable idea of the Christian religion, by building a church adorned with the best specimens of sacred pictures that could be procured, and by the appointment of priests, whose official robes, and other emblems of their sacred character and office, were to be of the most gorgeous
f We are gratified to he able to state that the last sen- tence of the above extract is not correct. A translation from the French, of the Journal of M. de Lange was pub- lished as an appendix to Mr. Bell of Antermonv's Travels, already mentioned ; and the date of De Lange' s residence at the Court of Peking was not in 1?27, but in the years 1721 and 1722.
12 THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING. [Christian work, Jan. 2.
description. It was judged that these things would enchant the eyes of the Chinese, and fill their imaginations with exalted notions of the magnifi- cence of Russia, and the beauty of the religion there dominant. This gives point and significance to the following passage in Timkowski's work. He says, " The ecclesiastical members of the new mis- sion were occupied to-day in receiving from their predecessors the habits and utensils belonging to the service of the Church. There were two very hand- some and rich dresses for the priests, but many which were much worn. For the dignity of reli- gion, and the credit of the Russian name, it is much to be wished that our church at Peking were furnished with new ornaments, and in a better taste. The present ones are too old. Several images are very indifferently painted by Chinese artists, who have very unsuitably dressed them in their own national costume. An old image of St. Nicholas, brought by our Cossacks from Albazin in 1685, hangs on the wall behind the altar. In con- sequence of my representations respecting the pictures of the saints in our church at Peking, the Minister of Foreign Affairs gave orders to paint some new pictures for it, which were forwarded to Peking, in 1824." (Vol. i. p. 333.) If pictures are to be hung up in Christian churches, and if images of the saints are to be honoured by the worshippers who bow before them, there seems to be no good reason why these appendages to the furniture of the sanctuary should not be respectable specimens of the painter's art. But it betrays a sad lack of genuine Christian feeling to attach importance to such trifles ; and it does not say much for the enlightened zeal of a Church, which rests its de- pendence on such means for producing an impres- sion on the minds of a heathen people favourable to the Christian religion and its adherents. Nor is it sur- prising if such acts have failed to produce the effect intended. If the Chinese painters had possessed a particle of humour, they might have thought it a good joke to dress the Russian saints in their own costume, and thus convert them at once into deni- zens and protectors of the Celestial empire !
We have never heard of any native of Peking, either of the Chinese or of the Manchoo race, being won over to the Christian faith by these dazzling exhibitions. The writer had a memorable inter- view with the members of the mission, when they passed through Kiachta, on their way to Peking, in 1820. He suggested to the Archimandrite (Kamensky) then at the head of the mission that it would be well for him aud his brethren to take steps for the introduction of the Christian Scriptures into China, their knowledge of the language and opportunities of intercourse with the people giving them free scope for efforts in that directiou. His answer was brief and conclusive — " Such things are beyond our commission ; we have no commands to undertake any such work." The reigning spirit of the Russian Church at that time was the spirit of externalism, rite, ceremony, show; and, true to
the order of the day, Father Kamensky was careful not to exceed the limits of his instructions, or appear more zealous than his superiors.
In the course of the many years that have elapsed since the commencement of the Spiritual Mission (as the Russians call it), there may have been not a few zealous and good men who have fulfilled the duties of their office and commended their religion to the heathen people around them by their humble deportment and consistent lives ; but of their labours there is no account, at least none to which we have access. Some tangible proofs, however, of their labours are extant. A valuable manuscript copy of a Manchoo version of the Old Testament, and part of the New, made by some of the Roman Catholic Missionaries in China, was made by one of the late members of the Russian Mission ; and a transcript of that manuscript has been made at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.* Another Biblical work, honourable to the scholarship and diligence of another member of the Peking Mis- sion, is a translation into Manchoo of the New Testa- ment. That work has been printed under the auspices of the above-named Society, and copies can now be disseminated among the people from the Chinese metropolis itself, where Protestant missionaries are now labouring with much encouragement, and with fields of usefulness all around them, which only their limited number and resources, prevent their occupying in all their exteut.
Turning from the clerical portion of the mission, we naturally ask, what is the state and character of the descendants of the original settlers of Alba- zin, who were brought to Peking so long ago. We can but imperfectly answer the question. The Rus- sian colony — for such it is — planted at the very gates of the capital, still exists ; but its numbers have decreased rather than multiplied during the last century and a half. The presence and influence of priests of their own faith, and of Church services according to their own ritual, have scarcely pre- vented their sinking into the abyss of heathenism around them. There is reason to fear that with little even of tlxeform of godliness, they have prac- tically denied its power. They have long since lost the use of the Russian language, and having adopted the Chinese dress aud mode of life, are little distinguished from the other inhabitants of the country, which has become, in every sense, their native land. How low these poor people have fallen, the following extract from M. Timkowski's work only too clearly shows. That gentleman, after visiting some Buddhist temples, and other places of interest in the neighbourhood of Peking, describes a visit to the Russian church thus :—
' ' After having crossed ravines and narrow alleys, we came to the north-east angle of Peking, where our Church of the Assumption (formerly St. Nicho-
* That version must, of course, undergo a careful re- vision before being printed, and may perhaps only furnish the basis for a more complete translation, to be made by some competent Protestant missionary.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
13
las), stands. We did not see the inside of the church, because we had no key. It is in very bad condition. It was built about the time of the arrival of the Albazins, with the materials of a pagan temple, which formerly stood in the square. .... In general this quarter of Peking is very poor, though it contains the palace of a prince, which is situated to the south-west of our church. The descendants of the Albazins live, at present, in the western part of the city, which is assigned to the division of Manchoo troops to which they belong. They have lost all attachment to their former countrymen — the Russians. There are twenty-two among them who have been baptised, j but they are so connected with the Manchoos by marriages, and by their dependence as subjects, that it is very difficult to distinguish them. They speak- Chinese : they dress like the Manchoos, and live entirely in the same manner as the soldiers of that nation ; poor, idle, and addicted to the super- stitions of Schamanism." (Vol. ii. p. 45.)
So, with all their priests, sacred images, and fine sacerdotal vestments, these people were not far from the low level of the heathen part of the community. Nor is this to be wondered at, if the timid policy of their clergy, as brought to view in the following extract from the same volume, is to be regarded as characteristic of the Russian priest- hood in Peking.
"January 16th. — To-day Alexis came to the church. He is a descendant of the Albazins, and is their Monkonnida, or Senior. He brought with him his grandson, of twelve years of age, to have him christened, and also his daughter, the mother of the boy, who was married to a member of the impe- rial family, but poor, and of the class designated by the name of Ouksoun, or wearing yellow girdles. The Archimandrite expressed with respect to the young prince, the fear that the Chinese government, which is always jealous, might check the zeal of oar clergy to propagate the Christian religion, as it had done vAth the Jesuits." (P. 47.) From anything that appears in the history of these clergymen they were perfectly safe from the hands of persecutors ; for their "zeal" to propagate the Christian faith nowhere appears !
Mr. Timkowski had many opportunities of inter- course with Lamas and travellers from Tibet and Mon- golia ; and he had some curious interviews also with the Roman Catholic missionaries. He relates with minute accuracy what passed on these occasions, and one or two extracts, in which our own country and our missionaries are referred to, may not be without- interest. It is well to get a glimpse of what others think and say of us, and our Russian officer here gives us the opportunity. "Ishing told us that the Dalai Lama had not appeared, that is, had not been installed in Tibet for five years [previous to 1820]. The priests of Tibet wanted to choose him from among their own body ; but the late Emperor Kia King required that three candidates should be pro- ! posed to him, all of them from the province of Szu-
chuan. Does the Chinese Government then dread the conquest of Tibet by the English ? Should these conquerors of Bengal take possession of a country so highly venerated by all the professors of Lama- ism, which would not be difficult for them at present, the Dalai Lama would remain in their power ; his worshippers the Mongols, Calmucks, and other nations might become true and zealous allies of the English, and facilitate their further conquests in Middle Asia. We know that the English missionaries who reside at Selenginsk, in the government of Irkutsk, diligently study the Mongol language, which is spoken by many of the Tibetan Lamas. . . . Some Tibetans who reside in their convent came to the Dou Lama to see the Russians. When they saw me they exclaimed, ' This gentleman greatly resembles in the face the Indjili (English) who live at Lassa, and other Tibetan towns, the same complexion and hair, the same dress and sword. ' This statement was further confirmed by a merchant at Peking, a native of Tibet, who is pretty well acquainted with Bengal and Calcutta. We learned from him that the English now carry on a pretty considerable trade with Tibet, and exchange their cloths, knives, swords, &c. for gold, musk, turquoises, &c." (Vol. ii. p. 55.)
Mr. Timkowski gives an interesting account of a visit paid by himself and other Russians to the Por- tuguese missionaries, who, it seems, are treated with indignity and harshness by the Manchoo officials of Peking. We must limit our extracts however to a passage containing a reference to the English missionaries in Siberia. "The Archimandrites Hyacinth and Peter went in carriages to visit the Portuguese missionaries in the convent of the South. I accompanied them with six Cossacks, preceded by two of their officers, all on horseback. Some Chinese converts received us at the gate of the monastery, and led us through the library into the church, which is truly magnificent." . . . "The bishop hav- ing asked the Archimandrite Peter why English missionaries had settled at Selenginsk, the latter answered that it was to learn the Mongol langiiage ; but the bishop replied that he thought that the English missionaries had other intentions. The Portuguese observed that the literati of Europe, and particularly those of France, eagerly published works on China, and in the Chinese and Manchoo languages, without being sufficiently versed in the subjects of which they treated." (Vol. ii. p. 70.) Perhaps these Portuguese gentlemen were not guilt- less of the very thing of which they accused others, viz., holding and publishing opinions on subjects which they did not well understand. The sus- picion expressed by the bishop that the English missionaries had other intentions than those they avowed, might well lead to conclusions not very favourable to those emissaries of the Pope them- selves. Were they conscious of some secret, un- avowed objects in their mission to China, that they were so ready to impute sinister designs to the
14
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
Protestant missionaries in Siberia ? The Archi- mandrite certainly gave an imperfect account of the objects of the English missionaries, when he said it was " to learn the Mongol language.'' Their study of that language was but a means to an end, their avowed end being to translate the Christian Scriptures into Mongolian, and to preach the Gospel to the people who used that tongue. The Archimandrite Peter (Kamensky) here mentioned, was the individual referred to in a former page, who, in conversation with the writer, expressed his inability to undertake any Bible-translation work, as being beyond his instructions ; but he showed himself to be better acquainted with the character and work of the Protestant missionaries than the Portuguese bishop, and performed for them an im- portant service in procuring for them in Peking a valuable collection of Mongolian and Manchoo works, essential to them in the study of the languages and literature of the people to whose evangelization they had devoted themselves.
Here is another glimpse of proceedings iu the sphere of these missions in Peking. We again quote from Mr. Timkowski. " The Portuguese mission- aries having learned that the library of the Russian Mission possessed the Journal of Lord Amherst's Embassy to China, in 1816, asked the Archiman- drite Peter to lend it them. The book contains some inaccurate statements respecting our mission at Peking. Two Russians and a Frenchman, in the service of Puxssia, says the author, had been seen within the last three days, near our residence in Thoung Tcheau. The Chinese guard, who admit none but mandarins into the place occupied by the embassy, would not permit their entrance. Lord Amherst gave orders not to have any eommunica- tion with them, so that we heard no more of them. They were dressed entirely in the Chinese fashion.'' In a note Mr. Timkowski makes the following cri- tique on this passage : — "The supposed Frenchman
was the Archimandrite Hyacinth, who speaks French. He was accompanied by the Monk Seraphim and the Student Sipakof. In other re- spects the narrative is correct, but the author makes a very singular remark. ' The Russians, ' he says, ' have at Peking an establishment for the instruc- tion of a certain number of persons who are intended to act as interpreters ou the frontiers. The Senate of Tohohk corresponds Immediately with the Tribunal at PeJciiKj.'' Was it not known in Europe in 1816 and 1818 that the Russian Senate resides at St. Petersburg, not at Tobolsk ? " This ignorant mis- take of one who ought to have been well-informed in such matters, is just another proof of the little attention paid by English writers to the relations between Russia and China, and to the many inter- national questions which ought to have a special interest to Englishmen. Every year, however, is removing something of the darkness which has veiled the affairs of the East from European minds ; and we trust the time is not distant when ignorance on such subjects will be regarded as discreditable as it is to be in the dark with regard to any other great question of the day.
There is a prevalent impression that the field of Russian literature is a very barren one ; and cer- tainly it cannot be compared with the richer soils of Germany, France, and England ; but it is never- theless not an arid waste, producing nothing ; and a careful hand might glean many rare and valuable sheaves from sources as yet little known. If the future of Russia may be forecast from its history up to the present time, the vast progress made in that empire since the period to which the episode of Albazin carries us back, may well warrant us to ex- pect a development not merely of material wealth, but of mental and moral resources, which will bring and keep Russia abreast of the most advanced civi- lizations of the time, f
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES— THEIR MISSION AND PROGRESS
ON THE RHINE. BY THE REV. J. E. CARLYLE.
The Institution at Duisburg has been already described in the pages of this journal,* so that we pass from the interesting details of its his- tory to note only its general progress. Duis- burg is an ancient city on the Rhine, of some importance still as the centre of a large manufac- turing district. How it comes we know not, but the factory districts in Germany have not the same dingy look they w ear in England. The air of Duis- burg is not so impregnated with smoke, and the whole look of the city seems brighter than with us. Elberfeld in the same way — the most important
* Christian Work, August, 1863.
of the manufacturing towns of Germany— and situated in a densely-populated district, has its due share of light and sunshine ; and from its romantic situation, built on hill and dale, might remind us, so far as beauty is concerned, of our own aristocratic Bath. But to return to Duisburg. The Institution occupies an unobtrusive range of buildings which do not bulk on the eye as the deaconess house at Kaisers werth. Duisburg is, besides, a city possess -
f Since the above article was prepared, information has been received from Peking concerning the present efforts of the Eussian Mission there to make converts from among the Chinese, which may be communicated in a future number of Christian Work.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
15
ing a number of public buildings ; with which the limited resources of this Christian Institute could not enable it to vie. But while thus retiring and I humble there is a -work going on here which scarcely Jl yields in its importance to that earned on at Kai- i serswerth. Dr. Fliedner, to whom the Institution I owes its origin, saw, with his] large sagacity, that ; there were departments of duty in which it was pre- ferable to employ a male agency. For instance, in ! the Hospital for males — especially for soldiers — ] while there are duties in which the aid of the deaconess may be invaluable, there are others which j must mainly devolve on men. On the field of battle, too, it were of great service that the surgeon j should have under his direction a trustworthy, experienced male assistant to look after the wounded. Apart from war, a catechist or deacon- ! helper will often be found more suitable for work in a garrison than a female agent. The difficult duties, 1 too, belonging to the care of a prison for males, or to a reformatory for criminals, seem more suitable to men, so also the education of boys in Ragged Schools. We may add, indeed, that in the education of boys generally, it were of much value to have a well- trained Christian male agency. The want of it has been especially felt of late years in Germany. In : more distant expeditions also, as in following the colonist to his remote home, that he may still enjoy the blessings of the Gospel, deacon- helpers appear the most fitted for the duty. Thus the ministry of Christian mercy seems to [ need not alone the sympathy and gentle care of the i sisterhood, but the robustness and strength to I endure hardship belonging to the brother in the ' Lord. And, in point of fact, all these general im- 1 pressions regarding the value of a male Christian agency, have been verified by experience both at j Duisburg and other German Mission Institutions. The primary design at Duisburg, let it be noted, is to train not deacons but deacon-helpers. The diaconate in Germany, as in most Christian com- • munions, is a Church order, and this is recognised in ■ the arrangements of the Institution. It woidd educate an agency not as a substitute for the I Church office, but as a help to it. Hence, indeed, j the name deacon-helpers. There is thus a distinc- | tion between Kaiserswerth and Duisburg, or the I Kauhe Haus at Hamburg. In the one case it j is a Church ministry belonging to primitive Chris- | tianity, but gone into desuetude which has been restored ; in the other it is a help to the ministers ; of the Church, especially to the diaconate, in pas- toral work.
While at Duisburg it is the main object to train this particular agency, it is interesting at the same
! time to notice that, with his usual sagacity, Dr. Fliedner sought to turn the Institution to useful account in preparing the young Prussian ministry for their future parish work. And in this attempt
| there has been a good measure of success. The Government has been induced to offer three bursaries for those who have passed their first theological
examination, that they may be prepared here for their future pastoral duties, and more than fifty have received this valuable training. They aid in conducting the devotional services of the house, and the hospital. They seek to give spiritual direction and consolation to the sick. They have opportunities for preaching. They take an im- portant part in conducting the education of the deacon assistants, and in such other depart- ments of duty as are suitable to their calling. While engaged in these duties their theological studies are at the same time not overlooked. They have access to a good library, and Dr. Bleibtreu, the pastor of the Institution, acts as their theolo- j gical tutor. The idea is an excellent one, well worthy consideration in our' own country. The link is thus supplied, uniting the Christian ministry to this mission of love.
But the most prominent characteristic of Duis- burg is its work as a training institution for 1 deacon -helpers. Everything else, we may say, is subordinate to this. Of these it has at present some ninety employed, resident either at Duisburg or labouring elsewhere in the Christian vineyard. This number may appear small, but then it must be remembered there are many similar training institu- tions in Germany, and besides that, from the impor- tant places occupied by many of these brethren more good is effected than might appear at first sight. Some of these deacon-helpers, for instance, are at the head of large poor-houses in the greater German cities. Others superintend institutions for the aged. Some, again, have the place of city : inspectors of the poor, a position necessarily of much influence. Others are laboriously occupied ! in aiding the Christian ministry in the oversight of large neglected parishes. A number of the brethren ' are again occupied educational^, some in primary ' schools, others in ragged schools and reformatories for boys and men. Hospital- work is another im- portant department. The noble institution, for instance, of Elberfeld is under the care of seven of the brethren. Then they superintend asylums for the deranged, and for idiots, aud some of them are occupied with the care of the sick in private families. We may add to this the care of prisons, in which Christian superintendence and sympathy may often prove of signal blessing. The deacons of Duisburg have in all these departments approved themselves j as good servants of the Church of Christ.
We may notice, among the more important services they have thus rendered their work in Upper Silesia, j 1848 was in that province a season of terrible j famine, followed by pestilence. Nothing could I have been more noble than the self-devotion of the deacons sent there in ministering to the famishing, and in gathering together under their fatherly care deserted orphan children. During the last outbreak of cholera in Germany also they were found most useful, both in directing sanitary measures to avert the calamity, and in their skilful care of cholera patients. Some years ago they were of great ser--
16
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
vice to a number of poor miners who had been persuaded by designing speculators to emigrate to Southern Russia, to the countiy of the Cossacks of the Don. There they found themselves in great misery, and many died of sickness or want. Some of the brethren were sent to their help, and, by their good arrangements and organisation they were enabled to restore to their sorrowing wives and families a considerable fragment of the poor colonists. During the late Danish war these deacons, like the deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, were also found of much use. Sixteen of them were enlisted in the work — in the hospitals, or with the army at the storming of Diippel, and the passage to Alsen. So much did the medical officers of the Prussian army appreciate their intelligence and their devotion to their duties, that when other army establishments were almost broken up, a number of them were for a considerable time retained in active service. Might it not be well to take a lesson from this for our own army, especially in the case of a future war? Female nurses, though invaluable in their place, can occupy only a limited sphere in our military hospitals. Why not aid them by the services of trained Christian men ? We have our army cate- chists. Why not, also, our Christian hospital attendants ? As regards our large army in India exposed to so much sickness and suft'eriug, the value of such an agency cannot be over-estimated.
