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THE
Missionary Review of the World.
Vol. XIII. No. 11.— Old Series. NOVEMBER. Vol. III. No. 11.— New Series.
I.— LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLIN WOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
That most intelligent and devoted friend of missions, Robert N. Cust, LL. D., of London, has published recently in the Church Mis- sionary Intelligencer, an able article on the changing phases of the non-Christian religions, in which occurs an interesting monograph on "Neo Judaism." Dr. Cust is a member, not only of the Adminis- trative Committee of the Church Missionary Society, but also of the London Missionary Society to the Jews, and he is equally qualified to speak of the operations and the successes of both. More than this, he is a man who thoroughly acquaints himself with the character of those systems which he hopes to see displaced by the Gospel of Christ. He confesses that great success has not as yet crowned the efforts of Christian missionaries among the Jews, either in London or in the cities of the Continent and of northern Africa. But he is none the less certain as to the duty of the Christian Church. He states that the Jews now number not less than 7,000,000, and are, therefore, a much more numerous people than were ruled over by David or Solomon — more numerous, in fact, than Palestine could possibly have supported.
If Dr. Cust is correct in this estimate — and he seldom errs in matters of fact — the return to the Holy Land must be hastened, or it can only be re-occupied by representation. For what race, unless it be the American Negro, increases so rapidly as the Hebrew ? Wherever the environment is favorable, and he has an equal chance with others, the Jew is the most thrifty of men, not only in money-getting but in the number and healthf ulness of his children. Where the native American imagines that he cannot afford to marry, and must be satisfied with the " club " instead of a home, the Jew rears a prosperous family, and in the end endows them with wealth.
That the Hebrew race have suffered great persecution during the past centuries, must be confessed to the shame of the Christian Church. They have found in Europe as well as Africa and western Asia, another and much longer Babylonish captivity. But that this has been wholly due to religious prejudice cannot be affirmed. The tone and implication of Shakespeare's " Merchant of Venice " must
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THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS.
[Nov.
rest on a basis which, even in his time, was historic. Probably the prejudice and contempt entertained toward the race by their Roman conquerors was fully as strong as has ever been exercised by the most bigoted of Christian nations. Nay, the latter prejudice may have been in part an heirloom of the former.
The strangest prejudice and the greatest injustice and oppression now visited upon the Jews, so far as the Christian powers are con- cerned, are found in eastern Europe, where the doctrines of Christi- anity have the slightest hold, and where governmental policy and the bitterness of industrial competition must be held responsible for the entire crusade. One million of Jews are now being banished from Russian territory, not because of their faith but because the Govern- ment does not regard them as desirable subjects.
One thing is certain, whatever prejudice exists against the Hebrew population in the United States, does not arise from differences of faith. Their best friends, both in this country and in Great Britain, are found in the Christian Church — certainly in the Protestant Church.
Some months since, the question was sent out to different men of prominent positions among us, "What is the occasion of the prevail- ing prejudice against the Hebrews ?" Generally the response given was, "We are not aware of any prejudice." Several clergymen dis- avowed any feeling of the kind. But Rev. Edward Everett Hale was credited with charging the hostile feeling to a difference of religious faith.
As the implication was that of a prejudice now existing on the part of the American churches, we must earnestly protest against it. Mr. Hale cannot be aware — possibly he has forgotten — that four or five years ago, U. S. Minister Strauss was chosen to represent our Government at Constantinople on the recommendation of the mission- ary boards, and that petitions from the missionaries in the Turkish Empire were sent to Washington asking that he might be appointed for a second term.
The hostile feeling against the Jews in this country grows out of business relations. It is not cherished by Christians as such, but by those who have had to do with them in trade, or by those who have been employed by them in manufacturing. The trades unions, largely composed of infidels and Nihilists, would probably be found to represent the most bitter of all the animosities that they encoun- ter. Whether it be just or not, there exists a feeling that the chief oppressors of poor needle-women are Jews. The industries in which unfortunate and starving females engage, as a last resort, are mostly in the hands of this class of men, and when the ruinous rates at which manufactured garments are produced in the attics and tenement houses of desperate poverty come to be known, it must not be thought strange if popular sympathy and indignation are aroused. Some
1890.]
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Americans join in the same extortion, but their miserable plea is that competition compels them to do what others do. As a rule, women do not "strike." They suffer on and die, and their employers prosper and live on Fifth Avenue.
There are among our Hebrew citizens thousands of worthy and honorable business men who suffer unjustly from the prejudice which other thousands of their race have brought upon them, and it is to be hoped, that on the one hand, public opinion will become more discrim- inating, while on the other, the example of the nobler Hebrew trades- men will raise the standard of honor and humanity among all their race.
Another thing which creates prejudice against the Jews may be regarded as a mere accident of their phenomenal thrift. At the sum- mer resorts they are deemed undesirable guests on account of rough and disagreeable manners. This is no proof that the average of the race is more clownish or swinish than other races. Quite as disagree- able companionship might be found among the Irish, or some classes of native-born Americans, but the difference is, that these are not found at first-class hotels; with them, there is a different relation be- tween manners and money. Financial competency reaches a lower stratum in Jewish society than in any other. It extends to classes among whom the gentle amenities of life are unknown, and even good grammar is wanting. And the same habit of overreaching, which has made the money, is carried into all the contacts and experiences of hotel life.
Now, it is quite time that the common notion that Jews are suffer- ing from any narrow religious prejudice of the Christian Church were laid aside.
How is it in Mohammedan countries where a common rejection of Christianity might be supposed to draw both classes of rigid Mono- thists together in full sympathy? In no Christian country — not even in Russia — is there so bitter a hatred, so degrading a bondage for the Jews as in northern Africa — particularly in Morocco. They are thrifty in money matters, even there. It is impossible to impoverish them by any ordinary measures of oppression. On some accounts it is for the interest of impecunious Moors, and even of the officials, to have such a class from whom to borrow money, and by whose energy business shall be kept from stagnation, but as to indignities of every kind, the treatment meted out to them is almost incredible. They must wear a prescribed attire, and dwell in a certain quarter, and submit to many special police regulations; while in taxation, the only question is how far the life blood can be drawn with safety.
It seems strange that in their wide range among the nations, these people who are not a nation, cling to the Mohammedans and the Christians. Though the world is open before them, and they do not seem bound by local attachments, they are never found among the
804 THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS. [Nov,
heathen. Opportunities for money-getting have been great in the East; almost every other race of Europe and western Asia — ancient and modern — has been lured by the wealth of India or China or the southern Archipelago, but never the Jew. His financial counterpart, the Parsee, is everywhere found in the East, driving bargains with Jewish sagacity, in opium or in spices and coffee, but the Hebrew has never crossed their track. Even in those centuries where he has suffered the greatest disabilities in the proscribed "Jew quarters" of European or Levantirie cities, it seems never to have occurred to him to join the rush of Persians, Pathans, Macedonians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, after the wealth of the heathen Orient. He preferred to be snubbed and crushed by Christian and Moslem nations, and to find solace in that money-getting passion which, in the course of centuries, has become a nature.
Hertzog alludes to the fact that the Jew confines himself mostly to temperate latitudes; he is not found in the tropics of either hemis- phere. And our readers hardly need to be reminded that he is al- ways found in the cities. Who ever heard of a Hebrew farmer? — at least this side of Bible times. The Nomadic character has forsaken him. He is no longer a keeper of sheep. Yet, no other race except the Hindu or the Mongolian has shown such tenacity of life and such un- impaired vigor. The Romans who crushed the national life of Israel, on the one hand, and the Assyrians who enslaved and scattered the chosen tribes, on the other, have alike perished, while the seed of Abra- ham, driven everywhither, have survived and are more numerous and a hundredfold more thrifty than in the days of Solomon and his glory.
The financial power of Jewish bankers on the Continent of Europe has become proverbial. The author of La France Juive claims that French politics, as well as finance, are largely controlled by the same race. We have, in our day, seen a D' 'Israeli climb to the heights of power in England, and wield a magician's wand over Queen and Par- liament, and finally win for himself a statue in the consecrated shrine of national heroes and statesmen.
On this side of the Atlantic, the main business thoroughfare of our great metropolis is exchanging the names of its old American firms for the "names of German Jews. They are sure to become not only a great financial power but a strong social and political ele- ment in this country. The logic of their twofold increase — by natural generation and by immigration— -renders certain a great future development.
Meanwhile, there is reason to believe that a better state of feeling is springing up. If the Jew has been rather Ishmaelitish than Israelitish it is not wholly his fault, though it is in part. On both sides, there should be confidence, and among business men of the highest grade there is already a clasping of hands over the old "wall of partition."
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THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS.
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Dr. Cust quotes from an address, delivered this very year, by Dr. Adler (not Felix), in the great synagogue in Aldgate, in the presence of the Lord-Mayor, himself a Jew, in which the Rabbi alluded to the influence exerted by that synagogue. "Many a soul-stirring service," said the speaker, "has been witnessed within its venerable walls. Whatever the event that moved the hearts of England's sons — when a great victory evoked national rejoicing; when a sovereign had been stricken down by illness, and when it pleased the Lord to send him healing; when a joyous jubilee was kept, and when death had entered the palace — -every event was commemorated in the great synagogue with the voice of prayer and supplication, of praise and thanksgiving, proving that the Israelite then, as always, was steeped to the very lips with loyalty. Nor were the administrators of the synagogue unmindful of the needs of their fellow-men — though of other lands and creeds. Whether the appeal came to relieve a famine in Sweden, or to diminish the sufferings of English prisoners in France, or a plaint reached these shores from the hunger-stricken children of Ireland — the authorities of the great synagogue were ever ready to aid and to succor."
The benefactions as well as the exalted character of a Moses Mon- tifiore are fresh in the mind of every reader. And that love of fair play which is so strong in the character of Englishmen, is welcoming such men as he to their confidence, and is appreciating the philan- thropic efforts of the great synagogue.
Instead of clinging to an old religious grudge against the race, Christian London is the focal centre of interest in their welfare. Mis- sions to the Jews at home and abroad are multiplied, and the strong prayer of faith is offered up by thousands of devout Christians that God will redeem His own chosen people by the blood of an accepted Christ!
It must be confessed that the Christian Church at large has seemed to be apathetic in regard to Jewish missions, but it has been rather the apathy of despair than of indifference. There has been too great a readiness to "turn unto the Gentiles" and to consider the engrafted "wild olive" the real tree. At the London Missionary Conference of 1888, Mr. James E. Mathieson quoted the late Dr. Schwartz as saying, "You Gentile Christians take all the sweet promises to yourselves, but you leave all the curses to the poor Jews." And in continuing, Mr. Mathieson alluded to a custom of the Scotch ecclesiastical bodies •of rising at the close of their sessions (though they usually sit in prayer), and singing with marked solemnity: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee," etc. "But they do not mean Jerusalem," he added, "and they do not mean the Jews: they mean the Established Church and the Free Church of Scotland." Is not this something like "robbery for burnt offering ?"
But, however, the Church, as a whole, may have negleeted her
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THE DUTY OP CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS.
[Nov.
duty, there have always been those who have God's chosen people in their hearts. Count Zinzendoof, the founder of the Moravian Mis- sions, took a warm interest in the Jews, and he had the great joy, in 1735, of seeing a prominent Jewish rabbi become a member of the Moravian Church, and a successful missionary among his people. "Everywhere," says Dr. Fleming, Secretary of the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, " he won the esteem of the Jews, and not long since, a gift was sent to the Moravian Church at Herrnhut by a Jewish family who cherished the traditions of bless- ing through Rabbi Lieberkuhn."
The London Society, above named, has been at work for over eighty years. Nor is it alone. There are altogether eight Jewish missionary societies in England, five in Scotland, and one in Ireland. Together, these employ 312 agents. On the Continent of Europe, the societies number 27. America has seven, with 34 agents. Thus 48 societies with 377 agents are striving to win God's ancient people to their own Messiah. That their labors have not been wholly in vain is shown by the estimated fact that 100,000 Jews have been baptized in the last seventy-five years, and that with their children the number of believers may be set down at 250,000. Among these have been many distinguished men.
Though these numbers are not relatively great, yet it is believed that the breaking down on both sides of an unrelenting prejudice, has been a far greater result and one which opens the way for blessed in-gatherings in the time to come.
There are certainly some valid grounds of hope for the Jews, even aside from the Divine promises. They are less tenacious of their old faith than they were formerly. Though still more or less clannish, yet they are more than ever disposed to break down barriers and be like other people. They are getting tired of the real or imagined stigma and reproach attached to their name. Each successive gen- eration cares less for the old shibboleths and more for the privileges of social life without distinction of race.
It is seen that the prophetic situation is awkward. If the Messiah has come, who, and what was He ? If He has not come, when will He appear ? If sacrifice symbolized a promised Redeemer why is it not kept up ? Why is the Moslem permitted to hold century after cen- tury, the only place of sacrifice, unless to show that its meaning is done away and its necessity gone ? Perhaps it is in despair over such questions as these that multitudes of Jews are driven to Agnosticism.
More and more Jews observe our Sabbath as a day of rest, and their Sabbath-schools inevitably tend toward Christian ways. It is well-nigh impossible to prevent their children from coming into sympathy with the Christian institutions and customs which prevail around them.
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Two or three years ago a liberal-minded and philanthropic Jew in Italy offered an immense sum of money to be devoted to the edu- cation of children in Russia, and recommended that Jews and Chris- tians be educated together. His idea was that the race distinction should be ignored, and that the young of his people should be allowed to become absorbed in the national life wherever they might be, and that gradually the distinction between Jew and Gentile should dis- appear. It may be, that social absorption, intermarriage, the assimi- lating influence of the common school, the fading out of the Jewish pride and prejudice of race are to be factors in God's plan of recovery. Doubtless, they will have a part to act, but God's express will is that the Gospel shall be faithfully preached meanwhile, and that prayer be offered for His people.
Surely the Christian Church owes it to itself to present no higher consideration to promote the spiritual enlightenment of the Jews. We ourselves need this effort, if only to remind us continually how much we owe to the race that gave us the Saviour of mankind — if only to keep fresh in memory the great missionary whom the Jewish race gave as the Apostle to us Gentiles. Our indebtedness for the Chief of the apostles will never be paid. The Gentile world, with its Christian institutions, is a monument of the great fact that it is possible to overcome the most inveterate Jewish prejudice, and to win the stoutest Pharasaic heart to Christ. If Paul could be con- verted and could convert thousands of others of his own faith, the Christian Church has no right to despair. Jewish synagogues were the first cradles of the nascent church in all lands. They opened their doors to the apostles for the planting of the first germs of truth, and Jewish converts everywhere gave character and steadiness to the ignorant Gentile church.
But, how shall the Jews of our time be reached ? The London Society, as the result of eighty years of experience, answers this ques- tion under the following heads:
(1.) By striving to win their confidence by removing prejudice: (a.) Never speak sneeringly or disparagingly of them; overcome the habit in ourselves and others, (b.) Manifest sympathy with them as a nation and as individuals, (c.) Win confidence by medical missions.
(2.) By preaching the Gospel as the apostles preached it — proving from their own Scriptures that Christ is the promised Messiah.
(3.) By encouraging a diligent, candid, and prayerful study of the whole Bible — the Old and the New Testament in their connec- tion.
(4.) By educating Jewish children. In a school supported by the Society, in Palestine Place, London, where 595 Jewish boys have been educated, the master, after 28 years of service, does not know of one pupil, who, after pursuing a full course, has relapsed into Judaism.
(5.) By assisting poor Jewish youth to obtain positions and en- couraging them in seeking a subsistence.
(6.) By training promising young men as missionaries.
It should not be forgotten, as an encouragement, that the Jews are worshippers of our God, have a large portion of our Bible, are sharers of our civilization, speak our language, and are — or ought to be — our friends as well as neighbors, and are even before us, heirs of the covenant of promise !
SOS
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.
[Xov.
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. THE WONDERFUL STORY OF MADAGASCAR.
[EDITORIAL. — A. T. P.]
To an English boy, Robert Drury, wrecked near Port Dauphine, the Southeastern cape of Madagascar, we owe the first full account of the savages on this great island. He saw the captain and crew, who escaped with him from the angry sea, pierced with the lances of the inhospitable natives, till out of over a hundred only a dozen survived, and he himself was saved only to be enslaved. This was early in this century. He found the country divided among many warring tribes ; might the only right, women and children carried off like cattle and made slaves ; woman, so degraded that even the King's daughter, wife or mother, cringed before him and licked his feet. Heathen ceremonies of the most absurd and degrading kind were matters of daily occurrence. A wooden charm called an owley, borne up by forked sticks, was wor- shiped with incense. Fortune tellers, or umossees, held the people in the bondage of superstition, and lived upon their ignorance and credulity. The Malagasy were the victims of magicians, and constantly fought and plundered one another. The arrival of a European vessel was the signal for wholesale crimes of lust and trading in human bodies and souls. All who had slaves drove them to the seaside.
Half a century ago the Hovas held the interior portion of the island, and their King or chief, who was called Radama, had come to the throne in 1808. With these Hovas and their sovereigns the modern history of Madagascar is mainly concerned. Morally and spiritually the picture is very dark. From three to four thousand natives were sold, it is said, every year, and the spot where they caught the last glimpse of home, and the first glimpse of the sea that was to bear them into hopeless exile, is even now called the "weeping place of the Hovas." Though they had courts of law, bribery was so common that trial was a form and a farce. Honesty was scarce known, and children were trained to false- hood and deception as a virtue. Punishments were savagely cruel, devised to give long, lingering pain — burning by slow fires, drowning in boiling water, poisoning by tangena, beating, starving, hurling over precipices, crucifying. The tangena was a substitute for trial, and thousands died every year from this poison, while those who proved their innocence by outliving the dose were wrecked in health.
The people were a nation of thieves as well as liars. Madame Pfeiffer's property was stolen while at the house of the Chief Justice, but recovery was impossible, where even high officers stole. Even graves were robbed, bodies stripped, and every article of value buried with the dead was an object of ruthless plunder. The nation was so wedded to lying and thieving that Christianity was objected to because it taught people to be true and honest. They were so far lost to all virtue that they resisted any influence that promised moral improvement.
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As to the homes of Madagascar, there were none. A native never spoke of family or family ties. Madame Pfeiffer's travels had brought to her knowledge no people so immoral, and her pen refused to chronicle what her eyes and ears were compelled to see and hear. The worst vices were so universal as to seem natural. A man might put away his wife for no cause and take a fresh one as often as his caprice or passion led him; female virtue was of so little account that it did not even affect the legitimacy of offspring. Children born on unlucky days it was no crime to strangle, drown or expose to the trampling feet of cattle.
The Hovas were not an irreligious people — idols filled the land. Gods were so plenty that anything new, which they did not compre- hend, though it were a machine or a photograph, they deified. Their idols were conceived as having all powTer, but neither knowledge nor goodness, virtue nor love; they were simply human greed, cruelty, mean- ness and malice, invested with almightiness! monsters of lies and lusts.
Among such a people — of whom the French governor of the Isle of Bourbon said, " You might as well attempt to convert sheep, oxen or asses, as to make the Malagasy Christians " — among such a people the gospel has gone to win some of its mightiest triumphs.
The first obvious step that God took was one of preparation. He gave Madagascar political unity. King Radama in his reign of twenty years "proved himself the Caesar or Napoleon" of his realm, making him- self master of the whole island except two districts in the Southland this rendered easier the spread of a new faith, as the unification of the Roman Empire had done eighteen centuries before. Radama was at once a general, a ruler and a reformer. He had with all his faults and vices a patriotic spirit. Contact with European civilization had been sufficient to satisfy him of its superior type, and he first opened the door to civilization and Christianity that he might secure the progress and prosperity of his people. He made a treaty with Britain, abolish- ing the slave trade, though domestic slavery still prevailed in his own dominions; and seeing the benefits accruing to even heathen lands from the gospel of Christ, he welcomed the pioneer English mission- ary, in 1820, to his capital Antananarivo, and kept his word, which pledged to him and others who might join him royal protection.
The missionaries reduced the language of the people to writing, and in teaching and preaching had all their time and strength employed. God gave them the king's patronage; an adult school was opened in the palace court yard, and by his favor a central model school was opened for training native teachers for the villages round about; and when murmurs arose against the missionaries, because their teachings lessened respect for the native religion, Radama had the independence and the indifference to go on with the work of education, at heart caring nothing for the idols that the Hovas worshipped.
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[Nov.
In 1826 the first printing press was set up in the island, and a new literature began to be created. The people were slowly waking from the sleep of ages. But at the death of Radama, in June, 1828, not one convert had yet made a confession of Christ. The king himself was a progressive sovereign, but he was led simply by worldly wisdom. It was civilization and not Christianity, as such, that he encouraged. He was too intelligent to have faith in priestcraft and witchcraft, but too carnally minded to embrace Christianity or even attend preach- ing services.
And now opens the era of a most bloody and cruel persecution. One of Radama's wives, Ranavalona, took forcible possession of the throne, mounting it by murdering all rivals. If Radama was the Cae- sar, she was the " Bloody Mary," of Madagascar. From twenty to thirty thousand victims fell annually a prey to her cruelty. She was as reckless as Nero, as treacherous as Judas, and as selfish as Cleopa- tra. Her chief amusement was a bull-fight, her imperial journeys were- destructive raids that left famine in their track, and her whole rule was that of a despot that cared neither for the liberty nor life of her subjects. She would waste tears over the death of a favorite bull, and lavish honors on its burial, such as not even the decease of her whole family would have drawn forth. Had her reign been long, the island would have been a depopulated desert ; and as it was, it has been cal- culated that half of the population perished under her bloody sceptre. We purposely draw her hideous portrait that it may be seen what was the natural flower of the Madagascar society, and under what a deadly influence the infant church of Christ there struck down its tender roots and unfolded its stalk.
There was everything, humanly speaking, to prevent the gospel from getting any hold in Madagascar. The soil was thick with the awful growths of a paganism of the lowest type ; and a queen who had neither justice nor mercy was ready to pluck up the first plant of godliness, or burn over any field where the seed of the gospel might spring up. Among her first acts was the prohibition of all preaching and the break- ing up of the schools. Afterward, probably from motives of policy, she permitted the missionaries not only to make converts, but to organ- ize native Christian churches, and, in 1831, twenty were baptized, among them " Paul," who had been a famous heathen diviner, but wTho had become a humble learner in the school of Christ.
As soon as the work of conversion thus began in earnest, the queen set herself resolutely against it. Her hatred and cruelty were so satanic that a pall seemed to have fallen upon the whole people. The preach- ing went forward, and the queen was besought not to persecute the new disciples. But it was all in vain. In March, 1834, a royal proc- lamation was made in the ears of a hundred thousand people drawn up on the plain, Imahamasina, declaring war against the new faith..
1890.]
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Converts were branded as criminals, and required to accuse themselves within one week on pain of death. Astonishing as it may seem, the great body of these native disciples stood firm. Praying for help, trusting in God, they appeared before the judges and confessed their faith in Jesus. In these days of peril these Malagasy Christians spent whole nights in prayer, by their fidelity to an unseen Saviour exciting the astonishment of their very enemies. The queen contented herself in this case with degrading four hundred officers and fining two thou- sand others. A week later she demanded all boohs to be delivered up. As all literature on the island was the creation of the mission press, this edict was aimed against the Bible. But the brave Malagasy would not give up the Scriptures, which some of them had walked a hundred miles to procure.
The strong hold of the gospel upon the native Hovas could be ac- counted for on no philosophy that excludes the power of God. Al- ready twenty-four hundred of the queen's officers were among the con- verts, and in the army the best and bravest soldiers were also soldiers of Christ. In vain were they placed in the most exposed positions in the battle : they still routed the foe. Thirty-thousand Hovas could read the Scriptures. Many cast away idols and superstitious charms. Large congregations met at the capital and the influence reached hundreds of miles in every direction. No fault could be found in the Christians of Madagascar, except that found with Daniel in Baby- lon— they believed in their God. When compelled to cease public labor, the missionaries worked privately, and besides teaching the people, published the complete Old Testament and " Pilgrim's Progress." Then, driven from the island, they left the young church of Christ without a foreign missionary among them, in July, 1836 ; and for twenty-five long years, persecution which had bared her red right arm continued to make it a crime to confess Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
Ranavalona L, at her coronation in June, 1829, took two of the na- tional idols in her hands and said, " From my ancestors I received you ; in you I put my trust, therefore support me." And, robed in scarlet and gold, those idols were held at the front of the platform to overawe the multitude while the ceremonies went forward. Here was a throne literally pillared on idols, as her reign abundantly proved.
There were four eras of persecution, lasting respectively for four, seven, three and two years, together reaching from 1835 to 1860, with intervals of comparative qUiet. The third was the most severe. Christians met secretly in each other's houses, and traveled sometimes twenty miles to mountain tops, to praise and pray and read the word of God.
A woman of high family, Rafaravavy, became a sincere disciple and opened one of the largest houses in the capital for Christian worship.
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[Nov.
Despite the queen's hostile attitude, she continued to hold Sunday- evening meetings. She refused to reveal the names of her fellow- worshipers, and the queen in a rage ordered her put to death. While expecting cruel tortures, she retained her serene composure ; the peace of God filled her soul. Her life was spared, but her property in part confiscated. She continued to meet believers, however, and the num- ber of converts constantly increased. These persecuted disciples, be- reft of human teachers, looked only to the Holy Spirit as teacher, and became themselves instructors of others who could not read. Their quick sensibilities made them weep at the bare mention of Jesus. Rafaravavy's house was assaulted by a mob, and she was led away, as she supposed, to execution, and put in irons ; but a terrible conflagra- tion that same night was supposed to have alarmed the queen and aroused her superstitious fears, and the penalty was delayed. At last sentence of perpetual slavery was inflicted on all who had been seized in Rafaravavy's house, and Rasalama, another of the women, was speared while kneeling in prayer. Thus, on August 14, 1837, the first Mada- gascar martyr died witnessing for Jesus. Two hundred converts were enslaved for Jesus' sake at this time. Some of those thus enslaved to traders, afterwards escaped, but astonished their masters by returning to them accounts of their goods, with money obtained from sales. Fugitives hid three months at a time in forests. Wanderers often came into contact with lonely dwellings, where little congregations hitherto unknown gathered for Christian worship.
These are fragments of this remarkable story of Madagascar which read like the highest romance of Christian chivalry.
In 1839 some fugitives, on their way to England, stopping at Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, met with fellow-converts. Unable to com- municate freely with these converted Hottentots, their Bibles be- came actually vehicles of converse. The Malagasy and Hottentots turning to the same passages in their respective translations of the Word, in this way made known to each other their sentiments. For example, the Hottentot disciples pointed to Ephesians ii : 2 : "Among whom we all had our conversation in time past," etc. The Malagasy disciples responded by Eph. ii : 14, 15: "For He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of parti- tion." Also Gal. iii: 28 : "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Again, the Hottentots pointed to John xvi : 33: " In the world ye shall have tribulation." The Hovas replied by Rom. viii : 35: "Who shall sepa- rate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation ? " etc. When was ever the Bible put to a more beautiful use even by the most ma- ture Christians? Then they sang the same hymns to the same tunes in different languages. Verily, "Multoz terricolis linguoe ; celest- ibus una." Then the Hottentots made them a voluntary contribu- tion to help pay costs of their voyage, and knelt on the beach com-
1890.]
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mending them to God. And these were Hottentot ff dogs " and Mal- agasy " asses ! " How soon and strangely they had developed into Christian men !
When these fugitives reached England, in May, 1839, they wrote a letter to their suffering fellow-disciples at home, which for beauty and purity of Christian sentiment might have graced the fame of Paul, the apostle and writer of epistles. For three years they stayed on British shores, winning universal esteem and love, and furnishing an unan- swerable proof of the reality of the gospel. When, in 1842, they re- turned to Mauritius, their mission station at Moka became the asylum for other fugitives from persecutions at Madagascar. The queen was only enraged by the escape of her victims. She became the more bloodthirsty. She ordered her soldiers, when they found any Christians, to dig a pit, cast them into it, pour boiling water on them and then fill up the pit, and go in search of others on whom to wreak similar vengeance.
Meanwhile, the patience and fidelity of these poor disciples con- founded their very enemies, and constrained them to admire and wonder at a power so mysterious that could take away the fear of death, even in forms so horrible. In July, 1840, nine persons, recap- tured out of sixteen who had fled, were put to death by the spear of the executioner, and among them Paul the Aged, the converted con- jurer and preacher. And still the Gospel made conquests in these, the darkest days.
Two years of respite from persecution passed by, and a second era of cruelty began about June 19, 1842. Two converts were seized while returning from a missionary tour among the Salaklava tribes, and tortured to induce them to reveal the names of their fellow-disciples, but in vain. These lambs went to the slaughter without opening their mouths to betray other believers.
A few months later the queen was wrought to fury by the act of some imprudent person who affixed to the wall of a house in the capital a leaf of the New Testament, underlining Matthew xxiii, 13, "Woe unto you," etc. Construing this as a personal insult, she required the unknown offender to confess in four days, under penalty of being cut into pieces as small as musket balls. As no confession followed, the queen arrested several Christians and selected two, whose bodies were literally chopped as fine as mincemeat, and then burned to ashes ! And the only ground for attaching to these disciples the guilt of this offence was that they knew enough to read and write !
Strange to say, it pleased God that the only son and heir of this atrocious Jezebel should, at the age of sixteen, become interested in the very Christians who were the objects of his mother's persecuting rage ! Rakatond-Radama was one of that illustrations of that paradox of heredity, that a lamb should be born of a hyena. His gentle spirit
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was the exact reverse of his mother's ferocity. Where she delighted in cruelty, he delighted in kindness ; he hated blood-shedding even as she thirsted for it. Of course, the people soon found out where to go for sympathy and succor. He cut the cords of those who were bound, and released those appointed to death ; and yet the natural affection existing between the son and mother prevented a rupture between them.
