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BV 2035 .E55 1876 Ellinwood, Frank F. 1826-
1908. The "great conquest"
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THE
"GREAT CONQUEST;"
OB,
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON MISSIONS.
BY
F. F. ELLINWOOD.
►• ■♦»-»-^4-
N E W YORK:
WILLIAM^ RANKIN," 23 CENTRE STREET,
MDCCCLXXVI.
CONTENTS.
Introductory Note. I. — The Prophetic Basis of the Mission Work. II. — The Lojric of the Gospel. III. — The New Testament Estimate of Man. IV. — The Apostolic Examples of Missionary Policy. V. — The Primitive and the Modern Mission Work Compared. VI.— The Greatness of the Work to be Done. VII. — The Array of ilissionary Forces. VIII. — The Argument of Success. IX. — Other than Xumerical Results. X. — The Cause of Missions owned of God in the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. XI. — Do Converted Heathen Help Themselves? XII. — Instances of the Spontaneous Extension of the Truth. XIII.— The Cost of Missions.
XIV. — Foreign Missions Essential to the Life of the Church. XV. — Colonization and Commerce as Means of the World's Evan- gelization. XVT. — Woman's Work for Missions. XVII. — Buddhism in its Practical Relation to Miseiona. XVI If. — The Bondage and Degradation of Brahminism, XIX. — Mohammedanism and Christian Missions. XX. — Truth and Error Tested on the Same Soil. XXL— Sir Bartle Frcre on the Change of Native Sentiment in India. XXII. — The Great Change in the Policy of the Indian Government. XXIII. — The Great Opening in Japan.
XXIV. — Reasons for Protestant Missions in Roman Catholic Countries. XXV. — The Evangelization of the American Indians. XXVI. — Diversity in Missionary Organizations. XXVII. — The Criticism of Travelers upon the Mission Work. XXVIIL— The Specific Objections Commonly Made.
XXIX. — The Favorable Testimony of Travelers and Others to the
Value of Missions. XXX. — Foreign Missionary Statistics of the Protestant Churches. XXXI. — What Can Be Done for the Cause of Missions ?
IPv^RODUCTORY NOTE.
\ THSO LOGIC >^:v,-
This unpretending little volume does not aspire to the dig- nity and order of a connected treatise. Amid other and press- ing duties, these detached papers have been thro^\ai together for the perusal of those who lack time or opportunity for ex- tended reading, on missionary topics. A few of the fundamen- tal grounds on which the great work of Missions rests, have been merely touched upon, rather by way of suggestion than otherwise, in the hope that a more careful and exhaustive treatment may be given by others. Only a few of the facts of missionary history have been submitted; nor is it necessary to do more than to allude to the prominent points by which the relations of the Modern Church to this great cause may be seen: the fundamental principles on which it rests are gen- erally accepted. To a considerable extent, the testimony of those who have observed the mission work in various lands has been presented. Many objections and cavils have been met ; due importance has been given to auxiliary influences, such as colonization and the extension of commerce ; and an effort has been made to group together, partially, at least, the aggregate results of missionary enterprises up to the present time.
In looking abroad over the wide fields already occupied, and in summing up the results thus far realized, I have per- sonally gained a profound impression of the success which God has given to this cause; and if these pages shall in any degree serve to impart that impression to others, my aims and
hopes will have been met.
r. F. ELLINWOOD.
New York, May 1, 1876.
THE PKOPEETIC BASIS OF THE INHSSION WORK.
QxE of the most important requisites to an earnest mission- ary spirit in the Church, is a thorough nnderstanclLng of the truth of God's word on the subject. Doubtless one cause of the too common indifference — not to say scepticism — inregai'd to Missions, ■wUl be found in a virtual ignorance of the strong and explicit teachings of the Scriptures.
No prophecies of the Old Testament are clearer or more varied than those which predict the conquests of the Gospe and the establishment of Christ's Kingdom over all nations.
God's first promise to Abraham — " In thee shall all famihes of the earth be blessed" — denoted a great world-wide cove- nant. Its limitations were made only for a time, and for special reasons. And the ins^Dired Psalmist foresaw this blessed consummation when he said, "All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thea"
Generations later, Isaiah/ in his visions of the future, ex- claimed, with joyful expectation, " AU nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name."
The very process of development and conquest was fore- told. The law should "go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jenisalem." Many nations should arise and say, " Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob."
It was foretold that commerce should be subsidized for the ends of Christ's kingdom : " The multitude of camels," and ** the dromedaries of Midian and of Ephah " should bring gold and incense. The sea also should becom'e a highway :
8 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
" Surely tlie isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshisb first to bring thy sons from iax, their silver and theii-gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel."
Governments and diplomacies should minister to the pro- gress of the Redeemer's Kingdom (as we are witnesses in our time): " The Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. All nations shall serve Him."
It was shown, nevertheless, that this should be a peaceful con(]t^est — not like the battle of the warrior, with " confused noise and garments rolled in blood." " He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth."
The rejection of Christ by the Jews, and the extension of a covenanted salvation to the Gentiles, was clearly indicated long befoi-e it occurred.
When Christ came, He clearly announced that in His lifting up He would draw all men unto Him. And before His as- cension He epitomized the duty and work of the Church in that great and last commission, "Go teach all nations, bap- tizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
This command was attended vrith the assurance that all power was given unto Him in heaven and in earth ; and with the promise that in the exci'cise of that power He would be with His people " alway even unto the end of the world."
Nothing in the teachings of our Saviour is more emphatic than this one final and summary lesson; that the great errand of His Church on earth is to reclaim the lost race of men for whom He died. Angels might have been commissioned to this work, but He has laid it upon His own redeemed follow- ers. They are to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world ; and there sounds through all the ages that .stining appeal to gratitude, " Fieely have ye received : freely give."
The development of the missionary spirit in the early Church forms an interesting study. Even by His discii^les the
PEOPHETIC BASIS OF THE MISSION WORK. d
full meaning of our Lord's great coinmand was not fully understood at first.
But it is a very significant fact that the Pentecostal baptism of the Chtu'ch should have occurred at a time when the repre- sentatives of many lands were assembled in Jerusalem, and that the very symbols of the great outpouring should have been tonr/ucs of fire to indicate a world-wide salvation. The SiDirit of God had appeared in the shekinah and in the form of a dove ; but now, to denote the proclamation of the gospel in all languages and to all nations, He came in the vision of cloven tongues. Temporary sojoui-ners, who had come from the valley of the Euphrates and the shores of the Caspian, from the sands of Arabia and the banks of the Nile, fi'om the borders of the Lybian Desert and from the Island of Crete, from the northern limits of Syria, and the various countries of Asia Minor, and even from far-off Rome, looked with amaze- ment upon the Galileean disciples as tbey heard them speaking in all the languages of their native lands.
Yet with all this, even Peter had not yet perceived that " God is no respecter of persons," or that " in every nation he that feareth Him and workpth righteousness is accepted with Him ;" and it was only by slow degrees that Jewish believers came to • accept the full broad truth that salvation had been purchased for the race.
Phillip does not appear to have gone even to Samaria till after the " persecution that arose about Stephen " and others of that same dispersion, though tliey " traveled as far as Phenice and • Cyprus," preached the word " to none but unto Jeius onhj^^'' until they came to Antioch.
But the Church was at last to be brought to a full under standing of her great mission to the nations.
One who had been an intolerant persecutor was divinely announced as a " chosen vessel " unto God " to bear His name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel." Immediately upon his conversion he preached the Gospel to the Jews in their synagogues in Damascus, and disputed
10 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
"with the " Grecians " in the same city ■witli such effect that they sought to kill him. But wider and wider became the range of his sympathy and aspiration, till he came to " know no man after the flesh."
Sent out from Antioch with Barnabas at the Spirit's call, he went into the mountains of Asia Minor, where it would seem that he found afield wide enough for all his effjrt; and he preached to lieathen as well as to Jews. But still further was he called forth — ^into Macedi>nia, and to Corinth and Athens, and at length to Rome. His learning had qualified him to stand in the great national capitals and chief centres of the world, and his Roman citizenship secured respect and influence and even protection.
He knew, moreover, the spirit and scope of Judaism and its relations to Christianity ; he understood also the philosophic errors of his time ; and how fully he could fathom the dogTada- tion of heathenism, his Epistle to the Romans fully attests.
Only from such knowledge of the moral ruin of pagan na- tions could he have gained that intense zeal which in the midst of toils and hardslnjis and perils unto death glowed undimin- ished to the last.
Because he realized the condition of perishing millions, he felt that his life was not his own. For Christ's sake he was a " debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians."
As to the successes gained by Paul and his co- laborers, they saw even in their own time the institutions of the gospel estab- lished most firmly in centres lying beyond the limits of the old heritage of Israel.
II.
THE LOGIC OF THE GOSPEL.
As we have viewed it from the stand-point of prophecy, the triumph of Christ's kingdom in all lands is as certain as the foundations of Christianity itself. We cannot separate the doo-
THE LOGIC OF THE GOSPEL. 11
trines of tlie Word of God from the authority of its proplietic announcemeiits. We cannot comfort our souls with the de- votional Psalms of David, and yet discard his prediction of " a dominion that shall extend fi-om sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." We cannot entrust our per- sonal salvation to the risen Saviour and yet doubt His omnip- otence in reclaiming the lost race of mankind. If " all power in lieaven and earth" is not in Him, then lie has no power that can save a soul. In a word, to question the feasibility and the sure success of Missions, were to throw up the Chris- tian faith as a whole, and leave ourselves with no hope and without God in the Avorld.
If, then, there were no bright indications as yet in the actual survey of the work, if no encouraging results had been at- tained ; still our course as Christian men would be clear : we sh<iuld still go forward, trusting in the assurances of Him who has promised, and obeying the mandates of Him who has commanded. ]\Iainly the mission work is a work of faith. Results attained are only earnests of that complete success to whidi the word of God is pledged. A genuine faith will ever bear this truth in mind. When, therefore, pastors complain that they encounter much of criticism and doubt, in regard to Missions, they should perhaps suspect that this is only symp- tomatic of a more ominous scepticism, which strikes at the foundations of the Gospel altogether. The man who has reached the conclusions of Universahsm in respect to the mil- Uons of Asia and Africa, is in reality a Universalist in his own community, if he dared to confess it.
The scepticism of the Church is often more cowardly than that of the avowed atheist. It dares strike at Missions in the safe distance of the heathen world, when it would hardly lose caste by the expression of heterodox views at home, and would much less dare to yield up even a dubious personal hope of salvation. But what is the logic of all this ? If the heathen are net lost, then the human race is not lost, and there is no Saviour and no salvation. If the heathen are not lost, the
1^2 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
first chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans is an unintelhgible flourish of rhetoric, and much of the clearest reasoning of the New Testament is a mere fabric of unmeaning words.
The apostle Paul expressly states that " The wrath of God is revealed fi'om heaven against aU ungodliness and unrighteous- ness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." And he immediately proceeds to show that this trutb, held in un- righteousness, is " that which may be known of God," and which " is manifest in them." He says that the invisible things of God — even His power and Godhead — are clearly seen and understood "by the things that are made," so that mankind " are without excuse."
He distinctly arraigns the whole heathen world on these solemn charges, viz. : that "when they knew God, they glori- fied Him not as God," but were unthankful, and vain in their imaginations, darkened in then- foohsh hearts, puffed with the vanity of wisdom even in their folly; that they ''changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man," and to birds and beasts and creeping things; that they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for- ever;" and that it was because " they did not like to retain God in their knowledge" that they were finally given over to a reprobate mind and allowed to sink into all those loathsome and unnatural vices of which even brutes are never guilty.
Are even Christians sometimes appalled and almost stag- gered by the thought that great nations are under the doom of sin and death ? They are not more deeply moved than was the inspired writer of these charges. He gave his life to the rescue. Instead of being tempted, as too many are, to ques- tion God's jastice in the matter, he laid the responsibility on men. He recited, as above, the history of their guilt step by step; and yet he loved them, sharing the divine pity of Christ, who had died for their salvation ; he too, in his measure, made ■ his life a sacrifice for those whom he had so terribly accused.
Now, the Church docs not reject this testimony of the Scrip-
THE NEW TESTAMENT ESTIMATE OF MAN. 13
tures. And yet indifference to the cause of IMissions leads logically to a virtual rejection ; it is tlie only alternative. Paul's deep conviction of man's guilt and the gospel's power would fire the whole Church with zeal for the evangelization of all men; and conversely the exercise of an earnest mission- ary, spirit would go far to establish her doctrines on a scrip- tural basis.
One of the best methods of insuring soundness of view in regard to the great doctrines of human ruin and a divine sal- vation, is to act upon them with becoming earnestness.
Shall the Church never cease to stand on the defensive 1 Must she ever spend so much of her force in apologetics — stamping out the sjDarks of heresy within her own fold, and defending herself against the great outer world of doubters by the dem- onstrations only of cold statement and orthodox resolu- tions? The array of her full power for the conquest of the world wou'd carry with it a gi-eater weight of conviction than a thousand tomes of polemics.
HI.
THE NEW TESTAIMENT ESTIMATE OF MAN.
The pride of race constitutes a great obstacle to benevolent effort and to just dealing toward the heathen.
There is, even in Christian communities, a contempt for inferior races, which goes far to neutralize the missionary spirit. In our own country it has long been indulged toward the African race. It still exists among certain classes toward the Indian tribes. And this sentiment seldom makes allowance for the causes which have operated to degrade the Negro and the Indian, and for the responsibility and guilt of the superior race by which they have been so greatly wronged. Nor is this spifit careful to estimate men by the possibilities which a kind Christian culture miaht find in them. The heathen are
14: THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
taken at the worst ; and scarcely anything like duty in refer- ence to them is recognized. Absolute slavery is not tolerated by the prevaling sentiment of this age ; but sometliing of the spirit of slavery still exists. Everywhere in the East the Anglo-Saxon treats the Chinaman or the Hindu as an inferior being, scarcely claiming the respect due to humanity. The traveler is pained almost constantly by the rough treat- ment visited upon coolies and servants. The same spu'it is manifested toward the Mongolian immigrants who have begun to swarm on our own shores. All this is derogatory to a just estimate of humanity and fatal to the spuit of Missions.
Men who see nothing but the droll aspects of the " Heathen Chinee," as the humorists are pleased to call him, will not feel deeply concerned that in China four hundred miUions of the human race are perishing out of Christ.
Now it is to the New Testament that we look for the true view of man. There is no other philanthropy Mke that which grows out of the love of Christ.
Nothing renders humanity so precious as the fact that the Son of God has been clothed upon with it, and has suffered the death of the cross in order that He might raise it up into His own image and into fellowship with God. No man, whatever the color of his skin, or the gi-ade of his intellect, or the degrada- tion of his morals, can be despised, since a Saviour's blood has been paid for his ransom.
The assertion that the mere advance of civilization has led to the overthrow of oppressions and to a more just regard for human rights, cannot be sustained by facts. In some respects the ancient civihzations were far advanced; and yet the very sages of antiquity taught doctrines in regard to the relations of men which were simply monstrous.
Says Prof. J. H. Seelye, in his lectures on Missions :
" Aristotle argues that slavery is necessary to the existence of the true household. Every true household must consist of freemen and slaves. The freeman needs his slaves, as the artisan needs his tools. The slave is his master's tool — an
THE KEW TESTAMENT ESTIMATE OF MAN. 15
animated tool, but still only a tool. There can be but little more love for a slave than for a liorse or an ox, and tlio thought that any justice could be due a slave never seems to have entered the Greek mind, Plato regarded it as one of the marks of an educated man that he despised his slaves. When a slave was brought into the court to give testimony, he was always put io the torture. Torture accompanied the testimony of the slave, just as the oath accompanied that of freeman ; and the Attic orators, Lysias, Antiphon, Isaeus, Isocrates, Demosthenes, and Lycurgus have all given their ap- probation to tliis procedure."
And Paul doubtless found the same low view prevailing in the minds of his Greek auditors on Mars Hill, when he pro- claimed with deep enthusiasm that " God hath made of one blood all the nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." And the modern missionary has often encountered, even among those who should have sympathized with his Avork, a cruel contempt for those whom he has sought to elevate. " Do you propose to preach to the Hottentots ?" said an intelligent Dutch Boer to Mr. Moffatt ; "■ you might better preach to apes and baboons, or if you like I will call in my dogs."
" Xothing but powder and ball will subdue these savages," said a European officer of a certain heathen tribe ; but large numbers of those same savages have since been won to Christ.
" The extermination of the unenlightened inhabitants " of India has been justified by members of the British House of Commons, though fortunately not of late. To-day, on that same floor, the work of ^Missions in India is commended.
" In a proclamation issued by Sir B. D'Urban," saj-s the au- thor of " The Great Commission," " the Caffirs were denounced as ' irreclaimable savages,' and this in the very face of the fact, as stated in the dispatch of Lord Glenelg, that under the guidance of their Christian ministers they have built places of public worship ; have erected school -houses, and sent their children thither for instruction; have made no inconsiderable advance in agriculture and in commerce ; and have estab-
16 THE GEE AT CONQUEST.
lished a trade ainoiinting to not less than $150,000 per annum in the purchase of Euro[)ean commodities."
It is well known that the philosophy of Rousseau and Voltaire inculcated a sort of aristocracy of intellect ; and that it despised the ignorant and debased. Indeed this has always been the tendency of philosophy : it has nowhere sympathized with the masses. It has not recognized the image of God in man, simply as man. It has sometimes sent the death chill of its scepticism down tlu-ough all ranks of society, but it has never raised the lowly and the debased into pui'ity and intelligence and happiness.
And the teachings of oar most popular theorists to-day — what is their iniluence? If the African and even the Cauca- sian is simply a higher development of the ape, what is man that anybody " should be mindful of him ? " Instead of being made " a little lower than the angels," he was originally made but little higher than the worm.
Such teachings are fatal, not only to the missionary spirit, but to all true benevolence and philanthropy. They would eliminate all that is noblest and best in our civiHzation and remand society back to barbarism.
In strong contrast with all this, the Word of God lifts the veil and discloses man's glorious future.
In the rapt visions of John, in Patmos, there appeared in the midst of the eternal throne, " a Lamb as it had been slain;" and around Him were four and twenty elders, with a mul- titude numbeiing ten thousand times ten thousand and thou- sands of thousands, chanting the praises of Him who had re- deemed them to God by Bis blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and had made them unto their God " Kings and priests.'''
Is this, then, the glorious fellowship in reserve for these despised races ? Shall the Mongohan and the Camanche, the Hottentot and the Dyak, be exalted to the dignity and glory of priests and kings unto God in the kingdom of
APOSTOLIC EXAMPLES OF MISSIONARY POLICY. 17
heaven ? No system of philosophy or '' Religion of Hu- manity " has presented so bright a destiny for the human race as this;
IV.
THE APOSTOLIC EXAMPLES OF IkUSSIONAEY POLICY.
It was a fundamental idea in the mission work of the Apos- tohc' period, tliat missionaries were representatives — prima- )ily of the Divine Master Himself, and secondarily cf the Chm'ch. They were not individual adventurers doing their own wih merely ; they were servants engaged in the work of those who sent them. The very name Apostle signified one who was " sent."
The " Seventy " were commissioned by Chi'ist to preach m the villages ; and to Him, on their return, they rendered their reports. As they were the first, and as they were honored with miraculous power and success, they might be deemed worthy of a high place in the history of the Church ; but so enth'ely was their stewardship held fi-om Christ Himself, that the spu'it of inspiration has allowed them no opportunity for human hon- ors. The Papal Church has never been able to canonize them among its saints ; for not even their names are given. And yet they have a more glorious registry. They are enroll- ed by Him who sent them, and who said on their return, " Re- joice not that the sphits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice that yuur names are ivriiten in Heaven.'^
The very last commands of our Saviour to His disciples were of the nature of a commission, " Go ye therefore and teach all nations." And after His ascension, the disciples were still semt forth — sometimes by the Spirit, at other times by the brethren or the Church.
Thus the preaching of the Grospel was at all times invested with the solemn authority of ambassadorship.
18 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Phillip's short discourse to the Eunuch, Ananias' visit to Saul at Damascus, and Peter's message to Cornelius at Cesarea, were all divinely ordered.
When Barnabas went to Antioch from Jerusalem, and when Saul was brought thither from Tarsus, it was upon the author- ity of the brethren. And in the first formal missionnry enter- prise of the Church at Antioch, Barnabas and Saul, at the Spirit's prompting, were " separated for the work " whereunto God had called them, by the laying on of hands. It was to the Church that the command of the Spirit came.
These early examples are important as showing —
(1.) That the great work of spreading the Gospel is not the work of individual men and women, but rather of Christ, or of the Church which in this respect represents Christ. That sol- emn service at Antioch was not performed by the two men who went forth ; but by those who laid their hands upon them. Barnabas and Saul were merely theu' commission- ers. All alike were responsible. The laying on hands was a virtual pledge for the whole enterprise. It were well if this conception of the niission work were to possess the whole Church in our time ; if instfead of feehng that the self-sacrifice involved in giving the Gospel to the heathen belongs only to thefeio ivho go, all Christians were to realize that this is also their work, and that in one way or another some proportion- ate sacrifice is due from them.
And yet there are thousands of professed Chi-istians who, while hving in luxury and ease, and while contributing almost nothing to the cause, set up not merely a high, but a very un- reasonable standard of sacrifice for missionaries. They seem to feel that nothing short of absolute immolation should be expected in those who actually go ; and tbey are ready to join with infidels and scofters in the severest criticisms, if the lone- liness of separation from home and friends, and the depressing influences of unwholesome chmates, are mitigated by anything like comfort. They are scandalized if even the dictates of
APOSTOLIC EXAMPLES OF MISSIONARY POLICY. 19
common prudence and economy are observed in suitable pro- visions for their liealtli and tboir prolonged efficiency.
(2.) The early Cbru'ches left us the example of earnest prayer for missionaries. Barnabas and Saul went forth from a meeting for prayer and fading. Nor is it to be supposed that the brethren ceased to pray at the close of the farewell meeting.
They followed, their missionaries with their supplications and sympathies ; and when Paul was cruelly di-iven from Antioch in Pisidia, and stoned by the mob at Iconium, and dragged out and left for dead under the walls of Lystra, he doubtlessly felt great comfort in the thought that they who had commis- sioned him, were still remembering him at the throne of grace.
(3.) It was the policy of the early Church to send out not tliose who could best be spared from the work at home, but the ablest and the best. Barnabas was one of the foremost lay- men of the Church — a man who had consecrated his entire property to the Christian cause, and with it his personal ser- vices. He was " a good inan," the inspired record says, " and full of the Holy Ghost," Yet this man was sent abroad, and with him the very " chief est of the apostles." The leading men of the time gave themselves to pioneering, and almost scorned to " build on other men's foundations." As to local work, they ordained subordinates in every city, who sliould care for the Churches already formed, while they themselves carried their conquests into " the regions beyond."
We do not push these facts to an extreme construction as bearing upon the modern Church, for the cases are not exactly parallel. There is a lesson, however, in the case which is of universal application. It is as true now as ever, that the very highest gifts of mind and heart are needed in the Mission work. The early examples are a standing rebuke to that spirit
which would reserve the best talent for those who have heard
«
the Gospel so long, that even the most brilhant genius can now scarcely render it attractive.
20 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
(4.) The mission work of the early Church was not crippled by the narrow andseJative plea of " heathen enough at home."
There tvere heathen indeed in Asia Minor. Paul had been alternately worshipped and persecuted in the mountain villages of his own country, by downright idolaters ; and doubtless his own judgment would have led him to devote his life to the extension of the " Churches of Asia."
But when he was " minded " to turn his steps toward this city or that, God had a far different plan for him to follow. The image of a Macedonian was sent to call him across the Hel- lespont. He was to carry the Gospel into Greece and Rome, and thus prepare for its spread Westward throughout Europe.
Was this a wise pohcy ? Subsequent history has given it a wonderful vindication.
The Churches of Asia Minor were of the Greek type. By their tendency to speculation, and their love of Monastic se- clusion, they were unfitted for the aggressive work which the spread of Christianity required. With the exception of the ISTestorians, the Oriental Churches were not missionary Churches.
" Their clergy," says Dean Milman, " stood aloof from the world, the anchorites in their desert wildernesses; the monks in their jealousy barred convents; and secure, as they supposed, of their own srlvation, they left the rest of mankind to inevitable perdition." But the Christianity which was planted on Eui'o- pean soil, and which there caught the spirit of universal conquest that characterized the Roman Empire, became aggressive from the first. It conquered and then utilized the Roman power. It cast down all the idolatries of the pantheon and of the colo- nies, and put the cross of Calvary in their place. Through fires of persecution and seas of martyrs' blood, it passed finally even to the throne of the Caesars. In its conquests •through Europe, it pursued the lines of commerce and follow- ed up the victories of the Roman eagles with the doctrines and rites of the Chui-ch.
The fact that Eui-opean nations became Christian, and that
nUMITIVE AND MODERN MISSIONS COMPARED. 21
from thom the Gospel was brought to the Amencan Continent, seems to have been due to the wipe policy which made Paul and others Foreign Misdonarieii, even while a gi'oat work still remained to be done at home. Nay, many of the most valu- able portions of the Word of God owe their origin to the mis- sion work. IMost of the strong churches to which Paul's Epistles were written, and through which the aggressive power of his influence was transmitted to later generations, icere mission Churches planted on heathen soil. Had the work of the early Church been confined to one country or race, we should never have received the noble legacy of the Epistle to the Romans, with its profound philosophy of salva- tion, nor the Corinthian Epistles, with their matchless delinea- tions of charity and their illustrations of the resurrection. There would have been no epistle to the Philippians, had not Paul heeded the Macedonian call to a foreisfu field.
Y.
THE PRBIITIVE AND THE MODERN MISSION WORK COxMPARED.
It is admitted that the cause of modem Missions is placed imder conditions somewhat different from those which attended the successes of the early Church. The conquests of the Apostolic age had many advantages not now enjoyed.
The Apostles were divinely endowed with the gift of tongues and the power of miracles : they had also tlie vivid impres- sions of men who had seen our Lord. It was no slight thing for the Apostle John to be able to say, " That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us."
And Paul, after tlie overwhelming vision near Damascus, and the unspeakable revelations of the third heaven, could not
22 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
fail to impart to others that deep sense of divine reality which such experiences had given him. There was, undoubtedly, more of moral earnestness in the leading minds of that age, than now exists in even the most devoted.
And there was still another advantage in their favor. Under the one Roman civilization the Apostles and their successors moved along the same social plane in which they lived. The people of Asia Minor and Eastern Europe were not separated from them by such wide differences in manners and customs, habits of life, color, race, and social condition as those which raise the Anglo-Saxon above the Mongolian or the Hindu.
The early Church found a further advantage in the wide extension of the Hellenic language as a vehicle of the truth. Instead of the difiicult labor of modern mis- sionaries in translating the Scriptures into scores and hundreds of languages, some of which have had to be reduced to vsritten form, and even to grammatical construction, the early Church found eveiywhere the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which had been translated for three hundred years ; so that even the far-off Bereans were able to test the Apostles' preach- ing by a reference to " the Scrij)tiu'es." Not only were all the epistles to the chm'ches of Europe and Asia written in the Greek, but so far had that language affected the thought of the nations, that Paul, even in writing to the Romans (]., 16), used the word "Greeks" generically for all Gentiles.
Moreover, the types of paganism which were represented in the Roman Pantheon, were far less fonnidable than are the hoary systems of the Buddhists and the Brahmins. Judaism was indeed obstinate and unyielding ; but its resistance was weakened by the fact that its own teachings had constantly foreshadowed Christianity. On the whole, it was a help ; while Mohammedanism, which now controls the Holy Land, claims to build upon a wreck of Christianity : it regards Christian worship as a virtual idolatry' : it is fortified with that most impregnable spuit, contempt.
PRIMITIVE AND MODERN MISSIONS COMPARED. 23
But on the other hand, the modem missionary enterprise has its advantages The early v/ork was an experiment — to human view a dubious one, and it necessitated miraculous proofs. Only a handful of disciples at first received the Great Commission; and but for their special means of success, all men would have laughed them to scorn.
But our work is no experiment. We have a treasured his- tory of success. The promise of our Lord to be with His people in the execution of His command, has found perpetual fulfilment for eighteen centuries. When Paul preached, all Europe was idolatrous : every race now known as Christian was swayed either by the polished heathenism of Greece and Borne, or by the barbarous rites of the fierce Northern hordes.
The whole fabric of our Christian civilization is a proof of the feasibility of missionary conquest. We are ourselves among the fi'uits of its success. On our part we have but to continue a work which, advancing step by step, has culminated in the choice blessings of our own favored heritage.
Moreover, the great body of the Church is now more capa- ble of united and efficient action than Avas the ApostoHc Church. There are no Apostles, no such leaders as the chosen band of inspii-ed men already refeiTed to ; but the average membership is far above that of the Corinthian or the Galatian Churches. At no previous period has there been so high a degree of intelligence in the laity as now. Never before, save in some exceptional cases, were so large a proportion of the members of the visible Chiu'ch capable of instruction and active Christian effort. Though in the early times there were many bright examples of female piety and efficiency, as in Phoebe and Priscilla and the " beloved Persis," yet never before waS'there such an array of Christian women capable of activo service, whether in individual, or in organized effort.
JMoreover, we have in our time a wider sphere of influence and a much greater an-ay of co-efficient agencies. The light of Christianity now radiates not from Jerusalem alone, but
24 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
from a thousand centers in tins country and in Europe. We have the mighty power of the press and a complete postal system, instead of Paul's sole resort to manuscript letters sent by personal friends. 'We have organized systems of education, and such facilities of commercial exchange that even a Sab- bath-school by its penny collections may reduplicate its own blessings in a mission-school on the opposite side of the globe.
The ends of the earth are now practically brought together. The five months occupied by Paul in his voyages from Anti- och to Rome would now suffice for a tour around the world. Yokohama and Hong-Kong are practically nearer to our Atlantic seaboard than were Detroit and Chicago to the gen- eration that preceded us. It is true that all these facilities are nothing to the Mission cause Avithout the vital power of God's Spuit ; but we have that Spirit surely promised, if con- ditions are fulfilled.
Material instrumentahties and spiritual agencies must go together. The very same verse (Ps. Ixxii. 15) which says that " the gold of Sheba shall be given to Him," immediately adds : "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually, and daily shall He be praised."
The Church falls far behind the work which she might ac- complish ; but the actual results gained by modern Missions will compare more favorably with the success of the first cen- tury than is generally supposed. There is greater care now than then in receiving professed converts to full membership ; and yet in numbers the modem Mission work will bear com- parison.
Eev. Robert Hunter, in his History of the Misfiions of the Free CJiurch of Scotland, says : " Our belief is that Protestant Chris- tianity in India has advanced more rapidly than the Gospel did in the fii'st centuries • that its progTCSs has been quicker than that of Brahminism when in conflict with the aboriginal faiths, and that it has made way faster than either Mohammed- anism or Romanism in the East. What has disg'uised and
THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK TO BE DONE. 25
dwarfed the appearance of magnitude wliicli the Indian Church would otherwise have been admitted to possess, has been the tremendous extent t>{ the laud to be subdued. Viewed abso- lutely, native Chiistians are a comparatively numerous body ; looked at relatively to the miUions of nominal Hindus and Mohammedans, they appear few indeed. But the power of Christianity will be incalculably under-estimated if it be sup- posed that the number of baptisms which have ali'eady taken place fairly measure the standing which it has vdthin our E&st- em empire. From every mission rays of influence have gone forth which have more or less affected even the remotest vil- lages in the country,"
YI.
THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK TO BE DONE.
There are two opposite and extreme views.
On the one hand, there is a faithless spirit of discourage- ment, which treats the mission cause as utterly chimerical and impracticable. On the other hand, there is a flippant style of representation, which speaks of the conquest as almost complete.
A true missionary spirit will deeply appreciate the great- ness and difficulty of the Avork, and thus be led to a Divine trust. It is, indeed, a great work. Aside from the rivalry of false systems, there is the vis inertice of a world's sinfulness and apostasy, which only the Spirit of God can move.
And the mass to be overcome is appalling, when we con- sider its almost countless millions. For example, in China the throngs that swarm in the streets and bazaars ; in the country thoroughfares, and in the fields ; in the myriad boats and barges that crowd the harbors and the rivers, almost stagger our faith. We are startled by the thought that to supply
26 THE GREAT C0XQUE3T.
that nation with one preacher to the thousand, would require four hundred thousand missionaries. Dr. Duff has estimated that a full supply of the benighted millions of India would require the entire Christian ministry of Scotland and make large drafts upon her pious laymen.
Again, we find great obstacles in the innate love of super- stition among ignorant races ; in the pride of old systems; in the jDOwer of traditions; in the love of country and race ; in tlfiB common resistance of all Orientals to any kind of change ; in the plottings of paid priesthoods ; in the fostered vices of men whose false systems have put no restraint upon their in- dulgence ; in the political jealousy of heathen and Moslem governments, and their too well founded fear of Anglo-Saxon aggression ; and, most of all, in the wrongs which have everywhere been visited \ipon weaker races by nations calling themselves Christian. When we consider the com- bined influence of all these obstacles, our wonder is that anything has been accomplished. It is a proof of Divine power that so great success has been gained.
It is, indeed, a mighty conquest which we have undertaken. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin- cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We stem the swollen tide of all human vice, and prejudice, and apostasy, and sin. No other enterprise is so vast, so beset with obstacles, so difficult in every way, as the work of Mis- sions.
To merely subjugate great nations, as did Alexander or Caesar, was counted a wonderful achievement. But what was that mere slaughter and humiliation compared with this work, which must not merely conquer, but transform ; which must raise up the whole mass of the people, uproot their old errors, overcome their prejudices, eradicate their vices, and subdue their passions ; which must reconstruct their social order, enlighten their ignorance, improve their thrift and comfort in life, give them homes and schools and churches —
THE GREATNESS OF THE WOKK TO BE' DONE. 27
in a word, do for them all that the same gospel has done for us ? This is the one groat Avoik of this world, and only a Divine power in our hands can accomplish it. It is for this that time endures and the world survives. When this shall be fully achieved, the restitution of all things shall have come. This is nothing less than the upbuilding and establishment of Christ's Kingdom upon the earth.
But it should not be forgotten that this great and difficult work has been undertaken by a Divine power. Help has been laid on One who is mighty to save. Has the world been as a potter's clay under His hand for these ages, and is Ho not able to accomplish that to which all history points? Shall He not fulfill the great end and aim as He has promised ?
The small beginnings of gospel influence have spread over the continent of Europe : the same can be done for China. Vast as is the mission enterprise of our day, it is not a doubt- ful experiment : it is but the repetition of authentic history. Its difliculties only point to its one sure hope of success.
Yet it is proper to add, that the first and immediate aim of the mission work has limitations Avhich may relieve the minds of those who are given to discouragement, in view of the vastness and difficulty of the world's conquest. What is it that missionary enterprise has undertaken, and when can it be said to have attained success ?
By the terms of its stewardship, it cannot be held respon- sible for the conversion of every man, woman, and child on heathen soil. That has not yet been accomplished in any Christian land.
