LIBRARY
$lM0lfl!jiaJ £ tmimwy,
PRINCETON. N. J T
Division Ji
No. Case, 11*1 1".
No. ShelC SectjoD !7.
No. Book,,,, -----
CHRISTIAN WORK
A MAGAZINE
OF
For 1865.
* Fly happy, happy sails and tear the press,
Fly happy -with the mission of the Cross ;
Knit land to land, and, blowing havenward,
Enrich the markets of the golden year."
LONDON :
PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF " GOOD WORDS,"
56, LUDGATE HILL.
LONDON :
BRADBURY, EVAN?, AND CO., PRINTER?, WITITEFR1AES.
INDEX.
PAGE
Hawaiian Islands, The. By a Passing
Voyager -489
Hayti, Roman Catholicism in, since
its Independence .... 537
Himalayas, Moravian Mission in the 4S6
Italy, Religious Tendencies in . .97
Jamaica, Moravian Missions in. By
A Resident in the Island . . . 397
Knapp, George Christian, and his
Missionary Pupils .... 293
Kols, A Year among the . . . 450
Medical Missions 19, 64, 114, 163, 211, 262,
308, 357, 407, 453, 501, 548
Mission Voyaging. The Dayspring
in the Xew Hebrides . . . 541
Mohurrum, as observ ed in India. On
the. By the Rev. Robert Hunter I
(formerly of Xagpore) . . . 152 ;
Midler's, George, Orphan Homes . 3S5 j
Xordland, A Communion Season in.
By the late Rev. C. E. Oakley . 546
PAGE
Sandwich Islands, tForty Years in
the. By the Rev. W. Fleming
Stevenson 49
Sclavonic Christians in Turkey, Edu-
cation among the, especially Fe-
male Education 4S1
Sicily, Notes from. By the Rev. A.
H. Charteris, of Glasgow . . 2S9
Social Questions, Papers on— Early
Labour. Part L By Isa Craig . 260
Part II. . . • . . . 353
The London Dressmaking
Company . . . .150
Marriages and Means . . . 404
Protection for the Friendless,
and Rescue for the Fallen . 337
" These Little Ones." By Isa
Craig 20S
Societies, The Meetings of . . 241
Societies, Our Religious— The Reli-
gious Tract Society . . . . 495
Syria, American Mission Work in.
By the Rev. Dr. Jessup . . . 110
Syria, Proposed Xew Mission to . .492
Svrian Protestant College, The. By
"the Rev. Daniel Bliss . . .206
PAGE
African River, Mission Expedition
on an. By the Rev. Samuel J.
Whiton 202
Ansgar— The Apostle of the Xorth . 392
Apostolic Missionary of Recent
Times, An 156
Basle Mission in Carina, The . . 433
Basuto Mission, Persecution of the
German 446
Bengal, Native Society in . . 344
Bost's Institutions at Laforce . . 305
Buddhism and the Burmese . .491
Chota Nagpore Mission, The. Its
Origin and Present Need . . 108
Damascus, A Year's Missionary Life
in. Parti. By the Rev. Jules
Ferrette 193
Part II 299
Part III 34S
Deacons and Deaconesses— Their
Mission and Progress on the
Rhine. By the Rev. J. E. Carlyle 14
Educational Missions . . . . 439
Egypt as a Field for Mission Labour 539
Friendly Islands, Ten Years in. By
W. Fleming Stevenson . . . 529
Glimpses of Christian "Work in the
East during the Autumn of 1864.
By the Rev. A. W. Thorold, M.A.
Parti . i
Part II 52
Part III 101
Orissa, Life of a Xative Preacher of. 198
Peking, The Russian Ecclesiastical
Mission in. By the Rev. W. Swan,
late Missionary in Siberia, Author
of " Letters on Missions, " <fec. . 7
Prison Life, A Reminiscence of my.
By Manuel Matamoros . . . 5S
Rhea, The Rev. Samuel, of Oroo-
miah. By Justin Perkins, D.D. . 533
Turkey, England, and Protestant-
ism. By Jules Ferrette . . . 145
United States Christian Commission,
The. By William Gilbert, Author
of "Shirley Hall Asylum," " Dives
and Lazarus," <fec 60
United States Christian Commission 159
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
EUROPE.
England, 21, 67, 115, 165, 213, 265, 310,
360, 410, 455, 504, 551.
Scotland, 23, 69, 118, 216, 267, 312, 457,
553.
Ireland, 25, 70, 120, 166, 217, 316, 362,
412, 459, 507, 554.
France, 25, 71, 121, 168, 220, 267, 318,
413, 459, 509, 556.
Belgium, 27, 123, 170, 222, 270, 320, 365,
558.
Holland, 367.
Switzerland, 72, 124, 320, 366, 560.
Germany, 29, 75, 125, 172, 224, 270, 322,
368, 415, 461, 514, 564.
Hungary, 126, 369.
Bohemia, 173.
Sweden, 76, 174, 463, 566.
Russia, 465, 567.
Italy, 28, 73, 126, 175, 272, 324, 370, 464,
487, 511, 562.
Greece, 563.
Turkey, 30, 77, 177, 275, 373, 465.
ASIA.
Syria, 465, 516.
Persia, 77, 127, 226, 326, 419.
Kafiristan, 421.
India, 31, 79, 128, 179, 227, 276, 327, 374,
467, 517.
Ceylon, 136.
Burmab, 36, 83.
China, 36, 86, 135, 182, 229, 279.
Borneo, 469.
AUSTRALASIA.
Australia, 87, 281, 470.
Xew Zealand, 375, 472, 523.
Xew Hebrides, 282.
Loyalty Islands, 37.
Friendly Islands, 470.
Samoa, 470, 523.
Fiji, 89, 470.
Tahiti, 41.
Micronesia, 424.
Melanesia, 39.
AFRICA.
Egypt, 41, 282.
Abvssinia, 230, 332, 424.
Algiers, 90, 330.
West Africa, 475, 524.
South Africa, 429, 524.
Madagascar, 182, 375, 526.
AMERICA.
United States, 2S3, 332, 376, 475, 567.
The Confederate States, 93.
Mexico, 527.
British Columbia, 42, 1S5.
Greenland and Labrador, 230.
Jamaica, 94, 477.
Suggestions and Replies : — i3, 95, 1S6,
238, 335, 378, 478, 527, 569.
In Memoriam.
Graul, Karl, 140.
Hoge, W. J., 1S8.
Taylor, Isaac, 3S0.
Wright, A. H., 188.
iv
INDEX.
LITERATURE.
ENGLISH. page
Alexander (J. A.), D.D., on Isaiah. 240
Alford (Henry), D.D. New Testa-
ment 431
Anderson (R.) on the Hawaiian
Islands 45
Beecher's (H. W.) Sermons. Vol. I. 47
Bickersteth's (Maria) Araki, the
Daimio 240
Binney (T.) on Money . . .47
Blaikie (W. G.), D.D., Heads and
Hands 381
Bonar's (Horatius) Word of Promise 47
Brown (J. Baldwin) on Sin . . 47
Brown (Robert). Gospel of Common
Sense 47
Chamba Mission, The . . .46
Charnock (Stephen), B.D., The Works
of . . 431
Children's Wrong, The . . .192
Cumming's (John), D.D., Life of our
Lord 191
Dale (R. W.). The Jewish Temple 191
Day (Maurice F.). The Gospel at
Philippi 3S4
Etheridge's (J. W.) Targums of On-
kelos, <fec 191
Finished Course, The . . . . 239
Fuller (Thomas), Selections from
Writings of 431
page
Goodwin's Works. Vol. IX. . . 47
Hodder's (Edwin) Tossed on the
Waves 47
Hodge (Charles),D. D. ,on the Romans 240
Horton (T. G.) on the Eighth of Ro-
mans 191
Howson (J. S.) on the Character of
St. Paul 45
Hull's (E. L.) Sermons, <fec. . .384
Hunter's (Eliza B. ) Joe Witless . . 192
Irving (Edward), CollectedWritings
of, Vol. IV 384
Italy, from Dawn to Dark in . . 47
Jacobus's (M. W.) Notes on the Gos-
pels 47
Jallot(Mdlle.) Ripe for the Sickle . 190
Kirkpatrick (W. B.). Memorial
Services 144
Laforce, Institutions of . . . 3S2
Letters to Friends the Lord has given
Me 3S4
Ludlow (J. M. ). Woman's Work in
the Church 96
Luther's Letters to Women . . . 239
Macduff (J. R.), D.D. Ripe for the
Sickle 190
Malan (Caesar). Conventicle of Rolle 143
Mimpriss's Gospel Treasury . . . 47
page
Morgan (James), D.D., on the Holy
Spirit 240
Palgrave's (William Gifford) Cen-
tral and Eastern Arabia . . . 52S
Paton (J. B.) on the " Vie de Je"sus " 47
Sanitary Commission of the United
States Army 46
Saphir (Adolph) on Conversion . 191
Stanford's (Charles) Symbols of
Christ 384
Stevenson's (John), D.D., Second
Advent 143
Studies for Stories . . . . 47
Thompson's (J. P.) Band of Christian
Graces 47
Triidel (Dorothea) 143
•
Vinet's (Alexander) Outlines of Phi-
losophy and Literature . . . 431
West's (Thomas) Ten Years in Poly-
nesia 528
Wilkinson's (W. F.) Personal Names
in the Bible 192
Young Cottager in Rhyme . .192
7
Swiss Literature . . 48, 2 S
January 2, 1865.]
CHRISTIAN WORK
A M AGAZI N E
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST DURING THE
AUTUMN OF 1864.
BY THE REV. A. W. THOROLD, M. A. —Part t
The title of this paper will explain itself. It
aims at nothing more than a plain and accurate
narrative of what came under the writer's notice
in relation to a definite subject, while lately
travelling in the Levant. The few incidents it
contains are mostly threads in the web of the
i story, and may add colour to dry details. If the
reader is occasionally invited to sit down and rest,
for a brief musing over times long past, and men
long dead, those times, it must be remembered,
have been singularly wealthy, both in men who
mark their age, and in results which are for all
ages. Besides, in the now silent, but once restless
East, the mind is set thinking in a direction it does
not commonly take at home. The missionary in-
formation is all, of course so far as facts are con-
cerned, second-hand. In every instance, however,
it has come from persons of intelligence and ex-
perience, who have resided long enough in the
country to make their opinions reliable.
A party of four, we left England towards the end
of August, and made our way to the Levant by
France and Sicily. Our route lay almost exactly
in the track of the third crusade, and from our
starting point in London to our northernmost limit
at Smyrna, or our southernmost at Alexandria, we
were never out of the limits of the Roman empire
at the time of Christ. We visited Greece, Asia
Minor, Syria, and Egypt ; and as week by week
we neared the East our tour seemed to multiply in
its points of interest, till at length it culminated in
the city of the Great King. At Athens we came
j across St. Paul. Smyrna was the scene of the
martyrdom of Polycarp. At Ephesus we stood
over the grave of St. John. At Damascus we
descended into the vast plain where Abram may
in.— 1.
have routed Chedorlaomer, and where Elijah was
sent from Horeb to anoint Hazael. But at Paneas,
we stood under the shadow of Hermon, where the
Saviour was transfigured, and at Tiberias the
ministry of Galilee lay before us in a mirror, when
we looked down on the gray mountains and on the
sleeping sea. At Cana we drank of the delicious
water, drawn from the well whence eager hands
once drew it for the wedding feast. At Nazareth
we were in the Lord's birthplace. At Bethany, if
we could not believe in Mary's house, the ever-
lasting hills are the same. For superstition, though
it can spoil many things, never can rob us of the
realities of nature. The Sepulchre may be here, or
it may be there, but we are perfectly certain about
Kedron and Olivet. The traveller who journeys
from Bethany to Jerusalem by the lower road that
winds round the mountain, and comes suddenly
into view of the city, has probably walked over
some of the very stones which Jesus walked over,
has certainly gazed on the same spectacle which
made Him weep.
The four points of chief interest in our tour also
happen to be missionary stations. They indicate
moreover, with tolerable pi*ecision, not only the
various Protestant communions, which employ
agents in these countries, but also the methods
which they severally adopt.
At Athens, the schools have been hitherto main-
tained by the American Episcopal Church. At
Damascus, the missionary, whose acquaintance we
had the opportunity of making, is seut out by the
Presbyterian Church of Ireland. At Nazareth, the
agency is that of the Church Missionary Society.
At Jerusalem, where that Society has also a station,
the missionary operations, which are most extensive,
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN
and perhaps most prominent, are those of the Society
for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. Let
it, by the way, be distinctly understood that this
list is not to be supposed to include all the many
excellent missionary agencies in these parts. Far
otherwise : nor would I have it thought, that, in uot
enumerating them, I am ignoring them. I wish to
write of those only which we visited ourselves,
and of which I have a personal knowledge.
At Athens we passed five days of intense interest,
in which the ancient was mingled with the modern,
and where we could not forget Thucydidcs, though
we loved St. Luke more. It was not only enjoy-
able but instructive, to plunge back into a world
and a life buried, except in books and stones, for
the best part of 2000 years, and on a spot singularly
suggestive of hard problems, not so much to discover
how God rules the earth, as to trust Him in ruling
it. You must come to Athens to appreciate its
greatness.
Standing on the Acropolis, and gazing on the
splendid fragments of art, which help us in some
degree to realise the magnificence of its first glory,
we felt, I think, all of us, that the Athenians were
justified in their proud claim to be masters of
j Greece ; and that the men who could cover that
rock with those inimitable buildings were lords,
even to the ages after them, of force, and concep-
tion, and skill.
But the Gospel was foolishness to them, and they
perished. "When they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked." We read their books,
for they instruct and delight us. We still go to
Athens to school, for with all our progress in the
natural sciences, in some things we are not an inch
further on, than when Alexander was the pupil of
: Aristotle. Yet nothing we find there helps us to
! account for the evil that is in the world, or directs
us how to escape from it ; and a little child in the
American school knows more of the way of salva-
tion and the character of God than all the authors
of Greece from Homer to Plutarch.
The missionary work at Athens has been mainly
in the shape of Scriptural education, and for years
to come will endear the memory of Dr. and Mrs.
Hill to all who care for Greece, and who love the
Gospel.
When Dr. Hill came here in 1832 from the
Morea, though the war of independence was just
over, Athens was but a village of mud cottages,
and not one of the houses, which now constitute
that glaring and dusty metropolis was in existence.
He and Mrs. Hill, in the first instance, took up
their abode in a ruined tower, where they remained
for a considerable time. School work they instantly
saw to be the tine method of raising the population
into what might deserve to be called the faith of
Christ. Avoiding considerately any methods which
might too hastily destroy existing establishments,
they began in the first instance with a school for
girls. Their efforts were so successful, that, as the
town grew, and people of a better sort came to
WORK IN THE EAST. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1805.
reside there, an earnest request was made to them
to open a school for a higher class of children, who
would pay for their instruction. The Hills imme-
diately did this ; and also kept on the other school i
which was entirely free. At one period a thou- ' J
sand children were in the schools, and the present \
Archbishop of Corinth was one of Dr. Hill's pupils. {
At this time there are over 200 children under
instruction. There is an infant school, a school for
more advanced pupils, where they read and write, I
and are taught the first rules of arithmetic and
plain sewiug. There is also a higher class (some of
whom are afterwards employed as under-teachers
and sempstresses), who learu the rudiments of
grammar and geography, and all kinds of needle-
work. The Bible is the book principally read.
After all, mere statistics, whether of children
or of years, tell but little. If we would at all
adequately appreciate the benefit to the country
from these institutions, we must not only count up
the heads which have attended them ; we must
think also of the families and the homes, into
which day by day by their means, for many quiet
years, the blessed Gospel has secretly distilled iuto
the hearts of parents and kinsfolk, has rested as
the dew of Hermon on many a housetop where !
before was dryness and barrenness. Not a few of
the young women instructed here have been em-
ployed for years past as school-mistresses in village
schools all through Greece, with the entire approba- !
tion of the native clergy. The editor of Murray's
Handbook for Greece, in a generous eulogium on Dr.
and Mrs. Hill's exertions, takes occasion to mention
that, " with one single exception, all the Greek ladies
who have been, and who still are, maids of honour
to the Queen of Greece, were also educated under
the same roof." It is, moreover, a matter ]of real
eougratulation, that Dr. Hill, whom no one that ,
knows him will for an instant suspect of compro-
mising his principles to please anybody, has for all
these years worked steadily on, without let or i
hindrance, and that his labours, so far from being i
disliked by the Greek hierarchy, have been cor-
dially approved.
From Athens we steamed up the stormy Archi- i
pelago, disappointed to find the Church Missionary
Society's schools at Syra closed for the vacation.
WTe had heard of the solid good effected by them,
and of their progress.
At Smyrna we were prevented from visiting the j
missions, but we made an expedition to Ephesus,
which, though utterly disappointing to an anti-
quarian, suggests much on the subject of missions.
There are numerous fragments of ruins of no great
interest, scattered at intervals over the vast marshy
plain, which stretches from the mountains to the
Mediterranean, but it is very difficult actually to
identify anything, and archaeologists are quite at
fault about the site of the Temple of Diana. Per-
haps the only spot of importance of which we can
be perfectly certain is the Amphitheatre, which, as
was usually the case, occupies a commanding posi-
christian workman. 2,18*5] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK W THE EAST.
3
tiou over the town in the direction of the sea.
Even here, however, though I got off my horse, and
scrambled down some way among the thorns and
briars, I could make nothing out of the marble
seats and stairs once used by the luxurious Ephe-
sians ; and all I was sure of was the outer rim of
the enclosure, and the direction in which the seats
sloped down towards the plain.
If at Athens we learn that some things last
longer than others, [at Ephesus we learn that there
is no certainty of anything lasting. At Athens we
see that the most perishable of all things is man
himself ; that far longer lived than he, though still
perishable, are the works of his hands ; and that
the thoughts of his brain — in proportion as they
are beautiful, and useful, and true — are for ever.
Aristotle and Plato are still the masters of thought :
and though the Parthenon is in ruins, Phidias
survives in the splendours of Paris and St.
Petersburg.
But at Ephesus, where St. John lived and died,
and to which the Saviour sent His solemn message,
and the memory of which is imperishably bound up
with that profound epistle, which in the nature
of its contents bears unerring testimony to the
advanced spiritual life of the community which it
addressed, the churches are gone as well as the
temples ; the faith and worship of the Lord Jesus
in that burning, fever-stricken campagna, are as
much things of the past as the name and shrine of
Diana. Yes, for where love dies, life dies ; and He,
who cares only for the heart, and not for the lips,
sometimes permits the fabric to decay, when it has
come to be a tomb. Thus may we not also see that
in the long course of the Church's history, the most
promising missions, however well conducted at the
beginning, may, under certain conditions, come to
nothing ; and that, though the Church cannot die,
but springs up elsewhere ; though the truth is not
lost, but is simply transferred to those who will
value it ; when the light goes out, the candlestick is
flung away, and may never be restored.
From Smyrna we steamed back down the Archi-
pelago, passing Patmos during the night, but touch-
ing both at Rhodes and Cyprus. Rhodes is a sunny
dull town, built of bright warm stone on the edge
of the sea, fringed pleasantly with trees and gar-
dens, and ornamented by picturesque old walls. In
the course of a short ramble, coats of arms in stone
on several of the houses reminded us that we were
in the territory of the Knights of Rhodes. They
also suggested the width of inter s-al, both in senti-
ment and policy, which separates the age of the
Crusaders from the generation of Queen Victoria —
the men who honestly thought that the kingdom of
the Eedeemer was to be won and protected by the
sword, from us who, on the strength of the Lord's
own word, firmly maintain that it can only be
extended through the truth.
Cyprus, where we again came on the track of St.
Paul, looked a hot and uninteresting island, and
Larnaka, where we landed, with its long thin row
of yellow houses, aud verdureless burning hills
behind, reminded me almost of a squalid village on
the coast of Egypt.
It was a pleasant feeling all that hot afternoon while
we were lying off the island, that it was our last
day at sea for some time to come ; and when we
went up on deck next morning, we feasted our eyes
with the white villas, and broken hills, and fertile
gardens, and crowded harbour of Bey rout, where
numbers of graceful palm trees shoot up into the
sapphire sky, mingled with stone pines and mulberry
trees ; and where the grand background of Sunnin,
rising 5000 feet over the sea in a long unbroken out-
line, gave some of us our first glimpse of " the glory
of Lebanon." Our stay at Beyrout was short, but
we determined to make time for Mrs. Thompson's
schools : and it was a great disappointment to us,
after a broiling walk up a shadeless hill to find that
she was away in the mountains, and that the
school was closed for a holiday. However, we
visited the house, standing by itself id a pretty gar-
den, high up over the sea, with Cyprus, like a faint
cloud in the distance ; and I do not see how a better
building could be procured for the purpose, the
rooms being lofty, and conveniently separated from
each other, so as to prevent clashing among the
different departments.
English people are now tolerably well acquainted
with the merits and object of this institution, and
there can be no need to add anything to the well-
weighed words of just praise, which Mr. Tristram
has written of it in his 1 ' Winter Ride in Pales-
tine."
In two days we left Beyrout for the mountains, a
goodly cavalcade, with nothing wanting for conve-
nience or enjoyment. Our staff comprised an
English courier, a dragoman (Michael Hane ; fortu-
nate the traveller who secures his sendees), a cook,
a waiter, and divers grooms, muleteers, and boys.
Our beasts of burden, including horses, mules, and
donkeys, numbered twrenty. We were lodged in
four tents, three of which were sent out from
England, and so long as strength holds out, and the
weather is fine, that out-door life is singularly en-
joyable. Up often at five, we breakfasted in the
open air while the tents were taken down and the
mules packed. Between six and seven we were in
the saddle, and rode on till one, mostl}' at a foot's
pace. Then we halted for lunch by a running
brook, or under a rock, or near a tree, and after a
short meal and a nap, and such "heart affluence o*
discursive talk" as occasion suggested, had a quiet
read in the book we loved best, giving and receiving
in. turn. Then wc rode on till sunset, when we
came up with our tents, generally ready to receive
us, and after dinner we were glad to get to bed.
On Sunday morning we had full service, and the
chaplain of the party preached to a select but atten-
tive congregation on some subject connected with
the place. In the afternoon we always received the
Lord's Supper. In the evening we had a quiet
ramble while the sun was going down, Dr. Bonar's
4
OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18fi5.
hymns and "the Book of Praise" being our usual
companions. Our horses were all the fresher on the
Monday for their rest on the previous day ; and
though far from the associations of an English Sun-
day, and of home worship, I doubt if we ever felt
condemned to a "dry and barren land, where no
water is."
This is not a paper of travel, and I must not di-
gress to relate incident or describe scenery, except
in connection with our subject. I may, however,
say thus much about the Lebanon, in which we
spent twelve days, that its scenery is so utterly
different from what English people are familiar with
in Switzerland or the Tyrol, that it would be quite
unfair to compare them. In some respects, too,
the autumn is an unfavourable time for visiting it,
the country being browned and parched through
uninterrupted drought. During the first day of
our ascent, after leaving the Dog river, wc were
continually winding round terraces of highly culti-
vated country, where the vine and the maize alter-
nate with the fig and the olive. White and smiling
villages, with solid and well-placed convents at fre-
quent intervals, give the landscape an air of wealth
and security. The flat-roofed houses recalled the
housetops of Scripture, though being used for the
drying of grain, and requiring to be frequently
rolled with a stone roller, they are more substantial
than the roof of mud and reeds broken through for
the paralytic. Industry and abundance met us
everywhere. The grapes, not yet ripe, marked the
elevation of the mountain above the plain below,
where they were nearly over. Much silk is made
and spun here, for the Beyrout market, and on one
occasion we dismounted and went into an extempo-
rised hut to se j the process of uuwindiug the cocoons.
Almost the pleasantest sight of all was the lovely
dark-eyed children, gaily dressed, healthy, merry,
and kindly mannered, who constantly ran out to
give us their greeting, and who remiuded some of
us of children like theni far away at home.
As we got higher up the mountain we came to a
j singular lime-stone formation, where the grotesquely
j shaped rocks suggested all kinds of odd similitudes
from a wolf's head to an Egyptian temple. Pre-
j sently the country became less populous, the passes
more difficult, and the riding, always rough enough,
occasionally was daugerous where the path, hang-
ing possibly over a deep chasm, was broken
away to the width of a knife-board. At Afka,
where Constantine abolished the abominable rites
of Venus and Adonis, the ruins of the temple
pulled down by his command are a great addition
to the sublime scenery. A magnificent ridge of
cliffs, rising perpendicularly to the height of a
thousand feet, beetles over a silver cascade which
dashes down from under a dark cavern, and makes
its way through oue of the grandest gorges in the
Lebanon, till it plunges into the sea. The valley
through which this gorge descends by three succes-
sive depressions, is on both sides over-arched by
lofty mountains, and only wants wood to be beauti-
ful as well as sublime. Here, moreover, is the
point where the country having reached the height
of wreariness and desolateuess between the Natural
Bridge and the Honey' Fountain, begins to put on a
garment of greenness and fertility , until it termi-
nates in the valley of the Kadisha.
Sunnin, with patches of snow, was behind us, and
Tripoli and the sea at our feet, the day after leaving
Afka. Soon the long range of the highest ridge of
the Lebanon came full in view, more jagged and
broken than its southern extremity, but bare and
verdureless to the last degree ; its great charm, and
indeed original feature being its delicate pink
colour. Can this be the meaning of the sentence in
the Song of Solomon — "His countenance is as Le-
banon ? " At the convent of Dinan we had a fine
view of the Kadisha.
Towards the west it tumbles down towards the
sea, past a convent of Justinian, wrho here, as else-
where, could build up the material church, if he
could not do much for the spiritual. Eastward it
descends through a valley of exquisite richness
from the foot of the great mountain wall, which,
in the peak of Deir es Khatib, rises to ten thousand
feet ; and halfway up the mountain a small dark
patch is pointed out, which the traveller refuses to
believe can be the Cedars of Lebanon.
We spent a couple of pleasant hours in the con-
vent with the Maronite Patriarch, who, in com-
pany with some of his clergy, makes this lovely spot
his summer residence. He hospitably entertained
us with sherbet, sweetmeats, pipes and coffee, and
through a monk who could speak French and
Italian, we had a good deal of conversation. These
Maronites claim to be the original Church of Syria,
and are the principal religious communion in the
Lebanon. There is some doubt as to which of two
men, called Maronius, their church owes its origin :
one of them, an orthodox believer, having lived in
the third century, the other, at a later period, being
strongly tainted with Arianism. Of late years,
however, it has been found convenient to trace
their descent from the purer and more ancient
source.
The Maronites have been in communion with
Kome since the time of the Crusades ; and that
world-wide polity — so wise in her generation — per-
mits to these secluded but resolute mountaineers an
independence which she cannot prevent, and among
other innovations sanctions the marriage of the clergy.
The liturgy is in Syriac, but though the vernacular
is Arabic, public worship can hardly be said to be
offered in an unknown tongue, as the sermon and
the Scripture lessons are in Arabic, and the Syriac
is understood by the people, it being the first lan-
guage taught in the schools. There is really a very
complete parochial system here. A priest and
schoolmaster reside in every parish, and children
whose parents cannot afford to pay for their teach-
ing, are instructed gratuitously. The clergy gene-
rally are of a very inferior class, and their income,
paid by their parishioners, ranges from 20/. to 40/. a
Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1863.] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST.
5
year. They are appointed by the Patriarch, and
before ordination go through a fourteen years'
j course'of study at a college near Beyrout, entirely
free of charge. The churches are plain even to
i\ shabbiness, far balder and uglier than anything to
T be seen in Wales or Cumberland. Mostly they are
nothing but a whitened cube of coarse masonry,
with a small bell-turret, apparently placed with the
object of making it all lopsided, and there is invari-
ably a real human skull on a conspicuous place in
the wall.
On the other side of the" mountain is the fertile
plain of Bukaa, in ancient times known as Ccele-
Syria. It runs north to south between the
Lebanon and Ante-Lebanon, and is possibly iden- ;
tical with the "valley of Lebanon," mentioned in \
Joshua xii. 7. This is the more likely, as the " Baal
Gad," mentioned in the same verse, and in the
chapter following, where it is added, "under Mount \
j Hermon," is quite possibly the Baalbec, which, in 1
I some of its remains, evidently dates back to very
ancient times indeed, and which, long before the \
Romans, must have been a place of importance.
There are three temples here ; and, Palmyra
excepted, they are the grandest ruins in the East, :
out of Egypt. This is not the place to describe j
them; but if the "Temple of the Sun" was ever j
j completely finished — and Antoninus Pius has the 1
: credit of it — what a work it was to accomplish when |
' Paganism was fast decaying, and the temple was ''
j undermined by the Church ! All through our tour
j we came continually in contact, not only with the }
i traces of Roman civilisation, but also of Roman ,
! religion. The Romans not only conquered em-
i pires and made roads, but they built temples and :
| propagated religion. It is nothing to the purpose '
i that they were idolaters. Gibbon's remark may
j have some force in it, that the Romans were equally
j indulgent to all religions, because they were !
j equally indifferent to all ; and that while the Pan-
I theon expressed the idea of a philosophical hospi-
tality to the one spirit of religion, draped under all
! varieties of expression, it was only consistent to re-
sent and to destroy the unsocial religion of Jesus,
which, in denouncing all others, deserved to be de- !
nounced itself. Whatever, however, may have been
the motives of the Romans, and however false their '
creed, they were neither ashamed of it, nor unwil-
ling to incur great cost to promote it. If Rome did
j so much for the worship of devils, England might
' do more for the honour of God.