About this time, 1847, Ramaka, called Rasalasala, or the Bold One, arose, a mighty preacher, the first in the Madagascar church. Prince Eakatond was drawn to hear him, and was so impressed that he had Christian teachers come to the palace to instruct him in the Scriptures and pray with him. So far as he could he prevented all executions, or, at least, modified and mollified the severity of the sentence against accused disciples. Though he never seems to have become a convert himself, he often attended Christian worship and befriended the converts in every possible way. His cousin, Prince Ramonja, older than he, yet singularly like him, and also a favorite of the queen, joined him in the chivalrous defence of the persecuted followers of Jesus. The nephew of the prime minister went further than these two royal princes, and openly declared himself a disciple, and so the gospel once more invaded "Caesar's household." His uncle threatened him with the loss of his head, but he calmly answered, "I am a Christian, and if you will, you may put me to death, but I must and will pray." He might be assassinated, but could not be in- timidated, as Curran said of himself when conducting the defense of Bond.
To recount all the fascinating story of the Malagasy's sufferings would require a volume. But we seek rather to portray in outline the main features of this romance of missions. One of the most affecting memorials of this persecution may be found in the fragments of Holy Scripture afterwards brought home by Mr. Ellis. During this famine of the written word, the more educated converts copied out portions of the blessed book, and these were found, worn, soiled and rent, with the torn edges carefully drawn together and sewed with fibres of bark, or repaired with pieces of stronger paper ; and giving evidence that they had been buried in the earth or hidden in smoky thatches, to conceal them from the eyes of the malignant persecutors.
In 1849 a third era of persecution began with the assault upon Prince Ramonja. A habar or business meeting was summoned at Andahalo. The queen addressed a message to her subjects, asking "why it was that they did not give up praying," in view of the severe penalties affixed to the crime of apostasy from the gods of Madagascar.
The Christians made mild but firm answer, refusing to recognize idols. Rainitraho, a noble of royal blood, was among Christ's con-
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fessors, and his heroism was so contagious that the officers stopped the -examinations lest the whole people should be carried away with his example. Four nobles were burned alive, and fourteen others hurled from a precipice 150 feet high, and their families sold as slaves ; 117 were publicly flogged and compelled to labor for life in chains ; 1,700 were fined, and Prince Ramonja was degraded from his rank. The prince royal was accused of being a Christian, but the queen was too indulgent to her only son to take notice of the charge.
No acts of violence could sway these simple Malagasy converts from Jesus. They calmly replied, " None of these things move me." They sang a hymn of "going home to God," as they were borne to execution, and prayers and praises ascended in the very flames that wrapped the stakes. Once, indeed, the flames were extinguished by a sudden rain, and a bow appeared, one end of which seemed to rest on the very posts to which the martyrs were tied. The spectators were overwhelmed with awe, but the fires were relit, and the martyrs gave up the ghost.
To the precipice near the palace, Am-pamaririanu, fourteen prisoners were then led and hurled over its awful edge, bounding from ledge to ledge until they were broken on the granite rocks below, and one of them was heard singing as he fell. One timid woman, Ranivo, who was kept to the last, compelled to look over the edge of the cliff upon the mangled bodies below, in answer to the entreaties of friends that she would save her life by apostasy from Christ, only begged to be hurled from the precipice too. And yet the word of the Lord had free course and was glorified. Converts was still gathered. Believers numbered thousands. In at least seven places in the capital secret meetings were held.
Eainiharo, one of the ministers who had placed Ranavalona on the throne and propped her persecuting policy by his influence, died, and this period of relentless persecution came to a close. The prince royal, Rakatond, now became associated with his mother in the govern- ment. The time now seemed to have come for the return of the expelled missionaries. The London Missionary Society, to whose planting the gospel owed its harvest in Madagascar, sent a deputation, composed of the veteran missionary, Rev. William Ellis, and the Rev. Mr. Cameron, to prepare the way for re-establishing the mission which for about eighteen years had been broken up.
Mr. Ellis found two parties on the island, led respectively by Prince Rakatond and by his cousin, Ramboasalama, the former favoring Christianity and all its noble institutions; the latter in league with idol- atry and all its vicious associations. But Mr. Ellis found the church of Christ in the island stronger than before persecution began, and the knowledge of the gospel spread to the remote parts of the island. Not until his third visit, in 1856, did he reach the capital.
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But when he did, he found that just the fruits which the blessed gospel had produced in the most enlightened communities, it had borne in Madagascar. Disciples had there fought the same fight of faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, and burning with zeal for God and passion for souls. Closet and family prayer were more common than among disciples in London; the word of God was daily searched as for hid treasure, and the meetings for worship were attended at all risk.
The fourth and last persecution may be traced to a plot to depose the wicked queen. June, 1857, was fixed as the time for carrying out the design. Mr. Lambert, a Frenchman, first sought aid from Louis Napoleon and the English prime minister, Lord Clarendon, in relieving the misery of the Malagasy. When the hope of foreign interference failed, he is said to have enlisted the co-operation of Prince Rakatond with some of the nobles and soldiers, in the plan of revolutionizing the government by native aid alone. No violence was to be done to the queen's person; she was simply to be removed from the throne, and her son to be proclaimed king. But on the eve of accomplishment the plot failed, and when the knowledge of the conspiracy came to Queen Ranavalona's ears, she refused to allow any one to hint a suspicion against her son, and like Nero when Rome burned, fixed the guilt of the whole plot upon the poor innocent disciples of Christ. A traitor who "had professed conversion gave the queen a list of seventy whom he charged with a share in the conspiracy. Prince Rakatond got hold of this list and tore it in pieces. But the bloody queen must have some victims for her new fever of rage, and so another kabar was called. Not more than three hundred Christians were found, as they had fled in bands so numerous as to put to flight the detachments of soldiers sent to capture them. The infuriated queen declared that her search should extend to the bowels of the earth and the very beds of lakes and rivers; but the more she raved the more calm and cautious were the followers of Jesus; only Prince Rakatond's energy and inter- position prevented the destruction not only of hundreds of natives but of the six Europeans who were on the island, including Madame Pf eiffer, the traveler. They were, however, banished and barely escaped from the island with their lives.
Christians were pierced and tortured with spears and then beheaded. More than two hundred suffered punishment, most of them men of mark, and stoning was now for the first time employed as a new and cruel mode of execution. Iron necklaces were attached to the necks of others and they were thus linked together and compelled to constant companionship until death ended their sufferings ; if one died the rest had to drag about this body of death — a revival of the hideous forms of ancient torture. Fifty-seven Christians were thus chained together and banished to a distant province.
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This was the last triumph of persecuting hatred against the little church in Madagascar. For thirty-two years Ranavalona had held her red sceptre. She had sought to trample upon and stamp out with iron heel the humble plant of renown that was growing in the soil of this great island. But God used all this rage of this modern Jezebel to test and develop the faith and love of disciples. The tangena draught, the boiling caldron, the rice-pit, the awful precipice, the chain, the spear, the stone, the stake — all united in vain to compel these poor, ignorant, persecuted disciples to disown their newly-found Saviour. For the first time in the h'storyof modern missions God permitted a feeble church, just planted and scarcely rooted on pagan soil, to undergo a quarter of a century of persecution, having scarcely a parallel in vio- lence and cruelty. That church was literally and emphatically isolated; not only on an island, but cut off from sympathetic contact and com- munication with the Christian church in other lands, and yet it more than survived ; for at the end of that twenty-five years, when, if not plucked up by the roots, it might have been expected to be found feeble and half dead, it was strong and firmly rooted, and among its precious fruits were many of the soldiers, the nobles and even the royal household. Many thousand persons had been sentenced to various punishments by the " Bloody Mary" of Madagascar, for their faith; and yet when, in 1861, persecution ceased, the Christian population was five- fold greater than before she began to exterminate them; and more than this — this Plant of Renown had spread its roots through the very soil of society, and its branches reached afar; the perfume of its golden blooms pervaded the very atmosphere; its fruits were to be found in every home. The whole community was undergoing transformation. The name of Christian had become the sign and synonym, the pledge and promise of truth, purity, fidelity, integrity — new virtues were growing, where vice had sprung up rank as weeds. A miracle had been wrought. A Supernatural Power had been at work. The Spirit of God had breathed new life into Malagasy hearts.
July, 1861, came and the queen died, and Rakatond, asRadama II., became king. His first act was to proclaim his policy of toleration. The era of religious liberty had dawned for Madagascar. He pro- claimed deliverance to the captives and the opening of prison doors to them that were bound. Exiles returned home, slaves were set free ; it was a year of jubilee. Idols were banished from the palace, and to show his contempt he sent some Christians to burn the very shrine of one of the national gods, while he looked on to witness the im- potency of the so-called " deity." Radama was a reformer, but not a Christian. He was tolerant of the gospel, and so he was of rum, and 60,000 gallons flooded the island in a week and debauched whole villages.
It was now safe for Mr. Ellis to come again and resume missionary
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work, and in November, 1861, he sailed for Madagascar. On his arrival, with Radama's permission, he secured the sites made sacred by the blood and ashes of the martyrs, for the building of churches ; and so the houses of worship in Madagascar to-day are monuments and memorials of the faith and faithfulness of those who there suffered for Jesus.
Mr. Ellis's arrival was the signal for a triumphal march through the island. Delegations of disciples met him, and processions went out to welcome the veteran missionary. Throngs of worshippers assembled at early dawn. A second service would begin by 8 o'clock in the morning. Every encouragement was now given to the devoted missionary from the hut of the poor to the palace of the king.
Radama II. fell a victim to a conspiracy within a twelvemonth. He who had never shed blood was strangled by assassins, in May, 1863, and his widow, under the title of Queen Rasoherina, ascended the vacant throne, the first constitutional ruler of the Malagasy. She reigned five years, and her subjects enjoyed full liberty of con- science. The work of evangelization went rapidly forward. Never- theless the government was not Christian, and at her coronation, which was on Sunday, the priests and idols were conspicuously in the foreground.
Congregations multiplied and converts increased, and a native ministry was trained up, and a native Christian literature created. The thirst of the native Christians for the word of God was insatiable, and every mark of a Christian home was to be found in their domestic life. Marriage was honored and divorce discouraged. Contributions were liberal, and the missionary spirit led to abundant labors to spread the gospel by both home and foreign missions.
The queen's health was failing, and before she died, it is believed, her mind turned from her old idols, which she had placed in her court and carried on her journeys. She died in April, 1868. Her youngest sister took the throne as Ranavalona II. And now, for the first time, Madagascar had a Christian as well as a constitutional ruler.
He who would see the marvelous change in Madagascar, need only contrast the coronation of the two queens — Ranavalona I. and Rana- valona II. One took place June 12, 1829. Then the Bloody Mary of Madagascar took two of the national idols in her hands, and declared : " I received you from my ancestors. I put my trust in you, therefore support me." And then the scarlet-clad images were held at the front corners of the platform to awe the superstitious multitude. On September 3, 1868, a Christian queen was crowned, and the ceremony befitted such a monarch. The symbols of pagan faith were nowhere to be seen. In their place lay a beautiful copy of the Bible, side by side with the laws of Madagascar. A canopy was stretched above the queen, and on its four sides were four Scripture mottoes : " Glory to
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God"; "Peace on earth"; " Good-will to man"; " God with us." Her inaugural address was interwoven with Scripture dialect, and in- stead of Christianity it was now idolatry which became a suppliant for toleration. And all this took place seven years after Kanavalona L expired ! Astrologers and diviners were no longer to be found at court ; Rasoherina's idol was cast out of the palace. Government work ceased on Sunday, and the Sunday markets were closed. In the palace court services of divine worship were instituted, which are kept up to this date. Churches now grow rapidly, sometimes fivefold in a year. The Madagascar New Year, formerly an idolatrous festival, now became a Christian holy day ; and the queen's address declared, ' e I have brought my kingdom to lean upon God, and I expect you, one and all, to be wise and just, and to walk in His ways." Just one month later Ranavalona II. and her prime minister were publicly bap- tized by one of the native preachers, in the very courtyard where, a few years before, the bloodiest edicts had been issued.
In the queen's examination by the native ministers, it transpired that her first serious impressions were traceable to a native Christian who, when she was a mere child, sought to impress her with the truth as it is in Jesus. It was Andriantoiamba, one of the four noblemen who were afterward burned as martyrs, who thus sowed the seed in that young heart that afterward ripened into the first Christian queen of the island. Two days before their baptism the queen and the prime minister, were wedded, and shortly after both publicly joined in the Lord's Supper, thus magnifying the Christian family and the Sacra- ments of the church of God.
Such an example was likely to be followed. Almost all the govern- ment officers of high rank, and among them the chief idol-keeper, the astrologer of Rasoherina, came forward to receive baptism. Congre- gations multiplied beyond all means of accommodation. One hundred new buildings were in demand ; 37,000 persons attended worship, an increase of 16,000 in a year ! On July 20 the cornerstone of a chapel, designed for the use of the queen and court, was laid in the very courtyard of the palace.
To-day in that palace courtyard the traveler may see a beautiful house of prayer. In gilded letters upon two large stone tablets forming part of the surbase of the structure, appears engraven the following royal statement, read at the laying of the corner-stone in 1869 :
"By the power of God and grace of our Lord Jesus, I, Ranava- lomanjaka, Queen of Madagascar, founded the House of Prayer, on the thirteenth Adimizana, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1869, as a house of prayer for the service of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, according to the word in the Sacred Scriptures, by Jesus Christ the Lord, who died for the sons of all men, and rose
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again for the justification and salvation of all who believe in and love Him.
"For these reasons this stone house, founded by me as a house of prayer, cannot be destroyed by any one, whoever may be king of this my land, forever and forever ; but if he shall destroy this house of prayer to God which I have founded, then is he not king of my land, Madagascar. Wherefore I have signed my name with my hand and the seal of the kingdom.
" Ranavalomanjaka,
" Queen of Madagascar. " This word is genuine, and the signature by the hand of Rana- valomanjaka is genuine.
' ' Rainilaiarivony, "Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of Madagascar."
If you should visit this island to-day, you would find four sacred sites occupied by memorial ehurches. Ampamar mafia, the summit of the martyrs' precipice ; Ambohipotsy , where Rasalama, the first martyr, was speared ; Ambatoiiakaiiga, where so many were kept in prison ; and Faravohitra, where the rainbow rested over the -burning pile, and where the first stone of the church was laid exactly beneath the spot where the remains of the martyrs were found.
Is it possible to account for changes such as these, wrought within the space of sixty years by the simple preaching and teaching of the gospel, unless the power of God is indeed behind the Bible ? If there ever was a wonder that compelled even the sceptical and the un- believing to exclaim, "What hath God wrought !" it is to be found in the story of Madagascar.
THE INHERITANCES OF NATIONS ALLOTTED BY GOD.
BY REV. A. W. PITZER, D.D., WASHINGTON, D. C
"God's works of Providence are His most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures, ordering them and all their actions to His own glory."
Individual life cannot be detached from God and Llis overruling Providence; and nations rise, flourish, decay and die in accordance not merely with natural law and second causes, but also, in accord- ance with His eternal purposes and plans. Before man was created, or human history had begun, God had a fixed place for every nation and a definite plan for every man's life. Nor has this Divine decree and Providence ever impaired the freedom and responsibility of the individual or the nation, nor is God the author of man's sin, nor is the efficiency of second causes diminished.
The nations of the earth come to their separate places of inherit- ance on the globe, moved by various motives and impelled by differ- ent forces. Restless for change, greedy for gain, envious of their
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neighbors, ambitious for fame, filled with cruelty and thirsting for blood, the nations of the past and the present have freely worked out the problem of national destiny. And yet, it was the Most High God, whose Providence divided to these nations their inheritance, and who decreed and settled the bounds of all kindreds, tribes and peoples; and to each and to all He said, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." There is a philosophy of history, but the Godless historian has never seen it — a philosophy of history human, yet divine — that makes full estimate of all human forces at work in the world, but fails not at the same time to see the mighty Providence of God in the onward march of all earthly things.
The Most High God located the nations of the old world and the new. He planted the Egyptian by the waters of the Nile, flowing from the ever-living lakes of equatorial Africa; He gave to the sons of Ham the "dark continent" teeming with life and filled with food; from central Asia His hand led out the people after the confusion of tongues at Babel to the Euphrates and Tigris; to India, to China, and to the islands of the great seas that wash the coasts of the Asiatic continent. To the sons of Japheth, the Cimbri, the Tartars, the Medes, the Greeks, the Muscovites, He gave northern Asia, Asia Minor and Europe.
The ethnology of the 10th chapter of Genesis remains an unchal- lenged chart of the nations to this day. Fifteen hundred years after Moses incorporated in his writings this chart, and after he had sung this song, another -descendant from the family of Shem, stood in the midst of Mars Hill and declared to the wisdom-seeking sons of Javan that God had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before ap- pointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him.
God, then, has a purpose concerning this race and world of ours, and His overruling providence is silently, but irresistibly, conducting the races and nations along the great highway of human history. He plants and He plucks up dynasties, kingdoms, nations and empires, and orders, controls and governs all things according to the counsels of His own will.
What, then, is that supreme purpose of God, to the development and accomplishment of which, all agents and agencies, all forces and events, all kings and empires are made subservient and tributary ? Surely it must be an object worthy of God Himself, and commensurate with His all-embracing and resistless providence. It is nothing less than the estab- lishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth, in visible sovereignty and glory. Devout worshippers of the true and living God in all ages and lands have cried in prayer to Him, " Thy Kingdom Come."
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In his last song, Moses tells the children of Israel encamped on the plains of Moab and in sight of the promised land, why it was that God had divided to the nations their inheritance and fixed the bound- aries of the peoples. He had taken Israel, the seed of His friend Abraham, as his possession and portion, and, in relation to their number and location on the globe, He had arranged all other nations and peoples.
The Kingdom of God is to come on earth through Israel; for sal- vation is of the Jews; and David's greater son* is yet to sit on David's throne, and hence God's people, His portion must be the centre around which and for the sake of which, all national movements, great and small, shall revolve.
The little strip of land on the western border of the continent of Asia, not 200 miles from north to south, by less than 100 miles from east to west, washed by the Mediterranean Sea, almost in sight of the life-giving waters of Africa's great river, and touching to the west- ward, the isles and lands of the Gentiles, is the divinely ordained home of the chosen people, and the geographical centre of all human history until the Kingdom of God shall come in power and glory.
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, Rome, all the nations of modern Europe have gazed with greedy eyes on this his- toric spot of earth.
Canon Farrar, in describing this land, as it spread out in beauty before the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, says, "Pharaohs and Ptolemies, Emins and Arsacids, judges and consuls, have all contended for the mastery of this smiling tract. It had glittered with the lances of the Amalekites; it had trembled under the chariot wheels of Serostris; it had echoed the twanging bow strings of Sennacharib; it had clashed with the broadswords of Rome; it was destined to ring with the bat- tle-cry of the Crusaders, and thunder with the artillery of England and France. Here, Europe and Asia, Judaism and Heathenism, Bar- barism and civilization had met and struggled for supremacy."
The careful student of history cannot fail to see that the destinies of the empires of the Old World were determined by their relations to this land and its wondrous people whom the living God had chosen for portion and possession.
If he inquired why this land and people were so important in the history of the race, the answer is easily given. From Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Malachi, by words and acts, God made Himself known to this people. He came into this earthly realm, and became a factor in human history. Israel received from God the truth unto salvation in trust for all the nations of the earth. They are the di- vinely appointed trustees of this sacred deposit — to hold this in trust and preserve it pure, for all the families of man, is their high calling and providential mission to all tribes and races and nations. The
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history of Israel, therefore, will have relations that reach out and embrace all lands and all peoples.
To the Egyptians, God gave the fertile valley of the Nile, that, here in the midst of this ancient civilization, the sons of Jacob, His chosen, might be developed from a clan into a nation, and be taught and trained in all the wisdoms and arts of this mighty and marvelous people.
To the Assyrians he gave the lands along the Euphrates and the Tigris, that here might be founded an empire that should, as His minister of justice and judgment, at the appointed time, sweep the kingdom of the ten tribes from the land of their fathers.
He, too, ordained that Assyria should be wasted by Babylon, and that Babylon should become the hammer of the whole earth, and should carry His people, Judah, captives to that far-off land, that in the horrors of the seventy years' captivity they might forsake idolatry forever. And when God has accomplished His purposes concerning Israel with Babylon, then He raised up the Medes, who broke down her broad walls, and burned her high gates with fire, and Babylon became heaps of ruins, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing without inhabitant.
The Hebrew prophets depict with the utmost minuteness and clearness the relations of the nations to Israel, their providential places in history, and how God used them to extend on the earth the knowl- edge of that truth given to His chosen and covenanted people. Isaiah foretells the fate of Moab, of Damascus, of Egypt, of Tyre, of Assyria, and of Babylon. Daniel in vision, and under the symbol of a beast, beholds in succession, the empires of Babylonia, the Medo- Persian, the Greek and the Roman, and even the destruction of the old Roman empire, and the ten kingdoms of modern Europe, that continue until the return of Jesus our Lord, from the heavens.
God divided to all these nations their inheritance; He fixed their boundaries; He appointed their providential mission; He determined the days of their dominion, and the day of their destruction; their highest use and chief end were what service they rendered in the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. Egypt furnished the temporary home of the Israelites; the Babylonish captivity cured them of idolatry; the Persians restored them to their own land; the Grecians prepared the language to contain ^he Gospel of the son of David; and Rome builded the great highways whereon the apostles of our Lord carried the glad tidings to the ends of the earth.
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of God, was the climax and culmination of the revelations of God to the Hebrew people; and when He died upon the Cross, the inscription over His head, testifying to His kingship, was written in the world's historic languages, the Hebrew, the Greek and the Roman. Herod,
834 THE INHERITANCES OF NATIONS ALLOTTED BY GOD. [Nov.
Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, did what- soever God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done. To this great central and germinal event all the ages had looked, and all nations had contributed. The wise men from the east spake not for themselves merely, but for others, when they said: " Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." God's kingdom must come on earth through Him, who is both David's son and David's Lord.
The Risen Christ, from His father's throne in heaven, exercises now an invisible, but resistless, dominion over all nations, kingdoms and empires, and the nations still come to their inheritance according to the divine appointment, and as they serve to make known on earth the sacred truth given in trust to the Jews, they prepare the way for the coming Lord, by proclaiming the glad tidings of that kingdom that shall never end.
God still determines the appointed times of the nations and the bounds of their habitations, with reference to their relations to His son, Jesus Christ, and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Many nations shall yet say: "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
So far as nations have had any history, since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that history has been connected with and tributary to the extension and establishment of the Gospel of that Risen Lord among all the peoples of the earth: for that Gospel must be preached to all nations, as God's witness, before the Kingdom of Heaven can come in power and glory on this earth.
The movements of men and nations through eighteen Christian centuries have been guided by the divine eye, and controlled by the divine hand. The dismemberment of the old Roman empire, the rise of the kingdoms of modern Europe, the growth of the Papacy, the career of Mohammed, the wars of the Crusaders, the darkness of the Middle Ages, the revival of learning, the persecutions of the Church by Rome — Pagan and Papal — the invention of printing, the transla- tions of the Scriptures, the reformation of the sixteenth century, the exile of Christians for conscience sake, the use of the mariner's com- pass, and the opening up of new and unknown lands, were not less directed by the Almighty God of heaven, than Israel's march from Egypt to Canaan, and the times and bounds of the nations of the Old World.
Nowhere is the overruling providence of God more clearly seen than in this our land, and in the history of the people of these United States. Israel's God and our father's God divided to us this rich inheritance; and He has appointed our time and fixed our bounds,
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that we might not only seek the Lord ourselves, but should give His Gospel, committed in trust to our custody, to all the nations. Morde- cai's question to Queen Esther comes with fearful emphasis to the rulers and people of this republic: " If thou altogether boldest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the king- dom for such a time as this ? "
Our forefathers brought with them to this new world that fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, that liberty of conscience to worship God that could not be enjoyed at home. With them came, too, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the inspired and infallible Word of God; the family as the basis and unit of all true life in both Church and State; the sanctity of the oath unto God as the hope of a pure administration of justice in our courts; the divinely -ordained rest of the Lord's Day, not for a holiday but for a holy day — in short, they brought with them, not monarchy, nor anarchy, not communism, nor atheism, not infidelity, nor materialism, nor papacy, but God-fearing piety and customs founded on the Word of God.
We have come to the Kingdom at such a time as this — a time when there are no longer any hermit nations, nor Chinese walls of exclusion; in a wider and deeper sense than ever before, every man may now say, "The world is my parish. 99 Steamships supersede sail vessels, the engine does the work of a thousand men and horses, the sun paints our pictures, electricity illumines our cities and sends our words with lightning sj^eed around the globe. All the ends of the earth are brought face to face in the great struggle for existence; and all races and nations jostle each other on the broad highway of life. Surely the Anglo-Saxon Christianity of America must have a mission from the God of Heaven to all the races and nations of the earth. "The wheels of history are the chariot wheels of the Almighty, and with every revolution there is an onward movement toward the goal of His eternal purposes," to establish here on earth the Kingdom of God in supernal splendor.
The providential mission of this nation is to give the blessed Gos- pel of the Son of God to all peoples of the earth. The weary and sin-stricken children of Adam, of every continent and island, of every tribe and tongue, in their darkness and degradation, look, with long- ing eyes to us for light and help and healing. "Come over into Mace- donia and help us" is the despairing cry borne on every breeze and from every land beneath the skies — from China and Korea, from In- dia and Japan, from Persia and Papal Europe, from the South Ameri- can Republic and Mexico, from the islands of the oceans and the '"dark continent" of Livingstone and Stanley.
We hold the Gospel, not merely for ourselves but in trust for a
826
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
[Nov.
lost world. We have the men and the money, the missionaries and the agencies, methods of transit and transportation, in more than abundance, to give the Gospel in ten years, as God's witness, to every nation under heaven. The supreme duty of this nation is to realize her sublime providential mission, and bear the blessed light of the Gospel to all the dark places of the earth, to the habitations of men now filled with cruelty. There is no second Columbus to be bomy nor any new continent to be discovered. This is the "last days," and this "the ends of the earth," the light that shines across the Pacific from San Francisco and Portland reaches to the very lands where first that light was kindled "Now or never," is the world to be evan- gelized by us.
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
BY MISS HELEN F. CLARK, NEW YORK.
[Mr. C. J. Laffin went out to Africa under Bishop Taylor, but when his Congo Mission failed, he worked independently, though unofficially associated with the A. B. M. U. He sent us various notes from the Congo. He has just returned to take a medical course, then goes back to Central Africa. He has furnished Miss Clark with the facts and experiences of his three years' mission tour, which she here puts into form, under his supervision. The paper, being reliable and fresh from the Congo, cannot fail to be of special interest at the present juncture. — J. M. S.]
The question of evangelizing Central Africa is one that now en- grosses the attention of aggressive Christianity in both England and America. The best plan of work, and the character of the workers, is largely discussed among the various boards and missionary com- mittees; consequently any light that can be thrown upon these topics by missionaries who have been upon the field, and are, therefore, best qualified to give an opinion, is gratefully received.
Mr. Laffin spent his first few months in Africa in the vicinity of Vivi and Isangila, but afterwards pushed on up the Congo river 800 miles to the equator, stopping at Equatorville station, forming the acquaintance of various tribes along the banks of the Congo and lesser streams.
From the first he was keenly interested in the methods of work followed in the various mission stations which he visited, and care- fully studied their every detail. Then followed much practical work on his own part among the natives as he traveled through the country and mingled with them.
As an independent missionary, Mr. Laffin founded no station, nor reported his work to any superior, but to the great Master Himself, but wisely spent his time in examining the country and the conditions under which he must work, and in forming his own opinion as to the wisest and most effective way to prosecute that work.
The Africans he came in contact with are a peculiar people, and must be dealt with in the utmost candor and with straightforward
1890.]
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
827
simplicity. With them no half-hearted work is possible; no clouded testimony in word or life will receive the slightest regard from them. Nothing but sterling Christianity in word or deed will convince them that the Gospel you preach is true; but the testimony clearly borne, and the life that will bear the sharpest scrutiny, will bring a multi- tude of hungry hearts to God. Perhaps the work done is more satisfactory in Africa than in any other country, for the man or woman who is converted is converted in deed and in truth, and becomes at once as aggressive for the truth as the missionary himself.
Mr. Laffin has vouchsafed the following interesting facts under the heads of "What has been done in Africa;" " What is being done," and " What can be done," which we give, as nearly as possible, in his own words.
FIRST WHAT HAS BEEN DONE.
There are, at the present time, four societies prosecuting active work in Central Africa: the American Baptists, the English Baptists, the Swedish Society, and the Congo Balolo Society, who have a combined working force of about 80 missionaries in all, occupying 20 mission stations. Of these stations 13 are situated on the lower Congo and Cataract region, below Stanley Pool, and the remaining 7 are on the upper Congo and in the Balolo district.
Thus far 7 churches have been organized — all among the Bakongo people — which aggregate about 1,500 communicants, with half as many more who profess conversion, but whom the missionaries are keeping on probation for a short time. Besides these regular stations, there are in this vicinity from 15 to 20 out-stations and preaching-posts, all manned by able native evangelists.
It is but thirteen years since the first missionaries penetrated the Congo districts, and but ten of these have been spent in actually publishing the Gospel, for the first three were spent by the little band of sturdy English Christians in fighting fevers, and in trying to con- ciliate the hostile natives. Since that time, one tribe only has been, to a large extent, evangelized — that is to say, the Gospel has been preached the length of the land upon which this numerous and powerful tribe of Bakongo people live.
The difficulties experienced by these indomitable pioneers seem almost beyond belief. During those first three perilous years the missionaries were driven from place to place and were not able to settle anywhere. They found it difficult to establish any communica- tion with the natives, since the black men regarded them with the utmost suspicion and distrust, and gave them almost no opportunity to acquire the native language. In the course of time, seeing that the strange whites were neither slave traders nor state officials, the suspicion of the natives finally gave way to confidence, and their would-be friends were allowed to found their station in peace, and to
828
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
[Nov.
begin the publication of those good tidings which afterwards brought peace to so many troubled souls among them.