The specific charge of the mission work is to give the gospel to the nations that are in darkness.
This may be fully accomplished, and yet leave multitudes out of Christ. But if in any heathen country this great enterprise shall have made the gospel generally known to the people; if it shall have established churches and schools, and laid the foundations of a self-supporting and aggressive
28 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Christianity ; if it shall have revolutionized the leading sentiment and molded the chief thought of the country, and made the Christian faith supremely influential, then it may be said to have accomplished its work. Home missionary elFort and all those evangelizing agencies which are employed in Clmstian countries may still be needed. But the Foreign missionary work will have reached success.
VII.
THE ARRAY OF MISSIONARY FORCES.
To AN observing Christian traveler, one of the most cheer- ing aspects of the mission work is found in the aggregation of agencies which are now employed for the enlightenment of unevangelized countries.
If one is ever tempted to discouragement when he con- siders the inadequacy of the means which any one mission- ary organization can employ, his hojDCS will be revived if he will look further, and talte into view the raany organizations that are engaged in the common work. Not one man, or a score of men, scattered here and there over the wide wastes of the world, but many thousands are at their posts — giving their toil, and, if need be, their lives, to the great common cause.
Contemplating merely the desolations which spread over wide continents, we ask almost in despair, " Who is sufl&cient for these things ?" But when we see that along nearly all the great coast lines of the world, and on the islands of the sea, beacon-lights are already burning ; that into all the chief lan- guages of the eai'th, the Word of God has been, or is being, translated ; that in all lands and climes the Christian home is seen, and Christian men and women from all Protestant coun- tries are striving earnestly side by side in a common cause, we are cheered by this strong array of forces.
THE ARRAY OF MISSIONARY FORCES. 29
Dr. Mullens, in a report of the London Society written after his return from an extended tour among the missions, speaks of the encouragement to be derived from this view of the work, and welcomes his co-workers of every Evangelical name. To my own mind, while visiting missions of different Boards and Societies in Japan, China, India, Egypt, and Syria, this spectacle of a world-wide co-operation seemed truly sublime. The ordained missionaries of the Presbyterian Board in all fields, are one hundred and thirty-four ; and the entire mis- sionary force, male and female, is three hundred and three. But this is only one of a large number of Boards and Socie- ties.
The following is an enumeration of the various organizations engaged in what is generally known as the Foreign Mission- ary work :
Societies of the Church of England 18
" " various Noncomformist bodies in
England 22
Irish Societies 5
Scotch " 15
Societies for the Conversion of the Jews 11
American Societies 26
British American Societies 5
German " 15
Swiss « 3
Dutch « 10
Danish " 2
Norwegian " 2
Swedish " ' 4
Female Missionary " 8
Besides these, local Societies have been formed in the vari- ous mission fields, as follows :
India 4
Ceylon 1
Burmah .' 2
Carried forward 153
30 THE GREAT CONQTTEST.
Brought forward > 153
Palestine 2
Cape of Good Hope 2
Natal and Orange 4
Jamaica 3
Polynesia 3
Whole nunaber of Societies 168
Besides these, there are sixty-three Euroi^ean and Ameri- can Bible Societies, with a host of auxiliaries in foreign lands, all of which are to be counted in the missionary force of the world.
The number of American and European male missionaries is 2,262, not to speak of those who are sent out by the Ha- waiian and other Societies from lands once heathen. The number of female missionaries is probably still larger.
Nor are we to consider this great array of missionaries alone. Who are these brave men and women who have thus given themselves to this work ? Are they individual ad- venturers merely? Are they a chimerical few, gathered out of all lands, whose wild expectations find no sympathy in the Church of God 1 Ai-e they not rather the representatives of the general faith and zeal of all Christendom ? Do they not stand as the videttes of a great host of Christian people whose hearts are fixed on the conquest of the world for Christ ?
There is something inspiring in this spectacle of tens of thousands of Christian churches, differing in name and country and language, but all united in this great common enterprise of sending the gospel to the nations.
Nor is this a mere spasmodic movement which sprang up yesterday, and will end to-morrow. For a century this tide- wave of moral earnestness has roiled onward and onward with evei'-increasing volume. It has been met by scoffs and jeers at home, and by the stubbornness of heathen systems abroad. But in spite of criticism .and apathy, and the evil contact of unscrupulous trade and the blight of Anglo-Saxon vices ; notwithstanding the discouragements of unwholesome
THE ARGUMENT OF SUCCESS. 3l
climates and sickness and death, this grand march of faith has gone forward. It Avas never so strong and determined as at th'3 present moment; nor has it at anytime presented so wide a front. Even a philosopher, looking upon this strange phe- nomenon, must observe in it a marvellous vitality. It is one of the strongest proofs of the Divine power that dwells in and rules over the Christian Church.
One striking evidence of this vitality, which is not often considered, is seen in the financial credit of the great Mission Boards. The nature of their work requires that large appro- priations shall be made many months in advance. They are made with empty treasuries and often to the amount of half a million of dollars. And what is most remarkable is, that bankers in distant parts of the earth accept their credits.
Years ago the Presbyterian Board availed itself of the credit of the New York batiks ; but finding at length that its own paper was equally good, it resolved to save the two per cent, commission ; and it has for a long time, even during our Civil War, issued its own bills.
On what, then, does the credit of these Boards rest ? They have neither stocks nor bonds ; instead of balances, they generally have only debts ; and yet, with nothing but the steady and unflagging missionary spirit of the Church to de- pend upon, they hold a place among the strongest financial institutions of the world.
When commercial men so fully trust the faith and zeal of the .Church, she should gain new confidence in herself, and should realize that the promise of her Divine Master's presence is being steadily and constantly fulfilled.
yiii.
THE ARGUMENT OF SUCCESS. On" this subject it will be neces-ary to speak comparatively. Judging by the high scriptural standard of duty, the achieve- ments and successes of the mission work are small enough
32 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
surely ; but relatively to the results gained in Christian work at home, they are far greater than most people are aware of. Of course, the foreign work labors under great disadvantages. Ail beginnings are small ; the educational prejudices of the heathen are uniformly adverse to the truth ; there is no basis of Chris- tian morality ; no prepossession of public sentiment in favor of the Gospel. With us early training, pious example, and a veiy atmosphere of Christian sentiment, Christian morality, and Christian faith, prepare the mind from childhood to receive the truth. Yet notwithstanding all these differences, the fruits of missionary labor on heathen soil are in fact far greater than in our own land — where religious institutions are so well established, and where the influences of successive generations have been garnered up.
Taking into our estimate all the missions of the Foreign Board of the Presbyterian Church for the last three years, we find that the gains in communicants added to the Churches, have been a little over sixty-four per cent. At this rate, the membership of these Churches will be doubled every five years. The gains in the membership of the Presbyterian Church in this country for the same period have been eight per cent., or one- eighth of the foreign ratio. At this rate the membership of the Presbyterian Church will be doubled in thirty-seven and a half years.
If these comparisons be objected to on the gi-ound that the esti- mate is in one case made upon a much smaller basis than in the other, we may proceed by a different method. We find that the additions fur these three years show an average of twenty converts to each of the ordained missionaries in the employment of the Board, while the average to each ordained minister at home for the same time is but eight. If it be said that a large per cent, of the home force is employed in educa- tional and editoi'ial service, and not in the direct work of preach- ing the Gospel, the same is true on the foi-eign field, where teach- ing, translating, and the preparation of religious books, foim an important part of missionary labor. All this is simply lay- ing foundations for future ingatherings.
THE ARGUMENT OF SUCCESS. 33
And if it still be maintainefl that allowance should be made for thoso. of the honie ministry, who from ill-hoalth or other causes are wholly out of employ, an allowance quite proportion- ate should be made for the'nimiber of missionaries, who for rest and recovery from climatic influences, are absent fi'om their fields.
Similar estimates might be extended over longer periods, and be applied to the Missions of other Boards.
"We copy the following facts from a "Ten Years' Review of the Avork of the American Board of Foreign Missions," given by Secretary Clark at the Annual Meeting, held at Chicago, in October, 1875 :
"During the last ten years in the fields now occupied by the Board, the number of ordained native pastors has gone up from thirty-eight to one hundred and ten, and is rapidly increasing. The native pastors take possession, as it were, and cultivate the fields already won; leaving the missionaries, with other native agents, free to push the work of evangelization into the regions beyond.
" In great measure by the means of native agency, the ac- tual field of operations has been enlarged, during the ten years, full forty per cent., with but little increase of expenditure.
'•The entire number of additions to the mission Churches during the decade is. 12,820 — or over one hundred to each or- dained missionary in active service, including those engaj^ed in teaching and in literary labors These conver- sions must be estimated by the fact that they represent the be- ginnings of Christian society amid the moral wastes of heathen- ism and corrupt forms uf Christianity; and not the fruits of es- tablished and honored institutions. These followers of Christ have professed their faith in many instances, with the loss of houses and lands, of family, friends, and social standing, and
sometimes at the peril of their lives The gain
in church membership in the different fields is as follows :
In the Zulu Mission— about 100 per cent
WsBtem Turkey •. 110 "
Central Turkey 100 '
34 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
Eastern Turkey 340 per cent.
Mahratta Mission 25 "
Madura Mission 53 "
Ceylon Mission 46 "
In the Foocliow Mission, from 3 churches and 45 members, to S churches
and 144 members, or 320 "
In the North China Mission, from a work just beginning in 1865, to 7 churches and 171 members. Micronesia— from 4 churches and 263 members to 20 churches
and over 1,200 members 470 "
In Japan, where the worlc began in 1870, there are now 3 churches
and 57 members. In Western Mexico, where the work began in 1872, there is now 1
church and 91 members. Among the Dakotas, from 4 churches and 527 members, to 9 churches (including two transferred to the Presbyterian Board) and 775 members.
"The aggregate results may be summed up thus : Omitting the Slission to the Sandwich Islands graduated in 1870, and the Missions transferred to another Board, the churches in the Mis- sion fields now occupied by the Board, have increased from 136, with a membership of 5,557, to 223, with a membership of 11,516, an advance of over 100 per cent."
It will be seen by the above, that the Mission in Eastern Tur- key had in ten years made a gain of three hundred and forty per cent.; that of Foochow, China, three hundred and twenty per cent., and that of Micronesia four hundred and seventy per cent.
The Canton Mission of the Presbyterian Board has in ten years increased from twenty members to one hundred and thirty-eight, or six hundred and ninety per cent. And the total of the Presby- terian Missions in China has in the same time advanced from two hundred and fifty to eleven hundred and forty-three, or four hundred and fifty-three per cent. The Missions of the same Board among the American Indians, not including those receiv- ed from the American Board, have in the same period advanced from sixty-seven members to eleven hundred and eighty-nine, or seventeen hundred and seventy-four per cent.
But far more remarkable than any of the above examples, is the growth of the Presbyterian Mission in Mexico, where in three years the converts of the Mission Churches have increased from one hundred and seventy, to over seventeen hundred. This, for
OTHER TUA2!i NUMERICAL RESULTS. 35
ten years, is not merely three hundred per cent., but more than thirty-fold.
These gains are, of course, exceptionally large. In many fields the progress is slow at first; and yet to the above examples many more miglit be added from the Missions in Fcjee, the Sandwich Islands, Sierra Leone, Burmah, Southern India, and Madagascar,
IX.
OTHER THAN NUMERICAL RESULTS.
It would be wide of the truth to cimfine our estimate of the "work accomplished to the number of those who give real evidence of conversion. There are myriads of others who are intellectually convinced, many of whom are likely to be brought to Christ. In many countries, especially in India, there are vast multi- tudes who would embrace the truth but for caste and the tyran- ny of n2)posing sentiment. The educational work, also, is of in- calculable value as laying the foundation for future accessions to the Redeemer's Kingdom. The missionary effort of the next generation will find a far greater degree of intelligence in the masses than now exists. The thousands of children who are learning Bible lessons and catechisms in the schools of Syria and Turkey, will in the years to come, listen understand ingly to the missionary preacher.
Within twenty-five years, vast multitudes in India and Japan will be able to receive the Gospel in the English tongue, which, next to the Gospel, bids fair to become the mightiest solvent of heathen faiths and Oriental civilizations.
I was present in 187-4 at an Annual Meeting of Presbyterian Missionaries in Saharanpur, India, when the subject of Anglo-ver- nacular schools was under discussion.
An expression of opinion was called for by vote, on the ques- tion, " Whether the thousands of bright and intelligent youth in these schools are forever spoiled for the Hindu or the Moham- medan faitii by this English education ?" Whereupon the whole
6b THE GREAT CONQUEST.
assembly at once rose to their feet. Whether these intelligent ih'iLisands shall become Chiislians, however, will depend on the (frii*ts and prayers of the Church.
The Mission cause has gained immensely in the work of the press. In the course of sixty or seventy years, the Word of God has been translated into over two hundred languages. In many instances as elsewhere stated, the languages and dialects themselves have been constructed, and in some cases even alpha- bets have been formed. Scures of printing presses have been established, and hospitals and orphanages opened. The heathen have been taught a higher grade of humanity, and the habita- tions of cruelty have been overthrown. And thus narrow prejudices have been overcome, and a general confidence in the higher compassion of the Gospel has been inspired in the be- nighted minds of millions. Heathen governments have become more tolerant toward Christianity; so that it may now fairly be said that the great field of the world is wide open to the trath.
The preparation of a Christian literature in many tongues, and adapted to the wants of particular races, is also a great preliminary work. In most countries, also, newspapers have been established — not always in the interest of religion surely, but in every case fatal to the old errors and superstitions, and so far opening the way for the truth. Best of all, that Word of God which shall not return unto Him void, has been scat- tered like the leaves of Autumn over all continents and the islands of the sea.
The cause of Missions has gained much in improved methods of working, in a better knowledge of races and climates, in the wiser adaptation of means to ends, and in the improved senti- ment and more wholesome influence of. foreign residents at the various stations.
The hostility of this class to missionaries is still continued to some extent; but it is greatly softened; and there are now thou- sands of Christian men in India and China, in the African
OTHER THAN NUMERICAL RESULTS. 37
colonies, and in the islands of the Pacific, who render substan- tial aid to the cause. Foreign residents become more favorable to Missions accordingly as their own social relations are cor- rected and improved.
There has been a great gain also in public sentiment at home. The whole Church has been elevated by her missionary efforts. If there is still existing a spirit of criticism and op- position, there was far more in the early history of the cause.
The first attempt to send the Gospel to Tahite was openly opposed by multitudes, even in the Church. And when, after an unsuccessful beginning, it was proposed to reinforce the first band of missionaries, the opposition even among Christians was well-nigh overpowering. It was only the strong faith of the few that prevailed.
In 1792, the British Parliament, in a charter to the East In- dia Company, guaranteed that neither education nor religion should be allowed in India. Carey and Marshman were obliged therefore to lay the foundations of their work at Serampore, because it was beyond the dominion of the British flag.
Public sentiment in Enorland as well as in India was general- ly opposed to Missions. Carey had been at the outset j^ublicly rebuked for presumption by the Moderator of a religious meeting at which he had ventured to suggest the duty of preaching the Gospel to the heathen.
And after the Mission at Serampore had been established, the Rev. Sidney Smith, with a pen of satire seldom equalled, actually undertook to write down the whole missionary enter- prise in India. He characterized Carey and Marshman as " Con- secrated cobblers, whose blundeiing zeal would endanger the lives of British residents, and rob England^of the noble prize of her India possessions."
In 1812, when the Twenty Years' Cliarter of the East India Company had expired, and an attempt was made to secure a renewed prohibition of religion and education, it was not un- til nine hundred petitions, largely signed by Christian people.
38 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
had been urged upon Parliament by Wilberforce and his friends, that the measure was defeated, and a charter favorable to, or at least tolerant towards, Missions was secured.
Although the Church is still far from being enlisted with her full power, although there are thousands yet who are indifferent, and many are sceptical on the subject, there is a great change. A clerical satirist who should now oppose the work of Mis- sions, would be suspected as a secret foe of evangelical religion. No important branch of the Christian Church — so fully are all convinced of its reflex benefits — can now affijrd to be without a Missionary Board, and a participation in the common cause.
THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS OWNED OF GOD IN THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
When the apostle Peter and " They of the Circumcision " at Cesarea, saw " that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost," they at once accepted the great truth that the grace of God is designed for all men. The same kind of evidence should convince the doubting in oxxr day also. The middle wall of partition once broken down should not be put up again — least of all should it be reared under the full light of the present age. If scientists of a certain school teach us that religions are matters of climate and physical conditions, that mountainous countries with cool temperatures and a strong regimen will develop one kind of faith, while hot plains or tropical marshes and a rice diet will insure another, we need only to show that the story of the Cross has moved all races of men, from the fur-clad Greenlander to the Mahratta of India; and that tlie Spirit of God has begotten precisely the same fruits of " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith," amid all diffei-ences of race or habits of life. Again and again various mission fields have been visited with precious revivals ; and the effect of the truth upon the minds and hearts
THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS OWNED OF THE SPIRIT. '3d
of people widely different from each other, has besn so perfect- ly identical, and yet so unlike anything that had ever been ex- perienced by these races before, that none could doubt the reality of the Holy Spiiit's work.
Perhaps in no place since the day of Pentecost has there been witnessed a more wonderful outpouiing of the Holy Si)irit than in the Sandwich Islands. As early as 18"2o, a very remarkable state of things existed on the island of Maui. At Lahaina, according to Dr. Rufus Anderson's " History of the Hawaiian Islands," the voice of prayer might be heard in the houses at nearly all hours. The missionaries were thronged with inquirers till their strength was exhausted; and sometimes calls were made even at midnight. Three different female prayer-meetings were appointed in order to accommodate the number that desired to attend. But in 1836 a more general work began, and in 1838 it had extended over Hawaiia, Oahu, and Kauai.
Whenever and wherever the missionary appointed a meeting, he was sure of a listening audience.
Many of the chapels, though large, failed to accommodate the people, and shelters or canopies were built for open-air ser- vices, which were sometimes attended by four thousand people. Individual missionaries were permitted to baptize hundreds and, in one or two instances, thousands of hopeful converts.
Tlie same author states (p. 88) that between the years 1837 and 1843, the Sandwich Islands Churches increased in mem- bership from 1,"259 to 23,801. TJiis ivas an increase of more than nineteen-fold in six years, or an average, addition of nearly a thousand every three months.
Equally striking have been some of the revivals in the Nes- torian or Persian IMission, though of far less extent. In the days of the devoted Fideha Fisk, the Holy Spu-it descended again and again upon the boarding-school at Oroomiah, till the whole place became an oratory. Spontaneous prayer was heard on every hand, mingled with sobs, and the anxious inquiries of convicted sinners. The conversion of the wild
40 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Koord, Guergis, who came from his mouBtain home armed in his true bandit style, and whose fierceness was quelled by the calm, solemn warnings of a Christian woman, and the touching prayers of his own child, is one of the most remarkable proofs of Divine power to be found in the^Avhole range of Christian biogi-aphy. It is of the greater vakie, as it was followed by a life of genuine and devoted toil for the Master's cause.
The Mission work in Tahite, at the beginning of the century, though for a long time (from 1 796 to 1 810) unfruitful, pre- sented at length a wonderful exhibition of Divine power. The king and one of his principal chiefs, together with a priest of the highest rank, were numbered among the many conyerts. Five years later, the worship of idols w^as wholly abohshed.
The history of Missions in Sierra Leone has more than once given remarkable attestation of the power of the Holy Ghost upon the heathen mind and heart.
In the early days of England's efforts to quell the slave trade, there was a rendezvous estabhshed at Regent's Town, in which the poor captives taken from the slave ships were placed. These wretched beings, gathered from many different tribes, and speaking different tongues, and having nothing in common but their misfortunes, presented a fearful spectacle of degradation in every respect. There was no such thing as social order among them ; even the marriage relation scarcely existed. No worse community could be found on the earth. No field on the globe could be considered more needy or more hopeless.
A German layman of little learning, but of great faith and zeal, was sent out to these people, about a thousand in number, by the Church IMissionary Society. For nearly a year he was greatly discouraged, but at length the Spirit of God came upon the people in a wonderful degree. Inquirers were multiplied on every hand. The people were found prajdng in their wretched houses and in the woods, and the music of hymns was heard on moonlight evenings on the mountain-sides, where little companies had gathered for vv'orship. The change in the
THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS OWNED OF THE SPIRIT. 41
character of this heterogeneous community was remarkable. Tliey learned trades or became farmers, and built them homes. Stone-houses were built, and a bridge with several arches ; also school-houses, and a stone chui-ch large enough to accommodate two thousand j)eople. Within less than seven years this became an orderly settlement. The heathen orgies had ceased : most of the adults were married : the peo- ple in good numbers were church attendants, and there were a thousand children in the schools.*
Great revivals have occuiTed in the same field in connection with the Wesleyan Missions.
But our aim is merely to show the variety of races which have yielded the same fruits of the Holy Spirit's work. The North American Indian is regarded by some as of a stolid and unimpressible type of mankind, and yet how often have pre- cious scenes of divine awakening appeared in the rude wigwams and around the camp-fires of these sons of the forest ! Forty years ago blessed results accompanied the preaching of the "Word by such men as Byington and Gleason among the Choc- taws, and in the year 18(50, before the war had brought its curse, the Cherokees were regarded as a Christian people.
As late as 1867, the Spirit was poured out in a remarkable degree upon the Dakotas. Encampments upon the prairie became religious assemblies. Even Indian women sometimes walked several miles to attend religious services; inquiry-meet- ings were full,"and as the result, over fifty persons were admit- ted to the Church, f
On the opposite side of the globe, the mountain villages of the Karens have presented similar scenes. W hile the Baptist mission- aries had thought to devote themselves to the Buddhistic Bur- mese, the lamented Boardman had observed the peculiar char- acter of a male servant in his employment. This man was a Karen ; and the missionary ascertain^ed that he and his people,
* See " Foreign Missions," by Rev. Dr. Rufus Anderson, t Miasionarj' Herald, 1867.
42 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
numbering many thousands, belonged to aboriginal tribes which had never accepted the doctrines of Buddha ; that their religious beliefs presented few obstacles to the reception of the Gospel; and that the Spuit of God seemed to inchne them to earnest inquiry. Although Mr. Boardman was soon called to his rest, the attention of other missionaries was largely di- rected to the Karens. Wonderful results followed. The chiefs of mountain tribes sent requests for preachers and teachers ; and great multitudes were filled with the spirit of inquhy. One missionary alone in about six years "planted forty churches, opened forty-two chapels, and thu'ty-two school- houses, and was the means mainly of raising between eight and nine thousand Karens to the level of Christian worship- pers." One native preacher, Sao Quala, baptized in three years over two thousand converts.
The Sphit of C4od has not failed to show divine approval of the work in China ; though no such wide-spread revivals have ap- peared as have been witnessed in some other lands. The suc- cesses gained in the villages back of Am<>y by the English Presbyterians and the American Reformed missionaries, are among the most cheering ; and no man could have witnessed the labors of Eev. Hunter Corbett, of the Presbyterian Mission, in the Shantung Province, two years since, without feeling assur- ed that God was in that place. Some scores who had been previously examined, were on three successive Sabbaths baptized and received to the communion.
There was no church in the little village of Chimeh at the time; but the candidates for baptism kneeled to receive the saci'ed rite on dried grass, which had been spread beneath the trees; after which they also presented their children in covenant unto God.
During a severe persecution which followed these scenes, their entire number remained steadfast, with one exception, though with the spoihng of then' goods ; and a year later they were organized into three churches, with an aggregate of one hundred and thii-ty members.
DO CONVERTED HEATHEN HELP THEMSELVES i 4d
Tlae revival scenes which followed the death of the persecut- ing queen of Madagascar in 1 8G1, might fill a volume ; but we can give here but a few references to the wonderful changes there witnessed. The " Story of Madagascar," by Rev. J. W. Mears, D.D., of Hamilton College, and the Records of the London Missionaries, would well repay the researches of all who love the Redeemer's kingdom. Even during the thirty years' persecution under Queen Ravonarola, the martyr Church was kept alive, and was extended; but when the glorious dawn of religious freedom broke forth, the nation seemed to rise up as from a reign of darkness and death. Heathenism had destroyed itself by its own cruelties. The new sovereign gave full patronage to the Church. Memorial chapels were everywhere built on the very localities that had witnessed martyr deaths ; multitudes professed their faith, and the Church grew ajDace. So far as the Gospel has penetrated, Madagascar may now be called a Christian country.
The enumeration of revival scenes among all races might be greatly extended ; but enough has been shown to indicate that the plan of salvation and the promiseil influence of the Holy Ghost were designed for all mankind. The one blessed Gospel has verily become " the power of God unto salvation to every one that beheveth, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile."
XL
DO CONVERTED HEATHEN HELP THEMSELVES?
It is always a pleasure to assist those Avho honestly strive to help themselves. And the question very naturally arises, whether a fair degree of self-reliance is inculcated among the mission churches. It is plain that only the beginnings of the great work of evangelization in any land can be made by missionaries. Unless the religious life of a newly-converted people shall develop in some degree a spirit of self-reliance
4:4 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
and self-propagation, there can be no hope of general and permanent conquest.
It cannot be denied that in some instances missionaries have failed in this respect. They judged of the deep poverty of the people by the standai'ds of their own country. They supposed it impossible for those who lacked almost every comfort of life to do anything for the sujDport of the gospel. They saw around them a degree of want, compared with which that of the poorest hamlet of this land is wealth itself; and they felt that it was cruel to ask the poor native Chris- tians to give anything. They failed to remember that these same people had paid far more for their heathen rites ; and that the very life and perpetuity of the Church among them required that they should do something to help not only themselves, but others.
There have been others, however, who from the first have taught the necessity of liberal gifts for the support of the gospel ; and it is quite witliin the truth to say that the very highest instances of a truly Apostolic liberality in our day are found in mission churches.
Of late these examples are acting as leaven among other native churches. It is one of the advantages of mission- ary conferences and of abundant missionary publications that the best methods and the best successes are made the com- mon property of all. Since the Allahabad Conference, in 1871, all the Missions in India are giving increased attention to the development of self-help among the native churches,- and the. good examples of one field have affected all other fields.
When it was made known what "John Concordance" had accomplished in Eastern Turkey, with a people who worked tenant lands for one-half the crop, and who gave ten per cent, of that as a Government tax, and who from the forty per cent, which remained had given one-tenth for their pastor's support and another tenth to build a chapel, the influence of such an example was felt in all lands — except perhaps in our
DO CONVERTED HEATHEN HELP THEMSELVES? 45
own. The native Christians in Ceylon heard of it, and many members of the churches at Manepy, Tillapally, and else- where began to give one-tenth. At a Communion season, three hundred converts renewed their covenants in a higher consecration. Some of the churches supported their pastors entirely, and as a general rule the care of church edifices and of the church poor, was assumed by the natives.
The Nestorians of the Persian Mission have long been noted for their self-denying liberality ; and their example also has influenced others.
At a Monthly Concert, held by a native church of the Lon- don Mission, in Travancore, India, a paper was read, showing what the Nestoriai;)s were doing. A profound impression was pi'oduced, and the reader himself w^as deeply moved. After urging iipon the people a more thorough consecration of themselves and their possessions, he at once laid dowm his own offerin<]r and called on all who were willins: to consecrate their substance to the Lord to come forward. Many came at once, but the majority left the meeting for their homes, from ■which they soon returned, bringing ornaments, turbans, cloth, umbrellas, brass cups, cocoanuts, lamps, and, in one instance, a cotv ; the whole collection amounting to |;58.50. This in- cident had a great effect upon other congregations in the vicinity.
Altogether, the Travancore churches of the London Society gave, in 18G9, $6,000 ; and during that same year that Society received from all its foreign fields S100,000, a considerable proportion of which came from native Christians.
Prominent in the development of self-help among native churches are the Missions of the English Baptists. In some of the towns near Calcutta, the missionaries began by asking the churches for one-seventh of the native pastors' salaries. The next year ihcy called for two-sevenths, and so on, until now all, or nearly all, the pastors are wholly supported by their peoi)le. The eight Baptist Mission churches in and around Delhi also were reported as supporting their ow^n
46 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
pastors in 1874. Of the one hundred and seven native churches of the same Society in Jamaica, over ninety are self-supporting. Those in Trinidad support their pastors and build their churches. Of course, in all these cases there is yet an aggressive evangelistic work to be done in the regions beyond by Mission funds.
In the South Sea Missions of the Wesleyans, the American Board Missions among the Zulus, the English Baptist Missions in India, the Presbyterian Chinese Missions in Pingtu and Chimeh, the American Baptist Missions among the Karens, and still more notably in the American Board Missions in Western and Central Turkey, the natives have exhibited great zeal and liberality in the erection of their /Own chapels. The churches and citizens of Aintab have raised $7,000 for a college.
hi many fields also there has been exhibited a disposition to carry the gospel to others "without compensation.
In 1873, several members of the First Presbyterian Church, in Canton, districted a certain portion of the city, and went from house to house carrying the story of the Cross. The Methodist missionaries at Hankow speak with joy of a movement of their young men for holding evening services, in which they meet in various localities those who come to hear the Gospel.
At Kuching, near Foochow, according to the last Report of the Church Missionary Society, ten young men had been chosen by the people to make tours as unpaid preachers in the district round about. In one village twenty-five converts had been gained. A little church in the same vicinity had built a chapel and a pastor's house without assistance ; and at a Conference of the native catechists it had been resolved that they would support four of their own number at $75 eacih per annum.
Among the most vigorous and helpful native churches are those of the United Presbyterian Mission in Egypt. Prob- ably there is no country in the world where the oppressions
DO CONVEKTED nEATIIEN HELP THEMSELVES ? 47
of taxation are greater than in Egypt; and yet the report of that Mission for 1874 shows an average contribution from each member of S5.87. Although eight of their ten cluirches have been formed within tlie last ten years, and they number in all but five hundred and nine members, thqy contributed $2,952 for religious purposes last year and $1,032 for tuition.
Such examples might be multiplied to almost any extent. The natives at Umvoti in Zululand built a large church edifice, costing $2,000, and $6.00 was about their usual Monthly Concert collection. In 1870 the Christians of the Friendly Islands gave $17,500 to send the gospel to other tribes, while in the Island of Hawaii the members of nine churches gave $4.10 each for the Missions in the Marquesas Islands.
The five thousand Christians in Samoa gave, among other things, in a single year, $1,500 to the British and Foreign Bible Society.
The recent reports of the American Board, presented at Chicago, October, 1875, show that great attention hi.s of late been given to the subject of self-hel]? in its Missions. We quote the following :
" Besides their home expenses, amounting to over $200,000 in gold, the Hawaiian churches have contributed to Foreign ]Missions over $50,000 during the ten years past, besides sending out, from first to last, over forty of their sons and daughters to Micronesia. The native churches in IMicronesia have received no pecuniary aid from the Board in the sup- port of their institutions, and they are already raising up missionaries to go out to islands still farther to the westward, till Mr. Sturgis writes of the 'great-grandchild' of the American Board.
" The Mission churches in Asia, gathered in large measure among the poorer and humbler classes, sometimes suffering under the most intolerable despotism, Avell-nigh hopeless in their ignorance and misery, were slow to realize their per- sonal ability and resi)onsibility for the work of Christ. Ten years since, their contributions to Christian objects amounted
4:8 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
to hardly more than $10,000 ; the past year they cannot have been less than $45,000. In the Central Turkey Mission alone they amounted to over $10,000,
" In the Madura Mission, where ten years since almost nothing was done by the people, the fourteen pastors are now supported from a common sustentation fund, to which all the churches contribute. In the Mahratta Mission the native Christians are believed to be fully up to the standard of New England Congregationalists."
XII.
INSTANCES OF THE SPONTANEOUS EXTENSION OF THE TRUTH.
When the persecutions of the native cliurches of Madagas- car began thirty years ago, and Christians were driven into banishment, or sold into slavery in remote parts of the island, they carried the truth with them, and as in the New Testa- ment times, believers were multipHed by this very dispersion.
Dr. Mullens, in his report of a visit to Madagascar in 1873, mentions as a special feature of the wonderful work in that coun- try, that so many churches had sprung up in remote districts to which no missionary had ever been sent. Exiles, slaves, and the very soldiers employed by a cruel and remorseless government, had been the heralds of the Cross. Su' Bartle Frere, m his Zanzibar expedition of 1872, found on an exti'eme point of Madagascar, where he had made a temporary land- ing, a congregation of two thousand Christians who had never seen a missionary ; and he says of them, that he never wit- nessed religious worship which seemed more orderly or heart- felt than theu-s.
The following incidents show the kind of agents who some- times publish the truth in Turkey.
A notorious thief (Maghak of Bizmishen) bought a Bible, was converted, provided a chapel and gathered a congregation, to whom he read the Word of Life. Another to whom this
THE SPONTANEOUS EXTENSION OF THE TRUTH. 49
man sold a Bible gathered a similar congregation forty milca away. Another was wont to read the Word of God to a largo compiiny in a stable. A revival followed, and in tvvo years the little church numbered forty members and twenty-ono hopeful converts, with a settled pastor, a chapel, and a par- sonage. " These people, self-moved," says Prof. S. C. Bartlett, iu his sketch of The Turkish IMissions, " organized a mission- ary society to go two aud two, into the neighboring villages, to explain and sell tlie Bible. Two of them entered Hooeli, a village where ths missionaries had repeatedly and vainly en- deavored to gain a foothold. They prayed as they went, ' O Lord, give us open doors and hearts.' Their prayer was an- swered. The villagers applied to the missiouax'ies for a teacher ] but as none could be had, the men of Perchenj sent one of their own number to begin the work. Soon after, a seminary stadent went to spend his summer vacation there, and a mob pitched him and his effects into the street. But the leaven was working. A place of worship, holding three htmdred persons, was erected ; schools were opened to learn the 1 )ible ; a blessed awakening came, attended with forty or fifty conversions, including some of the most hopeless cases in the village ; and at the last information, they were about to organize a church, and to settle aud support as pastor one of the men who first came with the Bible and a prayer to God for a hearing.
"Such is the nature of the work. Every church and every community of Bible readers has a Bible society, that sends forth its books in bags on the backs of donkeys ; and the churches send forth theii- members, two by two, for days and weeks together in the home missionary work. The community of Harpoot had thirty -five members thus engaged at one time. They are also prosecuting a ' Foreign Missionary ' enterprise in a region extending from four to twenty days' journey to the south. This movement is aided by the theological students in their long vacation — the seminaiy being founded on the principle of accustoming students to pastoral work while pur- suing their studies."
50 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
In Mexico, tlie IMission work has shown many instances of spontaDGOUS growth. The Protestant movement was well started before any missionary entered the field. Bible agents had sold the Scriptures which proved a leaven in thousands of families. i^Iean while the empire of Maximilhan had fallen, and with it the supremacy of the Papal Church. To a large extent the property belonging to rehgious orders, and which amounted to nearly one-third of the entu-e wealth of the country, was confiscated. Religious freedom was declared, and by a natm'ul reaction fi-om a tj^ranny which they had endm'ed for over three centuries, the people awolie to a remarkable desh-e for that truth of the gospel which had so long been withheld.
