tibrary oft he vj dt.oj. A SKETCH OF THE SYRIA MISSION, BY THE REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, MISSIONARY IN SYRIA. CONTENTS. Map,. I. A Glance at the Field and its Pecu- liarities, 3 1st. Its Geography and History. 2d. Its People and Religions. 3d. Its Difficulties and Encouragements n. A Statement of Progress dp to the Present Time 14 1st. As regards Evangelistic Work. 2d. As regards Education. 3d. As regards Press Work. HI. A Glance at the Present Condition and Future Prospects of the Mission.. . 30 NEW YORK: MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 1872. J.of Irwad SYRIA MfSStON FIEi.£>. TYRE I, >ohanct/ $ > X ?S> iff «J i: m * ^ SKETCH OF THE SYRIA MISSION; The object of this pamphlet is to bring to the attention of its readers the Syria Mission as it is at the present time. Any attempt to give a history of this interesting field would require more space than is desirable in this pub- lication ; those desiring a more complete historical review than is given here are referred to the excellent pamphlet already issued from the pen of Rev. Thomas Laurie, D.D., and to the forthcoming " History of the Syria Mission," by Rev. Isaac Bird, soon to be issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. We propose herein simply to group together in a condensed and con- nected review the salient facts of interest which mission work in Syria presents, and if possible to bring the field more vividly and clearly before the minds of its friends at home. This plan involves : I. A GLANCE AT THE FIELD AND ITS PECULIARITIES. II. A STATEMENT OF PROGRESS UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. HE. A GLANCE AT THE PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE MISSION. THE FIELD AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 1. Its Geography and History. — The geographical limits of the field, reach from Acre on the sea coast northward for about 150 miles, and extend from the coast inland an average breadth of fifty miles. The prominent and interesting feature of the natural scenery of the Syrian coast, as thus limited, is the grand Lebanon range, which towers in sublimity and beauty along nearly the entire extent of the mission territory. Along the sea-coast are populous cities, and the western slopes of Lebanon are thickly dotted with villages, some of them of considerable size. For convenience in the prosecution of missionary operations this whole field is subdivided into four smaller fields, named respectively after the prominent and central station where the missionary families reside, the Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, and Abeih fields. Beirut, a large and flourishing city of 80,000 in- * The papers relating to Syria published recently in the Foreign Missionary, have been largely drawn upon in the preparation of this sketch. J. s. D. habitants, the sea-port of Damascus, with which it is connected by an elegant carriage road scaling both ranges of the Lebanons, is the contra! and most important station of the field ; twenty-five miles down the coast is Sidon, the head-quarters of the southern wTork ; fifty miles up the coast is Tripoli, the base of operations in the northern regions ; while the moun- tain field is worked from Abeih, a pleasant village clinging to the western slope of Lebanon, 2400 feet above the sea, and located in a south-easterly direction from Beirut, fifteen miles distant. The historical associations of the region now occupied by the Syria Mis- sion lead us back through the centuries until history is lost in tradition, and our only source of authentic information is found to be the few brief hints given us in the early chapters of Genesis. This narrow plain between the glittering Lebanons and the sea, was the scene of Phoenicia's glory. Yonder is Sidon, of which we read in the 10th of Gene- sis ; just there is Tyre, sleeping her prophetic sleep amidst the ruins of ancient splendor, which for 1500 years dazzled the world. Two thousand years, and over, before Christ, she was born of royal Sidon, and for long centuries the history of these renowned cities reveals a record of brilliant prosperity and guilty luxury, which not even the dimness of those early ages can obscure. Upon many of the " high places" of Lebanon and Hermon are imposing ruins of ancient temples, where, no doubt, were celebrated the tragic and idolatrous rites of heathenism. The fertile plain of the Buka'a was the home of idolatry ; the magnificent ruins of Baalbec are, no doubt, the lingering relics of one of the most imposing centres of sun-worship which the world has ever seen. Just over the crests of Anti-Lebanon is Damas- cus, probably the most ancient city of wThich the world can now boast. As we run our eye up and down the coast, we can recall to mind Assyrian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, Arabian, and Turkish con- querors, each in turn marshalling their victorious armies, and planting their standards upon those picturesque shores. Back of Tripoli, upon the bleak heights, may still be found a grove of the ancient cedars which flourished, no doubt, in the times of David and Solomon ; wThile the very earth is popu- lous with the tombs and sarcophagi of past generations. In the gardens of Sidon, in 1854, were found some copper pots full of the beautiful gold coins of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander, and near by, in 1855, was discovered the celebrated sarcophagus of King Ashmunazer, son of Tabnith, son of Ashmunazer, king of Sidon, whose Phoenician inscription is the long- est which has yet come to light, and in most perfect preseiwation. Every step we take in this i^ichly historic region, brings us into contact with the relics of the long past. It is, therefore, a field deeply interesting and sug- gestive in its historical associations. Our Lord himself once trod the mis- sion soil of Syria, when He visited the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and was at Csesarea Philippi. The heights of Hermon above the latter place, most 5 probably, witnessed His Transfiguration. Paul touched at the Syrian sea-ports on his missionary journeys. This, then, is sacredly historic soil, and a tenderer interest lingers here than could be given by human history alone. 2. Its People and Religions. — The mission is in the heart of the great Turkish Empire, Syria being a province of the Ottoman Empire, and gov- erned by a Turkish Governor General, receiving his appointment from Con- stantinople, and having his residence at Damascus. Since the civil wars of 18G0, Mount Lebanon has been an independent Pashalic, whose governor is selected from one of the nominally Christian sects. The present Governor, Franco Pasha, is a Maronite. Although there is a diversity of nationalities throughout the field, the spoken language is universally the Arabic ; a]l mis- sionary operations are through this medium of communication. The popu- lation within the geographical limits of the field, is a little less than a million ; and a more complex, fragmentary and antagonistic million, cannot be found in any other single spot on the face of the earth. Side by side, either in sepa- rate villages, or in distinct quarters of the same city or village, iive, generally in a state of mutual distrust and alienation, the Moslem, the Metawely, the Druze, the Orthodox Greek, the Papal Greek, the Maronite, the Latin Cath- olic, the Nusairiyeh, the Jacobite and the Jew ; while the wild Bedouin has his home in the neighboring desert. Protestant Christian missions are here face to face with two of the most fanatical^Ditter and zealous opposing sys- tems to be found in any mission field ; viz. Mohammedanism, and the de- generate Eastern Christianity. mThe ultimate aim of all Protestant mission ♦ work in the Orient _> is to plant and nourish a true Christianity in the midst of Mohammedanism, with the hope of ultimately gaining a victory for the Gospel over Islam ; and, in the prosecution of this aim, the work is directly upon the degenerate, erring Christian sects. Hence there is in Syria no single stratum, social or religious, upon which to work; as, for example, some" anciently united and historic church or people, like the Armenians. But the task is, to fuse into one harmonious, evangelical church, these diverse and intensely antagonistic elements ; to draw them into fraternal and con- fiding unity ; to form a church which will be itself a centre of organized, self-supporting missionary operations ; and thus to redeem Christianity from the scandal and shame which attaches to her history in the Orient. Hith- <" erto the Christianity of the East has been itself the strong argument against Christianity. In the midst of this ancient and curious society, with its striking and peculiar antagonisms, which have been petrifying for centu- ries, until their absurdity and bitterness fairly defy representation to the American reader, is located the Syria Mission, with its heroic history, its precious names, its earnest and persevering toils, its encouraging successes, and its brightening prospects ; now the inheritance of the re-uniied Presby- terian Church. Of these various sects the nominal Christians are perhaps more nuiner- ous than any other one class of people, consisting of about 250,000 Maron- ites, 70,000 Orthodox Greeks, 50,000 Greek Catholics, and a few thou- sand Syrian Jacobites, and Armenians. The Druzes may number 50,000, and the remainder of the population are Moslems, Metawelies, Nusairi- yeh, Bedouin Arabs, and Jews. The Maronites reside chiefly in Northern Lebanon. The Orthodox Greeks, and Greek Catholics, are found in the cities, and in the villages of the mountains. The Druzes occupy the south- ern half of Lebanon, the valley of the Upper Jordan, and the western slopes of Hermon. The Metawelies are found chiefly in Sidon, Tyre, and the moun- tains east of those cities, also, at the north end of Lebanon, and in the Buka'a about Baalbec. The Nusairiyeh dwell on the mountains about Safeeta, and in a few other localities. The Jacobites are found at Hums, ►Sudud, and dependent villages. The Moslems abound in the chief cities, and in parts of the mountains both at the north and south end of our field. They also occupy many villages in the Buka'a. Fragmentary tribes of tent- dwelling Arabs are met with in nearly all parts of our field, but we come in contact with the great Bedouin wanderers of the desert chiefly in the neighborhood of Hums on the north-east, and Banias at the south-east of our limits. Dr. Thomson of the Mission, in his " Land and the Book," speaking of the uncongenial and inharmonious relations of Syrian society, says: " The various religions and sects live together, and practice their conflicting super- stitions in close proximity, but the people do not coalesce into one homoge- neous coimnunity, nor do they regard each other with fraternal feelings. The Sunnites excommunicate the Shiites, (rival Moslem sects,) — both hate the Druzes, and all three detest the Nusairiyeh. The Maronites have no particular love for any body, and in turn are disliked by all; which is true also as said of the Druzes. The Orthodox Greeks cannot endure the Greek Catholics; and the fact that the former, more generally than any other4sect, ac- cept the missionary and the Gospel, arrays all other sects against them. All despise the Jews. These remarks are also true of all the minor divis- ions of this land." "Another curious fact," says Dr. Thomson, "is, that, with the exception of the Jews and Bedouin Arabs, no one can trace back his own origin to any ancient race or nation. The general mass of the Moslems are the ming- led descendants of the various races who composed the population of the Greek Empire at the time ol Mohamined; and this original confusion of rices lias been infinitely augmented during the twelve centuries of their lawless occupation. In all the Christian sects there has been the same blending of primitive races, and a large infusion of foreign and European blood, during the times of the Crusades, and subsequently even to our day; so that the most intelligent and learned admit that it is absolutely impossi- ble, now, to ascertain their true national origin. The Maronites, as a body, may have descended from the ancient Syrians. The Nusairiyeh suggest the idea that they are the miserable debris of the accursed Canaanites. The Metawelies appear to have immigrated from Persia ; they have a decided resemblance to the Jews. In the inhabitants of Lebanon and the plains at its base we may possibly find some traces of the original Phoenicians. The Druzes are Arabs, who came from the eastern confines of Syria, and settled in Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon within the last nine hundred years." The Christian sects of Syria, as well as some others in the East, are de- signated as only nominally Christian, for the reason that, while they are the descendants of the early Christian Church, and so inherit the name Chris- tian, they are yet unchristian in the degeneracy of their corrupt religious faith and practice, and have long since forfeited by their scandalous lives, their depraved church -polity, and the virtual idolatry of their religious wor- ship, any right to the full and simple title of Christians. There are marked differences in the religious characteristics, and also in the accessibility of these various sects. Of all, the Orthodox Greeks are the most accessible to missionary labor. This is owing to several causes. No doubt, the most influential is, that the Greek Church has never forbidden her people to receive and read the Word of God. They have, in fact, been always willing to accept at our hands the sacred Scriptures, and to have them taught in our schools. They are also disposed to accept the Bible as paramount authority on religious matters. From this cause, too, they are more willing to read other religious books, to converse on spiritual topics, and to listen to the preached Gospel. It is an interesting fact, that mission work in the East, thus far, has been blessed with a rapid and special success among the Armenians and Orthodox Greeks, who alone of all the nomi- nal Christian sects have cherished a respect for the Bible, and among whom it has never been a proscribed book. God is remembering in mercy those who have paid even a formal respect to His Holy Word. The Greeks also re- ject the Papacy, and earnestly protest against the monstrous pretensions of the Pope, so that they have many points of agreement with Protestants, and, to a certain extent, look upon them as friends and allies. Owing to these and other causes, partly social and partly political, these people are everywhere open to missionary labor ; most of the members of our churches are from this sect, and as they are found in considerable numbers throughout our entire field, they constitute a practical working basis of the utmost im- portance. The Greek Catholics — a papal off-shoot from the Greek Church, which be- gan about 150 years ago — abound most in the cities and on Lebanon ; and, though greatly restrained by a watchful Papal hierarchy, the people retain, and at times assert a good deal of independence, and from the mere fact that they have once broken away from their original community, they are the more ready to investigate religious subjects, and more open to convic- tion, than the Maronites. They are, like the Orthodox Greeks, a minority, and dwell side by side with other sects. They probably number a larger 8 proportion of educated, intelligent and enterprising young men, than any other body of people in the country. The Maronites, as a rule, are bigoted Papists, very ignorant, and wholly subject to the stringent and ever-watchful control of their clergy. Their hierarchy is also very numerous, well organized ;md powerful, being reinfor- ced by a multitude of learned Jesuits, and numberless monks and nuns, both native and foreign. In a large part of northern Lebanon, they are the only inhabitants, and have been hitherto inaccessible. Still, even in this strong- hold of the Maronite Patriarch, the light of the Gospel is beginning to penetrate, in spite of all opposition; and not only individuals, but considera- ble communities are found, from time to time, attempting to break away from their bondage, and to declare themselves Protestants. This number is steadily increasing, and there is good reason to hope that a wide and effectu- al door for the Gospel amongst this large and needy people, will ere long be opened, which no man can shut. In other parts of our field, where the Maronites are few, they are, of course, more accessible, and less stringently bound by their priests. The Druzes are, and always have been, our personal friends — are glad to have us reside amongst them, and open schools for the education of their children. Of late, many of their most enterprising youth are seeking a higher education in our seminaries, and hi the college. It is very desirable that more definite and adequate measures be adopted and worked efficiently for their conversion. Their religion is a medley of Mohammedanism and ancient philosophical systems — especially that of Zoroaster — with some notions borrowed apparently from Judaism and Christianity. They hold to the absolute unity of the Godhead, and that the highest perfection of man is to have all his powers of mind and heart mystically absorbed in the Deity. According to their views, there have been seven law- givers and ten incarnations, the last being in the person of El Hakeem, chief founder and prophet of the sect. The world was populated instanta- neously with beings of every age and condition. The transmigration of souls is a cardinal doctrine, and furnishes a just and convenient system of rewards and punishments. The number of Druzes in existence is not to be changed, therefore proselytism is undesirable, and apostacy cannot be tolera- ted. Desertion from then ranks also breaks in upon an organization mar- vellously compact and effective in war and politics. The higher mysteries are known only to the initiated, but all are bound to unqualified secrecy, and, for this end, any deception is allowable. China is inhabited, as they sup- pose, by their co-religionists, and at the predicted day of reckoning, two and a half millions of Chinese monotheists are to sweep across Asia, crush out a war that shall be raging between Christians and Moslems, and enable Ha- keem, again in human form, to punish all who reject his sway. II is armies shall then go plundering through the world, and finally set up his throne in Egyp^ where believers, rewarded with rank and wealth, shall reign with him, 9 forever. This glorious era was to be ushered in nine centuries after the es- tablishment of the faith. Their computation declares the day to be close at hand; among the ignorant, expectation is high, but those of more intelli- gence begin to question the traditions of a Chinese invasion, and to fear some stronger faith must supplant their own. If such is to be the case, rather than adopt any of the religions about them, Protestantism would be their choice, particularly as their patron, the English nation, professes it ; few, however, are yet willing to turn their back upon the religion of their fathers. Light is beginning to make its way among them, they have in a few instances even established schools of their own, with teachers trained by the Mission. Three years since a prominent Druze was publicly baptized with his children at Abeih, and last year nine young men, representing leading families, entered the College at Beirut. This bold, vigorous, industrious race, lifted out of their degrading superstitions by the power of the Gospel, would make Mount Lebanon a strong-hold of the truth. The Moslems and Metawelies are, as a rule, still inaccessible to direct mis- sionary labor. They are, however, waking up to the necessity of education, and in many places some of their children are beginning to attend our schools. In Beirut there are two schools exclusively for Moslem girls, which are well attended though conducted on Christian principles. A spirit of in- quiry on religious subjects is manifested more frequently than in former years, and a few are found who express a desire to forsake the faith of Islam. Influences are at work which tend slowly but surely to break down the hitherto impregnable wall of separation which forbids the introduction of the Gospel among the Moslem population, and the time draws on apace when this vast field will be thrown open to the Church. Along the northern limits of our field we come in contact with the large body of the Nusairiyeh — a semi-heathen and more than semi-barbarous com- munity. These people are, in some respects, in much the same' state as the Druzes, and from the results of missionary labor among them by the breth- ren at Ladakiyeh, there is every reason to hope that they will be found to offer an open and a promising field of evangelistic labor. To complete tins survey, we must briefly refer to the Bedouin Arabs. Small fragments of these tent-dwelling descendants of Ishmael are met with in nearly all parts of our field. These fragmentary tribes are, to a certain extent, stationary, that is, they never wander far from the settled parts of the country, and have constant intercourse with the villagers in the vicinity of their encampments. In the region of Hamah and Hums, however, we are brought face to face with the genuine Bedouins, who swarm all over the plains and deserts of Syria. So also on the east and south of Banias we encounter the same wild wanderers in great numbers. The only way in which mission work can as yet be carried on amongst them, is to send col- porteurs to wander about with them in their migrations. This kind of work has been prosecuted for several years by the Sidon station, and is at 10 present urged forward at the expense of a benevolent English gentleman, Mr. Arlington of Leeds, who is also supporting some Bedouin youth in the school of Mr. Bistany, in the hope that they will, in time, become missionaries to their people in the desert. This good work should be sustained and fos- tered by every wise and available means, in the assured belief that the time is not distant when these outcast children of the desert will be converted to Christ. 3. Its difficulties and encouragements. — The preceding survey of our field will of itself suggest to a thoughtful mind some of the difficulties and dis- couragements which it presents. But it is desirable to present these matters in more detail, that the Church may be placed in intelligent sympathy with the Mission, and be better prepared to prosecute those measures which are necessary for success, with the greater patience, perseverance and faith. The fragmentary and antagonistic character of the population creates one of the most obstinate difficulties in the way of general and rapid evangel- istic success. There is no single, common stratum of society underlying the entire community, which, as a basis, might be worked throughout the land; and it is, of course, very difficult to fuse such discordant elements into one harmonious Christian community. In addition, the fanaticism and bitter prejudices of the various religious sects — not alone the Moslems but, as well, the nominally Christian — make a profession of Protestantism on the part of an individual or a community, a trying and even hazardous ordeal. In many cases, it involves either the severing of family ties( or the loss of property, or social and political disgrace, or persecution, cruel and long-con- tinued ; in some cases, this due catalogue would seem to be all combined in the crushing avalanche of troubles which overwhelms the feeble and, per- haps, faint-hearted convert. Neighbors, friends, and even relatives, seem, sometimes, to be transformed into incarnate devils, bent upon driving, worry- ing, frightening, or torturing the recreant one back into the fold of the fam- ily religion ; wrhile the priests are equally zealous to avail themselves of ev- ery agency, which their influence or official station can command, to accom- plish the same end. Again, each of these sects is fenced about by peculiar creeds and customs, and defended by watchful leaders and zealous subalterns. To counteract these opposing influences, and break the power of superstition, prejudice, and habit, implies a vast amount of labor, study, patience and perseverance. Then again these barriers against the reception of the Gospel are im- mensely strengthened by political entanglements. Each of the sects has, or seeks to have, some foreign protector, upon whom it can depend for protection against its enemies. The Maronites look to the French Gov- ernment to sustain their independent existence ; the Greeks depend upon Russia; the Greek Catholics upon Austria; and the Druzes rely upon England. They are all, in fact, dealt with by these various governments as so 11 many political allies in this country, and this marks them off into distinct and hostile camps. The recent war between France and Prussia, brought out this element of discord and antagonism in an amazing manner. Time and other influences will, however, modify these partizan animosi- ties. Experience has proved, also, that even this fragmentary and antagonis- tic character of the inhabitants is overruled, in the providence of God, for the protection of persecuted Protestants, and as a means of gaining access to many parts of the country, which might otherwise be effectually closed against us. The Protestants keep aloof from all these entanglements, and cultivate friendly relations with all, that the Gospel may not be hindered, but rather commended to all classes of the community. Another hindrance to missionary success in Syria is the familiarity of the people with the language of religion, while strangers to its power. Relig- ious phrases and expressions abound. The most sacred words and devout phrases are on the lips of all. Their very salutations contain an amount of holy language that is astonishing. Dr. Laurie, in his Historical Sketch, says: " Good people in America are often at a loss to understand how there can be so many Christian sects in Syria, and no religion. But if they will bear in mind the natural character of the heart, and then consider, that in all the nominal churches of Syria spiritual instruction is never given — that the doctrines of the Gospel are never taught — that piety is made to consist in outward ceremonies, in the observance of days, and obedience to their priests — that their idea of worship is the repetition of prayers in an un- known tongue — that the distinction between the regenerate and unregene- rate is known only as the difference between the baptised and unbaptised — that religion is separated from morality — that the priest is held to have power to pardon sin, and does it for money — that their preaching is either a teaching of the worst errors of Popery, or incredible and silly legends of saints ; they will see how the name can exist without the substance." The mission work in Syria has also been greatly retarded by frequent po- litical changes, and the unsettled, restless state of society. The minds of the people have been occupied, and their attention distracted, by the con- stant expectation or fear of social disorder and anarchy, while at times civil wars of the most harrowing and desolating cruelty have swept over the land. The recent fearful massacres of I860 are an example. The result of these apparently and, no doubt, directly adverse influences has been, however, in many cases, to gain a vantage ground, or secure an opportuni- ty, for which the missionaries had, perhaps, been waiting and praying many years. It is true, moreover, that but few Protestants were either implicated or injured in these frightful outbursts. We quote again from Dr. Laurie's Sketch, with reference to the results of the civil wars of 1860. " The direct results of this war on our operations were, doubtless, injurious. Some stations were broken up for a time. Many hearts were hardened by suffering, and immorality increased, through the homeless poverty of many 12 exposed to temptation. But the general result shows much that calls for gratitude. The power of the clergy that martyred Asaad el Shidiak, and formed the greatest hindrance to the progress of the truth, weakened by previous wars, in this, received its death-blow." " Again, the war brought missionaries into more extensive and favorable in- tercourse with the people than ever before. At different times, as many as 75000 persons, in all, were fed daily from their hands. At one time, 2500 were fed in Beirut by native members of our church ; 60000 piastres, (8"2400) contributed in England and America, were distributed every week by the missionaries ; Dr. Thomson having charge of the clothing, bedding, etc. ; Dr. Van Dyck devoting his time to the .sick; and Mr. Jessup dealing out daily bread to the starving multitudes. Besides all this at Beirut, Mr. Lyons visited the vicinity of Baalbec, on the same errand ; and Mr. Eddy ministered to the thousands who had fled to Sidon for refuge . Yet, out of 15000 widows there were only twenty Protestants. Such a refutation of the slanders by which the clergy had sought for more than forty years to fence out the missionaries from the people, could not but produce a re- action in favor of the truth. During some months there was daily preach- ing at Beirut." In all the trials of this Mission, though sickness and other causes have constrained some to return home, the missionaries generally have stood at then* posts, and sought to bear up the courage of the churches on the wings of then own faith. Amid the discouragements of 1841 and 1842, the lamented Dr. Eli Smith, though his mind was never free from anxiety respecting the prospects of the Mission, yet pleaded against its being abandoned by the churches, and was content to do good by piece-meal, as opportunity offered, assured that all the preparatory labor then performed would one day yield abundant fruit. In 1845, the Mission wrote: "Our history presents so many instances of most marked divine interposition in behalf of the Mission, that it would indicate feeble faith indeed if we should be greatly cast down by present difficulties." Again, in 1861, while the waves of the storm of 1860 were still raging, a beloved brother still at his post wrote : " To the question — Are you discouraged? We answer, No. The walk of Jerusalem were built in troub- lous times. Storm and tempest are as needful as the dew and sunshine. We may see darker times than ever, and we may see lighter ; but light or dark, our duty is plain. We are to hold on till the divine Hand itself loosens our hold; we may and ought to walk in the light of God." The Mission in Syria now stands on higher vantage-ground than ever before; and those " who are alive and remain " there, now begin to realize the truth, that they who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Another difficulty which makes the gaining and confirming of souls in the spiritual life such a laborious, and often discouraging work, is the unproni- 13 ising and spiritually impoverished character of the material which is availa- ble for missionary work. It is buried beneath the dust and ashes of Orien- talism, religious and social, as Pompeii lay overwhelmed by the ashes of Vesuvius. Dig it out, and strike it with the Gospel hammer, and it seems often simply to dissolve into suffocating dust. An ignorance of any high spiritual experience in the churches also tends to retard their growth, and makes them contented to live with less of earnest aspiration and spiritual de- velopment than should mark their piety. The presence of the Spirit has V never been known in the churches in any such striking and generally preva- lent power as is often known in Christian communities here. The converts have been almost entirely adults, won by the power of the truth, convin- cing, conquering and subduing; hence, the prevailing type of piety is intellec- tual rather than emotional. The Syrian missionary prays for the mighty power and influence of the Spirit, to give tenderness and love where faith and intellectual convictions are often so clear and simple. As regards the special encouragements of the field, there are some strong points of interest. The geographical limits of the field would be a very in- adequate indication of the actual and prospective sphere of the Mission in its influence for good. A far wider view is the true one to take. By means of the press, the Bible and religious books have been spread already over the vast re- gions occupied by Arabic speaking races, from Western Africa to India and beyond it, and from Mosul and Mardin to Ethiopia and Abyssinia. By means of the common school, the normal school, the female seminary, the college and the theological seminary, teachers and preachers are trained and sent forth to extend the blessings of the Gospel, and the advantages of education, to many distant places. These long hues of precious influence and spiritual power are but just beginning to be worked out extensively, and they afford the highest encouragement for rapid expansion and early results. "While there are other honored missionaries who labor in the Arabic lan- guage, and so also for their vast Arabic speaking constituency, yet it would not be invidious to say that the Syria Mission enjoys special opportunities to carry on an enlarged and expansive work in this direction. Her Arabic printing press is the largest and most active in the world, and her means and appliances for educating and Christianizing the Arab people are the re- sult of many laborious years of missionary effort. Beirut, with* Lebanon for her protector, feeder, and chief support, is rapidly and surely becoming the radiating centre of literary, scientific and religious light and culture for this people. The same is true with regard to the vigorous and growing educational institutions of the Mission. The College also is destined to oc- cupy a noble sphere, and do a grand work for the race in whose interests, for Christ's sake, it has been founded. A spacious and beautiful building for the uses of the institution, is now in process of erection at Beirut, the corner-stone of which was recently laid by an esteemed friend of the Mission, 14 Hon. W. E. Dodge of New York, who was then visiting the East. A build- ing for the Medical Department is also in process of erection. Another encouragement is to be found in the strategic location of the Mission. It is in the heart of the Mohammedan world, and any success which the Gospel may achieve here will exert an important, if not de- cisive influence in overthrowing the ancient faith of Islam. But our hope and great encouragement, after all, is in God. He has given us this commanding position ; He has blessed us with these noble opportunities ; He has prepared these agencies and instrumentalities of special value and efficiency, that He may bless the Mission with spiritual power, and work mightily through His servants, by the energy of the Holy Ghost, for the salvation of vast numbers who would otherwise be left to be the prey of Satan and the victims of sin. n. A STATEMENT OF PROGRESS UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. 1. la Relatioa to Evangelistic Work. — In the prosecution of their work, the Mission have( ever regarded the preaching of the Gospel as the most effi- cacious instrumentality for bringing the truth into contact with the hearts of the people, and they have held all other agencies as only auxiliary to this. The acquisition of the language has, therefore, been the first duty of the new missionary, to the end that he may as soon as possible address the people in their own tongue. Every Sabbath, and more or less during the week, they are accustomed to preach in their stations and out-stations. Their audiences average from 50 to 100 hearers, except that the Beirut con- gregation numbers nearly 500 souls. Connected with the Beirut congrega- tion is an interesting sabbath school, numbering 350 scholars, and also a weekly Bible class for young men, conducted by Dr. Jessup, numbering about 80 regular attendants. Sabbath schools and Bible-classes, not so numerously attended, are in operation at other localities in the mission field. There are three ordained native evangelists in the field. One is a settled pastor, another is a professor in the Medical Department of the College, and the third is preaching as a supply, with the expectation of soon becoming a pastor. \ class of five has just graduated from the Theological Seminary of the Mission, and it is the expectation that they will become pastors also at various points in the field. Besides these, there are as many as twenty pious native helpers and preachers, some of whom act also as teachers in common schools, who have most of them enjoyed more or less theological training in Abeih Semi- nary, and who conduct religious services in the various parts of the field on the Sabbath, besides gathering the people for religious conversation and instruction during the evenings of the week; so that it is not too much to 15 say, that by means of the missionaries and the native helpers the Gospel is preached statedly in as many as thirty places in Syria, as far as it constitutes a part of their mission field, and the regular attendants will number about 2500 souls. These native preachers and teachers command the respect and confidence of the Mission, and are a powerful auxiliary to their labors. The problem yet to be solved is, how to greatly increase the number of such laborers, so as to meet the pressing wants of the field ; duly to educate them, and to in- duce the native churches to assume their support. Churches. — In the northern field are two churches, at Tripoli, and at Hums. The church members in and around Beirut form a church in that city. In the Lebanon are two churches; one in Abeih, and the other in Ain Zehalta. In the Sidon field are four churches ; in Sidon, Alma, Khiyam, and Hasbeiya, these various churches collect the members from the re- gions of which they are the centres. The number of church members in them all is about 320. Church Edifices. — In the Tripoli field there are two church edifices, one at Safeeta, and the other at Hums, both recently completed ; in Tripoli a room is hired for an indefinite number of years ; in other places rooms are hired. In the Beirut field there is at Beirut a fine church, with tower and clock, and one at Kefr Sheema, recently dedicated. Another preaching service has recently been established in Beirut, which promises well and may in time call for another church edifice in that city. In the Abeih field there is a fine church building in process of erection at Abeih; an inferior one in use at Ain Zehalta; a new one now completed at Bhamdun; and several rooms are hired and occupied for church purposes. In the Sidon field there are church buildings in Sidon, Kanah, Alma, Deir Mimass, Khiyam, Ibl, Rasheiya, and Hasbeiya. The people of Mejdel, Jedaide, and Jim, are also making efforts to complete churches in their re- spective communities. For the most part these churches have been built by funds raised by the missionaries among friends of the Mission at home; yet considering the poverty of many of these native communities, they have themselves given largely, and made many sacrifices for the honor and success of the Gospel. Theological Seminary. — A Seminary for the training of theological students has been hi operation for three years past. Formerly it was located at Abeih, but it is a distinct institution from what is known in the Mission as the "Abeih Seminary." Recently it was removed to Beirut. Its instructors are Mr. Calhoun, in the department of Exegesis and Biblical Introduction; Mr. Eddy, in the department of Systematic Theology; Mr. H. H. Jessup, in the department of Church History and Homiletics. Its first graduating class of 16 five are young men of ability and zeal ; it is hoped that they will be greatly useful as native pastors. We close this brief statement of evangelistic progress with a summary of results. (1) Direct Results. — What has been hitherto accomplished seems small, if estimated merely by the number of churches formed, church members ad- mitted, native pastors ordained, Protestant communities enrolled ; but in no country does this comprise the sum of missionary influence, and least of all would this scale of reckoning results apply to Syria. These results will not seem small, if the difficulties of the field are borne in mind, the difficulties of the language, the small number of laborers, and the counteracting influences from hostile organizations, powerfully sustained by men and means. Only God could have wrought so much, through instru- mentalities so inadequate. Only God could have prevented the cause of truth from being overborne by such powers leagued against it. While the number actually converted seems as yet small, it is nevertheless true, that many minds are enlightened, and multitudes are Protestant in sentiment who will ere long join the mission ranks. The children of Syria will many of them become Protestants. A prominent Greek at Beirut re- cently said to Dr. Jessup, " You missionaries need not trouble yourselves about converting Syria, our children are all going to be Protestants; the Bible will do the work." The month of December in each year has been set apart by the Foreign Board as a season of special prayer for Syria among the churches. Hardly had the prayers of God's people last Decem- ber ascended before the throne, when there was manifest in the Mission an unusual spirit of inquiry among the natives ; the spirit of the Lord was evidently present ; the Word was listened to with eagerness and solemnity ; large and interesting prayer meetings were held ; souls were converted, and the churches edified, strengthened and refreshed. In many years there has been no such hopeful and significant religious movement as that which blessed Syria last winter. Let the people of God, and the Mends of Syria, pray, and the work will go on gloriously. (2) Indirect Results. — These have been among Mohammedans, Druzes, and Nominal Christians. To Protestant influence, in great part, may we ascribe the changed feeling which has come over the minds of the Mohammedans towards Christians. The Clnistian religion has become understood by them to be not wholly the system of idolatry which they once regarded it, nor professing Christians as devoid of morality as they once seemed. As a consequence, there has been a sensible quenching of the flame of Moslem bigotry, and a greater respect for Christians, their rights, their Bible, and then* religion. The relative positions of the Crescent and the Cross are not what they were when the 17 d O w. > 18 missionaries came to Syria. The Bible has gained ground, and the Koran has lost it, a3 a controlling influence in the land. Some Mohammedans are among the attendants upon our preaching, and these would, doubtless, be more numerous, but for the risk to property and to life which inquirers from among them incur. A young Moslem in Sidon recently asked Mr. Eddy if he might come to his (Mr. Eddy's) house, and learn arithmetic, adding that this would be only an ostensible reason, as the truth was, he had been reading the New Testament, and wanted to know more of our religion. Several interesting cases of religious inquiry among Moslems hj,ve come to the knowledge of the missionaries within a year or two past. The first really satisfactory convert from Mohammedanism in the history of the S}rria Mission, was admitted to the church during the past year. His calmness amidst persecution, and his heroic adherence to his Saviour, in the face of threatened death, make one of the most interesting and thrilling chapters in the annals of our Mission. He was rescued by the efforts of consuls and missionaries from the clutches of the Turkish Governor General of Syria, and his right to religious liberty on the basis of the guarantees of 1856, fought for and secured ; although he was obliged subsequently to flee to Egypt to escape private assassination, as some forty young Moslems in Beirut had sworn to kill him in some way. But every convert thus res- cued gives added dignity to the guarantees of religious liberty, which are legally perfect in the Turkish Empire, and tends to make them more and more a recognized law of the land. The time is not far off when religious liberty will be a literal, as well as a legal fact, throughout the Turkish Em- pire. As yet, it needs to be vigorously contended for in Syria and the re- moter provinces, lest the tiger s])irit of Moslem fanaticism, which still lurks in the hearts of " the Faithful ," should do its bloody work secretly in the darkness of its prisons, and under the protection of Turkish authority. Not without results, also, have the children of the Druzes been taught in our schools during all these years, and so many conversations been held with adults of that sect. The leaven of the Gospel has pervaded even to the secret inner sanctu- aries of their religion, and the white turbans of the initiated Druzes seen in our Sabbath congregations, and the inquirers who come to our houses, and the baptized converts from among then, show that not in vain to the Druzes has the light of the Gospel again dawned upon Syria. One of the young men who graduated from the Theological Seminary last year is from the Druze sect, and it is hoped will do a good work among his people. But principally among the nominal Christian sects have the indirect results of missionary labor extended. These are visible in the changed power of the clergy. Once, excommunication was a terror above all terrors. Now, it is so powerless a weapon that those who once wielded it so effec- tively are ashamed to challenge ridicule by exposing its weakness. Protestantism, once regarded by the mass of the people as the blackest 19 of heresies, finds everywhere its defenders and vindicators, even where it lacks followers, and no longer can the lies, with which the clergy were accustomed to frighten away their flocks from contact with Gospel influence, gain currency. The religious instruction given in their churches has been modified. More Bible is taught, and less tradition. The preaching is more of Christ, and less of the saints. The adoration of pictures has greatly lessened. All sects have been compelled to introduce schools, and to educate both boys and girls ; to educate their priests, and to modify the prohibitions against reading the Bible. At times, even now, the fanaticism of the priests breaks forth in disgraceful exhibitions; as, recently, in Kanah and Tyre, at the com- mand of the Greek Catholic clergy, the people burned their Bibles. This action, however, on the part of the priests, drove some of their adherents into the Protestant ranks, and called forth bitter reproaches from the Mos- lems, who denounced it as scandalous and shameful. The circulation of the Scriptures, and of religious books, has been wide- spread, and we have heard of some who have been enlightened by these silent teachers, and have through them found Christ as their Saviour, and died in joyful trust in Him, though they never had an opportunity publicly to profess their faith in Him. Among all sects— Mohammedan, I)ruze, Greek, Maronite and Catholic, the glaciers of prejudice, which for centuries have been forming, are now melting and crumbling under the light and warmth of the Gospel. The gift of the Bible to this people in their own tongue is the rich tribute of gratitude which the West has returned to the East, in acknowledgment of its obligation to the land whence the Bible came ; and the East, in its turn, is again paying tribute to the West, sending back to the churches the stimulat- ing and precious tidings of the victories which the Word of God is winning. Not in vain have Hebard and Smith and Whiting and De Forest and Eord sowed the seed of the Word in tears, even though they went home with few gathered sheaves. From the heights of heaven they now behold the springing harvest. Not in vain have the Syrian workers who yet remain, toiled, many of them for long years in that arduous field ; God is giving them abundant evidences of His favor, establishing the work of their hands with signs and wonders of His grace. The churches in America which have aided in sustaining the Mission by their offerings and their prayers, have seen fewer results than have crowned their labors in other fields, and their faith has been sorely tried : yet they have been permitted to hear, from time to time, of souls ransomed from darkness and sin ; echoes of the songs of triumph sung by departing saints have been borne to their ears ; and they have felt that their labors have not been unrewarded. And the Church which now adopts the Mission, adopts a charge of peculiar difficulty. This " Crown Jewel of Missions," as it has more kindly than de- 20 servedly been called, needs years of careful cutting and polishing ere it will be -worthy to shine on the Saviour's brow. Yet, surely it may be counted a privilege, and none the less so because the campaign is prolonged, and costly, and difficult, to recover to its rightful Lord the land of patriarchs and prophets, of apostles and martyrs ; to restore primitive Christianity to the home of its birth, after fourteen centuries of exile. To the question, therefore, Missionaries, what have you done in Syria ? We answer : By God's grace, we have laid anew the foundations of God's living temple, Christ being the chief corner-stone, and we have seen some courses already built upon it. We have set up and maintained the banner of the cross in the face of its pretended friends and its avowed foes. We have collected a little army on the Lord's side, and armed them with the sword of the Spirit. We have prepared an arsenal of spiritual weapons for future conflicts, in the Scriptures, and other religious books, translated and committed to the people. We have established outposts of schools and seminaries, and have raised strong- holds of the truth, in churches planted here and there throughout the land. We have taken possession of the land in the name of King Immanuel, and we aim to subdue and hold it wholly for Him. Under this same general head of a " Statement of Progress up to the Present Time," we remark : 2. As to Educational Agencies. — The awakening mind of the East craves education. We make it the hand-maid of the Gospel. By it we gain positions and attain an influence, which we could hope for, as Syrian society, is now constituted, in no other way. ' Through it we have hundreds of chil- dred under the most direct religious instruction, whom we could not reach in any other way. Our reading books are made up of Bible history and in- cident. Religious truth is also illustrated and enforced. Much of the New Testament is committed to memory in our schools, and the children are all carefully drilled in the catechisms, and also in books of Scripture history and religious doctrine. They are also taught to recite and sing many of the best hymns in our language, which have been translated into Arabic; '; Just as I am," set to the Turkish national air, is a great favorite. The music with which the Mohammedan marches into battle has been impressed into the service of the Gospel, and as its sweet and stirring notes echo through our churches, it seems both a type and a prophecy of happy aud glorious changes yet to come. This whole matter of Education in Syria, is so ably and interestingly pre- sented in a " Special Report on Education in its Relations to the Mission Work in Syria," by Rev. W. W. Eddy, of the Sidon Station, that we can do nothing better than introduce it here entire, as presenting the subject in all its importance and in its present aspects. 21 REPORT. (See Foreign Missionary for September, 1871.) It may be well to define, in the outset, the position of the Syria Mission in regard to this branch of benevolent enterprise. With them education is not an end, only a means to the securing of an end. Their object is the salvation of souls. They regard education as an important auxiliary in this, their great work. With this view, of course, they have always sought to combine religious with secular instruction ; directly, earnestly, plainly, have they endeavored to bring before their pupils the truths of the Bible. Without stopping to consider the general question of the bearings of edu- cation upon the missionary work, the first topic proposed is : I. Is there anything peculiar in the structure of society, and habits prevalent, in Syria, which gives to education here a sp>ecial efficacy as a means to the intro- duction of the Gospel ? The way is not yet open for bringing the Gospel directly into contact with the masses of the people by preaching. Large congregations could not be gathered with facility in the open air, as in India. Crowds of curious lis- teners do not throng our churches, as those of the missionaries in Africa and the South Sea Islands. Nor is the land, to any great extent, a field for col- porteur labor. Work of this kind is impracticable in many places, and diffi- cult in most. In consequence of the variety of religious sects here, and the bitterness of feeling between them, men attach great value to their religious distinctions, and are jealous of any encroachments upon them ; so that the obstacles to direct attempts at proselytizing are almost insurmountable. Where the work has reached an advanced stage, of course, it is different, but in all new advances we are very much shut up to the use of indirect means; and of these, one of the most hopeful is education. This appears more plainly in considering the obstacles to the Gospel among the different religious sects, and how these obstacles are met by this means. First. Among the Mohammedans. — They rarely attend our preaching, rarely visit us for religious conversation. As religious teachers, we, therefore, come but little into contact with them. Pride in the superiority of their own re- ligion, contempt of Christianity as they understand it, and of Christians, as being in this land a subject race, bigotry, and fanaticism wall them around ; while a persuasion that the Scriptures have been tampered with, shuts their hearts from the benefit of their perusal. But Mohammedanism, as a system, is vulnerable through science. To an educated mind there are in it puerilities, absurdities, glaring inconsistencies. Education lays these bare, and thus prepares the way for the consideration of another faith. Contact with Moslem minds, so difficult through other means, is in a 22 measure possible through education. Scripture truth may be inculcated in connection with science, and this when youthful minds are most susceptible to impressions. The Moslem children in our schools are, as yet, not numer- ous, but among all the pupils none read the Bible with such interest as they manifest. Considering the great importance of gaining a hold upon the Mohammedan mind, we are justified in setting a high value upon this almost sole means of reaching them, especially when this means is in itself so hopeful. Secondly. Among the Druzes. — These people are eager to have their children taught. They prize education as a means of power and influence. They despair of again recovering by the sword the position they once held in society by means of it, and turn now to education. They have confidence in us as they have in no other sect, and willingly place then children in our hands. Either clanishness, or some peculiar power in a secret religion, bars their hearts to the direct approaches of the Gospel ; but through education a wide and ef- fectual door is opened for access to their minds and consciences. Thirdly. Among the nominally Christian Sects. — Then state is characterized by ignorance of the religion they profess, except in its outward forms, ignorance of the Bible, and of the history of the Church ; while superstition and priest- craft have thus free scope to mould the heart and life, and ruin the soul. Enlightenment, both in science and in religion, the disinthralment of mind from its bondage, and the revelation of truth in all its aspects, are the indis- pensable means for rescuing those thus having a name to live, while yet they are dead. We reach many of this people directly by our preaching. We reach more through our schools, and some of them we could never reach at all but through this means. In regard to the Arabic-speaking races in Syria, it may be affirmed of them, as a whole, that they are eminently capable of receiving instruc- tion ; their minds are quick and retentive. Labor spent upon them is not expended upon a people fewsin number, and feeble in influence. Syria, en- lightened, is fitted by its position, its language, and the character of its peo- ple, to become the teacher of vast numbers of the human race. II. What lias already been done here in the way of Education. (1.) By the American Board. (a) Common Schools. — When the missionaries of the Board arrived here, more than forty years ago, there was almost a total dearth of books and of readers. Great obstacles had to be surmounted in order to the introduction of a few schools into the land. At first, only reading and writing were taught, as there was little demand for more than these, and teachers capa- ble of teaching higher branches, were wanting. These schools were commenced in Beirut, then pushed into the adjacent portions of Mt. Lebanon, then into other cities of the coast, and of the inte- 23 rior, and they have raised up a great body of readers, capable of perusing and understanding the Word of God. They have stimulated other sects to open schools in rivalry, have awakened a desire for learning, have caused a demand for books of all kinds, and for newspapers and magazines, and for higher schools and seminaries of learning. Many educated in these schools have been converted, have become members of our churches, teachers in other schools, preachers to their countrymen. Around these schools have clustered Protestant communities. Their influence has pervaded all other sects, and raised the standard of knowledge in all. Without them, it is hard to conceive how Protestantism could have gain- ed an entrance into many parts of the land. With them, it has gained a strong hold upon the reason and conscience of a great number of the inhabitants of Syria. All honour, therefore, to the common schools, which have been for so many years a source of blessing to the people of this land ! Honour to those who established them, to those who supported them, and those who have taught in them ! (b) The Abeih Seminary. — The institution now bearing this title was first established in Beirut. It was intended for the raising up of teachers and preachers, and has occupied a large place in the interest and care of the Mission. For a time no small amount of the strength of the Mission was expended upon it ; its standard of education was very high, and its gradu- ates were among the most highly educated scholars in the land. For various reasons the standard of education was gradually lowered ; and prominent among these reasons was the fact that the Mission failed to secure the object originally aimed at, to raise up, by its means, pastors for the native churches, the young men turning aside to other pursuits; and more latterly, the establishment of the Syrian Protestant College has render- ed unneccessary the teaching here of the higher branches of knowledge. Most of the teachers of our schools, and religious instructors in the vari- ous congregations, are graduates of this institution. The study of the Scriptures has been a prominent object in the conduct of the Seminary, and this branch of study has always been conducted by a member of the Mission, and remains so until this day. Until within a short time, a part of the instruction, literary as well as re- ligious, was given by a missionary, and the government was administered by him ; but of late other duties have devolved upon this missionary [Rev. S. H. Calhoun], and he has been obliged to entrust the literary instructions and the government into the hands of native teachers, retaining, however, a general superintendence over the wThole, and giving daily religious instruc- tion, as heretofore. The applicants for free admission far exceed the number which the means at the disposal of the institution allows it to receive. Several of the pupils pay a moderate sum for their expenses. 24 (c) T)ie Syrian Protestant College. — This is an outgrowth of missionary labor in Syria. Missionary instruction created a demand for it. The plans and prayers and labors of missionaries established it. The friends of mis- sions endowed it. Its aim, and that of other missionary labor, are one — the enlightinent and salvation of the Arabic speaking race This institution is still in its infancy, but its influence is already widely felt, in creating a demand for general education, in raising the standard of thought, and in stimulating other sects to enlarge and elevate their schools of learning. It has sent forth two classes of graduates, most of whom are now actively employed in the service of the Mission- It commands the confidence of the missionaries, and has their best wish- es, their prayers, and their efforts, for its success. The Medical Department of the College is an able auxiliary to the missionary work, and its manifest benefits, through its clinique and hospital practice, are a powerful argument in favor of the religious system which sustains it. (d) Female Education. — When the missionaries came to Syria it was an al- most unheard-of thing for a woman to read and write. It was argued that to teach her would tend to the disruption of society, to the disorganization of society, to the unsexing of woman. For a number of years, girls were adopted into the families of the mis- sionaries, and there trained and educated. Gradually they have entered the common schools and studied with the boys, yet they still constitute but a small minority of the pupils. In some places day schools have been opened expressly for them, taught by female teachers, and these have been well at- tended. For many years the Mission have sustained in Beirut a Female Boarding School, to which much labor and expense have been devoted. At one time a missionary and his family were detailed to its care, then it was given in charge to young ladies from America. The experiment of conducting it by means of native teachers was tried, and for five years proved successful, but circumstances have combined to render a return to the previous plan a ne- cessity, and it is now under the care of American ladies, with the best na- tive assistants. Changes have been made in it, of late, to suit the advanced stage of civi lization and education in Beirut, introducing the study of European lan- guages, and the practice of instrumental music ; also, in giving it a perma- nent home in buildings erected expressly for its accommodatian, and in en- deavoring to make it self-supporting. This institution stands high in the regard of the community and the Mis- sion, and is a powerful auxiliary to the missionary work. [The support of the Beirut Female Seminary has been wholly assumed by the "Ladies' Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church," New York.] The mission has sustained for about eight years another Female Boarding School in Sidon. 25 This is intended to meet the wants of the people who do not come into contact with European tastes and refinement. It is supported by the funds of the Mission, except that the salary of the principal teacher, Miss Jacombs, an English lady, is paid by a society of ladies in England. This school is purely a missionary institution. Its plan is to teach only girls from Protestant families, the best pupils of the common schools, with a view to their being directly useful hereafter as teachers and helpers in the missionary work. Ail the stations have a right to send pupils, and of those now in atten- dance some have come from the extreme borders of the field. Being purely a mission school and its pupils Protestants, there is here the best opportuni- ty for thorough religious instruction in connection with mental and social cul- ture, and its success realizes fully the expectations of its friends. Like the Mt. Holyoke Seminary in America, the household labor all devolves upon the puj)ils. The Beirut and Sidon schools for girls have both their spheres ; neither interferes, nor renders the other unnecessary. [The support of the Sidon Female Seminary has been wholly assumed by the " Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church," Philadelphia.] This outline comprises most of what has been done by the American Board in behalf of education in Syria. To it maybe added, of general work, the preparing and publishing of reading books and primers; of two arithme- tics, of lowTer and higher grades; of two geographies, a grammar, a work on logic, and another on rhetoric, an algebra and geometry ; and the preparing of manuscript works in natural philosophy and astronomy. Recently, in connection with the College, works on physiology, botany, chemistry and natural history have been published. A monthly religious paper has also been issued from our press for about four years past. [Recently changed to a weekly.] (2.) By other Protestant Agencies. Other Protestant agencies during late years, have co-operated with the American missionaries in their educational efforts. Most of these have been enlisted, however, in behalf of females. Mrs. Watson, an English lady, opened a school for girls in Beirut in 1856 which has since been transferred to Mt. Lehanon. Mrs. Bowen Thompson opened schools in Beirut in 1861. These are still continued, and have been extended to four places in Mt. Lebanon, to Dam- ascus, and to Hasbeiya. Miss Hicks and Miss Dobby, young ladies sent out by a Woman's Society in England, have a school for girls at Shimlan on Mt. Lebanon. Mr. Elias Suleiby, aided by friends in Scotland, mostly in connection with the Free Church, has, for ten or twelve years past, conducted schools in a part of Mt. Lebanon, and also, latterly, in the Buka'a. 26 The Established Church of Scotland has a school for Jews in Beirut, con- ducted by the Rev. Mr. Robertson. The Prussian Deaconesses, in 1801, established an institution in Beirut, partly for orphans, and partly for paying pupils. Mr. Butrus Bistany, a native Protestant of Beirut, has, for about six years past, conducted a flourishing school for boys in that city. In the same place, Miss Taylor, of England, has also conducted, for the past two years, a day school for Moslem girls. This comprises mainly what has been done within the limits of our field in Syria, in behalf of education. ITT. Has not the work of Education been brought so far forwardby the Mission, or have not other agencies arisen so capable of carrying it on, that the Mission can now with propriety withdraw from it and engage in other work ? To this question it may be replied briefly — The Mission would find it difficult to act in many places, but thiough schools. Long as the Gospel has been preached in Syria, there are still extensive districts in mountain and plain, where prejudice and the power of the clergy have kept out the light. New fields are, therefore, constantly to be occupied — schools are the entering wedges. They furnish ai. occasion for the presence of a missionary, and give an opportunity for the exerting of influence. The school teacher by day, becomes a preacher for aaults in the evening, and on the Sabbaths, and the school-rooms are thus the nuclei of churches. Again, the Mission and all other agencies combined, fail now to meet the wants of the field. The demand for schools and teachers is greater than the supply. How would it be if the larger source of supply should be withdrawn ? Again, these other agencies act only at or near certain centres. The area of their influence is limited, reaching but little beyond Beirut and a part of Mt. Lebanon. The mission schools are extended widely through our whole field — north, south, east and west. To leave these other agencies to act alone, would be to leave the greater part of the hind without schools. And, moreover, it would be impossible for those not engaged in the miss- ionary work to make their schools as directly auxiliary to the work of the Gospel, as would the Mission, whose aim in conducting these schools is to further their plans in raising up self-supporting Christian churches and communities. For these reasons, as well as others, the Mission would find itself crippled, thwarted, embarrassed, in its action, if it was compelled to give up the work of education, and to leave it to others. Much of it would certainly be left undone, as there are not agencies on hand prepared to assume it, and the cause of Christ would inevitably suffer. 27 IV. If the Mission continue the work of Education can they properly continue it on the same system and the same scale as they have done heretofore? Unquestionably the answer to this must be in the negative. First. In regard to common schools. — There is a demand for a large increase in their number, particularly among the Druzes. We could properly occupy many additional fields of much promise, had we the means. Appeals from various quarters have come to us which we have been compelled to re- fuse. There is also a demand for the elevation of the standard of many of these schools. That which met the wants of the field twenty years ago, does not meet it now. Syria has made vast strides forward within a few years, and our common school system should move forward in correspondence. It is time to commence a revision of the whole plan of these schools ; to remodel them, as far as possible, according to modern ideas; to introduce a uniform programme of studies ; to employ as a whole a higher grade ot teachers, with new checks and responsibilities. Thus increased in number, and newly organized, their power might be augmented many fold, as an agency in restoring to Syria a true Christianity. There might with advantage be added to the mission force a superintend- ent of common schools, able properly to visit and regulate them in the length and breadth of the land. Secondly. In regard to Abeih Seminary. — The Mission need for the conduct of their schools a greater number of teachers than they can reasonably ex- pect to obtain from among the graduates of the College. Not all of these schools require teachers of so high a grade. It is not enough that these teachers should be apt scholars : they need also to be made apt teachers. A system should be adopted here, corresponding to that of the Normal Train- ing schools in other countries, so that the graduates may carry into effect in the common schools what they have learned, and thus give them new life and efficacy. This involves, besides the training of the regular pupils in the best modes of imparting knowledge, the assembling in Abeih, for two or three months in the year, of the teachers already engaged in teaching, and the drilling of them with a special course of training in the art of instruction. These educational institutions, combined with our printing-press and our native agency, are the channels through which your missionaries can bring light and blessing to the people. They are the complement of our force — our machinery. They bring to our hands the material upon which we are to work, and help us to mould it. We can, therefore, cordially commend the work of Education in Syria to the prayers and sympathies of the friends of Christ at home, as being one of the means of undermining the fortress of error here, and establishing the truth ; and if they desire to give new impulse to this work, and to push it 28 forward with greater vigor, they will find us prepared to second their efforts heartily, hopefully, and vigorously, being assured that thus the day of Christ's triumph will be brought nearer — the hour of Syria's redemption will be hastened. The above report seems exhaustive on this subject. It maybe noted, how- ever, that the number of common schools now in operation under mission auspices is about fifty ; many of them are large and flourishing ; the attend- ance in some ranging as high as a hundred. Again, under the same general head of a " Statement of Progress up to the Present Time," we mention also : 3. Press-work. — Through the scholarly labors of Dr. Eli Smith, and Dr. Van Dyck, we have one of the most accurate and beautiful translations of the Scriptures to be found in any language, and many thousand copies in some six or eight different styles have been issued. Several editions are now electrotyped. The voweled edition of the entire Bible, just issued, is regarded as the finest book in the Arabic language, and the Scriptures can now be given to the Mohammedan world free from a favorite objection, namely, that they were unvoweled, and, consequently, incomplete. Some sixty works of a religious and educational character have been published. Text books for the College are either already issued, or well advanced in preparation, by the Professors in then- various departments. The Theologi- cal Professors are also preparing text-books. A weekly religious newspaper is issued, which has its regular roll list of over a thousand subscribers. A monthly illustrated paper, specially for the children, has just been com- menced. In reference to this new enterprise of a children's paper, the Annual Report of the Mission for the past year remarks : " It was once thought an impossibility to bend the stiffness of written Arabic so as to adapt it for a newspaper, even for adults, without shocking the tastes of all Arabic scholars, but the contact of the West with the East has so changed ideas and render- ed plastic old incrustations, that no one's prejudices are shocked, while the stately Arabic has been made to bend to a child's comprehension in a child's newspaper. The secular newspapers of Beirut have done much to under- mine the pedantry of Arabic literature, and to prepare the people to accept a written language somewhat conformable to the spoken tongue." An ad- ditional building for the uses of the press has just been erected. It is a handsome structure, standing side by side with the mission church, with which, in external aspect and beauty of design, it is fully in keeping. It is to be used also as a Bible House, and contains besides a large room which can be used as a lecture-room to the church. A bindery and a lithographic press have been recently added to the press establishment. A new Adams Steam Press will soon be on its way to Syria 29 to supplement the two (one an " Adams," and the other a " Hoe,") which are now well worn b}^ long service. The printing which is done at the mis- sion press is universally regarded as the most elegant and tasteful specimen of Arabic typography to be found in the world A few years ago, Dr. Van Dyck superintended the preparation of an entirely new font of type, which, in neatness, clearness, and beauty of style, was a great improvement upon all other kinds. The great printing presses of Germany, recognizing its su- perior excellence, have recently thrown aside the old fonts of Arabic type whi h they have been accustomed to use, and have sent to Beirut for ma- trices of the new type. The British and Foreign Bible Society have also adopted it. Dr. Van Dyck fills the position of Editor and Literary Superintendent of " The Press," while the business-management is under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Hallock, whose efficient services are highly valued by the Mission. As a summary of what has been done through the press by the American Missionaries, it may be stated : 1. They have translated the entire Bible, and it is now issued in many editions, either complete or in parts. An edition of the Gospels in raised Arabic characters, is also issued for the blind, at the expense of Mr. Mott, a benevolent English gentleman. 2. They have .prepared and published some sixty works both religious and educational in their character. 3. They edit and publish a weekly religious journal, which has a large and constantly increasing subscription roll throughout Syria and Egypt, also a children's monthly. Among the religious works already issued from the Syria Mission press in Beirut, are the following ; Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Edwards' His- tory of Redemption, Nevins on Popery, Bird's Letters on Romanism, Alexander's Evidences of Christianity, Guide to Scripture Study, (648 pp.,) Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, Hymn Book, (200 pp.,) Book of Social and Family Prayer, Imitation of Christ, Religious Story Book for Child- ren, (Illustrated,) Bogatzky's Golden Treasury, Newman Hall's Tracts, Catechisms large, and small, and with proofs, several Scripture Question books, and many pamphlets, sermons, tracts, etc. There are now in manu- script, ready for the press ; A Concordance of the Bible, Mosheim's Church History, Harmony of the Gospels, with notes by Rev. Mr. Calhoun. Two native converts of the Syria Mission, Drs. Meshakah and "Worta- bet, have also written able works which have been published. In course of preparation is a Dictionary of the Bible, also a work on Systematic Theology, and Commentaries on the Pentateuch and Gospels. Among the educational works issued at the mission press, though not always at mission expense, may be mentioned ; a Geometry and Trigon- ometry, an Algebra, Arithmetics, Geographies, Grammars, Reading 30 Books of higher and lower grade, a work on Logic, another on Rhetoric, also one on Natural History, some medical works on Anatomy, Physio- logy and Hygiene, a Chemistry, a Botany, and an Atlas of the World. In manuscript are a Natural Philosophy, an Astronomy, and a work on Moral Science. A learned native convert, Mr, Bistany, is the author of a magnificent Dictionary of the Arabic Language in 2 vols. 1200 pp., he is also editor of a semi-weekly newspaper, and a semi-monthly magazine, devoted to science, literature, politics and general information. Both are published at Beirut, and circulate largely throughout the Orient. The church at home cannot fully estimate the labors of her missionaries in this most important department, the preparation of a religious and edu- cational literature. Several of the most important educational works men- tioned above have been recently prepared by Professors in the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, Drs. Bliss, Van Dyck, Post and Wortabet. in. A GLANCE AT THE PRESENT WORKING CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE MISSION. Much has been said which anticipates what might properly be said under this head, and, not to prolong this sketch unduly, we will not enlarge upon what is already found in these pages. The list of missionaries at present (March, 1872) connected with the Mission and their respective location is as follows : Beirut : Rev. Messrs. Wm. M. Thomson, D.D., C. V. A. Van Dyck, M.D., D.D., Henry H. Jessup, D.D., and their wives, Miss Eliza D. Everett, Miss Ellen Jackson and Miss Sophie B. Loring, Mr. Samuel Hallock, Sup't. of Press. Tripoli : Rev. Samuel Jessup and his wife, Rev. Oscar J. Hardin, G. B. Danforth, M. D., and his wife. Abejh : Rev. Messrs. S. H. Calhoun and Wm. Bird, and their wives. Sidon : Rev. Messrs. Wm. W. Eddy and Frank A. Wood, and their wives, Rev. James S. Dennis. Supported by a Woman's Society of the English Church, and having the charge of Sidon Female Seminary, Miss Jacombs, and Miss Stainton. Under appointment for Syria, and expecting soon to sail, Messrs. W. J. Cumming and Gerald F. Dale, Jr. The foDowing compose the Faculty of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, including the Faculty of the Medical Department ; Rev. Daniel Bliss, D.D., President, Rev. C. V. A. Van I >vck, M.l). , I ).]>.. Rev. Geo. E. Post, M.D., Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, M.A., Rev. John Wortabet, M.D., Rev. Edwin R. Lewis, M.D., Harvey Porter, B.A., with a corps of six native tutors. 31 Concluding Remarks. A glance at the future of the mission work in Syria suggests expansion, growth, progress. We have hitherto occupied four principal stations. We must now enlarge the circle of our operations and make another, which will be at Zahley, a laro-e town of 10,000 inhabitants, on the eastern base of the Lebanons, over- looking the plain of Coele-Syria, or the Buka'a, which, with its many and populous villages, is to be the outlying field of the Zahley station. We have a great work opening for us among the Druzes, who are friendly and confiding. They regard themselves as under the political protection of England, and should political complications at any time lead them to a nom- inal profession of Protestantism, our opportunity would be most favorable. New missionaries should be in the field studying the language and prepar- ing to enter upon this special work with the Druzes. The Mission have another work in view, for which they desire to be ever- in readiness, so as to take advantage of any providential openings in its favor, and that is the evangelization of the Bedouins of the desert. Their language is the Arabic, and, of course, they are to be reached by those speaking that tongue. They are professedly Mohammedans, and yet few of them know anything of their religion, being unable to read the Koran, and rarely hearing respecting its teachings from one who understands it. They are as nearly without a religious faith as a people can be, and yet profess one. Their wandering life, and the insecurity among them of person and of property, make their instruction in the Gospel especially difficult. But Christ's command extends to even these, and the difficulties in the way of reaching them with the truth are not insurmountable. The points of con tact between the Bedouins and the Mission, are Hums in the Tripoli field, and the neighborhood of Banias in the Sidon field. The course to be pursued for their evangelization is to send among them colporteurs, men of wisdom and experience as well as piety, carrying with them simple remedies for bodily diseases, and aiming to heal the deeper maladies of the soul. As fast as such men offer themselves, they should be commissioned and sent forth at once into this field, so vast, so difficult, so neglected, so loudly ap- pealing to the sympathies of all who love Christ and weep for souls perish- ing in darkness. To man and sustain this enlarged work ; to guide and minister to the awakening mind of Syria, already aroused and invigorated by academic cul- ture, and give it the balance of a strong evangelical bias ; to counteract the heinous deceptions and vile chicanery of Jesuitism ; to deal wisely and firmly with Moslem bigotry ; to lend a helping hand to the persecuted ; to preach the simple, living Gospel ; to build up a spiritual, self supporting, witnessing church ; to train a native agency of pastors and teachers ; to bring Chris- tianity to bear upon the scandalous and pitiful social degeneracy of the East ; this is the task which, with its appalling responsibilities, confronts a 32 feeble band of missionaries in Syria. Verily ! if the Spirit of God be withheld, our task is a hopeless one. As the future of this great work looms np before us, the conviction grows stronger and more solemn that the great need of Syria is that which no human wisdom can supply. It can be met by no now combination of forces at home or on the field, by no complication of the machinery of missions, nor by indefinite enlargement. It is the want of the influences of the Holy Spirit. The Syria of the present age has never witnessed the mighty manifestations of His presence. Nothing is known there of His power to change the whole aspect of society, and to pervade all hearts with a sense of the coming Judgment. There are no histories nor memories of such a work to which we can refer. Nothing but a great revival, upheaving the deep foundations of society, and drawing men wholly away from their old refuges of lies, can avail to fuse into one mass elements so wholly at variance with one another, and to bring all into subjection to Christ. Therefore, we would say to all who love Syria and wait for its redemp- tion, withhold what you will, but withheld not your prayers ; nay, rather besiege the throne of grace unceasingly for a return of the Holy Spirit to a land from which He has so long been grieved away. We would name especially these petitions : ]. — For an outpouring of the Spirit upon our churches and native agents, upon educational institutions, upon our own souls. 2. — For the raising up of a native pastorate and the development of native agencies. We are aiming and planning for self-support. Pray that the educated young men of Syria may have their hearts turned to the ministry, and that the whole corps of our native assistants may be inspired with zeal and self-denying consecration. 3. — For the progress of religious liberty everywhere, and for all classes in Syria. A converted Moslem's life is not safe for an hour in any Syrian city. Papal persecution is still bitter and grinding in many parts of the country. We want liberty of conscience. Dear brethren, in the name of that Saviour who once trod the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and was transfigured upon llermon, we ask you to pray for Syria, that lie may again visit that dark land, and lay His hands in spirit- ual healing upon the sick and dying. And there, where the first triumphs of Christianity were won, may t lie latter day glories ofthe cross eclipse those <>fits early rising, and all the praise and honor be given to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and t<> the Lamb lor evermore ! a. "SYRIA MISSION. " Western Asia," says a writer, " has been the scene of the most remarkable events of empire, and the most striking triumphs of civilization, since the ori- gin of society. The earliest associations of man, the earliest inventions by which man has dominion over nature, the earliest statesmanship, the earliest heroism, the earliest science, the earliest legislation, and even the earliest poetry all belong to this magnificent, lovely, and illustrious region." It is not, however, with the past we have to do, but with the present ; not with grand historic scenes or with the rich displays of genius and power, but with man, a moral wreck, ruined by sin, needing spiritual light, yet loving to grope in dark- ness, and satisfied with his condition. The land which he inhabits, so rich in associations and so memorable in the history of the race, has no elevating and transforming effect on his life and character. The deeds done, the truths uttered, and the heroes who toiled to enrich others are unknown or have no power over those who to-day tread the same soil, and gaze upon the same scenes, as those who have gone. Whilst these memories have an effect upon some to stimulate and sustain effort for the improvement of the inhabitants of the Orient, they have none upon those who are benefited through their labors and gifts except it may be in some cases to foster superstition. The first mission to Western Asia was Palestine. " From the heights of the Holy Land," the missionaries were told " to survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes who dwell in that land and in the surrounding countries." This was done, and soon a work was begun in Syria that has con- tinued to the present time. The mission in Palestine had a chequered exist- ence. In 1820 Messrs. Fisk and Parsons arrived at Smyrna, and afterward went to Jerusalem. The latter only made visits to it, occupying in all a few months, when he died ; the former spent a winter there, when he was called to a better land. After a suspension of the work for nearly nine years, the mis- sion was resumed, and being feebly held for a few years, it was finally given up in 1843. A number of laborers died during its occupancy, and others were transferred to Syria, some of whom, like Dr. Thomson, remain unto this day. In 1855 this mission field was again contracted by transferring Northern Syria from Kesab upward to the mission in Turkey, as the language was chiefly the Turkish and not the Arabic. This brings us to a survey of what is known as the SYRIA MISSION. It covers a territory, in length, of about 150 miles, and some 50 miles in width, and embraces a population of less than a million, that are under the direct care of the mission. The whole population of Syria is greater, but parts 2 Syria Mission. of it are attended to by other missionary societies. Ancient Syria was much larger than the portion now included under this name, and embraced the whole country from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and between the Taurus and the border of Egypt. Syria has an important connection with the Jewish history from the time of David, then with the conquests of Alexander, next with the Romans, after them came the Saracen conquerors in the seventh century, then the Turkish some 300 years later, and for more than 1,200 years it has been under Mohammedan influence. POPULATION OF THE FIELD AND ITS RELIGIONS. The territory embraced in the mission contains a population of about 800,000, divided into many religions, including Moslem, Christians of various names, Jews, and a class who are semi-heathen. To see the difficulties of this field it is important to know the character of its inhabitants. The largest, and by far the most powerful of the religious sects is the Mohammedan. These em- brace nearly one-half of the people, who are proud, cruel, oppressive, hating Christianity, and seeing but little of it in the numerous forms in which it is pre- sented to their study. They are found in all parts of the land. The Druzes, numbering about 50.000, are found mainly on the southern half of Lebanon, and on the plains south of Damascus. Their religious belief is a mixture of philosophy, Mohammedanism, Judaism, and Christianity. They forbid conversion, on pain of death, to Mohammedanism and Christianity. They conceal their sacred books, and hold that they themselves are the de- scendants of Hakeem, the last of the incarnations of the Almighty, for whom they are now looking, as he is to again appear in human form to take vengeance on his enemies or those who will not accept his rule. The Nuzairiyeh occupy the mountains about Santa, north of Tripoli. They are reckoned as a remnant of the old Canaanites, and are semi-barbarous, and at least half heathen. Their faith is somewhat similar to that of the Druzes. Bedowin Arabs are found in nearly all parts of the field ; a portion of this people is stationary, living only in the settled parts of the country, but the mass roam over the plains, wandering, in their wild state, from place to place. Of the Christian sects the most influential is the Greek CJiurch, numbering about 150,000. They are found chiefly in the cities and in the villages of the mountains. They are Syrians by birth and descent, and speak the Arabic language. The lower clergy are illiterate and laborious ; the people are bigoted, deceitful, and haughty. About 150 years ago there was a Papal offshoot from the Greek Church called Greek Catholies, who dwell mostly in the cities and on Lebanon ; whilst in thorough sympathy with the Papacy, they vet assert, at times, a good deal of independence. "They probably number a larger pro- portion of educated, intelligent, and enterprising young men than any other body of people in the country." The MaroniUs, reckoned at 200,000, are bigoted Romanists, very ignorant and wholly under the control of the priests and the patriarch. This sect arose Syria Mission. 3 in the seventh century, and took its name from Maron, its founder. In the 1 2th century they submitted to the Pope, and are noted for unhesitating devo- tion to Rome. There are other and minor Christian sects, as the Armenians and the Jacobites, with Papal offshoots from both of these. In opposition to all these, in a certain sense, is that of the Protestants, as yet small in numbers, but rapidly increasing as a community, and gathered through missionary labor. ACCESSIBILITY OF THE PEOPLE. The statement on this subject made by the mission a few years ago, holds good at the present time, and is as follows : 11 Of the various sects and tribes that inhabit our field, the orthodox Greeks are the most accessible to missionary labor. This is owing to several causes. The first and most influential perhaps is, that the Greek Church has never for- bidden her people to receive and read the Word of God. They have, in fact, been always willing to accept, at our hands, the sacred Scriptures, and to have them taught in our schools. They are also disposed to accept the Bible as paramount authority on religious matters. From this cause, too, they are more willing to read other religious books, to converse on spiritual topics, and to listen to the preached Gospel. Another cause of the greater accessibility of this people is, that they are a minority in most localities. As a general thing they reside in towns and villages in connection with other sects. Thus, throughout Southern Lebanon, they are associated with Druzes, Maronites, and Greek Catholics, and it is but rarely that they form the majority in any community. We have always found such mingled populations more free and accessible than any others. Again, rejecting the Papacy, and earnestly protesting against the monstrous pretensions of the Pope, they have many points of agreement with Protestants, and, to a certain extent, look upon them as friends and allies. Owing to these and other causes, partly social and in part political, this people are everywhere open to missionary labor, and most of the members of our churches are from this sect ; and as they are found in considerable numbers throughout our entire field, they constitute a practical working basis of the utmost importance. " The Greek Catholics (a Papal offshoot from the Greek Church, which began about 150 years ago) abound most in the cities and on Lebanon ; and though greatly restrained by a watchful Papal hierarchy, the people retain, and at times assert a good deal of independence, and from the mere fact that they have once broken away from their original community, they are the more ready to investigate religious subjects, and more open to conviction than the Maronites. They are, also, like the Greeks, a minority, and dwell side by side with other sects. " The Maronites, as a rule, are bigoted Papists, very ignorant, and wholly subject to the stringent and ever- watchful control of their clergy. Their hier- 4 Syria Mission. archy is also very numerous, well organized and powerful, being reinforced by a multitude of learned Jesuits, and numberless monks and nuns, both native and foreign. In a large part of northern Lebanon they are the only inhabit- ants, and there their authority is supreme. Still, even in this stronghold of the Maronite patriarch, the light of the Gospel is beginning to penetrate in spite of all opposition, and not only individuals, but considerable communities are found, from time to time, attempting to break away from their bondage, and declare themselves Protestants. This number is steadily increasing, and there is good reason to hope that a wide and effectual door for the Gospel amongst this large and needy people will ere long be opened, which no man can shut. In other parts of our field, where the Maronites are few, they are, of course, more accessible and less stringently bound by their priests. u The Druzes are, and always have been, our personal friends — are glad to have us reside amongst them, and open schools for the education of their chil- dren. Of late many of their most enterprising youth are seeking a higher education in our seminaries and in the college. It is very desirable that more definite and adequate measures be adopted and worked efficiently for their conversion. "The Moslems and Metawelies are, as a rule, still inaccessible to direct mis- sionary labor. They are, however, waking up to the necessity of education, and in many places some of their children are beginning to attend our schools. In Beirut there are two schools exclusively for Moslem girls, which are well- attended though conducted on Christian principles. A spirit of inquiry on religious subjects is manifested more frequently than in former years, and a few are found who express a desire to forsake the faith of Islam. Influences are at work which tend slowly, but surely, to break down the hitherto impreg- nable wall of separation which forbids the introduction of the Gospel among the Moslem population ; and the time draws on apace, when this vast field will be thrown open to the Church." OBSTACLES TO MISSIONARY WORK. The first chief hinderance to successful labor among the people, is the great variety of sects and opinions. The whole population is broken up into so many distinct particles that have no cohesion or common bond of union, that the missionary finds it exceedingly difficult to reach them in mass. Whilst there is much antagonism among themselves, much fanaticism and hatred of each other, all these are forgotten in their opposition to the truth when brought to them by the evangelist, and they are ever ready to make common cause against it, and, when necessary, persecute it by every means in their power. To show the hostility of the sects to each other, Dr. Thomson says : " The various religions and sects live together, and practice their conflicting supersti- tions in close proximity, but the people do not coalesce into one homogeneous community, nor do they regard each other with fraternal feelings. The Sun- nites excommunicate the Shiites (rival Moslem sects) — both hate the Druzes, Syria Mission. 5 and all three detest the Nusairiyeh. The Maronites have no particular love for anybody, and in turn are disliked by all ; which is true, also, as said of the Druzes. The orthodox Greeks can not endure the Greek Catholics ; and the fact that the former, more generally than any other sect, accept the missionary and the Gospel, arrays all other sects against them. All despise the Jews. These remarks are also true of all the minor divisions of this land." These differences in creeds are so many opposing powers to the Gospel, and when combined their resistance is almost invincible. The lawlessness of the people is another barrier to the reception of the truth. The government is founded on might, not right. A r iople subject to and honoring law is unknown in Syria, and the same may be said of its admin- istration by the authorities ; they know not the law as a rule of right, and as this is mainly in the hands of Moslems, who hate Christianity and its adher- ents, they can show no respect to them if they come in any way in opposition to their faith and their self-interest. The same is true of all the sects. More or less power is in the hands of their priesthood, who wield secular as well as ecclesiastical influence. Let a convert come forth in any community to the Protestant faith, and he has to encounter his family in all their relations, the might of social usages, and the supremacy of priestly authority ; he has to run the risk of social ostracism, political disgrace, and bitter persecution and oppression. He has no friend outside of the mission circle, while all others are arrayed against him, and ready to employ any agency to drive him back to the faith he has left. Another hinderance to successful labor is found in the political entanglements of the country. Says the mission : " Each of the sects has, or seeks to have, some foreign protector, upon whom it can depend for protection against its ene- mies. The Maronites look to the French Government to sustain their independent existence. The Greeks depend upon Russia ; the Greek Catholics upon Aus- tria, and the Druzes rely upon England. They are all, in fact, dealt with by these various governments, as so many political allies in this country, and this marks them off into distinct and hostile camps." The war between France and Prussia a few years ago, developed a bitter antagonism among the people, which was a powerful barrier to the progress of the Gospel. A similar feeling exists in the war now waging between Turkey and Russia. Another obstacle to the progress of the truth is the low type of Christianity found among the people. Of all that pertains to true godliness all sects are ignorant. The Moslems see no beauty and power in Christian life or charac- ter as manifested by Greek, Maronite, Jacobin, Catholic, or Armenian. All know something of religious phraseology, but nothing of its power. Rev. Dr. Laurie says : " Good people in America are often at a loss to understand how there can be so many Christian sects in Syria, and no religion. But if they will bear in mind the natural character of the heart, and then consider that in all the 6 Syria Mission. nominal churches of Syria spiritual instruction is never given ; that the doc- trines of the Gospel are never taught ; that piety is made to consist in out- ward ceremonies, in the observance of days, and obedience to their priests ; that their idea of worship is the repetition of prayers in an unknown tongue ; that the distinction between the regenerate and unregenerate is known only as the difference between the baptized and unbaptized ; that religion is sepa- rated from morality ; that the priest is held to have power to pardon sin, and does it for money ; that their preaching is either a teaching of the worst errors of Popery, or incredible and silly legends of saints, they will see how the name can exist without the substance." These, with other hinderances, stand in the way of the missionary as he seeks to bring before the people a pure Gospel, and endeavors to bring them into saving union with it. These should be kept in mind in surveying the work accomplished, and when properly seen and appreciated, there will be more sympathy between the Church at home and the toilers abroad, and more ear- nest pleadings with God for the removal of obstacles, and for the opening up of a highway among the people for the Gospel. STATIONS. Beirut. — This was the first station occupied in Syria, and here was begun the mission whose influence is already felt in many lands. Though Beirut does not seem to be mentioned in the Bible, unless Baal-berith, Judges viii. 33 — Baal of the city of Berith or Beirut, or Berothai of 2 Samuel viii. 8, re- ferred to it. Each has its advocates. Whatever obscurity there may be about its early history, there is none as to its antiquity. It is situated, with its sub- urbs, on a triangular plain coming down to the sea. The city itself, says Dr. Thomson, " is seated seaward, with its white houses on overhanging cliffs or grouped on showy terraces and commanding hill-tops, or stowed away along retiring glens, half revealed, now quite concealed by crowding mulberry and parasol China trees and waving festoons of vines and cunning creepers of many colors — this, this is Beirut, with the glorious Mediterranean all around, and ships and boats of various nations and picturesque patterns sailing or at rest." The city has greatly increased of late years in population, commerce, and wealth, and is one of the commanding centers of the Ottoman Empire. On Oct. 16, 1823, owing to the disturbed condition of things at Jerusalem, Messrs. Goodell and Bird, who had been designated to Palestine, turned aside to Beirut and commenced labor, and from that time it became a center of missionary operations. Mr. Bird applied himself to the study of the Arabic, and Mr. Goodell to that of the Armeno-Turkish, that through these they might reach the different classes. For a time everything went on pleasantly. Their movements were undisturbed by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, as they sought to diffuse among the people a knowledge of the Word. But as they went on in their work, and their force was increased by some English mission- aries, the Papal power became alarmed. An order from the Maronite Pa- Syria Mission. 7 triarch came forbidding the people to receive any more the Scriptures, and to burn those that had been distributed. This did not alarm the laborers, as it was only what they expected from Rome and those under Papal sway. An- other move, when this was not successful, was to drive them out of the city by threatening to excommunicate every Maronite who should hire a house to the missionary. When seeking to put this in force the city was seized by the Greeks, and these people were glad to place their houses in the hands of those whom they were seeking to expel. In 1827, Rev. Eli Smith landed at Beirut, and soon after four converts were admitted to the privileges of the mission church. This ignoring of the old eccle- siastical relations of the people aroused the ire of the priesthood, and severe denunciations were poured out upon them from Greek and Maronite. An order was soon issued that no one should speak to them, enter their houses, pronounce their names, serve them in any way, sell anything to them, and re- ceive anything from them. Words were followed by persecution. To salute even the missionaries, or render them the least service, was made a penal offense. The Turkish authorities joined with the ecclesiastical powers, and soon some of the people were imprisoned and others beaten, and the mission- aries did not dare to go into the streets or to be seen upon the house-tops, and this state of things continued for many weary months. Political troubles rendered their situation hazardous, and they had to flee to the mountains, and then to Malta in 1828, and for a time the mission was broken up. Owing to these troubles, Malta, which was under British sway, became for a time the home of nearly all the missionaries to the countries lying on the Mediterranean. In this period of five years much had been done in the way of circulating the Gospel and religious truth, removing prejudices, establishing schools, and in receiving some to church privileges. Among the incidents that took place in this period, and which made a great impression upon the Protestant world, was the conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak, who had been born and reared a Maronite, but who had come in contact with the missionaries, first as their opponent, then as their friend and teacher, then as an humble and ear- nest follower of their Master. From them he was separated by craft, then im- prisoned, and put in chains, and most cruelly treated until his death, but hold- ing fast till life's close, his Christian hope and profession. The mission was resumed in 1830 by the return of Mr. Bird. Mr. Goodell had been transferred to Constantinople ; Mr. Smith came back at a later period, and in 1834 he took charge of the Arabic press that had been trans- ferred from Malta. The next year the high-school was established, and new laborers appeared in Rev. Messrs. Hebard, Lanneau, and Miss Williams. These were followed in 1838 by Rev. Messrs. E. R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman and their wives; in 1840, by Rev. Messrs. S. Wolcott, N. A. Keyes, Leander Thompson, and their wives ; also Rev. C. V. A. Van Dyck. Prior to this, there had been some religious interest among the Druzes, and one who had been baptized showed a good deal of the courage and martyr spirit of 8 Syria Mission. Shidiak. Political troubles and wars led to a suspension of the mission in 1840, when it was resumed the following year. Renewed interest was awak- ened among the Druzes, and a school was opened among them, but the war which, broke out in 1845 f°r political ascendancy between the Maronites and them, and the action of the Turkish power interfering, for political reasons, with their tendency toward Protestantism, cut them off from all Christian effort. For some time this mission had a chequered existence. Hopes and fears com- mingled, and its dark days were shaded with streaks of light ; reinforcements arrived, and old laborers had to retire — still the work gradually extended until other points were reached with the truth and occupied by laborers, so that the report of 1856 says that the Gospel was preached at 16 places. At 4 of these, Beriut, Abeih, Sidon, and Hasbeiya, churches had been organized, in connec- tion with which were 80 members, 106 having been admitted from the begin- ning. Besides the missionaries already mentioned, the following were received to the close of 1856 : Rev. Messrs. S. H. Calhoun and Thomas Laurie, 1844 ; W. A. Benton, 1847 ; J. E. Ford, David M. Wilson, and Horace Foote, 1848 ; W. F. Williams, 1849; w- w- E^dy and W. Bird, 1852 ; J. L. Lyons and Ed- ward Aiken, 1855 ; David Bliss and Henry H. Jessup, 1856. At the commencement of 1857, Dr. Eli Smith, whose name is so intimately connected with the translation of the Scriptures into Arabic, died at Beirut. He was succeeded in this enterprise by Dr. Van Dyck, who removed from Sidon to Beirut. He has been able not only to complete the Bible, but to see it issuing steadily from the press and received into many a house with gladness. As time went on, the laborers saw the work extending, prejudices decreasing, a steady change taking place in popular feeling, and the influence of the priests diminishing, until religious liberty was guaranteed to all. Schools were multi- plied in different localities, and steps were taken for the training of a native ministry. Whilst this general prosperity was enjoyed, and the prospects for greater usefulness were brightening, a civil war broke out between the Chris- tians and the Druzes, and the most horrid massacres took place on Lebanon, Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere. The effects of this war upon evangeli- zation were, on the whole, good, as priestly power was weakened, and that of Protestantism was increased. The indirect results of missionarv influence con- tinued to extend among the different religious sects; the circulation of the Scriptures and religious books rapidly increased, and conversions to the cause multiplied. At the time of the transfer in 1870, there were in connection with the mission 8 missionaries, 3 unmarried ladies, 4 stations, 32 outstations, 8 churches, 245 communicants, 31 common schools, with 1,184 scholars, and 2 female seminaries with 95 pupils. The following missionaries were added to the number of laborers, some of whom remained but a short time in the field : Rev. Messrs. S. Jessup, Philip Berry, and G. \V. Post, M.I)., and their wives, 1863 ; Rev. S. S. Mitchell and Rev. Isaac N. Loury and their wives in 1867 ; Miss E. D. Everett and Miss Nellie A. Carruth, 1868 ; Rev. James S. Dennis, 1869; and Miss Sophie B. Loring and Miss Ellen Jackson, 1870. Syria Mission. 