The greatest difficulty in reaching the interior has ever been in getting above the falls in the great river, about 100 miles above its mouth. To navigate the stream at this point is impossible. Therefore, all stores and baggage for the interior must be conveyed a distance of 250 miles around in sixty-pound packages, which the lithe and agile natives bear upon their heads. The steamboats for the upper Congo were taken apart and packed in this manner, and rebuilded upon the upper side.
There are thirty-one steamers now running upon the upper Congo, three of which are missionary boats, the others belonging either to the Government or to the traders. Two more mission steamers are now in process of construction for the lower Congo, and one for the upper.
Stations have been established among three other tribes, but as yet only one convert has crowned their labors. Here the difficulty of acquiring the language hinders the missionaries. There is no written language, and the tongue must be acquired slowly and un- satisfactorily by mingling with the people as often as they will per- mit, and there is no missionary upon the field to-day who has mastered it sufficiently to talk intelligently, without having frequent recourse to an interpreter.
In these distant stations on the upper river, isolated from one another, it has required a long time to gain the confidence of the na- tives, but the past few years have sufficed at last to convince these distrustful people that the white man really came to them from an unselfish motive, and he has now won their hearts, so that to-day these persevering workers have a firm footing in the three tribes, and are ready to branch out into large work as soon as their numbers are re-inforced by the arrival of new missionaries.
WHAT IS BEING DONE.
As to what is being done, perhaps the most successful of all the efforts put forth, is that of the native evangelists. This, of course, brings us back to the Bakongo people along the Lower Congo.
Of the members of these churches, a very large percentage — con- siderably more than half — are persevering, energetic, aggressive Christian workers — such workers as put to shame the feeble and child- ish efforts of many Christians in our own land.
To them, black man or white man, State official, of however high degree, or slave, of ever so mean a degradation, is either a "son of God" or a "son of the Devil." They know but two classes, and if you are not avowedly of the first, they immediately pronounce you in- the second, and proceed to give you the Gospel on the spot. They fear no man, soldier or government-official, trader or traveler, brother
1890.J
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
829
African or slave, and one of the first questions asked, upon forming one's acquaintance, will be, "Jvcoizi, ngeye mwancC nzambi?" (are you a son of God?)
If the answer is in the negative, they very frequently respond, "Bosimwana? mbungi /" (Then you are a child of the Devil.) After which they present the Gospel to you with all the eloquence and clearness of which their incomparable language is capable.
These workers are continually organizing themselves into bands of twenty or thirty, and with neither scrip nor staves, they go from village to village, preaching the Gospel, and often remaining away for weeks at a time.
The missionaries freely acknowledge that one native is worth three or four white men as an evangelist. They speak with marvellous ora- torical effect; indeed, they are said to be born orators. "A sermon that I heard from one of them," says Mr. Laffin, "was as fine as ever I heard in either Europe or America, not only in point of delivery, but in its clearness of reasoning, and in its profound perception of spiritual truth."
These bands of workers go out invariably at their own expense. Besides these unpaid volunteers there are some 25 native evangelists who go individually to out-posts and preaching-stations, and who are nearly all self-supporting or are maintained by the native churches. The natives believe the Gospel at the mouths of their own people far more readily than they do from the missionary himself ; conse- quently their work is of vastly more value in the general evangeli- zation of a tribe than is that of the white man.
But the simplicity of the native evangelist is, as a rule, altogether spoiled by transportation to America or England. A taste of European life robs him of his unconsciousness of self, and, thereafter, he looks down upon his kindred and will no longer associate with them, but must live as we live, and wants more luxuries than any missionary would allow himself. These people frequently travel half a day's journey, bringing their food with them, in order to attend divine service.
The loj^alty of the native Christian to God's Word is marvellous. While the people are perfectly obedient to the Supreme Being, they will bear no dictation from us whatever. If we insist upon their conforming their lives to any precept or principle which we may lay down, they immediately begin to reason the matter with us. If the rule be a scriptural one, they insist upon our finding the text, when we must read it to them and translate it into their own language. But if the scripture bears out our words, that is an end of all contro- versy; thereafter, it becomes a law to them, or as they style it in their own beautiful native tongue, "The Lord hath said it, and we must obey." On this account we are obliged to discriminate accu-
830
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
[Nov.
rately in our teaching against what is purely a matter of custom with us, since they will learn nothing from us save that which is scriptural. ]>ut when they are told not to lie, or cheat in business, or to steal, seeing it in Scripture, the}^ immediately desist.
As an illustration of this, I will give you an incident in my own experience. Traveling through strange villages one day, I saw a woman by the roadside with a pawpaw beside her. I asked what she would sell it for, and she named a price; I bade the boy who was with me take it away for our noon-day meal. "No, no," she cried, "the pawpaw will not be ripe enough until to-morrow; go on down the road, sir, and you will find plenty more that are ripe enough to eat now." I then learned that she was a Christian. She had heard the Gospel from a native evangelist who had once come to her village to preach, and she had received the truth, and, although untaught in the principles of Christian living, yet by the Holy Spirit's help, had instinctively perceived the right.
"When the surveyors for the Congo railroad, which is now being built, were laying out the road through a certain tract, one of them approached the chief of the neighboring tribe, and, as is customary, offered him a glass of rum. The chief thanked him for the courtesy, but declined the rum with these words: " That is what destroys the bodies and souls of my people. As a Christian I cannot take it."
I come now to our last proposition:
WHAT CAN BE DONE IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
The whole of the Congo Free State is now open to missionaries. This district contains about 1,680,000 square miles of country, all of which is accessible through the Congo and its tributaries. This im- mense system of rivers affords at least, according to explorations up to date, 10,000 miles of navigable waterway above Stanley Pool. This district contains from fifteen to twenty different tribes, speak- ing as many different languages, and numbering in the aggregate, as near as may be estimated, from thirty to eighty millions of souls. The best known of these tribes, the Balolo, is calculated to number ten millions of itself. Many parts of the interior are said to be par- ticularly healthy and free from malaria and fevers. Dr. Summers, in speaking of Luluaburg, calls it a very healthy place, and states that at night the thermometer will sometimes fall to the freezing point.
There is not known to be a single town in the interior, or Central Africa, that will refuse to receive a missionary, if once satisfied that he is a missionary. To them the yoke of a foreign government is so galling that the very sight of the men in its employ, as a rule, arouses all their enmity.
The Congo Free State obliges all vessels to fly its flag, and wherever the missionary goes he is marked as a State man, and only undeniable proof will suffice to convince them that the missionary is
1890.]
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
831
not an enemy in disguise. To them, words prove nothing, and deeds purporting to flow from an unselfish motive are an unsolvable enigma; hence, it is only the " heroes," who can persevere without the slightest show of fear or alarm, and endure the suspicion and the consequent tribulations until their identity is established. This some- times takes a long time. In the case of the first missionaries on the lower Congo it required three years, and it has required almost as long a time for the faithful pioneers on the upper river to gain an entrance and a footing.
In Africa, the women missionaries are the happier. Nothing is feared from them, and they are allowed to go in and out at their pleasure without molestation. Their presence in a party has more than once spared valuable lives to the Congo work. At one time a small party, including two ladies, sailed up an unexplored river, and at night-time they attempted to land and camp for the night. The natives immediately assembled, and ordered them off. They expostu- lated in vain, insisting that they were not foes, but missionaries de- siring to be their friends, but they refused to believe them, and they were forced to take refuge on a sand-bar for the night. In the morn- ing their men came out, and examining their boat carefully, and find- ing no arms or weapons such as the State men carried, finally permit- ted them to land and make friends with them, but averred that it was only the presence of the ladies that had kept them from killing them immediately on their approach.
At one time, in company with two blacks from a village where I had been working, I rowed up another river a distance of probably eight or ten miles, when, coming within sight of a strange village, we were surprised to hear a hasty alarm sounded, and instantly a multi- tude of the brown-skinned fellows rushed to the banks of the creek, armed with bows and arrows. Then, with a peculiar beating of drums, a message was telegraphed down the creek to the adjoining village, and from there the alarm was sounded on to the next, and the next, till at last the hoarse din died away to a faint sound, and finally hushed to our ears altogether, while up and down the river-bank were gathered the wild people eager to wreak their vengeance on our defenceless heads.
I surely thought it was all over with me, and the blacks by my side had settled themselves stoically to meet their fate, when far off came the hurried tang-tang-tang of a message swiftly sent back. The word had gone even to the village I had left, and instantly came the response: "Let him alone ! He is a missionary !" Then the assem- bled blacks apologized, and treated us with the utmost cordiality and friendliness, saying: " We have no complaint againt the ambas- sadors of God." We are always called by them "ambassadors of God," and native Christians are called " witnesses of Jesus Christ."
832
THE CONGO MISSIONS.
[Nov.
The missionaries in Africa, as a rule, count the work of one woman worth that of twelve men, since they can go anywhere, even among the fiercest tribes. Their motives are never questioned, and they are invariably listened to with the greatest respect. Miss Silvey went about among the Bayansi tribe with perfect freedom, although they are by far the most formidable of all the tribes yet known. They are also the most inveterate of the cannibals, since they buy slave- children and slaughter them for the markets, as we do cattle. Miss Silvey spoke to them only through interpreters, since their speech has not yet been reduced to language. Miss de Hailes and Mrs. McKittrick work quite as freely among the Balolo people.
These inland tribes are, as a rule, a fine, powerful people. They are not Negroes but Bantus, and are of a choclate brown color, with thin, well-curved lips and fine features. They are wonderfully energetic, pushing and business-like, and, if converted, will make princely evangelists, since they fear nothing, and will make long journeys from home, remaining away many months at a time. While they are suspicious of the white men, they have no hatred for them unless they have done them an injury. Government repre- sentatives they count their mortal enemies, but the missionaries, when they are once known to be such, -are invariably welcomed.
The missionary's first step is to gain the confidence of the people, and then it is easy to win their affections, and his opportunity to preach the Gospel is unlimited. When they believe in you they be- lieve your gospel, and are quickly won to God and to abide by His Word.
At first they will give you two motives for not believing you: 1st, The improbability of people doing anything from a purely unself- . ish motive. 2d, The impossibility of it. Therefore, they are not willing in the beginning to believe that Jesus could possibly have loved and died for them. But the life of a missionary among them, self-sacrificing and exhibiting unfeigned love for their souls, becomes at last incontrovertible proof of the truth of the Gospel, and they ac- cept it gladly and fully.
But one great question troubles them, that has troubled many Christians before, "If it is all true and Christ's unselfish love begets a like love in your souls, why is it that you never came to us before, why do not more come now ?" Christian reader, can you answer it ?
One of these men said to me one day, "White man, my heart is hungry for something, and I don't know what it is." After he was converted I said to him, "Well, have you found out now what it was that your heart was hungering for ?" " Yes," he answered, quickly; " It was hungry for salvation !"
My advice to every missionary coming here, would be, not to try to educate the people, not even to make the civilization of these tribes
1890.]
THE ROMANCE OF GOEDVERWACHT.
833
their initiatory effort, but to make their one effort, first and last and all the time, to preach the Gospel !
Any child or adult will refuse to come to school after the novelty wears off unless paid for it, but when converted, they clamor at once to be taught to read, that they may search the Scriptures for themselves.
It is most unwise to attempt to Europeanize them. It is far bet- ter to leave them Africans still, since the Word teaches them all that is required for purity and wholesomeness of life and morals, and cus- toms are only galling and useless to a people so differently situated from us.
It would require, probably from twenty to thirty missionaries per tribe to equip Central Africa; after which, the work of the native evangelist becomes the main factor in the gospelizing of this darkened land. >
The Jesuits, backed by the government of the Congo Free State, are coming into this region like a flood, from the west, and the Mo- hammedans are coming in almost equal numbers, from the east. Hence, whatever is done for the spreading of the Gospel here must be done quickly.
THE ROMANCE OF GOEDVERWACHT.
BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ, NAZARETH, PA.
Goedverwacht is a Moravian mission station among the Hottentots in South Africa, almost a hundred miles due north from Cape Town. The Moravians began missionary operations, both in Guinea and in the Cape Colony, in 1737, but this particular station was not founded until 1858.
Like many tales of fiction, so, too, the veritable romance of Goedverwacht is founded upon a most peculiar and very complicated testament, which be- came intricately involved with the history of the mission, and upon which for a time its very existence depended.
In 1810, a certain wealthy Dutch farmer, by the name of Buergers, pur- chased a beautiful, well- watered, fertile valley, of some 900 acres, in the Piquet mountains, and, by means of his Hottentot slaves, transformed it into a pros- perous little colony, which now bears the name of Goedverwacht. Here Mr. Buergers lived most contentedly until the year 1838, when the emancipation of all slaves should take place. To his great displeasure he noticed that his slaves had become filled with spiritual desires, and, as soon as they became free, would forsake him and move to a mission station.
In order to prevent this, Mr. Buergers chose six of his slaves whom he valued most highly, and told them, that if they would remain with him and care for him up to his death, he would will them his entire estate. He drew up his will accordingly, decreeing that these six slaves should hold the estate in common, but that it could not be sold until the last of the six slaves died, and then it must be sold and the proceeds divided equally among the living children of these six slaves.
This will was considered an insult to his white neighbors and relatives, but it was drawn up so skillfully, that all attempts to upset it proved utterly futile.
Thus, in 1843, six poor, despised Hottentot men and women, having faith- fully fulfilled all the conditions of the will, suddenly became wealthy real-es- tate owners.
834
THE ROMANCE OF GOEDVERWACHT.
[Nov.
The property did not fall into unworthy hands. These six gathered to- gether their friends and relatives, and soon had a colony of over 500 souls, and they at once proceeded to take measures to have their spiritual wants sup- plied. For this purpose, they applied to the Moravians for missionaries.
The Moravians in their work among these peoples, have always found it best to gather their converts into little villages around the mission-houses, which, for this purpose must, of course, stand upon ground owned by the Church. Owing to the peculiar conditions of the will, they could purchase no land there, and so had to serve these Hottentots as best they could from a neighboring station. However, a nourishing congregation of Christian con- verts was gradually gathered.
In the meantime, the six owners began to die off. It became apparent that the time when the estate must be sold, was fast approaching. If the Moravian Church could not purchase the estate, the flourishing mission- work would be destroyed. The surrounding white farmers could scarcely await the time when they could avenge the imagined insult of making Hottentots equal landowners with themselves. They openly boasted of the sums they would pay, and de- clared they would resell the land to the highest bidders. The Moravians, with their scanty means, could not compete with the fat purses of these hostile farmers. The future looked very dark. The survivors of the six would gladly have secured the possession to the Church, but the courts had decided that, under the will they were powerless.
In this extremity, the good brethren put in motion the mightiest force of which the Kingdom of God knows. They and their converts prayed — prayed unceasingly, prayed in Africa and prayed at home, prayed constantly — for the roofs over their heads, and the ground under their feet seemed to totter and tremble. It was an invisible power, but it was silently at work.
In the meantime, the courts had decided that, according to the letter of the will, only the actually living children of the original six, and not their grandchildren, would be the heirs of the estate. Further, that unless all the heirs were of age the estate must be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Further, that even if all were of age, if there was a single one who refused to agree upon a price, it would again have to be sold at auction to the highest bidder. In either of those two cases the estate would be lost to the Moravians, and their faithful labor of years scattered to the winds, and the scene of their prayers, and tears and triumphs for Christ become the abode and property of godless men. On the other hand, the courts had decided that, if all the heirs were of age, and if all were unanimously agreed, then they could sell the estate at private sale for any price they chose, no matter how low, and to whomsoever they chose.
Finally the fate of the entire mission depended upon the life of one old woman, the last survivor of the original six slaves. At length, on December 28, 1333, old Christine, who for thirty-eight years had lived the life of a true Christian, died in her ninety-third year.
At once the hostile-minded neighbors began to tempt the poor Hottentot heirs with fancy prices. What would be the fate of the mission? After thorough investigation, the court decided that there were thirteen heirs ac- cording to the letter of Buerger's will, and as one of these thirteen died after Christine, the three children of that one were also heirs. By the merciful overruling of Providence the life of old Christine had been preserved just long enough to permit the youngest of these heirs to become of age. The power of prayer began to be evident. But were these all willing to sell their valuable estate to the Moravian mission, and not only to sell it to the mission, but also
1890.]
HIDDEN SPRINGS— OR HOW MISSIONARIES ARE MADE.
835
for a price the church could afford to pay — which must be one far below its value ? Upon this now hung the fate of this flourishing mission. The count- less prayers of the believers had not been in vain. The numberless difficulties and delicate negotiations cannot be detailed here. Suffice it, therefore, to say that a prayer-hearing God so ruled the hearts of these fifteen heirs that they voluntarily adopted the unanimous resolution to sell their estate to the Mora- vian Church for the moderate sum of £750 on June 30, 1889. Each heir re- ceived £51 and 15 shillings, of which nearly every one at once returned £1 as a gift towards a church building, and some more. However, there is still a need for much more before all the expenses of the transactions can be paid and the necessary church buildings erected. But the Lord, who won the hearts of the self-sacrificing heirs, will also move the hearts of Christians to give of their means to upbuild this noble mission.
What is the ' ' moral " of this tale ? A prayer-hearing God can overrule the testament of one who cared not for the Church, can guide the decisions of courts, can defeat the machinations of malicious men, can guide the hearts of poor Hottentots.
And further, when Christians at home are earnestly, and non-Christians are sneeringly, seeking for permanent results of missionary work among de- based people, here is again a shining example of the precepts of Christ enter- ing into and controling the practical life of converts. Imagine fifteen Ameri- can nominal Christians of all ages and conditions, not rich, but really poor, deliberately refusing a fancy price for real estate, when it could be honestly gained, and being satisfied with a very moderate figure, out of love for the Lord Jesus and pure loyalty to the Church. It would have been so easy to have simply put the estate up at auction and taken the highest bid, and no one could have accused them of the slightest crime, as the world goes. But higher, more Christlike principles controlled these poor South Africans. See how Christ has transformed these poor, degraded, down-trodden, despised Hottentots ! God bless their self-sacrifice to them and their children !
HIDDEN SPRINGS — OR HOW MISSIONARIES ARE MADE.
BY MARIA A. WEST, SARATOGA, N. Y.
In the deep recesses of the forest and mountain solitudes, far away from human sight and pen, God prepares the hidden fountains which send their pure, perennial streams down to the valleys below, causing life and beauty, ver- dure and f ruitf ulness, to spring up on every side, and filling the rivers which flow onward to the great sea, to carry its blessings to the distant places of the earth, till the desert shall revive and blossom as the garden of the Lord.
And, as in the economy of nature, so, also, in the Kingdom of Grace, the most powerful and permeating forces are often those that are secretly, silently working, unheralded and often unknown, but set in motion by the Divine Hand which keeps the heavenly record, and marks the onward flow and fruit- age, through time and through eternity!
A remarkable instance of this hidden spring of far-reaching influence, has recently been brought to light, and is especially worthy of mention at this time, when its power is strikingly illustrated.
In the year 1837, Mrs. Francis G. Clewe — born in the year 1801 — and living at Genville, a village four miles from Schenectady, listened to the preaching of a missionary sermon, at Hudson, which, as she said, "Converted her to missions, as much as she was ever converted to Christ I" Her first query was, "What can I do? " The result was the formation by her, of a Woman's For-
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836 TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS. [Nov.
eign Missionary Aid Society. Perhaps the first one of the kind in these United States of America.
At the first meeting of this new-born society, she pledged one dollar, as her free-will offering to the cause. To obtain that sum, she walked four miles to Schenectady, secured some vests to make at one of the shops, and then walked home again with her work. And, at every meeting of the society, she never failed to bring an offering for herself and for each of her children, while they were still small. One of her daughters died, but the gift in her name was still continued, with the words, "And this is for Ann." Her yearly offering sometimes amounted to $20,00, and was sent, now to the American Board, and then to another foreign missionary society, in which she was also interested.
For this sacred purpose, Mrs. Clewe sometimes reared "missionary chickens,' sometimes planted a piece of land, or set apart a portion of her butter and eggs. And, during all those fifty or more years of her consecrated life, this "mother in Israel" continued to hold the missionary meeting of the society she had originated in her own home; even if none were present but herself and one of her children, a chapter was read, a hymn sung, and prayer offered — and this, not monthly, but every week ! One of the original members of that little society is still living and testified that when Mrs. Clewe was too ill to rise from her bed, the same order was observed; and that she would "turn herself," and offer a fervent prayer for missions and missionaries throughout the world, and pleading that some of her descendants might thus be used of God.
September 9, 1889, she was called from the earth to the heavenly Kingdom, being 88 years of age, and, like a shock of corn, fully ripe. Her last earthly home was with a daughter in Schenectady. And now, a grandson of this noble Christian woman, of whom the world never heard, is appointed as a mission- ary of the American Board for West Central Africa; soon to depart with his young wife and little child for that "dark continent." To some in that city, where this young physician, in the opening of his career with all of earth's al- lurements before him, had every prospect of success, this decision seems the height of folly — like the throwing away of a life and all that makes life worth the living. They have not seen the silent working of the sacred leaven in divine preparation for this culmination. They little think that it will have its fullest manifestation and justification on the day when "all the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and when Christ shall reign over all, forever and ever."
The consecration of any life, in fellowship with Christ, receives added dig- nity and grandeur from partnership with Him, "who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might bring many sons unto glory," and "see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied" When they shall come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God — "A great multitude, whom no man could number — of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues." The glorious harvest-time of souls, when the "new song" shall arise: "Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood — to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever, Amen !"
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
M. Alfred Casalis, speaking of the Basutos, to whom he, like his father be- fore him, has now become a missionary, says:
— "How can we fail to experience a close sense of unity with this little nation, so desirous of maintaining its unity and independence ? It is undoubtedly, the influence of the Gospel which has alone protected it from partition and com-
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plete annexation to the invading neighbors who covet its land so greedily. Are we sure that God may not have a great destiny in store for this petty people ? Whence shall come the missionaries capable of resisting the terrible climate of the Zambesi, if not from Lessuto — from that school of theology modestly founded at Morija, and which, perhaps, in the near future, will give us a chosen band of native pastors? On the day when these 200,000 Basutos shall be Christians, we shall have at our disposal an incalculable force, a veritable Christian army, ready to carry afar into the interior of this Africa, still buried under a darkness so deep — the blazing light of the Gospel."
Pastor Schneller, of Bethlehem, writing, in the Allgemeine Missionschrift, says:
' 'Talking lately with a priest of the Greek Church, I quoted something from the Acts. He retorted, 'You Protestants always make so much of the Old Testament and its Acts of the Apostles. Only quote some books of the Neiv Testament, I know all of them/ The same priest, wishing to convince the people of the unsoundness of our doctrine of Jesus Christ as the only Redeemer, proved his point as follows: 'These poor Protestants ! Why, they are for be- ing saved through Jesus Christ alone. Do you believe that Jesus is able to save anybody whatever, without the help of saints ? If He could, why must Judas Iscariot perish by the very side of the Lord ? Why did He not save him ? Why must the impenitent thief be lost by the very side of the much-praised atoning Cross? Why? Because they had not the saints! And the poor Protestants have not a single saint to help them, they have only Jesus and consequently they are bound for hell.' "
Before our Anglican Church, to strengthen herself against Rome, becomes too earnest for union with the Greek Church, she had better counsel her to re- vise her teachings of her clergy a little. Professor Mahaffy says, that he can understand proposals to unite with the Roman Catholics, on one hand, or with the Protestant Dissenters, on the other, but, after traveling in the East, proposals to unite with the Greek Church, are, to him, an inexplicable marvel, unless, of course, as some parts of the Greek Church are said to have shown a disposition to do, she maintaining her own distinctiveness, welcomes the vivifying stream of Protestant warmth and enlightenment. At least she is not pre-committcd by an assumption of infallibility.
— "When, often, on the spot where Jesus did his greatest works, one sees how the Lord, together with his Gospel, has become a stranger here; how, in the home of Christ, faith in Christ has been distorted into an unrecognizable caricature, it must come into the consciousnos of every evangelical Christian, that, if anywhere in the world, our evangelical church has a great and mo- mentous task to accomplish in the home of the Gospel, however great the dif- ficulties may be."
"Almost every one in these lands," says Herr Schmeller, "knows only himself and his own interests, without regard to others, were they even mem- bers of his own family. His cold indifference represses the development of men that might have a benevolent interest in promoting the common weal, whether in village, city, or province of their native country. Where here are friends of the people, friends of the fatherland ? The people have not even the idea of such a thing. The inhabitants of one quarter of a village or town only too often regard those of another quarter not only as utterly foreign to them but as hostile, which gives rise to perpetual feuds. To bring about unity or to carry through any unanimous purpose, is no more possible in a city or village than in the country at large. Yet, it is in just this state of disintegration that the Turkish government finds a strengthening of its own security, and it favors this accordingly."
— January 1, 1888, the following were the missionary statistics of the Nor- wegian Missionary Society.
Ordained missionaries, 41, (1 being a physician); 6 unmarried ladies, 1 layman, 16,555 church members, 37,500 school children, 44,000 adherents, 16 native pastors, 900 native teachers and evangelists, $81,050 contributions from Norway, and $12,000 from America. The fields of labor are Natal and Madagascar. The Schruder Mission in Natal, has 2 missionaries, 1 single lady, 352 baptized members, 130 communicants, and 124 school children. Income, $1,505. The
838 TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS. [Nov.
Santal mission in India, has 3 or 4 Norwegian missionaries, and a revenue of $8,913. it now works independently of the Gossner Mission.
The sum total of Norwegian missionary contributions for 1887 (omitting the $12,000 from America), amounted to $91,841.76. The population being 1,913,000, this averages about 20 cents a head.
— HeiT Nather, of the Leipsic Society in South India, speaking of some famous bathing festivals on the banks of the southern Ganges, the Kaweri remarks: ''They avail for the cleansing away of ceremonial sins; for other than cere- monial sins the heathen do not really know."
— M. Teisseres and M. Allegret, missionaries of the Paris Society, after a stay of about a year with the American Presbyterian missionaries, on the Ga- boon, were in April, about leaving for the Congo, under a convoy furnished by the French government.
— The Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift for June, 1890, in a detailed article treating of the present condition of Protestant missions in South Africa, says, that the Cape Colony is growing poorer. Much of it is incapable of sustaining ths growing population. Moreover, the almost entire withdrawal of imperial control has given the colonists opportunity to repel the laws restricting the manufacture and sale of brandy. This is one of the many ways in which Eng- land has done immense harm by being too eager to throw responsibility off her shoulders before the time. She staggers
"Under the too vast orb of her fate.'"
The latest statistics of the Cape Colony, (1888-9), give: Christians of European descent, belonging to established congregations, 267,817. Colored Christians, 234,329. Chureh sittings. 287,825. Average church attendance, 172,428. Sunday scholars, 57,678. Nearly a quarter of the colored people are baptized. Twenty different Protestant denominations are laboring in the country with 547 clergymen. The different churches receive from the colonial government, £190,432, yearly. Of this, about $150,000 maybe counted for proper missionary work. The Boer (pronounced Boor) party, however, now in the ascendant, is unfriendly to these grants.
Cape Town has 41,704 inhabitants, of whom 8,000 or 10,000 are Mohammedan Malays.
Among the half-breeds of the west of Cape Colony, the Rhenish, the Berlin societies, and the Unitas Fratrum are the principal laborers. The Berlin Society has 11 stations, 13 ordained European missionaries; 87 native helpers, 11,138 baptized adherents, 3,918 communicants, 2,373 scholars. Contributions, $9,300.
The Berlin Society (in the west), has 7 stations, 8 missionaries, 74 helpers, 4,335 baptized adherents, 1,843 communicants, 614 scholars. Contributions, $4,688.
The Moravians have (in the west) 11 stations, 20 brethren, 2 native ordained missionaries, 239 helpers, 9,145 adherents, 2,218 communicants, 2,154 scholars.
The Brethren's Church, on July 9, 1887, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its first arrival in South Africa. 'Its work is still important and fruitful, but suffers under a growing difficulty. Not laboring in colonial villages, but in distinct stations, it finds its people sinking more and more into poverty, be- cause of the scarcity of arable land. Their people are therefore widely scattered, many being in the diamond fields, whither they are followed by colored 'Dias- pora laborers.' "
The Dutch Reformed Church of Cape Colony, which has 175,555 baptized white members, is coming, under Scottish and English stimulus, to show a much more animated missionary zeal. "Stellenbosch, with its theological in- stitute, is very especially a focus of missionary zeal."
Among the others, the Wesleyan Missionary Society is most prominent. It has (in the west): 9 stations, 6 missionaries, 96 native helpers, 1,476 communicants, 1,467 scholars The South African Wesleyans are quite independent of the British Conference. In the whole Colony, they have 71 stations, 156 churches and chapels, 55 clergymen, 1,198 native helpers, 16,840 com- municants, 88,000 baptized adherents, 218 schools, 310 teachers, 13,803 scholars.
"But no other British society laboring in South Africa compares with the Scottish societies as respects capability, sobriety and diligence, combined with true evangelical piety."
The Free Church of Scotland has 9 stations, 10 ordained Europeans, 2 ordained natives, 23
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native helpers, 4,214 communicants, 12,113 baptized adherents, 3,510 scholars. Their institute of Lovedale (largely assisted by the colonial government) is a great force for education and indus- trial training.
The United Presbyterians have 11 stations, 12 missionaries, 60 native helpers, 2,307 com- municants, 8,080 baptized adherents, 43 schools, 1,735 scholars.
—Of the 500,000 or more of Protestant Christians in India, 7,000 live in the city of Madras itself. South India is still the great seat of Christianity, its in- habitants being not Aryans but Dravidians, and, therefore, being related to Hinduism somewhat as the Turks are to Mohammedanism, which they have accepted, but which is not native to them, as it is to the Arabs.