In Villa de Ctis, a mining town in the State of Zacatecas, fifteen persons sent several miles for a Protestant — Rev. Mr. Westrup, of Monterey — to baptize them. From that begin- ning they went forward, selecting men of their own number to jDreach to them and administer the ordinances. They re- ceived much instruction and substantial pecuniary aid from an American layman resident at Zacatecas ; but no missionary- was sent to them till they had already reached a church mem- bership of one hundred and seventy, and had provided a neat chapel, costing about $i,000. In many towns in Mexico the truth spraug up as a result of Bible distribution, and little conventicles were gathered in private houses, in which the Scriptures were read and exhortations given by those who were counted most intelligent.
Persecution generally added interest and success to the work. In December, 1874, Rer. M.N. Hutchinson, American Presbyterian Missionary, in Mexico City, was invited to Aca- pulco, where a spontaneous religious interest had arisen. A mob attacked the httle congregation, with the hope of kilHug 31 r. Hutchinson and others. He escaped on board a vessel in the harbor; but several were killed and others wounded. The congregation v.-ere scattered among the mountain villages, and they everywhere made known the truth.
THE SPONTANEOUS EXTENSION OF THE TRUTH. 51
As a result., in less than a year about thirty little centres of Protestantism appeared in these villages, and the number of believers whose conversion was traced to the persecution was nearly five hundred. Among them was a large number of students connected with a government college, several of whom liave commenced preparations for the ministiy.
In the Spanish republics of South America also, the truth is being extended by the spontmeous effort of the native popu- lation. When Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet on Vaticanism aj)- peared, a foreign merchant in Valparaiso requested the missionaries of the Presbyterian Board to translate and pub- lish it at his expense for the benefit of intelligent readers on that coast. Before the proposed issue could be made, how- ever, a good translation of it appeared in the leading journal of the country ; and thus through the best possible medium it was brought to the attention of leading minds throughout the Republic of Chili.
Not long after, a prominent merchant of the same city ordered fi-om Europe several French copii>s of Lavaleye's " Protestantism and Catholicism Compared ; " but before they had arrived, a Spanish repubhcatiou of this work also appeared in the daily laapers.
Still later a native Chilian, who had read this reprint, pub- lished an able article commending the pure Word of God as the only ti-ue source of public enlightenment and virtue, and the only sure foundation for the State. The truth can no longer be suppressed. Error must everyw^here take its chances. Pvcal jDrogress finds on every hand a thousand co- efficient agencies.
52 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
XIII.
THE COST OF MISSIONS.*
One of the common objections to Foreign Missions, in the view of a certain class of hyper-practical men, lies in the alleged expensivcness of the work in proportion to the results gained.
Articles have gone the rounds of the newspapers giving the exact cost of converts per capita under the various Mission- ary Societies. This is a very unfair style of objection : First, because it fails to make due allowance for the fact that all enterprises are supposed to be of necessity less productive in their infancy, than in their matured strength. The seed-time is not the time for judging the rewards of the harvest. And secondly, ony attempt to measure spiritual results by mere dollars and cents, is absurd. What is the value of an im- mortal soul ? What was its cost to Him who " for our sakes became poor ?" Or to put the question even on the scale of the higher earthly values, can great moral influences be meted out by our arithmetic ?
Who has ever raised the inquiry whether Bunker Hill Monument has earned paying dividends on the first invest- ment, or whether the Centennial of 1876 will realize to the American. people as much in hard dollars as it will cost? The first planted germs of Christian civilization, in a country like India or China, are, even aside from the computation of immediate conversions, beyond all price. Merely as germs they carry with them the temporal and eternal weal of mil- lions yet unborn. Though for the present they should yield no fruit and offer no advantage, yet their real value would be inestimable. " No man liveth unto himself," and no generation liveth unto itself.
The noblest deeds of mankind are those which lay fi)un- dations for the welfare of the race in all time. But the plan
*Tliis paper was suggested by an editor of a leading religious paper •wlio bad observed the prevalence of tliis style of criticism
THE COST OF MISSIONS. 53
of estimating mission-work by the [number of converts, leaves wholly out of view the large expenditure of time and money which is given to the education of the younir. 'i'he pu[uls of various grades under instruction by the Presby- terian Board number over 12,000, and those of the American Board number more than 22,000.
But as objections must sometimes be met on the same low grade on which they are made, the cost of the Foreign Mission work has frequently been compared with that of coiTcspond- ing departments of Christian effort at home. Of course such a comparison mi^st involve many disadvantages to a work, which is not only in its infancy, but which must contend with the hostile influences of a foreign land and of repellant heathen systems.
In this connection, we quote the following from an article which was published in the Missionary Herald of March, 1874:
" Take the Sandwich Islands, where we have the figures of expense and results at the time (1870), when this formally ceased to be a Mission field. The expenditure of the American Board had been $1,220,000; the total of admissions to churches, 55,300. This gives an expenditure of $22.06 per convert. The annual export and import trade of the Islands, based mainly on the productive industry of the native population, developed in very large measure by missionary influence, amounted to over 64,300,000 — nearly four times the entire amount expended in Christianizingr the Islands ! And now that we are on fig- ures, let us apply them a little further, much as we are disgusted at this method of reckoning up sjnrifiial results. A church in this country, with an annual expenditure of 83,000 a year for current expenses, in order to compete with the results of money expended in the instance above named, should make an annual increase to its membership of 136 ; and a city church spending $10,000, would soon be obliged to colonize at the rate of 450 members annually!" The same article quotes from a statement in the Missionary Herald for Janu- ary, 1866 : " For a period of twenty- six years, 1810-1866, it
64 THE GREAT CONQrEST.
was found that the average annual number of additions by profession to the Congregational churches in Massachusetts had been five to each church, and five and one-half to each acting pastor ; while in the Missions of the Board, for the same time, the additions had averaged twenty annually to each church, and fourteen and one-half to each missionary."
A similar comparison witli relation to Baptist Missions and churches, appears in The Baptist 31issiona^-y Magazine of De- cember, 1873.
Durnig the year ending March 31, 1873, the Missionary Union (Baptist) expended on all fields and for all purposes, including the purchase of grounds, the purchase, erection, and repairs of buildings, printing, books, etc., $239,417. On the other hand, in the Long Island Association alone, there was expended by the churches during the same year for home expenses only, very nearly the same amount, namely, $236,142. The number of persons baptized during the year, within the bounds of the Association, was to the converts of the Missionary Union as one to eight ; so that the cost was eight times as great.
The Southern New York Association, which includes the city of New York, reported the home expenses of 36 churches, out of 51 in the Association, at $179,718. If these repre- sented the average of the whole, there were baptized during the year, within the bounds of the Association, 480 persons. This shows an expenditure for each person bajitized in this Association ten times as great as on the Baptist mission fields.
To show that the comparison may safely be made in the country churches as well as in those of the cities, the following facts are added from the same source :
" One of the most vigorous Associations in the State of New York, in which there is no large city, is the Black River Association. The home expenses of the churches of the Association, as nearly as could be estimated from the im- perfect reports, were about $25,336." According to the num- ber of converts baptized, the expenses per convert, in this rural district, were five times the average of the Union.
THE COST OF MISSIONS. 55
Carrying this same line of comparison into the Presbyterian Church, and basing our estimate upon the whole Church -work and the whole Mission- work, instead of selecting particular fields, we find by the Assembly's statistics (to use the offen- sive phrase of the objector to Missions) the comparative cost of each convert at home. This, howevei", does not take into account the hirge sums expended for religious books and papers, and for education. It does not cover endowments of institutions, nor Government aid to schools, nor special gifts and donations, nor many other things which our home Christianity costs. But on the foreign field all things are charged to the one single treasury, viz. : Permanent Mission property, such as bouses, chapels, press-buildings, schools, and orphanages; and also the current expenses, not merely of preaching the gospel, but of schools, colleges, hos- pitals, and dispensaries (in part), and printing establishments as well as of the permanent work of translating the Bible, and preparing a Christian literature.
To assess the whole expense of this varied work upon the number of converts, is very much as if a farmer should include in the estimated cost of a particular crop, tbe expense of fell- ing forests, and of fencing and draining the land — a work which should be chiefly valued as preparing for a hundred future crops.
Still the entire work of the Presbyterian Board, with all its translating, printing, and physical healing, and with its colleges and seminaries, and other schools of more than 12,000 pupils, would count for each convert, nearly one-half less than the objects (of partial cost) included in the statistics of the General Assembly.
The Presbyterian Board is of more recent origin than some of the other great Foreign Missionary Societies, and, like a younger tree, has not yet come to full bearing; and it has aimed to lay its foundations in the great centres of the world, and among stronger and more influential, though for that reason, less plastic races.
Nevertheless it is safe to assume that, other things being
66 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
equal, the cost of its results, numerically, is only about half as great as that of the home Church as a whole.
Rev. David Irving, D.D., in an able review of the Foreign Mission work of all Boards, for the last fifty years, makes the following comparison : " It would naturally be expected that foreign evangelization would be more expensive, when the difficulties in the two fields arc considered — the crushing effects of heathenism in the one case upon the civil, social, and moral relations of the people ; and the enlightening and elevating effects of gospel, of law and order upon the masses in the other ; in the preparation of the people on the one hand to receive the truth, and the entire absence of it on the other. ]n the one case, man speaks to his fellow in their com- mon language and country ; in the other, the preacher is a foreigner, ignorant at first of the language and people, and living often in an unhealthy clime ; in the one, helps and ap- pliances for work are abundant ; in the other, they have had to be made, and are few% as yet, when compared with the number in the other. Without running the contrast farther, let us compare the statistics of the Presbyterian Church for 1825 and for 1875. According to the Minutes, there were, in 1825, 1,080 ordained ministers, and 169,000 communicants; in 1875, taking in the Southern Church (as part of the body in 1825), we have 5,700 ministers and 013,868 members, or a relative gain of the ministry in the missionary field and ia our Church nearly the same ; in membership the increase to the Foreign Mission churches over the home Church is as three and a half to one; but allowing the native helpers as an offset to Sabbath-school workers and other Christian lay agents at home, and contrasting simply the ministry, and we have this large preponderance of communicants through the labors — taking the several years into account — of only about one-third the workers. But more than this, looking at the contributions of the Presbyterian Church for her own work in congregational and benevolent outlays for our own land, the amount expended for these jDurposes alone, is double what has been disbursed by all churches for Foreign Missions
FOREIGN MISSIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE CHURCH. 57
*' We have, then, this remarkable fact, that taking the growth of the Presbyterian Church in the United States as a fair indication of the aggrt^gate increase of the whole Evangelical Church in it, and we have the growth of the IMission churches three and a half times greater, with one-third of the ministerial force and at one-half the cost."
But however favorable such comparisons may be to the. Foreign Missionary success, the cause docs not find its cliief inspirations upon so low a grade. It must be impelled by tlie constraining love of Christ, who even gave His life for the salvation of men. He has revealed the way of life and immor- tality to us, and has made us almoners of the like precious faith to others, even unto the ends of the earth.
XIV.
FOREIGN MISSIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE LIFE OF THE CIIUKCIL
Rev. Andrew Fuller found at a certain period in his pastorate that he could not sustain the spiritual life and comfort of his people. Looking always upon their own frames of mind and their corresponding chances of a personal salvation, they found no comfort. Just then, he tells us, the question of missions to the heathen arose, and he turned the attention of his people to the great work of extending Christ's kingdom. The effect was wonderful. V/ith the laying aside of their old narrowness and selfishness, their doubts dis- appeared. Watering, they were watered; blessing others, they were blessed.
This principle has been illustrated again and again in the modern history of the Church. The cause of Missions has been one of the most valuable of all agencies, in arousing the Bpiritual life of God's people. Their general intelligence a^ Christians has been increased; their theology has been venti- lated and expanded ; they have gained better conceptions of the s :ope of Redemption and of Christ's Universal Kingdom ;
58 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
and they have come to apprehend the brotherhood of all men in a broader and nobler sense.
All great plans for accomplishing good to others, reflect blessings upon the character and Kfe; all enterprises which lead men to forget tlieir selfishness and act by a common impulse for the vindication of truth or the elevation of human- ity, ennoble their authors by a compensating influence.
Even the Crusades, blind and fanatical as was the zeal which promj)ted tliera, accomplislied much for Europe, if not for the Holy Land. They awakened thought and enkindled heroic aspii-ations. They enliglitened the semi-barbarous States of the West by bringing them into contact with other races. And that narrow and fanatical type of Christianity which inspired them, was itself instructed and liberalized and pre- pared for better conquests.
Thus the Crusades helped to open the way for the Reforma- tion by stirring the stagnation of the Dark Ages, and arous- ing that activity of thought which rendered the old tyranny impossible. But if such was the influence of even those mis- guided enterprises, how much grander must be the reflex benefits of this conquest, which seeks not the possession of old shrines and tombs, but the precious souls of men, living temples for the Holy Ghost; which rears not forts and castles on the shores of Palestine, but churches, and pi'inting presses, and Bible depositories, and schools, and colleges ; and which, so far from confining itself to one land, seeks to hallow all lands by the establishment of that kingdom which is righteous- ness and peace ! Those romantic conquests also promoted unity of spirit among Christian nations by enlisting them in a common cause; but a far broader union of spirit has been created by the cause of Foreign Missions.
^Tio can estimate the value of the Monthly Concert of Prayer, sadly as it has been neglected ? It has bound together the sympathies of all Christendom, softening the asi^erities of sectarian uncharitableness, and fixing the attention of all upon the great last command of their common Master.
FOREIGN MISSIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE CnUKCII. 59
Not only from the older Protestant nations and the many smaller Christian colonies, but also from a thousand mission stations whose cordon of outposts now belts the globe, does this prayer ascend. Though from a hundred tribes and in as many tongues, it rises to the ear of Heaven as one common petition, " Thy Kingdom come.''''
The Church has been greatly enriched by this fellowship and participation. The very songs of the IMission cause, espe- cially those thrilhng lines of Bishop Heber, which have re- sounded in the ears of the present generation from infanc}-, have given to Christian life a higher and broader inspii'ation. The examples of devoted men and women who have literally obeyed the command to go into all the earth, have exerted theu' elevating influences.
No family, no pastor, no congregation, or Sabbath-school has contributed a missionary to the heathen without being made richer by the gift. No theological class has seen one of its members turning away from the temptations of ambition or ease, and sincerely offering himself for the work of greatest need, without being raised to higher conceptions of Christian ambassadorship. In nothing short of the grace of life itself is the Chui'ch richer than in her accredited representatives in the dark places of the earth. They are proofs of her vitality, pledges of her faith in Christ, and earnests of her ultimate success. And even from her heathen converts she has gath- ered strength. The joy and gratitude of multitudes reclaimed from the shadow of death, the exhibitions of Christian con- stancy which believers in various lands have shown in trial and persecution, and the successes gained over prejudice and cruelty, and tl*e stubborn self-confidence of waning sys- tems of error, have all served to strengthen her faith.
These principles apply with equal force, whether to a single Christian heart, or to a particular Church, or to a whole de- nomination, or even to a Christian nation.
Individual churches have invariably prospered in propor- tion to their missionary zeal, and several of the leading
60 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Christian denominations — notably the Baptists — might almost date their remarkable growth from the commencement of their Mission enter2:)rises. With the light that is now possessed and the responsibility which great opportunities involve, a seltish Christianity were suicidal, if not a contradiction of terms.
A New York pastor, whose congregation were struggling with a heavy debt, struck a true principle of Christian philos- ophy when he urged them, on that very account, to enlist in outside mission work. " We have so much to do among ourselves," he said, " that we cannot afford to withdraw from the help of others in Christ's name. We cannot do even our own work selfishly. We can only succeed on the higher and broader principle of love to Christ and Kis common cause."
It was on the same principle that a Western clergyman paid in a public meeting : "We need in the West a Christian- ity strong enough to convert the world."
Ho had the forecast to see that selfishness, either denomi- national or sectional, would be fatal. It could never withstand the materializing influence of so much wealth. There must be a proper proportion between material greatness and spiritual power.
The relations of this subject to small and feeble churches, whether on the Western frontier or elsewhere, is most vital to our own future welfivre, as well as to the cause of Missions. When shall a small church begi7i to take up the general in- terests of Christ's kingdom in the earth ; in the full manhood of its strength only, or in its childhood and very infancy ?
Shall even those churches which need q,ssistance, begin at once to do something for the nations that sit in darkness ? In a country in which much land yet remains to be possessed, and a large proportion of whose churches are still young, the right answer to these questions is all-important, since it must determine the type of Christianity which that country itself shall have.
FOREIGN MISSIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE CHURCH. 61
They were answered nobly by the Christians of New Eng- land when, amid poverty and sttrn frugality, they laid the foundations of the American Board.
They were met in the same spirit in Western Pennsylvania by those who in " the day of small things" established the nucleus of the Presbyterian Board. They were answered promptly and generously by a people poorer still, the Amer- ican Bajitists, when suddenly and unexpectedly the proviilence of God called them to sustain the Mission work of Judson and Eice in India — called them as signally as if by a voice from heaven to prepare for those conquests in Burraah which have become the chief glory of the Baptist denomination. If these early examples shall be followed in the West as well as in the East ; if the same spirit shall enter into the religious life of all sections of the Church — on the prairies, in the mountain territories, and along the Pacific coast — then the Christianity of our country is safe. Instead of the downward gradation of selfishness, worldliness, infidelity, and spiritual desolation, there will be a growing consecration to Christ's king'dom everywhere; and the centre of the American con- tinent will be the fulcrum by which the world shall be lifted out of darkness into light. The law of exjiansion must always be essential to the life of the Church.
Already in the Foreign Mission fields it is found that an aggressive spirit is indispensable to the continued thrift of the native churches. We are told, that in 1847 the churches in the Sandw'ich Islands show'ed signs of apathy and decay. They had been only recipients. They had cared for their ow'n ; and there was still much work to be done on the Islands. " But," says Dr. Anderson, " it was found there as it had been in our country, that the motive power of the home missionary plea alone, is not of itself sufiieiently awakening and powerful. In short, it was painfully certain that the infant churches on the Islands, regarded as a w'hole, could not be raised to the level of enduring and eill-ctive working churches without a stronger religious inlkience than could be brought to act upon
62 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
them from within theu" own Christianized islands. It was also evident that the missionaries themselves then needed an additional motive power, beyond what the Isbnds any- longer afforded. It was precisely this discovery — for discov- ery it was — which gave rise to the Mission to Micronesia."
A special indebtedness of the Church to the Mission work is seen in the Week of Prayer. Eighteen years ago, the fir^t public call to this world-wide observance came as a cry from a mission field in India. Those who indited the request had just passed through terrible trials; they had seen eight of their fellow-missionaries, with hundreds of English residents, cut down with fiendish cruelty by the rebellious Sepoys, and they had for months lived in constant expectation of death. At the same time they had witnessed wonderful proofs of the inter- vention of God's providence, in the great change of public sen- timent and the policy of the Government, with respect to the overthrow of caste and the old errors and the introduction of Christianity. They saw, moreover, that the sympathies of all Christendom were moved for India ; and it seemed to them that the time had come for a great advance upon the kingdom of darkness.
Under such circumstances none could resist their call. All evangelical churches the world over united in the observance, and that without specially raising the question of reflex bless- ings. But after the lapse of eighteen years, this week of prayer has become a valued institution for the advancement of spiritual interests in our home churches.
Perhaps in too many cases the martyr blood of India and the wants of the heathen world are forgotten; but individual churches count upon the Week of Prayer for their own sake.
Pastors and church officers look forwai'd to it as a time of refreshing. The faith of Christians gets a new impulse. The Sabbath-school shows more of thoughtfulness, and, in hundreds of instances, blessed revivals are the result. Ilow riclil}' has the Church been repaid for all her pi'ayers for the Mission cause. Her responsibility is correspondingly increased.
COLONIZATION AS RELATED TO MIBSIONS. G3
All American Methodist Bishop uttered a weighty and niany-sitled truth, when he said that the question now, was " not so much whether the lieathen could be saved without the gospel, as whether we ourselves can be saved if we fail to give it to them."
XV.
COLONIZATION AND COMMERCE AS :.IEANS OF THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION.
We have already spoken of the great array of Mission- ary Societies and tlie host of their actual laborers, and of the Christian faith and zeal of tlie tens of thousands whom thoy represent. But the real work of Missions is broader than any or all direct tftbrts of men. Under that divine superintend- ence wliich controls the forces of nature and the world, it embraces all human enterprises which may be overruled for good. Conspicuous among these is colonization.
In the apostolic times, the gospel followed the Jewish mi- grations throughout Asia Minor and into Eastern Europe. Paul found the way prepared for him everywhere by colo- nized Jews, and none will deny that he owed much to the fiicilities thus afforded him. Almost invariably he first en- tered the synagogues which had been built in the heathen cities. After setting out from Antiocli, with Barnabas, he preached to a Jewish or mix 3d audience in the synagogue at Salamis, to another at Antioch in Pisidia, and another at Iconium,
On a later missionary tour, he found at Philippi " a place where prayer was wont to be made" on the Sabbath. At Thessalonica and Berea, and even at Corinth, he entered the synagogues and proclaimed the truth. At Athens he preached both to Jews in their synagogues, and to the heatlien in the market-place and in the Areopagus. That the truth had fol- lowed Jewish migrations still farther West, is shown by the
64: THE GREAT CONQUEST.
fact that Paul sent particular salutations to numerous Christian residents in Rome before he had visited that city.
In the evangelization of Western Europe, there was a similar co-operation of Missionary effort with colonization. And the fact, that Protestant Christianity now extends over the North American Continent, is due mainly to the tides of European emigration which nearly three centuries ago began to set in this direction. Missionaries, sent forth as such, accompanied these colonies ; but there was a religious element in the char- acter and motives of the settlers themselves, some of whom had fled from persecution. Puritans and Hollanders and Huguenots sought homes not merely, but an asylum for their faith, in the forests of the new continent.
Some of the pastors of the colonial congregations were also missionaries ; and many of the noblest Christian laymen who obtained j^atents for settlements, had in view the enlighten- ment of the native tribes of the country.
The new communities were Christian colonies. Churches and schools were made the chief foundations of the social order •, and the very lavi's were framed with a supreme reference to the law of God.
In our own day, the settlement of California and the Pacific coast has illustrated the importance of commercial enterprise and migration in the extension of the Gospel over the world.
It is but a quarter of a century since the throng of gold miners began to cross the Rocky Mountains or the Southern Isthmus for the El Dorado of the Pacific; but already a vigorous Christian civilization extends up and down the coast from Puget's Sound to San Diego. Not only in mining and agriculture has California taken a high stand, but in her plans for education and general advancement. Schools and colleges and eleemosynary institutions, churches and Sab- bath-schools, and ecclesiastical organizations for the general diffusion of Christianity, have even in this short period placed these new communities almost abreast with the oldest Chris- tian countries.
COLONIZATION AS RELATED TO MISSIONS. 65
But it would bi; erroneous to ascribe the wonderful phenome- non of an advanceJ civilization now extending np and down the coast and ennbr;iciiig three great commonwealths to missionary efforts a'one. A recent writer alluding to the fact, that just one hundred years ago two Roman Catholic Missionaries en- tered the Golden Gate and established themselves at San Fran- cisco, draws a contrast betM'^een the little that they had accom- plished in the tluee-quarters of a century, and the grand results of the Protestant occupation, which has yet continued but one- third of that period. It must not be regarded as a mere differ- ence between Romanism and Protestantism, however; for two Prottstant missionaries, or even a thousand, could not have made California what it is. Nor would Anglo-Saxon enterprise have availed but for the discovery of gold. All the causes which led to the result were a part of God's plan. Indeed it is one of the cheering considerations in the Mission-work, that it may count all God's providences on its side. On the other hand, the Missionary element is indispensable to colonization. Solid foundations of s/>ciai order camiot be laid without it. The first settlers of San Francisco, appalled by the lawlessness of the community, sent to the Sandwich Islands for a Foreign Mis- sionary to come and enlighten the heathenism of unrestrained adventui'ers. They urged also the earliest possible supply of Home Missionaries from the Atlantic States.
Three things then were requisite to this rapid and wonderful civilization of the Pacific coast. First : The secular induce- ments that should attract a numerous and enterprising popula- tion. This was found in the gold mines, and the remarkable fertility of the soil. Second : It was essential that it be an im- migration of the An'jlu-S:.xon rather than of the Latin races ; and that it be Protestant instead of Roman Catholic.
The Mexican and South American States sufficiently illus- trate the poor colonial success of either Spanish or Portuguese Papists in the Western Hemisphere.
And thirdly : With an Anglo-American and Protestant pop- ulation, it was also necessary that the Gospel be introduced at
OQ THE GREAT CONQUEST.
the outset and with the utmost vigor. Tiiere must be more than a nominal Protestant influGnC'.'. Leading Christian raeu were anxious that their California institutions should be as truly religious as those which they had left in the Eastern States. Everything depended on right beginnings.
And the various denotninatious at the East, seeing the im- portance of early foundations, readily sent their missionaries to the Pacific coast, though it required double the salaries of men employed in the Central West.
The result has been veiy remarkable, especially in view of the disorders which at first prevailed.
And, looking at the geographical position of the Pacific States, and considering the influx of a large Mongolian im- migration to their shores, and the intimate relations which they are likely to hold with the Japanese and Chinese empires, one is impressed with the important influence which these new centres of power are likely to exert in the evangelization of the world. More and more every year the churches of Cali- fornia are awakening t6 the fact that the grandest opportuni- ties for effectuating the enlightenment of the Mongolian race are found on their own soil and within the sound of their own church-bells.
The history of California has been substantially repeated in Australia. Men of middle age will remember when little was known of that great insular continent except as a penal colony. But gold-mining and the gospel, Anglo-Saxon energy, and Mis- sionary zeal, British constitutional government, and the Bible, have wrought their usual results.
"The objects of the British Government in the formation of the first settlement at Port Jackson, in 1788," says the author of a recent statistical work, published by the "Wesleyan Missionary Society, " was to make it a receptacle for criminals, in which plans of a reformatory character might be tried,, and opportuni- ties be given to that unhappy class of the community to begin life again under circumstances favorable to their moral renova- tion. The rise and progress Avithin the last forty years is a
COLOKIZATION AS KELATtU TO MISSIOA^S. G*
marvel. There had been nothing hke it in the past history of tlie world. Eighty-six years ago there was not a single civil- ized m.iu on the Australian Continent, or in the adjacent islands of Tasmania and New Zealand. At this day (1874:) there are two millions.
"The influence which these Colonies, so purely British in the character of their pnpnlations, will eventually exercise upon Polynesia and the Asiastic nations from Japan to India, and upon the Indian Archipelago and New Guinea, must be very great; and, from the character of the Australian popula- tion, and frcm the missionary spirit of the Australian churches, it must be for gooJ, In no English community does there exist a greater desire for the spread of education and the circu- lation of sound hterature. In Sydney and Melbourne, and Adelaide, there are excellent public libraries, each of which is fully equal to any of the libraries in the larger towns of the mother country. The notion that there are the remains of a large convict element in the population of the older colonies is a great mistake. There is, on the wdaole, a larger proportion of well-informed, educated people in the Australian colonies than among the same number of people at home, and their religi- ous feeling is fully equal. What may we not expect from the influence of such a population ? "
In the early days of t])e colony, a poor woman whose name has not been recorded, gathered a few children in her rude dwelling and tried to teach them. A clergyman was led by this example of devotion to request help from the Society for the Prop igation of the Gospel in 1792. Grants of £10 a year were made to three female and to one male teacher. A School and Corporation Act was passed in 1825, and a National Board of Education was established in 1848.
At the present time, both Australia and New Zealand have vigorous educational institutions, embracing G'>vernment schools from the lower grades to the college and the university. Such cities as Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Auldand, are well supplied with fine churches, Sabbath -schools, charity hospitals,
68 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
and local Missionary societies and Bible depositories. In Vic- toria education is wiiolly supjjorted by the Government, and is compulsory.
The following statistics are given for all the colonies :
Nominal Protestants. Ptipils in Schools.
New South Wales 137,000 106,340
Queensland 93,000 20,737
Victoria 540,000 174,000
S.Australia 15f,000 15,790
W. Australia 18,000 2,336
Tasmania 80,000 16,000
New Zealand 217,000 31,710
The extent to which Church edifices have been erected will appear from the following table representing Church accommo- dations in Victoria:
Church Accommodations
Wesleyans 92,900
Presbyterians 64,000
Church of England 59,670
Kornan Catholics 57,760
Independents 15,050
Primitive Methodists 12,756
Baptists 12,830
Union Methodists 5,500
320,472 In accomplishing the remartable results which Australia pre- sents to-day, a dozen Missionary societies of Great Britain co- operating with Christian colonists, have taken wise advantage of aD the flxcilities furnished by mining and commerce, and all those forms of enterprise which so characterize British settlers everywhere.
But not in Australia alone has this work of Christian coloniza- tion extended. It is difficult to find any portion of the globe in which the Anglo-Saxon with his Bible and his Church, his schools and newspapers, and telegraphs, and facilities for travel
COLONIZATION AS RELATED TO MISSIONS. (jO
and trade, has not in these last fifty years planted his standard for pcniiancnt occnpation. Those ideas of God and the destiny of man, of law and order, and huinatiity, which have made him gnat, he is destined to promulgate throughout the earth. His aggressions are often rough and not always free from injustioc, hut on the whole he is a great benefactor of the nations — the chief apostle of Christian civilization on all continents, and in the islands of the sea. All around the coast of dark Africa, England has established colonies. At Sierra Leone, Cape Colony, and Natal, are all the institutions of government, edu- cation and religion, while in Zanzibar, Abyssinia, and Egypt, the influence of Britain is exerted for civilization and humanity.
At Hitng-Kong, Singapore, and Penang, she has established her institutions ; recently New Guinea and Fijee are coming under her influence ; and already Fejee has six thousand Euro- pean settlers.
But perhaps the most important colonial enterprise in mod- ern times, at least since the planting of Protestant institutions in North America, is seen in the Anglo-Indian Empire. The English have colonized India in a modified and yet in a vexy important sense. The masses of the population must ever be Hindu and not Anglo-Saxon ; and the latter will, perhaps, con- tinue to present the changes which are involved in a temporary residence. But the British element is always sufficiently strong to be controlling. As the exiled heroes of Troy are said to have carried their Trojan customs and religion into Latium, and imposed laws \ipon the rude tribes of Italy ; as the Normans crossed the Channel and established their domi- nant influence over the Saxons and other tribes of the British Islands — in some such sense the English have colonized India, They have firmly planted British institutions, and are rapidly developing the resources and molding the most influential thought of the country. India is practically a British Empire. The cupidity and injustice of a trading company had much to do Avith its early establishment, and in the stupendous result there have been many instances in which God has overruled evil for
70 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
good ; but as a phenomenon, and as a prophecy of the future destiny of the oldest heathen races, British India fills us with wonder. It is one of the principal fields of the modern Missionary enterprise, and one in which its most difficult prob- lems have been successfully bolved. And it is a cheering fact that Missionary influence has, after much perscicution^ won the confidence, and to a large extent the moral support, of the Government.
The latest statistics give in India, including Burmah and Ceylon, about 350,000 native Christians, and 90,000 communi- cants in the native cburehes. "Who can estimate the i.ifluence of this British Empire with its churches and schools, and sup- plemented by the acknowledged and welcome co-operation of over thirty Missionary organizations during the century to come. It is situated in the heart of the Asiatic continent, and the arms of its power reach forth in every direction over softer and more plastic racis.
It sways a sceptre over two hundred and fifty millions of tho hiiman race, and its influence must reach other millions on every side. Its Anglo-Saxon lineage irnplies aggression and molding power, and its Protestant faith gives promise that the Bible, and not a crucifix or a tradition, shall take the place of Juggernauth and the Vedas.
XYI. WOMAN'S WORK FOR MISSIONS.
The great impulse which his of late been given to woman'a work for Missions is the result of a twofold change.
First, the views of the Church have undergone some modifi- cation in regard to the propriety of organiz'd efl:ort among women for benevolent objects. The late war of the Rebellion disclosed a great power and efficiency in the concerted action of American women both North and South. The Sanitary and
womjVn's work for missions. 71
Christi-an Commissions, with :ill that was clone hy womanly liauds in lio:ipital service, as well as iu raising means for the soldiers' comfort on the field, developed a power which at the close of the war stood ready for other lines of effort. The Christian women of the land had learned their strength, and were desirous of using it in other ways. For the most part, so fiir from aspiring to any rivalry with man in his sphere, they rather sought to promote the interests of true womanhood in all lands. Hence, Woman''. "s Work fo?- TFoma?! became their motto, and they looked abroad for opportunities where the greatest need was felt.
Meanwhile another change was taking place. At Calcutta a missionary's wife had gained access to a zenana.
Anglo vernacular education in India, which some among us had thought of little value, in a missionary point of view, had brought forth uuexpectccl fruit in breakin;:;; down the old Hindu notions in regard to the seclusion of women. Graduates of the Calcutta University found themselves companionless in their own homes ; for they had no wives, but only dolls or slaves.
When they visited their English friends, and saw that woman could be the equal of her husband, and the chief ornament of her home, they felt keenly the contrast. Here, then, were the germs of a great social revolution springing up in the highest and most influential ranks.
It spread apace. The old order of things was doomed. Men w'lio could lecture ()n History or Political Science before mixed audiences Ih Calcutta, could no longer tolerate the ignorance and folly of a barred zenana. Thus a field was opened worthy of the zeal and enthusia:?m of Christian women everywhere. The old Brahmiuism had taught doctrines which not only en- slaved the lower orders of men, but which laid on all women still heavier burdens and disabihtie-*. For ages the millions of Indian women had rested under the terrible curse of this system. Now there was an opportunity to emancipate them. Never Avas a grander work presented for willing hearts and hands. Not to heed the call would have been to iarnore the voice of
72 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Providence and to stifle all emotions of gratitude on the part oi' those for whom the gospel had done so much.
And so general has been the response to this great call that the best talent, and culture, and piety of women in the United States and Great Britain are now pretty generally enlisted in the wcirk. Women of all denominations have organized their forces for the common end ; and since public attention has been called to the work it is found that not India alone, but China and Japan, Syria, Persia, and Siam, and indeed all the great Mission fields, are opening the way for the efforts of Christian women.
The work is different from any in which woman's philan- thropy has hitherto been specially enlisted. The care of orphans and widows has, for a long time, engaged womanly sympathy. For a quarter of a century also, worthy and well- deserved effort has been put forth for the wives and families t)f Home missionaries on our own frontier.
But that which lends the chief inspiration to this remarkable movement is something wholly clifferciit. Therd is no ground for comparison between the care given to missionaries' wives on the Home and on the Foreign fields; for in the latter case it is not the comfort or the self-denial of missionaries' wives that is considered, though their hardships are great ; but it is the awful degradation of millions on millions of the female sex who have never shared the divine pity of the gospel; it is the thought that of all the woes of heathenism, the chief burden has for ages fallen upon woman ; it is the sad and condemna- tory reflection that, while for two thousand years the gospel has done so much for the female sex in Christian lands, the same boon has not been given to the great mass of womankind in all lands.