9 We can not, at this time, set forth the great educational work by the mission in Beirut and all over the land. When the missionaries arrived there was little interest in education and less in what they attempted for the people, but they gradually extended their efforts, and these grew in favor more and more until the common school was found in many localities, and by means of them Protestantism gained a foothold in a number of important places. The edu- cation of women had been neglected, and the opposition to it was great, but the missionaries were not deterred from trying to reach this neglected portion of the community, and, therefore, began the work by taking girls into their families and educating them. A female boarding-school was then established at Beirut, which has been a decided success, and is regarded as a powerful aux- iliary to missionary work. It is under the care of the Misses Everett, Jackson, and Van Dyck. The Syrian Protestant College, though not formally connected with the mission, is yet so associated in all its interests with its great work as to have a common object with it in all its plans and methods. Its influence in each of its departments of education upon the native mind is great, and every year is increasing its elevating and beneficent power in the land. A theological school, for the training of young men for the ministry, has been established at this station, under the care of Rev. J. S. Dennis, assisted by some of the missionaries. The press has also accomplished much for Syria. Its issues of works on theology, science, literature, and medicine have been steady and abundant for several years. It is a power not only in that country, but its influence is felt in Africa, China, and in other lands. The present laborers at Beirut are, Rev. C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D., H. H. Jessup, D.D., J. S. Dennis, and their wives. Mrs. S. H. Calhoun, Mrs. G. B. Danforth, Miss E. D. Everett, Miss Ellen Jackson, and Miss Lizzie Van Dyck. Mr. Hallock, Superintendent of the Press. Abeih. — In 1843 this station was commenced by the transfer of Messrs. Whiting, Thomson, and Van Dyck from Jerusalem. At first there were some fears of governmental interference, but none was manifested. A school was established which soon numbered 50 scholars, and eight others were com- menced in as many different villages on the mountains. These became places for preaching. Soon after its occupancy, Rev. S. H. Calhoun, whose death took place a few months ago, joined this station, and with it his name and work were identified. A seminary to train up an efficient ministry was placed, says Dr. Anderson, " not at Beirut, but at Abeih, 1,500 feet above the sea level, in a temperate atmosphere and with a magnificent prospect of land and sea. The education was to be essentially Arabic, the clothing, boarding, and lodg- ing strictly in the native style, and the students were to be kept as far as pos- sible in sympathy with their own people." That school continued to do its work year after year, and mainly under the efficient control of Mr. Calhoun. By mission action its character was somewhat changed two years ago, and at the last meeting of the mission, owing to the educational facilities in Beirut, io Syria Mission. the missionaries unanimously requested that it be discontinued. This station has been for some time the center of extended operations. A church was organ- ized here in 1852 of 8 members ; in 1870 it reported 75 members, and another church organized at Ain Zehalta. The present laborers are Rev. W. JBird and Rev. F. A. Wood — the latter joined the mission with his wife in 187 1. Tripoli, 46 miles north-northeast of Beirut, was selected as a station in 1849, and was occupied by Messrs. Williams and Foote. A vigorous opposition to their coming was made by the people, and which prevented them from obtain- ing houses in the city ; but these were finally secured. These brethren were succeeded by Messrs. Lyons and H. H. Jessup in 1856, who remained till the troubles of i860. It was vacant till the fall of 1863, when Dr. Post and Rev. S. Jessup were sent to occupy it. It is the center of an important mission field, which contains a population of about 350,000. A full account of this field, with many interesting facts, will be found in the Foreign Missionary of July, 18 7 1. Much seed has been scattered in this district. There has been a girls' school started at Tripoli, under the care of Miss H. La Grange and Miss Amelia Thomson. A valuable property has been purchased, and the work at the station and the several outstations has progressed of late with more than usual interest. Rev. Messrs. S. Jessup and O. J. Hardin are laboring at this point. Sidon, twenty miles south of Beirut, was occupied in 185 1 by Drs. Thom- son and Van Dyck, who remained here seven years, and were succeeded by Rev. W. W. Eddy. It is the headquarters of an important district, where the door is open for effective labor. There are twelve outstations connected with Sidon, which are supplied with native teachers, several of whom are preachers. There are four churches in this field. There is an important girls' boarding- school at Sidon. These scholars are gathered from Christian families from all parts of the country, and they are trained to become teachers and helpers. They attend to the household while at school, and by this means they will be fitted for future usefulness. The instruction is thorough, and no branch of la- bor has yielded more satisfactory returns. Rev. T. S. Pond and his wife are associated with Dr. Eddy at Sidon. Miss Harriet M. Eddy is connected with the female seminary. Zalilch was occupied in 1872 by Rev. Frank A. Wood and Rev. G. F. Dale. It lies on the eastern side of Mt. Lebanon, and is a political and religious cen- ter of a wide, popular, and important field of labor. Great success has at- tended the labors of the missionaries ; a church has been organized at Zahleh, another at Sughbin ; four chapels have already been erected in this field. The interesting letter of Mr. Dale on another page will show the character of the work that is now going forward. Rev. F. W. March joined this station in 1873. The last report of the mission showed that there were connected with it 12 missionaries, 3 ordained and 13 licentiate preachers, 6 unmarried ladies, 5 sta- tions, 43 outstations, 573 communicants, and 3,308 pupils in the schools. It Syria Mission. n will be seen from this summary, that the membership of the churches has more than doubled since the transfer of the mission in 1870 ; also the number of scholars. Most of the schools scattered throughout Syria may be called com- mon schools, but they have an important bearing upon the evangelization of the people. In speaking of them the Mission well say : " The demand for schools is increasing, and has long been far beyond our ability to supply. They are a most important means of usefulness. By them we gain a foothold in villages, where otherwise we could not find a field open for religious instructidn. They are as wedges to cleave asunder the adamantine rocks of bigotry. The children are not simply taught to read, but to read in the Bible. They carry the Testaments and Catechisms into their homes, and repeat there the texts and hymns which they have learned. The missionary can visit the schools in person, or send a native helper, as often as he pleases, and the teacher himself, by means of his pupils, has more or less access to the parents. " Our schools are sought for two reasons ; they are 'free, or nearly so, and the instruction is more thorough than elsewhere. There is but one case where we have maintained our ground in a purely Maronite village, and there, through the efforts of a few, who had become Protestants." D . THE OUTLOOK IN SYRIA. BY REV. H. H.V JESSUP. I.— THE PAST AND THE PRESENT OF THE SYRIA MISSION. In the American cemetery in Beirut is a plain sandstone slab with a small, white marble tablet set in its surface, with the inscription : " Pliny Fisk, died 1826, aged 31 years." In his day Beirut had a population of 8,000. There was not a school nor a teacher, and hardly a book or a reader. Gross darkness covered the people. There was not a printing-press, nor a school-building, nor a carriage-road, nor a wheeled vehicle, nor a house with glass windows, nor a set of European fur- niture in the land. Commerce with Europe had hardly been thought of, and missionaries were looked upon as secret emissaries of some mysterious diabolical agency, and the enemies of all religion. Pliny Fisk's grave was far outside the city walls, in a "parcel of ground" purchased by the Americans. That grave is now in the center of a city of 80,000 people. Around it are schools, churches, and residences. One mile to the west is the Syrian Protestant College ; one mile to the east is the Second Church of Beirut ; and one mile to the south the southern suburbs of the city. Macadamized roads form the streets of the new city ; twice a day the diligence post coach runs to Damascus, and the London Water- Works Company sup- plies the city with the water of the Dog River, forced by machinery nine miles to the hill overlooking the town, and thence distributed in iron pipes throughout the town. The houses of the city are well built of stone, many of them beautiful specimens of Oriental architecture, with glazed windows and many modern conveniences ; and European chairs, tables, bureaus, mirrors, wardrobes, sofas, and book-cases, made by native Arab workmen, are found in almost every house. There are 4 colleges in the city, 5 female seminaries, 93 schools of all sects, with 295 teachers and 8,926 pupils, of whom 4,156 are girls and 4,770 boys. There are 12 printing-presses, of which 5 are Protest- ant, and 9 newspapers, of which 6 are Protestant. The Protestant schools in Beirut number 30, with 116 teachers, 761 boys, and 2,281 girls, or a total of 3,042 pupils. The whole number of Protestant schools in Syria proper, between Antioch on the north, and Nazareth on the south, is 184, with 341 teachers and 10,585 pupils, of whom 5,803 are boys and 4,782 are girls. Of these girls about 1,000 are Mohammedans. The general statistics of education in Beirut for the year 1S77, will be found in the accompanying table : STATISTICS OF EDUCATION IN SYRIA FOR THE YEAR 1877. I.— BEIRUT. Protestant. American Female Seminary American Theological Seminary- Mr. Bistany's National College. . British Syrian Schools Church of Scotland Protestant Native School Prussian Deaconesses Syrian Protestant College Miss Taylor's Moslem School Total Protestant Orthodox Greek. Church Schools for Boys Church Schools for Girls Private Schools M. Isbir Abood Private Schools M. Asaad Hatoom Total Orthodox Greek Papal Greek. Patriarchal College Common Schools Total Papal Greek Bishop Dibb's College. Common Schools Mar Monsur School... Nicola Haddad School. Maronite. Total Maronite. Common School.. . . Svriac. Boarding School. Day School Jewish. Total Jewish. College Clerics. . . College Boarders Day Pupils Day Schools Jesuit. Total Jesuit. Orphan ...... Other Pupils. Ras Beirut. . . Musaitebeh .. Sisters of Charity. Total Sisters of Charity Sisters of Nazai Boarders Day Pupils Total Sisters of Nazareth Mohammedai*. Reshdiych, military Common Schools. . . . Schools. 14 30 6 4 3 Total Mohammedan. IS M 116 16 33 6 13 25 4 10 4 29 IS 31 to 8 18 *5 =.; Teachers. Boys. 12 4 9 7 40 43 i54 9 395 2 60 21 13 103 5 ..Girls. 761 716 142 70 928 112 j 115) x33 1,520 229 203 196 425 425 Total. 227 180 400 140 100 820 80 55 70 125 42 116 106 760 1,024 105 700 805 260 600 150 100 90 250 340 133 9 40 1,974 624 60 203 103 196 3342 716 425 142 70 1,353 227 227 820 820 80 125 125 1,024 1,024 340 340 805 805 BEIRUT SCHOOLS-RECAPITULATION. Names of Schools. Protestant Schools. Orthodox Greek. . . Papal Greek Maronite Syriac Jewish Jesuit Sisters of Charity,. Sisters of Nazareth Mohammedan Schools. Teachers. 30 IS 3 3 M 4 93 116 33 11 25 2 7 29 31 18 23 295 Boys. 761 928 227 820 80 125 1,024 805 4,770 Girls. 2,281 425 1,110 34o 4,156 Total. 8,926 II.— PROTESTANT SCHOOLS IN SYRIA, OUTSIDE OF BEIRUT. Names of Schools. High and Common Schools. American Mission Anglo-American Schools of the Society of Friends, Brum- mana, etc British Syrian Schools Irish Presbyterian Mission in Damascus Lebanon Schools of Free Church of Scotland Reformed Presbyterian Mission, Latakiah Common Schools. Church Missionary Society in Hauran Mr. E. Sullebey Society for Promoting Female Education in the East. Mrs. Watson's Ain-Zehalteh Boys' School Total Protestant Schools outside Beirut. u in Beirut in Syria Schools. Teachers. Boys. 79 13 23 7 154 3° 13 3i 33 225 116 34i 3,000 272 396 762 300 200 90 Girls. 783 73 1,170 30 262 100 20 63 5,042 761 2,501 2,281 5,803 ' 4,782 Total. 3,783 345 1,170 426 1,024 400 200 no 63 22 7,543 3,°42 10,585 III.— STATISTICS OF GENERAL PROTESTANT AND EVANGELICAL WORK IN SYRIA, AT THE CLOSE OF 1877. Names of Societies. American Presbyterian Mission Syrian Protestant College British Syrian Schools Church of Scotland Mission to the Jews Miss Taylor's Moslem Girls' Schools Native Protestant School, Eastern quarter Lebanon Schools of the Free Church of Scotland Anglo-American Friends' Society Society for Promoting Female Education in the East (Eng.) Mrs. Watson's School Mr. B. Bistany's National College Mr. Sullebey's School Prussian Deaconesses . Irish Presbyterian Mission Church of England Mission to the Jews (Damascus) Church Missionary Society (in the Hauran) Reformed Presbyterian Mission (Latakiah) Totals 78 bo i/> J) S3 g 2 > w c c Mbfl a c 3 ui 6 c u5 *o in u °-9 rt 0 in ° £0 0 ° 0 O O h-} PL, < O U) w 29 135 68 2,838 619 83 3,925 6 7 1 100 4 JP3 7 75 27 2,844 2 9 2 624 1 5 1 40 2 196 2 1 60 1 60 3 33 4 130 15 23 1,024 i 15 2 120 12 345 2 2 1 63 1 2 7 1 1 22 40 5 1 20 4 no 14 7 1 250 21 1 203 1 n 6 200 92 10 426 2 3 1 1 4 1 4 200 8 8 2 150 50 7 400 78 33o 39 3,908 794 184 10,585 IV.— BEIRUT PRESSES. 1. American Press. 2. Mr. Bistany's Press " Maarif." 3. Jesuit Press. 4. Khalil Sarkis "Adabiyeh." 5. RizkUllah Khudra M Amumiyeh." 6. Yusef Shelfoon " Kulliyeh.'' 7. Hannah Nijjar " Sharakiyeh." 8. Khalil Effendi Khoori " Suriyeh." 9. Mr. Pinkerton's Press. 10. Turkish Government Lithographic Press. 11. Mr. Mott's Lithographic Press for the Blind. 12. Abd-el-Kadir Kubbani " Thumrat-el Funoon. V.— BEIRUT JOURNALS. Hadeukat-el- Akhbar, official. Circulation 350 Jenan Magazine, B. Bistany. 703 Jenneh Journal, Selim Bistany. 700 Lisan-el-Hal, Khalil Sarkis. " 580 Thumrat-el-Funoon, Abd-el-Kadir. M 400 Busheer, Jesuit. " 400 Muktataf, Scientific Magazine, I 11 Faris Nimr and Yakoob Seroof, ) ' Neshra. American Mission ** 500 Koukab-es-Subah, American Mission. M 4,000 9 Journals, 6 of them Protestant. Total 8,330 II.— WORKING FORCE OF THE MISSION. THE MISSIONARIES AND THEIR STATIONS. Beirut : Revs. C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D., M.D., Wm. W. Eddy, D.D., and James S. Dennis, and their wives ; Miss Eliza D. Everett, and Miss Lizzie Van Dyck ; Mr. Samuel Hallock, Supt. of the Press. Tripoli : Revs. Samuel Jessup and Oscar J. Hardin, and their wives ; Miss Har- riet La Grange and Miss Emilia Thomson. Abeih : Revs. Wm. Bird and Theodore S. Pond and wife. SlDON : Rev. W. K. Eddy, Miss H. M. Eddy, and Miss Mary M. Lyons. Zahleh : Rev. Gerald F. Dale and Rev. F. W. March. Deir el Komr : Mrs. Emily S. Calhoun and Mrs. E. A. Danforth. Temporarily abse?it : Rev. Wm. M. Thomson, D.D. In this country: Rev. H. H. Jessup, D.D., and family; Mrs. Bird and Miss Jackson. FACULTY OF THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE. Rev. Daniel Bliss, D.D., President ; Rev. C. V. A. Van Dyck, M.D., D.D. ; Rev. Geo. E. Post, M.D. ; Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, M.A. ; Rev. John Wortabet, M.D. ; Rev. Edwin R. Lewis, M.D. ; Harvey Porter, B.A. ; Mr. Crane ; with a corps of native tutors. The mission has been greatly cheered by the arrival in Syria of Rev. W. K. Eddy, son of Dr. Eddy, for the Sidon station, and the return of Mr. March to the Zahleh station. The sending of Mr. Eddy in a time of financial embar- rassment to the Board, was through the liberality and zeal of the Second Presbyterian Church of Scranton, Pa., and other liberal friends of missions. III.— THE NEED OF REINFORCEMENT. The ill-health of several members of the mission has occasioned not a little anxiety. Mr. Samuel Jessup has been obliged to spend the year in Shemlan, Mt. Lebanon, and rest from labor in the hope of recruiting his health, which is seriously impaired. Several other members of the mission have been laid aside for a brief period. The mission calls earnestly for another missionary to take the place of the lamented Wood. A married man, of some experience in the pastoral work, of not more than twenty-six years of age, and able to acquire a foreign language with facility, would meet the demands of the posi- tion. The future work of the Syria Mission must of necessity be largely lite- rary and educational, as well as evangelistic, and men of first-class ability must be called into the field. IV.— THE SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK. The past year was one of unprecedented spiritual growth in Syria. Ninety- one members were added to the churches on profession ; 2 new churches were formed ; 7 new preaching stations opened ; 200 persons added to the congregations ; 15 new native helpers in the service ; 12 new Sabbath-schools opened, and seven hundred new children gathered into them. The contribu- tions of the native churches amounted to $1,057 ; the pupils in the mission schools increased from 2,840 to 3,496 ; the number of pages printed was 12,630,000, of which 6,000,000 were pages of Scriptures. The Missionary Conference held in Abeih in Sept., 1877, was characterized by spiritual fervor, harmony, and renewed zeal and hope, to a remarkable degree. The native preachers and teachers seemed to feel that upon them largely rested the responsibility of evangelizing their countrymen in Syria. The last year was one of anxiety, distress, and "hard times" generally in the East, yet more money ($970) was paid by pupils for board and tuition in the Beirut Female Seminary than ever before. V.— A MACEDONIAN APPEAL SEALED WITH TEN SEALS. The following is a literal translation of a letter lately received by the Tripoli station of the Syria Mission, begging for help. It comes from the Greek vil- lage of Kefroon, in the Nusairiyeh mountains, north of the famous Sabbatic fountain mentioned by Josephus, and some eighteen hours' ride on horseback from Tripoli. It is the key of a populous and hitherto hostile region, which the missionaries have been trying in vain to enter for twenty years, and now God in His providence is opening the door. The young man alluded to by the petitioners is the son of a Greek priest, who has been several years in the Abeih Academy, and has become an earnest Christian : Kefroon, June 29, 1878. To the full moons of learning, the glory of tender standing and intelligence, the Khovajas Samuel Jessup and Hardin, may their continuance be prolonged : The Selectmen and the people of the village of Kefroon humbly represent to you that, inasmuch as tidings of your benevolent labors for the enlightenment of the world have reached us, your brethren, and rung in the ears of all men, we have spread out the hands of prayer to the Creator (be He exalted, and His excellence glorified !) that He will establish and perpetuate the foundations of your country, which is a doer of good to mankind. Now, this village numbers about 300 families, and we have about 200 boys — barbarous, like the beasts, with minds destitute of light — in great need of instruction. If it be pleasing in your sight, we beg you to favor us by sending a teacher to our village. The teacher we wish is the man distinguished for morality and high learn- ing, Khowaja Khalil el Khoori el Yazajy. Please send him, and with him your commission, that he may carry on this great work. You will thus please God (be He exalted !) and receive our prayers and the prayers of our children. We beg you to answer us soon and grant our request. After all, it must be as you command. And may Allah the exalted prolong your continuance. Effendum ! (Signed by the Sheikh, two Selectmen, and seven others, all of whom seal it with their signet rings.) A gentleman in Missouri offers to aid in the opening of a school for boys in Kefroon. There will doubtless soon be a call for a school for girls. This is I ut a sample of the calls coming to the mission from every side, at a time when our Board is obliged by the churches to enjoin the mission to retrench, retreat, and reduce its work. VI.— MISSIONS IN SYRIA AS LIKELY TO BE AFFECTED BY THE WAR. The occupation of Cyprus by the British Government, and the Anglo-Turk- ish Treaty, which guarantees reforms of various kinds in the Turkish Empire, will undoubtedly have a favorable effect upon the missionary work in the whole Turkish Empire. The civil reforms to be effected are the following : 1. Abolition of the system of farming the tithes. This system has been the fertile source of indescribable extortion, outrage, oppression, and misery for centuries, until the peasantry of the Empire have been driven to despair. The British Government now propose to abolish it, and substitute the system used in India. 2. Reform of the judiciary, which is hopelessly corrupt and venal, and the appointment of British judges in all the courts of appeal. The salary of Turkish judges is now so absurdly small as to compel them to live by bribery. 3. Admission of Christian testimony in the courts of justice. At present none but Mohammedans can testify in court. The British Government will insist on giving Christians equal rights with Moslems in this, as in all other respects. 4. Enrolling of Christians in the army, and thus securing religious liberty to Mohammedan converts to Christianity. In the past, Mohammedans alone have been liable to the conscription. It has weighed heavily on them. Every convert to Christianity has been regarded as a traitor to his country — a rene- gade from the draft. When Christians are drafted into the army, a Moslem will not be lost to the military service, even if he becomes a Christian, and thus the great political ground for persecuting Moslem converts to Christian- 7 ity will have ceased forever. This is a result Christian missionaries have been praying for during the past forty years. 5. The repression of the wild predatory nomadic tribes, such as Koords, Circassians, Turcomans, Nusairiyeh, Yezidees, Druzes, and Bedouin Arabs, who have been a terror to the peasantry for ages, and whom the British Gov- ernment can keep in order with comparative ease. 6. The suppression of slavery and the slave-trade in the Red Sea and Southern Arabia. The Koran sanctions slavery, and the Moslems continue to evade the Sultan's firmans against it ; but the British agents have ever aided in the emancipation of enslaved men, and will now labor with new zeal and efficiency. 7. The laws with regard to the press, and education also, will probably be modified to conform to the spirit of modern civilization. A native Protestant journal in Beirut, the Jenneh, of date Oct. 8, 1878, gives eleven points of reform needed in Syria : " 1. The stoppage of reckless expense. 2. Adjustment of taxation and regulation of the budget of income and expenditure. 3. Increasing the pay of public officers and of the police. 4. Appointing worthy men to office. 5. Codification of the laws to prevent the conflicting of different laws. 6. Publication of all legal decisions. 7. Obliging the defeated litigant to pay the costs of trial. 8. Protection to life and property. 9. Correcting all legal processes, and preventing their being arrested. 10. Making all officers responsible for their acts. 11. Setting apart a fixed sum in every province for public improvements and education." As the Sultan has publicly asked all the provincial governors for suggestions as to needed reforms, and the Waly of Syria has asked the Syrian journals for their assistance, we may take it for granted that a movement in the direction of reform has already commenced, although it will not do to look for too speedy results. 8. A new impulse will be given to the study of the English language through- out the Empire. The Syrian Protestant College in Beirut has already decided to make the English language the medium of instruction after Sept., 1879. Students are already coining to its halls from Cyprus. A member of the Beirut Church has been appointed secretary and interpreter to the Viceroy of Cyprus. The attitude of Great Britain will give confidence to the Protest- ants and other Christian sects of the Empire. It will no longer be a shame and disgrace to be a Protestant. There will be a new demand for education of every grade. As the burdens of the people are lightened and prosperity returns, the native churches will be better able to support their own pastors and teachers. It can not be questioned, however, that the payment of the Russian war indemnity will entail upon the people of Turkey a heavy burden for years to come. 8 VII.— THE MOHAMMEDAN GIRLS' SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. "On Tuesday, Oct. i, 1S73, the Mohamm.dan Benevolent Society of Beirut, Syria, opened a school for girls in this city, and we are requested to urge all the owners of zeal and perfection to continue their aid to this Society, that it may be able to open also a school for boys." This is the language of the Mohammedan weekly journal of Beirut, the Thumrat-cl-Funoou. It is the organ of the orthodox as well as the progressive "Young Islam" party of the Syrian Muslims. It is a remarkable statement. A Protestant journal, Lisan-el-HaL of the same city, of date Oct. 7th, pub- lishes the same notice, with this additional statement: "The Mohammedan Society of Benevolent Intentions, opened on Tuesday last a girls' school, with 150 pupils, and it is very gratifying that the teachers of this school are Moslem girls who have been taught in the British schools of Mrs. Mott and Miss Tay- lor. We would congratulate this sect and their Society upon this praise- worthy enterprise, and pray for its prosperity and success." This notice is the heralding of a new era in Syria, a new stage in true prog- ress. The Mohammedans have at length wheeled into line with that advanc- ing column, led by the Protestant missionaries, which is moving on to the education and enlightenment of Syria, and the disenthrallment and elevation of woman in the East. The Moslems have been the last to move, but they have new moved in earnest. They have not only opened a school, but a school for girls, and in a land where woman has been so degraded, and the birth of a girl regarded as a misfortune, they have opened their girls' school first, and now call upon their benevolent co-religionists to give more liberally to enable them to also open a school for boys. Such a testimony to the value and importance of female education, speaks volumes with regard to the great change wrought in public sentiment in Syria. Their girls are to be taught. The first place is given them in the new Mohammedan Benevolent Society. The boys must take their chance as they may, but the first and surest gifts are appropriated to the girls. Those poor, despised, commiserated beings, formerly doomed to a hopeless servitude in the harem, to be beaten, cursed, and enslaved, shut off from books and education, with no honor here and no hope hereafter, are to be instructed and honored, and the opening of their first school is made the occasion of congratulations in all the journals of the land. Truly Syria moves, and moves onward. Those Moslem girls, trained in evan- gelical schools, acquainted with the Bible and the religion of Chri?t, who have been set over this first Mohammedan girls' school in Syria, should be remem- bered in prayer by every Christian woman in this Christian land, that they may have grace and wisdom to teach aright. They will have to teach the girls un- der their care to read the Koran and Arabic grammar, with probably geogra- phy, arithmetic, writing, and sewing, but in their lives and conversation they can commend the Gospel of Christ. The mere fact that Mohammedans will pay for the education of girls, is one of those striking pivotal events which mark a new epoch in history. It is a result and fruit of the missionary work in Syria, an outgrowth of that improved and enlightened public sentiment which is no longer ashamed to admit publicly, and in the most conspicuous manner, that the education of girls is even more important than the education of boys. What a marvelous change since the days of Fisk, Parsons, and Eli Smith ! VIII.— THE BENEVOLENT WORK OF THE BEIRUT GREEKS. "On Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1878, the Orthodox Greek Benevolent Society of Beirut, celebrated its tenth anniversary in the school building of the Society. A great company of the present and former members were in attendance, with invited guests from all the sects. The Report stated that the Society has ex- pended during the past ten years about $50,000 in the education of boys and girls, and in caring for the poor and sick, the widowed and orphaned." This notice is from a Protestant journal in Beirut, which also states that various speeches were made on " The value of organized societies," " The duty of the rich to the poor," " The benevolent societies of Europe and Amer- ica," " The propriety of a Union Benevolent Society of all the religious sects in Syria," " The need of reform in our schools, in the training of teachers, and the selection of studies," etc., etc. A Mohammedan present, a member of the Mohammedan Benevolent Society, made an address, congratulating the Greek Society, and wishing it long-continued prosperity. The whole company then rode in carriages to the Pine Forest, outside the city, where a repast was provided, and that the poor might not feel slighted on such a day of rejoicing, those present purchased 1,500 yards of cotton cloth to be given to the needy poor. This Greek Society represents the best elements in the Arab Greek Church in Syria. It has 15 schools with 928 boys and 425 girls — total, 1,353 pupils ; and these schools are a powerful auxiliary to the true enlightenment of the peo- ple. The New Testament is taught in them all, and their teachers were many of them trained in Protestant schools. The most cordial feeling prevails between its members and the Protestant community, and the proposition, made and enforced in one of the public ad- dresses at this anniversary, that there be formed a " Union Benevolent Society of all the religious sects in Syria," is but one of the many indications of the growing confidence and kindly feeling between the lately hostile and antago- nistic sects of Syria. IX.— OTHER SOCIETIES IN SYRIA. The Protestants were first in the field with their "Evangelical Society," their " Benevolent Society," and " Young Men's Christian Association." Then IO arose the Maronite Society of St. Vincent de Paul ; then the Greek " Be- nevolent Society," and now the Moslem "Society of Benevolent Intentions." The Jewish community, too, have been obliged to open schools, and the Jewish children, generally the most ignorant and degraded of all, are now en- joying the benefits of a high-school, organized after the pattern of the best native Protestant high-school in Syria. X.— MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN SYRIA. One remarkable feature in the history of Syria during the past year, has been the introduction of popular elections in all the cities for the choice of municipal officers ; all property owners were registered. The registration lists were posted in public places for a fortnight for correction. Then the voters balloted for twelve councilmen. In Beirut, where a majority of the population is Christian, ten Christians and two Moslems were chosen. In the ancient Hamath, where are 28,000 Moslems and 2,000 Christians, ten Moslems and two Christians were chosen. In Damascus the majority were Moslems. The Beirut Municipality have already inaugurated reforms of various kinds, and are setting an example to all the other cities of Syria and Palestine. XL— RECENT TRIALS IN THE SYRIA MISSION FIELD. 1. The death of beloved and useful laborers in the field. In April, Mrs. Lewis, wife of Prof. Lewis, of the Beirut College, a Christian woman of singular transparency of character, was called to her rest, leaving many mourning friends in the foreign and native communities. Then "Sister" Amalia von Richter, the directress of the European De- partment of the Prussian Deaconesses Institution in Beirut, died after a brief illness. This noble woman, whose praise is spoken in all Syria, deserves more of a tribute than can be given in these columns, and the order of Protestant Lutheran Deaconesses to which she belonged, are worthy of the confidence and gratitude of the Church universal, for their exemplary and self-denying la- bors in their orphan-houses, boarding-schools, and hospitals in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Sister Amalia had been connected with the Order of the Deaconesses for more than twenty years ; was a sincere Christian, an accomplished scholar, one of the eminently sweet singers of Israel, a teacher and disciplinarian of German thoroughness and exactness, and an attractive member of society. The entire native and foreign communities of Beirut will long feel her loss as a personal be- reavement. And it is worthy of remark in this connection, that the labors of this pious and self-denying Protestant Sisterhood have silenced forever in the East the oft-repeated boast of Rome, that her " Sisters of Charity " furnished the only instance of true womanly devotion and self-denial in the Christian Church. Not long after the death of Sister Amalia, the mission and the whole native II and foreign Protestant communities were again plunged into grief by the sudden illness and death of the Rev. Frank Wood. He was one of the younger mem- bers of the mission, and had won the respect and love of all. Physically and intellectually, he was one of the strongest of men, and spiritually, one of the loveliest. The mission needed him, Syria needed him. We can hardly believe that he is gone, and we shall never understand why so strong and efficient a soldier was suddenly withdrawn from the ranks, until we see as we are seen, and know even as we are known. Then, following the death of these three of God's saints in the foreign com- munity, came the death of three of the most prominent native Protestants in Syria. Of each one, much of thrilling interest might be written. The first was Deacon Elias Fuaz, one of the old pillars of the Evangelical Church in Syria. He was a pillar saint, not of the kind who stand on pillars, but one of the pillars on whom others stand. He had a rough exterior, a voice far from winning, but for true sincerity, stern adherence to truth, and absolute integrity, he never had a superior in the Arab race. He bad been persecuted, stoned, and maligned for Christ's sake, but in the dark days when many for- sook the faith and fled, he stood like a rock amid the billows. In Syria, a father receives the name of his first-born son. His name was Elias, and although he had no son born for sixty years of his life, he was al- ways called Aboo Nasif (the father of Nasif ), that is, by the name of an imag- inary son as a title of respect. When more than sixty, he married, and God gave him a son. This son was necessarily called Nasif. He was about the age of one of my little sons, and as our houses were adjacent, our children became greatly attached to little Nasif. The love of that old Abraham for his tender Isaac was indescribably touching. He seemed to live in the life and the love of the little black-eyed boy. But his staff was to be broken. The little boy sickened with pneumonia, and after thirty days' illness, died. I sat daily by his bedside, and never have I seen such bitter anxiety. For ten days the old man had no sleep but in stray moments of absolute exhaustion, and when the little spirit took its flight, the light of his life seemed extinguished forever. He beautified the little lad's tomb, and planted cypress trees around it. But never after that day was he himself again. He pined and sickened, and after a weary, painful, and protracted illness, passed away. I never had a better friend in Syria, and Beirut will seem strange to me without him. Then the Lord called another of His dear Syrian children, M. Nicola Tub- bajy. Born in Damascus, he removed to Egypt, made a fortune in Cairo, was made Chief Counsellor of the Greek Patriarch, studied the writings of Basil and Chrysostom in the Arabic translation, but had no conception of spiritual re- ligion. Attacked by paralysis, he traveled in Europe with his wife, visited the springs of France and Germany, and on his return settled in Beirut as a health station, and to enjoy the medical services of Dr. Van Dyck and other physicians. He visited the evangelical church out of curiosity. His attention was riveted. 12 He was converted, thoroughly and utterly converted, into a new, whole-hearted, liberal, self-denying, prayerful, Bible-loving man of God, and soon after, with his wife, professed his faith in Christ. My intercourse with him will ever form one of the sweetest memories of my life. He helped me in the spiritual and temporal concerns of the church, and was chief promoter and founder of the new chapel in the eastern quarter of Beirut. For months before I left Syria he had been very ill — paralysis had disabled his lower limbs and destroyed his vision. His sick-room was luminous with the light and joy of Christian hope and peace. The interests of Christ's Church in Syria were dear to his heart, and he prayed earnestly for the salvation of his fellow-countrymen. On the morning of April nth, the day I sailed from Beirut, at $}4 o'clock, I rode to his house to bid him farewell. He heard my voice as I entered the room, and called me to his bedside. We spent a brief season in prayer, and then I bade him good-bye. He threw his arms around my neck, kissed me affectionately on both cheeks, and wept aloud. " My brother, my dear brother," said he, " and is this our last meeting on earth ? I thank you for what you have done for me. Do not forget me in your prayers. I shall soon see Christ, and it will not be long before we meet again." As I passed out the door he was sobbing aloud, and I could not restrain my tears as I thought I should see that dear man of 'God no more this side heaven. The last letters from Syria, of October 16th, announce the death, from pneumonia, of Mr. Selim Mirai, a recent graduate of the Beirut Theological Seminary. Ten years since he was a stone-mason in Mt. Lebanon, a hard- handed, rugged, athletic youth. Happening in one Sunday at the Beirut church, he heard the Gospel preached for the first time. It came to him as a startling revelation. He struggled against the truth, but was conquered, and ere long abandoned the mariolatry and saint-worship of the Greek Church, and accepted Christ alone as his Saviour. He studied in Abeih with Mr. Calhoun, and spent several years in teaching, and three years in the Beirut Theological Seminary, where he graduated last July. Mr. James Black, an eminent British Christian merchant in Beirut, after listening to one of his sermons, stated that it was the most eloquent discourse he ever heard from a native Syrian. He gave fine promise of success as a native preacher, and was laboring in El Hadeth and Kefr Shima with great acceptance. A work was ready for him, and he was ready for his work. The Syrian Evangelical Church has sustained a great loss in his death. 2. Another trial to the mission is the serious reduction in the mission appro- priations for the current year, involving loss, diminution of effective force, and, to a considerable extent, cessation of aggressive labor. 3. Another trial has been the ill-health of several members of the mission. 4. The mission has also continued to be tried by the fanatical propagandist!] of the " Plymouth Brethren," a sect which may be regarded as the enemy of all order, edification, unity, and spiritual growth in the Christian Church. With the most specious and oily-tongued professions of piety, brotherly love, 13 and zeal for purity, it soon reveals a spirit the most intolerant, self-seeking, exclusive, and denunciatory. The five men who followed the Plymouth apostle in Beirut, will now neither commune with him nor with one another. The " Brethren " break the Sabbath openly, going to the market and doing worldly business, as they are " not bound by the law." Teaching that in regeneration the " old Adam " remains unchanged, they disavow all responsi- bility for their evil deeds. One of them, a young man in Hums, robbed the shop of a brother " Plymouthite." The rest called him to account. He replied that he had enough to do in looking after his new nature and had no time to manage his " old Adam," for whose deeds he denied all responsibility. The Plymouth virus is about exhausted in Syria now, but it has left its brand of spiritual indifference and disorganization on all who have fallen under its influence. 5. The advent of 50,000 Circassians to Syria at the close of the Russian war, was an infliction upon Syrian society which filled all the people, native and foreign, with alarm. The Anglo-Turkish treaty, however, gives hope that these wild, untamed fanatics will be held in check. Epidemic diseases have broken out among those located in Northern Syria, decimating their ranks. They may yet form an element of serious trouble in Syria. XII.— SOME SPECIAL NEEDS IN THE SYRIA MISSION. 1. Means to hold and extend the work already done, without the constant necessity of retrenchment, withdrawal, and disastrous reduction in the work. 2. A few hundred dollars as a special fund to translate and print books for children. It is pleasant to record the fact that the Sabbath-school of Rev. R. Newton, rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Philadelphia, has contrib- uted the money to translate and print in Arabic two of Dr. Newton's books for children. 3. A Sunday-school and lecture-room in Beirut. This is a very pressing need, and will require about $2,000, which should be raised without interfer- ing with the regular contributions to the Board. 4. Additional rooms should be built in the Female Seminary building in Tripoli, to adapt that fine edifice to the needs of an educational institution. 5. Scholarships for the training of Protestant boys in the Beirut College — $100 a year will carry a promising boy through the preparatory and college course. The suspension of the Abeih Academy brings the college into very close connection with the mission, and funds are needed to aid in this impor- tant work, so vital to the success of the Gospel in Syria. 6. A special fund of $200, to supply needed theological and other books to the library of the Theological Seminary in Beirut, and to enable us to present to each graduate of the Theological Seminary a few select English commen- taries as a help in his work. 7. A communion service (plated) of four, cups, two plates, and large pitcher, 14 for the Beirut Church, that the old "service" of that church, no longer suffi- cient for its needs, may be given to one of the smaller churches. XIII.— SPECIAL SUBJECTS OF PRAYER IN CONNECTION WITH THE SYRIA MISSION. i. The missionaries personally; that the sick may be healed, and precious lives be spared. 2. The opening of new doors among the Mohammedans and the various wild tribes hitherto inaccessible, by the removal of political, civil, and religious obstacles. 3. Greater consecration on the part of all laborers, native and foreign, and especially the native pastors, preachers, and teachers throughout the Empire. 4. The conversion of the educated youth of both sexes, and. of those now in our college and female seminaries. 5. The Christian parents and children. 6. The speedy execution of the reforms guaranteed by the Anglo-Turkish treaty for the physical, temporal, and moral relief of the suffering and the oppressed. 7. The Divine protection of the churches against the Plymouthite delusion. 8. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the intellectually enlightened in all the Oriental sects, especially those who have read the Bible and need Divine guidance to lead them into all truth. XIV.— GROUNDS OF HOPE. 1. The true piety, exemplary lives, and benevolent zeal of native Christians throughout Syria. 2. The number of Christian families, conducted on Christian principles, in which the children are being trained in sound principles, obedience, and intel- ligence. 3. The great number of youth in evangelical schools and congregations. 4. The change of public sentiment with regard to Protestant Christianity and the value of education. 5. The favor with which Mohammedans regard Protestant Christians, as a truth-loving and truth-speaking people, and the universal confidence they feel in the English and all others of the same religion and language as their friends, and nearer than any others to their own faith. 6. The wide acceptance and diffusion of the Arabic Scriptures. 7. The fact that Mohammedans feel obliged to defend their religion in writing. 8. The fact that through the existence of the more permanent organized in- stitutions, the evangelical churches, the church edifices, the colleges, semina- ries, and printing-presses, Protestant Christianity has come to be regarded no i5 longer as a "foreign faith," a " religio-illicita," encamped for a season, but as an indigenous faith, which has come to the East not to sojourn, but to abide for all time. 9. The extent to which the Scriptures and Christian literature are read and cherished in the homes of the people. 10. The evident presence of the Divine Spirit as the seal and sanction of the work in days past, as a work of God. X » MISSIONS IN JAPAN. J MISSIONS IN JAPAN. This name stands for numerous islands that lie in the Pacific Ocean and that bend like a crescent off the Asiatic continent. It is said that the islands and the islets may be counted by the thousands, though the Empire consists mainly of four, called Yesso, Nippon, Kiushiu, and Shikoku. The natives call their country Dai Nippon, or Great Japan. The area is estimated from 170,000 to 270,000 square miles, and the census of 1873 gives the number of inhabitants at 33>3°o>675- The country is broken into mountains, hills, and valleys, and is both fertile and highly cultivated. It is rich in minerals, especially gold. From the con- formation of the islands there are but few rivers, and these are generally small. These abound in fish as well as the numerous bays and gulfs that indent the islands. The climate is good ; it is not too sultry in summer nor too cold in winter. But what is of special moment in Japan is the people. They are spoken of as small in stature, industrious, simple in their tastes, living mostly on rice and fish. " They seem," says Dr. Hepburn, " to be contented and happy. Social, merry, fond of amusements, extremely polite to each other and ob- servant of the rules of etiquette and decorum. As a people they are charac- terized by gentleness of disposition, humility of mind, susceptibility and read- iness to receive impressions, quick to perceive and ready to adopt anything for their own benefit and improvement, having no undue reverence for antiquity, free from excessive pride, bigotry, and gross superstitions — in all these respects the very antipodes of the Chinese. They are also a people of nic^ feeling, spirited, quick to feel and redress an insult, courageous, and warlike." Morally, they are like other heathen nations, possessing their vices, or such as are pictured in holy writ, and are in no way controlled by those principles that belong peculiarly to Christianity. Their religion, however designated, meets in no way the wants of sinful humanity in harmony with the claims of holiness and justice, or sends forth those who embrace it upon a career of pro- gressive purity. It works no renovation of soul, or creates any new principle of action, so that it is not adapted to transform, to elevate, or to save. The Ainos, or aborigines of the country, are still found in portions of Japan. They keep apart from the Japanese in their own villages, and remain distinct in religion, language, and mode of life. Neither Buddhism nor Shintooism is known among them. Their religion consists in the worship of spirits and ob- jects of nature, without any priesthood or any distinctive forms of service. Their language has never been reduced to writing, so that they have no liter- ature. This people are few in number. 4 Missions in Japan. The Japanese are, in part, of the Aino stock. The conquerors or colonists from the mainland gradually obtained possession of the country, and their history shows that they have had their bloody wars, changes in government, or dynasties, and progress in civilization. The Chinese in the past have ex- erted a great influence over these islands. Their literature, manners and customs, and manufactures are largely Chinese. ' Society is divided into four great classes — the military, the agricultural, the mercantile, and the mechanic. "Besides these," says Dr. Hepburn, "are the doctors and priests, who rank between the patrician and farmer and the Yeta, who are considered outcasts and polluted. These social lines are very distinctly drawn, amounting almost to caste." The military or patrician class, whilst constituting but a small part of the population, have exercised a dominant influence over the nation, and many of the recent changes in the country have been initiated by them. Japan, from her isolated position, her exclusive policy, her dread of foreign interierence, and her unwillingness to enter into the family of nations for com- mercial purposes, had prevented, for more than two centuries, all missionary work on her soil. If any one thing controlled this policy it was that no foreign Christian evangelist should labor among the people. Their hatred to Christi- anity was real and intense, and it is necessary to consider this feeling as among the obstacles to the reception of the truth. HINDRANCES. It is a sad thing to place the conduct of professed Christian missionaries in the past as an effective bar to present evangelistic effort, and yet this has been the case in Japan. Confounding Romish superstition with a pure Christianity, and the acts of Jesuit priests with the teachings of the Bible, they were un- willing to open their gates to those who might plot against the Government or seek to place the people under the authority of Rome, and when the country was thrown open it was with all the edicts against Christianity in full force and placed in conspicuous places for the people to see and to understand. With the masses Popery and Christianity are identical. When Xavier entered Japan, in 1549, there were no such restrictions upon his movements. Coming as the herald of a new faith, he and his associates were allowed to travel wherever they pleased. Soon, from one cause or an- other, converts were baptized. His successors were as zealous for the faith, but not so discreet. Political power and worldly policy shaped largely their action, which led to intrigues and plottings against the Government. These aroused opposition of both princes and priests and led to severe and retaliatory measures, which culminated in bitter and relentless persecution. The Japanese arose in their might, determined to crush out every vestige of Christianity, and to do this the more effectually they " withdrew their nation from all intercourse with their fellow-men and sealed Japan hermetically against the nations of the earth." Laws were passed with the simple object of extirpating the religion of Jesus, and death was the penalty to any who embraced it. The people Missions in Japan. 5 were everywhere brought up with this hatred to the name and religion of Christ. So that when missionaries appeared after the opening of the country, it was to meet this opposition and to see the tablets wherever they went — " The Christian sect is prohibited as it has been hitherto." Though these tablets have mostly disappeared, still there has been no formal reversal of their former policy on the part of the authorities, and no declaration of religious toleration. In such a state of things there must necessarily be suspicion or indifference on the part of the people and much hostility on that of the priesthood. BUDDHISM AND SHINTOOISM. The ruling religions of the Empire are Buddhism and Shintooism. The former is the religion of the masses ; the latter is that of the State, and of the cultured. Buddhism, from the number of its adherents, is strong, popular, and defiant. Shintooism is propagated by the Government, and decided efforts are put forth to increase its influence and the number of its votaries. If the one has been weakened by official interference, the other has made little advance in spite of patronage and power. Their hold, however, upon the people is very strong. They have much on which the natural heart can feed, and little to purify and ennoble heart and life. Merit is a cardinal principle in both sys- tems. If the one teaches that the highest happiness is utter absorption of being and personality in the Supreme, the other sets forth no doctrine of im- mortality or of hope beyond the grave. If the one is fitly described as " Roman Catholicism without Christ and in Asiatic form," the other lays down no precepts, inculcates no dogmas, and prescribes no ritual. " Shintoo in its higher forms," says Mr. Griffis, "is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism. In its lowest forms it is blind obedience to Governmental and priestly dictates." Its great excellency is that it is good to keep alive patriotism among the peo- ple. Buddhism is a system of negations as to truths, and positive in its ritual as to prayers, masses, and merit. It has done much for Japan as an aggressive faith, but as a regenerating, spiritual power it has had no influence. It can not revolutionize man's ideas of himself and of his God ; start him upon a new career of being and link him with the holy. This is the prerogative of Christianity alone. There are numerous sects of Buddhists in Japan. Mr. Griffis, in his " Mi- kado's Empire," mentions seven, with many irregular or independent classes that have no relations to each other, but all in some way or other prey upon the people — all these are incapable of regenerating Japan. The morals of the people are low. Vice abounds, and though woman occupies a position not accorded to her in many pagan lands, yet when contrasted with the social ele- vation and status of her sister in Christian lands, it is low indeed. " In the eye of Buddhist dogma, ecclesiastical law and monkish asceticism, woman is but a temptation, a snare, an unclean thing, a scape-goat, an obstacle to peace and holiness. Shintoo seems to accord her a higher place, but Shintoo can never sway the mind and heart of modern Japanese people." 6 Missions in "Japan. CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS. This is a great drawback to evangelistic work. How it operates upon the people is shown by a native writer, who expresses the following opinion in the 11 Japanese in America : " " The conduct of foreigners, excepting some of the better class of mission- aries and a few laymen, is a very shame to the name of Christianity and civil- ization, and retards the progress of both. They do not pay the prices of things they buy, and even the boat fares required of them ; but no sooner do they observe a shadow of discontent in the face of the person who demands it than the heavy cane is over his head. At home such behavior would be properly chastised by indictment for assault and battery, but in the Eastern countries the European tyrants are under the protection of guns and powder ; moreover, of that sacred cross of St. George, or the tricolor. So that whenever thev treat a native outrageously, if he does not lose his senses he would keep his ano-er to himself, because if he resent it the fate of his darling country would be endangered even by the loss of a single hair of theirs. There is no mystery in the fact that Christianity has not made any considerable progress beyond Europe, when we know that those Christians who go out to foreign countries behave themselves worse than the heathen, or at least no better than they. First of all, they are the slaves of Mammon, go to houses of ill-repute, swear without almost any cause, insult the natives, kick and beat them, and behave as haughtily as Julius Caesar. Moreover, these things take place on Sunday more than on any other day of the week, because on other days they have things of more material interest to attend to." It is this «class who largely decry missions, speak slightingly of what has been done, tell large stories of the style and splendor of missionary life, and in va- rious ways seek to injure the cause, and there are not a few who are influenced by their statements and receive them more readily than if they came from those who are in the fullest accord with missions and who are seeking to ben- efit the people, socially and spiritually. We might refer to other hindrances that are found in Japan, but they are connected with their systems of faith or their habits of life, which furnish sad evidence of defective morality ; but it is painful to think that whilst heathenism has erected one barrier to the truth, a nominal or corrupt Christianity has reared another to the progress of the pure principles of the Gospel, and that this should be so influential in keeping the heathen from an investigation of the claims of Divine truth, or from coming into contact with it. ENCOURAGEMENTS. The first of these is that Japan is open. The people are now accessible to the truth. In 1639, after a long and fearful persecution, the Portuguese were expelled from the coast, and after aiming to destroy every vestige of Christi- anity, the country was closed to every foreign nation except the Dutch, who enjoyed, on a small islet, certain, limited commercial privileges. For more Missions in Japan. 7 than two hundred years, or till 1858, this state of things continued, but when the Church was, in some measure, prepared for aggressive action, the doors were thrown open, and now city after city has been occupied by the mission- ary of the Cross, and that Name which was periodically trampled on by the people and despised by the rulers, is again proclaimed as the Saviour of the perishing and the Lord of glory, and by those who wish to exalt Him alone in the eyes of the nation. Though religious toleration has not been proclaimed by edict, it is enjoyed by all ; though the whole land is not accessible to the missionary, more people are than can be reached by the representatives of the Church. This is a wonderful gain for the truth and all which it demands. A second encouragement is the attitude of the native mind as to improve- ments and progress. Though the last to come within the comity of nations, no country has, within the last twenty years, made such rapid strides. Revo- lutions in government and in modes of life and thought have been marked and wonderful. The whole mystery that surrounded the Mikado has disappeared, and he is now, not in name, but in reality, the lawful Sovereign of the land. The Tycoon, who assumed his prerogatives as a military ruler, has disappeared ; the feudal aristocracy — the Daimios — have surrendered their rights and power and have no longer a controlling voice in the affairs of the nation. The whole form of the Government has been remodelled in accordance with that of Chris- tian nations, as well as their whole judiciary system. The changes in every department have been most marked and rapid. These have been well sum- marized by Dr. Hepburn, as follows : " The Emperor, who was a few years ago so sacred a personage that even the highest Daimio of the land was unworthy to behold, or approach within a certain distance of him, now rides out openly, reviews his troops, opens rail- ways, visits ships of war, and even walks out with only a few attendants, his people not being compelled to kneel down when he passes. " They have thrown aside the bow and arrow, the spear, sword, shield, and armor, for the most improved implements of modern warfare, organizing, cloth- ing, and drilling their army according to the European mode. " They have organized a small navy of eight or ten steamships of war, two of them iron-clads ; all manned by Japanese sailors, and engineered and nav- igated, with perhaps one or two exceptions, by native officers. "They have constructed, under the superintendence of foreigners, a dock hewn out of the solid rock, for repairing ships of the largest class, and inferior to few in the world for size, perfection of finish, and equipment, with every modern appliance and invention. " They have workshops thoroughly furnished with all kinds of machinery of the most approved kind for building ships, steamers, and steam engines, and making cannon and arms of all kinds, also for making clothes, shoes, knap- sacks, saddles, and military accoutrements. " They have constructed a railway from Yedo to Yokohama, and are laying out others. 8 Missions in Japan. " They have a telegraph laid from Yedo to Nagasaki, which communicates also with the rest of the world. They have erected lighthouses upon most of the dangerous points of their coast. " They have printing-presses and a type foundry, several daily newspapers, and are busy in preparing and publishing dictionaries, vocabularies, phrase- books, and grammars of several of the European languages, besides trans- lating and preparing books on medicine, law, political economy, moral philos- ophy, natural philosophy, history, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, and other subjects. "They have introduced the decimal system of coinage, have erected a mint furnished with the best machinery, and coin gold, silver, and copper coin. They issue Government paper money, and are establishing national banks, ■ are borrowing money from England, and have a very respectable national debt. " They are changing their style of building, adapting them to European models, and are introducing the European costume, furniture, mode of wearing the hair, and diet ; also the use of carriages and wagons in Yedo and other places where their roads will permit. "They have introduced a regular postal system, and use postage stamps. "They have conformed their calendar to the European, commencing the year with the first of January. " They have suppressed two-thirds of the Buddhist temples, seized their property and revenues, severed all state connection with either Buddhism or Shintooism, and promulgated as a new creed, and all that is required of their people, viz., to fear God, honor the king, and love their country, obey the laws of nature, and discharge the relative duties. "They have established almshouses for the poor, and hospitals in many parts of the country, where also medical instruction is given. " They have established academies or colleges for a higher education in most of the open ports and various other places, and are organizing common schools all over the country. " They have abolished caste, and relieved the Yetas from all their disabilities, giving them all the privileges of citizenship. "They have forbidden the promiscuous bathing together of the two sexes, no longer license prostitution, and enacted laws against all indecent behavior. u They shut up their custom-houses and all the public offices on the Sabbath- day, and observe it as a day of rest or holiday ; they have also begun to re- move the edict against Christianity from many places in which it has been long placarded, have restored persecuted Christians to their homes, and abolished the office of Censor ; and what more, it might be asked, do they need, but to have the Gospel freely preached amongst them ? This will come in due time." Another encouraging feature is the rapid spread of knowledge throughout the country. Schools are already established in all parts of the land ; boys and girls are studying with the help of all the improvements common in the best Missions in Japan. 9 schools in this country and Europe, and in books translated from standard Amer- ican text-books. Normal Training-schools have been begun in leading cities. Be- sides Government-schools, there are private educational institutions under the care of native school-masters and missionary societies, that are well patronized. A college for the education of young men in foreign languages and in sciences has been established, that is sending forth interpreters, teachers, and others to fill important places in the State. A Board of Translation has been organized, that is translating, into Japanese, leading works of different foreign authors. Some of the prominent youth of the nation have been educated in specialties in our own and other countries, who have returned to their own land, and are communicating to others the friflts of their training. Some of these have car- ried back with them a saving knowledge of Divine truths and are living Chris- tian lives. To help on this diffusion of knowledge is a free press which is making itself felt and which speaks with a boldness and freedom that are as- tonishing. This, of course, is not an unmixed good. Some have uttered senti- ments that were loose in the extreme and, in some cases, liberty has degenera- ted into license. Others have kept within bounds and have sought to educate and to lead the popular mind into right ways of thought and of action. Among the subjects freely discussed has been that of Christianity and liberty of conscience in all matters of religion. In one of the native newspapers, a writer says: "There is nothing better than Christianity to aid in the advancement of the world, but there are sects which are injurious as well as sects that are bene- ficial. The best mode of advancing our country is to introduce the most free and enlightened form of Christianity, and have it diffused among our people. How would it answer to bring over teachers of such a form of Christianity and allow them to educate our people in the same way that we employ foreign in- structors of different sciences in our various Government departments ? " An- other writer says : " The faith of a people can only be formed by their hearts, and it seems, therefore, improper for the Government to dictate to them which form of faith is right, and which wrong, and what they shall do, and what not do on this subject. It would be better for the Government to permit the peo- ple to worship God as they please, provided that in doing so they do not vio- late the laws of the country." One who wields great influence in the nation, says : " The true duty of a Government is the protection of life and property, and that men should be left free to believe what they like, provided their belief entails no injury upon others." These extracts are given to show that the in- telligent of the people are strong advocates of religious liberty. Another encouraging sign is the increasing number of Japanese who have been baptized. The attempts to keep the people from considering the claims of Christianity have been futile. The Bible has been largely sold in Chinese. The portions of the Scriptures already issued in Japanese have met with a ready sale. The spirit of inquiry is rife in places. Many churches have been organized, and those who have united with them have been generally from the middle walks of life. A large number of Christian youth are preparing them- io Missions in Japan. selves for evangelists, and steadily is the leaven of truth spreading from the leading centers into the country, and works on religious subjects are carried and read far into the interior. At first, the Government tried to interfere and repress these efforts of conversion, but, after considering the same, the conclu- sion was reached that it would be neither wise nor safe to make the attempt. The surveillance at first kept up on the movement of foreigners has also been removed, and now the fullest liberty is enjoyed on the part of those who wish to profess their faith in Christ. This number is steadily increasing. OUR MISSION. The Board was anxious to establish a mission as early as possible in Japan. In the report of 1855, it is stated that one of the missionaries in China had been requested to visit that country and to investigate matters preparatory to commencing missionary work. He was unable to go, and nothing was done until 1859, when James C. Hepburn, M.D., and his wife sailed for Japan. Dr. Hepburn had formerly been a missionary in China, and was obliged to abandon the work on account of the health of Mrs. Hepburn. With her health re- stored and with a call to begin a new mission in an untried country, he gave up a remunerating professional practice in New York city and sailed April 24th, for Shanghai, arriving there in due season. They reached Japan in No- vember, and settled at Kanagawa, on the bay of Yedo, and a few miles below the city of Yedo. This town contained at that time about 5,000 inhabitants, and consisted mainly of one street, about 25 feet in width. The people were mainly poor, dependent upon their labor. Their residences were also poor, built principally of timber and boards. Here a Buddhist temple was obtained as a place of residence. The idols were removed, and for a time it was con- verted into a Christian church, as divine service was held here. The study of the language received their immediate attention, and as soon as he could, the Doctor commenced his professional labors, to open up a way to the homes and hearts of the people. Whilst visiting his patients, he distributed religious tracts and books. A hinderance to labor arose from the strict surveillance that was kept over him and other foreigners by the Government. The common people were disposed to be friendly, but the ruling classes were jealous of for- eigners, and were averse to any intercourse with them. The Doctor and his family continued to live at Kanagawa until the close of 1862, when they moved across the bay to Yokohama. This was deemed necessary on account of the opposition of the authorities to the residence of foreigners at that place, and to their willingness and desire that they should live at Yokohama. This may, therefore, be considered as the first station of the Board. Yokohama. — A few months after the removal of the missionaries to Yoko- hama, Rev. David Thompson arrived (May, 1863). The way to commence open evangelistic work among the people was not open, though the oppor- tunity to teach some young men and to attend upon patients at the dispensary was seized upon. The country was at this time in a disturbed state, owing to Missions in Japan. 1 1 civil war. Dr. Hepburn opened a school for boys, which was well attended. These and kindred efforts were continued for years, without the laborers seeing any fruits in the way of conversion. Gradually, they saw the opposition to their work give way on the part of the authorities, and with this they found a broader field for toil. Dr. Hepburn had spent a portion of his time in pre- paring a Japanese and English Dictionary, which, when completed and pub- lished in 1867, contained over 20,000 Japanese words.' This work was not only greatly needed, but has been of great service to others in the acquisi- tion of the language. In February, 1869, Mr. Thompson was privileged to baptize three Japanese converts, two of whom were men of good education and abilities, and the third was an aged woman. This was done when the death penalty had not been abolished, but they were not disturbed by the au- thorities. A new dispensary had been procured through the liberality of some of the foreign residents, and it has been a center for spiritual influences through the work done in it, both medical and religious. This mission was strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Edward Cornes and his wife in June, 1868. Their career was a short one. On August 1, 1870, while they and their two children had stepped aboard the steamer City of Yedo, to go to Yokohama from the capital, the boiler exploded, and all but the little babe were instantly killed. They were buried August 3d in one grave at Yokohama. This was a heavy blow to the mission, as much was ex- pected from their services. Mr. Cornes was temporarily in Government em- ploy as a teacher at the time of his death. Rev. Henry Loomis and his wife arrived at Yokohama in June, 1872, and Rev. J. Rothesay Miller in July of the same year. The former were obliged, by the failure of Mr. Loomis' health, to return to this country more than a year ago ; the latter, after some time, married a lady in connection with the mission of the Reformed Church, and for reasons he deemed satisfactory, he was transferred to the care of that mis- sion. Rev. O. M. Green arrived in 1873, and Mr. J. Ballagh and his wife joined this station in 1875, living at the time in Yokohama. A few months ago, Miss Belle Marsh sailed from this country, and will take charge of the girls' school at that place. This school has long been under the care of Mrs. Hepburn, and has an average attendance of 30. The church now numbers about 50, sixteen of whom were received the last year. Dr. Hepburn spends most of his time in translating the Scriptures, though he spends one day in his Dispensary each week. The number of patients treated by him the past year was 6,110. TOKIO. This city was, until lately, called Yedo. It was settled in the second cen- tury, and has been regarded by many as die of the largest cities in the world. It was until recently the residence of the Tycoon. On his overthrow the Mikado moved from Kioto to Yedo, and changed its name to Tokio, which means eastern capital. This city is situated at the head of the bay of Yedo. The river O-oko flows through it, which is spanned by numerous bridges. 12 Missions tn Japan. Here is Nihon Bashi (Bridge of Japan), whence, it is said, all the great roads of the Empire are measured. The city consists of three parts, (i). The citadel, or castle, about five miles in circuit, is situated near the center. (2). The part outside the citadel, which was occupied by the families of the princes. (3). The commercial or industrial part. The section occupied by foreigners lies along the bay, and is called Tsukiji (Skeeje). In this portion are the mission premises of the Board, consisting of dwellings, girls' boarding- school, chapel, etc. This city was occupied by Rev. D. Thompson and Rev. C. Carrothers and his wife in 1869. Mr. Carrothers arrived in Japan in July of the same year. They were followed by Mr. Cornes, and after his death Mr. Thompson took his place in the school for a short time. Mr. Carrothers, whilst studying the language, taught a class of some twenty-five young men. In 1873 ^ss Rate M. Youngman and Miss A. M. Gamble joined this station. A boarding-school for girls was opened by the former. A girls' school was also taught by Mrs. Carrothers, which has exerted considerable influence. It is now under the charge of Mrs. True, who became connected with the mission in 1876. It is nominally managed by Mr. Hara, a Japanese gentleman. Miss Mary C. Parke joined this station in 1873. She was afterward married to Mr. Thompson. A church was organized in 1874, 16 were received on pro- fession of their faith and 7 by letter. There were at this time 54 members in connection with the two churches, and from them 8 young men applied to be taken under the care of presbytery. When Mr. Carrothers left the mission, Rev. O. M. Green was transferred from Yokohama to Tokio to take charge of the church. Rev. W. Imbrie and his wife arrived at this station the latter part of 1875. Miss Frances Gulick being in Japan, has been appointed a teacher in the Girls' Boarding-school. This school has now 32 pupils, and is doing a good work. The other school, in a different part of the city, under the care of Mrs. True, has 28 pupils. In both of these institutions the relig- ious element is prominent, and a number have been received into the church. The church under the superintendence of Mr. Thompson numbers Hi, according to the last report ; 43 of these were admitted during the year. The church under the care of Mr. Green numbers between 70 and 80. A new church has been organized at Omori, as will be seen from Mr. Green's letter, making some six churches ministered to by our missionaries. In these are a membership of nearly 300. Three new missionaries, with their wives and an unmarried lady, are under appointment, and will soon sail for Japan. There are at present 12 missionary societies (7 American and 5 British) at work in this Empire. These have 46 ordained missionaries, S missionary physicians, and over 1,000 communicants. There are about 40 students for the ministry. Besides the number baptized, there are many who may be termed inquirers. The field is, on the whole, a most encouraging one. s. 'MISSIONS AMONG THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS MISSIONS AMONG THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. It is a painful thought that though the Aborigines of this country (United States) have been in contact with a Christian nation, and in places surrounded for a long period by religious influences, so many are yet ignorant of Chris- tianity, or are in no way controlled by its principles. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report for 1874, thus classified the different tribes : (1). Those that are wild and scarcely tractable to any extent beyond that of coming near enough to the Government agent to receive rations and blankets, 98,108. (2). Indians who are thoroughly convinced of the necessity of labor, and are actually undertaking it, and with more or less readiness accept the direction and assistance of Government agents to this end, 52,113. (3). Indians who have come into possession of allotted lands and other property in stock and implements belonging to a landed estate, 100,085. This third class is the most advanced in civilization, and the Indians have attained their present con- dition chiefly through missionary effort. Besides these three classes, is a fourth, called roamers or vagrants, numbering about 14,000, who have no settled home, but live as they can. These are low down in the social scale. These various classes give only a total of 264,306 ; others make the number as high as 297,000. In a report to the Secretary of War in 1820, the number was estimated at 471,136, which, if correct then, shows a great decrease. This diminution is not true, however, of all the tribes, as several of the civilized have increased since they were placed on reservations. THEIR CLAIMS UPON OUR CHURCHES. They come within the sweep of the divine command. They are included in it. Involved in the fall, they need equally with others the benefits of re- demption. But independent of their lost estate, and of their possible recovery through the Lord Jesus, they stand in a peculiar relation to the churches of this land and to the nation itself, and this intensifies their claims : (1). This country was originally theirs. The early settlers found their fathers in possession, who claimed the country over which they roamed. No other people had an equal title to it, and if any has been assumed since, it arises from other considera- tions than what the first colonists could assert. The first settlers acted on this principle, and purchased their lands from the Indians. These in turn welcomed Missions Among the & the white man, and treated him with kindness. Rev. Dr. Trumbull, in his " History of the United States," says : " In Virginia, the Indians carried them on shore upon their backs, that they might not wet themselves in wading from their boats ; they washed their clothes, and even their feet, and feasted them in the best manner of which they were capable. The writers of those times say: 'a more kind and loving people can not be.' In New England, they taught them how to plant and cultivate the Indian corn, and when any of them were lost in the woods, and otherwise must have perished, they fed and con- ducted them safely to their quarters. P'aithless as they have been represented, Massasoit and his successors kept good faith with the English for nearly half a century. The Five Nations have maintained their confederation with each other inviolate for time immemorial. They maintained with the utmost punctu- ality their treaties with the Dutch of New York and Albany, from their com- mencement, till the English became masters of the province, and the Dutch government ceased." It can not be denied that the aggressors in most of the troubles that have taken place with the red men have been the whites, and these have been commenced and fostered for selfish purposes. They never imagined that when they welcomed the foreigner, that he and his should dis- possess them of their rights, and drive them from their homes. It has been done, and now the majority or the remnants of once powerful tribes are on reservations or in the far West, needing the Gospel to fit them for usefulness here, and for a happy eternity hereafter. Simple justice demands that these should be cared for, and means furnished for their evangelization. (2). These Indians are with us. They are in our States and Territories. They mingle with our people, or constitute a part of the nation. Whilst we have no sympathy with a religion that can see only home wants and destitution, and that will do nothing for the regions beyond, we have just as little for that religion that can overlook home, in its endeavors to reach those that are far away, or that which will confine its efforts to one race and neglect another. The Indians are at our doors. We know their moral condition, their vices, and their degradation, and feel that they need the helping hand of those who are strong and who can save them. Then they are committed to us as a trust. No other nation will send missionaries to them. If benefited at all, it must be by those who can reach them with the truth. Having what they greatly require, and possessing a domain that was once theirs, whereby we are enriched and blessed, gratitude alone demands that we should use our best en- deavors to improve their physical and moral state. (3). They have a claim upon our humanity. They are at our mercy. They are, if united, but a feeble folk, but tribal jealousies and ancient feuds will never allow any fusion, so that such an union is impossible. But though they are comparatively few, yet they are capable, from their very condition? situation, and relations to the whites, to do much harm, to stir up much strife, to create much alarm, and cause a large expenditure of life and money. The revengeful spirit of some of the tribes has led to retaliatory measures for the North American Indians. 5 wrongs inflicted upon them, as they suppose, and which has produced in many- hearts a desire for their extirpation. An Indian with this class is a target to shoot at, and not a man to save. He is an incumbrance on the land, and the sooner he is put out of the way, the better for all parties. Such sentiments are by no means uncommon. They are wrong, and savor not of the things that are of God. It is better to have those who are within our borders friends than foes. It will cost less to convert them into friends than to kill them as enemies. The Indian war in Florida cost 1,500 lives, and $50,000,000. The Sioux war of 1852-4 entailed the loss of many lives, and $40,000,000. The statement has been publicly made, that the military operations against hostile Indians for the last forty years have averaged twelve and a half millions of dollars per annum to the Government. This is a vast sum, and most of it might have been saved if the churches had put forth strdhger measures for their evangeli- zation, and the Government had pursued a different policy. The grandest civil izcr is the Gospel, and the readiest way to make the Indian a friend of the country and useful to his people and to the land, is to bring him under the power of divine truth. (4). They have a claim upon our Christianity. We are debtors to them in many ways. They need the truth. It alone can save them from much wretchedness of this life and from the miseries of that which is to come. It is for them. It is only a trust committed to us; first to receive it ourselves and then to transmit it to others. We have no right to guard it as a monopoly, or to keep it from them. What it has done for us it can do for them. Love to the Master and love for souls should prompt us to speedy effort. They are passing away. If those who have preceded us have been remiss in this duty, this is no reason why we should overlook it. Past omission can not diminish the power of divine command, or interfere with obligation. The urgency is all the greater by reason of this neglect. These, with other motives, should lead all who are alive to their claims upon them, to seek at once their well-being and enlarge the work now doing for a portion of the Indians, until other tribes shall be brought into contact with the Gospel and with the civilizing influences of Christianity. HINDRANCES. The field to be cultivated is a peculiar one. The Indians are not massed together or found at a few centers. They are scattered over a vast territory. Beginning at Western New York, they stretch over many States, and all the Territories ; and where they are the most numerous, they are not found in large towns and villages. This makes, except among a very few tribes, educational work most difficult, and the preaching of the Gospel a great labor. To instruct them properly, or reach the people as a body, will require a large force of laborers. Besides this, but few of the languages are reduced to a written form. Many of the tribes are small, consisting, at the most, of a few thousands, and some of them only of a few hundreds. It is, therefore, impossible that these 6 Missions Among the languages should all be reduced to writing, and books, and tracts, and the Scriptures prepared in them. To use only the English is to deprive many of the truth ; as even those who speak it have not been accustomed to think in it. To preach through an interpreter is an unsatisfactory way of communicating heavenly knowledge, and yet this, in many cases, has to be done. (2). False idea of liberty. As a people they dislike restraint. They do not wish to be governed by law, or be hedged in by regulations. The rules which control communities are not for them. They prefer to roam at will, and to hunt, fish, or sleep, at their own pleasure. Work is irksome ; and as few are compelled to labor in order to gain a livelihood, they care not to till the soil or to engage in civilized pursuits. In such a state of things, family government is scarcely known. From this arises a difficulty in many places to keep up day-schools. The parents, ignofant of letters themselves, see but little use of book knowledge for their children, and hence the pressure to be regular and studious is feeble indeed. (3). Intemperance. It is too true that the Indians have partaken of the vices of the white man more than of his virtues, and no one thing has exerted a more demoralizing influence than intemperance. Its effects upon life and character in the past are known to all, but it still exerts its baneful power over almost every tribe. The reports that come from Indian agents constantly refer to this evil. Says one : " The worst habit, on the whole, in its results to which they are addicted is intemperance. This works fearful demoralization among them The law forbidding the sale of liquor to Indians is violated with impunity." Another agent, speaking on this subject, says: "They are as completely sur- rounded by grog-shops as any Southern city was by earthworks during the late war." Testimony like this is abundant, but these extracts show what evils it still works among the tribes, and what an obstacle it is to their reception of the truth. (4). A sense of wrong. Many are shrewd observers and discerners of char- acter, and as a people they are alive to the injuries they have suffered from the whites. The past is known to them. They are apt to regard all who rep- resent Government in any way as cheats, and they are suspicious in their dealings with them. They will not, or do not, discriminate. Some of the wrongs which have been inflicted upon the red man have been avenged, but many have been borne in silence, or are working untold evils. The evil done to the Senecas in New York State, by which they have been cheated of their rights, is but a specimen of what has been done to others throughout our country, and the consciousness of these has led not a few to have nothing to do with a religion that is professed by those who have so greatly injured them. (5). Their relations to the Govern incut. These are peculiar. They have been treated in many cases as independent powers, capable of making treaties ; so that to-day there are over sixty independent nations within our territory, and then these and others are recognized as wards of the nation and are cared for by it. The annuities paid to these treaty-making Indians have had an North American Indians, j injurious effect in many ways. "The bounty of the Government has pauper- ized them, and in some cases has tended to brutalize more than to civilize." Much of the money thus paid has been squandered for that which has been a bane to the Indian, and the tendency of the system has been to perpetuate idleness and poverty. (6). Lawlessness. Such a thing as protection to life and property under a wise administration of law is unknown among the different tribes. Even in the Indian Territory, where law would be supposed to be strong and influential, we read : "Practically, we have a country embracing 62,235 square miles, in- habited by more than 75,000 souls, including 50,000 civilized Indians, without the protection of law, and not infrequently the scene of violence and wrong." A judge in Idaho decided, not long ago, that he had no jurisdiction either as a territorial or Federal officer, in a case where an Indian had killed another, though the murder was committed in his own county, and outside of any re- serve. " No officer of the Government has authority by law for punishing an Indian for crime, or restraining him in any degree ; all tribal government has been broken down by their contact with the Government." Headship among chiefs is nominal where order and protection are concerned, and many of this class are subject to the control of the worst element in the tribe. (7). Want of property rights. Nearly all land is held in common, and there is no law by which any Indian, wishing to continue his relations to his tribe, can receive his proportion of the property. This may have some advantages to the tribes in their savage state ; but it is a barrier to progress, to thrift, and to independence among the civilized. It interferes with all desires to advance, and binds the whole into one common herd. This works evil where churches have been established in regard to self-support, and is a hindrance to their maintaining religious ordinances, independent of foreign help. We might refer to other obstacles — such as the prevalent idea that the In- dians are doomed to extinction ; to the indifference existing among many Christians for their evangelization ; to the opposition to this people as a class ; to the difficulty of obtaining a race of missionaries who will live among the people, and who will make their ministry to them a life-work. These and other hindrances show that though the number to be reached is comparatively small, yet their evangelization is no light matter. Difficulties should be con- sidered not as a barrier to work, but as a stimulus to effort, and that the means employed should bear some proportion to what is to be achieved by them. OUR MISSIONS. SENECA. The New York Missionary Society, composed chiefly of Presbyterians, began work among these Indians in 181 1. It was transferred to the United Foreign Missionary Society in 182 1, and in 1826 this organization was merged into the American Board, and this mission was under its care till 1870, when it was transferred to the Presbyterian Board. 8 Missions Among the The Indians found in this mission constitute the main remnants of the ancient confederacy of the Six Nations, and occupy two reservations — one known as the Cattaraugus, lying between Dunkirk and Buffalo ; the other, the Alleghany Reservation, about 30 miles from Cattaraugus. About 2,600 Indians are gathered in this portion of the State. It is not necessary to speak of the treatment which these people have re- ceived from the State. How they have been deceived and defrauded of their rights, and how this, in spite of all effort on the part of the missionaries, has kept a portion of the people aloof from them, so that quite a number set- tled in a neighborhood by themselves, and have kept up their heathenish cere- monies, havmg as little to do with the Christian party as possible. At one time the Legislature of New York rejected a petition, praying that ministers of the Gospel might be permitted to reside on the Indian lands. At another time the civil authorities broke up and disbanded the Seneca mission. When the mission came under the care of our Board, there were three ordained missionaries laboring at different points on these reservations, with three native assistants. Since that time, the veteran missionary, Rev. Asher Wright, has died ; Rev. George Ford felt that he ought to retire from active labor, and the only remaining missionary, Rev. W. Hall, is endeavoring to reach as many with the truth as possible. Mrs. Asher Wright continues also in the field at work. Since the transfer, one of the native laborers has been ordained, and two have been licensed to preach the Gospel. Another mission- ary is greatly needed. There are four organized churches — the Cattaraugus church, with 134; the Alleghany church, with 74; the Tonawanda church, with 28 ; and the Tuscarora church, with 20 members. The lands are held in common, which interferes with the readiness of the people to help themselves and maintain religious ordinances. The time may be near at hand when these churches should be committed to the Home Board. Much good in spite of many adverse influences has been wrought among these people. In a commemorative discourse, the speaker, alluding to the changes that had taken place, said : "Instead of the grub-hoe, we have the plough; instead of the stone axe and the iron tomahawk, we have the steel-edged axe and broad-axe ; instead of the bark tray, the fanning-mill ; instead of bark spoons and forks of crotched twigs, we have the convenient tables, chairs, and kitchen and table furniture of the present day. Instead of a precarious supply of wild meat, we have beef, pork, and mutton, easily obtainable at will ; we have all the variety of food yielded by well-cultivated farms and gardens ; and, chief of them all, the finest wheat, which our fathers never tasted, saw, nor heard of. So also, instead of the hamper upon the back, we have convenient wagons, sleighs, and carriages ; instead of the narrow, crooked trail in the forest, we have broad roads, through an improved and beautiful country ; instead of the breech-cloth and moccasins, we have the comfortable clothing ; instead of skins spread upon the ground, we have comfortable beds and bedsteads ; instead of shanties of bark or poles, North American Indians. 9 without floor, chimney, or window, we have comfortable dwellings, light and dry, and free from smoke ; instead of the old fables and deep ignorance of former days, we have the knowledge and intelligence resulting from the general educa- tion of our youth and children — schools in every neighborhood, and successful teachers already raised up from our own people." The oldest of the surviving male members of the Buffalo church, said, on the same occasion : " It was plain that as they became praying people they became civilized also ; and as each family became civilized, they became prosperous in their worldly business." And again : " It was very apparent that the adoption of this new religion carried with it new enterprise in worldly matters." As they became Christianized they became civilized — reformed in their habits and modes of living. This reformation was followed, not only with greater worldly prosperity, but with an increase of numbers, and it is a very noticeable fact that this increase is chiefly confined to Christian families and their descend- ants. At the present time the whole population is about fifty per cent, greater than at the commencement of the mission. Since the commencement of the mission over 600 of the people have made a profession of their faith in Christ. Other denominations have also gathered some into their churches, and a number have died in the faith without making a public profession. CHIPPEWA. This mission, formerly called the Ojibwa Mission, was established by the American Board in 1830, and at first embraced four stations, which were gradually reduced, owing to changes and new locations of the Indians, to one at Odanah on the Bad River reservation, in the north-western part of Wiscon- sin. Troubles with the Sioux, their removal from their old haunts, and uncer- tainty as to their future, interfered, for a time, with evangelistic efforts ; so that when the mission was transferred, the old missionary, Rev. L. H. Wheeler, was unable to live on the reservation, and the little church of 12 members was ministered to by Mr. Henry Blatchford, a native preacher. Whilst there are only about 600 Indians on this reservation, there are some thousands elsewhere who ought to be brought together, and who would form a strong band. Soon after the transfer, a boarding-school was opened under the superintend- ence of Rev. Samuel J. Mills, who remained for a short time, when he was com- pelled by ill-health to resign his post. He was succeeded by Mr. A. W. William- son, who took the place temporarily, and who rendered valuable services to the mission. The present superintendent, Rev. J. Baird, arrived March 15, 1873. Miss H- N. Phillips, now connected with the Chinese Mission in Cali- fornia, Miss Salome Verbeck, and Miss M. Louise Tarbell (Mrs. Baird), carried on the mission for some months before the arrival of Mr. Baird. At that time there were in the boarding-school 23 scholars, and in the day-school 56 scholars. Mr. Blatchford, acting as interpreter for the Indian agent, was able to render some service to the church. Since that time he has been ordained and installed io Missions Among the pastor of the church. Besides the laborers named, Miss Susie Dougherty, Miss Nettie Dougherty, and Miss Lydia Walker were for a time engaged in the schools. Of these, Miss Susie Dougherty remains with Miss Verbeck. The boarding-school contains n boys and 12 girls, and the day-school 31 boys and 10 girls. The church now numbers 52 communicants. OMAHA. In the autumn of 1846, Rev. Edmund McKinney and his wife removed to Bellevue, on the Missouri River, in the neighborhood of the Omaha and Otoe villages. The former numbered 1,050 souls, and the latter 1,166. These people suffered much from the Sioux. The Omahas were strongly addicted to intoxicating liquors. " Poor as they are, they will often give a horse for a few gallons of whisky, and their wisest and most influential men are often engaged in drunken frolics." Both tribes were in a state of degradation, destitution, and wretchedness. Acquainted only with hunting, when not in the chase the men were idle and given to intemperance. A boarding-school wTas started, which soon numbered 35 scholars. In 1853, Mr. McKinney was constrained on account of health to leave this field ; he was succeeded by Rev. W. Hamilton, of the Iowa Mission, who remained till 1857, when failing health required him to rest. After a few years he returned to this mission, where he is still at work. The Omahas were obliged to leave Bellevue, and removed to the lands re- served for them on Blackbird Hills, about 100 miles further up the river. From the very nature of the people, and their being away so long on hunting expeditions, missionary labor has been difficult and slow. Many weary years passed by without a church organization, but one was at last established, and numbers at the present time 39 communicants. Four of these were received on profession the past year. The condition of the tribe is improving. Nearly every man has made improvements upon his allotment. They have no longer the land in common. This division is working well. The tribe is increasing in numbers. The boarding-school was given up, and day-schools have taken its place. DAKOTA. This was commenced in 1835 by Rev. Thomas S. Williamson and J. D. Stevens, with their wives, also two unmarried women. They landed at Fort Snelling, and soon selected for their station Lake Harriet, five or six miles west of the Fort. Another station was commenced at Lac qui Parle, 200 miles further west. The Dakotas, or Sioux, were not only one of the largest tribes in the United States, but one of the wildest and most warlike, inhabiting a vast tract of country, embracing the larger part of Minnesota and Dakota, and a por- tion of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The first years of the mission- aries' labors were directed to the study of the language, preparing buildings for dwellings, schools, and chapels ; and in getting ready for more effective North American Indians. n services. Soon the word reached some hearts at both stations, but in the midst of encouragements, opposition and persecution arose ; so that the station near Fort Snelling was, for a time, suspended. For years the number of converts did not increase. In 1850 there were three organized churches and thirty-one communicants. In 1853 tne Dakotas removed to their reservation, and the stations then occupied within the ceded territory were given up and new ones were selected. From this time to 1862, there was a slow, but steady increase in the -number of converts. Then came that horrid massacre of the white settlers, by men who sought to destroy Christianity, and those whom they regarded as their enemies ; but they were speedily overthrown, and some 2,000 Dakotas were taken prisoners ; of these, 38 were executed at Mankato. Many of the prisoners were brought under the influence of truth, and 305 were bap- tized ; and at another place 133 united with the church on profession of their faith. Others have since been led to embrace Christ. So that in connection with the Presbytery of Dakota, there are nine churches with a membership of 757 > 7 ordained native ministers; and 2 licentiates. In 187 1 a portion of this mission was transferred to our Board, with the missionaries, Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, the founder of the mission, and his son, Rev. John P. Williamson. With them came two churches — that of Flan- dreau, ministered to by Mr. Williamson, and that of Greenwood, with its native pastor, Rev. W. O. Rogers. In these churches, according to the report of 1872, were 164 communicants. "The Flandreau church is composed of a colony who left the Santee agency, Nebraska, a few years ago, determined to become citizens and live like white men. They have had no oversight since that, nor received any aid from the Indian Department." Dr. Williamson has spent much of his time of late years in translating the Scriptures into Dakota. Most of the Bible is completed and has been printed by the American Bible Society. The two churches have 204 members, and in the schools are 81 boys and 64 girls. Another missionary is greatly needed. Besides the missionaries named, Miss Nannie J. Williamson is laboring as a teacher. CREEK. The Creeks, to the number of at least 20,000. reside in the Indian Territory, having the Choctaws on the south, and the Cherokees on the north. In 1842 Rev. Robert M. Loughridge commenced labors among them. At first it was doubtful whether he would be received, as the tribe had been unwilling to have missionaries settle among them. Certain conditions were agreed to by the chiefs and the missionary. In 1845 a church was organized, and a boarding-school was begun the same year. A second station was formed in 1848. Rev. Messrs. H. Balantine and D. W. Eakins were associated with Mr. Loughridge. These were followed by Mr. W. S. Robertson and Rev. J. R. Ramsay. The boarding school was soon attended by 80 scholars, and has been a power in the tribe. Another was started at the second station, and had in attendance 40 pupils. Besides preaching and teaching, some of the missionaries devoted a portion of 12 Missions Among the their time in translating the Scriptures into Muskogee. In 1858 the two churches had grown in numbers, and 90 communicants were reported, of whom 24 had been added during the year. In 186 1 the mission was broken up on account of the civil war, and most of the laborers returned north. In 1867 Messrs. Ramsay and Robertson returned as missionaries to the Creeks. They met a cordial welcome from the people. The Creek council appropriated $1,000 toward the repairs of the Tallahassee school building, and agreed to support 80 boarding scholars. A church was reorganized consisting of 17 members ; 14 of whom were communicants before the war. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, there are their daughter, Miss A*nn A. Robertson, Miss S. G. Brown, and Miss Eliza J. Baldwin, teachers. The church numbers 53, of whom 2 1 were received on profession of their faith during the last year. The influence of the boarding-school upon the Creek people has been great ; some of the leadino- men in the nation were educated in it, as well as some who are in the ministry or occupying prominent places of trust. SEMINOLES. The remnant of this once powerful and warlike tribe is settled in the Creek countrv, to the number of some 2,000. The treatment they received in Florida, and their expulsion from their own home, embittered their feelings toward the whites, so that they were unwilling to have anything to do with those who had wronged them. They had no school funds, and were poor, intemperate, and degraded. When the missionaries visited them, they found no general feeling in favor of education and religious instruction. A small boarding-school was started, which gradually won its way to favor. Mr. John Lilley and Mr. John D. Bemo were the first instructors. Rev. J. R. Ramsay was afterward transferred to this mission. A church was organized at Oakridge, which, in i860, numbered 62 members. The report of that year, in speaking of the im- provement which had taken place, says : "Their former prejudices have given way to a very general and earnest desire to know more about the religion of Christ ; idleness and intemperance have been superseded by habits of industry and sobriety ; whilst thrift and prosperity are rapidly taking the place of their former proverbial poverty. Indeed, there are none of the tribes in the South- western Indian Territory, or anywhere else in the country, whose prospects at the present time are more encouraging, and this change in the tide of their affairs car. justly be ascribed to no other cause than the influence of the Gospel." This mission was suspended during the year, but was resumed in 1867, when Mr. Ramsay returned, and he organized the church, enrolling 66 members. In the next year, 36 persons were added on examination. Mr. Ramsay was obliged to resign his connection with the Board, and he was succeeded by Rev. John Gillis and his wife, who remained but a short time with the mission. The way was opened for Mr. Ramsay's return. £le is anxious, with some of the people, to resume the boarding-school at Wanuko. The tribe is not able, however, to meet the expenses of the scholars. North American Indians. i j NEZ PERCES. This tribe is regarded as one of the most interesting in the North-west. The most part are living on the reservation, and have ever been friendly to the whites. A small, but disaffected portion remain outside of the reservation, and they have been dissatisfied for some time with the Government. Many years ago, a mission was commenced among them by the American Board, and the people were eager for religious instruction. The Kayuses, an adjoining tribe to Nez Perces, became jealous of the missionaries, and believ- ing that Dr. Whitman was giving them poison, which was the occasion of the great sickness then raging, they determined on revenge, and without warning, on Nov. 29, 1847, they fell upon the mission station, and killed Dr. Whitman, his wife, and twelve other persons ; several women and children were taken and held as captives, but were afterward redeemed. This broke up the mis- sion, and it was not resumed until 187 1, when Rev. Henry H. Spalding and wife, who had escaped at the time of the massacre, returned to Lapwai. He was welcomed by the people, and being able to speak in their own tongue, hundreds flocked around him, eager to hear the Word, and seemingly as ready to embrace it. Carried away by the sight, and listening to the entreaties of those who came again and again to be instructed, he baptized a great many. He did not long remain to indoctrinate them in the truth, and to guide the young converts, but was stricken down and died Aug. 3, 1874. These Indians have been mostly instructed by the ministers who have been among them as teach- ers. The time has, however, come when one who can devote all his energies to shepherding the flock should be sent, and the Board is anxious to commis- sion one who will devote himself to this people and work. There are at the two stations, Kamia and Lapwai, 670 baptized persons, and 429 among the Spokans, a neighboring tribe, who were baptized by Mr. Spalding and the Rev. H. T. Cowley. The field is an important one, and needs immediate attention. The Board has labored among other tribes. At the commencement of the war, its missions were among the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Creeks, Iowas and Sacs, Omahas, Otoes, Kickapoos, Chippewas, and Ottawas. Con- nected with these were 20 ordained missionaries, 3 ordained natives, 12 male and 60 female American teachers, etc. This force has been greatly reduced. DAKOTAS. / The Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., who has been so long connected with this mission, and his son, Rev. John P. Williamson, have been received under our care from the American Board. Dr. Williamson gives a brief historic statement of the mission, the field of its operations, and the work accomplished. These are of interest, and the facts presented may lead our readers to take a deeper concern in this particular mission. FACTS CONCERNING THE MISSION TO THE DAKOTAS. In the spring of the year, 1835, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sent one ordained missionary, a licensed preacher, and a farmer, with their wives and two unmarried women, to begin a mis- sion among the Dakotas, in what is now the State of Minnesota. The Dakotas or Sioux as they had been named by the French traders, and were at that time more generally called, were supposed to number about 25,000 souls, and occupied the northern part of what is now the State of Iowa, and the country north of it between the Mississippi and Missouri, nearly to the northern line of the United States; also a strip of country on the west side of the Missouri, from the mouth of the Big Sioux nearly or quite to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and a strip on the eastern shore of the Mississippi, more than two hundred miles in length, and from ten to thirty broad ; being much the larger and better part of the State of Minnesota, and Territory of Dakota, and a part of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. They wTere not only one of the largest tribes of aborigines in our country, but one of the wildest and most warlike ; and their language was said to be especially difficult to learn. The missionaries landed at Fort Snelling in May, and while there organ- ized a Presbvterian Church, embracing besides the families sent out by the Board, several officers, and a numbar of soldiers of the garrison. After this, two of the families proceeded two hundred miles farther west, to Lac qui Parle ; where they arrived on the 9th of July. Here, another Pres- byterian Church was organized, and the i^ord was pleased to open the hearts of the natives to attend to his Word, so that in the first seven years, forty-seven of the adult natives were gathered into it, and nearly one hun- dred children were baptized. The station near Fort Snelling was soon strengthened by the missiona- ries, S. W. and G. H. Pond, who had couie out at their own expense to labor for the spiritual benefit of the Dakotas ; but though they labored faithfully, owing chiefly to the opposition of the fur traders, they saw very little fruit of their labors.- In 1843, the opposition and persecution extended to Lac qui Parle. 2 The converts were not only persecuted but scattered and exposed to severe temptations, causing some of them to fall, though not as many as we feared would; for ten or twelve years the number of converts did not equal the losses by death and defection. In the year 1853, the Word of God was listened to with more interest than for some yens before, and several who had for years been wandering returned and expressed a desire for the ordinances of God's house. Next year a church was organized at Pajutuzee, thirty miles below Lac qui Parle, composed chiefly of such as had been members of that first church among the Dakotas, and six were received to that church, and one at Lac qui Parle, on profession of their faith in Christ. From that time, till the beginning of the war in b there was a slow but steady increase in numbers and a much greater increase in knowledge and grace in our churches, which then contained nearly seventy native communicants. About one hundred in all had been received, of whom twenty-four had deceased, and two or three had aposta- tized, and the others had gone to other churches. The aim of the prime movers in the war of 1862, against the whites, was to entirely destroy Christianity and civilization among their people. The failure of our Gov- ernment to comply with the stipulations of treaties with these Indians, and the assertion of hostile traders among them, that the Government was bankrupt, causing many of them to believe there were no soldiers left to resist them, enabled them to draw to their aid many who had no wish for war. This war like all wars against Jehovah, put to shame and confusion those who planned it. For a time they were successful in ever) engagement, meeting with no resistance except at Fort Ridgly and New Ulm, they said killing white men, was like killing ducks, attended with no danger, and they boasted that their many gods were far more powerful than the God of the white man. But those who had been engaged to kill the Christian Indians did not do it. When they wrere beaten in the battle of Nord Lake, and returned to their camp, and found that the Christian Indians and those who sympathized with them, had taken the white prisoners into their tents, and would fight for them, rather than give them up. most of them fled in consternation, saying, the God of the white man was more powerful than all their gods. Some of the murderers remained with the Christian Indi- ans, and surrendered to our army, saying it was better to do so than to flee to the Prairies, where all would perish of cold and hunger, for the Big Knives were merciful, and though themselves should be killed, their wives and children would be saved. Those who had rescued the prisoners .)> soon as it was in their power, delivered them to our army. Including these Christian Indians about two thousand Dakotas became prisoners. At first they. were treated kindly, but some of the murderers being found among them made them nearly all suspected, and three hundred and seventy-three men were sent in chains t<> Mankato, where thirty-eight of them were exe- cuted, and twenty-three died of sickness during the winler. Nearly thirty other Dakotas, chiefly women, were taken with them to carry to them wood, water, and food, making abont four hundred taken to Mankato. Of these thirteen had been previously baptized by ns, one by the Episcopalians, and fourteen, chiefly half-breeds, by the Roman Catholics. Many of these prisoners had been very bitter opponents of the Gospel, but now God opened their hearts to listen to his Word which we preached, and before they left in April, all the survivors except ten professed to be Christians, and had been baptized, of whom 305 had been baptized by us, and about twenty-seven each by the Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. The work in the prison was carried on chiefly through the instrumentality of two or three of our members, who were unjustly imprisoned, though one of the missionaries spent two or three days each week instructing them. The women and children, with a few men who were above suspicion, were taken to Fort Snelling, and confined there till the next April. Rev. J. P. Williamson labored incessantly among these, assisted occasionally by Rev. S. R. Riggs, and before they left 133 had united with our church on profession of their faith in a crucified Redeemer. It would be unreasonable to expect that all these, upwards of four hun- dred, most of them previously entirely ignorant of Christianity, gathered into the church in six months from the time they began to listen to the truth, would steadily adorn their profession. Nearly fifty of them, young men, were in the spring sent to the Missouri, with the women and children, and required to live in a community where there were more than five women to each man, and little or nothing to do. Most of these for a time did barlly. About seventy died in prison, giving such evidence of piety as could be expected. A majority remained in prison more than three years, and but few of these have apostatized. A number, perhaps one-fifth, from various motives, chiefly family connection, and supposed advantages in worldly matters, have left us to unite with the Episcopal Church, of which they are useful members. Many have died since their release, as their constitutions were impaired by the long confinement, but many of them are pillars in our churches. Four are pastors of churches wThich report an aggregate of 431 communi- cants. These four all learned the alphabet in the prison at Mankato ; for their prisons were schools, and under the influence of God's Spirit and a strong desire to read his Word, more learned to read in one year in the prisons at Mankato, Minn., and Davenport, Iowa, and at Fort Snelling and Thompson, than had learned in all our schools in the previous twenty-seven years. In the last seven years God has been carrying on his work among the Dakotas in circumstances which seem to us very unfavorable. During most of this time they have been without any fixed habitation, having no houses either for dwellings, schools, or in which to assemble for public worship. Yet our churches have steadily increased in numbers, and the mem- bers in knowledge, and, we trust, in grace also. We have now nine churches, v> itli an aggregate of more than seven hundred eommunicants, seven native pastors, and four licentiates. Within a year two churches have been built, and another begun, which will probably be finished in the spring ; and many of our members have in the last three years, with some aid from government, built themselves log-houses. Tlie whole number received to the communion by us from the beginning is about one thousand. How* many of these have deceased, I know not ; but suppose at least two hundred have died in the faith, and fifty have left us to unite with the Episcopalians. About a dozen women, who hold fast their profession, and some of them shine as bright lights in dark places, have never been near to, or had an opportunity of uniting with any of the existing churches. From this it is apparent that the number who have apostatized is not large, though many have been subjected to church discipline. Twenty-six females, and fifteen men have labored in connection with this mission, exclusive of natives. Of the fifteen men, eleven were ordained ministers, of whom live were licensed and four ordained by the Dakota Presbytery, and two others ordained while laboring in this field. The payments of the A. B. C. F. M. on account of this mission, exclusive of $9,300 received from the United States Government on account of schools, have been about one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Be- sides this the American Bible Society has spent some thousand dollars publishing the Holy Scriptures for the Dakotas, and the American Tract Society has printed some tracts, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and several thousand hymn books, in the Dakota language; and we have received many donations of clothing and food. These three items in the aggregate prob- ably amount to between $20,000 and $30,000, making the entire cost of this mission less than $150,000. In a book entitled "These for Those, or Our Indebtedness to Foreign Missions," published by Hoyt, Flagg & Breed, of Portland, Maine, 1870, il is clearly Bhown that this mission has saved our country more than ten times as much money as it has cost, and also the lives of many of our people. Of the other results of the Dakota Mission, we do not propose here to give a particular account, and will only state that we have reduced the language to a written form, and prepared iii it a number of elementary books, a grammar, and dictionary, containing about 15,000 words, and published by tin- Smithsonian Institute ; and translated the entire New Testament and nearly half of the Old. The greater part of these transla- tions has been printed by the American Bible Society ; and the remainder, we suppose, will be within a year. , FIELD OF THE DAKOTA MISSION. The Dakotas are more numerous, and occupy a larger extent of country, than any other tribe of Indians in our land. They differ from others of our aborigines in that they have steadily increased in numbers for more than a century, while all the others are supposed to have decreased, many V of them greatly and constantly. They may very properly be considered in three divisions : 1st. Those who formerly lived in what is now the State of Minnesota, called Santees,* to whom alone the Gospel has been preached till within a few years. In 1862, when they made war on the people of the United States, they numbered more than 6,000 souls. About two-thirds of these fled to Devil's Lake, and beyond it, where many of them remain, as yet inac- cessible to us. Those accessible number between three and four thousand, and live in the northeast corner of Nebraska and on the eastern border of Dakota Territory, and may now be reckoned a Christian people, semi- civilized, as there are among them eight Presbyterian churches, with an aggregate of 680 communicants, and the Episcopalians have probably more than half as many communicants among them. 2d. The Yankton and Yanktonais, who are found in Dakota Territory northeast of Missouri, and are estimated in the late reports of the Indian Department at nearly eight thousand souls. These speak a dialect some- what different from the Santees, but they converse together without diffi- culty, and we find they readily learn to read the books prepared in the Santee dialect. A part of these plant corn, and some years raise as much as they wish to eat ; but in their dry climate it is a very uncertain crop, and until within a few years they have depended; both for food and cloth- ing, on the buftalo. For two years few of these animals have been found in any part of this country, and the other game, with the corn they have raised, being insufficient to furnish them either food or clothing, they are dependent for both these chiefly on our government. While these were following the buffalo we could not preach to them statedly, nor could their children attend school. Not quite two years ago, the Rev. J. P. William- son moved to the Yrankton Agency, and since that time about two thou- sand of them have been almost constantly within twenty miles of him. He has preached to them statedly, and organized a church, into which nearly twenty of them have been gathered. 3d. The Telon inhabitants of the prairie are estimated at from eighteen- to twenty thousand souls, and have been accustomed to range over an immense extent of country on the southwest of the Missouri. They formerly depended for a living entirely on the chase, following the buffalo all summer, and in winter retiring to the wooded valleys, where they could find shelter, and deer, elk, and other small game, when the buffalo did not come near them. Since white men in search of gold have taken possession of so many of these valleys, that a subsistence could not be obtained by the chase, they have felt and acted as did the Gaels of Scotland long ago, who said of the Saxons, " We'll spoil the spoiler while we may, And from the robber rend the prey." The war we made to punish such conduct did not put a stop to it, and so President Grant adopted tlie more economical and effectual, as well as humane policy, of feeding and clothing them. For the purpose of getting their rations, the most of them are gathered at some half a dozen points, chiefly on the Missouri River, at which provisions are stored and issued to them. They are thus accessible to missionary labors, as they never were before while living by the chase. A missionary residing at one of these agencies will have constant access to many of them; and it is probable that their dependence on our government for a subsistenee will humble them, so as to make them more disposed to listen to the gospel. In visits which we have made to a number of them within the last three years, we think we can see this already. When the Northern Pacific Railroad, which has already surveyed through their best hunting-jirounds — the heart of their country, shall be completed, they will see that they cannot again live by the chase, and must change their mode of life, which implies in their minds a change of religion. They speak the same language as the other Dakotas ; but the dialect is so different, that it is doubtful whether the same books will do for them and the Santees and Yanktons. and the missionary who preaches to them should learn their dialect. For this purpose several men should go among them speedily. Those who go and preach to them the Gospel in their own tongue are likely to save many souls, and reap a rich harvest. Without the Gospel they must soon perish, soul as well as body. The country inhabited by the Telon and Yankton is well adapted for raising cattle and sheep : and if converted to Christianity and subjected to our laws, with no more aid than our government is now giving them, by adopting a pastoral life they might soon become self-sustaining. Heathen, and without the protection of law, it is impossible that they raise cattle and sheep, or do any thing now, when the game is destroyed by which they can earn a living. The kindness of our government in feeding them will hasten their destruction. When man sinned God ordained that in the sweat of his face he should eat bread; and hence those that eat bread without earning it are un- healthy ; and we may kill the Indians, so as to exterminaie them much sooner as well as cheaper, with flour and pork, than with powder and lead. But it is far better to give them the Gospel, and save them. The Rev. John P. Williamson thus speaks of THE FIELD THAT IS TRANSFFKHKD. There are two churches on this ground, (a.) Yankton Agency church, where I reside. It was organized last March — now has thirty-two members. Twenty-five of these joined on profession, and seven have been received from Pilgrim church at Santee Agency. There are also ten church members liv- ing 120 miles below this, in a half-breed settlement near Sioux City, Iowa, who have been connected with the Santee Agency church, but now having more relations with this church, it has been arranged to transfer them hith- er, which will make forty- two members on our roll. The Yankton Indians number about 2,000 souls, and are scattered about their reservation, which is thirty miles long on the Missouri River, the Agency being about the center of it, and sixty miles above Yankton, the capital of Dakota Territory. The first missionary effort for this tribe, was made by the A. B. C. F. M., who sent a missionary teacher, Mr. H. D. Cunningham, here in 18G4. He remained only a few months. Afterwards I visited the place occasionally as I had opportunity, and in March, 1869, removed here with my family from the Santee Agency. Since then, the Episcopalians have opened amis- sion here, having one missionary, a number of helpers, and buildings at either end of the reservation, as well as at the Agency. In our school, at the Yankton Agency, it is my design to have a female teacher. The school is small this winter, owing to the fact that most of the Indians are camped away in the woods, too far to come here to school, though they come quite regularly to meeting. I have three young Indian men employed teaching schools in tents in the various camps. Their schools are well attended. (b). River Bend Church, is situated at Flandran, D. T., 130 miles northeast of Yankton Agency, and forty miles north of Sioux Falls. The member- ship of this church October 1st, was 111. It is composed of Santee Sioux, who went over there from the Santee Agency in 1869, that they might take homesteads on government lands, and enjoy the privileges of citizenship. The government does nothing for them more than for white men, and, for this reason they have some severe struggles, but we hope it will be the " making of them." This church is now supplied by W. Owancamaza Rogers, a native brother, who was ordained this fall, but has not yet been installed. A Memorial church building was erected for this people in the fall of 1871, worth about $1,000, of which Elder E. W. Edwards, of Marquette, Mich., contributed $500, and the 2d church of Springfield, Ohio, about $200, the Indians helping themselves about $150. PERSIA AMISSION. / PERSIA MISSION. This title has been used for this mission within a short period. The old familiar name, the Nestorian, was the general one until the work carried on by the laborers and the territory occupied by them were enlarged. At first opera- tions were confined to the Nestorians, now they are intended for all classes and religionists in the Empire. The thoughts of American Christians were turned to the Nestorians after the visit of Messrs. Smith and Dwight to Persia, in 183 1. The facts they presented regarding this people awoke such an interest that the American Board de- termined to establish a mission among them, and for this purpose the Rev. Justin Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was appointed the first mis- sionary to them in 1833, who sailed with his wife in September of the same year. In the instructions given to these laborers the field was not only desig- nated, but the place where they were to begin their work — Oroomiah, a name so well known in the missionary world, and so much identified with evangel- istic labors in Persia. Among the objects specified for this undertaking in these instructions were, (1) "to convince the people that they came among them with no design to take away their religious privileges, nor to subject them to any foreign ecclesiastical power ; " (2) l< to enable the Nestorian Church, through the grace of God, to exert a commanding influence in the spiritual regeneration of Asia." It was more than a year after they sailed before Mr. Perkins reached Oroomiah, hav- ing been detained on the way from various causes, and then it was only to ob- tain a teacher in Mar Yohanan (one of the most intelligent bishops among the Nestorians), when he returned to Tabriz to acquire a knowledge of the language before commencing to reside and labor among the people. As the work now carried on in this mission is of a varied character and among different classes, it is important to understand these in order to appre- ciate what has been done for the people, and what has yet to be undertaken for their evangelization. NESTORIANS. We begin in this survey with this ancient sect, as the mission was primarily to them. Their estimated number is about 150,000, found chiefly in Persia and Turkey, though some are living in Russia since the annexation of Georgia to that Empire. Several have gone from the plains of Oroomiah to Russia on account of the greater advantages there enjoyed. About 30,000 are found between the lake of Oroomiah and the Kurdish Mountains ; a much larger number inhabit the mountains of Kurdistan, while another portion dwell in the valley of the Tigris and on the slopes of the mountains. The Church of Rome has been and is busy in efforts to proselyte the Nestorians, and not a few have been won over to the Papacy. 4 Persia Mission, The Nestorians derive their name from Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, who was excommunicated by what the Third General Council at Ephesus deemed heresy. His cause was espoused by young men from Persia, so that a large number soon embraced his views. The historian, Mosheim, thus speaks of them in the sixth century : " The Nestorians, after they had obtained a fixed residence in Persia, and had located the head of their sect at Seleucia, were as successful as they were industrious in disseminating their doctrines in the countries lying without the Roman Empire. It appears from unquestion- able documents still existing that there were numerous societies in all parts of Persia, in India, Armenia, Arabia, Syria, and in other countries under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Seleucia during this century." Their missionary zeal continued to burn for ages, and when it relaxed, the churches, a prey to stronger forces and to bitter persecution, began to decline. Their greatest foe was the Mohammedan power, which has ever been arrayed against them, and has politically sought to crush them. OBSTACLES. Dr. Perkins and his associate, Dr. Grant, who reached Tabriz October 15, 1835, found the Nestorians sunk religiously in darkness and superstition. " Can these bones live ? was the inquiry," says Dr. Perkins, "which the pain- ful spectacle itself prompted from us, and to which the promised breath of Jehovah to breathe upon those slain and cause them to live could alone furnish a comforting answer." They had a name to live, but were dead. "The life and the power of Christianity had departed ; scarcely a symptom of spiritual vitality remained. Of the meaning of regeneration even their most intelligent ecclesiastics seemed to know little or nothing." Their whole religious system, though based on the Bible, was a religion of rites and ceremonies. Of an in- ner divine life they seemed to know nothing. Another obstacle encountered was the oppression to which the people were subject. These foreign laborers came not to the conquerors, but the conquered, who were called by their rulers unclean infidels and dogs, and were treated as such. For ages they had been oppressed, subject to lawless extortion, with no prospect of redress and relief. At times they had been stripped of property and children. They could not engage in commerce, and some only of the mechanic arts were open to them. " A decent garment on a Nestorian was safe only as it had an outer covering of rags to hide it." Their social and political condition was that of serfs with no prospect of elevation and de- liverance. Another hinderance in the way was the low moral state of the Nestorians. Falsehood was the rule and not the exception, and they would urge it as in- dispensable, says Dr. Perkins, to save them from being overreached and op- pressed by their Mohammedan masters. It was a common remark, " We all lie here ; do you think we could succeed in business without it ? " Whilst they would not labor on the Sabbath, yet they would arrange their business and Persia Mission. 5 engage in festivities and trade far more than on any other day of the week. Profanity was everywhere rife, and obscenity as prevalent as profaneness. These were common to both sexes. Theft was scarcely regarded as a crime. Intemperance abounded, and was regarded by them as a boon from heaven to sustain and comfort them in the midst of poverty and oppression. These and kindred vices were common among the people, and proved a mighty barrier to their reception of the truth. The great poverty of the people was and is an obstacle to missionary suc- cess. We know not what their poverty is. In their homes they had few com- forts. Their houses were wretched. The house consisted usually of one room, where the family ate and slept, and was lighted by an opening in the roof. In many of them were the cattle belonging to the family. In 1837 there were very few pupils in the schools wearing shoes, even in the snow of mid-winter, and one lad had only a coarse cotton shirt reaching to his knees. Their ex- treme poverty led the first missionaries to meet all the expenses of the schools and of other evangelistic agencies, and in order to get scholars, where educa- tion had been so neglected, the food of the children was also provided. This policy has been found detrimental to the best interests of missions, and where it is followed, it is impossible to teach the people self-reliance. The danger is of doing too much for a people. This the missionaries found, and it was an effort when they saw their mistake to train them to help themselves. Where so much poverty exists, the people are heavily in debt. This is a crying evil in the East ; but being so common, it is not easy even for native Christians to keep out of it. Another hinderance to great success is the scattered condition of the people. With the exception of a few centers, the Nestorians are mainly found in villages and hamlets covering a large area, and frequently inhabiting regions sterile, cold, and inaccessible. Numbers dwell among the Koords, who are controlled by no law, and are fond of pillaging and oppressing the weak. To reach these, much labor is needed. Outstations have been formed, but in Western Kurdistan no place has been found that could be considered as a permanent station for foreign laborers. The violent opposition of the priesthood, and the unwillingness of many to leave the Church of their fathers, might also be considered as hinderances to a pure spiritual religion, and should have due weight when viewing the difficul- ties that have been surmounted and the success achieved. ARMENIANS. The Armenian Church is, like the Nestorian, of great antiquity. Mr. Eli Smith in his " Researches " supposes that as the Christian Church had become corrupt in the fourth century, and had lapsed into a mere profession of theo- retical dogmas and ceremonial observances, so the Armenians were converted into this form of Christianity and they have largely adhered to it ever since. With it as a heart religion they have little acquaintance. 6 Persia Mission. Their number in Persia is small — not over 60,000. They are more scat- tered than the Nestorians, and are much more enterprising. The}' are found more largely in a section of ancient Armenia, and in the basin of Oroomiah. Some 10,000, it is said, are in the district of Salinas, and 5,000 in or near Ta- briz. Others dwell in Hamadan and in neighboring villages ; also in Ispahan and Teheran. Much less has been done for them than for the evangelization of the Nestorians. MOHAMMEDANS. Persia was one of the first countries that yielded to Mohammedanism, and this power, as we have said, has been antagonistic to Christianity. It dealt, however, its heaviest blows against the Nestorians and Armenians under Tam- erlane, and the former especially lost their prestige and strength as an aggres- sive body. They have been few in numbers, feeble, and oppressed ever since. Mohammedanism has existed in Persia under two forms : (1). When con- verted to Islam the Persians were St/nnis, or orthodox ; (2). At the close of the fifteenth century a descendant of one of the twelve Imaums, or those who were the direct descendants of Mohammed, occupied the throne, and through him the Sheah system became the established faith of the nation. This has produced much contention between the Turk and the Persian. Rev. J. H. Shedd well says in his sketch, Persia is the weak point of Mohammedanism, and he gives the following reasons : " 1. The Persians themselves are Sectaries. They are not the defenders of the orthodox faith, as are the Turks, Arabs, and Tartars, but they are arrayed against it. The Persians turn for sympathy and aid to Christians rather than to their Sunnee enemies. Being themselves proscribed as heretics by the more powerful faction, they are more accessible and more ready to listen to the missionary than other Moslems. " 2. The Persians are constitutionally of a more liberal spirit than the other Moslem nations. The Turk has had wrung from him by Christian powers a guarantee of religious liberty. Christian powers have done nothing to obtain any such guarantee from Persia. Yet, practically, the toleration granted in Persia is equal to, if not greater, than that in Turkey. In general, a Turk or an Arab will not willingly enter into a discussion of his religion with a Chris- tian. He will not suffer a word against it. But the Persians invite discussion. They will tolerate free discussion, and listen to all you can allege against their own religion. This is the character of the people when not under the fear of the Mullahs. It is much to find a people willing thus to reason and to listen to the Bible. The government partakes of this spirit of tolerance so far as to overlook irregularities in its subjects. It would require far less pressure than was brought to bear on Turkey or China or Japan to secure an edict of toler- ation. " 3. More important is the fact that the system in Persia is divided against itself more than in any other land. The Persians received Islam at the hands of conquerors and under protest, and in every age these protests have been Persia Mission, 7 renewed by new heretical sects. During the last twenty years the whole body of Moslems has been shaken by the new religion of the Bab. Immense numbers are adherents of a mystical faith derived from pre-Islamitic times. Thus from within the stronghold comes the cry of dissension among its de- fenders. The new religions, and the general unsettling of the faith of the people, have already opened wide the gates to the Christian teacher. The missionaries stand amazed at the change of temper in the Moslem population within a few years. In fact, between the new religions and the old, and the many secret sects and clans, every stranger is a study, and often two men, while confessing openly they are Mussulmans, laugh in each other's faces, as the Roman augurs of old. " 4. Add to these indications the absolute failure of the Mohammedan system, so palpably felt that thousands of the people acknowledge it. For twelve un- broken centuries it has cursed the land. As heathenism in the first century, it has run its course. A system without a comforter — without charity or sympa- thy— with a priesthood absolutely vile and profligate and rapacious, the yoke is galling upon the poor. They are oppressed and distressed, and no one careth for them ; and now the famine brings them quite to despair. The condition of the masses in Persia is such as renders them open to the influences of love. Wise, discreet, yet zealous missionary efforts, constantly reveal opportunities and results beyond expectations, so that to-day Persia, beyond any other Mos- lem population, is open to the Gospel." OTHER SECTS. Whilst the mass of the people are Mohammedans and belong to the Sheah sect, there are in the mission field over a million of Koords and Moslems who speak Kurdish and belong to the Sunis. There are also about 50,000 Jews and some 15,000 Yezeedies who are reputed worshipers of Satan. EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS. The labors of the Romish Church to convert the Nestorians to their belief met, in some places, with considerable success. By fraud they drew under their sway many thousands in the valley of the Tigris, and several hundred families in Salmas and Oroomiah. A number of them have been won over to the truth, and as few of them are bigoted Romanists, they become an important mission- ary field. The first Protestant movement began with Henry Martyn, who entered Persia in 181 1, with the great object in view of translating the Bible into Per- sian. As far as his health would admit he faithfully attended to this and was able to complete the New Testament and the Psalms, besides engaging in other labors for the spiritual improvement of the people. His stay with them was short, but his services were not in vain. His works do follow him. After an interval of seventeen years the Rev. C. F. Pfander visited Persia in 1829, where for a period he labored. He afterward moved to India, where he pub- 8 Persia Mission. lished some of the ablest controversial works on Mohammedanism and Chris tianity that have been written. When Mr. Perkins reached Tabriz he found Rev. Frederick Haas, a German missionary, and who for the four years he re- mained in the country did a good work and exerted the best of influence upon these people. When Russia broke up the German mission in Georgia, he was joined by those who were laboring there. In 1837 they were recalled by the Basle Society, largely on the ground that they were unable to proclaim the Gospel among the Mohammedans. As Henry Martyn had prepared the New Testament in Persian, so Rev. W. Glen, D.D., of Scotland, and for a long time connected with the mission at Astrachan before it was broken up by Russia, had finished the Old Testament, and came to Tabriz to revise the work. These two men did a great work in giving the Bible to millions, but little was accomplished in preparing the people to receive it. This was done by the American missionaries, who first turned their thoughts and expended their efforts upon the neglected and oppressed before endeavoring to reach the rulers with the Gospel ; and this brings us to consider what they have accom- plished. STATIONS. Oroomiah. — This word we find is used for a city, a district, a plain, and a lake. The province, or district, lies under the shadow of the Kurdish mountains on the west, and extends on the east to the Lake of Oroomiah. Spurs of the mountains jut down at each end of the lake to its margin. In this territory lies the basin or plain, about 40 miles in length and about 20 miles in width in its broadest part, and embracing an area of 500 square miles. A former member of the mission describes it as " dotted over with some 300 villages, each surrounded with luxuriant wheatfields, vineyards, fruit-gardens, and melon patches ; while the plain in every part is intersected with number- less water-courses, diverted from the principal rivers, whose banks, fringed with willows, remind one of the beautiful promise of Jehovah to the children of His people, ' They shall spring up as willows by the water-courses.' " The Lake of Oroomiah is about eighty miles in length, and thirty in width. Its waters are as salt as those of the Dead Sea. No fish are found in it. Its elevation above the ocean is 4,100 feet. It exerts a marked influence on the climate of the plain. Oroomiah — the ancient Thebarma — is situated near the center of the plain. It stands about 400 feet higher than the lake, and is a walled city of nearly four miles in circumference. It claims to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. " The flat-roofed houses," Dr. Grant says, " are mostly built of mud or sun- burnt bricks, and are enclosed with high walls. The more wealthy have beau- tiful gardens attached to their dwellings where the family can enjoy themselves secure from all intrusion." Near the close of 1835 the missionaries — Messrs. Perkins and Grant and their wives — moved from Tabriz to Oroomiah, and began those labors for the Nestorians that have been continued by their successors to the present time. Persia Mission. 9 They found the field dark as the shadow of death. No European had ever resided in the town, and the reports of the rude and bloody character of its Mohammedan population were startling, so that their enterprise seemed at the outset attended with danger. Dr. Grant was the man for the situation. His medical skill soon won the respect and confidence of all classes, and his personal intrepidity and commanding form — things which strongly impress the Persians — added much to the security of the mission. Moslems and Nesto- rians soon thronged his doors, patients came from a great distance, and the relief he gave to many and his gratuitous services won him many friends. Education was at a very low ebb. Very few of the men could read intelli- gently, and only one woman. They had no printed books and few copies of the Scriptures in manuscript, and these were not in modern, but in ancient Syriac. Their spoken language had never been reduced to a written form. A school which has taken the name of the Male Seminary was commenced in January, 1836, in a cellar, and was attended by seven boys the first day and seventeen the next. During the summer three village schools were started. Whilst education was employed as an auxiliary from the outset, the mission- aries regarded the preaching of the Word as of the first importance ; they therefore instituted it at once, and preached in their own dwellings, in school- houses, and in native dwellings. After a time the ecclesiastics opened their churches to them, where they were permitted to preach the Gospel of the Son of God. As there was much prejudice against female education, it was with some difficulty that Mrs. Grant succeeded in collecting a few girls. This was the commencement of the Female Seminary that has proved such a blessing to the Nestorians. It was soon found that a printing establishment was essential for the mission. A press was therefore sent by the Board with Rev. Messrs. A. L. Holliday and W. R. Stocking in 1837, but being too unwieldy to be carried over the moun- tains it was sent back to Constantinople. It was not till the close of 1839, when a press made to be taken to pieces, so as to be carried overland from Trebizond, arrived, and with it came Mr. Edward Breath, a printer. There was much sickness in the early history of the mission, but the first to succumb to it was Mrs. Grant, January 14, 1839. She was a noble character, a fine scholar, and a devoted missionary. Though her work in Persia was a brief one, she had made a great impression upon many, so that during her sickness all classes manifested the utmost desire for her recovery ; and after her death several of the bishops came to Dr. Grant, saying : " We will bury her in the church, where none but holy men are buried. She has done so much for us, we want the privilege of doing something for her, and will dig her grave with our own hands." The sickness experienced, and the great heat that was felt on the plains, led the missionaries to establish a health retreat upon the side of a neighboring mountain at Seir, about five miles from Oroomiah, which rises gradually to a io Persia Mission. height of nearly 3,000 feet above the plain, and more than 7,000 feet above the ocean. This has been occupied by the mission as a sanitarium ever since, and here much work has been done. , In order to reach the various classes and religionists in Persia different lan- guages have to be studied. Thus Persian is spoken by the higher classes ; Turkish by other Moslems ; and Syriac by the Nestorians. " For business," Mr. Stoddard wrote, " I must be a Turk, and for religious effort I must be a Nestorian." The written language, or Ancient Syriac, the missionaries found was unintelligible to the people. Their first effort was to make their modern dialect the medium of written as well as of oral instruction. They began at once to prepare the Scriptures into their vernacular, and they have been enabled to print the entire Bible in the spoken tongue, and also to give the Ancient and Modern Syriac in parallel columns, being aided in this work by the American Bible Society. As it was not the intention of the missionaries to organize a new church, their preaching and influence in the way of direct conversions could not easily be known. The laborers continued, however, in the use of the various agen- cies, hoping and praying for a blessing, and teaching and guiding those whom they could influence in the way of truth. Prejudices were softened ; Christian •civilization respected; the Bible prized, schools well attended, and education sought. Still these signs did not imply conversions, or that souls were saved. .At the beginning of the year 1844 Mr. Stoddard wrote : "Year after year the labors of the mission had gone on accompanied with the favor of the govern- ment and the favor of the people, and many marks of outward prosperity, but few, very few, had been truly converted." During this year heavy trials fell upon the mission. Dr. Grant, who had been laboring among the mountain Nestorians, died. The policy introduced by the first missionaries had to be modified in regard to the employment of Nestorian bishops as secular assist- ants, which arrayed this class against them. Advantage was taken of this by Romish and Anglican ecclesiastics, who sought to alienate the Nestorians from the missionaries. The first attack was upon the schools, which, fifty in num- ber, were dispersed. The next attack was upon the native helpers, and then upon the workers at the press, and then an effort was made by the Jesuits, who had been expelled, to have the missionaries also sent out of the country. These plans were frustrated, while the changes introduced were of the greatest importance. The clouds that hovered so ominously over the mission were gradually dissipated, and at the close of the year there were sure tokens of God's reviving presence in the boys' school, and a short time afterward two girls in Miss Fiske's school asked for a day to be set apart to seek the Sav- iour. Soon several in both schools were rejoicing in Christ — others were brought under conviction, until fifty were hopefully converted. The work spread into the villages, and many wonderful trophies of redeeming grace were gathered into the Church. Several of the cases of conversion were of the most marked character ; one of them, at least, recalling the miraculous change Persia Mission, 1 1 in Saul of Tarsus. Other revivals followed, in which many were led to the Saviour j but none in its depth and extent surpassed that which the mission enjoyed the past winter, when hundreds embraced the truth, and some of the churches were greatly strengthened. The male and female institutions, the latter so long under the efficient services of Miss Fiske and Miss Rice, have been especially blessed of God. The larger number who have left the latter have given good evidence of divine renewal, and the same has been true of the Male Seminary. Most of the pious young men who have graduated from this institution have given themselves to teaching or to preaching ; while the pious young women who have graduated from the Female Seminary have become the wives of these teachers and preachers. In the village schools many thousands have been taught and in the Sabbath - schools they have become better acquainted with divine truth. The press has been an effective agency. When it threw off the first sheet of a tract, the priests were struck with mute astonishment and rapture, and as soon as they recovered from their surprise they exclaimed, " It is time to give glory to God that our eyes are permitted to behold the commencement of printing books for our people." Besides the Bible, which has been issued in many forms, many works, as " The Pilgrim's Progress," "The Saint's Rest," "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," Church History, Hymn-books, Geographies, Theological Lectures, etc., etc. For many years a monthly periodical called The Rays of Light, containing the several departments of religion, education science, missionary intelligence, etc., has been printed, and has accomplished much good. The physician has been a great blessing in this mission, not only in relieving bodily sickness, but in preparing the way for the reception of the Gospel. Men like Grant and Wright and Young and Van Norden and Holmes have proved of great service to many. The original plan of seeking to reform the Old Church failed. The laborers after a trial of many years, came to the conclusion that it could not be gal- vanized into spiritual life, and therefore determined, a few years ago, to or- ganize separate churches. This alienated some old friends of the mission among them Mar Yohanan. These sought to introduce Episcopacy among them, but their efforts were of little avail. The experiment has been tried with great success, and to-day there are 15 organizations, with a membership, count- ing late accessions, of at least 1,000 members. Some of the churches are self- sustaining. There are 14 pastors and 41 preachers connected with this station. Up to the time of the transfer of the mission in 1871, there had been con- nected with it 19 missionaries, 3 physicians, 1 printer, and 7 unmarried ladies. Of these, Rev. Messrs. Cochran, Coan, Shedd, and Labaree, Dr. Van Norden and Miss Jennie Deane were transferred to the Presbyterian Board. Of these the only one now in the field is Mr. Labaree. Just before the transfer, the mission resolved that they considered it a duty to embrace at once within their efforts the Armenian and the Mussulman sects of Central Persia. This was soon afterward carried out, and from that time 12 Persia Mission. the Armenian and the Mohammedan have had, in various places, the Gospel preached to them. Since the transfer the following missionaries, now at Oroomiah, have been sent : Rev. W. R. Stocking and his wife, 187 1 ; Rev. Messrs. W. L. Whipple and J. M. Oldfather and their wives, 1872 ; G. W. Holmes, M.D., and his wife, 1874 ; Miss Mary K. Van Duzee and Miss Annie E. Poage, 1875. Teheran. — The mission had for years been anxious to occupy the capital, and believing that the time had come to begin operations at this center, Rev. J. Bassett, who had arrived at Oroomiah the preceding year, made an extended tour in 1872, visiting the cities of Tabriz, Harnadan, and Teheran. This led to the occupancy of Teheran in November, 1872, by him. He was welcomed by both Mussulmans and Armenians. Teheran is situated a short distance from the site of the ancient Rages, men- tioned in the book of Tobit. The old city has almost disappeared. Teheran for a long period was only an insignificant village prior to the accession of the present dynasty. When the capital was removed from Ispahan, for political reasons, to this place, it assumed some importance, but the improvements made in it are of recent date. The streets are constructed after Western ideas. The avenues are well paved and wide. The public gardens are spacious, and the bazaars are the most extensive in Persia. The population is reckoned at 130,000. About 1,000 are Armenian, 2,000 Jews, and 100 Europeans. The two principal languages that are spoken here are the Turk- ish and Persian. The Persian only is heard in the streets. " In this city," says Mr. Bassett, " we occupy the only tenable ground for labors designed to reach either Eastern Persia or the Tartar tribes of Turkis- tan. The Turkish language spoken here enables a person to pass quite through Turkistan to the birthplace of Tamerlane and Zenjis Khan into Chi- nese Tartary, and far to the northward ; while the Persian makes accessible all Central and Southern Persia, through Khorassan to Affghanistan, and even large populations of India. " In this city there is no evangelical preacher or church j there are two French Lazarists, and one Armenian priest, who reads to a few Armenians a ritual in an ancient and unknown tongue. And this is all that is done in the way of giving the Gospel to this city, the capital of a kingdom, and the most important, both in its political and commercial relations, of any city be- tween Constantinople and Bombay. " Central Asia has in nearly all the past been neglected by the Church of Christ ; the result has been, the great source whence have proceeded the scourges of mankind ; and the Tartar and Iranian hordes have, age after age, as in great tidal waves, quite overflown Christendom, overthrowing its civiliza- tion and nearly extinguishing its light. It is vain for us to expect peace on the earth, or the sway of a Christian civilization until the millions of those vast regions shall have been brought under the sceptre of the King of Peace." It was expected at the outset that the Armenians of Eastern and Central Persia Mission, 13 Persia would form a nucleus and basis of labor, who number in the section named, nearly 30,000. But work is not confined to them. To the Moham- medan is the Gospel preached, as to the Armenian. A church was organized March 26, 1876, of twelve persons, one of whom was a Mussulman; others were subsequently added. A school for boys has been kept up, and a girls' boarding-school, numbering seventeen pupils, has been established. A train- ing class for the education of men for the ministry has been formed, which consists of five young men and a converted Armenian priest. Rev. J. L. Potter arrived in Teheran in 1874; Miss Sarah J. Bassett, 1875. Rev. D. Scott and his wife, and Miss Anna Schenck are on their way to join this station. Tabriz. — This important commercial city lies east of the Lake Oroomiah, and by the road about 140 miles from the city of Oroomiah. It is the great mart of European merchandise, and in respect to trade, it is the emporium of Persia. Its bazaars and caravansaries are numerous and extensive, and some of them are of superior construction. Its population is reckoned at 200,000. It was occupied as a station in September, 1873, by Rev. P. Z. Easton and his wife, and by Miss Jewett, who had been laboring for some time prior to this at Oroomiah. Though it was the first city that received Rev. J. Perkins and his wife, where they lived for months on their first arrival, it was the last occupied of the stations. The missionaries have encountered more opposition here than at any other point. Work was soon begun for both Armenians and Mussulmans, and at first large numbers attended the services, whilst a few seemed to be specially interested. " Their steady attendance upon the means of grace aroused the suspicion and hostility of certain ecclesiastics, which re- sulted in their being watched by some of the police. Soon some of these were apprehended, thrown into prison, and severely beaten. They were, however, released through the active interference of the English Consul and Mr. Easton. One of those who was thus punished was an old man. ' He had reason to believe that if he did not acknowledge Mohammed, death might await him ; but he remained steadfast, and if he did not venture to call upon Christ, neither did he invoke Mohammed or Ali, but cried, " O, Lord of Heaven, in Thee is our hope." ' This opposition to evangelistic effort was instigated by the Armenian priests, who are afraid of losing their followers, as there is no law against an Armenian becoming a Protestant, though the death-penalty exists against any follower of Mohammed embracing Christianity." A persecution of a similar character on the part of the Mohammedans has again taken place. This time but little bodily injury was inflicted, still it shows the watchfulness of some, and their opposition to the truth. There are two points in the city where religious services have been held — one of these at Lalawa, the Armenian quarter. Much interest in the Bible has been manifested in both these sections. Mr. Easton baptized several during the year, and among the number was a Persian Koord. A church was organized in 1874. A school for girls was established, but it has encountered 14 Persia Mission. a good deal of opposition. The way is opening up more and more for visiting among the women at their homes, and advantage is taken of this by the ladies of the station. Rev. S. L. Ward and his wife and Mrs. Loretta C. Van Hook reached Tabriz November, 1876. There are several outstations connected with this station. At Tiflis, in Russia, there is an organized church. What a great difference between the first report of this mission in 1837, and the one now made. Then there was one stated place for preaching with an average congregation of 50 ; now there are over 70 with an average congrega- tion of more than 3,000. Then no churches; now 18 with a membership of at least 1,000, and their contributions exceeding $1,000. Then there were 3 village schools with 74 pupils, now there are nearly 80 schools with 1,200 pupils. These are encouraging facts and show how the blessing of God has rested upon the work. 2, PERSIA MISSION. BY REV. G. W. COAN. PERSIA MISSION. BY REV. G. W. COAN. Persia is one of the oldest kingdoms of the world, and possesses great his- toric interest It is eminently a Bible land. It is the land of Cyrus the Great, of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, Darius, Ahasuerus, Esther, and Mordecai, and of the wise men who saw the star of the Saviour in the East. Tradition locates the graves of two of these in the Church of St. Mary, in Oroomiah. Assyria led the Jews captive to Babylon, but Persia humbled that power, and restored Judah to her hills in Palestine, the Temple to Mount Moriah, and the walls to Jerusalem. With her peoples the lost tribes have probably com- mingled and coalesced, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that St. Thomas, the Apostle of our Lord, found among these in whose veins coursed the blood of Abraham, a readier ear to his testimony concerning the true Messiah. And so in the days of the Apostles, a Church was formed in ancient Media, com- posed of men styling themselves St. Thomas Christians, and having its See in Bagdad, its schools and seminaries of learning, its bishops and priests, its propa- gandists and missionaries scattered abroad as far as to India and China. The monuments of their words and works are found in great tablets of stone in China, in the midst of a people known among the heathen as the " Nameless Sect" who are now found by our missionaries to be exceedingly accessible and eager to receive the Gospel, and who are being baptized by hundreds. On the coast of Malabar, India, there is another monument of their mis- sionary zeal, in the remnant of a Church still calling itself St. Thomas Christians. The story of Jenghis Khan, and the bloody Timourlane, who, with their ruthless hordes, rushed down from Tartary, and swept over the north of Persia, where these Christians were found in larger numbers, need not here be told ; suf- fice it to say they nearly annihilated them, making their rivers run red with their blood, demolishing their churches, scattering their sacred books and literature upon the floods, till but a remnant of the people escaped to the rugged fastnesses of the Koordish mountains. Here they dwelt among the wild tribes that gave Xenophon and his 10,000 so much trouble on that celebrated retreat from Persia, built their rude churches, and worshiped after the manner of their fathers. Later, many of them ventured down upon the plains of Persia, in the northern Province of Azerbaijan, where they have lived, when practicable, in villages by themselves ; otherwise mingling with Mussulmans in the same village, tillers of the soil which they are not practically allowed to own. The masses of the people are Mussulmans, and Mohammedanism is the religion of the State ; hence these Christians, with Armenians and Jews, are only tolerated. Their condition is that of serfs. They are attached to the soil, and when a village changes owners, the people go with it to a new master, and it is next to impossible for a poor, oppressed man to escape with his family to another village, where there may chance to be a kinder master. The political condition of the masses is abject in the extreme. The government is an absolute monarchy, and life and death are in the hands of the Shah, whose will none may dispute. The villages in the Province of Azerbaijan are, in a majority of cases, owned by khans, or noblemen, who become responsible to the government for the taxes, and who collect them from the villagers, usually leaving a wide margin for profit. The extortions are some- times fearful. The serf is not generally allowed to furnish his own seed, but for the tillage, irrigation, teams, implements, harvesting, and garnering, he receives one-third of the crop, and often but a fourth, from which he is to pay his taxes and feed a set of hungry servants of the master, employed to oversee the ingathering of the crops. Often, too, the master takes up his a.bode for the summer in his village, laying the poor serfs under contribution to maintain himself and family, servants, and horses. The villages owned by the crown are leased to the highest bidder, and the condition of the tenantry of such, is often well-nigh intolerable. Labor is not remunerative, the wages of a common day-laborer being but from ten to fifteen, and in a time of pressure, possibly twenty cents a day ; and they must board themselves. Hence multitudes go to Russia for work in the sum- mer, and return in the fall. Enduring such persecutions, scattered and torn, oppressed and downtrodden, with their literature nearly all destroyed, their few books in manuscript, andin the ancient Syriac tongue, a dead language, which only their priests and deacons could read, and hardly any of them could under- stand or translate, that old and apostolic Church has maintained the faith of the apostles in far greater purity than any other oriental Church. They have clung to the Bible with the greatest tenacity, an appeal to which was always a suffi- cient answer. They were without pictures or images, crucifixes or confessionals, or worshiping of the host ; yet they were ignorant, degraded, and superstitious, holding to many errors. Roman Catholics called them Nestorians, because they, with Nestorius, rejected the dogma that " Mary was the mother of God." But their ecclesiastical leaders repudiated the name, calling themselves St. Thomas Christians. Their polity was Episcopal, having deacons, priests, and bishops. The chief bishop was elected and styled Metropolitan, and Patriarch of the Eastern Church. They maintained the daily service in their churches, morning and evening. They observed a season of fasting before every communion service, which was observed, at least, a dozen times a year. The more pious of them observed the " fast of the Apostles " — seventy days. All were very strict in the observance of Lent, which they kept fifty, rather than forty days. There were also the fasts of the "Assumption," fifteen days ; of the 11 Nativity," twenty-five days ; of " Jonah," three days ; and they fasted twice a week, Wednesday and Friday. Indeed, they were very religious, as are all Eastern people — Christian, Jew, Mohammedan, and heathen. They were in great need of the Gospel, and yet they did not want it. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. The masses were ignorant, not knowing how to read, leaving the care of their souls very much to their priests, who eked out a scanty livelihood by writing charms, baptizing the children, marrying the young, burying the dead, and collecting the small pittance from the threshing- floors in the autumn. They seemed to have no just apprehension of the character and mission of Christ. To the Nestorian, He wTas about what Mo- hammed was to the Mussulman, simply a teacher, and one whose tragic death they celebrated as that of a martyr. They confessed themselves sinners, but it would seem that they had never seen the plague of their own heart, but could atone for their own guilt, by fasts and alms-giving, and prayers. "They were dead, twice dead, and plucked up by the roots," and yet there were those who seemed to be waiting, like Simeon of old, for the salvation of God. Good old Mar Elias received, and welcomed with joy, the missionaries, and abetted their labors from the first till his death. Others also seemed ready to embrace the truth at once. It was to such a people, the remnant of an ancient sect, brought to notice first by Dr. Buchanan in his " Researches in the East," and by Drs. Smith and Dwight, who visited Oroomiah, Persia, in 1830, that the A. B. C. F. M. sent out, in 1833, the Rev. Dr. Perkins, and soon after, Dr. Grant, with their wives. Dr. Buchanan had only seen the St. Thomas Christians of India, who informed him of the same sect in Persia. THE WORK AMONG THE NESTORIANS. Drs. Smith and Dwight made only a hurried visit of a few days, as the plague was then raging in Oroomiah. From their report, the way seemed open for missionary effort. The intention was to labor at first directly for the Nestori- ans, in the hope that through the revival of that Church the way would be open for direct effort among the Mussulman population. The missionaries were re- ceived with a cordial welcome by all classes, who seemed to recognize in them their deliverers from ignorance and from oppression. They said to the mis- sionaries, Your Bible is our Bible, your faith is our faith, we are one. We and the people stood on one common basis, viz., the Word of God. Hence we were not regarded as schismatics or proselyters, and thus we escaped interfer- ence on the part of the government with our work, for it was against the law to proselyte from one of the tolerated sects to another, and death was the penalty threatening all Mussulmans who should abjure their faith in their prophet Mo- hammed. The missionaries acquired the difficult tongue of the Nestorians — the modern Syriac, also the Tartar-Turkish, the language spoken by all classes north of Teheran, the capital — and some acquired the Persian, the court language. They reduced the modern Syriac to a literature ; translated the Word of God and printed it ; organized village schools to teach the children sufficiently to read 6- the Scriptures ; established a male and a female seminary ; made long tours, and preached everywhere. As the spirituality of our work became more and more evident, and the hold of superstition on the minds of the ignorant masses was relaxed, persecutions arose, instigated by the priests mainly, and by the Patri- arch. But the Lord wonderfully interposed for us, as often as persecutions arose, and delivered us from the paw of the lion. There was outward prosperity, but for ten years the work was preparing the soil, and sowing the seed. The first great outpouring of the Spirit was in 1846. Simultaneously, in the seminary taught by the sainted Miss Fisk in the city of Oroomiah, and in that on Mount Seir, taught by the beloved Stoddard, the cry arose from the youth, ': What must we do to be saved?" Of that wonderful work of God, and of the subsequent and repeated refreshings of Divine grace, the Church has been informed. Those seasons partook of the features and characteristics of the times of Nettlelon. There were the same pungent convictions for sin, self-loathing, and sense of their lost condition ; the same apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ to forgive; the same appropriating faith which took hold of Christ as a personal Saviour; the same affectionate commitment of their entire being and interests to the Re- deemer ; the same fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, and zeal to make known to others the story of Jesus and His love. Many a page of deeply thrilling inci- dents of those wonderful scenes could be written. ' The work extended to the villages, and there sprung up communities of believers all over those plains. Old men and young that came to see, went away contrite sinners, to tell what a dear Saviour they had found, so that there was scarcely a village or hamlet on the plains, or in the mountains, where the news of these strange things did not come. The great and marked change in the lives of those who had been liars, profane swearers, Sabbath breakers, drunkards, adulterers, murderers, and thieves, astonished the people. Here was Christianity exemplified in the lives of those who professed it. It amazed the Mussulman merchant and master to have stolen property restored ; and the inquiry arose, " Is not this the true faith?" Whereas, before, the oath of a Christian was not tiusted, now the word of these converts was as good as the oath of a Mussulman. The work hitherto had been reformative, now it was regenerative, and the influence of the grace of God on the heart was seen in all the relations of life ; before, they had not even the word for wife or home ; now there were truly the wife and the home. The family altar was erected, and morning and evening the voice of prayer and praise was heard, where once the drunken brawl had made the house a pandemonium, and oaths and cursings, bitterness and malice, envy and jealousy, wrath and hate, had made the abode one of wretchedness. Be- fore, woman had been treated as a slave, who was to bear the burdens, endure the toil, and minister to the passions of the men. Now, through the power of the Gospel, she is treated kindly, respected, loved, and honored ; insomuch that Mussulman women were accustomed to say, "The missionaries have brought paradise to the Nestorian women ; would that they might teach us and our husbands." These converts were ministered to by the young men and women who went out from our seminaries as pastors and pastors' wives. Scores have died in the triumphs of faith. Hundreds have gone to Russia and else- where to earn their bread, and hundreds are gathered into churches, several of which are entirely self-supporting, and all of which do something towards the support of the pastors and the institutions of the Gospel. These last vary in amount according to their ability, giving from two to eleven months of the salary of their pastors, building their own churches, and supporting mainly their own schools, contributing also to support colporteurs in the mountains and other districts, and to send pastors among their own people in Russia. They show much of the missionary zeal of their ancestors, and there are many graduates of our schools who long to go forth as heralds of the cross. The male seminary has done a great work. Our lamented brothers, Stoddard and Cochran, still live in the scores of preachers and teachers they have trained. Many will remember the wonderful outpouring of a spirit of benevolence some fifteen years ago, when the small bands of these poor and oppressed Christians in Oroomiah contributed of their deep poverty, one year, about $2,000. Ah, how those Marys broke their alabaster boxes, and how precious was the perfume, as it wafted over to other mission fields, and stimulated and provoked to like self-denial and sacrifice, and so the great work of getting native churches on to a self-supporting basis was facilitated. MOHAMMEDANS. The object of the mission to eventually, and as soon as the way should be open, reach, and put forth more active efforts, for the ruling class — the Mussul- mans— has ever been kept steadily in view. A great deal had been incidentally and indirectly done for them. The Scriptures- in Persian were circulated, and isolated cases of great interest were found. It is many years since application has been made to us by hopefully converted Mussulmans for Christian baptism. So long as we had our hands more than full of precious work for those to whom it was lawful to preach the Gospel, we did not deem it wise to jeopardize our very existence, as a mission, by more active and aggressive work among these, over whose heads hung the death pen- alty for professing Christianity, and yet such was the silent, but powerful influence of the Gospel there, that very many began to inquire more particularly of this new doctrine, and to come to us for private and earnest conversation, and to send to us to visit them in their houses, both in the city and in the villages, and to purchase of us the Scriptures, and to spend, not unfrequently, nearly the whole night with our helpers, in the villages, in serious discussions concerning Christ ; His nature, and work. Some appeared to be willing to risk their own lives, by professing Christ in the rite of baptism, and persistently requested it of us. The silent, yet powerful influences upon the Mussulman mind, of the humane efforts put forth, from the first, by the Missionaries for all classes, 8 did much to win their confidence. In times of pestilence, plague, cholera, famine, and sickness, or other distress, they saw us ever ready to extend the hand of help, and even risk our own lives for the good of others. The influence, too, of our teachings upon those who came under our instructions, the power of a vitalized Church, a living Christianity, told upon their minds. But the wonderful exhibition of Christian charity toward all classes, regardless of sect, in the time of that fearful famine, which carried off, according to official returns, three millions of the population of Persia, especially opened their eyes to see the superiority of the Christian religion over theirs. Their religion required the exercise of charity towards Mussulmans. But they despised Christians as do^s, who might be tolerated, provided they paid tribute, and were entirely subservient to their masters, and profitable as serfs and menials. But lo, those despised ones were sending them bread. Again the question arose in their minds, Is not this the true faith ? Multitudes of the common people heard us gladly. The poor, famine-stricken ones thronged our gates, and dispersed among the villages of the Christians, where they hoped to obtain a pittance. Committees of Christian men were organized to distribute faithfully the charity of American, English, and German Christians, and thus multitudes were saved. This fearful scourge threw into our hands some orphan girls, poor waifs, with none to care for them. These we gathered into a school, and here is the germ of our more active work among the Mussulmans. Another thing very favorable is the tradition among the Mussulmans that the twelfth and last Tmaum is to come, and his advent is predicted as near. And the wonderful fact about it is, that this is none other than Christ himself. When He shall come, all will embrace the true faith, as He shall reveal it. All these and other influences have tended to weaken greatly the hold which Mohammedanism has upon large numbers of the more thinking class of people in Persia. Persecutions have arisen, but as yet no one has been called on to •seal his testimony with his blood. The bastinado has been used, and men have been beaten unmercifully ; they have been put in chains and prison. But cur place for prayer in Tabriz, though for a time deserted, was again filled. The dear brother who was, with several others, so beaten, has been laboring since as a colporteur, and preaching Christ to his countrymen in city and village, and people gather about him in knots of from ten to two hundred, and listen to his simple, yet forcible and unanswerable arguments, as he compares, or rather contrasts, Christ with Mohammed. The spirit of inquiry seems to be greatly on the increase, and many gather in little circles, by night, to talk over these wonderful themes of the soul and its salvation. The missionary is sent for to visit distant villages, to preach to waiting com- panies of eager listeners. Our Nestorian pastors find ample opportunities to tell the old story, which seems so new to the wondering groups, and they are very glad to leave their homes and go forth to the exclusively Mussulman villages to do this. They find very much to encourage them. Some villages have *ven gone so far as to apply for Nestorian preachers and teachers. Re- quests are becoming frequent for baptism, and several have received the sacred rite. The first Mussulman woman has, with her husband, sat at the table of Christ in the Holy Supper. Mussulman girls persistently plead to be allowed to attend the Female Seminary, where Nestorian girls are taught, and they have been admitted, and dip their hands in the same dish with them as they eat, a thing very reprehensible in the eyes of good Mussulmans, who consider it cere- monial uncleanness to touch a Christian, or eat his food, or anything he has handled. So rapidly are prejudices giving way, and so marked are God's providences, that we sometimes stand utterly amazed. The call is loud for more missionaries. Two are needed in Hamadan, two in Resht, and we should have a station in Ispahan. That city is needed for the development of our work through the Armenians living in Jul fa, on the opposite side of the Zinderood. Unless our Church and Board follow up the grand and inviting openings in that land, other societies will step in, and this they are beginning to do. O, when shall our reunited Church rise to her sublime and glorious work, and take her true position as an agency in bringing the world back to Christ and God ? STATIONS OF THE BOARD. Our mission was called the Mission to the Nestorians till 1870, when the name was changed to its present one. Soon after this it came under the care of the General Assembly. The working force from this country is, at present, distributed in Oroomiah, Teheran, and Tabriz. In Oroomiah, are Rev. Messrs. Stocking, Oldfather, Whipple, and Dr. Holmes, and their wives ; the widow of Mr, Cochran, and two single ladies. Their field embraces the three plains of Oroomiah, Salinas, and Sooldoos, skirting the sea of Oroomiah on the west ; and three adjacent plains between these, and higher up, nearer the Koordish mountains, farther west ; and the more rugged portion of Koordistan, lying in E. Turkey, and bordering on Persia. The mass of the Nestorians is in these mountains. Their labors are directed to all classes, Jews, Nestorians, Arme- nians, and Moslems, as the Lord gives opportunity and strength. The number of native pastors, helpers, and teachers is large, and furnishes several men to help in the working of the nearer stations at Teheran and Tabriz, and among the Nestorians who have gone to Russia. In Teheran, are Rev. J. Bassett and his wife, Rev. J. L. Potter, and a teacher of the girls' school. This sta- tion has under its care the populations in and about the capital, and embraces Ispahan on the south, Zend and Resht on the east, and Hamadan and vicinity on the west. Teheran has been occupied by native helpers some years, but Mr. Bassett removed there in the autumn of 1872. Pie was reinforced in 1874 by Mr. Potter, and in 1875 by Miss Bassett, the teacher. Already the church there numbers seventeen. The Jews attend their services in large numbers. Weekly contributions are taken. The brethren feel much encouraged, but regret that their work must be embarrassed in the south io and east by the coming in of other societies. Ispahan should have had Amer- ican missionaries to occupy that field and follow up the poineer work of our Nestorian colporteurs and helpers there. In Tabriz are Rev. P. Z. Easton and wife, and Miss Jewett, who went there in the autumn of 1873. Rev. 13. Labaree, Jr., who has just arrived out, after a respite of three years, and whose work is mainly the translation of the Scriptures into the Tartar-Turkish, and thus reducing that dialect, or rather the mother of all Turkish, to a literature, had not, at last accounts, decided whether to return to his old home in Oroomiah, or take up his residence in Tabriz. Rev. S. L. Ward and his wife and Mrs. VanHook are now on their way to Persia, to be associated with laborers in Tabriz. The work there is in that great city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, and in the adjacent districts, and is hitherto mostly initiatory ; but our brother, who has been so long with- out an associate, feels greatly encouraged, and has long pleaded for help, and has generously contributed $500 to the Board to send out an associate. He cer- tainly appreciates the work to be done, and the opportunities, and the urgency of following them up. We can not give the number of the little church there, but we know some of them as dearly beloved brethren and fellow-laborers in the work of the Gospel. We know, too, some who have endured persecution for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, and that all give of their substance to maintain the institutions of the Gospel. A little before we left for America, a company of Mussulman youth called upon the writer, and literally embracing him, with tears plead for his speedy return, and for more missionaries. But to return to Oroomiah. God continues to smile upon the labors of His servants. There are, I believe, about thirty churches, besides many other preaching places, nuclei of other churches to be more formally organized. These churches number from ten or twelve, to between one hundred and two hundred. The district of Oroomiah is traversed by three streams, which, fed by the perpetual snows of the mountains, flow over the plain of Oroomiah to the sea, irrigating, by numerous artificial streams and canals, their fields of wheat, barley, rice, cotton, and tobacco, and their orchards and extensive vineyards, and cucumber and melon grounds. On each of these three rivers is a cnooshya, in the semi-annual meetings of which the churches are represented through their pastors and elders. Here all questions pertaining to the welfare and growth of the Church ; means and measures for its purity, discipline, and effi- ciency, are discussed, as well as the outside work of schools, temperance reform, and active labor for the masses about them, etc. To these churches there were added last year seventy-eight new members, and ninety-six others were propounded for admission. These items do not include the report of the mountain department of the work. A letter just received from Kasha Badal, a Nestorian pastor, gives the following cheering intelligence. After expressing his love and gratitude, he says : " The work of the Lord has prospered greatly with us this year. He has revealed His love in the gentle showers of grace. II Our congregations have been full on the Sabbath, and the neighborhood prayer- meetings well attended. There have already, this year, united with us on pro- fession of their faith, thirteen. Nineteen more are propounded for admission at our next communion, and ten more indulge in hope. Fourteen children have been baptized, and sixteen couples married. We have raised nearly one hundred dollars, my salary, fifteen dollars for mats for the church, twenty for a bell to take the place of the one stolen, twenty-five for repairs on the church. We have also made an arbor for vines in our church-yard, and planted the vines at an expense of about six dollars. " Give our hearty thanks to the dear friends who contributed to furnish our church with a communion service. " On the temperance question we are a unit. Our church is harmonious. Old and young send great love to you, and long to see you again." The churches have pretty generally adopted the rule of requiring the tem- perance pledge from all who wish to unite with them, and but one or two cases of discipline had occurred. The churches seem united, and growing in efficiency, and more and more a power for good in the great work of Persia's regeneration. True, disturbing influences, such as the coming in of other agencies, and the unworthy conduct of men whom we have trusted, but who in time of temptation and provocation, have gone away from us, may come in and apparently retard the work, but we believe these will be but the refluent waves of a true progress. Our mission to Persia has been wonder- fully owned and blessed of God, and especially favored by His providential care. It has been one of the most economically conducted of our Board, when we consider the outlay and the work that has been done. But our very success will hereafter call for larger expenditures in men and means. Shall we look in vain to the noble churches of our land to come to the rescue ? The men are falling at the front. Fourteen American male and six fe- male missionaries connected with our missions have fallen. Others with their hearts still in Persia, are trying to recruit their broken health in this country. Missionaries who give their lives and so largely of their limited means are worthy of support. Native brethren who give of their poverty more than a tenth of their scanty earnings, and remain in prayer from early dawn till after noon, forgetful of the food needful for the body, are worthy of sympathy and aid. God is moving on rapidly in His providences, opening the way for His people, and calling them to enter in and possess Persia for Christ. Other and untoward influences will seek to pre-occupy the ground. The system of Mohammedanism is doomed to fall. Mussulmans themselves are expecting it. That system of error, towering so high and frowning so fear- fully along the ages, hoary with the centuries, is sapped and mined, and ready to crumble to the ground. Some of us have seen the great iceberg at sea, lift- ing its towering head, sublime and glistening, in the strong rays of a summer .sun, beaten by the storms, and by genial showers, drifting on to still warmer 12 seas, lashed by the swaying billows, all honeycombed and rotten to the core. We looked, it crumbled and disappeared beneath the waves forever. So we need not be surprised to see, at any moment, the fall of Mohammedanism. Is the Church bought with Christ's blood ready to step in and occupy the ground ? Your color-bearers are at the front ! Rally around them. In the letter of Mr. Whipple our readers will see that God is still blessing the work among the Nestorians. There are urgent appeals for both men and means. The missionaries, owing to the lack of funds, are unable to employ a number of young men well suited to the field and its demands. At Teheran we do not own a single building. A loud and urgent appeal has come, asking for means to provide a home for the laborers, and for school and chapel. A similar plea comes from Oroomiah, for the erection of a seminary building for the training of young men for mis- sionary service. The Board can not respond to these entreaties. Will not the friends of Persia consider them ? 7- CHRISTIANITY and HINDOOISM. AN ADDRESS BY Rev. T. S. WYNKOOP, AND A LETTER FROM Rev. J. WILSON. NEW YORK: BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, 23 Centre Street. 1877. CHRISTIANITY AND HINDOOISM. An Address Delivered in the Fifth Avenue Church, New York, by Rev. T. S. Wy?ikoop. In accepting the invitation of your pastor to address you upon the subject of our missionary work in India, I feel myself in some sort discharging a personal obligation. One of the chief discouragements in that work for the last few years has been the want of funds, due to financial difficulties in this country ; embarrassing our Board in all its operations, rendering serious retrenchment necessary, and sometimes threatening to cripple our missions. Missionaries on the ground feel this most keenly. An order for retrenchment passed in the rooms of the Board of Missions seems to the members of the Board a safe financial policy, and to many good men at home the only wise and prudent course. It may be so. But it looks differently to the men from whom the money is withheld, whose chosen enterprises must be curtailed or abandoned, whose wise plans for the future must be postponed perhaps indef- initely, who must often lose even the fruits of past success because they may not push forward to secure them. In such circumstances, the reports of great efforts made by this church to relieve the funds of our Board, and the munificent gifts of individual mem- bers of the congregation in times of special difficulty, have endeared your church and its honored pastor as by a tie of personal gratitude to many a missionary and in many a mission station. We have felt that our necessities were remembered here, that here sympathy was taking its most practical form in that help which was so much needed, without which our hearts would have been still more saddened and our operations still more embarrassed by the necessity of yet further retrenchment. I speak not alone for myself, but for my missionary brethren, when I thank you for your large contributions, often so opportunely given, for the conspicuous example you have set to our entire Church, and for the sympathy and prayer with which your gifts have been consecrated. Within a few years past India has been brought into unusual prominence in the thoughts and interests of the Christian world. Distinguished travelers, British and American, have visited it, and their letters and books of travel have been widely read. The problems connected with its government by 4 Christianity and Hindooism. Great Britain, and its material and moral progress under that government, have been largely discussed in the best magazines and reviews of the day. Able missionary and other lecturers have described its scenery, works of art, and social and religious customs, before large audiences throughout the country. The splendid pageantry connected with the visit of the Prince of Wales, and more recently with the proclaiming of the Queen as Empress of India, has attracted the attention of all readers of our newspapers. Recent distressing cyclones, famines, and outbreaks of epidemic diseases have touched the sympathies of the whole world. This increasing interest in India and information about it can not but be a help to our mission cause, as it brings India so much more within the circle of our thoughts, and makes us more familiar with its condition and necessities. Assuming, then, your intelligent interest in India and in our missions there, I wish to speak first of the chief obstacles which Hindooism opposes to Chris- tianity ; then of certain difficulties which beset the Christian enterprise arising from the peculiar circumstances of its introduction into India and relation to the government of the country; and finally of the results accomplished by our missions and the outlook for the future. The first, and by far the greatest obstacle to the entrance and spread of Christian truth in India, is the prevalent philosophy which forms the staple of the thought of the people. It has been truly said that the tendency of the Aryan mind, whether in India, Greece, or modern Europe, has always been toward Pantheism. The Brahmins represent that tendency in its least modified form. In early times the Aryan ancestors of the modern Hindoos were doubtless Monotheists. Three thousand years ago, when they first appear upon the stage of history, they had so far departed from the primitive faith that they were worshipers, according to the Vedic ritual, of the Creator as symbolized by the powers of nature, the Sun-god, the Rain-god, the Fire-god, the God of Night, of the Dawn, and the like. A few Vedic names and phrases are still in use ; a few Vedic hymns are still chanted, as incantations and sacred formulas, without any understanding of their meaning. Other than this, the Vedas bear not the slightest relation to the thought or worship of the modern Hindoos. No nation ever departed more widely or entirely from its own original sacred writings. A Hindoo reformer has lately excited much atten- tion in the leading cities of Northern India. His one book is the Vedic Scriptures, and his one object to bring back his people to the Vedic faith and worship. No Christian missionary meets with more universal and determined opposition than he. In Benares his life was in danger at the hands of his fellow-pundits. Very many of the people regard him as a Christian emissary in disguise. This great change of religion is principally due to the influence of the Hindoo philosophy, the rise and early history of which is involved in consider- able obscurity. It seems most probable that as much as eight hundred years Christianity and Hindooism. 5 before Christ, men of deep thought and austere life, by the banks of the Ganges or the Saraswati, laid at least the foundations of what afterward be- came the Six Schools of Hindoo Philosophy. Into the intricacies of these schools it would not be profitable to enter. Our object is rather to note the popular thought resulting from these systems, as influencing the religion of India to-day. If we were asked to name the two conceptions most fundamental to all Christian doctrine, the answer would be, the personality of God and the indi- viduality of the soul of man. God is ; I am. He is the Creator ; I am His creature. Under His government I have my being. Before me there lies an endless existence, which is supported indeed by Him, but never to be con- fused or identified with Him. The fundamental conceptions of Pantheism are the direct contradictories of these. The Hindoo is convinced that God is. His mind and heart are pro- foundly impressed with Deity. His thinking, more than that of perhaps any other people, begins and ends with God ; but not in the sense of a personal being. God is Spirit in the abstract; the Vast or Infinite; the One-Without-a-Second, that is, the One besides whom there is no existence ; the Unconditioned, and therefore, in any higher sense, the Unknown and Unknowable. To conceive of Deity under the form of person or ascribe to God personal attributes, is to limit the Absolute and Infinite. Properly speaking, God is That. The Hindoo will use terms in speaking of God which we are accustomed to associate only with the idea of personality ; but he does not so associate them. Nothing that involves either action or passion can be attributed to God. Divesting our words of all thought of personality we may conceive of God under the three-fold form — of unlimited existence, intelligence, and felicity. One of the chief names applied to God in religious conversation is a com- pound word in four syllables uniting those three conceptions. God is the Infinite, Eternal, Being-Thought-Joy, but without the limitations of per- sonality. Besides God there is absolutely nothing of which Existence, Thought, or Joy can be predicated. If there were anything which is not God, then God would not be infinite. All which really exists is God, and whatever is not God has no real existence. We are beyond all question conscious of much that is not God. Here the extremest idealism comes to the aid of the pantheistic argu- ment, and declares that all which is not God is illusion, phantasm, deception. Two categories thus embrace all objects of thought, the Real and the Unreal. In the Real, God alone is placed. Everything that is not God falls within the Unreal. To this corresponds the Hindoo idea of what we have learned from the Christian stand-point to call creation. God is the cause of the material and spiritual universe, so far as these have real existence, but not by creation. 6 Christianity and Hindooism, All that exists is, if we may so speak, a projection of the Infinite Spirit. It is the diffusion of the Divine Essence, and is properly not material, but spirit- ual, since that Essence is spiritual, not material. This marks, as I conceive, the main difference between Hindoo Pantheism on the one side, and European and American Pantheism on the other. The latter is predominantly realistic, and hence material ; while the Hindoo is idealistic and therefore spiritual in its form. It follows from these principles that the soul of man is God. Its concep- tion of being an individual existence other than God is false and vain. To escape from that false conception and its practical results is the chief end of man. The constant illustration is a drop of water, drawn from the ocean by the sun's rays, now floating in vapor, now falling in rain upon the earth, absorbed by a flower, exhaled again and re-formed as a dewdrop, passing through phase after phase of existence, but all the while an essential part of the sea whence it came. The soul is eternal ; drawn from its resting place, as the drop from the ocean, it passes in transmigration after transmigration from one stage of existence to another and another, higher or lower, according to an invariable necessity which requires that all deeds and words and thoughts shall receive their due recompense of reward or punishment. Our present state was determined by what we did in previous states of existence ; and what we now do will determine our future births. Meanwhile we have lost the consciousness of our divinity and come under the power of the un- real and illusory. And the misery of our present state consists in our two- fold bondage ; first, the bondage of deeds, whereby we are compelled to pass from one stage to another in the endless round of transmigrations, unable to escape the inevitable retribution or avoid the deeds which require that retribu- tion ; and, second,, the bondage of ignorance, which holds us in subjection to the illusory and prevents us from rising to the consciousness of our true origin and nature. Hindoo philosophy teaches, with a fine instinctive spirituality, that the chief aim of man is the attainment of salvation. Health, wealth, honors, pleasures, friends, all fall under the category of the unreal, and are unworthy the atten- tion of the wise. But this salvation is not, as we understand it, deliverance from moral evil and its effects, together with the perfect development of the individual soul in all its powers and capacities, and the attainment of eternal happiness. Salvation is liberation, and liberation is to cut off the long suc- cession of birth after birth, to escape from our separate existence and lose ourselves in God, from whom we came. To recur to the illustration ; the rain-drop, changing from place to place and form to form as the very sport of nature, attains at length its supreme felicity, when, falling from a cloud, or flowing with a multitude of other drops in the current of some great river, it reaches once more the sea and is at rest. So for the soul of man, its highest good, its only good, is to merge again in the fullness of the Eternal Spirit, to Christianity and Hindooism. 7 attain the state of the unconditioned, to lose itself in the ocean of Existence, Thought, and Blessedness. How may this liberation be attained ? By the removal of that false concep- tion which binds us down in the realms of the unreal and illusory ; so that one can say, "I am the Eternal, Self-existent, Infinite God," with the same intuitive apprehension which a hungry man has when he says, " I hunger." He who has attained this apprehension has no longer passion, or any prompt- ing within him to lead to action. He has escaped from the bondage of deeds. With the cessation of action and passion, there ceases the necessity for con- tinued existence, in which the measure of reward and punishment may be meted out. With the necessity of continued existence the reason for future transmigrations ceases. It remains but for the soul, now liberated from bondage to the material and unreal, to pass away forever from suffering. The finite has again become the infinite. The drop has merged in the ocean. We can not enter here upon any extended criticism of this system of thought. You will observe that all its conceptions of God, of nature, of man, of the cause and nature of human misery and woe, and of the way in which these may be escaped, are false and misleading in the highest degree. Pantheism is not even a religion, properly so-called; since there can be neither worship nor service, to say nothing of love and personal devotion, where there is no personal God. You will notice that in this system there is no place for morality. Logically, Pantheism knows neither right nor wrong. If God be the only existence, all that takes place must be referred to God. The distinction which we instinct- ively make between right and wrong has no place in the essence of things but belongs to the category of the unreal. It is true that righteousness is better than unrighteousness, but neither is better than either of them. Right- eousness must be rewarded, hence the soul's separate existence must be con- tinued and its liberation postponed. In other words, piety and good works prevent salvation. The direct and necessary effect of this teaching is to darken the moral sense. The conscience of India has been immeasurably debased by this system of thought ; and Pantheism, if it fails entirely as a religion, fails even more conspicuously as a scheme of morals. The highest attainment at which Pantheism aims is to lead man, entirely ignorant of the living and true God, Creator and Moral Governor of the uni- verse, knowing nothing of the essential law of right and wrong by which all sentient beings must be judged, and unconscious of his guilt and moral pollu- tion, to pronounce with almost inconceivable spiritual pride the words : "I am God." The highest attainment of the Hindoo pietist is blasphemy, and with this blasphemy on his lips he dies. This system, which is so destructive to all right thinking on religious sub- jects, and subversive of the very foundation of true morality, forms the 8 Christianity and Hindooism. greatest obstacle to Christianity in India.* It has no points in common with Christianity. It furnishes no premise on which a Christian argument can be founded. There is no logical refutation of it. The appeal to common sense is made in vain, since one of the fundamental principles of the system is the entire untrustworthiness and falsity of that consciousness which underlies our common sense. The appeal to science has its base cut from under it, since everything but spirit is unreal and delusive. The Hindoo mind distrusts material science, and looks at modern European and American inventions and applications of science as we look at the exhibitions of a skillful juggler. We are surprised at nothing ; but we are also convinced of nothing, save the skill of the conjurer and the unreliability of the testimony of our own senses. Just to the extent to which this Pantheism influences the thought of India, does Christianity find the Hindoo mind preoccupied with ideas which pre- clude its very entrance. We come now to notice, as a second great obstacle to the introduction of Christianity into India, the vast and varied system of Hindoo idolatry. At first sight, pantheism and polytheism seem irreconcilable and mutually exclusive. On the contrary, pantheism furnishes the only logical and satisfactory ground for poly theism. If God is everything, then everything is God. The sun, moon, and stars not only represent God ; in a sense, they are God, and worship paid to them, is worship paid to God. Certain mountains, certain rivers, certain trees are regarded as possessed of special sanctity. Every Hindoo artisan, at certain seasons, worships his tools, the farmer his implements of agriculture, the banker and the merchant his account books. Every natural object to which awe or mystery attaches, serves to call forth a recognition of that Divinity which is supposed to embrace all existence as infinite space enfolds all magni- tudes within itself. Much more must those superhuman existences be wor- shiped, a belief in whom seems instinctive in the mind of man, as existing in rank upon rank above us in the scale of being. The intelligent Hindoo does not identify any one or all the three hundred and thirty million deities with the Infinite and Eternal God. Neither Brahma * Since the above was in type, the English newspapers report the well-known Prof. Monier Williams, of the University of Oxford, as saying, in an address upon " The Chief Obstacles to the Spread of Christianity in India," delivered at a recent mission- ary conference: "Our main difficulty is in the nature of their religion, that subtle Pantheism, which may profess to include Christianity itself as one of the phenomena of the universe, and does declare itself to have been a true revelation, in a more ex- cellent way, long before Europe had any revealed religion at all." The English Inde- pendent, quoting this sentence, and remarking the surprise with which it will be re- ceived by ordinary Christian men and women at home, adds : " It is evident that nothing could be worse than to send out to India men who have no intellectual power of appreciating such subtle objections, which seem to cut the very ground from beneath the Christian missionary's feet." Christianity and Hindooism. 9 nor Vishnu nor Siva is That. The titles which properly belong to The One Without a Second are never applied to the greatest of the gods. Ask the lowest peasant whether God is one or many ; his invariable answer is, God is one. But this is not at all inconsistent with his belief in a vast multitude of greater and lesser deities, all less divine than God, but more divine than man. With many of these deities we have no direct concern, while our relation to others of them is most direct and important. Practically, these deities have absorbed the worship and service of all India. Some men worship one, others another. Some parts of India are chiefly worshipers of Vishnu under his many incar- nations and manifestations ; in other parts the worship of Siva predominates. Different castes and tribes addict themselves to different deities. But no tem- ple is reared to the Great Supreme ; no rites are performed in His honor ; God is an abstract conception, and not a living reality. His glory they have given to them that are no gods. When you charge upon a Hindoo the sin and folly of worshiping these inferior deities, while he neglects the God whom he himself acknowledges as the One Supreme, he tells you at once that since God is all, all worship is paid to God, perhaps quoting some ancient verse like the following : " Into the bosom of the one great sea, Flow streams that come from hills on every side. Their names are various as their springs. And thus in every land do men bow down To one great God, though known by many names." Or, he will defend himself by a plausible illustration : " Sir, I am a poor man from yonder village. If I have a tax to pay the Government, should I insist on carrying my money to our Queen who lives across the sea ; and if I did so, would she see me or receive it at my hand ? No more can I take it to the Governor-General in his vice-regal palace in Calcutta. I have to do with the village officer ; and what I pay to him, although he is a very inferior officer of the Government, is as truly paid to the Queen as though I laid it at her feet." If a man, who does not accept the Bible as the Word of God, "believes that there are myriads of existences above and around him, who, although they are not God, are deities to whom his worship and service are due, whose anger he has every reason to avoid and their favor to gain, I do not know any logical process by which I can convince him of the contrary. I get no help from the philosopher. He does not perhaps believe in the gods himself. It may be he considers himself by philosophical methods nearer salvation than they are ; since the gods themselves are bound in the bondage of the unreal, or else they too would cease to suffer the evil of a separate ex- istence and merge in the divine ocean of the Infinite. But the very idolatry and superstition on which he personally looks down, he regards as necessary io Christianity and Hindooism. for the mass of men. The common people can not attain the eminence of philosophic thought. They must reach after the deity in lower methods and by lower aids. If they are faithful in those services which they can now un- derstand and render, they will be rewarded perhaps in their next birth by such a position in life that they may attain liberation by the higher methods. Al- though wonderful stories are told by priests and others of men in days past who attained immediate salvation by the practice of rites that are still observed, I never met with a Hindoo who expected that he could thus be saved. His best hope is in this present life to merit a future birth somewhat nearer to the object of his desires. For remember, that heaven itself is not liberation or full salvation. It is a state of much happiness ; but a man whose next trans- migration will be to that abode of happiness, may, by that very transmigration, postpone indefinitely his hopes of ultimate liberation and linger in the misery of separation from God. In this connection we may repeat to you the Quaternion of Requisites, the four qualifications which are necessary before one may so much as enter upon the study of the higher philosophy of the Hindoos with any hope of attaining salvation thereby. These are : i. The discrimination of the eternal substance from the transient, i. e., a clear understanding that God is the eternal substance and all else is non- eternal. 