And now we notice the training of Duisburg. It ; is an interesting feature of Kaiserswerth that it has gathered into one sisterhood all classes of society. There may be found among the deaconesses those in whose veins flows the blood of the oldest German nobility, others are recruited from the professional or mercantile orders of society, others from the working-classes. It is indeed a beautiful spectacle, this sisterly union of those who by birth and rank are so separate. It is otherwise at Duisburg. The brethren there are chiefly gathered from the classes of German mechanics, or handicraftsmen, or agriculturists. This may be partly accounted for from their office. This is uot to occupy the place of a church ministry, as with the deaconess, but to be the subordinate assistants of an existing order. Hence naturally a social distinction. The chief qualifications required for entrants are a good moral and Christian character, ability to read and to write, with some knowledge of arithmetic. They must be also proficient in some handicraft, or in agricultural work, or at least be willing to acquire this. They must be unmarried men in sound health, from the ages of 18 to 30, and must bring with them the written permission of their parents to engage in the office. Above all it is desired that they who offer themselves, do so from Christian motives, from love to the Master and His work, " having received the grace of God not in vain." It will be seen that as a class they are thus very much like our own catechists or colporteurs, or Christian teachers. Only the training given at Duisburg is both of a more comprehensive and practical character than
that received, so far as we know, in any British in- stitution. The instruction embraces a simple but careful study of the Bible, especially bearing on its applications to the heart and the life. A thorough system of ordinary education is also afforded, so that in every branch the brethren may be well equipped. Music and hymnology are, as at Kaisers- werth, a favourite study and enjoyment. Like the deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, all the brethren also are expected to devote a certain period of time to hospital duties, so that they may be well qualified to aid in this department, whatever their after-voca- tion. Then each brother has his sphere of duty also in training some of the boys in his own particular handicraft — as shoemaker, tailor, printer, &c. , or it may be in garden and field work. The boys of the institution are grouped also under their care into families, over each of which, as Christian fathers or brethren, they are called affectionately to watch. As at Kaiserswerth we found here also the law of love ruling the institution. Nothing could be further from the rigid discipline of the barrack, or the gloomy air of monasticism. A cheerful happy air pervaded the place. Sympathy knit them as a household into one, and the interests and prosperity of the Institution seemed the common care and purpose of all.
The establishment at Duisburg for ragged boys — the wandering Arabs of the German cities — deserves notice. These children are such as have either ex- posed themselves to the penalties of law, or were in danger of doing so. There are at present some sixty of these under the care of the institution over whom Dr. Eugelbert and his coadjutors watch with much fidelity and Christian love. On being received into the Institution, all fatherly rights and responsi- bilities are devolved upon it. These boys continue thus under the eye of the directors not only while receiving education within its walls, but during the subsequent period of their apprenticeship, till they have reached mature manhood. It augurs well for the training of the Establishment that masters of trades compete to have these boys as their appren- tices, and the result is most gratifying. We do not know what the exact proportion may be of those attending lveformatories who afterwards fall away. At Duisburg it has amounted latterly to three per cent, only — a result, we venture to say, mpst re- markable.
At Liutorf, near Rattingen, some miles from Duisburg, there is an affiliated Institution for fallen, dissipated men, and for those who, having under- gone a sentence of justice, desire with their re- stored freedom to turn over a new leaf in their life. The Establishment is not for the aged vici- ous seeking only a shelter, till they die, but for those of whom it may be hoped, in the eleventh hour, that they may yet be reclaimed to the paths of religion and virtue. It is understood that those who enter the Institution shall remain for a year, but the engagement is purely voluntary, and any who wish it can quit the Establishment at any
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, I860.]
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
17
time. All are daily at work chiefly in the garden and the field. The establishment is intended for all orders of society, but it seems especially to have been useful to the middle and upper classes. There may be found the roue, the debauchee, the dandy ' : of other days, the merchant, the commercial tra- I veller, the clerk, the teacher, and these in larger ' number than those of inferior stations. It seems I as if the Institution were especially suited to the 1 educated ; as if the free system it follows, implying I a firm will and resolve of reformation, found more ; among them, ready to accept its discipline than among the working classes. The number reformed is, so far as can be ascertained, some twenty-five ■per cent. ; a small proportion, some of our readers may think, yet in many instances such as the grace of God only could effect. Do we not sometimes misinterpret the parable of the Prodigal? It teaches us that the lost son may be restored, however far he has strayed from the Father's home; but we mistake it if we suppose it tell us that they are many who, long enslaved in habits of vice, become at last God's sons and freemen.
Another Institution of interest at Duisburg, as in . other German cities, is the Travellers' Home (Herberge). Those of us who have travelled in Germany have probably met the German Bursch on the road, travelling to perfect himself in his trade, ! hat in hand, not ashamed, poor fellow ! to ask an honest alms to help him on his way. It is an old German custom not without its use, but it has this disadvantage that the young man is often thus ex- posed in the dens and purlieus of the city to society dangerous to his morals. Hence the benefit of a • home where he shall find a comfortable room, good food, and Christian society. All this is well provided at Duisburg. A dinner is served at a price which rivals the Glasgow cooking depots : soup, vege- tables, butcher's meat, potatoes, — all provided for j the sum of about 4c\d. For bed and board, includ- ing coffee, dinner, supper, &c. , Is. day is charged ; for a bed only, the price is about 2\d. H The Institution at Diisselthal is designed like Duisburg for the training of deacon assistants. Only the work is here exclusively educational. It is to train young men as teachers of primary schools. Duisburg and Diisselthal may be regarded thus as aiming collectively to effect for deacon helpers, what Kaiserswerth accomplishes individually for deaconesses.
The main building at Diisselthal is an old baronial residence, pleasantly situated in a rich wooded plain near Diisseldorf, generously given by its owner, the Count Von der Recke Bolmerstein, to be devoted to Christian work. If we include the affiliated institutions of Overdyck and Zoppenbriick, nearly 300 children, mostly rescued from a life of misery and probable crime, are here receiving a Christian education, and more than a thousand boys in all have thus been trained. The management is after the usual excellent German fashion, the child- ren being grouped into some eight families, some of in.— 2.
whom reside in the larger house, but the most in smaller buildings, each with a family, gathered around it. The aspirants for office begin their work here by devoting some three years, we believe, to the training of boys in their own handicraft, or in garden and field work. The spacious garden and ground around Diisselthal, and indeed at all the Rhenane mission stations, bear the marks of careful and skilful cultivation. The produce of the land is most useful in supplying the wants of the Institu- tion. A healthful exercise is afforded to the boys, and they receive a training which they may find useful afterwards, whatever their trade.
In these days of colonization is it not indeed most important for the working classes to be taught something of agriculture. While the younger brethren and boys at Diisselthal thus spend several hours every day in manual labour, they receive also some three hours' careful instruction in the schoolroom. At the close of the three years the aspi- rants for office are received into the seminary, when i they devote their time almost exclusively to obtain- ing a thorough education as teachers of primary schools.
As a proof that the training is good of those who went up last year to the examination of the Prussian Educational Inspector, there passed three obtain- ing certificates jSTo. 1., six certificates Iso. 2, and five No. 3. We furnish these details as illus- trative of a plan which has suggested itself to German Christians for obtaining a good class of teachers, qualified to give a plain Christian educa- tion, and to train in industrial w"ork. The com- plaints recently made regarding our own primary schools may suggest that it were well if something of this German method were introduced into our own normal institutions. Lord Stanley, in a speech recently made, and which was marked by his usual good sense, stated it as his own view, that three hours a-day for lessons was enough for a work- ing boy. Xow this is exactly the system pursued at Diisselthal ; the boy and his master beyond the three hours of instruction being busy either at some handicraft or in field and garden work. We have been lately in England making the discovery of hitherto unknown values ; for instance, of our drainage. Aud why should not the^boy at school, in place of taxing the country for his education, pay for it, and with much benefit to himself, by industrial labours under] the eye of Ins master, which might be profitable to the parish. In concluding this rapid sketch of the work doing at Duisburg and Diisselthal, we add that the funds of these institutions seem to be nearly ,"equal, amount- ing in all to some 6500/., and that they, as well as Kaiserswerth, urgently need funds to enable them to carry on their benevolent operations. To help them by our contributions and by our prayers, is to aid in one of the most interesting and promising departments [of philanthropic and mission work in our age.
Having given this rapid review of what is doing
IS
on the Rhine in the training of deaconesses and deacon-helpers, we close with a reference to the bearing of these missions on our British Chris- tianity. It is to the honour of the Church of England that to her belongs the initiative in this work, at least as regards deaconesses. We do not refer here to church sisterhoods, which our object in this paper does not lead us to notice. We allude rather to such an establishment as the North London Deaconess Institution, avowedly founded on the model of Kaiserswerth, with which it maintains friendly communications, and designed with the view of restoring to the Church the primitive lost order of the deaconess. Dr. Howson, whose valuable work on "Deaconesses" has contributed so much to bring the whole subject under the coa- sideration of British Christians, has established a similar institution at Liverpool. The Lord Bishop of London, with his usual practical sagacity and benevolence, has placed himself at the head of this I important movement. He is the visitor of the North London Deaconess Institution, has approved of its rides, and recognises the sisters, when admitted, to hold an official position in the diocese, permitting them to assume the title of Deaconess.
In this Institution, as in Germany, the Deacon- esses are trained for the management of schools, hospitals, and the cure of the sick, and receive such instruction as to enable them to superintend that portion of parish work which is, or can be entrusted to a woman. Each deaconess is understood to de- vote herself to the work for a period of three years, renewable at pleasure, but she is bound by no vows, express or implied, and has uncontrolled liberty to leave the Institution — it being understood that she should give three months' notice of her intention, in order to afford time for necessary arrangements. A deaconess cannot be removed without grave cause, to be allowed by the concurrent judgment of the head sister and chaplain, and confirmed by the visitor. The chaplain, who must be a married clergyman, is the executive officer of the com- mittee, and the secretary of the Institution. The head sister has the control of the Home, and after conference with the other sisters may make minor regulations for the management of the establish- ment. Each deaconess has the entire command of any means or property she may possess, with which the Society declines, on principle, to interfere in any way. The marked distinction of ranks in England, has led to the formation of a class of sub- ordinate sisters of lower social position, wrhose duties are to act as nurses in the wards, and to the sick poor in their own homes ; and to undertake the household work of the Institution. We are informed that notwithstanding this distinction, the two classes are cordially united in sisterly love ; that some of these' subordinate sisters are among the most esteemed and loved of£all, and that the higher order are most ready, when needed, to co-operate in all departments of deaconess1 work, It is one of the rules of this institution that the sisters dress
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
alike, in a plain and inexpensive way, avoiding all singularity or display. They have taken for their pattern the modest blue attire of the Kaiserswrerth deaconesses.
We have given these rules at some length, be- cause they seem to us in general prudently adapted for the regulation of such institutions in Eugland, and they remove, we think, every suspicion of an approach to the conventual system of the Church of Rome. It is as yet the day of small things with such institutions. That of Liverpool, for instance, began a few months ago, a Christian merchant there having liberally offered 500/. a year to found such an institution. The North London Deaconess Institution is a little older, having reached its third annual meeting. It has seven deaconesses. Some of them are employed in Saint Luke's schools, King's Cross, taking charge of girls and infants. This educational work has been very successful, and there is a visible improvement in the locality. Other deaconesses are, again, visitors in the same district, and in another locality, and ^heir presence and Christian aid is greatly prized by the sick poor. They act also as the dispensers of the charities of those interested in the parish, but who have no time at their own command to search out cases really deserving of help. The deaconesses continue to superintend the nursing department in the Great Northern Hospital to the entire satisfac- tion of the medical officers, who are anxious to obtain more trained nurses. They have been re- cently enabled also to send out a parochial deaconess to the parish of Putney — the pioneer, let us trust, of many yet to enter on the great and interesting field of Christian labour. At the Home itself, at Burton Crescent, they have lately provided addi- tional accommodation for the use of the sick who especially need careful nursing and attendance : patients in the later stages of consumption may be thus received.
We had much pleasure in attending recently the third annual meeting of this Institution. There were a number of influential London clergy present, and a large attendance of Christian ladies, whose sympathies have been enlisted in this cause. All the speakers, including Canon Champneys, in the chair, the Rev. Dr. Howson, the Venerable Canon Kennaway, and the Rev. Mr. Cadman, were of one mind as to the need and value of such orga- nised women's work in the Church. The last threw out a doubt in regard to uniformity of dress on the part of the deaconesses, to which the reply of the Rev. Mr. Dale, the secretary of the Institution, was, that they [had referred the question to the Kaiserswerth Conference of Deaconesses, who were unanimous in approving its adoption- — the reasons being that it prevented extravagance on the part of any individual sister ; that it was a safeguard to the deaconess in her duties in the dens and purlieus of the city ; and that in the hospital it enabled one sister to be easily substituted for another— a matter often of real moment to patients. But this question
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
19
is one evidently of mere expediency, which, as re- gards this country, experience must decide. There were many excellent points in Dr. Howson's speech. I His argument for the office of deaconess, as prinii- I tive, was quite conclusive. He stated the question £i also very ably in its social aspect. It was said that ' the sphere of woman was home, but of how many ' ladies was it true that, from providential circum- stances, they had no homes. How many such does j one meet, for instance, on the Continent ? We do not refer to those travelling for health ; but to others wandering from city to city, very much be- , cause they have no vocation to occupy them in their ; own country. Dr. Howson referred to the many i cases in which a father readily permits his daughter ' to leave her home to be a governess, and yet he may
shrink perhaps from allowing her to devote herself , ; to Christian work as a deaconess. Yet if the parallel
be fairly instituted, is it not in favour of the latter ? j ; Is her vocation less useful or honourable ? Is not the former often harshly treated, while the latter is associated in love with Christian women, her f ellowrs. j The one finds it often difficult to get permission to j visit her family ; the other is secured in an annual ! vacation. In sickness, especially, and old age, how often is the poor governess sadly neglected, while the deaconess may rely in illness on loving, tender nursing, and in old age, on a sure provision. How great, for instance, the esteem in which the aged deaconesses are held at the Feier Abend Haus at , Kaiserswerth.
Such is the beginning of the work in England. If yet the day of small things as we have said, let it not be despised. The movement is one which we venture to think deserves the consideration of all our Christian communions. The deacon of the
Independent or the Presbyterian Church, might he not be greatly aided in his vocation by a Christian brother specially trained for the work of visiting the poor, tending the sick, or superintending the school ? In the overgrown parishes of the^Church might not an agency such as this be also useful ; qualified to meet the exigencies of Christian work — to care for the poor, to watch over the sick, to teach the young, to exhort the old? As regards the deaconess, where is there a large congregation in which her services might not be invaluable, co- operating with the pastor and with lady visitors, teaching the uneducated mother how to fulfil her home duties ; nursing the sick ; comforting the pillow of the dying ; tending the young ? The first deaconesses of the Christian Church were Congre- ', gational in their duties, which may suggest to all Christian communions, that whether established by the State or not, they may find a place for them. But apart from the congregation, while parochial work may be especially binding on the national Church, because it is pledged to it by the , very terms of its agreement with the State ; yet must not all who call themselves Christians re- member the Lord's command, " Go ye into all the world, " a commission embracing not alone missions abroad, but evangelistic work also in our neglected parishes at home ? Who that contemplates the greatness of the work to be done, the deep degra- dation of our lapsed classes, but must feel the need and the blessing of an organised ministry of mercy, acquainted with the disease, trained for its healing, occupying the central place in our admir- able voluntary agencies, and acting as the helping | hand by which the Church of Christ may seek to ! raise the fallen and to reclaim the lost.
MEDICAL MISSIONS.
The following letter from Mr. David Paterson, of Madras, to the Secretary of the Medical Missionary Society, shows how greatly he and his friends have been encouraged by the effort which is now being made at home to enable them to open a hospital and training institution for native medical mission- aries. It also furnishes satisfactory details in re- gard to his plan of procedure and contemplated mode of working the scheme in the event of 2000/. being realised.
Mr. Paterson favours the idea of renting suitable premises, if such can be found, and employing for that purpose the annual interest of the money ; but we believe that the general body of the con- tributors would give the preference to a building erected specially for the purpose. Such an edifice, besides being convenient in all respects, would have a character of permanency, would produce a greater impression on the neighbourhood, and impart stabi- lity to the whole undertaking. Of course, being relieved from the burthen of an annual rent, the
local funds would be available for the sustentation j of the hospital ; and we anticipate that an institu- j tion so manifestly fitted for a great and good work, ; would be amply and heartily supported both in India and in this country.
We may mention for the satisfaction of all friends who may be disposed to help this very desirable object, that the sum already obtained in this country amounts to about 1450?., that 3001. is expected from Madras, and that therefore 250?. additional would now complete the sum aimed at. It would be a great matter to have this accomplished as speedily as possible.
" I cannot tell you how much your last two letters have cheered and encouraged us — the rirst received about three weeks ago, and the second last week. Immediately after perusing them myself I sent them to Drs. Smith and Van Somerdi. I saw the former yesterday, and had a long conversation with him, and I expect both of them at my hous •
20 -
this afternoon to consult about the training-schoo and the other points mentioned in your letter.
4 1 The two points upon which you wish informa- tion are: 1st, the sum required, and 2nd, how much of it we are likely to raise here.
"With regard to the first, we shall be only too glad to receive whatever you may be able to send ; and speaking for myself, I would be really sorry if any special fund for Madras should interfere with the ordinary operations and finances of the Society.
"You ask whether 1500?. would be sufficient. There is no doubt that this sum would give us a noble start, but both Dr. 8. and I think that if
I the 2000?. could be secured we would require it all. The idea of the training-school is, that the young men should be under the immediate direction and supervision of the medical missionary ; that they
j shoidd live either in the same house or in the
1 same compound with him ; that the house should have accommodation for at least one good class- room, and, if possible, a museum, and also that it
i should be in the neighbourhood of the hospital and dispensary. Now, house property, whether it is bought or rented, is a very serious matter in Madras. It is not likely that if the money were invested, it would be possible, with good security, to get more than five per cent. Now that would give us 100?. a-year, provided 2000?. could be secured as capital. Rents have so risen in Madras that a reasonable house would swallow up every farthing of this sum. I live in the immediate neighbour- hood of Blacktown (Rajapooram),one of the cheapest localities here, and I pay at the rate of 72?. a-year for my house. I lived in the same house before I went home, and the rent then was only 4S?. I mention these points to gis-e you some idea of the probable outlay, whether we purchase or simply rent a house, supposing that this plan be carried out. The committee, however, ought to understand this, that under auy circumstances, whether a house be takeu or purchased, I will contrive to pay one- half of the rent, this sum going regularly of course to the funds of the training-school and hospital. In this, way, supposing that we had an income from the 2000?. of 100?. a-year, we would have a house, the mission paying one-half and myself the other, and a balance of 40?. a-year for the other expenses. It is part of the plan that ever}' student should pay all his own expenses, or rather his society for him, and that all the other outlay should be met by the interest of the 2000?., and the annual income of the mission raised on the spot. This of course we expect will be considerably increased whenever the institution is fairly at work and its Catholic cha-
L Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
racter fairly established. You will understand that what I have written now is only the opinion of Dr. Smith and myself, it having been impossible as yet to consult others, with the exception of Dr. Van Somerdi, who coincides with us. No plan, however, has been definitely fixed upon, but I do not think it will be possible to discover any other which will be more economical, and at the same time carry out the object which we have in view. I do not know whether I have succeeded in making myself intelligible, but after we have fully con- sulted on the matter, I have no doubt that I shall be able to state to you our position with sufficient clearness.
"You wish also to know how much we shall be able to raise in Madras. Meanwhile I am afraid not very much ; once we have made a fair begin- ning, and the various societies are satisfied that the institution is capable of furnishing them with men, there is not the shadow of a doubt but that they will contribute very materially to our funds. To them we must look for the working out of the j Bchenie, but I am afraid that as a rule they will expect us to make the start. At the same time, I I think that we will be able to contribute at least ; 300?. towards the 2000?. I have in the bank at this moment rather more than 200?. for the hospital and training-school, and I think I can promise to raise about 100?. more. I shall at any rate do j my very best. Whenever I have ascertained the j minds of those interested here, I shall write to you i fully, but meanwhile I think it right — if it is not j trespassiug too much on the kindness of the com- ! mittee and friends at home — to say that it woidd | be a great boon if they could, with the help of the 300?. I have spoken of, raise 2000?. for us.
"I cannot tell you, my dear sir, how much I ' feel indebted to you for your great kindness, and the j deep interest which you have taken in the Madras Mission. My great and only desire is that the cause should prosper, and that experience may I prove that the work is the Lord's, and that his glory has not only been sought but secured.
"Believe me, my dear sir, with much respect and many thauks for your great kindness, "Ever yours affectionately,
"David Paterson."
Subscriptions and donations for the various ob- jects of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, will be received in London by Messrs. Fuller, Ban- bury, Mathieson, & Co., 77, Lombard Street ; or by Mr. James Watson (Messrs. Nesbit & Co.), 21, Berners Street, W.
MEDICAL MISSIONS.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS.
•21
LETTERS
FROM
THE COEEESPONDENTS
OF "CHRISTIAN WORK."