One long day is sufficient for the ride from the \
temples at Baalbec to the mulberry trees of Zebe- ,
j dani. The road is uninteresting, though it crosses !
the j Anti-Lebanon. Beyond Zebedani, a rich and !
beautiful village, we came on the Barada, the Abana
of Scripture. At first it dashed along in a head-
strong tumultuous way, as if it knew where it was
going to, — over rocks which fretted it into foam ; |
under grand cliffs which echoed back its displeasure,
but could not drink in its moisture, sculptured, by
the way, some of them, by these same wonderful
' Romans, who meet us even at the ends of the
! earth.
But as we neared Damascus, and the gorge
! opened out into a wide valley, villages sprang up on
its banks, woods and orchards planted near its
rushing stream showed no sign of summer heat,
though, alas for us, their riches were spoiled, and
their fruit eaten ; and when we left it, and rode out
; of the new French road to Beyrout (which for a
little way runs along the side of it) to strike off on
j the old track for one of the world's famous views
j from the heights of Salahiyeh, it was like leaving
the Weald of Kent for a Sierra in Spain.
And what a view that is ! On the left run low
yellow mountains, beyond which is Palmyri and
the Euphrates. On the right, a dull hot plain
stretches away into the steamy mist towards the
roots of Hermon, across which St. Paul came on his
memorable visit to Damascus. Just beneath, the
new French road winds like a dusty snake into the
trees and houses. Iu front, until the eye, satiated
with beauty, rests for relief on the far mountains
of the Hauran is a tossing sea of emerald verdure,
where the almond and the apricot, the fig and the
chesnut, the mulberry and poplar intermarry their
colours and their shadows, with a greenness and
glossiness of foliage, inexplicable at the end of the
dry season, but for the hidden fountains of which
their greedy roots were drinking eagerly below.
Out of this sea of emerald rose into the cloudless
blue, in their imposing and delicate outlines, the :
domes and minarets of the city, which at that
distance, fair and golden to look upon, glitters !
in a stately repose. Dating back to Abram, pos- |
sibly to S^em, after Constantinople, this is the
fairest jewel in the Turkish empire, though to
Western minds, the ideal of self-indulgence, of ;
fanaticism and cruelty. Yet the yellow desert j
surrounds and watches it on all sides. If there j
were no snows on Hermon, there would be no city
of Damascus. Ezekiel's words, continually recur-
ring to us, here were almost more forcible than ' :
anywhere : " and everything shall live whither the <■
river cometh. "
The town was unhealthy, and I thought the !
bazaars, though widened and more adapted for
traffic, much gone off in brilliancy since my former
visit in the spring of '48. Beyrout, no doubt,
diverts much trade, and Aleppo is a formidable
rival, but it is also to be accounted for by the mas-
sacre of 1860. Previous to that time there were
35,000 Greeks in the city, representing a consider-
able capital, and a genius for trading unsurpassed
anywhere. They are now reduced to 10,000, partly
through the massacre in which from 6000 to 7000
perished in Damascus alone, partly through emigra-
tion to Constantinople and Beyrout.
One circumstance, however, marks an apparent
diminution of fanaticism towards Europeans. A
few years ago it was utterly impossible to obtain
admission into any of the mosques. Xow, however,
the principal mosque can be visited through the
q
GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18P 5.
intervention of the consuls ; and though a small
following (chiefly of hoys), went about with us, as we
walked through the mosque, it was not to pelt, but
to stare.
At Damascus we came into contact, not so much
with Christian work, as with Christian workmen.
Two Protestant missionaries are stationed here, one
of whom was absent in the mountains. We had,
however, much pleasant intercourse with Monsieur
Ferrette, son of a French officer, and sent out here
by the Irish Presbyterian Church.
Monsieur Ferrette in the course of his missionary
labours is thrown into constant intercourse with
the Greeks, whom he describes as always ready to
welcome him, and to converse with zest and free-
dom on religious subjects. There are three chief
divisions of Greek Christians, — the Catholic Greek,
who are in communion with Rome ; the orthodox,
who are the Greeks proper ; and the Catholic ortho-
dox, who were formerly in communion with Home,
but have seceded from her in consequence of an
attempt to impose upon them the Gregorian calen-
dar. As to her doctrinal basis, the Greek Church
is, with one exception, entirely sound. She differs,
indeed, from the Western Church, in denying the
Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and
the Son, asserting it to be from the Father only.
This is, of course, at variance with those who hold
the Nicene Creed. Otherwise, she is not com-
mitted to any doctrinal innovations. The Third
General Council, and the sufficiency of the Holy
Scriptures as a rule and guide, may be said to be
her dogmatic position. Papal infallibility, the Im-
maculate Conception, and the celibacy of the clergy
are to the Greek Church as daring and offensive
inroads on the faith and liberty of Christendom, as
they are to ourselves. There is moreover no pro-
fessedly official hindrance to the circulation of the
Scriptures. Yet an ordinary observer going first
into a Latin, and then into a Greek church, would
i find it hard to say in which the ceremonialism and
( the superstitiousness predominated. The G reeks
use their pictures much in the same way as the
Latins their images. In both commuuions the
intercession of saints is recognised. However dis-
posed we may be to hope the best, and to diminish
to the smallest possible quantity the immaterial
differences that separate the Church of the East
from other Catholic communion, which, like herself,
are independent of the Papacy, a great reformation
must take place in her ceremonial, and a great
shaking off of her traditions, before any Church in
I the least valuing the name of Protestant can con-
sistently invite a closer fellowship. Whether she
will ever reform herself in this direction would be
an interesting question, if another question did
not come first : Cau the Greek Church, with its
masses of uninstructed and fanatical adherents,
hope to free herself from this dead weight of mum-
| mery, without ensuring an euormous and irrepa-
rable schism ? It is perfectly well known that the
blasphemy of the Sacred Fire is a grievous sorrow
to the more enlightened and thoughtful ; but it is
to be feared that it has gone on too long to be dis-
continued ; and that the ceremonial of the Greek
Church will cleave to her, as the poisoned garment
of Nessus clave to Hercules, not to be washed off A
with the honey and water of a Patriarchal edict ; V
if torn off, only by tearing off with it the very
tissues of the life.
Among other duties our friend here has literary
work in hand, and no less a one than a new transla-
tion of the Bible into Arabic. He proposes to tako
for his basis the three existing translations, the
most ancient of which is a translation from the
Peshito, and he will print it from a new kind of
type, of his own invention. My reason for mention-
ing it here is, that on coming into contact with the
inner life as well as the outer difficulties of an
educated missionary, it forcibly struck me, as if for
the first time, that literary work of some kind is an
imperious necessity for a cultivated mind, living
much alone, if it is to be preserved from rust and
despondeucy. Xo man can be always teaching and
preaching. There must be relaxation of some kind.
How fortunate if this relaxation is in the shape of
a changed rather thau a remitted labour ; if it takes
the form of books, and becomes a legacy of re-
search and experience for those who come after.
It was impossible not to observe how happy
Monsieur Ferrette was made by having this trans-
lation before him ; how what he not unreasonably
regards as a kind of life work, is to him in the
place of a wife, or a child, or the society of intel-
lectual men. What was the great work of Henry
Marty n comes continually to be the work of other
missionaries likewise. Who can doubt that God
meets the student of His word, as He labours to
make it intelligible to others, and out of the wells
of salvation daily gives him a blessing?
While at Damascus we went to see a sight which
Ins often been described before, but which in its
particular aspect of a religious service, and its bearing
on the prospects of a country where such things are
not only tolerated but admired, deserves a moment's
attention. Most people have heard of the dancing
Dervishes. They are the fanatics of Mohamme-
danism, and arc partly supported by fees, partly
by endowments. They marry, arc often engaged
in trade, and are scrupulously honest. They have
places of worship of their own, and their per- .
formances are attended by a numerous congrega-
tion. During their dance, their head-dress is a
sugar-loaf hat of brown felt, and a white kind of
gown, like an inverted umbrella well puffed out
with wind. While the music played they were
immersed in thought. Theu (they were about twelve
or fifteen in number, and fenced off from us in an
inner enclosure) they went round this place bowing
to each other, until at last they went up to the
chief Dervish, and bowed to him. Then began this
frantic fetish dancing, which can be best described
by calling it a series of rapid circular whirls, like
so many Catherine wheels spinning round, in some
Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1865.] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
7
cases reaching forty revolutions a minute, the whole
body being whisked round, yet contriving to get
round the room in its proper orbit, the eyes shut,
and the brain evidently becoming excited to a
frightful degree. They never ran against each
other, and an old man on the verge of the grave
(oh, how we pitied him) who went in and out
among them with real dexterity, to make one go
slower or another go faster, was never jostled,
much less run down. Evidently the Dervishes
themselves considered this an act of religion ;
evidently some of those present regarded it in the
same light. What we felt was, "Is not Satan
here, deluding these victims with the thought that
they are pleasing God ? " What we also asked our-
selves was, "By what spiritual methods, by what
reasonings and statements of truth shall we exor-
cise, not only from the men who practise such
things, but also from those who believe in them,
such a miserable and detestable superstition ? Here
of course we are on Mohammedan ground ; but
whether with Mohammedanism, or pure Heathen -
ism, or Christianity heathenised, the power of the
prince of this world in these distant lands is far
greater than some of us suppose : 1 this kind cometh
not out but by prayer and fasting.' "
To go back to Monsieur Ferrette, in addition to
his two Arabic services on Sunday, and his work
of translating the Bible, he interests himself with
schools. At the present time he has seven at work
in different parts of the country, and the average
attendance at each is twenty-five. This may seem
small, but I for one could see no littleness in the
faith which expected God's blessing on a humble
beginning ; and the men needed for Christ's work
in a country like this must be quite willing to do
small things, and to wait a long time before much
comes out of them. One advantage of visiting
missionary work on the spot is perhaps this, that
though at first we are appalled by the vastness of
the work to be done, and dismayed at finding the
results so few — Ah ! so much fewer than at home
we had ever thought them to be ! — a day's walk, or
an hour's conversation throws a flood of light on the
whole subject. When we come to ask if we ourselves
could do it better, or to thiuk how we ourselves could
make it bigger ; when we touch, and handle, and
weigh, not in the paper and ink of a report, but iu the
living masses of unconverted souls in the thorough-
fares of a mighty city, the practical difficulties of
the missionary ; then our first feeling is of wonder
that any one can accept the duty, or at least perse-
vere in it, then we thank God with quite a new
kind of thankfulness for the simple, patient, humble
devoted love, which constrains a cultivated and
intelligent man to exile himself in a distant country
for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. Instead of
asking cold questions about success, and results,
which probably he is more anxious to ensure than
we are, we will encourage him with sympathy,
we will secretly remember him in prayer. We
cease to complain of small beginnings, and to
despise the day of small things. Knowing that the
will of God underlies all success, and that though
Paul may plant, and Apollos water, it is God that
giveth the increase, we increasingly honour those
whose chief present comfort is the sense of the
Saviour's love, and their great encouragement the
hope of glory ; we are sorry and ashamed that we
ever permitted ourselves to despise the small ness
of the grain of mustard seed.
Nevertheless, it is a vast work, and flesh and
blood may well fail at the thought of it. Whether
in the crowded bazaars, or in the long monotonous
streets, or among the leafy groves, or in the yellow
desert, when the Christian traveller thinks but
for a moment of the enormous distance between
Damascus and the China sea, and that all over
there the world for which Jesus died lieth in the
wicked one, his heart would sink within him, but
for Christ's blessed sentence, " Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold ;" his comfort is iu re-
peating to himself the sentence of the Nicene Creed,
"I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver
of Life."
THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
BY THE REV. W. SWAN,
(Late Missionary in Siberia, and Author of " Letters on Missions," &c.)
The history of the Christian Church is very de-
fective in one important point — the introduction of
the Gospel into the various countries where it has
taken root. How vague are the accounts handed
down to us of the first missionaries to our own
country ! how little is known of the early attempts
to carry the truth to Scandinavia, to France, to
Spain, to the East, to the South ? No doubt some
ancient narratives have perished, but the scantiness
of our information is, perhaps, in a great degree
owing to the fact that first efforts were so feeble,
and drew so little notice at the time that no record
was kept of them ; and afterwards, when the re-
sults' were manifest, and a history of the whole
desiderated, it was found that many facts had
already become the prey of oblivion, and that all
that could be gathered up was some uncertain tra-
dition or some broken hint. Besides, there were
in many of the early manifestations of the aggres-
sive power of Christianity, a variety of agencies
employed, each contributing its quota to the ulti-
mate success. But it might be difficult, in the
8 THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL
MISSION IN PEKING. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
lack of contemporary and authentic information
to estimate the respective share of each of these
various agencies in contributing to the end that was
ultimately accomplished.
Unfortunately the want of authentic accounts
of the introduction of Christianity into countries
where it has long been known, has given occasion
to all manner of absurd traditions and legendary
tales, many of them the invention of the monks
who lived at the distance of centuries from the
periods of which they gave these fabulous histories.
These were palmed off upon the people as veritable
facts, and the ignorance or credulity of those ages
too easily admitted as truth whatever the monks
told them. No doubt there might sometimes be
a modicum of truth mixed up with the inventions
of those chroniclers, but, unfortunately, it is now
almost impossible to separate the true from the
false in these histories, or ascertain where fact ends
and invention begins.
These remarks have occurred to us in connection
with the growing interest which attaches to the
Empire of China, and the efforts now made to
carry the light of Christian truth into that populous
but long doubly sealed and jealously guarded
country. The history of the introduction of Chris-
tianity into China, and its spread there, will doubt-
less form one of the most thrilling and remark-
able chapters in the history of the world's evange-
lisation, and it is not too soon to try to gather up
some fragments in danger of being lost, which bear
upon that longed-for consummation.
The Russian branch of the Eastern Church has
done comparatively nothing to send the Gospel to
heathen nations. Even the numerous pagan tribes
within the boundaries of the empire itself have
been left very much to retain their own supersti-
tions, or to become nominally Christians by enter-
ing the pale of the Church by baptism ; but the
absence of all systematic efforts to multiply such
converts, and the neglect of all means to instruct
and 'guide them as Christians, too well suffice to
account for the small progress made in extending
the boundaries of the Church.
The fact that there has been in Peking, ever
siuce the time of Peter the Great, a Russian Eccle-
siastical Mission, is not very widely known, even
in well-informed circles in this country ; and how
that mission came to be established in the metro-
polis of China, and what are its objects very few
have ever inquired ; or if they have, no very satis-
factory answer to their inquiries could be obtained.
There are, indeed, scattered through the literature
of the last century, various works about China,
and among these, upon a close search, some in-
teresting particulars might be found, concerning the
residence in China, and the proceedings there, of
the missionaries of the Propaganda. Du Halde's,
Grose's, and other works on China are well known ;
but little or nothing can be learned from such pub-
lications of the relations which have so long sub-
sisted^ between the Chinese, and their northern
neighbours the Russians ; and any hints about the
residence of the descendants of Russians in the
Chinese capital rather stimulate than satisfy
curiosity. We propose, therefore, as briefly as pos-
sible, to give an account of the circumstances
which led to the formation of a Greco-Russian
Church in Peking, and to the maintenance of a
staff of ecclesiastics, and of students there, from
the period when they first obtained access to China
down to the present day.
When the Russian Cossacks were gradually sub-
duing the numerous tribes that inhabited Eastern
Siberia, aud bringing them under the yoke of Russia,
they were obliged to build fortresses or walled vil-
lages for their own safety, as they proceeded with
their conquests. Leaving a portion of their uumber
to occupy these fortified places, and keep the par-
tially subdued natives quiet, a kind of advanced
guard went forward, pushing their adventurous way
to new fields, and bringing under their power tribes,
or portions of tribes, that hitherto had been inde-
pendent aud free. In this way they penetrated at
last to the banks of the river Amoor, and having,
either by negotiation or force of arms, brought into
subjection a native chief, named Albazi, they pro-
ceeded to build and fortify a village for their resi-
dence, from which they could make excursions into
the surrounding country, and to which they could
return as their desert home. They gave to their
village, which soon became a town, the name of
Albazin ; and they found in agriculture and in the
chace, the means of living in abundance and com-
fort. Albazin was situated on the southern bank
of the Amoor. about 500 miles from Nertshinsk.*
Some of the Cossacks who had settled there had, in
their exploriug career, sailed down to the mouth of
the river, where it falls into the eastern ocean ; but
their frail, flat-bottomed boats, rudely constructed,
and having nothing stronger than wooden pins to
hold their planks together, were ill-fitted for the
navigation of the open sea, and they returned to
their old quarters at Albazin. At that time their
possession of the country was little questioned.
They could go in all directions hunting the sable,
of which the richest specimens were abundant, for
the region of the Amoor was tacitly reckoned, by
them at least, as belonging to the Russian empire ;
but that country was, in fact, the disputed territory
between Russia and China — the Cossacks had only
the right of conquest and possession ; not, as yet,
of prescription. If they had had only the native
inhabitants — the Tungusians and Mongolians — to
deal with, their claims might have remained undis-
turbed ; but as the government of China regarded
their occupation of the banks of the Amoor as an
invasiou of their country, they, after a period of
delay and inaction, sent an armed force against
Albazin. The Cossacks had surrounded their dwell-
ings with a stockade formed of great trees, and so
had fortitied themselves against any sudden attack.
* Gedenstrom, p. 142.
christian work, Jan. 2, ism. j THE R USSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
0
It appears from one of the Russian accounts * now
before the writer of this article, that the Cossacks
had frequent skirmishes with the Manchoo tribes in
their neighbourhood, before the Chinese soldiery
attacked them. They repulsed the first Chinese
contingent sent against them ; and a second and
more numerous body of troops met with no better
success. The Emperor of China then sent a nume-
rous army against the poor and weak fortress, which
contained only about 500 Cossacks. They defended
themselves bravely, so that their enemies were
obliged to maintain a siege for months before they
could subdue the resolute Albazinians. At last both
provisions and ammunition failed, and disease hav-
ing further weakened them, they surrendered at
discretion. The Chinese then razed the town to its
foundations, and carried the inhabitants prisoners
to Peking. After the retreat of the conquerors, some
few of the people who had been left set about re-
building their dwellings ; but a few years after,
when a treaty of peace was concluded between
Russia and China, one stipulation was that the
Russians should altogether abandon the locality.
So those lingering remains of the dwellers at Al-
bazin were compelled to seek a home elsewhere.
M. Gedenstrom, a well-informed man who spent
many years in the Russian service in Siberia, when
relating these events, in a work + to which we are
indebted for some of the facts here adduced, bursts
out in a style of eloquent eulogy of the brave men
who penetrated to those remote regions, built there
a town, and defended it so resolutely and so long
against great odds. " Thus fell Albazin !" he ex-
claims, ' 1 the never-to-be-f orgotten memorial of the
matchless enterprise and fearless daring of the Sibe-
rian Cossacks ! " But we cannot afford space for
more of this patriotic effusion.
These events had a far more important bearing
than at first sight appeared. The Chinese expedi-
tion, winch effected the destruction of Albazin, was
followed, ere long, by political negotiations and
amicable treaties between the two empires. A meet- i
ing of plenipotentiaries from St. Petersburg and
Peking was held afl Nertshinsk, charged with
the delicate and difficult task of settling the
boundaries between the two powers. In those days
communication with the respective capitals was '
tedious and fatiguing, a whole year being con- '<
sumed on the journey to St. Petersburg, and of
course another year on the way back. Peter the
Great was at that time much occupied with mat-
ters which seemed to him of far greater moment, !
and so the Siberian and Chinese boundary ques- j
tiou was not expedited as it might have been.
At last matters were arranged for the despatch :
of an officer of high rank. This was the Boyarin
Golovin, as chief plenipotentiary. The Chinese I
representative was strengthened by the presence I
and counsel of some Jesuit priests, then high in
St. Petersburg,
f Sketches of Siberia, St. Petersburg. 1830.
* Newest account of Eastern Siberia.
1817.
favour at Peking. But in addition to all other
means of securing an adjustment of differences
favourable to China, that government thought
proper to back the arguments of their diplomatists
with a formidable array of soldiery. Poor Golovin
found himself unable to cope with such argu-
ments, and was obliged to agree to terms highly
favourable to China, but less unfavourable to Russia
than he once feared ; for there was reason to
apprehend that the Chinese would claim the
whole region lying to the south of the Lake
Baikal.
From that period, not the Amoor, but a range
of mountains far to the north, was made the
boundary line, giving to the empire of China an
accession of territory greater than all Great Bri-
tain and Ireland. Nor was the value of this ad-
dition to the Chinese dominions to be measured
by its mere geographical extent. The country on
the northern banks of the Amoor up to the roots
of the Yablonuoy mountains, is extremely rich
and fertile. The soil is highly productive ; the
climate healthy, and the cold moderate ; the lofty
mountains that skirt the northern side of that
beautiful region, screening it from the piercing
Minds that blow from the icy ocean. As a proof
at once of the fertility of the soil, and the excel-
lence of the climate, it is affirmed that around
the ruins of Albazin the corn-fields of the old
settlers there produce to this day crops self-sown
and unreaped, for the place is still uninhabited.
This statement is made on the authority of M.
Gedenstrom, an author already referred to.
These particulars concerning the region of the
Amoor, and the unsuccessful negotiation of Russia
to have it acknowledged by China as belonging to
the Tsar, will be regarded by our readers as doubly
interesting now that this very disputed territory
has been given up by China, and ceded to Russia
by recent treaties. What could not be effected in
the time of Peter the Great, is accomplished under
the reign of Alexander the Second. Such an ad-
dition to that already vast empire is important,
both as being a region of great resources yet un-
developed, and as affording to the power that
commands the' Amoor free access to the Eastern
ocean, and so opening up facilities for trade and
commerce, which the enterprise of our Northern
neighbours will doubtless, ere long, turn to valu-
able account.
It is interesting to compare the statements made
by Russians of these affairs, with the accounts
given by others, and especially by those who lived
and wrote nearer the time when the events oc-
curred.
Our countryman, John Bell of Antermony, who
accompanied an embassy from Petersburg to Peking
during the reign of Peter the Great, gives a graphic
account of his intercourse with the descendants of
the captive Russians of Albazin, and he narrates the
circumstances connected with their being brought
to China, pretty much as we have stated them. So
10
THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
[Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
that the honest Scotchman's account confirms the
view we have given of the destruction of Albazin as
derived from Russian sources. Mr. Bell says that
the Emperor of China had attempted by urgent re-
presentations, of his right to the country invaded
by the Cossacks, to induce the Russian govern-
ment to withdraw from their usurped possession ;
but these peaceful measures having proved fruit-
less, "the Emperor at last, impatient of longer
delay, sent an army of above one hundred thousand
men to do by force what could not be accomplished
by negotiation. They invested the place on all
sides, and raised batteries against it. After a vigo-
rous defence, the garrison, consisting of 300 or 400
Cossacks, was obliged to surrender for want of pro-
visions. No terms could be obtained, and all the
Russians were made prisoners of war."
In Mr. Bell's time (1720), the descendants of
these prisoners were, he says, "pretty numerous"
and useful to their countrymen, the Russians, as
interpreters (p. 282). Along with the other inha-
bitants of Albazin their Priest Dimitri was carried
to the Chinese capital. There he and his co-reli-
gionists were allowed to observe the rites of their
worship, and for that purpose an old temple of the
Buddhists was assigned to them and converted
into a Christian Church. It is probable that
Dimitri was allowed to continue in his office all his
days, and that not till after his death were arrange-
ments made for procuring a successor from Russia,
and for putting the establishment on the footing it
afterwards assumed, and which has continued until
this day. How this was effected wc shall now
relate
The embassy, already mentioned, despatched from
St. Petersburg to meet with the representatives
of China on the question of the frontiers, was also
empowered to settle all matters relating to the
future management and maintenance of the Albazin
captives. These negotiations were at last peacefully
concluded, and among other articles of the treaty
between Russia and China, it was agreed that the
subjects of Russia who had been taken to Peking
should remain there ; but as they were Christians of
the Greco-Russian Church, it was stipulated that
they should have a Church provided for the exercise
of the rites of their religion— that a staff of priests
and other ecclesiastics should be allowed to come
from Russia and officiate in the Church at Peking ;
that, moreover as it was desirable to have proper
persons to study the Chinese and Manchoo lan-
guages, that they might be qualified to act as inter-
preters in the future business and intercourse of
the Russians with their Chinese friends and neigh-
bours, that a certain number of students should lie
added to the staff of the mission ; aud, lastly, that
the officials of the mission should be allowed to
return to Russia at the end of ten years, to be re-
placed by a new set of priests, students, &c. These
terms were acceded to by the Chinese authorities ;
and so, for the last century and a half, there has
been au uninterrupted succession of Russian eccle-
siastics who have spent their appointed term of
years in Peking.
According to the treaty the Russian mission
was to consist of six ecclesiastics, viz., an archi-
mandrite and five other priests of inferior rank ;
also four lay members. The first to do duty alter- £
nately in the monastery of Candlemas and the
Church of the Assumption, situated in the same
quarter of the city ; the lay-members are the
students who are obliged to acquire the Chinese and
Manchoo langixages, and to gain au accurate know-
ledge of Chinese affairs. They all reside in the
Kouan, a vast building, part of which known by
the name of the Court of the Embassy, is kept in
repair by the Chinese government, and the other,
containing the convent, at the expense of Russia.
As above stated the members of the mission were to
be relieved every ten years, but the correspondence
of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the
name of the Directing Senate, with the tribunal at
Peking, is subject to so many delays that the
abode of the missionaries is often protracted to a
longer period. For instance, the members of the
new mission who reached Kiachta in 1820 were
then only on their way to relieve the former one
that had been in Peking since the beginning of the
year 1808. The maintenance of the mission costs
the Chinese government, aunually, a thousand
silver roubles and nine thousand pounds of rice,
and the Russian government sixteen thousand
silver roubles. Of this last sum one thousand
roubles are set apart for the maintenance and
instruction of the young Albazinians who live
at Peking, the descendants of the original Cos-
sacks.
It is no vain repetition but an interesting confir-
mation of this narrative, to adduce the testimony of
Mr. Bell, whose travels in Asia we have already
referred to. Mr. Bell, after giving some parti-
culars, in substance the same as those laid before
our readers, adds, "the taking of these prisoners
to Peking was the occasion of establishing the
Creek church in China, which still continues to
flourish, though its members are not very numerous.
As one priest dies, another from Siberia succeeds
him, who minds chiefly his own small flock, and
thinks very little of making converts. This cir-
cumstance prevents their being obnoxious to the
Romish missionaries, who can have no suspicion of
their interfering with the interests of their church.
These missionaries are constantly employed in
making proselytes, and their endeavours have
been attended with some success " (p. 283). The
testimony of a witness and observer, who lived so
near the time of the first settlement of this Russian
colony in the capital of China, possesses peculiar
interest, and Mr. Bell's position as connected in a
medical capacity with the Russian Embassy, gave
him the best opportunities both of intercourse with
the descendants of the Cossacks of Albazin, and of
free communication with Chinese officials. Being
in the suite of the Ambassador Valensky, he was
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865 ] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
11
present at all the grand receptions and interviews
with the Emperor and his court. How well he
improved these opportunities, his copious narrative
of his residence in Peking abundantly shows. The
glimpses he gives us of Chinese ceremonial corre-
spond very much with the more recent descriptions
given by more modern writers, and so we are the
more assured of the accuracy of both. By means
of the philological and political stores of knowledge
gathered by the members of the mission, and trans-
mitted to their superiors in Russia, there is now ac-
cumulated in the archives and public offices of St.
Petersburg, an amount of important and authentic
information about China, Corea, Tibet, and the other
dependencies of the empire, far beyond what is pos-
sessed by any other European government. Some
of the monks and other officials of the Chinese
mission have been men of research, and of literary
tastes, and they have done good service both while
in China, and after their return to Russia, turning
to good account their acquisitions, and enriching the
literature of their country both with original works,
and with translations from Eastern languages. But
this has been done only to a small extent, consider-
ing the advantages these men have enjoyed. It is
matter of regret that the Russian government has
kept locked up among its literary treasures the
reports, journals, &c. of its agents in China. It
may have considered it the w isest course to mono-
appeared in any language but the German." + Mr.
Timkowski, the author of the work now referred
to, was the officer in command of the Cossacks,
charged with the duty of conducting the new
mission which left Russia for Peking in 1820, and
of bringing back the members of the former mission
who returned from China the following year.
Among the members of the mission in Peking,
who have made contributions to the literature of
the East, the monk Hyacinth Bechurin holds an
honourable place. Among other valuable works of
his there is a detailed description of the country
lying between Peking and Kiachta, on the Russian
frontier. Another volume contains a description of
Tibet, translated from the Chinese. A third con-
tains a history of Tibet, also translated from the
Chinese original. These works, and others bearing
on the subject of this paper, are now before the
writer, in the Russian language ; and to these docu-
ments he has been indebted for many of the details
now laid before the readers of Christian Work.