" As a dream when one awaketh " so the women of Christen- dom now look upon the strangeness of past neglect; and, join- ing h&nd in hand across all denominational lines, all barriers of language or nationality, all bounds and distances of land or sea.
WOMAN'S WORK FOE MISSIONS. 78
they are belting the globe with the bonds of their sympathy and love.
But is there a real need of such a movement ? Are not the women of other lands as happy as those of this conntry, only in a different way, and according to their measure ? Men, like the author of " Typee," would, perhaps, insist that light-hearted and unthinki.ig enjoyment and a real ignorance of their degra- dation are more desirable for the women of pagan lands than the partial enlightenment which we are able to give them.
It is useless to deal Avith such theories in detail. From isolated facts and observations it were impossible to derive conclusions that would convince all minds.
But there are great nnderlying principles whose influence none can ignore. For example, it is a safe criterion to judge all religious systems by the place which they assign to woman. If they degrade the one sex, they will, in the next generation, debase the other ; and the whole fabric of society will sink gradually into irrecoverable ruin.
Let us apply this test ; first, to Buddhism.
It is an article in the Buddhist fuith, that woman has no hope in the future life excqot that of bsing born a man.
" The system," says a high authority, "leaves woman where it found her 2,000 yea7's ago. Instead of educating and elevat- ing her; instead of breaking those chains of slavery in which women were held all over Asia ; instead of giving them a posi- tion in society worthy of their innate purity. Buddhism grudg- ingly allowed them a place in the hierarchy as nuns, but with the distinct understanding that there was no hope of salvation for them unless through being re-born as men."
There is, then, no blessing for woman as woman. At the best she may only hope in returning to her Creator to correct the dreadful mistake of her present existence by being born on a higher grade.
By implication her life is a calamity ; she lives on a lower plane and is an inferior creature.
74 THE GREAT CONQIJEST.
Buddhist priests, according to another authority^ are accus- tomed to teach all women that their sex is at once a proof of, and a punishment for, the sins committed by them in some former existence.
There is in China, a partially counteractive influence in the respect accorded to parents. The Chinese mother-in-law is invested with a kind of influence and, we may say, terror. She is often found to be the more relentless and cruel for the misery which she suffered when under the same servitude to another.
Besides, the respect which she claims is a fruit of Confucian- ism— not of Buddhism. She holds it rather in spite of the latter system. Instead of promising her the worship of her descendants, it assures her that she may be born into the donkey that serves them ; and at best she cannot attain to Nirwana.
Who, then, will need be told that this sweeping dogma affects the whole life and happiness of woman ; blots out all hope, quenches all aspiration, robs her of that prospective comfort in the future which, to others, mitigates the darkest woes of life ? What respect can she receive from man under such a system ? And what wonder that throughout those vast Asiatic countries — China, Japan, Corea, Mongolia, Thibet, Cambodia, Siam, Burmah, and Ceylon — she is, in fact, everywhere de- graded !
Let the same test be applied to Brahminism. According to that system, Avoman exists only for man. She is merely an adjunct to his superior life. If he lives, she may count it her joy to be consumed like the perfume of a flower for his profit or delectation. If he dies, she should die ; she should be burned with his remains. More fortunate than her Buddhist sister, she may reach her goal as a woman, but it should be through the smoke of her husband's pyre. Failing to be burned, she should still consume herself by a life of penance for her husband's sake.
Here, again, is a sweeping principle, which caiTies with it
woman's woek foe missions. 75
degradation and woe to all womanhood. The wail of the des- pised and down-trodden sex has gone up to the ear of heaven for ages from the millions of India ; and now, at last, it is hoard also by her own sistoi's who show her pity in Christ's name.
Even Brahminism, with strange inconsistency, has paid a romantic honor to distinguished women of real or mythical history.
The mythology of the Hindus has its counterpart to the Grecian Helen, and pays high tiibute to the virtue of imagin- ary women. But the general curse remains.
One need not enter into detiils in order to covince a thourrht- fill mind on this subject. Each one can readily trace the blif^ht of such principles as we have named. The degradation is all the worse that it is imposed by religious authority. Man, in a state of ignorance, naturally oppresses the weaker sex. Woman is a drudge among all savage tribes.
But under both Buddhism and Brahminism the wrong is organized into a system ; cruelty borrows divine sanctions, and appalls the soul at the same time that it degrades the body. It carries its torture beyond the grave, and blights all future hope. It becomes dogma, and so forges its perpetual shackles, and holds successive generations under its terrible sway.
Once more, we apply the same test to Mohammedanism.
According to the teachings of the Koran, every good Mus- sulman shall have a future harem peopled by houris, or wives of celestial mttld and unspeakable beauty. Such is the dream which the sensual proclivities of Mohammed might have been expected to suggest to the prurient fancy of the faithful ; and it has borne its own natural fruit in the character of all Moslem nations. But in this glowing picture of houris who are to o-race the harems of heaven, what becomes of the millions of Moslem women who with close, stifling veils walk about sadly amid the drudgeries of this tame and too real earthly life ? " Some of the most virtuous will be saved," the Moullab, wnth much gravity aud with pious parentheses, would doubtless tell us.
7Q THE GREAT CONQUEST.
But if they are saved, what place shall be assigned them TheyAxe not beautiful, but the extreme reverse; and they know it. Considering the sensitive and proud spirit of women, and their jealousy of any created thing that dares come between them and their husbands, are the wives of the Mohammedan world likely to be enchanted with the prospect before them 1 Is it not plain that the heaven of the Moslem man is pre- cisely the hell of the Moslem woman 1 Are there not volumes of woe to the female sex bound up in that one promise of the Koran, which constitutes the chief lure of debased Mussulmen ? The Moslem rulers of India have, in a few instances, almost worshiped woman, and the costliest tombs have been reared to their memory. They were houris on earth. But for each of these strangely favored ones, there were millions of their own sex in abject misery.
Let men tafk and write in praise of Islam, as of Brahrainism and Buddhism; the women of Christian lands will not be misled by sophistries. They have come to the rescue in right earnest ; for their womanly instinct can discern more clearly than false rhetoric can express, the real effect of such dogmas as we have named, upon the welfare of their sex.
Tlic time for action has come. The tide of enthusiastic interest has set, and nothing can check its flow.
XYII.
BUDDHISM IN ITS PRACTICAL RELATION TO MISSIONS.
There is a prolonged and perhaps hopeless controversy be- tween Christian writers, and the apologists of heath en systems, in regard to the merits of Buddhism as compared with Christian- ity. No form of opposition to the truth seems more plausible or difficult for the mass of Christians to meet, than the assump- tion of superior wisdom and virtue in some ancient system of error. Mo.st jscople know little of the history of the leading
BUDDHISM IN ITS. PRACTICAL RELATION TO MISSIONS. 77
Oriental religions, and against the dictum of pretentious scholarship they can say little.
They only know that the great heathen world of to-day — M'hatever the glory of its old and effete wisdom — lies in dark- ness and degradation.
Miicli of the controversy, therefore, in regard to the merits of Buddhism, arises from the fact that its advocates have in view one period of development, while those who oppose its claims are contemplating quite another. The scholar writes and speaks of the Buddhism of the ancient books. The missionary has to do with the corrupt systems of superstition, which go by that name in our time. In the teachings of Gautama, there was presented a high ethical standard. His first great aim was to protest against the gross idolatry of Brahminism. He was a stern reformer, directing his efforts against caste, sensuality, and the craft of a corrupt priesthood. But the Buddhism of to-day is loaded with superstitions quite as degrading as those he aimed to overthrow.
The images of Buddiia all denote quiet contemplation and sug- gest no grossness; but the Buddhist temples are often pantheons in which various deities and saints and heroes, as well as devils, find a place. And the reason of this is, that in the conquests of the system as it advanced from India into Thibet, China, Japan, Siara, and Burmah, it accepted and embodied the superstitions pre-existing in each locality ; and the particular types now ex- isting, not only differ from the original, but they difier widely from each other.
What we have to do with then,*in our Christian conquest is not so much the Buddhism of the ancient books, as these super- stitions which we encounter on the mission fields. In Thibet and Siam, where the system is allied with political power, it has yet great vitality; while in Japan, where it rests wholly on its merits as a religion, it bears the evident marks of feebleness and decay.
" On entering China," says a prominent and learned mission- ary," the Buddhists found a popular religion, the chief charac-
78 THE GREAT CONQUEST
teristics of which were serpent .ancl tree worship, together with the grand moral system of Confucianism. They also found the system of Tauism which had already descended from its sublime height of philosophic mysticism to an alliance Avith pop- ular forms of superstition, sorcery, and witchcraft. The Buddh- ists at' once arrayed themselves on the side of popular superstition and Tauism, in 02:iposition to Confucianism.'" The truth of this statement will impress every one who has visited China and observed how thoroughly the Buddhism of the coun- try is saturated with the very lowest and most puerile super- stition; and this is what the missionary actually encounters. This haunting and ever-present fear of witches and devils, and the malignant ghosts of departed enemies; this iDoisoned fancy which peoples the very atmosphere with dangerous and inimical influences, which overshadows all acts and interests of life with the subtle and dread mystery of fung shuy, and consigns the soul to the endless labyrinths of transmigration after death ; this is the kind of Buddhism with which the Christian philan- thropy of our time has to do, and the only kind with which it need greatly concern itself.
The practical observer must dismiss the savants, with their fine enthusiasm for ancient theories, and must study the millions of benighted men as they live in this generation. He must look upon the vast throngs who undertake pilgrimages to sacred mountains and rivers, and question their aims and hopes. He must visit the cities of the dead, as at Canton, where tens of thousands lie unbgried till a lucky day shall come. He must listen to the midnight din of the superstitious masses while they ring gongs and discharge fireworks to drive off evil sj)irits. He must watch the incantations that are per- formed over the sick, and see the burial honors paid to dead beggars to propitiate their ghosts. He must witness the pampering of monkeys and doves and sacred pigs, as a Avork of merit, while men and women die of starvation in the streets. Such a view will give him some adequate impression of that massive conglomerate of superstitions with which we
BUDDHISM IN ITS PRACTICAL RELATION TO MISSIONS. 79
really have to do in extending the knowledge of God and Ilis word. There arc gods of war, gods of wealth, gods of harvest, gods of the sea, and gods of the kitchen. Special prominence is givcii throughout all the East to the goddess of mercy, and perhaps nest to her and the god of wealth, the god of small- pox receives the greatest number of propitiatory offerings. Practically, the worship of Eastern nations, whether of the Tauist or the Buddhist, is either an attempt to escape the thraldom of fear, or to gain some mercenary advantage — either to evade the malignant spite of unseen spirits, or to drive a sharp bargain for some fancied good to self or friends. It has no element of love to God, or holy aspiration of any kind. Every merchant in Canton has a little altar in the door- posts of his establishment, where he burns a few sticks of moi'uing and evening incense. This, to the. apologist, might seem an example of piety worthy of being held up for the Christian's imitation. But where is the proof of piety 1 Would not the shop-keepers of an American or European city gladly sacrifice a few sticks of incense if they believed that it would swell the daily receipts of their trade? Would not even the places of most infamous traffic have also their smoking altars by the door-posts ?
In addition to the worship of special deities, supposed to preside over particular vocations or localities, and the repre- sentatives of certain attributes named above, there is an extensive system of hero and saint worship throughout the East.
Both at Canton and at Hang Chow, one may find Buddhist temples in which five hundred canonized saints, of life size, sit in long, impressive rows, as objects of devout worship. Some of the temples of Buddhism in Japan <are filled with conspicuous images of military heroes; and the writer visited one costly structure which was built expressly for a pious dfvil whom the sanctity of Buddha had converted. The meaning of all this is, that although Buddhism began, centuries ago, as a protest against the grossness of Hindu idolatry, it practically
80 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
finds more satisfaction in these visible forms of deified human- ity than in the abstract negations of xsirvana. That much the same thing may be said of the lapses of the liomish aud Greek churches into saint worship is admitted; but we are now consid- ering the relations of Buddhism to Protestant, and not to Catholic missions. Many are the points of similarity between Buddhism and Romanism. Both have their saint worship, their monastic systems, and even their adoration of deified womanhood.
Maurice, in his able lectures on religious systems, consid- ers it well established that the Oriental churches borrowed their ascetic notions from India; and it is quite as certain that Buddhism has borrowed many things from Christianity.
It is the boast of the system that it is tolerant ; that it has never persecuted a heretic or urged its doctrines upon men by force of arms. Its method has been not to destroy, but to ab- sorb. It has thus dealt with Christian usages as well as with heathen superstitions.
The only difficulty attending this fiict, is that Buddhism claims each importation, however recent, as an original dogma taught by Shakyamouni Buddha himself
Thus, regarding certain points of similarity between Buddh- ism and Christianity, a controversy has arisen as to wliich was the original and w'hich the copy. This is an important matter.
Let it be remembered that the question is not, which system existed first, but which was the first to hold a certain doctrine.
Thus Buddha, we are told, came from heaven* ; was born of a virgin princess ; was announced by angelic hosts accompanied by flashes of lightning ; was welcomed by an aged Simeon named Asita, who examined his bumps, and foretold his great- ness ; he was baptized first with water, and afterward with fire. At seven years old (instead of twelve), he encountei'ed learned doctors and astonished them. He was tempted in the wilderness; but resisting^ be gathered disciples and traveled
* Or from preexistence.
BUDDHISM IN ITS rEACTlCAL DELATION TO MISSIONS. 81
about with them, preaching in the open air. He was transfigured on a raoLintain ; he desctncled into hell ; and in presence of his disciples he was translated into glory. So far, the parallel with CUV Saviour's history is very significant. But lie ditlVred in other points. He was a great gymnast in his boyhood, and threw an elephant to a great distance. His miracles, instead of being useful to men, were fiintastic and grotesque. He married, and had a zenana, in which he sufFored greater temp- tations than in the wilderness. He was not crucified. Worst of all for these legends, they diifer in toto from other accounts, which represent him as a grown-up prince sick- ening with the luxury and intrigue of a palace, and fleeing from society as a morbid misanthrope, and finally coming forth to teach men that human life with all its belongings is a calamity to be remedied only by the victory of sublime indifference.
"And yet," says Dr. Eitel, of Hong-Kong, " this Buddha lived and died 543 years befure Christ. Are we to conclude, then, that Christ — as a certain sceptic would make us believe — went to India during the eighteen years which intervened be- tween his youth and manhood, and returned, thirty years old, to ape and reproduce the life and doings of Shakyamouni Buddha? ....
" Unfortunately for the sceptic Avho would delight in proving Christ to have been the ape of Buddha, it can be proved, that almost every single tint of this Cliristian coloring which Buddhist tradition gives to the life of Buddha is of com- paratively modern origin. There is not a single Buddhist manuscript in existence which could vie in antiquity and undoubted authenticity with the oldest codices of the gospels. Besides, the most eminent Buddhistic classics contain scarcely any details of Buddha's life, and none whatever of the pecul- iarly Christian characteristics. Nearly all the legends which claim to refer to events that happened many centuries beforo Christ, cannot be proved to have been in circulation earlier than the fifth or sixth century after Christ. Moreover, it is easy to
82 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
point out the precise source from which these apparently Christian elements flowed into and mingled with Buddhistic traditions."
The doctrines of Buddha appear to have been handed down from generation to generation orally ; and, of course, they under- went considerable alterations in passing from mouth to mouth. Naturally, also, heresies sprang up here and there, for the putting down of which again and again cecuraenic councils were held to re-establish the orthodox doctrines in opposition to heretical adulterations.
"But," says the same author, "no reliable information exists as to the extent and character of the Buddhist scriptures, said to have been finally revised by the council under Kaniokka, who reigned from 15 B.C. to 45 a.d. The very earliest compilation of the modern Buddhist canon that history can point out, is that of Ceylon. But the canon of Ceylon was handed down orally from generation to generation. Part of it was reduced to writing about 93 b.c. The whole canon, however, was first compiled and fixed in writing between the years 41^ and 432 of our present Christian era."
It is easy to see how Buddhism," ever true to its eclectic in- stincts," may have borrowed from Christianity in the South, where the " St. Thomas Christians " of Southern India give evidence of a very early introduction of the gospel. At the same time Nestorian missionaries had reached Central Asia, where their nobler doctrines and more imposing ritual created a deep impression, and were doubtless copied.
The Nestorians were finally extirpated ; but in the snow- bound monasteries of Thibet is still found an almost exact counterpart of the monasticism of the early periods of the Christian Church.
The assumption on the contrary, that Christianity is the copyist, is absurd ; since its canon and ritual were a growth, all of whose stages proceeded under the scrutinizing eye of his- tory and criticism. It is admitted that the Church in the Roman Empire was influenced in its forms by the surrounding
BUDDHISM IN ITS PKACTICAL RELATION TO MISSIONS. 83
paganism ; but this accommodation was recognizecl, while not even the bitterest of the early assailants of Christianity ever hinted that the Gospel history was borrowed from Buddhism.
The Buddhist traditions have passed no such ordeal ; they cannot establish the fact of an early historic canon ; it is their fixed habit to borrow ; they have received tiic admixtures of all other systems ; and a strong- presumption favors the idea that they have enriched their legends from the gospel history.
But there is another line of proof derived from the con- flicting accounts given by Buddhists themselves of the early life of Gautama.
The late king of Siam, who had been for years a Buddhist priest of no ordinary intelligence, and who, even on his throne, gave much time to study, informs us that " Buddha was a man who came into being hy ordinary generation ; that he was a most extraordinary man, more wonderful and mysterious than all heavenly beings, that he reigned as king twenty-nine years, and then practiced the most severe asceticism, and with the greatest assiduity, for a period of six years, when his mind became so sublimated and refined that he habitually num- bered and measured every thought he had." In all this there is no resemblance to the gospel history.
" The sacred and historical books of Ceylon," translated frotn the Singhalese, and edited by Edward Upham, M.K.A.S., F.S.A., present the early history of Buddha as follows: " Perceiving that it was time to enter into a state of Buddha, etc., he incarnated in the Avomb (not of a virgin, but) of Queen Mahamadewe, wife of King Sudhodana; was born ; and having attained his sixteenth year, was married to the Princess Bim- badawe. On the day that his first son was born, he abdicated his royal authority, mounted on the horse Kalukanam, and at the river Nerangarauan became a priest, putting on the priestly robe, w'hich was brought him by the god Maha-Cambahu."
He continued his priesthood for six years, living on char- ities, "and on the seventh year he became Buddha, on Tuesday, the day of full moon, in the month Wasak, at the course of
84 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
the constellation Wesak. after he had ascended a throne of transparent stone, which sprang np from the earth."
Some months afterward he appeared in the sky, tilling the heavens with a great noise, and, having covered a crowd of devils with a niist (something after the manner of the Arabian Night's Tales) he drove them into banishment on a certain island. In the fifth year of his Buddhaship, he settled a fierce quarrel between two '• Kings of the Snakes, and appearing iii the sky, he preached a sermon " to the contending serpentine armies, " by which he appeased them, and brought thousands of them to a pious life." In his labors among the snakes he did not fail to preach also to men. One sermon was delivered to King Binsara and one hundred and twenty thousand of his follow- ers.
According to this sacred history, which comprises three large volumes of mythological wonders, Grautnma having lived twenty-nine years as king, and forty-five as Buddha, died at the age of seventy, in the city of Coosinara. There were present on the occasion '• an innumerable multitude of gods from thousands of w-orlds," besides seven hundred tliousand priests. His body was burned with difficulty, the kings having "labored seven days to kindle the fire with thousands of valuable fans, but in vain."
But when a certain holy priest came forward and prostrated himself before the body, the two feet became luminous, and the flame broke forth. It was a celestial fire, in which not even insects were consumed, and as the flames shot up into the air, birds perched upon them as upon the cool branches of a tree. In all these marvelous traditions there is no resemblance to the gospel history.
The apologists of Buddhism have claimed for it a pacific influence in the w^orld, as compared with the bloody Avars caused by the Christian faith. It has doubtless lacked the moral earnestness that would fight for a principle, but it has not gained its conquests by spiritual powers. It has been greatly resisted by political intrigue.
THE BONDAGE AND DEGRADATION OF BKAHMINISM. 85
We sliall see clsowlicie in this volume liow Buddhism gained its successes in India by an alliance with political power. Tlie same was true of its conquests in China ai d Thibet. Its hold upon the latter country was not firmly secured till the Buddhist metropolitan of Thibet formed an arrangement Avith the Mongul Emperor of China in which the country was given over to a Chinese protectorate, as the price of jMongul support to the Llama and the Tibetan priesthood. For three hundred years the system made little progress in China proper; but the time came when its importance in gaining political influence over the Tartar tribes of Central Asia began to be recognized, and it was then acknowledged as one of the State religions of the Empire. No religion known to mankind has made larger use of secular power than the system of Gautama. That its successes have been wonderful none can deny. Its sway is more extensive than that of any other faith of men.
We have not attempted to deal with its philosophy, hut only to present some practical aspects as related to mission woik.
XYIII.
THE BONDAGE AND DEGKADATION OF BKAH- MINISM.
Leaving a scientific treatment to professed scholars, we pre- sent a few things in regard to Brahminism which should be known by all Christians. Only a few need be known to deter- mine its character ; but these are necessary because frequent discussions appear which involve the relation of the system to Christianity.
Brahminism, the ancient and still prevalent religion of India, is supposed to have been introduced by a people migrating from the North-west, and is known to have existed for at least foiu'teen centm-ies before the Christian ei-a. Its sacred books, the Vedas, can be traced to about that period. The
86 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
system is, in one view, MonotheUtic. It speaks of a " Su- preme Spirit," who is perfect in truth, unity, and happiness, without bodily form, omnipotent, omniscient, all-wise, and iinmortal, " the creator, preserver, and transformer of all thmgs." This is " Tlie Great One:'
But the Hindus — even the early Aryans were also natnre- worshippers and therefore Pantheists.
The Supreme Spirit and the universe turn out, in the end, to be one and the same. He does not exist separately from creation, nor creation from him. All matter or mind ; all good or evil, is but a part or an expression of the one supreme and all-pervading deity. The supposed con- sciousness of individuality in man is only a hallucination. The highest attainment in the religious life of a mortal is to discover, and consciously feel, his oneness with, and absorption iato, deity. The Supreme Spirit, having nothing practically to do with the world or with men, may be left out of the account. All practical religion is concerned with those inferior gods who have produced mankind, and are to be feared by them.
And thus Polytheism appears. Brahm produced Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. From Brahma sprang innumerable gods ; those writers who love to be accurate, set the number at 330,- 000,000.
Polytheism, then, is the real faith of the people. There are no temples to the one god, 'Brahm. The three principal deities who are worshiped in India, are Brahma, Vishnu, and Sheoa. The first is the educer, the second the preserver, and the third the destroyer. IIow essential to the peace of the world, that three deities, with such attributes, should maintain the nicest balance of authority and be forever on the best of terms !
But any one of these may have countless incarnations or avatars. Vishnu, for example, has existed in the form of a fish, a boar, and a tortoise, successis'ely, according to the work to be accomplished in a given period. He has also appeared as a man, with a lion's head and paws; also as a dwarfed Brahmin, and as the Military King — Rama, or Eamchundra —
THE BONDAGE AND DEGRADATION OF BEAHMTNISM. 87
whose history and exploits form the theme of one of India's most popular epics.
But the favorite incarnation of Vishnu is that of Ki'ishna, a deity who unites the dissoluteness of Bacchus with the cruelty of Saturn. Infamous in his own example, he is the patron of licentiousness in men.
The Hindus say tliat, " being divine, he was not subject to the moral laws that are binding upon mankind ;" and that women, under his influence, " could do what they pleased, irrespective of any moral obligations to their husbfinds or their families." And yet, with such a character, and such exemp- tions, we are told by Lord Elphinstone, in his history of India, that " Krishna is the greatest favorite with the Hindus of all their divinities." Lie adds, that the sect worshiping this god " comprises all the opulent and luxurious, almost all the xvomen, and a large part of all ranks of Indian society." Ward, also, says, that " six jaarts out of ten of all Hindu society are sup- posed to be worshipers of this god." Dii Perron says," The whole history of Krishna is a tissue of Eoman and Greek obscenities, which, among fanatics of all classes, conceal the most abomin- able enormities." In all heathen systems the forms of created objects are worshiped ; but Brahminism has excelled them all in monstrous shapes. It has not been satisfied to " worship the creature more than the creator," but even its creatm-es have been caricatured. Deformity and hideousness are the rule; true imitation of nature is the exception.
Doubtless the worship of animals, as sacred bulls and apes, is intimately connected with the doctrine of transmigration. Animals are supposed to be the abodes of human souls. The same explanation may be given for the sacredness of all animal life among Brahminists and Buddhists. This sacred- ness is sometimes used as an argiuuent for the superior humani- ty and compassion of these idolaters, as compared with Chris- tian nations. But the superstitious notion, that the spirit of one's own ancestor may reside in the worm that crosses hia path, affords a more probable explanation.
OO THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
All travelers in India have vpitucssed with surprise the prevalence of animal life and the security of wild beasts ai'd birds of prey in the very fields where the Indian farmers are at wox'k. Troops of huge apes roam over the country unmo- lested ; kites and buzzards, and especially jackalls, are every- where present ; and wolves reciprocate the superstitious kind- ness of the people by carrying off multitudes of little children. Of course the gods, in becoming incarnate in animals, may make their own grotesque combinations. The body of a man, with the head of a lion, or with five human heads and a dozen arms, is admissible. Hence the strange confusion of forms in the idols of India.
The oppressiveness of the Brahminical system may be seen, first, in the exactions of its ritual. The code of Brahminism never deals with general principles in the regulation of conduct, as does the Gospel. It inculcates no such great central motives and sources of action as faith and love. Instead of prescribing, as Christ did, the comprehensive law of love to God in supreme degree, and love to our neighbor as to ourselves, it makes endless petty exactions. "Unlike Christianity, which is all spirit and ///e?" ^'"^ys Dr. Duff, "Hinduism is all letter and death.'''' The original , Brahma, left no thinking or judging to be done by man in the sphere of religious duty, but revealed from heaven every act and observance, every posture, and mo- tion of the hand, or turn of the eye connected with worship. A devoted Brahmin must, in the morning, clean his teeth witli a twig of a particular tree, uttering, at the time, a prescribed prayer; and he must be specially careful in throwing away the tv/ig. He must bathe in a particular kind of water, and if it be an inferior stream or fountain, he must pray the Ganges "to be included in this small quantity of water," by what Koman Catholics would call a " real presence." He must also sip the water, sprinkling it in prescribed directions and off^iiing certain prayers. Another of his morning duties is to salute the sun, which must be done with a lock of his hair tied in a par- ticular way on the top of his head, while a large tuft of cusa
THE BONDAGE AND DEGRADATION OF BRAHMINISM. 89
grass is held in his left hand, and three spires of a difierent grass in his right luuid. He nnist also be sure to sip water, and with his wet hands touch his head, eyes, ears, nose, shoul- ders, breast, and feet. Should he happen to sneeze or spit, he may not sip water till he has first touched his right ear. In the Ganges, especially amid the crowds at Benares, or at the great Melas or bathing festivals, this sipping goes on, however fillhy the water may have become by the constant treading of the multi- tudes. I have myself seen the water roiled almost to a black mire, but the sipping and the oblations to the sun continued ; for a Hindu knows only ceremonial uncleanness, being utterly ignorant of what most men call filth. But the laborious ritual has only begun. The devout Brahmin, after his bathing and sipping, must utter certain prayers with his right nostril closed, and then others with the left nostril closed. He then draws water from his palm into one nostril and ojocts it from the other, after which he casts it away in a north-easterly direction. Finally, standing on one foot while the heel of the other rests upon his instep, he offers the following prayer to the sun, which shows how near of kin the Brahmin is to the Fire-worshipper :
"The rays of light aimounce the splendid fiery sun, beauti- fully rising to illuminate the universe. He rises wonderful, the eye of the sun, of water, and of fire, the collective power of the gods. He fills heaven, earth, and sky with his luminous net; he is the soul of all that is fixed or locomotive. That eye su- premely beneficial rises purely from the East. May we see him a hundred years ; may we live a hundred years. May we, preserved by the divine power and contemplating heaven above the region of darkness, approach the deity, most splen- did of luminaries. Thou art t^eJf -existent ; thou art the most excellent ray ; thou givest effulgence, grant it unto me."
Other prayers follow in similar stylo.
The whole life of a Brahmin, if he be supposed to follow his ritual, is a slavish round of petty observances — sippings, and rinsings of the mouth, changes of attitudes and of ai)parel; drawings of lines on the ground, and smearings with clay, or
80 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
meal, or cow dung; kindlings of fires to expel evil spirits ; shift- ings of sacred threads or hallowed dishes ; compoundings of herbs, and rice, and fruits ; wreathiiigs of flowers, and repeti- tions of endless j)rayers, and texts of the Vedas, and sacred names.
We have given only a saiall portion of the daily routine, to say nothing of the greater acts of worship rendered to particu- lar gods in the temples. All acts of life are according to pro- gramme. In marrying, a Brahmin must select a girl with neither too much nor too little hair, and it must not be red. She should not be deformed nor talkative, nor afflicted with an unlucky name.
This holy man must be a close student of the Vedas, but should never read them with a sour stomach, nor with his limbs crossed, nor with his feet on a bench. He must not read in a cc^w pasture, nor in any place of offensive odors. He must close his book if a dog has barked, or a jackal howled, or an ass has brayed. He must never cut his own hair, nor bite his nails, nor step upon hair or ashes. He must not look at his wife when eat- ing, or sneezing, or yawning. He must not stand under the same tree Avitli idiots or washermen. He must never run when it rains, nor spit in a stream of water, nor step over the tether of a calf, nor ride after oxen with imperfect horns or ragged tails.
The mind wearies with the mere recital of these endless de- tails ; but they are given in all their insipid minutias, simply because no general terms can so well express the supreme folly which they represent. And these notions of a merely ceremo- nial observance have affected the whole mass of the people. Though living in squalor and cooking their food with burnt cow dung, they are almost unapproachable in their supposed purity.
In a conference which I had with a company of native Chris- tian preachers at Allahabad, in the Winter of 1875, I asked each one to state what he regarded as the chief obstacle in reach- ing Hindus with the Gospel. One of the most intelligent gave it
THE BONDAGE AND DEGRADATION OF BEAHMINISM. 91
as his opinion, that the greatest of all hindrances lay in the common prejudice and disgust of the people at what they af- fected to regard as the filthy habits of missionaries and of all Christian society!
But Brahininisna imposes another form of bondage quite as serious as that whicli fetters aud cramps every act of life. It is found in the doctrine of transmigration. Tliere is, at death, no release, no assured rest from a life of toil and suffer- ing, no eternal inheritance of peace, but simply a new begin- ning of earthly life in another form. One may pass into the form of an ox or an ape, if unworthy or sinful ; but at best, even if he has gained one step in moral attainment as the result of a life of 2>ious endeavor, he has the advantage of that step only. He may have a thousand or even a million transmigra- tions before him ere he shall reach the goal and be absorbed into deity. As the fakir makes long pilgrimages to Benares by measuring his own lengths along the dusty road, so through ages and cycles of eternity the soul may measure its countless transmigrations, each gaining one little inch of attainment upon the one before it. IIow appalling is such an outlook ! There is no grace, no divine pity, no special help from God for the poor plodding spirit which tries, under such fearful discourage- ments, to scale the infinite heights of divine-likeness and final absorption in deity.
We have elsewhere alluded to the oppressive maxims of the Vedas in regard to woma i. In her future transmigrations, as well as in the dreary bondage of her earthly life, she is the chief sufferer. If she fails to burn herself alive on her hus- band's funeral pile she must suffer for that neglect hereafter. Thus the Rig-Veda declares, that "As long as a woman, in her successive transmigrations, shall decline burning herself, like a faithful wife, in the same fire with her deceased lord, so long shall she not be exempted from springing again into life in tho body of some female animal,"
The system of caste is another of the oppressions of Brah-
92 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
minism. To oppress inferiors is natural to men, but generally it is done in spite of their religious maxims, and not by divine authority.
But Braliminism is the very source of caste. Men of one grade sprang, it is said, from the mouth of Brahma, another from his breast, another from his feet. Class distinctions are, therefore, fixed and unchangeable. Men of different ranks, under this system, are about as moveless in their social relations as the types of a stereotype plate. A large proportion of the aspirations, opportunities, joys, and amenities of life are cramp- ed and destroyed by iron-bound and relentless social laws.
Even Brahmins are restricted by them. Tens of thousands of female infants of high caste have been destroyed for fear that marriages could not be contracted in their own rank. While, as for the lowest caste, the poor Sudras, the sacred books declare distinctly that their place and end in life is to serve all the ranks above them. For them to read, or repeat, or even willingly hear the Vedas, is punishable by death.
Of the cruelty of the Brahminical system the evidence is over- whelming. Aside from the atrocities of the Suttee, the sacri- fice of children in the fulfillment of vows was very prevalent in the early part of the present century. Under the viceroy- alty of the Marquis of Wellesley, a law was passed " declaring this practice to be murder, punishable with death." And Dr. Buchanan, in speaking of the law, says that it is impossible to estimate the number of human lives which it has saved.
The worshipers of the goddess Kali find religious warrant for murders perpetrated in her honor. It is by her sanction. Particularly the Thugs — a sect of robbers, whose dark deeds have till lately been a terror in India — make it their religious duty to murder and to rob. They were initiated into this diaboli- cal order with religious ceremonies. The rules of their pro- fession are claimed to be of divine origin. Their system is an oflishoot of Brahmir.ism.
Of the moral aspects of the Brahminical system, as it exists at present, I might speak fi'om personal observations made at
MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 93
Bennrcs in 1875. I might also .adduce tlie testimony of many who have had far greater opportunities to jiuljre of the system. But the following summary, given by the well-known historian, Mr. T. B. Macaulay, who had spent several years in India, will suffice: " Through the whole Hindu Pantheon you will look in vain for anything resembling those beautiful and majestic forms which stood in the shrines of ancient Greece. All is hideous, grotesque, and ignoble. As this is of all superstitions the most irrational and the most inelegant, so is it of all super- stitions the most immoral. Emblems of vice are objects of public worship ; acts of vice are acts of public worship. The courtesans are as much a part of the establishment of the temples and as ranch ministers of the gods as are the priests. Crimes against life and crimes against property are not only permitted, but enjoined by thi,a odious theology. But for our interference, human victims would still be offered to the Ganges, and the wid, ow would still be laid upon the funeral piie of her husband and be burned alive by her own children. It is by the command and under the protection of one of the most powerful goddesses that the Thugs join themselves to the unsuspecting traveler, make friends with him, slip the noose around his neck, plunge their knives into his eyes, hide him in the earth, and divide liis money and baggage."
XIX.
MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
It is admitted that Mohammedanism is probably the very Malakoff of the dark dominion of error. It is the more formid- able in that it builds upon the corner-stone of the Bible. But in the conquest which the Christian Church is wafrino- against the system, two things are essential : first, a proper understanding of its merits and demerits ; and secondly, a strono- faith in the divine power of the Gospel to overcome it. It is
94 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
not without its virtues. It is dignified and reverential, and it is far removed from the pantheism or the atheism of the great heathen systems.