The agitation, as to the toleration to be permitted -within the Church, continues to increase. During the past month the most rising statesmen of the two great parties, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone, have both publicly expressed their opinions. Mr. Disraeli in a vigorous and sarcastic speech, in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, threw down the gauntlet to the Broad Church party, stating gene- rally that their criticisms were but received at second-hand from Germany, where they were founded on a distinct and capable philosophy, the principles of which were clearly defined ; but, ad- mitting their right to make use of this criticism, he asked what claim they had still to hold their posi- tions in the Established Church of the country ? — "It is quite possible, I can understand, that a party founded on the principles of criticism may arrive at conclusions which we may think monstrous. They may, for example, reject inspiration as a principle and miracles as a practice. It is possible, and I think it is quite logical, that, having arrived at this conclusion, they should repudiate Creeds and reject Articles of Faith, because Creeds and Articles of Faith could not exist and cannot be sustained without acknowledging the principle of inspiration and the practice of miracles. All that I admit ; but what I don't understand, and what I wish to draw the attention of this assembly and the country to is that, having arrived conscientiously at this conclusion, such a party with their opinions, re- pudiating Creeds and rejecting Articles, they do not carry out their principles to their legitimate con- clusion ; but, repudiating Creeds and rejecting Articles, they are still sworn supporters of eccle- siastical establishments, fervent upholders of digni- taries of the Church— even of rectors, vicars, and curates. "
He referred sarcastically to Dr. Colenso, speaking of the crude conclusions of prelates who "appear to have commenced their theological studies after they grasped the crozier, and who introduced to
society their obsolete discoveries with the startling wonder and the frank ingenuousness of their own savages." Mr. Disraeli was perhaps more brilliant than profound, but still many of his home-thrusts were too well applied not to be keenly felt ; while his speech is significant as indicating the policy in Church matters of the Conservative party, by whom it has been generally well received.
Mr. Gladstone has indicated his desire for a reform of the Court of Appeal. In reply to a letter forwarding a memorial in which Her Ma- jesty's ministers were petitioned to obtain an altera- tion in the constitution of that tribunal, he says : — "I agree with you in thinking that the constitution of the Court of Appeal in ecclesiastical causes is unsatisfactory. It appears to me that it is to the bishops of the Church, in conjunction with the Queen's ministers, that it principally apper ains to consider in what way the constitution of tl at court may most properly be amended. Whether as a member of the Cabinet or as an individual, when- ever I may be consulted with any of our prelates, I am ever ready to give my most careful considera- tion to the subject, of which I consider the issues to be very grave ones. "
A discussion that has excited considerable atten- tion has been going on in the Times on the Court of Final Appeal. It was begun by Mr. Keble, author of "The Christian Year," who advocates that such court should be composed chiefly, if not solely, of the bishops. He has been replied to by "Angli- canus," who is known to be the Dean of Westminster. Dr. Pusey and Mr. J. Fitzjames Stephen (the counsel of Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson) have also taken part. Mr. Keble does not advocate any change in the standards of the Church,— the basis of legal decisions ; but considers that persons ignorant of theology as a science are incompetent to interpret those staudards. He urges, the constitution of a Final Court better acquainted with the subjects under review. Mr. Stephen argues that if the in- terpretation of the law is to be the only function of the Court, then lawyers are by habit much better
22
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
fitted for the work than ecclesiastics. Mr. Keble aud "Anglicanus" got also into a side discussion on the subject of inspiration. Mr. Keble thus states his position : —
" ' Equally inspired ' has of late frequently been used as if it meant ' containing an equal amount of Divine revelation,' and thus we are charged with maintaining, e.g., that the Book of Esther contains equal Divine truth with the Gospel of St. John. But the proposition really challenged by ' Angli- canus ' is this : — ' The canonical Scriptures in their genuine text are, not only to a word, but to " a jot or tittle " (St. Matthew, v., 18) — not all equally im- portant, not meant to take up equal room in our hearts, but all equally true because they are all alike God's Word, and it is impossible for God to lie. ' This is the real question at issue. The New Testament declares the whole Old Testament to be ' inspired by God ; ' accordingly the Book of Esther to be as really inspired as ' the Evangelical Prophet ' — as really, though not as largely. But siuce it is so inspired, men know that they are boimd to believe every word of it, and if contradictions ap- pear, to feel sure that they will one day disappear, either by amended readings or by satisfactory expla- nations. "
This explanation " Anglicanus " welcomes Tas an admission : —
' ' On the question of inspiration, I accept with great pleasure his acknowledgment that there are (contrary to what has been often maintained in the recent agitation) degrees of inspiration, — that one book of Scripture may be ' less largely inspired than another ; ' a vast admission, and opening the door to a solution of many of the vexed questions of the re- lations between the Old Testament and the New. This pleasure increases my regret that he should still endeavour to claim the authority of the Universal Church for a theory of literal inspiration as to matters of fact and science, which, as a great con- tinental divine (Dollinger) has truly observed, ' would make all theology impossible.' "
Dr. Pusey here steps into the arena, and chal- lenges the right to claim any such admission. " What we mean to maintain," he says, "is the divine freedom of Holy Scripture from error" — "historical, moral, or doctrinal."
On the main question, the constitution of the Court of Appeal, Professor E. H. Plumptre of King's College writes a letter to the Guardian, in which he deals with the subject more comprehen- sively than any previous writer. He objects to con- stituting the bishops the Final Court of Appeal, on the ground that they have " no judicial training, and are therefore inevitably liable to be wanting in the judicial habit of mind ; that they, too, are subject to pressure from without ; have to ex- change sympathies of fear and indignation with their clergy ; are tempted in proportion to their excellence as pastors to extra-judicial, prejudicial utterances."
' What is wanted," he says, "is to find a body
of men, ex officio qualified as to knowledge, not selected for the purpose, independent in position, less exposed than others to the pressure of popular prejudices, likely to represent fairly different phases of opinion. I have ventured to maintain that the Professors of Divinity at the two Universities fulfil these conditions more than any other body of men, and to them, with the assistance of the professors of the two languages connected with the interpretation of Scripture, I would refer the doctrinal questions that come before the Court of Appeal. They have shown for the most part a singularly dispassionate calmness in recent controversies. They receive, many of them, liberal endowments from the Crown, and are under a moral obligation to render services in return. From the very absence of any prestige of rank, their judgments would have whatever weight belonged to their learning and ability, and nothing more."
He thus refers to Dr. Pusey's recent agitation and Mr. Disraeli's speech : —
"Dr. Pusey seems, in his recent writings, to have passed into the white heat of controversial panic, and to have lost both the quietness and confidence which he once preached to us, and, in some measure, his discernment of what is politically honest and personally decorous. He invites the eleven thou- sand clergy who have followed him, and all "who love God," to an agitation as reckless and un- principled as that of any demagogue. He practically puts them up to auction, with all their goodwill and vote and influence at elections, to the highest bidder. And the bidder has appeared. In a speech the marvellous versatility of which reminds one of Alcibiades at Sparta, in training under an expert Ephor, or of the Zimri of Dryden's poem, Mr. Disraeli has sought to win the support of the eleven thousand for the coming election. Other statesmen may have been earnest Churchmen from their youth, but they think for themselves. But here you have a Churchmanship fitting in as exactly to the wants and feelings of the moment as if it had been made to order, giving point and sharpness to all dull antipathies, not flinching even from profane jesting on the most solemn of all truths, if only he can draw from Masters and undergraduates 'cheers and laughter ' at an epigram on a ' nebulous Professor,' and so help Dr. Pusey to persuade men with the terrors of the Lord. If this is the new defender of the faith, I for one must say—
• Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis Tempus'eget' "
The appeal of Bishop Colenso before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, against the sentence of deposition of the Bishop of Cape Town and his synod, does not excite so much interest as it other- wise would, as it is based on legal objections to the authority of Bishop Gray, and will therefore be decided on strictly legal and technical grounds, without touching the alleged heresies. It may not even fix the jurisdiction of colonial me-
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
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!| tropolitan bishops, as an objection is raised by Bishop Colenso on the ground of his having been ! consecrated a few weeks before Dr. Gray received the full powers of metropolitan. If the appeal be >L rejected, and Bishop Gray's jurisdiction sustained, jr the whole question of Bishop Colenso's writings will probably come up in due time before the ! Judicial Committee, as he will then appeal, it is J supposed, on the ground of the matter and not of the form of the judgment.
An address, signed by 137,000 subscribers, has I been presented to the two Archbishops at Lambeth, 1 thanking them for their pastoral letter to the clergy and laity of their respective provinces, in reference to the judgment on Essays and Reviews. The address contained the signatures of many laymen of high standing. The Archbishop o* Canterbury, in expressing gratitude for the ad- dress, said "that the principle on which he pro- ceeded was, that such rule or teaching only was to be ascribed to the Church as is expressly stated in ! her articles or formularies, or which is plainly in- j j volved in or to be collected from that which is
written. " The Archbishop of York considered that I ' the person of our Lord Himself, and the divine j doctrines that fell from His own hps, will hardly ! escape the criticism which has begun with the book j that reveals them.
The London press generally, at least the more influential section of it, headed by the leading journal, which casts much ridicule on the getting ! up of this and other memorials, is strongly opposed i to any change, and is decidedly favourable to the j party of progress. While therefore a number of | the bishops and clergy are arousing themselves to action, there is a high tide of opposition to be encountered on the side of influential laymen. Many judicious churchmen, among whom may be classed the Bishop of London, are holding I back, anxious, there is no doubt, to prevent that | divorce which is threatened, if the movement be successful, between the Church and the literature ; of the country. Time caa alone show the result, j but there can be no doubt that an agitation has ■ begun of a more serious character than any that j : has affected the Church of England for a long j period.
The usual special winter services are proceeding with vigour, large numbers of the poorest classes ! j crowding the theatres and other places opened for ; them. The Young Men's Christian Association I Lectures have been begun, and the threatened schism of last winter appears to be healed, as the lecturers are all men beyond the suspicion of the most orthodox.
The Wesleyans are making a great effort to sustain and increase the efficiency of their Italian mission. They have an admirable agent in Mr. Piggott of Milan, who urges that there is abundant opportunity to enlarge greatly the field of opera- I tion, if the means be forthcoming. London, December, 1S64.
Scotland
The subject of Eailway Traffic on the Lord's Day is again exciting considerable attention. As well known, the religious rest of this day has always been much more observed in Scotland than else- where, the Presbyterian Churches taking high ground, and considering, both in their standards and catechisms, the fourth commandment, as the others, to be of perpetual obligation. To its better and more religious observance the Churches are accustomed to impute the larger attendance upon religious worship, by all classes of the people, than in any other country, and the consequent higher and more intelligent interest in the great questions which affect the salvation of men, even among the lowest classes of the population. Scotland, it is felt, has stood out pre-eminently as a religious country, its religion being more generally perva- sive than that of any other portion of Europe. With great, and it is to be lamented, increasing vices, which have, however, been magnified to the utmost by the opponents of its stricter faith, its population still ranks high, not only in intelligence (the poorest peasant often being a man of good at- tainments, from whose conversation much interest may be derived), but in morality. While the sup- porters of the observance of the Lord's day, are ready, generally, to allow that there may have been at one time a ceremonial strictness, beyond the requirements of the Divine law, and, iu so far as it was so, irksome ; they still feel that with the pre- servation of this institution, are bound up the reli- gious and moral interests of the country.
The multiplication of railways has led to fresh complications. Through their agency a new element has been brought into action, viz., the influence of English shareholders who have generally a very obscure view of what Sabbath observance in Scotland means, and whose sympathies are for the most part with those who wish to approximate to the English system. Many of them probably, if they lived in Scotland, might form a different opinion, but, unacquainted as they are with the habits of the country, seeing them only through the medium of burlesque and ridicule, they give their full weight to the support of those who favour the in- crease of Sabbath traffic. This external influence, made use of by the discontented party at home, naturally arouses great dissatisfaction, as it is felt that, if the contest were confined to Scotland itself, there would be little difficulty in preserving the ancient landmarks, the majority of the people being undoubtedly in favour of what they consider the Scriptural observance of the Lord's day. Hence the strenuous action taken by Presbyteries and other ecclesiastical bodies. They feel that the reli- gious principles of the country are being interfered with by an external force, and, on the other hand, that, so much are the religious convictions of the people associated with Sabbath observance, if this
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[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
pillar be shaken, much that is most sacred will fall with it.
This question has been lately prominently before the country by a motion in the Free Church Pres- bytery of Kirkaldy which has had devoted to it several articles in the Times. The feeling in Scot- land is that the Times is scarcely competent to understand the question in its varied bearings, since language which may be correct as to Scotland where the training of the people has been Sabbatarian, would not apply to England, even [as the standard of England could not fairly be applied to Germany.
j The following is the portion of the speech of Mr. Douglas of Kirkaldy, which has excited so much animadversion.
"There is, it is true, — there has always been — a section of the community, more or less numerous,
" at different times, opposed to keeping holy the Sabbath-day. We know in the main who are to be found in that section. Could you assemble the population of this northern half of the kingdom, and set on one side those who are in favour of Sabbath travelling and traffic, and on the other side those who are opposed to it, we know what classes of men would be found composing the former. You would find the infidels massed there ; you would find the blackguardism of the country ranged there ; you would find the latitudiuarians there — men who sail under false colours, who nail charity to the mast-head, but who, when you open the hatches and inspect the hold, are found to carry a very different cargo — men who take into the ample embrace of what they are pleased to term their charity the Brahmin of India, the Moham- medan of Persia, the Neologian of Germany, and might possibly have a word to say in favour even of the Mormons of America, but whose charity suddenly ebbs away whenever they come in sight of evangelical truth and evangelical men. For these they have no charity. For these they reserve the most malignant hatred and hostility. You would find a large array of latitudiuarians on the side of Sabbath travelling and traffic, and e>yer waxing enthusiastic in its favour. You would find there men to whom the opinions and practices of Paris and other Continental cities have taken the place of the Bible as a rule of faith and manners, men who, although born and brought up in this country, find the way in which, the Sabbath is observed in some gay and dissolute Continental city more to their taste than the way in which it is observed at home ; just as you will find a young man here and there who, though born and brought up in religious and highly-cultivated circles, finds, in the oaths and low conversation of some bad groom in the stable, a companionship more conge- nial and interesting than is afforded him in the family-hall; just on the same principle on which some of our Xabobs used to return home from India pagans, and on which possibly we may see men returning from West Africa adoring the Fetish. You would find all these classes arrayed
in favour of Sunday trains — a motley crew they would be. I do not deny that you would find some good men even amongst them. It is strange where you will find good men sometimes. They will at times, by some fatality, contrive to get. > into most awkward and inexplicable positions. But when you had congregated them all, and con- templated them all — the few good, the many bad and indifferent — you would find something else — you would find that they constitute but a minority of the population — a boisterous and persistent minority, but still a minority, a small minority — and that on the question of Sabbath observance, the great heart of the Scottish nation at this hour beats soundly."
At the meeting of the Edinburgh Medical Mis- sionary Society, referred to in your special commu- nication on "Medical Missions," last month, Dr. Duff delivered a most heart-stirring address, in which he advocated with all his burning eloquence the cause of the society. The following is his at- testation to the general principles of the society : — He next proceeded to advert to the Scriptural grounds for the establishment of such a society, and the catholicity of its object. That object, he said, was twofold. It was to reach at once the souls and bodies of men— to reach their souls very much through the healing of their bodies. One was amazed at the sort of doubts that arose upon this subject, for could anything be more catholic — mean- ing by that, more \iniversal — than siu ? Was sin the peculiar property of any one class of men or race of men in any region of the earth, or any particular age in time? Alas! they knew it was the one universal heritage of fallen humanity. Well, then, the Bible provided but one great, glorious, universal remedy for this universal disease, and it was the object and purpose of this society to minister this remedy in its simplicity. It was not the object of this society to establish any peculiar organisation connected with a Christian Church. Its simple object wras to make known the truths — the saving truths — of life and salvation to souls through a cruci- fied Ptedeemer, and not to send forth and establish Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Congregation- alism, Wesleyanism or any other ism of human inven- tion whatever, but to go and propound, for the saving of human souls, those simple, primitive, apostolic truths and doctrines in which Paul, John, James, Calvin, Luther, Zuingle, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Knox, Melville, Henderson, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, Andrew Fuller, Augell James, and Thomas Chalmers were all agreed. Then, with regard to the other part of the object — tla* healing of disease — was it peculiar to any man, class of men, or race of men ? Was it the product or peculiarity of any particular clime ? They all knew it was not. In one or other of its modifications it was the invariable and inseparable adjunct of fallen humanity. So, then, this society would also seek the healing of the bodies of men— healing being universally needed. That being its twofold
Christian W ork. Jan. 2,1365.]
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object, namely, the healing of the souls and bodies of men, both of which were universally required, he did not know what could be more catholic. In fact, he would be disposed to pronounce this society in that respect the most philanthropic, most catholic, most cosmopolitan society he knew in the world.
The jubilee of the Rev. Dr. Crawford, a well- known minister of the United Presbyterian Church, having been formerly of the Relief Church, has been celebrated with great enthusiasm by a num- ber of his brethren in Edinburgh.
December, 18G4.
There has been no change of moment in the aspect of the Churches in Ireland. A new move- ment has indeed been commenced by Dr. Cullen, in a requisition signed by him and all his fellow- bishops, with half-a-dozen little-known members of Parliament, and calling on the Mayor of Dublin to hold a meeting for the threefold object of a perfect tenant-right bill, the overthrow of the Established Church, and a perfectly open and unrestricted education. The respectable Roman Catholics and their organs in the press have hitherto held aloof from the agitation, and the revolutionary party, for whose support the priests are bidding, is ominously careful not to commit itself. Freedom of education, in Archbishop Cullen's sense, may be understood by an extract from his recent pastoral.
"Undoubtedly there are great impediments in the way of the progress of Catholic education. Passing over the vile and degraded arts of a pecuniary proselytism, I shall merely state that attempts are made, by holding out rewards and promises, to attract our children to model schools, from which all religious Catholic teaching is banished, and in which an image of our Lord or the Blessed Virgin, or the emblem of redemption, the Cross, would not be tolerated. Even the name of the Holy Catholic Church, or of the Holy See, or of the great men who made Ireland an island of saints, is not to be found in the class books used by Catholic children in these schools, destined to train up the future teachers of our people. In the Queen's Colleges, under the semblance of a pretended libe- rality, the poisoned draught of indifferentism to religion is administered, and vast sums of public money are expended to sap the foundations of faith, and to seduce our youth from the Church of their fathers.
"As to Trinity College, it has its merits so far as Protestant students are concerned, and we are anxious that it should provide for them a good lite- rary and scientific education ; because every step in the acquirement of knowledge, as we see in the case of the distinguished men who have been con- verted within the last few years in England, tends to dissipate prejudice and error, and heresy, and to
lead to the truth and to the true Church. But where there is question of Catholic students, when they enter that college they expose the most valu- able of all treasures— their faith — to imminent danger, and we know that they who love the danger shall perish therein. And, indeed, what does the past history of the University teach us ? A truth which ought to be a warning to all — that through the education given in Trinity College many Catholics have fallen away from the practices of piety, or become indifferent to the interests of faith; and that others, renouncing publicly the reli- gion of their early days, have attained the rank of bishops, deans, or parsons in the Established Church, frequently rendering themselves notorious by their zeal in opposition to everything Irish and Catholic. Even at the present day there are digni- taries of the Establishment who, though they im- bibed the truth with their mother's milk, were induced to abandon it by the seductive prospects set before them in their collegiate course. The | unhappy fate of those who have thus fallen away I ought to caution others against walking in their I footsteps, and determine all Catholics to provide I for the safe and religious education of their children, encouraging the growth of our Catholic schools and the development of the Catholic University."
Though Trinity College leads Protestants to the true Church by enlightening their minds, it seems 'it leads "Catholics" into errors and heresy by j darkening theirs. Will Dr. Cullen ever condescend j to explain this phenomenon ? | Dublin, December, 1864.
The ninth Synod of the Union of Evangelical Churches was held at Paris in Xovember. Opened on j the 24th by a solemn religious service and sermon • by Pastor John Bost of Laforce, it prosecuted its ; important business-matters in peace and harmony, the Lord's blessing, in answer to fervent prayer, : smoothing expected roughness and removing diffi- culties. Repeatedly the brethren looked at each other with starting tears of emotion ; the stone that seemed to impede their progress had disappeared ; minds at variance had been bent ; shades had blended ; opposition gone ! The president was Dr. Fisch, and vice-presidents, Pastor Pozzy and Mr. V. de Pressense. Three new Churches, after lengthened discussion, were admitted into the Union; Ximes, Saint Hippolite, and Codognan, raising the whole number to thirty-five. A touch- ing letter was written to the family of the vene- rable and deeply-regretted Frederic Monod, signed by all the sixty-three members. The important busi- ness of the Synod was, however, its financial manage- ment.