Regret has been expressed that the Russian govern-
ment has not given to the European public the
valuable information acquired through the medium
of the mission at Peking ; but, independently of
reasons of state for keeping such knowledge to
themselves, the members of the Russian govern-
ment must have translated the manuscripts in their
possession into some other European language,
polise the information thus obtained ; but certainly ' better known than the Russian, otherwise few
it would have been a graceful and generous act, to j would have been able to profit by the publicatk
make public; for the use of the Western world, some
at least of the various knowledge in social, political,
and religious life in China, which the staff of priests
and students there had doubtless communicated to
their superiors on their return to Europe. We
observe that this reticence on the part of Russia
is referred to in terms of regret by the intelligent
English translator of Timkowski's Travels, in his
preface to that work.* He says : " It is natural to
inquire what advantages literature and science have
derived from the Russians having thus possessed,
for a hundred years, an opportunity which no other
Christian nation has enjoyed, and which, if allowed
to natives of England, France, or Germany, would
most probably have long since made us fully ac-
quainted with everything relative to the history,
the institutions, the government, &c. of that great
empire aud its extensive dependencies. To this no
satisfactory answer can be given. So far as we
have been able to ascertain, none of the members of
these successive missions have ever published any-
thing on the subject of China, even in the Russiau
language. Only Lawrence Lange, who accompanied
the mission that went to Peking in 1727, did keep
a journal, which was published by the celebrated
Tallas, in his Hordische Beitriigc ; but it never
* Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to
China, and Residence in Peking in the years 1820-1821.
By George Timkowski. With Corrections and Notes,
by Julius Vox Klaproth. In 2 vols. London : Long-
man, Rces, Orme, Brown, and Green. 1827.
It was a stroke of policy worthy of the character
for able diplomacy the Russian government has
long borne, to take advantage of the circumstance
of certain Russian subjects having been carried
captive to Peking, to gain a permanent footing in
China for their priests and people, with fidl liberty
to exercise their religion and maintain a church and
a monastery, with all the privileges belonging to
their religious profession. The proposal to attach
a number of lay students to the mission was skil-
fully managed, as the Chinese pride was flattered
by the idea of these foreigners coming to Peking to
lea/rn their language, and gain wisdom from their
books and learned men. Had the Russians sought
liberty to settle in China for the purpose of teaching,
their proposal would have been rejected with scorn.
There was, however, a covert design on the part of
the Russians — as a person high in office in St.
Petersburg assured the writer of these pages — to
give the Chinese a favourable idea of the Christian
religion, by building a church adorned with the
best specimens of sacred pictures that could be
procured, and by the appointment of priests, whose
official robes, and other emblems of their sacred
character and office, were to be of the most gorgeous
f We are gratified to he able to state that the last sen-
tence of the above extract is not correct. A translation
from the French, of the Journal of M. de Lange was pub-
lished as an appendix to Mr. Bell of Antermonv's Travels,
already mentioned ; and the date of De Lange' s residence
at the Court of Peking was not in 1?27, but in the years
1721 and 1722.
12 THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING. [Christian work, Jan. 2.
description. It was judged that these things would
enchant the eyes of the Chinese, and fill their
imaginations with exalted notions of the magnifi-
cence of Russia, and the beauty of the religion
there dominant. This gives point and significance
to the following passage in Timkowski's work. He
says, " The ecclesiastical members of the new mis-
sion were occupied to-day in receiving from their
predecessors the habits and utensils belonging to the
service of the Church. There were two very hand-
some and rich dresses for the priests, but many
which were much worn. For the dignity of reli-
gion, and the credit of the Russian name, it is much
to be wished that our church at Peking were
furnished with new ornaments, and in a better
taste. The present ones are too old. Several
images are very indifferently painted by Chinese
artists, who have very unsuitably dressed them in
their own national costume. An old image of St.
Nicholas, brought by our Cossacks from Albazin in
1685, hangs on the wall behind the altar. In con-
sequence of my representations respecting the
pictures of the saints in our church at Peking, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs gave orders to paint
some new pictures for it, which were forwarded to
Peking, in 1824." (Vol. i. p. 333.) If pictures are
to be hung up in Christian churches, and if images
of the saints are to be honoured by the worshippers
who bow before them, there seems to be no good
reason why these appendages to the furniture of the
sanctuary should not be respectable specimens of
the painter's art. But it betrays a sad lack of
genuine Christian feeling to attach importance to
such trifles ; and it does not say much for the
enlightened zeal of a Church, which rests its de-
pendence on such means for producing an impres-
sion on the minds of a heathen people favourable to
the Christian religion and its adherents. Nor is it sur-
prising if such acts have failed to produce the effect
intended. If the Chinese painters had possessed
a particle of humour, they might have thought it a
good joke to dress the Russian saints in their own
costume, and thus convert them at once into deni-
zens and protectors of the Celestial empire !
We have never heard of any native of Peking,
either of the Chinese or of the Manchoo race, being
won over to the Christian faith by these dazzling
exhibitions. The writer had a memorable inter-
view with the members of the mission, when they
passed through Kiachta, on their way to Peking,
in 1820. He suggested to the Archimandrite
(Kamensky) then at the head of the mission that it
would be well for him aud his brethren to take
steps for the introduction of the Christian Scriptures
into China, their knowledge of the language and
opportunities of intercourse with the people giving
them free scope for efforts in that directiou. His
answer was brief and conclusive — " Such things are
beyond our commission ; we have no commands to
undertake any such work." The reigning spirit of
the Russian Church at that time was the spirit of
externalism, rite, ceremony, show; and, true to
the order of the day, Father Kamensky was careful
not to exceed the limits of his instructions, or
appear more zealous than his superiors.
In the course of the many years that have elapsed
since the commencement of the Spiritual Mission
(as the Russians call it), there may have been not a
few zealous and good men who have fulfilled the
duties of their office and commended their religion
to the heathen people around them by their humble
deportment and consistent lives ; but of their
labours there is no account, at least none to which
we have access. Some tangible proofs, however, of
their labours are extant. A valuable manuscript
copy of a Manchoo version of the Old Testament,
and part of the New, made by some of the Roman
Catholic Missionaries in China, was made by one of
the late members of the Russian Mission ; and a
transcript of that manuscript has been made at the
expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.*
Another Biblical work, honourable to the scholarship
and diligence of another member of the Peking Mis-
sion, is a translation into Manchoo of the New Testa-
ment. That work has been printed under the auspices
of the above-named Society, and copies can now be
disseminated among the people from the Chinese
metropolis itself, where Protestant missionaries are
now labouring with much encouragement, and with
fields of usefulness all around them, which only
their limited number and resources, prevent their
occupying in all their exteut.
Turning from the clerical portion of the mission,
we naturally ask, what is the state and character
of the descendants of the original settlers of Alba-
zin, who were brought to Peking so long ago. We
can but imperfectly answer the question. The Rus-
sian colony — for such it is — planted at the very
gates of the capital, still exists ; but its numbers
have decreased rather than multiplied during the
last century and a half. The presence and influence
of priests of their own faith, and of Church services
according to their own ritual, have scarcely pre-
vented their sinking into the abyss of heathenism
around them. There is reason to fear that with
little even of tlxeform of godliness, they have prac-
tically denied its power. They have long since
lost the use of the Russian language, and having
adopted the Chinese dress aud mode of life, are
little distinguished from the other inhabitants of
the country, which has become, in every sense, their
native land. How low these poor people have
fallen, the following extract from M. Timkowski's
work only too clearly shows. That gentleman, after
visiting some Buddhist temples, and other places of
interest in the neighbourhood of Peking, describes
a visit to the Russian church thus :—
' ' After having crossed ravines and narrow alleys,
we came to the north-east angle of Peking, where
our Church of the Assumption (formerly St. Nicho-
* That version must, of course, undergo a careful re-
vision before being printed, and may perhaps only furnish
the basis for a more complete translation, to be made by
some competent Protestant missionary.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] THE RUSSIAN ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION IN PEKING.
13
las), stands. We did not see the inside of the
church, because we had no key. It is in very bad
condition. It was built about the time of the
arrival of the Albazins, with the materials of a
pagan temple, which formerly stood in the square.
.... In general this quarter of Peking is very
poor, though it contains the palace of a prince,
which is situated to the south-west of our church.
The descendants of the Albazins live, at present,
in the western part of the city, which is assigned
to the division of Manchoo troops to which they
belong. They have lost all attachment to their
former countrymen — the Russians. There are
twenty-two among them who have been baptised,
j but they are so connected with the Manchoos by
marriages, and by their dependence as subjects,
that it is very difficult to distinguish them. They
speak- Chinese : they dress like the Manchoos, and
live entirely in the same manner as the soldiers of
that nation ; poor, idle, and addicted to the super-
stitions of Schamanism." (Vol. ii. p. 45.)
So, with all their priests, sacred images, and
fine sacerdotal vestments, these people were not far
from the low level of the heathen part of the
community. Nor is this to be wondered at, if the
timid policy of their clergy, as brought to view in
the following extract from the same volume, is to
be regarded as characteristic of the Russian priest-
hood in Peking.
"January 16th. — To-day Alexis came to the
church. He is a descendant of the Albazins, and is
their Monkonnida, or Senior. He brought with him
his grandson, of twelve years of age, to have him
christened, and also his daughter, the mother of
the boy, who was married to a member of the impe-
rial family, but poor, and of the class designated
by the name of Ouksoun, or wearing yellow girdles.
The Archimandrite expressed with respect to the
young prince, the fear that the Chinese government,
which is always jealous, might check the zeal of oar
clergy to propagate the Christian religion, as it had
done vAth the Jesuits." (P. 47.) From anything
that appears in the history of these clergymen they
were perfectly safe from the hands of persecutors ;
for their "zeal" to propagate the Christian faith
nowhere appears !
Mr. Timkowski had many opportunities of inter-
course with Lamas and travellers from Tibet and Mon-
golia ; and he had some curious interviews also with
the Roman Catholic missionaries. He relates with
minute accuracy what passed on these occasions, and
one or two extracts, in which our own country and
our missionaries are referred to, may not be without-
interest. It is well to get a glimpse of what others
think and say of us, and our Russian officer here
gives us the opportunity. "Ishing told us that the
Dalai Lama had not appeared, that is, had not been
installed in Tibet for five years [previous to 1820].
The priests of Tibet wanted to choose him from
among their own body ; but the late Emperor Kia
King required that three candidates should be pro-
! posed to him, all of them from the province of Szu-
chuan. Does the Chinese Government then dread
the conquest of Tibet by the English ? Should these
conquerors of Bengal take possession of a country
so highly venerated by all the professors of Lama-
ism, which would not be difficult for them at
present, the Dalai Lama would remain in their
power ; his worshippers the Mongols, Calmucks,
and other nations might become true and zealous
allies of the English, and facilitate their further
conquests in Middle Asia. We know that the
English missionaries who reside at Selenginsk, in
the government of Irkutsk, diligently study the
Mongol language, which is spoken by many of the
Tibetan Lamas. . . . Some Tibetans who reside in
their convent came to the Dou Lama to see the
Russians. When they saw me they exclaimed,
' This gentleman greatly resembles in the face the
Indjili (English) who live at Lassa, and other
Tibetan towns, the same complexion and hair, the
same dress and sword. ' This statement was further
confirmed by a merchant at Peking, a native of
Tibet, who is pretty well acquainted with Bengal
and Calcutta. We learned from him that the
English now carry on a pretty considerable trade
with Tibet, and exchange their cloths, knives,
swords, &c. for gold, musk, turquoises, &c." (Vol.
ii. p. 55.)
Mr. Timkowski gives an interesting account of a
visit paid by himself and other Russians to the Por-
tuguese missionaries, who, it seems, are treated with
indignity and harshness by the Manchoo officials of
Peking. We must limit our extracts however to
a passage containing a reference to the English
missionaries in Siberia. "The Archimandrites
Hyacinth and Peter went in carriages to visit the
Portuguese missionaries in the convent of the South.
I accompanied them with six Cossacks, preceded by
two of their officers, all on horseback. Some Chinese
converts received us at the gate of the monastery,
and led us through the library into the church,
which is truly magnificent." . . . "The bishop hav-
ing asked the Archimandrite Peter why English
missionaries had settled at Selenginsk, the latter
answered that it was to learn the Mongol langiiage ;
but the bishop replied that he thought that the
English missionaries had other intentions. The
Portuguese observed that the literati of Europe,
and particularly those of France, eagerly published
works on China, and in the Chinese and Manchoo
languages, without being sufficiently versed in the
subjects of which they treated." (Vol. ii. p. 70.)
Perhaps these Portuguese gentlemen were not guilt-
less of the very thing of which they accused others,
viz., holding and publishing opinions on subjects
which they did not well understand. The sus-
picion expressed by the bishop that the English
missionaries had other intentions than those they
avowed, might well lead to conclusions not very
favourable to those emissaries of the Pope them-
selves. Were they conscious of some secret, un-
avowed objects in their mission to China, that they
were so ready to impute sinister designs to the
14
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
Protestant missionaries in Siberia ? The Archi-
mandrite certainly gave an imperfect account of
the objects of the English missionaries, when he
said it was " to learn the Mongol language.'' Their
study of that language was but a means to an end,
their avowed end being to translate the Christian
Scriptures into Mongolian, and to preach the
Gospel to the people who used that tongue. The
Archimandrite Peter (Kamensky) here mentioned,
was the individual referred to in a former page,
who, in conversation with the writer, expressed his
inability to undertake any Bible-translation work,
as being beyond his instructions ; but he showed
himself to be better acquainted with the character
and work of the Protestant missionaries than the
Portuguese bishop, and performed for them an im-
portant service in procuring for them in Peking a
valuable collection of Mongolian and Manchoo
works, essential to them in the study of the
languages and literature of the people to whose
evangelization they had devoted themselves.
Here is another glimpse of proceedings iu the
sphere of these missions in Peking. We again quote
from Mr. Timkowski. " The Portuguese mission-
aries having learned that the library of the Russian
Mission possessed the Journal of Lord Amherst's
Embassy to China, in 1816, asked the Archiman-
drite Peter to lend it them. The book contains some
inaccurate statements respecting our mission at
Peking. Two Russians and a Frenchman, in the
service of Puxssia, says the author, had been seen
within the last three days, near our residence in
Thoung Tcheau. The Chinese guard, who admit
none but mandarins into the place occupied by the
embassy, would not permit their entrance. Lord
Amherst gave orders not to have any eommunica-
tion with them, so that we heard no more of them.
They were dressed entirely in the Chinese fashion.''
In a note Mr. Timkowski makes the following cri-
tique on this passage : — "The supposed Frenchman
was the Archimandrite Hyacinth, who speaks
French. He was accompanied by the Monk
Seraphim and the Student Sipakof. In other re-
spects the narrative is correct, but the author makes
a very singular remark. ' The Russians, ' he says,
' have at Peking an establishment for the instruc-
tion of a certain number of persons who are intended
to act as interpreters ou the frontiers. The Senate
of Tohohk corresponds Immediately with the Tribunal
at PeJciiKj.'' Was it not known in Europe in 1816
and 1818 that the Russian Senate resides at St.
Petersburg, not at Tobolsk ? " This ignorant mis-
take of one who ought to have been well-informed
in such matters, is just another proof of the little
attention paid by English writers to the relations
between Russia and China, and to the many inter-
national questions which ought to have a special
interest to Englishmen. Every year, however, is
removing something of the darkness which has veiled
the affairs of the East from European minds ; and
we trust the time is not distant when ignorance on
such subjects will be regarded as discreditable as
it is to be in the dark with regard to any other
great question of the day.
There is a prevalent impression that the field of
Russian literature is a very barren one ; and cer-
tainly it cannot be compared with the richer soils
of Germany, France, and England ; but it is never-
theless not an arid waste, producing nothing ; and
a careful hand might glean many rare and valuable
sheaves from sources as yet little known. If the
future of Russia may be forecast from its history up
to the present time, the vast progress made in that
empire since the period to which the episode of
Albazin carries us back, may well warrant us to ex-
pect a development not merely of material wealth,
but of mental and moral resources, which will bring
and keep Russia abreast of the most advanced civi-
lizations of the time, f
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES— THEIR MISSION AND PROGRESS
ON THE RHINE.
BY THE REV. J. E. CARLYLE.
The Institution at Duisburg has been already
described in the pages of this journal,* so that
we pass from the interesting details of its his-
tory to note only its general progress. Duis-
burg is an ancient city on the Rhine, of some
importance still as the centre of a large manufac-
turing district. How it comes we know not, but the
factory districts in Germany have not the same
dingy look they w ear in England. The air of Duis-
burg is not so impregnated with smoke, and the
whole look of the city seems brighter than with us.
Elberfeld in the same way — the most important
* Christian Work, August, 1863.
of the manufacturing towns of Germany— and
situated in a densely-populated district, has its due
share of light and sunshine ; and from its romantic
situation, built on hill and dale, might remind us, so
far as beauty is concerned, of our own aristocratic
Bath. But to return to Duisburg. The Institution
occupies an unobtrusive range of buildings which do
not bulk on the eye as the deaconess house at
Kaisers werth. Duisburg is, besides, a city possess -
f Since the above article was prepared, information
has been received from Peking concerning the present
efforts of the Eussian Mission there to make converts
from among the Chinese, which may be communicated
in a future number of Christian Work.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
15
ing a number of public buildings ; with which the
limited resources of this Christian Institute could
not enable it to vie. But while thus retiring and
I humble there is a -work going on here which scarcely
Jl yields in its importance to that earned on at Kai-
i serswerth. Dr. Fliedner, to whom the Institution
I owes its origin, saw, with his] large sagacity, that
; there were departments of duty in which it was pre-
ferable to employ a male agency. For instance, in
! the Hospital for males — especially for soldiers —
] while there are duties in which the aid of the
deaconess may be invaluable, there are others which
j must mainly devolve on men. On the field of
battle, too, it were of great service that the surgeon
j should have under his direction a trustworthy,
experienced male assistant to look after the
wounded. Apart from war, a catechist or deacon-
! helper will often be found more suitable for work in
a garrison than a female agent. The difficult duties,
1 too, belonging to the care of a prison for males, or
to a reformatory for criminals, seem more suitable to
men, so also the education of boys in Ragged Schools.
We may add, indeed, that in the education of boys
generally, it were of much value to have a well-
trained Christian male agency. The want of it has
been especially felt of late years in Germany. In
: more distant expeditions also, as in following
the colonist to his remote home, that he may
still enjoy the blessings of the Gospel, deacon-
helpers appear the most fitted for the duty.
Thus the ministry of Christian mercy seems to
[ need not alone the sympathy and gentle care of the
i sisterhood, but the robustness and strength to
I endure hardship belonging to the brother in the
' Lord. And, in point of fact, all these general im-
1 pressions regarding the value of a male Christian
agency, have been verified by experience both at
j Duisburg and other German Mission Institutions.
The primary design at Duisburg, let it be noted,
is to train not deacons but deacon-helpers. The
diaconate in Germany, as in most Christian com-
• munions, is a Church order, and this is recognised in
■ the arrangements of the Institution. It woidd
educate an agency not as a substitute for the
I Church office, but as a help to it. Hence, indeed,
j the name deacon-helpers. There is thus a distinc-
| tion between Kaiserswerth and Duisburg, or the
I Kauhe Haus at Hamburg. In the one case it
j is a Church ministry belonging to primitive Chris-
| tianity, but gone into desuetude which has been
restored ; in the other it is a help to the ministers
; of the Church, especially to the diaconate, in pas-
toral work.
While at Duisburg it is the main object to train
this particular agency, it is interesting at the same
! time to notice that, with his usual sagacity, Dr.
Fliedner sought to turn the Institution to useful
account in preparing the young Prussian ministry
for their future parish work. And in this attempt
| there has been a good measure of success. The
Government has been induced to offer three bursaries
for those who have passed their first theological
examination, that they may be prepared here for
their future pastoral duties, and more than fifty
have received this valuable training. They aid
in conducting the devotional services of the house,
and the hospital. They seek to give spiritual
direction and consolation to the sick. They have
opportunities for preaching. They take an im-
portant part in conducting the education of the
deacon assistants, and in such other depart-
ments of duty as are suitable to their calling.
While engaged in these duties their theological
studies are at the same time not overlooked. They
have access to a good library, and Dr. Bleibtreu,
the pastor of the Institution, acts as their theolo- j
gical tutor. The idea is an excellent one, well
worthy consideration in our' own country. The
link is thus supplied, uniting the Christian ministry
to this mission of love.
But the most prominent characteristic of Duis-
burg is its work as a training institution for 1
deacon -helpers. Everything else, we may say, is
subordinate to this. Of these it has at present
some ninety employed, resident either at Duisburg
or labouring elsewhere in the Christian vineyard.
This number may appear small, but then it must be
remembered there are many similar training institu-
tions in Germany, and besides that, from the impor-
tant places occupied by many of these brethren
more good is effected than might appear at first
sight. Some of these deacon-helpers, for instance,
are at the head of large poor-houses in the greater
German cities. Others superintend institutions for
the aged. Some, again, have the place of city :
inspectors of the poor, a position necessarily of
much influence. Others are laboriously occupied !
in aiding the Christian ministry in the oversight of
large neglected parishes. A number of the brethren '
are again occupied educational^, some in primary '
schools, others in ragged schools and reformatories
for boys and men. Hospital- work is another im-
portant department. The noble institution, for
instance, of Elberfeld is under the care of seven of
the brethren. Then they superintend asylums for
the deranged, and for idiots, aud some of them are
occupied with the care of the sick in private families.
We may add to this the care of prisons, in which
Christian superintendence and sympathy may often
prove of signal blessing. The deacons of Duisburg
have in all these departments approved themselves j
as good servants of the Church of Christ.
We may notice, among the more important services
they have thus rendered their work in Upper Silesia, j
1848 was in that province a season of terrible j
famine, followed by pestilence. Nothing could I
have been more noble than the self-devotion of the
deacons sent there in ministering to the famishing,
and in gathering together under their fatherly care
deserted orphan children. During the last outbreak
of cholera in Germany also they were found most
useful, both in directing sanitary measures to avert
the calamity, and in their skilful care of cholera
patients. Some years ago they were of great ser--
16
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
vice to a number of poor miners who had been
persuaded by designing speculators to emigrate to
Southern Russia, to the countiy of the Cossacks
of the Don. There they found themselves in great
misery, and many died of sickness or want. Some
of the brethren were sent to their help, and, by
their good arrangements and organisation they were
enabled to restore to their sorrowing wives and
families a considerable fragment of the poor colonists.
During the late Danish war these deacons, like the
deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, were also found of
much use. Sixteen of them were enlisted in the
work — in the hospitals, or with the army at the
storming of Diippel, and the passage to Alsen. So
much did the medical officers of the Prussian army
appreciate their intelligence and their devotion to
their duties, that when other army establishments
were almost broken up, a number of them were for
a considerable time retained in active service.
Might it not be well to take a lesson from this for
our own army, especially in the case of a future war?
Female nurses, though invaluable in their place,
can occupy only a limited sphere in our military
hospitals. Why not aid them by the services of
trained Christian men ? We have our army cate-
chists. Why not, also, our Christian hospital
attendants ? As regards our large army in India
exposed to so much sickness and suft'eriug, the value
of such an agency cannot be over-estimated.
And now we notice the training of Duisburg. It
; is an interesting feature of Kaiserswerth that it has
gathered into one sisterhood all classes of society.
There may be found among the deaconesses those
in whose veins flows the blood of the oldest German
nobility, others are recruited from the professional
or mercantile orders of society, others from the
working-classes. It is indeed a beautiful spectacle,
this sisterly union of those who by birth and rank
are so separate. It is otherwise at Duisburg.
The brethren there are chiefly gathered from the
classes of German mechanics, or handicraftsmen, or
agriculturists. This may be partly accounted for
from their office. This is uot to occupy the place
of a church ministry, as with the deaconess, but
to be the subordinate assistants of an existing order.
Hence naturally a social distinction. The chief
qualifications required for entrants are a good moral
and Christian character, ability to read and to
write, with some knowledge of arithmetic. They
must be also proficient in some handicraft, or in
agricultural work, or at least be willing to acquire
this. They must be unmarried men in sound health,
from the ages of 18 to 30, and must bring with them
the written permission of their parents to engage in
the office. Above all it is desired that they who
offer themselves, do so from Christian motives, from
love to the Master and His work, " having received
the grace of God not in vain." It will be seen that
as a class they are thus very much like our own
catechists or colporteurs, or Christian teachers.
Only the training given at Duisburg is both of a
more comprehensive and practical character than
that received, so far as we know, in any British in-
stitution. The instruction embraces a simple but
careful study of the Bible, especially bearing on its
applications to the heart and the life. A thorough
system of ordinary education is also afforded, so
that in every branch the brethren may be well
equipped. Music and hymnology are, as at Kaisers-
werth, a favourite study and enjoyment. Like the
deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, all the brethren also
are expected to devote a certain period of time to
hospital duties, so that they may be well qualified
to aid in this department, whatever their after-voca-
tion. Then each brother has his sphere of duty also
in training some of the boys in his own particular
handicraft — as shoemaker, tailor, printer, &c. , or it
may be in garden and field work. The boys of the
institution are grouped also under their care into
families, over each of which, as Christian fathers or
brethren, they are called affectionately to watch.
As at Kaiserswerth we found here also the law of
love ruling the institution. Nothing could be
further from the rigid discipline of the barrack,
or the gloomy air of monasticism. A cheerful
happy air pervaded the place. Sympathy knit
them as a household into one, and the interests and
prosperity of the Institution seemed the common
care and purpose of all.
The establishment at Duisburg for ragged boys —
the wandering Arabs of the German cities — deserves
notice. These children are such as have either ex-
posed themselves to the penalties of law, or were in
danger of doing so. There are at present some sixty
of these under the care of the institution over whom
Dr. Eugelbert and his coadjutors watch with much
fidelity and Christian love. On being received into
the Institution, all fatherly rights and responsi-
bilities are devolved upon it. These boys continue
thus under the eye of the directors not only while
receiving education within its walls, but during the
subsequent period of their apprenticeship, till they
have reached mature manhood. It augurs well for
the training of the Establishment that masters of
trades compete to have these boys as their appren-
tices, and the result is most gratifying. We do not
know what the exact proportion may be of those
attending lveformatories who afterwards fall away.
At Duisburg it has amounted latterly to three per
cent, only — a result, we venture to say, mpst re-
markable.
At Liutorf, near Rattingen, some miles from
Duisburg, there is an affiliated Institution for fallen,
dissipated men, and for those who, having under-
gone a sentence of justice, desire with their re-
stored freedom to turn over a new leaf in their
life. The Establishment is not for the aged vici-
ous seeking only a shelter, till they die, but for
those of whom it may be hoped, in the eleventh
hour, that they may yet be reclaimed to the paths
of religion and virtue. It is understood that those
who enter the Institution shall remain for a
year, but the engagement is purely voluntary, and
any who wish it can quit the Establishment at any
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, I860.]
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
17
time. All are daily at work chiefly in the garden
and the field. The establishment is intended for all
orders of society, but it seems especially to have
been useful to the middle and upper classes. There
may be found the roue, the debauchee, the dandy
' : of other days, the merchant, the commercial tra-
I veller, the clerk, the teacher, and these in larger
' number than those of inferior stations. It seems
I as if the Institution were especially suited to the
1 educated ; as if the free system it follows, implying
I a firm will and resolve of reformation, found more
; among them, ready to accept its discipline than
among the working classes. The number reformed
is, so far as can be ascertained, some twenty-five
■per cent. ; a small proportion, some of our readers
may think, yet in many instances such as the grace
of God only could effect. Do we not sometimes
misinterpret the parable of the Prodigal? It teaches
us that the lost son may be restored, however far
he has strayed from the Father's home; but we
mistake it if we suppose it tell us that they are
many who, long enslaved in habits of vice, become
at last God's sons and freemen.
Another Institution of interest at Duisburg, as in
. other German cities, is the Travellers' Home
(Herberge). Those of us who have travelled in
Germany have probably met the German Bursch on
the road, travelling to perfect himself in his trade,
! hat in hand, not ashamed, poor fellow ! to ask an
honest alms to help him on his way. It is an old
German custom not without its use, but it has this
disadvantage that the young man is often thus ex-
posed in the dens and purlieus of the city to society
dangerous to his morals. Hence the benefit of a
• home where he shall find a comfortable room, good
food, and Christian society. All this is well provided
at Duisburg. A dinner is served at a price which
rivals the Glasgow cooking depots : soup, vege-
tables, butcher's meat, potatoes, — all provided for
j the sum of about 4c\d. For bed and board, includ-
ing coffee, dinner, supper, &c. , Is. day is charged ;
for a bed only, the price is about 2\d.
H The Institution at Diisselthal is designed like
Duisburg for the training of deacon assistants. Only
the work is here exclusively educational. It is to
train young men as teachers of primary schools.
Duisburg and Diisselthal may be regarded thus
as aiming collectively to effect for deacon helpers,
what Kaiserswerth accomplishes individually for
deaconesses.
The main building at Diisselthal is an old
baronial residence, pleasantly situated in a rich
wooded plain near Diisseldorf, generously given by
its owner, the Count Von der Recke Bolmerstein,
to be devoted to Christian work. If we include the
affiliated institutions of Overdyck and Zoppenbriick,
nearly 300 children, mostly rescued from a life of
misery and probable crime, are here receiving a
Christian education, and more than a thousand boys
in all have thus been trained. The management is
after the usual excellent German fashion, the child-
ren being grouped into some eight families, some of
in.— 2.
whom reside in the larger house, but the most in
smaller buildings, each with a family, gathered
around it. The aspirants for office begin their work
here by devoting some three years, we believe, to
the training of boys in their own handicraft, or in
garden and field work. The spacious garden and
ground around Diisselthal, and indeed at all the
Rhenane mission stations, bear the marks of careful
and skilful cultivation. The produce of the land is
most useful in supplying the wants of the Institu-
tion. A healthful exercise is afforded to the boys,
and they receive a training which they may find
useful afterwards, whatever their trade.