2. Disregard of the enjoyment of the fruits of the here and the hereafter. By fruits of the here we are to understand all good things of the present life ; by fruits of the hereafter, blessings to be enjoyed in a future state, such as heaven, or the rewards due to meritorious actions done in this life. In other words, this second qualification is the disregard of everything, present or future, save only the liberation of the soul from the bondage of the unreal and its union with the All-Spirit. 3. The possession of the six mental attitudes which befit the seeker after liberation ; as follows : 1 st. Tranquillity, the restraining of the thoughts and desires from everything save God. 2d. Self-restraint, the complete mastery of the body and its senses, so that they shall not interfere with the concentration of the whole being upon God. 3d. Quiescence, the entire refraining from all other duties save those involved in this concentration, as, for example, duties owing to a parent by the child, or a husband to a wife, or a servant to his employer. This requirement alone shuts the seeker after God off from every human relation- ship and absolves him from every tie to kindred or society. 4th. Endurance, of hunger and thirst, cold and heat, watching, and whatever other suffering will be the means of subduing the spirit and mortifying the flesh. 5th. Contempla- tion, the fixing the whole soul in meditation upon God and the study of truth. 6th. Faith, the implicit reception of the teachings of the spiritual guide and preceptor. Christianity and Hindooism. 1 1 4. That overmastering desire for liberation, which alone can lead to and sustain in this study and self-denial. Such are the qualifications required, at least in theory, of him who would attain salvation by means of philosophy. They will convince us how impossi- ble it appears to the ordinary Hindoo that he should reach his goal by this lofty path. Nothing is left for him but to avail himself of the gods and their worship, and get from them what help he can. Of the popular idolatry and superstitions of the Hindoos I need not speak at length. Its main features are described in many books and are not un- familiar to you. Nor could it be put into any systematic form. Every man may find, in the vast number of the gods and their varying forms of worship, what suits him best. He may change from one to another as he pleases. No one aspect of Hindoo popular religion represents more than a single phase of it. It is multiform to the last degree. The very sacred books are at variance among themselves. Modern Hindooism is a thousand religions massed in one, with ample room for unnumbered superstitions, old and new, all of which are orthodox to all who accept them and tolerated by all the rest.* Of the enormities of Hindooism in some of its developments I dare not speak. No ingenuous Hindoo can refer to them without a blush of shame, though he is powerless to prevent them. But I must not fail to remind you that some such union of specious pantheistic philosophy with degrading idola- try and dark superstition, with all the fearful moral evil accompanying them — philosophy for the few, superstition for the many — would almost certainly be the religious condition of the Christian world to-day, were it not for the Gospel of Christ. India, China, and Japan represent to us at present the best that man can do for himself without a revelation from God. The condition of * "In India," says the late Rev. J. Wilson, D.D., so well known in connection with the Scotch missions in Bombay, "we have to deal with elaborated systems of faith and practice which are allied, and intimately allied, with every principle congenial to the natural depravity of man, and suited to every variety of temperament and condition of life. Hindooism, though it has gone through many changes, is still the grandest em- bodiment of Gentile error. It is at once physiolatrous in its main aspects, and fetish in its individual recognitions of particular objects of power for good or evil ; polythe- istic and pantheistic ; idolatrous and ceremonious, yet spiritual ; authoritative and tra- ditional, yet inventive and accommodative. The lower classes of society it leaves in the depths of ignorance and darkness, without making any attempt to promote their elevation. The indolent and inane succumbing to its trying climate, it leaves in un- disturbed repose. To the curious and inquisitive it furnishes, in its remarkable schools of philosophy, systems of combined physics and metaphysics, at once empirical and deductive ; and which exercise and yet weaken and pervert the intellectual faculties, and that without any clear recognition of moral obligation and duty to God or man. To the lovers of excitement and amusement, it furnishes a boundless store of myths, fables, and fictions. To the active and superstitious, it affords a never-ending round of foolish and frivolous ceremonies, which engross most of their time and energies. To the rich, wealthy, and powerful, it literally promises and sells pleasure in this worlds 12 Christianity and Hindooism. Greece and Rome was no better ; indeed, at the time when Christianity was making the conquest of the Roman Empire, was probably worse than that of India now. That we have a truer philosophy, a higher morality, a religion that does unite the soul to God and give it eternal life through Jesus Christ, we owe to the written Word of God entrusted to the Church of Christ, the pillar and ground of the truth. In connection with what has been said of the popular philosophy and idola- try of India, I must not omit to name that system of caste which guards Hin- dooism on the social side from change. Not only are there the four great castes with which all are familiar — the Brahmin caste, the Soldier caste, the Merchant caste, the Laborer caste. These are almost infinitesimally divided and subdivided — each subdivision virtually a caste in itself.* And, outside the four castes, the very Pariahs have their distinctions, which they hold with equal tenacity. Nor is the distinction, so far at least as belongs to the main caste divisions, an arbitrary one. The Brahmin and the Sudra live side by side, like the trout and the minnow in a brook. They are both fish, but of different species. They may swim in the same water and eat the same kind of food, but the minnow can never by an possibility become a trout, nor the trout a min- now. No more could the Sudra become a Brahmin, or the Brahmin a Sudra. Hindoo society is thus in all relations, except those of business and trade, a series of narrow strata laid over one another with the immovability of the strata of rock in a mountain. They touch at the surface only ; and each caste is im- permeable by members of any other. One effect of caste is to crush out in- dividuality— to limit the intimate relationships of life to a narrow social circle, and compel the individual to remain forever in that narrow circle, subordinat- with the expectancy of its continuance in those which are hoped will come. Those who love to rove, it sends away on distant journeys and pilgrimages. Those who are morbid and melancholy, it settles on the hill of ashes. Those who are disgusted with this world, it points to the wilderness. Those who are tired of life, it directs to the uneral pile, the idol car, or the lofty precipice. To those who are afraid of sin, it pre- scribes easy and frivolous penances, or directs to the sacred lake or river, in which they may be cleansed from all pollution. Those who need a Mediator, it commends to the Guru, who will supply all deficiencies and answer all demands. To those who are afraid of death, it gives the hope of future births, which may be either in a rising or a descending scale. Those who shrink from the view of these repeated births in human and infra-human forms, it directs to the absorption of the Vedantist, or the Nirvana, the totally unconscious existence or absolute extinction of the soul of the Buddhist or the Jaina. Need we wonder that Hindooism has had its millions of votaries, and that, with some conspicuous losses, it has retained them for thousands of years, up to the present day?" * The census of the Hindoo State of Travancore has been completed within a few months — the first census ever taken by a native Indian Government. It contains the statistics of 420 different castes, in a country somewhat less in size than the State of New Jersey. Christianity and Hindooism. 13 ing the whole round of his thought and action to the will of his caste fellows. In all considerable matters no man thinks of deciding for himself. He must do as his fellows. He is born into a society from which he can escape only by ostracism ; and if ostracized, is thenceforth absolutely alone, for no caste will receive him. A Pariah might perhaps take pity on a wandering dog, but the highest Brahmin ejected from his caste could no more enter the caste of that Pariah than the Pariah could be admitted to that of the Brahmin. This social tie binds Hindoo society in chains of iron, and completes the hold which Hindooism has upon India. Of the three obstacles to Christianity which we have mentioned, pantheism is undoubtedly the central and chief. We may liken caste to the outworks of a fort, designed to keep the invader from its walls. The idolatry and superstition of the country would represent those walls thus guarded. While the pantheistic thought, informing the whole and giving unity, coherence, and resisting strength to both the others, is the impregnable citadel within. I say impregnable, because once and again ear- nest and sincere reformers have arisen within Hindooism. Almost always they have discarded caste, and for the most part rejected idolatry. But never yet has Hindoo reform succeeded in shaking off the subtle spell of pantheistic thought, and consequently idolatry and caste have gradually regained their hold and defeated each reform. Christianity, and this alone, can supplant pantheism, intrenched, as it is, in such a vast system of popular superstitions, and guarded so closely by caste. But Christianity has never yet met a foe more completely defended, more difficult of successful attack. It has been our endeavor in the preceding paragraphs to describe the oppo- sition which Hindooism presents to Christianity, as a system of philosophic thought and a congeries of popular superstitions, intrenched in characteristic social institutions peculiarly hostile to change. In meeting this opposition, Christianity itself labors under serious disadvantages, which must be briefly indicated as essential to an adequate idea of the conflict of the two religions. And, first, it must be remembered that our Protestant Christianity was not first introduced into India by men of holy and consecrated life. Long before missionaries were sent, Christianity was presented to the Hindoo mind by the horde of traders, soldiers, adventurers, who sought their fortunes in India. The armies of Clive and Hastings, the factors of the East India Company, the unprincipled adventurers who escaped to the Indies from scenes of violence in Europe, or sought there a field of gain, were poor representatives of the relig- ion of Jesus Christ. Yet the first impressions of Christianity made upon the Hindoo mind were made by them. Except the Roman Catholic missionaries in Southern India, and the effete Syrian Christians of the Malabar coast, the only Christians seen or known in India for an hundred and fifty years were these men. It was inevitable that Christianity should appear to the people of the country as it was set forth in their lives, and that it ^should be associated 14 Christianity and Hindooism. with violence and chicanery, rapacity and insolence, drunkenness and passion. The impression thus made upon the people, and deepened by the history of more than a century of aggression and conquest, was entirely false, but one which clung to the hearts of the people, and has not even yet passed entirely away. Over great tracts of country as yet but little affected by education or personal contact with real Christians, the Christian religion is regarded as sanctioning all manner of evil and leading to all kinds of crime. Perhaps two- thirds of the Hindoo races still regard the two distinctive features of Chris- tianity as eating beef and drinking brandy. Such prejudices are deep-rooted and exceedingly hard to remove. They constitute a real hinderance to the spread of Christianity, on which lies the burthen of proving the popular concep- tion wrong, and demonstrating itself by living examples a pure and holy faith. Besides this erroneous, but under the circumstances not unnatural, judgment of Christianity, it is quite impossible for any considerable number of Chris- tians to live in India and not shock deeply the prejudices of the Hindoos. Reference has just been made to eating beef. To the Hindoo mind it is a great sin to destroy any animal life, and especially the life of that most sacred of all animals, the cow. According to most Hindoo codes of law, it is a greater crime to kill a cow than to kill a man. It would be possible for the mission- ary to accommodate himself to this prejudice, and abstain from animal food at considerable expense to his health and strength, but this would not avail while all about him soldiers, civilians, planters by hundreds are pursuing an opposite course. He can denounce intemperance, but has no ground for denouncing the use of beef and mutton. Or take another illustration : All over India the very necessary, but unsavory, office of the public and private scavenger is given to the sweeper caste, which is naturally at the very bottom of the social scale. With his exaggerated notions of personal cleanliness and purity, no Hindoo outside of the sweeper caste could touch so much as the clothes of one of them without incurring ceremonial defilement ; and to receive food from their hands would be worse than death. A certain mission in Northern India grew up in connection with an orphanage, in which were gathered a large number of children made orphans during a terrible famine which desolated the country many years ago. Perhaps the missionaries were not aware of the strength of this prejudice ; but whatever the reason may have been, the persons whom they first employed to feed these children were of the sweeper caste, and the impression made upon the whole community in which that orphanage and mis- sion were situated, was that the Christians were entirely dead to any sense of propriety or decency. Matters like these are entirely trivial when viewed from our standpoint, but from that of the Hindoo they are of great importance. Doubtless in many particular cases such prejudices may be avoided, but with- out becoming thorough Hindoos it is inevitable that we should be often shock- ing their sense of propriety and enlisting many of their unreasonable prejudices against Christianity. Christianity and Hindooism. 15 The cause of Christianity in India must also sustain a considerable amount of political opprobrium as the religion of the government which has displaced the native dynasties, changed the ancient laws and customs, and holds the country in its possession by right of conquest. Not that the mass of the people of India hate the British government, or actively desire its overthrow. But an alien government can never be a popular one. And although the impartial observer will gladly testify that never in all history has a nation governed a vast and distant dependency so wisely and well as India has been governed for the last half century, yet it must be said that the people of the country do not love the government or its administrators, and that if the British forces who garrison its forts and overawe the great native princes were withdrawn from India, popular risings would soon repeat in all parts of the country the scenes of the Sepoy mutiny. To the religion of this alien government is opposed whatever of patriotism the Hindoo feels. Hindooism is not a religion accepted from without, but developed from within. Its saints and heroes are national, its institutions are identified with all the past glory of the country and race. To give up these and accept the religion and institutions of the conqueror seems to the Hindoo to be treason to his native land. While Christianity thus suffers a disadvantage from its being the religion of the present government of India, the influence of that government is not, on the whole, favorable to the missionary enterprise. The Christian missionary has, indeed, under the British government, the great advantage of protection to life and property while engaged in his work. The strong arm of the law protects him from violence, and, to a certain extent, protects the native con- verts ; although it must be confessed that in parts of India the law, as inter- preted by British judges, is an engine of cruelty and injustice as applied to converts from Hindooism to Christianity. The position of the government with reference to the different religions is one of considerable delicacy, and brings forward many difficult questions. If administered always by wise and truly Christian statesmen, it could be of great assistance in the evangelization of the country. Many of the ablest Indian officials have, without overstepping the limits of toleration for all religions, given their countenance to all wise efforts to bring the truth to bear upon the people. Religious neutrality is one thing, and indifference to all religion is quite another. And it is to be regretted that the present government of India, while justly professing to accord equal rights to Hindoos, Mohammedans, and Christians in the practice of their sev- eral religions, should yet, upon the whole, throw the preponderance of its in- fluence against the Christianization of the country. Mission work is further complicated by the division of India into so many different races, with distinct languages and varying race characteristics. India is not one country, but many. A continent, equal in geographical extent to all Europe, outside of Russia, it is even more divided than Europe into na- tionalities. The races of the north are as different from those of the South 1 6 Christianity and Hindooism. as the Germans from the Spanish or Italians. The Hindooism of Rajpoo- tana is no more like that of Travancore than Greek Christianity is like Roman Catholicism. The languages of North India are cognate. So are those of South India. But they constitute two distinct classes of language ; and the various languages of the aboriginal races of Central India are formed upon a conception totally distinct from that of either of the other classes. No man can be a missionary to India at large, but only to that part of India to which he may be sent. Languages learned in one part of India are useless in others. Methods of missionary labors useful in one district may not prove so in others. Instead of one translation of the Word of God, at least fifteen or twenty must be made and printed.* So of the entire series of books and tracts, controversial, and explanatory of the Christian religion, and the text-books used in all ver- nacular education. That is to say, in the one department of literary work, in- cluding the translation of the Scriptures, many times the effort is required for India which would be necessary if one language were used. It follows partly from this diversity of race, language, and circumstance in India, and partly from the divisions of Christians themselves in their different nationalities and denominations, that there has been less of unity in missionary effort than is necessary to secure the highest results. Not that different denom- inations have interfered with or worked against each other. In spite of occasional clashing, we may say that in general the different missions have worked together in harmony and with Christian co-operation. But these Christian workers, all too few, some British, others German, others American, some representing the Lutheran doctrine and polity, others belonging to the Church of England with its liturgy and Episcopal government ; others Scotch, Irish, or American Presbyterians, and still others English Baptists or American Methodists, all earnest in their own peculiar beliefs and methods of working, are necessarily much separated from one another and lose the advantages which arise from unity of organization. The missionary body is said at present *A recent pamphlet, entitled " Rome's Relation to the Bible," issued by the Calcutta Bible Society, contains a Historical Table of Translations of the Scriptures by Protestants for the use of the inhabitants of India. In this table, which does not profess to be exhaust- ive, a list is given of versions of the Scriptures, either in whole or part, made into no less than sixty-three different languages and dialects. In eighteen of these languages the entire Bible has been translated and published. In twenty-six more the entire New Testament and parts of the Old Testament have been issued. In the remaining languages portions of the New Testament, and occasionally of the Old Testament, have appeared, but neither Testament complete. Some of the sixty-three languages have been reduced to writing by the mi&sionaries. In several of them the translations of the Scriptures have been carefully revised again and again. The whole represents an amount of labor on the part of Indian missionaries, of which, perhaps, few of the warmest friends of missions are aware. It may be added that Romish versions of the Scriptures in the field covered by these Protestant versions, are oniy two, viz. : the New Testament, in Hindustani, Patna, 1864 ; and The Four Gospels and Acts in Tamil, Pondicherry, 1857. Christianity and Hindooisni* 17 to number about six hundred men. Of these one-sixth are probably always absent on furlough or laid aside by ill-health, leaving five hundred in active service. This number of missionaries scattered up and down over a region of country as large as all Europe outside of Russia, holding in any considerable force only a few great cities, separated from each other not only by geograph- ical distance, but also by the difference of race and language between those among whom they labor, each particular mission acting only on its own plan, and method, without reference to other missions near or far, are certainly working at a disadvantage as compared with the same number of men under: one general supervision, carrying out one set of ideas and each supporting the other in all details of their work. Such is the opposition of Hindooism to Christianity, and such some of the disadvantages under which the missionary enterprise must be carried on in India. At the beginning of the present century Protestant missions had scarcely established a foothold, and were still prohibited in the dominions under control of the East India Company. Twenty-five years later all India was open for missionary efforts, and the churches of Europe and America were beginning to enter it in force. Each following decade has seen new ground occupied, new missions opened. The ten years between 1835 and 1845 saw our Presbyterian missions established, although our missionary stations were much fewer then than now. The Sepoy mutiny in 1857 marks an era in In- dian history. The attention of the Christian world was fixed upon India with special interest. Old missions were strengthened, and important new ones begun. Upon the whole it may be said that a half century of Christian effort has been expended upon India, during which from a hundred and fifty to five or six hundred missionaries have been working there, assisted by many earnest Christian men in the civil and military service of the British government, and by many native Christians whom God has raised up as teachers and preachers from among the converts of the missions. Let us see what results have been accomplished by these agencies. Over two-thirds of India there stretches a network of mission stations, occupying all the prominent cities and many of the larger towns. The remaining third, which is partly difficult of access and partly territory under the dominion of native princes who are not favorable to the introduction of Christianity, has scarcely been touched, although within the last few years several very promis- ing new stations have been taken up by our own and other missionary organ- izations. But go where you will, along any of the great lines of travel through- out India, you will find in every place of importance the mission station, a center of light and evangelization, where the church and the school, if not also the printing-press, the hospital, the orphanage, mark the beneficent enterprises of Christianity, and Christian men and women are devoting themselves in every way to promote the welfare of the people. 1 8 Christianity and Hindooism. In these great centers of influence, the Gospel has been faithfully preached and taught in the schools, until a large number of people are familiar with the outlines of saving truth. And from these centers the missionary and his na- tive helpers have gone over wider and wider circles proclaiming their heavenly message to multitudes of hearers. Much of this preaching is necessarily frag- mentary and imperfect, but it awakens attention, removes prejudice, and pre- pares the way for further instruction. In all the principal languages of the country the Word of God has been translated and widely circulated, with many other books and tracts, suited to different ages and classes of readers. Formerly these were given away to all who could be induced to receive them. But of late years the demand has so Sncreased that it is now almost the universal practice to sell our Christian pub- lications. The missionary and his assistants sell them in the streets and at the religious and other gatherings of the people ; the colporteurs sell them in the railway stations and from village to village ; and in some parts of India the very Hindoo and Mohammedan booksellers have begun to keep them in their stock, merely for the profit which they can make by selling them. Missionary schools in India, from the village school where only the simpler branches are taught in the vernacular, to the English high-schools and col- leges in the great cities, have played a most important part and are still very prominent in the educational work which has done so much to awaken thought and stimulate progress in that country. In all these schools and colleges the great aim has been to communicate religious instruction. And, apart from the number of actual conversions, it is impossible to estimate the influence which they have exerted upon the educated classes of Hindoo society. Among all •who have come under these influences the power of Hindooism is greatly weakened, and many persons have been deeply impressed by Christian truth •who have not been able to make the sacrifice involved in its public acceptance. The number of persons gathered together in Christian churches as the direct fruits of Protestant missions in India is now upwards of 300,000, without count- ing those who have fallen asleep. It would be too much to claim all of these as truly godly, Christ-like men. But in general the native Christian com- munity is fully deserving of our confidence. It has been tried by persecution, and has added Hindoo names to the roll of the Christian martyrs. It has yielded a large proportion of its members to the service of Christ in earnest and faithful ministry among their fellow-countrymen. It is becoming more awd more, not only self-supporting, but aggressive. The example of many of these native brethren is doing more to convince and attract the heathen among whom they live than any mere preaching could do. The Christian community, as a whole, is steadily rising in the popular esteem ; and, scattered as it is among so many provinces of India, it forms the nucleus everywhere of the greater ingatherings for which we labor and hope. ^ xGseat attention is being paid in all parts of India to the perfecting of those Christianity and Hindooism. 19 ecclesiastical organizations by which the power of the Christian community shall be brought to bear most efficiently upon the mass of heathenism about it, and upon the training of those pastors and evangelists who shall instruct the churches and carry the Gospel in their preaching and teaching far beyond the limits which can be reached by the foreign missionary. The successes of the future will largely depend upon the native ministry ; and God is giving to His churches men who are qualified by gifts of nature and of grace to assume the great responsibilities thus laid upon them. In all these respects, missionaries are able to report satisfactory and gratify- ing progress, and this not in certain specially favored localities, but in all parts of the wide field, not in a single department, but in all departments of missionary effort. This progress is uniform and steady. Whatever of gain is made is retained, and each fresh advance furnishes vantage ground for further success. There are probably no five hundred Christian ministers in any part of the world upon whom greater responsibilities are laid, and none who are accomplishing more for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Christ, than the men who are honored in holding the position of missionaries in India. But let us not receive the impression that India will probably be soon con- verted to the faith of Christ. Three hundred million souls, held for ages under the triple bondage of pantheism, idolatry, and caste, and loving and glorying in that bondage, are not to be easily delivered from it, though the number of Christian workers were multiplied an hundred-fold. All things are possible with God ; and if it please Him to pour out His Spirit upon the whole nation and raise up in all its races and languages men of Apostolic gifts and fervor, we may see in a few years glorious triumphs of the Gospel on a greater scale than ever before in human history. But that is not the way in which God usually works, nor do we see signs of any such unusual successes in India. We see nowhere any general weakening of Hindoo thought or superstition, any wide-spread turning toward Christianity, upon the part of the mass of the people. Christianity must win its success in India by earnest, persevering work, and by steady toil undermine the almost impregnable defenses of Hin- dooism. Your missionaries do not shrink from the task given them to do, and are not disheartened by the difficulties which face them. The work advances. The end is secured by the promise of God. Let the whole Church of Christ not withhold their sympathies and prayers. CHRISTIANITY AND HINDOOISM. Rev. James Wilson, for many years connected with our mission in India, sends the following communication in reply to a quotation in Mr. Wynkoop's first article on Christianity and Hindooism. As it gives another view of the subject so strongly presented by Mr. Wynkoop, our readers will be glad to see 20 Christianity and Hindooism. it, and especially as it comes from one of the early missionaries of our Church to India : I have just been reading the part of Rev. T. S. Wynkoop's lecture on " Christianity and Hindooism " in the number of the Foreign Missionary for July, and the note respecting the address of Prof. Williams, of Oxford, on the same subject, and noticing the impression which it seem£ to have made on the mind of the editor of the English Independent, who says: "It is evident that nothing could be worse than to send out to India men who have no intellec- tual power of appreciating such subtle objections which seem to cut the very ground from underneath the Christian missionary's feet." I have no doubt but many of the readers of those addresses, in this country also, will take up the same impression, unless the authors, or some one else for them, shall guard them against such impression by reminding them of the Saviour's words, " Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." There is a broad substratum of clear, strong common sense among the more intelligent of the common people in India, whose minds soar, not to the hazy regions of their philosophy, and who can, after a while, perceive the keen edge with which the Bible cuts away the gossamer threads of such philosophy. I have often heard men of that class, after they had had the Bible in their hands for some time, still making no profession of intention to become Christians, address me thus : " Sir, this Christian book of yours is the strangest book I ever saw. It just speaks right home to all that is inside of a man, as if it knew all that is in him." And much more in the same strain. Doubtless it is of great importance to the missionary work that there should be a few men here and there among them like Mr. Wynkoop and Prof. Williams, who should prepare themselves to follow the learned Brahmins through all the mazes and plausi- bilities and intricate windings of their systems of philosophy, in which they have the wide fields of the universe to range at pleasure without any fixed prin- ciple or standard by which their wildest vagaries can be tested or brought to any positive bearings. But that is not the field in which the great mass of the missionary work is to be done. The missionary work is mainly to be carried forward by men of sincere, earnest, tried piety, well-furnished minds, sound common sense, and good capacities to estimate human character, and the fitness of things in general. Not much is to be gained by any man's allowing himself to be led out by a learned Brahmin into the wide and wild fields of heathen philosophy. I, when I had been a few years in India, made a few experiments in that line. But I soon discovered that it was very much like an effort to surround and corner a wild and wayward mule in the center of a prairie field 50 miles in diameter. I could not approach him from any quarter but from which he could escape in any one of many directions. I soon learned that that was not the place in which to pen a wild and wayward mule, nor an astute and trained Brahmin. After a few fruitless efforts in that direction, I learned to permit Christianity and Hindooism. 21 the Pundit (learned Brahmin) to make his statement without interruption in terms like these : "God exists in every form of animated being, and in every- thing. God is in you, in me, in him, in this table, this chair, this stone, in everything around us. God enables me to lift my hand, to move my lips, to use my voice. Then if there was sin or wrong in that fraud, or falsehood, which you charged upon me (alluding to some charge of the kind just made), the blame does not rest on me, but on Him above who lives, and thinks, and speaks, and acts in me," etc. I then would kindly, but very earnestly, reply : " I have neither time nor taste for following you through all the mazes of your philo- sophical speculations, etc. I will take my position just here : your own heart knows that it was not God, but your own self, that did the wrong in question, and that the whole blame rests on you alone." In many cases the man would frankly admit the truth of the charge, or, if he did not, some of those present would say, " Oh, yes, he knows very well that that is true ; but he does not like to own it." Thus God has provided a much shorter and surer way to the human heart than through the labyrinths of philosophy and metaphysics. And the great mass of missionary labors lie in that field. The same principle applies to the missionary work as to that of the minis- try at home. It would not be a wise policy to refuse to introduce any one into the office of the ministry who had not so waded through the profound depths of " science" as to be able to cope with Tyndal and Darwin, and such as they, in their own chosen fields of speculation, simply because the principal portion of their labors lies in a different direction ; namely, in dealing with the " con- sciences" and conduct of men as "sinners," conscious that they are sinners, and in unfolding and applying the teachings of the Bible to their felt necessities, and as that which alone can point them to deliverance from sin and conduct them to the inheritance of " eternal life " in a happier and a better world. And all that pertains to the attainment of that inheritance lies along the lower plane of ordinary common sense, and of candor, and honesty of purpose, in applying the plain ordinary teachings of the Bible to the ordinary condition and wants of human life. The great doctrines of the Bible, and of human salvation, are not to be sought for in the recondite speculations of science. " It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say, who shall go up and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? But the word is very nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it" (Deut. xxx. 12). There is a broad field of common sense among the masses of the people, both in Christian and in heathen countries. And that common sense, in con- nection with the consciousness that they are sinners which all men bear about with them, is the element with which the missionary abroad, and the minister at home, have chiefly to deal in the important field of their labors. In a large amount of varied converse which I had with nearly every class of Hindoos during the years which I spent in India, I never found a man so 22 Christianity and Hindooisni. utterly debased in mind but that I could lead him to see and feel that there is a difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, between virtue and vice, and to feel and acknowledge that he was a sinner, i.e., that he had sinned against a superior being (by whatever name he might call that superior being), and that something must be done to propitiate that superior being. And here is the point at which we can begin our missionary work among the heathen. And if I have not mistaken the case, it is about at the same point that the same work has to be commenced at home. Then the conversation turns on what is the character of that superior be- ing ; and what kind of services or offerings will propitiate him ; and what sort of character and habits must be cultivated in those who aspire to please him and enjoy his favor. Here is the field in which the labors of the mission- ary abroad, and of the minister at home, have their principal range, and in which their principal fruits are gathered. For, as a general thing, those who feel themselves intellectually or pecuniarily raised far above the masses found on this broad plain, are rarely disposed to give much attention to the concerns of a future or higher life — at least until they have run the pleasures of this present life to the very utmost verge. It is not, therefore, of any great importance, in ar- ranging efforts for the salvation of men, to adopt plans to suit the case of these elevated classes ; for, if God is pleased to reveal Himself in their hearts, He brings down their lofty notions of themselves to the low level from which the masses of mankind can look up to the "Author of their salvation " suspended on a cross. I 1ST D I A^ / BY REV. JOHN NEWTON. The object of this paper is to present a bird's-eye view of one of the oldest and largest missions of the Board. It is intended for a class of readers whose acquaintance with the mission has been derived mainly from occasional and fragmentary notices. That its position may be the better seen, a few introductory statements will be made in regard to India in General. India, not including Burmah and Ceylon, is a large peninsula, (as will be seen by tracing the Indus and Brahmputra to their sources,) which, in its greatest extent, is about 1800 miles from north to south, and 1,500 from east to west. It contains a great variety of climate, and is inhabited by several distinct nations. Divisions, etc. It is divided, generally, into North India and the Dakkhin, (often writ- ten Deccan,) that is, The South. The political divisions are : 1. The Bengal Presidency, which is subdivided into : i. Bengal, ii. The North-west Provinces. iii. The Panjab (Punjab). iv. Oude. v. The Central Provinces, and vi. Assam. 2. The Madras Presidency, and 3. The Bombay Presidency ; to which Sind is attached. Jurisdiction. Of the population, reckoned at 200,000,000, about 150,000,000 are direct- ly amenable to English law. The remainder are under native princes, who, though in the main independent, yet acknowledge the general supremacy of the British Queen. India, as a whole, therefore, may be regarded as a part of the British Empire. Languages. The people of India speak different languages and dialects, of which there are two /. At Dehra there is a large girls' school, in which nearly a hundred of the daughters of native Christians from the different stations of the mission are receiving an excellent education. 8 Girls1 Orphanage. An orphanage for heathen girls was established thirty-six years ago at Lodiana. The average number of pupils here, too, for many years, has been between forty and fifty. A large number of them have been hopefully converted. Their influence has since been widely felt, as wives, mothers, and teachers. This institution is superintended by Mrs. Myers. Zenana Work. Zenana work (instruction given to native ladies in their private apart- ments) is carried on at several of the stations, though not extensively, as the way for it is not yet fully open. It is opening more and more, how- ever, every year. Medical Missionary Work. Some of the missionaries have found it expedient to connect the practice of medicine with preaching ; through Dr. Newton of Sabathu is the only one in the field wrho has had the advantage of a proper medical training. The confidence reposed by the natives in the medical skill of Europeans and Americans may almost be said to be unbounded. Christian Colony. The Christian colony under Mr. Carleton is settled on some 1500 acres of waste land given him by the government for this purpose, — fifty miles, more or less, south or south-west of Ambala. The pursuits of the colony are chiefly pastoral. The scheme was initiated by Mr. Carleton, and he bears the whole responsibility of it. Native Churches. The number of organized churches in the Lodiana mission is eleven ; and of native church members, about three hundred. There are church edifices, however, at only four or five stations, — the best of them being at Saharanpur and Lodiana. In most places the congregations worship in school-houses. None of the churches are altogether self-sustaining. In addition to the church buildings, there are chapels at some of the sta- tions in which the gospel is preached regularly to the heathen, — though Christians also attend. At Lahore there are three of these besides a school- room used for the same purpose. Presbyteries. Within the bounds of the Lodiana mission there are three Presbyteries, — the Presbytery of Lodiana, the Presbytery of Lahore, and the Presbytery of Saharanpur. Progress of tlve Truth. The only serious obstacles to the spread of the gospel in India are the difficulties of caste, the prejudices of ancestral faith, and that native de- 9 pravity of heart, abetted by Satanic influence, which opposes the truth in all countries alike. The government is friendly ; and a door of utterance for missionaries is open everywhere. The most virulent opposition generally comes from the Mohammedans, as it did long ago from their Jewish prototypes, the Pharisees ; yet, strange to say, a large number of the converts are from this class. Caste is losing its power, and prejudices against Christianity are giving way. A great change is being wrought in the mind of the people. This change is the result of many causes, all working in the same direction. A conviction of the truth of Christianity has already established itself in the minds of multitudes who have not experienced its saving power, and who are not therefore willing to make sacrifices on account of it. If the Spirit were given abundantly, many who now halt between two opinions would be constrained to made an open confession of Christ. As it is, many are called, but few seem to be chosen. SKETCH OF THE FURRUKHABAD MISSION. BY KEY. S. H. KELLOGG. Its Position. The Furrukhabad Mission occupies a triangular territory between the rivers Ganges and Jumna. Its eastern limit may be fixed at Allahabad, situated at the confluence of these two rivers, 636 miles north-west of Cal- cutta. The western boundary may be represented approximately by a line drawn from one river to the other at a distance of 250 to 275 miles north- west of Allahabad. Within these limits the Presbyterian Church occupy all the ground except the district of Cawnpore, in which the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel have two missionaries, and the station of Allahabad, in which beside our own missionaries are brethren of the Church of England and English Baptist Church. It should be remarked that while on the north-east the Ganges definitely limits our field, dividing it from the field worked by the American Methodists ; on the other hand the Jumna on the south-west, is not such a definite boundary, inasmuch as the whole populous country to the south, as far as the Hindi language is spoken, though open to missionary labor, is unoccupied by any society. Formerly our missionaries entered India at Calcutta, whence they were pulled up the Ganges in boats, a long and wearisome journey, or travelled more rapidly, though still slowly, by means of relays of horses. Early in the last decade, rail communication was opened between Allahabad and Calcutta reducing the time to 36 hours. More lately still a railway has been opened from Allahabad to Bombay, 860 miles; the opening of the Suez Canal has occasioned a great reduction in the rates of travel between Lon- iO don and Calcutta ; so that now our missionaries, going from Liverpool to Bombay, in less than four weeks find themselves after 38 hours of rail trav- el in Allahabad, our most eastern Mission Station. Here turning to the north-west and taking the East India railroad, now continuous with its branch- es about 1400 miles from Calcutta to Mooltan, a ride of 40 miles brings us to Futtehpore, a station formerly occupied by a foreign missionary, but now in charge of a native brother, and superintended by our missionaries at Allahabad. Continuing our journey westward, 80 miles further on, pass- ing through Cawnpore, the scene of the tragic massacre in the Sepoy Revolt of 1857, we reach our next mission station at Etawah, 188 miles north-west of Allahabad. Leaving the railroad at Etawah, a night's ride with oxen brings us to the mission house at Mynpurie, 32 miles north of Eta- wah. Finally turning back to the south-east 40 miles, with oxen or horses, brings us to Futtehgurh on the Ganges, and with this we have completed the circuit of our statious. Leaving a more detailed account of these seve- ral stations for the present, we give some general information as to the na- ture of the field thus occupied. Physical Features of the Country. This whole region of country, like the rest of the valley of the Ganges is an almost unbroken alluvial plain. Here and there the country near the river is broken by steep ravines, cut by torrents in the rainy season; and in the southern borders of the Allahabad and Futtehpore districts, occasional isolated hills appear, rising abruptly out of the level country, outstanding sentinels of the Vindhya mountains. But as a general thing not even a gentle roll varies the monotonous level. Yet though the country has not the beauty arising from a diversified sur- face, in its wonderful fertility and abundant verdure it is during the rainy and subsequent cool season a goodly land to behold. Where wells or canals make irrigation possible, four crops in succession are with most superficial culture produced within the year. Everywhere extensive groves of the luxuriant mango tree, with now and then clumps of the graceful palm, or the delicate-leaved tamarind, adorn the landscape, in striking contrast with the Punjab whose dusty plains are scarcely relieved by the scanty foliage of the dwarfish acacia. As compared with other missions in warm countries, our missions here are favorably situated in respect of climate. April, May, and June are excessively hot and dry, the country scorched by a fierce hot wind which blows daily from the Western Desert, raising the thermometer daily much above 100° in the shade. By various devices however this extreme heat Is tempered within doors so that the range is 20° lower than outside. As a matter of fact these are not sickly months. About the first of July the rains begin, and in three months we have a rain fall about equal to the an- nual fall on North Atlantic coast of the United States. During this season, though the thermometer is not excessively high, the ah' is extremely sultry and oppressive. In October the weather begins to improve, and from No- 11 vember till March the climate of Northern India is perhaps tmequaled. Ex- cept perhaps two or three showers, about Christmas, it is extremely dry, and the thermometer in January falls as low as 44°, giving us an air that is really bracing. As the country is generally well drained, and the water good, there is not often much serious sickness prevailing ; and it is doubtless safe to say that in few tropical countries will the European be able with prudence to maintain better health than in the lower Doab of India. Population. A country so fertile has naturally attracted all the invading hosts which from the earliest dawn of history have poured through the Himalayan passes into India. And so it has come to pass that the valley of the Ganges presents a density of population nowhere in the world approach- ed except in China and Japan. Nowhere else can the preacher of the Gos- pel with a given outlay of time and labor reach such multitudes of people. For example, the census of 18 67 gave the district* of Allahabad a population of 504 to the square mile ; the district of Furrukhabad, in which is the station of Futtehgurh gave the high figures of 541 to the square mile. To appreciate the force of such figures it may be observed that this shows a density of population considerably greater than would appear were the en- tire population of the United States, to be settled in the States of New York and Pennsylvania. This entire population is settled in compact towns and villages. Isolated dwelling houses so common in America, are very rarely seen in India. Languages. The dialects spoken by the people in the limits of our mission are commonly reckoned two, viz : Urdu or Hindusthani and Hindi, the former being distinctively the dialect of the Mohammedans, the latter of the Hindoos or idolaters. The former is spoken throughout India wherever Mohammedans are found, the latter is only found in Northern India. In point of fact, however, Hindi itself within our limits appears un- der two different dialects; the one agreeing with the Urdu in grammatical sys- tem; the other (known as Kanaujiya) presents a declensional system radically different. As the former of these two Hindi dialects is everywhere under- stood, it is in that dialect Hindi Scriptures and most tracts are published. The Kanaujiya is the local dialect of our field, and within that area, is with slight variations emphati -'ally the home language of the great mass of the people. As the Mohammedans in the North-west Provinces constitute but one- seventh of the population, Hindi is the most useful to the missionary; Urdu is of much less consequence here than in the Punjab, where they number half. Still it has become the ecclesiastical language, and as moreover the Moham- * A district corresponds to a county in the United States, i. e., the district of Furruk- habad is about 70 miles in length by about 20 in average breadth. 12 medans disdain to use the Hindi, the missionary must become thoroughly familiar with this dialect as well as with the Hindi. The local dialect is also useful, especially for ladies who labor in Hindoo homes, where nothing else is ever heard, though other Hindi may be understood. It may be mentioned that our missionaries find these dialects admirable instruments of thought and abundantly able to carry the great truths of Christianity. Further it is one great advantage that their acquirement is not as in the case of Chinese a herculean task, from which some may perhaps wisely shrink ; on the contrary neither the ancient classic tongues nor any of the modem languages of Europe can be compared with the dialects of Northern India for simplicity and regularity. Facility in acquiring a language should perhaps scarcely ever be considered in deciding the question of labor in Northern India. Nor is the variety of dialects so embarrassing as one might sup- pose ; so intimate are their relations that when either one is acquired any other comes almost without conscious effort. Religions. In respect of religion the people among whom we labor fall under two grand divisions, Mohammedans and Hindoos. The Mohamme- dans are to a large extent descendants of the Mohammedan invaders of India, and are therefore of the Shemitic stock. They are readily distinguish- ed, as they have a lighter complexion and dress in a different style from the Hindoos. Many Mohammedans however are descended from Hindoo converts, and therefore belong to the native Hindoo race. The Mohammedans all hold to the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, but evade obvious consequences, by maintaining that they have been corrupted by the Christians, and in any case have been abolished by the later revelation of the Koran. It is an interesting fact that in an Introduction to the Scriptures, prefacing a Commentary on the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis, written lately in Urdu by a Mohammedan Mania vi of Ghazipur, the integrity of the text of the Scriptures is ably maintained in opposition to most of his coreligionists. But the Maulavi is not a representative of the general opinion of his people. Possessed of a creed containing more elements of truth than that of the Hindoos, as theism is better than pantheism, the Mohammedans of India have by centuries of intercourse with idolaters themselves become tainted with the idolatry which in words they loudly de- nounce. In various places are sacred shrines supposed to contain the relics of some saint, which at stated times are visited by great masses of people and worshiped as truly as are the idols of the Hindoos. In moral charac- ter they undoubtedly fall below the Hindoos ; and are more cruel, licentious and deceitful than their idolatrous neighbors. Nor have they ever shown equal readiness with the Hindoos to listen to the gospel The Hindoo is tolerant so long as every man holds to and defends the faith in which he was born; it is only what one ought to do. The Mussulman in India as elsewhere is intolerant to the last degree; very rare is it that the missionary 13 refers to the Divinity or Atonement .of our Lord in a Mohammedan audi- ence without awakening scoffs and blasphemies, and sometimes a tumult of angry opposition. Still the grace of God has triumphed even over Moham- medan prejudice and hate ; and out from the followers of the false prophet have come some of the most staunch and noble of our Christian brethren in Northern India. The term Hindoos really comprehends a great variety of religious sects holding tenets often utterly contradictory. In general, however, they all profess to hold the distinguishing tenets of the Brahminical religion, the impersonality of the Deity, the transmigration of souls, the fourfold divis- ion of caste, the authority of the Vedas, Puranas and Shastras. The worship of idols is almost universal, especially those of Shiv the Destroyer and his wife Parvati, commonly called Devi the Goddess, par eminence. Ganesh, the god of wisdom and wealth also has his temples ; his image is found in every shop, and his worship is universal. Of all their gods however Ram is most universally revered, and his exploits more than those of all others are famihar to the people. The Ramayan, containing the story of his life, is everywhere read and listened to with great delight, and although not counted a sacred book, probably has a place second to no other book in the heart of the peo- ple. Yet strangely Ram has nowhere either image or temple. The masses in their idolatry think of little more than the stone to which they bow, and are practically polytheists, yet all, when asked how many gods there are, will always join the Brahmins in the pantheistic formula, " There is one God, there is not another," (existence). It is the general doctrine that all life, in- telligent or not, animal or vegetable, is one; all souls "parts of the Deity," now appearing now vanishing to reappear in another birth in a different body. The four grand divisions of caste are tenaciously held ; sub-divisions of caste are also recognized to the number of several hundred. The great majority of the Hindoo population, e. g., 78 per cent, in the Furrukhabad dis- trict, belong to the Shudra or lowest caste. Woman holds, as in all heathen countries, a condition of menial inferiority both among the Hindoos and Mohammedans. The Hindoo women are not so rigidly secluded and confined in their own houses as in some parts of the East, nor even as the Mohammedan women in their midst ; but amouo- the respectable classes any freedom of social intercourse between the sexes is unknown. Women of the highest social position are often in the streets, but always closely veiled, or in closely covered carnages. Practically the women in our field are only accessible to missionary labors of their own sex. The Hindoos within the bounds of our Mission rarely display any violent opposition to the gospel; the missionary usually has a civil, often a cordial reception. Yet we rarely see cases in which the gospel is received with any avidity. The masses really think or care little about the future and if any be aroused for the moment, it is generally only to sink back into a fatalistic apathy and indifference. The religious leaders of the people always ready for discussion, dispute with sophistry and craft, intent, not on 14 ' 15 learning the truth, but on maintaining their own position, and displaying to a crowd their own dialectic skill and volubility in Sanskrit. Within the bounds of the Furrukhabad Mission are a few other sects, who have from time to time become separated more or less from their Hindoo coun- trymen. Such for example are the Jains in the Mynpuri and Etawah districts, a sect presenting some points of connexion with Buddhism, and displaying the same utter apathy and indifference in religious matters that distinguish Buddhists elsewhere. They are few in number and none from their midst have entered the Christian church. More intersting are the Kabir Panthis, i. e., those who walk the way of Kabir. Kabir nourished about the beginning of the 15th century. He vigorously denounced the rites and ceremonies of the Hndoos and Mohammedans as empty and vain; as for example, in the fol- lowing extract from a village song, — " Dirty the water and no soap, — why art thou rubbing and washing away ? The stains of sin are deep within ! — when I see this, then O, I weep !" Tie seems to have been a sincere inquirer after truth, and to have had in a remarkable degree a sense of sin and his need of salvation ; thus : " With what face can I supplicate thee ? Shame cometh to me ! Thou knowest the evil 1 have done, — How can I be pleasing in thy sight f From expressions such as these it would appear that he was not a Pantheist, as he certainly was not an idolater. Still to avoid persecution he allowed his followers to conform to many Hindoo usages, regarding these apparently as intrinsically powerless for either evil or good. Humanity, especially toward irrational animals, truth, and submission to the spiritual guide, are cardinal virtues. So many things in the writings of Kabir and his immediate disciples harmonize with important Scripture doctrines, and so highly are his writings regarded even by those who do not profess to be his followers, that the mis- sionary finds them of no little value in discourse with Hindoos generally, as a powerful testimony against prevailing errors and a voice of the conscience for the living God. Still, while the Kabirs, when occasionally met are considerate and attentive listeners, it has not thus far appeared that they are more ready to receive the gospel than the Hindoos. Closely allied to these in faith, though at yet a further remove from ortho- dox Hindooism, are the Sadhs . The sect is not large, and within the limits of our mission is found chiefly in the city of Furrukhabad, where they num- ber about 2500 adherents. They reject idolatry, caste and pantheism ; though holding rather inconsistently to transmigration. They hold that the Deity under the name of the " Shabd " " or Word, Voice," has been manifested in the flesh ; though they deny that this was by a natural birth, and seem rather to hold to a Theophany than an Incarnation. Like the Kabiris they are ex- cessively careful of animal life, and rely greatly on works of merit, especially kindness and truth, with repentance, for salvation. They have one large building or enclosure in Furrukhabad called the Chauk, in which they assem- ble every full moon for worship of the Deity. This worship is much after the 16 Christian fashion, consisting in prayer, vocal or silent, singing of hymns, and re- ligious discourse. They have no priestly or clerical order, but as among the Quakers those speak who may be inclined. The Sadhs are many of them very wealthy ; no man is allowed by his breth- ren to suffer need. Within the last two or three years a few of the most prominent men among them have sought the missionary, and even repeatedly invited him to their place of worship for public religious discourse. In several instances their houses have been visited, both by the missionary and by his wife. As a class they are peculiarly accessible, though it is to be feared that there have been no conversions among them. From the above it will readily appear that our field is one of peculiar inter- est and peculiar difficulty. We are surrounded by bigoted, intolerant Moham- medans, apathetic Hindoos, and self righteous followers of various heathen re- formers. While the masses are utterly uneducated, they are by no means stupid and degraded, as many tribes of Africa; and the missionary is constantly n*eeiing men who have no little education, and who often with the English language, have learned the cavils of Western scepticism and infidelity. A deified priesthood dominates over the great part of the people ; while caste holds six-sevenths of the people bound in iron fetters. Unlike many other peoples, their minds are preoccupied by a false philoso- phy. They can vaunt systems of philosophy as profound as any that the human mind has ever elaborated ; a voluminous literature, hi which is not wanting poetry to be ranked with that of ancient Greece and Rome, treatises on Grammar, Prosody, Music, Mathematics and Astronomy. They have their newspapers published in both the vernacular dialects, in both the Moham- medan and Hindoo interest. And with all this the general feeling is one of self satisfaction, though there is a desire for acquaintance with English as opening the way to lucrative employment. There is no general awakening of the conscience, no quickened sense of sin, demanding for relief a divine Atonement and Redeemer. The absurdities of Hindooism, if abandoned by many edu- cated men, more commonly are only succeeded by a dreary deism or doubt of all religion. Stations. The work of our Mission is conducted at five or rather six central stations ; Futtehgurh and Eurrukhabad practically counting as two stations. The work was begun in Allahabad in 183G. This is a station of much im- portance. The native population is about 100,000. It is the seat of the ( > overnment of the North West Provinces, and hence the residence of the Lieu- tenant Governor of the provinces with a large number of officials. Here is an extensive military station with a large arsenal ; so that altogether the Eng- lish residents of Allahabad number not less than 4000. It is also a railway centre, lines diverging hence to Calcutta, Delhi and Lahore, Lucknow and Bombay. As the junction of- the two sacred rivers Ganges and Jumna is to the Hindoos one of the most sacred spots in the world, an immense 17 mela is held yearly where are sometimes gathered more than a million people from all parts of India. The section is at present held by four ordained Missionaries, and two missionary ladies ; who are aided by one ordained native minister, five teachers, two Scripture readers, and two Bible women. Here are two Christian churches of 70 communicants ; a Press kept abun- dantly busy in printing both for the Mission and for Government. It is managed entirely by native Christians, and does much credit to their busi- ness capacity. Next after Allahabad, our Missionaries occupied Futtehgurh, in 1838. The work was really begun by a godly Colonel Wheeler in the British army, who had himself established some Christian schools and in a season of famine had gathered many orphans together. Some of these he committed to the care of our missionaries, and so began the Rakda orphanage, out of which has grown a neat Christian village of some 300 souls, in which is a church numbering 80 communicants. Three miles from Futtehgurh is Furrukhabad city, of about 73,000 inhabi- tants, near which in 1844 was started a new station, from which has arisen a church at the present time of 28 communicants. These two stations are occupied regularly each by two missionaries. At least one missionary lady is an absolute necessity at each place. Seven cate- chists and Scripture readers aid the missionary, besides Christian teachers in the schools, and six Christian women, zenana visitor and teachers. Mynpurie (Minepoory) was occupied in 1843 ; the city numbers only 20,000, but lies in the midst of a fertile and populous district. It is at present held by one ordained missionary and two missionary ladies, aided by six native preachers, and a colporteur, and one zenana visitor. An out-station has recently been established at Shikohabad on the E. I. R. R., thirty-six miles west of Mynpurie. The church now numbers thirty-four communicants. Next after Mynpurie our Mission occupied Futtehpore, forty miles west of Allahabad. It is a small place, but as lying in a dense population, and look- ing out on the whole unoccupied territory of Bundelkhund, is a station of real interest, and should be vigorously worked. It is worked by three native brethren, with two colporteurs. A foreign missionary from Allahabad assists them at times. The church numbers fourteen commnicants. Last of all Etawah was entered by our Mission in 1863. Like Mynpurie, it is not a large city, but in the abundant population surrounding offers a fine field for evangelistic labor ; while it borders on the rich native state of Gwalior, a field winch some day God's providence may call us to enter. The work is in charge of one married missionary, one unmarried lady, who are aided by seven native preachers and one colporteur. The native church numbers twenty-nine; Educational Work. Our missionaries are engaged more or less in educational labors. In Allahabad, Futtehgurh and Furrukhabad and Mynpurie are Anglo- 2 18 D O H -- O o u < w o < < p* o 19 vernacular schools in which 938 boys last year were receiving instruc- tion both in the vernaculars and in the English language. In these schools, be- sides the ordinary common school branches in America, boys study the Indian classics, the English language and literature. Religious instruction is dairy given in the Scriptures, Catechisms, and the Evidences of Christianity. Besides these English schools, are others purely vernacular. Twelve of such village schools around Futtehgurh are supported entirely by the Christian bounty of the Sikh Prince, the Maharaja Dhulip Singh, at an expense of about $600 a year. Evangelistic Work. In former years the time and strength of our missionaries was given largely to educational work. But of late their hearts have been turned strongly from this toward a more vigorous prosecution of labor purely evangelistic ; the simple proclamation and teaching of the gospel to the masses. Our missionaries with the native Christian helpers all spend a large part, often the whole of the cool season, i. e., from November 15th to March 15th, among the villages of their districts, attending moreover both in the hot and cool season the large melas which may happen to be i their vicinity. By these itinerations the most remote corners of our field are reached with the gospel, while in these large concourses of people many are always found from regions far remote from any mission. When the weather becomes too hot to live in tents, the same work is still kept up by daily preach- ing in the cities and villages near our stations, and by visitation as opportuni- ty offers of " such as are of reputation " at their houses. As above remarked the missionary receives from the most of the people a civil reception ; occa- sionally the message is received with apparent interest, more commonly with practical indifference, more trying to the preacher than the violent hostility which he very rarely encounters. Theological Instruction. In this connection may be mentioned the instruction which is regularly imparted to our native helpers. This work is daily assuming more promi- nence and importance ; and is regarded by all the brethren as of the very highest consequence. It is not to the foreign missionary, but in great part to natives of the country called by God's Spirit and thoroughly taught in the gospel, that we look for the thorough evangelization of India. A Theologi- cal school at Allahabad, is already projected, where, during a part of the year, our helpers will be gathered from various stations for systematic study. Hitherto the work has been done at each station as the number of our work- ing force would permit. Here we feel is a work itself alone worthy of the entire time and strength of the best men the Church can furnish — a work, moreover, second to none in its claims upon the prayers and sympathies of the Church at home. 20 The Press. In these evangelistic labors the Press is a most valuable aid. Great numbers of tracts, many copies of the Scriptures, and thousands of gospels have issued from the Press atLodiana and AUahabacl, and have been scattered throughout Northern India among all classes able to read either of the vernacular dialects. Formerly these were distributed gratis, but the opin- ion prevails that it is wiser to ask a small price. This plan where it has been adopted has temporarily checked circulation, but judging from experience elsewhere, where once it is well understood many will be found ready to give the merely nominal sum asked, while waste of books will be avoided. The literature available to the native church is as yet very limited. The Pilgrim's Progress, Holy War, Flavel's Fountain of Life, a Scripture Hand- Book and a few other works have been translated or composed. Commenta- ries on Genesis, the Psalms, Isaiah, the Gospel of Matthew and Epistle to the Colossians have been published in Hindustani. But a great work is before us here. A monthly magazine in Urdu, the Makhzan i Masihi, is edited by Rev. Mr. Walsh, of our Mission in Allahabad, and sustained mainly by the brethren in our Mission. Christian gentlemen connected with the Indian Civil Service have occasionally contributed valuable articles. Besides original articles, secular and religious, in this magazine, are issued serially various Christian books, thus giving them to the native Christians on terms adapted to their often straitened means. The periodical has a circulation of a few hundred, and is steadily rising in public favor. Work among Women. In consequence of the peculiar social condition of India, work among the women claims a separate mention. While in our village audiences a few women of the poor agricultural classes occasionally hear the gospel, still the missionary cannot usually converse with them; while those of the higher classes are very rarely even in hearing of our preaching. Thus the means by which we have reached the men have almost universally failed to reach the women of India ; till within the last seven or eight years respectable women might be said in our Mission to be inaccessible to the gospel. Men were almost universally adverse even to the education of a woman : " Why should she learn to read 1 What good would it do her f But four or five years have seen a great change, till now in all our stations where we have a missionary lady there is systematic labor among the women of all classes. After encounter- ing the greatest opposition, zenana schools have almost become popular. Especially in Mynpurie and Furrukhabad the missionary ladies have not time and strength to visit the houses which are freely opened to them. Our last report shows almost four hundred Hindoo girls and women under in- struction in three stations. Intercourse with the missionary ladies has awak- ened confidence. Their visits have in Furrukhabad, at least, been several times returned, and a few have even ventured to the Christian service, where, con- 21 eealed by a curtain in an adjacent room they have listened to the gospel at the Sabbath service. With regard to this portion especially of our work is it true that "the har- vest is plenteous but the laborers are few." Will the church at home give her daughters for this blessed and hopeful work ? In the bounds of this mission are two Presbyteries — Allahabad and Furrukhabad — connected with the Synod of India. Such in brief is the field and the work in the Furrukhabad Mission. Six small churches may seem a small result to the eyes of the world or the worldly-wise Christian ; but it is our comfort that ll the Lord seeth not as man seeth." What we long and pray for is such a working of God's Spirit among the people as that Northern India shall be shaken. Any such powerful visitation has never yet been witnessed by any Mission in North India. The seed has been sown bountifully ; now we need the rain. The church of God in our Mission is but young and feeble, but it has had its martyrs ; fair households have sealed their testimony with their blood from the church in Futtehgurh. Dwelling where emphatically Satan's seat is, these churches and these na- tive evangelists have a most urgent claim upon the prayers and affectionate sympathy of their brethren in America. KALAPOOR MISSION— W. INDIA. This mission, with its missionaries, Rev. R. G. Wilder and his wife, were taken under the care of the Board in the early part of 1870. It was com- menced in 1852 by these laborers, and continued for some time in connec- tion with the American Board. It was discontinued during Mr. Wilder's visit to the United States on account of health. It was re-established by him on his return, and continued as an independent mission until its trans- fer to our Board. Kolapoor lies S.E. of Bombay, about 60 miles south of Satara, and 120 miles S.E. of Poonah. It is the capital of a province of the same name, and contains a population of 50,000. " As seen from a distance, the city is beau- tiful for situation. The most commanding object, next to the King's palace, is the towering white dome of a very large temple. Few cities or places in India have so high a reputation for sanctity. The favorite legend among the people is, that the gods in council once pronounced it the most sacred spot of all the earth. More sacred than Benares." Location of the Mission. The bungalow is situated on a rise of ground, from which the city, about a mile distant, presents a fine appearance. On the west are the Ghauts mountains stretching north and south, with here and there a fort or temple, or town on the summit. The intervening tract of country is, for the most 22 part, a fertile plain, dotted with many trees that retain their verdure all the year round ; whilst eastward the scenery is diversified by rolling land. From all accounts, this climate must be one of the healthiest in Hindustan. Army officers are generally reluctant to leave when they are appointed by government to another station, as the climate is so agreeable to them. The average temperature for the year is about 75 c — mercury ranging between 55° and 95° — though the latter figure is not very often reached. A daily sea-breeze is enjoyed all through the hot season. Mr. Wilder ^encountered at the outset the most embittered opposition, the inhabitants made a petition to government to have him removed or forbid his preaching, and failing in that, they stubbornly refused to have any inter- course with him for a long time, but since then, thirty or more have been gathered into the church, and the people have long since learned to respect and repose confidence in him, and to value his influence in the cause of edu- cation. As the spiritual foundation of this church was laid in the face of steady op- position, so the erection of a substantial church edifice, in an eligible part of the city, was accomplished amidst drawbacks and threatenings. The Mis- sion residence is very well constructed, and near it are a " home chapel,1' and some substantial buildings for Christian families. Only those who know the difficulties of procuring choice locations, suitable materials and commendable workmen to erect a Christian church and comfortable dwelling among a heathen population, can adequately appreciate the blessing of such a solid temporal foundation as this mission rests upon. Schools were established early in the history of the mission, the issues of the press were sold or given away and other means suited to the condition of things in such an idolatrous city were employed to reach the minds and hearts of the people with the truth. One and another professed their faith in Christ and were baptized. Interesting schools were established. Much seed was scattered through various towns and villages which were visited by the missionary. A neat church building has been reared in the city, in which religious worship is regularly observed. Rev. G. W. Seiler reinforced this mission in 1870. Two ministers are under appointment who will sail for that station in a few months. Mrs. Wilder has, by her school and her visits among certain families in the city, reached a number of the females with the truth. There is a great work in this direction to be accomplished all through this province. A church of about twenty members is found at Kolapoor. A High School was started in January, 1871, and is attended mostly by Brahmin youth. 23 in 5 o c o c c c n MISSIONS IN INDIA. The country which has drawn to itself in various ways the greatest interest of other nations has been India. It is a remarkable land. It has a wonder- ful history. It is inhabited by a peculiar people. In these respects it stands alone and unrivalled. Its physical features are marked as a country ; the social qualities of the people are singular, and their religious systems are notable and characteristic. In all that invests a land with romance ; in all that seizes and dazzles the imagination and rivets the attention of outlying regions and peoples, India and the Hindoos possess in a wonderful manner. Every traveler through the East and every student of their history sees and feels this. Though unity is implied in the name of India, in no country is there so much diversity in climate, language, race, religion, etc. The term India is of foreign and not»of native origin. At first it was used for the country around or contiguous to the Indus, but it is now applied to the region extending from the Punjab to Cape Comorin, and from Kurrachee in the west to Assam in the east. The extreme length is about 1,830 miles, and its greatest breadth in the points mentioned is nearly the same. Its area is 1,558,254 square miles. According to the census of 1872 the population of British India num- bered 190,563,048, living on an area of 904,049 square miles. There are several native States with about 50,000,000 of inhabitants not belonging to, and yet in some way under the control of, the Indian Government. RELIGIONS. The following is an estimate of the number adhering to the leading religions in British India: Hindoos 140,000,000 Mohammedans 40,000,000 Buddhists . . 3,000,000 Sikhs ........ 1,000,000 Christians 896,000 Other religions among Aborigines, the Parsees, etc 5,500,000 LANGUAGES. Most of the languages of the country are classed under two great divisions. Those called Dravidian, comprising the tongues spoken before the Brahmini- cal and Sanscrit-speaking races entered the country — as the Tamil, Malaya- lam, Canarese, Talu, Telugu, Gondi. The Sanscritic languages embrace Hindi, 2 Missions in India. • Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Panjabi, Cashmiri, Nepali. The Hindustani, or Urdu (Camp language), which is spoken so much in Northern and Western India, is of modern, origin, having been introduced by the Mohammedan conquerors, and is of a mixed character. CONQUERORS OF INDIA. The wild tribes, as they are called, are said to number about 200. They are the aborigines of the country, who fled to the jungles and mountains, and would not- submit to the invaders. Those best known are the Gonds, San- thals, Khoonds, Koles, etc. Those who entered from the North, and who dis- possessed many of these tribes of their heritage, were of Scythian origin. Following these, came the Arayans, a more civilized race, from Central Asia, about 2,000 B.C. The Mohammedans appeared in force about a.d. 1,000, and for many weary years they plundered, massacred, and enslaved the people, and until overthrown by the British they held sway over a large portion of the country. The Portuguese next appeared with their claims, and appointed a Viceroy of India. Then the English came in an humble manner, and principally as merchants. The first territory acquired was at Madras, in 1640. They were satisfied with a foothold here and there, principally on the coasts; but for more than one hundred years they have been* annexing prov- ince after province, until now the whole country, in one form or another, is tributary to them. The first conquerors were heathen ; then came the Mohammedans, next Romish Powers, and last a Protestant nation, under whose sway wonderful changes have been made, great progress has taken place in the material pros- perity of the country, and in the social, intellectual;, and moral condition of the people. " India is the noblest trust ever committed to a Christian nation." HINDOOS. These comprise about three-fourths of the population of British India. The system called Hindooism, or Brahminism, is "the masterpiece of Satan;" "the most gigantic system of error ever devised;" "the grandest embodiment of Gentile error." It puts on so many forms ; it suits so many tastes ; it pos- sesses so many varied characteristics, that no one term can describe it. It is pantheistic or polytheistic, as the worshiper wishes; it is spiritual or material, as the believer in it desires. It is pure theism or the grossest idolatry, as the votary chooses. It has a wonderful philosophy or the most degraded fetishism. It has lofty ideas of right and truth, and the most absurd conceptions of what is pure and good. Some of its teachings seem a revelation from Heaven ; while others are foolish, absurd, and debasing. In one view its philosophy is transcendental ; in another, it abounds in myths, fables, and frivolous cere- monies. At one time everything is real and material; at another, all is illu- sory and deception, and nothing exists but the Supreme. It is sensual or ascetic, good or evil, allied to the Divine or devilish, according to the posi- Missions in India. 3 tion taken. Whatever may be said of the system and of some few who rise above its grosser forms of superstition, it holds true of the mass, that they are wholly given to idolatry. Nothing is too low, absurd, or vile that has not a worshiper. Idols everywhere abound, rites are numerous, merit is sought after, sin is removed by penances and sacrifices ; and in this belief and with these practices, men and women are in earnest, and in love with what is taught by an ignorant priesthood and what law and tradition impose on them. Sad is the moral state, dark are the spiritual hopes and prospects of every Hindoo. There is nothing elevating, joy-giving, or transforming in his endless round of observances. MOHAMMEDANS. More are found in India than exist under any one government in the East. Whilst Mohammedanism has affected Hindooism in many of its rites Hin- dooism has exerted a deteriorating influence on Islam, and in some places it is little more than a form of Hindooism. Many Mohammedans not only hold to caste, but are guilty of idol-worship. The lower classes are morally worse than the Hindoos. They are more quarrelsome, more violent, and more licen- tious. The spiritual element in Mohammedanism is very scant. It is largely a religion of forms, and arrays itself specially in hostility to Christianity. The hatred which it cherishes, the crimes which it nourishes, the fanaticism which it creates, are all antagonistic to truth and righteousness. Like Hindooism it is a tremendous enginery of evil. These are the two prevailing religious systems in India, and they hold the people in the direst servitude, and under the power of custom that is irrevo- cable and unyielding. Hindooism, especially, is as potent in social life as in moral questions. It legislates for the man in all his relations as a simple being, and it adapts itself to him in all his wants, desires, and aims. His thoughts, his feelings, his movements, are all affected and controlled by his religious belief. SIKHS. There is another religious sect called Sikhs, found chiefly in the Punjab, but •they are only a sect of Reformed Hindoos, though in belief and morals they are no better than those from whom they separated. Whilst they have their own sacred books, they are believers in the Veds and Shastres, and they gen- erally regard themselves as Hindoos. There is a legend which attributes to the Apostle Thomas the establishment of the Church in India. This rests upon a slender foundation. Report again asserts that from Alexandria a teacher went forth toward the close of the sec- ond century who proclaimed the Gospel in Southern India. If he did, there is no record of his labors. There is no authentic account of much having been done until the Nestorian movement in the sixth century, and this was confined to a small section in the South. Here this sect lived ; and to this 4 Missions in India. day they have maintained their existence, though accomplishing but little for the evangelization of others. The first great movement for making the people of India acquainted with Christianity was that of Xavier and his followers. Full of zeal, enthusiasm, and the spirit of self sacrifice, this chief of the Jesuits, desirous of gaining countless thousands to his faith, stopped at nothing that would interfere with his purpose, and with a heroism worthy of a purer cause, and a self-devotion worthy of all praise, he consecrated all his time and energies for making proselytes to Rome. He rose above difficulties that would have awed weaker natures, and gave himself wholly to his work. Others followed him who had a desire to add converts to Rome, but they lacked his self-denying spirit. These baptized proselytes, numbered by hundreds of thousands, knew little or nothing of the purity and the power of the religion of Jesus, and most of them were but bap- tized heathen. The first Protestant effort to acquaint the people with the great doctrines of the Bible took place in 1705, when two missionaries were sent to Southern India by the King of Denmark. These labored with fair success. Some others followed them into the same region, and did a good preparatory work. The first important English movement began with Carey. This was the begin- ning of the great Evangelistic effort of the age. The Church was moved by it, and its influence was felt in England, and in our own and other countries, until now almost every Protestant denomination is laboring for the evangeliza- tion of India. At first the East India Company, all-powerful within its own domain, pro- hibited missionaries from living and preaching to the natives in its territory. Various reasons were assigned for this, but selfishness was the all-controlling one. As the missionary sentiment grew in England, opposition to this exclu- sive spirit increased, and in spite of worldly policy and expediency, it triumphed when the revision of the Company's charter took place in 1813. Then India was thrown open to the Gospel, and from that time to this the number of laborers, foreign and native, has gradually increased, until it is becoming a mighty host. One of the first missions outside of our own country undertaken by the" Presbyterian Church as such, was that to India. The Rev. Messrs. John C. Lowrie and William Reed, and their wives, sailed in May, 1833, and reached Calcutta in October. It was the wish of the Society that sent them out that they should choose as high a latitude as the interests of the cause would allow. In virtue of their instructions the upper provinces of India were select -A as the mission-field of our Church. Of this first company only one was privi- leged to enter upon the work, and only to enter — for after a two years* trial with the climate and with sickness, Mr. Lowrie, after laying the foundations of the Mission at Lodiana, was obliged to return home ; Mrs. Lowrie died soon after landing at Calcutta, and Mr. Reed on his passage home, August 12, 1834. During Mr. Lowrie' s stay in India he visited the Punjab, but this Missions in India. 5 country, then ruled over by Ranjeet Singh, was not occupied by the Mission until after its annexation to the British Power. This was owing to the unwil- mgness of the sovereign to have any missionary in his country, and to keep his people free, as far as possible, from all foreign influence. Lodiana, on the borders of the Punjab, was a place of some 25,000 inhabitants, and of rising importance ; it was, therefore, selected as the «nost fitting place, in view of the present and prospective advantages of the work, and has been occupied ever since. When it ceased to be a frontier town, by the annexation of the Punjab, it lost something of its population and much of its importance. In November, 1834, the Rev. Messrs. James Wilson and John Newton sailed for India, and arrived in November, 1835, at Lodiana. They were followed by Rev. James R. Campbell and James McEwen, and Messrs. Jesse M. Jamieson, William S. Rogers, and Joseph Porter, who were afterwards ordained to the Gospel min- istry ; Mr. McEwen remained at Allahabad, and the others pushed on to Upper India. These missionaries were all in connection with the Western Foreign Mis- sionary Society, whose headquarters were at Pittsburgh, but after the Board of Foreign Missions was established in 1837, all its missions were transferred to the Board. In the year of the organization of the Board, Rev. Messrs. Henry R. Wilson, John H. Morrison, Joseph Caldwell, and their wives ; also, Mr. James Craig, teacher ; and Mr. R. Morris, printer, with their wives, sailed for this field. At this time four stations were planted, and a wide door was open for all that the Church could send. When this territory was occupied by us there was scarcely a missionary of any name in it. Our own stations now extend from Allahabad to Rawal Pindi, a distance of 900 miles ; while the country to the east has been occu- pied by the Methodists from the United States, and that to the west by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and other portions of it by English or American Societies. The population of the North-west Provinces, accord- ing to the census of 1872, is 31,500,000, and of the Punjab, 19,000,000. A portion of this territory is densely populated. Thus, the district of Allahabad has a population of 501 to the square mile, while that of Furrukhabad has 527 for the same area. Belgium, the most densely populated country in Europe, has 447 to the square mile. This territory formerly embraced three missions, but these have been re- duced to two, called Furrukhabad and Lodiana. FURRUKHABAD MISSION. In this Mission are six stations and several sub-stations — the latter have native laborers. The distance from Allahabad to Mynpurie is about 220 miles, and within these limits the entire ground is occupied by our Church, with the exception of Cawnpore, where. are stationed laborers of the Propaga- tion Society. This region is triangular in shape, and lies between the two great rivers, Ganges and Jumna. It is almost one unbroken plain. The Ian- 6 Missions in India. guages spoken are Hindustani or Urdu, and Hindi. The former is spoken by the Mohammedans ; the latter by the Hindoos ; whilst the Mohammedans disdain the Hindi, the Hindoos constituting by far the largest part of the population, are acquainted with the Urdu, and this is generally the first lan- guage studied by the missionary. Each of these languages may be considered as easy of acquisition. • Besides the two great leading religious divisions — the Hindoos and Mo- hammedans— there are some minor sects who have separated from the Hin- doos. They are, however, small in the number of adherents. STATIONS. Allahabad. — This important and rapidly increasing city, with a population of 144,000, lies at the junction of the Jumna and Ganges rivers, and is now the seat of government for the north-western provinces. Its political impor- tance is great, while in its religious bearings it is to the Hindoo, sacred indeed. Two rivers only are seen, but to the credulous Hindoo three exist, the invisible one being underground ; hence the name by which this city is called by the natives, Tribeni — conflux of three rivers. " When a pilgrim arrives, he sits on the brink of the river and has his head and body shaved, so that each hair may fall into the water ; the sacred writings promising him one million of years residence in Heaven for every hair there deposited." At the annual mela many thousands gather from all parts of the land for trade, merit, and gain. When the pilgrim bathes, it must be where the two rivers meet. Near to this spot are square platforms on which the religious teachers sit to read from their sacred books to the audience assembled. The opportunity of proclaiming the way of salvation is seized by the missionary, and thus many hear of Jesus and the resurrection for the first time at this mela. This station, though the most southern, was the second one occupied by the Board in 1836, and from that time to the present it has been constantly manned by foreign missionaries. Three are at present in connection with it, who reside at two different points of the city, and two are at home. A church was soon organized, schools established, an orphanage begun, and a printing press put in operation, which continued many years under missionary supervis- ion, and belonged to the Mission. It was afterwards transferred to the natives, who have managed it ever since. In the Orphanage have been trained some of the best helpers and the most consistent Christians, several of whom have been employed by other missionary societies. In the high school many have been made acquainted with the principles of Christianity, though few have, as yet, openly embraced it. There are two churches at this station ; one of them is ministered to by the Rev. J. J. Caleb, who owns and has charge of the press. Miss Seward, M.D., and Miss Wilson are actively engaged among the women. The former seeking by her medical skill to alleviate suffering and lead the thoughts of the afflicted to the Great Physician. The latter, in com- Missions in India. j mon with the other ladies of the Mission, visiting zenanas and teaching those whom they can reach of the great salvation. The following missionaries have labored at this station, some for a short time and others for a longer period ; some have died ; some are at work at other stations ; and some on account of failure of health have been obliged to return home. The first laborer, Mr. McEwen, remained only two years ; he was succeeded by Rev. John H. Morrison in 1838, now Dr. Morrison, of Sabathu ; Rev. James Wilson came down to this station from the upper Mis- sion in the same year ; Rev. Messrs. Warren and Freeman arrived here in 1839 > Rev. Joseph Owen in 1840 ; Rev. John Wray 1842 ; Rev. A. A. Hodge 1848; Rev. Robert Munnis was transferred to it in 1848; Rev. L. G. Hay and H. W. Shaw arrived 1850 ; Rev. Robert E. Williams transferred 1858, and Rev. J. J. Walsh 1859 ; Rev. Messrs. W. F. Johnson and B. D. Wikoff arrived i860. These two were stationed here for a short time, also the Rev. James M. Alexander, who arrived 1866. Rev. A. Brodhead was transferred 1869 ; Rev. T. S. Wynkoop arrived early the same year; Rev. F. Heyl 1870; Rev. James Holcomb transferred 1872. The present laborers are Rev. Messrs. Johnson, Heyl, and Holcomb, with their wives, Miss Sarah C. Seward, M.D., and Miss Mary N. Wilson. Absent in the United States, Rev. Dr. Brodhead and Rev. Mr. Wynkoop. Fattehgiirh. — This place, extending on the west bank of the Ganges for about two miles, was at one time a military station of some note, but it has largely lost this since the extension of the British frontier. It was occupied as a station by Rev. Henry R. Wilson in 1838. A portion of the orphan children who had been gathered by Dr. Madden at Futtehpore, were made over to Mr. Wilson, and these were increased after his settlement at Futteh- gurh by orphans that had been collected by Captain Wheeler. The Orphan- age was at first largely sustained by the foreign residents. Carpet-weaving was undertaken, and also making of tents, so as to reduce the heavy expense and train the older boys to habits of usefulness. In time, as the orphans married, they were located on ground given at a nominal rent by the Govern- ment, and on a portion of it a large Christian village has. sprung up. A num- ber of good and earnest laborers have been sent out from this Orphanage, and some of them have done well in business pursuits, and especially in the man- agement of the tent factory, which is now under their control. This church, consisting of 100 members, has had its own native pastor, who has been liberally supported by them. There are still some orphans (girls) maintained in the institution, which has been under the supervision of unmarried ladies. The orphan boys live in native Christian families. Gopinath Nundi, educated in Dr. Duff's school at Calcutta, where he renounced Hindooism and publicly made a profession of faith in Christ, was connected with the station from the beginning — first as a teacher and then as an ordained minister. He was the first elder in the native church. His influence was good in the community in behalf of Christianity, and his noble testimony in the mutiny showed how he was upheld by principle. 8 Missions in India. Rev. J. L. Scott and wife reached this station early in 1839, an^ on return of Mr. Wilson to the United States, they took charge of the Orphanage. In the following year Rev. J. C. Rankin and William H. McAuley, and their wives, and Miss J. Vanderveer arrived. Besides the work to be done at the station and in the surrounding villages, a high school in Furrukhabad was commenced, and buildings erected for missionary residences near to this city. Rev. J. J. Walsh and wife joined this station in 1843 > Rev. D. Irving and wife early in 1847 ; Rev. D. E. 'Campbell and wife in 1850. After the mutiny Rev. R. S. Fullerton and wife were transferred to this station; also in 1864 Rev. W. F. Johnson and his wife. After them came Rev. Thomas Tracy in 1871. Rev. Dr. Warren was here for a short time. This station has at the present time no missionary, except the young ladies — Miss Scott and Miss Woodside. The work has been and is carried on chiefly by native laborers. Furrukhabad. — This city lies near the Ganges, and about three miles from Futtehgurh. It is surrounded by a wall, which is gradually disappearing under a sense of security in the Government. It is a place of commercial importance and of considerable wealth ; but it is losing some of this, owing to its distance from the railroad. Its population is about 80,000. There is a dense population in the District. For many years this station was con- nected with Futtehgurh, though occupied in 1844 Dv Messrs. Rankin and McAuley. A high school in the city was established, preaching commenced, and efforts made to acquaint the people with Christ and His salvation. From one of the classes in the high school came three converts ; the first one bap- tized was Dhokul Pershad, who perished in the mutiny after a noble confession ; others who came out of the Institution as Christians have been firm in the faith. A church under the care of a native pastor has been organized. Twelve bazar schools are in active operation, supported by the Maharajah Dhulip Singh. A number of zenanas are open, and are visited by the ladies at the station. Girls' schools and zenana schools are also under their care, and a good work is going on in the city and the neighboring villages. Two incidents have taken place in connection with Futtehgurh that have given it some note. One is the baptism of the Maharajah Dhulip Singh, son of Ranjeet Singh, who was ruler of the Punjab when our Mission began on the borders of his kingdom. When the country was annexed to the British Power the young ruler was brought to F , and a Brahmin, who had been a pupil in the high school, was selected as his companion. Under his influence the Prince became acquainted with the Bible; gave up his own religion; was pub- licly baptized in 1853, and from that day to this has been a warm friend and a liberal supporter of missions, giving thousands annually to the cause. The other event was the massacre of the Futtehgurh missionaries on their way to Cawnpore during the mutiny in 1857. Messrs. Freeman, Campbell, Johnson, and McMullin, and their wives, with two children of the Campbells, perished in their effort to reach a place of safety. The Johnsons arrived at Furrukhabad in 1855, and the McMullins in January, 1857, but a short time before they were called to their Father's home. Missions in India. 