The harmonious conclusion it came to is that a financial commission is to be nominated, com- posed of five members, whose mission will be to stimulate and regulate the contributions of the
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[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
Churches ; to see that the central funds are suffi- ciently furnished by all the Churches for their vari- ous needs. The entire amount of the contributions for the support of each pastor passes through its hands.
Fourteen sister Churches, French and foreign, sent greeting through their deputies, whose speeches were fraught with great interest. The form of con- secration of pastors, and the degree of aptitude to be required of candidates, formed part of the busi- ness of the synod. The only dogmatic rule to be subscribed is the confession of faith of the Union. But the candidate must have obtained his degree of Bachelor in Theology.
The battle in the National Reformed Church is growing fiercer and fiercer as the time for the elec- tions approaches. The orthodox organ, UEspCrance, has brought out a supplement week by week, to combat the violent but clever Protestant Liberal, and both papers go gratuitously the round of the Paris electors. Every possible agency is pressed into use, even evangelists. And in reading the virulent papers of the Rationalist side one might fancy them ! the offspring of ultramontanist pens. This, with a ! growing manifestation of infidelity in sermons, | opens the eyes of many. And there is no doubt that they will lose once more. To use the words I of the Revue Chretienne, which is spreading more and ! more widely among the educated and thoughtful, \ the point is to know whether Christianity is ; a supernatural and revealed fact, or whether it is | but one of the forms which religious sentiment \ adopts in its eternal progress ; whether the Re- ! formed Church of France has any kind of religious t basis, or whether it is an arena opened to the most opposite assertions and the boldest negations. ! . . . Such is the questiou elucidated by a j'ear's ardent religious discussions as understood by all true believers, rendered clear-sighted by | love of their menaced faith ; and by all scep- tics and atheists, guided by the infallible in- stinct of their hatred of traditional Christianity. Suppose an impossibility, that the radical party were to triumph in Paris, how would such a vote be understood throughout Europe ? There can be no two opinions about it. It would be said with truth that French Protestantism, in its principal centre, had broken off all connection with the Christianity of history, with all the grand facts which constitute it, and was eudeavouring to transform itself into a new indefinite religion, made in the image of the new Christ, whose more or less legendary life the critical school has not yet succeeded in tracing.
Wo unto him who looks upon the word of Jesus as an absolute rule, and who, whenever lie has a re- solution to take, flies to his New Testament to see therein his law and how to use it ! The words of Jesus are not a ritual — are not a code of morals — contain no dogmas ; but they will never pass away, because they have the vagueness of the infinite ! Such was the sum of one of the sermons preached in
the Reformed Church lately, and which the ra- tionalist organs term " an excellent discourse, leav- ing nothing to be desired either in foundation or form. Truly Pastor Fontaues (of Havre) fills a grand place in the heroic phalanx of preachers who are preparing the reconciliation of science with true piety ! "
Yes, this is the great attraction, — science^ falsely so called ; and the intense rush of thinking men down the inclined plane is tremendous. Seeking, hungering, striving for the religion of the future which is to unite mankind to God ? nay, but against him.
More and more clearly is it enunciated that a pope without temporal power will be the uniting influence. More and more clearly is it pointed out that democracy is rising. These two, heading up, threaten society to its foundations and religion to its core. Miclielet's talented but disgusting volume is bought up and devoured, though the Bible of Mankind is not likely to attain the sale of 157,000 copies within two years, bike Renan's "Life of Jesus."
"What need have we any longer for doctrines which taught but how to die ? They can do nothing for us. What are the petty lakes of Galilee, the driblet of the Jordan, to quench our burning thirst of righteousness ? I would driuk them up at a draught ! They have given to human civili- sation all that they could give. The rest is but an obstacle, a tatter that flutters after us and hinders our advance. We must have now the earth for a promised land, and the world for Jerusalem. "
There is the yearning, and it is repeated on every toue through high and low ; — the yearning after perfection without God. The eager reaching out hands for the fruit to make one wise — the full mad trust in the first great lie !
Romanism is marvellously and cleverly at work in the provinces and in dark corners of Paris.- It is wonderful what a stimulant it finds in Protestant zeal. School after school, church after church, and even books and tracts, and almanacks follow our zealous labourers to counteract them. The very telling calumny that money is told out to all who join the Protestants, turns away honest hearts who do not choose to pass for mendicants, and cause an influx of loose characters, against which our provincial brethren especially have to be on their guard.
The British and Foreign Bible Society have opened a depot in Paris, in the Rue Saint Honore, near the Place Vendome ; it is a handsome and attractive shop, and was a great desideratum.
Pastor Guillaume Monod, the venerated brother of Frederic and Adolphe, has been chosen as suc- cessor to Pastor Vermeil.
The Bible Society of France, formed this year from the orthodox and protesting members of the Protestant Bible Society, had sold, up to November the 1st, 3120 copies of the Holy Scriptures, and had
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CO RRESPONDEXTS.
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received the adhesion of eighty-seven Reformed Churches, one Lutheran Church, and three Inde- pendent. The donations up'to that time amounted to 25,000 francs. , i> The Gallican party are starting an organ of their ^ own, called La Presse Gallicane, with the motto of Cavour, "A free Church in a free State." Every effort of this kind may be hailed as a step out of bondage, but the rays of light do not shine beyond the surface. It is not the man himself who is stirred ; the grand Gospel of God, the very power of i God unto salvation, is not the point.
The Israelite Universal Alliance is making steady ! progress. Among other preliminary steps onward, it stopped a defamatory libel against the Jews from being printed, and obtained "the suppression and j possession of the whole edition ; it was written by '. an abbe", and called the " Life of Judas." Paris, December, 1864.
The Solkla.ires, or Societies of Free-thinkers, first made their appearance in Brussels, and after small beginnings they have gradually established auxi- ! liaries throughout Belgium, and their example is now being followed in France. Their ostensible , object is civil burial, or burial without clergy, and ! they are the fruits of the present reaction against the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church.
However much it is to be deplored that intelli- gent and educated men should form themselves into associations for the avowed purpose of ex- cluding the ministers of religion from the death- bed of their members, it must be allowed that there is consistency and honesty in the public manifestation of convictions, whatever they may be. And that no good could arise to the cause of genuine Christianity, by those who have all their lives denied its divine origin and rejected its influence, calling in the priest at the last moment to go through certain forms and ceremo- nies, not to quiet any conscientious scruples, but merely to conform to custom, aud yield to the wishes of their family, by thus providing for a nominally Christian burial. That the clergy are content with such outward compliance is evident from the means used to gain admission to the death-bed of those (when persons of a certain posi- tion) who have made known their intention to die unshriven and unblessed ; and the connivance of the relatives is easily explained, both by the j influence of the priesthood over the female portion I of the population, and the scandal caused by the I refusal of the clergy to admit those who have died without the sacraments into consecrated ground. From the Catholic point of view the conduct of the priests can be justified when we remember their great axiom — Beyond the pale of the Church there is no salvation, — and their faith in the efficacy of the sacraments as a sure passport to Heaven.
But the pretensions of the clerical party have
produced a powerful reaction. The attempts of the Ultramontanes to revive the doctrines of a former time have roused their opponents from the indifference with which they had hitherto treated matters of religion. The activity of the clergy, and the power they have regained ' since 1848, have led men imbued with the critical spirit of the time to search more carefully into the past history of Romanism, and to inquire into its pre- sent working. Catholicism, its doctrines, and its teachers, have been compared with the present wants of society ; they have been put in the balance and found wanting. It is no longer a universally received maxim that a religion is \ necessary for the people. Cases of profligacy have been rather numerous among the clergy and religious orders, all of which have been by the liberal press care- fully brought before the notice of the public ; and as it forms part of the clerical policy to endeavour to hush up such unpleasant matters rather than to expose and condemn them, they are represented as the consequences of the system, and a tithe only of what actually takes i)lace. The frequent instances of undue exercise of priestly influence over the dying, and the law-suits to which they have given rise, have caused great scandal, and exhibited the "rapacious instincts" of the Church. Several such law-suits are now pending, and the details which have transpired are by no means creditable to those concerned.
The Romish Church holds that Catholicism is at once the religion revealed, and the Church in- stituted, by Jesus Christ. Catholicism is not one form of Christianity, one of many systems whose followers are Christians ; Catholicism is Christi- anity ; and, unfortunately, the masses accept with- out reflection this identification of Christianity with Popery. Whatever abuses have crept in, whatever errors have in the course of time covered over and kept from sight the truths revealed in Scrip- ture, are regarded as the natural development of the Christian faith. No other form of Christianity is acknowledged as such by Catholics, or thought deserving of serious attention by liberals, and the few evangelical churches scattered about the country, although producing remarkable results in their immediate neighbourhood, have not yet ob- tained sufficient numerical importance to have any action on public opinion. Were their object merely to attack the Church of Rome, they might have a wider, though ephemeral influence; but the preach- ing of the Cross is folly to a people who are learn- ing to dispense with any form of religion, and have long since been ignorant of its power.
The opposition to clericalism has thus extended from the field of politics to that of religion, and the question of the day is now, how most effectually to combat the Church of Rome, in the State, in the commune, and in the family. All the principal debates in the Chambers are on matters in which the Church is interested, whether it be education, scholastic foundations, or cemeteries ; even the new
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[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
law on elections is framed to limit the influence of the priests, and to prevent their keeping watch over the votes of [their flocks. In the communes the same spirit is evident, in the establishment of communal schools from which the clergy are ex- cluded. In Brussels, the town council has recently opened a superior girls' school, expressly destined to compete with the convents, who have hitherto had the monopoly of female education ; and the formation of societies for civil burial is a manifesta- tion of a like tendency in the family.
There are now four such societies, whose adhe- rents are rapidly increasing in number, and who have a weekly organ which has a large circulation.
The oldest of these is the Societe (T Affranchisse- ment, established in 1854, for the moral enfran- chisement of man. Its object is stated in the regulations to be profoundly religious, "for it is to destroy the man-machine, and to replace him by a man making use of his reason."
The Solidaires come next. They bind themselves to die as Free-thinkers, that is without any form of worship or religious observances. On the death of a member, all the Solidaires of the place are ex- pected to attend the funeral or pay a fine.
The Libres Penseurs have adopted as their motto, " Xo priest at our death, at our marriage, or at the birth of our children. " They are simply a sect o* professed Atheists. The following will give an idea of the "truths demonstrated by the Libres Penseurs," as prefixed to their statutes: — "God, who can be neither a creator nor a ruler, cannot be good or bad." " God does not exist."
Lastly, the Libre Pensee, founded in 1863, seeks 1 its adepts amongst the bourgeoisie, while the others ■ recruit their members from the lower orders.
For several years these societies pursued their I object without attracting much notice or meeting I with much sympathy. There seemed to be a sort of unconscious shrinking from the contact of those j who proclaimed themselves without God and with- out hope in the world. As M. Guizot says : "The J changing breezes which agitate the minds of men j must] not be confounded with the immutable in- I stincts which preside over their lives." The annual I reports showed but meagre results, and the Solidaires would probably have sunk into utter insignificance but for the assumption and intolerance of the priests in the cemetery question, which aroused public feel- ing, and instilled new Llife into the Civil Burial Societies.
In 1S62 M. Vershegen, a member of the Belgian Congress of 1830, successively Prime Minister and President of the Chamber of Representatives, Grand Master of the Freemasons, and the acknowledged leader of the liberal party, was buried without clergy, and followed to the cemetery by the Soli- daires and all the Freemasons, wearing their aprons and badges. The procession in passing through the town created an immense aud most painful sensa- tion. Since then many persons of more or less note, and several ladies, have received civil burial. The
unmeasured abuse heaped upon them by the Catholic papers tended to increase their numbers. At the Malines Congress of 1S63, a society was formed under the name of Societe de Sainte Barbe, to counteract these dangerous tendencies by in- suring decent burial to all poor Catholics having died in communion with the Church, ' 1 and whose family is unable to meet the expense of a service of the lowest class. "b As the organ of the free-thiukers has with justice remarked, "it is therefore the civil burial societies that poor Catholics must thank for the means of obtaining decent burial, and a religious service free of expense."
A letter from the Vicomte de Conway, superin- tendent of the Civil List, remitting a donation of 40£. from the king to the Societe de Sainte Barbe, and con- taining an attack on the civil burial societies, has been severely criticised by the liberal press. No one contests the right of M. Conway, as a private individual, to the opinion which many share with him that the formation of this society is "an effectual protest against the mad attempts of those who, under pretext of civilisation and progress, are seeking to turn society from the paths of Chris- tianity at the certain risk of a return to barbarism ; but to interfere in the matter in the king's name was both injudicious and unconstitutional." Leo- pold has just left for the Ardennes, where he is usually accompanied by M. Conway, whose absence on this occasion is much noticed, and considered as a mark of the king's displeasure.
As Protestants and as Christians we can but deplore the propaganda now commenced in favour of infidelity. Men's minds are now more than at any recent period, occupied with religious questions. There are many who having left the Church of Rome, do not find "peace of mind in the negation | of God," to whom the Gospel would be good and j welcome news. The Belgian Evangelical Society, so ably managed by its devoted Secretary, the Rev. L. Anet, is doing all that its means admit of to supply the want. In many places there are signs of a ripening harvest ; but the labourers are few. May the Lord of the harvest incline the hearts of his servants, who have tasted the good things of the world to come, to send forth more labourers into His harvest.
Brussels, December, 1SC4.
gut
Mr. Piggott of the Wesleyan Mission at Milan writes to the secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society : —
In the present state of Italy, the establishment of good Evangelical schools is of the highest import- ance. In this department we have not been idle. In addition to a ladies' boarding school at Milan, established with the hope— a hope now at length beginning to be realised— of reaching the middle and upper strata of society, your funds are sustaining day and evening schools for the poor at Milan, at
Christian "Work, Jan.
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Monza, at Caravaggio, at Intra, at Florence, at Caserta, and, till lately, at Cremona and Parma. In the large and important schools at Florence (directed by Signor Ferretti), during the last year, 112 children of Protestants and 127 of Eomanists have received their education. To sustain this educational work (yet how could we dispense with it ?), comprising teachers, — in most of the schools more than one ; in that of Florence, several, — rooms, benches, and books, has demanded a large slice from the means at our disposal.
Another important mode of operation in all civi- lised countries thrown broadly open as is Italy, is the diffusion of light by the means of the press. Here, too, we have taken our part. We have three bookshops ; one in Milan, a second in Parma, the third in Modena ; and have maintained throughout the year six colporteurs or itinerant salesmen, who with Bibles, Testaments, and books of controversy and devotion, have been continually beating about the northern and central provinces. In the way of direct publication we have not ventured on much. The second catechism, one of Wesley's sermons, a Reply to Kenans "Life of Jesus," three or four controversial treatises, written by one or other of the Evangelists to meet some exigency of his work, — among these a spirited little book by Signor Fer- retti, entitled "Religion, Reason and Dante," — have been printed at the expense of the Society ; we have also sustained all the literary* outlay of a sort of Italian "Leisure Hour," a fortnightly illus- trated periodical bearing the name of ' ' Letture di Famiglia, " and have lately begun to issue a monthly missionary notice, "II Raccoglitore Evangelico." Other of Wesley's sermons, and "The Tongue of Fire," are lying in manuscript, waiting "better times. "
The wide open field is only cultivated in spots here and there. In the old Sardinian kingdom, out of Turin, Genoa, and the Waldensian valleys, there exists scarcely any Evangelical agency. In Lom- bardy more is being done ; but there are large cities, such as Lodi and Piacenza, still unvisited ; to say nothing of the villages and small towns, which we can as yet scarcely think of. Tuscany may be compared with Lombardy ; but in the Romagna, along the eastern coast, in the province of Naples, and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, the Evangelical labourers are so few, as to be lost in the dark drear waste of vice and superstition, over which they are scattered. At the same time the whole country is broadly, freely open. The Government stands by us, and, with a fairness worthy of all praise, puts down all attempts to restrict us in that liberty of worship conceded by the constitution. Political circumstances, and in particular the obstinate opposition of the Papal party to the enthusiastic aspirations of the nation, are much in our favour. A very large portion of the cultivated middle class of the operatives, and even of the peasantry, is secretly with us. The press generally takes our part when circumstances bring
us under its notice. The Garibaldians are for the most part our declared friends. We are free to open a preaching hall in any city, town, or village in Victor Emmanuel's dominions, and proceeding with the tact and prudence which experience has taught us, should rarely, very rarely, fail of an audience. Entering for the first time a new place, we are often received with open enthusiasm. Not unfre- quently we are ourselves the invited. If ever any country exhibited the signs of a providential call to the Church to enter in and possess it, it is Italy at the present day.
The St. Nicolai-Stift, Alsterdorf, near Hamburg. — In my former parish there were many children employed with their parents in such a manner that they passed their entire childhood without having learned anything which could be of service to them in future life. The need of these poor children led me to establish a Christian School of Industry for the parish of Moorfleth. I took four children at first into the parsonage house under my own care, and engaged a teacher for them. During the day, besides the elements of ordinary education, they were instructed in some iiseful kind of work. At the commencement, the children returned every evening to their own homes, because I cousidered it desirable that the parental relationship should be uninterruptedly maintained as long as possible. But other children were soon added, whose circum- stances rendered it necessary that the entire care of them should be undertaken : and our school also took the place of a home to these.
On the 16th of April, 1850, the Institution was founded ; and by the autumn we were obliged to seek another domicile for its inmates : and in the year following a still larger. The product of their work — baskets, wooden shoes, pasteboard articles, &c. — was sold to procure other necessaries. The cidtivation of the land, however, became our chief occupation, — in a physical as well as in an intel- lectual, moral, and economical point of view, the best means of educational industry for such insti- tutions. But the ground on which it was com- menced was not the most favourable for their juve- nile years and strength. The land was too heavy and rich. It became, therefore, desirable to remove to another district where the land was better suited to our purpose. This change was made in the year 1860. But during this period other important changes had taken place. In 1853 I left Moorfleth for St. Michael's Church in Hamburg. My succes- sor would not have anything to do with the school, because he apprehended it would render his posi- tion a difficult one in [his uew sphere, as it had caused a division among the parishioners. I called to mind the hostility against our Institution. It was not iudeed proved, but there were strong grounds for believing that the fire which destroyed our little house in February, 1S53, was traceable
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LETTERS FROM CO BRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1865.
to tins hostility ; but the Lord graciously inter- I posed for the protection of our dear children, and none were hurt by the flames. When, therefore, the pastor at Moorfleth would not undertake the management of the establishment, I was obliged to retain it, and I associated a few other gentlemen with me, who now form our Board of Manage- ment, in order that the work might be more effectively carried on. We now extended the cir- cuit of our operation. We wished to provide not only for the Moorfleth parish, but for Hamburg and its neighbourhood. We said among ourselves, there are here so many children in danger of being entirely neglected. For the utter outcasts, the Rauhe Haas (Dr. Wichern's) makes provision. We will, however, receive those who, if no one cares for them, must sooner or later be brought under restraint. Accordingly what had been hitherto our Christian Industrial School, wasjwidened into an institution for the protection and educa- tion of neglected children, and received the name of the St. Nicolai-Stift.
After this internal re-organisation came also an external change. We removed with our children to Alsterdorf. In the pleasant valley of the Alster there was a small property to be bought just suited to our wants. Here we could keep cows and horses, and increase the accommodation for our children.
The Lord graciously prospered the work which was designed to advance his glory, and we were able after three years to add a sister institution to the St. Nicolai-Stift. Up to this time, in Ham- burg no one had thought of the poorest among our poor children, I mean the half-witted and idiotic. I made use of my little 1 ' messenger " * to put forth an appeal on behalf of the poor idiot. The Lord blessed the word : and in October, 1863, a small houseywas built, into which the first idiots — four in number, as with the beginning of the school — were received. To these two Institutions a third was quickly added. I had always felt anxious for the pupils who were leaving our Insti- tution. As soon as they were confirmed, they came into the city ; and there, with their masters and instructors, we could exercise but little over- sight over them : and how important it is just at this age to keep them still under our eye ! We thought of providing such means of employment near the Institution as should enable the children in after life [to earn their own bread. By this means they would serve their apprenticeship under the parental oversight of those having the care of the Institution. The first kind of employment which suggested itself was gardening. We had noticed that the little plot of garden allotted to each child was its chief delight. We therefore hoped that they would afterwards incline to this work, and our expectation was not altogether vain.
* Der Bote am dem Alstcrthal, ein Sonntagsblatt fur die ChristlicJw Gemeindc. Edited by Pastor H. Sengel- maxn. J. G. Oncken, Hamburg-.
Already we have two of the former pupils of the Institution apprenticed to the gardening, forming our "Gartenbaiischule" and probably each year will furnish its contingent to this advanced school.