In these days of colonization is it not indeed most
important for the working classes to be taught
something of agriculture. While the younger
brethren and boys at Diisselthal thus spend several
hours every day in manual labour, they receive
also some three hours' careful instruction in the
schoolroom. At the close of the three years the aspi-
rants for office are received into the seminary, when
i they devote their time almost exclusively to obtain-
ing a thorough education as teachers of primary
schools.
As a proof that the training is good of those who
went up last year to the examination of the Prussian
Educational Inspector, there passed three obtain-
ing certificates jSTo. 1., six certificates Iso. 2, and
five No. 3. We furnish these details as illus-
trative of a plan which has suggested itself to
German Christians for obtaining a good class of
teachers, qualified to give a plain Christian educa-
tion, and to train in industrial w"ork. The com-
plaints recently made regarding our own primary
schools may suggest that it were well if something
of this German method were introduced into our
own normal institutions. Lord Stanley, in a
speech recently made, and which was marked by
his usual good sense, stated it as his own view, that
three hours a-day for lessons was enough for a work-
ing boy. Xow this is exactly the system pursued at
Diisselthal ; the boy and his master beyond the
three hours of instruction being busy either at some
handicraft or in field and garden work. We have
been lately in England making the discovery of
hitherto unknown values ; for instance, of our
drainage. Aud why should not the^boy at school,
in place of taxing the country for his education,
pay for it, and with much benefit to himself,
by industrial labours under] the eye of Ins master,
which might be profitable to the parish. In
concluding this rapid sketch of the work doing
at Duisburg and Diisselthal, we add that the funds of
these institutions seem to be nearly ,"equal, amount-
ing in all to some 6500/., and that they, as well
as Kaiserswerth, urgently need funds to enable
them to carry on their benevolent operations. To
help them by our contributions and by our
prayers, is to aid in one of the most interesting
and promising departments [of philanthropic and
mission work in our age.
Having given this rapid review of what is doing
IS
on the Rhine in the training of deaconesses and
deacon-helpers, we close with a reference to the
bearing of these missions on our British Chris-
tianity. It is to the honour of the Church of
England that to her belongs the initiative in this
work, at least as regards deaconesses. We do not
refer here to church sisterhoods, which our object
in this paper does not lead us to notice. We allude
rather to such an establishment as the North London
Deaconess Institution, avowedly founded on the
model of Kaiserswerth, with which it maintains
friendly communications, and designed with the
view of restoring to the Church the primitive lost
order of the deaconess. Dr. Howson, whose
valuable work on "Deaconesses" has contributed
so much to bring the whole subject under the coa-
sideration of British Christians, has established a
similar institution at Liverpool. The Lord Bishop
of London, with his usual practical sagacity and
benevolence, has placed himself at the head of this
I important movement. He is the visitor of the
North London Deaconess Institution, has approved
of its rides, and recognises the sisters, when admitted,
to hold an official position in the diocese, permitting
them to assume the title of Deaconess.
In this Institution, as in Germany, the Deacon-
esses are trained for the management of schools,
hospitals, and the cure of the sick, and receive such
instruction as to enable them to superintend that
portion of parish work which is, or can be entrusted
to a woman. Each deaconess is understood to de-
vote herself to the work for a period of three years,
renewable at pleasure, but she is bound by no vows,
express or implied, and has uncontrolled liberty to
leave the Institution — it being understood that she
should give three months' notice of her intention, in
order to afford time for necessary arrangements. A
deaconess cannot be removed without grave cause,
to be allowed by the concurrent judgment of the
head sister and chaplain, and confirmed by the
visitor. The chaplain, who must be a married
clergyman, is the executive officer of the com-
mittee, and the secretary of the Institution. The
head sister has the control of the Home, and after
conference with the other sisters may make minor
regulations for the management of the establish-
ment. Each deaconess has the entire command of
any means or property she may possess, with which
the Society declines, on principle, to interfere in
any way. The marked distinction of ranks in
England, has led to the formation of a class of sub-
ordinate sisters of lower social position, wrhose
duties are to act as nurses in the wards, and to the
sick poor in their own homes ; and to undertake
the household work of the Institution. We are
informed that notwithstanding this distinction, the
two classes are cordially united in sisterly love ; that
some of these' subordinate sisters are among the
most esteemed and loved of£all, and that the higher
order are most ready, when needed, to co-operate
in all departments of deaconess1 work, It is one of
the rules of this institution that the sisters dress
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
alike, in a plain and inexpensive way, avoiding all
singularity or display. They have taken for their
pattern the modest blue attire of the Kaiserswrerth
deaconesses.
We have given these rules at some length, be-
cause they seem to us in general prudently adapted
for the regulation of such institutions in Eugland,
and they remove, we think, every suspicion of an
approach to the conventual system of the Church of
Rome. It is as yet the day of small things with
such institutions. That of Liverpool, for instance,
began a few months ago, a Christian merchant
there having liberally offered 500/. a year to found
such an institution. The North London Deaconess
Institution is a little older, having reached its
third annual meeting. It has seven deaconesses.
Some of them are employed in Saint Luke's
schools, King's Cross, taking charge of girls and
infants. This educational work has been very
successful, and there is a visible improvement in
the locality. Other deaconesses are, again, visitors
in the same district, and in another locality, and
^heir presence and Christian aid is greatly prized by
the sick poor. They act also as the dispensers of
the charities of those interested in the parish, but
who have no time at their own command to search
out cases really deserving of help. The deaconesses
continue to superintend the nursing department in
the Great Northern Hospital to the entire satisfac-
tion of the medical officers, who are anxious to
obtain more trained nurses. They have been re-
cently enabled also to send out a parochial deaconess
to the parish of Putney — the pioneer, let us trust,
of many yet to enter on the great and interesting
field of Christian labour. At the Home itself, at
Burton Crescent, they have lately provided addi-
tional accommodation for the use of the sick
who especially need careful nursing and attendance :
patients in the later stages of consumption may be
thus received.
We had much pleasure in attending recently the
third annual meeting of this Institution. There
were a number of influential London clergy present,
and a large attendance of Christian ladies, whose
sympathies have been enlisted in this cause. All
the speakers, including Canon Champneys, in
the chair, the Rev. Dr. Howson, the Venerable
Canon Kennaway, and the Rev. Mr. Cadman, were
of one mind as to the need and value of such orga-
nised women's work in the Church. The last threw
out a doubt in regard to uniformity of dress on
the part of the deaconesses, to which the reply of
the Rev. Mr. Dale, the secretary of the Institution,
was, that they [had referred the question to the
Kaiserswerth Conference of Deaconesses, who were
unanimous in approving its adoption- — the reasons
being that it prevented extravagance on the part of
any individual sister ; that it was a safeguard to the
deaconess in her duties in the dens and purlieus of
the city ; and that in the hospital it enabled one
sister to be easily substituted for another— a matter
often of real moment to patients. But this question
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
19
is one evidently of mere expediency, which, as re-
gards this country, experience must decide. There
were many excellent points in Dr. Howson's speech.
I His argument for the office of deaconess, as prinii-
I tive, was quite conclusive. He stated the question
£i also very ably in its social aspect. It was said that
' the sphere of woman was home, but of how many
' ladies was it true that, from providential circum-
stances, they had no homes. How many such does
j one meet, for instance, on the Continent ? We do
not refer to those travelling for health ; but to
others wandering from city to city, very much be- ,
cause they have no vocation to occupy them in their
; own country. Dr. Howson referred to the many
i cases in which a father readily permits his daughter
' to leave her home to be a governess, and yet he may
shrink perhaps from allowing her to devote herself ,
; to Christian work as a deaconess. Yet if the parallel
be fairly instituted, is it not in favour of the latter ? j
; Is her vocation less useful or honourable ? Is not
the former often harshly treated, while the latter is
associated in love with Christian women, her f ellowrs.
j The one finds it often difficult to get permission to
j visit her family ; the other is secured in an annual
! vacation. In sickness, especially, and old age, how
often is the poor governess sadly neglected, while
the deaconess may rely in illness on loving, tender
nursing, and in old age, on a sure provision. How
great, for instance, the esteem in which the aged
deaconesses are held at the Feier Abend Haus at ,
Kaiserswerth.
Such is the beginning of the work in England.
If yet the day of small things as we have said, let
it not be despised. The movement is one which
we venture to think deserves the consideration of
all our Christian communions. The deacon of the
Independent or the Presbyterian Church, might he
not be greatly aided in his vocation by a Christian
brother specially trained for the work of visiting
the poor, tending the sick, or superintending the
school ? In the overgrown parishes of the^Church
might not an agency such as this be also useful ;
qualified to meet the exigencies of Christian work
— to care for the poor, to watch over the sick,
to teach the young, to exhort the old? As regards
the deaconess, where is there a large congregation
in which her services might not be invaluable, co-
operating with the pastor and with lady visitors,
teaching the uneducated mother how to fulfil her
home duties ; nursing the sick ; comforting the
pillow of the dying ; tending the young ? The first
deaconesses of the Christian Church were Congre- ',
gational in their duties, which may suggest to all
Christian communions, that whether established
by the State or not, they may find a place for
them. But apart from the congregation, while
parochial work may be especially binding on the
national Church, because it is pledged to it by the ,
very terms of its agreement with the State ; yet
must not all who call themselves Christians re-
member the Lord's command, " Go ye into all the
world, " a commission embracing not alone missions
abroad, but evangelistic work also in our neglected
parishes at home ? Who that contemplates the
greatness of the work to be done, the deep degra-
dation of our lapsed classes, but must feel the
need and the blessing of an organised ministry of
mercy, acquainted with the disease, trained for its
healing, occupying the central place in our admir-
able voluntary agencies, and acting as the helping |
hand by which the Church of Christ may seek to !
raise the fallen and to reclaim the lost.
MEDICAL MISSIONS.
The following letter from Mr. David Paterson, of
Madras, to the Secretary of the Medical Missionary
Society, shows how greatly he and his friends have
been encouraged by the effort which is now being
made at home to enable them to open a hospital
and training institution for native medical mission-
aries. It also furnishes satisfactory details in re-
gard to his plan of procedure and contemplated
mode of working the scheme in the event of 2000/.
being realised.
Mr. Paterson favours the idea of renting suitable
premises, if such can be found, and employing for
that purpose the annual interest of the money ;
but we believe that the general body of the con-
tributors would give the preference to a building
erected specially for the purpose. Such an edifice,
besides being convenient in all respects, would have
a character of permanency, would produce a greater
impression on the neighbourhood, and impart stabi-
lity to the whole undertaking. Of course, being
relieved from the burthen of an annual rent, the
local funds would be available for the sustentation j
of the hospital ; and we anticipate that an institu- j
tion so manifestly fitted for a great and good work, ;
would be amply and heartily supported both in
India and in this country.
We may mention for the satisfaction of all friends
who may be disposed to help this very desirable
object, that the sum already obtained in this country
amounts to about 1450?., that 3001. is expected
from Madras, and that therefore 250?. additional
would now complete the sum aimed at. It would
be a great matter to have this accomplished as
speedily as possible.
" I cannot tell you how much your last two
letters have cheered and encouraged us — the rirst
received about three weeks ago, and the second last
week. Immediately after perusing them myself I
sent them to Drs. Smith and Van Somerdi. I saw
the former yesterday, and had a long conversation
with him, and I expect both of them at my hous •
20
-
this afternoon to consult about the training-schoo
and the other points mentioned in your letter.
4 1 The two points upon which you wish informa-
tion are: 1st, the sum required, and 2nd, how much
of it we are likely to raise here.
"With regard to the first, we shall be only too
glad to receive whatever you may be able to send ;
and speaking for myself, I would be really sorry if
any special fund for Madras should interfere with
the ordinary operations and finances of the Society.
"You ask whether 1500?. would be sufficient.
There is no doubt that this sum would give us a
noble start, but both Dr. 8. and I think that if
I the 2000?. could be secured we would require it all.
The idea of the training-school is, that the young
men should be under the immediate direction and
supervision of the medical missionary ; that they
j shoidd live either in the same house or in the
1 same compound with him ; that the house should
have accommodation for at least one good class-
room, and, if possible, a museum, and also that it
i should be in the neighbourhood of the hospital and
dispensary. Now, house property, whether it is
bought or rented, is a very serious matter in
Madras. It is not likely that if the money were
invested, it would be possible, with good security,
to get more than five per cent. Now that would
give us 100?. a-year, provided 2000?. could be secured
as capital. Rents have so risen in Madras that a
reasonable house would swallow up every farthing
of this sum. I live in the immediate neighbour-
hood of Blacktown (Rajapooram),one of the cheapest
localities here, and I pay at the rate of 72?. a-year
for my house. I lived in the same house before I
went home, and the rent then was only 4S?. I
mention these points to gis-e you some idea of the
probable outlay, whether we purchase or simply
rent a house, supposing that this plan be carried
out. The committee, however, ought to understand
this, that under auy circumstances, whether a house
be takeu or purchased, I will contrive to pay one-
half of the rent, this sum going regularly of course
to the funds of the training-school and hospital.
In this, way, supposing that we had an income from
the 2000?. of 100?. a-year, we would have a house,
the mission paying one-half and myself the other,
and a balance of 40?. a-year for the other expenses.
It is part of the plan that ever}' student should pay
all his own expenses, or rather his society for him,
and that all the other outlay should be met by the
interest of the 2000?., and the annual income of
the mission raised on the spot. This of course we
expect will be considerably increased whenever the
institution is fairly at work and its Catholic cha-
L Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
racter fairly established. You will understand
that what I have written now is only the opinion of
Dr. Smith and myself, it having been impossible
as yet to consult others, with the exception of Dr.
Van Somerdi, who coincides with us. No plan,
however, has been definitely fixed upon, but I do
not think it will be possible to discover any other
which will be more economical, and at the same
time carry out the object which we have in view.
I do not know whether I have succeeded in making
myself intelligible, but after we have fully con-
sulted on the matter, I have no doubt that I shall
be able to state to you our position with sufficient
clearness.
"You wish also to know how much we shall be
able to raise in Madras. Meanwhile I am afraid
not very much ; once we have made a fair begin-
ning, and the various societies are satisfied that the
institution is capable of furnishing them with men,
there is not the shadow of a doubt but that they
will contribute very materially to our funds. To
them we must look for the working out of the j
Bchenie, but I am afraid that as a rule they will
expect us to make the start. At the same time, I
I think that we will be able to contribute at least ;
300?. towards the 2000?. I have in the bank at
this moment rather more than 200?. for the hospital
and training-school, and I think I can promise
to raise about 100?. more. I shall at any rate do j
my very best. Whenever I have ascertained the j
minds of those interested here, I shall write to you i
fully, but meanwhile I think it right — if it is not j
trespassiug too much on the kindness of the com- !
mittee and friends at home — to say that it woidd |
be a great boon if they could, with the help of the
300?. I have spoken of, raise 2000?. for us.
"I cannot tell you, my dear sir, how much I '
feel indebted to you for your great kindness, and the j
deep interest which you have taken in the Madras
Mission. My great and only desire is that the
cause should prosper, and that experience may I
prove that the work is the Lord's, and that his glory
has not only been sought but secured.
"Believe me, my dear sir, with much respect
and many thauks for your great kindness,
"Ever yours affectionately,
"David Paterson."
Subscriptions and donations for the various ob-
jects of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society,
will be received in London by Messrs. Fuller, Ban-
bury, Mathieson, & Co., 77, Lombard Street ; or by
Mr. James Watson (Messrs. Nesbit & Co.), 21,
Berners Street, W.
MEDICAL MISSIONS.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS.
•21
LETTERS
FROM
THE COEEESPONDENTS
OF "CHRISTIAN WORK."
The agitation, as to the toleration to be permitted
-within the Church, continues to increase. During
the past month the most rising statesmen of the
two great parties, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone,
have both publicly expressed their opinions. Mr.
Disraeli in a vigorous and sarcastic speech, in the
Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, threw down the
gauntlet to the Broad Church party, stating gene-
rally that their criticisms were but received at
second-hand from Germany, where they were
founded on a distinct and capable philosophy, the
principles of which were clearly defined ; but, ad-
mitting their right to make use of this criticism, he
asked what claim they had still to hold their posi-
tions in the Established Church of the country ? —
"It is quite possible, I can understand, that a party
founded on the principles of criticism may arrive at
conclusions which we may think monstrous. They
may, for example, reject inspiration as a principle
and miracles as a practice. It is possible, and I
think it is quite logical, that, having arrived at
this conclusion, they should repudiate Creeds and
reject Articles of Faith, because Creeds and Articles
of Faith could not exist and cannot be sustained
without acknowledging the principle of inspiration
and the practice of miracles. All that I admit ;
but what I don't understand, and what I wish to
draw the attention of this assembly and the country
to is that, having arrived conscientiously at this
conclusion, such a party with their opinions, re-
pudiating Creeds and rejecting Articles, they do not
carry out their principles to their legitimate con-
clusion ; but, repudiating Creeds and rejecting
Articles, they are still sworn supporters of eccle-
siastical establishments, fervent upholders of digni-
taries of the Church— even of rectors, vicars, and
curates. "
He referred sarcastically to Dr. Colenso, speaking
of the crude conclusions of prelates who "appear
to have commenced their theological studies after
they grasped the crozier, and who introduced to
society their obsolete discoveries with the startling
wonder and the frank ingenuousness of their own
savages." Mr. Disraeli was perhaps more brilliant
than profound, but still many of his home-thrusts
were too well applied not to be keenly felt ; while
his speech is significant as indicating the policy in
Church matters of the Conservative party, by whom
it has been generally well received.
Mr. Gladstone has indicated his desire for a
reform of the Court of Appeal. In reply to a
letter forwarding a memorial in which Her Ma-
jesty's ministers were petitioned to obtain an altera-
tion in the constitution of that tribunal, he says : —
"I agree with you in thinking that the constitution
of the Court of Appeal in ecclesiastical causes is
unsatisfactory. It appears to me that it is to the
bishops of the Church, in conjunction with the
Queen's ministers, that it principally apper ains to
consider in what way the constitution of tl at court
may most properly be amended. Whether as a
member of the Cabinet or as an individual, when-
ever I may be consulted with any of our prelates,
I am ever ready to give my most careful considera-
tion to the subject, of which I consider the issues
to be very grave ones. "
A discussion that has excited considerable atten-
tion has been going on in the Times on the Court of
Final Appeal. It was begun by Mr. Keble, author
of "The Christian Year," who advocates that such
court should be composed chiefly, if not solely, of
the bishops. He has been replied to by "Angli-
canus," who is known to be the Dean of Westminster.
Dr. Pusey and Mr. J. Fitzjames Stephen (the counsel
of Dr. Williams and Mr. Wilson) have also taken
part. Mr. Keble does not advocate any change in
the standards of the Church,— the basis of legal
decisions ; but considers that persons ignorant of
theology as a science are incompetent to interpret
those staudards. He urges, the constitution of a
Final Court better acquainted with the subjects
under review. Mr. Stephen argues that if the in-
terpretation of the law is to be the only function of
the Court, then lawyers are by habit much better
22
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
fitted for the work than ecclesiastics. Mr. Keble
aud "Anglicanus" got also into a side discussion
on the subject of inspiration. Mr. Keble thus
states his position : —
" ' Equally inspired ' has of late frequently been
used as if it meant ' containing an equal amount of
Divine revelation,' and thus we are charged with
maintaining, e.g., that the Book of Esther contains
equal Divine truth with the Gospel of St. John.
But the proposition really challenged by ' Angli-
canus ' is this : — ' The canonical Scriptures in their
genuine text are, not only to a word, but to " a jot
or tittle " (St. Matthew, v., 18) — not all equally im-
portant, not meant to take up equal room in our
hearts, but all equally true because they are all
alike God's Word, and it is impossible for God to
lie. ' This is the real question at issue. The New
Testament declares the whole Old Testament to be
' inspired by God ; ' accordingly the Book of Esther
to be as really inspired as ' the Evangelical Prophet '
— as really, though not as largely. But siuce it is
so inspired, men know that they are boimd to
believe every word of it, and if contradictions ap-
pear, to feel sure that they will one day disappear,
either by amended readings or by satisfactory expla-
nations. "
This explanation " Anglicanus " welcomes Tas an
admission : —
' ' On the question of inspiration, I accept with
great pleasure his acknowledgment that there are
(contrary to what has been often maintained in the
recent agitation) degrees of inspiration, — that one
book of Scripture may be ' less largely inspired than
another ; ' a vast admission, and opening the door to
a solution of many of the vexed questions of the re-
lations between the Old Testament and the New.
This pleasure increases my regret that he should
still endeavour to claim the authority of the Universal
Church for a theory of literal inspiration as to
matters of fact and science, which, as a great con-
tinental divine (Dollinger) has truly observed,
' would make all theology impossible.' "
Dr. Pusey here steps into the arena, and chal-
lenges the right to claim any such admission.
" What we mean to maintain," he says, "is the
divine freedom of Holy Scripture from error" —
"historical, moral, or doctrinal."
On the main question, the constitution of the
Court of Appeal, Professor E. H. Plumptre of
King's College writes a letter to the Guardian, in
which he deals with the subject more comprehen-
sively than any previous writer. He objects to con-
stituting the bishops the Final Court of Appeal,
on the ground that they have " no judicial training,
and are therefore inevitably liable to be wanting
in the judicial habit of mind ; that they, too, are
subject to pressure from without ; have to ex-
change sympathies of fear and indignation with
their clergy ; are tempted in proportion to their
excellence as pastors to extra-judicial, prejudicial
utterances."
' What is wanted," he says, "is to find a body
of men, ex officio qualified as to knowledge, not
selected for the purpose, independent in position,
less exposed than others to the pressure of popular
prejudices, likely to represent fairly different phases
of opinion. I have ventured to maintain that the
Professors of Divinity at the two Universities fulfil
these conditions more than any other body of men,
and to them, with the assistance of the professors of
the two languages connected with the interpretation
of Scripture, I would refer the doctrinal questions
that come before the Court of Appeal. They have
shown for the most part a singularly dispassionate
calmness in recent controversies. They receive,
many of them, liberal endowments from the Crown,
and are under a moral obligation to render services
in return. From the very absence of any prestige
of rank, their judgments would have whatever
weight belonged to their learning and ability, and
nothing more."
He thus refers to Dr. Pusey's recent agitation
and Mr. Disraeli's speech : —
"Dr. Pusey seems, in his recent writings, to have
passed into the white heat of controversial panic,
and to have lost both the quietness and confidence
which he once preached to us, and, in some measure,
his discernment of what is politically honest and
personally decorous. He invites the eleven thou-
sand clergy who have followed him, and all "who
love God," to an agitation as reckless and un-
principled as that of any demagogue. He practically
puts them up to auction, with all their goodwill and
vote and influence at elections, to the highest
bidder. And the bidder has appeared. In a speech
the marvellous versatility of which reminds one of
Alcibiades at Sparta, in training under an expert
Ephor, or of the Zimri of Dryden's poem, Mr.
Disraeli has sought to win the support of the eleven
thousand for the coming election. Other statesmen
may have been earnest Churchmen from their
youth, but they think for themselves. But here you
have a Churchmanship fitting in as exactly to the
wants and feelings of the moment as if it had been
made to order, giving point and sharpness to all dull
antipathies, not flinching even from profane jesting
on the most solemn of all truths, if only he can draw
from Masters and undergraduates 'cheers and
laughter ' at an epigram on a ' nebulous Professor,'
and so help Dr. Pusey to persuade men with the
terrors of the Lord. If this is the new defender of
the faith, I for one must say—
• Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis
Tempus'eget' "
The appeal of Bishop Colenso before the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, against the sentence
of deposition of the Bishop of Cape Town and his
synod, does not excite so much interest as it other-
wise would, as it is based on legal objections to the
authority of Bishop Gray, and will therefore be
decided on strictly legal and technical grounds,
without touching the alleged heresies. It may
not even fix the jurisdiction of colonial me-
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS.
23
!| tropolitan bishops, as an objection is raised by
Bishop Colenso on the ground of his having been
! consecrated a few weeks before Dr. Gray received
the full powers of metropolitan. If the appeal be
>L rejected, and Bishop Gray's jurisdiction sustained,
jr the whole question of Bishop Colenso's writings
will probably come up in due time before the
! Judicial Committee, as he will then appeal, it is
J supposed, on the ground of the matter and not of
the form of the judgment.
An address, signed by 137,000 subscribers, has
I been presented to the two Archbishops at Lambeth,
1 thanking them for their pastoral letter to the
clergy and laity of their respective provinces, in
reference to the judgment on Essays and Reviews.
The address contained the signatures of many
laymen of high standing. The Archbishop o*
Canterbury, in expressing gratitude for the ad-
dress, said "that the principle on which he pro-
ceeded was, that such rule or teaching only was to
be ascribed to the Church as is expressly stated in
! her articles or formularies, or which is plainly in- j
j volved in or to be collected from that which is
written. " The Archbishop of York considered that I
' the person of our Lord Himself, and the divine j
doctrines that fell from His own hps, will hardly !
escape the criticism which has begun with the book j
that reveals them.
The London press generally, at least the more
influential section of it, headed by the leading
journal, which casts much ridicule on the getting !
up of this and other memorials, is strongly opposed i
to any change, and is decidedly favourable to the j
party of progress. While therefore a number of |
the bishops and clergy are arousing themselves to
action, there is a high tide of opposition to be
encountered on the side of influential laymen.
Many judicious churchmen, among whom may
be classed the Bishop of London, are holding I
back, anxious, there is no doubt, to prevent that |
divorce which is threatened, if the movement be
successful, between the Church and the literature
; of the country. Time caa alone show the result,
j but there can be no doubt that an agitation has
■ begun of a more serious character than any that j
: has affected the Church of England for a long
j period.
The usual special winter services are proceeding
with vigour, large numbers of the poorest classes !
j crowding the theatres and other places opened for
; them. The Young Men's Christian Association
I Lectures have been begun, and the threatened
schism of last winter appears to be healed, as
the lecturers are all men beyond the suspicion of
the most orthodox.
The Wesleyans are making a great effort to
sustain and increase the efficiency of their Italian
mission. They have an admirable agent in Mr.
Piggott of Milan, who urges that there is abundant
opportunity to enlarge greatly the field of opera- I
tion, if the means be forthcoming.
London, December, 1S64.
Scotland
The subject of Eailway Traffic on the Lord's Day
is again exciting considerable attention. As well
known, the religious rest of this day has always
been much more observed in Scotland than else-
where, the Presbyterian Churches taking high
ground, and considering, both in their standards
and catechisms, the fourth commandment, as the
others, to be of perpetual obligation. To its better
and more religious observance the Churches are
accustomed to impute the larger attendance upon
religious worship, by all classes of the people, than
in any other country, and the consequent higher
and more intelligent interest in the great questions
which affect the salvation of men, even among the
lowest classes of the population. Scotland, it is
felt, has stood out pre-eminently as a religious
country, its religion being more generally perva-
sive than that of any other portion of Europe.
With great, and it is to be lamented, increasing
vices, which have, however, been magnified to
the utmost by the opponents of its stricter faith, its
population still ranks high, not only in intelligence
(the poorest peasant often being a man of good at-
tainments, from whose conversation much interest
may be derived), but in morality. While the sup-
porters of the observance of the Lord's day, are
ready, generally, to allow that there may have been
at one time a ceremonial strictness, beyond the
requirements of the Divine law, and, iu so far as
it was so, irksome ; they still feel that with the pre-
servation of this institution, are bound up the reli-
gious and moral interests of the country.
The multiplication of railways has led to fresh
complications. Through their agency a new element
has been brought into action, viz., the influence of
English shareholders who have generally a very
obscure view of what Sabbath observance in
Scotland means, and whose sympathies are for the
most part with those who wish to approximate to
the English system. Many of them probably, if
they lived in Scotland, might form a different
opinion, but, unacquainted as they are with the
habits of the country, seeing them only through the
medium of burlesque and ridicule, they give their full
weight to the support of those who favour the in-
crease of Sabbath traffic. This external influence,
made use of by the discontented party at home,
naturally arouses great dissatisfaction, as it is felt
that, if the contest were confined to Scotland
itself, there would be little difficulty in preserving
the ancient landmarks, the majority of the people
being undoubtedly in favour of what they consider
the Scriptural observance of the Lord's day. Hence
the strenuous action taken by Presbyteries and
other ecclesiastical bodies. They feel that the reli-
gious principles of the country are being interfered
with by an external force, and, on the other hand,
that, so much are the religious convictions of the
people associated with Sabbath observance, if this
24
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18C5.
pillar be shaken, much that is most sacred will fall
with it.
This question has been lately prominently before
the country by a motion in the Free Church Pres-
bytery of Kirkaldy which has had devoted to it
several articles in the Times. The feeling in Scot-
land is that the Times is scarcely competent to
understand the question in its varied bearings, since
language which may be correct as to Scotland where
the training of the people has been Sabbatarian,
would not apply to England, even [as the standard
of England could not fairly be applied to Germany.
j The following is the portion of the speech of Mr.
Douglas of Kirkaldy, which has excited so much
animadversion.