— Missionary Lazarus says of the moral condition of the people of Madras an admirable example of south India at large), that, like Greece in Paul's day, the things that they do "are a shame even to speak of." But whereas Paul's admonitions show plainly that his converts had but imperfectly extricated themselves from "the moral chaos surrounding them," "it may be confidently said," declares Mr. Lazarus, himself a native of India, "that the native church of Madras has raised itself above the abominations of the encompassing hea- thenism. Devil-dances, drinking-bouts, quarrels and tumults, unchastity, prac- tised under the cloak of religion, and similar abominations, are absolutely foreign to the native Christians. Such exhibitions of godlessness as are common among the lower classes in Europe, are unknown to them. The Hindus have an immeasurable vocabulary of vituperation, but I do not remember to have ever met with a native Christian that made any use of it. No native Christian has been sent to the gallows, or convicted of crime before the courts." Mr. Laza- rus, it should be remembered, is here speaking only for the Protestants; cases of crime, among the native Christians, it would seem, are mostly of Roman Catholics, though among these also, it is rare. The Mohammedans in Madras, though vastly less disposed to crime than the Hindus, make but a poor show compared with the Christians generally, and seem to sink out of sight, com- pared with the Protestants.
This great superiority of the Protestants, is, however, rather an inference of my own than a distinct statement of Mr. Lazarus, and may be an exaggeration.
"The native Christians, moreover, are as good as wholly emancipated from faith in astrology and palmistry, from child-marriages and compulsory widow- hood, from neglect of the education of their children, from the foolish mar- riage-system involved in caste, from polyandry and polygamy, from perjury and prostitution, and other violations of the moral law, which are so general among the Hindus, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Even if no wider results had been reached, this alone would have been a great achievement, which must be ascribed to the steadfastness and faithfulness with which the missionary pioneers have administered their difficult trust.
"The more positive virtues are less satisfactorily developed, yet, I may ven- ture to say, that for family virtue the Christians have established a solid repu- tation. Hypocrisy, however, suspiciousness, mutual detraction and backbiting, hardness toward the poor, prodigality, fickleness, pride of birth, are faults only too common among them. ... If 'cleanliness is next to godliness,' our people have not yet discovered it, or at least have not yet applied their discovery. In this respect they are inferior to the Hindus of the same social level. As to the English standard of moral obligation, there is much of it to which their ap- prehensions are not yet at all awakened." It should be remembered, how- ever, that the English are by nature, a much higher development of mankind. "As respects the higher, active virtues, which our Lord pronounces blessed, poverty of spirit, sorrow for sin, forbearance, hunger and thirst after righteous- ness, compassion, purity of heart, willingness to suffer for righteousness sake, the whole moral scale, the highest that humanity can attain, of these we find in the native Christians only the first feeble shoots. There are, of course, hon- orable exceptions, which, in reference to development of character and Chris- tian virtues, may easily stand comparison with European Christians, but they are not many." "But when we consider the infection which lies in the air of
840 TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS. [Nov.
India, together with the dullness and inertness of the people, and all the vari- ous forces, which join to work against the development of the moral sense, and also consider that the mass of the native Christians come from the most deeply sunken social stratum of the Hindus, there is certainly occasion for surprise and thankfulness, that the moral standing of the native church is so much higher than that of the Hindus, Thus, the last are higher than the first, as compared with the most of those who stand outside of Christianity."
"Docility, tractability, respectfulness, sobriety and meekness, trust in Providence, and careful discharge of religious duties, are, indeed, traits of our converts; but they are not peculiar to them. They were traits of the Indian character long before Christianity came hither. And it seems surprising that so eminent and learned a man as Bishop Caldwell should have described them as distinguishing traits of our Christians. They are genuine Indian traits, just as courage and capacity, sincerity and manliness, vehemence and violence and energy are genuine European, or, if you will, specific Anglo-Saxon qualities."
Mr. Lazarus thinks, that until pains are taken to secure a higher grade of catechists, we must make up our minds to a comparatively low grade of native Christians. He tells his fellow-missionaries some plain truths:
"If the missionaries are to raise the native standard, they must take pains to learn how to speak, elegant and accurate Tamil, a thing which, I am sorry to say, receives less attention here in Madras than in old days. Clergymen must not be content with their Sunday services. They ought to establish Bible classes for youth and grown people, as well as for children, and make these entertaining, so that they can inspire native Christians with a taste for an intel- ligent and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures, and in particular, of the life and work of our Lord. By these, and like means, there will spring up a clearer, purer and more thorough conception of what Christianity is, and this will thus exercise a growing influence upon the moral condition of the native church."
Mr. Lazarus severely criticises the missionary schools of south India: "These schools are often Christian in name, but heathen in effect. Their main element is made up of heathen boys, and there is only a little fraction of Christian children. Most of the teachers are heathen, the rector is often a Brahmin. The director of the mission prefers heathen to Christian teachers; the former are 'wiser towards their generation than the children of light.' They are more creeping and busy; this is taken by the easily-believing director as humility and zeal; on the other hand, he cannot bear with the faults of 'the own chil- dren of the family.' What makes matters worse is, that the instruction in Christianity is committed to the 'Bible teacher,' who is often a poor native Christian of the catechist class, who is nothing accounted of either by his pupils or his fellow-teachers. Thus, the whole is under strong heathen influ- ence; the Christian element is as a drop in the bucket. Think what it means to be eight hours daily, year out and year in, in contact with a hundred heathen lads and teachers, whose mouths overflow with abominations, and whose hearts are leavened with heathen rottenness. Such a contact cannot otherwise than strikingly infect and corrupt the young Christian's soul before he comes under the missionary's immediate influence. I speak from sad experi- ence."
Mr. Lazarus is utterly opposed to the appointment of heathen teachers in Christian schools, in any case whatever. He also uses some plain speaking toward the English missionaries in South India:
"The fault lies with the native Christians as well as with the whites, that there is so little mutual affection between them. Yet, the latter, as belonging to an older and more developed church, which is renowned not less for piety and philanthropy than for zeal and learning might be expected to be first to lay plans of love toward their weaker brethren. . . Impelled by the Saviour's self-sacrificing love, a messenger of God ought to be able to lay aside his pride of race, to overcome his prejudices, to condescend to the native level, and by free and familiar intercourse, to endeavor to lift the native Christians up to himself, and thus, with his Lord, to strive to develop the native church into a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.' Only by the exercise of love can the missionary lead the church on and up. He ought, at least, to show himself as often in the homes of the native Christians as at the dinner-tables of his countrymen. It is better for Mm to exercise his influence
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in modest native civility, than by a presence at games of ball or on croquet- grounds. It is pleasanterto see him befriending the poor, than doing homage to the rich. In brief, all his works, all his walk, ought to be such as to call back into living remembrance the days when the Lord of heaven lived and walked in intimate converse with His own disciples."
Mr. Lazarus bears emphatic testimony to the inestimable good wrought by missionary labors in South India. But he desires, speaking the truth in love, to lay home to the hearts of some of the missionaries, considerations which they have great occasion to weigh, if they would see established in India a stable and richly developed native church.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
The New World of Central Africa; With a History of the First Christian Mission on the Congo. By Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. London: Hodder & Stoughton. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell. £2.00. Central Africa, by means of God's wonder-working Providence, is in- deed, become a "new world,"" to us. And the great Powers of Europe have hastened to improve their opportunity to extend "the spheres of their influence1' and establish their "protectorates" over its vast areas. This is well. This is a part of God's wise and comprehensive plan for Africa's enlightenment and regeneration. This secures the rapid introduction of civilizing agencies, the development of its immense resources, the protection of life, the extinction of slavery and civil and religious liberty to all its teeming millions. The Church of Christ, also, is astir to enter this new world with the missionary, the Bible and the school, and conquer it for One greater than Caesar. And this book is just what the exigency calls for. It tells just what we want to know. It shows, brieflj' and intelligently, what has been done and attempted for the evangel- ization of Africa. It is well written— written with a purpose; written by one whose whole heart, as well as that of her husband and family, is given to the missionary cause. It is pro- fusely illustrated. It gives us vivid pictures of the "dark continent." It gives facts of momen- tous interest. Take this: "The Congo and its tributaries have been alreadj' explored to a length of 11,000 miles, giving 22,000 miles of river bank, peopled with native villages. In his journey across Africa, Stanley gazed on the representatives of tribes numbering at least 50.000,000. and to none of them has the message of mercy ever been proclaimed." And this: "From the last mission station on the Upper Congo, a journey of 1,000 miles would be needed to reach the near- est stations on the east— those on the great lakes. Seventeen hundred miles to the northeast, lies the Red Sea, and there is no mission station between. Two thousand, two hundred miles due north is the Mediterranean, and no mission station between; while 2,500 miles to the northwest are the stations of the North African Mission, but no single centre of light between ! Seven hundred miles to the west is the Cameroons Station, but the whole intervening country is unvisited; and in the south-west, the American Mission at Bihe, is fully a thousand miles distant."— J. M. S.
Daybreak in North Africa. By Mrs. F. T. Haig. London: Partridge & Company. This is an account of missionary work in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli. Our readers have heard from time to time from this region, from one of our correspondents, Rev.E. F. Baldwin, of Tan- giers, Morocco. The mission here is but a few years old, and is but little known and feebly sup- ported. 'The North African Mission had no child's play before it when it sought to carry the Gospel to Mohammedans in that part of the world where Mohammedanism had most com- pletely triumphed over Christianity, and had, for more than a thousand years, held undisputed sway over Berbers and Arabs alike. The success of the Gospel even against such fearful odds is proof that Islam is not invincible. Here, as elsewhere, the testimony is that Moham- medan power is passing away. But ei^ht years have passed since the effort began, and what halh Cod wrought! Mrs. Haig says, "At the present time there are 51 missionaries occupying 12 different stations, in connection with the North American Mission, beside a nnmber of in- dependent workers [Mr. Baldwin, for one, who has been quite successful], several of whom be- gan work with the help of the Society, but afterwards preferred working on separate lines." The book is modestly and pleasantly written and well illustrated. It encourages hope and labor for Africa.- J. M. S.
A Friend of Missions in India. The journal of Rev. Henry S. Lunn. London: James Clarke & Company. Our readers will remember that a fierce and prolonged controversy has agitated the missionaries and friends of the London Missionarj' Society (Wesleyan,) for a year or two past,growing out of serious criticisms, which appeared in the Methodist Times (London), respect- ing the administration of the Society and the habits of living on the part of its missionaries in India, etc. The author of this work, and the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, editor of the Methodist Times, were chiefly responsible for stirring up this severe controversy. In the last number of the Review we gave the report of the Special Committee appointed by the Society to investigate this whole matter.
842
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
[Nov..
The chief interest -w hich attaches to this book is the fact that it consists of "The Cyclo- styled Indian Journal, " in the form of twelve letters, which Mr. Lunn wrote while in India as a missionary, "thirty copies of which he sent to thirty circles of friends in England.1' These letters of course, laid the foundation for the discussion and warfare which followed. And when, after his return to London, he wrote a series of anonymous articles to the Methodist Times on "A New Missionary Policy,' 1 which the editor strongly 'endorsed, the writer's identity with the letters sent home from India was seen by all who had read the Journal. Bitterness of feeling, at home and abroad, and angry discussion was the result. The missionaries demanded a thorough investigation and persisted in their demand, and, at length got it, and got a vindication. Hap- pily the war is now ended, and, apparently, all parties are substantially satisfied. The lesson from it all is obvious, and should be laid to heart — Young missionaries are too apt to criticise those of age and long experience.— J . M. S.
A Thousand Miles on an Elephant. By Holt S. Hallett. Dedicated by the author to the Ameri- can missionaries in Burmah and Siam. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh and London. This book is the record of a tour of exploration by Messrs. Colquhoun and Hallett for a railway from Bur- mah to China, through the Shan States of Northern Siam. Dr. J. N. Cushing, whom the author designated as the most learned Shan scholar, accompanied the exploring party as interpreter. They met a cordial welcome and much helpful information from Dr. McGilvary and associates of the Presbyterian Mission to the Laos of Chiang-Mai. They there enjoyed a refreshing rest after their tedious jungle-travel from Burmah. Thence onward through unexplored regions of unwasted resources of commercial wealth, and opening an easy access to the hoards of super- stitious spirit- worshippers of the Shan tribes in northern Siam, and leading to the unharvested fields of commerce in China, and giving to the disciples of Christ an open door to the uncounted myriads of her inhabitants when these explorations shall result in a living railway from India to the middle kingdom.
The book is written in an attractive style, presenting a clear picture of the dwellings, char- acter and customs of the people, the forests of teak timber and other wood that shelter herds of elephants and buffaloes, ponies and cattle, tigers and monkeys, chickens and peacocks, with rich fields of rice, sugar, tobacco and tropical fruits, which include pineapple, pumelo, plantin, orange, lemon, mango, mangosteen, durean, custard-apple, and in great variety and rich flavor the fruits generally found in the tropics. Extensive plains of fertile soil still remain unculti- vated for want of facilities for the transportation of the productions. It has been intimated that the Burmah-Siam-China railway, for the extension of British trade and the civilization of south-eastern Asia, may be classed with the Suez canal and the American Pacific railway as one of the grand works of the century. We think it in harmony with the call for a thousand missionaries for China, and the Christ-command to preach the Gospel to every creature.— W. D.
Personal Life of David Livingstone. By William G. Blackie, D.D. London: John Murray. This is one of the best worth reading of all missionary books. I am now reading it a second time aloud to my family. For fullness of detail, intense interest, graphic portraiture of charac- ter and freedom from exaggeration, it stands very high. And I would recommend all readers oi: the Review to get it— A. T. P.
Life of John Hunt; Missionary to Fiji. By G. Stringer Rowe, London. This is one of the most kindling books I ever read. Mr. Hunt was a pioneer, and burned .out his life's flame in his holy zeal for God. He died October 4, 1848, at the age of 36, but he had lived a century, judged by the standard of effective work. This book is full of the rarest inspiration. It is one of the finest evidences of Christianity it has fallen to my lot to examine. He, who has any doubt of the Divine Power unto salvation, should read this book; and yet, valuable, as it is, we have seldom seen a copy of it in any missionary library.— A. T. P.
II.— GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
A leaflet lies before me setting forth the Students' Foreign Missionary Union of Great Britain, not yet one year old. Some facts concerning this organi- zation will be of interest to the read- ers of this Review, because of the tremendous significance of a new student movement abroad, and vol- unteers will regard the movement
with personal and peculiar interest because of its origin.
"It began in one Howard Taylor's study, on his return from Northfield, Massachusetts, and in the hearts and prayers of a group of missionary men at the hospital, shortly before he sailed for China." A London correspondent goes on to say
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"Two large and influential meetings were held in connection with its foundation: one at Spurgeon's Tabernacle, when he (Spurgeon) delivered a grand missionary sermon on Mark xvi: 15, to as many London students as could be gotten together (and the great building was full to doors and roof), and one at Exeter Hall."
The Union numbers 165 members, all men. London has 74 members, Cambridge 6, Oxford 5, Edinburgh 32, Aberdeen 3, Bangor 1. Besides these there are some scattered members and some in Ireland, making the total of 165 men.
The membership consists of all students who accept and sign the fol- lowing declaration:
"It is my earnest hope, if God per- mit, to engage in Foreign mission work."
The objects of the Union shall be:
1. To band together students who feel called to Foreign missionary work.
2. To urge the claims of the Foreign Mission field upon Christian students everywhere, and to advocate the for- mation of missionary associations in connection with the various universi- ties and colleges where they do not al- ready exist.
3. For the furtherance of its objects the Union shall use the following agencies: Meetings of members, meet- ings in universities and colleges, de- putations, correspondence and indi- vidual effort, and the publication of an occasional paper.
On the ground of respect for and ap- preciation of the work of the authors of these appeals from different coun- tries, the appeals, though without any pretence to literary merit, should be read with undivided attention, and in a receptive and prayerful spirit.
Mr. Forman's views on Foreign mis- sions are familiar to us through his addresses delivered in our colleges, in 1886-87. Miss Geraldine Guinness, author of "An Appeal from China," noticed in the last number of The Re- view, has already shown her enthusi- asm for, and consideration to her work in China, as disclosed in the pub-
lished volume of letters edited by her sister, under the title "In the Far East. " Miss Wilder's name is familiar to readers of The Review by reason of her occasional letters to that peri- odical, and to young women in our colleges and connected with Y. W. C. A. She is known through her mes- sage to them, entitled, "Shall I Go?" which has already reached its Fifth edition. Miss Wilder's pamphlet, "An Appeal from India," should be read with very great care in order to be understood rightly, and not read merely, but pondered on — not because of any obscurity on the writer's part, but rather by reason of the meaning of statements — which meaning does not lie readily on the surface.
"The fact that our Saviour is using us in the salvation of souls, and for hastening the day of His coming— that is certainly the reason for our staying in India. So we who are here would say to you in America and Canada, this is the strongest appeal we can send you for coming to India. The presence of the moving cloud was sufficient reason for the Israelites to follow. Does not the presence of God's Spirit, as now felt in India, convince us that He is calling a large portion of our volunteer band to work for Him here f"
In refutation of the popular notion that Africa presents the greatest need for missionary workers, the writer says, "Do you say there are large tracts in Africa unoccupied ? True. Yet, relative to its population, India must have some 119 more missionaries to equal the missionary force of Africa."
Miss "Wilder has corresponded with missionary agencies of the Protestant denominations in India, and in brief extracts which she gives from letters from various districts, a very adequate and true picture of India's needs is presented:
From the Central Provinces one writes:
"I am persuaded in my own mind that the most eventful period in the history of missionary effort in this country is rapidly approaching. The Lord is preparing for a time of glori- ous in-gathering. These souls will need the care of his children."
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Arcot Mission of the Reformed Church:
"Never, in my somewhat long ex- perience, were the claims of India ap- parently so urgent as now. A restless, almost feverish spirit of inquiry per- vades the community."
Madura Mission, American Board: "To-day, one brother has four sta- tions, another three, and two others two each. How can they do justice to the work ? They are all driven to the verge of desperation and ill-health. We thank God that we have recently received into our mission-circle one of that large band of consecrated stu- dents. How we long, and pray, and write, and implore, that more be sent !"
Marathi Mission, American Pres- byterian Board:
"An earnest request has been sent for sixteen new workers. In Kolha- pur State alone there are 1,097 vil- lages; it would take a missionary a whole year to preach once around to the village population of that single State."
From the Akola Field, Mrs. Fuller writes:
"The greater need is the quality of the men. We need anointed men — men who know Christ, who find in God
Africa. — Progress. Letters from the missionaries in Uganda say that King Mwanga has been almost wholly stripped of the despotic power which he and his fathers for centuries have exercised. He is now of little import- ance in his own country — white influ- ences are in ascendancy. The King- can get nothing that he does not ask for from his chiefs, who are under the control of the Protestant or Catholic religion. This is a great change for the young King, who awhile ago killed a bishop, imprisoned white mission- aries, and slaughtered native Chris- tians by the score. No heathen are allowed to hold any office in the new Government. Many of them are per- mitted to remain in the land, but there is not a chief among them . The great offices, of which there are about six very important ones, have been equally divided between the two Christian parties.
There has been great danger of serious clashing between the Protestant and Catholic sects. By the advice of both Catholic and Protestant mission- aries they have, however, decided to bury their differences and work to-
the answer to every difficulty, hin- drance or disappointment."
Unoccupied fields:
"The Nizam's dominions are now open; population 10,000,000. Only a beginning has been made in the Cona- rese portion on the west. Much of India is but nominally occupied. The region about Jhonsi and Bhopal is said to have 10,000,000 unprovided for, except for the mission at Jhonsi, and a native worker of the American Board at Lalitpun.
"In closing: To you who have fin- ished your course of study, and waver not at the question of ultimate com- ing, but of coming this year, I w^ould say, Satan is taking advantage of our delays. Our aboriginal tribes, num- bered at some 50,000,000, now very ac- cessible, are said to be getting rapidly absorbed into Hinduism. In large cities, where for years there has been much undermining of old faiths, in- fidelity, materialism, and theosophy are being pressed upon the attention of the people, and there is danger of seven unclean spirits coming in place of one.
"We need you now. We pray God to send you to us, filled with the Holy Spirit. It is useless to preach Christ to minds steeped in ignorance and idolatry, in any other way than in the power of the Spirit."
gether for the good of the country. There is still considerable bad feeling and jealousy, but there seems to be no prospect now of the open rupture that recently threatened. The parties have taken an oath, signed by their leaders, agreeing that whatever their disputes may be they will not spill one another's blood, but will depend upon sober arguments and arbitration to settle all their quarrels.
The Mohammedan party seems to be entirely defeated. Thus a remark- able change has been wrought in Uganda, where a while ago the Mohammedans ruled everything, and by their influence upon Mwanga and his successor, Karema, drove the whites out of the country and threat- ened to retard the progress of white enterprises and of all civilization in Central Africa for half a century to come. Now the Mohammedans have been driven from power in a series of bloody battles, their influence is en- tirely gone and the Arabs are fugitives, Uganda is a British protectorate, and the white missionaries, recently per- secuted, are the power in the country. Never before was the prospect so bright
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GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
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for the rapid extension of European influence and commercial enterprise in the African lake region.— N. Y. Sun.
[Uganda is the field where Bishop Hanning- ton was murdered by Mwanga, and where the lamented Mackay spent his brief but heroic life. Stanley speaks in warmest terms of this mission, declaring it "a most remarkable suc- cess.'" Of Mackay, in whose house at the southern end of Victoria Nyanza, he took grateful rest, " sipping real coffee and eating home-made bread and butter for the first time in thirty months, " he says : " He has no time to fret and groan and weep, and God knows, if ever man had reason to think of 'graves and worms and oblivion,1 and to be dolefuland lonely and sad, Mackay had, when, after murdering his Bishop, and burning his pupils, and strangling his converts, and clubbing to death his dark friends, Mwanga turned his ej'e of death on him. And yet the little man met it with calm, blue eyes that never winked. To see one man of this kind, working day after day for twelve years, bravely, and without a syllable of complaint or a moan, among the ' wilderness, 1 and to hear him lead his little flock to show forth God's loving kindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night, is worth going a long journey for the moral courage and con- tentment that one derives from it.11 — J. M. S.]
Zanzibar. — The importance of Zanzibar, as a key to Central Africa, was recognized early in the era of ex- ploration. What New York is to the United States, what Liverpool is to Great Britain, Zanzibar is to Equa- torial Africa. In his first expedition Stanley made it the base of operations, and he went there again, in 1879, to organize his second expedition. It lies on the east coast of Africa, seven degrees south of the equator. Its chief markets and the seat of the govern- ment are on the island of Zanzibar, but the adjacent country on the main- land is also under the Sultan's domin- ion, and is also called Zanzibar. It is at this point that the caravans from the interior strike the coast, and from there the explorers, Burton, Grant, Stanley, Cameron and others, hired their carriers and set out on their ex- peditions, and to that place they re- turned, and came once more into com- munication with civilization. It was Stanley's first business, in organizing the Congo Free State, to establish a chain of stations extending from Zan- zibar to Nyangwe and the lakes. Un- der the new arrangement with Ger- many and England, the latter country has acquired the right of "protecting" the Sultan of Zanzibar, which is one
of the most valuable concessions granted her by Germany. The history of English rule in India shows how adroit she is in turning the office of protector to her own advantage.
The situation of Zanzibar was not likely to escape the attention of the slave-stealers. Their interest lay in making the road from the villages which they depopulated to the coast as short as possible. On the journey, however short it may be, many of their victims died from fatigue and exposure to the sun. Zanzibar was near, and it was also convenient. There the dealers came from Europe who had commissions from the Turks and Egyptians to supply them with slaves. There, too, vessels might be chartered to carry away the living booty to other ports. So Zanzibar early became a mart of commerce in the awful traffic. The efforts of Germany and England have largely suppressed this trade in Zanzibar, and under the protectorate of England we may be sure it will not be revived. The mar- kets will now be better occupied by the trade in ivory. — Af rican News.
China. — A great evangelizing agency. — The Chinese, especially those in the southern part of the em- pire, are going out from China in all directions. They are not only going to many adjacent islands and those more remote in the Pacific, but they are settling upon all the coasts of south-eastern Asia, pushing up all the rivers, and in every place holding tenaciously the ground on which they settle. They are a great colonizing people, and, if only the Gospel is given to them , they will assist greatly in the redemption of the lands to which they go from sin and darkness. They seem to be destined, in the good providence of God, to become a pow- erful evangelizing agency, and a great blessing to humanity.
Bishop Thoburn, writing from Sin- gapore, says of these Chinese colon- ists:
"The more I see of our mission work in this part of the w-orld, the more do I become confirmed in the conviction which I received the first time I visited Rangoon and saw the Chinese there, mingling as they were with the Burmese, that God would use them as a great evangelizing agency all up and
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down these coasts. They are not only the most energetic people to be found in this region, but, strangely enough, they seem more accessible to the Gos- pel than any others; and those of them who are born in Malaysia will be able to speak the vernacular of the coun- try in which they live, and this, added to their knowledge of English and Chinese, will qualify them for useful- ness on the widest possible scale. Strange are the ways of Providence!" — Spirit of Missioiis.
England. — There is much in the English papers of the increasing flow of converts from the ritualistic section of the Anglican Church to the Church of Rome. The activity of the priests of Rome is very great, and their boastf ul- ness is greater. But the Pall Mall Ga- zette concedes that the tide sets rapidly one way. In a recent issue it says:
" The conversion to Catholicity is recorded of Rev. Dr. Townsend, superior of a mission house of Oxford University at Calcutta, and this so soon after a similar step taken by Dr. Rivington, principal of a similar institution at Bombay. It is also given upon good authority that Drs. Tatlock, Beasley and Clarke, sta- tioned respectively at Christ Church, Clap- ham, Helmsley, Yorkshire and St. James', Liverpool, will shortly enter the Catholic Church. Since the beginning of the Lenten season no less than 100 Anglicans have em- braced Catholicity, and this in one parish alone. At Brighton, a centre of ritualistic activity, the number of converts is reckoned at 500 persons."
India. — Bishop Thoburn's picture of the poverty of the people of Asia, especially of India, where families live on five cents a day, and thousands of growing children go to bed hungry every night, drew forth a chorus of groans and sighs as well as generous gifts. He mentioned, as a sample, a man who was paid $2.50 per month, whose wife, by hard work, added 28 cents per month to it. This had to be divided among a family of five, none of whom could have enough even of their own coarse food (rice mixed with weeds). "Five hundred millions of the people of this world," said the Bishop, "will go to bed hungry to- night. The tramps of this country would be 'swell' in any part of India." Speaking of the fact that missionary
converts are mostly gathered from the poor, he argued that it was better so. When a house is to be lifted, jack- screws are put in at the bottom. If the roof was grappled it would be only the top that would be lifted.
Hawaii. — Rev. W. A. Essery, in a recent address in London, said:
"The gospel has won the victory over heathenism in the Sandwich Islands. It was a peculiar joy to me when I found myself in Honolulu. On a certain sunny Easter Sunday morning I wended my way to the old stone church, a large square sanctu- ary, built of blocks of reef coral that had been cut out of the sea for this purpose by the early converts. I stood in the pulpit and spoke to an eager audience of the purpose of Christ's gospel, the many triumphs thereof I had seen in all parts of the world, and exhorted them to cleave to the Lord. Where are the idols the people worshipped a hundred years ago ? More of them are preserved in the museum cases of the London Mis- sionary Society than I could hear of in the islands to-day. All around me were proofs of how the gospel had raised and civilized the community. The entire money cost of converting these islanders, which was done by American missionaries, was less than the cost of one first-class British iron- clad. Christ's gospel has been wafted to New Zealand. Last Good Friday twelve months I landed at Gisborne, in Poverty Bay; it was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Going up over the same beach where Captain Cook had landed a hundred years before I heard the music of a church- going bell; turning in its direction I came upon a wooden, weather-boarded church; stepping inside I saw a con- gregation of Maoris, the natives of New Zealand. The clergyman had just started the service, men and women had their Bibles and prayer- books, and all were taking part in the worship of Him whose sorrows are remembered on Good Friday. It was a simple sight but it gladdened the heart to find Christ's name honored in the ends of the world. And so from these illustrations we learn that the missionary spirit is once more a power of life in the earth, and that the work of Christianizing the nations has actually commenced, and is making real progress."
Japan. — The new Constitutional Government assumes control of affairs
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GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
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in November. The Parliament will contain many liberal-minded men. There will be manifest in it four dis- tinct parties: the Conservatives, the Conservative-Radicals, the Moderates, and the Radicals. All of them, however, have more or less ad- vanced notions, and have no desire to go back exclusively to the old order of things. The Moderate party is called Kaishinto. It took its rise in 1882, and has been very active in the agitation for and adoption of the present Constitution. It is very pro- gressive in its aims, and favors "gov- ernment by party, treaty-revision and the reform of almost all departments of the government." The Conservative- Radicals came into recognition in 1888 and have adopted as their motto, "United in great things — differing in small." They are, as yet, few in num- bers, and not very influential. The Jihu-to is the real Radical Party.
— Appeal from Baptist missionaries.
"At a conference of the missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union, held at Yokohama, June 11, 1890, it was resolved, in view of the great needs of this field and the en- larged opportunities for work in this country, to beseech God. and, under Him, the missionary union and the Baptists of the north, for a speedy re- inforcement of twenty-three men.'
"That there has been a crisis in Ja- pan is admitted by all, and this crisis has not passed away in the late revul- sion of feeling against foreigners, al- though, we believe, it has changed in some of its phases. The situation is more urgent and pressing than ever. There remain as many souls to be reached; the work lias been increased in difficulty, and our time for its ac- complishment is diminishing.
[This appeal is urged by many "very start- ling and solemn facts.'"— Eds.]