9 Besides the names mentioned, Rev. A. H. Seeley and wife joined the Fur- rukhabad station in 1847 ; Rev. J. F. Ullmann in 1848 ; Rev. A. Brodhead and wife 1863 ; Rev. E. H. Sayre and his wife 1863 ; Rev. S. H. Kellogg 1865 ; Rev. Messrs. Lucas and Seeley 187 1. Miss E. A. Blunt and Mrs. E. L. Brown are engaged in zenana work and in visiting, the girls' schools. Mynpoorie {Minepoory). — This town is forty miles west of Fnrrukhabad, and was occupied by Rev. J. L. Scott and his wife in 1843. Here, as elsewhere, besides preaching the Gospel in chapel and bazar, the education of the youth was commenced, as in schools the children can be reached with the Word of God. Mr. Scott was succeeded by Rev. J. J. Walsh and his wife, and they by Rev. J. E. Freeman and wife, who were afterwards murdered. After the mutiny Mr. Brodhead was stationed here until the arrival of Rev. B. D. Wyckoff and wife. A church was organized by him which soon numbered fourteen members. He was succeeded by Rev. James M. Alexander and his wife, who are still on the ground. Several young ladies as Miss Dickey, Miss Hardie, and Mrs. Miller have been stationed here. Mynpoorie is the center of strong Brahminic influences, and the missionaries at first encountered much opposition. This has been steadily waning. There are besides the high school for boys, a Christian girls' school of 15 scholars, nine Hindoo and two Mohammedan schools for girls, in which are enrolled nearly 200 pupils. The number of communicants in the church is 42. There are some outstations where native laborers are employed. Etawah, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, lies fifty miles to the south-west of Mynpurie, and is a place of growing importance. Work was commenced here in 1863 by Rev. J. F. Ullmann and his wife, and soon marks of God's favor were granted. A church was organized with 13 members. Soon seven others were added. It now numbers 31. There are several outstations in connec- tion with Etawah visited by native agents, where the truth is proclaimed. Miss Belz, a zenana missionary, is by her abundant labors accomplishing much good. Gzvalior, the capitol of a territory of the same name, is in the Sindhiya's possessions, which are tributary to the British Power in India, though nominally independent. The missionaries have for a long time been anxious to gain a foothold in this territory, but were unable till 1873, when Dr. Warren moved over and commenced work. He finds the field a hard one. The people are more illiterate than those in British India ; the great mass can not read. A foundation is being laid, and to many already has the truth been proclaimed ; a church of n members has been organized. Mrs. Warren is seeking to teach the girls, but as yet few appreciate her labors. There were other stations occupied by the Board in this Mission, such as Futtehpore and Agra. The former was only a short time under the care of a foreign missionary, and is now regarded as an outstation of Allahabad ; the lat- ter was occupied for several years by missionaries. As two other Societies were on the ground it was given up to them, when a number of Presbyterian families connected with the Government offices were removed to Allahabad. io Missions in India. A great preliminary work has been done in the provinces covered by this Mission. Thousands of youth have been trained in the schools ; a large amount of religious literature has been circulated ; much preaching of the Word in the leading centei-s of population and in many of the villages ; hundreds of zenanas have been opened, and many of their inmates made acquainted with the Gos- pel of Christ ; churches have been established at different points, and Moham- medan and Hindoo brought into them ; the kind ministries of the physician have touched many hearts and homes — these and kindred blessings have been vouchsafed to the people, and though the number is yet small who have come out openly on the side of Christ, the work done has been great, which will one day appear when the Spirit shall be poured out from on high, and the seed sown shall spring up and wave everywhere for the reapers. LODIANA MISSION. We have already referred to the origin of this Mission and to the first station that was established. Advancing north from the Furrukhabad Mission, we come first to Roorki. — This town lies about one hundred and fifty miles south-east of Lodi- ana, and is situated near the head of the great canal,which was built by the Gov- ernment for purposes of irrigation as well as of commerce. Pilgrims coming from the south, pass through this place on their way to Hardwar. Rev. Joseph Caldwell and his wife moved to Roorki from Saharunpur in 1856, and he has been the only missionary till the present year, when Rev. J. S. Woodside has relieved him. A small church was organized in 1858; a school was also estab- lished. From some cause there have been no large accessions to the body of believers from among the heathen. Saharunpur is twenty miles north-west of Roorki, and one hundred and thirty miles south-east of Lodiana. It contains a population of about 44,000. This station was occupied in 1836 by Rev. Messrs. Campbell and Caldwell. An Orphanage was established, and has been maintained from that day to this. The children taught in it were from the first brought under relig- ious influences, and not a few have professed their faith in Christ. Several have been ordained as evangelists or pastors, and others have been employed in mission-work, or in other ways have earned a livelihood. A church was organized in 1845, an^ to it have been added a number who are living and working at some other point, or who have been called to another world ; pres- ent membership is 63. Rev. J. S. Woodside joined this station with his wife in 1848, and Rev. W. Calderwood and his wife in 1855. In 1862 Rev. Dr. Campbell was called to his nest, after more than twenty-six years' service as a foreign laborer. Owing to their nearness to Hardwar the missionaries at this station have spent almost annually a portion of their time at the famous mela preaching to the pilgrims, who are drawn from all parts of India. Mrs. Calderwood has been able to establish a large number of girls' schools, and Missions in India. n zenana work is carried on in connection with them. Their influence is great upon many homes. Dehra was occupied in 1853 by Rev. J. S. Woodside. It is situated in one of the most beautiful valleys in the world, lying within the lower range of the Himalayas, and separated from the plains by the Sewalik hills. Mission premises were secured, and purchased by funds contributed by friends of the Mission in India. A high school was established, and in 1859 tne Christian Girls' Boarding-school was commenced on the plan of the Mount Holyoke school, and is intended to give a good, thorough education to native Christian girls. It already has taken the foremost position as a school, and the late Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, said that "it was a model mission boarding-school, both in its methods and objects." Much of the success. of the school in its begin- ning was due to Mrs. Herron and Miss Beatty. There are in the Institution 114 pupils. One of the girls of this school succeeded last year in passing the University examination, the first instance of the kind in India. Eleven of the girls have united with the church within a few months. Nine others were also received into its communion. Messrs. Woodside and Herron have had the principal care of the station. Several unmarried ladies have been engaged in the boarding-school. Miss Pratt and Miss Craig have been with it for some years. Ambala (Umbala). — This town is seventy -five miles north-west of Saharun- poor and fifty-five miles south-east of Lodiana. Work was begun at this place in 1848 by Rev. J. M. Jamieson, who was joined the following year by Rev. J. H. Morrison. An English and Persian school was started ; preaching in the bazars, in chapel, poor-house, and in other places was sustained ; a church was organized, which numbered thirteen in 185 1. On the transfer of Mr. Morrison to Lahore, Mr. Orbison, who had arrived in the country in 1850, came at the close of 1852 to take his place. These laborers were succeeded by Messrs. Munnis and Carleton. The latter has spent much of his time in itinerant work, and for the last few years he has gathered on lands given by the Govern- ment in the district of Kurnal a Christian village. A number of lepers have been received into the church from the poor-house. This sad disease is by no means uncommon in portions of India. Rev. R. Thackwell, who first joined the mission as a teacher, labored at this station for a time. It has for years past been under the care of Rev. Dr. Morrison, Rev. G. S. Bergen, and Rev.W. J. P. Morrison. Miss Julia M. Bacon has charge of a girls' school. The Misses Campbell, daughters of Rev. Dr. Campbell, who labored so long at Saharunpur, joined this station in 1875. At the Ambala cantonment there is a second station where a native minister is at work. Lodiana. — This city is five miles east of the river Sutlej, about 1,100 miles north-west of Calcutta, and some 600 miles from Allahabad. The reasons for its selection as the first station of the Board have been already mentioned. The population at this time was very heterogeneous — made up of people not only from various parts of India, but large numbers of Affghans and Cash- 12 Missions in India. meris ; and the presence of these so impressed the Board at home that they resolved to send out one missionary to Affghanistan and one to Cashmere. These missions have never been established. With the acquisition of the lan- guage, the first laborers turned their attention to the education of youth. Soon a printing-press was in operation, and, as the missionaries were able, the Gos- pel was preached to all that were accessible. On April 29, 1837, a church was organized and three young men were admitted to the communion — one, a Brahmin, has been in connection with the mission from that day to the present as a catechist, and a minister of the Gospel — Rev. Goloknath, of Jullundher. A girls' boarding-school was in time established, and was kept up many years, but the children were transferred some time ago to Dehra. The press has been a great power for Upper India. Religious works in various languages, espe- cially Hindi, Hindustani, Punjabi, and Persian, have been constantly issued, as also the sacred Scriptures in these tongues. Lodiana is identified with the week of prayer, as there it was resolved to issue an address to the Church in Christendom to observe such a period of time especially for the heathen world. The following missionaries besides those mentioned have been sent to this station, some of whom were transferred to other points to take charge of the same : Rev. Levi Janvier and wife, 1842 ; Rev. A. Rudolph and wife, 1846 ; Rev. James H. Orbison, 1850 ; Rev. Alexander Henry and wife, 1864 ; Rev. Joseph H. Myers and wife, 1865 ; Rev. George S. Bergen, 1865 ; Rev. C. M. Wherry and wife, 1867 ; Rev. E. P. Newton, 1873. Sabathu (Sabatt'hoo). — This station, no miles east of Lodiana, is situated on the lower elevation of the Himalayas, 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, and was commenced in 1836 by Rev. James Wilson. It was selected in part as a sanitarium, and in the hope of reaching the hill people. It has, at times, been without a missionary ; sometimes it has been the home of the in- valid, and at other times it has had an active laborer. Not much, in the way of actual results, has been accomplished among the people. The church has continued small. Latterly the station has been under the care of Rev. John Newton, M.D., and Mrs. Janvier. Dr. Morrison bad charge of it during Dr. Newton's absence. The latter has done a good work in the Dispensary. Mrs. Janvier, after the death of her husband by violence, March 24, 1S64, at the hands of a fanatic, remained for some time alone at Sabathu carrying on the school and attending to other duties. Crossing the Sutlej we enter the Punjab, with its 19,000,000 of people, and find four stations planted in it. Our mission work began in the north-west provinces with reference to this field ; but it was not till after its annexation in 1849 that the way was open. The ruler who would have no herald of salva- tion had passed away. The country was in a distracted state ; a portion, previous to the utter prostration of Sikh power, was annexed to British terri- tory, but when the army was conquered, and the whole province incorporated into the possession of the conqueror, then the mission was prepared to com- Missions in India. 13 mence operations. Some of the laborers had been studying the Gurmukhi language, which is spoken by the Sikhs. Mr. Newton had prepared a diction- ary ; besides this, a grammar, numbers of tracts, and, to some extent, a trans- lation of the Scriptures were ready, and were at once brought into use. jalandhdr (Jullundhur) was the first station established in the Punjab in 1852 after it fell into the hands of the British. It is thirty miles north-west of Lodi- ana. Rev. Golok Nath, already referred to as received into the church at Lodiana, was stationed here, and has continued to labor from that time to this. He has been enabled to scatter much seed, and to do an important work in the section traversed by him. Some interesting converts have been brought into the church, and in the school many young men have been taught the doctrines of Christianity. Laliore. — This political capital of the Punjab was visited in 1849 by Rev. Messrs. Newton and Forman. The latter had arrived in the country the previous year. The city and surrounding region was in an unsettled condition, so that missionaries were requested by the authorities to abstain for a time from publicly preaching the Gospel. A school was begun in the missionary's house with three pupils ; others were soon added, until at one time the main school, with its branches, contained 1,600 children. Twice the school has nearly been broken up ; once by admitting boys of low caste, and next by the baptism of three of the pupils. This institution has been a power for the overthrow of error and for acquainting all connected with it with Christianity. Girls' schools have also been carried on for years, and many zenanas are open to the visitor. To the church six were added the past year. The number of boys enrolled in the schools is 1,492. A beginning has been made in a boarding-school for Christian boys, with the same object in view as the girls' school at Dehra. Rev. Charles B. .Newton joined this station in 1867, and Rev. Francis J. Newton in 187 1. Other laborers are" Miss J. A. Nelson and Miss C. Thiede. Hoshyai'pore lies north of Lodiana some forty miles, and has been occupied, since its selection as a station in 1869, by Rev. K. C. Chatterjee. Here he has been enabled not only to organize a church and schools, but has been in- strumental in beginning an encouraging work at Ghorawaha, and preaching at different points. Three years ago several Mohammedans at G were bap- tized, and a neat church has been lately erected in a pure oriental style. When the church was dedicated, forty-five native Christians from Lahore, Umritsur and Hoshyarpore, were present, besides numerous Hindoos and Mohammedans. " It was a great day for the little village, and will be long remembered by its people." it is expected that a native pastor will soon settle at this place. In Hoshyarpore a native Christian woman is doing a good work as a zenana visitor. The girls' school, under the care of Mrs. Chatterjee, wife of the native evangelist, has fifty-two pupils. This is the only institution of its kind in the whole district, containing a population of 938,890. Rawal Pindi. — This is the most distant station of the Board, and is 160 miles north of Lahore. It was occupied by Dr. Morrison in 1855 amidst vigorous 14 Missions in India. opposition on the part of the people. The funds needed at first for the support of the school, and for the erection of a school-building, were generously given by European friends in India. A mission church was reared and completed in 1875, at a cost of $4,000 ; the whole of this sum was given by friends in the country. Mr. Orbison and wife labored here from i860 until his return home on a visit, when he was suddenly cut down. Rev. E. M. Wherry had charge of the station for some time, when he was transferred to Lodiana, and since that it has been under the care of Rev. R. Thackwell and Rev. A. P. Kelso. The church is steadily increasing in numbers ; it has now thirty-nine on the com- munion roll. Here, as at most of the stations, an English service is held on the Sabbath for those who are in India from Christian lands, and who have no one to minister to them, or who will not attend upon the services where chap- lains are located. These need the Gospel, and their lives, if immoral, may prove a stumbling-block to the heathen. At this station there is a steady increase in numbers in both the schools for boys and girls. The amount realized for fees during the year was $500. This is a step in advance ; when schools were first started in India children had to be paid for coming ; now they have to pay in our principal schools. Reference has been made to the wish of the Board, in its early history, to commence a mission among the Affghans. This was never carried into exe- cution. Afghanistan is still inaccessible to evangelistic work. The people are treacherous and bigoted Mohammedans, and will tolerate no Christian mis- sionary in their country. No Moslem could with safety abjure his religion. It had been the desire of the missionaries as soon as possible to begin a work for this people. In 1857, R-ev- I- Loewenthal moved to Peshawar, on the borders of that country, and commenced the study of the Pushtu. This is a difficult language, but the missionary soon mastered it, and also, other languages of India ; but he was cut off by violence fa 1864. Though only seven years in the country, he had translated the New Testament in Pushtu, and had nearly completed a dictionary of that language. Besides his devotion to this form of labor, he gave a portion of his time to preaching in the bazars, and in different places in the district. This station, for reasons, has not been resumed since his death. The Church Missionary Society has occupied it, and a church of over 80 members has been gathered, composed chiefly of Mohammedans. Kapurthala was occupied for some years by Rev. J. S. Woodside, who was invited to begin labor there by the Rajah, who seemed to be interested in Christianity. He gave liberally to the support of the missionary and his work, and this continued for some time ; but for some cause he withdrew his support, so that the missionary returned to Dehra. One of his sons has been baptized at Talandhar, but his son and successor has not manifested that interest in Christianity that was expected. KOLAPOOR MISSION. The territory occupied by this Mission lies south-wrcst of Bombay, and covers part of the Deccan. The Ghats, a range of mountains some forty or fifty Missions in India. 15 miles from the coast, cut the field into two. The Kolapoor State lies east of this range, and has a population of 802,691. The adjoining districts to this, in which are no missionaries, have a population of 1,700,000; add to this the Concan, or the portion between the Ghats and the sea, and in which is Ratna- giri, and there is a population nearly as great, or a total of 5,000,000 who are to be reached with the truth. Kolapoor is the capital of a province of the same name. This city was selected by Rev. R. G. Wilder in 1853, as a center of missionary operations. His work had been supported for years by friends in the United States and in India, and it was independent of any Church until its transfer to the Board in 1870. Mr. Wilder had been privileged to do a good preparatory work, and to organize a church which consisted of twenty-one members. Rev. G. W. Seiler sailed for this station in 1870. He was followed by Rev. W. P. Barker and wife ; Rev. J. J. Hall and Rev. J. P. Graham and his wife in 1872, by Rev. J. Goheen and his wife in 1875, and Miss A. McGinnis in 1876. Mr. Wilder was obliged to return to this country on account of ill health in 1875, ar]d the Rev. W. P. Barker for the same reason a few months afterwards. The same agencies employed in Northern India are in operation in this Mission for making known unto others the story of redeeming love. The schools, the circulation of books and tracts, and the proclamation of the truth in chapel and on the highway, have the same object in view to reach the hearts and bring them into sympathy with Christ. The native church is prospering, and now numbers forty-two. Seven adults were baptized during the year. Not one of these has received any pecuniary help ; all are living in their villages, and pursuing their usual vocations. "Two of the converts with their wives, and the little child of one were, on their return to their village, re- fused admission to their father's house and compelled to live for some time under a neighboring tree, their neighbors meanwhile reminding them that * while our gods give us houses to dwell in, yours sends you to live under the shadow of a tree.' Before the year closed, however, we had the privilege of baptizing nearly every member of the family." The station at Ratnagiri, on the coast, is under the care of Rev. G. W. Seiler. Day-schools for boys have 200 on the roll, and 40 are in the girls' schools. Mr. and Mrs. Graham are at Panalla, a few miles from Kolapoor, where the prospects for future good are encouraging. As yet no church is organized in these two stations. All the reports from the different stations for the past year have not been received. According to the report of the previous year there were 20 churches, 769 communicants, and 7,910 scholars in the different schools. In this brief resume, of missionary operations, we have been able to touch only some salient points, and present simply an outline of things done. Much has been overlooked. There have been some marked cases of conversion and loyalty to Jesus, and some noble acts of heroism and self-denial. There have been many lives laid down for the good of the people. Besides those who 1 6 Missions in India. died at their posts, ten missionaries have been cut off by violence — eight during the mutiny and two afterwards. In no country has there been such a vast work of preparation done through preaching, education, and the press; in no heathen land are the people in the mass so thoroughly acquainted with the doctrines and principles of Christianity ; in no nation lias education done so much to shake confidence in their own systems of error, or to lead the youth to reject them, and nowhere are the agencies so numerous to affect the population for good and to meliorate their condition. All that has been ac- complished in these different ways has been largely destructive — to throw down in order to build up. There has been as yet no great upheaval of the masses, no general movement, and no large communities turning to the truth ; -all this will come, and when there is such a movement, from the very nature of society, from social life and usages, and from modes of thought and action, it will be strong and decided. The language of the people when acknowledg- ing the force of truth and the necessity of coming out publicly for Christ, is 11 Wait I Wait until we can all come." Caste, the sacrifices to be made on leav- ing their religion, the difficulty in procuring a livelihood, with other things, have made many secret Christians. They are Christ's, but have not moral courage to be baptized. Baptism severs all family bonds, disrupts all relations, and makes its recipient an outcast. Men may give up idolatrous practices, ridicule the gods, worship Jesus, and be safe if they will not be baptized. The commun- ion-roll is, therefore, no criterion of what missions have accomplished. Their influence is everywhere felt. The changes going on and the advances made are in the right direction. The blessing will come when the Church is ready to receive it, and when that land has been prepared for it. IZ. SKETCH OF INDIA. / BY REV. A. BRODHEAD, D.D. SKETCH OF INDIA. BY REV. A. BRODHEAD, D.D. Within the six months just past, the attention of the political world has been drawn to India. For a time it seemed probable that history would repeat itself in a fierce struggle between England, operating largely through the armies of the Indian Empire and the warlike Afghans, whose territory lies on the north-western border of India. However long or short the con- flict may be, and interesting and important as will be its results, still, to the minds of Christians its interest and importance are exceeded by events which are transpiring in the southern part of the Empire. Here history is not repeating itself, but is recording, in terms which it has never before been privileged to use, the conversion to Christianity of tens of thousands of those who hitherto have been the slaves of superstition and idolatry. Great as have been the triumphs of the Cross in Southern India, upon hearing which the people of God could say, "Then was our mouth rilled with laughter, and our tongue with singing," we can not lose sight of the fact that, through these successes, the two strongholds of Satan in the Indian Empire, Brahminism and Mohammedanism have scarcely been touched. The acces- sions to the Christian Church in India, during the past year, were largely from a class outside of these charmed circles. They were mostly from among those whom the Saviour, were He on the earth, would receive as gladly as He did the " publicans and sinners," but from whom the proud Brahmins and the other castes shrink, as from some loathsome thing. WHAT IS BRAHMINISM ? To the eye of the casual observer, Brahminism is the religious idea ex- pressed in a Polytheistic form. In it Deity is incarnated in various forms of man or beast, or represented by inanimate objects, until, as the natural result of this fearful departure from God, the original conception is lost sight of, and the symbol takes the place of that for which it stands. Rom. i. 21-25. The Avatars, or incarnations, of the Supreme Being are few in number, but nature is ransacked to find a sufficient number of objects in which He may be enshrined ; and three hundred and thirty-three millions of inferior deities find place in the imaginary Pantheon of the Hindoos. The river Ganges is the goddess Gunga, born on the snow-capped ranges of the Himalayas, from the forehead of Brahm, as Minerva from the head of Jupiter. At Allahabad, this river, receiving to its embrace the scarcely less sacred Jumna, is joined also by a third stream, descending directly from heaven, and thus a Trinity of streams is formed, which, to the devout Hindoo, is the very portal to the skies. But not the rivers alone — the trees, the fountains, a rock, a stone, is made sacred by the indwelling of some divinity. There is a certain tree, the trunk of which is a god, while each branch, twig, and leaf represents an in- ferior deity. But all this for one class of minds. The Hindoo religion adapts itself readily to all classes. It is, indeed, a vagary of the imagination, rather than a religion of the heart. Thus, whilst it is, with some, a pure polytheism, as held by others it is sheer pantheism. The writer once asked a Hindoo : " Parmeshwar kalian hai ? " Where is God ? The reply was made promptly : 11 A'p Parmeshwar haiu." Your Honor is God. But one need not be flattered by such distinction, for to the Pantheist God is inseparable from His creation. He is "without a Second." Besides Him there is nothing. The presence of sin is thus accounted for : through its connection with the flesh, the soul, a spark struck from the original source of life and light, has become con- taminated, and its lustre has grown dim. In successive births these accretions of sin will be removed, till at the last the soul, regaining its original purity, will be absorbed into the infinite. And then all this religious ©imposture was, by the same hands that con- structed it, interwoven into the social system of the Hindoos, and so skillfully was the work performed that it would seem impossible, but by the grace of God, for those who are born within the meshes of this net, ever to escape. Never was more consummate wisdom displayed by men than was shown by the Hindoo priests of a pre-historic age, when they perfected a system which should at once secure its own perpetuation, and the supremacy, social and religious, of its founders. The web was indeed artfully woven. Caste is a social system, strengthened and guarded by religious sanctions, or if you please so to define it, it is a religious system, guarded by social sanctions. The Brahmin, its originator, is the center and circumference of this system. With reference to it, he formed all things, and by him do all things consist. He sprung from the head of Brahm, and unites in himself all the attributes of him who is without form, all-wise and all-powerful. In the Brahmin's hands are the destinies of men. His blessing gives wealth, or offspring, or pros- perity ; his curse destroys. He stands upon the top of the social and religious pyramid. Beneath him are the Kshetriyas, the warrior caste, springing from the breast of Brahm ; and the Vaisyas, or merchant class, descending from his loins, and the Sudras, or laboring class, issuing from his feet. And during all these centuries these castes have held the same relative position, immorality or crime, however black, causing no descent from the higher to the lower ; virtue, however conspicuous, securing no ascent from the lower to the higher. WHAT IS MOHAMMEDANISM ? The creed of Islam is very simple. There is one God, and Mohammed is his apostle. The religion of the followers of Mohammed begins, and very often ends with this. It is a religion without a Saviour. The most that its adherents have to hope for is, that Mohammed will intercede for them, but their intercessor did not claim to be without sin, much less did he claim to be divine. When it is stated that the Mohammedan conception of God is purer than that of the Hindoo, all has been said that can be in favor of his religion, as compared with the idolatrous religion which it antagonizes. While the Koran is for the Moham- medans of India, The Book, still there are many and grave departures from its teachings, found in the practice of the followers of the prophet. If they have to some extent acted upon the idolatrous religion around them, at least on its social side, they have at the same time been reacted upon, by being led to engage in various idolatrous practices. A feature which characterizes both these religions is the elasticity of which they are capable. TheTiindoo religion, within the caste lines, which are de- termined by birth, has a charity broad enough to admit every form of belief or disbelief; in other words, being born a Hindoo, and conforming to its ritual, you may believe what you choose. This being the case, the writer was not greatly surprised to find the name of Christ written interchangeably with that of Rama upon the walls of a Hindoo temple. And thus with the religion of Af Islam, only repeat the ftalama, and it matters not what you believe or what you are. It is not strange that religions so insensible to the moral quality of their adherents, and which, while satisfying the demands of a depraved con- science, require no crucifixion of the heart's lusts, should have a fascination for their followers most difficult to overcome. OUR MISSION FIELD IN INDIA. The battle between these allied forces, Brahminism and Islam, allied in their opposition to Christianity (Luke xxiii. 12), is to be fought on the plains of Northern India. It was in this part of India that the Brahminical power had its rise, and here the power of the followers of Mohammed was first made known in India by conquest. Mathura and Binderabun, the scenes of Krishna's exploits, are still visited by millions of the devout worshipers of this avatar of Vishnu. Pryag (Allahabad) and Kashi (Benares) retain all the sanctity of by-gone ages, so that at the time this paper is being written, hun- dreds of thousands of deluded men and women are gathering at the former place to wash away their sins in the Ganges, and at the latter city the dismal scene is constantly re-enacted, of aged parents being brought to the banks of the same sacred stream and left there to die, that they may have quick trans- mission to the abodes of the blessed. If the Hindoos retain their love and veneration for the fabled prowess of their gods, not less do the followers of the prophet turn with sorrowful pride to Agra, Delhi, Lucknow, and other cities, the former capitals, where their emperors ruled in splendor, but where now there is little else of which the Mohammedans can boast than the tombs of their sovereigns. It is among the fifty millions of Hindoos, and eight millions of Mohamme- dans of the North-west Provinces and the Punjab that two of the missions of our Board, Lodiana and Furrukhabad, are situated, while the third, the Kolapoor mission, has its field among the millions of Southwestern India. Side by side with our missions in Northern India there are others, with representatives from England, Germany, and America. Among these sister organizations the Church Mission holds a prominent place, while, on the one side, in Oudh and Rohilkand, the American Methodist Mission, and on the other, in Rajputana, the mission of the Scotch United Presbyterian Church are doing a great work for the Master. THE STATIONS OCCUPIED. Those in Northern India extend from Allahabad, the capital of the North- west Provinces, to Rawal Pindi, well up toward the borders of Afghanistan. In the Kolapoor mission, one station, Ratnagiri, is on the coast, the others more in the interior. The stations are as follows : Lodiana Mission. Rawal Pindi: 160 miles north-west of Lahore ; Mission station commenced, 1855. Lahore : the political capital of the Punjab, 1,225 miles north-west of Calcutta ; Mission station commenced, 1819. Hoshyarpore : 45 miles N. of Lodiana ; Mission station commenced, 1867. Jalandar : 120 miles east of Lahore, 30 miles west of Lodiana ; Mission station commenced, 1846. Lodiana: near the river Sutlej, 1,100 miles north-west of Calcutta; Mission station com- menced, 1834. Ambaxa : 55 miles south-east of Lodiana ; Mission station commenced, 1848. Sabathu : in the lower Himalaya Mountains, 110 miles east of Lodiana ; Mission station commenced, 1836. Saharanpur : 130 miles south-east of Lodiana ; Mission station commenced, 1836. Dehra : 47 miles east of Saharanpur ; Mission station commenced, 1853. Roorkhee : 20 miles south-cast of Saharanpur ; Mission station commenced, 1856. Furrukhabad Mission. Futtehgurh : on the Ganges, 723 miles north-west of Calcutta ; Mission station com- menced, 1838. Furrukhabad : near to Futtehgurh ; mission station commenced, 1843. Mynpurie : 40 miles west of Futtehgurh ; Mission station commenced, 1843. Etawah : ou the Jumna, 50 miles south-west of Mynpurie; Mission station commenced, 1863. Futtehpoke : 587 miles north-west of Calcutta ; Mission station commenced, 1853. Allahabad: at the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna, 506 miles north-west of Cal- cutta; Mission station commenced, L836. (Iwalior: Mission station commenced, 1873. Kolapoor Mission. Kolapoor: south-east of Bombay ; Mission station commenced, 1853 ; taken under the care of the Board, 1870. Ratnagiri : 70 miles north-west of Kolapoor ; Mission station commenced in 1873. Panalla : Mission station commenced, 1877. THE AGENCIES EMPLOYED. These may be classified as follows : Preaching, Schools, Instruction of Theological Students, Zenana Visiting, Medical Work, the Press. Preaching. This includes — i. Stated Sabbath and week-day services. 2. Bazar preach- ing; and, 3. Preaching in the villages. 1. The orderly congregations gathered on the Sabbath at the several sta- tions, present a marked contrast to the crowds of Hindoos pressing into the temples, and sometimes endangering life by their frantic efforts to cast offer- ings upon the idol, or to touch the bell suspended above his head. At several of the stations, as, for instance, Allahabad, Futtehpore, Futtehgurh, and Saharanpore, neat and spacious churches have already been erected, while at the other stations the commodious school-houses form convenient centers at which to gather the native Christian congregations. Several of these are ministered to by native pastors. The missionaries, without exception, aim at securing self supporting churches and an indigenous pastorate. 2. Preaching in the bazars is an important complement to the stated preaching in the churches, since it is only in this way that the masses in the towns and cities can be reached. There is much difference of opinion among the missionaries as to the value of this agency ; its results, certainly, are not nearly as satisfactory as could be wished. This will be readily understood, when the fluctuating character of the audiences is considered, with the oppor- tunity afforded to those of "the baser sort" to harass the speaker, and the constant uproar in the streets of a large city. And yet necessity seems laid upon the heralds of the Gospel to use this means, not only by the direct com- mand of our Lord, which by no fair reasoning can be relegated to the times of the apostles alone, but by the palpable fact, that if the thousands who catch some sound of the Gospel message in the streets and by-ways do not learn of Christ in this way, they will pass away without ever hearing of the Saviour. 3. Village preaching is free from many of the annoyances and dispiriting circumstances connected with preaching in the bazar. Itinerations made in various directions from the central station, enable the missionary, with the catechists and Scripture readers, to reach large numbers of villages in which is found a simple, more unsophisticated class of hearers, among which the Mohammedan element, always a troublesome one, is smaller, and to which the message may be proclaimed with fewer interruptions. The writer recalls one itineration of this kind where five hundred villages were reached in a single tour. Schools. These are employed in all their grades, from the infant school, where the boys and girls first learn the alif, be, to the Anglo-vernacular school, where students are prepared for the entrance examination to the university. And let it be borne in mind, that in every school connected with our missions, the Bible has the first place. Our missionaries hold as an axiom, that unless the schools can be used as evangelizing agencies, they have no place in mission work. Of their value there can be no question. There may have been few conversions among the pupils taught, but no one has gone forth from these schools without new ideas of God ; an awakened sense of his condition as a sinner, and some acquaintance with the way of life through faith in Christ. Theological Classes. The missionaries have felt the need of instructing the catechists and Script- ure readers under their care, and, when possible, have furnished such instruc- tion. But very frequently other duties have prevented this. An attempt was made, a few years since, to relieve the missionaries at the several stations from this work, by assigning it to three of their number, who, in conjunction with one of the native pastors, gave instruction to an interesting class. The Synod of India, at its last meeting, made an effort to revive the Theological School, which had been temporarily closed, but owing to the weak state of the mission force nothing could be done. Zenana Visiting. It is only a few years ago that the houses of Hindoos and Mohammedans in Northern India were opened to Christian women, that they might give instruc- tion to the females of the households. The tide of progress having advanced thus far, it can never recede. Now zenana visiting is carried on at all of our stations. For a girl or woman not to learn to read is becoming the exception rather than the rule. This work, begun in Southern India and Bengal, has spread all over India. Such a revolution was not accomplished without untiring effort on the part of the ladies of the missions. At first there was indifference, sometimes refusal, but by degrees love, and perhaps in some cases self-interest, conquered prejudice, and the visitor, from being almost a suppliant at the doors of the zenana, was sought for. At some stations ad- mission is more freely obtained to the houses of Hindoos, at others to those of Mohammedans. Wherever the visitor goes, the Bible goes ; the way of salvation is explained, ignorance is enlightened, prejudices are set aside, the errors of false religions are exposed, the patience and gentleness born of the religion of Christ are exhibited, and they who have but little happiness in this world, and no hope for the life to come, are drawn to the Saviour by the cords of love. Medical Work, This agency has not been introduced into our missions to any large extent. At Allahabad, a lady medical missionary has a growing practice among the women of the city and the surrounding country, giving her an opportunity, while she ministers to the diseased bodies of those who, except for her kind 7 skill, would have but little help, to speak the word that may quicken in many a heart. At Sabathu one of the missionaries devotes much time and care to a large number of lepers gathered in an asylum there, and if anywhere the religion of Christ finds happy exemplification, it is in such a place as this. The Press. This is one of the earlier agencies used by our missions, and one that is more and more productive of good. In a late work on Missions in India, the author gives to the missions of our Board the credit of doing more than any other mission in the way of creating a Christian literature. Too much space would be occupied in enumerating all that has been accomplished in this direction. In a general way it may be stated, that Commentaries have been written on Genesis, the Psalms, Isaiah, Haggai, the Four Gospels, Ephesians, and Colossians ; a work on Theology was begun, and remains un- finished owing to the death of the author ; a Hindi Grammar has been pre- pared, as also a Hebrew Grammar, and other works, to assist theological students ; translations of various standard works have been made, and large numbers of tracts composed and translated, which are circulated by thousands and tens of thousands of copies every year. Besides these, a Hymn-Book has been furnished for the Indian Church, containing translations of many of the choicest selections of English and German hymnology, together with original hymns. At Allahabad a monthly magazine, the " Makhzan Masihi," or "Christian Treasury," is published in the Urdu language for Christian families, and has entered upon its eleventh year ; and at Lodiana the " Mir Afshan," or " Dispenser of Light," is doing good service in the warfare be- tween Christianity and Mohammedanism. In the preparation of a Christian literature some of our native brethren have given excellent assistance. One who has lately passed away, prepared, in the English language, an elementary work on Theology, which received a prize for excellence. Another has been engaged in the translation of Dr. A. A. Hodge's work on the Confession of Faith. He also, besides translating a work on the early history of the Church, has just brought out a valuable treatise on the Trinity. :" "~ THE WANTS OF THE MISSIONS. The last , reinforcement sent to Northern India was in 1873. Since that time two missionaries have died, and five have left the field without any ex- pectation of returning. At Allahabad there are three missionaries, two of whom are in indifferent health. At Futtehgurh there are two more. At Furrukhabad, a city of eighty thousand inhabitants,Aleaving the Rakha division of the station, with its important Christian village, unprovided for, except as it can be superintended by one of the two at the city. Mainpuri, with Etah as a sub- station, provides for the one missionary there, a field with perhaps one million and a half of inhabitants ; and at this station, where woman's work for woman was, in our missions, first organized, the Home built for the occupancy 8 of missionary ladies stands vacant. Gwalior, a field of much promise, and a frontier station of the Furrukhabad mission, looking out upon Central India, is without a missionary. The station is superintended by two ladies, assisted by a native evangelist. There is a little native Christian community here, and the widow of the late missionary has secured from Government a desirable site for a church building. Thus we might go through the missions, and indi- cate the wants of the several stations, for it is a question if a single station in our missions in the north-west provinces and the Punjab is sufficiently manned. A SUGGESTION. The question has been raised, if it would not be advisable to transfer our missions in India to the English societies and abandon the field. On the sup- position that any of these societies are ready to take up the additional work, which is by no means certain, let us inquire if the Presbyterian Church in America is ready to make such a surrender. To do so would be to confess that the Lord, in committing the work of evangelizing so many of the millions of India to its hands, either had blessed the Church so abundantly that it was unable to meet the enlarged demands made upon it, or that, since the blessing had been withheld, the Church could no longer trust the promise of its King. There are good reasons why our Church should not take this retrograde step. i. The English societies are taxed to their utmost ability in holding the ground which they now occupy, and in providing for the normal growth of their missions. Those who would entertain this proposition must forget what a vast country India is, and what an enormous population there is to be pro- vided with the Gospel. It may confidently be asserted, that were England to furnish India not only with all the ministers who go from its Theological Schools every year, but with all who occupy the pulpits of the British kingdom, the wants of the Indian Empire would not be supplied. 2. Our Church, in undertaking this work, stipulated to prosecute it to its accomplishment. There was at least a tacit agreement to this effect, mule with other branches of the Church, and assuredly we made no condition with the Divine Head of the Church, that unless a certain amount of success were assured, the work would be relinquished ; nor did He, from whom its commis- sion came, covenant that His Church should be discharged from this service within a specified time. 3. There can be no discharge from this service, except the Master shall withhold the men and means necessary for the prosecution of the work, or close, to further effort on the part of the Church, the doors now open in India. But men, good and true, are to be found who are ready to consecrate their lives to this service, and the Church has abundant means for the sending out and support of all who will go. This on the Home side. On the side of India what do we find ? In spite of every difficulty the work has expanded. In 1834 a single station was begun. There are now eighteen principal sta- tions, with numbers of sub-stations, some of which are occupied by ordained native ministers. Great obstacles have been overcome. One effect of the mutiny was to break down barriers between the missionaries and the people. Facilities for acquiring the language have been increased. Thousands of youth are taught in our schools, while other thousands have gone out from them with their prejudices against Christianity diminished, and in many cases removed, and with the seeds of divine truth implanted in their hearts. Churches have been organized, an indigenous native ministry is being raised up, and, through the preaching of the heralds of the cross, souls are saved. And now, when the Church is in its pupilage, and young Christian com- munities need the fostering care of those who had the privilege of bringing them out of heathenish darkness, and on every side Hindoos and Mohammedans are accessible to those who can tell them of Christ, is it the time for our Church to lay aside all further responsibility ; call back the men who, bearing its commission, accept cheerfully the toil and sacrifice involved ; say to the struggling bands of native Christians, scattered among the millions of idolaters and of Islam, we have done what we could for you ; you must now shift for yourselves ; and after the night of toil, make over to otners the joy of the harvest. 13, ^ ^xuAoo ffjestixml* BY REV, A. 'RUDOLPH. A HINDOO FESTIVAL. BY REV. A. RUDOLPH. Nowhere, perhaps, does heathenism manifest itself more in its naked folly, and nowhere does it appear more hideous, than on a heathen festival, where the superstition and bigotry of an unthinking, fanatical multitude is running wild. Nowhere, perhaps, does the missionary feel more the difficulty of his calling, and, at the same time, his utter helplessness, then when he visits one of those festivals called in India " Melas." To give at least a remote idea of what heathenism in that country means, I will try to lead you in spirit to one of these festival.-'., many of which I have visited during my stay of 38 years in India. GANGES. You know that the Ganges is to the Hindoo a holy object, to which he offers divine worship, and in whose waters he bathes in the hope that there all his sins shall be washed away. This magnificent stream, therefore, is an object of adoration throughout its whole length for upwards of 1,500 miles, from its sources in the Himalayas down to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal. Gangotre, the fountains ; Hardvvar, where the river leaves the mountains and flows into the broad plains of India; Allahabad, where it is joined by an auxiliary, the Jumna ; Hajeepore, where the Gandhak flows into it ; Benares, hard on the banks of the stream, and to the Hindoo the very gate of heaven, and many similar localities, are noted places of pilgrimage, where, at stated seasons of the year, thousands of people from all parts of the land congregate for the pur- pose of viewing the river, as they express it, of sipping its waters, and bath- ing in its floods. Weeks, sometimes months, before the appointed time, Brah- mins and fakirs travel through the land from town to town, and from village to village, and invite the people to follow them to the holy shrine, and thus to gather merit and to obtain mukti (salvation). Parties of from 20 to 50 or more are met day by day on the highways, on foot and in ox-carts, on ponies and elephants, all eagerly pressing forward toward the supposed fountains of bliss. The nights, whether dry or wet, are spent in the open air by the side of the road, often far from any human habitation. An open plain and a well by the roadside is all the accommodation they claim, though groves and still more sheltered places in villages and towns are made use of if they come in their way. With the earliest dawn these companies break up to leave the encamp- ino--ground of the past night, for another long, tedious journey must be ac- complished before evening sets in. Thus are weeks, sometimes months, spent in traveling; for the longer the journey and the greater the fatigue, the greater is the merit gained. At last, after many a weary march, and many a night spent in discomfort on the bare ground, they reach the end of their journey, hun- gry and thirsty, foot-sore and fatigued, covered thickly with dust. But mother Ganges has to offer them no comfortable accommodation in hotels or inns, no soft beds, no well-cooked meals. Nothing but a vast sandy plain by the banks of the river, that has been overflowed during the rainy season, and that has since been dried again by the rays of an Indian sun, is all, besides muddy water, that this goddess has to offer to her votaries. No shrub, hardly a blade of grass, is to be seen ; a few stunted trees may be scattered over the vast plain, but these have been secured in time by Brahmins, who invariably occupy the nicest spots that can be found in India. As soon as a party of pilgrims arrives and views the longed-for object — the Ganges — one of them calls out to his companions, " bolo " (shout), and all with one accord shout at the top of the voice, " Ganga ji ki jai" (victory to the Ganges). This, in fact, had been the watchword all along since they started on the journey, but now it is uttered with greater energy than it had ever been done before. A coarse cloth is spread on the ground ; those who can afford it set up a few bamboo sticks, spread a blanket or piece of cotton cloth over it. and this forms the habitation for the people by day, and the only shelter for the night while the mcla lasts. New parties now arrive in quick succession, and in a very short time are the sandy banks of the river covered for miles by an immense multitude of people. Thus these silent wastes be- come suddenly, as by the wand of a magician, the scene of life and activity. At the common yearly festivals the pilgrims are counted by thousands, but on the return of the kumb (me/a, that occurs every twelfth year) they are num- bered by hundreds of thousands, and have sometimes reached that of a million. On arrival, the thickest dust is shaken out of the clothes and wiped off the face. A short rest is taken, and then the men, leaving the women squatting together in parties, chatting and laughing, screaming and quarreling, walk about to look up acquaintances, to see sights, and to amuse themselves as best they can, for, though the object of the mela is the adoration of the Ganges, this, as well as all other heathen worship, is quite consistent with the most childish frivolities, and even sinful amusements and excesses. FAKIRS AND THEIR SELF-TORTURE. There is a crowd of people running to meet a company of naked fakirs, marching along in procession. They are viewed with special interest, and ad- mired as the holy men of India. Their bodies are covered from head to foot with ashes, or if a high degree of holiness is attained, with dung. For years their long entangled hair has not been combed. It is clotted together with dirt, and has of course become the harbor of vileness that a civilized man abomi- nates. The one carries around his shoulders a tiger's skin ; another has stuck a bunch of peacock's feathers in his hair ; another has wrapped himself in a quilt composed of rags of the most incongruous stuffs and colors ; another car- ries in his hand a pair of immense fire-tongs, for he is a fire-worshiper; an- other wears a huge devil's cap on his head, and indeed if you wished to make an image of the evil one, you could hardly choose a more befitting pattern. If the external appearance of these fakirs is hideous in the extreme, their proud, wanton look betrays a mind as filthv and hideous as their bodies. But why should they not be proud? If the Ganges is adored as a goddess, they are worshiped as gods ; for they have the power to curse as well as to bless. You are provoked to believe them devils incarnate, and you wish them anywhere rather than here, where they expose their vile bodies to the gaze of women as well as men. If public opinion now, and the known disapprobation of Gov- ernment to entire nudity, did not force them to wear a rag of cloth six inches long and four inches broad, they would gladly dispense with even that much of covering, as they used to do only a few years ago. There is another crowd gathering around a pilgrim that is just coming in. He had made the vow to go on a pilgrimage to the Ganges, but not in the ordinary way; but to measure the way from his distant habitation to the banks of the Ganges by the length of his body. Look, he has just risen from the ground ; carefully he steps up to the mark he had drawn with his finger on the sand ; now he prostrates himself on the ground with the face in the dust, draws another line in the sand along by h s head ; rises again, places his feet near the stroke on the ground, again lays himself down to make another mark. Several months ago he commenced this queer mode of traveling, and now he has fin- ished the journey, and is just in time to take part in the mela, and receive the homage of the people, for henceforth he is a saint, and entitled to the good things of the earth that will now be offered unto him freely. Let us go and see what that booth contains. It seems to be a great center of attraction, for it is surrounded continually by crowds of sight-seers. A dozen fakirs sit here in state ; they are self-tormentors that have held up one of their arms vertically, until it has dried up to a stick. The joints at the shoulder and elbow have lost their use, so that the arm can not now be brought down again to its natural position. The nails have never been trimmed since, and have outgrown the length of the fingers, and in some instances have grown into the flesh in the palm of the hand. You pity that poor cripple who stands on one leg, leaning with folded arms upon a low crotchet ; the other leg hangs down lifeless and dried up by the side of its partner. But this is not the way the man came forth from the hand of the Creator ; nor was it an accident that deprived him of the use of the limb. Ten years ago he vowed to stand for sixteen years on one leg ; six still remain till he shall have paid his vow in full. In the summer, when a fierce Indian sun is trying the constitution even of a native of that sunny land, he causes five fires to be kindled around him, and in winter, when the nights are sometimes sharp and ^old in Northern India, he causes the people to carry him into a shallow tank, where he spends the night, standing in the water, leaning upon his crotchet. His only food is cow's milk now, and this is freely brought to him by the people, who say that he has now almost become Parmeshwar (God).* The question may be asked, What induced these men to choose a life like this ? Was it a deep sorrow that drove them to it ? Was it the smiting of conscience that gave them no rest and made them thus try to atone for past sins? Did they feel it to be their duty to crucify the flesh, and did they there- fore choose this method of mortifying it? Is it peace of heart that they thus seek to obtain ? Their looks do not betray it ; we can read nothing but utter stupidity or inveterate pride on their countenances, a vain gratification on be- ing gazed at and admired. We stand before a problem which we can not solve. A whim, a fit of passion, a quarrel in the family, a supposed wrong in- flicted is often sufficient to make a native of India throw away his life and com- mit suicide ; but more is needed to give to these self-tormentors that persever- ing determination which deadens them to bodily pain, and enables them to bear discomfort of the most revolting kind. Even the strongest desire to become great, and to be adored as a god, does not fully explain the mystery. But we do discover in many of these strange phenomena a disgusting carica- ture of Bible truths, and may not be far wrong if we suspect demon-like influ- ence that empowers a man to destroy limbs of his body by a tedious, painful process of self-torture, and to lead a life studiously uncomfortable and abhorrent to human nature. A few paces up the hill bring us into the presence of another abominable sight. A stark-naked fakir lies with spread-out arms and legs, and with closed eyes, upon a bare, sloping rock, without the least motion of a limb, from early dawn till late at night, and, if we are to believe the people, all night through. Women as well as men prostrate themselves before him and offer their copper coins. He makes a good business of it, and yet he pretends to be dead to the world and to the things thereof. I step up to him, call him a great sinner, a deceiver, lazy-bones, that ought to use the sound limbs which his Maker has given him to earn an honest livelihood. I hope to rouse his anger at least, if I do nothing better, to prove to the people that he is not quite as mi- impressible as he pretends to be; but there is no sign of life. His featu.es betray no displeasure. I might as well scold the rock on which he lies. The by-standers now speak for him, and tell me that he has been lying there till the rock is worn away. But I point out to them the marks of the chisel with which the rock has been hollowed out to admit the body so as to keep it from sliding down the hill. They smile and admit the fact, but for all that they * This man was found dead one morning in his hut, after he hand accomplished thirteen years in this un- natural position. A temple has been erected in the place where his hut Stood, n e ir the tank in Phagwara, twenty miles north of Lodiana, and has become a place of pilgrimage on a small scale. continue to worship him and to bring their offerings. They care nothing for truth, and therefore strong delusions are sent them to believe a lie. We turn away and find another fakir hung up by the feet from the branch of a low tree, head downward, swinging slowly over a smoking fire of cow-dung. And again another is squatting down on the ground, who has accustomed himself to swal- low his breath. A gurgling noise in the throat, and a violent, spasmodic move- ment of the neck and upper part of the body, is enough to send you away from so disgusting a sight, but only to cast your eves up to a fat, naked fakir riding on a huge elephant caparisoned with beautifully gold-embroidered, scarlet cov- erings, while another from behind is fanning him with a large palm-leaf. Vol- untary poverty and untold wealth thus go hand in hand with this class of saints. But heathenism is made up of inconsistencies, and you cease to wonder at anything after this. BRAHMINS AND THEIR TRICKS. If the eye refuses to look any longer at loathsome sights as exhibited here, the ear is no less tried with the filth)', noisy, unbecoming conversation that is going on. Abusive language grates upon the ear everywhere. A number of Brahmins, with large books under their arms, are lining the road and are watch- ing for new pilgrims coming in. Two of these gentlemen have descried a well- to-do party traveling in ox-carts, and are trying to outrun each other so as to meet it first. Each one insists that the forefathers of this family are registered in his book, and each one insists on receiving now a fresh registering fee. They are not sparing in their abuses, each one calling the other a liar and a deceiver, and no doubt both are right. There is, however, no way of escape ; both must be paid off with a gift, and the party is glad enough to get off so cheaply ; but they will soon fall into the hands of others like them. Two other Brahmins have commenced using their fists as well as their tongues, and threaten to kill one another. A poor pilgrim, such as the Brah- mins call in contempt a two-penny pilgrim, who had already been robbed of his scanty supply of cash, handed them a piece of cloth half a yard long. They know it is all he can give, so they fall upon the prey and fight for it, while he hastens on, glad enough to have escaped their hands. The crowd looks on with manifest delight, for this also belongs to the lawful amusements at the mela. I ask them, Are you not ashamed of the conduct of your Brahmins? They smile, and pass on thoughtlessly to see something else. Let us follow them and see what they are after. A WONDERFUL MEDLEY. There are long rows of booths erected, in which merchandise of every kind is offered for sale ; for though the primary object of the mela is a religious one, the opportunity for speculators is too good to be lost. A large bazar, there- fore, offers all that a native thinks worth bringing. There are articles of clothing, shawls, jewelry, trinkets, shoes, pipes, tobacco, idols, books, pictures, food, confectionery, all thickly covered with dust ; for dust is an article you get here in abundance, whether you will have it or not. A dozen carousals, over- burdened with men, women, and children, are swung round vigorously, and for want of oil, make an unbearable squeaking noise. Rope-dancers, snake- charmers, jugglers, bear-wards, monkey-leaders, all draw large circles of spec- tators, that seem to be quite unconscious of the inconvenience they create in obstructing the passages, while men, women, children, fantastically dressed-up fakirs, fat Brahmins, dancing-girls, policemen, soldiers, ox-carts, elephants, camels, horses, donkeys, half starved dogs, pass back and forward in wild con- fusion. What pen could draw a complete picture of all that passes before the eye, and of the bustle of the hundreds of thousands, shouting, laughing, vocif- erating, quarreling, to be outdone only by that ear-splitting, most disharmoni- ous, monotonous music that heads procession after procession ? One must have seen such scenes to form an idea of what a mela in India is. Come, let us leave this unruly mass ; the noise has become insufferable, and the dust is suffocating. A fearfully hot Indian sun is pouring down a continu- ous stream of fire, not to be moderated, even for a moment, by a passing cloud or the shade of a tree. That umbrella, with which we try to protect our head, is twisted into all sorts of shapes. Scarcely have we got disentangled from one throng, when we are involved again in another. Is there no quiet place here where we may again collect our thoughts, and once more be master of our senses? Yes, there at the edge of the vast encamping-ground ; come, let us seek rest there. THE MISSIONARY AND THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF RELIGION. But who is coming in there, a European, and there is another? You know them at once by their foreign dress and their fair complexion. They are men of grave countenance ; from a distance they look at the spectacle, but it seems to make them sad. They, too, look-up a spot suitable to pitch their camp, but not in the midst of the din and noise, for they need quiet, not, perhaps, so much for themselves, though they look very tired, but for the business they are going to do here at the mela. Their ox-cart has arrived, a tent is taken down and pitched ; boxes, one, two, three, are carried into the tent. They contain articles of clothing, food, cooking vessels, dishes for the use of these foreigners, also a folding-table, two camp chairs, and a something with four legs, by cour- tesy called bedstead. Two heavy cases are still on the cart; with the aid of some helping hands from the crowd, they are taken down and carried to the door of the tent. " No," shouts the foreigner, "not into the tent; we will put them down here outside the tent. They are not for our use, they are for the people." What goods may they contain, and will the people buy anything from these strangers ? Why not ? On their sign-board you read, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satis- fieth not ? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Those two heavy cases contain the bread of life, Scriptures and tracts ; those two foreigners are missionaries, who have come to this mela with a commission from their Master : " Go ye, and teach all nations. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." They have brought to the poor, misled Hindoos the everlasting Gospel, which the Lord has given, to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. It is the trumpet of the Gospel that is sounded now ; but will it be heard in this tumult ? The missionary, his dress, his tent, and all its belongings, have all along been scrutinized by the crowd, and are made the subject of remark without any re- serve. To draw their attention away from these things and to direct it to the main object of his visit, the missionary pulls from his pocket a large, colored sheet, and unfolding it, he reads out, in their own language, " the five elements of religion." The figure Jive is an important one to the Hindoo. He believes the universe to be constructed of five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and the heavens. The Panch'ayat, a council of Jive, is usually called together to settle matters between contending parties or to pronounce on some important point. The missionary now proclaims "the Jive elements of the true religion." i, Khuda maiik hai (God is Lord). 2, Insan gunahgar hai (man is a sinner). 3, Dozakh ki saza hogi (punishment of hell awaits him). 4, Yisu bachane-wala hai (Jesus is the Saviour). 5, Shart iman hai (Faith is the condition). He ex- plains more fully the meaning of these five points ; he shows up the folly of idolatry, the wickedness of sinning against a holy and righteous God, the danger of encountering the wrath of a living God. He speaks of the helping hand that is stretched out toward the sinner in sending Jesus Christ to save him from sin, and insists on the importance of repentance and faith in that Saviour. As soon as the one is tired, the other missionary takes up the sub- ject, and then follow the native assistants with their discourses. Preaching thus is kept up till evening. The boxes of books and tracts have been opened in the meantime, and the contents are offered for sale at a nominal price. Thus many a pilgrim carries in his hand, to a distant home, that may never have been reached yet by a messenger of the truth, the testimony on the printed page, and in his heart conviction of sin, and in his mind a doubt of the all- sufficiency of the Ganges. The missionaries and their catechists thus work day after day, while the mela lasts, from morning till night, each one taking his turn in blowing the trumpet of the Gospel and watching for the downfall of the walls of Jericho ; but that stronghold will not fall till it be compassed seven times, and till there is made a long blast with the Gospel trumpet. That trumpet gives no uncertain sound, but to the heathen ear there is not much music in it. The keynote is always faith toward God, confession of sin, repentance from dead works, and implicit trust in a crucified Saviour. 8 A MOTLEY CROWD. There is no lack of hearers ; but the audiences change in the ccurse of the day a hundred times. You watch the different countenances; some evidently listen with much interest, some appear quite indifferent ; some seem to be deeply in earnest, others walk away with a smile of contempt ; some nod ap- proval, others in going off call it a lie and the preacher a cheat. Brahmins now take up their weapons of defense ; they begin to fear that thus the walls of Jericho may become undermined after all ; their craft is in danger. The at- tacks of the missionary are directed as much against them as against their relig- ious system. They force him into a discussion, and though they are beaten off on one point, they have a hundred others in reserve. They know little of the rules of propriety, and their remarks are seasoned with bitter invective, cal- culated to vex the Christian preacher, and to take him off his guard and pro- voke him to angry retorts. A Mohammedan, though in principle agreeing with all that the missionary says against idol-worship, is yet filled with envy at seeing the crowd listening to the preaching of salvation through Christ. He plays the dog in the manger, and tries to raise a disturbance by cutting re- marks. He does not care to know the truth himself, nor does he wish others to know it. Thus the missionaries have worked with their helpers for ten days in succes- sion. At last they are thoroughly tired out ; their strength is almost spent ; they have become very hoarse, and now their voice can only be heard by those that stand nearest them. But the great day of the feast has also come, and it is the last day. The multitude is now swelled to an incredible size. All now press eagerly forward to the banks of the river for the last time. Once more every one bathes in the muddy water, the men almost entirely naked, the women with a sheet around them. The face is turned toward the sun ; both hands being filled with water are raised above their heads and the water is al- lowed to flow slowly down into the river. The body is rubbed down ; once more it is dipped down in the water, a dry cloth is thrown around the shoulders, the wet one that has dropped underneath is washed and wrung out, and away they go, chatting and laughing as they came. At the large festivals the throng in the water is so great that the older and weaker people have a hard time in getting back to dry ground. They are pushed further and further into the stream, and there have been instances where such have been carried away by the current. What does it signify ? Is not this the gate of heaven ? He that dies here obtains mukti — mukti, that undefined good, exemption from a pain- ful existence in some low animal after death ; absorption in the deity without self-conciousness, as the drop'ffeturns to the ocean. The Brahmins are still busy, eager to gather gifts, to give counsel, and to strip the poor. An old woman totters down the bank and opens a knot in the corner of her gar- ment. A few pieces of bone, an old decayed tooth is deposited, in the bed of the river ; it was all that remained after the body of her lord had been burned. The Brahmins are around her and ease her, if not of her sorrow, of her money certainly. She has none to defend her. There lies a poor wretch in praying attitude before a cow, to whom he has offered some yellow flowers. Behind her are the Brahmins preparing some nasty pills of the five products of the cow, which the man is to swallow in order to be restored to his caste, from which he had been suspended for touching un- wittingly some forbidden food, or drinking from the water-pot of a low-caste man. Another in a similar prostrate position is receiving absolution for a horrible crime committed. His cow had been sick, and he was advised to set her bled He had called in a Mussulman veterinarian to perform the operation. After this the cow seemed to get better, rose up and ate ; but two days afterward she dropped down and died. The village Brahmin pronounced the owner guilty of cow-slaughter, and sentenced him to go on pilgrimage to the Ganges with two hundred rupees to pay the Brahmins that hold the keys of heaven and hell, commencing of course with the village Brahmin. He had not the money, but could borrow it at 24 per cent, interest, and in doing this had to mortgage his house and fields to the money dealer. There are Brahmins that ought to have been here at the me/a, but have failed to make their appearance. They had been commissioned by some relations of a deceased person to take the few remaining pieces of bone to the Ganges. They started with all due ceremony, but buried the bones in the next grave, and are sitting at ease in a neighboring village waiting for their proper time to re- turn. The people themselves will show you with a smile the little mole-hills where the bones are buried, and tell you their origin. The throng has grown thicker and thicker, the noise greater, the dust more suffocating, the heat more intense, the minds of the pilgrims more besotted, their pockets more empty, and those of the Brahmins more heavy. But these go home with a light heart and a cheerful countenance. They can afford to pass by the tent of the missionaries with a contemptuous sneer, ignoring the efforts of these faithful preachers of righteousness, seeing that the whole world had been here to pay homage to the Ganges. The number of hearers at the mission tent has been thinned very rapidly; only a few linger with the missionary, un- decided what to do. The one in taking leave says, " I shall pay you a visit at your station ;" another, " I will take leave of my relations first, and then come to you to become a Christian ; " a third, " I am going to fetch my wife and children. I shall come and be baptized." Alas ! how seldom are these promises fulfilled ; how soon are good impressions lost, and how many bright hopes of the missionary are never realized. The few articles are now gathered up by the pilgrims ; they are tied in a .bundle and thrown over the shoulder ; but each one carries in his hand a large bottle of Ganges water. It is stored away carefully at home, for it is good in cases of sickness, it is required in the worship of idols, it is needed for the dead and the dying. The missionaries take down their tent ; their heavy boxes have become IO light; the cart is loaded and away they go, wondering what the result of all this labor, fatigue, and exposure will be, and whether the seed scattered will spring up some day and bear fruit. The walls of Jericho still stand firm and erect ; many a blast of the trumpet will be needed to bring them down. The shout, 14 Ganga jf ki jai," still fills the air wherever the returning pilgrims appear ; but a soft voice in the heart of the Christian preacher answers, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Within a few hours all signs of human life have disappeared from the vast plain — booths and merchandise, pilgrims, fakirs, and Brahmins, all have disap- peared. The missionaries, too, have left. Once more the banks of the Gan- ges are as silent as they were before the mela. Swarms of crows and vultures are still hovering over the place, and dogs crawl about in search of food. One day more and these also will be gone. i, SKETCH OP THE BRAZIL MISSION. REV. A. L. BLACKFORD THE BRAZIL MISSION. / REV. A. L. BLACKFORD. The Empire of Brazil occupies the eastern part of the continent of South America. It extends from latitude 40 north to 330 south of the Equator ; and from longitude 350 to 720 or 730 west from Greenwich. Its territory embraces about two-fifths of the area of South America ; and is perhaps a little larger than the United States and all her territories, with the exception of Alaska. The greater part of the Empire lies within the torrid zone ; since only a small part of the Province of S. Paulo and the Provinces of Parana, S. Catharina, and S. Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul are south of the Tropic of Capricorn. The valleys of the Amazon river and its tributaries occupy the northern part of the Empire. That immense river — the largest in the world — rises amongst the Andes Mountains, far away towards the western coast of South America ; and after running more than 2,000 miles, almost due east, through Brazilian territory, empties into the Atlantic Ocean immediately under the Equator. It is 150 miles wide at its mouth. The water-shed of the south-western part of the Empire flows into the La Platte river, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean at 35 ° south latitude. These two great rivers and their tributaries afford an immense extent of in- land navigation. Most of the territory, however, thus rendered accessible is as yet very sparsely populated. Save a comparatively narrow belt along the coast and the valleys of the great rivers above named, Brazil is occupied mainly by an elevated table-land, which is mostly well watered and very fertile. God has endowed that land with yet uncalculated natural resources, and has undoubtedly destined it to be the home of immense millions of men, who in some future epoch will constitute a powerful and prosperous nation. Its geographical position renders it remarkably easy of access from the United States and Europe and other grow- ing portions of the world, and is hence favorable to its present rapid develop- ment, and will in the future greatly enhance its influence. The climate of Brazil is varied, and on the whole very favorable. Being on the eastern side of the continent, it is milder and more healthy, even on the coast, than the corresponding latitudes on the west coast of Africa, which lies just opposite, across the South Atlantic Ocean. The northern parts are always warm ; yet the natives there prefer the climate there to that of even Rio de Janeiro, where the variation is quite sensible, though not very great. The part which lies in the south temperate zone enjoys a delightful climate, will produce the grains, fruits, etc., of the north temperate zone, and is well suited for •emigrants from the North of Europe. The mineral resources of Brazil are unquestionably very great, but so far un- improved to any useful extent, save precious stones and gold. The conditions for sustaining an immense population everywhere abound when once properly developed and improved. It has been computed that the territory of Brazil could sustain a population equal to that of China, which is reckoned at 400,000,000. The principal exports from the products of its soil are sugar, cotton, and coffee, and some others of less value. More than half the coffee produced in the world is said to be grown in Brazil ; the largest portion of which is shipped to the United States. Except near the coast, the more populous and better cultivated parts of the country were, until within a few years, chiefly dependent on the mule as a means of travel and transport ; a circumstance which greatly hindered its development. Now, however, there are important railroads from several ports into the interior. The extension of some of these, and other roads in various parts, are under construction or in project. The effect is already manifest and happy in greatly accelerating the progress, social and moral as well as material, of the regions where they exist. The present population of the country is reckoned in round numbers at 10,000,000. It includes Europeans and their descendants, the aboriginal tribes, and negroes, who were brought over as slaves from Africa, together with their descendants. In many parts there is a large intermixture amongst these different races. Brazil was discovered about a.d. 1500, and was soon after taken possession of by the Portuguese, and continued to be a colony of Portugal till 1822, when it was declared independent, under the title of the Empire of Brazil. It is at present divided into twenty provinces. The government is a Constitutional Monarchy. The Legislative Assembly consists of a senate and chamber of deputies ; the senators are chosen for life ; the deputies are elected every four years. The cabinet is chosen by the Emperor, and its ministers hold their office and govern by the will of the crown, subject to the confidence of the lower house, as in England. Portugal held constant dominion in Brazil from the time of first taking pos- session till the date of her independence, in 1822 ; interrupted at times by efforts of other European powers, and especially the Dutch, to establish them- selves in certain localities within her territory. The white population of Brazil is chiefly of Portuguese extraction ; and hence the Portuguese element prevails in the institutions of the country, in the customs and habits of the people, and in every department of life. The civilization, though less advanced than in the more favored portions of Europe and the United States, is still European. The language of the country is the Portuguese, a sister language to the Spanish, but clearly a distinct language. It is a beautiful language, and has been appropriately styled the eldest daughter of the Latin. It is compact, ex- pressive, flexible, and well-adapted for oratory and literature. Owing to the illiberal and ignoble policy which Portugal pursued towards her colonies, Brazil was, during nearly the whole of her colonial history, almost as effectually shut out from intercourse with other nations as were China and Japan during the same period. All the trade was jealously kept in the hands of the mother-country ; and not until the seat of government was transferred to Rio de Janeiro, near the beginning of the present century, were her ports open to the trade of other nations. With the exception of perhaps one or two unsuccessful attempts, there was no Printing Press established in the country till after 1808, when a small one was set up under Court control. Of late years great advance has been made in this respect, and especially in the publication of newspapers in all parts of the country. Literature is also beginning to receive considerable attention. The press is absolutely free. Journals and books of every description can be published without any previous license. In 1822 the independence of the country was proclaimed by the son of the King of Portugal, who was acting as prince-regent. He assumed the title of Pedro I., Emperor of Brazil ; and in 1824 gave the country a constitution, which in its main features has been considered liberal. In 183 1 he abdicated in favor of his son, now Dom Pedro II., who was at that time only five years old. The government was by regents from that date till 1840, when the Em- peror's majority was proclaimed, although he was but fourteen years of age. Dom Pedro II., after a reign of 36 years in his own right, still occupies the throne, and is yet in the prime of life. He is a man of intelligence, of very •extensive acquirements, and of great activity and industry. His visit to this country, from April to July of this year, will be remembered by all. It is hoped the impressions he has carried away of our land may be as favorable as those his visit has made here in regard to himself. The 5th Article of the Constitution of Brazil reads as follows : " The Roman" Catholic shall continue to be the established religion of the State ; all other religions shall, however, be tolerated with their special worship in private houses, and in houses designated for this purpose, without the exterior form of a temple." The courts have decided that the phrase, " without the exterior form of a temple," means that non-Roman Catholic churches cannot have steeples or bells on them. ROMANISM AND ITS HOLD UPON THE PEOPLE. Romanism was inherited by Brazil from the mother-country. It has held almost undisputed sway there for over three centuries. It is but fair, there- fore, to infer that the system has brought forth its legitimate fruits in that great and beautiful land. The moral results have been graphically described by the Apostle Paul in the last twelve verses of the Epistle to the Romans. Not one word of that tremendous indictment need be changed in relation to Brazil, and doubtless the same thing is true in relation to all countries where Roman- ism prevails. 6 It is amazing to hear men who have access to the Word of God, and the facts of history, and of the actual state of the world, attempt to apologize for or even defend Romanism. Romanism is not Christianity. It is rather the negation of all that is distinctive in Christianity. It is the great apostasy, the Anti-Christ, the master-piece of the Great Enemy of God and man, for the destruction of souls and of the welfare of human society. There is not an es- sential truth of the Christian religion which is not distorted, covered up, neutralized, poisoned, and completely nullified by the doctrines and practices of the Romish system. Aside from the fearful corruptions in morals which the system everywhere engenders, and which will not bear recital here, a few of its dire results may be mentioned, as follows : The most debasing ignorance and superstition per- vade the minds of the masses. The religious sentiment in man, if not nurtured and directed by the truths of Divine Revelation, will be overrun by the most degrading and ridiculous superstitions. Rome everywhere seeks with jealous care to hide the Word of God from the people. The result in- tended is secured : — that abjection of spirit and superstitious faith, which engender fanaticism and render the ignorant the ready tools of priestcraft. On the other hand, the intelligent, educated, and thinking classes are driven into unbelief and indifference. It is so in Brazil. The unlettered classes are grossly superstitious and idolatrous. As a general thing, intelligent men who have any claim or make any pretensions to education, do not hesitate to declare their disbelief in many, if not all, of the doctrines of the religion they have been taught. If any such profess a full belief in their system, their sincerity is at once questioned. This is the natural and inevitable result. No man, in the proper exercise of the intellect with which God has endowed him, can intelligently and sincerely accept the teachings and practices of Rome as a religious system emanating from a just, holy, and wise God. In such cases men without a knowledge of the truths of the Bible, naturally seek refuge in rationalism and infidelity, and not a few are driven into absolute atheism. Popery has, however, demoralized itself in Brazil. There is in general very little attachment to the Romish system as such. If the Pope should disappear to-morrow and his place should never again be filled, it would make very little difference to the great majority of Brazilians, so far as their religious belief, sentiments, and practices are concerned. The priests are, in general, ignorant and immoral, and frequently avaricious and exacting, and, as a consequence, are, in most parts, heartily despised. For a number of years past their influ- ence has been rapidly waning in the more intelligent communities and amongst the better classes. In 1873, the bishops of Pernambuco and of Para, the two most talented, learned, active, and zealous prelates of the Empire, undertook to enforce, in their dioceses, the papal bulls against secret societies. This attempt met with a determined resistance, which involved the said bishops in a conflict with the civil power in regard to the extent of their several prerogatives. The con- flict culminated in 1874, when, by order of the Imperial Government, the bishops were arrested, tried by the Supreme Court, and condemned to four years' imprisonment with hard labor, for disobedience on their part to an order of the civil authorities. The sentence was at once commuted to simple im- prisonment, without labor ; and in September, i875> after having served out something over one year of their term of sentence, they were released on a gen- eral amnesty decreed by the Government. At last dates the contest had been renewed by an Encyclical from the Pope ordaining that the entire Episcopate of Brazil assume the same attitude for which the Bishops of Pernambuco and Para were prosecuted. The fruits of Romanism are seen not only in the moral debasement, but in . the backward state of mental and social culture and of material progress. The superiority of Protestant nations in these respects does not result from the difference of race, but from the difference in their religion ; it is the effect of the power of the truth of God's Word on the intellects and hearts of men, and its consequent bearing and influence on their conduct and social institutions. Ten millions of souls in Brazil are in as urgent need of the Gospel as are the pagans of China, India, or Africa ; and, as we shall see, are in an extra ordinary degree prepared to receive it ; yea, more, are urgently beseeching that it may be sent to them. What has been done to meet this want ? EARLY ATTEMPTS AT EVANGELIZATION. It is a deeply interesting fact that the very first effort of the Christian Church after the Reformation to engage in Foreign Missions, was that of the church at Geneva to send the Gospel to the inhabitants of Brazil. Coligny, the great French Huguenot, and other friends of the truth, conceived the idea of estab- lishing a Protestant colony in South America as a place of refuge for their per- secuted brethren, who were the victims of Papal fury in Europe. In 1555, an expedition consisting of three small vessels, under the command of one Ville- gagnon, a distinguished French naval officer, sailed from Havre de Grace, to what is now the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, where they established themselves on an island, called to this day Villegagnon, in honor of the leader and, as he afterwards proved to be, treacherous destroyer of this expedition. Their joyous reception by the natives, who were at war with the Portuguese, and other cir- cumstances, seemed to warrant high hjpes of success. On the return of the vessels to Europe, great interest was awakened for the establishment of the reformed religion in those remote parts ; and the church at Geneva, under Calvin and his colleagues, sent two ministers and fourteen students to accompany the second expedition. Soon, however, after these new colonists reached their destination, the real and villainous character of Villegagnon revealed itself in a series of annoyances and persecutions against the faithful Huguenots, who having gone thither with the hope of enjoying full liberty of conscience, found their condition worse than before. The pre- 8 mature ruin of the colony was soon consummated. Many of the colonists returned to Europe. Of those who remained three were put to death by their infamous persecutor, and others fled to the Indians and Portuguese. Amongst the latter was one named John Boles, who is noted, even in the annals of the Jesuits, as a man of considerable learning, being well versed in both Greek and Hebrew. Escaping from Villegagnon, John Boles went to St. Vincente, near the present site of Santos, the chief seaport of the Province of S. Paulo, the earliest Portuguese settlement in that part of the country, and where the Jesuits had a colony of Indians catechised according to their mode. According to the Jesuit Chroniclers themselves, the Huguenot minister preached with such boldness, eloquence, and erudition that he was likely to pervert, as they term it, great numbers of their adepts. Unable to withstand him by arguments, they resorted to Rome's ever-favorite reasoning, and caused him to be arrested with several of his companions. John Boles was taken to Bahia, about a thousand miles distant, where he lay in prison eight years. When, in 1567, the Portuguese finally succeeded in expelling the French from that part of their dominions, the Governor, Mem de Sa, sent for the Huguenot prisoner and had him put to death on the present site of the city of Rio de Janeiro, in order, it was said, to terrify his countrymen, if any of them should be lurking in those parts. The Jesuits boast that Anchieta, their great apostle in Brazil, succeeded in winning the heretic to the Papal faith on the eve of his execution ; and then helped the hangman to dispatch him as quickly as possible, so as to hurry him off to glory before he could have time to recant. This is, doubtless, a grave injustice to that heroic witness for the truth, invented for the double purpose of staining his memory, and shielding and exalting their own order. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. The blood of John Boles and his faithful fellow-servants, who were there slain for the testimony of Jesus, has been crying to God from those shores for over three hundred years j •crying, not for vengeance on their persecutors, but for mercy to their descend- ants ; that cry comes still to-day to the descendants of the Huguenots in this land, and to all who, by the grace of God, have obtained a like precious faith, beseeching them to carry the light of the Gospel to that beautiful land, over which the darkness of Romanism has hung like the shadow of death for three centuries. Would to God a double portion of that lonely martyr's spirit might fall on many who call themselves servants of the same Jesus for whose sake John Boles counted not his life dear unto him. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church ; and the seed thus sown, amidst the storms of man's savage wrath, in the rank wilds of South America, though it lay long hidden, or was even trodden down, was not lost. We have seen it bud and bring forth fruit. A rich harvest of grand results awaits the watering and the ingathering. The Dutch attempted to establish themselves at different points in the northern part of the country, from Bahia to Maranham, during more or less of the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Godly pastors accompanied 9 their expeditions and preached a pure Gospel in their settlements. But this •can hardly be classed as missionary effort for the permanent dwellers of the land; and all trace of their labors seems to have passed away with the lan- guage and authority of the bold invaders, except the mention by Southey, in his u History of Brazil," that they had prepared a catechism in the language of the Indians, whom they catechised, and other books of an evangelical character in Portuguese. RECENT EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS. To the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States belongs the honor of the first attempt to plant the Gospel in Brazil, in modern times. In 1836, the Rev. Mr. Spaulding went to Rio de Janeiro as a missionary of that Church. The Rev. D. P. Kidder joined him in 1838. The death of his wife compelled Dr. Kidder to return home in 1840. The financial pressure of those times led to the abandonment of the Mission, and Mr. Spaulding returned in 1842. It is impossible in this sketch to give any details of the work of these breth- ren. Their labors seem to have been earnest and abundant for the American and English residents in Rio de Janeiro' and the seamen visiting the harbor, whilst engaged in studying the language, preparatory to more direct missionary work. They, I believe, never established a regular service of worship and preaching in the Portuguese tongue. They aided in circulating large numbers of copies of the Scriptures ; Dr. Kidder traveling extensively, mainly, I believe, for this purpose. His published " Sketches of Residence and Travels in Bra- zil," afterwards merged into " Brazil and the Brazilians," by Kidder and Fletcher, are very valuable. The full results of that Mission are recorded on high, but will hardly otherwise be clearly revealed. Many copies of the Scriptures had been circulated in different parts of Bra- zil, even prior to the residence of Messrs. Spaulding and Kidder in Rio, through various agencies employed by the American and British and Foreign Bible Societies. These Societies have continued their efforts, with some inter- ruptions, during subsequent years, and still offer the most generous co-opera- tion in the great work in that land. Dr. Kalley, a pious Scotch physician, well known through his successful labors in Madeira in 1842 to 1846, went to Rio de Janeiro about 1854 or 1855, and has ever since maintained, in his own way and on his own account, a work of some importance there. He has had a church at Rio de Janeiro for some years past, and some preaching stations in the suburbs ; and about two years ago he organized a small church in Pernambuco. He has no ecclesiasti- cal relations with any branch of the Church of Christ. The Methodist Episcopal Church South sent out a minister the end of last year, with a view of opening a mission in the Province of S. Paulo, whither a few members of that church emigrated some years ago. Except the above-named, the Presbyterian churches of the United States are the only ones at present occupied in active missionary efforts in Brazil. The first missionary of our Church, the Rev. A. G. Simonton, landed at Rio 10 de Janeiro in August, 1859. ^ne writer of this sketch, with his wife, joined him there in July, i860. After acquiring the language so as to use it with some facility, Mr. Simonton opened a place for preaching in Portuguese in May, 1861. It was a small room in the third story of a house in one of the narrow central streets of that great city. His first audience consisted of two- men to whom he had been giving instruction in English. They attended as an act of courtesy to their teacher. They were interested, and at the next meeting brought a companion with them. At a third meeting half a dozen were present ; and thus for some time the number gradually increased ; in fine, the work has gone steadily on from that day to this. CHURCHES ORGANIZED. In January, 1862, Mr. Simonton organized the first Presbyterian church of Rio de Janeiro, or, indeed, of the Empire. At this first communion two I persons were received on profession of their faith. One of them was one of the two attendants at the first Portuguese service ; the other was an American merchant from New York, whose conversion was the result of Mr. Simonton' s labors. Thenceforward the power of the Spirit accompanied and sealed the preaching of the Word. The work has been steady and quiet ; no special outward demonstrations; but there have been constantly in our congregations souls earnestly inquiring the way of life ; and very seldom have any of our regular monthly communions passed without some one or more publicly I confessing the name of Christ. (Jp to the end of 1875 more than two hun- dred persons had been received on profession of their faith to membership in the church of Rio de Janeiro, nearly all of them being converts from Roman- ism, or the infidelity and indifference into which Romanism drives thinking men. We have now, in one of the most central localities in the city, a neat stone edifice, which will seat comfortably six hundred persons. On the same prem- Iises, held by the Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro, there is a lecture-room, school- room, book-store, and a dwelling for one mission family. Besides the regular services in the church building, preaching services and prayer-meetings are held regularly, and occasionally in the various suburbs of the city, which have given encouraging fruits. Besides copies of the Scriptures, a large number of books and tracts are annually put in circulation through the agency of the book-store ; and a good many of these find their way to distant towns and places. Since 1864 a semi-monthly journal, called the Improisa Evangelica, has been regularly published at Rio de Janeiro. It has exerted a wide and powerful inlluence for good, and carried the glad tidings to many places, which no other known means at our disposal could have done. In October, 1863, by direction of the Board, Sao Paulo was occupied as a mission station. It is a city of about 25,000 inhabitants, capital of the prov- ince of the same name, and seat of one of the national universities or law- schools. Whilst in some respects one of the most difficult fields for evangelis- tic work in the whole country, it is, perhaps, second to no other in importance,. 11 after the capital of the Empire. It has been wisely chosen by the Mission as the seat of their training-school for native ministers and teachers. It is a centre of influence whence the power of the Gospel may radiate, not only through the province, but throughout the land. i The preaching of the Word in that city, where infidelity and corruption so alarmingly prevail, by the blessing of God early gave fruit. A church was or- ganized in February, 1865, when several converts were received on profession of their faith. Though the progress of the work there has been less rapid, and for a time was less steady, than in some other places, it has become firmly rooted and is a great power for good. The number received to its membership since the beginning is considerably over one hundred. A noticeable fact is the great number of its members who have removed, to other places, often carrying the blessing with them. Four of the first who there professed their faith are now j ordained ministers, and of those received at a later date two or three are study- ing as candidates. A flourishing day-school for boys and girls has existed for several years in connection with this church. A building has just been erected in an excellent location for the use of the Mission there, which furnishes a preaching-hall, school-rooms for the day- school, and present accommodations for the theological and training depart- ment. The funds for this purpose, so far as yet obtained, have been mainly secured through the indefatigable exertions of Brother Chamberlain, who has had to contend with difficulties which would have disheartened most men. \ The first funds toward this object were appropriated by the Memorial Fund 'Committee in 1872. Contributions from the native members of the church in S. Paulo and some personal friends of Mr. Chamberlain among the foreign res- idents swelled the sum to about five thousand dollars, with which ground and material were purchased in 1875. Ten thousand dollars have since been sub- \ scribed in this country. The thousand or two lacking to complete the build- ing, it is hoped will come in from those interested. A subscription of three thousand toward a permanent fund has been made by a generous friend of the cause, and two of $350 annually toward the support of an additional pro- fessor. ' S. Paulo has been, and should still be made the centre of influence for a vast itinerating work, which will give great direct and future results. Schools are indispensable wherever churches are planted. The adult population is ac- cessible to the Gospel almost everywhere, if not everywhere. Through them the rising generation can be more easily reached, and to more purpose. The preaching of the Gospel is the divinely ordained means for saving souls and establishing His kingdom amongst men. This the Lord confirmed unto us by experience very early in the history of the Mission-work in S. Paulo. Toward the end of 1863, and during 1864, a few tracts and books, Iand a very few copies of the Scriptures, had been circulated by the Rev. J. M. da Conceicao, a former vicar of the parish in the district of Biotas, a rude 12 agricultural neighborhood 170 miles from the capital. After repeated and ur- gent calls to go and preach to them, they were visited in February, and again about April, 1865. It was a tedious and laborious journey on horseback or muleback, over rough roads and sometimes through mere bridle-paths. The mode of work was to go from neighborhood to neighborhood and from house to house, preaching, reading, and expounding the Bible. The Spirit of God had been there preparing the way, and was present to seal His Word on the hearts of men. The truth took deep hold on those rustic, but intelligent minds. Desperadoes, who had been the terror of their neighborhoods, sat meekly at the feet of Jesus ; men and families who had sunk very low in ignorance and corruption were saved and lifted up. In November of the same year, 1865, a church was organized there, consisting of eleven converts from Rome, who were baptized into the name of Christ. The meeting at which that church was organized, was held in a shantee, made by planting poles or rails in the ground and covering it over with grass. Rev. R. Lenington went to reside at Brotas toward the end of 1868, up to which time there had been no settled pastor or resident missionary amongst them, yet the church had grown in three years from eleven to over seventy members. Two or three visits had been yearly made to them by the mission- aries at S. Paulo ; but much of the result seen was from the reading of the Word, and the labors of the converts themselves. Naturally intelligent, shrewd, and active, many of those unlettered men, with the Word of God in their hands, have become a power for good in their respective neighborhoods. That one little church, planted in the wilderness in 1865, had grown in 1875 into five churches, extending from Rio Claro, 50 miles to the eastward of Brotas, to Rio Novo, 120 miles further into the backwoods on the south-west, with a lat- itude of 40 to 50 miles from north to south. This vast field, with its five churches and other interesting and important points around, is occupied by Rev. J. F. Dagama, who resides at Rio Claro, and Rev. A. B. Trajano, one of the young ministers educated by the Mission, who resides at Biotas. At Rio Claro there is a large day-school. At Brotas, and at several points within the bounds of that congregation, also at Rio Novo, and perhaps some other places, schools have been organized, and some of them successfully maintained for several years ; some of them already chiefly self-sustaining. The Mission has a house in the village of Brotas, which serves for a dwelling, school-room, and preaching-hall. At Alto da Serra, within the bounds of the Brotas congregation, although 20 miles distant, the people erected a house, a primitive structure, it is true, to serve for a church and school-house, and also a dwelling for their teacher. The same is true of Rio Novo. In some places they have night-schools for the adults ; and in some cases, old men have diligently set themselves to learn to read in order that they may be able to read the Bible for themselves and to others. Many of those who embraced the Gospel around Brotas had removed from the neighboring province of Minas Geraes, a distance of from one to two 13 hundred miles. Through them the truth was carried thither to their friends and families who remained behind. And there we have to-day church organi- zations at Borda da Matta, Caldas, and Machado. The Rev. M. G. Torres, himself one of the fruits of our mission, ministers to these churches, besides visiting and preaching as he can at many other points. At Sorocaba, 60 miles west of S. Paulo, there is a church and school. It is the natural centre of a large field. Mr. Leite, the licentiate, resides and labors there. At Lorena, about mid-way between Rio de Janeiro and S. Paulo, a church has been organized since 1868; and 12 miles distant another church was or- ganized in 1874. These churches are for the present vacant, but are visited occasionally by the brethren at Rio de Janeiro. Lorena is the centre of an exceedingly inviting and important field of labor. Rev. F. J. C. Schneider occupied Bahia as a Mission station in 187 1. Bahia is a large city of about 200,000 inhabitants, situated in 130 S. lat. No place can need the Gospel more, and it should be steadily occupied. It is, however, an exceedingly difficult field, and the progress of the work is slow. Yet some fruit has been gathered in. Cachoeira, some 50 or 60 miles from Bahia, was occupied as a Mission sta- tion by Bro. Houston the beginning of 1875, and a church was organized the same year. The prospect is said to be encouraging. It should have been mentioned above that Rio de Janeiro, besides a popu- lation of 300,000 or more in the city proper, gives easy access to several other important towns. Just across the bay lies the city of Praia Grande, capital of the province of Rio de Janeiro, with a large population. Campos, 150 miles distant, occupied last November by the Rev. M. P. B. de Carvalhosa, is a city of 20,000 souls, and has easy access toother important towns. At Petropolis, the summer seat of the Court, and one of the most important summer resorts, we have a small church organization. It would be too tedious to name all the important places accessible from this great centre. In 1869, Messrs. Lane and Morton, of the Southern Presbyterian Church,, occupied Campinas, in the Province of S. Paulo, and about seventy miles north-west of the capital, as a mission station. It is a town of perhaps 10,000 souls, and was well chosen as a centre for successful operations. Their labors have been greatly blessed. They have a church at Campinas, and another at Penha, some fifty or sixty miles distant ; and encouraging preaching stations at other points. What they consider, in some respects at least, their most important work at that point, is a large boarding-school, which they have inaugurated with great labor, and which has been in successful operation now for about two years. They had at one time about one hundred and fifty pupils, chiefly from Roman Catholic families. Religious instruction, boldly evangeli- cal, is a definite feature of their teaching. Their Mission at that station has been reinforced by the Rev. Mr. Boyle and several teachers sent from this country. 