"There is, it is true, — there has always been — a
section of the community, more or less numerous,
" at different times, opposed to keeping holy the
Sabbath-day. We know in the main who are to
be found in that section. Could you assemble the
population of this northern half of the kingdom,
and set on one side those who are in favour of
Sabbath travelling and traffic, and on the other
side those who are opposed to it, we know what
classes of men would be found composing the
former. You would find the infidels massed there ;
you would find the blackguardism of the country
ranged there ; you would find the latitudiuarians
there — men who sail under false colours, who nail
charity to the mast-head, but who, when you open
the hatches and inspect the hold, are found to carry
a very different cargo — men who take into the
ample embrace of what they are pleased to term
their charity the Brahmin of India, the Moham-
medan of Persia, the Neologian of Germany, and
might possibly have a word to say in favour even
of the Mormons of America, but whose charity
suddenly ebbs away whenever they come in sight
of evangelical truth and evangelical men. For
these they have no charity. For these they reserve
the most malignant hatred and hostility. You
would find a large array of latitudiuarians on the
side of Sabbath travelling and traffic, and e>yer
waxing enthusiastic in its favour. You would find
there men to whom the opinions and practices of
Paris and other Continental cities have taken the
place of the Bible as a rule of faith and manners,
men who, although born and brought up in this
country, find the way in which, the Sabbath is
observed in some gay and dissolute Continental city
more to their taste than the way in which it is
observed at home ; just as you will find a young
man here and there who, though born and brought
up in religious and highly-cultivated circles, finds,
in the oaths and low conversation of some bad
groom in the stable, a companionship more conge-
nial and interesting than is afforded him in the
family-hall; just on the same principle on which
some of our Xabobs used to return home from
India pagans, and on which possibly we may see
men returning from West Africa adoring the
Fetish. You would find all these classes arrayed
in favour of Sunday trains — a motley crew they
would be. I do not deny that you would find
some good men even amongst them. It is strange
where you will find good men sometimes. They
will at times, by some fatality, contrive to get. >
into most awkward and inexplicable positions.
But when you had congregated them all, and con-
templated them all — the few good, the many bad
and indifferent — you would find something else —
you would find that they constitute but a minority
of the population — a boisterous and persistent
minority, but still a minority, a small minority —
and that on the question of Sabbath observance,
the great heart of the Scottish nation at this hour
beats soundly."
At the meeting of the Edinburgh Medical Mis-
sionary Society, referred to in your special commu-
nication on "Medical Missions," last month, Dr.
Duff delivered a most heart-stirring address, in
which he advocated with all his burning eloquence
the cause of the society. The following is his at-
testation to the general principles of the society : —
He next proceeded to advert to the Scriptural
grounds for the establishment of such a society, and
the catholicity of its object. That object, he said,
was twofold. It was to reach at once the souls and
bodies of men— to reach their souls very much
through the healing of their bodies. One was
amazed at the sort of doubts that arose upon this
subject, for could anything be more catholic — mean-
ing by that, more \iniversal — than siu ? Was sin the
peculiar property of any one class of men or race of
men in any region of the earth, or any particular
age in time? Alas! they knew it was the one
universal heritage of fallen humanity. Well, then,
the Bible provided but one great, glorious, universal
remedy for this universal disease, and it was the
object and purpose of this society to minister this
remedy in its simplicity. It was not the object of
this society to establish any peculiar organisation
connected with a Christian Church. Its simple
object wras to make known the truths — the saving
truths — of life and salvation to souls through a cruci-
fied Ptedeemer, and not to send forth and establish
Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Congregation-
alism, Wesleyanism or any other ism of human inven-
tion whatever, but to go and propound, for the saving
of human souls, those simple, primitive, apostolic
truths and doctrines in which Paul, John, James,
Calvin, Luther, Zuingle, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley,
Knox, Melville, Henderson, Ralph and Ebenezer
Erskine, Andrew Fuller, Augell James, and
Thomas Chalmers were all agreed. Then, with
regard to the other part of the object — tla*
healing of disease — was it peculiar to any man,
class of men, or race of men ? Was it the product or
peculiarity of any particular clime ? They all knew
it was not. In one or other of its modifications it
was the invariable and inseparable adjunct of fallen
humanity. So, then, this society would also
seek the healing of the bodies of men— healing
being universally needed. That being its twofold
Christian W ork. Jan. 2,1365.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
25
object, namely, the healing of the souls and bodies
of men, both of which were universally required,
he did not know what could be more catholic.
In fact, he would be disposed to pronounce this
society in that respect the most philanthropic,
most catholic, most cosmopolitan society he knew
in the world.
The jubilee of the Rev. Dr. Crawford, a well-
known minister of the United Presbyterian Church,
having been formerly of the Relief Church, has
been celebrated with great enthusiasm by a num-
ber of his brethren in Edinburgh.
December, 18G4.
There has been no change of moment in the
aspect of the Churches in Ireland. A new move-
ment has indeed been commenced by Dr. Cullen,
in a requisition signed by him and all his fellow-
bishops, with half-a-dozen little-known members of
Parliament, and calling on the Mayor of Dublin to
hold a meeting for the threefold object of a perfect
tenant-right bill, the overthrow of the Established
Church, and a perfectly open and unrestricted
education. The respectable Roman Catholics and
their organs in the press have hitherto held aloof
from the agitation, and the revolutionary party,
for whose support the priests are bidding, is
ominously careful not to commit itself. Freedom
of education, in Archbishop Cullen's sense, may be
understood by an extract from his recent pastoral.
"Undoubtedly there are great impediments in
the way of the progress of Catholic education.
Passing over the vile and degraded arts of a
pecuniary proselytism, I shall merely state that
attempts are made, by holding out rewards and
promises, to attract our children to model schools,
from which all religious Catholic teaching is
banished, and in which an image of our Lord or
the Blessed Virgin, or the emblem of redemption,
the Cross, would not be tolerated. Even the name
of the Holy Catholic Church, or of the Holy See,
or of the great men who made Ireland an island of
saints, is not to be found in the class books used by
Catholic children in these schools, destined to train
up the future teachers of our people. In the Queen's
Colleges, under the semblance of a pretended libe-
rality, the poisoned draught of indifferentism to
religion is administered, and vast sums of public
money are expended to sap the foundations of faith,
and to seduce our youth from the Church of their
fathers.
"As to Trinity College, it has its merits so far
as Protestant students are concerned, and we are
anxious that it should provide for them a good lite-
rary and scientific education ; because every step
in the acquirement of knowledge, as we see in the
case of the distinguished men who have been con-
verted within the last few years in England, tends
to dissipate prejudice and error, and heresy, and to
lead to the truth and to the true Church. But
where there is question of Catholic students, when
they enter that college they expose the most valu-
able of all treasures— their faith — to imminent
danger, and we know that they who love the
danger shall perish therein. And, indeed, what
does the past history of the University teach us ?
A truth which ought to be a warning to all — that
through the education given in Trinity College
many Catholics have fallen away from the practices
of piety, or become indifferent to the interests of
faith; and that others, renouncing publicly the reli-
gion of their early days, have attained the rank
of bishops, deans, or parsons in the Established
Church, frequently rendering themselves notorious
by their zeal in opposition to everything Irish and
Catholic. Even at the present day there are digni-
taries of the Establishment who, though they im-
bibed the truth with their mother's milk, were
induced to abandon it by the seductive prospects
set before them in their collegiate course. The
| unhappy fate of those who have thus fallen away
I ought to caution others against walking in their
I footsteps, and determine all Catholics to provide
I for the safe and religious education of their children,
encouraging the growth of our Catholic schools and
the development of the Catholic University."
Though Trinity College leads Protestants to the
true Church by enlightening their minds, it seems
'it leads "Catholics" into errors and heresy by
j darkening theirs. Will Dr. Cullen ever condescend
j to explain this phenomenon ?
| Dublin, December, 1864.
The ninth Synod of the Union of Evangelical
Churches was held at Paris in Xovember. Opened on
j the 24th by a solemn religious service and sermon
• by Pastor John Bost of Laforce, it prosecuted its
; important business-matters in peace and harmony,
the Lord's blessing, in answer to fervent prayer,
: smoothing expected roughness and removing diffi-
culties. Repeatedly the brethren looked at each
other with starting tears of emotion ; the stone that
seemed to impede their progress had disappeared ;
minds at variance had been bent ; shades had
blended ; opposition gone ! The president was Dr.
Fisch, and vice-presidents, Pastor Pozzy and Mr.
V. de Pressense. Three new Churches, after
lengthened discussion, were admitted into the
Union; Ximes, Saint Hippolite, and Codognan,
raising the whole number to thirty-five. A touch-
ing letter was written to the family of the vene-
rable and deeply-regretted Frederic Monod, signed by
all the sixty-three members. The important busi-
ness of the Synod was, however, its financial manage-
ment.
The harmonious conclusion it came to is that
a financial commission is to be nominated, com-
posed of five members, whose mission will be to
stimulate and regulate the contributions of the
26
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
Churches ; to see that the central funds are suffi-
ciently furnished by all the Churches for their vari-
ous needs. The entire amount of the contributions
for the support of each pastor passes through its
hands.
Fourteen sister Churches, French and foreign,
sent greeting through their deputies, whose speeches
were fraught with great interest. The form of con-
secration of pastors, and the degree of aptitude to
be required of candidates, formed part of the busi-
ness of the synod. The only dogmatic rule to be
subscribed is the confession of faith of the Union.
But the candidate must have obtained his degree of
Bachelor in Theology.
The battle in the National Reformed Church is
growing fiercer and fiercer as the time for the elec-
tions approaches. The orthodox organ, UEspCrance,
has brought out a supplement week by week, to
combat the violent but clever Protestant Liberal,
and both papers go gratuitously the round of the
Paris electors. Every possible agency is pressed into
use, even evangelists. And in reading the virulent
papers of the Rationalist side one might fancy them
! the offspring of ultramontanist pens. This, with a
! growing manifestation of infidelity in sermons,
| opens the eyes of many. And there is no doubt
that they will lose once more. To use the words
I of the Revue Chretienne, which is spreading more and
! more widely among the educated and thoughtful,
\ the point is to know whether Christianity is
; a supernatural and revealed fact, or whether it is
| but one of the forms which religious sentiment
\ adopts in its eternal progress ; whether the Re-
! formed Church of France has any kind of religious
t basis, or whether it is an arena opened to the
most opposite assertions and the boldest negations.
! . . . Such is the questiou elucidated by a j'ear's
ardent religious discussions as understood by
all true believers, rendered clear-sighted by
| love of their menaced faith ; and by all scep-
tics and atheists, guided by the infallible in-
stinct of their hatred of traditional Christianity.
Suppose an impossibility, that the radical party
were to triumph in Paris, how would such a vote
be understood throughout Europe ? There can be
no two opinions about it. It would be said with
truth that French Protestantism, in its principal
centre, had broken off all connection with the
Christianity of history, with all the grand facts
which constitute it, and was eudeavouring to
transform itself into a new indefinite religion,
made in the image of the new Christ, whose
more or less legendary life the critical school has
not yet succeeded in tracing.
Wo unto him who looks upon the word of Jesus
as an absolute rule, and who, whenever lie has a re-
solution to take, flies to his New Testament to see
therein his law and how to use it ! The words of
Jesus are not a ritual — are not a code of morals —
contain no dogmas ; but they will never pass away,
because they have the vagueness of the infinite !
Such was the sum of one of the sermons preached in
the Reformed Church lately, and which the ra-
tionalist organs term " an excellent discourse, leav-
ing nothing to be desired either in foundation or
form. Truly Pastor Fontaues (of Havre) fills a
grand place in the heroic phalanx of preachers who
are preparing the reconciliation of science with true
piety ! "
Yes, this is the great attraction, — science^ falsely
so called ; and the intense rush of thinking men
down the inclined plane is tremendous. Seeking,
hungering, striving for the religion of the future
which is to unite mankind to God ? nay, but
against him.
More and more clearly is it enunciated that a
pope without temporal power will be the uniting
influence. More and more clearly is it pointed out
that democracy is rising. These two, heading up,
threaten society to its foundations and religion to
its core. Miclielet's talented but disgusting volume
is bought up and devoured, though the Bible of
Mankind is not likely to attain the sale of 157,000
copies within two years, bike Renan's "Life of
Jesus."
"What need have we any longer for doctrines
which taught but how to die ? They can do nothing
for us. What are the petty lakes of Galilee, the
driblet of the Jordan, to quench our burning
thirst of righteousness ? I would driuk them up
at a draught ! They have given to human civili-
sation all that they could give. The rest is but
an obstacle, a tatter that flutters after us and
hinders our advance. We must have now the
earth for a promised land, and the world for
Jerusalem. "
There is the yearning, and it is repeated on
every toue through high and low ; — the yearning
after perfection without God. The eager reaching
out hands for the fruit to make one wise — the
full mad trust in the first great lie !
Romanism is marvellously and cleverly at work in
the provinces and in dark corners of Paris.- It is
wonderful what a stimulant it finds in Protestant
zeal. School after school, church after church, and
even books and tracts, and almanacks follow our
zealous labourers to counteract them. The very
telling calumny that money is told out to all who
join the Protestants, turns away honest hearts who
do not choose to pass for mendicants, and cause
an influx of loose characters, against which our
provincial brethren especially have to be on their
guard.
The British and Foreign Bible Society have opened
a depot in Paris, in the Rue Saint Honore, near the
Place Vendome ; it is a handsome and attractive
shop, and was a great desideratum.
Pastor Guillaume Monod, the venerated brother
of Frederic and Adolphe, has been chosen as suc-
cessor to Pastor Vermeil.
The Bible Society of France, formed this year
from the orthodox and protesting members of the
Protestant Bible Society, had sold, up to November
the 1st, 3120 copies of the Holy Scriptures, and had
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CO RRESPONDEXTS.
27
received the adhesion of eighty-seven Reformed
Churches, one Lutheran Church, and three Inde-
pendent. The donations up'to that time amounted
to 25,000 francs.
, i> The Gallican party are starting an organ of their
^ own, called La Presse Gallicane, with the motto of
Cavour, "A free Church in a free State." Every
effort of this kind may be hailed as a step out of
bondage, but the rays of light do not shine beyond
the surface. It is not the man himself who is
stirred ; the grand Gospel of God, the very power of
i God unto salvation, is not the point.
The Israelite Universal Alliance is making steady
! progress. Among other preliminary steps onward,
it stopped a defamatory libel against the Jews from
being printed, and obtained "the suppression and
j possession of the whole edition ; it was written by
'. an abbe", and called the " Life of Judas."
Paris, December, 1864.
The Solkla.ires, or Societies of Free-thinkers, first
made their appearance in Brussels, and after small
beginnings they have gradually established auxi-
! liaries throughout Belgium, and their example is
now being followed in France. Their ostensible
, object is civil burial, or burial without clergy, and
! they are the fruits of the present reaction against
the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church.
However much it is to be deplored that intelli-
gent and educated men should form themselves
into associations for the avowed purpose of ex-
cluding the ministers of religion from the death-
bed of their members, it must be allowed that
there is consistency and honesty in the public
manifestation of convictions, whatever they may
be. And that no good could arise to the cause
of genuine Christianity, by those who have all
their lives denied its divine origin and rejected
its influence, calling in the priest at the last
moment to go through certain forms and ceremo-
nies, not to quiet any conscientious scruples, but
merely to conform to custom, aud yield to the
wishes of their family, by thus providing for a
nominally Christian burial. That the clergy are
content with such outward compliance is evident
from the means used to gain admission to the
death-bed of those (when persons of a certain posi-
tion) who have made known their intention to
die unshriven and unblessed ; and the connivance
of the relatives is easily explained, both by the
j influence of the priesthood over the female portion
I of the population, and the scandal caused by the
I refusal of the clergy to admit those who have died
without the sacraments into consecrated ground.
From the Catholic point of view the conduct of the
priests can be justified when we remember their
great axiom — Beyond the pale of the Church there
is no salvation, — and their faith in the efficacy of
the sacraments as a sure passport to Heaven.
But the pretensions of the clerical party have
produced a powerful reaction. The attempts of
the Ultramontanes to revive the doctrines of a
former time have roused their opponents from the
indifference with which they had hitherto treated
matters of religion. The activity of the clergy,
and the power they have regained ' since 1848,
have led men imbued with the critical spirit of
the time to search more carefully into the past
history of Romanism, and to inquire into its pre-
sent working. Catholicism, its doctrines, and its
teachers, have been compared with the present
wants of society ; they have been put in the balance
and found wanting. It is no longer a universally
received maxim that a religion is \ necessary for
the people. Cases of profligacy have been rather
numerous among the clergy and religious orders,
all of which have been by the liberal press care-
fully brought before the notice of the public ; and
as it forms part of the clerical policy to endeavour
to hush up such unpleasant matters rather than
to expose and condemn them, they are represented
as the consequences of the system, and a tithe
only of what actually takes i)lace. The frequent
instances of undue exercise of priestly influence
over the dying, and the law-suits to which they
have given rise, have caused great scandal, and
exhibited the "rapacious instincts" of the Church.
Several such law-suits are now pending, and the
details which have transpired are by no means
creditable to those concerned.
The Romish Church holds that Catholicism is
at once the religion revealed, and the Church in-
stituted, by Jesus Christ. Catholicism is not one
form of Christianity, one of many systems whose
followers are Christians ; Catholicism is Christi-
anity ; and, unfortunately, the masses accept with-
out reflection this identification of Christianity with
Popery. Whatever abuses have crept in, whatever
errors have in the course of time covered over
and kept from sight the truths revealed in Scrip-
ture, are regarded as the natural development of
the Christian faith. No other form of Christianity
is acknowledged as such by Catholics, or thought
deserving of serious attention by liberals, and the
few evangelical churches scattered about the
country, although producing remarkable results in
their immediate neighbourhood, have not yet ob-
tained sufficient numerical importance to have any
action on public opinion. Were their object merely
to attack the Church of Rome, they might have
a wider, though ephemeral influence; but the preach-
ing of the Cross is folly to a people who are learn-
ing to dispense with any form of religion, and
have long since been ignorant of its power.
The opposition to clericalism has thus extended
from the field of politics to that of religion, and the
question of the day is now, how most effectually to
combat the Church of Rome, in the State, in the
commune, and in the family. All the principal
debates in the Chambers are on matters in which
the Church is interested, whether it be education,
scholastic foundations, or cemeteries ; even the new
28
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
law on elections is framed to limit the influence
of the priests, and to prevent their keeping watch
over the votes of [their flocks. In the communes
the same spirit is evident, in the establishment of
communal schools from which the clergy are ex-
cluded. In Brussels, the town council has recently
opened a superior girls' school, expressly destined
to compete with the convents, who have hitherto
had the monopoly of female education ; and the
formation of societies for civil burial is a manifesta-
tion of a like tendency in the family.
There are now four such societies, whose adhe-
rents are rapidly increasing in number, and who
have a weekly organ which has a large circulation.
The oldest of these is the Societe (T Affranchisse-
ment, established in 1854, for the moral enfran-
chisement of man. Its object is stated in the
regulations to be profoundly religious, "for it is
to destroy the man-machine, and to replace him by
a man making use of his reason."
The Solidaires come next. They bind themselves
to die as Free-thinkers, that is without any form of
worship or religious observances. On the death of
a member, all the Solidaires of the place are ex-
pected to attend the funeral or pay a fine.
The Libres Penseurs have adopted as their motto,
" Xo priest at our death, at our marriage, or at the
birth of our children. " They are simply a sect o*
professed Atheists. The following will give an
idea of the "truths demonstrated by the Libres
Penseurs," as prefixed to their statutes: — "God,
who can be neither a creator nor a ruler, cannot be
good or bad." " God does not exist."
Lastly, the Libre Pensee, founded in 1863, seeks
1 its adepts amongst the bourgeoisie, while the others
■ recruit their members from the lower orders.
For several years these societies pursued their
I object without attracting much notice or meeting
I with much sympathy. There seemed to be a sort
of unconscious shrinking from the contact of those
j who proclaimed themselves without God and with-
out hope in the world. As M. Guizot says : "The
J changing breezes which agitate the minds of men
j must] not be confounded with the immutable in-
I stincts which preside over their lives." The annual
I reports showed but meagre results, and the Solidaires
would probably have sunk into utter insignificance
but for the assumption and intolerance of the priests
in the cemetery question, which aroused public feel-
ing, and instilled new Llife into the Civil Burial
Societies.
In 1S62 M. Vershegen, a member of the Belgian
Congress of 1830, successively Prime Minister and
President of the Chamber of Representatives, Grand
Master of the Freemasons, and the acknowledged
leader of the liberal party, was buried without
clergy, and followed to the cemetery by the Soli-
daires and all the Freemasons, wearing their aprons
and badges. The procession in passing through the
town created an immense aud most painful sensa-
tion. Since then many persons of more or less note,
and several ladies, have received civil burial. The
unmeasured abuse heaped upon them by the
Catholic papers tended to increase their numbers.
At the Malines Congress of 1S63, a society was
formed under the name of Societe de Sainte Barbe,
to counteract these dangerous tendencies by in-
suring decent burial to all poor Catholics having
died in communion with the Church, ' 1 and whose
family is unable to meet the expense of a service of
the lowest class. "b As the organ of the free-thiukers
has with justice remarked, "it is therefore the
civil burial societies that poor Catholics must
thank for the means of obtaining decent burial,
and a religious service free of expense."
A letter from the Vicomte de Conway, superin-
tendent of the Civil List, remitting a donation of 40£.
from the king to the Societe de Sainte Barbe, and con-
taining an attack on the civil burial societies, has
been severely criticised by the liberal press. No
one contests the right of M. Conway, as a private
individual, to the opinion which many share with
him that the formation of this society is "an
effectual protest against the mad attempts of those
who, under pretext of civilisation and progress, are
seeking to turn society from the paths of Chris-
tianity at the certain risk of a return to barbarism ;
but to interfere in the matter in the king's name
was both injudicious and unconstitutional." Leo-
pold has just left for the Ardennes, where he is
usually accompanied by M. Conway, whose absence
on this occasion is much noticed, and considered as
a mark of the king's displeasure.
As Protestants and as Christians we can but
deplore the propaganda now commenced in favour
of infidelity. Men's minds are now more than at
any recent period, occupied with religious questions.
There are many who having left the Church of
Rome, do not find "peace of mind in the negation |
of God," to whom the Gospel would be good and j
welcome news. The Belgian Evangelical Society,
so ably managed by its devoted Secretary, the Rev.
L. Anet, is doing all that its means admit of to
supply the want. In many places there are signs
of a ripening harvest ; but the labourers are few.
May the Lord of the harvest incline the hearts of
his servants, who have tasted the good things of
the world to come, to send forth more labourers
into His harvest.
Brussels, December, 1SC4.
gut
Mr. Piggott of the Wesleyan Mission at Milan
writes to the secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary
Society : —
In the present state of Italy, the establishment
of good Evangelical schools is of the highest import-
ance. In this department we have not been idle. In
addition to a ladies' boarding school at Milan,
established with the hope— a hope now at length
beginning to be realised— of reaching the middle
and upper strata of society, your funds are sustaining
day and evening schools for the poor at Milan, at
Christian "Work, Jan.
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
29
Monza, at Caravaggio, at Intra, at Florence, at
Caserta, and, till lately, at Cremona and Parma.
In the large and important schools at Florence
(directed by Signor Ferretti), during the last year,
112 children of Protestants and 127 of Eomanists
have received their education. To sustain this
educational work (yet how could we dispense with
it ?), comprising teachers, — in most of the schools
more than one ; in that of Florence, several, —
rooms, benches, and books, has demanded a large
slice from the means at our disposal.
Another important mode of operation in all civi-
lised countries thrown broadly open as is Italy, is
the diffusion of light by the means of the press.
Here, too, we have taken our part. We have three
bookshops ; one in Milan, a second in Parma, the
third in Modena ; and have maintained throughout
the year six colporteurs or itinerant salesmen, who
with Bibles, Testaments, and books of controversy
and devotion, have been continually beating about
the northern and central provinces. In the way of
direct publication we have not ventured on much.
The second catechism, one of Wesley's sermons, a
Reply to Kenans "Life of Jesus," three or four
controversial treatises, written by one or other of
the Evangelists to meet some exigency of his work,
— among these a spirited little book by Signor Fer-
retti, entitled "Religion, Reason and Dante," —
have been printed at the expense of the Society ;
we have also sustained all the literary* outlay of a
sort of Italian "Leisure Hour," a fortnightly illus-
trated periodical bearing the name of ' ' Letture di
Famiglia, " and have lately begun to issue a monthly
missionary notice, "II Raccoglitore Evangelico."
Other of Wesley's sermons, and "The Tongue of
Fire," are lying in manuscript, waiting "better
times. "
The wide open field is only cultivated in spots
here and there. In the old Sardinian kingdom, out
of Turin, Genoa, and the Waldensian valleys, there
exists scarcely any Evangelical agency. In Lom-
bardy more is being done ; but there are large
cities, such as Lodi and Piacenza, still unvisited ;
to say nothing of the villages and small towns,
which we can as yet scarcely think of. Tuscany
may be compared with Lombardy ; but in the
Romagna, along the eastern coast, in the province
of Naples, and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia,
the Evangelical labourers are so few, as to be lost
in the dark drear waste of vice and superstition,
over which they are scattered. At the same time
the whole country is broadly, freely open. The
Government stands by us, and, with a fairness
worthy of all praise, puts down all attempts to
restrict us in that liberty of worship conceded by
the constitution. Political circumstances, and in
particular the obstinate opposition of the Papal
party to the enthusiastic aspirations of the nation,
are much in our favour. A very large portion of
the cultivated middle class of the operatives, and
even of the peasantry, is secretly with us. The press
generally takes our part when circumstances bring
us under its notice. The Garibaldians are for the
most part our declared friends. We are free to open
a preaching hall in any city, town, or village in
Victor Emmanuel's dominions, and proceeding with
the tact and prudence which experience has taught
us, should rarely, very rarely, fail of an audience.
Entering for the first time a new place, we are
often received with open enthusiasm. Not unfre-
quently we are ourselves the invited. If ever any
country exhibited the signs of a providential call
to the Church to enter in and possess it, it is
Italy at the present day.
The St. Nicolai-Stift, Alsterdorf, near
Hamburg. — In my former parish there were many
children employed with their parents in such a
manner that they passed their entire childhood
without having learned anything which could be of
service to them in future life. The need of these
poor children led me to establish a Christian School
of Industry for the parish of Moorfleth. I took four
children at first into the parsonage house under my
own care, and engaged a teacher for them. During
the day, besides the elements of ordinary education,
they were instructed in some iiseful kind of work.
At the commencement, the children returned every
evening to their own homes, because I cousidered
it desirable that the parental relationship should be
uninterruptedly maintained as long as possible. But
other children were soon added, whose circum-
stances rendered it necessary that the entire care of
them should be undertaken : and our school also
took the place of a home to these.
On the 16th of April, 1850, the Institution was
founded ; and by the autumn we were obliged to
seek another domicile for its inmates : and in the
year following a still larger. The product of their
work — baskets, wooden shoes, pasteboard articles,
&c. — was sold to procure other necessaries. The
cidtivation of the land, however, became our chief
occupation, — in a physical as well as in an intel-
lectual, moral, and economical point of view, the
best means of educational industry for such insti-
tutions. But the ground on which it was com-
menced was not the most favourable for their juve-
nile years and strength. The land was too heavy
and rich. It became, therefore, desirable to remove
to another district where the land was better suited
to our purpose. This change was made in the year
1860. But during this period other important
changes had taken place. In 1853 I left Moorfleth
for St. Michael's Church in Hamburg. My succes-
sor would not have anything to do with the school,
because he apprehended it would render his posi-
tion a difficult one in [his uew sphere, as it had
caused a division among the parishioners. I called
to mind the hostility against our Institution. It
was not iudeed proved, but there were strong
grounds for believing that the fire which destroyed
our little house in February, 1S53, was traceable
30
LETTERS FROM CO BRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work. Jan. 2, 1865.
to tins hostility ; but the Lord graciously inter- I
posed for the protection of our dear children, and
none were hurt by the flames. When, therefore,
the pastor at Moorfleth would not undertake the
management of the establishment, I was obliged
to retain it, and I associated a few other gentlemen
with me, who now form our Board of Manage-
ment, in order that the work might be more
effectively carried on. We now extended the cir-
cuit of our operation. We wished to provide not
only for the Moorfleth parish, but for Hamburg
and its neighbourhood. We said among ourselves,
there are here so many children in danger of being
entirely neglected. For the utter outcasts, the
Rauhe Haas (Dr. Wichern's) makes provision.
We will, however, receive those who, if no one
cares for them, must sooner or later be brought
under restraint. Accordingly what had been
hitherto our Christian Industrial School, wasjwidened
into an institution for the protection and educa-
tion of neglected children, and received the name
of the St. Nicolai-Stift.
After this internal re-organisation came also an
external change. We removed with our children
to Alsterdorf. In the pleasant valley of the
Alster there was a small property to be bought
just suited to our wants. Here we could keep
cows and horses, and increase the accommodation
for our children.
The Lord graciously prospered the work which
was designed to advance his glory, and we were
able after three years to add a sister institution
to the St. Nicolai-Stift. Up to this time, in Ham-
burg no one had thought of the poorest among
our poor children, I mean the half-witted and
idiotic. I made use of my little 1 ' messenger " *
to put forth an appeal on behalf of the poor idiot.