Palestine. — Anything indicative
of an awakening and a revival of energy in the Holy Land, especially at Jerusalem, must prove of especial interest to every Christian who is watching " the signs of the times." A • correspondent of the London Christian World, now on a visit to the Holy City for the seventh time, after
a considerable interval, finds the changes that have recently occurred so marked and suggestive that he is induced to indicate some of the most prominent. He writes as follows:
" On approaching the city from the west, in former years, there were scarcely any buildings except the Russian convent and the Montefiore Almshouses to intercept the view of the city walls; now the whole plain is covered with private residences and colonies of Jews, whilst near to the Jaffa Gate are large numbers of shops already tenanted and numerous others in course of construction. This ex- tension beyond the walls has become necessary on account of the rapid increase of the population. I am in- formed by Mr. Moore. British consul here, that within the last three or four years about 20,000 Jews have come to Jerusalem for permanent residence in and around the city, and that of the entire population of about 70,000 it is estimated that nearly 40,000 are Jews. He also stated that the influx of Jews into other parts of Palestine during recent years has been entirely without precedent. The principal streets, which but a few years since were almost impassable in rainy weather, have been paved with stone, a new wide street has been opened up through a densely-populated quarter, and five hotels are now open for the reception of the annually-increasing number of visitors and traders from all lands.
" Public works of importance have been executed, and others are in pro- gress. The road from Jaffa to Jerusa- lem, at onetime all but impracticable, has been reconstructed by an eminent engineer — over it our own and other carriage services are in full operation — a good road has been formed from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and another from Jerusalem to Hebron; several others are rapidly approaching com- pletion— from Jaffa to Nablous (She- chem). 40 miles; Jerusalem to Jericho. 20 miles; Caipha to Nazareth, 20 miles, and Nazareth to Tiberias, 18 miles. Jerusalem has hitherto been almost wholly dependent for its water supply upon its large underground cisterns for the reception of rain water, which, after a summers drouth, often proves insufficient in quantity and almost unfit for use. The Govern- ment is now about to introduce an unfailing supply from a spring of pure water beyond Solomon's Pools — about nine miles distant. A large flour mill, established by the Messrs. Bergheim,
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GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
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having proved both a great benefit and a financial success, others, with large steam power, are in progress of erection; soap factories have com- menced operations, and at Jaffa steam saw-mills have been established. Colonies of Jews following agricul- tural pursuits, stated to be successful, are located, one about five miles from Jaffa, and a larger one at Limerin, near Caesarea, originated and assisted by the Rothschild family. The before- named road to Jericho is being con- structed by the Government, who have taken up all the land available in the best parts of the valley for the de- velopment of an extensive scheme of agricultural operations, which, with such a temperature, so fertile a soil, and well watered by the copious stream from Elisha's fountain, should promise abundant and remunerative crops. Grapes, bananas, sugar-cane, cotton, and various fruits and vege- tables have for some time past been cultivated here with much success. The increased amount of rain which has fallen the last few years in Pales- tine has had a most marked effect in larger and more abundant harvests than hitherto known.
" The most important results, how- ever, of all may be anticipated from the railway about to be constructed between Jaffa and Jerusalem. As rumors in former years have pre- vailed which have never been realized, I called upon Mr. Frutiger, the banker, to whom the concession has been granted by the Turkish Government, and was assured by him that the necessary capital had been subscribed, and that the works would commence immediately upon the close of the rainy season in the early spring, and pushed on urgently to completion. The influence such a line of communi- cation between Jerusalem and the coast may be expected to exert is in- calculable, for as a natural sequence the harbor, which is now inaccessible to Mediterranean steamers, must be deepened and enlarged, and the rocky barrier which prevents ingress re- moved.
" It is contemplated to subsequently extend this line via Gaza and El-Arish over the Short desert to Port Said and Ismalia on the Maritime Canal, thus connecting with the railway system of Lower Egypt for Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, and to the Fayoum and Upper Egypt. Such important action for the improvement of the Holy City and the development of the resources of Palestine, and opening up the coun-
try to commerce, are without prece- dent in modern times. Viewed in connection with the numerous and active efforts being made by various religious agencies throughout the country for the evangelization of the people, and the conversion of the Jews, these facts must encourage every lover of God's ancient people to hope that His set time to favor Zion is fast approaching." — Exchange.
The Silver Law's effect on mis- sions.— Strange as it may seem, the Silver law seriously affects Christian missions. We all know what it has done for the silver barons. It has made a fine market for their ore, and lined their pockets, not with their own coin, but with good, merchantable money, stamped with the seal of the United States Treasury. It has raised the price of silver, and therefore accom- plished the purpose for which it was forced through the two Houses at Washington, It has enriched mine- owners; has it blessed anybody else? We will wait to see. Meantime, it is having a disastrous effect on the mis- sionary societies which make large ex- penditures in foreign lands. By rais- ing the price of silver it has so ad- vanced the rates of exchange for all those countries which have a silver standard that a large percentage of every dollar transmitted to the various fields is lost in discount.
The dealings of the societies, it should be explained, with Mexico, Brazil and other American countries, with India, China, Japan, Syria, Per- sia, and other Asiatic fields, are all conducted on the silver basis. In mak- ing appropriations for the year, the so- cieties make them on the basis of an exchange rate, averaged on the rates of the previous years. While this rate dif- fers in different countries, it has aver- aged less, the treasurer of the Presby- terian Board, Mr. Dulles, informs us, "than 80 cents to the dollar for all countries."
Now for the effect of the Silver Bill on exchange. Mr. Dulles writes us:
"I find, by reference to my records, that on April 9th, our bills sold in China at 77% (this is discount on the Mexican silver dollar) ; on April 21st it had risen to 79% ; May 28 to 82tf ; July 15th to 86^; July 28th to 88.03, which is the last date at which I had advices of actual sales; or a rise of 15 per cent. This will serve as an example. In fact, our estimates were made below 77, the first price above given; but assuming the variation as above, it means that when we contract to pay a native helper or incur any other form of expense for a given number of Mexican silver dollars, we must
1890.]
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
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now, in order to meet our accounts, add 15 per cent, to our disbursements of American gold. This, is not a simple illustration, but the state- ment of an actual fact.'"
The rise in India is somewhat less. On April loth £500 yielded 6.832 rupees: on May 14th, 6,357: on July 21st, 6,140. The last advices, says Mr. Dulles, show that the rate is still rising. Withal, the market is so uncertain, that 60-day bills cannot be sold at all. The rates in Mexico are higher, even, than in China and India, varying from 15 to 20 per cent.
What is true of the Presbyterian Board is also true of the American Board and other societies. A note to us from one of the secretaries of the American Board says its expen- ditures are affected, 'motonly in India and China, but in Japan and Mexico as well — fields in which fully one-half of our total expenditures are made." The Western Christian Advocate says a 1 ' special appropriation of about $20,000 to meet the increased cost of exchange", in India will have to be made by the Methodist Missionary So- ciety at its meeting in November. The cost of the Silver Bill to the So- ciety will be, the Advocate estimates, fully $40,000.
The outlook is a serious one for all the societies. A large increase in the incomes of the societies will be neces- sary to pay the same bills as in former years. Says Mr. Dulles, speaking for the Presbyterian Board:
"It is early to calculate the effects of a change of 15 to 20 per cent, upon appropri- ations of §900,000. Without entering into the merits of the silver-question or venturing prophecies as to the results, it certainly is un- likely that silver will fall much below its pres ent value, and those who are considering the obligations of the Church to foreign work must bear in mind the unavoidable demand upon them this year, and indeed in subsequent years, on account of the special change in the rise of silver. 11
Upon the churches the burden must fall. It will not do to cut down former appropriations by 15 or 20 per cent.; therefore, it will be necessary for them to increase their contributions by that amount. If last year a society ap- propriated $500,000, it must appropri- ate this vear, to keep up its work, $575,000 or $600,000.
What a pity the extra percentage cannot be assessed on the silver barons! — The Independent.
The Missionary Age. The Victo- rian has been emphatically the mis- sionary era. Since the immediately post-apostolic days, no half century of
the Church's history has recorded a similar advance, although that ad- vance is relatively small in the light of the unexampled growth of popu- lation, even in non-Christian lands. The ten missionary organizations of the United Kingdom have become 65; the 27 of all evangelical Christendom have increased to 185. The sum of half a million sterling raised to evan- gelize the world has grown fivefold — to two millions and a half. The living converts, then under 400,000, now form native Christian communi- ties three millions strong. The mis- sionary band, ordained and unor- dained, was then 760 strong, and not 12 of these were women or natives; now it is a host of nearly 40,000, of whom 2.000 are women, be- sides missionaries' wives : 33,000 are natives, and of these, 3,000 are or- dained. Besides all that Carey and his imitators had done to translate the Word of God, we see now in other 41 languages the Old Testament, and in other 64 languages the New Testa- ment. Our empire has grown till we have become responsible for a fourth of mankind. The English speaking race were only 22 millions when Carey made his survey ; we have increased at the rate of nearly a million a year, till in and outside of Christendom we are 113 millions. Our wealth has swollen even more rapidly. Our mother-tongue, the Queen's English, has become the Christianizing and civilizing speech of earth, carrying to the thousand millions who are still bar- barians in the Hellenic sense, even as Greek influenced the hundred millions of the Roman Empire, that Divine revelation which, to all who believe it, is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. Save in the very heart of Asia — Mohammedan, Buddhist and Russian — The Spirit of God has opened every door, as our fathers prayed. — Free Church {Scot- land) Annual Report.
Farewell Meeting in Boston under the direction of the secretaries of the American Board, in view of the early departure of missionaries for the several fields under the care of the Board. The missionaries were intro- duced by Dr. Clark and Dr. Smith, ac- cording to the fields to which they were destined, and addresses were made by Dr. Herrick and Mr. Bartlett, for the Western Turkey Mission; by Messrs. Hill and White for the Japan Mission ; by Messrs. Lay and Jeffery for the missions in India, and by Mr. Ransom for the Zulu Mission. When
850 MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS. [Nov.
the name of Mrs. Ransom was read, Dr. A Men stated that she was a daughter of Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, formerly of the Mission to Syria. The Rev. James D.Tracy, of the Madura Mission, temporarily in this country, extended the right hand of welcome to Mr. Jef- fery, who goes to the same mission. The exercises occupied two hours, and were listened to with the closest attention and deepest interest by a large audience. Thirty-four mission- aries were named at this farewell meet- ing, either now on the way or soon to go to their respective fields; going out for the first time. The total number of new missionaries that have been
sent to the field since the last annual report is now 54, a greater number than has been sent out by the Board during any one year for the past 50 years. The number of mission- aries appointed since the last annual meeting of the Board is 63, 22 of whom are men, representing all the Congregational theological seminaries of the country, excepting Bangor and Oakland. These facts, taken with the very handsome increase in the receipts of the Board during the past year, and the good reports of work from all parts of the mission field, give abun- dant occasion for thanksgiving and good courage for the future.
III.— MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL
PARTS OF THE
Madagascar.
Antsihanaka, May 1, 1890.
Dear Editors:— Herewith I enclose a copy of circular on the subject of a Cottage Hos- pital, which it is proposed to go on with imme- diately here in the heathen province of Antsi- hanaka. You will note that this mission is to be extended by our removing a day's journey further north, where we hope to have much blessing on the work in future years. I need hardly trouble you with details, other than to say that the Christian public at home should not be allowed to run off with the generally- accepted idea, which is false, of the "ad- vanced religious and social condition of the island,11 referred to in a letter received yester- day from a Christian friend at home. The fact is that Madagascar is about one-third simply evangelized, and that one-third - about three-fourths— civilized. The work of deepen- ing and spreading the spiritual life is only now beginning in the above one-third of the island. The work of evangelization and estab- lishment of new missions is being carried out in about half of the remaining two-thirds, which, like here in Antsihanaka, is heathen, without missionary agencies at all ; and the rest is in "gross darkness.11
The above is only a very general way of looking at it as a whole, but still it will give a good idea of how things really are here. With kindest regards,
James G. Mackay. [We regret that space permits only an extract or two from the printed circular accompanying this letter. — Eds.]
"And now to come to the point of our re- port. Our present hospital served well for a beginning, .but is now too small for us. Fur- ther, the directors of the L. M. S. have agreed to our removing to a more healthy spot at Imerimandroso, a day's journey to the north,
WORLD-FIELD.
where we hope shortly to build a dwelling- house, leaving the town of Ambatondrazaka to our friend and colleague, the Rev. E. H. Strib- ling, thus extending the mission. "We are already about 100 miles, or four days1 journey, from any other missionary, and a new hospital has become an absolute necessity. We intend to build a suitable structure to accommodate about sixteen patients, and this compara- tively small effort will cost about £250. It is our earnest desire to build it without assis- tance from the society, if possible, and so we are making known the present position of affairs to personal friends, and to the friends of missions in general. To the former, we would suggest this as a fitting opportunity for affording encouragement to lonely workers in a far country, which, added to the far higher consideration of helping on the work of God, we hope will prove a sufficient inducement to help forward this particular object. Almost the whole of the working expenses (except the very important items of medicines and medical appliances) have been obtained for the last two years without any help from the society, our patients paying more than two- thirds of the expense of board and nursing; many of our native friends, too, having con- tributed to this object.11
LETTER FROM DR. BROCKETT.
Brooklyn, July 28, 1890. Dear Dr. Sherwood:— I was very much in- terested in that part of Dr. Pierson's letter, in your August number, which treated of the important questions of education and evan- gelization in the mission fields, and the com- parative success of the two methods, education first, and then evangelization, or evangeliza- tion first, followed by Christian education. As I have been for many years studying these questions carefully, with reference to the missions of most evangelical denominations, I beg leave to offer a few thoughts, which may
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be of service in the settlement of the difficult problem.
1st. I find in our Lord's missionary tours in Palestine that He devoted His instruction and preaching to " the common people, who heard Him gladly"— to " publicans and sinners, who thronged to hear Him, and almost trode upon one another to listen to the gracious words which He spake." He opened no schools: rabbinical or other, for Pharisees and Sadducees, practised no asceticism like the Essenes, but the burden of his discourses was concerning the Kingdom of Heaven.
I cannot find that the Apostles opened any school to instruct or propagate the Gospel which they preached. Paul tells us that it pleased God that by the foolishness of preach- ing men might believe, and that not many wise, not man}r learned were brought to the knowl- edge of the truth— that " He had hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes.'" Throughout the Acts and the Epistles, whether they were preaching to Greeks, Romans or Barbarians, the theme was Christ, as the Saviour and Redeemer from sin. and no time was spent in endeavoring to civilize or educate the people before convert- ing them.
2d. I think it will be found in all modern missions that the great successes have been achieved by following in the line of Christ's example. In almost every Asiatic mission field there will be found two distinct classes, often of different origin, the one aristocratic and lordly, generally the ruling race, educated after their fashion, and looking down with contempt upon their ignorant inferiors. In India, this class are the Brahmins, proud, in- telligent, in some respects the superiors in intellectual culture of even the best European races. Their inferiors, who are ground down to the lowest degradation, are the men of low caste or no caste at all, the pariahs or out- casts.
Many of our missionaries and missionary societies have made the mistake of trying to convert the Brahmins first. They were so re- fined and cultured, so polite, and took so much pleasure in discussing" religious ques- tions with the missionaries, and sometimes confounding them with their dialectic skill, that the poor missionaries indulged high hopes of gathering a church whose members should all be converted Brahmins, and through whom the whole nation should ere long be brought to Christ. It has now been about a hundred years since missionary labor was commenced in India. Has anybody ever seen or heard of a church there composed wholly of converted Brahmins, who, as being all of the highest caste, did not need to break its bonds and defile themselves by associating with Sudras or Pariahs ? Converted Brahmins there have certainly been, but never those who came in companies and retained their caste. Those
who had the privilege of hearing Rev. Dr. J. E. Clough, the Apostle to the Telugus, tell of his experience in endeavoring to carry the Gospel to that people, will ever forget how this matter presented itself to him. The mis- sion to the Telugus was founded in 1836, and in 1866, thirty years later, when Mr. Clough reached Ongola, there had not been a hun- dred native Telugus converted. There were about fifty members of the single church there, but some of them were Tamils, English sol- diers or sailors, or men of other nationalities, and not to exceed 25 or 30 were Telugus. There was one native assistant, and schools had been maintained for instructing the chil- dren of Brahmins. The missionaries were ex- cellent men, men of deep piety and learning, and thoroughly in earnest in their efforts to win souls. But, somehow, they did not suc- ceed. The Brahmins were very friendly, and often called on them to discuss questions of science, and if pressed on the subject of per- sonal religion, would reply that they were ex- amining the Christian doctrines, and were very favorably impressed with them, but desired time to consider. They did not wish to mingle with the lower castes, but thought they should, in time, come over to Chris- tianity.
"When Mr. Clough came to Ongola, in 1866, they pursued the same course with him, and at first deceived him; but his faithful assist- ant had preached the Gospel to the poor out- casts (pariahs) at one of the out stations, and had sent some of the converts in one Saturday to Mr. Clough for examination and baptism. The Brahmins heard of it, and sent a message to him, begging him not to disgrace himself and them by having anything to do with these low and degraded people. The Brahmins could not visit him or hold any intercourse with him if he thus polluted himself . Mr. and Mrs. Clough devoted themselves to the study of the Word of God and prayer that night. They found that they had erred in respecting persons; they humbly confessed and repented of their sins, and the next day openly went to one of the large tanks in the city, baptized these converts, and preached the Gospel to the poor, who had gathered by thousands to witness the ordinance. The Brahmins were furious: they showed their displeasure by cutting his acquaintance and reviling him publicly, but the common people heard him gladly, and received the word with joy. Bap- tisms were constant, and in the ten years (1867-1877) preceding the famine, the church at Ongola alone had received 4,394 members by baptism. After the famine, and Mr. (now Dr.) dough's noble and self-sacrificing efforts to relieve the suffering caused by it, the people began to press into the kingdom of God, and to take it by violence. In 1878, 8,691 were baptized in six weeks— 2,222 of them in one day— and during the 13 years since the work
S52
has gone forward steadily, till on the first of January, 1890, there had been during the pi'e- vious year, in the thirteen stations of that mission, 3,340 baptisms, and the number of living members at that date was 33,838. A large majority of these are people of low caste, or of no caste, but of late the higher castes have begun to come in, and some Brahmins among them. Of course, schools were neces- sary after this rapid evangelization, and they have been provided liberally. There are sem- inaries for training native preachers (many of these poor people have developed remarkable abilities, both as scholars and preachers) ; there are high schools for girls and boys, and sta- tion-schools for instruction in the vernacular. In some of the stations there are caste schools for girls, in which the Bible is taught, and very soon the bonds of caste give way. The girls in these caste schools do not seem to be superior in intellect or ability to their outcast sisters. There are connected with the mission now 47 missionaries, 27 of them women— 18 are in America or Europe. There is pressing need of at least 20 more missionaries. The number of native helpers is 421, of whom 204 (67 or- dained and 137 unordained) are preachers. The appropriations of the Missionary Union for all departments of the work in 1889-190 were $67,972, of which about one-half was for schools. Here, out of 54 years of mission work, only 24 have been productive of large visible results.
Take another instance, which illustrates my point still more fully— the Baptist missions in Burmah. Dr. Judson entered upon his mis- sion to the Burmese in 1813. No abler or more devoted missionaries have been connected with any missions in the world than Dr. Jud- son and some of his associates; they were laborious, patient and persevering to a degree almost beyond belief, yet six years elapsed before the baptism of the first convert. At the close of the first Burmese war (1824-'26) there were not more than 30 converted Bur- mese living, and now after 75 years of very earnest labor, with a large force of mission- aries constantly in the field, and 63 (20 men and 43 women) now at work, there are only 29 Burmese churches, with about 2,000 mem- bers (probably 4,000 or 5,000 have gone to heaven in these 75 years). The reasons of this scanty return are not far to seek. The missionaries are not in fault; they have done their work faithfully and well. They relied to some extent on schools, in many of which English was taught. The Burmese were proud, intelligent, imperious, and cruel in temper, bigoted in their Buddhism, and looked down with contempt on all other nations, es- pecially upon the Karen tribes, whom they held in a sort of peonage. They were glad of the schools, because their children could learn English, though they hated the English peo- ple, but they insisted that the Lord Buddha
[Nov.
was the only God to be worshipped. Now, contrast with this the Karen Missions in Bur- mah. Beginning in 1828 with the baptism of a single convert brought to Christ by Dr. Jud- son's efforts, it spread through Tavoy, Moul- mein, Rangoon, Bassein and Henzada within a dozen years, and has now extended where- ever there are Karens. These people were very poor; they were cruelly oppressed by their Burmese rulers; they were illiterate, had no written language, till the mis- sionaries reduced their languages to writing; they were not idolaters, and while they had some^ideas of a Supreme Being they had never heard of Christ, yet they came to Him at once when they did hear of Him, and in such num- bers, that for three years and more, under the fierce Burmese persecution, the thousands who were willing to die for Christ could not receive Christian baptism. They have in sixty years become an intelligent and powerful peo- ple, advancing from semi-barbarism to civili- zation, education and administrative ability, till the Government of British India, whose subjects they are, are putting them into places of honor and trust in the place of the Burmese, whom they have found dishonest and untrust- worthy. This wonderful change has come solely by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and in their case evangelization pre- ceded education. They have had compara- tively few American missionaries (they have now 57, of whom only 20 are men). They have 560 native helpers, of whom 125 are or- dained pastors and evangelists, many of them the peers of our pastors in city or country. 492 churches, with a membership of 28,000. and. an adherent population of about 175,000. Over 40,000 have died in these sixty years. They carry on Home and Foreign Missions with great success. Of course they have schools- over 400 of them, with 11,000 pupils, all receiv- ing an elementary Christian education ; ten or twelve academies— some teaching English, but all giving instruction in the Scriptures; a theo- logical seminary, a college, and two high- grade high schools (boarding)— one of thern with over 400 students. Their native preachers are well educated, and their schools have re- ceived the highest praise from the Govern- ment Commissioners and inspectors for their thorough and critical scholarship. They are growing spiritually ; about 1,850 were bap- tized the past year. Three-fourths of their native pastors and four-fifths of the schools, including the costly high schools and college, are supported by the native churches, and every church has a chapel of its own. built by native Christians. Their contributions to church and benevolent purposes, taking all their churches together, average $1.75 per member, while in the missions, where they have plans of systematic beneficence, they come up to $3.25 per member, and this where $50 a year is considered a liberal salary. Here..
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most certainly, education followed evangeli- zation.
I might go on to speak of the Mallegassy, who certainly were evangelized before they had anything more than the most meagre education, but are now rejoicing in many good schools; of the Kohls, of Central India, Goss- ner's converts*— in this mission, also, evangel- ization preceded education, and indeed educa- tion has not proceeded very far yet; and of many other missions of a like character, did space permit, but the points I want to make are these :
1. That among the nations who profess and maintain the systematized false faiths- Buddhism, Brahmanism, Tauism, Moham- medanism — and even, in a somewhat less degree, the doctrines of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, and who have a written language and literature defending and ex- pounding their respective faiths, progress in evangelization will be slow by any method, and education will help very little, if at all. Comparatively little impression has been made in Siam, in the Buddhist portion of China, and in Burinah. upon the Buddhists, and general scientific education, however com- plete it may have convinced the intellect, has not touched the heart. The same is equally true of the educational assaults which have been made upon Islamism among the Turks and other Mohammedan nations. That system of faith has too strong a hold upon the weakness of human nature to be readilj' relinquished. It does not seem that either the adherents of the Greek or the Roman Church have been often educated into Protestant Christianity. Indeed, the results of the edu- cative process have very often found to enure to these religions, e. g., Cardinals Manning, Wiseman and Newman, and many bishops and other perverts.
2. It seems easily demonstrable that our Lord's plan was to begiu missionary work with the poor, the lowly, the illiterate and the sinful; to present the dying, risen and glori- fied Saviour to those who are conscious of their need of such a Saviour from sin; and when the Gospel has lifted them up to Christian manhood and brought them to work for the salvation of others, then Christian education steps in, and prepares them to lead the hard- ened idolaters, by the force of a holy example, to Him who alone can save them.
L. P. Brockett.
Syria.
Zahleh, Aug. 19,, 1890. Dear Dr. Pierson:— You asked me to be one of your " Editorial Correspondents.'" My
* I think the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who have ab- sorbed this mission, overrate the conversions among the Kohls. They took over only 7,000, and their latest report gives only 11,964 com- municants. The 82,000 were only adherents.
missionary life does not allow of much time for writing, but I am going to do better in the future. In the meantime I send you an article written by my husband, Rev. F. E. Hoskins. On him has fallen Mr. Dale's mantle, and it is a heavy one, combined with the study of Arabic. We are feeling especially burdened at this time, as word has come to retrench Zahleh station ($554).
If we ask which of the out stations we will close, it is like asking a man which of his chil- dren he can spare best. With the present state of the Government, if we close we will not get permission to open again. It is hard fighting to hold what we have, and no pros- pect of getting more. Turks and Jesuits make a trying combination. Three girls'1 schools have been closed; each one had over seventy pupils; $40 each would run them to the end of the year. Can you not stir some heart to help us ? Think of the large sums that were raised at Northfield.
We have church buildings that need repair; we do not see how they can stand another winter.
You must pray that we may have patience under discouragements, wisdom in facing many vexing questions, and a great outpour- ing of God's Spirit.
In my sister's absence I have the little organ you sent her.*
During the last ten days I have had a guest who formerly lived in Zahleh, so we have had over a hundred callers, every one has had a glass of sherbet, about half have been fed; with a little maid (Jeannette) to look after, do you wonder that I do not write more ? But notwithstanding all, I have read the Review for July and retailed its contents to my callers.
How we wish you could have extended your mission tour to Syria ! You must spend some time with us when you do come. Our home is near to the grand old ruins of Baalbec.
For some years I have been gathering su- perstitions of these people. Very odd, and of course have their influence; and if such articles would be acceptable to you, will send one.
Mr. Hoskins is away for the day. Since Jan. 1st he has traveled more than 1,500 miles, 1,900 of these in the saddle, in all weathers and all hours of the day.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. F. E. Hoskins.
Moravians not Lutherans.
Nazareth, Pa., Aug. 20, 1890. In the August number of The Missionart Review (page 634), in the "Table of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Foreign Missionary Work,'1 we find as the 27th Society (sic} the Moravian Church included among the Lutheran Mission- ary Societies, with the foot-note : ".The Mo*
* This little parlor organ was sent as a help in carrying on Sunday-school and prayer ser- vices. It was given by Bethany Church, Phila- delphia.-A. T. P.
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[Nov.
ravians have the same confession of faith as the Lutherans.'"
This is a very inaccurate and misleading statement The official statement of the doc- trine of the Brethren's or Moravian Church, as determined by her General Synod, contains, among many other statements, this paragraph (.freely translated): "In common with all Christendom, the Moravian Church subscribes to the doctrines enunciated in the so-called Apostles1 Creed, and acknowledges further that in the 21 doctrinal articles of the Augs- burg Confession the chief points of Christian belief are clearly and simply defined. The freedom of conscience of our members, how- ever, is in no wise influenced by this state- ment, especially not in those countries where the Augsburg Confession is not of so much importance, as in Germany." Results of the General Synod of 1889 :
(" Die Bruederkirche bekennt sich daher mit der gesammten Christenheit zu den im apo- stolischen Glaubensbekenntnis>se enthaltenen Lehrsaetzen, und erkennt weiter, dasz in den 21 Lehrartikeln der Augsburgischen Konfes- sion als dem ersten und allgemeinsten Be- kenntnis der evangelischen Kirche, die Haupt-
stuecke des christlichen Glaubens klar und einfach ausgesprochen sind. Die Freiheit der Gewissen unsrer Geschwister wird dadurch in keiner Weise gebunden, insonderheit in solchen Laendern, wo die Augsburgische Kon- fession nicht dieselbe Geltung hat, als in Deutschland.11)
The peculiar position which the Moravian Church holds among the continental churches makes it necessary for her to take some notice of the Augustana in order to retain her legal standing and to carry on her work un- trammelled. As a matter of fact the Moravian Church technically has no "confession''' of her own, and binds herself to no confession of any other church, while in all essential points she agrees with the creeds of all Protestant Churches. She gladly co-operates with any Protestant Church that will work with her. However, Moravians, as such, are in no sense of the word Lutherans, and Moravian mission work has nothing whatsoever to do with the Lutheran Church, although the Moravians gladly and thankfully acknowledge that they have frequently received aid both from Ger- man and American Lutherans
Paul de Schweinitz.
IV.— INTERNATION
CONDUCTED BY REV.
The Kingdom of G-od in the Land of its Origin.
[Condensed from an address of Rev. George F. Herrick, D. D., of Anatolia College and Marsovan Theological Seminary, at the 7th Annual Meeting of the International Mission- ary Union, June 12, 1890.]
Occidental life is proverbially rapid; Oriental life, we are all sure, is ex- ceedingly slow. We travel by ex- press a thousand miles a day. The Asiatic still plods on horseback along a bridle path, or, more recently, in a springless wagon, over his twenty- four miles in twenty-four hours. He smokes his nargileh, and takes no note of time. He scratches the ground instead of plowing it ; he threshes his grain as his ancestors did 3,000 years ago ; he puts off his shoes and wears his hat when he enters a dwelling ; he pulls a saw instead of pushing it, he builds a city with mole tracks through it, and if he makes streets at all, it is an after-thought, and he burns out the needful spaces; by his watch it is always twelve o'clock when the sun sets. And with all this, if you would find the portion of our
\L DEPARTMENT.
J. T. GRACE Y, D.D.
planet on which changes of most sig- nificance in the life of races of men, have, in recent years, taken place most rapidly, you must leave behind the great cities of this land and of Europe, and pass over into Asia.
I. GLANCE AT RECENT OTTOMAN HISTORY.
Reference is not now made to the restless and aspiring empire on the extreme margin of Asia. I do not assume to tell of India, where, accord- ing to those best informed, the English language has already become the lan- guage of all arms of the Government service, of travel, of all schools; the one vehicle of a progress whose silent and bloodless revolutions are in happy contrast to the numberless revolutions that have characterized the life of India for thousands of years.