It is not the aim of this biief chapter to enter upon a fnnda- mental discussion of Mohc'.mmedanism, but only to allude to one or two considerations of practical interest from a mission- ary point of view. And first, the same distinction must be applied to this system that we made with reference to Buddh- ism. Those who study its early history alone are charmed by its wonderful romance, in spite of the atrocious cruelty of its conquests. There is in tijat history a vast amount of material for fine writing, and for this reason we are not surprised that there are many apologists.
The earnest protest of Mohammed against the idolatry of the corrupt and effete churches of the East, the sublime fanaticism of Omar and Amruu, the short, terse creed, borrowing all its truth and life from the Old Testament Monotheism, the wide-spread and brilliant Saracenic conquests, the learning which afterward sprang up at Bagdad, and in distant Spain, the chiv- alry and high honor of such men as Saladin and the Indian Akbar — all this is very attractive, and even fascinating ; and he who from the Christian stand-point has been wont to judge of Mohammedans too narrowly, as only impostors and savages, is surprised by these histories, and too often is carried at a bound to an opposite extreme. Dean Stanley is doubtless right in the opinion that a fair understanding of all the virtues of false systems is really an advantage to the Mission cause ; since an extreme of narrowness leads to an extreme of exaggeration. But this Mohammedanism of history is not the Mohammedanism which the missionary encounters in the Turkish Empire and through- out the East. The system, as we find it in our time, is not marshalled for conquest, sweeping from the arid desert North- ward, Eastward, Southward, and threatening even "Western Europe. It is dozing rather in the soft luxury of the bazaar and the harem. It has nothing of the austerity of the old heroes, but is sapping the very foundations of all manhoood by the
MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHKISTIAN MISSIONS. U5
vices of sensuality. It sbares nothing of the progress of a Haroun al Raschid, or of the Spanish AbcLtl-Raman, but moves only as it is moved upon by that Christian civilization whose outsiJe pressure it cannot quite resist.
Politically, it is a system which degrade'j every people over •whom it bears sway. It is aptly called a sick man upheld in the mere pantomime of government by the policy of other powers. The Mohammedanism with which the missionary has to do is characterized by the most shocking tyranny, the bit- terest intolerance, and the most exorbitant taxation; by treach- ery and fwiud in every department of government, from high- est to lowest; by resistance to education and general ad- vancement ; and by a grade of vice in which nameless and shock- ing crimes are well-nigh universal.
The condition of European Turkey at the present has stirred the sympathies of the world. Probably no such list of oppi'es- sive acts has ever before been published as that given by the Herzegovinians in the declaration of grievances which they made to the European powers and to tbs world during their stru-igle in 1875-70.
With respect to government and progress, Egypt may seem to be an exception to all this; but Egypt is governed by a thorough sceptic, who borrows his inspirations from Europe instead of Africa, and who treats Mohammedanism as only a means of governing an ignorant and fanatical people.
But it would not be safe to deny that the system, as a relig- ion, has, with all its corruption, great vitality. One feels this when he sees a thousand Moslems praying in solemn concert in the gi'eat Mosque at Delhi. He feels it still more deeply when, in the ancient University at Cairo, El Azar, he sees nearly ten thousand students from all Moslem lands studying the Koran, that they may go forth among their respective tribes as moulahs, or teachers of the Faith.
Of late, Mohammedanism appears to have borrowed some- thing of the enterprise and even the methods of Christian mis- sions. Since the attention of the world has been called by an
96 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
American explorer to a heathen tribe of Africans at XJgaga, whose king desires their instruction in Christianity, a Moslem Missionary Society has been formed at Constantinople for the purpose of forestalling Christian eflbrt, and winning these peo- ple to the Koran.
But this sporadic effort is exceptional in the modern history of Islam, and is mainly a measure of defense.
As a test of vitality and final triumph in the world, it cannot be compared with the aggressions which are made by Christian missions in all lands. Doubtless considerable progress has been made by Muhammedanism among the fetish worshijjers of Central Africa, where it proves to be a great improvement over the savagery which it supplants.
Its progress eastward also is admitted. Notwithstanding the overthrow of its political power in the Chinese province of Yiin Nan, it is advancing as a religion in Central Asia. Still, judging from the slight inroads which it has made upon Buddh- ism in all these past centuries, it is not likely in its old age to gain great conquests.
But even if Mohammedans are carrying the faith of the Koran into the African or Asiatic deserts on their borders, even if their system may be said to flourish in those central and inaccessible solitudes which experience little contact with the nineteenth cen- tury, and which still belong practically to the dark ages, what does all this weigh in comparison with the world-wide aggression and influence of Christianity ?
Mohammedanism has no power to push its advances into distant lands. It knows nothing of those forms of civilization which are molding the world ; it borrows no help from com- merce ; the " ships of Tarshish" are not among its contributors, nor shall " the Isles " Avait for its law. While the Bible has been translated into more than two hundred languages, the Koran refuses to speak through any but the Ai'abic tongue. The power of the printing-press also is discarded ; for with orthodox Moslems it is sacrilege to press the name of Allah. Mohammedanism has no organizing power, and therefore can-
MOHASIMEDANISM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 97
not adapt itself to modern agencies of aggression. It knows little of government, and has never produced a book on political economy.
Nor are its ethical standards likely to win the respect of men. The High Priest — the successor of Mohammed — is the Sultan of Turkey. How far he is a model of purity, all intelli- gent men may judge from his known reputation.
And yet he sustains the dignity of the Caliphate as worthily as the average of modern sultans, and as well as Mohammed himself.
But to the Christian, Mohammedanism must appear not as a rival in conquest, but as an enemy to be desti'oyed. It is a pronounced and uncompromising faith that is needed. There is a class of writers who, from the Broad Church stand-point, look upon the system with that seeming charity which sees much good in all religions, and which ascribes special merit to Islam. So far as these vicAvs affect the Church, they cripple her missionary zeal.
Mr. R. Bosworth Smith, in a recent work, sets forth with satisfiction the respect which Mohammed and his most intelli- gent followers have cherished for Christ.
But his appreciation of their respect rests upon the evident fact that he himself is content with regarding Christ merely as a prophet. He only differs from them in esteeming Him greater than the Arabian prophet, while Moslems consider Him far inferior.
In a truly Christian view, what avails such a belief in Christ ? No Moslem regards Him as the Saviour of men. They know nothing of grace, of an atonement, of intercession, or the renew- ing of the Holy Ghost. Mohammed is the only Paraclete.
They regard the doctrine of Christ's sonship — viewing it only with the coarse conception of which Moslems are capable — as something repulsive and shocking. They rank among the bitterest enemies of the Son of God, and they have no bet- ter names for His followers than " infidels " or " Christian dogs."
As to the salvation of men, what the Jewish law failed to do,
98 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
Mobammedanism is still less able to accompllsb. It is wholly opposed to tbe faith of the Gospel, and if the world is to be redeemed it must be totally overthrown.
The author above named is far from suggesting thnt mission- ary effort among Moslems shall be suspended. Under the in- spiration of the broader views which he advocates, he says : "Missionaries wnll not cease to exist, nor will they lose their energy, their enthusiasm, and their self-sacrifice. But they will go to work in a diffeient way, will view other religions in a different light, and will test their success by a different stand- ard. They will no doubt be forced to acquiesce in what seems the will of Providence, that a national religion is as much a 2iart of man's nature as is the genius of his language or the color of his skin ; they will admit that the precise form of a
creed is a matter of prejudice with most of us, etc The
missionaries of the future, therefore, will try to peneti'ate to the common elements which they will have learned underlie all religions alike, and make the most of those." •
It is evident that authors whose views are so radically sub- versive of the entire Christian faith, cannot he safe interpreters of Mohammedanism. So glaring a misapprehension of the one suggests a very superficial knowledge of the other.
And yet is it not true that even orthodox Christi.^ns some- times accept authorities in regard to heathen systems and mis- sionary operations whom they would not admit as interpreters of the Christian faith 1 that while the local interests of Chris- tianity are carefully guarded, the outposts of Christ's kingdom, acknowledged to be universal, are surrendered to the enemy?
There can be no truce with the teachings of the False Proph- et. Until the Mohammedan types of civilization shall have passed away, the best interests of the nations, even in a politi- cal point of view, cannot be realized, and the Mohammedan faith must be utterly overthrown ere the Redeemer's kingdom can be established. Though it should require a century, the Church must labor on in faith, accepting no compromise, but trusting implicitly in the divine efficacy of the Gospel.
MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHKI6TIAN MISSIONS. 99
There is in the work of Missions a great variety of successes. Among simple Pagan tribes found here and there on the ji;roat continents or on the islands of the sea, the seed of the Word lias often taken root at once ; while in nations strongly in- trenched in the subtle error of elaborate religious systems, the work has moved more slowly, and for a time must seem mainly preparatory. Mohammedans, especially in the Turkish Empire, liave scarcely been reached as yet by Gospel influence. But many outposts have been carried. Decayed Christian sects dominated by Moslem influence — Arminians in Turkey, Greeks and Maronites in Syria, Nestorians in Persia, and Copts in Egypt — liave been won in large numbers to a truly evangelical fait"h.
f" Education, which in Turkey and Syria has been carried to so high a point of success, has done much to revolutionize society, and has made a deep impression even upon Moslems. It will impress itself more and more ; it will overthrow the false notion that the Koran is a compend of all knowledge needed in an age like this ; it will give greater hcmor and immunity to woman, and by elevating her, will raise all society into a [lurer atmosphere, in which Mohammedanism cannot thrive.
The colleges at Beirut and Constantinople are preparing men for a full fellowship with our age ; for a broad sympathy with the best culture of other lands. Medicine and other sciences are being taught, and the principles of Christianity are being illustrated to the minds of Moslem students as well as to Greeks and Maronites. Even in the little villages of Lebanon the children of Moslems are familiarized with the Bible and the catechism, and with the world-wide harmonies of our Sabbath- school hymns.
The press has also accomplished a great work ; the school- book and the newspaper have, in connection with the diplo- macy of Western Powers, done much to break down jirejudice, and induce a better spirit of toleration.
But the great work in this department is the scattering abroad of the healing leaves of the Tree of Life.
100 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Turkish and Armenian Bibles have wrought the chf^nge wit- nessed between the living Protestant churches of Turkey and those of the old sects ; and the Arabic Bible, translated and published at Beirut, is just entering upon a career of influence ■which, we trust, will yet be felt wherever the Arabic tongue is spoken not only, but wherever, as the medium of the Koran, it is read or prayed. A few copies, at least, from the Beirut press, have reached Central Africa, and one consignment has been sent to the capital of the Shantung Province, in Eastern China.
XX.
TRUTH AND ERROR TESTED ON THE SAME SOIL.
Max MuiiLER has said that the contest for the moral su- premacy of the world lies between the three great religious systems — Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. These are the three agressive or missionary religions. Juda- ism, Parseeism, and Brahminism are not, and never have been, aggressive. He assumes great tenacity of life, and great power and energy, for Mohammedanism and Buddhism; but concludes that Christianity, for reasons given, must nlti- mately gain the supremacy over them. Perhaps the most satisfactory estimate of this great conflict will be formed by selecting some country in which the three systems are found side by side, and in which the distinctive influence of each may be easily traced.
India is siich a country. While the great mass of the people are Brahminical, and some of the mountain tribes are idolaters of the grossest kind, there is an infusion of Buddh- ist, Mohammedan, and Christian influences ; and it is ac- knowledged on all hands, that before the aggressions of these superior systems, Brahminism is gradually, but surely, totter- in o: to its fall.
TRUTH AND EREOK TESTED ON THE SAME SOIL. 101
Buddhism originated in India about 550 years b. c. Its author was an hereditary prince of Oude, who, at the age of twenty-nine years, left his father's palace and retired to the jungle, where he spent six years in ascetic rigors and in the development of his system. What he aimed at was to re- form the grossness of Brahminism. It is agreed, also, by all the Buddhistic traditions, that he became disgusted with the women of his polygamous zenana, and finally with the whole world.
Misanthropy and hypochondria gave their strong, dark coloring to his teachings. His moral precepts were pure ; but the groundwork on which he placed them was essentially atheistic ; and the great aim which he proposed to men was a cowardly retreat from all the conflicts and, therefore, from all the joys and sorrows of life. And yet there w'as a degree of power in even this morbid system. Especially in India, where masses of men were surfeited with vice and well-nigh overcome with the ennui of idleness and languor, the idea of a negative rest — a practical release from existence — might possess a grim attraction.
For two centuries Buddhism was mostly confined to the countries bordering on the Ganges.
But in the political chaos which followed the invasion of Alexander the Great, a low-born adventurer named Chan- dragupta rose to power. Being despised by the Brahmins on account of his low caste, he avenged himself upon them, and at the same time strengthened his own interest, by es- pousing the cause of Buddhism.
His grandson, Ashoka, on coming to the throne, united nearly all India under his sceptre ; and he it was W'ho organ- ized a missionary movement by which Buddhism was ex- tended, not only throughout his OAvn realm, but into foreign lands. His own son went as a missionary (minister jDlenipo- tentiai'y) to Ceylon, where through his influence the whole population embraced the faith of Buddha.
The system, therefore, made conquests, not by its own in-
102 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
trinsic merit!?, but by alliance with kingly power. It was used for political purposes. And it should be borne in mind that with the downfall of the Ashoka dynasty, the power of Buddhism greatly declined. It had already become powerless against the reviving Brahminism, when the Mohammedan in- vasion came, and virtually extinguished it everywhere except in the remotest provinces.
The Mohammedan rule in India began about the middle of the tenth century of the Christian era. It swept down upon India from the North and North-west by force of arms. It came with the prestige of great military prowess ; and some of the most brilliant dynasties that India has ever known, were those that held their centimes of power at Delhi and Agra.
Under the Mogul Aurungzebe, in the seventeenth century, the Mohammedan sw^ay reached iis greatest extent, including nearly all the peninsula, with Cabul on the west and Assam on the east. For nine hundred years this power, with vary- ing limits and in greater or less degree, maintained the scep- tre in India.- Its last representative was completely over- thrown at the M\ of Delhi in 1857.
In addition to the prestige and patronage of the Govern- ment, which must have greatly affected all the leading classes of society, the intrinsic superiority of Islam over Brahmin- ism, and especially the real power of its doctrine of the Divine Unity, gave it great advantages for conquest. Surely, under such circumstances, progress would seem to be easy ; and our wonder is, not that its standards were joined by so many, but that in the long lapse of a thousand years it did not transform the whole of India.
The entrance of Christianity into India occurred under very different circumstances. The East India Company was established a little more than two hundred and fifty years ago ; but the East India Company was not Christianity ; and when, in the latter part of the last century, Carey and Marsh- man attempted, almost single-handed, to introduce the
TRUTH AND EKROR TESTED ON THE SAME SOIL. 103
gospel, they received great cliscouragement from the Company. At a lalei- dute Ju'lso:i ami others of our own land were ordered by the otllcials of the East India Company to leave the country, lest their presence and efforts should arouse tlic superstitious opposition of the people, and seriously threaten both trade and political tranquility. So far from being backed by official power, as was the Moslem faith at Delhi, Christianity was either crippled by restriction, or scoffed at and treated with contempt. It saw the patronage which it might reasonably have expected from a nominally Ciiristian power, given rather to the popular heathenism. There were many honorable exceptions to all this. Occasionally men like the Lawrences held high positions in the civil list, and a Havelock, whose prayers wrought victory, was at the head of an army. But such names were only exceptional. Meanwhile in India, as in all other heathen lands, Christianity encoun- tered a serious obstacle in the general adverse influence exerted by the social vices and commercial oppressions of those who boasted a Christian civilization. This terrible dead-Aveighi must always be considered in estimating the real furce of Christian conquest.
This heavy load has been borne preeminently in India where the monopolized opium culture, the ryot tax, and an every way rapacious policy, impoverished many a bountiful province, while under the Company's rule.
The Sepoy rebellion, in wdiich even political sagacity rec- ognized the rebuke of Providence, wrought a great change; and under the direct auspices of the British Government the work of Missions has since made rapid strides. It is estimated that from 1851 to 1861 the increase of converts was 53 per cent. ; from 18(51 to 1871 it was 01 per cent. At this ratio of increase it would require about a century and a half to evangelize the entire population of India.
Buddhism, as we have seen, has existed in the country nearly twenty five centuries. Some writers assign to it a much, earlier date, and a longer career. And yet, after hav ng
104 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
once occupied large portions of India, it has declined instead of making ndvanceinent ; and now, so far as British India is concerned, it is almost entirely limited to the island of Ceylon, Nepaul and Burmah. And this, it must be remembered, is on its own soil, where it has had the advantages of immediate and Tiniversal contact. It is as if Christianity had grappled with Brahminism for twenty-five centuries in the heart of Europe, or now had the opportunity of meeting it hand to hand for a long period on the American Continent. Who imagines that Brahminism could withstand such a conflict for even one century "?
On the other hand, Mohammedanism has been at work in India for nearly a thousand years, with no such special dis- advantages as have been met in Christian conquest. And the Moslem element in India to-day numbers something over forty millions, or one-sixth of the population. This system, too, instead of having been imported from beyond the sea, and by a people of widely different social habits, has enjoyed, like Buddhism, a nearer access.
Moreover, in many of its features, it has fostered, instead of rebuking, the vices peculiar to Oriental life. The spirit of slavery, which is its native air, has sympathies with Brah- niinical caste, and its degradation of women is kindred to that which is taught by the laws of Menu. It demands little sacrifice of any indulgence dear to the Brahmin, and only requires him to exchange one form of pride for another quite as exultant ; and as to the future, it places him at the head of a celestial harem, instead of being possibly metamorphosed into a peacock or a rat. Surely conversion to such a system would seem to be easy ; and yet, at the past ratio, it Avould require forty centuries to win over India to the Moslem faith.
For a long time past, the only increase of Mohammedanism has probably been that of natural generation. There are fanatical sects of Moslems, some of which seem to have re- vived their zeal of late ; but facts are wanting to show that they have made any great progress.
TRUTH AND ERROR TESTED ON THE SAME SOIL. 105
But in the comparison which we have instituted, any numerical estimate would fail to present the real merits of the siihjcct. It is in more subtle and dillusive influences, that Christianity shows its chief superiority. The truth of the Gospel is a leaven of such pervasive power, as to make it- self felt upon all the masses of human society, even before they join its standard. It acts through the avenues of com- merce and science, through diplomacy and material advance- ment. It awakens a general spirit of inquiry, calls in the mighty agencies of the press, opens numherless schools, to which Buddhist, and Brahmin, and Moslem are alike irresist- ibly drawn. It corrects false theories of social life, crushes through all the distinctions of caste, opens the zenana and the harem, and raises up woman to her true position. It breaks down the barriers of national prejudice and exclusivism, and practically demonstrates the unity of the race. It strikes off the shackles of the boudman, and destroys the habitations of cruelty. It bears in its right hand relief to the suffering of every race, and plants on all shores the hospital and the asylum. What contrasts in this respect does India show ? What have Buddhism and Mohammedanism, in all their long dark reign, ever accomplished for degraded and suffering woman 1 Where have they quenched the fires of the suttee, or stayed the ter- rible ravages of infanticide? What mitigation have they ever brought to the hard and cruel rigors of caste which trode down the lower classes to the very mire of degradation and suffering ? Did these systems, during the long ages of their supremacy, enkindle the aspiration of the masses for education, or invest them with the means, or even the hope of social equality ?
It is a point well put by Professor S. C. Bartlett, of Chi- cago, that the splendid Sanskrit language indicates a mag- nificent outstart for India upon her long historic career. It evidently belongs to a civilization much higher than any- thing which the later eras of Indian liistory reveal. It there-
106 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
fore rises up in judgment against Buddhism and Brahminisra alike, and charges them with deterioration, instead of the advancement of the countless millions over Tvhom they have borne sway.
Yet there are those among us whose antiquarian entlm- siasm finds in these old systems much that is even superior to the Christian faith. Let sucli remember that while Buddh- ism has thus wasted its centuries and cycles of grand op- portunity in India, Christianity thirteen centuries ago found our Saxon ancestors mere savages in the forests of Germany and of Britain ; and that out of their savagery it wrought the Christian civilization which we enjoy, and which already, in less than a century, has done more for India than any of her hoary systems have accomplished in a thousand, or even two thousand, years.
XXI.
SIK BAETLE FEERE ON THE CHANGE OF NATIVE SENTIMENT IN INDIA.
The testimony of others is lai'gely introduced in these chap- ters, thongh at the expense of compactness and symmetry of style. For on all questions in regard to which differences of opinion have been expressed, the decision mast be left to com- petent witnesses ; and the testimony of witnesses may be best given in their own words. The most reliable authorities are, first, those who have resided in heathen lands and who have had good opportunities to judge of the results of Mission work. Compared with these, hasty travelers who have depended uj)on mere rumors are of less account. In the second place, wit- nesses should be selected from among Christian men.
The cause of Missions is not on trial before the enemies of the truth ; and 2:)ersons of this sort should no more be re- garded as authorities on this subject than upon questions of
CHANGE OF NATH'^E SENTIMENT IN INDIA. lOY
doctrine, or order, or the methods of Christian work in the Church at home.
Tlicu- testimony mi^ht be admitted to some extent as ti) the character of th^ men employed, but not upon the methods or the degrees of spiritunl success.
The real question is, whether Missions as now conducted are accomplishing what the Church herself ought to expect? Her own representatives are tlie proper judges ; and if the uniform testimony of Christian, laymen resident on heathen soil com- mends the work as successful, this should be sufficient.
We believe that it may bo asserted as a general fact that foreign residents having real and vital piety and an interest in Christ's kingdom, are the friends of JMissions, and that most of them contribute to their support. They are not missionaries, and therefore are not parties in the case ; but, holding an un- biased relation between the Chureh and her laborers, they constitute a tribunal worthy of all trust. Scores of such men have been found in the civQ and military service in India, where they enjoyed suj^erior advantages for estimating, the changes which have occurred in the minds of the heathen. Conspicuous among these is Sir Bartle Frere. This distin- guished statesman, so well known as a former Governor of Bombay and more recently as Commander of the British Ex- pedition to Zanzibar, published a w^ork two years since relat- ing to Missions in India, from which the following extracts are taken .
He does not claim that Missionary effort alone has Vv^rought all the great changes that have occurred ; but his testimony is all the more valuable because it is discriminating. It allows to the Bible, the school, the laws, the stean)-engine, and the telegraph, each its place, and counts them all as the agencies of God in His great plans.
He gives great prominence to the general leavening influence of Christianit}'' or Christian civilization, even among those who do not yet acknowledge it. After speaking of the fact that the natives in each little village not only observe, but
108 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
discuss, the great chaiigos when they as^sr ralile for their evening gossij), he tlius continues :
"Then, whenever they stir out of their own village some evidence meets them of the equalizing, leveling tendencies of the British Go\crnment — of its entire disregard for the dis- tinctions of caste which so largely modify the action of every native administration. 'At the great public works every one gets paid according to his work — no one nsks what is the workman's caste, or where he comes from. Then what incar- nations of justice, equity, and equality are the ruads and rail- roads ! How straight they go 1 caring no more for the head- man's or R.'ijah's field than for the helot's rubbish-heap ! Everybody goes together by train, the prince and the peasant — all get accommodated according to what they pay, without distinction of caste or rank, and all arrive at the same time ! It is the same with their courts of justice; if you have only money enough you may sue anybody you please, and get a decree too, sometimes, and have it executed against the wealthiest banker in the county town, (though that is a dan- gerous experiment, by no means to be recommended, for, after all, Lukshmi, the goddess of wealth, has it all her way in this world, and bankers are her special favorites). Then, this " Lightning-post," what a wonderful invention it is ! It excels even the railway as a manifestation of benevolence, justice, and equality ; for every one's message goes in turn, and all for the same price per dozen words.'
" These are not imaginary conversations, but are taken from remarks which any one who talks to this class of people may hear almost any day in their common convei sation.
"Now, this equalizing and leveling policy, which at first was a great puzzle to the villagers, seems explained by what the missionary says. He tells of One God over all, of One Saviour for all, and insists that 'this Ged made of one blood all mankind, that there is no distinction before Him of Brahmin or 'outsider;' that all will be equal in death, and
CHANGE OF NATIVE SENTIMENT IN INDIA. 109
all be jaclged by one rule after dcatli.' 'If tlie Sahibs really believe this, no wonder all their doings and inventions liave such a leveling tendency.' The oldest of the comni unity of outsiders have never heard anything of the kind before, and some of them resolve ' to inquire more about what the Padre says, and, if possible, make their children attend some school where they may learn to read these books, which the Padre gives so freely, and which tell such wonderful things, not only of London and railways, and the electric telegraph, but of the new heavens and new earth, in which dwelleth righteous- ness.'
"Perhaps the profoundest impression, though he says least about it, is made on the young Brahmin, the village school- master, it may be, or vaccinator, or postmaster. He has listen- ed almost in silence to the discussion among the village elders. He was born in the village, and had been taught a little San- skrit by his father, in boyhood ; he has received a good edu- cation in his own language, and learned enough of English to wish to learn more, at a Government school in the provincial capital. The course of study was carefully secular ; and when, as was constantly the case, the scholar's inquiries wan- dered into fields of discussion more or less connected with religion, the subject was avoided in a manner rather calculated to pique the inquirer's curiosity. But there was so much to be learned about the world and its history and affairs, that the scholar deferred further inquiry, and at length returned to his village as a Government employe in some department, on a salary superior to all the hereditary allowances of the village magnates put together, and paid punctually in cash monthly. He is a rich, and would be an influential man, but he has got quite out of joint with his old ])layfellows and their parents ; he has in his heart the most profound contempt for all that his father, the bigoted old Shastri, and his friends, go on talk- ing about their gods, and the silly and licentious tales of what their gods did, which seem to him fit only to amuse vicious
110 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
children ; he is pained at their open Avorship of their hideous stone and metal idols, whose legendary acts and attributes appear to his awakened moral sense even more debased than tl}eir outward forms.
" lie has never been in the way of knowing much dii-ectly about the religion of these Sahibs, and is rather glad when he hears tliat the 'Dharm Padre' (missionary) has come to the village. lie goes to listen, and, may be, is at first inclined to treat with contempt some apparent want of school leai'ning. ' The Padre ' is evidently not as profound a Shastri as his own father, nor as great at the differential calculus as the Cam- bridge professor from whom he heard lectures at the ' Govern- ment college; ' but as he listens, one social or moral jDroblem after another, which he had been used to ponder over, and found so difficult to solve, receives new light, and a history of the world, its past and its future, is revealed to him— so simple, so consistent, and so fully explaining many of his doubts and difficulties, that, if he could but beHeve it, he feels that a great weight would be removed from his mind, and he would be a happier man.
"In the simple truths which the 'Dhurm Padre' urges so earnestly, with no object but the personal salvation of his hearers, the young Brahmin tainks he sees the secret of that wonderful power which has enabled the people of a remote islet in the Northern Seas to subjugate the hundred millions of Hindostan, with all its ancient arts, civilization, and ele- ments of wealth and power. .The few short sentences regard- ing the unity and brotlicrhood of mankind — the responsibility of all, Emperor as well as peasant, to One God, of infinite power, justice, and mercy — seem to him to form the talisman of that mysterious success which is daily working siach miia- cies before his eyes. If his own race, so rich in the accumu- lated intellectual pov/er of many nations and many centuries, could only believe and learn this wonderful secret, what a fu- ture might yet be in store for India and her children "
CHANGE OF POLICY IN THE INDIAN GOVEENMENT. Ill
XXII.
THE GKEAT CHANGE IN THE POLICY OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT.
To those who are familiar with the early history of Missions in India, and who have been pained at the obstacles which were at first imposed, not merely by the licathen, but by the East India Company, the representative of a nominally Christian nation, the present state of sentiment in high official circles seems little less than miraculous. For the first few years — indeed, up to the revision of the Company's Charter in 1813, at which time the clause excluding religion and educa- tion was stricken out — the heaviest burden that English and American missionaries had to bear was the hostility of the Govtrumcnt. Harriett New^ell, driven forth into fatal ex- posure and hardship from Calcutta, was a martyr, not to the mission cause, but to the brutality of a mammon-loving corpo- ration bearing in one sense the Christian name.
And long after the revision of the charter, the Provincial Government of India, with noble exceptions, threw its in- fluence onto the side of heathenism and against Christianity. The degree of ofl[icial sympathy with the popular idol«,try may be judged by the following facts, which are vouched for by Dr. Mullens, of the London Society :
" When the temples in Tranquebar and Tanjore had begun to decline through the preaching of.lhe missionaries, the Govern- ment of Madras took them under its own protection, ap- pointed priests, made public and ostentatious gifts, and super- intended the disbursement of the sacred funds, and thus revived Hinduism ! It became trustee of the Pagoda lands, and in time of drought paid the Brahmiuical priests to pray for rain. Eui'opean officers saluted the idols and, by Govern- ment authority, compelled the natives. to draw the car of Jug- gernauth, and ordered them whipped by native officials if they refused. More than eight thousand temples with their
112 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
estates were managed by the Government in the Madras Presidency, and in the year 1852, five years before the mutiny, $3,750,000 were paid from the public treasury ' for repairs of temples, f(>r new idols and idol-cars, for priests, musicianB, painters, watchmen, and dancing-women.' The same authority states that in Ceylon all the chief Buddhist priests were ap- pointed by Government, and exj^enses for ' devil dancing,' continued at Kandy for seven days, were paid per voucher ' For her Majesty's Service.' "
The Government of India continued to affnrd more or less support to idolatry and more or less obstruction to the work of Missions till the great mutiny in 1857. " Caste," says Dr. Anderson in his " Foreign Missions," " was the last iilol in India which the English rulers ceased to dread. Its terror lay mainly in the Sepoy army of some two or three hundred thousand, which they could not trust and did not know how to disband. At length this great native army rebelled and made v^'ar alike upon English rulers and native Chris- tians.
" Everywhere English dwellings were burned down, and the bodies of more than fifteen hundred English men and wouien, many of rank and culture, 'lay unburied upon the wastes, the food of dogs and jackals and of foul birds of prey ; and riot, plunder, and mxirder strode wildly over the land.'
'• Yet this storm, after it had passed, was found to have been a rich blessing, though terribly disguised. The Sepoy army had been disbanded, caste was no longer a terror, the Moslem power was broken. "
But a still more important lesson had been learned : Not only the missionaries, but the Government itself, had come to place a new value upon the character of the native converts. While the pampered Hindus and Mohammedans had rebelled, the despised native Christians had proved themselves loyal. Not onl) had they been constant in their faith — for out of two thousand only six persons apostatized — but they had on all occasions taken the side of the English. Many were
CHANGE OF POLICY IN THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT. 113
the instances in Avhich vnluable lives had been saved through "Warnings or assistance from Ihcni.
Previous to the Mutiny, the Government had indfornily discriminated in favor of heathen or Moslem subjects in its official patronage. A native Christian applicant for any position "was uniformly rpjectcd,ho"wever worthy he might be. Thus his faith cost him not only the bitter persecution of his countrymen, but virtually that of Englishmen as well.
How far all this was changed after the rebellion, Avill be seen from the following official order, which was made by Sir John Lawrence, Lieut.-Governor of the Punjaub, and afterwards Governor-General of India. We quote it as recorded in Dr. Butler's "Land of the Veda":
"The sufferings and trials which the Almighty has permit- ted to come upon His people in this land, though dark and my.sterious to us, will assuredly end in His glory. The fol- lowers of Christ will now, I believe, be induced to come for- ward and advance the interests of His kingdom. The system of caste can no longer be permitted to rule in our service. Soldiers and Government servants of every class must be entei'tained for their merits, irrespective of creed, class, or caste.
" The native Christians as a body have, with rare exceptions, been set aside. I know not one in the Punjaub, to our dis- grace be it said, in any employment under Government. But a change has come, and I believe there are few who will not eagerly employ those of the Christians who are compe- tent to fill appointments."
" A short time alter the issue of the above order," says Dr. Butler, "Sir Robert Montgomery, ruler of Oude, publi-hed a similar paper, and other officials did the same.
" Merchants and traders also employed the native Chris- tians, for they saw that they could be trusted."
This was a grand testimony from the highest sources to the character which Christianity had imparted to the natives. It was really a social revolution, which, so far as the Govern-
114 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
ment was concerned, raised native Christians in India to a full share in those privileges from which they had been de- barred. Now, the whok work of Missions has not only tho respect and approval of the authorities, but also its substan- tial assistance in the protection of all its rights, and in liberal grants in aid. There is probably no Protestant Government in the world more favorable to the interests of religion than that of India,
On the same subject we add the folloAving testimony, given in an address made by Sir William Temple, Lieut. -Governor of Bengal, at the anniversary of Serampore College in 1S74 : " When the founders of this Mission first came to India, the country was in a very unsettled and excitable state. The iact of Christianity being preached caused great distrust and suspicion in the minds of the natives ; it caused even a certain amount of political trouble and disaffection. Tiie Govern- ment of that day, rightly or wrongly, took the alarm and threatened to deport the missionaries. Sometimes the mis- sionaries were vi;sited with pains and penalties ; sometimes they were hauled before the judges and dragged into police courts; sometimes surrounded by angry and tumultuous mobs ; some of them even suffered shipwreck ; others lived in jungles in a state of want and misery, where they were found with scarcely sufficient jDrovision remaining for their suste- nance. But time rolls on, and the aspect of the country is changed. The Government now no longer fears that dis- turbances Avill arise from proclaiming and preaching the gos- pel of peace ; the natives themselves seem no longer to regard missionaries with distrust, and indeed, as an impartial observer traveling through Bengal, it seems to me that the missionaries are absolutely popular. If I go to the large cities, I see schools and colleges which belong to the various Chiistian Missions, which may not, indeed, equal the Govern- ment institutions in- strength and resourci'S, but which fully equal them in popularity. In the intei'ior of the country, among the villages, I find missionary institutions established
CHANGE OF POLICY IN THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT. 115
in almost all parts of Bengal. The missionaries appear to be regarded by their rustic neighbors with respect, I may say almost with aftection. They are consulted by their neighbors — by their poor ignorant rural neighbors — in every difficulty and every trouble, and seem to be regarded by them as their best and truest friends."
But perhaps the most important official testimony to the value of Missions is that which was reported by the Indian Government to the Biitish Parliament in 1872. The London Record of October 10, 1873, says of the report : "It contains some of the most striking testimonies to the progress and efficacy of Missions that we have ever seen."
The following extracts are taken from the official docu- ment. In reference to the friendly co-operation of mission- aries it says :
"School-books, translations of the Scriptures, and relig- ious works, prepared by various Missions, are used in common ; and helps and i:iiprovements secured by one Mission are freely placed at the command of all. The large body of mis- sionaries resident in each of the presidency towns form Mis- sionary Conferences, hold periodic meetings, and act together on public matters. They have frequently addressed the In- dian Government on important social questions, involving the w^elfare of the native community, and have suggested valu- able improvements in existing laws. During the past twenty years, on five occasions, general conferences have been held for mutual consultation respecting their missionary work."