The Lord blessed the word : and in October, 1863,
a small houseywas built, into which the first idiots
— four in number, as with the beginning of the
school — were received. To these two Institutions
a third was quickly added. I had always felt
anxious for the pupils who were leaving our Insti-
tution. As soon as they were confirmed, they
came into the city ; and there, with their masters
and instructors, we could exercise but little over-
sight over them : and how important it is just at
this age to keep them still under our eye ! We
thought of providing such means of employment
near the Institution as should enable the children
in after life [to earn their own bread. By this
means they would serve their apprenticeship under
the parental oversight of those having the care of
the Institution. The first kind of employment
which suggested itself was gardening. We had
noticed that the little plot of garden allotted to
each child was its chief delight. We therefore
hoped that they would afterwards incline to this
work, and our expectation was not altogether vain.
* Der Bote am dem Alstcrthal, ein Sonntagsblatt fur
die ChristlicJw Gemeindc. Edited by Pastor H. Sengel-
maxn. J. G. Oncken, Hamburg-.
Already we have two of the former pupils of the
Institution apprenticed to the gardening, forming
our "Gartenbaiischule" and probably each year will
furnish its contingent to this advanced school.
Since the St. Nicolai-Stift has been removed to
Alsterdorf its sphere of action has been still further
extended by reason of its annual festivities, — the
anniversary of its commencement, and a harvest
home, which we celebrate by both in-door and out-
door services, the latter being quite a new thiug
with our Hamburghers. On these occasions, a pulpit,
decorated with oak-boughs and flowers, is erected iu
the open air, and there the word of God is preached,
prayer offered, and praise sung ; thus we rejoice
together and thank God. By this means the coun-
try people and friends from the city are brought
together, and spend a few pleasant hours, which
pass only too rapidly.
One other thing we want. Our Stift is situated
in the midst of an extensive district comprising
more than 8000 souls, most of whom live four and
live miles from any church, and if inclined to
attend, the accommodation would be by no means
sufficient for them ; beside our children and house-
hold, there is an average attendance of about thirty
persons at our Sabbath services. To our festivals
the country people come gladly, and hear cheerfully
the word of the Lord. But we are anxious to give
them better and more regular opportunity of
attending the preaching of the truth, and regard
ourselves as a mission colony in the midst of this
widely-scattered community. But to accomplish
our purpose we need a chapel ; we have not, how-
ever, the means for building one. Our funds up
to the present time have only sufficed to meet the
current demands. We cannot of course expect much
help from the poor of the district for whom we
desire this benefit. Neither from our own city,
which needs so much for the building of churches
within its own limits, can we look for much assist-
ance. We hope that from a distance we may receive
some help. We trust that the Lord may incline one
and another among the readers of these lines to con-
tribute his mite towards the erection of a chapel for
the St. Nicolai-Stift. These bines are written for an
English brother minister who has been present at one
of our anniversaries. He will gladly receive any
free-will offerings for this object. The pulpit of this
chapel will belong to no special ecclesiastical
uniform, but to those who love the Lord Jesus, and
who by their word desire to^win souls, — not for this
or that human communion, but for Him who is and
shall remain the sole Lord and Founder of the St.
Nicolai-Stift.
With most cordial salutation,
H. Sengelmann.
There is much talk in Constantinople about a
religious reform demanded by a large number of
the Mussulman population. The number varies
christian work, xu. s. i860.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
31
daily, and from 1500 has, by report, reached as
high as 80,000. This reform, for the present, has
no connection with Christianity, but with the his-
tory of the Koran, and the interpretations of its
four great commentators, hitherto blindly followed.
The Koran itself has never been printed here, but
is always sold in manuscript, nor has it been trans-
lated, except by the Persians. It is in very simple
language, easily understood in its external and na-
tural meaning, but to every verse is attached an
" internal " or " spiritual "meaning, which can only
be obtained through a teacher. The present re-
formers now claim that it should be printed, trans-
lated into Turkish, and made accessible to every
one. They are against polygamy, in favour of
drinking wine, abolishing the fast of Ramazan,
and claim that no man is an infidel or giaour who
believes in the Old and New Testaments, both of
which volumes they accept, and consider as holy.
They have petitioned for a mosque for themselves,
and to be recognised as a sect. The Government
has denied this request for the present, but it is
supposed that the very highest dignitaries of _ the
capital greatly favour the reform.
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. — These
territories have at various times served as a re-
fuge to persecuted Protestants, especially from
Russia and Hungary. Their number is estimated
as at least 20,000. In Wallachia these scattered
Protestants had, up to 1859, only one church and
settled congregation, namely in Bucharest. How
much has been done for these forsaken religionists
by the Evangelical Church of Prussia, under the
direction of the Superior Ecclesiastical Council
of Berlin, has already been repeatedly mentioned
in these columns. To-day, we want to indicate
how the Evangelical Church in Hungary likewise
has called to mind these brethren, who are so
doubly its neighbours, and especially what one
man among them has effected by his devoted zeaL
It was in 1859 that the parochial minister and theo-
logical professor, Czelder, having observed the
spiritual destitution of his countrymen and co-
religionists, quitted his native land, his revenues,
honours, and dignities, that he might, with self-
denying love, devote himself to the formidable task
of seeking out these scattered brethren in Walla-
chia, and gathering them into congregations. In this
endeavour he has now spent four years of arduous
labour, in long journeys on foot, and under the
greatest privations, being often in want of the barest
necessaries, and even suffering from hunger, having
no regular resources ; and thus has he repeatedly
traversed the country in all directions, without
allowing anything to weary him out or to blunt his
enthusiasm. A little while ago, he lived for twenty
days upon bread and water, that he might obtain
the means of purchasing tiles for building a school-
room. In this manner he has succeeded in estab-
lishing four separate congregations — at Pitishti,
Elogishti, Soskil, and Galatz — all which have their
day-schools and Sunday-schools ; besides which two
of them have already a church and a minister. In
the two others, he celebrates divine service ; and in
one of these, namely, at Flogishti, he has begun
upon twenty-five ducats (the produce of a book
which he published) to build a school-house, with
a residence for ministers and teachers, in the hope
that the Lord will send him the means of accom-
plishing this enterprise. — Translated from a German
Journal.
lite,
BENGAL. — In the neighbourhood of Calcutta,
few things excite greater attention among mission-
aries at the present time than the strange progress
of female education. Other agencies are active,
and, as in past years, continue in various, ways to
win success. Bazaar preaching, English institu-
tions, pastoral care of churches, and the spread of
Christian literature, still contribute as usefully as
ever to advance the kingdom of Christ. But it is
in female education, which occupies a new position
in the city, that especial interest is felt. At one
of their recent meetings the members of the Cal-
cutta Missionary Conference endeavoured to gather
the latest information as to its position and pro-
gress, and the result was of the most gratifying
kind. Where three years ago two or three ladies
were engaged in Zenana work, there are now at
least twelve : the lady who began with two houses,
now visits eight or ten ; and on all sides are found
willing scholars as well as careful workers. Truth,
too, is being felt as well as taught. The painful
spectacle of a divided house which, in the pro-
gress of its work amid error, it is the lot of
Christianity to produce, is at times to be seen
amongst us ; and as elsewhere it is the gentle
nature of woman that grasps the loving words of
the Gospel, while the harder heart of man dallies,
compromises, and delays. A periodical has re-
cently been commenced, intended specially for
educated women ; it is cheap, illustrated by wood-
cuts, and gives information on various subjects.
Its early numbers dealt rather too much with dis-
cussions respecting female education, instead of
at once showing what attractive knowledge can
be made available for the enlightenment of women ;
and one article gave a brief outline of mental
philosophy. But this is the beginning of things,
and no doubt we shall improve. A book has been
published, said to be the genuine production of
a native lady who is exceedingly anxious to
benefit her countrywomen. It is said that some
short time ago she determined to set up a female
school ; and the funds for the payment of teachers
being deficient, she sold her own jewels in order
to provide them. Both public and family schools
seem to prosper ; while Dr. Duff's girls' school con-
tinues to draw the younger members of respectable
Hindu families, the Zenana schools, with a greater
or smaller number of grown women, pursue in
32
private the quiet round of lessons to which their
attention is directed.
I am sorry to say that this kind of education
scarcely prevails anywhere in Northern India,
except in Calcutta and its neighbourhood. It is
really based on the greater enlightenment of edu-
cated gentlemen. This class is very large in the
city, and of late has gained great influence ; in-
deed the ancient class of Hindu priests who once
held such powerful sway is here extinct, and
modern ideas rule society. But the farther you
travel from Calcutta, the less is that enlighten-
ment felt. In some parts of Bengal, as at Dacca,
female schools are doing well under Government
management ; but through all Behar, the North -
West Provinces, and the Punjab, real Zenana
teaching does not exist. Two families in Delhi
accept the services of a lady well able to instruct
them ; but they are Bengali families : among the
Hindu families there is the greatest shyness, and
I have not heard of one single household systemati-
cally placed under a missionary lady's care. Still,
the question is being discussed, and is being pressed
ou the attention of native gentlemen. At Lahore,
during the Exhibition, the Lieutenant-Governor
held an Educational Durbar, and urged the import-
ance of educating the ladies of their families on all
the chiefs and landholders by whom he was sur-
rounded, in very earnest terms.
General education is growing in India, though
not so rapidly as the friends of enlightenment
desire. The real difficulty in the matter lies in the
vastness of the field, and the fewness of the willing
labourers. Recent researches show that in English
schools, colleges, and institutions the whole number
of scholars amounts to about 70,000, of whom
25,000 are in Government institutions, and 23,000
in missionary, and 22,000 in private, schools. ■ In
the vernacular schools, of such great importance to
the people at large, there are 51,000 in missionary
schools, and 284,000 in schools aided and super-
intended by Government officials. In Bengal, Govern-
ment help is given almost entirely to the English
colleges and schools for the upper classes ; and of
the entire Indian expenditure no less than 110,000/.
are spent on this part of the empire. I cannot say
I regret it : great good is coming out of it all ;
and there is a mighty advantage in bringing the
strongest influences to bear upon the head quarters
of opinion, to which all the rest of the empire looks.
Theoretically, the pundits of Benares may lay down
law for Hindus ; but practically, there is something
stronger at work than Hinduism throughout the
country, and the influence of the pundits is quietly
dying away. In Bengal English influence of all
kinds is completely changing native opinion.
English literature, English law, English justice,
English social opinion, English morality (with all
its deficiencies), English benevolence, the English
Sabbath, Christianity in general, all of which may be
embraced in the word Anglicanism, are daily press-
ing new thoughts, new views, and new examples
on the people, and unconsciously moulding the
entire tone and spirit of native society. Calcutta
feels this more deeply than any other part of India ;
and as all natives wish to learn what "Kulkutta"
(Calcutta) thinks and says, it is well that these
influences for good should be exerted to the largest <(V
degree.
Yet one must always feel intensely for the igno-
rant masses. Ignorant ! There is no gauging their
ignorance, it is so vast, so deep, so dense. In how
many parts the readers in the population amount to
only four persons in a hundred : in some one only in
a huudred can read ! It is worth knowing, there-
fore, that the Government desire to restrict their
English education, to maintain efficiently only what
they are doing, and not to enter in the great cities
upon new schools which may be supplied by private
efforts. They are anxious to increase their verna-
cular efforts ; and thus it arose that last year they
spent on education generally 552,300/., 100,000/.
more than they ever spent before. During the
present year an additional 100,000/. will be granted
to this department. It is to the system of grants-
in-aid that special attention is now given, and the
rules under which they are distributed are growing
more liberal every year. The English principle of
paying for results has found its way to India, and
though not suitable to English schools, furnishes an
excellent guide for helping vernacular schools. In
all parts of India the rules for grants are being
modified, and in Bengal the rules just published are
liberal.
RAJPOOTANA. — The Rev. John Robson, of
the United Presbyterian Mission at A j mere, writes
that the first convert has been baptised. The
convert, who is about twenty-rive years of age, was
a Jati or Jain priest ; and it is a circumstance that
speaks well for his sincerity, that on becoming a
Christian he gave up a considerable amount of
property and all his means of worldly support.
"John Triloke Singh, the only other native
Christian at the time in Ajmere, took his seat
on the right hand of Magan ; and on the left was
Husain Alii, a talented Mussulman from Nusse-
rabad, who has reuoimced his own religion, and
will soon receive baptism there. Behind, and all
around, crowded representatives of the various
castes of Ajmere, eager to see what mystery
attached to the rite of making a Christian ; and
among them was my opponent in the Mohammedan
controversy, Hafiz, as usual courteous, thoughtful,
and attentive. I opened with reading the Scripture
and prayer ; and then gave an address, explaining,
as clearly as I could, the meaning and nature of
baptism, and the conditions on which persons were
admitted to receive it. Then Magan read in a firm t
voice a very clear and full confession of faith, and
statement of the reasons that induced him to change
his religion, and in like manner answered the ques-
tions which I put to him. After a short prayer, I
baptised him by the name of Isa Das (servant of
Christian Work, Jan. 2, !865.1 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
33
Jesus), a favourite name among Christians in the
north-west, which I thought it as well to substitute
for Magan Bijai, as this was not his original name,
but a sacerdotal one assumed when he became a
Jati. We again engaged in prayer, and I then
addressed Isa Das, enforcing on him the necessity
of a holy life and conversation, seeing that he had
now professed his faith in Christ ; and the heathen
present, pointing out to them how the scene they
had just witnessed was a call to them to examine
and to act, and if they remained obstinately and
ignorantly in their false religions, after seeing that
another had had courage to examine and leave
them, a much greater responsibility would lie upon
them. Though the place was crowded, there was
not, from beginning to end, a single indecorous
movement or expression on the part of any one of
the assembly, but they all seemed to listen with the
greatest respect, and even solemnity."
The Rev. Mr. Shoolbred, of the same society,
writes of the baptism of three converts at Beawr : —
"Some months ago I wrote you that I had three
male inquirers steadily growing in knowledge of the
truth, and ripening for admission to the Church.
Their baptism, which by all of them was very
eagerly desired, was delayed longer than we in-
tended by a variety of causes. Although the
novelty and first excitement of a baptism have
had the freshness taken off them by the repeated
occurrence of the event in Nya Nuggur, still, on
entering the school premises I found a large number
of spectators assembled, tilling the outer verandah,
and dotting the open court in front. "
NAGPORE.— A letter from Nagpore gives the fol-
lowing statements regarding the work of the Free
Church Mission at that station and at Kamptee : —
"You will be glad to hear that the Lord seems still
to be blessing the work at this station. Lately five
more adults (four men and one woman) have been
joined to the membership of the native Church, and
another, a girl of fourteen years of age, is to be
received (D.V.) on Sabbath next. Of the men, one
is a servant to an officer in the district, who has
been at great pains to instruct him in the truths of
God's word, and a blessing has evidently followed
these efforts. Another was a poor sick man in
hospital at Kamptee, who had the word of God
read to him, and Christ pressed on his acceptance
by an East Indian, who was a patient in the same
hospital. Our Scripture reader and native preacher
were then sent for, and their instructions and
prayers seem to have been blessed to the poor man's
soul. As he was unable to leave his ward in the
hospital, two Christian officers and a number of
native Christians accompanied me thither, and
there, in the presence of a considerable number of
Hindoos and Mohammedans, an interesting service
was held and the man baptised. The state of his
knowledge as to salvation through Christ, and
apparent earnestness, were quite satisfactory. The
other three were received last Sabbath at Sitabuldi.
HI.— 3.
Two were husband and wife ; the former, having
been baptised in infancy as a Protestant, but at the
age of twelve became a Romanist, without again
receiving the ordinance, before the assembled con-
gregation, renounced Popery and embraced the
Gospel, and was publicly received into the member-
ship of our native Church. His wife, who, although
a professed Romanist, which she became to please
her husband, a year and a half ago, was quite a
heathen till she came under the instructions of our
catechist some months ago, was baptised, giving
good evidence of a sincere desire to follow Christ
and Him alone. The last was a man who had long
been thinking about becoming a Christian, but has
lately, on account of failing health, been brought
to decide on the Lord's side. As far as one can
judge, all these individuals are earnest and simple
in their desire to follow the Lord, and I trust they
are now among his true people. The girl who is to
be baptised on Sabbath has been under instruction
for several months, and has given us pleasing
evidence of her sincerity. She is the protegee of an
officer who found her as a little child, and has ever
since taken a deep interest in her. She has been a
scholar in our Sitabuldi school for several months."
BAPTIST MISSION IN DELHI.
Since the mutiny, Christianity has made a won-
derful progress in the city of Delhi and its neigh-
bourhood. For nearly forty years, in the old
system of things, Mr. Thompson preached in that
celebrated place, and received not a single convert.
Now there are four churches, containing a hundred
and thirty native members, in a Christian commu-
nity of about four hundred souls. The pleasant
task of gathering in these fruits of harvest fell to
the lot of Mr. Smith after his return from England
in 1859. On beginning to preach again in the
broad Chandni Chouk of Delhi, the finest street in
all the North-West Provinces, he was surprised to
find the spirit of hearing by which the people were
affected. Crowds gathered round him every even-
ing, and wherever he and his catechists went to set
forth the Gospel, there the people listened, were
convinced, and believed. By degrees, converts
began to confess Christ, and were baptised. Sta-
tions were established in different parts of the city
and its suburbs, four churches were founded, and
catechists were appointed for their supervision and
instruction. Two hundred and fifty adults were
baptised in three years. It was soon evident, how-
ever, that many of the converts were weak in faitl),
imperfect in knowledge, and somewhat unstable.
The famine of 1860 proved a severe trial to them,
and while, on the one hand, their independence was
weakened by large grants of money, they were led
by their deep want not only to neglect the public
ordinances of the Church, but also to spend the
Sabbath in their usual daily toil. Mr. Smith in
his recent report acknowledges that the churches
are barren, but finds in the experience of the year
signs of spiritual revival. From the time of his
34
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1*6.
return from Australia he has set himself, with his
colleague, Mr. Williams, to raise the churches from
their low condition, and has met with much en-
couragement. Many of the old members have
returned ; church meetings have been reorganised ;
the stations rearranged ; aud catechists and readers
carefully appointed. Within the city there are six
districts under the superintendence of four native
agents, and the Church members are sixty-five in
number. On the west of the city, where the old
suburb has grown very large since the mutiny,
there are seven stations, and very important work
is done in Pahar Guuje and S udder Bazaar, near
which Mr. Williams resides. To the east of Delhi
there are six stations, of which Shahdra and Purana
Killa are very promising. In the former, crowds
follow the missionary everywhere, "unwilling to
lose a word. " The church at the latter is under the
pastoral charge of one of the well-knowu preachers
at Serampore, Bhagwan Das ; and though in recent
years its people have greatly gone back, it would
seem that things have begun to mend. The Theo-
logical Class, composed principally of young men
from the local churches, has been reorganised, and
contains eight students. We may well hope that
these energetic measures, carefidly carried out and
spiritually blessed, may build up these infant
churches, and make them a power in this royal but
wicked city.
THE LONDON MISSION IN SOUTH TRAVANCORE.
The following brief review of Christian work
done in this part of India during the past year,
may be acceptable to the numerous readers of your
valuable journal.
As early as the year 1805, the London Mission-
ary party took possession of the whole of the
southern portion of the native state of Travancore,
comprising an extent of country ninety miles in
length, by upwards of thirty in average breadth,
stretching along the Malabar coast, from Quilon to
Cape Comorin (the southern extremity of this
great continent), separated from the British terri-
tory of Tinnevelly, the well-known mission field
of the Church of England Societies, by a range of
mountains running in a north-westerly direction
from the Cape. Ever since then this field of mis-
sion labour has been occupied by the London Mis-
sionary Society in greater or less force, and at the
present time, with the exception of another mis-
sionaty promised to be sent out to the capital, we
have our full complement of European labourers iu
the field — eight in number.
The field of labour is divided into seven districts,
each comprising a compact extent of territory sur-
rounding its head station, at which the missionary
resides. Of these districts, the first formed, and
that from which all the others may be said to have
sprung, was Nogercoil, situated twelve miles north-
west of the Cape. In this district, as now limited,
there are twenty-two village congregations, and in
those of James Town and Sauthapuram, immedi-
ately adjoining, there are, respectively, twenty-nine
and twenty-six such congregations attached to the
central stations. Ten miles west of Nogercoil is
the head station of Nezoor, with fifty-two congrega-
tions. Farther west from this, at a distance of
fifteen miles, is the head'station of Pareychaley,
connected with which are seventy-seven congrega-
tions. Trevaodrum, the capital of the native state,
has been occupied since 1S38, and has now nineteen
branch congregations in the surrouuding villages,
and various agencies are at work in the town itself
for the benefit of the large heathen population there.
Beyond Trevaodrum, at a distance of forty miles, is
our farthest outpost, viz. , Quilon, with four village
congregations attached. There are thus, in con-
nection with the London Missionary Society, in
South Travancore, no less than 229 Christian con-
gregations, all under the efficient superintendence
of the European missionaries and their "native
assistants.
Up to the present time none of the'native helpers
in this mission have been ordained to the work of
the ministry. The title of Assistant Missionary has
been conferred upon one of these brethren, but the
strength of the native agency here, ranks under the
heads of Evangelists, of whom there are 18 ; super-
intending catechists, 3 ; catechists, 146 ; assistant
catechists, 40 ; and female assistants, 30 : in all 237.
In the educational department of the mission there
are 213 agents of various grades, so that the entire
staff of native agents throughout the whole mission
is 450. Nearly all the Evangelists have received a
special training for their work, many of the cate-
chists are graduates of the Mission Seminary,
while others have been educated in boarding-schools,
or in preparandi classes at the head stations. We
dare not say that all our mission agents are what
they ought to be in moral and spiritual attainments,
but while standing in doubt of some, we can point
to not a few who give every evidence of being
zealous and devoted men, having both the ability
and the desire to instruct their fellow-countrymen
in the way of truth and holiness.
In connection with the mission there "are 1475
Church members gathered iuto the fold from among
the heathen, all of whom have been baptised, and
are communicants at the Lord's table. During 1863,
180 were newly admitted to the Church, and at the
close of the year, 434 persons were registered as
candidates for Church fellowship. In a large mis-
sion, such as this, these numbers may not seem
high, but when it is borne in mind that every pre-
caution is taken to prevent the admission to full
communion of persons of unsatisfactory character,
the above facts are encouraging, and indicate that
considerable concern for spiritual things is evinced
among the congregation.
As just stated, the number of congregations in
the mission is 229. Besides the regular Sunday
services, sermons are preached, or prayer-meetings
held throughout the week, more or less frequently.
The average attendance at the Sunday services
Christian Work, Jan. 2, ise5 ]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
35
during the year, was 16,151 each Lord's day ; the
total number of professing Christians being 24, 142.
We do not regard the majority of ^these as other than
learners in the school of Christ, many of them,
being children in knowledge and understanding of
spiritual things. Nevertheless, we rejoice in the
fact, that so many thousands have, outwardly at
least, renounced the hidden things of darkness ;
and, Sabbath after Sabbath, as the church gongs
resound through the palm forests that stretch along
the shore, or among the dense jungles adjoining the
neighbouring hills, assemble themselves together in
temples dedicated to the worship of Jehovah to
hear from the mouth of the preacher words whereby
they may be saved. It is moreover encouraging to
know that not only do they hear the word preached,
but a very considerable proportion are able to read
the inspired volume for themselves.
The total number of those who have received
baptism is 4620 — 2493 being adults; and 2127
children. In 1863 242 adults were baptized, and
572 children. The proportion of baptised persons
to the entire number of adherents is small, aris-
ing from the fact that no adults have hitherto been
admitted to the rite, excepting such only as have
come up to a standard of Christian knowledge and
character somewhat high.
The seminary at Nogercoil, for the training of
native agents for the entire mission, stands at the
head of the educational department of our labours,
and is superintended by one of the missionaries, the
greater part of whose time is given to this work,
assisted by an efficient staff of native teachers.
This institution has been in existence for many
years, and the success and prosperity of our work
generally, must in large measure be ascribed to the
men who have been educated in connection with it,
and are now actively engaged in the mission. A
class of theological students left the Seminary last
year, and are now labouring in the capacity of
evangelists, also six of the boarders, who had
finished the usual course of study, and are now use-
fully employed as catechists or schoolmasters. At
the close of the year, the number of students being
educated for mission work was sixty-eight, also
fifty-five day-scholars, and a training-class for
teachers numbering fourteen. Next in importance
to the Seminary, are the boarding-schools for Pro-
testants of both sexes, at the head stations. Of
these four are for boys, and six for girls, superin-
tended by the missionaries' wives. The number of
boys in these schools is sixty-eight, and of girls, 223.
The education imparted in the above-mentioned
establishments is throughout more or less thorough.
In most cases an elementary training precedes or is
a necessary qualification for admission to them ;
but the great bulk of our schools is of a different
description, being (with few exceptions) purely ele-
mentary. Of these village schools, there are in all
188,-143 being for boys, and 45 for girls. In the
boys' school there are 1831 Protestants, 385 Ro-
manists, and 3069 Heathen ; making in all 5285
boys receiving a plain, useful, elementary education
in the vernacular. In the schools for girls there
are 1186 Protestants, 27 Romanists, and 342 heathen,
in all 1555. Two years ago an effort was made in
one of the districts to establish mixed night schools,
in the hope that adults might be induced to attend
after the labours of the day were over. This ex-
periment has proved very successful, and is likely
to be tried extensively throughout the entire mis-
sion. By this means a very interesting class of
people is reached and benefited, who could not
otherwise be easily brought under Christian and
enlightening influences. In these night schools
which now number 18, there are 426 males, and 30
females.
The total number of schools of all descriptions
in connection with the mission is 220, with an at-
tendance of 5918 boys, and 1808 girls, making the
goodly number of 7726 scholars under regular daily
instruction.
Another branch of our operations here may now
be very briefly alluded to, viz. , the Medical Mission.
This department of labour is under the superinten-
dence of a member of the Royal College of Surgeons,
Edinburgh. The dispensary is located at a station
central to all the districts of the mission, and was
first opened seven years ago ; but owing to the ac-
cidental death by drowning of the much beloved
physician, Dr. Leitch, the work had to be discon-
tinued, and was not resumed till the arrival of Dr.
Lowe, two years ago. Great numbers have resort
to the dispensary for medical and surgical aid.
From January 1st, 1863, to 31st December, the
number of patients recorded in the registers was
4744, of whom 2418 were Protestants, 1619 heathen
(of all castes), 510 Romanists, and 134 Moham-
medans. Upwards of 200 were admitted as in-door
patients, and 150 persons visited by the missionary
at their own houses. A branch dispensary has
been established lately in a large heathen town not
far from head-quarters, and is resorted to by great
numbers of the high caste population. Thus a vast
amount of disease and suffering has been alleviated
or removed, and thousands of all castes and creeds
have been directed to the Great Physician of souls.
Daily at the dispensary, not unfrequently under the
shade of the village tree, and even in the houses of
high caste heathens,, the medical missionary and his
assistants have made known the glad tidings of great
joy which are to all people.
We have also a press in operation in our mission
here, the activity of which is evidenced by the fact
that no less than 4,179,820 pages were printed last
year.
Special mention must be made of the contribu-
tions of the people to the Auxiliary Missionary, the
Bible and Tract Societies, &c. At the close of 1863,
upon making up the accounts, it was found that the
very considerable sum of 696Z. 12s. 3d. constituted
the free-will offering for one year of the people of
this mission to the service of the Lord.
Year by year advances are being made. Five
LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS. [Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
30
years ago the number of native agents in the mis-
sion was 394, now the number is 450. Then there
were 17,000 adherents, or professing Christians, now
the number has increased to 24,142. Then the
Church members numbered 980, now the number
is 1475. Then the number of scholars in the
schools was 6428, now there are 7726. Then the
yearly contributions of the people amounted to
346£. 10^., now the amount is double this, being,
as stated above, 699?. 12s. 3d.
Such is a plain statement of facts. Let the
Churches at home ponder them, and say whether our
labour has been in vain in the Lord. " Who hath
wrought and who hath done it ? I Jehovah, the
first and the last ; I am He."
J. Duthie,
Missionary of the London
Missionary Society.
XOGERCOIL, SOUTH TR A VAN CORE.
v.unnah
Mrs. "Vinton writes to the American Baptist
Magazine from Rangoon, that her school increased
in religious interest, only it was interrupted for a
week by an outbreak of cholera among the pupils.
Three died, and the panic wras so great that the
school was dismissed, but returned in a week. Of
the state of religion she says : —
"At the close of the last meeting twenty-five
rose to signify that they intended to give their
hearts to God and serve Him : and I trust the
greater part, if not all, did so. I always felt happy
in teaching children, but never so happy as recently.
To see them crowding into the prayer-meetings every
evening, and even ask for them oftener than we felt
we had strength to hold them, and then to hear
them commence praying on one side of the room,
and pray on, one after another, as fast as they
could, till every one had prayed, has given us great
cause for rejoicing. You will be sorry to hear that
we are delayed in the building of our new school-
house for the want of funds."
Dr. Kincaid writes of the baptism at Kemendine
of thirty-three Karens and three Englishmen. They
are in distress for Bibles. Why are Bibles withheld
from the Karens? Somebody must answer. He
says : —
' ' As soon as a fount of type can be obtained, the
Karens will begin to print school-books in their own
language. Had Brother Vinton been spared a few
years longer, the Karens would have beeu printing
years ago. The large basement of the chapel was
intended for this work. The dearth of Bibles and
Testaments and school-books is becoming greater
every year, and the only hope is in getting a native
press at work. Churches and schools cannot live
without books. I am sure every large-hearted
Christian will rejoice to know that the Karens are
in earnest to open this fountain of life and light to
their nation."