Since the St. Nicolai-Stift has been removed to Alsterdorf its sphere of action has been still further extended by reason of its annual festivities, — the anniversary of its commencement, and a harvest home, which we celebrate by both in-door and out- door services, the latter being quite a new thiug with our Hamburghers. On these occasions, a pulpit, decorated with oak-boughs and flowers, is erected iu the open air, and there the word of God is preached, prayer offered, and praise sung ; thus we rejoice together and thank God. By this means the coun- try people and friends from the city are brought together, and spend a few pleasant hours, which pass only too rapidly.
One other thing we want. Our Stift is situated in the midst of an extensive district comprising more than 8000 souls, most of whom live four and live miles from any church, and if inclined to attend, the accommodation would be by no means sufficient for them ; beside our children and house- hold, there is an average attendance of about thirty persons at our Sabbath services. To our festivals the country people come gladly, and hear cheerfully the word of the Lord. But we are anxious to give them better and more regular opportunity of attending the preaching of the truth, and regard ourselves as a mission colony in the midst of this widely-scattered community. But to accomplish our purpose we need a chapel ; we have not, how- ever, the means for building one. Our funds up to the present time have only sufficed to meet the current demands. We cannot of course expect much help from the poor of the district for whom we desire this benefit. Neither from our own city, which needs so much for the building of churches within its own limits, can we look for much assist- ance. We hope that from a distance we may receive some help. We trust that the Lord may incline one and another among the readers of these lines to con- tribute his mite towards the erection of a chapel for the St. Nicolai-Stift. These bines are written for an English brother minister who has been present at one of our anniversaries. He will gladly receive any free-will offerings for this object. The pulpit of this chapel will belong to no special ecclesiastical uniform, but to those who love the Lord Jesus, and who by their word desire to^win souls, — not for this or that human communion, but for Him who is and shall remain the sole Lord and Founder of the St. Nicolai-Stift.
With most cordial salutation,
H. Sengelmann.
There is much talk in Constantinople about a religious reform demanded by a large number of the Mussulman population. The number varies
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daily, and from 1500 has, by report, reached as high as 80,000. This reform, for the present, has no connection with Christianity, but with the his- tory of the Koran, and the interpretations of its four great commentators, hitherto blindly followed. The Koran itself has never been printed here, but is always sold in manuscript, nor has it been trans- lated, except by the Persians. It is in very simple language, easily understood in its external and na- tural meaning, but to every verse is attached an " internal " or " spiritual "meaning, which can only be obtained through a teacher. The present re- formers now claim that it should be printed, trans- lated into Turkish, and made accessible to every one. They are against polygamy, in favour of drinking wine, abolishing the fast of Ramazan, and claim that no man is an infidel or giaour who believes in the Old and New Testaments, both of which volumes they accept, and consider as holy. They have petitioned for a mosque for themselves, and to be recognised as a sect. The Government has denied this request for the present, but it is supposed that the very highest dignitaries of _ the capital greatly favour the reform.
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. — These territories have at various times served as a re- fuge to persecuted Protestants, especially from Russia and Hungary. Their number is estimated as at least 20,000. In Wallachia these scattered Protestants had, up to 1859, only one church and settled congregation, namely in Bucharest. How much has been done for these forsaken religionists by the Evangelical Church of Prussia, under the direction of the Superior Ecclesiastical Council of Berlin, has already been repeatedly mentioned in these columns. To-day, we want to indicate how the Evangelical Church in Hungary likewise has called to mind these brethren, who are so doubly its neighbours, and especially what one man among them has effected by his devoted zeaL It was in 1859 that the parochial minister and theo- logical professor, Czelder, having observed the spiritual destitution of his countrymen and co- religionists, quitted his native land, his revenues, honours, and dignities, that he might, with self- denying love, devote himself to the formidable task of seeking out these scattered brethren in Walla- chia, and gathering them into congregations. In this endeavour he has now spent four years of arduous labour, in long journeys on foot, and under the greatest privations, being often in want of the barest necessaries, and even suffering from hunger, having no regular resources ; and thus has he repeatedly traversed the country in all directions, without allowing anything to weary him out or to blunt his enthusiasm. A little while ago, he lived for twenty days upon bread and water, that he might obtain the means of purchasing tiles for building a school- room. In this manner he has succeeded in estab- lishing four separate congregations — at Pitishti, Elogishti, Soskil, and Galatz — all which have their
day-schools and Sunday-schools ; besides which two of them have already a church and a minister. In the two others, he celebrates divine service ; and in one of these, namely, at Flogishti, he has begun upon twenty-five ducats (the produce of a book which he published) to build a school-house, with a residence for ministers and teachers, in the hope that the Lord will send him the means of accom- plishing this enterprise. — Translated from a German Journal.
lite,
BENGAL. — In the neighbourhood of Calcutta, few things excite greater attention among mission- aries at the present time than the strange progress of female education. Other agencies are active, and, as in past years, continue in various, ways to win success. Bazaar preaching, English institu- tions, pastoral care of churches, and the spread of Christian literature, still contribute as usefully as ever to advance the kingdom of Christ. But it is in female education, which occupies a new position in the city, that especial interest is felt. At one of their recent meetings the members of the Cal- cutta Missionary Conference endeavoured to gather the latest information as to its position and pro- gress, and the result was of the most gratifying kind. Where three years ago two or three ladies were engaged in Zenana work, there are now at least twelve : the lady who began with two houses, now visits eight or ten ; and on all sides are found willing scholars as well as careful workers. Truth, too, is being felt as well as taught. The painful spectacle of a divided house which, in the pro- gress of its work amid error, it is the lot of Christianity to produce, is at times to be seen amongst us ; and as elsewhere it is the gentle nature of woman that grasps the loving words of the Gospel, while the harder heart of man dallies, compromises, and delays. A periodical has re- cently been commenced, intended specially for educated women ; it is cheap, illustrated by wood- cuts, and gives information on various subjects. Its early numbers dealt rather too much with dis- cussions respecting female education, instead of at once showing what attractive knowledge can be made available for the enlightenment of women ; and one article gave a brief outline of mental philosophy. But this is the beginning of things, and no doubt we shall improve. A book has been published, said to be the genuine production of a native lady who is exceedingly anxious to benefit her countrywomen. It is said that some short time ago she determined to set up a female school ; and the funds for the payment of teachers being deficient, she sold her own jewels in order to provide them. Both public and family schools seem to prosper ; while Dr. Duff's girls' school con- tinues to draw the younger members of respectable Hindu families, the Zenana schools, with a greater or smaller number of grown women, pursue in
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private the quiet round of lessons to which their attention is directed.
I am sorry to say that this kind of education scarcely prevails anywhere in Northern India, except in Calcutta and its neighbourhood. It is really based on the greater enlightenment of edu- cated gentlemen. This class is very large in the city, and of late has gained great influence ; in- deed the ancient class of Hindu priests who once held such powerful sway is here extinct, and modern ideas rule society. But the farther you travel from Calcutta, the less is that enlighten- ment felt. In some parts of Bengal, as at Dacca, female schools are doing well under Government management ; but through all Behar, the North - West Provinces, and the Punjab, real Zenana teaching does not exist. Two families in Delhi accept the services of a lady well able to instruct them ; but they are Bengali families : among the Hindu families there is the greatest shyness, and I have not heard of one single household systemati- cally placed under a missionary lady's care. Still, the question is being discussed, and is being pressed ou the attention of native gentlemen. At Lahore, during the Exhibition, the Lieutenant-Governor held an Educational Durbar, and urged the import- ance of educating the ladies of their families on all the chiefs and landholders by whom he was sur- rounded, in very earnest terms.
General education is growing in India, though not so rapidly as the friends of enlightenment desire. The real difficulty in the matter lies in the vastness of the field, and the fewness of the willing labourers. Recent researches show that in English schools, colleges, and institutions the whole number of scholars amounts to about 70,000, of whom 25,000 are in Government institutions, and 23,000 in missionary, and 22,000 in private, schools. ■ In the vernacular schools, of such great importance to the people at large, there are 51,000 in missionary schools, and 284,000 in schools aided and super- intended by Government officials. In Bengal, Govern- ment help is given almost entirely to the English colleges and schools for the upper classes ; and of the entire Indian expenditure no less than 110,000/. are spent on this part of the empire. I cannot say I regret it : great good is coming out of it all ; and there is a mighty advantage in bringing the strongest influences to bear upon the head quarters of opinion, to which all the rest of the empire looks. Theoretically, the pundits of Benares may lay down law for Hindus ; but practically, there is something stronger at work than Hinduism throughout the country, and the influence of the pundits is quietly dying away. In Bengal English influence of all kinds is completely changing native opinion. English literature, English law, English justice, English social opinion, English morality (with all its deficiencies), English benevolence, the English Sabbath, Christianity in general, all of which may be embraced in the word Anglicanism, are daily press- ing new thoughts, new views, and new examples
on the people, and unconsciously moulding the entire tone and spirit of native society. Calcutta feels this more deeply than any other part of India ; and as all natives wish to learn what "Kulkutta" (Calcutta) thinks and says, it is well that these influences for good should be exerted to the largest <(V degree.
Yet one must always feel intensely for the igno- rant masses. Ignorant ! There is no gauging their ignorance, it is so vast, so deep, so dense. In how many parts the readers in the population amount to only four persons in a hundred : in some one only in a huudred can read ! It is worth knowing, there- fore, that the Government desire to restrict their English education, to maintain efficiently only what they are doing, and not to enter in the great cities upon new schools which may be supplied by private efforts. They are anxious to increase their verna- cular efforts ; and thus it arose that last year they spent on education generally 552,300/., 100,000/. more than they ever spent before. During the present year an additional 100,000/. will be granted to this department. It is to the system of grants- in-aid that special attention is now given, and the rules under which they are distributed are growing more liberal every year. The English principle of paying for results has found its way to India, and though not suitable to English schools, furnishes an excellent guide for helping vernacular schools. In all parts of India the rules for grants are being modified, and in Bengal the rules just published are liberal.
RAJPOOTANA. — The Rev. John Robson, of the United Presbyterian Mission at A j mere, writes that the first convert has been baptised. The convert, who is about twenty-rive years of age, was a Jati or Jain priest ; and it is a circumstance that speaks well for his sincerity, that on becoming a Christian he gave up a considerable amount of property and all his means of worldly support.
"John Triloke Singh, the only other native Christian at the time in Ajmere, took his seat on the right hand of Magan ; and on the left was Husain Alii, a talented Mussulman from Nusse- rabad, who has reuoimced his own religion, and will soon receive baptism there. Behind, and all around, crowded representatives of the various castes of Ajmere, eager to see what mystery attached to the rite of making a Christian ; and among them was my opponent in the Mohammedan controversy, Hafiz, as usual courteous, thoughtful, and attentive. I opened with reading the Scripture and prayer ; and then gave an address, explaining, as clearly as I could, the meaning and nature of baptism, and the conditions on which persons were admitted to receive it. Then Magan read in a firm t voice a very clear and full confession of faith, and statement of the reasons that induced him to change his religion, and in like manner answered the ques- tions which I put to him. After a short prayer, I baptised him by the name of Isa Das (servant of
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Jesus), a favourite name among Christians in the north-west, which I thought it as well to substitute for Magan Bijai, as this was not his original name, but a sacerdotal one assumed when he became a Jati. We again engaged in prayer, and I then addressed Isa Das, enforcing on him the necessity of a holy life and conversation, seeing that he had now professed his faith in Christ ; and the heathen present, pointing out to them how the scene they had just witnessed was a call to them to examine and to act, and if they remained obstinately and ignorantly in their false religions, after seeing that another had had courage to examine and leave them, a much greater responsibility would lie upon them. Though the place was crowded, there was not, from beginning to end, a single indecorous movement or expression on the part of any one of the assembly, but they all seemed to listen with the greatest respect, and even solemnity."
The Rev. Mr. Shoolbred, of the same society, writes of the baptism of three converts at Beawr : — "Some months ago I wrote you that I had three male inquirers steadily growing in knowledge of the truth, and ripening for admission to the Church. Their baptism, which by all of them was very eagerly desired, was delayed longer than we in- tended by a variety of causes. Although the novelty and first excitement of a baptism have had the freshness taken off them by the repeated occurrence of the event in Nya Nuggur, still, on entering the school premises I found a large number of spectators assembled, tilling the outer verandah, and dotting the open court in front. "
NAGPORE.— A letter from Nagpore gives the fol- lowing statements regarding the work of the Free Church Mission at that station and at Kamptee : — "You will be glad to hear that the Lord seems still to be blessing the work at this station. Lately five more adults (four men and one woman) have been joined to the membership of the native Church, and another, a girl of fourteen years of age, is to be received (D.V.) on Sabbath next. Of the men, one is a servant to an officer in the district, who has been at great pains to instruct him in the truths of God's word, and a blessing has evidently followed these efforts. Another was a poor sick man in hospital at Kamptee, who had the word of God read to him, and Christ pressed on his acceptance by an East Indian, who was a patient in the same hospital. Our Scripture reader and native preacher were then sent for, and their instructions and prayers seem to have been blessed to the poor man's soul. As he was unable to leave his ward in the hospital, two Christian officers and a number of native Christians accompanied me thither, and there, in the presence of a considerable number of Hindoos and Mohammedans, an interesting service was held and the man baptised. The state of his knowledge as to salvation through Christ, and apparent earnestness, were quite satisfactory. The other three were received last Sabbath at Sitabuldi.
HI.— 3.
Two were husband and wife ; the former, having been baptised in infancy as a Protestant, but at the age of twelve became a Romanist, without again receiving the ordinance, before the assembled con- gregation, renounced Popery and embraced the Gospel, and was publicly received into the member- ship of our native Church. His wife, who, although a professed Romanist, which she became to please her husband, a year and a half ago, was quite a heathen till she came under the instructions of our catechist some months ago, was baptised, giving good evidence of a sincere desire to follow Christ and Him alone. The last was a man who had long been thinking about becoming a Christian, but has lately, on account of failing health, been brought to decide on the Lord's side. As far as one can judge, all these individuals are earnest and simple in their desire to follow the Lord, and I trust they are now among his true people. The girl who is to be baptised on Sabbath has been under instruction for several months, and has given us pleasing evidence of her sincerity. She is the protegee of an officer who found her as a little child, and has ever since taken a deep interest in her. She has been a scholar in our Sitabuldi school for several months."
BAPTIST MISSION IN DELHI.
Since the mutiny, Christianity has made a won- derful progress in the city of Delhi and its neigh- bourhood. For nearly forty years, in the old system of things, Mr. Thompson preached in that celebrated place, and received not a single convert. Now there are four churches, containing a hundred and thirty native members, in a Christian commu- nity of about four hundred souls. The pleasant task of gathering in these fruits of harvest fell to the lot of Mr. Smith after his return from England in 1859. On beginning to preach again in the broad Chandni Chouk of Delhi, the finest street in all the North-West Provinces, he was surprised to find the spirit of hearing by which the people were affected. Crowds gathered round him every even- ing, and wherever he and his catechists went to set forth the Gospel, there the people listened, were convinced, and believed. By degrees, converts began to confess Christ, and were baptised. Sta- tions were established in different parts of the city and its suburbs, four churches were founded, and catechists were appointed for their supervision and instruction. Two hundred and fifty adults were baptised in three years. It was soon evident, how- ever, that many of the converts were weak in faitl), imperfect in knowledge, and somewhat unstable. The famine of 1860 proved a severe trial to them, and while, on the one hand, their independence was weakened by large grants of money, they were led by their deep want not only to neglect the public ordinances of the Church, but also to spend the Sabbath in their usual daily toil. Mr. Smith in his recent report acknowledges that the churches are barren, but finds in the experience of the year signs of spiritual revival. From the time of his
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LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1*6.
return from Australia he has set himself, with his colleague, Mr. Williams, to raise the churches from their low condition, and has met with much en- couragement. Many of the old members have returned ; church meetings have been reorganised ; the stations rearranged ; aud catechists and readers carefully appointed. Within the city there are six districts under the superintendence of four native agents, and the Church members are sixty-five in number. On the west of the city, where the old suburb has grown very large since the mutiny, there are seven stations, and very important work is done in Pahar Guuje and S udder Bazaar, near which Mr. Williams resides. To the east of Delhi there are six stations, of which Shahdra and Purana Killa are very promising. In the former, crowds follow the missionary everywhere, "unwilling to lose a word. " The church at the latter is under the pastoral charge of one of the well-knowu preachers at Serampore, Bhagwan Das ; and though in recent years its people have greatly gone back, it would seem that things have begun to mend. The Theo- logical Class, composed principally of young men from the local churches, has been reorganised, and contains eight students. We may well hope that these energetic measures, carefidly carried out and spiritually blessed, may build up these infant churches, and make them a power in this royal but wicked city.
THE LONDON MISSION IN SOUTH TRAVANCORE.
The following brief review of Christian work done in this part of India during the past year, may be acceptable to the numerous readers of your valuable journal.
As early as the year 1805, the London Mission- ary party took possession of the whole of the southern portion of the native state of Travancore, comprising an extent of country ninety miles in length, by upwards of thirty in average breadth, stretching along the Malabar coast, from Quilon to Cape Comorin (the southern extremity of this great continent), separated from the British terri- tory of Tinnevelly, the well-known mission field of the Church of England Societies, by a range of mountains running in a north-westerly direction from the Cape. Ever since then this field of mis- sion labour has been occupied by the London Mis- sionary Society in greater or less force, and at the present time, with the exception of another mis- sionaty promised to be sent out to the capital, we have our full complement of European labourers iu the field — eight in number.
The field of labour is divided into seven districts, each comprising a compact extent of territory sur- rounding its head station, at which the missionary resides. Of these districts, the first formed, and that from which all the others may be said to have sprung, was Nogercoil, situated twelve miles north- west of the Cape. In this district, as now limited, there are twenty-two village congregations, and in those of James Town and Sauthapuram, immedi-
ately adjoining, there are, respectively, twenty-nine and twenty-six such congregations attached to the central stations. Ten miles west of Nogercoil is the head station of Nezoor, with fifty-two congrega- tions. Farther west from this, at a distance of fifteen miles, is the head'station of Pareychaley, connected with which are seventy-seven congrega- tions. Trevaodrum, the capital of the native state, has been occupied since 1S38, and has now nineteen branch congregations in the surrouuding villages, and various agencies are at work in the town itself for the benefit of the large heathen population there. Beyond Trevaodrum, at a distance of forty miles, is our farthest outpost, viz. , Quilon, with four village congregations attached. There are thus, in con- nection with the London Missionary Society, in South Travancore, no less than 229 Christian con- gregations, all under the efficient superintendence of the European missionaries and their "native assistants.
Up to the present time none of the'native helpers in this mission have been ordained to the work of the ministry. The title of Assistant Missionary has been conferred upon one of these brethren, but the strength of the native agency here, ranks under the heads of Evangelists, of whom there are 18 ; super- intending catechists, 3 ; catechists, 146 ; assistant catechists, 40 ; and female assistants, 30 : in all 237. In the educational department of the mission there are 213 agents of various grades, so that the entire staff of native agents throughout the whole mission is 450. Nearly all the Evangelists have received a special training for their work, many of the cate- chists are graduates of the Mission Seminary, while others have been educated in boarding-schools, or in preparandi classes at the head stations. We dare not say that all our mission agents are what they ought to be in moral and spiritual attainments, but while standing in doubt of some, we can point to not a few who give every evidence of being zealous and devoted men, having both the ability and the desire to instruct their fellow-countrymen in the way of truth and holiness.
In connection with the mission there "are 1475 Church members gathered iuto the fold from among the heathen, all of whom have been baptised, and are communicants at the Lord's table. During 1863, 180 were newly admitted to the Church, and at the close of the year, 434 persons were registered as candidates for Church fellowship. In a large mis- sion, such as this, these numbers may not seem high, but when it is borne in mind that every pre- caution is taken to prevent the admission to full communion of persons of unsatisfactory character, the above facts are encouraging, and indicate that considerable concern for spiritual things is evinced among the congregation.
As just stated, the number of congregations in the mission is 229. Besides the regular Sunday services, sermons are preached, or prayer-meetings held throughout the week, more or less frequently. The average attendance at the Sunday services
Christian Work, Jan. 2, ise5 ]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
35
during the year, was 16,151 each Lord's day ; the total number of professing Christians being 24, 142. We do not regard the majority of ^these as other than learners in the school of Christ, many of them, being children in knowledge and understanding of spiritual things. Nevertheless, we rejoice in the fact, that so many thousands have, outwardly at least, renounced the hidden things of darkness ; and, Sabbath after Sabbath, as the church gongs resound through the palm forests that stretch along the shore, or among the dense jungles adjoining the neighbouring hills, assemble themselves together in temples dedicated to the worship of Jehovah to hear from the mouth of the preacher words whereby they may be saved. It is moreover encouraging to know that not only do they hear the word preached, but a very considerable proportion are able to read the inspired volume for themselves.