As to the agency of the press, the Report continues :
" The Mission presses in India are twenty-five in number. During the ten years between 1852 and 1862, they issued 1,631,940 copies of the Scriptures, chiefly single books ; and 8,601,033 tracts, school-books, and books for general circula- tion. During the ten years between 18G2 and 1872, they is- sued 3,410 new works in thirty languages ; and circulated 1,315,503 copies of books of Scripture ; 2,375,040 school books ; and 8,750,129 Christian books and tracts. Last year
116 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
two valuable works were brought to completion — the revision of the Bengali Bible, and the first publication of the entire Bible in Sanskrit. Both were the work of the Rev. Dr. Wen- ger, of the Baptist Mission in Calcutta.
"In 1852 the entire number of Protestant native converts in India, Biirmah, and Ceylon, amounted to 22,400 communi- cants, in a community of 128,000 native Christians of all ages. In 1862 the communicants were 49,688, and the native Christians were 213,182. In 1872 the communicants were 78,494, and the converts, young and old, numbered 318,763.
" But the missionaries in India hold the opinion that the winning of these converts, whether in the cities or in the open country, is but a small portion of the beneficial results which have sprung from their labors. No statistics can give a fair view of all that they have done. They consider that their distinctive teaching, now applied to the country for many years, has powerfully aflected the entire population. The moral tone of their preaching is recognized and highly ap- proved by multitudes who do not follow them as converts. The various lessons which they inculcate have given to the peo2:»le at large new ideas, not only on purely religious ques- tions, but on the nature of evil, the obligations of law, and the motives by Avhich human conduct should be regulated. Insensibly a higher standard of moral conduct is becoming familiar to the people, especially to the young, which has been set before them not merely by public teaching, but by the millions of printed books and tracts which are scattered widely through the country. On this account they express no wonder that the ancient systems are no longer defended as they once were i many doubts are felt about the rules of caste ; the great festivals are not attended by the vast crowds of former years ; and several theistic schools have been grow- ing up among the more educated classes, especially in the Presidency cities, who profess to have no faith in the idol- gods of their fathers. They consider that the influences of their religious teaching are assisted and increased by the
THE GREAT OPENING IN JAPAN. 117
example of the better portions of the English corumunity ; by the spread of English literature and English education ; by the freedom given to the press ; by the high standard, tone, and purpose of Indian legislation ; and by the spirit of free- dom, benevolence, and justice which pervades the English rule. And thej^ augur well of the future moral progress of the native population of India from these signs of solid ad- vance already exhibited on every hand, and gained within the brief period of two generations. This view of the general influence of their teaching, and of the greatness of the revo- lution which it is silently producing, is not taken by mission aries only. It has been accepted by many distinguished resi- dents in India and experienced officers of the Government ; and has been emphatically endorsed by the high authority of Sir Bartle Frere. Without pronouncing an opinion upon the matter, the Government of India cannot but acknowledge the groat obligation under which it is laid by the benevolent exer- tions made by these six hundred missionaries, whose blame- less example and self-denying labors are infusing new^ vigor into the stereotyped life of the great populations placed under English rule, and are preparing them to be in every way bet- ter men and better citizens of the great empire in which they dwell."
XXIII.
THE GEEAT OPENING IN JAPAN.
The recent opaning of this new Mission field has been so remarkable that it claims special no; ice. No one can visit Japan without falling at once under a sort of charm. The picturesque landsc:ipes, the soft chmate, the novel architecture, the dark groves and " high places," with their quaint temples, the strange costumes and tonsure, and peculiar habits of life, the "bird-cage" houses and "ginrikishas," or man-power car-
118 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
riages, and especially tl e frank and genial manners of the people — all conspire in creating a deep interest. Every traveler leaves the country with a degree of reluctance, and promises himself a return at some future day.
Japan is new to us, though very old in its own proud record. It has sprung into notice like the sudden vision of a dream, and from being one of the most conservative of nations, it is fast becoming one of the most progressive. The empire com- prises four large islands and a multitude. of smaller ones, and its mountains and valleys, bays, capes, promontories, inlets, rivers, and archipelagoes comprise ^bmit all of tliose geographi- cal varieties which the school-boy finds it so hard to master. Its eastern coast line, extending between latitudes thirty and forty-five degrees, corresponds very nearly in extent and general direction to that of the United States.
The country is generally hilly and of manifest volcanic origin. It seems like the vestiges of a sunken continent whose highest summits and ridges only, re:nain above the sea level. And it has been suggested that if our own Atlantic slope were so far submerged as to cover the lower coast levels and the Gulf States, with the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, leaving in view only the high ridges of the Cumberland Mountains, the Blue Ridge, the Alleghanies, the Catskills, and the mountains of New England, trending, as all these do, in a general north- eastern direction, we should have almost an exact counterpart to Japan. The Mississippi Valley Avould correspond to the l^ellow Sea, and the Piatt ar.d Arkansas rivers emptying into it would resemble the two great rivers of China.
Japan is not so populous as most other nations of Eastern Asia, and there is no present need of emigration. Nor do the people show any disposition to leave their own attractive and much-loved country. The superficial area of the empire is about one-third greater than that of Great Britain and Ireland, and as there is about the same difference in the population, the density is of course the same.
The resources of Japan, however, are not nearly so well
THE GREAT OPENING IN JAI'AN. Ill)
developed as those of Givat Britain. In other words, its capacity for increase of population is far greattT. Its favorable climate and the great extent of its irrogiihir coast lines afford fisheries of almost inexhaustible productiveness. So available has this resource proved to bo, that a very large proportion of the population has been drawn to the coast. The interior of the large island of Yepso, though very fertile, is to a great ex- tent uncultivated. And in even the most populous islands, it is said on good authority that less than one-fifth of the total area is made procluclive. The soil is fertile, and the climate has that union (jf wamuth and humidity which insures great luxuriance of vegetation. Two, and sometimes even three, crops a year are produced.
The great mineral resourcps of the couiitiy are almost •wholly undevel(ii)ed, and manufactures are in the most primi- tive state. Under an jidvanced civilization there appears no reason why Japan might not sustain a population of 70,000,000 instead of 35,000,000.
The people at present are industrious and frugal, though, like all nations in warm climates, they are unblushingly immoral. In the scantiness and negligence of their dress, and in their general outward decorum, they are, or have been, up to the beginning of the new era, far below either the Chinese or the Hindus. Ten years ago the most obscene and repulsive ob- jects were exposed everywhere in the shop windows, and these were purchased for the purposes of an indecent heathen wor- ship.
The Japanese are a short-lived race — very few of them exceeding the limit of forty years. They have nothing like the stamina of the Chinese, though they have more than the Sand- wich Islanders and the soft races of the South Seas. Springing from a probable cross between the aboriginal " Einos " and a Mongolian element from the Asiatic mainland, they combine in some degree the impressibility of the Pacific Islanders, with the greater strength of that great Noithern line of races from which our own Caucasian energy was derived. It is probably
120 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
this combination that I'enders them so prompt and responsive in the acquirement of knowledge and in the adoption of im- provements. It is this which affords warrant of a good degree of civilization witliin a very hmited future, and inspires the hope that with due faithfulness on the part of God's people, Japan may b.^come a Christian nation within the life-time of at least the young, who now contribute to her evangelization.
Some of the improvements which have already been adopted, and for a summary of which we are largely indebted to Dr. Hepburn, of Yokohama, are these.:
The Tenno, or Emperor, has ceased to be regarded as a sacred person. Once imprisoned and helpless, with a govern- ment administered by a Tycoon and his daimios, he has now taken the place rather of a sensible human ruler, seeking the good of his people.
Constitutional forms of government have been adopted, and Departments of State, of War, of the Navy, of Finance, of Education, of Postal Regulation, and of Public Works, have been created, in accordance with the usage of nations most advanced. Two railroads have been built, and telegraphic communication is opened with all the world. Iron-clads have been introduced into the navy and European tactics into the army. The bow and arrow, with the ancient spear and shield, have given place to the most improved modern weapons. The coast, on which Government and people would once have desired and promoted the wreck of any foreign vessel, is now studded with light houses for the protection of ships of all nations.
Public docks have been constructed, and work-shops opened, for the man\ifacture of steamers, engines, and munitions of "war. The Japanese have printing-presses, type foundries, newspapers, dictionaries, and books on medicine, law, political economy, natural and moral philosophy, history, mathematics, and astronomy. A University has been established with a Normal Department for the training of teachers, and with what might be called a Diplomatic Department, for the training, in
THE GEEAT OPENING IN JAFiVN. 121
all foreign languages, of men who shall represent the Goveru- rnent abroad. And already an elaborate and advanced system of common school educatiDn is being introduced, with a view of educating the entire people. A normal school for the train- ing of female teachers has quite recently been opened, under the special patronage of the Empress.
Japan has now a decimal currency, with her own mint and banking system. She has also issued, to some extent, a jiaper currency, and has asserted her high place among modern na- tions by a "respectable national debt." Caste, which excluded certain lower chisses from the equal rights of citizenship, has been abolished, and the abominable custom of selling or hiring out daughters for prostitution has been suppressed by law. Alms-houses and hospitals have been opened. The national calendar has been conformed to that of Christian nations, beginning the year with the first of January, and in the national institutions where Christian professors are employed, the Sabbath is made a day of rest. Very recently a publish- ed edict has commended the day for national observance. Post-olRces arc established and postage-stamps are used, and postal treaties have been formed with foi'eign powers. The style of buildings and furniture, of dress, of wearing the hair, and of diet, are being changed (too rapidly, we think,) to the European standards. It should be 'said, however, that these changes have thus far been confined chiefly to the govern- ment and the upper classes.
The great masses of the poj^ulation are not yet reached by them save to a very limited extent. Still the changes are now so well established, and all the more influential classes are so fully committed to them, that a retrograde need scarcely be feared. Even were there a sudden reactionary movement, it could not long endure. The new civilization has gained too strong a hold. The march of the empire is outward, and it is one of the felicities of this age of easy intercommunication that the advancement of a nation may be so rapid.
Besults which in Western Europe required centuries of hard
122 THE GREAT CONQUEBT.
and patient toil, and many an ensanguined struggle, may be reached by Japan, and possibly some day by China, through a much shorter and easier process. They have but to bori'ow a civilization already wrought out. Their work is only one of adaptation and assimilation — not of creation.
In order to understand the full importance of Japan as a mission field, it is necessary to consider the general character- istics of the people and their relations to other races. It may be doubted whether any other heathen people now approached by missionary effort, are so teachable as the Japanese, or so little wedded to their old systems, or so deeply impressed with a conviction, or at least a fear, that a new religion is to take their place. The government seeks our Western (or rather Eastern) civilization without our Christianity — not knowing, as we know, that the one cannot be fully enjoyed if severed from that which constitutes its very root, and in which inheres its life.
The common people, however, do not observe this distinc- tion. The government endorsement of our civilization is to them a presumptive commendation of our religion; and as they see the one fast gaining ground, it is easy for them to believe that the other will prevail, and probably ought to pre- vail. In a missionary point of view, it is impossible to over- estimate the moral effect of the changes which the government has inaugurated. If, on the one hand, it is seen that Sintooism is shaken off as a State religion, and two-thirds of all the monasteries of Buddhism are .suppressed and their properties confiscated; while, on the other hand, scores of youth are sent, at public expense, to study the institutions of Christian lands, and all the fruits of a Christian civilization are so eagerly gar- nered; what conclusion can the people reach but this : that the old religions, with all that came of them, are worthless, compared with the new faith, whose results have been so wonderful and so well worth adopting? The Japanese are as proud of their antiquity as are the Chinese of theirs; but they reason differently in respect to it. The latter simply dwell
THE GREAT OPENING EST JAPAN. 123
upon the fact that thoy were highly civilized, while we, but a few centuries ago, were still rude savages ; and thoy say," How, then, can we of the venerated Celestial Empire, learn anything from these outside barbarians, who are but of yesterday ? " But the Japanese look upon the other side of the question, and conclude that nations which, rising in so short a time from bar- barism, have distanced all the progress which many ages have achieved for them, must be animated by some great principles of faith or philosophy quite worth the seeking.
The Chinese are cold-blooded, conservative, and averse to change. The Japanese are impulsive, quick to reach conclu- sions, and although ardent lovers of country, are ever ready to adopt whatever shall make that country nobler and better. This difference is observed even in little things. On all the Oriental steamers, a Chinaman, however wealthy, takes his meals by himself or with his own countrymen in the steerage, and nothing would induce him to drop the use of chop-sticks ; while the Japanese on the same vessel, invariably take a saloon passage, and appear, knife and fork in hand, at the foreigner's table. They are ambitious to speak English, and are very affable. Japanese students in this country always wear our style of dress, and adopt our tonsure; but the youth sent hither by the Chinese Government, are required to maintain their Oriental garb and the never-failing queue.
In Japan, it is the /hs/i?o« to cultivate whatever is foreign; and this general drift of the national mind has, we repeat, a great effect upon the religious attitude of the people. In a recent visit to that country, the writer was most deeply im- pressed by what the Government is unconsciously doing to pre- pare the way for the Gospel. One is filled with wonder at the providences of God, as he studies the operation of these great principles, these stupendous changings and overturnings in which so little is due to our effort, and so much to that over- ruling Spirit who moves the hearts of rulers and of nations.
As might be expected, the converts to the Gospel in Japan arc, on the average, of a liigher social grade than those of most
124 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
other lands. The men, who believe in the new order of things, and those also who were unsettled by it, are the first to receive the truths of Christianity. The Samouri class, or the "Two Swordsmen," are largely represented among them — men of more than usual intelligence, and of that chivalric spirit which does not make haste to turn the grace of God into meat and drink and secular gain. They are more inclined to help them- selves than the average of converts from heathenism. They are capable of exerting influence, and they accept fully the doctrine that a Gosjiel worth possessing is worth proclaiming ; and hence a remarkably large proportion of the young men desire to prepare themselves for the ministry.
In some other lands, the young converts taught in the mission-schools have, to a discouraging degree, been allured to business pursuits. Not so in Japan. Of the nine male mem- bers of the (American Board) mission church at Kobe a year ago, eight wished to preach the Gospel; and of the seven male members at Osaka, four expressed the same desire. The lit- tle church organized by Rev. Henry Loomis at Yoliohama, had five or six preparing to preach; and those of Messrs. Carrothers and Thompson at Tokio (Yedo), have each about an equal number; while in the older and larger church of Rev. Mr. Ballagh at Yokohama, there was an advanced theological class of over a dozen members. As a rule, the men in the Japanese churches begin almost at once to publish, in one way or another, the story of salvation.
These characteristics naturally lead us to consider the proba- ble missionary character of the Japanese in the years to come. The Sandwich Islanders have already shown what may be done, even by a "feeble folk," for the regions beyond. The Japanese are far more energetic and aggressive than they, and they have vastly greater resources. Why, then, may not the traits just named be hereafter turned to good account in giving the Gospel to China ? The writer was told by a missionary bishop at Ningpo, that this had been a fond hope of his. He thought that the Japanese character favored it, and added that
THE GKEAT OPENING IN JAPAN. 125
the Chinese had no such jealous fear of these near neighbors and cousins as of tlie Anglo-Saxons and all Europeans. Be- sides, the Japanese are not so unlike the Chinese in their modes of thought and habits of life as we are; and the element of sympathy, so important in religious conquest, would have far greater play.
We have admitted that the Japanese have not the stamina of the Chinese. Side by side, on the same soil, they could not hold their ground. Though they would conquer, man for man, in hostile encounter — for they have more of dash and less of cowardly prudence — yet, in the slow and steady competition of plodding industry, they would fall behind. The Chinese, in Japan as in Formosa, or among the Papuans of the South, would conquer — not on the battle-field, but on the "paddy- field." They would prevail, as the thistle roots out the clover.
At the same time, the Japanese even now excel them in aggressive influence. They have more enthusiasm and mag- netism. The history of the "Formosa Difficulty" and its solution bears witness to this. Let us hope, then, that Christian ambassadors from Japan will hereafter sail up the Peiho with the same courage and the same success that characterized the embassy of the Minister of State a year and a half ago.
The educational plans of the Japanese Government may be counted as a valuable co-tfficient of the Mission cause. No permanent and self-sustaining religious institutions can be established in any land without a basis of thorough instruction. Immediate results may, of course, be gained by the preaching of the Gospel to the rudest savages ; but too often these are, after a time, found to be wayside hearers: there is not much depth of earth. Generally, conscience and moral sensibility must be built up in the he;;then mind by slow growth. Tliis is true in Japan, where deception has scarcely been regarded as a vice, and where the low, ethical standards of Buddhism have rather unfitted the mind to comprehend spiritual truth, by dwai'fing all its higher capacities. Two processes are requi- site, therefore — the one to expand and invigorate the
126 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
intellectual powers; the other to elevate and purify the moral nature. The schools of Japan will accomplish the former, and save that expense to the Mission work. They will, at the same time, destroy remaining superstition. The old heathen systems cannot survive in the new era of education. The second process will depend on the direct spiritual work of the various missions. And this work should be done promptly, lest the old errors, being swept out, the sevenfold greater evils of universal scepticism enter in, and the last state be worse than the first.
It is cheering to think that, with the establishment of a general school system, but a few years will intervene in Japan before we shall preach the Gospel to an educated generation; and that thousands will probably be able to read the Scriptures, both in their own and in the English language. If, meanwhile, the friends of missions do their duty, a large corps of native preachers will have been raised up for this work, with the principle of self-support widely adopted. Indeed, one of the oldest missionaries on the field, expi*essed to roe his belief that within twenty-five years, Japan would be a Chris- tian nation, no longer needing Foreign Missionary aid.
The general spirit of progress and inquiry, which has already been alluded to, invites and encourages the introduction of Christian literature. The writings of sceptics are being introduced already from various sources, and a strong counter- effort should be made to supply this interesting people with that intellectual and spiritual sustenance which has nourished more flivored nations into strength. It is rare that such a crisis appears in the history of any race. Perhaps never before has the Christian Church been called to the husbandry of a vineyard so promising.
Never before has a nation come so suddenly into notice, with so great capacities, so teachable a spirit, so eager a desire for advancement, and so great a readiness to deserve help, by ear- nestly helping itself. As an evidence of the designed or
THE GREAT OPENESTO IN JAPAN. 127
undesigned co-operation which is given in the work of extend- ing a Christian literatiuv, a single incident may be given. A native publisher, who had himself observed the general spirit of inquiry, ventured to issue a Christian publication as a safe business enterprise. He selected a work on the evidences of Christianity, written by R-.-v, Dr. Wm. A. P. Martin, of Peking, employed a man to translate it into Japanese, submitted it to one of the missionaries of tlie Presbyterian Board, for cor- rection, and then gave it to the public. It was so largely pur- chased and read, that he was afterward encouraged to issue a translation of Pilgrim's Progress. Like the Hebrew mother who was employed by an Egyptian princess to nourish her own child, the Christian Church is in Japan encouraged and assisted to do the very work which she desires to accomplish. Not only is she asked to supervise the publication of her own literature at Japanese expense, but also to furnish Christian professors, who shall be paid, to aid in promoting the cause of Christian civili- zation. Hospitals, also, are opened by native subscriptions, in which, oven beyond treaty limits, the Gospel is preached freely. We were informed that seven such institutions had been opened by Dr. Berry, of Kobe, and that, although the total cost for a year was about $7,000, nothing was charged to the Mission. Surely there is great encouragement to labor in such a land, and for such a people. We may say most confidently to those whom the Lord has blest with means, that there is no better investment than to take a liberal share in the evangelization of this people, who, even in our own time, may, with God's blessing, take their place among Christian nations.
As w^e glance over the reports given by missionaries of various Boards, we find such statements as these; "Words cannot be found to express the encouraging character of our work." "You would think me wild if I should venture to prophesy the future; but I am confident that it will be some- thing unexampled in the history of the Church." Another says: "I wish you knew and covild enjoy with us all the en-
128 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
couraging features of our work. The response of the people in the matter of supporting charity hospitals is, so far as I know, unequalled in the history of mission enterprise." On a single tour made by a medical missionarj^, $2,500 were sub- scribed by the natives for hospitals. Men with physical heahng in one hand and the Gospel in the other-, " can now go anywhere in the empire," so the letters say; "and if they are earnest Christians, can exert an influence for Christianity such as no one else can exert."
" I have been pleased," says one letter, " to see how readily the people fall in with the idea of self-support and self-propa- gation. One of their aims is to make the Church a Missionary Society, and I believe it will be such from the start."
The work of the Presbyterian Board in Japan has within the last two years given full proof of the fruitfulness of the field, in spite of some untoward circumstances. The schools at Yokohama and Tokio have grown almost beyond precedent. Two years since, some of the larger boys were taken from one of these, by Rev. Henry Loomis, as the nucleus of an advanced school, and this soon drew in a class of young men, several of whom have been converted, and some of whom are preparing to preach the Gospel. A church was formed soon after, embracing many of these young men, and it now numbers about twenty-five. At Tokio Rev. Mr. Carrothers opened a boys' high school, charging a small tuition fee ; within a few weeks fifty-six lads and young men were enrolled. Religious instruction was given freely, and with blessed results, and within three months a church was organized, which finally numbered over sixty members. There are few places in heathen lands, or in our home communities, where the Gospel is received so readily and with so prompt a response as in Japan. "A great dnor and effectual" and wonderful, is opened there; and one would suppose that multitudes, counting it a privilege to live at such a time and with such opportu- nities, would come forward with their ready gifts, and say to those who offer themselves, "Go for us ! Be our messengers
THE GREAT OPENESTG IN JAPAIST, 129
and let us share your interest in the nation that is literally horn in a day.^''
Of the practical toleration of the Japanese Government towards missionaries and native Christians, there is no longer reasons for serious doubt. "While caution is still observed, and there is manifestly a remembrance of the intrigues of the Jesuits two centuries ago, yet official or semi-official utterances, given at various times, have declared that " nothing is farther from the intention of the Japanese Government than to punish its people on account of a diffijrence of religion, unless this is followed or accompanied by a mutinous and rebellious disposi- tion." It has been found by all missionaries, especially within the last two or three years, that doors of entrance were opened to them quite as rapidly as they were able to occupy.
American missionary organizations are more numerously represented than those of European countries, and with good reason.
This new and interesting empire, which was not only closed against all commercial access, but was practically removed (o the farthest east, has, by a revolution in ocean navigation, been brought near to us on the west.
In that direction it has become the nearest neighbor of the American Republic. A few days' sail over a quiet sea connects Yokohama with our Golden Gate.
An American squadron had the honor of opening the; way to commercial and diplomatic intercourse; and what is most gratifying of all is, that Commodore Perry accomplished this without firing a single shot. After the signing of treaties American naval vessels virtually aided the Government in sub- duing a rebellious daimio in one of the provinces on the Inland Sea, but they never came into ct)Hision with the authority of the sovereign. There is no historic irritation. There is no obsta- cle to a strong mutual friendship. Japan has, in a remarkable degree, shown her confidence in the government and people of the United States. She copies our thrift and enterprise, and desires to catch the spirit and genius of our institutions.
130 THE GK.EAT CONQUEST.
She has looked to this country cliiefly for instructors in her colleges and other schools, and has sent multitudes of her youth to be trained on our own soil.
When has a Christian nation enjoyed a nobler opportunity for influence than we now have 1 When or where has the Christian Church received a clearer call to duty 1
XXIV.
EEASONS FOR PEOTESTANT MISSIONS IN ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES.
There are some who raise a question here, though they are deeply interested in missions to the heathen. There is a difference, it is true, between those who know the name of Chi'ist and those who have never heard even a comipted Gospel. At the same time, the general interests of Christi- anity in the earth may render it important to consider the quality of that which claims to represent the Church of Christ. The existence of Mohammedanism in the East bears witness to the terrible reactions which may be brought about by the corruption of Christianity,
Humanly speaking, Islam would never have arisen but for the downright idolatry iato which the Eastern Church had fallen. Its chief impulse lay in the vigor of its protest against the alleged polytheism of saints, and images, and relics. It ralhed its forces around the monotheistic teachings of the Old Testament, and pursued against the Church something like the rigorous warfare which the Israelites had been divinely taught to wage against the idolatrous tribes of Canaan.
Protestantism, therefore, must be jealous for the very name of Christianity ; and Protestant missions must labor assid- uously not only for the spread of the Gospel, but for the maintenance of its purity and power. In the Turkish Empire and in Persia, a fii*st necessity is recognized, of reforming the nominal, but effete Christian churches — the Greek and
MISSIONS IN EOMAN CATHOLIO COUNTRIES. 131
tbe Armenian. The Coptic and Abyssinian Cliurclies of Africa, and the I-lomau Catholic Chui'chds of all lauds, fall under the same necessity.
Those who question the policy of carrying on missions in Catholic countries, are apt to overlook *tlie important fact, that the Papal system, where it is possessed of full power and influence, is quite different from the Catholicism which exists under the restraints of our American institutions. Here Papists are in the minority, and are put upon their good behavior ; and through the schools and the press a great amount of light penetrates the Church in spite of all efforts to exclude it. The hierarchy here does many things, partly from policy and partly fi'om necessity, which would never be thought of in Ii-eland or in Austria. It is compelled to teach, and discuss, and explain. It even affects to join, to some extent, in the progress of Protestant society.
Now, if there were no other motive for carrying the Gospel into a country like Mexico or Brazil, all our effort would be justified in the reform to be produced in the Papacy itself. It sliould not be permitted to hide away in the dark comers of the earth, excluding all light, and ruling men with unques- tioned sway. It should be challenged by the full contact and questioning of the truth. It should be called to defend its practices, and give unto God and an enlightened world some account of its stewardship.
Already where Missions have been estabHshed, improve- ments have appeared. Protestant schools have been followed by Catholic schools, Protestant papers by CathoHc papers ; and since Protestant missionaries have begun to preach on the Sabbath, the priests, who formerly went to the bull-fight or the cockpit, have also felt constrained to preach.
But the great motive for this work lies in the fact that the teaching of the Papacy is false and harmful to the general interests of manidnd. It is essentially anti-Christ. We do not deny that many CathoHcs are Christians ; but with all charity to those in that communion who sincerely trust in the
1^2 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
blood of Christ, we are nevertheless constrained to condemn their system. We arraign its doctrine of Purgatory as being unscriptural, and as constituting a weapon of priestly tyranny over ignorant minds. It makes merchandise of tlie rewards and punishments of the future world, and is an unbounded source of corruption. We arraign the dogma of Indulgences as tampering with the human conscience for purposes of gain. We condemn the doctrine of Celibacy in the priesthood as one of the most fruitful occasions of the vice and immorality which prevail in all Papal countries. We condemn the Con- fessional as being, first of all, a usurpation of tliat power which belongs only unto God, and as tempting the priest to pruriency of imagination, and leading at length to those indeli- cacies which corrupt both the confessor and the penitent. We condemn the alleged Vicegerency of the Pope as being a monstrous and even blasphemous assumption. We repudiate the notion of Baptismal Regeneration as teaching ca scheme of grace which is superficial and illusive. The mere baptism of the masses, whether in Catholic countries or on mission-fields, has utterly failed to show the fruits of regeneration. We arraign the doctrine of Paj)al Infallibility as an outrage on common-sense, and as bringing the indiscriminate contempt of many thoughtful minds upon all religion. We look upon the Ultramontane doctrines of Rome, in regard to the relations of Chui'ch and State, as dangerous to human libertj', and as tending to impede all social progress in the world.
Who can deny that these doctrines have proved posi- tively injurious to mankind ? It is only necessary to look abroad over Europe and our own continent to see that Ro- manism, wherever dominant, has been the foe of education, and liberty, and true progress ; that it has deteriorated some of the noblest races, and utterly failed to elevate those which it attempted to enlighten.
The Papacy has so far degraded the Latin races of Italy and Spain — both lauds of historic renown — that they are now
MISSIONS IN ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES. 133
rectoned of less consequence to the Church herself than the better material f .>uncl in Protestant countries.
An intelligent Roman Catholic recently confessed that tbo Itahan people were degraded to an extreme degree; but added that the Church was less concer^d for the Itahans than for -America ! In other words, the nation which has been under her molding power for ages, she now regards with indifference, compared with the vigorous young Republic for which Protestant principles have done so ranch.
Tliere cannot be a more melancholy illustration of the blight of the Papacy than that which was shown in Spain in the dark days of the Inquisition. A Catholic author, St. Hilaire, eulogizes that kingdom for her self-denial in expelling the Jews and the Moors as " poisonous plants of heresy ;" though with the one race she banished her agriculture, and with the other her trade. " Let it not be said," he writes, " that Spain in thus depriving herself of her most active citizens, ■was not aware of the extent of her loss. All her historians concur in the statement that, in acting thus, she sacrificed her temporal interests to her religious convictions ; and all are at a loss for ivorcls to extol such a glorious sacrifice.''''
But it was not merely a widespread devastation that fol- lowed these measures. Scenes of cruelty had brutalized the Catholic population which remained. " It required about one generation," says Sismondi, " to accustom the Spaniards to the sanguinary proceedings of the Inquisition, and to thoroughly fanaticLze the populace. This work, dictated by an infernal policy, was scarcely begun when Charles V. commenced his reign ; and it was probably the fatal spectacle of the Auto-da- fe that imparted to the Spanish soldiers that ferocity which was so remarkable dux'ing that whole period, bat which before that had been utterly foreign to their nature."
One more witness will suffice. " To calculate," says Llor- ente, secretary to the Holy Office, " the number of victims of the Inquisition, were to give palpable proof of one of the most
134 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
powerful and active causes of the depopulation of Spain; for if to several millions of inhabitants of which the inquisitorial system has deprived this kingdom by the total expulsion of the Jews and the conquered Moors, we add about 500,000 families entirely destroyed by the executions of the Holy Office, it will be proved beyond a doubt, that had it not been for this tribunal, and the influence of its maxims, Spain would possess 12,000,000 souls above her present population."
But we are chiefly interested in the conflict waged with Romanism in North and South America. A French author, M. Edgard Quinet, has maintained that only here on the virgin soil of a new continent, can a fair and conclusive trial of CathoHcism and Protestantism be witnessed. And he has drawn some graphic contrasts between the settlement of Mexico and Peru and other Catholic States where the whole prestige of the Chui'ch and the patronage of gov- ernment favored the colonists ; and that of the New England States, in which little bands of vhtual exiles, poor and humble, but resolute and true, "landed with their one book," and laid the solid foundations of a mighty and self-governed empire.
It cannot be maintained that the Spanish States of America found either the soil or the climate of then- chosen heritage less favorable to a high civilization than the bleak shores of Massachusetts. The reverse is true. Akeady the highest civilizations of the continent had been found in the South. The Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, had far excelled the Pequots or the Senecas of the Atlantic slope.
Moreover, the Spanish colonies had a hundred years of advantage in the outstart. The Catholics of Chili have recently celebrated their three hundred and thirty-fourth anniversary, and it is three hundred and fifty-six years since Cortes entered Mexico.
It is not necessary to portray the present condition of the United States on the one hand, and of these Eoman Catholic
MISSIONS m KOilAN CATUOLIC COUNTRIES. ■ loO
coimtries on the other. Tlio contrast of to-day stands out sharply enough in every intelligent mind.
And as to the cause of the difference can there be any doubt? It is not to be found in our republican form of gov- ernment ; for ihere is certainly no scarcity of republics in Central and South America. The people have not hesitated to establish new governments as often as they desired. Mexico alone has passed through fifty-six revolutions since the year 1821, and generally in the alleged interest of republican institutions.
The one explanation which none can deny or ignore, is found in the fact, that our own nation was founded on the Bible, while the Spanish states were from the outset doomed to ignorance and superstition ; on the one hand. Christian homes were established, alike by the clergy and the laity, and marriage was held sacred before God and men ; while on the other, a celibate priesthood, far removed fr-om the restraints of Eui'opean surveillance, was turned loose among the simple-minded tribes of a new continent, where they became the very leaders of vice and immorality ; in the one case, schools and colleges sprang up with all the blessings of a Chi'istian literature, while in the other, the people, still as ignorant and degraded as before, were amused with festi- vals and pageants, combining heathen rites with Papal super- stitions.
But the day has come at last when the people of Mexico and the South American States can no longer be kept in ignorance; when the daily papers publish facts and discussions from all parts of the world which bear against the tyranny of Rome ; when statesmen see and declare that liberty of thought and general intelhgence ai'e essential to national stabiHty and thrift ; when even in San Salvador, Roman Catholic rioters are punished as the law demands, and in Mexico the murder- ers of Protestant missionaries are executed for their Crimea
It is a pleasant service to help men who are already seeking
136 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
for progress and enlightenment; and perhaps there is no other country in the world where, just at the present time, a more cordial welcome is given to the truth than in Mexico. Mis- sionary labor within the last five years has borne remarkable fruits.
Brazil also is among the most promising fields; and Chili i awakening from the dream of three centuries and calhng for the truth. A leading journal in Santiago, on the 5th Decem- ber, 1875, pubhslied a letter from a native Chilian, in which, though nominally Catholic, he advocated the spread of evan- gelical truth as a government measure. He had been investi- gating the relative merits of Romanism and Protestantism, and stirred by the contrast, he insisted that the cure for immoral- ity and priestcraft was to be found in the study of the Scrip- tures by the people.
" This waiter's appeal," says the (Protestant) Record of Val- paraiso, " is not to the nineteenth century, but to the first — to Jesus Christ. He does not bring forward the rejection of all rehgion as the panacea for present deceptions in rebgion, but the intelligent acceptance of the Redeemer, He quotes with approval from the pamphlet that the superiority of Protestant over Papal countries is that the Protestant profess Christian- ity, while the Papal profess Ultramontanism ; and cites fi'om an Italian journal the hard saying, that ' the countries cling- ing to Popery are dead or d^dng out.'
" He proceeds to maintain that the ideas of fi'eedom which have given prosperity to other lands, cannot be utilized so long as the domiaation of Rome is admitted in the constitution and administration of government. To govern with the clergy is to enslave the nation; to govern in opposition to them is to put all authority in peril. To govern at then- side taking no notice of them, would be the most prudent, but this they will not permit. It is necessary either to obey or to resist them.
" And since the State cannot oblige the priests to preach or order the reading of the Gospel, let the government do wha,t lies within its reach; let it make obligatory by law the study of
MISSIONS IN KOIMAN CAXnOLIC COUNTKIES. 137
the Gospel in the schools and academies of the Republic ; and let all good men, for their part, aid the State in this gi'eat work by promoting lectures for adults and scatteiing the tniths of the Gospel through the countr}^, in all sections of it."
As another reason for carrying on mission-work in Cath- olic countries the Papacy is an aggressive system, and should be dealt with at its sources. Its old centers are seed-beds. It everywhere produces its like and brings forth after its kind. As it has blighted society in its own countries, it will blight all the Mission fields.
It forestalls the spread of the real Gospel and misrepre- sents the Christian name. It mocks the needy souls of the heathen, by giving them a stone for bread and a serpent for a fish.
The chief obstacle to missions in Japan lies in the pi'ej- uclice excited by the intrigues of the Jesuits two centuries ago. The Chinese at that same early day freely admitted the Jestiit missionaries, but they too were compelled to di-ive them out ; and at this very time they are stung by the ex- actions of an interj)olated French treaty which compels the surrender to the Church of old estates which were confis- cated six generations ago. And this old grudge and the present alleged practice of kidnapping children, serve to prejudice the work of ail missions that bear the Christian name.