I point to the fact that, twenty-five years ago, the Ottoman Empire pos- sessed a territory fully as large in Europe as in Asia, and almost equally as large in Africa. The dismember- ment of the empire in respect of terri- tory and its depletion in respect of
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population, within a quarter of a century, has been with a rapidity that would be startling if we could be startled with anything which is at once distant and Oriental.
Roumania and Servia are inde- pendent kingdoms, Montenegro and Bulgaria are independent princedoms. Greece is enriched by some of Turkey's fairest provinces in Thessaly and Epirus. Egypt is as much under British control as India. Syria is under European protection. England holds Cyprus, Austria dominates Her- zegovina and Bosnia, Russia has ac- quired Batoum, the most important Black Sea port, and Kars, the key fortress of Asia Minor.
In place of 44,000,000 of pop- ulation, the Ottoman Empire now has about 23,000,000 ; the proportion of Moslems to Christians has greatly changed. They ivere about equally divided; now the Chritsian population is but little more than one-fourth of the entire number.
The seeming strength of Turkey during the years which followed the Crimean war was fictitious and de- lusive. The semblance of prosperity was kept up by immense loans at ruin- ous rates. "Let the evil come when it will, so it be not in my day." So runs the Oriental proverb. Turkey was rushing on to bankruptcy, at the very moment when she was constructing an iron-clad fleet, and building palaces on every eligible site at and near Con- stantinople. She did not build roads nor develop her mines, nor undertake commerce or manufactures, nor es- tablish schools, except on paper.
The record of the last disastrous war of twelve years ago is well known. Strangely enough, ever since then, the policy of the Government of Turkey has been studiously cold toward Eng- land, and friendly toward Russia.
We must not fail to give the Turks the credit of covering Asia Minor, within the last ten years, with a net work of carriage roads, built without the aid of foreign capital— the most
hopeful indication of possible enter- prise seen in Turkey in modern times. Meantime Russia — that essentially Oriental Power illy domesticated as yet in Europe — has played her game with singular fatuity in South-eastern Europe. There is no Power, great or small, Slavic or Greek, German, French, Italian or English, that will consent to see Constantinople in the control of Russia. We should not de- spise those smaller States, any one of four can mass a trained army of a 100,000 men, and little Greece can launch a fleet that would rival our own navy. But there is one Power, viz: Austro-Hungary, to which it is a question of life or death to keep Russia out of Constantinople. The great northern Power may count on Austria's opposing her march south- ward and westward by the full force of her army and her navy. It is almost equally impossible for Russia to push far into Asia Minor on the east. She may take and hold Erzroom easily enough. She may, perhaps, pass Van and even Harpoot, where the Christian population is proportionally large, and she may, if she will, push on to the Euphrates, but she may not pass on into the heart of Asia Minor. There, from the Black Sea to the Arabian Desert, and from the Euph- rates to the Mediterranean, the Otto- man people will live, and an Ottoman Power will rule for long years to come. Nor is it easy, in the light of history, or on principles of justice, to see how the Turks can be driven from Constan- tinople, where they outnumber all other races put together, or from Adrianople, their ancient capital and a Moslem City.
For two years after the commence- ment of the present Sultan's reign Turkey exhibited the farce of Consti- tutional Government, played at a Parliament with representation from the different races. But all this was, in the expressive language of one of the ablest ministers our Government ever had at the Sublime Porte — Hon.
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[Nov.
Horace Maynard, ''for European con- sumption."
II.— TURKISH PATRIOISM.
There has, under the present Sultan, been a reaction against the liberal ideas that prevailed during the years following the Crimean war. Many good things can. with truth, be said of the reigning Sultan. He certainly de- sires to secure justice and the welfare of all his subjects, but he is not a liberal man, as we use the term. He does not see that the traditions and responsibilities of his House, with all that these imply, constitute the load of lead which leaves him hopelessly weighted in the race with the rulers of his age, even with the rulers of States which have been erected out of what was just now his own domin- ions. If he would but cultivate a relation of real friendship toward Christian and especially Protestant and English-speaking nations, the Ottoman State might yet justify its place on the arena of material, com- mercial, and even of intellectual and moral progress, in western Asia.
One chief reason why the Ottoman Turks have been so greatly misunder- stood and maligned is that we, of the AVest, in defiance of a wise maxim, none too often quoted, have never taken the pains to see and consider the Turkish problem from tha stand- point of the Turks themselves. Less vituperation and wholesale, and really unjust, condemnation, and more con- siderateness would greatly benefit every party in interest.
Some time since, in conversation with an enlightened Turkish official, on the Bosphorus, I criticised the un- wisdom of his government in deliber- ately keeping foreign capital from en- tering Turkey, to construct railroads and develop her mineral resources. "But," he replied, "if foreign capital be welcomed the interference of foreign powers must be accepted too."
"What harm can it do to govern- ment or people," I asked, "to receive
and acknowledge the obligations of friendly European powers ?"
"That is all very well for you to say," replied my friend, "but for us the problem is not to be solved in that way."
"Do you mean to tell me," I asked again, "that you would prefer to per- ish, as an independent people, rather than owe your continued existence and your f uture prosperity, with what- ever that would necessarily imply of European influence, to the aid of Christian nations ?"
"Yes," he promptly answered, "that is precisely what I — what all faithful Mussulmans — mean. "
Can any true American fail to feel a thrill of responsive sympathy with the patriotism, the devotion to ances- tral faith, which underlies that an- swer ? And does not such a spirit fur- nish a new incentive to bring the bless- ings of our own civilization within the reach of every race in western Asia — not to impatiently force a Chris- tianity, weighted with the gravest er- rors of teaching and of example, upon Moslem races, but, watchfully keep- ing step with the unfoldings of God's providence, to exhibit before Moslem eyes, at all points, the winning graces of truly Christian example ?
We should never forget that when Islam rose, in the first half of the sev- enth century, it was confronted by, and was a protest against, some of the most corrupt forms of Christian doc- trine and worship, some of the worst caricatures of Christian living, in Arabia and northern Africa, that the world has ever seen.
Those reckless raids from Europe into Asia, called, in bitter irony, "holy wars," in the eleventh and following centuries, violently repelled Moham- medans from Christianity. How could they do otherwise ? The expulsion of the Moors from Spain, early in the sixteenth century, under the greatly over-praised Queen Isabella — is any right or justice discoverable in that movement on the Christian side, ex-
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cept the right of might ? The author read, some years ago, in Turkish, cer- tain trenchant articles of historic cri- ticism, from the pen of an enlightened and acute Turk, which presented a long array of facts from the history of Christian Europe, in a fashion not likely to win Moslem minds to an ac- ceptance of Christianity.
And not only in the earlier years, but all down through the later centu- ries, in all western Asia, the Moslem, with his clear-cut doctrine of God, and his sharp recoil from every sem- blance of idolatry in worship, with his sobriety and his generous hospitality, has pointed, with a certain contempt, to the Christians around him, as less sober, less truthful, less hospitable, less manly than himself, with a form of religious worship redolent of idola- try, while his own is simple and pure, even if it be exposed to the charge of lifeless formality.
We do not say the Moslems' charge against Christianity and Christians is true. Clearly it is not true, but it is not strange the charge is made. The vitality and the vigor of the Christian races, their better morality, their men- tal and moral elasticity under centu- ries of oppression, is one of the marvels of God's government of Asia. "Why do the Christian races remain in kindly neighborhood to the Moslem races, all through western Asia, but to be to them in the coming years, the means of the largest blessing? And who are to be the agents, and what the agencies, for which those races have silently and sullenly waited for so many gen- erations ?
III.— OUR GRAND OPPORTUNITY.
It was, in God's providence, com- mitted to American Christians, to re- establish vital Christianity in the land of its origin. Call it duty, call it high privilege, the responsibility, the un- dertaking, is ours, to put the Bible into Moslem hands and then set before his eyes living examples of a true and a pure Christianity by which alone the Bible is illustrated to the conviction of
worldly men; examples — that is, more than 10.000 members of evangelical churches in Asia Minor now — of his fellow countrymen who are true,, liv- ing disciples of their master. Evan- gelical worship attracts, it does not repel the Moslem. Protestant Chris- tian doctrine does not, like the bald "orthodoxy" of the Eastern Church, set his reason continually at defiance.
We must not, however, suppose that the Turks officially recognize the right or contemplate the contingency of Mohammedans becoming Christians. To this degree, religious liberty is not yet a fact. Still, in the face of dif- ficulty and opposition, scarcely con- ceivable by us, some Mohammedans have become Christians, have lived and died as shining examples of Chris- tian confessors as the early ages ex- hibited. To-day there is, in a town of Asia Minor, a young Turkish woman who zcitnesses a good confession in the house where she was born, enduring- repeated beatings and living down cal- umny by Christian gentleness — who told her Christian sisters, only in ans- wer to their inquiry one day in meet- ing, why her arm was in a sling, that her brother's last beating broke it.
Once, in conversation with one of the most liberal and best educated Turks of the present age, a man who has, at one time or another, filled nearly all the highest offices of the State, I referred to a well-known case of religious persecution that had recently occurred. He drew me up sharp on the expression, "religious persecution, " and said, "No religious persecution is possible under our Gov- ernment. A man's faith is his own, between himself and God only, and Government cannot interfere with it."
"What, then, shall we call the case?" I asked.
"Why," he replied, "it is perfectly plain. The man renounced his ances- tral, the national, faith, in which he owes duties to the State. All right, so far. But he has publicly avowed his renunciation, and declared himself a
858
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
[Nov.
Christian. In so doing iie has com- mitted a civil offence, and it is, for this alone, that lie is arrested and put un- der discipline."
That is, being a Christian is all right for a born Moslem, if only he will never say he is above a whisper.
In the meantime, as the years have passed, the Christian races have re- sponded, more and more widely, to evangelical influence. It has pene- trated all parts of the country. Ameri- can Christian philanthropy has, through the several departments of the work, planted the Christian home, the evangelical church, developed Christian education, created through the press a periodical and permanent Christian literature in the several lan- guages, begun to establish Christian philanthropic institutions, and every- where fostered, together with loyalty to the existing Government, ideas of freedom and of justice. American cit- izens have established institutions, an extensive Bible-house, churches, high- schools, colleges and seminaries. They have acquired property in a hundred different places all over the country. These business interests have become the care of our Government through its official representatives. The power of the United States flag is second to none. The Turks have no reason for jealousy of the great republic across the sea. Illiberal men, in the govern- ment and out of it, are jealous of evangelical progress, and wish it had not gained so strong a foothold in the land. But many Turks see that they also may profit by those ideas that Protestant Christianity everywhere involves and develops, viz: The su- premacy of truth and justice, the in- violability of the individual consci- ence, and individual and social edu- cation and elevation.
IV.— DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS.
The modern history of western Asia is a history of divine interpositions, These have been so accentuated, that men of the world, however high- placed, may well exclaim, "Who are
we that we should withstand God !" The Church of Christ sends out her challenge, "You can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth !"
Nearly sixty years ago the Turkish Government demanded that those pioneer missionaries, Goodell, Schauf- fler and Dwight, be sent out of the country. Our ambassador, Commo- dore Porter, communicated the order.
"Do you order us to go ?" they asked.
"No, I only notify you of the de- mand of the Government, and of my inability to protect you,"'
"Then we notify you that we de- cide to stay," they replied.
Political events, which shook the throne and resulted in the destruction of the Janizaries and the introduction of European forms of law, hastened on and the missionaries were forgot- ten. During all that crisis, and up till the close of the Crimean war, the leading mind, the most imperial pres- ence at the Turkish capital, was that Christian Statesman, Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe, of England.
As evangelical influence extended among Armenians, Greeks and Syri- ans, the persecuted Protestants found aid and comfort from the Turks, as the Jews who rebuilt the temple found aid and protection from Cyrus.
Twenty years ago, in the Koordish mountains, above the city of Mosul, a young Arab Koord, a born Moslem, was dipping deep into Mohammedan lore, at the feet of a famous teacher, his total wardrobe, a shirt; his food, the coarse bread of the tribe; his bed, the ground. He committed the Koran to memory, he acquired a most thorough knowledge of Arabic, of Moslem law, tradition, history, sci- ence, and interpretation. He found, one day, the binding of an Arabic Bible which had been destroyed. Afterwards, when a teacher at Mozul, he sought, found, bought a Bible in Arabic, read and studied it, was in- structed in it by Deacon Michah, as Apollos by Aquilla, accepted Christi- anity as true, accepted Christ as his
1890.]
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
859
Saviour, was obliged to flee his part of the country, came to the Bible trans- lators' roonrin the Constantinople Bible House, and aided in giving the Bible to the Ottoman race, a special aid very few men living could have given; found of God, led of God, and taken home to God when the work was done.
Permission was asked to print the Bible in the Osmanly , and was refused. After long months of argument, of propositions and counter-propositions, the Board of Censors unwittingly did the greatest possible service to the spread of God's Word, by condition- ing the permission on the placing of the statement of the fact of Govern- ment permission on the title-page of every copy; and the time when the final version was launched was fixed by the Author of the Word Himself. It was just as the last war closed, just as the last sharp crisis of the Eastern question was attracting all eyes, that God, by Ins Word, in the language of all the people, sent forth His challenge to the Cabinets of Europe, set His wis- dom face to face with their folly. And between that time and this, inquiry concerning the Bible has become as common among Turks, as before it was rare. They inquire from curiosity . it may be, but many do buy and read God's Word.
Four years ago, just as Anatolia College was organized under that name, a demand was made through the local government that we procure from the central government at Con- stantinople a formal recognition of our college. Meantime, one morning we learned that the Governor-General had come to town over night. We hastened to call upon His Excellency, and invite him to visit our schools — all the difference in the world from which side the invitation comes. In the court-yard of the house where the governor was entertained were horses, saddled and ready for mounting. We were received in audience, praised the public-spirit he had shown in the province from which he had recently
come, found him interested in anti- quities, of which there are specially fine relics near where he had lived. In fine, we made ourselves as agree- able as we knew how, not forgetting to give His Excellency a cordial invi- tation to visit our college and other schools. "I was just about to mount my horse to do that when you called. ,r he said. "Ah, indeed," we replied, " then, our call and invitation are quite opportune !" TJiey were indeed.
Thus forewarned, all was in readi- ness at the college to receive the Gov- ernor with all respect. We showed him all through the buildings; he ex- amined classes, asked to see our text- books. Among our books he found one of his own composition, and, nat- urally, was not displeased with the delicate compliment. He visited the girls' boarding-school, enjoyed the choral singing, and, as he mounted his horse at my door, he leaned over, and said, "I have been greatly pleased with all I have seen: you may rely on me for a report every way favorable. I wish we had such schools in every city."
And he meant what he said, as after echoes clearly showed. God's special guidance was conspicuous at every point of this incident.
V.— THE OPPORTUNITY MET.
The evangelical centres in Turkey now number more than 300. These are the centres of influence, extending from the extreme western border to the farthest east, and from the Black Sea to the Arabian desert. The in- fluence of the evangelical press is the leading influence in the department of literature. The newly established, and rapidly growing girls' boarding schools, have already revolutionized the country in respect of female edu- cation.
But there, as everywhere, the col- lege is the leader; and Robert College on the Bosphorus, and Syria Protest- ant College at Beirout, and Euphra- tes College at Harpoot, and Central Turkey College at Aintab ; and now.
<00
the last four years, Anatolia College at Marsovan, in the heart of Anatolia — these are the challenges of Christian America to the darkness of Asia.
Once the comparative importance of educational and evangelistic agencies was a subject of animated discussion in missions and missionary societies, and among the churches of this coun- try and of Great Britain. This dis- cussion is a thing of the past. Edu- cational work, as represented and led by Christian colleges — colleges in- tensely Christian and Biblical — is pressed, and to be pressed to the ut- most possible — that is, just as far as resources can be obtained with which to carry on the work. On this all are agreed. There is no consensus of those interested in the evangelization of the world which is more perfect; and the economy of administration of these institutions may be shown by the statement that the actual sum used to run Anatolia College is one per cent. of the cost of running Yale or Cornell University. The Am erican Christian College — these three words are used advisedly — The American Christian college is the hope and light of Asia. This institution, with its Biblical in- struction, with its thorough culture, with its pervasive Christian spirit, with its development of manly, self- reliant Christian character ; this in- stitution, in which the preachers and the teachers are prepared for their work, in which men of affairs are trained for the responsibilities that are coming upon them in all eastern lands in this and the next generation : tins American Christian college is the pledge of a Christian home, of a per- manent and self-propagating church, of all true progress and harmony of races, of the gradual realization of free and just government in those lands of Asia, for ages and centuries oppressed and groping amid the dark- ness which has enveloped them.
Seen or unseen by our eyes, God, by His Word in every language, by Christian example, by education,
[Nov.
guiding all in the interest of His church, is, by our hands, re-estab- lishing His Kingdom in the lands of its origin.
The work will not stop for discus- sion and criticism. The army of God will march right onward, and with accelerated step; and the legacy we will commit to those who come after us will be to hand on our Lord's com- mission, "Go, make disciples of all the nations," and the testimony and as- surance we will offer to the diffident shall be, that the Master ever fulfills His promise to be with His chosen, amid all toil and conflict. Great will be the multitude, who, with no alloy of sin, will chant the Hallelujahs of the heavenly choir.
The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference.
The Christian world has occasion to rejoice in the late Brussels Conference of signatory Congo powers, and to carefully study its proceedings. Per- haps it is not too late — it is rather doubtful if it may not be too early — to pass in review what it did.
King Leopold of Belgium was the official source of the Convention; but delegates from Great Britain, Austria- Hungary, Belgium, Congo Free State, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, the United States and Zanzibar, were present.
The object of the Conference was plainly as possible stated in the circu- lar of invitation issued by Leopold, which was "the necessity of effectively preventing the slave-trade in the in- terior of Africa, the capture of slaves destined for sale, and their transport by sea, which can only be stopped by the organized display of force greater than that at the disposal of those who take part " in the traffic.
This was not the first Convention of the great Powers held to consider the main question. What is known as the Berlin General Act had already pro- vided that "All the Powers exercising
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
1890.]
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
SGI
rights of sovereignty, or any influence in the territories in question, undertake to watch over the preservation of the native races, and the improvement of their moral and material conditions of existence, and to co-operate in the suppression of Slavery, and especially in the negro traffic ; they will protect and favor, without distinction of na- tionalities or worship, all religious scientific or charitable institutions and imderta kings, created and organized for tins object or tending to instruct the natives and make them under- stand and appreciate the advantages of civilization."
It had been further provided that, "In accordance with the principles of the law of nations as recognized by the signatory Powers, the slave-trade being forbidden, and the operation which on land and on sea furnish slaves for the traffic also being consid- ered as forbidden, the Powers which exercise, or shall exercise, rights of sovereignty or any influence in the territories forming the conventional basin of the Congo, declare that these territories cannot serve either as a market or as a means of transit of slaves, of whatsoever race they may be. Each of these Powers undertakes to employ all the means in its power to put an end to this traffic and to punish those who take part in it."
It was, however, recognized that these most excellent provisions and understandings were too inoperative, and the British House of Commons, in March 1889, said so. In August of that year the Queen of Great Britain said in her speech that the King of Belgium had consented to call the Conference of which we now write, and it convened in Brussels November 18, 1889.
The three great topics which it traversed were the slave-traffic and the means to suppress it, the importa- tion of fire-arms and the liquor traffic. The chapters of the work as completed deal with — 1, Places of capture of Slaves. 2, The Caravan routes. 3, The Maritime traffic in slaves. 4, The Countries of destination. 5 , Institu- tions created for the purpose of insur- ing the execution of the general act.
6. The Liquor traffic. 7, General Pro- visions, and 8, The Custom's regula- tions of the Congo Valley.
THE SLAVE TRAFFIC.
1, The maritime trade in slaves was first considered as the part where united action could be made most ef- fective if agreement could be come to. The sensitive point here was on the "right of search," whether on the high seas, or in territorial waters, over all sailing vessels, under any flag, suspect- ed of being engaged in the slave-trade. France was specially sensitive on this point. She. after a month, suggested a series of new measures for the pre- vention of the abuse of the French flag, and for checking the crew and passenger-lists at places of departure, call and destination. The British government proposed a compromise, subjecting only vessels of 500 tons, and under, to the right of supervision and detention on the high seas, which was agreed to, unless slavers of over 500 tons shall hereafter be discovered.
2. The suppression of the foreign market was also a delicate and difficult part of the general question. It is the existence of slavery in foreign coun- tries which keeps alive the maritime traffic. Abolish that in countries out- side of Africa and the motive for the slave traffic on the high seas is extin- guished. The eastern market for slaves must be broken down, as a part of the general plan to destroy the African traffic in slaves.
It is readily seen that this touched most delicate lines of diplomatic courtesy. Had Turkey been invited to this general council, to learn that the combined European Powers would interfere here and thus with her ter- ritorial authority? Was any one of these Powers to find in this Congress a dictator domineering its independence as a State ? This was, indeed, a deli- cate matter. The Conference could do no less, however, than deprecate the influence of such domestic slavery, and it thus brought the force of Euro- pean public opinion to bear directly
6G2
on Turkey and Persia in the matter of slavery in those lands. The rash- ness of this influence is manifest.
An effort was made to provide for the regulations of caravans for the prevention of slave-trading expedi- tions. It was sought to exact security from the chiefs and organizers of caravans, and for the examination of caravans at their places of destination inland, as well as on the coast. No se- curity from caravan organizers, how- ever, was feasible, as these caravans seldom return to their starting points with the same elements. They are re- newed from place to place among the tribes they pass, remain long at the centre, and return to the coast at dif- ferent points. The security, how- ever, it was agreed, is to be demanded of those who had already been con- demned for slave-trade offenses.
FIRE-ARMS.
But slavery was only one feature of the great task to which the Powers had pledged themselves to each other, when they undertook "to watch over the preservation of the native races, and the improvement of their moral and material conditions."
From 80,000 to 100,000 muskets and rifles, mainly the disused arms of Eu- ropean standing armies, are imported annually into Zanzibar alone, and these fire-arms are bartered to Arab traders for ivory and other inland products. If the negro is to be pro- tected from the slave hunter this slave hunter must be disarmed. That was the argument. But there are great trade interests which require arms for their conduct and defence. France here, was zealous for total prohibition throughout Africa. Others would limit the territory. Two things seem to have been decided upon:
[Nov.
1. — The territory to be regulated in the matter of fire-arms extends through 42 degrees of latitude (from 20 degrees north to 22 degrees south), from coast to coast, and a hundred miles seaward.
2. — The principle of prohibition is laid down, with exceptions. The arms are to be deposited in Govern- ment warehouses and taken out only on permission, and are not to include the most improved weapons.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
If the rights of humanity are to be conciliated with the interests of trade, so far as such interests are legitimate, as the Conference proposed to attempt, the liquor question had to be dealt with. The Conference distinguished between regions where no traffic in liquors had begun and those where it already existed. For the first of these, the British delegates proposed absolute prohibition, and for the second, a heavy duty on the importation of liquor. The Conference agreed to the prohibition in the case of races with whom at present no trade exists; but it was not so easy to reach a conclu- sion on the other cases. The powers had themselves agreed to Free Trade in the Congo Basin; how could they then now agree to a duty on liquor in that district; and yet, how could they keep this great channel into the interior of Africa from becoming contaminated with the liquor traffic, unless they prohibited or restricted by the impo- sition of a duty? The races of the second class, or those among whom a traffic in liquors is already established, it was agreed that there should be an impost of l^d. or 3 cents per quart, this duty to be subject to advance at the expiration of three years.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
V.— THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY SECRETARY F. F. ELLIN WOOD, D.D.
Brazil. to a republican form of government
The year 1890 is the most eventful without bloodshed, renders it proper
of all years in Brazilian history. The that the November concert of prayer
fact that an empire has given place for Brazil should be largely an occasion
1890.]
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
863
for thanksgiving. Civil liberty is fol- lowed as it always has been by liberty of conscience. There is now perfect equality of religious privileges among a]l sects.
The following outline of the pro- clamation of religious freedom issued after the establishment of repub- lican order will show how completely the new authorities have overthrown the assumptions of the Papacy.
"The text of a decree of the Provisional Government of the United States of Brazil of January 7, 1890, states in substance :
1. That Federal and State authorities alike are prohibited to expedite laws, regulations, or administrative acts establishing or prohibit- ing any religion, or to create distinctions between inhabitantsof that country on account of religious and philosophic beliefs or opinions.
2. That all religious denominations have equal rights to liberty of worship, and to gov- ern themselves in accordance with their respective creeds without being constrained in the acts, private or public, which pertain to the exercise of this right.
3. The liberty hereby instituted shall em- brace not only individuals in their personal acts, but also churches, associations, and insti- tutes in which they may be joined ; to all of which belongs the right to organize and main- tain their corporate existence in conformity with their creeds and policy, without the interference of the Government.
4. That patronage with all its institutions and prerogatives is hereby abolished.
5. That the legal capacity of churches and religious denominations to acquire and admin- ister property is recognized within the limit of the laws concerning mortmain, securing to each their possession of their present properties, as well as their houses of worship.
Over against this full and complete guaranty of freedom, the following quotation from a Brazilian Catholic paper of ten years ago will show what the ideal empire was supposed to be in those bygone days. It is a jere- miad uttered by a bigoted Catholic editor over the inroads which had al- ready been made upon the old regime of intolerance and oppression, even under the mild and progressive sceptre of Dom Pedro II.
" What is the religion of the Bra- zilian people ?" says the writer.
" At present, this country (Brazil) is in an abnormal and contradictory position, viewed from a religious
standpoint. Whoever will examine our constitution will there read that the Apostolic Roman Catholic religion is the religion of the State; that the Emperor, Senators, Deputies, and all the public officers, are obliged by pub- lic and solemn oath to maintain and defend it, and that the criminal code establishes punishments for any of- fence against it.
" A people that, by its fundamental law, gives special privileges to Roman Catholicism, and seeks by oath to guarantee it; that requires its profes- sion as a condition of holding office; that considers penal all offences against it, ought to be regarded as profoundly religious, eminently Cath- olic. But an observer, looking only at our political Constitution and penal code, would infer that Brazil is a dis- sonant chord in the infernal chorus of imprecations against the Catholic Church.
"But," continues the writer, "let us look on the other side of the picture. Whoever reads the history of Brazil in these latter times will learn that the Government destroyed, by an edict, the religious orders, prohibiting the receiving of any novitiates; that no country pays such insignificant sal- aries to its church officials; that two bishops were shamefully imprisoned for observing faithfully the Pontifical Bull; that the priests are hindered on every hand in the fulfillment of their duties; that any act directed against the Church is applauded ; that a bishop, respected even in Protestant countries, here has not the privileges of the most humble citizen. As to the churches, some are already fall- ing into ruin, while others are com- pletely stripped of their parapher- nalia."
The writer goes on to show that the attitude of the press is no more favor- able to the Church than the Govern- ment. With the exception of five or six Catholic papers in the whole em- pire (there is the difficulty) the press of the country is either indifferent or openly hostile to the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church.
Yet, bad as the case seems for the Catholic, the writer spurns the idea that Brazil is, or is to be, a Protestant country. " Here and there a Protest- ant Church, frequented by a few dozen souls, is all that we see of Pro- testantism. It is clear that with such
864
THE MONTHS? CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
[Nov.
a state of affairs soon there will be no religion at all in Brazil."
Well, the evil has not mended, as seen from the writer's standpoint, and to an enlightened American reader it seems that just such specimens of narrow bigotry as this must have been the very means of bringing about the fulfillment of all dark prophe- cyings.
More than was predicted has been fulfilled. Doubtless, it is in the power of the priesthood to obstruct the extension of Protestant freedom and enlightenment to a greater or less extent, but the civil authorities are on the side of equality, the press will cast its influence in the same direction, and the whole spirit and drift of the age are against the hierarchical as- sumptions which have so long cursed the country.
Now that Brazil has joined the large group of American republics, with all the religious freedom enjoyed by the most highly favored, a glance at its eventful history will be in place.
The country was discovered in 1499 by the Spaniard, Vincent Yonez Pin- con, though it was first settled by the Portuguese under Alvarez Cabral in 1500. Other small Portuguese settle- ments were made between 1500 and 1550.
Rio de Janeiro was settled in 1558 by the French as an asylum and a mission field for the Huguenots. By the adverse influences of shipwreck and the treachery of Villegagnon, the leader of the colony, it was utterly broken up, and Protestantism, as well as French influence, was swept out of the country.
Brazil came under the power of Spain in 1578 by the assumption of the crown of Portugal, but was re- stored in 1648 on the accession of the Braganzas to the Portuguese throne.
In 1807, upon the invasion of Portu- gal by Napoleon's army, King Dom John VI., appointing a regent at Lis- bon, fled to Brazil and established there the seat of the Portuguese Gov-
ernment. This fact doubtless pre- vented Brazil from becoming a repub- lic during that series of revolutions in the Spanish States of Central and South America which followed as a result of Napoleon's usurpation of power in the Spanish Peninsula.
The home revolution, which oc- curred in Portugal in 1820, led the people of Brazil to demand a govern- ment quite distinct from that of the mother country, and in 1822 it was declared an independent sovereignty, under the heir-apparent, Dom Pedro I. A year later the Portuguese court em- barked for Portugal, no more to re- turn, and in 1825 Dom John formally abdicated in favor of Dom Pedro I. , and the independence of Brazil was acknowledged by Portugal.
In 1831, Dom Pedro I., alarmed by another movement toward republi- canism, as he thought, abdicated in favor of his son, Dom Pedro II., then five years old, and embarked for Europe. Some injudicious republican agitations which occurred during the regency prepared the country for an- other trial of monarchy, and on the 23d of July, 1840, Dom Pedro II. was proclaimed emperor.