The total number of those who have received baptism is 4620 — 2493 being adults; and 2127 children. In 1863 242 adults were baptized, and 572 children. The proportion of baptised persons to the entire number of adherents is small, aris- ing from the fact that no adults have hitherto been admitted to the rite, excepting such only as have come up to a standard of Christian knowledge and character somewhat high.
The seminary at Nogercoil, for the training of native agents for the entire mission, stands at the head of the educational department of our labours, and is superintended by one of the missionaries, the greater part of whose time is given to this work, assisted by an efficient staff of native teachers. This institution has been in existence for many years, and the success and prosperity of our work generally, must in large measure be ascribed to the men who have been educated in connection with it, and are now actively engaged in the mission. A class of theological students left the Seminary last year, and are now labouring in the capacity of evangelists, also six of the boarders, who had finished the usual course of study, and are now use- fully employed as catechists or schoolmasters. At the close of the year, the number of students being educated for mission work was sixty-eight, also fifty-five day-scholars, and a training-class for teachers numbering fourteen. Next in importance to the Seminary, are the boarding-schools for Pro- testants of both sexes, at the head stations. Of these four are for boys, and six for girls, superin- tended by the missionaries' wives. The number of boys in these schools is sixty-eight, and of girls, 223.
The education imparted in the above-mentioned establishments is throughout more or less thorough. In most cases an elementary training precedes or is a necessary qualification for admission to them ; but the great bulk of our schools is of a different description, being (with few exceptions) purely ele- mentary. Of these village schools, there are in all 188,-143 being for boys, and 45 for girls. In the boys' school there are 1831 Protestants, 385 Ro- manists, and 3069 Heathen ; making in all 5285
boys receiving a plain, useful, elementary education in the vernacular. In the schools for girls there are 1186 Protestants, 27 Romanists, and 342 heathen, in all 1555. Two years ago an effort was made in one of the districts to establish mixed night schools, in the hope that adults might be induced to attend after the labours of the day were over. This ex- periment has proved very successful, and is likely to be tried extensively throughout the entire mis- sion. By this means a very interesting class of people is reached and benefited, who could not otherwise be easily brought under Christian and enlightening influences. In these night schools which now number 18, there are 426 males, and 30 females.
The total number of schools of all descriptions in connection with the mission is 220, with an at- tendance of 5918 boys, and 1808 girls, making the goodly number of 7726 scholars under regular daily instruction.
Another branch of our operations here may now be very briefly alluded to, viz. , the Medical Mission. This department of labour is under the superinten- dence of a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. The dispensary is located at a station central to all the districts of the mission, and was first opened seven years ago ; but owing to the ac- cidental death by drowning of the much beloved physician, Dr. Leitch, the work had to be discon- tinued, and was not resumed till the arrival of Dr. Lowe, two years ago. Great numbers have resort to the dispensary for medical and surgical aid. From January 1st, 1863, to 31st December, the number of patients recorded in the registers was 4744, of whom 2418 were Protestants, 1619 heathen (of all castes), 510 Romanists, and 134 Moham- medans. Upwards of 200 were admitted as in-door patients, and 150 persons visited by the missionary at their own houses. A branch dispensary has been established lately in a large heathen town not far from head-quarters, and is resorted to by great numbers of the high caste population. Thus a vast amount of disease and suffering has been alleviated or removed, and thousands of all castes and creeds have been directed to the Great Physician of souls. Daily at the dispensary, not unfrequently under the shade of the village tree, and even in the houses of high caste heathens,, the medical missionary and his assistants have made known the glad tidings of great joy which are to all people.
We have also a press in operation in our mission here, the activity of which is evidenced by the fact that no less than 4,179,820 pages were printed last year.
Special mention must be made of the contribu- tions of the people to the Auxiliary Missionary, the Bible and Tract Societies, &c. At the close of 1863, upon making up the accounts, it was found that the very considerable sum of 696Z. 12s. 3d. constituted the free-will offering for one year of the people of this mission to the service of the Lord.
Year by year advances are being made. Five
LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
30
years ago the number of native agents in the mis- sion was 394, now the number is 450. Then there were 17,000 adherents, or professing Christians, now the number has increased to 24,142. Then the Church members numbered 980, now the number is 1475. Then the number of scholars in the schools was 6428, now there are 7726. Then the yearly contributions of the people amounted to 346£. 10^., now the amount is double this, being, as stated above, 699?. 12s. 3d.
Such is a plain statement of facts. Let the Churches at home ponder them, and say whether our labour has been in vain in the Lord. " Who hath wrought and who hath done it ? I Jehovah, the first and the last ; I am He."
J. Duthie, Missionary of the London
Missionary Society.
XOGERCOIL, SOUTH TR A VAN CORE.
v.unnah
Mrs. "Vinton writes to the American Baptist Magazine from Rangoon, that her school increased in religious interest, only it was interrupted for a week by an outbreak of cholera among the pupils. Three died, and the panic wras so great that the school was dismissed, but returned in a week. Of the state of religion she says : —
"At the close of the last meeting twenty-five rose to signify that they intended to give their hearts to God and serve Him : and I trust the greater part, if not all, did so. I always felt happy in teaching children, but never so happy as recently. To see them crowding into the prayer-meetings every evening, and even ask for them oftener than we felt we had strength to hold them, and then to hear them commence praying on one side of the room, and pray on, one after another, as fast as they could, till every one had prayed, has given us great cause for rejoicing. You will be sorry to hear that we are delayed in the building of our new school- house for the want of funds."
Dr. Kincaid writes of the baptism at Kemendine of thirty-three Karens and three Englishmen. They are in distress for Bibles. Why are Bibles withheld from the Karens? Somebody must answer. He says : —
' ' As soon as a fount of type can be obtained, the Karens will begin to print school-books in their own language. Had Brother Vinton been spared a few years longer, the Karens would have beeu printing years ago. The large basement of the chapel was intended for this work. The dearth of Bibles and Testaments and school-books is becoming greater every year, and the only hope is in getting a native press at work. Churches and schools cannot live without books. I am sure every large-hearted Christian will rejoice to know that the Karens are in earnest to open this fountain of life and light to their nation."
Oin;t.
Thinking, says the correspondent of an Ame- rican paper, that many of your readers will be interested in some statistics relating to the number of Protestant missionaries in China and the stations where they are labouring, and the probable number of converts from heathenism connected with them, I send you the following table. A bird's-eye view may thus be obtained of the present condition of the missionary work — with the aid of the imagina- tion. The estimated number of converts is given in round numbers.
|
Name of |
Mission- |
Mis- |
Converts |
|
Port. |
aries. |
sions. |
Estimated. |
|
. . 19 |
6 |
150 |
|
|
Swatow . . |
. . 6 |
2 |
100 |
|
12 |
3 |
700 |
|
|
Fuhchau . . |
. . 11 |
3 |
150 |
|
. . 13 |
4 |
500 |
|
|
Shanghai . . |
. . 12 |
5 |
350 |
|
Hankou . . |
. . 2 |
2 |
30 |
|
Tientsin . . |
. . 7 |
3 |
30 |
|
. . 3 |
|||
|
Tangchau . . |
. . 6 |
t\ |
40 |
|
, , 10 |
6 |
10 |
|
|
Hongkong. . |
. . 10 |
4 |
440 |
|
111 |
42 |
2500 |
|
In the mainland, opposite Hongkong, which is an English colony, it is estimated that there are some 300 converts connected with three German missions, whose head-quarters are at Hongkong. These are included in the last item above.
Of these 111 missionaries, five or six are absent on visits to their native lands. The wives of the missionaries are not enumerated, nor are several unmarried ladies, engaged princi- pally in teaching. There are about twenty differ- ent American, English, and Continental societies engaged in the work of propagating the Gospel in China. Of the missionaries about fifty-seven are from America, nine are from Germany, and forty- five from England, Ireland, and Scotland. There are boarding-schools for the training of youth, male or female, in the doctrines of the Christian religion at Canton, Swatow, Fuhchau, Ningpoand Shanghai, and day-schools at most, if not all the ports occu- pied by missionaries. There are several flourishing out-stations and country churches already formed, connected with the missions at Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo and Shanghai, and perhaps at one or two other ports. It would be safe to estimate that there are over 100 native Christians employed at the different ports as school teachers, or preachers, exhorters, colporteurs, . &c. , and about 100 chapels, more or less, where the Gospel is' regularly preached by the foreign missionary or his native helper.
Christian Work, Jan. 2,1S65.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
37
StopttU Island.
The missionaries of the London Missionary So- ciety have forwarded letters, apprising the directors of the forcible suppression of the mission by the French authorities in the island of Lifu, one of the Loyalty Group : —
"The Loyalty Group consists of three islands, Lifu, Mare, and Uea. Of these, Lifu, the scene of I these French outrages, is the largest, containing a population of 7000 souls. Into these islands the Gospel was introduced by agents of our society nearly twenty years since. Native teachers from Earatonga and Samoa, were pioneers to our English brethren. In the year 1854, Messrs. Creagh and Jones, with their wives, settled on the island of Mare, and in 1859, Messrs. Macfarlane and Baker entered on the island of Lifu. Many of our readers will also remember, with regard to the smaller island of Uea, that the people were, on occasion of | the last visit of the John Williams, ready to employ i kind violence to detain among them missionary brethren appointed for other islands ; and Mr. Ella had actually arrived with a view of settling on that island, when this oppressive act of French authority occurred.
" New Caledonia, tlie largest island in that part of the Pacific, was seized by the Government of France about the year 1852, with a view of making it a penal settlement, and there the French autho- rity has since existed under a governor and a body of French troops. The Loyalty Group of islands has been claimed by the French authorities as de- pendencies on New Caledonia, though without any proof that they have ever been so regarded, either by the natives of the one or the other, as their language, their customs, and their government were in many important particulars dissimilar. But by the French Government of New Caledonia this right has been asserted ; and in this case, as iu every other instance where French authority has been established in a foreign country, Catholic missionaries have been sent forth, not only for the benefit of the troops, but specially with*a view to the conversion of the natives.
"Soon after the occupation of New Caledonia, these teachers of Bomish superstition made their appearance on the islands of the Loyalty Group, often attempting to coerce the natives by threats of French authority, as a punishment for the people when they have refused to submit to their instruc. tions. As some of the chiefs have continued practi- cally heathen, and in a state of hostility to others who have embraced Protestant truth, a few of the former have gone over to Popery, for the sake of obtaining the alliance and support of the French power. These separate interests have at length been made the occasion for the seizure of the island of Lifu by the authorities of New Caledonia, and for the suppression, at least for the present, of all active operations of our missionaries and their native assistants. Thus the scenes enacted in the island
of Tahiti, more than twenty years since, have been repeated on Lifu.
"The directors of the Society will not fail to bring these gross and intolerant outrages under the attention of our Government, in the hope that, by remonstrance with the Government of France, they may hereafter be disowned ; and that English Pro- testant missionaries may at least be allowed to live and labour among the islanders, whom they ! found in a state of utter barbarism, and who owe their civilisation to the knowledge and the influence of their Christian teaching."
The Bev. S. Macfarlane describes the proceedings in letters, of which we give extracts : —
"The priests, baffled and discouraged by the in- efncacy of their bribes and threats, have had re- course to other measures equally mean and con- temptible. One of them, whilst threatening an intelligent young native, asked if he was not afraid of the French ? The young man gave a most em- phatic and indignant reply in the negative, and is reported to have said, * Who are the French that I should fear them ? ' This part of the answer was carefully recorded in the pocket-book of the priest, with the young man's name. Cast in the mould of Jesuitism, it soon appeared in the form of a for- midable document impeaching the loyalty of the Protestants in this group, which was placed in the hands of a Boman Catholic chief, who embraced the first opportunity of taking it across to New Caledonia and presenting it to the governor.
"Another priest charges us with attempting to make this island like an English colony. We are committing the very serious crime of teaching the English language instead of the French, of cir- culating the Scriptures among the natives, and of teaching them to observe the Sabbath as in England. (The repeated attempts of the priests to introduce certain games upon the Sabbath have utterly failed, even among their own people.) During a recent interview with a French officer I was informed that ' these things ought not to be in a French colony,' that our mode of observing the Sabbath was ' ex- ceedingly hateful to the governor and all Frenchmen^ and that his excellency fully intended to enforce the observance of the Sabbath as in France. I ex- pressed my sorrow and surprise at suchintelligence, and assured him that it would probably prove the most sanguinary task which the governor had ever undertaken, ras these natives are devotedly attached to their existing forms of worship, and would con- sider such unjustifiable proceedings as a direct in- terference with their most sacred rights.
"You will easily perceive that the priests are here adopting a policy similar to that which proved too effective at Tahiti. They are endeavouring to secure the sympathy and aid of the secular arm to counteract and weaken our influence. Their in- trigues and misrepresentations have, to some ex- tent, produced the desired effect. At Tahiti they solicited and obtained the aid of the French Go- vernment to establish themselves on the island,
33
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 186S.
whereas here they have been permitted to intrude and prosecute their labours unmolested, upon ground which the London Missionary Society has occupied since 1841. Not satisfied with an open field and fair play, they have been unwearied in their exertions to prevail upon the government at New Caledonia to come over and occupy a position upon these islands, doubtless intimating the more than possibility of this group being taken under the wing of our Colonial Government at some future period, simply for its position. The French appear to have taken the alarm. On the 1st of last month one of their steamers arrived here, and located an officer (who styles himself ' Commandant of the Loyalty Islands ') and twenty-five soldiers. The following day the French flag was planted upon this island for the first time, and the chiefs in- formed that they Avere no longer the riding power, that then- laws were null, that the island belonged to the French, and that they were to look to the commandant as their king. They proceeded at once to erect houses, and, as thatch could only be obtained at a distance of two or three miles, the chiefs were ordered to fetch it without remunera- tion. There being some delay occasioned by the absence of the natives, who were engaged in their respective plantations, the commandant (a stripling of little more than tweuty years, who is evidently thirsting for military action and military glory) had conceived the idea of burning down the village where I am located, in order, as he says, 'to teach the natives a lesson upon prompt obedience.' ' They have learnt,' he said, ' howT to obey in New Caledonia, and they must be taught here. ' I feel assured'that, had he carried out these rash inten- tions, the infuriated natives would have prevented his ever teaching the same lesson to any one else.
"I was permitted to continue my labours as usual for about three weeks, when a vessel arrived from Mare, bringing two cases of books printed in the native language. I then received from the commandant a letter strictly forbidding the distri- bution of all books printed in the native language, and demanding the immediate cessation of all public instruction. Thus the hand of despotism and Popery has laid its iron grasp upon what is most sacred to these natives. The Institution whence they hoped to receive teachers and pastors is closed. The Bible, the enemy of darkness, despotism, and Popery, their solace and guide, is forbidden ; and schools, in which they hoped their children would be rendered intel- ligent, useful, aud happy, are prohibited ; and we are politely informed that the next step will be to enforce the observance of the Sabbath as in France.
"The governor arrived here on the 21st of June, with two steamers and about 300 men, a number of whom were armed convicts. These were placed under the command of young officers, who evi- dently regarded plundering and burning down villages and shooting natives fine sport. I had an interview with ^his excellency the governor upon the. day of his arrival, during which he en-
deavoured to prove that this group had been French territory for?niany years, and that we had no right to come here without first obtaining a permit of residence fronvthergovernment at New Caledonia. The governor^ informed me that, if I wished to remain here, was necessary for me to obtain a permit of residence, and repurchase the piece of ground uponwhich my house is built, after which he would consider the question of my being per- mitted to continue my labours as a Protestant missionary upon this island. I returned from the steamer, wrote, and sent my request, first, to be permitted to continue my residence upon the island ; secondly, to have secured to me my premises (which I have already purchased for the sum of fifty-six dollars) ; thirdly, to be allowed to prosecute my labours as a missionary of the Pro- testant religion, by] preaching, conducting schools, &c, and the'doctor tells me that the governor will not answer it until he has written to, and received an answrer from, the Government in France.
"About 150 soldiers were landed, wrho, being led by the governor, marched through the village, followed by about thirty Roman Catholics. They proceeded to" the public road, where they formally announced that this island is a French colony ; that missionaries are no longer to conduct schools ; that natives are not to take any food to the mis- sionaries unless they are paid for it ; they are also forbidden to do any work for the missionary gratis ; nor are tbey permitted to make any collection for the London Missionary Society. They are to regard the commandant as their king, and apply to him in cases of difficulty, &c. After this formal declara- tion, the soldiers commenced their work of plunder. Fortuuately, the natives had carried most of their things into the bush. All that remained was taken, and the boxes broken.
" It was Friday morning, the day upon which we are accustomed to hold a service at sunrise. I hesitated about ringing the bell, but decided to continue my labours as usual until prohibited. The congregation was composed of Samoan and Raratongau teachers and their wives and children, and about tweuty natives. We commenced the service, which I intended should be a prayer - meeting, and were engaged in the first prayer, which was being presented by Tui, an old Samoan teacher, wrhen the chapel doors were burst open, and the house of God soon filled wyith soldiers. I heard the rustling of their arms and the trampling of their feet, but did not raise my head nor open my eyes, and Tui, like a brave old soldier of the Cross, continued his prayer for about three or four minutes after their entrance. Our composure appears to have checked and repulsed them, for they instantly retreated. When I opened my eyes there was not a soldier in the chapel ; but the doors and windows were well guarded, and we sawr a little forest of bayonets glittering in the morning sun. I rose, and calmly proceeded with the service, and gave out a hymn, which we sang.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
39
I then read a portion of God's word, and concluded with prayer. I was the only person permitted to leave the chapel ; all the others were kept prisoners. As I walked home I heard the report of guns, and the hallooing of natives, which plainly indicated that the latter had been fallen upon before they could get away. In that struggle the natives lost four men and had a number wounded. The French had one killed, and one severely wounded. The natives ran inland, but were soon met by 120 soldiers, who had been landed on the oppo- site side of the island. Here there was an other battle, and four more natives were shot and many seriously wounded. The French had a few slightly, and one seriously wounded. Two companies of soldiers pursued the natives* inland, whilst one remained here to complete the work of devastation. A number re-entered the chapel, bound the Samoan and Raratongan teachers, and dragged the natives from the sacred edifice. One woman, having crept under a seat for safety, was pierced in six or seven places with a bayonet. An old grey-headed man, one of my deacons, had a bayonet thrust in his side, and a gash in his forehead ; the latter caused by his being thrown violently agaiust the tree to which he was bound. From the verandah of my house I saw the soldiers belabouring an old man about the head, a church-member, whilst others were fastening him to a tree.
" They are allowed to profess whatever religion they please, but they are not permitted to assemble for worship ; each ODe is to worship in his own house, and confine his religion to his own heart. This, of course, only refers to Protestants ; the priests and Roman Catholics are not only allowed to continue as usual, but every facility is afforded to give success to their unwearied efforts to pro- selytize. The chief of this village, who is one of the most powerful on the island, is stripped of his power, and another installed in his place, who is a Roman Catholic, and a notorious scoundrel. The heathen chief of this half of the island, who is nominally a Roman Catholic, has collected the under-chiefs together, and told them that his desire is that they and their subjects abandon 'the word ' and become wiwio (by which they under- stand Roman Catholics), and if they don't they will be shot ; he says that he and the French are determined that there shall be but one religion on the island, and that must be the Roman Catholic.
"What is to become of these poor natives? Night and day messengers are sent from different parts of the island to inquire about us, and im- plore us not to leave them. I advise, and endea- vour to comfort them, assuring them that God will not leave his people, nor will He allow his servants to be driven from their spheres of labour unless there is a 'needs be.' My heart is here; being perfectly at home in the language, and thoroughly acquainted with the natives, we should be exceedingly sorry to leave the island. Yet it
would be very painful to remain here without being permitted to prosecute our labours of love, al- though our very presence on the island would tend to encourage and stimulate the natives. I cannot bear the thought of their being left to the evil in- fluences by which they are now unhappily sur- rounded."
RECENT REPORT OF THE MISSION. BY BISHOP PATTESOX.
Since the last report was written, it has pleased God to visit us with great blessings, and great sor- rows also. It has been indeed a very critical time, testing severely the character not only of our Mela- nesian scholars, but of our whole mission party.
We returned towards the close of the year 1862 at the commencement of the New Zealand summer, with the largest party of scholars that we had ever gathered together ; no less than fifty-two from twenty-three islands, speaking more than as many languages.