In India, too, early opportunities were given, and with ad- verse results. The Catholic fathers of the Portuguese col- ony at Goa were invited by the Great Akbar to meet the moulahs of Islam at his com't in Agra, and freely defend and commend their faith. He was noted for his candor and his catholic sph'it, and he even had in his harem a Christian wife. The priests presented their arguments and their rites; but the verdict of idolatry fell upon their saint- worship and images, and the simple worship of Allah was preferred
138 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
Why has not the Christianity of Goa regenerated India? Tv' hy during all this long occupation, both there and in the South, has the Papacy done nothing to elevate the people ? Why has it not removed caste, emancipated woman, and destroyed the habitations of cruelty ? For the reason that it carries with it no regenerating power. It has merely baptized the people, leaving their heathen customs untouched. So far from opposing caste in India it has adopted it. A Catholic missionary, Father Manduit, says : " We must have pariah catechists to teach pariahs, and Brahmin catechists to teach Brahmins." And he confesses that he declined a request to baptize some j)ariahs at Pouloir for fear of the Brahmins ; covering his cowardice with the text (ii. Cor. 6, 3), " Giving no offence in anything that the ministry be n(>t blamed ! "
We have spoken in another chapter of the constancy of the 2,000 Protestant converts in North India in the time of the Sepoy mutiny, when under promises and threats and the prospect of death, all but six held fast to their Chiistian faith. Not so with the merely baptized Papal converts in Southern India. The Abbe Dubois, in his letters on Christianity, tell a us that when the Moslem Sultan of Mysore , compelled the Catholic Christians of his province to espouse Islam and be circumcised, all abandoned their Christian faith. " Oh, shame ! Oh, scandal ! " he says ; " not one among so many thousands had coui'age to confess and become a martyr for his religion." The same author having, as he says, vowed to be candid, tells us, with " shame and confusion," that of the two or three hundred converts whom he had baptized in India, he does " not remember any one who may be said to have embraced Christianity from conviction and from purely disinterested motives."
Aside, then, from the personal salvation of multitudes in Catholic countries, who from feeding on husks may receive the bread of life, we find broad and general motives for mission- work in the one contest between a pure and a corrupt Chris- tianity waged for universal sway* Wisdom would dictate that
MISSIONS IN KOMAN CATUOLIO CO0NTRIE8. 139
we should not merely combat the influences of Romanism in detail on heathen soil, but that ^Ye should meet them in their soui'ces, and especially those representing' America.
Christians of the United States h^ve a special field of effort in the Catholic countries of this hemisphere. This sparsely settled continent is yet to be peopled by gi'cat nations, and they will undoubtedly be Christian nations. But what kind of Christianity shall they represent 1 Under the Christian name they will exert a great influence, not only upon each other, but upon the Asiatic races across the Pacific. What shall be the character of that influence'? Our country, which the Bible has made to differ so widely from its Catholic neighbors, and whose moral power is greater than that of all the rest, must be answerable for an influence commensurate with its ad- vantages and its power.
It will be derelict in the judgment of history, if it fails to give to the whole continent that emancipation with which the Gospel makes men free.
With respect to Mexico, especially, we are concerned for the influence which she shall exert upon our own country. Her conflict with Jesuitism is ours also. She is close upon our border and must share our destiny. Her political institutions are modelled after ours, and she aspires to the same liberty that we enjoy. She can never be safe against anarchy, how- ever, until her people are enlightened. That enlightenment they now crave.
Mexico stretches out her hands for the Bible. Her long deluded sons, having merely tasted the sweets of religious liberty, willingly meet persecution, and even death, rather than relinquish it. Mexico, emerging from the darkness and bondage of more than three centuries, is worthy of help, and it is in our power to render it. It is now her seed-time ; and we whose very vicinage affords opportunity, shall be measurably responsible for the harvest.
140 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
XXY.
THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.
To GIVE the Gospel to the Indians of our own couutry has always been considered a matter of siraple justice. An avow- ed object of some of the early colonists was to evangelize the native inhabitants. It was the expectation not only of William Penn, but of many settlers in New England and elsewhere, that both races would be benefited by the coming of the white man.
Charles I., in the charter which he granted to the Massachu- setts Colon}' in 1628, gave directions that the people from England " may be so peaceably and religiously governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith, which, in our Royal intention and the adventurers' free profession, is the jorincipal end of the plantation.'''
It was generally considered" the particular mission of both Protestants and Roman Catholics in coming to this continent for the truth's sal^e, that they should impart that truth to the Indian tribes. Many conquering races, invading other coun- tries for no other purpose than that of bloody conquest, have given their religious faiths to the conquered, and have permit- ted them to dwell in the land as sharers of their civilizations and their religions.
Much more should those who came to these shores on peace- ful and even religious errands, have been expected to raise up the Indian tribes to a true Christian brotherhood, as well as to a joint possession and culture of a land which of right was wholly theirs.
The result, however, has been far otherwise. The Gospel has been imparted in some little degree, but rum and vice have always been vastly in excess of Gospel influence. War and
EVANGELIZATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 141
spoliation have gone mucli farther tlian missionary effort. The European settlers in this country have the b.id eminence of having well-nigh extirpated the native races of a continent in less tlian three centuries. The Saracens, bloody as they were, did not this in Asia or Africa. The old Romans never did this in any of the countries which were visited with their victori- ous arms and their heathen rites.
It were fair to admit that this has been due in part to the charactei- and habits of the Indian — so averse to o\ir civiliza- tion. But in greater degree has it been due to the constant inroads made by us upon their rights, the baneful contact of dishonest traders, and the introduction of ruinous vices. The Indian has suffered pecidiarly in all the wars waged between white men for this country as well as in those carried on against liim?elf.
Each new stride of our national progress has also served a new notice on him to retire farther and fiirther from the homes and possessions of his fathers, till at last little of the common territory that is worth the possessing is left him. Even the honest efforts made by the Government to sustain and elevate the Indian have in most cases been thwarted by the interven- tion of corrupt agents, who have made fortunes by systematic aid wholesale frauds.
If the scattered tribes on the plains are to-day implacably hostile, there is a reason for it. It is not strange that the In- dian looks upon the white man as a deceiver and a heartless villain. Those with whom he has had most to do, have often been of this class. Previous to the systematic efforts of the present Administration to secure a just and humane policy, fraud has been the rule, and justice the exception, with the agents of the Government.
But it is consoling, in the midst of these dark facts, to know that there has always l)een a marked distinction between the nation and the Church in their treatment of the perishing savage tribes.
In the Presbyterian Church a deep interest has been created
142 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
by the efforts which were put forth for the Indians by the late Hon. Walter Lowrie, who, while Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, gave great attention to these neglected pagans of our own country. He made successive visits to their dis- tant settlements, and not only conceived a deep love for them on his own part, but enkindled an enthusiastic interest in their behalf in the hearts of many others.
Every bi'anch of the Church has done more or less, though far too little, to withstand the ruthless tread of mammon, to check the invasion of vice, to save the poor pagan from destruc- tion, and if possible to teach him useful arts and the knowledge of eternal life. The heroic labors of such men as Elliot, Brain- crd, Kirkland, WorC'^ster, Boudinot, Whitman, Spaulding, By- ington, Gleason, Wright, Riggs, Williamson, and a host of others, stand out in bold and bright relief; noble women also have endured every hardship in the blessed work of imparting light and comfort to the vanisliing tribes — following them step by stej), and sharing all their new trials and privations, as they were driven from one reservation to another at the beck of the conquering white man.
To construct and establish a Christian nationality under all the adverse circumstances which have been named, has of course been impossible. That part of the missionary problem, as it stands elsewhere, finds no place in the Indian missions. The nearest approach to national existence has been made by some of the tribes settled in the Indian Territory.
But the salvation of tnen as such, irrespective of national problems — the men who live to-day, w'hatever may become of their descendants a few years hence — this is the great inspiring motive in our missionary effort for the Indians. These forlorn remnants are immortal ; they are included in the covenant of grace; they belong to Christ. They have not only a general, but a special claim upon Christians in America, since they have yielded their goodly heritage to us. Their ruin has been our gain.
Moreover, they have been shown to be susceptible of religious
EVANGELIZATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 143
emotion and religions culture, even thougli not capable of civili- zation.
Most intelligent Christians are familiar with tlie interesting scenes connected with the work of David Brainerd among tlie Indians at Crosswceksung, N. J., in the early days of Missions. Seldom has the presence of God's approving Spirit been more manifest than among the "Savages," who were melted into ten- derness and tears as Brainerd, out of a heart of glowing zeal, told them the story of the Cross.
Such experiences entered into the stock of our religious his- tory in this country ; they benefited not the Indians only, but the whole Church ; they added new impulse and a stronger faith to all who labored for souls, whether of red men or of white; they illustrated the essential brotherhood of mankind, and proved anew that the grace of God is not a respecter of race, or color, or condition.
Much of the early 'effort put forth for the Indians produced rich spiritual fruit to the Anglo-Ameiican settlers. Elliott at Eoxbury, and the elder Edwards at Stockbridge, carried on their work among the Indians and in their own congregations conjointly; and Kirkland's devoted labors among the Oneidas lay at the very foundation of that early religious history, the blessed results of which are enjoyed throughout Central New York to this day. And there are many localities in the Middle and Western States where the foundations laid in Indian Mis- sions, though they were of transient service to the red men, proved of permanent value to the white settlers and their de- scendants.
On the 24th of May, 1872, was celebrated the centennial of the first introduction of Christianity into Ohio. The first Protestant Church had been formed at Schoenbrun a century be- fore, by the Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger, who was accompanied by three or four Christian Indians.
But while the present Christian occupants of the old heritage of the Delawai'es show their gratitude to those first apostles to their State, they are compelled to mourn over bloody wrongs
144 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
which were perpetrated by white men at that very phice. A month after the above-named celebration, the same audience as- sembled for the purpose of mising a monument to ninety-six Christian Indians who were murdered in March, 1782, by a band of one hundred and sixty whites.
These unoffending people seem to have been literally ground between the upper and the nether millstone of the British and the Colonial armies. They had been dragged away from their homes by native allies and agents of the British commander at Detroit, on a rumor that they had aided the Colonists. "When it had been shown that according to the principles re- ceived from the Moravians, they had remained in strict neu- trality, and they had returned to their piMaged homes, it was only to be betrayed and massacred by a band of American militiamen. Upon abundant assurances of safety and kind treatment, the Indians had delivered themselves up without re- sistance. When it had been determined to massacre them, one of the assailing party was sent to inform them that they were to die on the morrow. That night they spent in prayer.
We have been shocked by the history of the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, India, by Sepoys, and of the slaughter-house by the well, in which two hundred and six per- sons were cut to pieces.
But the parallel furnished at Gnadenhutten and Schoenbrun, in the death of the Christian martyrs of Ohio, is most striking.
The following brief passage from the sketch of the Moravian Missions, given by Rev. William Brown, M.D., tells the sad story :
"When the day of execution arrived, the murderers fixed on two houses, one for the men, the other for the twenty-seven women and thirty-four children ; to which they wantonly gave the names of slaughter-houses.
" The poor innocent creatures, men, women, and children, were bound with ropes, two together. They were then led into the slaughter-houses prepai-ed for them, where they Avere scalped and murdered in cold blood."
EVAITGELIZATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 145
According* to the testimony of the mui-dercrs thennselves, tlicy behaved vrith wonderful patience and met death with cheerful resignation. The assassins acknowledged that they were '' good Indiaas," and reported that they " sang and prayed till their latest breath."
It will perhaps never be possible for the American people to realize how much suflfering to the Indian tribes was consequent upon the trying position which they held between Great Britain and the Colonists; and even before the Revolution, in the strife between the British and the French. They had nothirg to gain and everything to lose. It was only a question which party in the conflict should possess their heritage. And yet the Indians were always the chief sufferers ; and our grati- tude and our sense of duty should be enhanced by the ftict that in both great conflicts they generally took sides, first, with the English against the French, and then with the Colonists against the English. Nor was their influence small. It is scarcely too much to say that the Six Nations, by their alliance with the English against the French, turned the scale of our country's destiny from a French Catholic, to an English Protestant civilization.
On this subject I quote at some length from an able address of ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, delivered at Clinton, New York, in June, 1873, at the dedication of a monument to the missionary. Rev. Samuel Kirkland. After alluding to the early struggle of the Colonies, he adds : " Our national independence was a certain result of time, however the first struggle might end. Back of that, there were events of higher interest and wider and more varied influences. Those which decided the character of our civilization ; those which determined what kind of people should govern this continent when it should be free from European control. For more than a century it was uncertain if French or English manners, cust')ms, and laws should dominate here. For more than a century the doubtful struggle was carried on under circumstances of the most ro- mantic interest. Besides the force of arms and the art of
146 THE GEE AT CONQUEST.
diplomacy, religious influences were actively engnged. The future of the continent was involved in the course of European events. The wars of Louis the Great and the victories of Marlborough, altliough they made great changes in the balance of power in Europe, were followed by far greater and more lasting results in America. This contest between the great powers was fc-lt in every part of our continent.
" On the one hand, the English settlements were the most populous ; but, on the other, the French held the interior of the country. If they could retain what they claimed by right of discovery, the English would be hemmed in along the sea- coast, where no powerful nationality could be founded. The Fi-ench demanded, by right of discovery, all the confluent rivers of the Mississij^pi and St. Lawrence valleys, which would give them the regions west of the Alleghanies and a large part of our own State.
"To oppose this claim, the Biitish took the ground that the vast territory in dispute was held by the Iroquois by right of conquest, and that their alliance with the British Government brought to it the region thus gained by their Indian allies by the force of their arms. The dwellers upon these hills and in these valleys aromid us were thus made the arbiters to decide what type of civilization, what form of government, should prevail on this continent. Both of the European parties felt the pow- er and rights of the Five Nations, and they saw, too, that these Indians held in these hills the stronghold of this field of contest. Both of these proud, kingly governments were suitors for the friendship of these savage tribes. Both put forth every effort of power and diplomacy for a long series of years to gain the alliance of the Eomans of the West. There is nothing in the colonial histories of other States to compare in interest v/ith the annals of this region as they are recorded in the Fi'ench, Dutch, and English documents. In no other section were there events of such importance or of such far-reaching consequence.
EVANGELIZATION OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 147
" The influence of the other colonies would have been of little value if the French had been the victors in this CDiitest; tlioy ■\voulcI not have had the broad arena of the United States, as they now extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on which their teachings or examples could work out these results. While the long and droadfal struggle went on, the most influ- ential allies of the French were their missionaries, who, ani- mated alike by religious and patriotic zeal, traversed the wild- est regions on the borders of the Mississippi and the great lakes, and encountered, unarmed, in their solitary wanderings, all the dangers of intercourse with hitherto nnkno\vu savage ti ibes. It was upon the Iroquois that they exerted their utmost influ- ences. One hundred and fifty years ago they were act^ive among these hills and in the valleys which we now overlook. Although in many instances they suffered the most cruel deaths at the hands of the Indians, they persevered in their efl:brts to bring tliem over to the faith of their Church and the support of their government. All of them were educated men, and some were of the noble families of France.
" When their labors were ended by the extinction of French power on this continent, the first to enter the field of their sulFerings and toils was the missionary Kirkland. In the same spirit of religious zeal, patriotic devotion, and heroic daring, he went out on his solitary pathway to the savage homes of the wilderness. More fortunate than those who went before him, his religious teachings took root and have never lierished. More fortunate than his predecessors in another respect, he was able to render efficient support to his country's cause, for he, like them, had to mingle patriotic duties with religious labor.
"He held the Oneidas from joining the armies of Britain in the Revolutionary war, and after the establishment of our in- dependence he did much to restrain the whole confederacy from taking part in the general onslaught of the Indians on the west- ern borders of our settlements. However much those mission- aries differed in nationality and creed, the story of their com-'
148 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
mon zeal, heroism, and devotion will ever make one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of religious suffering and labor."
The work of the Presbyterian Church among the Indians should find peculiar encouragement in the fact that in the few years past it has realized remarkable successes. The number of communicants in the Indian churches of the Presbyterian Board (not including the Missions transferred from the American Board) has increased from sixty-seven members to eleven hun- dred and eighty-nine, which is a gain of nearly eighteen-fold.
Remarkable as this growth has been, there is reason to be- lieve that it might have been greater still but for the political difficulties which have embarrassed the work, and the irritations which have sometimes arisen along the border.
In order to the highest success there is also need of a more general and more intelligent interest throughout the Church. There should be more of sympathy and more of prayer.
There are multitudes who are not even aware that the care of the Indians is intrusted to the Foreign Board ; many per- sons have the impression that they are wholly provided for by Homo Mission Boards. But the Presbyterian Church re- sards all Indian reservations — even those of Western New York — as foreign fields. "When, therefoi'e, the claims of thase wild . " heathen at home " are urged as an argument against Foreign Missions, as has been done by some writer in a New York secular paper, the effect is not to help them, but rather to dry up the only sources from which the waters of Life now flow fur their relief.
The heathen of Oregon or New Mexico are not to be set in jealous comparison with those^of Africa or of China, for all alike are supplied from the same treasury.
There is need, not only of a more general intelligence in re- gard to these people, but also, in many localities, at least, of more Christian magnanimity. Surely a great and strong peo- 'ple can afford to exercise patience with the few remnants of tribes whom they have dispossessed. Let there be a strong
DIVERSITY EST MISSIONARY ORGANIZATIONS. 149
hand of control that shall constrain them to keep the peace, but let liuman pity and the divine compassion of the Gospel bo shown them, even as a father gives good gifts to his children.
The time will come, and at no distant day, when the last In- dian outbreak will have occurred and even been forgotten; when the last rood of a lost heritage will be left to the undis- turbed possession of the white man; when the cupidity of agents will be no longer tempted; when whiskey, and corrupting vice, and manifold fraud, and cruelty will have done their work, and the aboriginal tiibes of the continent will have gone forever. Then, all irritation having ceased, the conscience of the nation, if any be lefl, will relent and react, and there will rise up be- fore lis a strange history, every trace of which will be carefully gleaned and cherished. The poetry and the simple, weird, and rather elevated faith of the Indian, as well as his sad and pas- sionate eloquence, will be pleasantly remembered. The long struggle against the fatal onset of an uncongenial civilization will cover itself with the mellower light of sad romance, and those pathetic woi'ds, "Lo the poor Indian," will no longer call forth the jeers of hard and unscrupulous men. Justice to the Indian — at least to his memory — will surely be done at last ; and then it will be an honor to the Christian Church if it shall be said of her, " She hath done what she could." She still has golden opportunities fur good. Let her earnest efforts be put forth for the scattered tribes ; let her sympathy never be doubted by the red man ; let her prayers ascend, that a great multitude may be won to that better inheritance from which, significantly enough to them, they shall never be removed.
XXYI.
DIVERSITY IN ]\nSSION"AEY ORGANIZATIONS.
Whether the divisions of the Protestant Christian Church be favorable or unfavorable to its progress in the world, the fact
150 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
of its separate organizations must be accepted, and its opera- tions for the spread of the Gospel must necessarily be conducted through its existing channels.
The idea of union in Mission work is a very plausible one; and withal so popular among those only partially informed, that it requires no little moral courage to advocate the advantages of separate organic action. The difficulty of uniting a score of missionary organizations in the support and joint control of a common work, does not at first occur to the mind.
To the eye of an outside observer who knows little of the practical working of missionary operations — the raising of funds for equipment and support, the administration of affairs with the best economy and in accordance with the" wisdom and experience gained on many fields, the judicious selection of means and methods, and the harmonizing of laborers repre- senting diverse views either of doctrines or of policy — it seems a plausible theoiy that all misaionary boards and societies should simply contribute their funds to a common work, and not attempt anything like administration or control.
In that event, the management of affiiirs must be left either to the native churches or to the collective body of missionaries on the ground. If to the former, it would be very much like submitting the government of an infant school or an orphan asylum to the children themselves. So far as native Christians in any land grow in experience and the power of self-support, they should be taught to judge and act for themselves ; but to leave them to direct a work wholly sustained by others, simply supplying funds at their dictation, were preposterous. Nor can there be anything more baneful to their own best good than to teach them false notions of independence, while in fact they are dependent for all things.
Everything should tend to the ultimate establishment of strong and independent national churches in all lands. But whatever shall make mission work most effective in its present stages will best promote that end.
On the other hand, if the management of various missions
DIVERSITY IK MISSIONAKY ORGANIZATIONS. 151
were left to the united cmmcils of the missionaries of various boards, some difiicult probUuus would arise.
For example, would American Methodists and Scotch Pres- byterians be likely to agree in the adoption of a Confession of Faith; or would Baptists and Episcopalians harmonize on ques- tions of Church order?
There are peculiarities of the missionary enterprise which sometimes render it difficult to harmonize the operations even of a single mission. The work of several persons at a given station is a joint work.
It is as if three or four churches and a half dozen schools, with a printing-press and an orphanage in some American town, were all united under one administration, each preacher and teacher and printer having something to say about the work of another. We know of no communily in which we should be likely to find grace enough for entire harmony under these cir- cumstances. Yet such is the nature of Foreign mission work. Let us then muliiply these complications by throwing together the representatives of several missions with all their extended and complex entei'prises, all tlieir differences of nationality, creed, Church order, habits of thought, training, prejudice, and temperament ; and one can easily imagine the harmony of plan and effort which they would be likely to attain.
•Barnabas and Saul once agreed to work separately, as most likely to insure harmony of spirit ; and Abraham long before, advised the separation of Lot's herds from his own, in order that there might be peace.
And precisely this same principle has been illustrated again and again in the last fifty years of missionary effort. It is a significant fact, that as Christian denominations have come to work more and more through their own organizations, they have become more and more harmonious ; and on the mis- sion fields as well as at home, they have attained a far greater degree of real union.
In place of the conti-oversial spirit which prevailed between denominations twenty-five years ago, the Evangelical AUiance
152 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
presents to the world the true union of the Church — union with freedom, union in diversity. The Allahabad Conference, held in India by the representatives of twenty different Mission Boards, has illustrated the same principle in the presence of the heathen. And a similar Conference is now to be held by the missionaries of all names in China.
We venture to say that such a union — one which allows lib- erty to all, while they gladly unite on the great essentials — presents a far more impressive spectacle to the heathen, and a far better evidence of the oneness of the Gospel, than any mere constrained uniformity of organization could do, even were it possible.
We go still further, and claim that the diversity of sects, and of well-conducted and compact organizations, instead of being a hindrance to, is* conducive of, the highest success of Missions. As a well-organized army, with divisions and corps and regi- ments, is better than a heterogeneous mob in the day of battle, so will the various Christian denominations, by a proper division of labor, and an assumption of definite responsibilities, accom- plish far more for the heathen, than if laboring together in one unwieldy mass, and under one impracticable organization.
The most plausible objection which has been made against denominational Mission work is that the distinction of sects is a stone of stumbling to the natives and an offence to foretgn residents.
The plea has generally been urged most strenuously by ex- treme Ritualists who ignore all churches but their own, or by those who had committed themselves to a particular scheme of union.
It so happens, however, that the testimony of those who have had the most extensive opportunities lor observation, neutral- izes the cbjection. Heathen systems also embrace diversities.
By the common verdict of several leading newspapers of India, the spectacle of the Missionary Conference in Decem- ber, 1872, went far to enhance the respect of all men for the real unity of the Christian Church. A salutary impression
THE CKITICISMS OF TRAVELE14S. 153
was made upon the people and upon the Indian .Govern- ment, A British " Review," hi speaking of an official re- port of the Government, to which we refer elsewliere, says of this harmony : " The divisions and differences pf opinion prevailing amongst Christians in India, do not appear to us to impede the spread of Christi:inity in so considerable a de- gree as has sometimes been supposed." And the Govern- ment reportitself says of the missionaries: " Though belonging to various denominations of Christians, yet from the nature of their work, their isolated position, and their long experience, they have been led to think rather of the nunierous questions on which they agree, than of those on which they differ ; and they co-operate heartily together. Localities are divided among them by friendly arrangements, and with few exceptions it is a fixed rule among them that they will not interfere with each other's converts and each other's spheres of duty."
XXYII.
THE CRITICISaiS OF TRAVELERS UPON THE MISSION WORK.
Even Christians are, no doubt, a little stumbled sometimes by the hostile representations which a certain class of travelers give of their " personal observations " of missionaries and their work. There is great apparent force in the plea, " We liave been there, and we know all about it." Those who have not "been there,'' can, of course, make no reply to a testimony which seems so direct and so authoritative.
But evidence on such subjects should be valued in some de- gree according to its source. It might be asked, " What kind of an opinion would these same witnesses give in regard to the character of Christians and Christian efforts in our own coun- try? " What is the attitude of then: minds in regard to the whole subject ?
154 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
It sTxould further be coasidered, that there is an intrinsic improbability in the supposition that some hundreds of mis- sionaries of different societies Vv-ould consphe to keep up so hollow an imposture as some of the above-named writers describe. There are scores of these men who could claim much higher and more lucrative positions in their own land. If the Mission work is useless, why sacrifice a lifetime in its pursuit? If the converts are all impostors, and the whole affair is a waste of time and strength, why endui'e unwholesome cUmates and a separation from friends, and even from their own young children, in order to keep up the farce ?
There is, prima facie, another improbability in the case ; viz., that so many JNIission Boards and Societies composed of wise and able men who study with much care the whole oper- ation of missionary enterprise, would lend their sanction to the flagrant abuses which are allege 1 to exist.
These societies are familiar with every item of expenditure; and they know Avell what should be a proper allowance for each department of work, and what results should be ex- pected.
The EngUsh societies havestill^better opportunities for gain- ing information from the mission fields, especially from India, than those of this country ; but in both countries, represen- tatives of all the leading organizations have been sent out to observe the JNIission work carefully. Where the ordinary traveler has made a transient call upon a missionary of an hom-'s duratifjn, or, as in many cases, has not even seen either the laborers or their work, these members of the societies con- cerned have spent days and weeks, and sometimes months, in looking into every department of work, and have been wit- nesses of the inner life of the mission famihes.
To impeach the Mission work on the field, therefore, is to impeach the wisdom, if not the integrity, of the Societies and Boards themselves.
There is x^robably no case in which the weight of evidence is so strikingly disr'egarded, as when the best experience, garnered
THE CRITICISMS OF TRAVELERS. 155
in tlie ^Mission cause for half a century, is set aside on tlio ignorant assertion of somebody wlio recently visited some station for a day or two, and heard the criticisms of the street. How little opportunity' have men of no sj^mpathy with the work to judge of its character!
A foreign traveler visiting New York would form but a very inadequate notion of its religions interests, unless he had some sympathy and affiliation with Christian people. A delegate of the Scotch General Assembly might, in a few weeks, gather up many facts, and reach some just conclusions fi'ora those with whom he would naturally assort. But a member of a London sporting fraternity, spending a month or a year at the New York club-houses, or a German infidel, living at the hotels, and only visiting the German Consulate, M'ouLJ be able to say ver}'^ little of the progress of the New Y'ork Baptists, or of the statistics of the New York Pres- bytery, Accepting the wholesale denunciation of those with whom he fraternized, he would probably declare in general terms that the rehgious lifo of the country was a sham, that the clergy were a set of knaves, and the Church member- ship a herd of hypocrites.
There is probably not a community in the United States, in whicli this style of verdict would not be given by the haters and opposers of the local Churches.
But in a city like Yokohama or Shanghai, the proportion of irreligious men is, for obvious reasons, far greater than in old settled communities at home. The population is made up of adventurers from all lands. There are no conventional restraints : there is no Sabbath: there are few Clmstian homes. There is always a lax state of morals. Christian institu- tions being yet in embryo, exhibit very little social power, and therefore do not inspire that respect which is akin to fear, and a politic regard for decency. Irrehgiou feels strong and assured, and bears only the most cordial hatred to- ward those whose teachings are a standing rebuke to free and licentious lives.
l^b THE GREAT COXQUEST.
It must be expected, therefore, that the representations made by a certain class of travelers in Japan or China will be totally different from the accounts given by American missionaries and teachers, and abundantly corroborated by such careful and discriminating observers as Dr. E. D. G. Prime and Prof. Seelye.
As the good work goes forward, these contradictions will continue — at least until the same change shaE have been wrought as in India, where, after a still worse opposition at the first, there is now a general acknowledgment of the blessed results of IMissions,
Meanwhile Christian people, finding in the current liter- ature the same contradictions with regard to Missions as with regard to all other religious questions, even to the fundamental truths of Chiistianity, must decide which ver- dict to accept.
There is, however, one class of travelers whose statements deserve a separate consideration. They are mostly young men — in some cases mere boys, who have made voyages fur health or for a Isnowledge of the world. Tliey arc sons of Christian men in some instances, and have no prejudice against Chris- tianity or Christian Missions. But they are inexperienced and impressible, and they simply reflect the opinions and repeat the stock criticisms of residents Avhom they have chanced to meet. Since my return from China and India, in 1875, I have heard from such sources some of the very same rumors which I had sifted thoroughly wliile on the ground.
On all the Pacific Mail steamers adverse opinions on mis- sionary topics are furnished to travelers by officers and men ; and almost uniformly they arj ill-.^ounded. A few years ago, an American Consul in Japan having tried in vain to get posses- sion of some city lots belonging to a Mission Board, took j^ains to post up in the passage-ways of some of the steamers a placard which so grossly misrepresented the Mission Work that the
American Minister, Mr. , exposed the outrage. Many
persons who follow the sea, or who go out as adventurers to foreign ports, have so little comprehension of the
THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS COMMONLY MADE. 157
high motives which inspire the missionary, that they assume that pecuniary gain must lie at the hot* cm. Like the Duke of Somerset, whose speech in Parlia- ment is quoted by Dr. Duff, they assume that in the nature of the case a missionary must be "either a fool or a knave, and probably the latter." " Tell me honestly," said the captain of the steamer '/Alaska " to me one day on our voyage across the Pacific, " do not the missionaries in China all carry on some outside speculation in connecticm with their work?" And when I informed him that the rules of the Presbyterian Board forbade all emoluments, and that if in any exceptional case a missionary rendered temporary service as an interpreter, he was expected to account for the amount received to the mis- sion treasurer ; that to my personal knowledge the mission- aries were receiving only $900 to $1,000 — a third or a fourth of the salaries of clerks and interpreters — and that many of them had declined lucrative positions for the sake of their work ; he S'^emed amazed, not to say incredulous.
Perhaps in no country is there so much niisiepresentation of missionaries as in Japan. And yet there stands the monu- mental fact that men of the first order of talent labor on in the work of different Mission Boards at a salary of $1,000, while mere youth who have barely attained their majority receive from $3,000' to $3,500 as teachers in the Government schools. What if it were found that the ministry in our American churches were all proof against calls to college professorships at three or four times their present salaries 1 Would that not be hailed as a grand attestation of Christian character ?
XXYIII.
THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIOiNS COxMMONLY MADE.
(1.) " The Heathen are too degraded to be christianized,^'' say some : " They are quite as good Christians as we are" say others, " and need none of our j^roselyling.^'
158 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
The Oliinesc, it is claimed, are too materialistic and time- serving, the Hindus are too dreamy and Pantheistic, and some of the lower tribes of the American forests and the South African wustfs are too low in the scale of intellect, and too absolutely wild and bestial, ever to receive the gospel in spirit and in truth. It is maintained that the genius of Christianity is not suited to th; se races; but is fit only for the Caucasian. " Leave the African to his feUch," it is said, " and the Chinese to his ancestral tablets, and waste no mistaken missionary zeal upon them." On the other hand, it is claimed by another class that the heathen, or many of them, are so high in the scale ot intellect, and so pure in morals, that they need no help or sympathy from us ; that they were civilized while we were yet savages; and that their ancient books were the original sources of ours.
Thus, as the one argument runs, the Mission work is hopeless ; while objecters of an opposite class reach the easy- conclusion that Missions are superfluous and useless.
Now evidently both these lines of objection cannot be well founded. They are at war with each other. They are both general and sweeping, while evidently based on partial obser- vation. What is true of one race may not be true of another; but neither of these objections is true of any race. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the gosi^el is adapt- ed to all latitudes and climates, to all ranks and stations in life, to all grades of intellect, to all habits of thought or belief.
Even if there were races who Avere without conscience and moral susceptibility, it would still be worth the experiment to undertake Mission work among the children, in the hope that (hey could be educated up to the requisite standard ; but the truth is, that the torpid Esquimaux and the cannibals of the South Seas have alike evinced a truly apostolic piety; while such names as Africaner and Sechele of South Africa have gained high places in the annals of noble Christian char- acter.
THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS COMMONLY MADE. 159
As to the assertion thut heathen or Moslem races are above the need of Christian teaching or Cliristiau ethics, no one who has had personal observation would ever make it. Except wliere it is lield in check by Christian civilization, the degra- dation of Oriental countries is essentially what it was when Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans. The horrible vice of sodomy is prevalent in all Mohammedan countries. And in visiting the Hindu temples at lienares, and observing the hideous monkey worship, the filth of the bull temples and the sacred well (whose cesspool waters are eagerly druni< by the people), and the nameless mystery of the lingam, one can find no epithet short of downright vileness that will reprc'sent the case.
(2.) " Our oion race is more important to the progress of the Redeemer's Kingdom than other races, and therefore our efforts shoidd he mainly given to the Anglo-Saxon.
It is maintained that what Isiael was to the old world, this " Newly-Chosen People " is and is to be, in the economy of this age of progress. Without raising the question whether any such special regard is had for the American Republic in the plans of God, or whether the tendencies which now strangely combine their promise and their threatenings are clear tokens of a chosen people, it might be well to consider that the par- allel with the Jewish nation has something of j^ortent as well as of assurance. A narrow policy, dedroyed the Jews; a selfish conceit which led to irreverence toward God and contempt for their fellow-men led at last to their abandonment. Their heritage was given to the Gentiles ; and the very land which gave the world its Saviour and its Word of Life is now a needy Foreign Mission field.
Let it not be forgotten that this most f ivored people may, through a naiTOw and selfish policy be given iip to worldli- ness and scepticism, and even to anarchy and rnin.
This great naticn has appropi'iated the resources, and prof- ited by the wisdom, gained from all lands. It is debtor to
160 THE GREAT CONQrEST.
the world; and only on the highest and holiest principles can its destiny he fulfilled.
(3.) " Ou7' Foreign missionaries emjyloy numerous servaiits and live in luxury."
If it is the best economy to employ natives at a few pence a week to perform menial services, and allow mis- sionaries, male and female, to engage in those duties which have led them to the ends of the earth, shall it not be done"? In lands where there are no schools or Christian influences, a missionary's wife will make the best use of her time by teach- ing women and children. Nothing is more absurd than to in- stitute comparisons in this respect between the families of Home and Foreign missionaries. Here schools are abundant and servants' wages are high. In heathen lands servants are abundant*and cheap, while schools do not exist. The best economy in the one case would be the poorest in the other.