14 The Southern Church also occupied as a mission station, early in 1873, tne city of Pernambuco, situated in 8° south latitude. It is the third city in size in the Empire, and perhaps the second in importance. It claims about 150,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the province, seat of one of the national uni- versities or law-schools, and has an extensive foreign commerce. That station I is at present occupied by Messrs. J. R. Smith and William LeConte. Whilst very hopeful, I believe, for the future, they seem so far to be engaged in foun- dation work. Mention should perhaps be made of a number of German colonies, in vari- ous parts of the Empire, in which, on an average, perhaps one-half of the colonists are nominally Protestants. In many, perhaps most of the more important colonies, there are Protestant pastors, usually paid in part by the Government. A portion of these pastors are, alas ! only nominally Protest- ants ; some are even infidels. A good many of them, however, seem to be godly men, and, for Germans, sound in the faith ; yet in only one such pas- toral charge have I heard of any true spiritual fruits; and in that case the opposition was more bitter and tenacious than we have ever encountered amongst the native Roman Catholics. These poor people generally say they want a pastor to baptize their children, to confirm, marry, and bury them, and perhaps teach a school, and for the rest to let them alone ; and, I fear, many of their pastors aspire to little more. Even the most evangelical amongst them do not give themselves to proper missionary work. Brother Schneider was occupied chiefly for the first four years in preaching amongst the Germans, and he became wholly discouraged. The presence of German Protestants in a place we have usually found a serious hinderance to our work amongst the Brazilians. These facts merit serious attention. A more definite effort should be made for the benefit of that portion of the population, which is to become a potent influence for good or evil in that land. Let it not be supposed there are no difficulties in the way of the work in Brazil. Besides those arising everywhere from human depravity, weakness, and unbelief, there are not a few peculiar to special causes there. There is full legal toleration for even the most active evangelistic work, which the Gov- ernment seems disposed fully to maintain, yet Protestants are subjected to certain civil disabilities and legal annoyances. Believers have also often to undergo bitter and obstinate social and domestic persecution. As an example, a member of one of our churches in Minas Geraes, a man thirty-five years of age, and a father of a family, was severely whipped by his mother for having abandoned the religion of his fathers. He took it patiently, and held fast his faith iii Jesus. . An effectual door is open for the Gospel in Brazil. That country ought to be evangelized within lhe next ten years. It can be, may be. will be, if the Church will only arise and do her duty. The Lord has gone before and mar- velously prepared the way. Time would fail to enumerate the important points to be occupied, or to tell of the numerous and urgent calls to go and 15 preach, which are sent oftentimes from distant places where a Bible, a book, -a tract, or an Imprensa Evangelica has told of the Word or work, but where no living teacher has ever gone, and where, alas ! we have none to send. In a population thus ready and earnestly waiting for the Gospel, there is one evangelical minister to every 500,000 souls, whilst in the United States there is one to about every 750. This country has very large and important commercial relations with Brazil. The Master has highly favored the Presbyterian Church of these United States, in giving her the almost exclusive privilege thus far of preaching the Gospel to that interesting people. How will she respond to this Providential call ? Brethren, your prayers, your sons and daughters, and your gold and silver are needed for this work. There are in connection with our Mission 16 organized churches, with an aggregate membership of 668. With that of the Southern Church there are .4 churches. ROLL OF LABORERS. A. G. Simonton went out 1859 5 died at S. Paulo, 1867. Mrs. Helen Simonton went out 1863 ; died at Rio de Janeiro, 1864. A. L. Blackford and wife went out i860 ; at home since November 1875. F. J. C. Schneider went out 186 1 ; Mrs. S. joined the Mission 1864. G. W. Chamberlain joined the Mission 1866 ; Mrs. C. 1868. E. N. Pires went out 1866 ; retired 1869. H. W. McKee and wife went out 1867 ; retired 1870 (or '71). Mr. Lenington and wife reached Brazil 1868; at home from 1872 to 1875. Misses Dascomb and Greenman in 1869. J. F. Dagama and wife 1870. E. Vanorden and wife 1872 ; resigned 1876. J. B. Howell 1873. J. T. Houston and wife 1874. D. M. Hazlett and wife 1875. Miss Ella Kuhl 1874. The Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro was organized December 1865, in the city of S. Paulo. J. M. da Conceicao, an ex-priest, was ordained December 1865 ; died De- cember 1873. Win. D. Pitt was ordained Aug. 1869 > died Feb. or March 1870. M. P. B. de Carvalhosa was ordained 187 1. A. B. Trajano and M. G. Torres were ordained Aug. 1875. A. P. de Cerqueira Leite was ordained Aug. 1876. /s. SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS. Whilst Asia and Africa are chiefly under pagan and Mohammedan influ- ence, South America has been for centuries almost wholly under the power of Rome. Soon after its discovery in 1498 by Columbus, it was traversed by adventurers and Romish priests, who took possession of country after country, and annexed it to the See of Rome. With the exception of the southern por- tion, and a small part of the northern, the whole peninsula fell under the sway of Spain and Portugal, and for three centuries their rulers were represented by Viceroys or other officers. This continued until the early part of the present century, when, through political revolutions, and a determination to be free from foreign control, on the part of many of the people, success crowned their labors and their resistance to oppression. In 1822, Brazil became independ- ent of Portugal, and the other States soon ceased to be Spanish colonies. Though free from foreign sway, and guaranteeing political rights to their people, ecclesiasticism was strong in certain countries, and Romanism defended all approaches to her domain. Religious toleration was first recognized in Brazil, then in other countries, until now Protestant missionaries can enter any of them and be protected in their work. The Board has been privileged to send laborers to the United States of Colombia, Brazil, and Chili. Though separated from each other, the field is a common one as regards the character of the people to be reached with the Gospel, their social and moral condition, the obstacles in the way of their being delivered from a false system of faith, and brought into a higher civiliza- tion and a purer morality. It is not necessary to speak of Romanism as a system of ecclesiasticism, except to say that whenever it has become the faith of a people, it has in some way deprived the Gospel of its transforming and sanctifying power, it has interfered with liberty of conscience, it has trampled under-foot the rights of man, it has subsidized everything that it could grasp for its own aggrandizement, and has seized upon the control of education and the reins of political influence. As a religion, it has ignored the simplicity of the Gospel, corrupted and degraded many of the doctrines of the cross, and adapted itself to the wants of the human heart by- pandering to its pride and self-seeking by means of penances and meritorious deeds. As a Church, it is bitter, relentless, and persecuting toward others, and in itself it is the monop- oly of pride and arrogance, worldliness and error, idolatry and superstition. The crushing effects of such a system are seen in South America. The priesthood as a class are ignorant and immoral. The men are irreligious and the women superstitious. The Indians and many of mixed blood are Chris- 4 South American Missions. tianized pagans, and not a few are pagan. The tone of morals is low. Ed- ucation is confined to the few rather than the many, and it is evident that social, civil, and spiritual life is seriously affected, and in some respects de- moralized by the presence and power of such a faith. Though liberty of conscience is guaranteed, yet Romanism can do much to thwart effort and interfere with schemes of evangelization. In Brazil, no Prot- estant can hold office ; all places involving any trust must be filled by Roman Catholics, nominal or real. The spirit of persecution is also strong in sections, and much care and prudence have to be exercised in the presentation of re- ligious truth. For a short period the Board had a missionary in Buenos Ayres, who com- menced labors especially among the French in 1853 ; this was discontinued in 1859. Only one minister, a native of France, was connected with it. After his retirement, the mission was discontinued. The next effort to reach the inhabitants of South America with the Gospel was in New Granada, which was afterward merged into the UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA, which is the present name of the mission. The first missionary, on his arrival at Bogota in the latter part of 1856, found in some respects an open door. No hindrance on the part of the Government, though much on the part of the priests who swarmed over the city. He soon, in mingling with the people, discovered a great difference between Romanism modified by Protestant influ- ences in the United States, and the same system away from any such checks. He found among the youth and the men no love for the Church, but a wide- spread Deism ; he found a low standard of morality everywhere prevalent ; the utter absence of spiritual life, and a resting only in outward ceremonials for an inward preparation for the life to come. The station selected for the beginning of the work was Bogota. — This is the capital of the country, and is situated on the gently sloping foot of two mountains, which rise many hundred feet above it. The city has an altitude of 8,650 feet above the level of the sea, and a temperature ranging from 580 to 620. The population of the city is about 45,000. The number of ecclesiastics amounts to several hundred. The first laborer sent out was Rev. Henry B. Pratt, who reached Bogota June 20, 1856. He was cordially welcomed by several Spanish and American residents. Pie soon commenced English services, but these had to be discontinued. Whilst study- ing the language he prepared certain tracts, and also published some articles in one of the leading papers. These created some stir ; a difficulty in the way of circulating the truth, was the ignorance of many of the people. This mis- sion was reinforced by Rev. Samuel M. Sharpe and his wife, who reached Bogota "July 20th, 1858. Soon after their arrival, services in Spanish were com- menced, which aroused bitter opposition among the Romish party. These disorders were speedily quelled by the authorities, who were determined to Soitth American Missions. 5 maintain the rights of toleration. A night-school was started, and was attended by many. Excommunication was threatened by the priesthood against all who should be present at any Protestant service. Mr. Pratt returned to the United States in i860, for the purpose of superintending the printing of "Seymour's Evenings with the Romanists," which he had translated, and also for aiding in the revision of the New Testament in Spanish. Besides the services mentioned for the purpose of reaching the people with the truth, a Sabbath-school and a Bible-class were organized. Whilst rejoicing in these increasing agencies for the good of the people, Mr. Sharpe was stricken down with disease and died October 30, i860. He was able, before his departure, to welcome to his field of labor Rev. W. E. Mc- Laren and his wife. At that time civil war was raging, though the missionaries were not exposed to personal dangers, still it interfered with the evangeliza- tion of the people, as the Conservative or Jesuit party held for a time the capital of the country. When it fell into the hands of the Liberal party, the Jesuit priests were banished, the monastic orders were placed under restric- tions, and other means adopted to diminish the political influence of the Romish power. A church was organized November, 1861, of six persons. Owing to the distracted condition of the country, the discouraging aspects of the work, and for personal reasons, Mr. and Mrs. McLaren returned home in January, 1863, and their relation to the Board was afterward dissolved. As Mr. Pratt remained at home without returning to his field, this left the mission solely under the charge of Rev. T. F. Wallace and his wife, who reached Bogota March 19, 1862. Death, and the removal of laborers when prepared for usefulness, interfered greatly with the progress of this mission, and for years Mr. Wallace stood alone ; at first studying the language, and getting ready for active labor. In the fall of 1866, Rev. P. H. Pitkin sailed for Bogota, and remained in connection with this mission till his transfer to Mexico, when Mr. Wallace was again the only laborer, except Miss Kate McFarren, who had joined the mis- sion in 1868, and had taken charge of the girls' school. Mrs. Wallace's health giving way, obliged Mr. Wallace to return home in 1875. Near the close of 1874, Rev. W. Weaver and his wife arrived at Bogota. With the exception of Mr. Wallace, all the laborers, for one cause or another, have been able to stay for a comparatively short period in the field. A church building has been purchased and fitted up at considerable expense for worship ; a church of over twenty members has been organized ; a school of growing importance has been established ; one of the native members of the church has taken a partial collegiate, and also a full theological course at one of our semina- ries. Mr. Weaver greatly needs an associate, and if the mission is to be held it must be reinforced ; a good beginning has been made. Much seed has been scattered that needs attention. The prospect for future success is encourag- ing, and of this the Church should take advantage. Too much has been done to think of leaving it, and too little to accomplish great future successes. 6 South American Missto?is. BRAZIL. Brazil is different in some respects from the United States of Colombia. It is much larger, more influential, more stable in its government, and free from the revolutions that have somewhat interfered with the growth and prosperity of the other. The former is an Empire, the latter a Republic. In the former, the Portuguese is spoken ; in the latter, the Spanish. In both there is a love for free institutions, a desire for the maintenance of the same, and a jealousy for everything that threatens their liberties. Whilst Rome had complete pos- session of the United States of Colombia from the beginning until recently, efforts were put forth in the early history of Brazil to establish Protestant insti- tutions, but they failed through the treachery of their leader, and the persecu- tions of the Portuguese, so that this first evangelistic movement of the Church of Geneva and of Calvin was not repeated till modern times. The Presbyterian Church had been anxious for some time to enter this em- pire as an inviting field for labor. At last they were able to send, in 1859, one laborer into it. Rev. A. G. Simonton, of the Presbytery of Carlisle, sailed June 18th, and reached Rio Janeiro August 12th, and was welcomed by several persons. After a careful examination of the ground, he found the papers dis- cussing with much freedom the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church, and a willingness to allow the doctrines of evangelical religion to be defended in their columns. The following statement as to the religious condition of the people was, after this examination, made by him : " To my mind, the most astonishing feature of the religious condition of Brazil is its almost total lack of all religion. Unless I am mistaken, Brazil is singular in this respect, even among the most thoroughly Roman Catholic nations. Not only has religion degenerated from being a thing of conviction to a mere habit, but it has become a habit to pay no attention to its outward forms. The number of church-goers is very small. Confession is falling into disuse. Priests are dissolute, and not unfrequently scoffers. A pure and universal indifference seems to reign. The extremity of the Pope has produced no public prayers, and Garibaldi and Cavour are heroes. It is said that no people cap be without a religion ; if so, few nations can be much more destitute than Brazil. There are special occasions, however, which show that he would be greatly deceived who imagined that their religion is like that which is found in Protestant countries. At times they become religious. One of these times is the hour of death. Then the priest is sure of employment and pay. Con- fession, absolution, the sacrament, and extreme unction are the sources of trust in that hour when all men would be religious if they could." Rio Janeiro. — This was the first station occupied by the mission. It is the capital of the country, and is situated in a province of the same name on an extensive bay. The city is laid out in squares, and the houses are generally built of granite. It contains a large number of churches and monasteries. South American Missions. J Its present population is bordering on 400,000. Here Mr. Simonton began his labors, devoting the main portion of his time at first to the acquisition of the language, and endeavoring at the same time to lay foundations of an im- portant work. He soon found that the mass of the people were indifferent to all religion ; and whilst many were opposed to the Church of Rome, they did not wish to investigate the claims of Protestantism — willing, however, yea, de- termined, that it should be tolerated. There was no restriction upon the dis- tribution of the Word of God and of a religious literature ; and this mode of reaching the people was soon tried and has been prosecuted in one form or an- other ever since. In time, a semi-monthly publication, called the Imprensa Evangelica, was started, which has been maintained and has exerted a great influence for good. The Rev. A. L. Blackford and his wife reinforced this mission July, i860, and the Rev. F. J. C. Schneider December 7, 1861. The former was associated for some time with Mr. Simonton ; the latter was stationed in the province of Sao Paulo, where he devoted part of his time to German settlers. A church was organized in Rio Janeiro January 12, 1862, when two persons were re- ceived on profession of their faith. During the next year eight persons were received into the communion of the church, and from that time the number has steadily increased, and more than 200 have been added to the communion-roll. I^or years the congregation had to worship in a hired room, but through the liberality of certain friends in Brazil and the United States, and the help of the Board, a neat stone building has been reared in a central region, and on the same premises there are a lecture-room, a school-room, a book-store, and a dwelling-house. A native pastor has recently been installed over the church, which pays his salary. Religious services during the week and on the Lord's day are regularly maintained, besides preaching in the suburbs of the city. The death of Mr. Simonton, on December 9, 1867, was a great loss to the mission. He had during the few years' residence in the empire accomplished much by his preaching and his pen, and at a time when he seemed best fitted for efficient service, and when he was considered so important to the mission, came his removal. Messrs. Blackford and Schneider occupied the capital after his death. The former until compelled to return home on account of sickness in his family; the latter until his removal to Bahia. Besides these laborers, the following have been connected for a longer or shorter period with this sta- tion : Rev. J. F. Dagama, 1871-3; Rev. E. Vanorden, 1874-6. The present force consists of Rev. R. Lenington, Rev. D. M. Hazlett, and Rev. A. B. Trajano. Sao Paulo. — This was the second station regularly occupied by the Board, which took place in October, 1863. This city lies some 200 miles to the south-west of Rio Janeiro, is the capital of a province of the same name, and a seat of one of the leading law-schools in the Empire. It is beautifully situ- ated on high table-land some 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. It is an important center of operations, and has been wisely selected on account of its 8 South American Missions. bearings on the work in the southern portion of the country. It was first oc- cupied by Rev. A. L. Blackford, and English service was maintained for sev- eral months on the Sabbath and Portuguese service was commenced. In March, 1865, a church was organized and six persons were received into its communion on profession of their faith. Others were soon added, and from that time the church has had a steady and healthy growth. Mr. George W. Chamberlain, then in Brazil for health, was appointed an assistant missionary October, 1865, and after the completion of his studies at Princeton Seminary, he returned to Brazil and has been stationed at Sao Paulo ever since. Rev. E. Pires, a native of Madeira and a graduate of one of our Seminaries, joined this mission in August, 1866, and, having a knowledge of the Portuguese, he was able at Sao Paulo, where he was stationed, to begin direct missionary labor at once. He was followed by Rev. Hugh W. McKee the next year, but his health did not allow him to remain long in Brazil. He spent the remainder of his days working among the Portuguese in Illinois. For a short period Rev. J. M. de Conceicao, the first ordained native Brazilian, was connected with Sao Paulo. He had been laboring as a priest at Brotas, but became convinced that the Church of Rome was corrupt, and had been trying to lead the people to a purer faith. He readily accepted the truth and became an eloquent preacher of the Word in his tours among the towns and villages. He was permitted to labor only a short time, when he was removed by death. Besides the regular ministry of the Word, some attention has been given to education. Through the active labors of Mr. Chamberlain a building designed for a train- ing-school for young men for the ministry has been completed. It furnishes also a preaching hall and other accommodations for the work. Other schools have been started, and it is expected that a female school of a higher order will soon be under way. The laborers at present are Rev. Messrs. Chamber- lain and Howell and their wives and Miss Mary Chamberlain. Miss P. Thomas is on her way to join this station, going out at her own charges and to support herself while there. Brotas. — This village, 1 70 miles north-west of Sao Paulo, and formerly the scene of Senhor Conceicao' s labors, was the third place occupied by the mis- sion. It was visited by him and by Mr. Blackford in 1863 and 1864, and also in 1865. The journey to it from Sao Paulo was a difficult one, as it was over rough roads and bridle-paths. On their first visit they remained twenty days, occupied constantly in preaching the Word and going from hamlet to hamlet, speaking plainly to all who would hear the simple truths of the Gospel. On November 13, 1865, a church was organized of 11 persons. Soon others were affected ; the worst characters were brought under conviction, and were led to Jesus. For three years this church was dependent on occasional visits of the missionaries for preaching and the administration of the ordinances, yet the number of disciples continued to grow, and when the Rev. R. Lenington went to reside there in 1868, he found a church of over 70 members. The population in and around Brotas is sparse. Many of the members live at a South American Missions. 9 considerable distance from the church building, and in some of the hamlets there are more communicants than in Brotas. This makes the field a difficult one to supply with ordinances. The church has more than doubled its mem- bership since 1868. For some years it was under the care of Mr. Lenington, then under Mr. Dagama, and then for a time under the pastorate of Rev. A. B. Trajano — one of the native ministers who was educated in the mission, until his transfer to Rio Janeiro. It is now under the superintendence of Rev. J. F. Dagama, who has a large field to visit and to cultivate. Rio Claro. — When Mr. Schneider went to Brazil it was in part for the Ger- mans, who were found in numbers in the Empire without the stated means of grace. As there were several German colonies a few hours' ride from Rio Claro, this was selected by him as a center. He soon found the field a most trying one. As he would not administer the sacraments without regard to the moral condition and fitness of the applicant, he had to encounter opposition ; and whilst there were some who sympathized with him and his views, the many were satisfied with a chilling faith and the outward observance of rites. After laboring among them for a time he returned to Rio Janeiro, where he com- menced work among the Brazilians. This place remained unoccupied until the removal of Mr. Dagama from Brotas, and also Miss M. Dascomb, who had been carrying on a school with much encouragement and success. This place is growing in population and it is now a religious center of much importance. A church was organized here April 16, 1873, °f 9 members, which has in- creased to 52. An interesting school was commenced by Miss Dascomb, who was afterward joined by Miss Ella Kuhl. It now numbers nearly 100 pupils, and is under the charge of Miss Kuhl and Miss Dagama. A boarding-school on a simple and economical basis for girls has lately been started. Its object is to train those who will be suited to labor among their own sex. Besides Brotas, Mr. Dagama has several other places to visit. The little church of 1865, planted at Brotas, has now grown into five. In this territory are some 30 preaching-places, more than 300 members, and 1,300 hearers. The extreme point in one direction is 160 miles from Rio Claro. Many of the people can not read. Other laborers are needed for this region. The next church organized was at Lorena, a town of about 3,000 inhabitants, and which lies some 190 miles south-west from Rio Janeiro. It is without a pastor — a large scope of country is commanded by it. Other churches have been organized since ; one at Sorocaba, in the province of Sao Paulo, and which lies 60 miles to the south-west from the city of Sao Paulo. This place contains a population of nearly 8;ooo. The church is supplied by a native minister, Rev. A. P. de C. Leite. Bahia. — Leaving the smaller churches that have been established in the provinces of Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, and going north, we pass by Campos, a place of some importance, lying about 150 miles to the north-west of the capital of the Empire, where a church has lately been organized, and which is ministered to by Rev. M. P. B. Carvalhosa, we reach Ba/iia, an important io South American Missions. seaport in the northern part of the Empire. It is situated on the Bay of All Saints, and consists of two parts — the lower and the upper city. The one is built on the bay for about three miles ; the other on bluffs, which rise pre- cipitously near the water's edge, to the height of several hundred feet. It is difficult to tell the population, but those best acquainted with it estimate it as high as 250,000. It was founded in 1549, and was the capital of the country until 1771. The people have been less receptive to the truth than in other portions of Brazil. It is the residence of the only archbishop in the Em- pire, and it is said that there are more friars and nuns in the convents here than are to be found in these institutions in all other parts of the land. It is an immoral city. It was occupied as a station by Rev. F. J. C. Schneider in 1 87 1. A small church has been organized. Since he left, in the spring, it is without a laborer. Cachoeira. — This station is fifty miles north-west of Bahia, and work was commenced here in 1875, by Rev. J. T. Houston. The missionary soon met with some encouragement, so that a church has already been organized of seven members. There are now, in connection with this mission, six foreign missionaries and their wives, four unmarried ladies, and four ordained native ministers. There are, in the Presbytery of Rio Janeiro, seventeen churches, with a member- ship of nearly 800. The door is open to the whole of Brazil. The people are everywhere ac- cessible to the truth. Occasionally there have been evidences of opposition, hatred, and of a persecuting spirit, but, considering all things, these outbreaks have been rare. Freedom of worship is guaranteed, and the Government has sought to maintain it. More men are needed to meet the present demands of the work, and more means to take advantage of the new openings, and more prayer to give success to the whole enterprise. CHILI. This mission was transferred to the Board by the- American Foreign Christian Union, July 14, 1873, and occupies the whole of the Republic, though at present it is confined to four centers. The country is long and narrow. The Government is liberal in regard to education, and of late years has taken a more decided stand as to religious toleration. Valparaiso. — This city was occupied in 1S50, by Rev. D. Trumbull, who was sent thither by the Seaman's Friend Society and the American and Foreign Christian Union. This port, since the independence of Chili, has become of great importance as a commercial center. Trade has greatly in- creased, and the city itself has grown in population. Dr. Trumbull, though only partially engaged as a missionary, as his labors required him to devote most of his time to the English-speaking people in the city, yet he has done much for the Chilians, having published many newspaper articles and tracts in Spanish. For many years the church, composed of foreigners, has not only South American Missions, n supported him, but has done, in other ways, not a little for the evangelization of the people. Rev. A. M. Merwin was sent out in 1867 to Valparaiso to take charge of the Spanish work, and he commenced preaching in 1868. A church was organized in 1869, and numbers nearly 30. The congregation ranges from 60 to 100. The Sabbath- school has over 40 pupils. '' In this work," says Mr. Merwin, " we are aided by several English-speaking people. Most gratifying progress has been witnessed among some who have confessed Christ during the last few years, and some, out of much tribulation, social and spiritual, have recently entered Christ's kingdom on earth." A good lady-teacher, for boarding and day-school, is needed ; also a church edifice. The people are worshiping in a lecture-room in an out-of-the-way place. Santiago. — This is the capital of the Republic, and is situated on a plain nearly 2,000 feet, above the level of the sea. It is considered one of the finest cities on this continent as regards buildings, convenience, and health. It was first occupied by Rev. N. P. Gilbert in 1861, who, in the midst, at first, of many discouragements from foreigners and natives, persevered until he was able to organize a church and erect a building in a central position and well adapted to the congregation. When Mr. Gilbert retired from the field in 18 71 he was succeeded by Rev. Ibanez-Guzman, a native of the country, and who continued to labor here till his death in 1876. The Rev. S. J. Christen is now stationed at this place. He is devoting part of his time to the education of youth. Be- sides preaching on the Sabbath, he has Sabbath-school and a weekly service on Wednesday evening. A Young Men's Christian Association has been formed, and the members come together regularly for the study of the Bible, and of practical themes connected with it. Seven have been received on profes- sion since September, when the station was occupied by Mr. Christen. Copiapo. — This is a mining town, 400 miles north of Valparaiso, and has a population of some 15,000. Rev. S. Sayre labored at this place before his departure for the United States. There is no missionary here at present. Talca. — This place lies to the south of Santiago, and was occupied by Mr. Sayre for a time. He organized the church, which has a membership of 15 Rev. S. W. Curtiss and his wife, who joined this mission in the fall of 1875, are laboring at this point. " The Papists of Talca are more bigoted in their devo- tion to their Church than those at Santiago and Valparaiso. Both sexes attend, in Talca, the churches in great numbers, while, in the other cities, the men are, to a large extent, sceptical and indifferent." The membership in the four Spanish churches is about 90. The field is becoming an encouraging one. Prominent men are in sym- pathy with Protestantism, and the President of the Republic has, in various ways, identified himself with the cause of truth. On the other hand, the rising generation are gradually drifting into infidelity. New laborers are greatly needed. w in >— i O 'Z w. o > H > 51 > llli!l!l!i'i: (=, CHINA MISSION. The Church of the Lord Jesus in its earthly state is militant. It has not only to maintain its own existence by aggression upon others, but it has to seek their subjugation by tne power of the truth, and enlist them in like serv- ice in seeking the conversion of those who are arrayed against the kingdom of Christ. In this way the nations are to be made acquainted with Christianity, and the people who sit in darkness are to see a great light. To accomplish these great ends, the Church must know the strength of the enemy, the obstacles in the way, and the best modes of meeting and over- coming the opposing forces. Though men are everywhere by nature hostile to God and to the kingdom of His dear Son, yet their hostility assumes various forms. With these, Christians must be conversant, so as to wage a successful warfare against them. Missions, then, are not simply the Church in action, or engaged in close contest with the powers of evil, but they are means of communicating to those at home the resources of the foe and what is needed for his overthrow. Mis- sions have, then, a double object — to awaken and stimulate the Church to the grandest endeavors, and to overcome evil, wherever found, by the force of Divine truth. In no country is the population so great and the territory so vast as in China, and nowhere is there such a field for evangelistic labor and conquest. Its area covers nearly one-tenth of the habitable globe, and its inhabitants make up almost one-third of the human race. For a while these figures seemed incredible, and were deemed by many as fanciful and as put forth by the Chinese simply for their self-glorification ; but they have stood the test of time and of a thorough investigation as to their truthfulness. The Chinese Empire is about four times larger than China proper. The former takes in Manchouria, Mongolia, Turkestan, etc., and has an area one- third greater than Europe ; the latter, embracing simply the eighteen provinces, is only about one-third the size of Europe, and in this territory are massed chiefly the 400,000,000 of the Empire. Without endeavoring to grasp in thought this vast multitude, let us suppose that they were scattered equally over the world according to population, it would then happen that every third person would be a Chinaman, and this go where we would. This single fact gives some idea of the populousness of that country and the numbers that are to be brought under the power of the cross. China Mission. 3 m In many of its features China bears a strong resemblance to the United States — such as configuration of country, varieties of climate and productions, and lying almost within the same parallels of latitude. It is as rich in soil and richer in mineral resources. Its coal-fields are the largest in the world, and side by side with these is found abundance of iron ore. The precious metals exist in most of the provinces, and in some portions in great profusion. There is a great diversity of climate in its valleys and mountains, and there is scarcely an article which grows in any part of the world but would grow in one portion or other of China. Turning from these features of soil and climate to the people in their social and religious life, and we will be better prepared to understand the difficulties in the way of their evangelization and their needs of a better system of faith than any they have yet embraced. SOCIAL LIFE. For centuries, yea, we may say for millenniums, they have been molded and influenced by the religions still dominant and by practices growing out of them. Their present immobility of mind, lack of enterprise and skill in invention, their clinging with a death-grip to old customs and methods, and their dislike to anything foreign and novel, contrasts strangely with their wonderful devel- opment and progress in former days. In many of the arts and sciences they were far in advance of Western nations. Printing, paper-making, the com- pass, gunpowder, fire-arms, and the manufacturing of silk fabrics, were all known to them before they were discovered elsewhere. Their carving in wood and ivory, their porcelain and china-ware, show that they are not surpassed in these by any other people. Whilst all this is true, they have been content with the perfection attained, and for centuries they have sought no improve- ment in culture and civilization, and have steadfastly resisted all innovations. This has had a crushing effect upon their intellectual, social, and moral natures. They live in the past. Their golden age has gone, and they are content with the greatness and fame of their fathers. Filled with pride and prejudice, they resist Western ideas and inventions, and violently oppose the introduction of railroads, telegraphs, etc. All who live outside of their own Empire are bar- barians or foreign devils, and as such they are necessarily inferior to them- selves. The family relation is highly honored among the people, and especially parental authority. One of their writers sums up moral and religious duty in this manner : " The richest fruit of love is this— the obeying of one's parents; the richest fruit of righteousness is this— the obeying of one's elder brother ; the richest fruit of wisdom is this — the knowing these two things and not departing from them." Confucius laid it down as a prime doctrine that filial piety is the root of virtue, and the stock on which all excellence is to be grafted. What is thus inculcated is largely practiced. Children reverence their parents while living and honor them when dead. Ancestral worship is* 4 China Mission. everywhere prevalent. The main object of this is to supply the dead with such things as will be needed by them in the spirit world. Ancestral tablets are found in every house in China, and much superstition is connected with them and with the honors paid to the dead. Though this duty has such a hold upon the masses, and is recognized by all classes, yet the home of the Chinese is very different from what that word means in Christian lands. Discomfort reigns, love is often absent, and untidi- ness exists. The position of woman, from the cause mentioned, is higher than in most heathen lands. Still, she does not enjoy social equality. With rare exceptions, her mental training is neglected. Strongly, but no doubt truly, does a writer say, " The condition of the women is the blackest spot on Chinese civilization." Nowhere in heathen lands is woman placed and treated where her noblest qualities can be developed, and this is true of China. She occupies morally, as well as socially, a low position. MORALS OF THE PEOPLE. Heathenism can never produce a high type of morality. Here and there may be men who stand out as moralists, and whose writings inculcate fine religious sentiments, but these, from the very nature of the case, are pervaded by error and superstition. Confucius and Buddh taught many noble truths, but with them doctrines that neutralized their power and that interfered with the spiritual elevation of the masses. Idolatry can never elevate man. With it are associated vices and glaring evils that keep its votaries in hopeless bond- age. Rev. M. J. Knowlton says: " Avariciousness sways the heart of all classes, from the highest to the lowest. There is no mode of deception and fraud, no trick nor art in trade, no quackery nor jugglery, in which the Chi- nese are not perfect adepts. Deception and lying are so common, that they have almost lost the consciousness that they are wrong. Backbiting and quarreling, slandering and cursing, intrigues and broils, are universal. Pilfer- ing and theft ; robbery, extortion, and piracy j suicide, infanticide, and mur- der ; lotteries, gambling-shops, opium dens and brothels, are very common. In short, the description given in Romans of the moral condition of the heathen is true to the letter, as applied to the Chinese." It is, then, evident that the religions embraced by them have not made and kept them virtuous, or made them strong in principle and devout and pure in character. Their condition is an urgent plea for evangelistic labor, but it is also a mighty obsta- cle to its success. ■ RELIGIONS. There are three dominant systems — Confucianism, Taouism, and Buddhism — though a fourth, Mohammedanism, abounds in certain districts. These three exist side by side, and are believed in, to a greater or less extent, by almost the entire nation. The first derives its name from Confucius, who flourished about 500 B.C., and built up a system on th* moral sayings and doings of the China Mission. 5 ancients. Taouism was the work of a Chinese philosopher, a cotemporary with Confucius, and though called " rationalism," it is largely a system of sorcery. Buddhism was not introduced into China until the first century of the Christian Era, and seems, with its varied rites, feasts, and doctrines, to be suited to the people. Confucianism is the religion of the State and of the educated classes, but so accommodating are the Chinese in matters of worship, that it is common for the same persons to profess and perform the religious rites of all three. Idolatry is allied with each of these. The country is full of idol temples, and it is said that it is easier to find a god than a man, and yet the Chinese are truly described as "a nation of atheists," as they are really an irreligious people. This conjunction of religious systems supplementing each other, suited by their varying peculiarities to the tastes and wishes of their votaries, and influencing public and private life, create a fearful obstacle to the Gospel. What one lacks the other supplies, and each is regarded as necessary and useful. Atheism and idolatry, spiritualism and materialism, fasts and feasts, are believed in and observed by the same individuals. Such a combination interferes greatly with the reception of the truth or even an acknowledgment of its claims. LANGUAGE. Here we find unity in diversity. One yet many languages. The spoken dialects throughout the Empire are many ; the written language, known and read in all parts, is one. The language of books is, then, very different from that used in conversation. The former is everywhere the same ; the latter numbers some two or three hundred. The colloquial at Canton is very differ- ent from that spoken at Ningpo, and that used in Shanghai is unintelligible in Peking. The language is monosyllabic ; that is, every syllable is a distinct word, and the number is said to be about 500. The characters formed from these are manifold. In Kang-hi's Dictionary are 47,000 characters. Dr. S. Wells Williams' Dictionary contains about 12,000. In the Bible 4,000 char- acters are used, and 5,000 are all that are necessary for a scholar. The labor is not simply to master so many syllables or so many characters, but to under- stand the tones and aspirates, as upon the proper rendering of these is the true meaning of the word. Says a writer : " The monosyllable pang in the colloquial of Amoy, may be uttered in ten different ways, and according to the utterance may mean — to help, to spin, to bind, to let go, corpulent, a bee, a room, a sail, a club, a scare." A missionary visiting a family who were mourning the death of a near relation, wished to ask whether they had buried the corpse ; using the right word, he misplaced the aspirate, and asked whether they had murdered their relative. Now, as the written characters are the same, just as the numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., are the same in the different coun- tries in Europe, but as each nation has its own way of pronouncing them which may be unintelligible to others ; thus, for the numeral 3, the English say three, the French trots, the German drei, etc., and yet each one means the 6 China Mission. same symbol. So it is the same in China as to the sounds of the written characters. It is then evident from this simple reference to the language and to the necessary difficulty in its acquisition, that it is a great barrier in the way of the missionary. OPIUM. This is another and fearful obstacle to the truth. The introduction of opium into China was begun by the Portuguese, and was soon afterwards carried on by the English, and from that date, covering about ioo years, it has been a source of revenue to the Anglo-Indian government. For many years the trade was contraband, and various attempts were made by the Chinese authori- ties to stop it. It grew in volume in spite of edicts and the most strenuous efforts to check it. Out of these grew complications, and then war with En- gland, and as a consequence of this its introduction into the country was legal- ized in 1858. To the honor of the Chinese government they resisted this legalization until vanquished ; to the dishonor of England, her representatives forced it upon them in spite of all remonstrance. Its degrading and demoral- izing effect upon the people socially, intellectually, and morally, is fearful. " It destroys," says a Chinaman, " all principles of integrity and every energy which the Deity has bestowed on man, and that for it men will sell their chil- dren and pawn their wives. No language can describe the horrors which result from its use." . . . The use of this drug, and the fact that it is brought into their country by a Christian Government, are serious hindrances to the reception of the Gospel. " Why," said a Chinaman addressing a missionary, "do Christians bring us opium in defiance of our laws ? This vile drug poi- soned my son, ruined my brother, and well-nigh led me to beggar myself and my children." The feelings of this class are thus epitomized by Bishop Smith : 11 Surely it is impossible that men who bring in this infatuating poison that makes the talented man an idiot, the strong man a shattered, nervous wreck ; that brings many to an untimely grave, and makes wives widows and children fatherless, can either wish me well or do me good." Considering these various obstacles as they exist in China — obstacles that spring from national character and life in their imagined superiority and pride ; in their clinging to the past and their aversion to all innovations ; in the low state of morals ; in their disregard for truth and honor ; in their feeble con- ceptions of moral principles, and their adherence to religious opinions that injure heart and life ; in their vicious indulgences and degrading superstitions, and we have enough almost to appal faith itself, and to lead God's children to falter in any attempt to bring such hearts and lives into sympathy with the truth. But when we conjoin to these others springing from the acts of Chris- tian nations that prejudice, embitter, and imbrute mind and heart, and those which are presented in the acquisition of the language, and we have enough to show that nothing but a supernatural Bower can overcome these hindrances ; that those who are there preaching the Gospel to the people, are engaged in China Mission. y a most difficult and arduous work, and that they need the sympathy, prayers, and support of all who love the Lord Jesus. MISSIONS. China was hermetically sealed to missionary effort till 1842, when it was opened at a few ports at the close of the war with England. There were mis- sionaries in China and to the Chinese prior to this, but those that were in the Empire were there not by treaty rights, and those that were outside, as in the Straits, were there endeavoring to reach the Chinese with the Word, and pre- paring to enter into the country when permission was granted. In 1807 the first Protestant missionary reached Canton in the person of Robert Morrison, who was known to the people as an agent of the East India Company, and not as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus. Unable to preach the Gospel pub- licly, he was accustomed to hold secret meetings with a few natives, and with locked doors. He devoted much of his time to the translation of the Scrip- tures. After six years' labor he was joined by Rev. W. Milne, but he was not permitted to remain. He therefore took up his abode, in 18 15, in Ma- lacca, and now these two laborers, though separated, toiled for the same object — the conversion of the people to Christ. The work of preparation was slow, still Morrison was permitted to baptize in 18 14 the first convert, who continued steadfast in the faith till his death. The English missionaries, till 1838, settled in the Straits at different points ; but the first American mis- sionaries, Bridgman and Abeel, in 1830 went direct to China, and there re- mained. Till the opening of the five ports in 1842, four missionaries in all went to Canton, eight to Macao, a Portuguese settlement near to Canton, and forty- six to the Archipelago, from which those then at work among the Chi- nese, when permission was granted, were transferred to China, while others from various missionary societies followed, and these labored at the five cities and in Hong-Kong till i860, when ten other ports were open, which have since been increased. So that it may be said that now the countless myriads of China are accessible to the missionary. OUR MISSIONS. These began at Singapore in 1838, on the arrival of Rev. R. W. Orr and Rev. J. A. Mitchell. They were followed by Rev. T. L. McBryde, in 1840, James C. Hepburn, M.D., in 1841, and Rev. Walter M. Lovvrie, in 1842. Mr. Mitchell was soon called to his rest, and Mr. Orr was compelled in 1840 to leave his field on account of failure of health, and Mr. McBryde, for the same reason, returned home in 1843. During the next two years the Church showed her interest in China, and her readiness to give her sons and daughters to the work, as in this period she sent to this field Dr. McCartee and Mr. Cole, a printer, and Rev. Messrs. Way, Culbertson, Loomis, and their wives, and Rev. Messrs. Lloj-d, Happer, and Brown. Of these, only two are now in China Mission. 9 the service of the Board — Dr. Loomis at San Francisco, and Dr. Happer at Canton. Three stations were soon established — Ningpo, 1844 ; Amoy, 1845, anc^ Canton, 1845. Amoy was abandoned in 1848. Since that the following points have been occupied : Shanghai, 1850; Hangchow, 1859; Tungchow, 1861 ; Chefoo, 1862; Peking, 1863; Soochow, 1871 ; Chenanfou, 1872; Nanking, 1875. CANTON MISSION. Canton. — This is the most southerly station of the Board, and has been occupied since 1845. It is the capital of the Kwangtung province, and was for a long time the principal emporium of foreign commerce. It is one of the largest and wealthiest cities of the Empire. Its population is about 1,000,000. For a long time the people manifested a most unfriendly spirit toward for- eigners, and on this account it has been a most difficult field to cultivate. Owing to this animosity the seat of the mission had to be at Macao at first, as the missionaries were unable to obtain a residence in the city. In 1846 Messrs. Happer, Speer, and French constituted the mission. A boarding- school was at once begun, and in it were soon gathered nineteen boys. With the acquisition of the language came preaching to the people and the distribu- tion of the Scriptures and tracts. In 185 1 a dispensary was opened, and soon became an interesting sphere of missionary influence. This was under the management of Dr. Happer till the arrival of Dr. Kerr in 1854, when it gradually became enlarged, and has been an important department of mission labor ever since. Near the close of 1856, in consequence of hostilities between the Chinese and British, the dwelling-houses of the missionaries, with much valuable property, were destroyed, the schools were broken up, and all evangelistic efforts were suspended. The laborers then on the ground — Messrs. French, Preston, and Kerr — retired to Macao, and they were unable to resume missionary work till 1858. In November of that year Mr. French was removed by death, and in 1859 Dr. Happer returned to Canton from a visit to the United States. In i860 Rev. I. M. Condit and his wife joined this mission. The missionaries year after year continued to preach and to teach all who could be brought under their influence. Schools for boys and girls were established, chapels opened, and various ministries in hospital and else- where employed, but no fruits of all their efforts appeared. Dr. Happer was, however, privileged to baptize a native woman in October, 1861, and soon afterwards four more persons were baptized. This led to the formation of a church in January, 1862, which consisted of seven native members ; this number increased the next year to thirteen. In 1865 the number enrolled was twenty; in 1870, thirty-three are reported; in 1875, two churches were organized with a membership of one hundred and thirty-eight, of whom forty- two were received in that mission year. This cheering increase has continued. About fifty have been added to the first church the past year, bringing the io China Mission. total membership to nearly two hundred. Some of these Christians have had to brave persecutions for their faith, but they have willingly borne all, that they might show their sincerity and the power of Divine grace. The work as carried on at this station and five outstations by the three missionaries, one medical missionary, and two unmarried ladies, is the care of the native churches ; preaching in the chapels, attendance upon the hospital, and preaching at times to the patients, who numbered the past year — out- door patients, 17,577; in-door patients, 915; the training of young men in the boarding-schools ; the education of the young in day-schools ; the care of the girls' boarding-school, and work among women. There are in connection with this mission twenty-four native laborers, who are preaching, teaching, and going from house to house with the Word. Some of these labor at the out- stations. Dr. Kerr has lately returned home, and his place has been supplied by Dr. Carrow. The present missionaries are Rev. Messrs. Happer, D.D., Preston, Noyes, and Henry, and their wives; Miss Hattie Noyes, Miss Mat- tie Noyes, and Miss Lucy A. Crouch. NINGPO MISSION. Ningpo. — This city, said to contain, with its suburbs, a population of 400,- 000, is situated on the Ningpo river, about twelve miles from the sea. It is the capital of a department of the same name, and is in the province of Che- Keang. It is on the same parallel of latitude as New Orleans. This city was one of the five ports opened to foreigners, and was occupied as a station of the Board in 1844. It was first visited by Dr. McCartee and by Rev. Richard Q. Way and wife. They were followed by Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, Rev. M. S. Culbertson, and A. W. Loomis and their wives. Mr. Richard Cole trans- ferred the press from Macao to Ningpo. A church was soon organized con- sisting of ten members, three of whom were Chinese. One was a young man who came with Mr. Way from Singapore, and was baptized as the first fruits of the mission to China. The others were Chinese girls who had been bap- tized in Java. A boarding-school was established under favorable circum- stances, and twenty-three boys were received. In 1846 Rev. John W. Quar- terns n joined this mission. During this year the fourth native convert and the first from Ningpo, was baptized. The school was enlarged to thirty scholars. A girls' boarding-school was also commenced, and was placed under the care of Mrs. Loomis, which soon numbered sixteen pupils. These schools, supported by Sabbath-schools and friends in our own country, have proved one of the most efficient evangelistic agencies. From them came first a large proportion of the church members at Ningpo, and these, in turn, became effect- ive laborers in the mission in leading others to Christ and in establishing churches at outstations. These scholars were instructed in the different branches of study and in Christian truth in their own language. This mission has been greatly prospered. Early in its history itinerations into the surround- ing country were begun in five different villages, and these were continued, and China Mission. n the number of places enlarged, until churches were organized and a native ministry placed over them. The people were not only more willing to hear the truth than the Cantonese, but were more ready to embrace it. One of the first pupils received into the school at Ningpo in 1845, ls novv pastor of the Yu-Yiao church on the Ningpo plain. This church has no members. A second church, an offshoot of this, was organized at Tsen-Hong, ten miles from Yu-Yiao, with forty members. The first pastor of the Yu-Yiao church was also a pupil at the boarding-school. After he was ready to take charge of this organization, he was ordained in 1864. There were then only four persons connected with it. Soon a blessing rested upon his labors, and at the first communion twenty applied for baptism — of these fifteen were admitted to sealing ordinances. In less than three years there were enrolled eighty members in full communion, and there were at the time of his death, in August, 1866, about twenty inquirers. The six churches on the plain have now a membership of 300, where fourteen years ago there were only some six converts, and in the whole mission, with Ningpo as a base, there are now thir- teen outstations and a membership of about 600. In the sixteenth year of the mission the number reported in connection with the church was nineteen. These, in the next fifteen years, have multiplied over thirty-fold, and the prospect for an enlarged ingathering is quite encouraging, as many of the private members are true evangelists. The printing-press was removed from Macao to Ningpo in 1845, and in i860 it was transferred to Shanghai, where it remains. This has grown to be the largest printing establishment in China, and, perhaps, the largest mission press in Asia. Its success has been owing, in part, to the use of metallic types, by which a small number of characters only are needed. It was found that the Chinese characters, which are so many thousands, could be classified into the " divisible " and " indivisible." The former could be reduced into their simplest elements, which, when " struck off as types, could be recom- posed in different characters, so that a comparatively small number would serve to denote most of the characters in common use." The medical services of Dr. McCartee had considerable influence in mak- ing known the Gospel, and in creating a friendly feeling among the people to missionaries. Many came to the hospital from a distance, who not only heard the truth, but who carried it away with them to their homes in a printed form. This Mission was greatly afflicted in the sudden and unexpected death of Rev. Walter M. Lowrie by the hands of pirates, which took place August 19, 1847, as he was returning from Shanghai, where he had spent some time in revising with others the Chinese translation of the Scriptures. His removal was a great loss to the cause, as he was admirably fitted for the various depart- ments of mission-work. In 1849 and 1850 this Mission was strengthened by the following mission- aries : Rev. Joseph K. Wight, Rev. H. V. Rankin, and Mr. Moses S. Coulter, and their wives, Rev. Samuel N. and Rev. W. P. Martin and their wives. 12 China Mission. Early in 1854 Rev. J. L. Nevius and his wife arrived at Ningpo, and they were followed by Rev. E. B. Inslee and wife, who reached this station January 1, 1856; Rev. Messrs. D. D. Green, Joshua A. Danforth, and their wives arrived at the close of 1859; and Rev. W. T. Morrison and his wife in July, i860. The next year Rev. J. S. Roberts and Rev. S. Dodd sailed for this Mission, and in 1865 Rev. J. A. Leyenberger and wife. In January, 1868, Rev. John Butler arrived at Ningpo. The present force at this point consists of Rev. Messrs. Joseph A. Leyenberger, and John Butler, and Miss F. E. Harshberger. There are also connected with it seven ordained native minis- ters and a number of teachers and helpers. Shanghai is a seaport of Kiang-su, fourteen miles from the sea, and contains a population of 300,000 inhabitants. Rev. Messrs. Culbertson and Wight were transferred from Ningpo to it in 1850. Its situation as a great commercial centre with other parts of China and the outlying world, led the Board to select it as its second station, and more was expected from it than has been realized. Mr. Culbertson first devoted his time to the revision of the Scriptures with the representatives of other missionary societies. This Mission was strengthened by the arrival of Rev. John Byers and his wife in 1852. He remained but a few months, when sickness compelled him to return home, which he was not permitted to reach by reason of death. On the 30th of September, 1854, Rev. Reuben Lowrie and his wife arrived at Shanghai ; Rev. Messrs. Charles R. Mills and Samuel R. Gayley and their wives February 7, 1857 ; Rev. J. M. W. Farnham and his wife March, 1861 ; Rev. John Wherry and wife October, 1864; Rev. George F. Fitch sailed 1870, Mr. J. L. Mateer 187 1, and Rev. C. Leaman 1874. The present laborers are Rev. Messrs. Farnham, Roberts, Holt, and their wives, and Mr. J. L. Mateer, who has had charge of the press. The Tai-ping rebellion interfered for a time with missionary operations as the city fell into the hands of the Insurgents, who kept possession of it for many months soon after its occupation by the missionaries. The inhabitants were greatly oppressed by them, and were exposed to much danger by the attacks of the Imperialists. Much was expected from this movement in its incipiency, as the leader had been taught and was well acquainted with Scripture truth ; but it soon lost in most places its religious element, and since its overthrow it has proved a hindrance rather than a help to the evangeliza- tion of China. It is supposed that at least 20,000,000 of people lost their lives in the insurrection. Here, as at the centres already mentioned, preaching was established, schools organized, the Word circulated, and tours made in the adjoining towns and villages. In February, 1859, the first convert was baptized, and in the fol- lowing February a church was organized, composed of the Mission families and the native convert. In i860 the press was removed from Ningpo to Shanghai, under the superintendence of Mr. William Gamble, who had arrived in China in 1858. This step was taken from the superior advantages which China Mission. 13 Shanghai had as a commercial centre. This press has been a power. Some years more than forty millions of pages have been printed, and in its issues have been not only various editions of the Word of God, but important works in various departments of literature, science, and religion. The large and valu- able dictionaries of Dr. Hepburn, Dr. S. Wells Williams, and others have been printed at this establishment. The premises which have been used by the press for many years have lately been sold, and a new building, more pleasant and much nearer to the business centre of the city, has been purchased. Two boarding-schools — one for boys and another for girls — have been car- ried on for many years at Shanghai, and from them many have been brought into the church. Several native laborers have been trained in them also for mission -work. Hangchow, the provincial capital of Chekiang Province, lies 156 miles north- west of Ningpo. It was occupied as a station in 1859 Dv Rev. J. L. Nevius, but he was obliged — as the Treaty did not allow him to reside in the interior — to return to Ningpo. His sojourn in Hangchow bore fruit in the conversion of a native of Sing-z, where we have now an interesting native church. A woman of some property also received the Gospel, and she was instrumental in commencing another church at Kaokiau. In January, 1865, the late Rev. D. D. Green settled at Hangchow, and was followed by Rev. S. Dodd from Ningpo. Rev. David N. Lyon and his wife arrived at this station in January, 1870. Since that time Hangchow has been under the care of Messrs. Dodd and Lyon. The boys' boarding-school was removed from Ningpo to Hang- chow, and numbers about thirty pupils. On this school, as already stated, a blessing has rested, as from it have come nearly all the native ministers in the Ningpo Presbytery. The work of evangelization has been gradual. Soon souls were born into the kingdom, and now there are in connection with the church at Hangchow, and one at an outstation, about eighty members. There are two ordained native ministers, one of whom is entirely supported by the native church, and the other partly so. Over one hundred persons have been bap- tized since 1865. Soochow is seventy miles from Shanghai, and is also in the same province. It is one of the most populous of all the large cities in the Empire, and is known as the " Paris " of China, both for its advanced state of civilization, and for its low state of morals. In 18 71 Mr. Charles Schmidt occupied it, and was soon joined by Rev. George F. Fitch and his wife. Rev. W. S. Holt and his wife arrived in 1874. A church of five members has been organized ; two day-schools have been started ; work for women has been vigorously undertaken ; a book depository for the sale of Bibles and religious works has been opened ; and itinerating into the surrounding country has been carried on to some extent. These four cities constitute a quadrilateral, and the region is so threaded by canals that touring is greatly facilitated. More of itinerating work is demanded, though some of the missionaries devote part of their time to it. 14 China Mission. Nanking. — This famous city is situated on the Yang-tse-kiang River, some seventy miles from its mouth. It was visited by Rev. Messrs. Whiting and Leaman in September, 1875. There was an attempt made by the authori- ties to remove them, but they were firm, and stood their ground on treaty rights. Mrs. Whiting soon joined her husband, and she is said to be the first "white woman" who has ever lived in this city. The laborers are laying the foundations for an important work. Already two have been baptized. In these five cities are found 10 ordained missionaries, n native ministers, and several licensed to preach the Word, a number of native helpers. There are also one superintendent of the press and one unmarried lady. SHANTUNG AND PEKING MISSION. Work was begun in this Mission in 1861 by the removal of Rev. J. L. Nevius and his wife to Shantung province, for health. They were followed by Messrs. Gayley and Danforth, who occupied Tungchow, an important city on the coast, having a population of 150,000, and in a province that contained nearly 30,000,000. Here they found the people friendly, and ready to listen to the truth. Mr. Gayley was soon removed by death, and Mr. Danforth was obliged by loss of health to return home. Rev. Charles R. Mills was trans- ferred to Tungchow. Rev. Calvin W. Mateer and H. J. Corbett and their wives arrived in January, 1864. In 1862 six persons were baptized, and the year following ten more were admitted to the church. Chefoo, also on the coast, and the chief foreign port of Shantung Province, was occupied as a station and as a sanitarium in 1862 by Dr. McCartee, who remained here for some three years. Mr. Corbett removed from Tungchow to this point ; and Miss C. B. Downing, who arrived in the early part of 1866, has been laboring here ever since. Chefoo was regarded as the commer- cial centre for the eastern portion of the Province, and was inhabited by merchants and traders without their families, and was proverbially immoral. Since its first occupancy the population has increased at least five-fold. Che- foo has become the centre of an important work. In it has been organized a church, and over it a native pastor has been ordained ; an industrial school, under the care of Mrs. Nevius, is exerting a good influence upon the women ; the boarding-schools are also doing good service in the training of the young. In this work Miss Downing has accomplished much. The outslations dependent on these two stations are centres of special interest. A few years ago some persons in Ping-til were baptized. Soon a work of grace began, which increased in power, and went on amidst persecu- tions and dangers, so that now there are three churches and two day-schools supported by the people. In the Chimeh district Mr. Corbett spent some months nearly four years ago in preaching the Wrord, and especially to a class called the " Nameless Sect." Amidst persecutions and great dangers he remained until he had baptized nearly one hundred persons, when he had to flee for his life. The work, however, went on, and now the whole number of China Mission. 15 native Christians is about three hundred. Persecutions have ceased, and many are seeking the conversion of their friends and neighbors. The next station in this Mission occupied was Peking, the capital of the country, in the year 1863, by Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin and his wife. He was cordially received by some of the higher officers of the Government ; a school was soon commenced, and also preaching, though at first with some apprehen- sion of trouble ; a church, consisting of seven members, was organized ; and in the next year, 1866, six more were baptized. Rev. W. T. Morrison was transferred from Ningpo Mission to Peking. Dr. Martin was elected Presi- dent of the College under Chinese authorities in 1869, and resigned his con- nection with the Board. Soon after this took place Mr. Morrison was removed by death. Rev. Jasper Mcllvaine, who had arrived the preceding year, was left in charge. After the reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Joseph L. Whiting and Rev. Daniel C. McCoy, with their wives, were received by transfer from the American Board, and they are now the only laborers at this station. Their time is taken up in preaching and teach- ing. Chapel preaching is well attended. There are five candidates for the ministry under instruction. Rev. John Wherry, of this station, is at present in the United States. Chenan-fou, capital of the Shantung Province, three hundred miles south of Peking, was occupied as a mission station in 1872. This city is considered one of much importance, as the centre of a very promising population. It is desirable that a strong force should be stationed here. Mr. Mcllvaine has labored part of the time alone. Rev. J. Fisher Crosette and his wife moved there last year from Tungchow. Rev. John Murray and his wife, who reached China in November last, have gone to this place. A physician is greatly needed. Of those who have been connected with tlr.s Mission whose names have not been mentioned, are Rev. E. P. Capp, Rev. L. W. Eckard and wife, John P. Patterson, M.D., S. C. Bliss, M.D., Rev. James M. Shaw and his wife, and Miss M. J. Brown (Mrs. Capp), Miss Mary D. Patrick, Miss E. S. Dickey. Of these, Messrs. Capp and Shaw have died while in the service of the Board. We have endeavored in this sketch to bring before our readers a few salient points connected with our own missions in China. From these we see how much more ready the people were to receive the truth in one section than in another. There is a great contrast between Canton and Ningpo Missions in their earlier history, and between Shanghai and Tungchow. We further per- ceive the benefits in adhering to a place in spite of discouragements and obsta- cles. Canton was for many years an unproductive Mission as regards results. At the close of the first quarter of a century the church reported on its roll thirty-three. In the next seven years this number is multiplied nearly six-fold, and the good work of ingathering is going on. We see the benefits in the Ningpo Mission of a native ministry, and of schools in training the 1 6 China Mission. preachers for their work. Another encouraging feature is the increasing num- ber of the churches ready and willing to support their own pastors. In looking at and considering results, we must bear in mind the great preparatory work that is to be done among a heathen people, before they can take in or understand Divine truth ; the labor that is to be expended by the missionary in the acquisition of such a difficult language ; the time needed to prepare religious works, and the slow process of removing prejudices ; creat- ing confidence among the people, and of getting them to attend to the things that are said. In view of these and kindred difficulties, we are only surprised that the results are so cheering, and that the labor expended has yielded so much fruit to the praise and glory of God's grace, and that the converts have given, in spite of persecution, losses, and other trials, so many evidences of sincerity and firmness. Dividing the period from 1846 to 1876 into three periods, and we have in 1856, 12 missionaries, 2 medical missionaries, and 40 communicants; in 1866, 16 missionaries, 2 medical missionaries, and 329 communicants; in 1876, 24 missionaries, 1 medical missionary, and 1,157 communicants. The Church, as a whole, according to a published list a year ago, has in China 189 ordained, 10 medical, and 24 lay missionaries ; 3 superintendents of the press, and 210 married and unmarried females. A total of 436. Of this number 210 are from the United States, 194 from Great Britain, and 32 from Germany. What are these for so many millions? An ordained mission- ary for every two millions. Surely this is not all that the Protestant Church can do ; and yet it is all that she has attempted. The prospects for enlarged efforts are cheering. There are signs of unrest among the people ; a higher appreciation of foreign things ; a willingness to examine and to test, and even to seek instruction from without. There are constant accessions to the number of Christians, which increase the moral forces for the elevation of the masses. There are civilizing tendencies coming in with Christian knowledge and efforts, and there is a growing power in the press. These are signs for good. With them the Church should sympathize and heartily co-operate. '7. CHINA MISSIONS, 1807-1877. The following historical sketch of missions in China which we present to our readers is of interest, as embracing something of what has been done by different missionary organizations. It is taken from an issue of the English Presbyterian Church, called The Gospel in China: "The story of evangelistic missions to China up to 1877, divides itself very naturally into three parts. Each of these represents a different period, the limits of which are governed by well-marked changes in the relation of China to the western world. " I. The first part of the story runs from 1807, the year in which Robert Morrison landed at Canton, to 1842, when, by the treaty of Nanking, Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain and five Chinese ports were thrown open to foreign trade and residence. During this long period of five and thirty years, the mission zeal which had been kindled at the beginning of the century strove in vain to find a door of entrance to the Chinese empire. From his solitary post in the British factory outside of Canton, the earliest laborer watched dur- ing some twenty-seven years for some breach in the closely guarded wall of Chinese exclusiveness, and died without seeing his desire. Morrison died in 1834. With his wife and rarely accomplished son he lies buried at Macao. His great dictionary, his translation of the Scriptures, and his many other translations and literary works, attest not only the herculean character of his labors, but the faith, the courage, and the single-mindedness with which he ever kept in view the salvation of China by the Gospel. The first Chinese convert was secretly baptized by Dr. Morrison in 1814, and in 1832, just two years before his death, he speaks of ten persons in all who had received this ordinance. From 1826 he had the comfort and advantage of Leang-a-fah's as- sistance as an ordained preacher. Leang-a-fah had been converted at Malacca, and was baptized there by Dr. Milne. For many years he was a valuable la- borer at Canton, not only in such preaching labors as were possible, but also in writing, printing, and distributing tracts. In 1834 he had to flee for his life to Singapore. " This first period of China mission history is associated almost wholly with the work of the London Missionary Society. The first thirteen missionaries to the Chinese proceeded all of them from that Society, and included not only Morrison, but Miine, Medhurst, Dyer, and other excellent laborers. Before the war broke out in 1839 tne Society had sent no less than twenty-three 2 China Missions. laborers to the Chinese mission-field. The only other Society that came actively forward before the war of 1839, was the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions. Bridgman and Abeel were the first American missionaries to China. They reached Canton about 1830, and within the next nine years the same Board had sent forward no fewer than nineteen laborers, all of them for work amongst the Chinese. "A prominent feature in the work of the first period, and one which had its origin in the impossibility of finding an immediate entrance into China itself, was the endeavor to reach the Chinese at outlying points. The missions to the Chinese in Malacca, Penang, Singapore, Java, Borneo, and Siam, all sprang up in this way, and served one most valuable end, at least, in preparing skilled laborers for the Empire itself. Of the forty-two missionaries mentioned above, thirty-six wrought in these outlying fields. The missionary results at these places were in themselves not very encouraging, and at nearly all of them the work has been given up. Not, indeed, that there is not an ample field for mission-work at each of them, but that the great missionary societies have felt it incumbent upon them to concentrate their energies on the Empire itself. Of the wisdom of this course there can be no question. "A fair distribution of tracts and Scripture portions was possible even in those early years, not only amongst the Chinese of the Malayan Archipelago, but in China itself. Gutzlaff availed himself of the questionable facilities of opium-smuggling schooners, and was enabled to do a considerable work of distribution at various points along the eastern sea-board. Somewhat later (1835), Messrs. Medhurst and Stevens chartered a little brig for this same purpose, and sailed as far north as the Shantung promontory, landing at several points, distributing books, preaching as they had opportunity, but find- ing no place at which they could be permitted to remain. One of the noblest efforts in this direction was the fitting out in 1837, by the American house of Olyphant & Co., at a cost of $20,000, of a schooner, the Himmaleh, for the express purpose of such coasting work. The failure of Gutzlaff, who had entered the service of the British Government, to use this vessel, though it was the offspring of his own representations, and the death of the Rev. Edwin Stevens, of the American Board, at the commencement of its first voyage, left it unemployed in the hands of the large-hearted men who had fitted it out, and it had to be turned to commercial uses. "Another element which has since proved of great value in the history of Chinese missions, that of medicine in close alliance with the preaching of the Word, had also its beginning in those days. Pearson, Livingstone, and Col- ledge, all of them of the East India Company's service, had already done good service by their large-hearted, benevolent medical labors in behalf of the Chi- nese of Canton and Macao, but Dr. Peter Parker, of the American Board, was the first medical missionary to China. Prom 1 835-1839 in his Ophthal- mic Hospital at Canton he had wonderful surgical success, but the missionary element was almost wholly in abeyance. The doctor and his assistants were China Missions. 3 closely watched, and anything like direct preaching to the patients, or even, the distribution of religious books among them, would have resulted in the closing of the hospital. "At Canton and Macao, the only points in China proper where the slightest foothold had been obtained, the appreciable missionary results in the way of converts did not, at the close of this first period, reach to twenty baptized adults. Those long years of waiting at length came to an end. The war with Great Britain broke out in 1839, and, ending in 1842 in the treaty of Nanking, it inaugurated a new era for Protestant missions. " II. The treaty of Nanking ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain, and opened to foreign trade and residence the five ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. The history of mission-work in China for the next eighteen years, that is, from 1842-1860, is just the history of what was done at these five ports and their neighborhood. The successful establishment of a new mission, having the port of Swatow as its center, is the only exception to the above statement. The Swatow Mission was begun by Mr. Burns in 1856, under circumstances of great difficulty, and was carried to a prosperous issue by the settlement, in 1858, of the Rev. George S'mith, as the first permanent laborer in that region. Several features of considerable interest attach them- selves to this period. " 1. There was, first, the almost immediate gathering to the five ports of men who had already been providentially prepared, and who could at once enter upon mission-work. Thus those who, before the breaking out of hostili- ties, had either at Canton or Macao been striving to gain some kind of foot- hold, were ready to take advantage of the new and larger opportunities now granted at Canton. To Amoy there speedily gathered at least six missionaries, three of the American Board and three of the London Mission, all of whom had already, in various parts of the Malayan Archipelago, been laboring amongst Chinese who spoke the Amoy dialect. For Ningpo and Shanghai three men were ready in the persons of Messrs. Medhurst, Milne, and Lock- hart, all of whom by previous labor and study were able at once to take up active mission-work in these localities. Foochow alone remained unoccupied for a time. It was first taken up in 1847, the missionaries of the American Board who had been engaged at Bangkok, amongst the Chinese of Siam, transferring themselves to the new post. When we remember that the treaty of Nanking made no stipulation for the permission of mission labor, and that, therefore, the whole question of how the Chinese authorities might deal with missionaries was still open, this providential readiness of so many men to take immediate advantage of the opportunity and thoroughly to establish themselves before debate could arise as to their peculiar standing, was of no small value. The Chinese have a habit of making the least of their apparent concessions, narrowing them down to the utmost possible limit, and, if they could have realized how the little unmentioned item of Protestant missions was to be the one wedge, above all others, which should open up their country to the 4 China Missions. familiar gaze of foreign eyes, and to the leavening influences of a doctrine which silently, steadily, but most surely, must revolutionize China, they would not have been slow to interpose all possible obstacles. " 2. The second most interesting aspect of this period is the wonderful upstirring of the Evangelical churches to take hold of China as a mission-field. Up to 1839 two great Mission Boards of England and the United States, i. e., the London Missionary Society and the American Board, had the field almost wholly to themselves. It should not be forgotten, however, that in those earlier days, both in England and in the United States of America, these two Boards practically represented the Evangelical churches, and were supported by all. As the individual churches one by one have risen to assert their church life in mission labors, these two great Boards, though still retaining a little of their original catholic character, have more and more come to be recognized as the special missionary boards of the Congregational churches. In 1842, the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Baptist Boards of the United States; in 1847, the American Methodist Episcopal; and about 1850, the American Reformed Church, established themselves in China mission-work at one or more of the five ports. From the side of England, the Church Missionary Society in 1844, the Baptist Board in 1845, the English Presbyterian Church in 1847, and the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in 1853, sent forth agents to one or more of the newly opened ports. From the Continent of Europe, the Basel Missionary Society in 1847, the Rhenish Missionary Society in 1847, and the Berlin Missionary Society (since absorbed into the Rhenish Society) in 185 1, severally sent forth a number of laborers who chose Hong Kong as their center, and from thence have passed over to the mainland to do excellent and widespread service in many towns and villages. Of course, it is plain that, excluding the Continental Societies which work out from Hong Kong, there were about a dozen societies having locations in the five ports. Thus Canton found itself with representatives -from the London Missionary Society, the American Board, the American Presbyterian Church, the Ameri- can Baptist, and the Wesleyan Methodists of England. Similarly there was, of necessity, at each of the other ports, what might seem a crowding together of the various Protestant denominations. Very little evil has resulted from this. Not only are the territory and population around each port so great as to allow of separate action, and of due regard to each other's line of work, but the Chinese have no difficulty in recognizing the essential unity of all in the proclamation of Jesus as the one Saviour. On the other hand, it paved the way for the much more speedy occupation of new centers, so soon as those in God's providence were thrown open. " 3. The results of work during this second period. These varied consider- ably at the five ports. Perhaps Canton fared worst of all. The intense enmity manifested by the populace in their repeated assaults on foreign property, the necessity for repeated hostile interferences on the part of Great Britain, and the outbreak of the second war in 1856, gave much less steady opportunity to China Missions. 5 the laborers at Canton than at any of the other ports. It is probable that some thirty to forty would be about the whole number in Church membership at Canton in i860. At Amoy, on the contrary, the mission laborers had con- tinued peaceful relations with the populace, and they had also from the first encouraging signs of interest in the Gospel. In 1850 there were some twenty members associated with the London and American missions. In the begin- ning of 1854 the preaching of Mr. Burns at Pechuia issued in a remarkable awakening which spread also to Amoy, so that by 1858 there were some 400 souls in Church membership. "At Foochow the ground was found to be unusually hard. As the result of the first ten years' labor the American Board missionaries had one convert, and three years later, in i860, they had thirteen. The American Methodist Episcopal Mission, by the same year, had fifty-four persons in membership. The Church Mission, after many trials through the sickness and enforced etirement of the early laborers, were in the same year beginning to see the earliest fruits of their work. " At Ningpo, again, there was more of the friendliness which the Amoy mis- sionaries had experienced, and not improbably from a similar cause. They are both commercial rather than literary cities. The various missions in con- nection with this center numbered in i860 about 200 converts; whilst Shang- hai, the last of the five ports, had about 150. " Speaking roughly, it may be said that in i860, at the close of this second period, there were some 80 missionaries on the field, and about 1,300 baptized converts. To this period, also, belongs the preparation and publication of what is called the Delegates' version of the Scriptures, that which is commonly used by the large majority of missionaries in China. It was printed in Hong Kong in the year 1855. " III. The third period opens with the ratification of the treaty of Tien-tsin, at the close, in i860, of the war which had broken out at Canton in 1856. This treaty not only expressly recognized the legality of Christian missions and the rights of Chinese converts, but it further opened up a large number of new spheres of labor. These were Tien-tsin, New-chwang, and Tungchow in the north ; Swatow and the islands of Formosa and Hainan in the south ; and three ports on the Yang-tse, viz. : Hankow, Kiu-kiang, and Chin-kiang. The older missions speedily branched off to take immediate advantage of some of these openings, whilst quite a number of other churches were induced by these new opportunities to break ground for the first time in China. Thus the Methodist New Connection occupied Tien-tsin in i860; the English Uni- ted Methodists began work at Chefoo and Ningpo in 1864; the China Inland Mission was formed in 1865 ; the Irish Presbyterian Church in 1869, and subsequently the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland took up Manchuria, bequeathed to them by William Burns ; the Canada Presbyterian Church broke ground in North Formosa in 1872 ; whilst the churches in the Southern States of America, breaking off from the Northern churches in connection 6 China Missions. with the civil war, formed separate Mission Boards, and sent forth their own laborers to several of the Chinese ports. This third period, running from 1 860-1 8 7 7, is very interesting from its wealth of successful effort. The pros- perity of mission-work in China has shown itself not only in the vastly increased numbers of church members, now supposed to number about 12,000, but very conspicuously also in the lines of Church organization and the development of a native pastorate ; and yet further in the large number of great inland cities, possessing each its own congregation or congregations of Christians, and some of which, such as Hangchow, Soochow, Nanking, Kalgan, etc., are now utilized for foreign missionary residence. As in contrast with Romish missions there is something positively startling in the immense territory which has been opened up by the agency of Protestant missions, and in which there is now, comparatively, both traveling and teaching freedom to all comers. Rom- ish missions, however long they have existed in China, have neither had, nor are they having, any such influence. Their promoters dwell in darkness ; their whole system is hedged round with secrecy; they utterly fail to place the truth in a position that will make it play with any living and life-giving power on the conditions of surrounding society ; they create no healthy breath of mental freedom in their neighborhood ; and their chief influence, as in any- wise anticipating the open preaching of the Gospel, has been to create a ma- lignant atmosphere of suspicion and terror. It is impossible, however, in this brief sketch to enter more fully into the multiplied features of interest which belong to these later years. They will, doubtless, have been fully brought out at the Shanghai Missionary Conference. This Conference of representatives from all the Evangelical Missions in China, coupled with the new Convention between Great Britain and China, by which' fresh spheres of work are being opened this year alike to commerce and to missionary enterprise, fitly closes the third period of missionary history, and inaugurates a fourth, which, we can not doubt, will reveal, in greatly multiplied measure, the mercy and compas- sion of the Lord Jesus toward the poor, proud, perishing myriads of China's heathen." Rev. W. Muirhead, missionary of the London Society, gives the following facts regarding the work in China : "There are now 220 foreign missionaries at work in China, and between 400 and 500 native preachers and assistants, some of whom have attained high scholarship and degrees in their native learning. "The literature consists of translations of the Bible and other books, com- mentaries and expositions of portions of the Bible, numerous school books, reading lessons, and elementary works on geography, history, and physical science, tracts and pamphlets on religious subjects, periodicals, magazines, newspapers, and almanacs. At Hong Kong there are three native daily news- papers, two of them having native editors. At Shanghai there is one native daily paper and one weekly. There is also a child's monthly of wide circula- tion. Books on medical science, chiefly by medical missionaries ; books on China Missions. philology, dictionaries, grammars ; works on the philosophy and religions of China and on Christianity. " If the literature which they had produced had been the only result of the labors of Protestant missionaries, it would have been no mean proof of their earnest and laborious lives ; but these occupations are only preparatory and subservient to higher works, in which they find their true calling. " Preaching, teaching, visitation, conversation, all to make known the Gos- pel. The foreign Protestant missionaries as a rule can and do preach in Chi- nese. They preach in mission chapels and in the streets and wherever they are permitted to go, and they go sometimes where they have no direct per- mission. "The converts now number between 10,000 and 12,000. Literary gradu- ates and influential wealthy men are included in this number, but the converts are mostly of the poorer classes. Of the reality of the religious life and prin- ciples of the converts there can be no doubt. Slow progress and inconsistency of conduct in some cases are both admitted and deplored, but in many in- stances a high Christian character is attained. Chinese converts are more ready to engage in Christian work than the average of church members at home. I have heard the highest testimony borne by Mr. Muirhead, Dr. Eitel, of Hong Kong, the Bishop of Victoria, and others, to the ability, character, and labors of the native preachers." The following figures show the number of communicants connected with some of the leading Societies, and the year when the first missionary was sent : London Missionary Society, Church " " Baptist " " Wesleyan " " Presbyterian Church of England, United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, German Missions, American Board, Baptist Episcopal " Presbyterian " Methodist Episcopal Board, Reformed Church " Year. Communicants 1807 2,272 1844 1,068 1845 62 1853 3d 1847 i,974 1863 62 718 183O 424 1834 704 1835 187 1838 i,3i9 1847 i,3i7 185O 53o 18, "PAPAL EUROPE. It is a sad thought that whilst Christendom is seeking the evangelization of outlying regions of moral darkness, inhabited by pagan and Mohammedan, she is divided in the great essentials of truth, and one part is arrayed against the other and seeking its overthrow. It is a sadder thought that the one part has fallen into such gross errors, that affect the life of its votaries, that the other considers them as almost, if not wholly, anti-Christian, and as needing a fuller and better knowledge of divine truth, and which is to be enjoyed not by reforming their faith, but in seeking its destruction, and in bringing them into saving contact with the pure and unadulterated Gospel of Christ. That sys- tem called Romanism, in contradistinction to Protestantism, is so overladen with traditions and with rites that the simplicity of truth is not seen nor its power felt. Wherever it exists, there is a field for missionary effort, and there should the evangelist go to win back the people to a simple, but hearty, reception of the Gospel. This is the theory of the mass of Protestants, and the more the spiritual condition of Romanists is seen, and the fruits of the system are un- derstood, the more should efforts be put forth to improve the one and coun- teract the other. The Christian Church is beginning to act on this plan, though little comparatively is done in the way of direct labor, and the application of material forces. A commencement only is made in certain countries, and in some where Rome holds sway, no earnest aggressive effort has been inaugurated. Our subject is Papal Europe. Once this name took in the whole of Europe, except that portion which adhered to the tenets and the teachings of the Greek Church. Now, in the west, in the center, and in the north is a power adverse to it, and that aims at its destruction. Whilst Rome was dreaming that all was peace within her borders, and some of her defenders were declaring that every heretic was exterminated, and that no one stood up in opposition, a great moral revolution suddenly took place, that severed En- gland, Scotland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and portions of Ger- many and Switzerland from her sway. Though no country since has thrown off allegiance to the Pope, yet Papal Europe has a different meaning and in- fluence from what it had soon after the Reformation. In many respects it has suffered heavy and irretrievable losses, while on the other hand, Protestantism has been gaining in numbers, political influence, and moral power. Had Protestantism been a unit at the Reformation, or, like the Papacy, been under one grand controlling principle and head, its successes might have been greater and its conquests larger, but this would have destroyed independence of thought and action ; but God permitted it to be broken into distinct parts, that the evils which had grown around the Romish Church might be avoided, and that a richer harvest might in the future be gained. Or had the Protest- ant Church been sufficiently consolidated for aggressive work, as Rome was 2 Papal Europe. even with her great losses, the condition of Europe might have been different to-day; but the evangelistic element was lacking, and whilst Romish emissa- ries were busy under .the guise of Protestantism, but really under the guidance and mastery of Loyola, to stir up strife and widen differences, Lutheran and Calvinist were at war, and in many places instead of fighting their common foe, they were at variance among themselves, and weakening each other. Whilst it is true that no nation has thrown off its allegiance to the Romish See since the Reformation, it is also true that no Protestant country has abandoned the faith and sought alliance with the Papacy. But the relative strength of these two systems is not the same. In this there has been a marked change and a wonderful gain to Protestant power. Says the Rev. VV. Arthur : "In the age succeeding to the Council of Trent, Papal Europe meant only all the most ancient, splendid, and powerful monarchies of Europe. The historical and ec- clesiastical center of the whole was Italy, with the Papal throne as her dominating authority ; the German Empire, or, as the Papacy had loved to call it, the Holy Roman Empire, was the political and military center ; France was an intellectual and social center ; and Spain and Portugal formed a center of force for expan- sion beyond the seas — an expansion already so vast that those two countries appeared securely to divide the East and West between them, the Papacy pre- siding over the distribution with the rights of suzerain. Poland, at the other side of Europe, was reckoned upon as able to win back heretical Sweden, and to subdue schismatical Russia — schemes which were not only entertained, but attempted. Outside of this splendid circle lay no nation possessing either an imposing antiquity or a brilliant modern expansion. Some States in Germany had thrown off the Papal authority, but, compared with the historical nations, they were individually weak, and were also difficult to combine, being now sundered from both their temporal head, the Emperor, and their spiritual head, the Pope. Two monarchies lay between the lights of civilization and the un- broken night of barbarism — Sweden and England. Compared with the other Protestant States, they were considerable ; compared with Papal Europe, they were of small account. Every great historical city on the continent belonged to the Papacy. So did every ancient university, and every influential center of art, letters, or civilization, excepting only places which had sprung up into renown since the conflict of the Reformation began. The old, polished languages were all in the service of the Papacy. Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese were exclusively so. These inherited the Latin dignity and culture. German at the most polished courts, and in the most noted schools, was Papal. Only in new and northern States had it revolted. The English, too, was its comrade in the revolt. Hut neither of these lan^ua^es had a lit- erature to speak of." Now what is the state of Papacy to-day in these countries, and what is -its power in the world ? France has been humbled by a great Protestant nation that had not then a name, and she no longer dictates to other dynasties or fol- lows blindly the will of the Pope. Spain and Portugal are in a decrepit Papal Europe. 3 condition, having lost nearly all their foreign dependencies, and have no influ- ence in European affairs. Italy had sank into decrepitude until unified by foreign aid and by the complete overthrow of the great abettors of the Papacy. Austria has been shorn of much of her strength, and she no longer controls or leads the great German Empire. Poland has disappeared from the roll of nations. England, then so feeble, has spread over all lands. Prussia has become a giant, and Russia, then unknown, is in numbers almost equal to the whole of Papal Europe. Rome, the seat of ecclesiastical power, is now the capital of an united and free Italy, over which the Pope has no political control. These wonderful changes have in no way strengthened the Papacy or enlarged its influence among the nations of the earth. It has been weakened by each. The very efforts put forth to augment its sway, have in the divine orderings enfeebled it. Protestantism has not only grown politically, but numerically in Europe. Compare Spain and Great Britain. At the Reformation the one was greatly superior to the other in numbers and political influence. Now Spain has just about one-half the population of Great Britain, while in this period the latter has peopled Australia, New Zealand, United States, and other countries. During the last fifty years, England has increased her population 119 ; Prussia, 72 ; Austria, 27 ; and France, 12 per cent. This difference led a French Ro- man Catholic to write, a few years ago, as he called attention to it : " On com- paring the respective progress made since 18 14 by non-Catholic Christian na- tions with the advancement of power attained by Catholic nations, one is struck with astonishment at the disproportion Unquestionably since 1789, the balance of power between Catholic civilization and non-Catholic civilization has been reversed." Whilst Protestant nations guaranteed liberty of worship to all classes, nearly every Papal country prohibited Protestant worship or Protestant evangelization. This was especially true of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria. Now France is infidel rather than Romish. Italy is free from the Alps to her southern bor- der, and the Vaudois preacher and the Protestant evangelist can traverse the country unmolested, and proclaim everywhere the truth as it is in Jesus, even in Rome itself, and within sound of the Vatican. Changes as great have taken place in Austria, and if Spain is seeking to curtail Protestant movements, the attempt is only momentary. Papal Europe, in a word, is free. In this state of things, it is important that missionary labor should be wisely expended, and all effort, of whatever kind, so used that it shall yield the richest results. There is danger, especially in Italy, where various societies have en- tered, lest their resources shall not be utilized to the best advantage, or too much means should be employed, so as to produce among the people a spirit of dependence. There is at times an unwise expenditure of money among the unevangelized, and too delicate a regard for the poverty of the people. Ro- manism, as well as heathenism, draws steadily upon such for the maintenance of their systems. Protestantism gives where the others receive, and the result is oft feebleness instead of vigor, and dependence instead of self-reliance. Papal Europe. MISSIONARY AGENCIES. These are twofold — one is an evangelism that is carried on by the native Protestant Church in different Papal countries ; the other is a work done in these and other countries in Europe, by Protestant organizations mainly in Great Britain and the United Slates. In Ireland there is a vigorous Christianity that is earnest, watchful, and aggressive, and that is gradually making inroads upon the power of the Papacy. The Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches of the land are not only active and resolute to maintain their position, but to grow. Their missionary and educational efforts are in a healthy state, and they are aided somewhat by others in their endeavors to bring Romanists to a knowledge of a purer Chris- tianity. The relative growth of Protestantism is much greater than that of Romanism. In 1825 the Protestant population stood to the Roman Catholic as 3 to 13 ; now it is as 1 to 3. The Protestant population in France is variously estimated from half a mil- lion to two millions. Their connection with the State, and the active inter- ference and control of the latter, has greatly interfered with the liberties of the Church and with that independence which is essential to its healthy growth. Then the rationalism that has invaded many of the churches has weakened the life and energies of the Reformed body, so that there is a lack of harmony and of unity among its members. These divisions absorb too much of their strength, which is needed to meet the calls that are made to them for help and to evangelize the places that are calling for pastors. The different Protestant organizations have a number of missionary and philanthropic societies that are doing much good. The English Wesleyans and American Baptists of the for- eign churches are putting forth the greatest efforts to evangelize France. The American Foreign Christian Union, that expended formerly much labor and money on the country, is again resuming direct evangelistic work among the people. As most of the Protestants in France are Presbyterians, those of a like faith in the United States and Great Britain extend help to existing insti- tutions, instead of sending out their own laborers as missionary agents. The believers in Portugal are yet few, and but little is done by foreign socie- ties to reach the masses of the people, and deliver them from the yoke of Rome. In Spain more has been attempted, and aid has been given both to the Spanish Christian Church and to other agencies, especially by Christians in Great Britain, France, and Switzerland. A number of towns have been occupied by Protestant ministers, and the cause was making slow, yet steady progress when the late sad reaction took place through the return of the Bour- bons to power. Since that, it is evident from every move of the central gov- ernment, that it has fallen under the blighting influence and tyrannical rule of the hierarchy whose aim is to circumscribe the efforts of Protestant mission- aries, and then to crush them. This seeming reverse to the truth will be over- ruled in God's own time to the furtherance of the Gospel. Papal Europe. 