The summer was very dry ; the weather unusually settled, and the health of the whole party exceed- ingly good for several months. School-work went on vigorously ; old scholars made rapid progress ; seven of them were baptized on January 6, 1863 ; some of the new dialects were partially learnt, and we were all hopeful and in full swing of work.
In February, the new mission schooner, Southern Cross, arrived after a safe and speedy passage from England ; and this seemed to fill up the measure of our joy and thankfulness.
The fine weather had broken up not long before, and now heavy rain fell for some days together.
And then came a grievous trial and sorrow upon us. A terrible form of dysentery broke out among our scholars. The dining hall was turned into a hospital, and the new mission vessel into a quaran- tine ship. Fifty out of fifty-two of our scholars, during the next seven weeks, were attacked by the disease ; six of them died : it seemed at one time as if none could survive. Well do we remember the kindness of the Rev. J. F. Lloyd, Dr. Dalliston, and other good friends, who rendered all the assist- ance in their power, which medical skill and careful nursing could supply. The Primate of New Zealand was absent when the sickness first broke out, but soon we had his help also. The resources of the mission party were severely tried indeed. God, in his mercy, preserved all the English, and three out of four of the Norfolk Island members of the mis- sion from sickness. All day long and late into the night they worked, cutting firewood, fetching water, providing every kind of food for the sick. Never was there so much cleanliness, order, and regularity in the kitchen, where Mr. Pritt and Mr. Palmer passed their whole time ; all hospital com- forts were supplied at all hours for the poor suf- ferers, of whom twenty-seven at one time were in a most precarious state. Indeed through it all, aud
40
LETT EES FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1S85.
it was a terrible time, there was a strange kind of happiness ; every one worked with all his heart and will, and in the midst of all the trials we expe- rienced many blessings.
We sailed for the Islands as soon as the disease had worn itself out and the convalescent patients could be moved.
The vessel answered all our expectations, fast and weatherly, and remarkably easy.
But the season was very unfavourable for a long voyage ; the weather was rough, and rain fell inces- santly : instead of the steady trade wind we had a succession of calms and squalls ; the yam crop had partially failed from the unusual character of the season ; and soon after Mr. Pritt and Mr. Palmer, with others, had been landed at Mota, an epidemic broke out in the island, influenza with low fever aud dysentery, which made it necessary to remove the whole party. In consequence of this, Ave were unable to pay a long visit'to the Solomon Islands, for our vessel was already nearly full, and it would not have been prudent to cruise about for any length of time in these very hot latitudes with a large and somewhat sickly party already on board. For the same reason, we were not able to re-visit on our homeward voyage the New Hebrides Islands, to which we had returned our scholars on our outward voyage. We made our way as quickly as the un- favourable weather permitted, to New Zealand, bringing a small party of about thirty-five scholars from the Bank's Islands, and a few others from Ysabel Island in the Solomon Group.
The cold weather — for we had arrived in New Zealand iu August — did not injure the health of our scholars ; and again everything went on brightly and happily for several mouths. The same seven scholars who had been baptized in January, 18G3, were now confirmed : we had more leisure than usual for working up various dialects from our MSS. books ; and great advance was made in the general management of the school.
But towards the end of the summer the same dread disease attacked us. The whole year was a very unhealthy one ; many English people, especi- ally young children, died from dysentery in Auck- land and the neighbourhood. The medical men say that they have never known so much sickness. It fell heavily upon our Melanesian scholars, who have little constitutional vigour to bear them up against severe illness.
Sir George Grey most kindly allowed us to move down to Kawau, a small island belonging to him, about twenty-five miles north of Auckland.
There the same scenes of suffering and anxiety once again took place. I who was absent in Aus- tralia during this second visitation of sickness, well know what my dear friends went through : I thank God who has given me such fellow-labourers, whose knowledge of what ought to be done, and whose power of doing it, were equal to their patient care and tender love for the poor sufferers. One lad had died from consumption, and one from dysentery,
when I was compelled to leave Kohimarama to pay a long-promised visit to the Australian Dioceses. When I returned after three months I found that six more scholars had passed away from amongst us.
We had never before been so tried. Fourteen scholars have died iu twelve months. Often we had thought that some trial must come soon : and God sent it in the most merciful way. We may be tried — He only knows — by the far more bitter sor- row of seeing old scholars fall away and the early j faith of young converts grow cold. The trial, and it is a heavy one, has been given in the way in I which we could best bear it now; and with the trial ! we, of all others, ought most to acknowledge that 1 we have received a blessing.
Of my visit to Australia I cannot find time to write fully. It is not easy to express what is very deeply felt.
At the very time that the sad sickness of our scholars in New Zealand was causing such great anxiety, the Church of Australia, in Adelaide, in Melbourne, in Sydney, and Brisbane, was pledging ; itself to the support of the Mission. The sickness was a transient though a very great sorrow ; the adoption of the Melanesian Mission as the special mission work of the Church of Australia, will, by the grace of God, prove a permanent source of glad- ness and blessing to millions in all ages.
Everywhere the fullest opportunity was afforded for making known the circumstances of the Mission ; and everywhere the plan originated, and for many years carried on by the Bishop of New Zealand, was recognised as a plan practicable in itself and well suited to the wants of the case. Collections in aid of the Mission were made to the amount of more than a thousand pounds, in addition to which a plan ! for insuring the Mission vessel was suggested by a gentleman in Sydney, which was at once adopted i and put into execution. Much assistance was ren- dered in other ways by those who procured stores for the Mission vessel at cost price and forwarded them free of charge.
Indeed it is not only by actual money payments, but by supplying the many articles of food or barter that are required for our school and work among the islands, that most valuable assistance can be rendered to the Mission. I shall have, I trust, leisure before long to enter somewhat more fully into these matters. 1 cannot now attempt to express my deep feelings of thankfulness for an amount of eucouragement and support far beyond what I had dared to anticipate.
One point only, as of primary importance, I may particularise, viz., the prospect of a Branch Insti- tution at Curtis Island on the east coast of Queens- land.
If only the climate of that island be found suit- able, no more desirable spot could be found for the purposes of the mission.
a. Curtis Island is not only much nearer than New Zealand to Melanesia, but the ordinary wind
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1365.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS.
41
from the S. -E. is a fair wind to or from most of the islands of Melanesia, reducing very greatly the length of the voyages, and enabling us therefore to visit the various clusters of islands more fre- quently.
b. The climate is semi-tropical, so that we could keep a permanent school there, and grow our own yams, etc., thus economising the expenditure of the mission.
c. We may hope by God's blessing that by living at Curtis Island we may be brought into communi- tion with the natives of that part of Australia, and ultimately, if it be God's will, incorporate the Aus- tralians into our Melanesian school.
There are many points to be considered before we can be in a position to speak with any degree of certainty on this matter. But I am bound thank- fully to acknowledge the many earnest promises of co-operation that I everywhere received, from many persons most anxiously desiring that some efforts should be made in this direction to help the abori- ginal inhabitants of Australia.
Whether in years to come the head-quarters of the Mission may be transferred to the east coast of Australia or not, the connection with Xew Zealand can never cease. It may be one of the many mar- vels of God's providence that men are sometimes permitted to see, that the Gospel first brought by Rev. S. Marsden from Australia to New Zealand, should in no long time be carried from Xew Zealand to Australia.
Let us all earnestly pray, and by the grace of God work together for the consummation of this blessed hope. But let us not indulge expectations of great results ; let us be content to wait patiently His own good time, using faithfully the means which He supplies, and leaving all issues in the hands of Him who alone can control them.
Sap.
The latest news from Tahiti give a most favour- able view of the progress of the French Protestant mission. Old congregations which had become almost defunct, have again revived. Sunday schools have been opened in a number of places. Three thousand copies of the Bible, sent from London, have found a speedy market, though each copy was sold at the high price of eight shillings. A service has also been begun specially for the French-speaking population. Messrs. Arbousset and Atger have extended their efforts to neighbour- ing islands.
We have been favoured by the Countess of Aberdeen with the following letter, directed to her by one of the American missionaries at Cairo : —
"Mr. Smith and Father Makhiel had a very
successful missionary trip as far as Assouan, and Brother Ewing followed a week ago. The seed sown in former years is evidently giving a rich har- vest in many places. Even in Ossiout, where we laboured so unsuccessfully to get established, there is now an earnest desire for our return, and two reliable men have undertaken to become personally responsible for the support of two native agents, if we will only send them. I am sorry to say that at present we have them not, at least, not outside of the theological class which we have now in train- ing here. In this class we have ten, and soon ex- pect two or three more to join it. We will keep them hard at work till spring, when we hope to send some of them out. The fire of the Coptic persecution here seems to be about burnt out. The result proves that, though the Patriarch and his people may for a time intimidate many of the weaker sort, he cannot keep them permanently from us. Our boys' and girls' schools here which suffered most have, within the past month, more than doubled their numbers, and still there is a daily increase. Our chapel is well filled at our Sabbath services, and all looks prosperous again. Our sale of Bibles and Christian books, so far from diminishing on account of the immense quantities which have been distributed, is constantly increas- ing. We are at length putting into execution our long-cherished idea of doing something in the way of increasing our Christian literature. We have nearly through the press the first number of a monthly periodical, which will be much of the character and style of the ' Christian Treasury ' with you. I have translated the little tract which Lord Aberdeen prepared, and I hope to publish it in the next number, together with a short notice of his life, and of what he did in Egypt, which will recall him to the minds of many. We have taken an important step in Alexandria in the purchase of mission premises. Our work there has been greatly retarded and hampered for years for the want of them. The increase of population has been so rapid that it has been impossible to secure sufficient houses for our schools, chapel, &c, and what we could get were at enormous rents. Last week we purchased a house iu the centre of the native quarter, and quite sufficient to accommodate the two schools, with a large room for a chapel for the time being, and an adjacent lot for sale for a chapel when we are in a position to build one. This is a large enterprise for us, especially just at present, when the exchange between this and America is at 240 ; but the Lord has stood by us hitherto, and furnished us with all the means we have needed, and we trust He will not now for- sake us.
Our Alexandria friends are moving in the mat- ter of helping us, and think they will be able to raise the money for the next payment ; and if you or any of your friends can give us an}- help just now, I assure you it would be very welcome and opportune.
42
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
§ri&! (Columbia.
The population has not increased during the past year. We number at present not more than 15,000, of which about 5000 reside in this city. The natives are not included in this enume- ration. Business has been dull of late in these colonies ; but there is just now a more hopeful prospect, owing to the discovery of new gold districts, one of which is only some twenty miles distant from town.
Another extensive gold region has been dis- covered between Cariboo and the Rocky Mountains, known as the Kootanar's District. It lies within British territory, but near to the boundary line, and on the direct road to the pass over the Rocky Mountains, through which it is supposed the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada will ere long extend — from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Georgia on the Pacific.
Already gold-hunters are at work on the banks of the Saskatchewan, on the opposite side of the Rocky Mountains, and tbe broad plaius that for ages have been left to the buffalo and Blackfeet are now to be cultivated by the hardy sons of Britain, attracted thither by the magnetic influence of gold. The savage has been in those regions for centuries, but has left behind no more evidence of his existence than if he had been a brute. Trappers by the dozen have been drafted to that vast territory in regular succession for more than a century in pursuit of peltries. But they have made no effort to elevate the aborigines. What could they have done among so many unless by policy maintain a balance of power among the tribes, and keep one party in check by the fear of combination among others. Now, however, when hundreds are drawn together in pursuit of the precious metal, they are soon impelled by a sense of self-preservation to adopt the customs of civi- lised society. _ The church and school take rank among their earliest institutions, and thus a basis of Christian operation is established in some wide field of barbarism. Gold-hunters play their part in the plan of divine providence, and as pioneers of I civilisation deserve the sympathy of the Church at large.
The statistics of our religious denominations may be stated in a sentence. The Church of England has in these colonies sixteen places of worship, and twelve ministers ; Roman Catholics, six, places of worship, and as many priests ; Metho- dists, five chapels, and four ministers ; Presbyte- rians, four places of worship, and four ministers.
Roman Catholics have most influence among the natives. It was an imposing sight on the last Queen's birthday, which we celebrated with all honour, to see the Governor of British Columbia address five thousand natives through a Catholic priest and three chiefs of tribes. The priest ren- dered the address of the Governor into Chinook, and the" chiefs translated the Chinook into their
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18(5.
respective tongues. The Indians on that occasion assembled in five hundred canoes, and many of them came a hundred miles. They consumed an immense quantity of bread and molasses at the expense of his excellency, and happy was the young savage who obtained a flashy ribbon, or a cap with tinsel band, as a token of the Governor's goodwill to each and all.
To my mind the most successful mission to the Indians is in operation on the north coast of British Columbia, in connection with the Church of England. There the well-disposed have separated from their tribe, built some seventy neat houses, have organised a native police, have adopted our modes of dress, pay tax into a common treasury, and have embarked briskly in trade. Supplied with goods for the interior they travel by canoe from tribe to tribe, barter blankets, guns, soap, &c, for skins, and have already discovered the advan- tages of trade. A chief wrill dispose of goods to the value of 100/. at one trip, and, after makiug cent, per cent., he can well afford to pay the mission depot large profits. The native on Naas river is as keen for commerce as the natives on the banks of the Niger. If by Christianity and com- merce the Red Man could be raised a little into civilisation ere coming into contact with vile white men, a goodly remnant might yet transform the wigwam into a peaceful and happy home. The poor savage can hardly be said to have a home. In nothing do the natives alluded to rejoice more than in an agreeable seuse of security, which enables the old warrior to retire to rest free from all fear of aggression.
Next to the union of these colonies the question of education commands most interest. A good popular system has not been established. And while there are a few private schools in this city, they are cast into the shade by the Roman Catholic college aud nunnery schools. In the pre- sence of such imposing and effective educational appliances, Protestants have reason to hide their heads. Oblate fathers and Irish nuns make us ashamed of our ecclesiastical equipments. We need good teachers and schools, and while the clergy and Members of Parliament wrangle over a system of education, foreigners build their splendid esta- blishments, and offer superior instruction on such terms as to attract children of all classes.
Monks and nuns have come in such numbers to this quarter of the world, that one would think Catholicism had chosen the North Pacific to recruit its strength.
Some assert that it is at present dominant in California, and should the South conquer, it would ere long raise a bold front. It is by uo means so weak on this continent as some imagine. It sends missionaries by the dozen to these colonies and to California and Oregon. Its unity is strength, national and denominational disunion its delight and opportunity.
Victoria, Vancouver's Island.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
SUGGESTIONS AXD REPLIES.
43
SUGGESTIONS AXD REPLIES.
THE MOHAMMEDAN MISSION IX TURKEY.
TO THE EDITOR OF " CHRISTIAN WORK."
Sir, — In your November number, under the head of "Turkey," you published a letter from Dr. Perkins of Oroomiah, ,vhich requires correction, both in regard to facts asserted and views advanced.
One would naturally suppose that an old mission- ary, labouring, if not among the Persians, at least in Persia among the Xestorians, for so many years, would have a correct knowledge of the history and character of my book, the "Balance of Truth," or the "Mizan ul Hagg," as it is generally called, but this his assertions disprove. He says " the book has had a stormy origin, nearly costing its esteemed author the adventure of a mob when it was rumoured that he was meditating such a work, thus not foreshadowing for itself a very peaceful course."
During the whole of my stay and travels in Persia, I have been only once in danger from a mob, or an uproar of the fanatical populace of a city, and this was in Kermanshah, in the spring of 1831. But this uproar had nothing to do what- ever with the book in question. It was caused simply by the sale and distribution of Persian Scriptures, the making known of Christ to those who came to me, and by the discussions called forth by inquirers and opponents. The "Mizan" was compiled in German, at Schusha, before that journey, and translated into Persian after my re- turn to that station of the Bale Missionary Society, situated in the Russian territory close on the Persian frontier, and it was never mentioned or referred to on that journey in any of my conversations with the Persians.
Another mistaken assertion of Dr. Perkins is his statement, that the book was "printed in India." The first Persian edition was printed in 1836, at the Mission Press in Schusha. Xor has the book only lately, as Dr. Perkins seems to imply, "found its way to Persia, and strayed to that country.'' Before the Bale Mission was broken up, and the missionaries had left Schusha, in 1837, copies were sent from thence to Persia. And on my way from Schusha to India, through Persia, I distributed myself several copies, and left a number | with friendly Armenians in some of the towns I passed through, for private distribution to their i Persian friends ; and from India copies have been ! sent into Persia by way of Bombay and Bushire.
Its "origin" also, or its first appearance in Persia, ! was not "stormy." On the contrary, those few Persians who read the manuscript at Tabris, where, j in the winter of 1832 and spring of 1833 I com- I pleted its final revision, were delighted with the I book. And when on my way to India through i Persia, in the autumn of 1837, I fell in one morn- j ing, near Isphahan, with two Persian gentlemen I
coming from Teheran, they told me, as some of the news of the capital (without, of course, know- j ing that I was the author), of the book, as having j just become known there, and admired by many, but much spoken against by the mullahs, or priests. In India, after my arrival at Calcutta, | no sooner was the book known and read by one ! of the missionary friends there, a civilian of high i position, and well versed in Persian, than he asked me to print a new edition, defraying himself, to- I gether with a few friends of his, the whole expense. | It has been highly valued in India, both by mis- j sionaries and civil and military officers, and has also become the means, under God's blessing, of ! leading several Mohammedans to the truth, and of silencing opponents. Thus has it nowhere raised any storm, either in Persia or India. Liberal- i minded Mohammedans, both in those countries ! and here in Turkey, have liked the book, and have been interested in it ; though the bigoted, as was to be expected, have spoken and written ; against it. It is also a fact, that both here and in India, it has been asked for by Mussulmans j much more frequently than my other books, which ! are less controversial than the "Mizan."
Whether the late storm here is attributable solely to the "Mizan " may be called in question. Most of j the converts were baptised before the Turkish trans- [ lation was in circulation. But shmild this stir have J been produced exclusively by its extensive circula- i tion in the capital, may this not be considered an argument rather for than against it ? Would it not show that the truth contained in it has made its power to be felt, and consequently the opposi- tion?
Whether the time has arrived for direct mis- sionary labour among the Turks or not, on that point there may be a difference of opinion among missionaries and their friends at home. The Com- mittee of the Church Missionary Society thought that that time had now arrived, and consequently they resumed their labour in Turkey by entering upon a direct mission to the Mohammedans. That such a step was fully justified cannot but be evi- dent to any one who has watched the state of poli- tical and social transition upon which Turkey has entered.
That the object of our labours among the Turks is not strife and contention, but simply the preach- ing of the Gospel, I need not mention. But equally true it is that the Gospel cannot be preached to the Mohammedans without causing opposition and contention. The American missionaries labouring among the Armenians can, if they like, keep clear of a Mohammedan controversy, but not so a mis- sionary labouring among the Turks. I know that all those missionaries who have, like myself, la- boured in Georgia, Persia, or India among the Mus- sulmans, have not been able to avoid it, notwith-
44
SUGGESTIONS AND REPLIES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
standing the earnest desire to do so. The missionary, when speaking of or preaching Christ crucified to the Mohammedans, and in return is attacked by them on the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity, and the Atonement, is he to say nothing in defence of these fundamental doctrines of the Gospel ? or is he to keep silence when it is asserted that the Gospel is abrogated and so corrupted that it can no longer be called the pure word of God ? And is he to remain mute when the Moslem recites his boastful praise of the Koran and of his false Prophet ? Is the missionary not to state the grounds "of the hope that is in Him"? or "to stop the mouths of gainsayers " ? Silence here would be nothing less than unfaithfulness to his commission. Has the Gospel ever been preached without pro- ducing opposition ? Has not the work of our American brethren among the Armeniaus also pro- duced the same effect, and obliged them, like our- selves, to defend the truth and expose error ? How can they, therefore, or any one else, expect that this would be otherwise in the work among the Moham- medans, the old and systematical enemies of Christ and his Gospel ?