Oin;t.
Thinking, says the correspondent of an Ame-
rican paper, that many of your readers will be
interested in some statistics relating to the number
of Protestant missionaries in China and the stations
where they are labouring, and the probable number
of converts from heathenism connected with them,
I send you the following table. A bird's-eye view
may thus be obtained of the present condition of
the missionary work — with the aid of the imagina-
tion. The estimated number of converts is given
in round numbers.
Name of
Mission-
Mis-
Converts
Port.
aries.
sions.
Estimated.
. . 19
6
150
Swatow . .
. . 6
2
100
12
3
700
Fuhchau . .
. . 11
3
150
. . 13
4
500
Shanghai . .
. . 12
5
350
Hankou . .
. . 2
2
30
Tientsin . .
. . 7
3
30
. . 3
Tangchau . .
. . 6
t\
40
, , 10
6
10
Hongkong. .
. . 10
4
440
111
42
2500
In the mainland, opposite Hongkong, which is an
English colony, it is estimated that there are some
300 converts connected with three German missions,
whose head-quarters are at Hongkong. These are
included in the last item above.
Of these 111 missionaries, five or six are
absent on visits to their native lands. The
wives of the missionaries are not enumerated,
nor are several unmarried ladies, engaged princi-
pally in teaching. There are about twenty differ-
ent American, English, and Continental societies
engaged in the work of propagating the Gospel in
China. Of the missionaries about fifty-seven are
from America, nine are from Germany, and forty-
five from England, Ireland, and Scotland. There
are boarding-schools for the training of youth, male
or female, in the doctrines of the Christian religion
at Canton, Swatow, Fuhchau, Ningpoand Shanghai,
and day-schools at most, if not all the ports occu-
pied by missionaries. There are several flourishing
out-stations and country churches already formed,
connected with the missions at Amoy, Fuhchau,
Ningpo and Shanghai, and perhaps at one or two
other ports. It would be safe to estimate that
there are over 100 native Christians employed
at the different ports as school teachers, or
preachers, exhorters, colporteurs, . &c. , and about
100 chapels, more or less, where the Gospel is'
regularly preached by the foreign missionary or his
native helper.
Christian Work, Jan. 2,1S65.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
37
StopttU Island.
The missionaries of the London Missionary So-
ciety have forwarded letters, apprising the directors
of the forcible suppression of the mission by the
French authorities in the island of Lifu, one of the
Loyalty Group : —
"The Loyalty Group consists of three islands,
Lifu, Mare, and Uea. Of these, Lifu, the scene of I
these French outrages, is the largest, containing a
population of 7000 souls. Into these islands the
Gospel was introduced by agents of our society
nearly twenty years since. Native teachers from
Earatonga and Samoa, were pioneers to our
English brethren. In the year 1854, Messrs. Creagh
and Jones, with their wives, settled on the island
of Mare, and in 1859, Messrs. Macfarlane and Baker
entered on the island of Lifu. Many of our readers
will also remember, with regard to the smaller
island of Uea, that the people were, on occasion of
| the last visit of the John Williams, ready to employ
i kind violence to detain among them missionary
brethren appointed for other islands ; and Mr.
Ella had actually arrived with a view of settling
on that island, when this oppressive act of French
authority occurred.
" New Caledonia, tlie largest island in that part
of the Pacific, was seized by the Government of
France about the year 1852, with a view of making
it a penal settlement, and there the French autho-
rity has since existed under a governor and a body
of French troops. The Loyalty Group of islands
has been claimed by the French authorities as de-
pendencies on New Caledonia, though without
any proof that they have ever been so regarded,
either by the natives of the one or the other, as
their language, their customs, and their government
were in many important particulars dissimilar.
But by the French Government of New Caledonia
this right has been asserted ; and in this case, as
iu every other instance where French authority has
been established in a foreign country, Catholic
missionaries have been sent forth, not only for the
benefit of the troops, but specially with*a view to
the conversion of the natives.
"Soon after the occupation of New Caledonia,
these teachers of Bomish superstition made their
appearance on the islands of the Loyalty Group,
often attempting to coerce the natives by threats
of French authority, as a punishment for the people
when they have refused to submit to their instruc.
tions. As some of the chiefs have continued practi-
cally heathen, and in a state of hostility to others who
have embraced Protestant truth, a few of the former
have gone over to Popery, for the sake of obtaining
the alliance and support of the French power.
These separate interests have at length been made
the occasion for the seizure of the island of Lifu
by the authorities of New Caledonia, and for the
suppression, at least for the present, of all active
operations of our missionaries and their native
assistants. Thus the scenes enacted in the island
of Tahiti, more than twenty years since, have been
repeated on Lifu.
"The directors of the Society will not fail to
bring these gross and intolerant outrages under the
attention of our Government, in the hope that, by
remonstrance with the Government of France, they
may hereafter be disowned ; and that English Pro-
testant missionaries may at least be allowed to
live and labour among the islanders, whom they !
found in a state of utter barbarism, and who owe
their civilisation to the knowledge and the influence
of their Christian teaching."
The Bev. S. Macfarlane describes the proceedings
in letters, of which we give extracts : —
"The priests, baffled and discouraged by the in-
efncacy of their bribes and threats, have had re-
course to other measures equally mean and con-
temptible. One of them, whilst threatening an
intelligent young native, asked if he was not afraid
of the French ? The young man gave a most em-
phatic and indignant reply in the negative, and is
reported to have said, * Who are the French that I
should fear them ? ' This part of the answer was
carefully recorded in the pocket-book of the priest,
with the young man's name. Cast in the mould of
Jesuitism, it soon appeared in the form of a for-
midable document impeaching the loyalty of the
Protestants in this group, which was placed in the
hands of a Boman Catholic chief, who embraced
the first opportunity of taking it across to New
Caledonia and presenting it to the governor.
"Another priest charges us with attempting
to make this island like an English colony. We
are committing the very serious crime of teaching
the English language instead of the French, of cir-
culating the Scriptures among the natives, and of
teaching them to observe the Sabbath as in England.
(The repeated attempts of the priests to introduce
certain games upon the Sabbath have utterly failed,
even among their own people.) During a recent
interview with a French officer I was informed that
' these things ought not to be in a French colony,'
that our mode of observing the Sabbath was ' ex-
ceedingly hateful to the governor and all Frenchmen^
and that his excellency fully intended to enforce the
observance of the Sabbath as in France. I ex-
pressed my sorrow and surprise at suchintelligence,
and assured him that it would probably prove the
most sanguinary task which the governor had ever
undertaken, ras these natives are devotedly attached
to their existing forms of worship, and would con-
sider such unjustifiable proceedings as a direct in-
terference with their most sacred rights.
"You will easily perceive that the priests are
here adopting a policy similar to that which proved
too effective at Tahiti. They are endeavouring to
secure the sympathy and aid of the secular arm to
counteract and weaken our influence. Their in-
trigues and misrepresentations have, to some ex-
tent, produced the desired effect. At Tahiti they
solicited and obtained the aid of the French Go-
vernment to establish themselves on the island,
33
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 186S.
whereas here they have been permitted to intrude
and prosecute their labours unmolested, upon
ground which the London Missionary Society has
occupied since 1841. Not satisfied with an open
field and fair play, they have been unwearied in
their exertions to prevail upon the government at
New Caledonia to come over and occupy a position
upon these islands, doubtless intimating the more
than possibility of this group being taken under the
wing of our Colonial Government at some future
period, simply for its position. The French appear
to have taken the alarm. On the 1st of last month
one of their steamers arrived here, and located an
officer (who styles himself ' Commandant of the
Loyalty Islands ') and twenty-five soldiers. The
following day the French flag was planted upon
this island for the first time, and the chiefs in-
formed that they Avere no longer the riding power,
that then- laws were null, that the island belonged
to the French, and that they were to look to the
commandant as their king. They proceeded at
once to erect houses, and, as thatch could only be
obtained at a distance of two or three miles, the
chiefs were ordered to fetch it without remunera-
tion. There being some delay occasioned by the
absence of the natives, who were engaged in their
respective plantations, the commandant (a stripling
of little more than tweuty years, who is evidently
thirsting for military action and military glory) had
conceived the idea of burning down the village
where I am located, in order, as he says, 'to
teach the natives a lesson upon prompt obedience.'
' They have learnt,' he said, ' howT to obey in New
Caledonia, and they must be taught here. ' I feel
assured'that, had he carried out these rash inten-
tions, the infuriated natives would have prevented
his ever teaching the same lesson to any one else.
"I was permitted to continue my labours as
usual for about three weeks, when a vessel arrived
from Mare, bringing two cases of books printed in
the native language. I then received from the
commandant a letter strictly forbidding the distri-
bution of all books printed in the native language,
and demanding the immediate cessation of all public
instruction. Thus the hand of despotism and Popery
has laid its iron grasp upon what is most sacred to
these natives. The Institution whence they hoped
to receive teachers and pastors is closed. The Bible,
the enemy of darkness, despotism, and Popery, their
solace and guide, is forbidden ; and schools, in which
they hoped their children would be rendered intel-
ligent, useful, aud happy, are prohibited ; and we
are politely informed that the next step will be to
enforce the observance of the Sabbath as in France.
"The governor arrived here on the 21st of June,
with two steamers and about 300 men, a number of
whom were armed convicts. These were placed
under the command of young officers, who evi-
dently regarded plundering and burning down
villages and shooting natives fine sport. I had
an interview with ^his excellency the governor
upon the. day of his arrival, during which he en-
deavoured to prove that this group had been French
territory for?niany years, and that we had no right
to come here without first obtaining a permit of
residence fronvthergovernment at New Caledonia.
The governor^ informed me that, if I wished to
remain here, was necessary for me to obtain a
permit of residence, and repurchase the piece of
ground uponwhich my house is built, after which
he would consider the question of my being per-
mitted to continue my labours as a Protestant
missionary upon this island. I returned from the
steamer, wrote, and sent my request, first, to be
permitted to continue my residence upon the
island ; secondly, to have secured to me my
premises (which I have already purchased for the
sum of fifty-six dollars) ; thirdly, to be allowed to
prosecute my labours as a missionary of the Pro-
testant religion, by] preaching, conducting schools,
&c, and the'doctor tells me that the governor will
not answer it until he has written to, and received
an answrer from, the Government in France.
"About 150 soldiers were landed, wrho, being
led by the governor, marched through the village,
followed by about thirty Roman Catholics. They
proceeded to" the public road, where they formally
announced that this island is a French colony ;
that missionaries are no longer to conduct schools ;
that natives are not to take any food to the mis-
sionaries unless they are paid for it ; they are also
forbidden to do any work for the missionary gratis ;
nor are tbey permitted to make any collection for
the London Missionary Society. They are to regard
the commandant as their king, and apply to him in
cases of difficulty, &c. After this formal declara-
tion, the soldiers commenced their work of plunder.
Fortuuately, the natives had carried most of their
things into the bush. All that remained was
taken, and the boxes broken.
" It was Friday morning, the day upon which
we are accustomed to hold a service at sunrise. I
hesitated about ringing the bell, but decided to
continue my labours as usual until prohibited.
The congregation was composed of Samoan and
Raratongau teachers and their wives and children,
and about tweuty natives. We commenced the
service, which I intended should be a prayer -
meeting, and were engaged in the first prayer,
which was being presented by Tui, an old
Samoan teacher, wrhen the chapel doors were burst
open, and the house of God soon filled wyith soldiers.
I heard the rustling of their arms and the trampling
of their feet, but did not raise my head nor open
my eyes, and Tui, like a brave old soldier of the
Cross, continued his prayer for about three or four
minutes after their entrance. Our composure
appears to have checked and repulsed them, for
they instantly retreated. When I opened my eyes
there was not a soldier in the chapel ; but the
doors and windows were well guarded, and we
sawr a little forest of bayonets glittering in the
morning sun. I rose, and calmly proceeded with
the service, and gave out a hymn, which we sang.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
39
I then read a portion of God's word, and concluded
with prayer. I was the only person permitted to
leave the chapel ; all the others were kept prisoners.
As I walked home I heard the report of guns, and
the hallooing of natives, which plainly indicated
that the latter had been fallen upon before they
could get away. In that struggle the natives lost
four men and had a number wounded. The
French had one killed, and one severely wounded.
The natives ran inland, but were soon met by
120 soldiers, who had been landed on the oppo-
site side of the island. Here there was an other
battle, and four more natives were shot and many
seriously wounded. The French had a few slightly,
and one seriously wounded. Two companies of
soldiers pursued the natives* inland, whilst one
remained here to complete the work of devastation.
A number re-entered the chapel, bound the Samoan
and Raratongan teachers, and dragged the natives
from the sacred edifice. One woman, having crept
under a seat for safety, was pierced in six or seven
places with a bayonet. An old grey-headed man,
one of my deacons, had a bayonet thrust in his side,
and a gash in his forehead ; the latter caused by
his being thrown violently agaiust the tree to
which he was bound. From the verandah of my
house I saw the soldiers belabouring an old man
about the head, a church-member, whilst others
were fastening him to a tree.
" They are allowed to profess whatever religion
they please, but they are not permitted to assemble
for worship ; each ODe is to worship in his own
house, and confine his religion to his own heart.
This, of course, only refers to Protestants ; the
priests and Roman Catholics are not only allowed
to continue as usual, but every facility is afforded
to give success to their unwearied efforts to pro-
selytize. The chief of this village, who is one of
the most powerful on the island, is stripped of his
power, and another installed in his place, who is a
Roman Catholic, and a notorious scoundrel. The
heathen chief of this half of the island, who is
nominally a Roman Catholic, has collected the
under-chiefs together, and told them that his desire
is that they and their subjects abandon 'the
word ' and become wiwio (by which they under-
stand Roman Catholics), and if they don't they
will be shot ; he says that he and the French
are determined that there shall be but one religion
on the island, and that must be the Roman
Catholic.
"What is to become of these poor natives?
Night and day messengers are sent from different
parts of the island to inquire about us, and im-
plore us not to leave them. I advise, and endea-
vour to comfort them, assuring them that God
will not leave his people, nor will He allow his
servants to be driven from their spheres of labour
unless there is a 'needs be.' My heart is here;
being perfectly at home in the language, and
thoroughly acquainted with the natives, we should
be exceedingly sorry to leave the island. Yet it
would be very painful to remain here without being
permitted to prosecute our labours of love, al-
though our very presence on the island would tend
to encourage and stimulate the natives. I cannot
bear the thought of their being left to the evil in-
fluences by which they are now unhappily sur-
rounded."
RECENT REPORT OF THE MISSION. BY BISHOP
PATTESOX.
Since the last report was written, it has pleased
God to visit us with great blessings, and great sor-
rows also. It has been indeed a very critical time,
testing severely the character not only of our Mela-
nesian scholars, but of our whole mission party.
We returned towards the close of the year 1862
at the commencement of the New Zealand summer,
with the largest party of scholars that we had ever
gathered together ; no less than fifty-two from
twenty-three islands, speaking more than as many
languages.
The summer was very dry ; the weather unusually
settled, and the health of the whole party exceed-
ingly good for several months. School-work went
on vigorously ; old scholars made rapid progress ;
seven of them were baptized on January 6, 1863 ;
some of the new dialects were partially learnt, and
we were all hopeful and in full swing of work.
In February, the new mission schooner, Southern
Cross, arrived after a safe and speedy passage from
England ; and this seemed to fill up the measure of
our joy and thankfulness.
The fine weather had broken up not long before,
and now heavy rain fell for some days together.
And then came a grievous trial and sorrow upon
us. A terrible form of dysentery broke out among
our scholars. The dining hall was turned into a
hospital, and the new mission vessel into a quaran-
tine ship. Fifty out of fifty-two of our scholars,
during the next seven weeks, were attacked by the
disease ; six of them died : it seemed at one time as
if none could survive. Well do we remember the
kindness of the Rev. J. F. Lloyd, Dr. Dalliston,
and other good friends, who rendered all the assist-
ance in their power, which medical skill and careful
nursing could supply. The Primate of New Zealand
was absent when the sickness first broke out, but
soon we had his help also. The resources of the
mission party were severely tried indeed. God, in
his mercy, preserved all the English, and three out
of four of the Norfolk Island members of the mis-
sion from sickness. All day long and late into the
night they worked, cutting firewood, fetching
water, providing every kind of food for the sick.
Never was there so much cleanliness, order, and
regularity in the kitchen, where Mr. Pritt and Mr.
Palmer passed their whole time ; all hospital com-
forts were supplied at all hours for the poor suf-
ferers, of whom twenty-seven at one time were in a
most precarious state. Indeed through it all, aud
40
LETT EES FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1S85.
it was a terrible time, there was a strange kind of
happiness ; every one worked with all his heart
and will, and in the midst of all the trials we expe-
rienced many blessings.
We sailed for the Islands as soon as the disease
had worn itself out and the convalescent patients
could be moved.
The vessel answered all our expectations, fast and
weatherly, and remarkably easy.
But the season was very unfavourable for a long
voyage ; the weather was rough, and rain fell inces-
santly : instead of the steady trade wind we had a
succession of calms and squalls ; the yam crop had
partially failed from the unusual character of the
season ; and soon after Mr. Pritt and Mr. Palmer,
with others, had been landed at Mota, an epidemic
broke out in the island, influenza with low fever aud
dysentery, which made it necessary to remove the
whole party. In consequence of this, Ave were
unable to pay a long visit'to the Solomon Islands, for
our vessel was already nearly full, and it would not
have been prudent to cruise about for any length of
time in these very hot latitudes with a large and
somewhat sickly party already on board. For the
same reason, we were not able to re-visit on our
homeward voyage the New Hebrides Islands, to
which we had returned our scholars on our outward
voyage. We made our way as quickly as the un-
favourable weather permitted, to New Zealand,
bringing a small party of about thirty-five scholars
from the Bank's Islands, and a few others from
Ysabel Island in the Solomon Group.
The cold weather — for we had arrived in New
Zealand iu August — did not injure the health of
our scholars ; and again everything went on
brightly and happily for several mouths. The same
seven scholars who had been baptized in January,
18G3, were now confirmed : we had more leisure
than usual for working up various dialects from our
MSS. books ; and great advance was made in the
general management of the school.
But towards the end of the summer the same
dread disease attacked us. The whole year was a
very unhealthy one ; many English people, especi-
ally young children, died from dysentery in Auck-
land and the neighbourhood. The medical men say
that they have never known so much sickness. It
fell heavily upon our Melanesian scholars, who have
little constitutional vigour to bear them up against
severe illness.
Sir George Grey most kindly allowed us to move
down to Kawau, a small island belonging to him,
about twenty-five miles north of Auckland.
There the same scenes of suffering and anxiety
once again took place. I who was absent in Aus-
tralia during this second visitation of sickness, well
know what my dear friends went through : I thank
God who has given me such fellow-labourers, whose
knowledge of what ought to be done, and whose
power of doing it, were equal to their patient care
and tender love for the poor sufferers. One lad had
died from consumption, and one from dysentery,
when I was compelled to leave Kohimarama to pay
a long-promised visit to the Australian Dioceses.
When I returned after three months I found
that six more scholars had passed away from
amongst us.
We had never before been so tried. Fourteen
scholars have died iu twelve months. Often we
had thought that some trial must come soon : and
God sent it in the most merciful way. We may be
tried — He only knows — by the far more bitter sor-
row of seeing old scholars fall away and the early j
faith of young converts grow cold. The trial, and
it is a heavy one, has been given in the way in I
which we could best bear it now; and with the trial !
we, of all others, ought most to acknowledge that 1
we have received a blessing.
Of my visit to Australia I cannot find time to
write fully. It is not easy to express what is very
deeply felt.
At the very time that the sad sickness of our
scholars in New Zealand was causing such great
anxiety, the Church of Australia, in Adelaide, in
Melbourne, in Sydney, and Brisbane, was pledging ;
itself to the support of the Mission. The sickness
was a transient though a very great sorrow ; the
adoption of the Melanesian Mission as the special
mission work of the Church of Australia, will, by
the grace of God, prove a permanent source of glad-
ness and blessing to millions in all ages.
Everywhere the fullest opportunity was afforded
for making known the circumstances of the Mission ;
and everywhere the plan originated, and for many
years carried on by the Bishop of New Zealand, was
recognised as a plan practicable in itself and well
suited to the wants of the case. Collections in aid
of the Mission were made to the amount of more
than a thousand pounds, in addition to which a plan !
for insuring the Mission vessel was suggested by a
gentleman in Sydney, which was at once adopted i
and put into execution. Much assistance was ren-
dered in other ways by those who procured stores
for the Mission vessel at cost price and forwarded
them free of charge.
Indeed it is not only by actual money payments,
but by supplying the many articles of food or
barter that are required for our school and work
among the islands, that most valuable assistance
can be rendered to the Mission. I shall have, I
trust, leisure before long to enter somewhat more
fully into these matters. 1 cannot now attempt to
express my deep feelings of thankfulness for an
amount of eucouragement and support far beyond
what I had dared to anticipate.
One point only, as of primary importance, I may
particularise, viz., the prospect of a Branch Insti-
tution at Curtis Island on the east coast of Queens-
land.
If only the climate of that island be found suit-
able, no more desirable spot could be found for the
purposes of the mission.
a. Curtis Island is not only much nearer than
New Zealand to Melanesia, but the ordinary wind
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1365.]
LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS.
41
from the S. -E. is a fair wind to or from most of the
islands of Melanesia, reducing very greatly the
length of the voyages, and enabling us therefore to
visit the various clusters of islands more fre-
quently.
b. The climate is semi-tropical, so that we could
keep a permanent school there, and grow our own
yams, etc., thus economising the expenditure of the
mission.
c. We may hope by God's blessing that by living
at Curtis Island we may be brought into communi-
tion with the natives of that part of Australia, and
ultimately, if it be God's will, incorporate the Aus-
tralians into our Melanesian school.
There are many points to be considered before
we can be in a position to speak with any degree of
certainty on this matter. But I am bound thank-
fully to acknowledge the many earnest promises of
co-operation that I everywhere received, from many
persons most anxiously desiring that some efforts
should be made in this direction to help the abori-
ginal inhabitants of Australia.
Whether in years to come the head-quarters of
the Mission may be transferred to the east coast of
Australia or not, the connection with Xew Zealand
can never cease. It may be one of the many mar-
vels of God's providence that men are sometimes
permitted to see, that the Gospel first brought by
Rev. S. Marsden from Australia to New Zealand,
should in no long time be carried from Xew Zealand
to Australia.
Let us all earnestly pray, and by the grace of
God work together for the consummation of this
blessed hope. But let us not indulge expectations
of great results ; let us be content to wait patiently
His own good time, using faithfully the means
which He supplies, and leaving all issues in the
hands of Him who alone can control them.
Sap.
The latest news from Tahiti give a most favour-
able view of the progress of the French Protestant
mission. Old congregations which had become
almost defunct, have again revived. Sunday
schools have been opened in a number of places.
Three thousand copies of the Bible, sent from
London, have found a speedy market, though each
copy was sold at the high price of eight shillings.
A service has also been begun specially for the
French-speaking population. Messrs. Arbousset
and Atger have extended their efforts to neighbour-
ing islands.
We have been favoured by the Countess of
Aberdeen with the following letter, directed to
her by one of the American missionaries at
Cairo : —
"Mr. Smith and Father Makhiel had a very
successful missionary trip as far as Assouan, and
Brother Ewing followed a week ago. The seed
sown in former years is evidently giving a rich har-
vest in many places. Even in Ossiout, where we
laboured so unsuccessfully to get established, there
is now an earnest desire for our return, and two
reliable men have undertaken to become personally
responsible for the support of two native agents, if
we will only send them. I am sorry to say that
at present we have them not, at least, not outside
of the theological class which we have now in train-
ing here. In this class we have ten, and soon ex-
pect two or three more to join it. We will keep
them hard at work till spring, when we hope to
send some of them out. The fire of the Coptic
persecution here seems to be about burnt out. The
result proves that, though the Patriarch and his
people may for a time intimidate many of the
weaker sort, he cannot keep them permanently
from us. Our boys' and girls' schools here which
suffered most have, within the past month, more
than doubled their numbers, and still there is a
daily increase. Our chapel is well filled at our
Sabbath services, and all looks prosperous again.
Our sale of Bibles and Christian books, so far from
diminishing on account of the immense quantities
which have been distributed, is constantly increas-
ing. We are at length putting into execution our
long-cherished idea of doing something in the way
of increasing our Christian literature. We have
nearly through the press the first number of a
monthly periodical, which will be much of the
character and style of the ' Christian Treasury '
with you. I have translated the little tract which
Lord Aberdeen prepared, and I hope to publish it
in the next number, together with a short notice of
his life, and of what he did in Egypt, which will
recall him to the minds of many. We have taken
an important step in Alexandria in the purchase
of mission premises. Our work there has been
greatly retarded and hampered for years for the
want of them. The increase of population has
been so rapid that it has been impossible to secure
sufficient houses for our schools, chapel, &c, and
what we could get were at enormous rents. Last
week we purchased a house iu the centre of the
native quarter, and quite sufficient to accommodate
the two schools, with a large room for a chapel for
the time being, and an adjacent lot for sale for a
chapel when we are in a position to build one.
This is a large enterprise for us, especially just at
present, when the exchange between this and
America is at 240 ; but the Lord has stood by us
hitherto, and furnished us with all the means we
have needed, and we trust He will not now for-
sake us.
Our Alexandria friends are moving in the mat-
ter of helping us, and think they will be able to
raise the money for the next payment ; and if you
or any of your friends can give us an}- help just
now, I assure you it would be very welcome and
opportune.
42
LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS.
§ri&! (Columbia.
The population has not increased during the
past year. We number at present not more than
15,000, of which about 5000 reside in this city.
The natives are not included in this enume-
ration. Business has been dull of late in these
colonies ; but there is just now a more hopeful
prospect, owing to the discovery of new gold
districts, one of which is only some twenty miles
distant from town.
Another extensive gold region has been dis-
covered between Cariboo and the Rocky Mountains,
known as the Kootanar's District. It lies within
British territory, but near to the boundary line,
and on the direct road to the pass over the Rocky
Mountains, through which it is supposed the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada will ere long extend —
from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Georgia on the
Pacific.
Already gold-hunters are at work on the banks of
the Saskatchewan, on the opposite side of the
Rocky Mountains, and tbe broad plaius that for
ages have been left to the buffalo and Blackfeet
are now to be cultivated by the hardy sons of
Britain, attracted thither by the magnetic influence
of gold. The savage has been in those regions for
centuries, but has left behind no more evidence
of his existence than if he had been a brute.
Trappers by the dozen have been drafted to that
vast territory in regular succession for more than a
century in pursuit of peltries. But they have
made no effort to elevate the aborigines. What
could they have done among so many unless by
policy maintain a balance of power among the
tribes, and keep one party in check by the fear of
combination among others. Now, however, when
hundreds are drawn together in pursuit of the
precious metal, they are soon impelled by a sense
of self-preservation to adopt the customs of civi-
lised society. _ The church and school take rank
among their earliest institutions, and thus a basis
of Christian operation is established in some wide
field of barbarism. Gold-hunters play their part
in the plan of divine providence, and as pioneers of
I civilisation deserve the sympathy of the Church at
large.
The statistics of our religious denominations
may be stated in a sentence. The Church of
England has in these colonies sixteen places of
worship, and twelve ministers ; Roman Catholics,
six, places of worship, and as many priests ; Metho-
dists, five chapels, and four ministers ; Presbyte-
rians, four places of worship, and four ministers.
Roman Catholics have most influence among the
natives. It was an imposing sight on the last
Queen's birthday, which we celebrated with all
honour, to see the Governor of British Columbia
address five thousand natives through a Catholic
priest and three chiefs of tribes. The priest ren-
dered the address of the Governor into Chinook,
and the" chiefs translated the Chinook into their
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 18(5.
respective tongues. The Indians on that occasion
assembled in five hundred canoes, and many of
them came a hundred miles. They consumed an
immense quantity of bread and molasses at the
expense of his excellency, and happy was the young
savage who obtained a flashy ribbon, or a cap with
tinsel band, as a token of the Governor's goodwill
to each and all.
To my mind the most successful mission to the
Indians is in operation on the north coast of British
Columbia, in connection with the Church of
England. There the well-disposed have separated
from their tribe, built some seventy neat houses,
have organised a native police, have adopted our
modes of dress, pay tax into a common treasury,
and have embarked briskly in trade. Supplied
with goods for the interior they travel by canoe
from tribe to tribe, barter blankets, guns, soap, &c,
for skins, and have already discovered the advan-
tages of trade. A chief wrill dispose of goods to
the value of 100/. at one trip, and, after makiug
cent, per cent., he can well afford to pay the
mission depot large profits. The native on Naas
river is as keen for commerce as the natives on the
banks of the Niger. If by Christianity and com-
merce the Red Man could be raised a little into
civilisation ere coming into contact with vile white
men, a goodly remnant might yet transform the
wigwam into a peaceful and happy home. The
poor savage can hardly be said to have a home. In
nothing do the natives alluded to rejoice more than
in an agreeable seuse of security, which enables the
old warrior to retire to rest free from all fear of
aggression.