As to the general style of living, only a mere subsistence salary is allowed, and in very many cases it is found to be insufficient for health and efficiency.
There are, however, those on the Foreign field, as among the ministry at home, who have means of their own, and who are accustomed to supplement their salaries for the sake of greater comfort to their families. I have now in mind no less than twelve missionaries of the Presbyterian Board, who each year expend from $200 to $1,000 of their own resources. These all happen to be situated at prominent points, where travelers most resort. They may be found at Yokohama and Tokio, at Chefoo and Canton, at Allahabad and Dehra, and Lahore, in Valparaiso, and the City of Mexico ; while in Bei- rut, most conspicuous of all, it so happens that not one of our missionaries is hving on his mission salary. And yet, upon a few such cases, a superficial adverse judgment is based. No mention is ever made of the salaries paid or the style of li^dng in the Dakotah mission, or at the Gaboon, or in the interior of Persia. No invidious comparisons are drawn between the
THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS COlVmONLY MADE. 161
self-derdfils endured by ministers on our frontier and those ex- perience! beyond the frontier, in the Indian Territory and among the Nez Perces. But one or two instances from the most expensive missions are seized upon for a sweeping cavil.
If comparisons are to be made at all, which is more than questionable, they should place city against city, and country against country. Foreign missionary salaries in Yokohama, or Mexico, or Valijaraiso, should be compared with missionary salaries in Clncago, or Pittsburgh, or St. Louis ; while the rural districts of Kansas or Nebraska should be compared with those of Dakofcah or the Cherokee Nation. I have spent many months among the families of missionaries on their rcsi^ective fields, and I do not hesitate to say that, as a rule, their sala- ries are as low as even a cold commercial prudence — bloodless and heartless — would consider the best economy. On the same principle that slaves and even beasts of burden are preserved for the longest service, the Church should not begrudge the best health of her missionaries.
(4.) Tlie houses of Missionm'ies are '* very comfortable.'^
This objection is generally put in such a way as to imply that missionaries' homes should not be comfortable. It be- trays a sort of sui-prise, growing out of the old notion, which is still quite common, that missionary life ought to be a sort of self-immolation. In the early days of the enterprise, the missionary was, to the common apprehension, about as much of a devotee, as the hook-swingers and fakirs whom he went forth to save. At that time uuacclimated men and delicate women lived in native houses which had been built with no reference to the dangers to health from dampness and exposure or the poison of malaria. The sacrifice of life in the mission circles was frightful, especially in Africa and parts of India.
But wisdom and a true economy have been learned from sad experience. It is now the policy of nearly all Boards to provide houses of their own, built for health.
162 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
"They look substantial," says the caviller. And it is true; for they are erected not for a particular occupant, but for the permanent service of the Church. In contrast with the homes and the churches of our own country, they are gener- ally models of plainness and economy.
But while the above is a specimen of the more common cavils of those who do not take pains to know, there are often
very different testimonies given. " I know Dr. very
well," said an intelligent European resident to me, of a cer- tain Medical Missionary. " He might easily have made a fortune of $100,000 in this city; and yet he persists in living in that wretched place on |1,000 a year."
Mr. Charles C. Cotton, in "Oiu- New Way Around the World," while alluding to a visit which he made to Bishop Williams, of the American Episcopal Mission in China, gives a graphic description of the humble and cheerless quarters in which he found him, and the extreme plainness of his style of living. And he suggests, that if those who imagine that the habits of missionaries are luxurious, could see what he saw, they would reach very diiferent conclusions.
It may be added that this line of objection, like the preceding, is based mainly upon a few conspicuous and exceptional cases. The best missionary houses in Japan are occupied by mission- aries of the Reformed Church, who, during the American Re- belHon, were cut off from their home support and compelled to maintain themselves by teaching in the Government schools. With their larger salaries they built or purchased their own houses. That they subsequently renewed their connection with their Board, and resumed their mission work on a mere fraction of the compensation which they had received, is over- looked by the critics ; while it is assumed and published that their houses were " built with the mites of widows and or- phans," In some instances, as in the Presbyterian Mission at Chefoo, missionaries in building houses for the Board, have added private funds iu order to secure a gi-eater degree of comfort.
THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS COIUMONLY MADE. 1G3
The best mission house in Canton — that connected with the hospital and occupied by a Presbyterian missionaiy, who has largely entertained travelers — was built wholly by members and friends of the Chinese Medic.d Society, and involved no expense to the Board. The house which tourists generally see at Allahabad, India, was originally built for Government pur- j)oses, and afterwards sold to the mission at a mere nominal price in order to select a more healthful site. IMany of the stnictures of the Presbyterian Board in Northern India were built wholly or in part by subscriptions of British residents, who, even from the standpoint of charity, thought them not extravi- gaut.
It should not be necessaiy to make these explanations ; but there is a spirit abroad, even in the Chui'ch, which demands it.
(5.) "// is wrong to send so much money out of the country ivhen it might be profilaUy employed among ourselces.''' The. low grade of arguments for Missions, which are based on their commer- cial value to our own land, would be unworthy of so great a cause were it not that sordid objections like the above are actu- ally made by professedly Christian men. It is a little humili- ating to be compelled to consider the question as expressed in the hard parlance of the times : " Do Missions pay ?" But we cheerfully answer it, in order to meet an existing demand.
It has been shown repeatedly that our country has derived advantages to her commerce many fold greater than all her out- lay for Missions. The safety of her shipping in the South seas, the handsome footings of her trade with the Sandwich Islands, with Turkey and South Africa, the favorable intervention of missionaries in Indian affairs by which tens of thousands of dol- lars have been saved which would have been expended in wars like that which was waged against the Modocs, the influence which has been exerted by missionaries in our diplomatic affairs, as by Dr. King in Greece, and Hon. S, Wells Williams in China — all these things, taken in their aggregate, would far exceed the sum total of our missionary contributions for the last half century.
164 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
It is now generally conceded that Dr. Whitman, missionary of the American Board, was the means of preventing our Govern- ment from exchanging Oregon and Washington Territories for a few coast fisheries, and thus of saving really the whole Pacific slope to the American Republic. It has also been shown in a previous chapter that Rev. Samuel Kirkland, missionary among the Oneidas, acted for nearly a year for our Govern- ment as its agent in securing the friendship of the powerful Six Nations ; and that it was largely due to his influence that they were prevented from throwing their whole influ- ence against the cause of the Colonies.
We might proceed to enumera':e the advantages which our civilization has gained from Missions in the various depart- ments of science, but it would be unnecessary.
Such lives as those of Whitman and Moffat and Livingstone are too plainly written upon the whole progress of our time to need comment.
(6.) " TJiere is a romance about the work of Foreign Missions which renders it specially attractive.''
It may be said, in the first place, that this assertion is not really believed, and that none are so little attracted to the work as those who make it. There may be a romantic interest about the cause ; but, in fact, it does not seriously tempt the easy-going piety of our time. If those who utter such things would raise the personal question of sending a daughter to Africa or Cliina, or of giving up a son of ambitious hopes for a life work in Persia or India, they would at once detect their own insincerity. There is certainly no clamoring among the Christian ministry for foreign fields. Let a list of clerksliips or vacant consulships be advertised for Shanghai or Calcutta, and there will be applicants enough. Let rumors arise of extensive gold mines or diamond fields — anywhere — on the Zambezi, or at the top of Chimborazo, or hard by the North Pole, and there will soon be an eager throng hastening thither. But as to mission work, the attraction is nearer home. A chui'ch within twenty miles of New York
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS. 165
reported, some time since, over fifty applications for a vacant pastorate ; and a village church in Central New York, during a protracted vacancy, was beset by eighty applicants.
The students in our Theological Seminaries understand this question of attractive fields very well. With visions of " flat- tering calls," anti "appreciative congi-egations," and "nice IDlaces," and "good places to commence in," strongly tempting them, they take up the question of the foreign field, if at all, as a matter of conscience and duty. They know very well that the foreign work means the consecration of their powers for life; whereas an American pastorate, whether in New Jersey or in Kansas, does not debar them from the very hit^hest posi- tions in the gift of the Chnrch. In the Foreign field, the habit of thinking and speaking in another tongue qualifies for work there, and there only; while on our own shores there is no place so obscure that high talent and industry will not be sought out by the demands of the leading churches.
It may be doubted whether the majority of men, on en- tering the minisbry, even admit the question of going to the Foreign field. As yet the great work of missions stands upon the grounds of duty.
XXIX.
THE FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS AND OTHERS TO THE VALUE OF MISSIONS.
So MUCH of criticism has been published by travelers who were without sympathy with the cause of Missions, that it sf^ems desirable to present the counter-testimony of those who, from a deeper interest in the subject, have given it greater attention, and have reached very different conclusions. The persons referred to represent all classes and nil vocations. They arc naval officers, merchants, government officials, editors, and clergymen. Some of them Ijuve had the ohjectiuns of the
166 THE GKEAT CONQUEST.
critics in view, and have not only refuted, but have pointed out the motives which too often inspire them.
Admiral Wilkes, after his visit to Tahiti, says: "I cannot pass, without notice, the untiring efforts of many of the foreign residents to disparnge the missionaries and vilify the natives. There are about a hundred characters of this description on the Island. On being asked for the grounds of their objection, most of them fxil in presenting any other charges than that the missionaries are endeavoring to make the natives too good; that they deprive them of the innocent pleasure of intoxicating di-inks ; that they prevent promiscuous intercourse and have ruined the trade of the Islands by preventing women from going on hoard of the ships. Others argue that the people are only rendered more miserable by being taught their responsibility as accountable beings."
He adds : "As a proof of the value of missionary labors, my experience warrants me in saying that the natives of Tahiti, once given to perpetual iiitesthie broils and the worship of idols propitiated by human sacrifices, are now honest, well-behaved, and obliging ; that no drunkenness or rioting is seen, except when provoked by white visitors, and that they are obedient to the laws and to their rulers."
Admiral Fitzroy, who visited Tahiti in 1835, says : "Never in my life have I seen a happier or more cheerful people than in the Islands of Otaheite. To almost every island of the South Seas, ships may now come and their crews land without fear of being massacred. Yet I am sorry to say, that many seamen who have visited these islands have been guilty of base ingrati- tude in depreciating the labors of those very missionaries to whom they pr >bably owed their lives."
Hon. Richard H. Dana, who visited the Sandwich Islands in 1860, says : " Whereas the missionaries found these Islanders a nation of half naked savages, living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish, fighting aaiong themselves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality ; they now see them
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS. 167
decently clothed, recognizing the laws of marriage, going to school and church with more regularity than our people do at home, and the more elevated portion of them taking part in the constitutional monarchy under which they live." And then Mi*. Dana adds : ." Tlie mere seekers of pleasure, power, or gain, do not like the missionary influence."
" Those who sympathize with that officer of the American Nuvxj who compelled the authorities to alloio tvomen lo gn off to his ship by opening his p)orts and threatening to bombard the town, are naturally hostile to Missions."
One of the best endorsements ever given to the work of Mis- sions is found in the fact, that in 1857, when the American Board was embarrassed by a financial crisis at home, several leading men of England who had closely observed the work carried on in Turkey and Syiia, formed what is known as the "Turkish Mission Aid Society," with a view to assisting the effirls already begun.
Tliis action did great honor to the American missionaries, and also evinced the magnnnimity of those who formed the Snciety. The high esteem in which these men held this cause is indicated by the following :
At an anniversary of the Society in 1860, the Eai'l of Shaftes- bury said : " I do not believe that in the whole liistory of Mis- sions, I do not believe that in the history of diplomacy, or in the history of any negotiation carried on between man and man, we can find anything to equal the wisdom, the soundness, and the pure Evangelical truth of the men who constitute the American Mission. I have said it twenty times before, and I will say it again — for the expression appropriately conveys my meaning — that they are a marvelous combination of common- sense and piety."
And to the same point is the following note written by Lord Stratford de Redclitfe, who was formerly British Minis ter at Constantinople. The note was written in acknowledgment of a copy of the Life of the late Dr. Goodell, which had been sent to Lord Ecddifle by the author, llcv. E. D. G. Prime, D.D.:
168 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
"Front Sussex, Oct. 24, 1875. ^''Reverend Sir :
" I hasten to inform you that I have received the copy you sent me, of the hite Dr. Goodell's Memoirs, preceded by your obliging letter. I am deeply sensible of the kindness which suggested both the one and the other. You could not have gratified me more than by putting me in possession of the Memoirs. I entertained a sincere esteem and affectionate regard for Dr. Goodell. His single-minded goodness was an undis- puted title to Christian love. He was the first among his equals ; by which I mean that he was the highest type of the American missionaries of my time in the East. As far as my occasions of observation went, they were all endowed with zeal, good sense, and loving-kindness. Our reverend and lamented friend displayed these qualities in the highest degree and added a charm of character and manner peculiarly his own.
" I beg you vnW believe me very sincerely and gratefully yours, Stkatfoed de Redcliffe."
Many official testimonies might be gathered from nearly all the Mission fields, but the fi)llowing must suffice :
The Government Report on the Tinnevelly District, India, for 1874, says :
" The Protestant missions . . . have made rapid strides in re- cent years in the conversion of the inhabitants to Christianity . . . There can be no doubt that Christian knowledge and doc- trine are meeting with increased acceptance among the people of the Tinnevelly District, while an immense amount of good work has been done by the earnest and zealous agents of these missionary societies in the education of the people. Already the native Christian community of the District is contributing largely to the support of its own pastors and teachers."
The First Prince of Travancore, in a popular address deliv- ered in 1874, thus gave his impressions of Christianity : " Mar- velous has been the effect of Christianity in the moral molding and leavening of Europe. I am not a Christian ; I do not ac-
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TKAVELER8. 169
cept the cardinal tenets of Cliristianity as they concern man in the next world ; but I accept Christian ethics in their entirety. I have the l;ighest admiration for them."
An English officer in the civil service of India showed his opinion practically, by procuring a native catechist (see Cliurch Missionary Reports of 1874-5) to labor in his district, and he defi'ayed the entire expense of his salary and his house.
The Governor of Ceylon said in a recent speech before his Council : "I know of no country where missionary enterprise is doing better work than here, or where there is less of the odium Theologicum."
While visiting India in 1874-5, I drew up a long list of prominent officers of the civil and military service, several of them of the very highest rank, who are now liberally support- ing the various missionary enterprises; and it is worthy of note, that some of the most generous subscriptions for this work have been made by wealthy Hindus, Parsees, and Mohamme- dans. And yet, who can form a better estimate of the cause than the leading men of the country, natives and foreign resi- dents, who for years have observed its practical woi-kings ?
As to China, a very prominent official resident declared last year, that in his opinion, the missionaries were doing more to regenerate the Empire than all the diplomatic representatives of Foreign Powers.
Similar commendations from official residents in Mexico have frequently been accorded to missionaries and their work in that new, but most promising field.
Of the Sandwich Islands, we have like testimony from actual I'esidents. In 1853, Chief-Justice Lee recorded the following: " In no part of the world are hfc and property more safe than in the Sanwich Islands. Murders, robberies, and the higher class of felonies are quite unknown here ; and in city and country we retire to our sleep conscious of the most entire security. The stranger may travel from one end of the group to the other, over' mountains and through woods, sleep- ing in grass huts, unarmed, alone, and unprotected, with any
170 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
amount of treasure on his person, and without a tithe of the vigilance required in older and more civilized countries, go unrobbed of a penny."
The Hon. C. C. Harris, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a speech at the National Jubilee of tlie Islands, held at Honolulu, June, 1870, says : "In 1825, the Hawaiians were ignorant and debased In 1870, we see them advanced to a high de- gree of Christian knowled^, general education, civilization, and material prosperity. The result is due for the most part, under God, to the labors of the American missionaries."
The effect of a pure gospel in Eastern Turkey is thus described by Hagop Effendi, civil head of the Protestant com- munity, who made, three years since, at the Sultan's expense, an extensive tour of observation : " Those who have become Protestant in principle far exceed in number the registered Protestants, and those who are willing to avow themselves such. The indirect influence of Pi-otestautism has been greater and healthier than what is apparent. The fact that eighty-live per cent, of the adults in the [Protestant] commurtity can read, speaks greatly in favor of its members. Any one- acquainted with the social condition and religious ideas of the Oriental people, can readily imagine the state of society which must necessarily follow such a change. I was gratified to find everywhere a great improvement in domestic relations as compared with the condition of families before they became Protestants. I need not weary our friends with details tO' show the effect of the healthy influence of the various Protes- tant institutions^ — such as Sabbath-schools, social prayer-meet- ings, women's meetings, and the little philanthropic associations coming into existence v/ith the advance of Protestantism."
In a letter to Secretary Clark of the American Board, he makes the following statements : " The most zealous advocate of American ciailisation could not have done half as much for his country abroad as the missionary has done. The religious and social organizations, the various institutions introduced, are do- ing a great deal in introducing American civilization. From
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS. 171
the Wild mountains of Gaour Dagli, in Cilicia, you may go across to the no less wild mountains of Bhotan, on the borders of Persia ; or you may take Antioch, if you please, and go on any line to the black shores of the Euxine ; you will certainly agree with me in declaring that the American missionary has served his country no less than his Master. Even in wild Kurdistan you will find some one who can reason with you quite in Yankee style, can make you a speech which you cannot but own to be substantially Yankee, with Yankee idioms and American examples to support his arguments; and if you want to satisfy your curiosity still more, you may pay your visit to the schools established by the missionaries in the wild moun- tains of the Turkomans, in Kurdistan, the plains of Mesopota- mia, Cappadocia, or Bithynia. Question the school-boy as you would at home ; you will find his answers quite familiar to you. You may question him on geography, and you will certainly find, to your surprise, that he knows more of the United States than perhaps of his own native country. Question him about social order, he wull tell you that all men are created equal. Indeed, ivhat Dr. Hamlin is silently doing loith his Robert Col- lege, and the American missionary tvith his Theological Seminary and school-books, all European diplomatists united cannot over- balance."
But as certain travelers from our own country have perhaps e.xerted the greatest influence by their criticisms of missiona- ries and their work, the opinions of a different class who have made the same journeys may here be added.
Kev. E. D. G. Prime, D.D., one of the editors of the JVeio York Observer, has given a complete vindication of the Mission work, as he saw it in a journey around the world in 1870-71. We quote the following : " After having embraced every op- portunity for becoming acquainted with the Christian laborers from every land and with their work, I returned with a higher estimate than I ever had before of the ability, learning, and de- votion of the missionaries as a class and as a whole ; with an enlarged view of what has already been accomplished, and with
172 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
a profounder conviction that through this instrumentality, or that which shall iraraediately grow out of it, the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour is to be established in the vs'hole earth more speedily than the weak faith of the Church has dared even to hope. It is not at all invidious to say that most casual travelers have visited foreign lands with little interest in the Christian work that is going on, and, of courBe, they saw little of it. They received their impressions very generally from per- sons who are not in sympathy Avith it This is the
true explanation of some of the most envenomed attacks that have been made upon the missionaries of the Cross, and of much of the misrepresentation of the work in which they are engaged. " Within about a year it was my privilege to take by the hand nearly every Protestant missionary in Japan, a large num- ber of those in China, India, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and some of the islands of the sea ; I enjoyed the greatest freedom of in- tercourse with them in their distant homes, and saw them in all the departments of their labor ; and I can truly say that I have never mingled with any class of men who have more entirely M'on my respect and esteem for their own and their works' sake. The Chui'ch of Christ has not anywhere a class of labor- ers who are more zealously, faithfully, or successfully carrying on its work. They are living frugally, often very scantily, on salaries that bear no proportion to the pay of foreigners en- gaged in the most ordinary occupations of worldly business around them ; many I know could at any moment quadruple their salaries by accepting standing- offers of employment in other service ; but they are toiling on, not patiently, but joyful- ly, feeling that they are engaged in a great work from which they cannot come down, and looking for their reward in the fruit of their labor. Among all the Christian missionaries with whom it was my lot to meet, I cannot recall a single instance in which one of them, man or woman, expressed the least dis- satisfaction with their work, or discouragement in I'egard to its final success, or the slightest desire to give it up and enter any service in any other part of the world.
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS. 173
"I met casually with an illustration of the fact that ignorance is the cause of much of the prejudice against Missions and mis- sionaries that prevails even with persons who might be sup- posed to be in a position to know something of their real char- acter. An American merchant of Bombay stated to me that on going to India and being in constant intercourse with commer- cial and sea-faring men from various parts of the world, he al- most unconsciously imbibed the views which they expressed so freely, and after a time he came to look upon the missionaries as men who were leading an easy life and bringing very little to pass. The interruption of the ordinary financial arrangements between America and the East by our late civil war, made it necessary for him to visit the interior of Hindoostan, and to spend some time in the immediate vicinity of the American missionaries, where he saw them in their domesiic and social life, and in their daily employments. The result was that his views were entirely changed. I have never heard more flatter- ing testimony than he bore to their character and to their self- denying toil. The most honored civilians in India, and the most renowned military men, have given the same unqualified testimony to the high character and eminent worth of our mis- sionaries and to the value of their labors. Only the enemies of the Cross have attempted to depreciate either the one or the other.
"The success of Christian Missions nothing but ignorance or prejudice could call in question. What has actually been ac- complished can be flilly appreciated only by those who have been upon the ground and who have witnessed the condition of Pagan nations. The vast preliminary work — the acquisition of the languages of the world, many of them found unwritten ; their redaction to systematic form ; the preparation of gram- mars, and dictionaries, and educational books ; the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the various tongues ; the prepara- tion of a scientific and Christian literature — all this and much more has been accomplished for nearly the entire world. There is now scarcely any considerable portion of the earth ia
174 THE GEE AT CONQUEST.
which the foundation has not been laid for the complete success
of the gospel Not even in the early centuries of the
Church were the triumphs of Christianity more wonderful than they have been jn connection with modern Missions."
The following is from the pen of Mr. Joseph Mackay, a prom- inent merchant of Montreal, with whom I had the pleasure of traveling in various Eastern countries, and to whose kindness I am much indebted. Accompanied in his travels by his ac- complished niece, he saw much of social life, both among Eng- lish and American residents. He also met many business men — those who were hostile as well as those who were friendly to missionaries. Few travelers have so good an opportunity to look on all sides of the missionary problem :
"From recent personal observations in Japan, China, and India, I feel that not one-half is generally known of the great work done by those who, resigning almost all that makes life precious, have devoted themselves to the service of God in heathen lands. Though my journey was undertaken for health and pleasure, I embraced every opportunity to visit the mission- aries, and learn of their work.
" In Japan I was much gratified, not only by the numbers in attendance at the native churches and schools, and their eager- ness to learn, but above all, by the desire of many of the male converts to become themselves missionaries. Such men as Dr. Hepburn and his missionary co-workers who, by their ability and uniform Godly example, have inspired universal respect, are the best civilizers of the country. The secular school sys- tem I believe is good ; and if we add to this the Christian teach- ing of missionary laborers, we may, with the divine blessing, expect that in our own day the Islands of Japan will be Christianized.
" At Shanghai I found valuable schools, native churches, and the largest printing press in the Empire. This is employed chiefly in the publishing of religious books ; though school books and other useful matter are printed there.
" I was fortunate in being at NiHgpo on the evening on
FAVORABLE TESTIMONY OF TRAVELERS. ITS
which the missionaries held their monthly conference for coun- sel, mutual support, and prayer,
" I was cordially invited to be present, and found it truly- good to be there. It was very cheering to see the harmony- prevailing among the Christian workers, though of different de- nominations— Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Presby- terians: all doctrinal differences were forgotten in the one anxiety to save the poor ignorant heathen.
"An able paper was read on the question, ' Whether the gospel had been so widely proclaimed in the Ningpo district as to warrant special prayer for a general revival.' The discussion following was most interesting. I gathered from it, that the truth had been heard by many, many thousands in that great and densely-populated valley of the Ningpo River, and that only the outpouring of God's Spirit was needed to secure a Pentecostal blessing.
" I observed the great plainness and economy in which the mis- sionaries lived, instead of the luxury and ease of which they are sometimes accused.
" In JajDan I had heard it said, ' Oh, missionaries are the only thriving people here.' Having heard such criticisms, I am the more ready to testify from repeated personal observations to the frugality, yea, even bareness of missionaries' homes. The laborer is snrely worthy of his hire ! It should be sufficient to be separated from kith and kin, from home with its associations, and all that is dear, to live among a people wholly antagonistic to one's better feelings, without having to lack almost the neces- saries of life.
" At Canton I met the missionaries of various Societies, both in their homes and in one of their social meetings. Their field, the vast city with over a million inhabitants, and the neighbor- ing villages for thirty miles round, is so densely populated, as scarcely to allow one missionary to every hundred thousand. A large congregation of natives assembled on Sunday morning under the pastorate of Dr. Happer, who also conducts a class of young men with a view to the ministry. There is also a pros-
176 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
perous school for young Avomcn; but the peculiar feature in Canton work is the Hospital,, under the able management of Dr. J. G. Kerr, who is assisted by native medical students. Whilst alleviating the physical sufferings of the Chinese, he speaks of Christ, ' the Great Physician.' I wish there were more medical missionaries in the field, as they have such peculiar facilities of reaching the people.
"In India I visited the Christian colleges in Madras and Cal- cutta, in both of which I was greatly interested, I foimd Rev. Mr. Kellogg, of the American Presbyterian Mission, lecturing in the Mission Church to a class of fifteen Theological students, all native converts. This seemed to me to be one of the great hopes of India, the raising up of a native ministry. Female Medical Missions also, and Zenana Missions are steadily doing their work. Dehra has a large boarding-school fur native girls, under Rev. Mr. Herron, of the American Presbyterian Board ; also one for boys, the head master of which, a native Christian, came forward to me, saying, ' I am proud to have studied under Dr. Duff, at Calcutta.'
" It gives me great pleasure to mention the venerable Dr. John Newton, who with four sons and a son-in-law is working in the Master's cause at and near Lahore. Would that there were more such noble spirits.
"At Bombay I attended church service on two Sabbath mornings, under the pastorate of the late Dr. Wilson. Large and attentive audiences were present, and though over seventy years of age, he preached twice on that Sunday, besides teaching his Bible-classes and having the supervision of sev- eral Mission schools.
" His was the last hand I grasped on leaving India ; and now tidings have reached us of the great and good man's death. It is a sad loss to India ; for he was devoted, not only to his Master's work, but to every scheme conducive to the pros- perity of the country. There can be no greater or nobler work than that to Avhich he gave his life. Many will arise to call
FOREIGN MISSIONARY STATISTICS. 1Y7
him blessed. I wisli that the faithful woi'k of sucli as he could be better known by the Cl\ristian Church at home."
XXX.
FOREIGN MISSION AKY STATISTICS OF THE PKOTESTANT CHURCHES.
The following tabular presentation of the Protestant Mission work already accomplished has been prepared with much labor and care by Rev. D. Irving, D. D., one of the Secretaries of the Presbyterian Board. This is the very latest summary that has been given to the public, and will be found far more en- couraging in its exhibit than any which has been published heretofore. The explanatory note is given in the author's own Words4
We have endeavored in the following table to bring the work of the leading Mis- sionary Societies into harmony, and make them cover the same operations and include the same class of agents. There is a great difference in the methods of makin^ up statistical tables by different Societies, which prevents a fuller division of the native laborers into ordained and unordained. We tried to make a list of the wives of mis- sionaries and the unmarried ladies, but a large number of the Societies do not report them, and the table would be rendered very imperfect by inserting only those that were known. Some of the Continental reports embrace only those that were issued in 1873 also a very few of the smaller British and American Societies. In one or two we had to approximate to the membership, as in the Netherlands Missionary Society in two of its missions. From the list of adherents, however, we have given only a small percentage of the same as communicants. The last report of the Propagation Society is very incomplete. We have thrown out its Colonial work, as also that of the Wesleyan Society; but in the former we had to take statistics of earlier reports to make the aggre- gate as presented in this table. Owing to these imperfections, this tabular statement is only an approximation to what is correct and true. We have not been able to obtain the amount expended by Local Societies, and have not included in the figures what has been expended by local contributions in different missions, or what the Bible and Tract Societies have used for their distinct operations abroad. The amount given for the specific cause of Foreign Missions does not vary much from $6,000,000 a year.
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18(1 THE GEEAT CONQUEST.
XXXI.
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS ?
Very much may be accomplished by ecclesiastical bodies. The work of Missions should not be regarded as something outside of the Church, pleading for her favor and help. It is her own work And if the Assembly, or Association, or Con- ference so regards it, and plans and devises in its behalf, the cause is placed on a high vantage-ground at the outset. Its plea is not merely authorized, but it receives virtual pledges of universal sympathy and support.
In the Presbyterian Church, great power lies in the Presby- teries. By their thorough organization, they can secure the co-operation of every church, in the Mission work. Tho}^ can stimulate the delinquent and see that the chm'ches without pastors are called upon to contribute. A Board has no con- trol over the contributions of the churches. It can only administer the funds received. But the Presbytery has as clear a right to insist upon the duty of beneficence, especially in the ^acknowledged enterprises of the Church, as upon sound doctrine or an orderly walk.
Thei-e should be a deeper sense of responsibility in the Church with respect to its representatives in distant lands. The Government of the United States protects its citizens, or maintains the honor of its flag at all cost, and in any quarter of the globe. So, wherever the Presbyterian name and work are represented in heathen lands, every Presbytery should feel that its good faith and honor are at stake. For the feeble Home Mission Chui'ch, or the licentiate needing aid, or the applicant for ministerial relief — all within its own bounds it does feel a responsibility. But why not also for that one of its members who has gone to carry its common bounty of trutb and life to the ends of the earih ?
There is much, also, that pastora can do. When Dr. Duff
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THE CArSE OF MISSIONS ? 181
was asked by a Scotch clergyman what ho regarded as the chief obstacle to the success of Missions, he promptly replied, " The greatest obstacle lies in the apathy and indifference of ministers." Certain it is that differences of fifty, or a hundred, or even two hundred percent, will often appear in the contri- butions of the same church under different pastorates. A pastor has opportunities which none else can command. He can preach on the subject of Missions at suitable inter- vals, presenting facts and arguments that shall inform the ignorant and quicken the apathetic. It is not safe to assume that the masses even of the Church are familiar with the work of IVIissions. Facts are pubHshed abundantly, but the people do not read them. There is a class of men who, through ignorance, are sceptical on the whole subject, and it seems impossible to reach them. They are never at the Monthly Concert or at missionary meetings of any Mud, and they do not read missionary publications. But there is one, and one only, mode of reaching them. They are at church on Sab- bath mornings, and the pastor, in a missionary sermon, may constrain them to consider the subject. None so well as he can overcome the scepticism, arouse the apathy, and dispel the pretexts of this class.
There is a work to be done by the officers and members of the Church. Churches are too apt to feel that it is wholly optional to give or withhold when the claims of Missions are presented. Perhaps the oversight and stimulus of the Pres- bytery are even resented in some cases. But really the Presbytery is only urging a virtual pledge. In the last analysis it is the churches that have ordained the Mission work. The Board is but a servant of the Assembly. And what is the Assembly but a body of representatives chosen through the Presbyteries by the churches ? By the very polity of the de nomination, every church and every member has had a voice in the great enterprises which have been undertaken, and may justly be held to his responsibility. Much depends on the church officers. If, as is sometimes the case, the paStor
182 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
himself is indifferent, the elders or deacons have the greater responsibility. They can prepare facts for the Monthly Concert, and evince so deep an interest that the pastor with others will soon be enkindled. They may see that the collections are taken in spite of church debts and building enterprises, and that the missionary periodicals are read by the people.
There is also a work for Missions which none can do so well as the superintendent and teachers of the Sabbath-school. It is marvelous that its importance should be so of ten overlooked. Not a tithe of this power has been developed.
There is no greater mistake than that of allowing the young to grow up without a missionary spirit. How is the work to be perpetuated, if the children are not taught to regard it ? It is sui-prifing that even those who insist that every chui'ch should do its part in the work of Foreign Missions, seem to feel that it is of little moment to train the children to the same responsible interest. TJiey may give at random to any fancy scheme they choose whether in the chm'ch or out of it. All this is wrong. The children should be trained to follow up the work of their fathers at home and abroad.
All Sabbath-schools, great or small, should contribute to Foreign Missions. The future work, for which they should thus be training, will be far grander than that of to-day.
The mission cause is of late placing great reliance upon the women of the church. What they may do will best be seen in the example of what some are already doing. The same degree of effort, if participated in by all the women of the church, would reheve the difficulties of Mission Boards, and give a great impulse to the work. In each congregation there are capable ones — two or three at least — whose influence might leaven the whole community, rousing the church, and, if need be, the pastor himself.
A Missionary Auxihary, though feeble at first, should be formed in each hamlet, and such means as womanly aptness can always invent, should be devised for doing something.
In zenana bands the young ladies of the congregation may
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS ? 183
learn usefulness and do a present good by their needle-work and other enterprises. It should not be said, as it too often is, that in our social life " there is nothing for the young to do but to dance." Social beneficence is full of reflex blessing.
Every young man should consecrate himself to the work of ■ Missions. Some should do this directly ; while others should just as truly give themselves to its indu-ect promo- tion. This cause, wliich is only in its infancy, cannot dispense with the interest and help of our young men. In the years which now draw nigh, there will be need of thousands who will trade and do business, not for selfishness or vanity, but for the spread of Christ's cause.
On a recent Sabbath, a professed Christian, worth a million of dollars, gave an annual gift of ten dollars for Foreign Missions. A clerk in that person's employment gave at the same time twenty-five dollars. The latter is of the class which the advancing interests of Christ's kingdom now demand.
How great are the responsibilities which the spectacle of a perishing world lays upon the rich. A man of wealth recently said to his pastor, after a missionary sermon : " My first con- tribution fi)r Missions was, as I remember, eight dollars. I think I am now a thousand times as able to give as then; " and therewith he laid down his pledge for $8,000. Would that this honest arithmetic of Christian duty were oftener applied by those who have ample means. Few men keep up the old ratios of giving when God gives them great increase.
And yet, why should they not ? It is the surplus wealth that can most easily be spared. That which remains over and above a wise provision for present and future want should be looked upon as belonging to God and to His cause. One man frequently has power and opportunity for doing an amount of good wliich a thousand others cannot equal.
And yet even the poorest can, and should, do something. It is the rills that swell the river and fill the ocean. The power of Httles is well known ; it should be oftener realized.
The majority are neither rich nor poor ; and they should
184 THE GREAT CONQUEST.
place themselves rightly in the scale. The danger is that they will emulate the rich in the indulgence of self, and count themselves poor in their Christian benefactions. The New Testament rule is : "As the Lord hath prospered every man."
Every man and woman in the church can pray ; pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth more laborers ; pray the Holy Ghost that He may incline the petitioner to support those who are sent ; and pray especially for that divine power which shall make the Missionary work a success.
And this thought should never be forgotten, that all that human agency can do for this generation of the heathen world must be done by the Christians of to-day. Our children, how- ever faithful in their time, cannot help the 1,200,000,000 of the perishing who pass their probation with us. Going to India and China, they will only tread the graves of those who may have perished through our neglect, The generation now living is our stewardship,
Prmcelon Theoloqic.il Semirary-Speei
1 1012 01121 2547
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