This remarkable man, thus pro- claimed the sovereign of a vast empire of 3.288,000 square miles, or nearly as large as Europe, doubtless owed his long reign to the enlightened and liberal policy which he was wise enough to adopt.
While the Spanish-American repub- lics were tossed with political convul- sions, Mexico alone having experienced over fifty between the years 1821 and 1867, Brazil, with quite as much real political freedom as they, held on her peaceful way. Dom Pedro became em- peror at the age of fourteen, and con- tinued to reign for nearly fifty years.
Few sovereigns have been able to maintain a sceptre so long in the midst of a mercurial people, and sur- rounded on every side by nations with which revolution seemed to be the normal condition of political existence.
1890.]
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
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But in late years the more advanced of the Spanish republics have attained to greater stability; the increase of wealth, and the multiplication of manufacturing and commercial in- vestments have rendered the ruling classes more conservative, and their rapid and prosperous development has spurred the aspirations of Bra- zilians for complete freedom. At the same time, the gloomy outlook of a possible reaction toward a tyranni- cal absolutism under the probable successors to Dom Pedro's throne, led Brazilian statesmen to the conclusion that the opportune moment had al- ready come for a Republic.
The world was, therefore, suddenly startled by a peaceful revolution, which had been precipitated in the quiet evening of Dom Pedro's reign, rather than wait for the dubious morning of a bigoted and impracti- cable sovereignty in the hands of his fanatical daughter.
Thus, under the pressure of an irre- pressible longing for liberty, on the part of the people, there have been three notable embarkations of royalty for Europe. First, in 1825, when Dom John VI. acknowledged the indepen- dence of the Brazilian Monarchy under his son, Dom Pedro I. Second, in 1831 , when Dom Pedro I. , alarmed at the appearance of republican tendencies, abdicated in favor of his five-year old son, Dom Pedro II., and, with what seems a cowardly desertion, left him alone and returned to Europe. And, last of all, when Dom Pedro, nearly 60 years later, was obliged to renounce a sceptre which he had swayed with rare moderation for half a century, and sail away an exile to the land of his fathers, to find there so soon a grave for his empress as well as for his life-long hopes.
Brazil enjoys now perfect freedom of opinion, but it is rather late to reap the harvest which might have been gained years ago.
The cause of religion has so long suffered discredit, the idea of the
priesthood has so long been associated with habits of profligacy and vice, and the hollow sham of mere official sanc- tity, that the intelligent classes have become infidel, while every form of error — Spiritualism, Theosophy, Nihil- ism, and even Mohammedanism — have been imported, and a paralysis of general indifference has settled up- on the country.
Yet, there are not wanting many in- stances of encouragement, especially in the country districts, where the in- fluence of foreign contact has been little felt. In the last reports of the Brazilian Mission of the Presbyterian Board (North), there is evidence that the most fruitful source of results is the native ministry. The chief in- gatherings of converts into the churches during the last year were in congregations ministered to by native pastors. And the argument thus fur- nished for the education of young na- tives for this important field is strong and significant.
The Northern Presbyterian Mission reports at the close of 1889, 9 churches and 5 ordained missionaries, 8 native preachers and 22 teachers. The num- ber of communicants is 1,009 — 153, or about 11 per cent., having been added during the year.
The great educational centre of this mission is at Sao Paulo, where 395 pu- pils of all grades are under instruction. Under the efficient management of Dr. Lane and his associates a noble work has been accomplished during the year. Dr. Chamberlain, who has labored in connection with the Sao Paulo institution for many years, is now in this country raising funds to endow it as a college for the train- ing of native ministers and teachers. The success gained by the few native pastors during the year is too instruc- tive to need enforcement.
A NATIVE MINISTRY.
Other things being equal, a native preacher familiar with the idiom of his mother-tongue, and atone with the people in all his habits of thought,
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THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
[Nov.
can reach his countrymen far more effectively than a foreigner. Besides, at least three natives can be supported as cheaply as one missionary. If we add to this, the fact shown in the Brazilian reports, that four-fifths of the con- verts have been won in the out-stations under native preachers, we have a pretty strong argument for the educa- tion of more Brazilians and for the building up of a strong and efficient college and theological seminary.
While at Sao Paulo a given number of men shall be trained for the first rank of preachers and leaders, it is felt that an institution of a different grade and, perhaps, having something of the industrial element, should be opened for the practical preparation of a clsss of men of lower grade of scholarship to be employed in evangel- istic work in the interior districts. Probably this diversity of education should be observed in all the South American republics.
The old order of things is every- where passing away. The days when ignorance was the safe cover for religious oppression have gone. Under the new impulse imparted by republi- can institutions, schools and colleges will be multiplied by Government, and they will be indifferent in religion ex- cept so far as they are infidel.
The Roman Catholic Church, by a radical and politic change, will either compete on the ground, or will im- port well educated priests from Eu- rope, and Protestantism must not be open to contempt as the representa- tive of an ignorant ministry. Some men must be well prepared, others must not be out of relation and sym- pathy with the rural masses — all should be filled with a devoted spirit.
OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS.
Of the flourishing mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church in Bra- zil and the missions of the Northern Presbyterian Church in U.S. Columbia and Chili, there is not space to write in the present article. The Methodist Episcopal Church (North) has a vigor-
ous mission in the Argentine republic, with five ordained missionaries and 15 native preachers. Eight stations are occupied, of which Buenos Ayres is the chief.
In Uruguay there is but 1 ordained missionary, but 8 native preachers are at work; 7 stations are occupied, the largest of which is Montevideo.
Paraguay, Brazil and Peru are also occupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church, each with one station. In all these South American missions, a total membership of 882 is reported, also 688 probationers. The total num- ber of adherents is reported at 8,935. The missions are apparently charac- terized by remarkable vigor, and all friends of the cause will rejoice that an influence so directly opposite to the droning and stagnation of the Rom- ish church for nearly three centuries past is now awakening these south- ern races.
The enterprise with which the mis- sions are carried on is shown by the fact that the mission reports $222,290 in church property — viz : in churches, $190,290, and in parsonages and or- phanages, $32,800,
The contributions reported in the missions in 1889-90 are reported at $11,205 for self-support, and $13,666 for other purposes — a total of $24,871. Of conversions 89 were reported, and 335 baptisms of infants. These vigor- ous missions are represented by only 6 ordained missionaries.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (SOUTH).
Missions in Brazil begun in 1875. The first Conference was held in 1887, at Sao Paulo. There are 7 local preach- ers, and 288 church members. Eleven Sunday-schools with 33 teachers and 339 pupils are reported. Three church buildings at Rio, Piracicaba and Juiz de Fora are valued at $52,938. Contributions during the year amount- ed to $2,221. Bishop Granberry's re- port credits the Woman's Missionary Society for all the educational insti- tutions of the mission, viz., 2 colleges,
1890.]
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
867
with 4 missionary teachers, and 13 as- sistants and 143 pupils.
MORAVIAN MISSION IN SURINAM, DUTCH GUIANA.
In this interesting Mission 17 sta- tions are reported with 71 "mission- ary agents," and 377 native helpers. The communicants are 8,313, baptized adults 7,408; baptized children, 8,901; candidates, new people, etc., 1,640. Total, 26,262. The missions carried on by all Protestant societies in the three Guianas are all attended by peculiar hardships. These hot and malarious countries have been settled from time to time by the captives rescued from slave-ships. In fact, they were, in the early days, regarded as rendezvous for all refuse 'and castaway classes of humanity, and the population consists of colonies of English, Dutch, French, and Spanish, with every cross and grade, with bush-Negroes (the larger class), Indians and Asiatic Coolies.
The susceptible and half-savage bush-Negro, on the banks of the low and marshy rivers, affords the hope- ful, because fruitful, field of labor for the self-denying Moravian.
Of almost equal interest with the mission in Surinam, is that of the Mo- ravians on the Mosquitoe Coast. It reports 12 missionaries, and 490 com- municants.
THE SOUTH AMERICAN MISSION.
The romance of missions will not die out till the name of Allen Gardner shall be forgotten. Out of the melan- choly circumstance of his death with that of six associates, from starvation, while trying to found a mission on
the inhospitable shores of Terra del Fuego, grew the South American Mission. His heroism roused all the best manhood, as well as the most de- voted Christian sentiment of England. It was resolved that, by the grace of God, so noble an attempt should not fail. It was another of the many in- stances in which sacrifice and death have brought forth more abundant fruit than a long and laborious life could have accomplished. By the re- port of 1888, the South American So- ciety received contributions, amount- ing, with legacies, to $70,000. They came generally in the form of indivi- dual gifts and from every land in which Englishmen reside.
It will be remembered that the late Charles Darwin, after actually seeing the work done in Terra del Fuego, became a supporter of the So- ciety.
The work takes on a wide variety. It is directed largely to the Indians in Terra del Fuego, Patagonia, and Para- guay, but also to chaplaincies in the ports and for the seamen of all nations. It embraces the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, Wollaston Islands, the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Chili.
The Earl of Aberdeen is its presi- dent, and many eminent names of England, both clerical and lay, are among its vice-presidents. It has 1 field superintendent, 29 clergymen, and 5 native helpers.
The annual reports of the society, es- pecially those relating to work among the Indians, are deeply interesting.
VI.— EDITORIAL NOTES
Important Official Documents Prom Sierra Leone, West Africa, The Editors of this Review have been both surprised and shocked to receive a copy of sundry official com- munications " relating to some Ameri- can missionaries who have lately ar- rived " at Freetown, specially directed to us by order of Lord Kuntsford
ON CURRENT TOPICS.
from Downing Street, London, under date of August 28, 1890. We have not space to give the documents entire, but quote the main facts which con- cern the Christian public, and espe- cially all the friends of missions. One of these documents is from Dr. Ross, Colonial Surgeon at Freetown, and another from Sir J. G. Hay, Governor
868
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[Nov..
of Sierra Leone, transmitting Dr. Ross's lengthy report to Lord Kunts- ford, of the home Government, Lon- don, and one from him through his sec- retary, transmitting the whole corres- pondence to the editors of the Mission- ary Review, calling special attention to their contents, and "to a notice, headed the 'Soudan Missionary Move- ment,' which appeared at page 555, of the Review for July, 1890."
These documents inform us that sun- dry "American missionaries have lately arrived at Freetown with a view of proceeding due east into the interior for evangelizing purposes;" that "three of their number have al- ready died," and that "the first inti- mation Dr. Ross had of their be- ing ill was by receipt of a letter from Mr. Kingman, reporting that two deaths had occurred in the 'Mis- sion House' that afternoon," (July 9th). "On Inquiry," continues Dr. Ross, "I gathered that no medical man had been asked to attend the deceased, the wrhole party being staunch believers in the 'faith-healing' doctrine, nor had any medicine been taken." Further- more Dr. Ross "remonstrated wTith Mr. Helmick, another member of the party," but could not obtain from him any satisfactory promise that they would in future depart from the course they were adopting, nor did he mention that there were any more persons suffering in the house. To prevent this neglected tropical fever from assuming a virulent and con- tagious form, the bodies were at once buried by his order and the sanitary policeman sent to disinfect the house, destroy all infected bedding, clothing, etc. On the 10th of July Mrs. King- man was found in the last stages of exhaustion from neglected fever, which had then assumed a malignant type, she having been ill nine days before; and in spite of all that could be done Mrs. Kingman died on the even- ing of the 11th.' "Mr. Kingman was ill also and visited by Dr. Ross, who strongly urged him to take medicine. Finding Mr. Trice ill, Dr. Ross re- moved him to the hospital, and at last prevailed on Mr. Kingman to be treated, on the ground that his ' 'action endangered the whole coummunity." Dr. Ross felt "compelled to keep the missionaries from going into any other house than their own, and stopped all communication with other white poeple."
Furthermore Dr. Ross states that he understands these "missionaries intend going due east into the interior, guided only by a compass;" that they have been "living as the natives, in the hope that by so doing they will gain the confidence of the people;" that they "have been eating native food, cooking and washing for them- selves and even collecting their own fuel, in this rainy weather." Of course that they should expose themselves to fatal fever and should actually court death by such manner of proceeding is not strange.
Such is the purport of the commu- nications referred to; and the Editors of this Review feel compelled to say in this connection, that up to this time they had never had the least intima- tion that this "Soudan Movement" was characterized by any such fanat- icism. We felt that, like other move- ments originating among well mean- ing but inexperienced persons who are young in years, it needed a head, wise counsel and sound discretion. Even now we see no reason to recall a •word of commendation of the singu- lar unselfishness and heroic consecra- tion that appear to have marked these pioneers, but we confess to being as- tounded at the statements contained in this correspondence. It is a sad affair, little less than wanton suicide. To persist in such a policy would not only ruin this whole movement but inflict a lasting damage on all mission- ary enterprises and compel sensible people to wash their hands clean of all abetting such supreme folly and practical madness. Certainly the editors of the Missionary Review of the World, have not the slightest sympathy with such disregard of all proper precautions, not to say defiance of all sanitary and social laws.
From the inception of this move- ment we have said to these western brethren, "move slowly; get compe- tent medical advisers, and experienced explorers, that you may not risk health and life by needless exposure." God not only gives a "spirit of power and of love, but of a sound mindF
1890.]
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
869
We repeat the advice. Call a halt ! and let it be fully understood that no man or woman goes to Tropical Africa to throw away life on a theory, and endanger the lives of others by pro- moting infectious disease.
A. T. PlERSON.
J. M. Sherwood. On receiving these communications the Editors felt bound to transmit a copy to the brethern in Kansas, who are more closely connected with this movement, expressing also our sorrow and apprehension as to the disastrous effect of such a course as that pursued in Africa, not only upon this, but all other mission enterprises. We have a reply from Geo. S. Fisher, Esq., dis- claiming all responsibility for these peculiar views, and saying that these pioneers had no such views when they left the west, but on their way a certain well known advocate of " faith heal- ing " in New York City got hold of them and infused into them his views of the subject. We mention this in order to attach responsibility to those to whom it belongs; and that responsi- bility, in our judgment, is a very grave one.
In response to our inquiry, Mr. Fisher sends us also the following more cheerful news concerning the surviv- ors.—J. M. S.
"Our very latest information is to the effect that Mr Kingman and Mr. Trice, the colored man, have both recovered, and that the others have had no sickness whatever. They are now waiting until the arrangements can be ef- fected so that they can leave Freetown, cross the Kong Mountains, and enter upon their work, if the Lord will, and enter among the Mandingo tribes."
Also the following, which we read with many "falling tears:"
"The enclosed letter is sent out with some falling of tears, but with much peace of heart, for none who are conversant with the history of the spreading of the Gospel in the dark lands, will be surprised or cast down by reason of these words:
" 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it brin^eth forth much fruit/ This scrip- ture has indeed been fulfilled many times in the history of the early church, among the martyrs, and those who have not counted
their own lives dear unto themselves, but have obediently gone forth to proclaim the joyful Message.
"Our beloved friends believed that nothing was too precious for their Saviour, and have made the supreme offering of their lives, and, standing to-day, where we may again see the broken body of the Christ and hear His words 'As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you,"1 we are confident that there are many who will gladly offer themselves and take the place of these messengers who have been called home, and, by His grace, plant the ban- ner of the Cross in darkest Africa.
"Asking that continual prayer may be made to our Lord so that indeed He may speedily send His messengers to the uttermost parts of the world, I am,
"In the hope of His coming, sincerely thine, "George S. Fisher.'"
The National Missionary Convention which met at Indianapolis Septem- ber 3d to 9th, inclusive, was, in some respects, a remarkable gathering; not in point of numbers, for but a few hundred visitors were there, and resi- dents of the town were largely kept out of the city by the excessive heat. But there were signs of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. Mr. Robert E. Speer, traveling secretary of the Students' Volunteer Movement, and George S. Fisher, Esq. , of Kansas, as well as Augustus Nash, of Ne- braska, and Rev. T. C. Horton, of St. Paul, were among the leading spirits.
After watching the Convention with a careful eye, and noting the addresses made and the tone of general feeling, we were constrained to acknowledge that there were signs of a Higher Hand than man's in the whole mis- sionary movement of which this is one expression.
The band of intending missionaries that we found there, were nearly all young — under thirty years. Moved by the awful destitution of a hundred millions wTho, in Africa, are utterly without the Gospel, they have felt more needed there than here, and have practically offered themselves to go abroad to the Regions Beyond — most of them to the Soudan, some to China and other lands of the Orient. No
870
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
[Nov.
doubt there is some zeal that needs to be tempered with knowledge — no doubt a good deal of imprudence that experience will correct and chasten. There is excess of enthusiasm that should be restrained, and impulsive activity that must be wisely guarded. But there seems to be also a passion for souls, a self-surrender to God's work, a certain abandon of confidence in his "Word and guidance, that we would gladly feel were more general in dis- ciples of more mature years. We should say that not less than fifty young men and women were present, whose faces are set toward the deso- late regions of the earth, and who are only waiting for the dopr to open.
There were present several of these young men who have been traveling through the States, mainly of the West, presenting the needs of the per- ishing millions, and urging consecra- tion of men and of money to supply their need of the Gospel. These "trav- elling secretaries" have gone like primitive disciples, carrying nothing in their purses, and their unanimous testimony was that they have lacked nothing. Some who heard them wit- ness, publicly confessed that, though they had been prejudiced against the movement, they felt constrained to say this is the Finger of God. A. T. P.
The Home Best for Missionaries at Morthfield, Mass, By a strange fatality a part of our editorial note on this topic in our last issue was left out. We said further that these 15 acres of land are to be laid out in a sort of park, to be named Livingstone Park, in honor of David Livingstone, and it is proposed to erect a few economical and conven- ient cottages on these grounds, to be furnished rent free to returned mis- sionaries who are at home for rest and recuperation. It is desired to have these cottages free to those who oc- cupy them without reference to de- nomination; and to enlist various benevolent people in their erection,
so that this shall be a gift to the Lord's cause for His servants' use when at home for a season to gather new strength for further toils. Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston; D. L. Moody r Esq., S. P. Harbison, of Pittsburgh; Dr. Munhall, and a few others, will be asked to act as counsellors in the completion of the plan; and it is not designed to ask any help from anyone but leave to those of the Lord's people who may feel so inclined to assist in rearing the cottages. The ground is already paid for, mostly by one indi- vidual; and already unsolicited con- tributions have been made to the ex- tent of $650. Any who are so disposed may send contributions to the editors of this Review and they will be promptly acknowledged. Ultimately, after the cottages are built, a report of the work will be printed and sent to the par- ties contributing, with pictures of the houses erected. A. T. P.
A Remonstrance that Should be Heard,
"Pardon me, if I seem presump- tuous, but do you think the Presby- terian Church is moving in the right direction in its efforts to remove* the heavy indebtedness of the two Boards? Does it not seem that a curse, rather than a blessing, will follow one form adopted, viz. : cutting doivn the meagre salaries of our missionaries, and leav- ing them with no escape from this iron rule? Is not this 'muzzling the ox which treadeth out the corn ?' I do not know when anything has so burdened me as this mismanagement on the part of the Assembly. Surely, some better plan could have been adopted there. This is something like 'making bricks without straw.'
"In my own mind it is clear that this great debt could have been made the means of rousing the Church to a sense of its responsibility as nothing else could have done. It would have called out a special day of preaching on the subject of missions — humili- ation and prayer — a day of collections for the debt alone, making at least two Sundays of the fifty-two to be de- voted to the great work of the church. The letters one reads from missiona- ries on the frontier are pitiful; and if the church does not hear will not God avenge ?
"Pardon me, but I feel I am only
1890.]
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
871
saying what many must feel. I do not like to seem to criticise over-much, but it makes me sick at heart to be at ease in our luxurious churches and notice the indifference, the want of reference to this, the most crying evil I have known; for it is from those poor missionaries that part of the money already collected (?) is wrested— not voluntary offerings, but oppressive taxation, in a sense."
The above letter is from one of the largest and best known givers in the denomination, and we publish it, first, because such a munificent giver has a right to be heard; and again, because this church and other denominations ought to know how their principal benefactors look on such a mistaken policy as retrenchment; and thirdly, because we feel in absolute accord with these sentiments. God will never bless any policy which is practically robbery both of Him and His poor and faithful servants. It cannot be our duty to do wrong, and we believe this course, whenever and wherever adopted, is dishonoring to both the church and to God. There must be some way of meeting a crisis like this beside doing an aditional wrong. This policy reminds us of the man who borrowed money to pay a debt ! and the fact that at this time of the world's history a great denomination can sound the cry, Retrench ! while every call of God says Advance ! is it- self a melancholy sign of the times. We know one city where a craze for expensive church-buildings has led to the abandonment of large and com- modious edifices for others that cost enough more than the old to pay this debt by the excess on each building.
Editors.
Dr. Pentecost's Farewell Words.
We were present at the farewell service in Dr. Meredith's church in Brooklyn, of which he was formerly pastor. He gave an outline of his plan of evangelistic work in India. He is sanguine that a great break in heathenism will begin there, which will be followed by a wide-spread
awakening in this country. His ad- dresss evinced considerable familiarity with the present situation of things in India, and appreciation of the diffi- culty and importance of the mission he had undertaken.
Among other things he said:
"There are 5,000,000 Hindus, young men, who speak English. We are going to reach them. They have never been evangelized. Oc- casionally a lecturer like the Rev. Joseph Cook will drop in among them; but he is gone in a week. What they want is preaching every day for six months. All has been touch and go so far. We go to preach and not to prove the Gospel. Disabuse your minds of one thought. We don't propose to convert India. We only intend to do our share. If we come back without having made any visible impression, we won't feel disappointed. Fifty blows may be necessary before the rock of heathenism is split. We hope to strike one of those blows. The Hindus say that as the English go to India they drop their religion in the Red Sea, hoping to find it there as they go back. The people of India are profoundly religious in their way. They look on our missionaries as being merely men who are hired to conquer their religion with our own, just as they were politically conquered by the English. They judge our religion not by our missionaries but by the English people among them, seven- tenths of whom are there to trade and not to set a religious example.
"We will go first to Calcutta, where we will open an evangelistic mission and begin on the English themselves. From them — having by the help of God brought them to a condition where they can exemplify and reflect the Gospel— we will proceed to evangelize the Eng- lish-speaking Hindus. After them, Provi- dence permitting, we will evangelize the half- breeds. We hope to make a break among the high castes. Don't think we are proud be- cause we are going to work among the high castes. We have chosen them because no work of evangelization has ever been done among them. Finally, we are doing this work strictly at our own expense. If anybody feels moved to chip in and help us pay our current expenses, all right. But we are not begging. Personally I will pay my own expenses. We are a voluntary mission, representing no society and no fund.'"
May he not be disappointed in this bold undertaking ! May India be moved as never before ! He needs and asks and deserves the earnest prayers of Christendom. He remains a month in England and then sails for India. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, who
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[Nov.
have aided him in his evangelistic work, will accompany him in this foreign tour. J. M. S.
The Tribune (New York), in a re- cent editorial entitled, "Why Foreign Missions Languish," exhibits the most surprising ignorance of the subject. The very reverse is true. Instead of being in a languishing condition the cause of foreign missions was never so active, so promising, so full of en- terprise, so far-reaching and world- wide in its scope and plans. The great English societies in 1889 expended $13,000,000 in the work; and our American societies full $6,000,000 ! more than in any former year ! Does this look like languishing ?
Quite as false is the reason assigned for the decline of missions. It argues they "languish" because the Gospel is presented so as to repel rather than attract, by men not properly trained. It is sure that the prevailing methods of mission work are radically wrong. Now thousands of the ripest scholars, the broadest culture, the most distin- guished gifts, the noblest educators, and the most eminent and useful men in the Church to-day, are found in the foreign field ! Methods radically wrong that have civilized and evangelized whole nations, converted millions of souls in heathendom, established schools and colleges, and hospitals, and Y. M. C. A.'s all over the world ! Does not the Tribune know these facts ? Such stupendous ignorance is enough to bring Horace Greeley up from the grave to weep over the pa- per he made so grand a power for good. This attack on missions is a very feeble echo of Canon Taylor's charges two years ago, the falsity and grossness of which were abundantly shown by tes- timony that could not be set aside.
The Tribune is late in reviving these exploded charges. — J. M. S.
A Princely Giver's Death. David Paton, Esq., of Tillicoutry, Canada, and for years residing in
Alloa, Scotland, has recently gone to his reward, in his eighty-seventh year. He set an example of benefi- cence which will be fragrant in Scot- land and in all the Christian church for many years to come. His liberal- ity toward foreign missions is very conspicuous; but scarcely less so to- ward all home missionaryschemesalso. Alloa, where he built up his fortune, witnessed its dispensing in all good works. He supported missions in the destitute neighborhoods, provided for the free entertainment of infirm min- isters at Crieff Hydropathic; and gave, as few men since apostolic days have given, great sums to God's cause. He has spent a vast fortune of $1,000,000 on missions; and, out of the small an- nuity reserved to keep him from ac- tual want, he managed to give, at the time of my visit to Alloa, another 250 pounds sterling; and, as a letter from Dr. McAll informs me, his last act of giving was the sending of $500 more to the same great work of French evangelization. He was an office- bearer in the United Presbyterian Church, and one of the brightest orna- ments of that beautiful body of breth- ren, of whom we may say on personal knowledge that it contains some of the noblest examples both of piety and of generosity which the United Kingdom furnishes. That dear old saint gave not grudgingly nor of necessity, but cheerfully. Self- denial became to him a habit and a delight for Christ's sake. To press his hand and look in his eyes was one of the rare privileges of that recent tour of missions in Scotland. He was the patriarch of givers, and, we trust will have a numerous spirit- ual progeny who shall emulate an example that has few rivals since the days of Barnabas of Cyprus.
A. T. P.
Bishop William Tay'or seems to be a man of great common sense. He says that on the dead level of heath- enism all genius is excluded; any in- ventor is liable to the charge of witch- craft, and the poison draught is the inevitable doom of one who im- proves upon the crude implements of his ancestors. In the South of Africa the men wear two coats, one of red paint, the other of grease well-rubbed in; and women dig, hoe, gather crops, carry burdens and do other hard work. To educate an African without chris- tianizing him is to train a polite loaf er. He instanced the educated native known as "Hodge," who, with a fine culture, turned to Paganism, put on
1890.]
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
873
the breech-clout and took six wives and set up a harem. The educational plan must include all industries that prepare for a life of self-support. The short and sure cut is to be found in rearing in Africa Christian industrial homes, adopting about 12 children under five years of age. Young chil- dren are not yet heathen and must be prevented from becoming such. It is easy to get boys but not girls, to adopt. Girls are a marketable commodity for polygamous purposes. The only way at present is to redeem them from this polygamous slavery by a virtual pur- chase. They are sold in infancy for the future harem of these polygamists, and if not redeemed will be claimed even after adoption and education. A young and pretty girl was thus adopted by a missionary's family and trained as a converted woman, and one day claimed as the betrothed wife of a rich polygamist. She was al- ready pledged to a converted young man connected with the mission ^ind presents were freely given to secure her release from the prior con- tract. Apparently she was released and tiie marriage consented to. But afterward under pretext of a visit to her parents was, with her husband, induced to go to their home, and on entering the village her young husband was literally hewn to pieces, and she was tied to a tree and whipped every two hours till she consented to go and live with this wretched pagan. That is a glimpse of woman's condition in the dark continent.
Meanwhile all the work of missions is threatened by the awful flooding of Africa with rum. Hamburg alone exports by two companies annually 200.000 tuns of liquor, not to speak of what France, Spain, Portugal, Eng- land and New England are doing to pour into that land an Amazon river of rum. If Mohammedanism were let loose, it would soon put an end to this business, for Islam's banner is the banner of total abstinence and pro- hibition. It may be that as God at the beginning let loose Mohammedanism as the scourge of idolatry in the Chris-
tian church, he will again let loose this system of false religion to drive out an infernal rum traffic let in by Christian nations ! Already are 300,- 000 mounted followers of the False Prophet said to be overrunning the Dark Continent. A. T. P.
The India Sunday-school Union, having secured the hearty co-oper- ation of the British Sunday-school Union, has been planning a large ex- tension of its work. Dr. James L. Phillips, 17 years medical and educa- tional missionary in Bengal, has been appointed general-secretary of the India Sunday-school Union, and sailed from New York for Europe. He will speak in behalf of this promising movement in the chief cities of the United Kingdom during September and October, and then embark for Bombay, where he will enter upon his work, attend the Punjab Sunday- school Convention at Lahore in De- cember, and reach Calcutta for the annual meeting of the India Sunday- School Union in December. All India seems ripe for Sunday-school exten- sion at this time.
It has been our privilege to make the acquaintance of this beloved brother while home on a furlough. Failing to find us at the office, where he called to say good-bye, he left us a very kind letter from which we make an extract:
"Now I go back to my dear India, where I was born, as general-secretary of the India Sunday-school Union, with headquarters at Calcutta. For two or three years I shall be on the move constantly all over India, organ- izing and pushing Sunday-school work. My post is a new one. I am called back to India by my brethren of all the churches. Our Sunday- school Union there, as here and in Eu- rope, is international and inter-de- nominational, like the evangelical alliance work in the U. S. A., with which I have been connected as gen- eral-secretary at Philadelphia for a year." J. M. S.
VII.— ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
SPECIAL FIELDS. INDIA.
American Marathi Mission.
(A. B. C. F. M.) REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1889.
Stations at Bombay, Ahmednagar, etc. This mission covers a territory of 10,974
square miles, including 30 towns and 3,579 vil- lages, and containing a population of 3,286,889, of whom 2, 835,382 are Hindus and 284,889 are Mussulmans.
Stations, 5; outstations, 107; missionaries, 27 (of whom 11 ordained. 1 lay. 9 missionaries' wives, G other ladies;; native helpers, 302 (of
874 ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. [Nov.
whom 18 pastors, 21 preachers); churches, 33; communicants, 2,115 (1,197 male, 918 female); added on profession, 192; schools, 127; pupils, 3,280,(2,461 male, 819 female); Sunday-schools, 124; pupils, 4,718 (of whom 1,688 Christian); patients treated at dispensary in Rahuri, new, 5,052; old, 9,428; total, 14,480 (of these, 12,045 Hindus, 2,059 Mussulmans, 76 Parsees, 41 Ro- man Catholics, 259 Protestants).