Next to the union of these colonies the question
of education commands most interest. A good
popular system has not been established. And
while there are a few private schools in this city,
they are cast into the shade by the Roman
Catholic college aud nunnery schools. In the pre-
sence of such imposing and effective educational
appliances, Protestants have reason to hide their
heads. Oblate fathers and Irish nuns make us
ashamed of our ecclesiastical equipments. We
need good teachers and schools, and while the clergy
and Members of Parliament wrangle over a system
of education, foreigners build their splendid esta-
blishments, and offer superior instruction on such
terms as to attract children of all classes.
Monks and nuns have come in such numbers to
this quarter of the world, that one would think
Catholicism had chosen the North Pacific to recruit
its strength.
Some assert that it is at present dominant in
California, and should the South conquer, it would
ere long raise a bold front. It is by uo means
so weak on this continent as some imagine. It
sends missionaries by the dozen to these colonies
and to California and Oregon. Its unity is strength,
national and denominational disunion its delight
and opportunity.
Victoria, Vancouver's Island.
Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
SUGGESTIONS AXD REPLIES.
43
SUGGESTIONS AXD REPLIES.
THE MOHAMMEDAN MISSION IX TURKEY.
TO THE EDITOR OF " CHRISTIAN WORK."
Sir, — In your November number, under the head
of "Turkey," you published a letter from Dr.
Perkins of Oroomiah, ,vhich requires correction, both
in regard to facts asserted and views advanced.
One would naturally suppose that an old mission-
ary, labouring, if not among the Persians, at least
in Persia among the Xestorians, for so many years,
would have a correct knowledge of the history and
character of my book, the "Balance of Truth," or
the "Mizan ul Hagg," as it is generally called, but
this his assertions disprove. He says " the book has
had a stormy origin, nearly costing its esteemed
author the adventure of a mob when it was
rumoured that he was meditating such a work,
thus not foreshadowing for itself a very peaceful
course."
During the whole of my stay and travels in
Persia, I have been only once in danger from a
mob, or an uproar of the fanatical populace of
a city, and this was in Kermanshah, in the spring
of 1831. But this uproar had nothing to do what-
ever with the book in question. It was caused
simply by the sale and distribution of Persian
Scriptures, the making known of Christ to those
who came to me, and by the discussions called
forth by inquirers and opponents. The "Mizan"
was compiled in German, at Schusha, before that
journey, and translated into Persian after my re-
turn to that station of the Bale Missionary Society,
situated in the Russian territory close on the Persian
frontier, and it was never mentioned or referred to
on that journey in any of my conversations with the
Persians.
Another mistaken assertion of Dr. Perkins is
his statement, that the book was "printed in
India." The first Persian edition was printed in
1836, at the Mission Press in Schusha. Xor has
the book only lately, as Dr. Perkins seems to
imply, "found its way to Persia, and strayed to
that country.'' Before the Bale Mission was broken
up, and the missionaries had left Schusha, in 1837,
copies were sent from thence to Persia. And on
my way from Schusha to India, through Persia, I
distributed myself several copies, and left a number |
with friendly Armenians in some of the towns I
passed through, for private distribution to their i
Persian friends ; and from India copies have been !
sent into Persia by way of Bombay and Bushire.
Its "origin" also, or its first appearance in Persia, !
was not "stormy." On the contrary, those few
Persians who read the manuscript at Tabris, where, j
in the winter of 1832 and spring of 1833 I com- I
pleted its final revision, were delighted with the I
book. And when on my way to India through i
Persia, in the autumn of 1837, I fell in one morn- j
ing, near Isphahan, with two Persian gentlemen I
coming from Teheran, they told me, as some of
the news of the capital (without, of course, know-
j ing that I was the author), of the book, as having
j just become known there, and admired by many,
but much spoken against by the mullahs, or
priests. In India, after my arrival at Calcutta,
| no sooner was the book known and read by one
! of the missionary friends there, a civilian of high
i position, and well versed in Persian, than he asked
me to print a new edition, defraying himself, to-
I gether with a few friends of his, the whole expense.
| It has been highly valued in India, both by mis-
j sionaries and civil and military officers, and has
also become the means, under God's blessing, of
! leading several Mohammedans to the truth, and
of silencing opponents. Thus has it nowhere raised
any storm, either in Persia or India. Liberal-
i minded Mohammedans, both in those countries
! and here in Turkey, have liked the book, and
have been interested in it ; though the bigoted,
as was to be expected, have spoken and written
; against it. It is also a fact, that both here and
in India, it has been asked for by Mussulmans
j much more frequently than my other books, which
! are less controversial than the "Mizan."
Whether the late storm here is attributable solely
to the "Mizan " may be called in question. Most of
j the converts were baptised before the Turkish trans-
[ lation was in circulation. But shmild this stir have
J been produced exclusively by its extensive circula-
i tion in the capital, may this not be considered an
argument rather for than against it ? Would it
not show that the truth contained in it has made
its power to be felt, and consequently the opposi-
tion?
Whether the time has arrived for direct mis-
sionary labour among the Turks or not, on that
point there may be a difference of opinion among
missionaries and their friends at home. The Com-
mittee of the Church Missionary Society thought
that that time had now arrived, and consequently
they resumed their labour in Turkey by entering
upon a direct mission to the Mohammedans. That
such a step was fully justified cannot but be evi-
dent to any one who has watched the state of poli-
tical and social transition upon which Turkey has
entered.
That the object of our labours among the Turks
is not strife and contention, but simply the preach-
ing of the Gospel, I need not mention. But equally
true it is that the Gospel cannot be preached to
the Mohammedans without causing opposition and
contention. The American missionaries labouring
among the Armenians can, if they like, keep clear
of a Mohammedan controversy, but not so a mis-
sionary labouring among the Turks. I know that
all those missionaries who have, like myself, la-
boured in Georgia, Persia, or India among the Mus-
sulmans, have not been able to avoid it, notwith-
44
SUGGESTIONS AND REPLIES.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
standing the earnest desire to do so. The
missionary, when speaking of or preaching Christ
crucified to the Mohammedans, and in return is
attacked by them on the Divinity of Christ, the
Trinity, and the Atonement, is he to say nothing
in defence of these fundamental doctrines of the
Gospel ? or is he to keep silence when it is asserted
that the Gospel is abrogated and so corrupted that
it can no longer be called the pure word of God ?
And is he to remain mute when the Moslem recites
his boastful praise of the Koran and of his false
Prophet ? Is the missionary not to state the grounds
"of the hope that is in Him"? or "to stop the
mouths of gainsayers " ? Silence here would be
nothing less than unfaithfulness to his commission.
Has the Gospel ever been preached without pro-
ducing opposition ? Has not the work of our
American brethren among the Armeniaus also pro-
duced the same effect, and obliged them, like our-
selves, to defend the truth and expose error ? How
can they, therefore, or any one else, expect that this
would be otherwise in the work among the Moham-
medans, the old and systematical enemies of Christ
and his Gospel ?
It seems that Dr. Perkins is under the impression
that my brethren and myself are in the habit of
doing our work by attacking the errors of Islam,
rather than by setting forth the truth as it is in
J esus. To avoid attacks and to spare the missionary
a lengthened defence and controversy, is one of the
very purposes for which the "Mizan ul Hagg" has
been written. If a Mohammedan comes with his
attacks or asks for proofs, we give him the "Mizan,"
and ask him first carefully to consider what is said
therein, and then to come for further discussion.
Thus much trouble is spared, and time gained for
the simple statement of Gospel truths. That con-
troversy with the Mohammedans, or defence and
attack, could not be avoided, however earnestly we
strove against it, of this my brethren and myself
were fully convinced after a few years of direct
and active labour among them. And besides, we
found that our opponents would never listen to a
long or regular discussion and argument, and that
in a few short words their objections could not be
met nor the whole truth be set before them. The
conviction therefore forced itself upon us that such
discussions ought to be settled in writing, and this
led to the compilation of the "Mizan." The book
consequently does not begin with an attack upon
Islam, but with defending the Gospel against the
usual attacks of the Mohammedans. In the second
part it exhibits the essential ! doctrines of the
Gospel, set forth and attested tby copious passages
from the Scriptures, and only the latter part is
an attack upon Islam, but this also not in a direct
way, but in the form of an inquiry into the claims
of the Koran and of Mohammed. The "Mizan " is
therefore no ' ' attempt to substitute man's wisdom
as an improvement on the Divine instrumentality,"
as Dr. Perkins appears to represent it, but is merely
a defence and setting forth of the truths of the
blessed Gospel, and an exposure of error. Such a
condemnation of it would therefoi-e imply a verdict
against all that has been done by the Church in
defence and cxplanatiou of the truth in olden times
and in our own days, for which I do not think
that Dr. Perkius would be prepared. If he has
found anything in the book contrary to the above
end, or met with any unsound argument in it, or
any passage improperly worded, I am quite willing
to reconsider or retract it, if pointed out. That the
book has answered the end of avoiding much of
unprofitable discussion with wily Mohammedan
opponents, and has proved a guide to the truth for
sincere inquirers ; of this, if required, testimonies
of missionaries in India as well as from my own ex-
perience coxdd be easily adduced.
But now enough. I only repeat that it has been
with great reluctance that I have said so much in
defence of my book and of our labour among the
Turks ; but for the work's sake I felt myself com-
pelled to do so, in consideration of present circum-
stances.
Yours faithfully,
C. G. Pfander,
Missionary of the Church Missionary Society.
Constantinople, November 15th, 18C4.
AGENCIES IN CAIRO.
TO THE EDITOR OF " CHRISTIAN WORK."
Sir, — In a recent number is a letter signed
B. S., in which the writer says, in the April num-
ber was a paper professing to give a brief sketch
of Protestant agencies in Egypt, and severely cen-
suring the omission of all allusion to the Malta Col-
lege School in Cairo, and the Jewish mission in the
same city. Now, that paper never professed to de-
tail all Protestant agencies, but only such as were
directly missionary, and among the natives of the
country, as was expressly stated. Of course the
Jews, not being natives, could not be included as
such any more than European residents ; and it is
well known that the Malta College School is educa-
tional, and not missionary ; and the excellent man
who conducts it, himself declared on opening it,
that it was not to be considered as a missionary
undertaking, though under Christian influences.
As to the accounts given by B. S. of the Jewish
quarter, it certainly caused great amazement among
all Christian residents in Cairo ; and perhaps they
felt it would be well if editors of missionary maga-
zines would try to ascertain from good authority
how far accounts from distant places may be relied
on, before giving them to the public ; but of this you
may be assured, that in no eastern station is there
less of sectarian spirit than in Cairo ; and, far from
a desire to undervalue or hide each others' work
existing among the few labourers in that difficult
field, I believe they are all glad to acknowledge
every sincere and genuine effort to spread the
Gospel of Christ.
I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully,
M. L. W.
Christian "Work, Jan. 2, 1865.]
NEW BOOKS.
46
NEW BOOKS
BEARING ON
CHRISTIAN WORK.
ENGLISH LITERATURE.
In turning over the light, showy, and often tricky-
religious literature of the day, it is a pleasure to
meet a book like Dr. Howson1 s on St. Paul.* Dr.
Howson's previous studies have served as an excellent
preparation for this work ; and circumstances must
have led him with almost as much as reverence and
love for the highest type of Apostolic character.
There is a marvellous fascination in this Apostle of
the Gentiles. Men of action are stirred by his
restless energy ; meditative men are charmed by
his profound and speculative mind. Standing on
the border between two epochs, he sways the sym-
pathies of each ; by his gentle loveable spirit, his
passionate affection, his missionary ardour, his ad-
venturous faith, his clear judgment and common
sense, his keen, incisive logic, he holds a part of
almost every heart. Yet there is no large English
literature on the subject ; and the present attempt
has the prestige of novelty. In Germany, Holland,
and France, there is a Pauline literature, but not at
home ; for the shrewdness of Paley's Horx Paulinas,
and the suggestive hints thrown out by Stanley and
Blunt, are too incomplete to deserve the name. Yet
there are some English works of which Dr. Howson
has made no mention, and which it would be worth
while to gather with the rest into a bibliographical
note. Of the foreign monographs he has made
large use, especially of Monod and Stier. The
tact, tenderness, conscientiousness, courage, and
faith of Paul receive the most thorough elucida-
tion, and are presented with a rare and happy
force ; and the whole character stands out in
living and striking portraiture. Christian readers,
whether students or not, will thank Dr. Howson
for this book ; nor will they overlook his honest
Pauline protest against the prevalent habit of
sweeping down men by a broad and unpopular
party name. "Latent heresy is often suspected,
except when violent language is employed. I can-
not, however, consent to purchase a reputation for
Christian orthodoxy by forgetting what is due
to Christian courtesy ; nor can I help entering my
protest against the unfairness with which theo-
logical writers are often at once condemned by the
application of some vague and general term of
* Five Lectures on the Character of St. Paul. By the
Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D.
censure." And again: "It appears tome an evil
to group together, by an accidental resemblance,
those who really differ very much from one another;
and perhaps of all party terms those are the worst
which rest upon a negation." No person of reflec-
tion will deny that these words are greatly needed.
The story Dr. Anderson has to tell* is one that
would have gladdened St. Paul's heart, an episode in
the great ingathering of the Gentiles. Forty years
ago the American Board of Foreign Missions sent
an embassy to the Sandwich Islands. Even La
Perouse, Rousseau-bitten as he was, and anxious
to find the highest virtue in the greatest savage,
has described the natives as more false than the
falsest scum of Europe. Their idols were not more
hideous than their sacrifices ; their volcanoes were
more merciful than themselves : they were degraded
enough to devour lice, and dress centipedes for
dinner. The first missionaries are still alive, yet
paganism is abolished ; the islands are ruled by
Christian laws, under a Christian king ; one-third
of the adults are at present members of Protestant
churches ; and upwards of 50,000 have professed
faith in Christ. Dr. Anderson, the Secretary of
the Board, was deputed to visit the Island Church
in 1863. Though wanting little of seventy years,
he undertook the journey, and has recorded his im-
pressions in a noticeable and entertaining book.
The past is already a tradition in Hawaii ; an idol
is not to be seen ; European customs have sup-
planted the rough barbarism of centuries ; and the
story of the chief who, on being rebuked by a
missionary for visiting him in his naked way, re-
turned in triumph, clothed with a pair of silk
stockings and a beaver hat, is as ludicrous to a
native as to an American. During Dr. Anderson's
visit it was resolved to separate the Mission finally
from home connection, and to merge it in a native
clmrch. A seminary for ministers is one of the
features of the Islands, and Mr. Dana describes
the departments of science and classics to be as
efficient as in Harrow or Cambridge. The problem
now to be worked out is an interesting one, and
not the least so in its illustrations of primitive
churches, their hasty growth, temptations, heresies,
and decay. One of the most curious chapters
* The Hawaiian Islands ; their Progress and Condi-
tion under Missionary Labours. By Kufus Andekson,
D.D.
4(3
X£)V BOOKS.
[Christian Work, Jan. 2, 1865.
of this book is that on the churches of Corinth
and Hawaii. The story is brought down to the
most recent date, and is a clear refutation of many
of the statements put forward by Mr. Hopkins in
his recent book.
America has furnished illustrations of Christian
work in another department by the recent report
of the Sanitary Commission for the army. * As Nature
heals her scars with grass and leaves, so war at the
I fiercest also brings its healing agencies into play.
The lesson of the Crimea has not been lost upon
the North ; and a valuable voluntaiy auxiliary has
i been, added to the medical department of the Go-
vernment. At a time of such overwhelming strain
J no department of the kind can be above requiring
i help, and the voluntary sen-ices of devoted men
I and women is of the very highest and best. War
has something to do with the development of Kai-
serswerths, and very much with our Kaiserswerths
in England ; and we may hope to see this question
of organised voluntary help, both of deacons and
deaconesses, coming into greater clearness through
the civil war in America. Though a report, the
volume is full of anecdote. "Mothers write of
their ' undying gratitude ' for the simple announce-
ment that their boys are doing well iu hospital ;
others 1 invoke the blessing of God upon the labours
of the Commission,' and sisters will 'cherish the
warmest gratitude while memory lasts/ And then
the eagerness with which inquiries are made. 1 By
the love you bear your own mother, tell me where
my boy is.' 1 Only give me some tidings.' 4 Is he
dead and how did he die ? ' 1 Is he alive and how
can I get to him V 'I pray you tell me of these
two nephews I am seeking for. I have had fourteen
nephews in the service, and these two are the only
ones left.' ' It is very hard, my friend,'
was said to one mute with grief, ' but you are not
alone.' 'I know it, sir,' was the prompt reply,
'but he was the only one I had.' ' I waut to find
my husband ; I have not heard from him for several
months. I have written to the officers of his regi-
ment, but do not get any reply. Can you tell me
where he is ? ' ' Will you please to give me his
name and the number of his regiment ? ' '0 yes,
sir. ' 1 You will rind him at Lincoln Hospital. The
city cars pass the building, and the conductor will
point it out to you.' A momentary stare of incre-
dulity is perceptible ; then, turning her full deep
eyes swollen with emotion, she gives one look — a
full reward for a month of labour — and in an in-
I ! staut is in the street."'
The solitary worker has his place in the great
system of divine toil as well as the great society ;
; and a modest little tract informs us of a modest
mission begun in the kingdom of Chamba.f Up in
the Himalayas, and bounded by Cashmere, Lahoul,
* The Sanitary Commission of the United States
Army ; a Succinct Xarratirc of its Works and Pur-
poscs.
+ The Chnmha Mission : how it came to he begun, and
how it has been carried on.
and Kangra, it has a popidation of 120,000, greatly
afflicted with goitre and greatly degraded. The
tract is written by a clergyman who could not get
on with his society, and did the wisest thing — left
it. Societies cannot afford too free play for indi- I
viduality of character ; and some men may work $
better alone. The Chamba missionary is evidently
sincere and eccentric, and has struck out a new
path. To strike the native mind with a convic-
tion of their commission, "we arranged ourselves in
a line, each five or six paces apart ; and after much
prayer, and feeling that the Lord was with us of a
truth, we set forth over the whole city, proclaiming in
a loud voice as we went, first in English, then in
Urdu, then in Hindu : Glory to God in the highest, on
earth peace ajid good-will toward men. The king-
dom, the power, and the glory be the Lord's for ever,
and ever, Amen /" The second time "at each halt we
prayed aloud. " The third time they went to the vil-
lages outside the city, and added the words of the
commission from Mark xvi. 15, 16. Before private
dwellings, in the bazaars, even at the gate of the
palace : Maliaraj ! the promises of God are to you and
to your children, and to all that are afar off. God so
loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that
whosoever belie vet h in Himshoidd not perish, but have
everlasting life. Dear brethren, these words are true.
Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is come nigh
unto you. Other verses were added ; and when one
of the three (two natives and the missionary) grew
hoarse, the others sustained the burden. The
result was that crowds followed them, the rajah
bowed to them, and the children sometimes repeated
the Words after them. It produced a sensation ;
but we are not clearly informed whether good or
eviL The next effort was to sit at school with a
number of children under a Hindu pundit. This
led to frequent remonstrance from the pundit, who
declined so advanced a pupil ; but the missionary
persisted, and finally lost the old pundit his situa-
tion. " The old pundit and we are now great
friends :" but here also there is a want of con-
nection. This exploit over, the proclamations were
resumed by even entering inside the courts of the
houses. ' ' The noise we made at one place prepared
them to expect us at the next. By the end of
November there was probably not one person in the
whole city and immediate neighbourhood who had
not heard of the name, love, and mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ." Later, much influence was
won with the Rajah. He read the English Bible
with them, declared it must be true ; is now busy
learning Roman Urdu that he may read it for
himself ; has given xis a free site, with all the
timber, for both church and school ;" and wishes
to promote education. The writer's remarks are
often shrewd, and always decided. ' ' We keep fo
away from noisy crowded places . . . We do not
believe in street discussions . . . We have seen
missionaries with large audiences round them. Sud-
denly one or two individuals, generally smartish-
looking young men, squeeze through the crowd to
Christian "Work, Jan 2, 1863.]
NEW BOOKS.
47
the very front, and standing quietly for a few
minutes, with a suppressed grin upon their faces,
and a thorough consciousness of power, suddenly
interrupt the speaker by a pert question, possibly
too frivolous to be noticed, and the speaker pro-
ceeds. But these men have come for fun. They
try it again and again. At length a keen contro-
versy ensues. In the midst of the discussion the
cavillers disappear, almost as suddenly as they came,
leaving the audience generally greatly amused, and
the missionary sad ... It seems to us that the
better way is by brief enunciations of truth, never
to exceed five minutes in delivery. We would not
deliver them at any fixed place, would build our
hopes mainly on individual conversational teach- I
ing," and here are the missionary's plans and j
opinions. He appeals for help : for a church, to
cost 300?. ; and preaching stations at 20/. each ;
and for Scripture readers. Those in the neighbour-
hood appear to have faith in the mission, and it is
carrying the kingdom of Christ into a new terri-
tory.
Books of sermons abound at this season, like
other books, but with less to justify their appear-
ance.* Goodwin's Discourses on Election form the
ninth volume of that author's works in Mr. NichoFs
edition. Mr. Beecher has found a re-publisher in
this country. + Twenty-four sermons have been
issued in a pleasant, well-printed volume, and with
the promise of more. They bear the mark [of
Mr. Beecher throughout. Singularly felicitous in
imagery, illustration, and phraseology irregular ;
and impulsive, and illogical in thought ; continually
sinking to the lower level of the platform, and on
the point of being coarse or ludicrous ; more apt to
seize the aesthetic and moral aspects of truth than
the doctrinal or spiritual. Mr. Brown's sermons X
are always a theological system. It is the theolo-
gical thinker who speaks ; with honest enthusiastic
earnestness, "marred by frequent whimsicality of
expression, and the consciousness of effort. He
thinks out openly for himself, but has not escaped
the temptation of fancying that original thoughts
must imply original doctrine. The present volume
! is on The Divine Treatment of Sin, starting from
The Fall treated as Development. Dr. Thompson's
small treatise § — for the sermons assume that form
— is probably the most valuable of the four. There
could scarcely be a better exposition of the graces
strung together by St. Peter in the opening of his
second Epistle. Mr. Binney found himself in not
an uncommon predicament when, intending to con-
fine his subject to two sermons, it expanded to
fourteen. || The Christian relations of money have
* Goodwin's Works. Vol. IX., Discourses of Election
and Thankfulness.
t Beecher* 's Sermons. Vol. I.
% The Divine Treatment of Sin. By J. Baldwin
Brown, B.A.
§ The Band of Christian Graces. By the Eev. J. P.
Thompson, DP.
II Money : a Popular Exposition in Rough Notes. By
T. Binney.
not been fairly dealt with hitherto, and it is well
that Mr. Binney has brought his well-trained mind
to so difficult and intricate a subject. The super-
ficial treatment it has been lately receiving, has dis-
couraged attention, and has confused and repelled
men, instead of helping them in their stewardship.
The bad influences of money occupy the first six
Sermons, first as obstructions of the light, and
then as antagonistic to the divine life begun in the
soul. The succeeding six sermons treat of the right
religious use to which money may be put ; the last
two are an exposition of systematic beneficence.
The author apologises for the form of " rough
notes " in which these sermons appear, and in which
illness has compelled him to retain them." It may
be found that their very roughness lends a force and
suggestiveness to the volume that it could not have
otherwise. We have no essays on the subject so
searching, convincing, practical, and telling.
Mr. Paton's fine criticism of M. Kenan's Vie de
Jesus was pointed out when it appeared in the
London Quarterly Review. It has been wisely re-
printed,* and will take its place with the best lite-
rature on the subject. A thoughtful essay on the
Atonement has been written by Mr. Robert Brown, +
and will repay close perusal. Mr. Brown is a grace-
ful and simple writer, as well as an intelligent and
independent thinker.
Jacobus' Notes on Joha% will be welcome to those
who need his help in the other Gospels, to all of
which Mr. Mimpriss has furnished a marvellously
cheap and compact Harmony. % A useful, handy
book of another sort has been compiled by Dr.
Bonar, who has arranged a vast number of the
Promises of God in a readable volume, || "a book
for the closet and sick room : which a traveller
might like to pack into his portmanteau, or a friend
choose as a gift." Dr. Bonar will receive the thanks
of more than one generation for working out so
admirably a thought so happy.
At a season of present -giving and story-telling
like this, it is pleasant to mention three excellent
gifts. Those who care for history will be amply
provided by a tale of the brilliant episode of the
Italian Reformation, wrought out with much know-
ledge, skill, and picturesqueness. *\\ Tossed on the
Waves is a fine manly stor}-, with plenty of quiet
adventure, and some capital surprises, a book
that would delight a boy's heart,** and do him
good. Studies for Stories ff are written with the
* A Review of the "Tie de Jesus" of M. Renan. Bv
J. B. Paton, M.A.
t The Gospel of Common Sense. By Robert Brown.
X Notes on the Gospels, Critical and Explanatory.
John. By Melanchthus W". Jacobus.
§ TJie Gospel Treasury : a Treasury Harmony of the
Four Evangelists. Compiled by Robert Mimpriss.
|j The Word of Promise : a Handbook to the Promises
of Scripture. By Horatius Bonar, D.D.
% From Dawn to Dark in Italy. A Tale of the Re-
formation in the Sixteenth Century.
** Toised on the Waves. A Story of Young Life. By
Edwin H odder.
ff Studies for Storks. In Two Volumes.
43
XEW BOOKS.
[Christian "Work, Jan . 2, U63.
most charming ease and fidelity to nature. Some
of them are as perfect as sketches of the kind can
be, and there .is a delicious purity in the style, a
depth of feeling and tenderness of expression, that
make them read like poems. The fine conception
and powerful illustration of character, the dramatic
force, the delicate perception, the subtle grace of
thought, mark an authoress of as high and uncom-
mon a character as has appeared in this age of
authoresses. It is intrinsically the worthiest New
Year's gift that the season has produced, and may
be put with almost equal pleasure into the hands of
either the young or the old.
Of pamphlets it is enough to mention A Few
Words to our Village Girls, containing excellent
homely advice, which would have bee a better with-
out the meagre and garbled collection of Hymns at
the eud : Self Love and the Morals of the Future,
an exposition of the theory that^Self Love] is the
basis of all natural morality : and The Presence of
God our Rest, a New Year's address from the
. welcome pen of ^the Rev. Charles Stanford.
SWISS LITERATURE.
Le Christianisme dans Vdge moderne, by M.
Chastel, is the continuation of the author's learned
studies on Church history. M. Chastel has long
been Professor at Geneva of ecclesiastical history ;
and he is one of the men who devote to their duties
their whole time and abilities. He has thus pro-
duced several volumes which are highly esteemed
among men of learning, and one of which, UHistoire
de la destruction du Paganisme, has received a prize
from the French Academy. The new volume is a
sequel to that entitled Le Christianisme et UEglise
au moyen age: and the author still promises us a
volume of which our own age will be the subject ;
then another volume of the times anterior to the
middle ages ; and four volumes which will embrace
the entire history of the Church. This will not be
a narrative of facts : it will be a survey of their
complex relations and their concatenations. M.
Chastel excels in making the highest questions
accessible to all : his works are neither below the
learned, nor above the ordinary intelligence.
In a much more humble sphere I will mention to
you our Etrennes religieuses, a popular book, which
is now entering on the sixteenth year of its existence,
and is published by Genevan ecclesiastics. It is a
simple collection of edifying and instructive scraps,
which, however, have for the most part the recom-
mendation of actuality and nationality. It pene-
trates into many places where works of a positively
religious character would not penetrate, and at the
same time it is much liked in all religious families.
It concludes every year with a rapid history of all
that has taken place at Geneva in the Church and
in the religious world, during the last twelve months.
These annual summaries will hereafter have an
historic interest.
For Christmas we have a new publication by
M. Bungener, No€l au Pole, ou Dieu partout. This
treatise, of which the subject is entirely English,
and -will no doubt interest the people among whom
you live, has just been translated and published in
London (Nisbet).
Some "Lessons on Geneva," found among the
papers of the late Mr. Gaussen, have just now been
published in a little volume in which we recognise
the capacity of the author as a catechist and as
a writer.
One of the popular poets of German Switzerland,
the pastor Frbhlich, has published at Zurich a poem
in ten idyls, epitomising the life of Calvin. The
plan is ingenious ; and the poem is, in many places,
remarkably beautiful and profound. We were
pleased with this new testimonial of Calvinian — I
cannot say Calvinistic — fraternity. But Germany
has of late given us many such ; and never before
has the country of Luther shown itself so favour-
ably disposed to Calvin. Not less precious are to
us the sympathies 'of the country of Zuinglius,
German Switzerland. The poem of M. Frbhlich is
dedicated to the Company of Pastors.
The Quotidiennes and Piete pratique are two col-
lections of meditations for domestic worship. The
author, M. Masse, is not an ecclesiastic. Still
young, but paralysed from his birth, he has sought
in piety a relief from his afflictions, and has, more-
over, endeavoured to make his experiences profit-
able to others.
At a time when such general attention is directed
to the Bible, and to all questions connected with it,
you will not] learn without interest that our best
Hebrew scholar, Pastor Segond, has been directed
by the Companykof Pastors to make a new transla-
tion of the ^Old Testament. M. Segond possesses
every qualification for the completion of such a
grand and beautiful task — science, activity, perse-
verance and [a profound faith in the Divinity of the
j Scriptures. We hope much from him ; and all the
' Evangelical Christian Churches will assuredly follow
him with their sympathies and prayers.
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