It seems that Dr. Perkins is under the impression that my brethren and myself are in the habit of doing our work by attacking the errors of Islam, rather than by setting forth the truth as it is in J esus. To avoid attacks and to spare the missionary a lengthened defence and controversy, is one of the very purposes for which the "Mizan ul Hagg" has been written. If a Mohammedan comes with his attacks or asks for proofs, we give him the "Mizan," and ask him first carefully to consider what is said therein, and then to come for further discussion. Thus much trouble is spared, and time gained for the simple statement of Gospel truths. That con- troversy with the Mohammedans, or defence and attack, could not be avoided, however earnestly we strove against it, of this my brethren and myself were fully convinced after a few years of direct and active labour among them. And besides, we found that our opponents would never listen to a long or regular discussion and argument, and that in a few short words their objections could not be met nor the whole truth be set before them. The conviction therefore forced itself upon us that such discussions ought to be settled in writing, and this led to the compilation of the "Mizan." The book consequently does not begin with an attack upon Islam, but with defending the Gospel against the usual attacks of the Mohammedans. In the second part it exhibits the essential ! doctrines of the Gospel, set forth and attested tby copious passages from the Scriptures, and only the latter part is an attack upon Islam, but this also not in a direct way, but in the form of an inquiry into the claims of the Koran and of Mohammed. The "Mizan " is therefore no ' ' attempt to substitute man's wisdom as an improvement on the Divine instrumentality," as Dr. Perkins appears to represent it, but is merely a defence and setting forth of the truths of the
blessed Gospel, and an exposure of error. Such a condemnation of it would therefoi-e imply a verdict against all that has been done by the Church in defence and cxplanatiou of the truth in olden times and in our own days, for which I do not think that Dr. Perkius would be prepared. If he has found anything in the book contrary to the above end, or met with any unsound argument in it, or any passage improperly worded, I am quite willing to reconsider or retract it, if pointed out. That the book has answered the end of avoiding much of unprofitable discussion with wily Mohammedan opponents, and has proved a guide to the truth for sincere inquirers ; of this, if required, testimonies of missionaries in India as well as from my own ex- perience coxdd be easily adduced.
But now enough. I only repeat that it has been with great reluctance that I have said so much in defence of my book and of our labour among the Turks ; but for the work's sake I felt myself com- pelled to do so, in consideration of present circum- stances.
Yours faithfully,
C. G. Pfander, Missionary of the Church Missionary Society. Constantinople, November 15th, 18C4.
AGENCIES IN CAIRO.
TO THE EDITOR OF " CHRISTIAN WORK."
Sir, — In a recent number is a letter signed B. S., in which the writer says, in the April num- ber was a paper professing to give a brief sketch of Protestant agencies in Egypt, and severely cen- suring the omission of all allusion to the Malta Col- lege School in Cairo, and the Jewish mission in the same city. Now, that paper never professed to de- tail all Protestant agencies, but only such as were directly missionary, and among the natives of the country, as was expressly stated. Of course the Jews, not being natives, could not be included as such any more than European residents ; and it is well known that the Malta College School is educa- tional, and not missionary ; and the excellent man who conducts it, himself declared on opening it, that it was not to be considered as a missionary undertaking, though under Christian influences.
As to the accounts given by B. S. of the Jewish quarter, it certainly caused great amazement among all Christian residents in Cairo ; and perhaps they felt it would be well if editors of missionary maga- zines would try to ascertain from good authority how far accounts from distant places may be relied on, before giving them to the public ; but of this you may be assured, that in no eastern station is there less of sectarian spirit than in Cairo ; and, far from a desire to undervalue or hide each others' work existing among the few labourers in that difficult field, I believe they are all glad to acknowledge every sincere and genuine effort to spread the Gospel of Christ.
I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully,
M. L. W.
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
NEW BOOKS.
46
NEW BOOKS
BEARING ON
CHRISTIAN WORK.
ENGLISH LITERATURE. In turning over the light, showy, and often tricky- religious literature of the day, it is a pleasure to meet a book like Dr. Howson1 s on St. Paul.* Dr. Howson's previous studies have served as an excellent preparation for this work ; and circumstances must have led him with almost as much as reverence and love for the highest type of Apostolic character. There is a marvellous fascination in this Apostle of the Gentiles. Men of action are stirred by his restless energy ; meditative men are charmed by his profound and speculative mind. Standing on the border between two epochs, he sways the sym- pathies of each ; by his gentle loveable spirit, his passionate affection, his missionary ardour, his ad- venturous faith, his clear judgment and common sense, his keen, incisive logic, he holds a part of almost every heart. Yet there is no large English literature on the subject ; and the present attempt has the prestige of novelty. In Germany, Holland, and France, there is a Pauline literature, but not at home ; for the shrewdness of Paley's Horx Paulinas, and the suggestive hints thrown out by Stanley and Blunt, are too incomplete to deserve the name. Yet there are some English works of which Dr. Howson has made no mention, and which it would be worth while to gather with the rest into a bibliographical note. Of the foreign monographs he has made large use, especially of Monod and Stier. The tact, tenderness, conscientiousness, courage, and faith of Paul receive the most thorough elucida- tion, and are presented with a rare and happy force ; and the whole character stands out in living and striking portraiture. Christian readers, whether students or not, will thank Dr. Howson for this book ; nor will they overlook his honest Pauline protest against the prevalent habit of sweeping down men by a broad and unpopular party name. "Latent heresy is often suspected, except when violent language is employed. I can- not, however, consent to purchase a reputation for Christian orthodoxy by forgetting what is due to Christian courtesy ; nor can I help entering my protest against the unfairness with which theo- logical writers are often at once condemned by the application of some vague and general term of
* Five Lectures on the Character of St. Paul. By the Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D.
censure." And again: "It appears tome an evil to group together, by an accidental resemblance, those who really differ very much from one another; and perhaps of all party terms those are the worst which rest upon a negation." No person of reflec- tion will deny that these words are greatly needed.
The story Dr. Anderson has to tell* is one that would have gladdened St. Paul's heart, an episode in the great ingathering of the Gentiles. Forty years ago the American Board of Foreign Missions sent an embassy to the Sandwich Islands. Even La Perouse, Rousseau-bitten as he was, and anxious to find the highest virtue in the greatest savage, has described the natives as more false than the falsest scum of Europe. Their idols were not more hideous than their sacrifices ; their volcanoes were more merciful than themselves : they were degraded enough to devour lice, and dress centipedes for dinner. The first missionaries are still alive, yet paganism is abolished ; the islands are ruled by Christian laws, under a Christian king ; one-third of the adults are at present members of Protestant churches ; and upwards of 50,000 have professed faith in Christ. Dr. Anderson, the Secretary of the Board, was deputed to visit the Island Church in 1863. Though wanting little of seventy years, he undertook the journey, and has recorded his im- pressions in a noticeable and entertaining book. The past is already a tradition in Hawaii ; an idol is not to be seen ; European customs have sup- planted the rough barbarism of centuries ; and the story of the chief who, on being rebuked by a missionary for visiting him in his naked way, re- turned in triumph, clothed with a pair of silk stockings and a beaver hat, is as ludicrous to a native as to an American. During Dr. Anderson's visit it was resolved to separate the Mission finally from home connection, and to merge it in a native clmrch. A seminary for ministers is one of the features of the Islands, and Mr. Dana describes the departments of science and classics to be as efficient as in Harrow or Cambridge. The problem now to be worked out is an interesting one, and not the least so in its illustrations of primitive churches, their hasty growth, temptations, heresies, and decay. One of the most curious chapters
* The Hawaiian Islands ; their Progress and Condi- tion under Missionary Labours. By Kufus Andekson, D.D.
4(3
X£)V BOOKS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
of this book is that on the churches of Corinth and Hawaii. The story is brought down to the most recent date, and is a clear refutation of many of the statements put forward by Mr. Hopkins in his recent book.
America has furnished illustrations of Christian work in another department by the recent report of the Sanitary Commission for the army. * As Nature heals her scars with grass and leaves, so war at the I fiercest also brings its healing agencies into play. The lesson of the Crimea has not been lost upon the North ; and a valuable voluntaiy auxiliary has i been, added to the medical department of the Go- vernment. At a time of such overwhelming strain J no department of the kind can be above requiring i help, and the voluntary sen-ices of devoted men I and women is of the very highest and best. War has something to do with the development of Kai- serswerths, and very much with our Kaiserswerths in England ; and we may hope to see this question of organised voluntary help, both of deacons and deaconesses, coming into greater clearness through the civil war in America. Though a report, the volume is full of anecdote. "Mothers write of their ' undying gratitude ' for the simple announce- ment that their boys are doing well iu hospital ; others 1 invoke the blessing of God upon the labours of the Commission,' and sisters will 'cherish the warmest gratitude while memory lasts/ And then the eagerness with which inquiries are made. 1 By the love you bear your own mother, tell me where my boy is.' 1 Only give me some tidings.' 4 Is he dead and how did he die ? ' 1 Is he alive and how can I get to him V 'I pray you tell me of these two nephews I am seeking for. I have had fourteen nephews in the service, and these two are the only
ones left.' ' It is very hard, my friend,'
was said to one mute with grief, ' but you are not alone.' 'I know it, sir,' was the prompt reply, 'but he was the only one I had.' ' I waut to find my husband ; I have not heard from him for several months. I have written to the officers of his regi- ment, but do not get any reply. Can you tell me where he is ? ' ' Will you please to give me his name and the number of his regiment ? ' '0 yes, sir. ' 1 You will rind him at Lincoln Hospital. The city cars pass the building, and the conductor will point it out to you.' A momentary stare of incre- dulity is perceptible ; then, turning her full deep eyes swollen with emotion, she gives one look — a full reward for a month of labour — and in an in- I ! staut is in the street."'
The solitary worker has his place in the great system of divine toil as well as the great society ; ; and a modest little tract informs us of a modest mission begun in the kingdom of Chamba.f Up in the Himalayas, and bounded by Cashmere, Lahoul,
* The Sanitary Commission of the United States Army ; a Succinct Xarratirc of its Works and Pur- poscs.
+ The Chnmha Mission : how it came to he begun, and how it has been carried on.
and Kangra, it has a popidation of 120,000, greatly afflicted with goitre and greatly degraded. The tract is written by a clergyman who could not get on with his society, and did the wisest thing — left it. Societies cannot afford too free play for indi- I viduality of character ; and some men may work $ better alone. The Chamba missionary is evidently sincere and eccentric, and has struck out a new path. To strike the native mind with a convic- tion of their commission, "we arranged ourselves in a line, each five or six paces apart ; and after much prayer, and feeling that the Lord was with us of a truth, we set forth over the whole city, proclaiming in a loud voice as we went, first in English, then in Urdu, then in Hindu : Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace ajid good-will toward men. The king- dom, the power, and the glory be the Lord's for ever, and ever, Amen /" The second time "at each halt we prayed aloud. " The third time they went to the vil- lages outside the city, and added the words of the commission from Mark xvi. 15, 16. Before private dwellings, in the bazaars, even at the gate of the palace : Maliaraj ! the promises of God are to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off. God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever belie vet h in Himshoidd not perish, but have everlasting life. Dear brethren, these words are true. Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is come nigh unto you. Other verses were added ; and when one of the three (two natives and the missionary) grew hoarse, the others sustained the burden. The result was that crowds followed them, the rajah bowed to them, and the children sometimes repeated the Words after them. It produced a sensation ; but we are not clearly informed whether good or eviL The next effort was to sit at school with a number of children under a Hindu pundit. This led to frequent remonstrance from the pundit, who declined so advanced a pupil ; but the missionary persisted, and finally lost the old pundit his situa- tion. " The old pundit and we are now great friends :" but here also there is a want of con- nection. This exploit over, the proclamations were resumed by even entering inside the courts of the houses. ' ' The noise we made at one place prepared them to expect us at the next. By the end of November there was probably not one person in the whole city and immediate neighbourhood who had not heard of the name, love, and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." Later, much influence was won with the Rajah. He read the English Bible with them, declared it must be true ; is now busy learning Roman Urdu that he may read it for himself ; has given xis a free site, with all the timber, for both church and school ;" and wishes to promote education. The writer's remarks are often shrewd, and always decided. ' ' We keep fo away from noisy crowded places . . . We do not believe in street discussions . . . We have seen missionaries with large audiences round them. Sud- denly one or two individuals, generally smartish- looking young men, squeeze through the crowd to
Christian "Work, Jan 2, 1863.]
NEW BOOKS.
47
the very front, and standing quietly for a few minutes, with a suppressed grin upon their faces, and a thorough consciousness of power, suddenly interrupt the speaker by a pert question, possibly too frivolous to be noticed, and the speaker pro- ceeds. But these men have come for fun. They try it again and again. At length a keen contro- versy ensues. In the midst of the discussion the cavillers disappear, almost as suddenly as they came, leaving the audience generally greatly amused, and the missionary sad ... It seems to us that the better way is by brief enunciations of truth, never to exceed five minutes in delivery. We would not deliver them at any fixed place, would build our hopes mainly on individual conversational teach- I ing," and here are the missionary's plans and j opinions. He appeals for help : for a church, to cost 300?. ; and preaching stations at 20/. each ; and for Scripture readers. Those in the neighbour- hood appear to have faith in the mission, and it is carrying the kingdom of Christ into a new terri- tory.
Books of sermons abound at this season, like other books, but with less to justify their appear- ance.* Goodwin's Discourses on Election form the ninth volume of that author's works in Mr. NichoFs edition. Mr. Beecher has found a re-publisher in this country. + Twenty-four sermons have been issued in a pleasant, well-printed volume, and with the promise of more. They bear the mark [of Mr. Beecher throughout. Singularly felicitous in imagery, illustration, and phraseology irregular ; and impulsive, and illogical in thought ; continually sinking to the lower level of the platform, and on the point of being coarse or ludicrous ; more apt to seize the aesthetic and moral aspects of truth than the doctrinal or spiritual. Mr. Brown's sermons X are always a theological system. It is the theolo- gical thinker who speaks ; with honest enthusiastic earnestness, "marred by frequent whimsicality of expression, and the consciousness of effort. He thinks out openly for himself, but has not escaped the temptation of fancying that original thoughts must imply original doctrine. The present volume ! is on The Divine Treatment of Sin, starting from The Fall treated as Development. Dr. Thompson's small treatise § — for the sermons assume that form — is probably the most valuable of the four. There could scarcely be a better exposition of the graces strung together by St. Peter in the opening of his second Epistle. Mr. Binney found himself in not an uncommon predicament when, intending to con- fine his subject to two sermons, it expanded to fourteen. || The Christian relations of money have
* Goodwin's Works. Vol. IX., Discourses of Election and Thankfulness.
t Beecher* 's Sermons. Vol. I.
% The Divine Treatment of Sin. By J. Baldwin Brown, B.A.
§ The Band of Christian Graces. By the Eev. J. P. Thompson, DP.
II Money : a Popular Exposition in Rough Notes. By T. Binney.
not been fairly dealt with hitherto, and it is well that Mr. Binney has brought his well-trained mind to so difficult and intricate a subject. The super- ficial treatment it has been lately receiving, has dis- couraged attention, and has confused and repelled men, instead of helping them in their stewardship. The bad influences of money occupy the first six Sermons, first as obstructions of the light, and then as antagonistic to the divine life begun in the soul. The succeeding six sermons treat of the right religious use to which money may be put ; the last two are an exposition of systematic beneficence. The author apologises for the form of " rough notes " in which these sermons appear, and in which illness has compelled him to retain them." It may be found that their very roughness lends a force and suggestiveness to the volume that it could not have otherwise. We have no essays on the subject so searching, convincing, practical, and telling.
Mr. Paton's fine criticism of M. Kenan's Vie de Jesus was pointed out when it appeared in the London Quarterly Review. It has been wisely re- printed,* and will take its place with the best lite- rature on the subject. A thoughtful essay on the Atonement has been written by Mr. Robert Brown, + and will repay close perusal. Mr. Brown is a grace- ful and simple writer, as well as an intelligent and independent thinker.
Jacobus' Notes on Joha% will be welcome to those who need his help in the other Gospels, to all of which Mr. Mimpriss has furnished a marvellously cheap and compact Harmony. % A useful, handy book of another sort has been compiled by Dr. Bonar, who has arranged a vast number of the Promises of God in a readable volume, || "a book for the closet and sick room : which a traveller might like to pack into his portmanteau, or a friend choose as a gift." Dr. Bonar will receive the thanks of more than one generation for working out so admirably a thought so happy.
At a season of present -giving and story-telling like this, it is pleasant to mention three excellent gifts. Those who care for history will be amply provided by a tale of the brilliant episode of the Italian Reformation, wrought out with much know- ledge, skill, and picturesqueness. *\\ Tossed on the Waves is a fine manly stor}-, with plenty of quiet adventure, and some capital surprises, a book that would delight a boy's heart,** and do him good. Studies for Stories ff are written with the
* A Review of the "Tie de Jesus" of M. Renan. Bv J. B. Paton, M.A.
t The Gospel of Common Sense. By Robert Brown.
X Notes on the Gospels, Critical and Explanatory. John. By Melanchthus W". Jacobus.
§ TJie Gospel Treasury : a Treasury Harmony of the Four Evangelists. Compiled by Robert Mimpriss.
|j The Word of Promise : a Handbook to the Promises of Scripture. By Horatius Bonar, D.D.
% From Dawn to Dark in Italy. A Tale of the Re- formation in the Sixteenth Century.
** Toised on the Waves. A Story of Young Life. By Edwin H odder.
ff Studies for Storks. In Two Volumes.
43
XEW BOOKS.
[Christian "Work, Jan . 2, U63.
most charming ease and fidelity to nature. Some of them are as perfect as sketches of the kind can be, and there .is a delicious purity in the style, a depth of feeling and tenderness of expression, that make them read like poems. The fine conception and powerful illustration of character, the dramatic force, the delicate perception, the subtle grace of thought, mark an authoress of as high and uncom- mon a character as has appeared in this age of authoresses. It is intrinsically the worthiest New Year's gift that the season has produced, and may be put with almost equal pleasure into the hands of either the young or the old.
Of pamphlets it is enough to mention A Few Words to our Village Girls, containing excellent homely advice, which would have bee a better with- out the meagre and garbled collection of Hymns at the eud : Self Love and the Morals of the Future, an exposition of the theory that^Self Love] is the basis of all natural morality : and The Presence of God our Rest, a New Year's address from the . welcome pen of ^the Rev. Charles Stanford.
SWISS LITERATURE.
Le Christianisme dans Vdge moderne, by M. Chastel, is the continuation of the author's learned studies on Church history. M. Chastel has long been Professor at Geneva of ecclesiastical history ; and he is one of the men who devote to their duties their whole time and abilities. He has thus pro- duced several volumes which are highly esteemed among men of learning, and one of which, UHistoire de la destruction du Paganisme, has received a prize from the French Academy. The new volume is a sequel to that entitled Le Christianisme et UEglise au moyen age: and the author still promises us a volume of which our own age will be the subject ; then another volume of the times anterior to the middle ages ; and four volumes which will embrace the entire history of the Church. This will not be a narrative of facts : it will be a survey of their complex relations and their concatenations. M. Chastel excels in making the highest questions accessible to all : his works are neither below the learned, nor above the ordinary intelligence.
In a much more humble sphere I will mention to you our Etrennes religieuses, a popular book, which is now entering on the sixteenth year of its existence, and is published by Genevan ecclesiastics. It is a simple collection of edifying and instructive scraps, which, however, have for the most part the recom-
mendation of actuality and nationality. It pene- trates into many places where works of a positively religious character would not penetrate, and at the same time it is much liked in all religious families. It concludes every year with a rapid history of all that has taken place at Geneva in the Church and in the religious world, during the last twelve months. These annual summaries will hereafter have an historic interest.
For Christmas we have a new publication by M. Bungener, No€l au Pole, ou Dieu partout. This treatise, of which the subject is entirely English, and -will no doubt interest the people among whom you live, has just been translated and published in London (Nisbet).
Some "Lessons on Geneva," found among the papers of the late Mr. Gaussen, have just now been published in a little volume in which we recognise the capacity of the author as a catechist and as a writer.
One of the popular poets of German Switzerland, the pastor Frbhlich, has published at Zurich a poem in ten idyls, epitomising the life of Calvin. The plan is ingenious ; and the poem is, in many places, remarkably beautiful and profound. We were pleased with this new testimonial of Calvinian — I cannot say Calvinistic — fraternity. But Germany has of late given us many such ; and never before has the country of Luther shown itself so favour- ably disposed to Calvin. Not less precious are to us the sympathies 'of the country of Zuinglius, German Switzerland. The poem of M. Frbhlich is dedicated to the Company of Pastors.
The Quotidiennes and Piete pratique are two col- lections of meditations for domestic worship. The author, M. Masse, is not an ecclesiastic. Still young, but paralysed from his birth, he has sought in piety a relief from his afflictions, and has, more- over, endeavoured to make his experiences profit- able to others.
At a time when such general attention is directed to the Bible, and to all questions connected with it, you will not] learn without interest that our best Hebrew scholar, Pastor Segond, has been directed by the Companykof Pastors to make a new transla- tion of the ^Old Testament. M. Segond possesses every qualification for the completion of such a grand and beautiful task — science, activity, perse- verance and [a profound faith in the Divinity of the j Scriptures. We hope much from him ; and all the ' Evangelical Christian Churches will assuredly follow him with their sympathies and prayers.
For use in Library only
For use in Library ooif