5 Belgium has a small, but vigorous Protestant element. The Belgian Evan- gelical Society is composed chiefly of converts from Romanism, and is assisted by Christians in other lands. Italy draws to itself, as the head of the Romish Church, much thought and interest. Within her territory are a people who are older than the Papacy, and who have never been subject to it. So that they are in no sense Protestants, though in sympathy with them in their views and sentiments. The Waldensian Church has for ages been persecuted by the Pope and by the people of Italy, and various attempts made to exterminate it utterly, but in vain. When liberty of conscience was guaranteed to them by the Sardinian monarch, and freedom of action and protection in their aggres- sive movements were enjoyed, they became missionaries, and seized different points as centers of evangelization, reared churches, established schools, founded a hospital, and, in time, organized a theological seminary, which is in successful operation in the city of Florence. This Church now numbers 5 presbyteries, in which there are 40 churches, 16 stations, 50 places regularly visited, and 103 agents, including pastors, evangelists, teachers, and colpor- teurs. It has on its roll 2,268 communicants, and has 1,847 pupils in the day- schools. It is endeavoring to make each mission station a center of activity. The Free Church of Italy was formed in 1870 by the union of churches which had chiefly been organized through foreign help. It is still largely dependent upon this same support. It numbers 9 ordained ministers, 13 evangelists, 36 churches, with 1,508 communicants. Besides these two evan- gelistic bodies, the Wesleyans of England and the Methodists of the United States are prosecuting missionary labor ( with energy and success. The Bap- tist and other churches, especially in Great Britain, are seeking to bring the Italians into a clearer perception of Divine truth, and into a hearty and saving reception of it. Austria, like Italy, has taken decided ground for liberty of conscience. Within her territory are found various societies at work. Here the American Board has established a mission, and some of the Scotch churches are contributing funds for the spiritual elevation of the people. All these agencies in the countries named indicate progress and life. Much is done through them for the enlightening of the inhabitants and for delivering them from Papal sway. More should be done. Our own Church has taken the ground that as native agents are ready in these countries for service, and as their own societies are poor and unable to meet the demands upon them, and as they are not only fitted for the work, but acquainted with it, it is a wiser and more economical use of the means to support these laborers than to send forth those who are ignorant at first of the language and of the peculiarities of the fields and peoples. The Board has, therefore, contributed money to various societies in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, without anywhere organizing a distinct mission or churches. The Old Catholic movement is in opposition to the arrogant claims of the Vatican. Though not yet a formidable body as to numbers, it is gradually ad- vancing and making itself felt. There is a freer and more enlightened public 6 Papal Ettrope. sentiment among the Catholic laity, and certain works recently issued are hav- ing their effect upon many. A Roman Catholic writer in Munich, " dwells with vehemence on the stagnation of educational and intellectual life in Cath- olic countries as compared with Protestant ones." Vitelleschi, a Roman noble, and brother of a cardinal, treats of the decay of Catholic nations, and attributes it to their life and institutions, and in the discussion shows the evil effect of the confessional, etc., upon individual character and conscience. Lavelaye's work has been not only widely circulated in France and Italy, but has been translated into Portuguese and Spanish, and is doing excellent serv- ice in South America as well as in Europe. He shows that " in every race — Latin, Teuton, or Celtic — the Papal system works out an inferior condition when compared with the same race under Protestant guidance." It is right amid much that is depressing to view the present status of the Romish Church, and the losses which it has suffered, and if in one country — Great Britain — we may see distinguished converts to Rome, and a boasting of her wonderful advance in that isle, yet it is true that the Pope has fewer adherents to-day in Britain and Ireland than he had at his accession, though the gain in this time in population is over five millions. The hopes and fears of the Vati- can are concisely sketched by Rev. W. Arthur in a paper read before the Evangelical Alliance. He says : " The political hopes of the Papal Church for a future crusade rest chiefly on France ; their religious hopes for extensive conversions on England. Italy causes them embarrassment ; Germany, trep- idation, ill-conceived by vaunting ; Spain and Austria, perplexity, relieved by only a feeble hope of even regaining lost ground. Leaving the future to the light which only the future will bring, the results of the past during the present pontificate may be summed up thus : In Poland, we have a great decline of Roman Catholic population simultaneously with political oppression of the Papal Church ; in Ireland, a great decline of Roman Catholic population sim- ultaneously with great political benefits to the Papal Church ; in Switzerland, a serious schism ; in Germany, a schism less serious in proportion to numbers, far more so in elements of future religious power; in the Levant, both schisms and other losses ; in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria, the loss of what is called Catholic unity — that is, of the state of legislation which compels every citizen to worship God as directed by the Pope ; in each of these countries, a commencement of Protestant churches, as yet feeble, but steadily growing. On the other side is to be set a very considerable gain in influence and power in France, and a strange prestige among a portion of the aristocracy and a portion of the clergy in England. In the year 1870, the Papacy began to rule without a temporal dominion. It will probably be a good many years before the effects of that change can be distinctly traced. Meantime, it is manifest that the Pope remains of the conviction that the temporal dominion is a necessary appendage of his office, essential to the exercise of that power over the whole Church which he claims as Vicar of Christ." In spite of these successes, it must be kept in mind that Rome is a fearful Protestantism and Catholicism. 7 power to contend with. She has assumption, magnificence, show, to awe, dazzle, and captivate. She has a skillfully compacted and effective organiza- tion to hold and to control ; she has wealth, numbers, political influence, and intellectual resources to dominate, overpower, or to repel attack ; she has among the masses a vast amount of ignorance and superstition to work upon and keep in sympathy with her movements, and she has a wily priesthood, and an unscrupulous, but all-powerful, band of Jesuits to aid and extend her power. But all these, however, united and consolidated, can not ever withstand the truth. Weakness as well as strength is hers, and the Protestant Church is armed with the simple Gospel, against which she can not stand, and which is enough to wield for her overthrow. PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM IN THEIR BEARING UPON THE LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY OE NATIONS. BY EMILE DE 'LAVELAYE. We hear much at the present day of the decay of the Latin races. It is said that they decline rapidly, and that the future belongs both to the Ger- manic and to the Slavonic race. I do not believe that the Latin races are condemned to decline on account of the blood which flows in their veins, that is to say, in consequence of any fatal destiny ; fatal, as no people can change its nature or modify its physical constitution ; but the fact that Catholic races advance much less rapidly than those which are no longer Catholic, and that, relatively to these latter, they even seem to go back, appears to be approved both by history, and more par- ticularly by contemporary events. This fact is so manifest, that the very bishops themselves, and the Univers, their organ in France, make it a text of their reproaches to unbelieving Catholics. Different reasons prevent my attributing this undeniable fact to influences of race. Undoubtedly, the fate of nations depends partly on their physical constitution . Even if we turn back to the origin of things, two causes only can be found capable of explaining the different destinies of various nations, viz., race, and surrounding circumstances ; — on the one hand, the constitution of man : on the other, the influence of external nature — the climate, the geo- graphical position, the products of the soil, the aspect of the country, the food. But in point of fact, when the question relates to nations of such mixed blood as that of Europeans, who, moreover, descend from a common stock, it is very difficult to connect the social conditions with the influence of race with any degree of scientific certainty. V' "The English understand the parliamentary system and the exercise of prac- tical liberty better than the French. Is this owing to the influence of blood ? I do not think so ; for until near the sixteenth century, France, Spain, and Italy possessed provincial liberties of a very similar character to En- 8 Protestantis7ii a,7id Catholicisin. glish liberties. The only notable difference was, that the English had a single parliament, and a centralized system, which proved strong enough to hold its own against royalty. The Norman Conquest having united England, a united parliament was the result ; and royalty being very powerful, nobles and commons combined to resist it, whereas elsewhere they were con- stantly at strife. The destinies of France and P^ngland only become entirely different from the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the Puritans had defeated the Stuarts, and when Louis XIV., by expelling the Protestants from France, had extirpated the last remnants of local autonomy, and the sole important ele- ments of resistance, with which despotism might have been opposed. When Protestants of Latin race are seen to rise superior to Germanic but Catholic populations ; when in one and the same country, and one and the same group, identical in language and identical in origin, it can be affirmed that Protestants advance more rapidly and steadily than Catholics, it is diffi- cult not to attribute the superiority of the one over the other to the religion they profess. Sectarian passions or anti-religious prejudice have been too often imported into the study of these questions. It is time thj:t we should apply to it the method of observation and the scientific impartiality of the physiologist and the naturalist. When the facts are once established, irrefragable conclusions will follow. It is admitted that the Scotch and Irish are of the same origin. Both have become subject to the English yoke. Until the sixteenth century Ireland was much more civilized than Scotland. During the first part of the Middle Ages the Emerald Isle was a focus of civilization, while Scotland was still a den of barbarians. Since the Scotch have embraced the Reformed religion, they have outrun even the English. The climate and the nature of the soil prevent Scotland being as rich as England ; but Macaulay proves that, since the seventeenth century, the Scotch have in every way surpassed the English. Ireland, on the other hand, devoted to Ultramontanism, is poor, miserable, agitated by the spirit of rebellion, and seems incapable of raising herself by her own strength. What a contrast, even in Ireland, between the exclusively Catholic Con- naught, and Ulster, where Protestantism prevails ! Ulster is enriched by industry, Connaught presents a picture of desolation. I will not allow myself to establish any comparison between the United States and the States of South America, or between the nations of the North and those of the South of Europe. The differences which are to be observed might be explained by the influence of climate or of race. But let us go to Switzerland, and compare the condition of the Cantons of Neuchatel, Yand, and Geneva (more particularly before the recent immigration of the Savoy Catholics), with that of Lucerne, Haut-Valais, and the forest Cantons. The former are extraordinarily in advance of the latter in respect of education, literature, the Protestantism and Catholicism. 9 fine arts, industry, commerce, riches, cleanliness ; in a word, civilization in all its aspects and in all its senses. The first are Latin, but Protestant; the second German, but subject to Rome. Surely it is religion, and not race, which is the cause of the superi- ority of the former. Let us now turn to a single Canton, that of Appenzell, inhabited throughout by an entirely identical Germanic population. The very same contrast pre- sents itself between the Catholic "Rhodes interieures" and the Protestant " Rhodes exterieures," as exists between the inhabitants of Neuchatel and those of Lucerne or Uri. On the one hand, education, activity, industry, rela- tions with the outer world, and by necessary consequence, wealth. On the other, inertia, routine, ignorance, and poverty. Wherever the two religions exist together in the same country, the Protest- ants are more active, more industrious, more economical, and consequently richer, than the Catholics. " In the United States," says Tocqueville, " the greater part of the Catholics are poor." In Canada, all important concerns, manufactures, commerce, and the prin- cipal shops in the towns, are in the hands of Protestants. M. Audiganne, in his remarkable studies on " the working classes of France," observes the superiority of Protestants in industrial enterprise, and his evidence is the more trustworthy that he does not attribute this superiority to Protestantism. " The majority of the operatives of the town of Nismes," he says, " notably the silk weavers are Catholics, while the leaders of industry and commerce, in a word the capitalists, belong in general to the Reformed religion." " When a single family has divided itself into two branches, the one remain- ing in the bosom of its ancestral faith, the other enrolling itself under the ban- ner of the new doctrines, you may nearly always remark in the one case in- creasing embarrassments, in the other, growing wealth." " At Mazamet, the Elbceuf of the south of France," says M. Audiganne, " all the leaders of indus- try, except one, are Protestant, while the great majority of workmen are Catholic. There is less education among these latter than among the work- ing families of the Protestant class." Before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Protestants took the lead in all branches of labor, and the Catholics, unable to compete with them on equal terms, caused them to be forbidden the exercise of various industries in which they excelled, by several successive edicts, dating from 1662. After their banishment from France, the Protestants brought into England, Prussia, and Holland their spirit of enterprise and thrift, and enriched every district in which they settled. It is partly to reformed Latins that the Germans owe their progress. The refugees of the Revocation introduced various manufactures into England, that of silk among others ; and the disciples of Calvin were the civilizers of Scotland. io Protestantism and Catholicism. If we compare the quotations on the Exchange of the public funds of Prot- estant and Catholic States, we shall find a great difference. The English 3 per cents, are above 92 ; the French 3 per cents, average 60. The Dutch, Prussian, Danish, and Swedish funds are at least at par; in Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal they are lower by 30 or 50 per cent. Throughout Germany, at the present day, the trade in intellectual works — such as books, reviews, maps, newspapers — is almost entirely in the hands of Jews and Protestants. In the presence of all these concurring facts, it is difficult not to confess that it is religion, and not race, which is the cause of the extraordinary prosperity of certain nations. The Reformation imparted to those countries which adopted it a force which history can hardly explain. Take the Low Countries : we have there two millions of men upon a soil half sand, half marsh ; they resist Spain at a time when she holds Europe in her hand, and no sooner are they freed from the Castilian yoke, than they cover all the seas with their flag ; they lead the van of the intellectual world ; they possess as many ships as all the rest of the Continent put together ; they become the soul of all the great European coalitions ; they hold their own against the allied powers of England and France ; they present to the United States that type of federal union which gives scope to the indefinite growth of the great Republic ; and they set the example of those financial combinations which contribute so powerfully to the actual development of wealth — banks of issue and joint stock companies. Sweden, with her million of men, and her rocky soil buried in snow for six months of the year, intervenes on the Continent, under Gustavus Adolphus, with heroic might, defeats Austria by the hand of her marvelous strategists, Wrangel, Torstenson, and Banner, and saves the cause of the Reformation. At the present day, England is the mistress of the seas, the first among indus- trial and commercial nations ; in Asia, she rules over two hundred millions of men, and covers the globe with swarms from her own hive. Sir Charles Dilke's fine book, " Greater Britain," presents the reader with a picture of Anglo-Saxon power throughout the world. The United States increase with bewildering rapidity. They reckon forty-two million inhabitants. Toward the end of the century their population will be one hundred millions. Al- ready they are the richest and most powerful people on the face of the globe. Protestant Prussia has defeated two empires, each containing twice her own population, the one in seven weeks, the other in seven months. In two cen- turies, America, Australia, and Southern Africa will belong to the heretical Anglo-Saxons, and Asia to the schismatic Slaves. The nations subject to Rome seem stricken with barrenness ; they no longer colonize ; they have no powers of expansion. The expression employed by M. Thiers to depict their religious capital, Rome, Ttduitas et steri/itus, might be also applied to themselves. Their past is brilliant, but their present is gloomy, Protestantism and Catholicism. 1 1 and their future disquieting. Can there be a sadder situation than that of Spain ? France, which has rendered such services to the world, is also greatly to be pitied, not because she has been conquered on the field of battle — mili- tary reverses may be repaired — but because it seems her fate to be ceaseless- ly tossed to and fro between despotism and anarchy. Even now, at the mo- ment when, in order to recover herself, she requires the harmonious action of all her sons, the extreme parties are contending for pre-eminence, at the risk of another outburst of civil war. Ultramontanism is the cause of the misfor- tunes of France. This it is which has weakened the country by that baneful course of action which we will analyze further on. This it was which, through the Empress Eugenie, an organ of the clerical party, brought about the Mexi- can expedition in order to raise up the Catholic nations of America, and the Prussian war in order to impede the progress of the Protestant States of Europe.* Italy and Belgium appear more prosperous than France and Spain ; but is liberty definitely established in those countries ? Able minds doubt it. Re- cently a Roman journal, II Diritto, published a remarkable work on the situa- tion of Italy, with the significant title, " LTtalia nera." " The nations subject to the Pope are either dead already or dying," exclaims the author with consterna- tion : " I popoli di religione papale o sono gia morti o vanno morendi." " If," he adds, " Italy appears less sickly, the reason is, that the clergy, expecting the res- toration of the Pope, first by means of Austrian, now by means of French inter- vention, have not as yet attacked liberty and the constitution from within. The clerical party held aloof during the elections ; but all this will be changed. The clergy have already entered the arena at Naples, Rome, and Bologna. The Church covers the country with associations inspired by the Jesuits, and the congregations seize upon the rising generation, whom they bring up in the hatred of Italy and her institutions." This view is just. Italy is at present in the condition in which PVance found herself after 1789, and Belgium after 1830 : the breath of liberty is carrying before it the whole nation, even the clergy. Patriotism, the hope of a brilliant future, the enthusiasm of progress — these inflame all hearts and efface all dissensions ; but before long, incompati- bility must break out between modern civilization and Roman ideas. The clergy, and especially the Jesuits, in obedience to the voice of Rome, are al- ready setting to work to undermine the barely established edifice of political liberty. This is precisely what has happened in Belgium since 1840. One of the authors of the Belgian constitution, perhaps the most distinguished among them, said to me lately, with heartfelt sorrow : " We believed that all that was necessary to found liberty was to proclaim it by separating Church * So it was recently asserted by Prince Bismarck from the tribune at Berlin. The Empress in July, 1870, said : " This is my war." The decision in favor of war, in the Supreme Council of Saint Cloud, on the 14th of August, was her doing. The Emperor was well aware of the danger, and reluctant to the last. 12 Protestantism and Catholicism. and State. I begin to think that we deceived ourselves. The Church, relying on the country districts, seeks to impose her absolute power. The great cities which have given in their adhesion to modern ideas will not let themselves be enslaved without attempting resistance. We are tending, like France, toward civil war. We are already in a revolutionary position. The future appears to me big with troubles." The last elections of 1874 have begun to bring the danger to light. The elections for the Chambers have strengthened the clerical party, while those for the Communes have given power to the liberals in all the large towns. Antagonism between the towns and the provinces, which is one of the causes of civil war in France, begins already to show itself in Bel- gium also. As long as the government remains in the hands of prudent men, who are more disposed to serve their country than to obey the bishops, grave disorders need not be apprehended. But if the fanatics, who openly accept the Syllabus as their political programme, should attain to power, terrible shocks would follow. The Catholic countries on both sides of the Atlantic are thus a prey to in- ternal struggles which consume their strength, or at least prevent them from advancing as steadily and rapidly as Protestant nations. Two centuries ago supremacy belonged incontestably to the Catholic States. The others were only powers of the second order. Now, put on one side France, Austria, Spain, Italy, and South America, and on the other Russia, the Empire of Germany, England, and North America — clearly the predominance has passed over to the heretics and schismatics. M. Levasseur read of late, be- fore L'Institut, a curious work, in which he shows that in 1700, France alone represented 31 per cent., or one-third, of the force of the five great Powers together ; whereas now, counting six great European Powers, she possesses no more than 15 per cent., or one-sixth part of their total force.* To the eye of every man who desires to consult facts without a foregone conclusion, it is thus manifest that Protestantism is more favorable than Catholicism to the development of nations. * " Compte-rendu des seances dc L'Institut," by M. Verge, November number, 1S72. The population of France was increasing very slowly. In the last quinquennial period it diminished by 366,000 without counting, o f course, the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. 3, Av SURVEY OF MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. During the latter part of the last century there seemed to be simul- taneous movements in the kingdoms of darkness and of light for greater ascendancy and power. The infidels of France sowed the seeds of the rev- olutionary whirlwind, and their principles permeated many lands. At this very time other principles became active, whose beneficent and ex- tending influence has been felt by many nations. Thus, whilst the French monarch was expiring on the scaffold, Carey was on his way to India with the gospel of peace ; and whilst Napoleon, the apostle of a new order of things, as he was heralded, was laying the foundation of a sovereignty that was to live, as he and others imagined, for ages, ambassadors of the Lord Jesus were beginning work, to raise the down-trodden, elevate the degraded, and bring the vilest and the lost under the power of truth, and into con- nection with a kingdom which the men of the world derided, whose agencies they scoffed, and whose puny efforts they despised. " The wretch," whom Voltaire sought to " crush," lives in myriads of homes and hearts, who had then never heard of Jesus. When this vaunting infidel uttered this blasphemous expression, the seeds of the modern Missionary enterprise were sowing, and the very cause which he and his associates in infidelity boasted that they would utterly exterminate, has grown, and has wonderfully extended by reason of this movement. Eighty years ago, and with the exception of the Society of the Moravian Church, and that for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, no other had been established, and when this century dawned upon the world, a few more had been organized, but these had only begun work, and could not point to the planting of a single church, nor the baptism of a single convert. When this movement began, the indifference to missions was profound, and the opposition of not a few leaders in Israel was strong and marked. Two overtures were laid before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in 1796, recommending a favorable consideration of the missionary scheme ; it was denounced as " illusive," " visionary," and " dangerous," by the Moderates, and the overtures were dismissed, mainly on the ground " that it was improper and absurd to propagate the gospel abroad while there remained a single individual at home without the means of religious knowledge." In 1783 the Bishop of St. Asaph publicly declared that " the obligation said to be incumbent on Christians to promote their faith throughout the w7orld, had ceased with the supernatural gift which at- tended the commission of the Apostles." For ten years after the organi- zation of the Church Missionary Society, not a single missionary could be obtained in the English Church for abroad, — its laborers came from Germany. Carey was denounced by not a few, in his own denomination, as an enthusiast, and beside himself, for even proposing the Christian's 2 A Survey of Missionary Operations. duty to the heathen. The very year that Mills and Eiee were founding their Missionary Society, at William's College, a clergyman of the Church of England was ridiculing ~ Brother Carey's Journal," and showing the folly of sending missionaries to India. But the day for calling names, and for defending missions against such ignorant attacks, as those of Sydney Smith ami Scott Waring, is past. The cause speaks for itself! The noble dee. Is of the great moral heroes engaged in it have produced results which arc lauded by our race. "Whither shall we go?" was the cry of the London Missionary So- ciety, when considering what fields were open for evangelistic labor. The world was literally closed. Mohammedanism strictly guarded every door of approach; Ihiddhism allowed no entrance ; the Greek and Papal Churches would tolerate no aggression upon their domain ; nominally Christian companies, like the East India in Pagandom, would tolerate no evangelistic efforts, and if any entered their possessions, it was ostensibly for another purpose, and under another name. Carey could find no home in British India, ami Judson, in after years, was driven from its shores. Morrison, for fear of being sent out of China, lived for a time a prisoner in his own house, and walked out at night by stealth. Milne was compelled to leave China and settle at Malacca. No missionary could enter Japan, and if he went to some other lands to toil for Christ, it was at the peril of his life. No wonder, then, that the Church's cry for years was tor an open door. How the Lord heard and answered this petition is evident from the wide and effectual openings for missionary effort in almost every land. Trace what has been done in our own continent, in South America, in Europe and Asia, and it will be seen what marked changes have taken place within a few years. Mexico has thrown off priestly jade, and guarantees liberty of conscience ; the various states, re- publics and empires in South America recognize the free toleration of re- ligious opinions, and in most of them the missionary is found. The isolation of Japan is gone, and some of her sons are in our own institutions, studying foreign science, arts and religion ; the huge wall that China built up to seclude her children from the outside world, has wholly disappeared. The gospel has free course in Burmah, Siam, and India Mohammedan Persia has received our missionaries, and the Turkish Empire is dotted with them. Austria is liberalized, Italy is free, Rome has Protestant churches and schools, while the Bible is sold in her streets. Spain and Portugal are accessible to the missionary. It is no longer suffering or death to be a follower of Jesus in Madagascar — the country is Christian. Yea, look in almost every direction and the gospel has free course. It is no longer bound. Then, what great advance in contributions to the missionary cause. How has the sum swelled from the first collection at Kettering, England, of £13 2s. 6d., to the present offerings for missions. Some of the sums which were deemed magnificent in the early stages of the work, are now considered only ordinary, ami these will pale before the wealth that is yet to be consecrated to the Lord of glory. What wonderful strides in the publication and diffusion of missionary intelligence since the Evangelical Magazine promised to devote one page, at least, a month, to this particular department. More than a million copies, from the different missionary societies, and in various forms, are issued monthly, while the press is constantly sending forth works bearing on this theme — some of them highly pictorial. We cannot detail the great and wondrous events that have taken place in A Survey of Missionary Operations. 3 the missionary world, or the manner in which they followed one another. We cannot refer to the heroic men and women who have been foremost in this enterprise, nor to their great achievements in different parts of the earth. We cannot picture the self sacrificing spirit, the moral daring, the firmness and fortitude of many who have witnessed a good confession for Jesus in heathen and Mohammedan lands. We can only touch upon the fields where the laborers are at work, and mark some of their successes. In Labrador and Greenland, where the truth has long been proclaimed, are some who are still aided by missionary funds. Among the Indian tribes of our own country, and in the British possessions, are more than one hundred missionaries at work seeking their civilization and their spiritual renovation, by the gospel of Jesus. Many deem this a hopeless task, and when we consider the obstacles in their unsettled state, in their deep degradation and low civilization, in their ignorance and repugnance to a settled life ; in the wrongs they have suffered from Christian nations, in the evils introduced among them by those bearing the name of Christ, we may say that the hindrances in their way to an acceptance of Christi- anity are very great. Yet, the all conquering power of the gospel is seen in the thousands led to Christ among the Cherokees, Choctaws, Semi- noles, Dakotas, Senecas, in Rupert's Land, etc., showing that no barrier is too great to the introduction and power of the religion of the Cross. Though Mexico has been open but a short time, and as yet few laborers have entered upon the work in the different provinces, trophies have been won, churches have been planted, and native agents employed in dis- seminating truth. Soon others will be actively engaged in preaching the word and making aggressive attacks upon the Papal power. Much has been accomplished in the West Indies, in the instruction and elevation of the people. Tens of thousands are enrolled as members of the church, and many have been elevated socially and intellectually by reason of missionary effort. In several of the South American States evangelists are busily employed in seeking to bring the people into living union with Christ. At certain points the gospel has been eminently successful ; at others a preliminary work has been done which will tell in after years. It is only a few years since our Board entered Brazil ; already are six organ- ized churches, with more than three hundred members, two ordained ministers, and two licentiate preachers. Japan is already occupied by several missionary societies, whose workers are longing for the time when the death penalty for professing faith in Christ will be removed, and when the fullest toleration will be guaranteed by the authorities throughout the islands. The Bible is being translated, a religious literature will gradually be provided, and it is hoped that soon many will be added to the few who have been baptized. China, like Japan, was determined to exclude the hated religion of the foreigner. How Morrison was treated we have seen, and his long resi- dence in that country was only owing to his official relations with the East India Company, and they would have severed the relation and sent him from China if they could have dispensed with his services. In 1826 there was an edict issued declaring that the propagator of new doctrines should be put to death, and when attempts were made, in 1835, to introduce Christian books into the country, another edict was issued, commanding the governor of Canton to discover the offenders. Freedom to enter certain ports was granted a few years afterwards, but the prohibitory laws against Christianity remained in force, and it was not till 1861 that full liberty was given to the Chinese to embrace 4 A Survey of Missionary Operations. Christianity. Now, in some twelve or thirteen of her provinces are nearly one hundred and fifty stations and outstalions supplied by over one hundred foreign missionaries, a number of unmarried ladies, and medical missionaries, with several ordained native preachers, and hundreds of native helpers. In the different churches are enrolled some seven thousand communicants, whose influence is already felt, as seen in the anxiety and efforts of the authorities to suppress the spread of Christi- anity. The changes going on in Siam, and among the Laos, and the privileges guaranteed to the missionaries, so different from the time they first visited these countries, are signs of a better day. The great achieve- ments of the gospel in Burmah, and the bright displays of the truth among the Karens are known all over the Christian world. But how different is the position of the foreign laborer to-day. from that of Judson in the prison, or in his hut, and yet, between them is only an interval of a few years. No one has now " to prostrate himself at the golden feet " of an earthly ruler, and ask permission to stay in his dominions and preach the gospel of the Son of God, and the laborer has no longer to wait to see one in earnest about the salvation of his soul. There a redeemed people are already at work supporting their pastors with the most active and self-denying zeal, contemplating with compassion the sad state of their heathen countrymen, and sending forth from their owu communion those who are ready to preach Christ to tribes living in the mountains and the dense jungles of their own wild land. If we turn to India, that fearful stronghold of moral evil, where Satan has ruled undisturbed for ages, where the whole network of society, in its social, civil, and religious bearings is designed to consolidate his reign and maintain his supremacy, where, within the memory of some yet living, a good man advertised for a Christian in Calcutta, and the flag had to be hoisted to tell the nominal Christians there gathered for traffic, that it was the Sabbath; where the missionary was forbidden to enter, and where the great Indian Government — after missionaries were permitted to labor — issued au edict " that they were not to preach to the natives or suffer the native converts to do so ; nut to distribute religious tracts, nor take any step, by conversion or otherwise, to persuade the natives to em- brace Christianity ;" where Henry Martyn was deemed a bigot and des- pised ; where Carey and Marsh man were ridiculed and insulted ; where proselytism was dreaded and denounced, this land is now open from one end to the other, and instead of a few straggling preachers, and a smaller number of stations, there are now found in it, and in Burmah, 550 mis- sionaries, 628 stations, with many outstations, 400 native preachers, '2,800 native helpers, 70,857 commuuicants, and 137,326 scholars of both sexes, in schools under Christian influence and training. But this, as elsewhere, is but a small portion of what has been accomplished of direct evangelistic work. The cruelties of heathenism have been greatly modified ; infanticide prohibited ; Sutteism abolished ; the government no longer sustains idolatry by grants, but aids Christian schools; yea, I he very government that sought to suppress all evangelistic efforts is broken and helpless, and the power which they ridiculed is mighty. The things referred to have not only been achieved by it, but it has changed the law of inheritance so that the convert is protected in his rights, and the faith he professes is every- where recognized. It is working wonderful changes in the social fabric, as in the education and moral elevation of woman, it has permeated so- ciety with Christian knowledge, and has undermined the faith of myriads A Survey of Missionary Operations. 5 in their own false systems. India, in its knowledge of the truth, needs only the baptism of the Holy Ghost to make it wholly a Christian land. The great Buddhistic and Brahminical Empires are not only trod by earnest evangelists, but they are at work in Mohammedan lands, and these are largely from a country unknown to the ancients, nowhere alluded to in Scripture, and only recognised as a Christian nation for a com- paratively short period. These men have pressed their way into the very birthplace of the human race, and into the very heart of Mohammedan power, and in spite of fanaticism, relentless hate, and unbridled passion, they have remained preaching Jesus the Son of God, the only Saviour of the world — a doctrine so repugnant to the Moslem, and so opposed to the claims of their prophet and the teachings of their Koran. In Persia the Nestorians and Armenians have not only felt the life-giving energy of the gospel, but the Mussulmans are now beginning to feel and acknowledge its power, and the desire among the laborers is to push out from their old limits, and to establish in the regions beyond, new points of attack upon the faith of Islam. Among the Nestorians are already gathered 90 con- gregations, 60 schools, and more than 60 native preachers are at work educating the people in the truth, journeying from place to place, or train- ing up others for evangelistic service. Passing from Persia into the great Turkish Empire, we find the mis- sionary at the most important centres busily employed in diffusing the truth, and maintaining all possible agencies for its extension. What marked changes within a few years. Protestantism is officially recognized as one of the religions of the country ; a decree has gone forth permitting all Mussulmans to circulate or read the Bible, or profess faith in it, with- out suffering death as formerly. Over the door of a great mosque in the city of Damascus, are inscribed these words, "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth from generation to generation." That mosque, once a Christian church, has been one of the holiest sanctuaries of the Mohammedan. During the long reign of its in- tolerance and oppression, that inscription was unknown, but it has now come into light, telling his blasphemers that Christ's kingdom cannot be destroyed, and that it will triumph and be established in all the earth. This is every day more apparent through all the dominions of the Sultan. The very freedom which he has guaranteed is opposed to the principles of the Koran, and every Moslem convert weakens its hold upon the masses and adds an additional blow to the destructive forces in operation for its complete overthrow. The schools and colleges, the printing presses, with other agencies, are all combining their strength to accomplish this very end. Mohammedanism has no aggressive life. The Euphrates is drying up. But Christianity lives ; in a short time, and in a quiet manner, it has made itself felt all over the Empire. Within its limits, including Syria and other provinces, there are to-day 75 ordained ministers, 30 unmarried ladies, 50 native pastors, 65 native preachers. 100 churches, 5,000 communicants, 25,000 Protestants, 300 places where the gospel is preached, 2 colleges with 350 students, 12 theological training schools with 130 students, 10 female seminaries with 350 pupils, 280 common schools, 300 native teachers, 8,000 pupils receiving education, 3 mission presses, 2 religious Aveekly news- papers; 250 religious and educational works have been issued, beside several editions of the Bible, in six different languages. The issues of the press are 25,000,000 pages annually. The addition to the churches the past year were 564, and the addition to Protestant ranks from unevangel- ized sources, were 1.500. 6 A Survey of Missionary Operations. Passing southward into the great Continent of Africa, and we find some of the noblest triumphs of the Gospel, as well as some marked changes. Along the portions of its northern shore is here and there a laborer. But when we come to Egypt, we find not only its Mohammedan ruler protect- ing the missionary, but granting him certain favors. The United Presby- terian Church of this country have not only occupied several important points, but other agencies, arc employed by Christians from other lands to elevate anf Divine power among pagan nations, the efforts for the conversion of Israel have not been in vain, as some 10,000 in different lands have been added to the Church of Christ since evangelistic work among them first commenced. At the beginning of this century but little in amount was contributed to this cause ; and in 1820 the sum had grown to about $800,000 ; in 1871 the income of the different Missionary Societies, as collected by Be v. W. Butler, D.D., and found in the valuable statistics in his work, " The Land of the Veda," is placed at $5,232,716, of which the American societies con- tributed $1,633,891. Said a missionary in India, in the year 1796, "I would give a million pounds sterling, if I had it, to see a Bengali Bible." At that time the Bible was an unknown book in the language of the East. The Danish missionaries had translated the new Testament for the people of Malabar, but that was limited to them, beyond that the Gospel was a sealed book. Then there was no Bible Society in Great Britain or in our own country. The organizations of the two nations have issued more than a hundred miTlions of the Scriptures, in more than 120 languages in the great field of Christian missions. The Bible in 1800 was only acces- sible to 200 millions, now it is in whole, or in part, in tongues spoken by four times this number. It is in all the prominent dialects for the 200,000,000 of India, it is printed for the countless hosts of China, forjthe different languages of Persia and the Turkish Empire ; for the millions of the Arabic speaking race, f<>r the Burmese, Assamese and Siamese, and for other dwellers in Asia. It is issued in many dialects for the different tribes and peoples of Africa ; in over twenty languages for the Polynesians, to say nothing of what has been published for the Indian tribes of America. In these 70 years of missionary toil, more copies of the Scriptures have been circulated, in more languages than existed from the days of Moses to the 16th century, and if we take all the issues of the Word of God since the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, it may be safely affirmed that more copies of the Bible have been circulated than in all the previous centuries of the world. If to this agency is added the preparation and diffusion of a religious literature called into being by mis- 8 A Survey of Missionary Operations. sionary labor, and printed in so many forms and tongues, we have an ad- ditional exidence of what is being done for the evangelization of our earth. What missions have accomplished in various other departments, and all telling upon the enlightenment and elevation of the race, none can fully de- scribe. " History," says one, "shows us that there is not a nation upon the face of the earth bearing the Christian name that may not be regarded as the fruit of Christian missions." Since this modern enterprise was inau- gurated, its influence upon the world has been vast. It has been the great civilize r. It has extended commerce, added much to the intellectual stores of nations, enlarged the field for research, both in physical and moral science. Sir II. Uawlinson, at a public meeting in London, said, "It was not, perhaps, generally known how much the science of geography was in- debted to the missionaries' exertions, but if they examined history, either of Asia or Africa, they would find from the remotest ages to the present day, all great discoveries had been made by missionaries. While these, then, are some of the direct and indirect benefits of the mis- sionary undertaking, the reflex spiritual benefits to all who have engaged in it have been great. It has promoted personal piety, counteracted world- liness, shown the worth and importance of the Gospel, awakened attention and directed effort to home destitutions, raised the standard of Christian benevolence, and incited men to heroic daring and self.denying deeds. If this be so, how important that Christians should rise from this cursory sur- vey with new zeal, faith and courage, come under the operations of a cause that can produce such glowing results, and be hereafter active coadjutors in this glorious wTork. The practicability of the scheme has been demon- strated, and to-day there are tens of thousands under missionary influence or training who shall come forward as the friends of Christ and the warm defenders of the Gospel. On one occasion Judson. taking a globe and pointing to continents, cities and islands, the centre of Christian influence and civilization, joyfully ex- claimed. " See ! how the Gospel light encircles the world." How much more truly at this day can we say, — " the Gospel is encircling the world." Its power is seen, and felt. Nearly every land has experienced if. It has reached the lowest, the most degraded of the race, and given them new views of manhood and of their destiny. Its transforming energy is not simply seen in the individual, but in communities and tribes who have been raised up from dire servitude, and made a people of order, law and purity. What it has done it will do. This is enough. Much land yet remains to be possessed. To its conquest must be the rallying cry of the Church, and into regions beyond must we seek to go until this earth shall be vocal with the Redeemer's praise. 30, A GLANCE AT THE WORK OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. As pastors frequently write for some comprehensive outline of facts in regard to the Foreign Mission work of the Presbyterian Church which shall aid them in the preparation of missionary sermons, the following sketch has been prepared with that view. , f. F. E. Mission House, 23 Centre St., December 23, 1873. I.— ITS WELL-CHOSEN FIELDS. God seems to have favored the Presbyterian Board in the location of its work. If the first fruits of labor have been numerically less than those gained by some other organizations, among mild and impressible races like the Sandwich Islanders or the Karens, yet its positions, taken in the great centres and among the strongest races of the world, are more important to the final results of Christian conquest. [i.] In India our Missions are planted among the vigorous Sikhs of the North, and at the confluence of the Brahminical faith with that of Islam. They are rooted in a soil enriched with the martyr-blood of our own brethren and sisters, who sixteen years ago gave their lives for the faith. • [2.] The Syrian Mission, with the mighty weapons of the Arabic Bible and literature, is planted at the very gates of the Mohammedan world, and in one of the finest centres for reach- ing the many nations of the Orient. [3.] The Persian Mission is a strategic outpost, looking toward Central Asia, and has to do mainly with a people (the Nestorians) who already, in the earlier period of their history, have proved themselves to be preeminently the missionary church of the East. The gospel was once carried by them across the Asiatic wastes, even to Central China. Who knows what future mission-work God may have in store for them. As the Presbyterian Board is the only one in this country which is devoting its attention to that people, the responsibility laid upon it is very great. [4.] In Japan this Board was one of the first among our Protestant denominations to appreciate the great work there, demanded, and, in the splendid Dictionary of Dr. Hepburn, it has laid a foundation for all evangelistic and civilizing efforts in the present and the future. [5.] The Board has not failed to realize the paramount importance of CHINA, and to select such positions as promise best for a work which shall not be relinquished till the great empire is won to Christ. In the central region (central with respect to the coast), Shanghai, Ningpo, Hangchow and Suchow, form a symmetrical quadrilateral of great strength and influence. A missionary of a British Board, who recently called at the Mission House, declared this to be the best organized mission of any board in China. At Canton, which is the gate or outlet of migration to our Pacific coast, the work is strongly planted and well manned. Tungchow and Chefoo, on the salubrious promontory of the Shantung Province, are also well chosen, and are already rich in encouraging results. Three men are established at the imperial capital, and they have made a prosperous beginning. [6.] The Gaboon and Corisco Missions have always been valued, not merely as a just recompense to the African Coast tribes, which have so long been desolated by the American Slave Trade ; but, perhaps, mainly as points of access to the interior of a great dark continent. [7.] Si am is among the Asiatic nations, which are now wel- coming and imitating our Western civilization, and presents an important and hopeful field. Its commercial position — mid- way between the British Empires of India and Australia — ■ must give it great influence in the future. [8.] The Brazilian Mission is, with the exception of one established by the Southern Presbyterian Church, about the only organized agency now employed for building up Prot- estant churches in that great empire. It has been eminently successful, considering the brief period of its existence, and the way seems open for indefinite expansion and success. [9.] Of the importance of Mexico, lying so near to us, and now, especially since the separation of Church and State, so ripe for evangelistic effort, there can be no doubt in any far- seeing and comprehensive mind. The great issue between Protestantism and Papacy in North America, and even in our own Republic, cannot be finally settled without taking Mexico into the account. [10.] The. newly-assumed Mission in Chili is, so far as we are informed, the only one on the whole western coast of South America. It came to us full-grown, with four men having the Spanish language and of our own Presbyterian faith and order, and having schools and congregations already gathered. More than all, the Mission is buttressed and strengthened by a prosperous English church, under the care of Rev. Dr. David Trumbull, the pioneer missionary of that field. [ii.] Of the American Indian Missions we scarcely need to speak. But those who recently sawr, at the Synod of Min- nesota, seventeen Indian ministers and elders, representatives of about 800 church-members, besides hundreds of youth in schools, could but feel that this was a noble department of Mission-work. II. OUR APPLIANCES. The Presbyterian Board has from the first endeavored to lay its foundations deep. While the preaching of the Word has been considered first and foremost, the work of translating, of publishing, and of education, has been vigorously prosecuted from the beginning; and sometimes even at the expense of more immediate fruits. The printing establishment at Shang- hai, with its enormous issues in beautiful Chinese type, is acknowledged to stand among the very highest of all the evan- gelical agencies employed in China. It was by the early enter- prise of the Presbyterian Board that the art of printing in China was revolutionized, by substituting for the many thousand Chi- nese characters the simpler combination type, which reduced the whole number to about 300 elementary forms. In connec- tion with the press there is a type-foundry, which has supplied not only our own Board, but many other missionary organi- zations. The Syrian Mission was established by the American Board on the same broad and permanent foundations. The great objective point was the Arabic language, as the vehicle of the Word of God to the millions who, in various lands, hold the faith of the Koran. In connection with the agency of the press is the work of education in all grades, and the preparation of a Christian literature, sound, thorough, and comprehensive, in the vernacular of all nations and tribes reached by the Board. Side by side with spiritual agencies of all kinds, the element of humane sympathy is everywhere introduced. After the example of our Saviour, the healing of bodily ailments, and the exercise of pity for the orphan and the widow, is made a part of missionary work. Special effort to relieve the degrada- tion and suffering of heathen women has grown into a separate agency of great vigor and success. III. THE LABORERS. As to the force employed in the Foreign field, the churches are scarcely aware of the array which represents them at the front. There are 315 American missionaries, male and female, and 499 native preachers, teachers, and helpers ; making an en- tire force of 814. To give to these not only a moral, but a pecun- iary support, is a most sacred obligation. There are imperfect characters, as in every other class, but probably no band of men and women stand higher in intellectual power, and in devotion of spirit than our missionaries. Some of the very best talent of the Church has been consecrated to this work, and its disinter- estedness has again and again been tested by the refusal of high salaries offered for the work of teaching in Government schools. These missionary laborers represent all sections of the Church, East and West. The homes which they have left are in our churches; their fathers and brethren, and in many cases, their children, dwell among us. They are a part of us. The work to which they are sent is not theirs alone, but ours also. They are but the videttes of the common army. It is our duty and privilege to share their responsibility and their sacrifices. IV. THE ECONOMY OF THE BOARD. It has frequently been shown that the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions has few, if any, rivals in this country or Great Britain in the low per cent, of its administration. It is true 5 that men claiming high character for intelligence are ignorant of the facts in this matter ; but no other ignorance is so inex- cusable as this, since the Board has for years published an exact statement of its incomes and outgoes in four different forms : first, in its reports; second, in the Assembly's minutes; third, in the Foreign Missionary; and fourth, in the Record. This, however, has not prevented even prominent men from circulat- ing the insane slander that most of the money contributed is absorbed and used up on machinery. The cost of administration (this does not include the literature given to the churches) has forthe last ten years averaged less than four per cent. On the fields, also, the Board endeavors to work with the utmost econ- omy. Some of its missionaries are still on the same salary that they received before the war of the rebellion ; and, as a rule, whatever any missionary may receive for incidental services, as medical prescription, occasional service as interpreter, or teaching in Government schools, is rendered into the treasury of the mission. Some of our older missionaries in China have thus given to the Board very large amounts. It should be re- membered, also, in estimating missionaries' salaries, and in com- paring those of the Foreign with those of the Home fields, that the former are generally located in large and expensive cities. The work of the rural districts is done by native helpers. A fair comparison, therefore, should place the salaries of Yoko- hama, Shanghai, Rio Janeiro, or the City of Mexico, over against Home Mission salaries paid in Chicago, Pittsburg, or St. Louis. With rare exceptions, the foreign missionary never receives an annual box of clothing, or a donation, or even a marriage fee. Separated as he is from the helps and amenities of home society, his salary is his all. Under the head of economy, it may be proper to state, that the Board is always careful to utilize the help of outside agencies. The hospital at Canton, under the care of Dr. Kerr, which receives annually about 1,000 patients under its roof, and administers to 20,000 more outside its walls, is almost wholly supported by foreign resi- dents in the city. The medical practice of Dr. Hepburn in Japan costs the Board nothing, since residents, seeing the bene- ficence of his work, supply him entirely with medicines. These helps, however, do not relieve the Board from the support of the physician, and other collateral expenses. Assistance is also given, in some instances, to the Mission Schools. The Mahara- jah Duleep Singh, now residing in England, contributes $1,200 toward the support of the schools at Futtehgurh, The College in Beirut has been built and is supported by funds independent of the Board, and the Beirut Female Semiuary is also largely self-supporting. The female teachers at Sidon have received their salaries from England, and the chapel at the same station was wholly built by an Englishman visiting the country. Throughout Syria the work has, in many instances, been aided by the Turkish Aid Society, and from other sources. Many of the Mission presses of the Board receive payment from the American Bible Society for all the issues of the Scriptures printed in various languages. Frequently, also, when these presses are without mission work, job work of proper kinds is taken at a suitable compensation. In this way the presses at Shanghai are not only self-supporting, but are a source of in- come to the treasury of the Board. It will be of interest to business men to know that the work of Missions is conducted in such a way, as not only to save needless expense, but also to draw to its support every suitable resource which the providence of God may provide. Another point now aimed at more and more by the Board, is the development of the principle of self- help among all the people who receive its aid. Its aim is to develop its work on snch a basis of economy and self-reliance, as will render its perpetuation and enlargement possible to the native Christians themselves at no distant day. V. THE DEBT. In spite of economy, the Board, since the re-union, has fallen gradually into debt. Different causes have led to this. I. Sev- eral missions were transferred from the American Board at the time of the re-union,- and most of them in such a condition as to require great outlays for their resuscitation and enlarge- ment. 2. The exchange on gold was last year unusually heavy, requiring an increased outlay of several thousand dollars. 3. An increased interest in Missions and recent promising open- ings, especially in Japan, had led an unusual number of men to devote themselves to the Mission work. 4. The monthly con- cert collection, which for years had been a reliance of the Board, has been in many churches largely diverted to other objects. 5. Since the withdrawal of Congregational support from the American and Foreign Christian Union, the Presbyterian Church was left to the alternative of contributing the main support of Mission work in papal countries through an out- side society, or of assuming that work under its own Mission Board, according to repeated direction of the General Assem- bly. The latter course'was chosen as being the more economi- cal and efficient. The Board now carries it on without any addi- tional expense of machinery whatever. It has proved, however, that the churches have made no increased appropriations for this work, and hence a heavier debt. VI. THE ASSEMBLY'S EFFORT AT LIQUIDATION. All who witnessed that great expression of interest for the relief of the Foreign Board at Baltimore, were impressed with the belief that God's Spirit was present with His prompt- ing and guidance. The subscription of $75,000 on the spot contributed a quickening influence to the churches in all parts of the land. Nearly $120,000 has been raised, and but for the financial revulsion, the entire debt would probably ere this have been removed. It is hoped that the effort will still be completed before April 1st. It must be borne in mind, how- ever, that the conditions which lead to continued indebtedness, are still upon the Board, viz., the deficiency of funds as com- pared with the existing work. To say nothing of growth or advancement, the contributions from all sources continually run behind, and unless an enlarged liberality shall soon appear, the work of the Foreign Board must be retrenched. It must not merely stand still, but go back. The Presbyterian army must retreat in the face of the enemy. This, for many months, has been the embarrassing problem at the Mission rooms. VII. WHY THE BOARD NEEDS SO MUCH MONEY. Not withstanding the sound and economical principles on which the work of Foreign Missions is carried on, it must, from its vastness and variety, involve a large outlay, greater than can be realized from one annual, and often precarious collection. Its lars:e force of over eioht hundred men and women em- ployed, has already been alluded to. The variety of its work is not well understood. To say that it embraces in one the work of all the subdivided church boards of the Home field (four of which are exclusively for Home Missions), does not express the whole truth. Beside missionary support and 8 church erection ; ministerial education and publication; com mon school education, as with the Freedmen and the relief of missionaries' families; it embraces the building of houses, col- leges and seminaries, the establishment find support of orphan- ages, hospitals, sanataria, press buildings, etc. It includes the whole range of benevolence, Christian and eleemosynary, and often aids the native tribes in attaining greater personal com- fort by the simpler arts and industries of life. On the same principle of division which obtains in the Home work of the Church, the Foreign Board might justly ask for a division of its great work. For instance, one Board for the American Indians; another for the Chinese in California. These are two great departments of missionary effort in the Home field. The work to be done in the papal countries of this hemi- sphere, to say nothing of that called for in papal Europe, is one which might well engage the attention and zeal of still another Board. Indeed, it has been hitherto in the hands of a distinct organization, and obtained from hundreds of our churches a separate annual collection. Again, the structural work ot Foreign Missions might occupy a separate Board, and might furnish it with a much more varied and complex work than that devolving on the present Board of Church Erection, since, as has been shown, all kinds of structures on the Foreign field are to be provided. Still another great department — the extent of whose work is little understood — would be that of publication, which embraces translation and printing in nearly a score of different languages. Allusion has already been made to the eight printing presses in Shanghai, three in Syria, two in India, etc. The issues of the Board in foreign fields the last year were over 36,000,000 of pages. In Shanghai there were reported last year, 240,000 volumes printed, be- sides tracts. The Bible and other religious literature now given to the natives of the world by the Presbyterian Church, has reached enormous proportions, and might well engage the attention of a separate committee. How many boards and societies and private publishing houses are employed in sup- plying a Christian literature to our own laud? Were the various departments of education, as carried on in heathen lands, also placed in the hands of a separate Board, supported by an additional collection, the field would certainly be wide enough for its energy and all the resources which it cculd col- lect. It would not only embrace theological training, which at home demands separate institutions, and colleges and female seminaries, which here receive princely endowments, but also normal primary schools, here supported largely by State appro- priations, but these dependent mostly upon missionary funds. The medical and sanitary work of Foreign Missions has become so great, that in Great Britain, a medical missionary society, as a separate institution, with separate funds, has been estab- lished. Such a society, if established here, might find a worthy sphere in training up physicians, and in assuming the whole work of hospitals and dispensaries and medical practice among the heathen. At present, all these departments above named are in the hands of a single Board, and that, in the popular mind, is generally classed with the mere subdivisions of our Home work, and is made dependent upon one annual collection, as against seven that are taken for Home Boards alone, beside all contributions for numerous voluntary societies. Is it strange that the Board of Foreign Missions is in debt ? Is it possible that an enterprise so comprehensive and so vast can advance, or even maintain its position, by the help of one annual collec- tion ? It is not asked that separate Boards shall be appointed for the Indians and Chinamen ; for the anti-papal work ; for the heathen and Moslem nations ; for the press and for struc- tural work ; for medical education and eleemosynary efforts : but it is asked that the more intelligent ones who lead the public sentiment of the Church — ministers and laymen — will endeavor to hold up the fact that these great departments really exist, and that provision should be made for them accordingly. It is asked that liberal-minded men, in their living contributions, and in their testamentary provisions, will remember that the one expression, Foreign Missions, is really in danger of obscuring a score of distinct enterprises, each one of which is vast in its proportions. VIII. HOW SHALL THIS WORK BE ADEQUATELY SUSTAINED. I. By thorough presentation from the pulpit. There is an important class of men — often the most wealthy class — who are ignorant and indifferent in regard to Missions, and who can be reached only by the pastors. They are never in synods or mis- sionary conventions, where these topics are discussed. They neither attend the monthly concert nor read the literature of the Board, but they are in their pews on Sabbath morning. 10 The convincing power of an earnest and able sermon cannot be eluded. With faithfulness on the part of the pastor, they must come to know something- of the progress of Christ's kingdom. 2. By instructing the young in the Sabbath-school in relation to this work, and by forming in them the habit of contributing to its support. There are hundreds of Sabbath-schools in which foreign missions have no place. Contributions are taken for a variety of objects nearer home, but the sympathies of the pupils are not turned toward those who are perishing for lack of vision. But, how shall the young, thus neglected, ever take our place in the extension of Christ's kingdom ? Shall all that has been ac- complished in the last half century toward the world's conver- sion be lost through this neglect? Is it less important to enlist the Sabbath-schools than the churches? 3. By reviving and strengthening the monthly concert. It has been a great edu- cator. None can estimate its value to the churches in the last half century. How has it enlarged the horizon, instructed the intellect, and expanded the sympathies of the people ! The concert of prayer should always clinch its own impressions and confirm the sincerity of its petitions by a collection. Those are the very best gifts, which come forth from an atmosphere of prayer. 4. By encouraging the effort of our Christian ladies for their own sex. Hundreds of letters have been written by the officers of the Women's Societies to the pastors, without ever receiving an answer. Generally, pastors are written to for the reason that the ladies of a given church are unknown to the writers, and it is felt that, in multitudes of cases, efficient auxiliaries might be formed if pastoral co-operation could be secured. Let it be remembered that these appeals from the Women's Societies are a work of love. These devoted women labor on without salaries, with great patience, and sometimes under toilsome burdens ; and we appeal to every pastor and evqry Christian, are they not worthy of a response? What- ever the past has been, shall not their patience now be re- warded by a general and hearty co-operation ? All our efforts should be encouraged by the recent spiritual fruits. IX. GENERAL PROSPERITY OF THE MISSIONS. At no time within several years past have cheering reports of God's presence and of hopeful conversions been so numer- ous as during the last few months. From India, from the Ga- II boon ; from Canton, Tungchow, and Chefoo ; from Japan and Syria ; from Brazil, the Indians, and the Chinese in California, very favorable reports have been given ; while, in Mexico, the growth of our work has been most remarkable of all. Never before has our Board had greater encouragement to thrust in the sickle all over the broad field of the world. In Japan, even, the opposition which had been aroused against the truth, seems to have given the people a stronger desire to receive it. Every where the harvest is ripe for the sickle. OUR SABBATH-SCHOOLS AND THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS. The Presbyterian Church has undertaken a great work in the world, at home and abroad. It is planned for the future as well as the present. It is to expand from generation to gener- ation. It supposes the training of children to the continuance of that which their fathers have begun. Such training is especially necessary for that remoter wTork, which concerns the nations lying in darkness ; and for the reason that it is less mingled with considerations of self-interest, and is more purely a work of inbred and spiritual faith. A complaint was made at the last anniversary of the American Board of Missions, that the young are not cherishing the missionary spirit of their fathers. This has been found to be true also in the Presby- terian Church. The men who are most deeply interested in Foreign Missions, are those w^ho had their spiritual training forty or fifty years ago. The largest givers to that cause are found among men of this class, while the younger men ot wealth, many of whom have become wealthy since the war, " believe in our own country," and in whatever concerns its spiritual and material progress. The younger generation, through a laudable zeal in Christian associations, and in the Sunday-school work, and many other local or patriotic objects, have pursued a course of training, which, though eminently useful, has developed less interest in the cause of Foreign Missions. In most cases, children and youth, in our Sabbath- schools, though cultivating a benevolent spirit, are devoting their gifts mostly, or altogether, to objects which lie nearer at hand, and are possibly more importunate, but which have little reference to their training for that specific work, which their own denomination has undertaken. Picturesque objects pro- posed by outside voluntary societies may be useful, but they do not inculcate in the young a love lor their own church, nor a feeling of responsible duty to perpetuate that which their fathers have begun. It is not strange if our children, upon leaving the Sabbath-school and the parental roof, are as much Methodists or Episcopalians as Presbyterians. And it is diffi- cult to see how the various lines of work now pursued by the Church, are to be perpetuated without the cultivation of a proper esprit du corps in the young. This denominational interest is not at all at variance with the present tendencies to Christian union, for it was the very glory of the late Evangel- ical Alliance, that it fully recognized the diversity of separate organizations, each advancing vigorously according to its own methods, and impressing those methods upon children, and children's children. Whatever is worth undertaking, is worth extending and perpetuating. If the General Assembly has been wise in devising certain schemes of effort, they are worth the co-operation of the young as well as of the old. It is a strange inconsistency that many churches which pride themselves upon their loyalty to the enterprises of the Assem- bly, and feel a satisfaction in having each column of benevolence represented, should seem to think it of no consequence whether the rising generation should grow up in that loyalty or not, and should allow the whole interest of the Sabbath-school to be devoted to objects as remote as possible from all the aims of the Presbyterian Church. There are many schools which are trained up, or which, at least, grow up in the idea that the Sunday-school is an institution entirely distinct from the Church ; that it stands upon its own foundations, and is to perpetuate itself only ; and that, therefore, the Sunday-school Union, or some other agency for the extension of the Sunday- school work, is about the only proper object for their contri- bution. That children should be interested in those of their own age, and chiefly enlisted for their good, is natural and proper, but that interest should not be cramped and confined to a single institution, or to a single country. It should, as far as possible, be drawn into all those channels in which the duties of maturer years may lie. Objection is not made here'to a proper share of attention, to various objects outside the Church, but a plea is made for a paramount interest, and training in the work of the Church. The Sabbath-schools should be instructed in their future work. The Home and Foreign fields should have each its proportionate attention. The establishment of Christian insti- tutions all over this Republic, and the spread of the gospel among all nations, should be held up as great aims, which the majority of pupils are old enough to comprehend. The geographical positions of different fields, the manners and 14 customs of nations, the methods of missionary work, and the scriptural grounds of obligation to carry on that work, should be made familiar. No topics can be better calculated to expand the mind, and elevate the heart, than these. As to contribu- tions, a monopoly should not be given to Foreign Missions, nor to Home Missions, but such proportions as the work laid out by the Assembly demands. The following are among the results which might be expected to follow such a training : i. A surprising aggregate of contributions would be realized. The power of the littles gathered in the thousands of our Sunday-schools, has never been lully tested. The nearest approach to it Avas realized, when, in i863, the Mission Board of the late Old School Church was relieved of a debt of over $40,000 by the Sunday-schools alone. 2. The full co-operation of our present schools in the work of the Church, would raise all our Boards from a condition of embarrassment to one of full support and efficiency. 3. A large and increasing number of young men and women, would be found consecrating themselves personally to the missionary work. The best laborers in this great vineyard are not those who have bethought them to enter it at the eleventh hour, though our Saviour assigns to them also their reward, but those who have cherished the mission work from childhood, as the great object of their lives. It cannot be too deeply, or too constantly remembered, that the two great training-schools for the messengers who are to give the gospel to the nations, are the family and the Sunday-school. 4. The rising generation would be trained to a hearty sym- pathy with that work in its true proportions, and instead of complaints that the missionary spirit is declining, we should gain assurances that the extension of the gospel will proceed with deepening interest and increasing resources, and far greater success when our own efforts shall have ceased. " Estab- UsJi Thou the work of our hands ; yea, the work of our hands } establish Thou it." These suggestions arc respectfully submitted to pastors and Sabbath-school superintendents. SPECIAL MISSIONARY OBJECTS FOR SABBATH-SCHOOLS. The following list of objects is submitted to pastors and superintendents, in view of the fact that many Sabbath-schools are forming their programmes of benevolence at the beginning of the new year. In the severe pressure which the Board has suffered and is still suffering during the present year for want of funds, it has been compelled to look with increased interest to the Sabbath-schools. While church collections advance but slowly from year to year, a great increase may be hoped for among the young. Our work earnestly appeals, therefore, to the Sabbath-schools at this particular crisis. There has, in many cases, been great difficulty in arranging the correspondence of Sabbath-schools with mission fields, where the support of a particular scholar in a mission school was undertaken, but this difficulty is now largely overcome by classification. It is desirable that, instead of a particular pupil, a scholarship may be taken, in which case a more interesting letter may be written by the missionary concerning the whole school, and at the same time an almost insurmountable com- plexity of detail be avoided. Where, however, a school prefers to have a particular scholar, effort will be made to accommodate their wishes. In regard to the frequency of letters from the field, it is desirable that the Sabbath-schools will remember that there are several thousand children and youth under instruction on the Foreign field, and over four thousand Sabbath-schools at home, and that too frequent a correspondence would well nigh monopolize the time which the missionary should give to his local work. Objects may be chosen among the following: i. Pupils in schools in China, India, Siam, Mexico, and at Tripoli in Syria, may be supported at a cost of from forty to fifty dollars in currency ; in Persia, thirty-five dollars ; Africa, thirty dollars. 2. Native teachers and helpers in Syria, Persia, China, India, Mexico and Brazil, will cost variously from fifty to two hundred dollars. Schools may select by correspondence with the Secretaries of the i6 Board. Native preachers may be supported on these fields at from one hundred to three hundred dollars. 3. In the erection of school buildings, chapels, orphanages, etc., the Sabbath-schools may contribute any amount , greater or less, and will receive descriptive reports from the field. This is an important and attractive object ; it is laying permanent foundations. 4. Effort is being made at some of the Missions to furnish hymn-books and suitable literature for the young. The power of Sabbath- school singing and congregational singing, which has accom- plished so much here at home, is to be tested in Mexico, at the Gaboon, in India, and elsewhere. Aid in any of these directions will so far help to meet the heavy expenses of the Board. 5. One of the most attractive forms of work for Sabbath-schools is the support of missionaries. If the schools of a given city or presbytery were to unite in furnishing the support of a missionary who should correspond with them, furnishing interesting intelligence from time to time, it would constitute one of the best means of instruction in mission work. This appeal, by being bound up with other matter of general interest, will fall into the hands of many whose schools have already taken up as large an amount of Foreign missionary work as will be found practicable at present. All such will be regarded as having already responded. Others not fully engaged are earnestly requested to join in the good cause. 21. ■ PROGRESS AT HOME AND ABROAD. These words tell of influence, life, power. They embrace action and feel- ing, devotion and effort. They point to a fact in the history of Christ's king- dom which is to advance, and they speak of forces at work through which this advance is positive and decided. As far as Christ's cause is concerned it covers the two fields — home, that is evangelized, and abroad, that more thor- oughly needs it. Beginning in the one, it reaches to the other, and the great aim of Christian life and endeavor must be to make others, who are deprived of the truth, savingly acquainted with it. In this respect there has been a great gain. More are now interested in the moral and spiritual welfare of the destitute than ever before, and more is doing for the good of the race than has ever been known in the history of the Church. Responsibility means some- thing with this class. To them duty has a new voice, and the spiritual condi- tion of others stand out in such vital relations that obligation is seen and felt. Once it was not so. Here and there was one mourning over the supineness of the Church, and sighing for opportunities to reach the perishing in pagan lands, but there was no vivid consciousness of individual duty to go and preach the Gospel to them, or to maintain those who should desire to carry it. As far as real work was concerned for the spiritual elevation of the heathen among Protestant churches, the great commission was in no way recognized. It might as well have been spoken to beings of another sphere. When the movement did begin near the close of the last century for the evangelization of those sitting in moral gloom, it was not only decried and caricatured, but its most violent opposers were men professing godliness. With them the force of the last command had either been spent, or the time to carry it into execu- tion had not come. In their opinion Carey's enthusiasm bordered on mad- ness, and his project of organizing work for the heathen was considered Uto- pian, so that he could not at first enlist his own denomination in the scheme, or call forth a response from other denominations. It is sad to contemplate such a state of things. The indifference now seen among not a few Christians was then general. The Church was asleep while myriads were dying. Then no Peter the Hermit arose to call the Church to arms for the recovery of the lost, and no vast armed hosts sprang up and went forth for their rescue, crying, with intense burning zeal, " The Lord wills it, the Lord wills it !" This reference to the past is of moment, and a retrospect has its value in the consideration of this subject, and it is well at the beginning of a new year to look at what has been, so as to judge something of the present in its bear- ings upon the future ; and the first thing to be noted is the advanced position which the Church has taken in regard to missions. When Carey stood forth as the advocate of missions to all lands, no Church in its Church capacity, if 2 Progress at Home and Abroad. we except the feeble organization of the Moravians, had ever taken decided action in favor of the evangelization of our world. If held as a truth it was theoretical, and never put forth into practice. The discouragements that Carey encountered would have quenched the ardor of a less heroic spirit. The aged and influential members of his own denomination dissuaded him from the scheme as simply visionary, and when the Society was formed in 1792, the leading men " kept aloof from an enterprise struck out in the heat of enthusiasm." "On the 12th of April, 1799, twenty-five individuals, clerical and lay, not one distinguished by rank or station, met together to institute the Church Missionary Society, by laying down the principles of action and by mutually pledging each other to pray for and to care for the heathen. They submitted their plan to their ecclesiastical superiors. For fifteen months they waited in inaction before they could obtain any notice or answer in respect of their proposal." A like feeling pervaded the mass of Christians in Great Britain. The same was true of our own land. When the early band of missionaries, with others. met together in Williams College and formed a Society in 1808, their records and constitution were kept in cipher, and " the reasons for secrecy were the possibility of failure in the enterprise, public opinion then being opposed to us ; in accordance with which good men often said the enterprise of a foreign mission of which we talked was the result of overheated zeal, and would be soon forgotten ; there was enough to do at home," etc. There was but little sympathy with the movement anywhere. At first resolutions in favor of the work were voted in some Church courts, and in others they were allowed to pass as harmless expressions of mere sentimentality. But now every evan- gelical body recognizes not only the importance, but the obligation to enter heartily into this enterprise. In Great Britain the greatest and the noblest of the land are seen at missionary meetings, and in all parts of Christendom the cause is espoused and recognized as a duty to be discharged, and the idea is common that " missions are the chief end of the Church." (2) The work is no longer an experiment. The Gospel had accomplished wonders in certain lands and among certain races, but could it touch and transform the? besotted South Sea Islanders, the degraded African, the lordl) Brahmin, and the proud Confucianist, and make each an earnest, humble Christian, loving righteousness and hating evil ? Could it transform and ele- vate as well as humble? Could it work in each the same sentiments of loyalty and devotion, of earnest life and pure endeavor? Was it suited to all classes and all climes? Some had held that it had lost its power ; that it was inert. antiquated, and incapable of producing a high type of civilization and culture. All this has been tried, and the issue is not doubtful. The experiment has been made and success assured. It has lost none of its power. Amidst the greatest obstacles it has triumphed. Whilst new friends have been won, new enemies have been made who realize their losses in the conversion of relatives Progress at Home and Abroad. 3 and neighbors to the truth. They are alarmed because Christianity is making inroads upon their faith. In this respect missions should be looked upon with the greatest favor by the Church. What has been effected shows the power of the Word : that it is still mighty for the pulling down of strongholds ; that it can reach man as man, wherever found, change his moral nature, and set him upon a new career of spiritual being ; and the more this is done the stronger the evidence of its divine energy and of its heavenly origin. As these cases are known, the greater will be our confidence in the sufficiency of the Gospel to renovate and to save, and the more firmly, in turn, should we grasp a cause that bears the approval of Heaven and the marks of its celestial origin. (3) Those who are won to the faith show that Christianity is stronger than heathenism. Language is incapable of unfolding the true character and the consolidated power of many systems of paganism. Buddhism and Brahmin- ism are masterpieces of Satanic skill. The hold that these and other forms of error have upon the hearts of their votaries is terrific. But that hold, under the melting power of the cross, has been relaxed, and not a few, swayed by the might of divine grace and by the light of truth, have abandoned joyfully, and yet at a great sacrifice, the faith of their fathers, and have become humble and devoted followers of the Lord Jesus. Many have had to sever the strong- est ties, break away from home and endeared associations, surrender property, give up the dearest friends, encounter the bitterest persecutions, and endure poverty and privations for their new faith ; and yet all were borne that they might testify of the transforming nature of the Gospel and show their sincerity in its wondrous power. It snatched Africaner, the terror of the people, from tire lowest degradation and crimes, and made him a meek and loving follower of Christ ; it revolutionized the whole life of the Kurdish robber Guergis, and made him a helper of many ; it has rescued many a Polynesian from savagery and the greatest evils, and brought them into loving sympathy with purity and righteousness. Its trophies are everywhere found, and they have been from the worst of earth and the vilest of the vile. What Paul said of some in his day who had been rescued from human wretchedness and impurity, hundreds of missionaries in various portions of our earth have and can say : " Put ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." Now, then, if sin and Satan could not keep these under their sway, then there is a stronger one than they ; if heathenism, how- ever named, could not hold them within its grasp, then Christianity, that rescued them single handed when they were surrounded by all the forces con- trolled by their religion, is mightier than it. What the Gospel has done, it can do, so that the Church need not fear any issue made between truth and error, between its claims and those of false systems. (4) In no portion of the earth does heathenism, or any false system, present an unbroken front. Everywhere an inroad has been made upon them —slight in some places, but severe in others, yet showing their inability to cope with the simple forces of Christianity. Once it was not so. The Mohammedan 4 Progress at Home and Abroad. power was untouched ; Brahminism was unaffected ; Buddhism and kindred errors found in China and Japan were undisturbed ; Fetish worship reigned supreme, and savage life was let alone in all lands. So little was done, except at a few points by the Moravians, leaving out of view the Romish propagand- ism that left the heathen changed only in name — we may say that all false systems of belief at the commencement of the present century were unmoved by any aggressive attack upon them by the Protestant Church. The visits of Christians to Africa had been chielly made by the slaver, the adven- turer, the trader, or the traveler. Those who left their impress on India were the soldier or the merchant. Those who were found in China were there for material wealth. The sailor or the discoverer was passing from island to island in Polynesia, but none of them were heralds of the cross sent out by an awakened Church to bear with them the message of eternal life. What has been done for the evagelization of our earth may be compressed within this century, and the greater part within the last fifty years. Now missionaries are found in every part of the globe, and, with rare exceptions, in every country. They are at work where civilization, apart from Christianity, is the highest and where it is the lowest. They are where faith has been formulated for ages in written forms, and where faith is only traditional. They are where the people are ruled over and held in awe by a subtle priesthood, and where there are no idols and no worship. They are in all climes, amidst burning heats and eter- nal snows, breathing deadly atmospheres, enduring cheerfully trials and priva- tions in the one grand hope that they may bring the people to a saving knowl- edge of the Gospel. This, not wealth ; this, not honor ; this, not fame, is their aim. That Gospel, says one, " lias enlightened the ignorant South Sea Islanders and demolished their unorganized religions. It has converted a cannibal race into a Cod-fearing, man-loving people. It has combated and overcome the powerful and subtle systems of Hindooism and Buddhism. It has been more than equal to the ingenuity, the subtlety, the fanaticism of an inveterate priesthood and the veneration and shrewdness of a thinking peo- ple ; and it has won from its opponents a commendation more complete and valuable than the praise of its friends." Lt is, then, true that if darkness con- tinues to brood over the earth, and if heathenism and error continue to hold men in thraldom, the fault is not with the Gospel, not with the Redeemer of men, but with His people, to whom lie has communicated llis truth and on whom He has laid the duty of its dissemination to all lands. (5) The change in public sentiment at home and abroad in regard to this work is great. lt is no doubt true that there are still many enemies, open or secret ; but it is also true that the cause has won largely among the people in Christian lands. No bishop would now say what Bishop 1 loisley said in 1 793 : " He did not think that any foreign State had a right to interfere with the gov- ernment of another country, without an express commission from Heaven : the apostles had such commission, but he doubted whether it had not ceased." The names given by many to the Baptist missionaries — " madmen," " maniacs," Progress at Home and Abroad. 5 etc. — are not now heard. Such an opinion as was given by Dr. Buchanan about mission labor, would not now be declared as " diabolical advice." No such reviews as were written by Sydney Smith would be tolerated in a clergyman. No such sentiments as were expressed when the Baptist and London Mission- ary Societies were established or the American Board was inaugurated would be uttered, and no such declarations by men high in the Church as were heard when the first missionaries of those Societies were ordained could now be made. How the English Government resisted all evangelistic work in India until overborne in 1813 by public sentiment, is well known, and yet that Indian government published a Blue Book a few years ago, and devoted many pages to missionary labor, and closed its statement with the following words : "The Government of India can not but acknowledge the great obli- gations under which it is laid by the benevolent exertions made by 600 mis- sionaries, whose blameless example and self-denying labors are infusing new vigor into the stereotyped life of the great populations placed under English rule, and are preparing them to be in every way better men and better citizens oi the great Empire in which they dwell." It was the same spirit that con- trolled the British power in India that led the East India Company to join the Chinese authorities to keep out missionaries from China ; but now that land is virtually open, and protection guaranteed by the rulers to all who are pro- claiming the truth as it is in Jesus to the people. We might refer to other changes, but these are sufficient to indicate the revolution in public sentiment. When we come to actual facts as to work done, contributions given, labor- ers sent, converts made, there is much to exhibit an increased interest in the enterprise and a greater power associated with it It may be well to look at these. The first contribution by the Baptist Church in 1792 for missions amounted to $65, and for a long time the mission met with a scanty support from the churches. In 18 17 — the close of the first quarter of a century — contributions were acknowledged from only 95 Baptist churches and 45 aux- iliaries, reaching altogether about 180 churches. Beginning the comparison with the present century, and contrasting their work then and now, we have the following : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1800 6 1 $10,300 1877 86 205 29,496 195,000 The London Missionary Society was organized in 1 7^5, with considerable vigor and zeal. At first the interest of various denominations centred in it. The first work of this Society was in the South Sea Islands, to which they sent 29 missionaries in a ship which they had purchased. The following figures show something of what has been done : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. '796 29 $5544o lS77 149 3.93° 94,089 623,700 6 Progress at Home ci7id Abroad. The next important British Society that was instituted was the Church Mis- sionary Society in 1801. Though drawing to it some noble, earnest, and de- voted men, who are greatly honored by the Church at large, it had for years a chequered existence. It did not commission a single English missionary till 1813 — not one could be found to offer himself as a candidate ; the Society was, therefore, dependent on the Lutheran Church and on missionaries from the Continent. Its income for several years was small. It had reached in 18 13 only $14,155. The progress made at home and abroad ib obvious from the following figures. The list includes Sierra Leone : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1804 2 $2,700 l8'/7 2IO 2,782 29,994 953465 The Wesleyan Missionary Society had not a formal existence till 1817. The conference of 181 4 urged the immediate formation of such an institution, but it was not completed till three years afterward. This Church had its origin, in one sense, in missions, and its peculiar character has been that of an aggressive body. Wesley, and many who were associated with him, went from place to place proclaiming the Gospel. A difficulty connected with the evan- gelistic work of this Society is to separate the purely missionary from that which is colonial. We can not find the statistics for 181 7. We publish the summary of its whole work for the past year : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1817 $86,000 1877 853 5,870 141,286 73M7I The next denomination to fall into line in its ecclesiastical capacity was the Church of Scotland. The Glasgow and the Scottish Missionary Societies had been organized in 1796, and had laborers in Africa, India, and Jamaica, but the Church of Scotland determined, in its corporate capacity, to begin work in India, and in 1826 collections were made which amounted to only $1,500. In 1829 Rev. A. Duff, its first missionary, sailed for India. In 1843 the dis- ruption of the Church took place, and then was born the Free Church of Scot- land. We add its work for 1877, that the contrast may embrace the parties represented in 1830 : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 183O 1 $5,000 1877 53 37o 4.000 383.565 The United Secession, now tin- United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, that had been co-operating with some of the Societies already named, planted a mission in Jamaica in 1835, and from that time has pushed forward the work with considerable vigor. Then it had for Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1835 4 $6,500 1877 46 324 8,077 241,000 Progress at Home and Abroad. 7 Passing into our own country, and without referring to a few feeble efforts for the evangelization of its aborigines, we come to the movement that led to the organization of the American Board in 1810, and which was supported for many years by Presbyterians as well as by Congregationalists. It is now solely in the hands of the latter. The Presbyterian and the Reformed Churches acting through their own institutions. The Board had, in Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. I8I3 2 $11,361 1877 151 I.I72 13.435 441,391 Besides these communicants, over 14,000 were enumerated at one time in the Sandwich Islands, and do not now appear. The Baptist Missionary Union was organized in 1814. This was hastened by Messrs. Judson and Rice adopting Baptist views on their way to India as missionaries. The following summary is for the two periods in its history : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 181 5 2 $13476 1877 138 956 63,445 238,777 The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1819, and its operations were wholly confined to our own country till 1831, when it sent its first foreign missionary to Africa : Missionaries. Native Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1832 i Small. 1876 87 2,170 I7»754 300,000 The Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church was organized in 182 1, but ten years afterward it had not sent a missionary to the heathen. We gather the following facts from its history : Missionaries. Nat hie Agents. Communicants. Receipts. 1833 2 $5,000 . 1876 35 57 1,065 139,826 As has been said, the Presbyterian Church co-operated, in part, with the American Board. Many felt that, as a body, it should prosecute its own for- eign missionary work. In 1831 the Western Foreign Missionary Society was formed, which was merged into the Board of Foreign Missions established in 1837. The following comparison shows the progress made : Missionaries. Native Agents. Comtnunicants. Receipts. 1833 4 $6,431 1877 120 600 9,632 471,977 We might refer to other but smaller organizations, but the facts and figures given show how this cause has taken hold of the Church at home, and how it has received the approval of God in all lands. It is impossible, however, from these figures to sketch all that has been done. The mere list of communi- cants is a small part of the work ; a much greater number are adherents to 8 Progress at Home and Abroad. Christianity though not enrolled as members. Thus the Church Missionary Society reports less than 30,000 communicants, but nearly 130,000 native Christian adherents. The London Missionary Society reports 94,089 church members, and 389,023 native adherents. There is the same difference with other Societies. Then there are many who have never been baptized, and who are secretly Christians. Slowly, yet steadily, is the work advancing, and this is a source of joy ; and then it is in advance of the missionary spirit of the home churches, and beyond the present giving ability of those who contribute to this cause. But in this respect there has been a great gain. The Church has greatly enlarged its benefactions for missions. When the Church of Scot- land in 1833 was about sending its third missionary to the heathen, Dr. Inglis wrote to Dr. Duff that he thought he could now reckon on $6,000 a year. He replied : "Do not fix on ^1,200 a year as your minimum. Put down ^£10,000 as your minimum, and from that rise up indefinitely." When this was laid before the Home Committee, one of its leading members wrote on the margin of the letter : " What ! is the man mad ? Has the Indian sun turned his head ?" That same missionary still lives, and has seen that same Church, in its two Boards, giving the past year nearly #400,000. The propor- tionate resources of the Church at large are not yet given to this cause, and the progress made is only an earnest of what will yet be seen. May this soon come. 22. Are we in Danger of Practical Apostasy from Christ IN THE MATTER OF FOREIGN MISSIONS? / BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON. Sheldon Dibble was wont to say that a Christian needs to be converted to a personal interest in Foreign Missions, just as an unregenerate man needs to be converted to a personal interest in Christ, and His salvation. The process of such conversion to practical sympathy with Foreign Mis- sions might be neither so long nor laborious as it often is, were some grand facts duly weighed. And it is in the devout hope that we may contribute to the awakening of a deeper conviction and the enkindling of a warmer affec- tion in this direction, that we ask careful attention to the following marked considerations. i. The modern Foreign Missionary movement represents the latest and ripest fruit of our Church-life. True, the Foreign Missionary movement is not properly of recent origin. The Church in the Apostolic era was more thoroughly missionary, in spirit and activity, than at any time since. But in our ordinary estimates of the progress of the Kingdom of Christ, we instinctively give to the Apostolic Church a special and separate standing. It belongs to the age of miracles. Following close- upon the personal ministry of our blessed Lord, characterized by the actual presence and supervision of His chosen apostles, marked by conspicuous and miraculous interpositions of God's Providence and Spirit, abounding in signs and wonders, which made the living God peculiarly and vividly near to His people, the earliest epoch of Christian church history seems entitled to a place by itself. The relapse of the Church, in the age imme- diately succeeding, was so rapid and its decline so abrupt, that it was as though its supernatural pillars or props were removed, and henceforth the progress of the Kingdom of Christ lies more in the direction of natural law and less of super- natural force. The Divine plant which had bloomed into a gigantic growth and efflorescence under the special fostering care of God, appears to have been left to shrink and wither, that its development might begin as from the root again, struggling against adverse influences, into blade, ear, and full-grown kernel. Whatever be our philosophy, the faet is, that the Church went rapidly down into the dark ages, when the fires on her altars and the flames in her lamps almost went out. And it was a full millennium of years, from the time of her relapse, before her recovery toward Apostolic simplicity and purity began. In the birth of John de WyclirTe rose the morning star of the Refor- mation ; the stake of John Huss furnished additional radiance to the glowing day-dawn ; the evangelical doctrine of John Knox, John Calvin, and Savona- rola, still more intensely lit up the darkness ; and finally, under Luther and his fellow reformers, the new day burst on the reformed transformed Church. And yet it took three hundred years of life and growth in the awakened Church for modern missions to assume organic form. There are men in this generation whose lives reach back to the day when it was thought needless and almost presumptuous to send missionaries to the heathen. In all other spheres and departments of activity, where we see any signs of advance at all, we expect the latest product to be the mat ur est and best. It is so in invention and discovery. Science refuses to go backward. And the pre- sumption is, that this latest development of Church energy and activity repre- sents the ripest fruit of her life. As in the grand gallery of the first of the Pyramids, there is, at the distance of 1,814 inches from the beginning, a very decided ascent to a loftier platform ; so the lapse of 1,800 years finds the Church lifted to a much more exalted plane. She begins to obey her Lord's last command, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creat- ure. She returns toward the simplicity of her first days, and the ardor and fervor of her first love. She calls to the Gospel feast those who a»-e in the remotest and obscurest by-ways and hedges, and who, above all others, are the most destitute spiritually, the poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind. Surely, there can be no doubt on the part of a candid and spiritually-minded disciple that no enterprise of the Church represents so mature a fruit of God's tillage as this most unselfish mission to the destitute. 