PROGRESS IN TWENTY YEARS.
Number of churches, 1869, 22; 1889, 33; net gain in twenty years, 11. Received on pro- fession of faith, 1869, 53; 1889, 192; net gain in twenty years, 139. Number of communicants at close of the year, 1869, 677; 1889, 2,115; net gain in twenty years, 1,438. Contributions by native Christians, 1869, 1,651 rupees; 1889, 4,6:30, rupees; net gain in twenty years, 2,979 rupees. Number of schools, 1869, 35; 1889, 127; net gain in twenty years, 92. Number of pupils, 1869, 667; 1889, 3,280; net gain in twenty years, 2,613.
From this it will be evident that the number of communicants on the church rolls, the con- tributions of native Christians, and the num- ber of schools, have trebled in the last twenty years. The number of pupils is five times as many as then attended our schools.
American Madura Mission, South India.
Population of district, 1,775,000. Stations at Madura, Pasumalee, Battalagundi, etc.
Stations, 7; out-stations, 25; missionaries, 36 (of whom 13 ordained, 1 lay, 13 missionaries1 wives, 9 other ladies); native helpers, 448 (of whom 17 ordained pastors) ; organized churches, 35; communicants, 3,562; added on profession, 272; schools, 156; pupils, 5,410; Sabbath-schools, 146; average attendance 4,151; patients treated at dispensary, new 9,066; old, 6,504; total, 15,570 (of these 4,775 Hindus, 3,272 native Christians, including Ro- manists, 815 Mussulmans.
American Free Baptist Mission, Southern Bengal.
Population, 3,817,653. Stations at Balasore, Jellasore, Midnapore, etc.
Stations, 11; missionaries, 25 (of whom 9 are ordained, 1 lay, 9 missionaries1 wives, and 6 other ladies) ; native preachers, 17 (of whom 5 are ordained, 12 lay); other native helpers not enumerated; organized churches, 11; communicants, 646; added, 55; schools, 105; pupils, 3,619. Considerable medical work seems to have been done, but no statistics are given.
Canadian Baptist Telugu Mission.
Population reached 3,000,000. Stations: Akidu, Cocanada, Bimlipatam, Bobbili, etc.
Stations, 9; missionaries, 30 (of whom 11 are ordained, 10 missionaries1 wives, 7 other ladies); native helpers, 74 (of whom 8 are
ordained); churches, 22; communicants, 2,466; additions not reported fully, about 300: schools, 40; average attendance, 583; Sunday- • schools, 19; average attendance, 626.
Malayalan Mission of the London Mis- sionary Society, South Travancore.
The report for this mission comes to us in four parts: the Trevandrum, Quilon and Ne- yoor districts and the mission seminary.
In the six stations there are 9 ordained mis- sionaries; 18 ordained native ministers; 228 other native helpers; 273 congregations; 5,659 church members; 521 admissions; 713 candidates; 311 schools; 10,560 boys under in- struction, 3,504 girls— total scholars, 14,064; patients registered in mission hospital and dis- pensaries—Protestant Christians, 13,874; Ro- man Catholics, 1,698; heathen, 12,116; Moham- medans, 676— total, 28,364. Publications, by London mission press, periodicals, 52 numbers, 116,600 pages; tracts, 33, 323,100 pages. South Travancore Tract and Book Society has published since 1833, when it was formed by the union of tract societies long existing at Nagercoil and Neyoor, 442,549 monthly maga- zines, 181,200 tracts, 28,500 catechisms, 13,500 books, 3,146,900 handbills, and 260,000 Glad News for Children, in Tamil— 4,072,649 publi- cations.
Basel German Evangelical Missionary Society in Southwestern India.
Canara, Coorg, South Mahratta, Malabar..
Stations, 24; European missionaries, male, 66, female, 40; native agency, pastors, 15r evangelists, 106; other helpers, 27; teachers, 278 ; communicants, 5,160 ; additions, 134;- schools, 121; pupils, 6,707.
Mackay Mission Hospital, Pormosa.
Connected with the Presbyterian Board of Missions, Canada.
New patients, 3,055; old patients returned for medicines, etc., 7,224. The number is less than the last year by 225, due to the fact that there has been less sickness and that fewer soldiers have been admitted.
Methodist Episcopal Church, (North), North China Mission.
Peking, Tientsin, Shantung, etc.
Stations or circuits, 20; ordained missiona- ries, 15; missionaries1 wives, 14; other ladies, 9; native ordained preachers, 6; unordained, 10; teachers, 20: other helpers, 22; members, 782; probationers, 517; average attendance- Sunday worship, 931; Sunday-schools, 10; scholars, 746; Theological schools, 3; students, 40; other schools, 27: scholars, 529.
Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Church, (South).
Secretary: Rev. M. H. Houston, D.D., Nash- ville, Tenn.
1890.]
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
875
[By some error the statistics reported for this society in the September number of the Review were drawn from the report of 1889, in- stead of from that of 1890. Dr. Houston has kindly called our notice to the error, and sent corrected figures.— Eds.]
REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING APRIL 1, 1890.
Receipts.
Balance on hand $ 8,457 59
From churches 49,812 90
Sabbath-schools 8,673 50
Missionary societies 27,258 80
Legacies 14,927 02
Miscellaneous 8,652 88
Total $117,782 69
Expenditures.
Three Brazil Missions $ 36,100 32
China Missions 24,701 71
Japan 44 12,814 31
Congo 44 4.000 00
Greek 44 3,453 70
Italian 44 1,200 00
Indian 44 6,490 00
Mexican 44 7.870,29
Total for Missions $ 96.630 33
General Expenses 8,663 02
Balance on hand (including Relief Fund) 12.489 34
Total $117,782 69
STATISTICS.
Brazil.. . China . Japan . .
Greece
Italy . Mexico Africa .
Total
2 £
c a
Z 0
I I
30 11|10 li 13 it; 19 8 8
116 37
5,10 15
670 l.V<
45i >
2L078
360
224 245 305
15
418
165 fl.l«N)
2601 165 130 651
688
1,207 ^5 12,851
Amencan Presbyterian, (North), Mission in Canton, China,
Stations, 2; out-stations, 28. Foreign mis- sionaries, ordained, 8; lay, 6: medical, 4; mis- sionaries" wives, 11; other ladies, 6 (1 medi- cal); total, 31. Native ordained ministers, 3; other native assistants, 84; churches, 8; com-
municants, 625; additions, 100; schools, 37; pupils, 916; medical work, out-patients (at- tendances), 59,311; in-patients, 1,459; visits at homes, 647; surgical operations, 2,868.
General Baptist Missionary Society.
Secretary: Rev. William Hill, Mission House, 60 Wilson St., Derby, England.
REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MAY 31, 1890.
Receipts.
Collections, etc £3,257 4 5
Legacies... 1,497 4 11
Miscellaneous 693 17 10
Total for general purposes... £5,448 7 2
Special funds 225 17 6
In India 2,929 9 6
In Rome 149 0 11
Total £8.752 15 1
Payments.
Balance due May 31, 1889 £20 12 11
Orissa Mission 3,270 13 2
Agency 315 17 7
Publications 171 12 0
Incidentals 144 5 7
Assurance, Annuities, and Capi- tal, etc 1,441 0 4
In India, (see above) 2,929 9 9
In Rome, 44 44 44 9 0 11
Balance to new account 10 3 1
Total £8,752 15 1
STATISTICS OF ORISSA MISSION.
Stations, 4; 15 out- stations, 8 missionaries, 4 missionaries wives, 4 other female mission- aries, 21 native preachers, 18 chapels, 1,376 church members; 1 orphanage, 122 members; 12 schools, 641 scholars; 12 Sunday-schools, 755 members. Local contributions, 8,411 rupees.
Baptist Missionary Society.
Secretary. Alfred H. Baynes, Esq.,F. R.A.S., Baptist Mission House, 19 Furnival St., Holborn, London, E. C. report for year ending march 31, 1890 Receipts. Balance from last year, on Special Fund, and Widows', etc., ac- count £4.894 14 9
For debt 2.405 2 5
General Fund 68,331 0 1
Special, etc., account 3.978 9 6
Total receipts £74,714 12 0
Balance over-drawn on General Fund 2.472 3 10
Total £82,081 10 7
Expenditures. Balances. Debt on General Fund. £2,862 3 6
General Fund £70,346 2 10
Special, etc., account 6,761 10 3
• £77.107' 18 1
Total expenditure . .. £79,969 16 7
Balance on hand on Special,etc, account 2,111 14 0
Total £82,081 10 7
876
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
[Nov.
STATISTICS.
3 I
o
c5 So
EE
India . . . Ceylon.. China .. Japan. Palestine Europe.. W.Indies Africa. . .
57 94 4 25
25
33 4 147 5
4,129 868 1,049 157 75 1,860 6,185 43
515 119 319 99 14,316 1,053 47 7
231 64 103
210 423 12
4,027' 3,190
58
409 143
American Baptist Missionary Union.
Secretary: Rev. J. N. Murdoch, D.D., Tre- mont Temple, Boston, Mass.
REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890.
Receipts.
Donations $212,962 94
Legacies 91,935 49
Woman's Boards 93,949 22
Miscellaneous 12,126 44
Income of Funds 21,796 51
Government Grants-in-aid, etc 8,017 47
Balance due April, 1890.
$440,788 07 7,942 06
Total $448,730 13
In addition there has been added to the Per- manent Fund,, $118,739.68, making the gross receipts for the year $559,527.75.
Expend i tures.
Burmah $151,290 85
Assam 22,312 58
Telugu 64,778 38
Siam 1,373 95
China 31,605 25
Japan 39,122 72
Africa 43,780 42
Europe 32,984 57
Home expenses
Publications
Annuities
$387,248 72 39,713 87 1,671 40 11,922 58
$440,556 57
Balance due April 1, 1839 8,173 56
Total $448,730 13
STATISTICS.
|
Mission- |
Nat |
ves. |
a |
|||||||||
|
ar |
es |
0 |
||||||||||
|
i |
3 |
|||||||||||
|
Stations. |
Out Stations. |
Female. |
Preachers. |
Other Helpers |
Churches. |
Church Memb |
Additions. |
Schools. |
Scholars. |
Native Contri |
||
|
21 |
593 |
45 |
87 |
521 |
116 |
520 |
29,689 |
2,039 |
444 |
12,669 |
$52,633 |
|
|
7 |
64 |
11 |
14 |
22 |
54 |
30 |
1,937 |
185 |
87 |
1,900 |
740 |
|
|
13 |
635 |
21 |
26 |
204 |
217 |
72 |
33,838 |
3,340 |
460 |
4,934 |
564 |
|
|
8 |
59 |
18 |
23 |
38 |
25 |
17 |
1,535 |
61 |
23 |
325 |
521 |
|
|
8 |
27 |
15 |
26 |
29 |
17 |
10 |
905 |
158 |
6 |
216 |
311 |
|
|
7 |
4 |
23 |
16 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
386 |
156 |
10 |
471 |
75 |
|
|
64 |
1382 |
133 |
192 |
819 |
437 |
6.54 |
68,290 |
5,939 |
1030 |
20,515 |
$54,844 |
|
|
917 |
707 |
70,003 |
5,638 |
169,425 |
||||||||
|
Total |
64 |
1382 |
133 |
192 |
1736 |
437 |
1361 |
138,293 |
11,577 |
1030 |
20,515 |
$224,269 |
Church Missionary Society.
The Secretaries, Church Missonary House, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London, E. C.
TtEPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890.
Receipts.
Through Associations £146,771 6 10
Direct to the Society, including
Legacies 23,862 7 9 56,046 4 8
Disabled Missionaries1 Funds 1,646 10 7
Kent and Interest 4,052 15 9
Total Ordinary £208,516 17 10
Special Funds 51,765 13 7
Total Receipts £260,282 11 5
Expenditures.
For Missions £182,845 3 2
Disabled M i s-
sionaries, etc.. 7,941 3 3
Collection o f
Funds 13,739 13 2
Administration. 10,596 11 5
£215,222 11 0 Deduct, charged to Special Funds 8,193 6 7
Total Ordinary £207,029 4 5
Special Funds 17,556 8 1
Total Payments £224,585 12 6
Balance carried to Contin- gency Fund: Ordinary Re- ceipts £1,487 13 5
Special Funds.. 34,209 5 6
35,696 18 11
Total £260,282 11 15
1890.]
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS— MONTHLY BULLETIN.
877
STATISTICS.
Africa
Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Persia. .
India
Cej-lon
Mauritius
China
Japan
New Zealand
N. W. America and North Pacific
Total 29
315
Missionaries
52 59
Natives, Eurasians, etc.
4S 9 144
15 3
16 4
27
20
293 107 2150 44G
51 300
36 378
65
59 86,942 2,3(53
542
3,835 49,016
<T3
445 4
1,577 17! 103 453 242 5
109 3,110
108 50 1191 229 25 123 11 1 58
1796
VIII.— PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa — It is said that the annexations of Great Britain in Africa amount to over 2,000,000 square miles. "Spheres of influ- ence'" they are termed, not annexations. We care not what they are called: we are glad to know that under the flag of Great Britain the slave trade cannot live. Under that flag, the Bible may be printed and scattered with- out "let or hindrance.'" Under that flag, missionaries of the cross will be safe, and can go about their work unmolested. Ambitious and grasping England, men may call her, but she carries into her colonies, all over the world, the light of civilization, to brighten the faces of their ignorant and degraded.
—Rapid progress all along the line is being made in the opening up of the new world of Central Africa. Europe has such vast re- sources of power and wealth to bring to bear on the enterprise that the rate at which civili- zation is advancing on barbarism is surpris- ing.
— To explore Central Africa. — The Steele says that a French expedition to explore Cen- tral Africa is being organized. It will be divided into three sections, which will start simultaneously from Algeria and the Niger and Congo rivers, and converge at Lake Tchad.
—The Universities' Mission in Central Africa employs seventy Europeans at four principal centres in Africa and on Lake Ny- assa, where a church steamer is maintained. Bishop Smithers is the leader of this mission, which extends over 25,000 square miles.
—The Trappists, an order of Jesuits, have lately begun work in South Africa on a large scale. In Natal they have an estate of 20,000 acres, and in Griqualand of 500,000 acres.
Their professed object is to convert the Afri- cans to their faith; and their modus oper- andi is to civilize them first, and then to make Trappists of them. Their largest monastery is at Marianhill, in Natal. At present it con- tains 170 monks, and in a convent, half a mile away, are 135 nuns. There are 300 native boys and girls under tuition, aud the knowledge im- parted is almost entirely industrial. The rear- ing of bees is one of the important industries. Papers are published in four languages. They have a church capable of holding 2,000 people. —Harvest Field.
— The grant of an immense territory along the Zambesi river has been made to the Duke of Fife and some English colleagues. The region embraces nearly 300,000 square miles and is very rich both in soil and mines. The company has power to abolish slavery and restrict the liquor traffic in its domains, and missionary work will be as free there as in India.
—The Portuguese have released the British African Lakes Company's steamer, which was seized by Lieutenant Continho. The crew of the steamer have also been released.
— The Roman Catholic missions at Uganda will be strengthened by anew party of priests, who were ordained in the cathedral of Car- thage, June 29th. According to Roman Catho- lic usage, the feet of these 20 "messengers of peace1'1 were devoutly kissed by all priests present, including high dignitaries. Cardinal Lavigerie even kissed the feet of two black surgeons, formerly slave-boys, purchased by white monks on the Nile.
Belgium.— The Government has voted a loan of $5,000,000 to the Congo Free State. The expense of the founding of this State, and in-
878
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS — MONTHLY BULLETIN.
[Nov.
traduction into the' family of nations, has been borne chiefly by the king, at an expense of $000,000 to $300,000 a year. In return for this grant, King Leopold makes Belgium the heir, ten years hence, of his African possessions, which it is believed will one day prove a great source of revenue.
—Pastor Anet's Christian Missionary Church of Belgium, added to its members last year 500 converts from Romanism and infidel- ity. It employs 4 evangelists, 7 Bible-readers, and 5 colporteurs.
Canada.— The Presbyterian Church in Canada has, in all, 326 distinct fields of home mission work, and 990 preaching places. The number of missionaries employed last year was 329, of whom 121 were ordained ministers and lice^ iates,and 208 students and catechists. The average Sabbath attendance at all the stations was 43,065, the number of families connected with them, 11,701, and of communi- cants, 13,997. The progress made in the Pres- bytery of Manitoba may be given as a speci- men of the results. It was formed 19 years ago. Winnipeg had then a population of 421, now it has 22,892. Manitoba had then 19,000, now it has 150,000. Then Presbyterianism stood third relative to other denominations, now it heads the list. In meeting the expenses in- volved in this vast home mission undertaking, the church acknowledges grants from the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, the Church of Scotland and the Free Church.
—The Toronto medical students1 Y. M. C. A., which has 179 members, has just sent one of their number, Dr. Hardie and his wife, as a missionary to Korea, and have agreed to sup- port him"for a period of at least eight years.1' His destination is "Fusan, where he is to co- operate with Mr. Gale, of University College Y. M. C. A." $1,800 is requisite for outfit and support for the first year.
China. — The China Inland Mission hases- tablished in China, 16 opium refuges, 3 hospi- tals, and 5 dispensaries. The churches num- ber 66 and chapels 110.
— Dr Douthwaite, of the China Inland Mis- sion, Che-Foo, says, that in the late famine district in Shan-Tung, there are now over a thousand applicants for baptism.
—The government has indemnified the Presbyterian Board to the extent of over a thousand dollars for property destroyed by a mob, in 1885, in the province of Kwong-Sai, China. It has taken our United States Min- ister a long while to secure this just reimburse- ment, but the final action is encouraging, in that it recognizes the right of foreigners to hold property in interior cities.
Cuba.— The Rev. A. J. Diaz, an evangelist of the Southern Baptists, in the Island of Cuba, has been wonderfully successful in preaching and organizing churches. He is a native of Cuba, and preaches with great ease and freedom in his own tongue. The Roman
Catholic Church has moved against the here- tic, and suppressed his services by the power of the civil law. During the present year Diaz and his helpers have been arrested,sent to jail, and harassed in all possible ways. Diaz is out on bail, but the courts hesitate and keep him and his friends in suspense. The intervention of the American Government has been in- voked.
England. — The report of the Bible Car- riage Mission in England, shows that this so- ciety is doing an important work in the rural parts of the country. Over 49,000 Bibles and Testaments, and about 367,000 books, tracts, etc., were circulated in 270 villages and towns. In these places the Gospel was preached, with many conversions as the result.
— Another new missionary band of special interest is about to go forth in connection with the Church Missionary Society. Rev. Bar- clay F. Buxton, son of Mr. T. Fowell Buxton, has offered to go to Japan with a small party of missionaries, undertaking both the direction and entire charges himself. Mr. Barclay is an M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is pro- posed that Mr. Buxton's party should occupy the town and district of Matsupe, an import- ant place at the west end of the main island of Japan.
— Mrs. Hannington, widow of Bishop Han- nington, who was murdered in 1885, near Uganda, conducts a weekly missionary prayer meeting, in Brighton.
France. — Cardinal Lavigerie opened the Anti-Slavery Congress, in Paris, with an ad- dress, in the Church of St. Sulpice. He highly praised the enthusiasm of England in the anti- slavery work, although it was headed by Catholics. He said he did not desire the im- mediate abolition of slavery, as that would entail starvation of slaves, but that man-hunt- ing must be immediately suppressed.
Germany. — According to Bishop Warren the members of the Methodist Church in Ger- many average, in their contributions, $4.40 per member annually, while the largest incomes among them do not exceed $1.25 per day.'"
India.— Some of our missionaries in India have been called on to stand at the bar of the civil courts. Rev. J. J. Lucas and Rev. Henry Forman were summoned before the High Court in Allahabad, to answer for the baptism of a youth of eighteen, who had pro- fessed to be a convert to Christianity, and who had acted throughout of his own free will, and with intelligent comprehension of what his act meant. The judge was a Mo- hammedan, but so clearly arrayed before him were the facts in the case, and so explicit was the law, that the decision rendered was that the missionaries had violated no law of her Majesty's empire, and the young convert was his own master in religious affairs and at liberty to dwell and worship where he pleased. The case was regarded as an im-
1890.]
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS — MONTHLY BULLETIN.
879
portant one, and the judgment rendered makes the work of evangelizing the youth of India much easier and less dangerous.
—The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Singapore has organized a mission for the benefit of European sailors that visit that port.
Ireland.— The Irish Church Mission So- ciety seeks to give a pure gospel to the Irish Roman Catholics. A good work has been done through this instrumentality. Fresh impetus has been given to it by the munificent be- quest of $150,000 by Mrs. Susan Hopper.
Korea.— A missionary, Mr. Appenzeller, in the Independent, says, that when mission work began in Korea, the missionaries pre- sented a Bible to the king. The prime minis- ter took the Bible to the palace, showed it to the king, and then, with the king's approval, tore it in pieces. Years afterwards, a Ken- tucky man presented the Korean minister at Washington with a bottle of the best Bourbon whiskey for the king. This was accepted. Then the Christians of Kentucky resolved to show the king, at as early a period as possible, that the country produced something better than whiskey. Recently they sent, through the Korean minister, three Bibles, one for the king, one for the prime minister, and one for the foreign secretary. The present has been accepted.
—Roman Catholic missionaries have been in Korea 200 years, yet have never is- sued the Bible in the native language. They have translated the New Testament but have not put it into print, and the only copies, made by hand, cost from $10 to $20 each.
—Sad News.— Dr. John W. Heron, Medi- cal Missionary of the Presbyterian Board in Seoul, is dead. He died of dysentery. The loss is great, for he was Superintendent of the Royal Hospital in the capital, and had won the confidence of the King. His influence in the foreign community and in Seoul was also very great.
—Moravian Missions.— The latest statistics of our missions show an increase over last year of 020 communicants and of 1457 in the total membership of our congregations in the foreign fields. The number under the direct care of our missionaries now amounts to 87,203, and of these 30,591 are enjoying the full privi- leges of communicant membership. These are solid figures, and we thank God for the un- mistakable token of His blessing on our work in Asia, Africa, America and Australia. — Periodical Accounts.
Thibet — Mr. W. Woodville Rockhill, formerly of the American Diplomatic Service, has recently returned from a long and peril- ous journey through Thibet, the unknown heart of Asia. For 700 hundred miles he passed through a country where no white man had ever set foot, journeying, of course, in disguise. It is only within the last few
years that the Chinese have been able to plant themselves in the country he traveled through, so hostile have the na- tives always shown themselves It is said that in Thibet nearly every crime is pun- ished by the imposition of a fine, and that murder is by no means an expensive luxury. This, of course, greatly increases the danger of travel in that remarkable land.
United States.— The Presbyterian Wo- man's Mission Society received for last year $337,842. The society was able to support the following missions: Indians: — 33 schools, 164 teachers, 2,264 pupils. Mormons: — 37 schools, 99 teachers, 2,374 pupils. Mexicans: — 32 schools, 67 teachers, 1,627 pupils. South:— 16 schools, 48 teachers, 1,213 pupils. Total, 118 schools, 361 teachers, 7,478 pupils.— Mid- Con- tinent.
— The Universalists, after an existence of more than a hundred years, send out their first missionary.
— The Annual Report of the International Medical Missionary Society, shows that 7,356 new cases of disease and injury were treated during the past Society's year; 14,717 attend- ances were given at the dispensaries, of which there are 7 in New York and 2 in Brooklyn ; 1,641 visits were paid to the sick in their own homes. During the eight and a half years of the Society's existence, over 32,000 cases were treated, about 70,000 attendances were given at dispensaries, and over 14,000 visits were made to sick at their homes. This Society co-operates with all existing Christian agen- cies, as far as possible, and establishes medi- cal missions at Gospel missions, or mission churches, wherever practicable. The presi- dent is Boudinot C. Atterbury, M. D.; the treasurer, Cleveland H. Dodge, Esq., No. 11 Cliff Street; and the medical director, George D. Dowkoutt, M. D., 118 East 45th Street, New York City. The Society deserves the liberal support of Christian people.
—The receipts of the American Board for thp year ending September 1st, are $617,723. This amount is $09,025 in exeess of last year. Of this increase $22,870 is from donations, the balanee is from legacies. During the year 64 new missionaries have been appointed, 22 of whom are men: 54 of these new recruits have already been sent to the field. This number is in excess of any year since 1837.— The Ad- vance.
—Secretary Ellinwood of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions writes, that the new value put upon silver has so affected ex- change in all the foreign countries where silver is the chief medium, that the purchasing power of the Board's appropriations is diminished from 15 to 20 per cent., and the rate of ex- change is constantly fluctuating. A heavy, needless tax is thus laid upon the missionary cause for the benefit of a few silver kings.
880
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE NOVEMBER NUMBER.
[Nov.
INDEX OF CONTENTS NOVEMBER NUMBER.
PAGE
I.— Literature of Missions 801-842
II.— General Missionary Intelli- gence . 842-850
III. — Missionary Correspondence... 850-854
IV. — International Department. . . 854-862
V.— Monthly Concert of Missions 862-867
VI.— Editorial Notes on Current
Topics 867-873
VTI. — Organized Missionary Work
and Statistics -873-877
VIII.— Progress of Missions; Month- ly Bulletin 877-879
IX.— Index to Contents. . ,
Authors.
Editors. — A. T. Pierson. The Miracles of Missions; The Wonderful Story of Madagascar. 808; Editorial Notes, j. M. Sherwood, Book Notices, 841 ; Editorial Notes
Blackie. William G., D.D., "Personal Life of David Livingstone," noticed
M.D., Education and
Brockett, L. P., Evangelization . .
871
842 850
Clark, Miss Helen F., The Congo Missions,
Ellinwood, F. F., D.D., The Duty of Chris- tendom to the Jews. 801 ; Brazil and its Missions. Other Souch American Mis- sions
Gracey, J. T., D.D., International Depart- ment
Guinness. Mrs. H. Grattan, "New World of Central Africa,'" noticed
Haig. Mrs. F. T., "Daybreak in North Afri- ca," noticed
Hallett, Holt S , "A Thousand Miles on an Elephant,11 noticed
Herrick, George F., D.D., The Kingdom of God in the Land of its Origin
Hunt, Life of John; Missionary to Fiji, noticed
Lunn. Rev. Henry S., "A Friend of Mis- sions in India,11 noticed
Moorhead, Max Wood, Student Volunteer Movement
Pitzer. A. W.. D.D., The Inheritance of Nations Allotted of God
Schweinitz, Rev. Paul de, The Romance of Goedverwacht
Starbuck, Rev. Chas. C, Translations from Foreign Missionary Periodicals
West, Maria A.. Hidden Springs, or How Missionaries are Made
Countries and Subjects.
AFRICA — The Congo Missions, 826; New World of Central Africa, 841; Daybreak in North Africa. 841 : Dr. Blaekie's Life of Livingstone. 842: Mwan- ga Stripped of Despotic Power. 844; Editorial Notes on Uganda, 845: Zanzi- bar, 845: The Slave Traffic, 861; Fire- arms. 802: The Liquor Traffic. 861 ; Great Britain. Sphere of influence, 877; to ex-
861 841 841 842 854 842 841 842 820 833 836 835
PAGE
plore Central Africa. 877: Universities1 Mission, 877; the Trappists, 877: Roman Catholic Missions in Uganda 877
BELGHJ3I — Loan to the Congo Free States 877
BRAZIL,.— Political Changes, American Missions, etc., 862; Other South Ameri- can Missions, Brussels Anti-Slavery Con- gress 860
BURMAH AND SIAM.— "A Thousand Miles on an Elephant.11 842
CANADA.— Presbyterian Church, 878; Toronto Medical Students1 Y. M. C. A.. . 878
CHINA.— A Great Evangelizing Agency, 845; Inland Mission, 878; Presbyterian Board Indemnified 878
ENGLAND. — Flow of Converts to the Church of Rome 846
FRANCE.— Anti-slavery Congress 878
GERMANY — Generous Giving 878
HAWAII — Rev.W. A. Essery's Address on the Victory of the Gospel 846
INDIA.— Lunn's Work; "A Friend of Missions in India,11 841; Poverty of the People, 846; Missionaries in Court. 878
IRELAND.-
ciety
-Irish Church Mission So-
879
847
JAPAN.— The New Constitutional Gov- ernment, 846; Appeal from Baptist Mis- sionaries 847
JEWS The Duty of Christendom to ... . 801
KOREA.— The gift of a Bible to the King, 879; Roman Catholic Missionaries, 879; Moravian Missions 879
MADAGASCAR. — The Wonderful Story of its Evangelization, 808; Letter from
Rev. James B. Mackay . 850
Moravian Missions in Surinam 867
Moravians not Lutherans 853
PALESTINE.— An Awakening of Life
and Energy
South American Missions 866
Turkish Empire, Dr. Herrick's Graphic Sketch of its Present Condition 854
THIBET A perilous journey 879
UNITED STATES. — The Silver Law"s Effect on Missions, 848 ^Farewell Meeting of Missionaries in Boston, 849; Presby- terian Woman's Missionary Societ}', 879; Report of International Medical Mission- ary' Society, 879; Receipts American Board 879
Statistics of Foreign Missions.
American Marathi Mission, 873; American Madura Mission. South India, 874: Amer- ican Free Baptist Mission. South Ben gal. 874; Canada Baptist Telugu Mis- sion. 874; Malavam Mission of L. M. S., Basel G. E. M. S., Southwestern India, 874: Mackay Mission Hospital, Formosa, 874; M. E. Church (North) N. China Missions. 874; American Presbyterian (North) Mission in Canton, China, 875; B. F. Missions of Presbvterian Church (South) Report for 1889-90, 874: Ameri- can Baptist Missionary Union, 87G: Church Missionary Society 876-
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