2. This brings us to the second great fact and factor in this argument, viz., that the enterprise of Foreign Missions is pre-eminently the Church seeking the lost. We can not but feel that in our estimate of the claims of Foreign Missions on our sympathy and help, this factor of comparative destitution can not with fairness be left out. If we were commissioned, in days of famine, to deal bread to the hungry, we should feel that, in the order of claim upon our service, not the nearest, but the neediest is entitled to preference and preced- ence. If our next neighbor had eaten no bread for one day, and the remoter families none for two days, we should pass by the nearer to feed the needier. Now, much of the jealousy sometimes apparent between the advocates of Home and of Foreign Missions, respectively, might be obviated if this matter were carefully considered. It is said, " the mission work is one — giving the Gospel to the destitute " — and so it is. But it is also said, " that therefore there should be no dividing or discriminating line between home and foreign fields ;" but here we detect a fallacy ; for there is a marked difference in de- grees of destitution. Even in our remotest and most destitute frontier settle- ments, where there may be neither church nor minister of the Gospel, you will find both Christians and Bibles. In most cases these men and women have heard the Gospel, some repeatedly ; not a few are even Gospel hardened ; and it may be doubted whether there is a settlement in our land so destitute that an awakened soul could not find a Bible to read, or a believing soul to consult for help and guidance. Is it not patent that those millions who have never yet seen a Bible, or a missionary, or heard of Christ, and who, if aroused to a sense of the vanity of idols, know no way out of darkness, have a superior claim on the ground of comparative destitution? Is there any justification for the depreciation of our foreign missionary work, on the ground of the impor- tance of our work nearer home ? We appeal especially to the elders of the churches, whether that is not an exceedingly unsound argument which justifies neglect of the heathen world, on the ground of needed missionary work on our frontiers. Is the question of comparative nearness to blind us to the claims of comparative need? Far be it from any of us to cripple one arm of our Church organism to strengthen another. We count ourselves among the warmest advocates of Home Missions. But we earnestly contend that no zeal for those who are in need of Gospel privileges in our own land should permit indifferentism toward the still more destitute millions who are not even enjoying the reflected light of the Gospel. If Cheyenne needs the Gospel, what shall we say of China ? 3. Another mighty argument in favor of Foreign Missions is found in the consecrated a?id heroic lives linked with this work. The most devoted and spiritual of all the men and women of this century have either been found in heathen lands, working for the rescue of souls, or at home, praying and giving for the success of the work. Now there must be something in the work which develops Christian heroism. We feel instinctively that it is no accident that in such an enterprise the worldly-minded and the half-hearted disciple is not found. There must be some link between these two — exalted Christian char- acter and foreign mission work. The most conspicuous examples of Apostolic consecration, whether here or abroad, are warmly engaged in furnishing to the most destitute the Gospel of Christ. And we may safely challenge the Church to show, among all her shining examples of heroism, any who are cold and un- sympathetic toward the work of Christ abroad. We involuntarily gauge piety by such tests. If any kind of work be found to ripen Christian character with marked rapidity, we judge that work to approach more nearly to the true idea and ideal of service. And when we notice that somehow the most Christlike disciples feel most yearning toward the Christless millions who are farthest from our doors, and, wherever they are themselves called to labor, strive with most eagerness to reclaim those that are most emphatically lost, we can not but conclude that there is some deep reason for such coincidences. If, then, this latest enterprise of the Church is also the most unselfish, dealing the bread of life to the most destitute, and develops the highest types of piety, we may naturally expect it, by the blessing of God, to exhibit special marks of Divine approval. And, let us note, that of all Church enterprises, this is also — 4. The most effective and comparatively successful. Remember that modern missions are scarce a half century old. Fifty years ago the first banners were but just floating from Christian standards before the strongholds of paganism. There was scarce a single fortress of heathenism taken for Christ, and the ad- vance toward the great centers of Mohammedan, Papal, and pagan supersti- tion was scarce projected. And where to-day can you find any enterprise so young with results so abundant? History may be safely challenged to unroll her shining scroll and point to any record so brilliant. The men and women who, from the whole Christian world, have, during these fifty years, gathered against the armies of the pagan world, have been a mere handful, like Gideon's picked three hundred. And yet all Christendom together can, witli all the ten thousand appliances of Gospel ordinances and organizations, show no such comparative results at home. Within less than three-quarters of a century the Bible has been furnished to every considerable nation and people on the globe, in the native tongue; the Word of God can be obtained to-day in about two hundred and fifty languages and dialects — all the result of modern missions. It is a miracle of Church life — it is the reversion of Babel, the repetition of Pentecost, the union of all tongues in one celestial dialect; and every man may now read the Gospel message in his own tongue wherein he was born. And, although missionaries in foreign lands have had to contend against all the gigantic Anakim, to master strange languages, overcome malignant hos- tility, face martyrdom, breathe and teach in the Stirling atmosphere of a godless community, begin at the beginning, with souls in whom even moral discrimina- tions were well-nigh obliterated ; the average growth of churches in pagan lands is threefold as great as throughout Christendom, and the average per- severance of confessors of Christ in pagan lands is, as many missionaries be- lieve, fourfold what it is at home. While nominal Christians decry the mis- sionary work abroad, on the commercial plea that " it does not pay," they betray culpable, almost criminal, ignorance of the actual comparative results ! Think of it ! With all the favoring circumstances attending the preaching of the Word in Christendom, the evangelization of the heathen world is proceed- ing three times as fast in proportion to means and labor expended ! How many of our systematic or spasmodic contributors who give nothing to foreign missions, on the ground that they do not pay, know these and similar facts ? And can we be guiltless, if we are in needless ignorance of them ? These are some of the awfully weighty arguments, found in the logic of events, which constrain us to confess, as the magicians did when they saw Moses' miracles, " This is the finger of God/" And yet, while the Divine finger thus points the Church to the foreign field as especially a fertile one, there are those who would tk forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved" (i Thess. ii. 16) ; while in twenty-two days, 5,429 new converts have just been baptized in the Baptist Mission to the Teloogoos. 5. Another marked manifestation of God's approval of the foreign mission- ary work, is found in the doors, great a fid effectual, which Providence has opened before us. A half century ago and we might almost say the whole world was a walled city with shut gates ; every place where the banner of the cross now waves was first taken and held by the courage of a few Christian soldiers. Japan sealed the ports of her island empire ; China refused to un- lock her iron doors ; India forbade the original missionaries to land ; Africa excluded even the explorer. Now, where is the land to which the missionary can not go and preach and teach the Gospel ? When did God ever present before His Church fields so vast and doors so wide ! Father Gulick, in Japan, is spending the evening of his days watching the progress of Gospel triumph. When he went to the Sandwich Islands, half a century ago, he found eight converts only among that people. He left only after the whole population had taken rank among Christian communities, and the Christian religion was the established faith of the Islands. What wonder that he who has seen within forty years a pagan nation's doors opened to the Gospel, should be firm in faith and strong in hope for that other island empire of the Pacific ! This is one side — the encouraging side — of this great matter. How is the Church, and especially the Presbyterian Church, meeting the command of her ascended Lord, and the demand of a world now inviting Christian enterprise? After praying for half a century that the doors of access and approach might be opened to the heathen, now when in every land the Gospel may be freely proclaimed, what is the attitude of the Church? We answer, with candor and with sorrow, that no enterprise of the Church, perhaps, is sustained with so great difficulty as our Foreign Missionary work. This vast range of argument and experiment, these appeals drawn from the most weighty considerations and the most mighty logic of events, fail to arouse the Church to send the mis- sionary in any adequate numbers, or even to give money in any adequate ratio to the scope and need of the work. With the leaders occupying positions which fit them to see the whole field, shouting all along the line the word of '-Advance," we are not even holding our own ; we are actually falling back. A debt, or deficiency, of about $50,000 for two years successively, admonishes the overseers of this work that even the sum asked for the most economical maintenance of the work now doing, is more than the Church will supply, and retrenchment there must be, at a time when it will not do even to remain stationary. Missionaries wait to go to for- eign fields, because there is no money in the treasury to furnish them support. One godly woman gave about one-tenth of the entire contribution last year. In a Church whose 600,000 members have an aggregate annual income esti- mated at $250,000,000, we find it impossible to gather more than about seven- tenths of a dollar a year for each member- -a tithe of this aggregate average income would yield $25,000,000, or more than fifty times last year's offerings / One dollar, as the annual average contribution of each, would give us $600,000. To what conclusion must we come but that, as a body, the Presbyterian Church is not in profound sympathy with her Lord, in His work among the heathen ! It is incredible that, if we were sincerely and heartily praying for the coming of His kingdom, watching the signs of the times and the leadings of His Providence, grasping the wondrous promises of the Word, and measur- ing the actual success attending the work, we could allow the Foreign Mission- ary movement to retrograde or even stand still ! It is said that these are times of unexampled financial depression ; but shall our economy begin at the house of God, or with our luxurious self-in- dulgence ? The tithe was the least that any devout Israelite offered to God. What if to-day one tithe of all our income were laid upon our Lord's altar ! How would our church treasuries overflow! Think of it ! A Church of more than half a million of communicants reports something over eight millions of dollars for all our church enterprises and benevolences, including "congrega- tional " expenses and miscellaneous offerings ; just about fifteen dollars a year, ox five cents a day for each member. Can " hard times" alone account for that? Brethren, we need to reconstruct our habits of giving upon a new basis. Our hearts need a new baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. Christ must not stand waiting for His soldiers to come up to His position, that He, with them, may take Satan's strongholds ! Let the Presbyterian Church prayerfully consider whether she is not in danger of practical apostasy in the matter of Foreign Missions ! And while all along the line of battle, now encompassing the globe, there sounds the imperial clarion of our white-plumed leader and Lord, summoning His host to the onset, let there be a grand onward move- ment from every quarter, that every hostile fortress may tremble before the overwhelming charge ! A HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. BY THE REV. WILLIAM D.' HOWARD, D. D., MINISTER OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PA., DELIVERED AT THE MISSIONARY CONVENTION HELD IN PITTSBURGH, JANUARY, 1872. NEW YORK: MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 1872. MISSIONARY ADDRESS. I propose to give a brief history of the origin of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. I would like to go further back. I would like to speak of the missionary labors of the apostles and their successors for some generations, which re- sulted in spreading the Gospel throughout the Roman empire and beyond the Roman empire. I would like to speak of the missionary labors of the Nestorians in the fifth century and onwards, who planted the Gospel among the mountains of Malabar in India, who had numerous churches in the vast regions of Tartary from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond ; through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary, and even to China itself. I would like to speak of Patrick, who was not, as many suppose, a Roman Catholic saint, but an earnest evangelical mission- ary, and his successful labors among the Druids of Ireland ; and of his suc- cessors— Columba, Columbanus, and Gallus — who, long before Gregory the Great had, whilst yet an humble priest, seen the fair-faced Angles in the slave mart at Rome and, of course, long before as Pope he had sent Augus- tine as a missionary to Britain, had conveyed the Gospel to Scotland and England, Gaul and Germany, Switzerland and Lombardy. I would like to point you to the mission schools of Edessa and Nissibis in the East, and of Bangor and Iona in the West, sending forth their troops of self-denying missionaries to lay the foundations of Christian churches in every part of the known world. It was at the fires kindled by some of these holy men, whose names, alas ! are almost forgotten, that the torch of our Western civ- ilization was lighted. But, passing over many centuries, especially would I like to tell the story of Presbyterian Missions in this land. The first Presbyterian ministers who labored in this country, which was as early as the latter part of the sixteenth, and beginning of the soventeenth century, were missionaries as well as pastors. The first presbytery was a missionary presbytery. One of the first overtures ever presented to them and agreed upon was, " That every minister of the Presbytery supply neighboring desolate places where a minister is wanting and opportunity of doing good offers." The first synod was a missionary synod. And, one of the earliest acts of the first General Assembly, passed on the third day after its organization, that is, on Saturday, the 23d of May, 1789, related to missions, and is in these words : " The Committee of Bills and Overtures, overture that the state of the frontier settlements should be taken into consideration and missionaries sent to them," etc. It is true, reference is here made to what we call Home Missions, but efforts were made at the same time to convey the Gos- pel to the heathen aborigines. But even more than these things, because it is more germane to the mat- ter now in hand, would I like to refer to the early missionary efforts of the Synod of Pittsburgh. This Synod was organized in 1802 ; and, on the second clay of its first meeting, a committee was appointed to " digest a plan for missionary business." A scheme was recommended by this com- mittee and adopted by the Synod, which embraced the following features : " The Synod of Pittsburgh shall be styled the Western Missionary Society. The object shall be to diffuse tbe knowledge of the Gospel among the in- habitants of the new settlements, the Indian tribes, and, if need be, among some of the interior inhabitants when they are not able to support the Gos- pel." They appointed a Board of Trust, and made arrangements for the ap- pointment of suitable missionaries, for the collection and disbursement of funds, for holding annual meetings, and the preaching of a missionary ser- mon annually before the Synod. This plan was very complete and it worked admirably for many years. Possibly here is to be found the germ of our pres- ent Board of Foreign Missions. There wrere other important measures adopted in relation to missions by our Church, which we must pass over. A complete history of Presbyteriau Missions cannot of course now be given. I shall confine myself to a glance at the origin of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. When one stands before a grand structure, gazing with wonder and de- light upon its massive w^alls, the graceful outline of turret and pinnacle and lofty spire, he wants to know something of its history. Whose idea is here realized in enduring stone ? Whose skill is here so lavishly displayed in massive doorway and pointed arch, and painted window ? It adds no little to the pleasure of the beholder to know that the dome of St. Peter's is an outgrowrth of the genius of Michael Angelo, and that St. Paul's owes its massive grandeur to that of Sir Christopher Wren. So, when We stand in the presence of some grand institution from which has gone forth an in- fluence to the four quarters of the globe, waking men from their sleep of sin, and doing something towards shaking venerable systems of error to their lowest foundations, we are anxious to know to whose sanctified gen- ius the Church is indebted for such a powerful instrumentality for good. There are not a few in this audience who remember a stately man who, with measured tread and abstracted look a lew years since, traversed these streets. And many, I am persuaded will retain — so long as memory con- tinues to perform its oflice — a recollection of his fervid eloquence, as, rising with his theme, his great eye all aglow with the fire of genius, his breast heaving with emotion, and his majestic form raised to its full height, in trumpet tones he declaimed against sin, or " In strains as sweet As angels use," he plead with sinners to be reconciled to God — I mean the late Dr. Elisha P. Swift, in whose veins not only flowed the blood of John Eliot, the Apos- tle of the Indians, but in whose heart glowed an equal love for the perish- ing heathen. This great and good man may be regarded as the founder of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. He had able and earnest coadjutors. In his own Synod, there was Dr. John McMillan, whose iron sinews laid the foundations of our Presbyterian Zion in Western Pennsylvania; and Francis Herron, that great-hearted Christian gentleman, and Matthew Brown, the gifted and skillful Christian educator, and Charles C. Beatty, a descendant of the first American minis- ter who ever preached the gospel where this great city now stands, and David Elliott, who, at the age of more than fourscore, still lingers among us, yet helping the cause of Christ by his wise counsels and earnest pray- ers. And besides there was the earnest and generous Campbell, the saintly McCurdy, the clear-sighted McFarren, and many others. And these minis- ters were aided in the work by a noble band of intelligent and devoted elders, among whom were the Hon. Harmer Denny, and Samuel Thomp- son, and John Hannen, and Francis G. Bailey, and Richard Edwards, and many besides. Beyond the bounds of his own Synod, Dr. Swift was fa- vored with the counsels and encouragement of such men as Dr. Ashbel Green of Philadelphia, and Drs. Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller of Princeton, and John Breckenridge of Baltimore, and Joshua Wilson of Cincinnati, and William W. Phillips of New York, whose church was, at the beginning, one of the most liberal contributors to this cause, as it has continued to be from that time till this. Here the name of another early friend of this enterprise should be men- tioned, the Hon. Walter Lowrie, who subsequently succeeded Dr. Swift as the Corresponding Secretary of the Board, in which office he remained till a few months before his lamented death in 1868. But it is so difficult, in a few sentences, to do justice to the efficient and long continued services of this eminent servant of God, that I am almost tempted to omit it altogether, hoping that some competent hand will soon make the Church fully acquain- ted with her indebtedness to him in relation to the work of Foreign Missions. Mr. Lowrie was distinguished, in the first instance, as one of the most liberal contributors to this cause. The first reference made to him is in May, 1833, and in these words; "The Treasurer acknowledges the receipt of $1,000, for the purpose of paying the salary of the Corresponding Secreta- ry, for the present year, from an unknown friend." It afterwards was as- certained that this "unknown friend" was the Hon. Walter Lowrie. The contribution was as timely as it was liberal, for by it the infant enterprise 6 was relieved from great, perhaps, fatal embarrassment. In 1834, Mr. Low- rie was elected one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, and the year following, Dr. Swift having signified a desire to return to the pastoral work, he was unanimously elected the Corresponding Secretary and General Agent. On this occasion the Board of Directors used the following language in re- lation to him, which in the light of his subsequent life seems almost pro- phetic ; "Should he accept the appointment, it is hoped that his talents, his extensive knowledge of men and things, his habits of strict and system- atic attention to business, and his regard to the honor of God and the best interests of mankind, will render his labors in the cause of Foreign Missions highly acceptable to our churches, and eminently useful, under God, in forwarding the general enterprise of evangelizing the world." For some reason Mr. Lowrie did not at this time accept the appointment. The next year, 1836, the Board again unanimously elected him. On the 25th of August he announced his acceptance of the office, and informed the Board that he would enter fully upon the discharge of his duties in Decern ber of that year. At the time of his election Mr. Lowrie held an honorable and lucrative office in the Senate of the United States. This, at no little pecuniary sacrifice, he relinquished, and gave himself wholly to the work of his new vocation. In subsequent years he proved his love for this work and the perishing heathen by devoting his time, his fortune, his rare talents and indefatigable industry, and, more than all else, three gifted and godly sons to the great cause of Foreign Missions. From the beginning of his labors Mr. Lowrie imparted great vigor to the cause. The Executive Committee under his lead, immediately determined not only to enlarge the existing missions, but to establish four new ones, — an advance contemplated from the beginning by the beloved Senior Sec- retary Dr. Swift, and warmly supported by his counsels and influence. To carry out this purpose, thirty-seven missionaries and assistant missionaries were needed, ten of whom had already been engaged. One of the new fields was China, and for its service Mr. Lowrie possessed a special quali- fication in his having made himself acquainted with its difficult language. The work Mr. Lowrie now entered upon proved to be his life-work, and the influence he exerted on the cause of Foreign Missions was not second to that of any of his contemporaries either in Europe or America. The conviction that it is the duty of the Church in her organized capac- ity to convey the Gospel to the heathen, was the cardinal principle upon which these men acted. After much consultation and correspondence, therefore, it was resolved to organize a Society for this purpose; and, as the Synod of Pittsburgh had been preeminent in her zeal and success in the cause of missions, it was thought host that the enterprise should be inau- gurated by it. It was in the autumn of 1831 that these brethren were pre- pared to carry their cherished purpose into effect. The Synod met on Thursday, the 20th of October, in the Second Church in this City, and was moderated by the Rev. Dr. David Elliott. On Friday, the second day of the sessions, the Committee of Bills and Overtures brought in a bill on the subject of the organization of a Foreign Missionary Society, which was committed to Messrs. E. P. Swift, Luther Halsey, James Harvey, Samuel Tate, and Thomas Hunt, to report thereon as soon as pos- sible. On Monday, this Committee reported the plan of such a society. This report, I have reason to believe, was drawn up by Dr. Swift. It be- gins with these significant sentences: "It is a fact which the members of the Presbyterian Church in common with some other branches of Christ's visible empire recognize with joy and gratitude to God, that the indica- tions of prophecy and the signs of the times call upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, of every denomination and of every clime, to employ redoubled exertions to extend the glorious Gospel in the earth, and especially to those wTho are enveloped in pagan and ant i- christian dark- ness. The time appears to have come svhen Zion should awake and put on her strength, and not only plead before the throne with increasing importu- nity, for the fulfillment of the blessed promise made to the Mediator, that all nations should flow unto Him and be saved, that the mountain of the Lord's house may be established; but by their actual, untiring and liberal exertions, to exemplify the reality and sincerity of their desires, to convey to a dying world the precious blessings contemplated in these glorious engagements of the covenant of redemption. The Church and the world wait to see such a degree of ardor and enterprise, on this great subject, as the love of Christ, and the wants of man, demand of his own blood- bought family ; living as it does in comfort and affluence, and possessing the rich favors of a munificent Providence." The report closes with two resolutions, one of which is as follows — " Re- solved, 1st. That it is expedient forthwith to establish a Society or Board for Foreign Missions, on such a plan as will admit of the cooperation of such parts of the Presbyterian Church as may think proper to unite with it, in this great and important concern." Then follows the Constitution of the Society, the first Article of which is as follows — " This Society shall be composed of the ministers, sessions and churches of the synod of Pitts- burgh, together with those of any other synod or synods, Presbytery or Presbyteries, that may hereafter formally unite with them, and shall bj known by the name of the "Western Foreign Missionary Society of the United States." Other articles of the Constitution made provision for a Board of Directors, an Executive Committee, a Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer and other officers, and whatever else was necessary to carry the work efficiently forward. Dr. Swift was chosen Corresponding Secretary, and although for some time he continued to perform the duties of pastor of the Second Church, Pittsburgh, with a rare wisdom, zeal and industry he carried forward the work of the Missionary Society. The Rev. Elisha McCurdy was chosen Treasurer, and Mr. Samuel Thompson, an elder in the Second Church, Assistant Treasurer. s The infant institution was now fairly set up. It was modest, feeble, had but few friends, and I am sorry to add, some enemies. Let us trace its progress. There was much preliminary work to be done: sermons to be preached ; addresses to be penned, printed and circulated ; journeys to be made and meetings to be held ; correspondence to be had with those who proposed to go out as missionaries ; and missionary fields to be select- ed. All was attended to. One of the first things the Secretary did was to open a correspondence with two young men in the Seminary at Princeton, Messrs. John B. Pinney and Joseph W. Barr, in relation to their going to Africa. They both finally consented, and were the first missionaries appointed by the Western Foreign Missionary Society. The next thing which attracts our attention is the collection of funds. Funds came to the help of the young Society from the east, the west, the north and south, and among the contributors are some of the noblest names of the church. One of the donations was a pair of golden ear-rings from a young lady, another was a gold ring and a breast-pin also from a young lady. The young women of the church were among the earliest friends of this noble institution, and they have continued to be till this day. Eighteen months passed and the Society rendered its first report in May, 1833. The results thus far were briefly as follows : Three missionary fields had been selected. One in Western Africa, one in India, and a third among the North American Indians west of the Mississippi. Six ordained missionaries had been appointed; two for Africa; two for India; and two to the Indians. Most of these were mar- ried, so that there were some twelve missionaries in all. One had already fallen by the stroke of death. The Rev. Joseph W. Barr, just as he was about to sail from Norfolk, Va., for his distant and dangerous field in Afri- ca, was struck down by cholera, and his heroic companion, after some unavoidable delays, sailed alone, thus proving himself then, as he has by forty years of toil in her behalf since, one of the truest friends that down- trodden continent ever had. The collections for the eighteen months amounted to, $3,534.G5£. Though these results are not very flattering, the Society during this period did much work which eluded the notice of most observers, in lay- ing broad and deep the foundations of this great enterprise. We are reaping the valuable results of this silent labor to-day. The founders of the Western Foreign Missionary Society seem to have grasped all the essential features of the missionary work. The breadth and comprehensiveness of their views fill me with surprise. They contemplated reaching not only the whole heathen world, but the Moslem and Papist populations, including those in Mexico aud South America, which countries have loomed up in later days as among the most important missionary fields in the world. They displayed preeminent wis- 9 dom in selecting their fields of labors. Africa, which has ever since grown in importance, and India, where an influence has been exerted by our own and other missionaries, which promises to make a country containing 200,000,000 of people virtually Christians, within the life-time of some now living. And they not only selected Africa and India, but their eye was upon China, Japan, Persia, Asia Minor, South America, and other lo- calities, which in the forty years which have elapsed have been proven to be missionary fields of unsurpassed promise. They were only deterred from entering some of them by the fact that other missionary societies, and especially the American Board, contemplated occupying some of the most important of them. Here I am led to pause to notice the noble Christian spirit which the founders of our Board manifested towards the American Board, an institution which they revered and in whose growing success they rejoiced. In one of the first papers they issued they thus speak of this sister institution. " In reference to the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, we hope to cherish no selfish principles ; and we shall appeal to no sectarian feeling. We contemplate its past achievements and its pres- ent prosperity with unmingled pleasure. Our only strife will be to copy its every good example, and try not to be outdone by it in kind affection and Christian magnanimity." On another occasion they say, "The appearance of this Society and its Journal, on the great field of evangelical effort, with chastened hopes and meek pretentions, is attended with sentiments of veneration and love, for all those older Institutions which it finds already gathering the trophies of sacred victory. Of that Board (the American), especially, which has for better than twenty years, so ably and faithfully sus- tained the best hopes of the American Churches, it would devoutly say : 1 May its bow abide in strength, and the arms of its hands be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' ' Because of the house of the Lord our God, we would seek thy good.'" Men of such a spirit as this proved themselves to be fitted to found a great religious institution. One more evidence of their wide and comprehensive views is found in their remarkable enterprise. They founded a missionary journal, which has been published by the Board ever since ; and I think I may say, with- out in the remotest degree disparaging its present editors, the first volume evinces no less ability in its getting up, and is quite as valuable as a mis- sionary periodical, as the last. And both the first volume and the last, and all the intermediate volumes, I regard as invaluable. They adopted the most efficient means of interesting churches, sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods. They sought out young men in colleges and theological seminaries, and urged them, by the most earnest and eloquent appeals, to consider the •claims of the foreign field. And last, but not least, they secured the co-operation of the women and children of the church. Your women's societies and your Sunday-school collections for missions, are no new things. In a word, nothing has been done by their successors that evinces more true wisdom in relation to the great work of 10 missions, than was done by these founders of our Board. They seem to have surveyed the whole ground, and to have suggested almost every great principle and almost every important plan that has been acted upon since. t The second annual meeting of the Western Foreign Missionary Society was held in the First Church, Pittsburgh, in May, 1834. The Board re- ported that during the past year seven ministers of the gospel, together with nine other persons, sixteen in all, had been sent out, under the auspices of the Society, to labor among the heathen ; and that $16,- 29G.46i had been contributed to its funds. Death had again been doing its work, both among the little missionary band and the friends of the cause at home. Dr. McMillan, one of the vice-presidents, and fastest friends of the cause ; Thomas T. Skillman, Esq., one of its earliest life-members ; and Mrs. Louisa A. Lowrie, the wife of the Rev. John C. Lowrie, had been called away. The little company, consisting of the Rev. John C. Lowrie and the Rev. William Reed and their wives, who went out to India, reached Calcutta in October, 1833. Mrs. Lowrie was seriously ill on the voyage, grew rapidly worse after she landed ; and although every atten- tion was paid her, and every comfort secured to her in the house of a no- ble English Baptist missionary, the Rev. William H. Pearce, she soon passed away, and was buried at Calcutta, on the threshold of her chosen field of labor. The Rev. Mr. Reed, after his arrival at Calcutta, became so ill that he was obliged, in a few months, to leave India, in company with his young wife, with the hope of again reaching his native land. But this was denied him. He sank rapidly, and soon after leaving Calcutta died ; and his earthly remains found a burial in the Bay of Bengal, near the Andaman Islands. Mr. Lowrie, discouraged and saddened, was now left to proceed alone to his distant field of labor. This he did, and suc- ceeded, though brought near to the grave by sickness, in planting our mis- sion at Lodiana, in Northern India, which was the first, and has grown to be one of the most important missions of our Church. That so many discouragements, especially so many deaths, did not weaken the hands of the friends of the cause, is an evidence that they were men " full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." I think I discovered, in reading over some dry records a few days since, one cause why they held so stead- ily on their way amid darkness and storm and apparent rebuke. It is thus expressed : " Besolvcd, That the members of this Synod will meet in the churches of this city and Allegheny town, every morning during their ses- sions, at the rising of the sun, to spend some time in special prayer to God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on themselves and the churches un- der their care." Men who assemble every morning at the sunrising to pray, are not likely to turn aside from the path of duty, though it be rug- ged, steep, and stormy. But I must hasten to a conclusion. The Western Foreign Missionary Society continued its work, with varied success, for about six years, when. 11 in June, 1837, a Board of Foreign Missions was organized by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. To this Board the Synodical Soci- ety subsequently transferred all its missions and funds. At the time of this transfer there were five missions, namely : Northern India, with four stations ; Western Africa ; Smyrna ; China, and the Western Indians. There were twenty-four male missionaries and assistants, and twenty fe- males— forty-four in all. The receipts for the last year of the separate ex- istence cf the Western Foreign Missionary Society, that is, the year ending October, 1837, was $40, 260.53, which was more than eleven-fold more than had been collected in the first eighteen months of its existence. Since the work of Foreign Missions has been conducted by the General Assembly, there has been a steady, healthy, and most encouraging growth. From one mission in 1833, we have grown, in less than forty years, to thir- teen missions; from one station in 1833, to over two hundred stations in 1872; from five or six missionary laborers in 1833, to nearly eight hundred, one hundred and twenty-eight of whom are ordained missionaries, in 1872; and from a contribution amounting to a little over $3,500, to a contribu- tion, according to the last annual report of the Board, amounting to nearly 1334,000, of which about $24,000 were raised by the children of the Church. Less than forty years ago, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, held up by a single sick, albeit a heroic, faithful, resolute hand, a solitary torch of gospel light on all the eastern part of the vast continent of Asia, and one other by an equally brave and devoted hand on the continent of Africa; now, though we cannot say of our Presbyterian missions as some one has said of the British empire, " the sun never sets upon it," yet we can say that the sun as he rises in the east scarcely greets the land until he finds our mission in Japan ; then, as he pursues his western way, he looks down at our mission at Shanghai, with its press of movable Chi- nese type, first used by our missionaries in that vast empire, and which is destined to revolutionize the art of printing in its original home: then a little further he finds Ningpo, with its numerous Presbyterian congrega- tions, and then upon Tungchow, with its deep religious interest, and Pekin the capital of the empire, with its earnest laborers and a government col- lege, at the head of which is a Presbyterian minister, who went abroad as a Presbyterian missionary ; a little further west, and considerably to the south, he beholds our mission at Canton, with the veteran Happer, from amid our own Western Pennsylvanian hills, at its head ; and then, as he continues his journey to the west, he meets our missions in Siam and among the Laos ; and presently his glowing eye lights upon that glorious cluster of missions in Northern India, the first-born of the whole family, with its teeming presses, its schools, its churches, its native pastors and native teachers. He scarcely loses sight of these till he finds our Persian mission, founded by the American Board, and passes over to us as one of the results of the happy reunion of the long-sundered branches of our be- 12 loved Church ; a mission most interesting as being among a people who, as it seems to me, are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, and whose missionary labors, in the early centuries of our era, eclipse everything of the kind even in these latter days. The sun, still continuing his course, passing over the ruins of buried empires, amid the mountains of Lebanon and on to the shore of the Great Sea, and on the borders of the favored land where Christianity was cradled, looks down upon our prosperous mission in Syria, another rich legacy from the American Board ; and thus as almost the first object that greeted his rising upon Asia was a Presby- rian mission, so almost the last upon which he shed his beams as he leaves that continent, was a Presbyterian mission. But even yet he has not seen all that God is permitting our beloved Church to do in this great behalf. As he pursues his westward way, reaching Europe he observes our quiet, but earnest and faithful laborers in Italy, Belgium, France, doing their blessed work among the deluded • followers of the Man of sin ; and as he passes on, glancing far to the south, he finds that our Church has her representatives among the dusky peoples of Africa, in Liberia, among many of her towns, at the Gaboon river, and on the island of Corisco. And now, leaving the old world and crossing the Atlantic, among the first things that greet him as he gazes down upon our own continent, are our missions in North and South America ; among the descendants of " the friend of God" in New York, and among the Portu- guese and Spanish-speaking populations of Brazil, the United States of Colombia, and Mexico. And then as he passes on to his setting, he be- holds our faithful missionaries laboring to Christianize our Indian tribes, the Senecas, the Chippewas, the Omahas, the Creeks, the Seminoles, and others ; and finally, as he completes his circuit of the heavens, just before he sinks into the great sea, he looks upon our Chinese mission in Cali- fornia. Now, are not these things wonderful ? Has there not been marvellous and encouraging growth ? Less than forty years ago a little spark of holy fire was struck in the old Second Presbyterian Church down here in Diamond alley, and behold it has kindled a flame that almost encircles the globe. " It is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes." But there are gaps to be filled up. Methinks if the sun could weep he would when he finds the distance so great from one mission station to an- other. Those who preceded us, at infinite toil and self-sacrifice reared their Christian altars, and kindled the sacred fire on them, on these salient points which I have mentioned. It is for us now to go forth and fill up the chasms until there is an unbroken circle of Gospel light around the globe. Oli, who here is such a craven as not to be willing to do and dare and suffer anything for so good a Master and so great a cause ? OUR MISSION TO THE EAST: BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND, ON THE 7th OF JUNE, 1878. BY THE Rev. W. Fleming Stevenson, M.A., CONVENER OF THE ASSEMBLY'S FOREIGN MISSION. NEW YORK: MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 1878. NOTE. The speech, of which this is the substance, has been printed from the report in the newspapers ; but as it was only spoken from rough notes, and as the length to which it extended made it impos- sible to have a report of all that was said, some of the omissions have been supplied from memory, and a few sentences have been borrowed from an address delivered on the following day at the Annual Meeting of the Female Mission Association, and for which one or two questions, more proper to the general subject, had, of necessity, been reserved. W. F. S. ADDRESS IN SUPPORTING THE ADOPTION OF THE REPORT ON FOREIGN MISSIONS PRESENTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren : The peculiar circumstances under which I have been asked to support the adoption of this very encouraging and admirable Report will, perhaps, be sufficient apology if I wander somewhat from the text, and if I shall ask you to take a wider survey of missions than is embraced by the fields which our brethren are cultivating in Gujarat and Mantchooria. It is almost a year, since, at the request of the last General Assembly, I went as your messenger to our mission churches in China and India. It was only at the end of last week that I was able to return. By constraint of the season and the climate it was necessary to visit China first and to visit it by way of the Pacific, and thus there was a brief opportunity to glance at one of the most recent missions, that in Japan. You will readily understand, however, that fresh from such a journey and still confused by a constant succession of novel pictures and perplexing and always earnest problems, I am not in a position to lay before you that careful and well-weighed statement I would desire. There has been as yet no time to put these experiences in order, and so to render a fair account of my stewardship. I must rather (and the enthusiastic warmth of your welcome to-night, touching me more deeply than I can find words to express, makes it the more needful) ask your indulgence while I mention, and without even attempting arrangement, those impressions that lie upon the sur- face ; and as, of necessity, they must be both somewhat hasty and imperfect, I trust with your permission (God giving me health, and as far as pastoral work may allow) to rectify the blunders, and sup- plement, at least, some of the shortcomings when allowed to address your own people and by the fireside in your own manses. Before proceeding farther, it would be ungenerous not to make acknowledgment of the help from many quarters that has made this long journey possible. I may be excused if I mention first the ready mind of my own congregation ; their co-operation — and it was the co-operation of a very practical as well as very genuine and con- tinuous sympathy — lightened the pain and anxiety of separation ; nor, during the long interval, so far as I can learn, have they been less ready in attendance on public worship or in their support of Christian work. It is a severe strain on any congregation ; and as one of those ministers whose lot has been cast in the Southern part of our island, I feel the more satisfaction when it is a Southern con- gregation which has borne that strain with a fidelity to our Church that may be difficult although we all know that it is right. And here I find myself already led into another acknowledgment : for the aid which so many of my brethren rendered, sustaining our church services at no little inconvenience to themselves, yet with an unbroken regularity and to the great delight and benefit of those to whom they ministered, removed much of the apprehension that was only natural both in pastor and people. There is one also to whom peculiarly belongs whatever good may be now or afterward gained from the journey — one who for years has been quietly, but always helpfully active in every good work, who conceived this project and urged it until it was adopted, and through whom mainly the means were furnished which made it possible without charging one penny of the large outlay on the funds of the mission — I mean the Rev. George Shaw. The General Assembly of last year very properly acknowledged the important help afforded by both the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for India. I have simply to add that the letters which they were good enough to furnish, not only enabled me to receive the most valuable information, but led to many courtesies that have laid us under the pleasantest obligation. Nor would it be gener- ous to omit mention. of the similar, but unusual attention of the Government of the United States, which, departing from custom, not only placed at my disposal introductions to all its Ministers in the East, but enlisted any service they might have it in their power to offer ; and this was done avowedly because the journey was un- dertaken in the interest of Christian missions, and in Christian mis- sions America has as large and noble a stake as Great Britain. Sir, it is in such acts as these we recognize the deep underlying unity that binds the English-speaking rice, a unity that is even stronger than that of our common blood and common tongue, a union of brotherhood between the United States and ourselves, the brotherhood of sympathy with the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and on which we can build invincible hopes of a lasting concord between these great peoples. 5 There was another service rendered of a nature that could scarcely be exaggerated, and which 1 felt throughout to be of a de- lightful character. I refer to the letters which were furnished by the Missionary Societies, not merely those that represent the Pres- byterian Church, but, it may be said, of all our Protestant Churches not only in Great Britain, but in Germany and the United States. But for this truly catholic and large-hearted spirit it would have been impossible to have had in every great city we entered in the East those conferences with the missionaries of every denomination which were so pleasant in themselves and so rich and suggestive in their information. And I wish just in passing to say that through- out the field of Missions, as far as we saw it, I was constantly re- minded that it is possible to have the most profound attachment to a particular Church, and the most loving and practical fellowship with the ministers of every other Church that works for the same Master. I know there are exceptions, but they are treated as ex- ceptions that infringe the spirit of Christian liberty, as well as the spirit of Christian love; and I have returned with the conviction that the time will come, slowly, but surely come, when at home the same temper will be the rule, and not, as it is now, so rare as to be almost distrusted, and when, as in India, the report of one Church will point with cordial pleasure to the success and excellencies in the work of another. Here I would close this succession of acknowledgments but for one incident that was all the more touching because I was far from home, I mean the distinguishing mark of sympathy with the Mission that so many Presbyteries showed in their nomination for the Moderator's chair. I have to throw myself on the indulgence of my brethren for the prompt action that it was necessary to take when the first rumors reached India. It was not till long after that I learned over how wide an area that sympathy had spread. The Church has not been slow to remember with honor the great mission to the heathen which she labors to accomplish. The venerable missionary, who, after six and thirty years of service in India, dis- charged with so much energy and zeal the functions of Convener during the past year has already held the highest post to which our ministers can be called ; and beside you, sir, there is one who has but just laid down the duties of the chair, one in whom all our Mis- sions may be said to be represented, in whose long-merited distinc- tion they all share, and whose undiminished vigor and sagacity in the conduct of affairs we all pray that they may long enjoy. There are numbers of my fathers and brethren whose claims and fitness for that office place them first, and I rejoice to speak to-night under the presidency of one whose generous sympathies, ripe learning, and repute as a Christian teacher bring lustre to his office, and for whom there is but one wish in this House and in all the Church, that he may long be spared to be " a prophet of our own." For me, to serve is all my care, to serve the Master of Assemblies and the Master of us all, and every year I live I rejoice the more that that service is in the house of Presbyterian ancestry and Presby- terian order. So much it was imperative on me to say before proceeding further. As for the journey itself, I shall not profess to describe it. It may be readily conceived that the extent of ground which it covered and the variety of incident would demand a longer time for the narration. Letters written as a friendly link between a pastor and his flock have been published, I find, in the Missionary Herald, and give at least an outline of the way. I feel it would be more in keeping with the business of this House and the time at your dis- posal if I confine your attention to some of the general impressions that have been left upon my mind. As I have said already, I do not profess to give under this or any other guise an exhaustive statement, or to treat with any attempt at thoroughness the great problems of the Mission. The visit has been too recently con- cluded to allow of leisure for a task like that, and as yet I some- times feel like one walking in a dream through lands and among people remote from this. But having honestly tried to get at the best information I could, having sought the opinions, not of friends of missions only, but of those who are unfriendly and skeptical, hav- ing listened to consuls and merchants and sea-captains, to officials of every grade, and to educated and most commonly non-Christian natives wherever I found them, the general impressions that have been left are perhaps the best that I can offer. And I think the first is of the vastness of the enterprise represented by these East- ern missions. At a low estimate, the population of India, China, and Japan must be at least seven hundred millions, or about one-half the pop- ulation of the world. I know how hard it is to grasp the enormous and infinitely varied life that lies behind such figures. To take the population of China alone, there is a calculation that if the people passed a given point in single file, the last of the procession would not have arrived for more than twenty-three years after the first had passed out of sight. But when we spread these millions over so vast an area that not only Ireland or Great Britain, but France or Ger- many become mere provinces, so that we might divide it into fifty counties each as large as Scotland, we may better realize the im- pression left upon a visitor. I remember, when climbing a hill some way out of Peking (which, if you will recall the map, seems to lie near the Northern frontier of China), and being pointed out a range of mountains beyond which lay the Great Wall, that I asked how long it might take to reach the limits of the empire in that direction, and I remember the reply, that the carts proceeding from the capital with treasure for the army of the Northwest consumed more than three months on the journey. There is one district in India of which we seldom hear, and which to ninety-nine persons .out of a hundred might disappear without leaving any trace of astonishment or regret ; and yet Central India (for I allude to it) is as large as Great Britain and France and Spain. There is a mis- sionary who is said to have preached during ten years in two thou- sand four hundred towns (and there were more than two thousand where he could discover no trace of the Gospel having been preached before), and all these towns, some of them with a population as large as that of one of our cities, were in one district of India. There are four Indian rivers that if they ran in a continuous line would cover twice the distance between Liverpool and New Yoik, while the total area of their basins is nearly 1,300,000 square miles ; and in China, the mighty Yang-tz, which at many points is twenty miles broad after the rainy season, is navigated by merchant junks and partly by steamers for eighteen hundred miles inland from its mouth. Why, sir, notwithstanding the network of railways that is being spread over our empire in the East, there are many places in that country so wide apart that for residents in one to reach another would be a more costly journey and occupy far more time than the journey home to England. It would be easy to multiply such illus- trations. They were continually occurring to us, and by degrees (but only by degrees) we began to understand the vast area which the mission lines must cover. And then I must confess to another surprise that was in store for us ; I mean the traces we met eveiywhere of a high culture and a forward civilization, traces that were numerous and striking and altogether beyond what any previous reading had led us to expect. I do not wish to be misunderstood when grouping these Eastern lands together, as if the races or the progress of their culture were similar. They are very different. And if we were to imagine that the various regions of China or of India are as much one as those of England (or of Ireland, where the likeness is less) it would be mis- 8 leading. When we speak of China or of India we mean the same almost as when we speak of Europe, a cluster of provinces as wide apart from one another in language, and often in habits, as Sweden from Italy or Holland from Spain. But there are at the same time broad characteristics that mark them all, and culture and mental power are among them. It is not possible to say at what remote date these populations took their place among civilized nations; but there is an interesting passage in one of Max Muller's lectures where he shows from a comparative study of languages that a thou- sand years before Agamemnon, the Aryans built permanent houses and had an orderly government. The present Emperor of Japan is the hundred and twenty-first of his line and dynasty, a dynasty that can be traced back to a time contemporary with the reign of King Josiah in Jerusalem. There are places in India like the neighbor- hood of Benares and the neighborhood of Delhi where the ruins of successive cities, like geological strata, reveal the various epochs of the past, where they go back so far that they lead us into the regions of primeval legend, and where, through the dead and moldering stones, the voices of four thousand years are speaking to the traveler. The same Madura where we tarried for two pleasant days with the members of the American Mission was the capital of a kingdom powerful enough nineteen hundred years ago to send an embassy to Rome ; and one further illustration may be sufficient. Few impres- sions of a marvelously distant past can be so striking as that pro- duced by the pyramids of Egypt, for they seem from their stony and immovable heights to look down upon all the centuries of history ; and yet as that impression seized on us, as it must have seized on every traveler, we were reminded that it. was the steel of India that chiseled the stones of the pyramids. Then, if we turn to China, we are in a country which for antiq- uity and culture is not second even to India. We are more familiar with the opulent and splendid capitals of Hindostan ; but I found in China towns that I had scarcely heard of, crowded with lines of the busiest streets, and numbering, some of them, a population of almost a million. There are said to be thirteen hundred walled cities in China, one of which (an example of the rest) governs eight hundred and eighty villages ; and, seven hundred miles off the sea coast, there is a city view which, for extent and the im- pressiveness of a vast population, surpasses, I am told, anything of the kind in the East. It may be too much to assert that there are as many of the people in China who can read and write as there are at home, though exceptionally well-informed people are bold enough to hazard that statement; but the Chinese are an educated people and they value education. They have preserved what is perhaps unique, an unbroken list of their graduates for five hundred years. Those who walk through the corridors of the Temple of Confucius at Peking, may read, carved into lofty stone slabs, the principal classics of their literature. They have collected into more than five thousand volumes a digest of their published books, ranging from the twelfth century to the end of the seven- teenth, and a copy of this Encyclopaedia is now one of the treas- ures of the British Museum. The writing on stone may look like a patient and bold attempt to secure permanence without the aid of printing, and was intended to guard the purity of the text ; but printing itself and the use of the mariner's compass were familiar in China before they were known in Europe. And, though the Jesuit astronomers of the seventeenth century constructed astro- nomical instruments that are still one of the wonders of the capi- tal, I was as much struck, if not more, by rude, but at the same time capable instruments that had been made centuries before such help came from the West, and by seeing in the hall of the Imperial College a new and powerful telescope that had just ar- rived from Paris. For this that I have just mentioned is only one of many proofs that China endeavors to retain the place she has held for over three thousand years among the nations of culture. It is not a culture of the past alone by which one is struck. The Egypt of the Pharaohs has no living links with the Egypt of the Khedive. But the civilization, the literature and art and science of India and China have been continued in the longest unbroken line of which we have any record, and the mind of India and China is probably as vigorous and within its limits as keenly active to-day as that of any European people. Then it must be remembered that in both these countries there are religious systems and a religious life that are double the age of Christian England. Hymns of the Rig Veda were sung before the birth of Moses ; and by the time of the Judges the primitive worship of the Hindoo Aryans was already so old that it had de- cayed into Vedantism. Even caste dates back to five hundred years before Christ. Hindoos and Buddhists have what are to them their sacred scriptures, which have come down from a remote an- tiquity, and to which they appeal as the canonical authority of their respective religions, and these writings again are the inspira- tion of a religious literature, of commentary and speculation, of ethical and metaphysical books, a literature that has its students 10 and professors and a ramified influence among every grade of the population such as we are accustomed to in Europe. There is thus in India an uninterrupted chain of theological writings for more than three thousand years ; in a monastery in China I saw one hundred and twenty-eight volumes of the Buddhist Bible and two hundred and twenty volumes of an ancient commentary, which is almost as sacred, and which, we were informed, was a fragment only of the whole ; and even in Japan, the voluminous Kojiki, or standard book of their religion, dates from the beginning of the eighth century, although first printed only in the beginning of the seventeenth. For millenniums these religions have been molding and guiding the thoughts and professing to satisfy the aspirations, not of savages, but of intelligent nations. They have been elastic enough to yield without breaking, and rigid enough to resist all serious innovations from without. They comprehend the highest speculations, and they adapt themselves to the gross and ignorant. Their ritual has been associated with all the joys and sorrows of life, with its hopes and sins, and also with the smallest acts of every day. They have penetrated with deep and fibrous roots into the character of the race. They have been the chief element of unity and cohesion in the national life. They have been guarded with the most jealous reverence. And they have stood — at least in ]nf|ja — the severest shocks of persecution and the strain of great schisms that have sprung up within their own borders. Now, if I add that such a mingled impression as this, far from changing, or losing its vividness, as first impressions often do, was deepened at every step of the way, it will not seem strange that I give prominence to the greatness of the enterprise we have under- taken. But there was another impression left, just as deep, of the vast and beneficent forces that are at the disposal of the Church of Christ. There was not a port where we landed, nor a town where we stayed, if it was only for a night, that we did not find a Christian missionary and that we did not hear of others far beyond. They were often isolated. They were holding Christian outposts at an enormous disadvantage and against enormous odds. But it seemed as if, wherever we might go, we would find these thin and broken, but undaunted lines of Christian chivalry. We sometimes speak of England as comprehending under its rule an empire on which the sun never sets ; and the English flag, waving over desolate islands and the most remote and populous cities, its old familiar colors coming into view in places where nothing else suggests the presence of a strmigej:, touches the most careless traveler with a curious thrill. II We felt we were in the presence of a far greater empire, an empire whose ambitions design the conquest of the world ; that wherever we might penetrate, some servant of the Lord had gone before us. We felt that it lay with the Church at home to multiply and push forward it forces where it would ; that as the banners of these scattered, but invincible hosts of God were advanced, the ignorance and idol-worship, the baseness of life and thought would yield, scattering, like routed foes, to let the light of the love of God en- compass all mankind. I could relate many incidents that would bear out this conviction of the energy and adventure and ubiquitous- ness of the Church, and the glorious possibilities that are before her ; but I am anxious to answer at once a question that demands an answer — What impression have we of the change which these forces have already effected ? It is important to remember (because it will moderate over-eager and unreasonable expectations) that the missions in these countries are not only modern, but of comparatively recent origin. For all practical purposes the earlier and desultory attempts to spread the Gospel in the East may be left out of view ; and though the Romish missions deserve a careful study, I must confine my observations strictly to those of Protestant churches, and these, with only an ex- ception or two, do not date farther back than the beginning of this century. Moreover, they have not sprung full-armed into the con- flict, but have grown up slowly and from slender beginnings to their present equipment and strength. That early stage, when their numbers were few, was in every sense an initial stage. It was the time when all the tools of the missionary had to be fashioned, his grammars and lexicons, his knowledge of the people, his schools and chapels, his translations of the Bible, and all his methods. And even now, after seventy years (a brief period at the best), the missions, notwithstanding their expansion, have not at their disposal the hundredth part of the working help always at the service of the Church at home. Bearing these considerations in mind, I can frankly say that the work already accomplished surpassed my ex- pectations. There are already (exclusive of any fruit of the Romish missions) about four hundred thousand persons connected with the Christian Church in India, China, and Japan, connected with it by more or less regular habits of public worship. There are, besides, about two hundred thousand children receiving a Christian educa- tion. I make no attempt to estimate closely the numbers that are reached by the preaching of the Gospel or by the Christian books that are purchased, although they must be very considerable. In 12 Canton, for example, there are nineteen churches open for preach- ing for some hours every day on six days of the week, and it is esti- mated that as many as fifty thousand persons hear the main truths of the Gospel there every month. In a well-known and very bigoted town of Western India, with about thirty thousand of a population, I was assured that through street-preaching alone the great majority of the people are familiar with the leading facts in the life of Christ. Even while we were on our journey we found accessions of large bodies of persons to Christianity that had their origin in a chance sermon heard, or in the reading of a Christian book. Besides the professed Christians, who number four hundred thousand, it might be safe to estimate that there are at least a million more, or a mil- lion and a half in all who more or less directly come under the in- fluence of the mission. You will see that there is already a Church gathered in those lands, with a larger membership than ours in Ire- land, that there are three times as many children receiving a thorough knowledge of the Bible as there are on the rolls of all our Sunday- schools, and that as many people attend Christian worship and hear Christian sermons as there are on any given Sabbath in all the churches of Ireland and Scotland. But the numbers show more. The decennial returns prove that there is a wonderfully accelerated increase. Ten years now may mean the gathering into the fold of ten or twenty times as many as the same period would have yielded a quarter of a century ago. The increase of this last year alone in India is probably equal to the total increase returned by the Alla- habad Conference for the ten years ending 1871. Yet it is not in columns of figures, it is in detail that the work and reality of the Mission are seen. When, for example, at Ningpo, in China, I learned of a Conference of Christian workers, almost all natives, and from one province, one hundred and fifty men meeting for a week in prayer, and with one subject for their thoughts and addresses — the Holy Ghost ; or, when, farther down the same coast, we arrived at Foochow only too late to join a Conference of two hundred native helpers, representing the eighty village stations of a single mission ; or, still farther down the sea-line, when we traced from the hill-top of Kolansu, at Amoy, and the roof of the old mission house at Swatow, the lines of road that penetrate into the interior, and heard how, along each, the noble mission of the En- glish Presbyterian Church has planted sturdy Christian settlements ; or, when we looked at a map of the region north of the Yellow River, and followed the finger of an eager missionary as he pointed out place after place, so that from the seaboard for hundreds of miles 13 inland, and then northward toward the capital, the villages with Christians in them may soon be within hail of each other ; it was when I saw the well-manned and well-attended theological colleges that have sprung up, not only in China, but in the very priestly heart of Japan, in a city where ten years ago foreigners could only be smuggled in by stealth ; when I listened to sermons preached by native ministers to large native congregations, and found them so Scriptural, thoughtful, and eloquent as to place them on a level with our best sermons at home ; and then, when in India, we passed through Travancore and Tinnevelly, and found Christian congrega- tions and houses of worship dotted so thickly over the extreme south of that country that one was often not more than a few miles from the other; Sunday-school children marching in procession from various points to some central service ; native Christians who were not only practical disciples of systematic beneficence, giving a tenth, and more than a tenth, of their earnings to Christian work (and the more they had the more they gave), but doing work them- selves as well as furnishing the means to others ; young men giving up every week, one and sometimes two days of their working time, and therefore, of their income, that they might go and preach Christ in the districts round ; and villages where three and four, and even seven hundred of the families are Christian ; when I preached in a stately church on a week evening to a congregation of perhaps fourteen or fifteen hundred, and learned that the foundation of this building had been laid by a man of faith nearly forty years ago, when there were only seven converts ; when in another part of the country and many hundred miles away from this, we found in the dense, but not un- populous jungle land a Christian community that, in less than thirty years, has swelled from five persons up to forty thousand, and is now increasing by more than four thousand a year ; when we saw in one town there, two large, and, indeed, cathedral-like churches, built by these once rude people, and filled on the Sabbath day with over- flowing congregations; when, whatever route we took, we were sure to hear of the growth of some Christian settlement; when, having spoken at midnight to some Christians at Cape Comorin, the waves at our feet breaking on one of the most sacred temple sites in India, I found myself afterward addressing a native congregation just at the foot of the Himalayas that rlung their shadows on the village street— it was then that I began to realize the work that the Mission has accomplished already and the vast possibilities that lie before it in the immediate future, the possibilities of faith which are not to be reckoned as the dreams of an enthusiast, but as the actual and divinely promised inheritance of a believing Church. H Why, sir, let us look at our own missions. It is only thirty-seven years since we broke ground in Kattiawar, and thirty-seven years are a short time in a work so gigantic as the conversion of India. It is true that, by a happy arrangement, we entered in Gujarat on the field of another Society ; yet at that time the fruit of the self- denying labors of the London missionaries had only begun to form. Some of the first missionaries who went from us are spared to be here to night, and one of them, full of the most loving and gentle service, has only recently passed away. But in what position are we to-day? We have nine churches, and are prepared to build others as soon as sites can be procured. We have large vernacular schools in every town we occupy, and two admirably-equipped high- schools in the principal cities of the district. We hold fifteen hun- dred acres of land, on part of which prosperous Christian villages have been settled, and other settlements are preparing. We have more than seventeen hundred persons connected with the native Church. We have the beginning of what will yet become one of the great forces of our mission, the work among the native women. We have, in fact, all that you find in the suggestive Report that is presented to-night. But if I could I would like to convey to you what lies below these facts, the impressions left upon us as we visited that region. It was when I found the deep affection of the people, their loyal and tender gratitude to our Church here — a gratitude that I was charged over and over again to convey to you (and I now lay upon the table one expression of it in a formal letter from the Church of Surat to our General Assembly) — when we were taken altogether by surprise by the triumphal arches and multitude of mottoes, the flags and decorations, the processions of Christians that met us as we drew near with addresses and hymns of welcome, the illuminations, and even the fireworks (and it was wonderfully touching to see in front of the poorest native hut some word of greeting, and wild flowers hung round it, though they withered in the hot sun) ; when we had garlands of roses placed about our necks and rockets exploded at our feet and the wild music of unearthly horns filling all the air; when on every side I found traces of the unwearied zeal of our missionaries and of their abundant and varied gifts, and on every hand heard the good they did acknowledged with a ready mind, and by none more readily than by native gentlemen of education and often of very high position ; when I witnessed such in- cidents as the impulsive liberality of the Christians at Shahawadi, of which you may have read in the Missionary Herald ; when I saw the pleasant churches peeping out among the trees ; when I found is them crowded to the door with throngs of worshipers ; when in passing from Station to Station I had the blessed privilege of bap- tizing more persons than former missionaries may have baptized in all their years of labor ; when I heard the native preachers and saw how the people were swayed by their sermons ; when, not only in the school-buildings at Surat and Ahmedabad, but at the annual prize-giving in the latter place (where I had the good fortune to pre- side, and where the large common hall had to be filled twice over, once with the older and again with the younger scholars) I saw the fine intelligent faces, and how the highest castes and the low castes learned there together and how well they knew our Scriptures ; when I talked with aged Christians and noticed the fullness of their joy over the harvest of which they were the first fruits — it was then that I felt the honor God had put upon us as a missionary Church, and the strength of the hold with which the Gospel has already taken possession ; and I heard a voice that spoke through it all, and what it said I say to you now, Go ye up and possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you. But while I have tried to say what I have deeply felt, there is another way of looking at the figures and statistics of the Mission. Place them beside the huge populations of which we have been thinking of to-night and I confess they will seem so small as prob- ably to be disheartening. There is only a slight fringe of stations along the shores and up a few of the rivers of China and Japan, and a closer fringe along the endless miles of Indian coast and along a few of its interior roads. At the same rate at which the population of China would march past in twenty-three years the Christian pop- ulation would march in fewer hours. There are areas in India larger than France without a native Christian ; and if we take all the Christians away it would not make one-sixth the difference caused by the losses of the single famine of last year. It must be remembered, also, that the numbers of Christians I have mentioned might, by themselves, give a very exaggerated notion of the spread of Christianity. These large numbers in India are mainly among the less Hindooized part of the population. There are probably fifteen milions of people that belong to those non-Aryan and abo- riginal tribes where, for the present, the numerical results are the largest, and even if these were ail Christians we might not be much nearer to having India Christianized. They would not directly affect the thought or change the currents of Hindooism. A few men of high caste and good station (and the native church can show many such) may, when won to Christ, exercise a more immediate i6 influence on their country, than converts that are reckoned by thou- sands. If this be taken into account, the show of numbers will look even poorer than at first. We may, of course, fall back on our conviction that the Christian religion, unlike any of the religions which it seeks to displace, is that which God has Himself revealed ; that it carries with it a divine energy ; that when it has effected a lodgment in a country, its forces are not to be measured by its small beginning ; that it is the mighty leaven that can ultimately leaven the whole lump. We may console ourselves by this faith for the sense of disappointment that we feel. But before we feel disap- pointed, let us be sure that we are taking everything into account. These numbers represent only the direct results of Missions; and those that are indirect, and that it is impossible to seize and present to the eye in figures, are of a far larger and more potential kind. If we were to judge Missions by their direct results alone, we should judge them unfairly. Every missionary sets in motion currents of influence which he can not trace. They pass beyond the limit of his observation ; they very probably mingle with other currents that have had a similar origin ; and while he may be cast down by the want of any particular good result that he can see, he may have contributed powerfully to that larger change by which the land is being pre- pared for Christ. These indirect results are so striking that my chief anxiety is to avoid exaggeration, and therefore misstatement. I may not be altogether able. It is difficult to state the exact im- pression left upon the mind on the spot without sometimes leading those at a distance to entertain unfounded hopes. Missionaries do not exaggerate. As a class, I have found them singularly honest and fair, and with a morbid dread of encouraging expectations that are not justified. But the impatience of the Church at home is apt to exaggerate and to induce men to rush to favorable conclusions without any provocation. We hasten to believe what we would like to be true. We take a single fact to mean a popular revolu- tion. Now I know how much the Mission suffers from this habit, how much and how unfairly expectations are apt to be cherished that have a buoyancy inconsistent with fact ; and, when they are disappointed, the Church is apt to feel troubled and to relax in her efforts. Let us balance our sanguine impressions by weighing more carefully the enormous magnitude and enormous difficulties of the enterprise. Take Japan : the new culture and the rapid changes which are spreading there are all in favor of Christianity. It is not merely i7 that there are railways and telegraphs, that there are as many cabs in the cities as in London (though men take the place of horses) ; that there are wide streets, frequent letter-boxes, post cards, red mail carts hurrying to the railway station, few soldiers and ubiqui- tous policemen ; that there are Japanese gun-boats and a Japanese mint and Japanese bank notes and Japanese art exhibitions and Japanese lines of steamers plowing their island seas. It is not merely that the ancient feudal chieftains have been overthrown, and their clansmen and retainers dispersed. It is not even that there is a strangely rapid growth of the native press ; for I have just received an official return from which it appears that six of the daily papers of the capital have a joint circulation of over nine hundred thousand copies a month. The education of the people is absorbing the attention of the Government, and those who mainly advise them in this matter are Christian men, foreigners who have entered their service and are professors in their colleges. They send numbers of their most promising scholars to Europe, where they carry off the honors in our universities and where they come in contact with Christian thought and Christian institutions. Even in their own country I found a Government school where there was a staff of professors giving a complete education through five lan- guages to five different groups of students ; one group learning everything in English, another in German, another in French, an- other in Chinese, and another in the vernacular. The old Buddh- istic school-books and reading-books are disappearing, and a literature that has been largely borrowed from Christian lands is taking their place. The languages and institutions and the material progress of Europe and America are those that are the most studied, and that are regarded with the most respect and all but homage ; and should this revolution go forward it would not be possible to limit the area of healthy change. All over China there are indications that the ancient seclusion is breaking up, and that new and enlarged ideas are contending for power. There are scientific and popular magazines in Chinese, edited by foreign Christians, and with a fair circulation among the governing and better educated class. When in Peking, I was shown an early copy of a native work on political geography that has since been published, and that will be read by the leading men of the country ; and although containing many errors, yet it professes to give an account of those foreign nations that have been hitherto ignored, and to bring down their history in France as late as to the Marshal President and in England to the visit of the Prince of i8 Wales to India; the writer even tries to describe the religion of Europe, and he never styles foreigners either barbarians or devils. China, like Japan, is trying the experiment of a foreign education on certain picked men of her youth ; and when, on their return, they take the places of trust which are intended for them, there will be a new and powerful element of change. Many of the trading steamers and business houses are falling into Chinese hands, and it is the head of a purely Chinese company that has made it a rule of their steamers to carry missionaries at two-thirds fare. But it is in India that the change is most noticeable. It is no longer the India of Clive or of Wellesley. Those old things have passed away. " The rising generation of Hindoos has almost for- gotten that suttee, Thuggism, female infanticide, and human sacri- fice were once parts of their religion ; they begin to speak of them with scarcely less horror than we." In some respects the India of to-day is not even the India of Norman Macleod, an India that he did more than most men, not Anglo-Indians themselves, to bring home to the conscience of the Christian Church, and certainly no book that I have read seems to be, when tested on the spot, so absolutely and vividly truthful as that which he wrote on his return. Native society in very many of the towns is hardly the same thing that it was a few years ago. The prejudices and bigotry are modi- fied by a thousand influences. In the sacred city of the West where a missionary was stoned twenty years ago for daring to cross the sacred river, there is now almost daily open-air preaching by that river's bank. One of the largest and best schools I saw in India was in a native State ; yet the Bible was taught in it every day, and the necessary copies were furnished by the Maharajah. A native prince in that State contributes to the Calcutta Review and lectures to Young Men's Associations ; and the Maharajah has declared it to be his cherished aim "to provide for every subject, within a couple of hours' journey, the advantages of a doctor, a schoolmaster, a judge, a magistrate, a registry office, and a post- master." The chimney-stalks of great factories make some quarters of cities like Bombay look as homely as Liverpool, or Belfast, or Dundee ; I have attended a crowded public meeting in one of the Presidency capitals, a meeting strictly of natives and to discuss a purely native question, and with the exception of some of the letters read by the secretary, all the proceedings were in excellent English ; and, aided by English alone, it would be possible to converse with well-informed and educated gentlemen in every province. The literature and culture of the West, that have been molded into *9 what they are by Christianity, have made for themselves broad channels at least on the surface of Hindoo life, and along these channels new thoughts are swept by the increasing current, not merely into the larger cities, but to remote villages over the country. A skepticism of the present Hindoo idolatry and a shame of it are spreading farther every year, and there is scarcely a Hindoo student that does not disparage and recoil from caste. Every missionary finds that the questions put to the preacher on the streets are no longer what they were : that they express doubts of Christianity while formerly they were angry assertions of pagan mythology. When we were worshiping at Neriad (which is an average speci- men of a well-to-do country town) with a congregation largely com- posed of Dherds, some Hindoo gentlemen entered the church and stayed for the service, though the touch of a Dherd should be pollu- tion. " We younger men do not much mind caste rules ; not more than we can help," a young man said to me, and he was only a type of hundreds more; "Those who learn English," he continued, " do not believe in idols." The head of a native college said one day, " I believe that every one of our students who leaves us knowing English has ceased to believe in popular Hindooism." " How many educated young men believe in the Shastras ?" was the ques- tion recently addressed to the sludents in a Calcutta college. Promptly there were two answers — "Not one in a hundred," and "Not one in a thousand," and the rest assented. Beyond those who carelessly adopt the lower forms of the skepticism they have borrowed from Europe there are few men of intelligence and culture who will abuse Christianity, or even disparage the earnestness of the missionaries and their influence for good, though they may say that missions will never alter the religion of India, and though they would almost scorn to become Christians themselves. Now, to what is all this owing ? Largely, no doubt, to contact with Western nations, the nations that have advanced the farthest on the paths of civilized life. The influence of commerce, the in- fluence of roads and railways and such great industries as have been built up at home, is enormous. No doubt, also in India, it is owing to the influence of a strong and righteous Government. A Govern- ment that covers India with its public works and that spends a mil- lion of pounds a year in the education of a million and a half of children, must be influencing the life of the country in a very dis- tinct and remarkable way. But when due allowance has been made for such agencies as these, there remains one greater than them all. There is a dark as well as a bright side to the influence of com- 20 merce. Any one who has visited a seaport in the East must ac- knowledge that commerce is a very checkered good, bringing much evil in its train ; and the excellency of our rule has not saved us from such a scandal as the opium trade, a scandal that is flung against us by all that is best in Chinese society with as much earnest- ness as we would feel if some foreign power forced us to open our land to a flood of the intemperance we are seeking to cast out. Moreover, though commerce has done much for us as a race, and though we are sanguine that through us it will also benefit the races with which we trade, we of Great Britain have surely some nobler office to the East than to find a market for our products, or even to link populous cities by the bridge of the iron rail. " I should feel shame for my country," I heard one say, whose repute as a states- man is familiar in those distant lands, "if she did not recognize some higher mission to these races than the extension of her trade." The missionary represents quite other forces. He represents the civilization and the righteous laws and moral elevation of the country from which he comes ; but he represents the far higher forces that have made these countries what they are. For the ships that trade in the East, the English, American, and German ships, represent the enterprise of Christian nations ; the just rule that maintains order in India is the rule of Christian England. It is these Christian forces with which the missionary is identified, and which he seeks to set in motion. Every missionary settlement is, in this light, the center of intellectual activity, of righteousness, and love. Almost all projects of usefulness affecting the religious, intellectual, and temporal welfare of the people have originated with the missionaries. They fought in India the battle first of male and then of female education. Their practical teaching has loosened the bonds of caste. If there are now everywhere, at least some men who are trained in European thought, if there is a larger knowledge, if we meet with the striving for a higher life, it is mainly due to the in- fluence of the Mission. And, if nothing else had been done than to place our Scriptures within reach of the people in their own vernac- ulars, then, independent of all direct spiritual gain, and thinking only of the mighty impulse which was given to Europe when, at the Reformation, the Word of God was unbound and set free to touch the people of every class, of the thoughts it kindled and the litera- ture it may almost be said to have created — if nothing else than this had been effected by the missionaries, what more comprehensive or potent agency could they have set in motion, or so likely to account for that waking from a long sleep that is found over all the East to- 21 day ? It is in these far-reaching influences, which are all the while preparing new conditions among the people for the preaching and reception of the Gospel, that we find ourselves facing the future and the work of the future, and one of the impressions left has certainly been encouragement to go on, and along with this the dread that the Church may be so taken by surprise through the sudden openings she will gain that she will be unprepared to avail herself of them in any worthy spirit. Over all the area that we traversed, it may be said broadly that the missionary has perfect liberty of movement. It is true that, in Japan, there are limitations to the foreign settlements, and that re- strictions are placed upon even the passports that allow a wider travel. But practically, either by foreign or native agencies, the Gospel may be carried into any part of these lands, and in China, the Government, and in India even the native States will care for the protection of the missionary. The first rough work of making grammars and dictionaries, preparing school books, and the great work of translating the Bible are over (though, of course, there will remain for years to come the work of improvement and enlargement), and the missionary who goes out now has an immense advan- tage over the pioneer. Then there is, over most of these countries, an evident decay of religious life. In Japan the Government, with- out remonstrance, seizes the houses of the priests for hospitals and the temples for barracks ; and temple bells are freely bought for the European market. In a cathedral town we visited an exhibition of antiquities (to which there was an admission fee) within the temple, and directly behind the altar ; and the only link now between religion and the State is the right that the priests claim to bury all the dead. In China 1 found the priest lighting his pipe at the altar candle while a few worshipers were kneeling on the floor. You may handle with what indignity you please the ugly dolls they idolize, for clergy and people will only smile ; and the opium-smoker will lie in his stupor prostrate upon the figures of the doomed in the temple of the Ten Hells. In India, as in China, the temples are falling into decay ; there are thinner streams of pilgrims to the holy places ; and the legends of the gods are met with open laughter in the public streets. The want of reverence and the decline of worship continu- ally obtrude. There are in our island traces of vast coal fields off which the coal has been degraded by some ancient convulsion ; and the religious life seems to be fast wearing out of these ancient lands and leaving little more than a record of the time when it was all- powerful. 22 I have given but a very imperfect outline of the picture which has been left upon my mind of the condition of Christian missions in those parts of the East that we were able to visit ; and I fear so imperfect and fragmentary that it must be confused. But I dare not tax your kindly patience any further than to ask you to weigh calmly what part we, of our Church, are prepared to take. In pleading for the Foreign Mission, it is not to draw your attention from the other mission-work of the Church. Even in the interests of this vast undertaking it is essential that we should begin at home. Just in proportion as the life of the Church among us is not being purified, and touched by spiritual fervors, we shall fail to influence the world beyond. There are missionaries that go out from us other than those whom we ordain. For every one that is set apart by the Church there are hundreds of men and women who leave our homes for the East, and when these carry with them the aims and habits of a holy life, the greatest of all conquests will draw nigh. There is no opposition between our missions, no room for any anxious or jealous rivalry. And if there is one mission which comes first, it is surely that at home, that which lies among our own neighbors, and in our own land. It is that which is peculiarly the work that God has given us, and from which nothing must distract us until the simple truth of God is as free and as well known in one part of the island as in another. There is the pressing need of the sustentation of our ministry and the endowment of our colleges, our zeal for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, our loving care for those that have gone out from us to swell and found new churches in the colonies, our sympathy for those who, at many points of the continent, are engaged in a struggle that we, of all others, should help, because we know it. These are of the most vital importance. It is the heart of the Church that must be touched, and when the heart is renewed and quickened, all will benefit and the strength of the pulse be felt in every mission. To sustain one work at the cost of an- other would be no real strength to that work and no real gain to the Chinch. Each mission has its own individuality, and it must have its own place in the affections of our people ; but all our mis- sions are the one house of Christian service, and if, by our appeals, we were to divide one from another, the house would not stand. Sir, I do not value the sentimental sympathy that is produced by a distant land and a dark face. H this noble mission to the heathen is to be worthily carried on, it will only be when the roots of our sympathy sink down into principle, into faith and love. Let there be no gift withdrawn, no look or prayer withheld from the great 23 mission at our doors and the other missions God has given us be- yond. But what I must try to say to-night is this, that I have carried away a sad impression, an impression of a multiplied and weary sadness that the mission is undermanned. It is a melancholy story, a story of painful and disheartening details. Brave and loving men seize their opportunities, and a good work is done ; then one of them falls a victim to overwork, the place is left vacant, but those that are left appeal for help and try to stretch their thin ranks until they meet again. The work spreads, for God blesses it, and there is more need to draw upon the sympathy and Christ-like love of those at home. They appeal for help again, and, meanwhile, out of their own substance (never abundant) they supply what is wanted. After long and anxious waiting the news comes that no help can be sent at present, that the funds will not allow it, that men are wanted else- where. And then the missionaries that are left, denying themselves to the utmost, toiling in illness as others might toil in health, seeing the opportunities reach out on every side and obliged to pass them by with a drooping spirit, and scarcely able to resist the benumbing sense of desertion that creeps over them, still look wistfully toward the old Church at home. My brethren, if you saw that, once (and I have seen it many times till I was weary at heart), you would do your best not to let it be again. I have known of three new sta- tions that were formed during the furlough of a missionary, and when he came back to be met by this great joy, his first exclama- tion was. " Where shall I find the money to support them ? " It was a bitter cry ; it must have taken many a disappointment to wring it from a man's heart ; but it is a cry that enters the ear of the Lord of the harvest while we sit at home at ease. Now, our own mis- sions are undermanned ; and I suppose we would at present be afraid to send men, if even they were ready, because we may say, Where shall I find the money to support them ? A post or two in a province and a man or two at a post, that is not the way for the Church of Christ to wage this gigantic, but holy war. A missionary told me once that when, in the last Chinese war, our troops marched up from Taku, by some accident a corporal and five privates were left behind. They resolved to march by them- selves, and pushed their way till the misty drifts swept down, and at nightfall, bewildered and lost, they found themselves before an earthen rampart. They could not tell what troops, whether En- glish or Chinese, were behind ; but, with English pluck, they scaled the wall, and determined to hold their position till the morning. All through that long night they peered into the darkness, and though 24 they sometimes discovered the glimmer of a light, they could not tell if it betokened friend or foe. At last, in the gray dawn of the morning, as they grasped their rifles closer, they saw the flag of En- gland. The fort had been evacuated, and was now in English hands. There was no intention that these men should march up in that solitary ignorance ; and, had Chinese soldiers held the fort, our soldiers would have fallen into a trap. Bat what shall we think of the Churches sending out of purpose their little bands of mission- aries, bodies of two and three, so small and far apart that they can not see the main body of the army ? They go on through the enemy's country (for your missionaries are brave and steadfast men), and they seize a stronghold. Then, through the shadows of the pagan night, and the dim breaking of the Christian dawn, they look out to see some friendly flag. " Hold the fort," we say at home ; and those men will hold it till they die. But I say again, that that is not the policy of the Church of Christ, which, on earth, is the soldiery of God ; that is not like the march of a great army which Christ commands ; and I beseech you again, in the name of these isolated, undergarrisoned fortresses of the far East, send them men and send them means. We have in the extreme North of China a field of Missions, as noble and as rich in promise as any in the East. The country is a land of broad rivers, fertile plains, a bracing and not unkindly climate, a growing trade, and when we saw it, a land of waving and boundless harvests. Eying so far to the North, it is more sparsely peopled ; but every year it is attracting to its soil the more adventurous population from other provinces. A missionary can travel here freely among the people, travel for a thousand miles, until he comes in sight of Russia in the East, and he may feel as secure as he would at home. Christian books and papers find many ready purchasers, and there are innumerable opportunities for declaring the Gospel. There are towns with as many as sixty thousand of a population, and there are numberless villages. Now there might be different lines of mission work traced over that vast country, so far apart that while each was occupied with all the energy that an eager Church could throw into the work, there would be no danger of collision, or jealousy, or of one overlapping the other ; and that is precisely what the two Presbyterian Churches that are represented there, the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and our own, would naturally do. But when, on the spot and map in hand, we proceeded, our missionaries and I (and you know what stamp of missionaries we have out there), to trace only 25 one of these lines, my heart sank when I remembered that the entire of our advancing column consisted of just two men ; that with these our Church at home was content we should not only hold the large seaport which is our base, and establish and main- tain there or at some other point all the effort that gathers round ■a medical mission, but should seize also each of the other towns upon the road and occupy the wide country, often not yet explored by Europeans, of which each is the center. It seems absurd to us here ; but out there it is only felt as an intolerable shame and sorrow. And, if I might say anything further on this matter, it would be to offer some warning against a tendency that runs very strongly at present, a tendency to disperse the mission work. Old missions are crippled that new missions may be supported. New mission fields are opening rapidly, and if the Churches can not enter them they must bear the blame. But it is a poor and dangerous policy to occupy them by crippling the older work. There is a danger of embarking in sensational missions, of hurrying into new lands, because, being new, a greater marvel gathers round them, a danger of making our missions a field of signs and wonders rather than a field sown thick with the promises of God. Let the Churches concentrate their missions and concentrate their sympathy upon their missions. Let them take different fields, and each conquer a province for itself. The advance of God's Kingdom will be found not so much in the number of missions which a Church sustains, as in their character and in the consecration to Christ that lies at the bottom of them. For ourselves, we have a work to do in Gujarat and Mantchooria that will tax our resources to the very utmost for years to come. Let us gather closer round our brethren there, gather round with prayer and sympathy ; let us strengthen their hands by new missionaries every year ; let us make them feel by our overflowing gifts that whatever God gives them to do, they may do it at once. Only in all . this let me not be understood as hinting at a policy of isolation. When we were in Calcutta, the tidings had just reached there that one of the greatest and largest-souled missionaries that ever lived had entered on his everlasting rest ; and there, at least, men did not seem to think it strange that among the most brilliant tributes paid to the venerable Dr. Duff, himself a Presby- terian, was a lecture on his life by a native professor, a member of the Episcopal Church, and that the chair was occupied by the Rector of the Jesuit College. A catholicity so broad as this is 26 exceptional ; but a great-hearted catholicity is stamped on all the best mission work and on the highest mission workers. The work is on so huge a scale, it must cross at so many points, and it is often so similar in kind that co-operation is essential. The form that co-operation will take must depend on circumstances. It may be by Christian Conferences, and the more of frank and practical Christian conference the better. It may be in arranging such a dis- tribution of the work that each mission will strengthen and supple- ment the other. It may be closer still, as in the United Christian College at Madras, and the success of that wise and generous ex- periment suggests that it may be tried elsewhere. Certainly no church or mission by itself is strong enough to do what India needs. We are far enough from that point yet. Let us take care of thinking, or rather let me take care of inducing you to think, that the evangelization of the East will be now either easy or speedy, as if, the preparatory sapping and mining done, the fortress must surrender. A vast deal has been done, and yet we are only at the beginning. There is, perhaps, no factor in the changes pass- ing over India so important as that of education (and it is a happy privilege for us that one of the deputies who has brought the greet- ings of the Free Church of Scotland is now by common consent the foremost representative of Christian education in India, one who has wrought out the most striking, and, at the same time, the most catholic experiment in that direction — I mean the Rev. Prin- cipal Millar, of Madras), yet the results of education must be allowed more than one generation before they bulk largely in our view. It took two hundred years for Buddhism to conquer India, and it enlisted in its ranks missionaries whose zeal, self-sacrifice, and daring are paralleled only by the servants of the Cross, while in numbers they were immeasurably more. We need not dream that we shall accomplish the same work within the span of a man's life. It is a tremendous thing to upset the faith and traditions of a country ten times the size of our own, and among all the convul- sions of national change to labor for the spread of a Christian faith that will be as widely diffused as here. How far was Europe toward even a nominal Christianity after seventy years of Apostolic fervor ? Yet in India we have to deal with a population many times as large as that of all Europe then. The work is, by the nature of it, slow. If it were hasty, we would distrust it. Sudden moral growths breed in us the dread that they will be sudden failures. When I asked one of the most saintly and laborious missionaries in Western India whether from his own ex- 27 perience he could point to any great spiritual advance since 1867, he replied, " I shall simply give the answer I gave to one who ques- tioned me then. In the making of our break-water they have been content for years to cast huge blocks of stone into the sea. The stones have sunk beneath the waves. To one who does not know or has not faith, it may seem a foolish waste, a waste of labor and material. But when these blocks at last begin to show above the water, it will be found that the foundation is broad enough and strong enough for whatever men may need to build. . We are only laying the lower stones of our building, and they do not yet show much above 'the surface of social life. Why should we be impa- tient ? We must have a foundation on which we can build the Christian life of India." There is a danger that the indirect results to which I have pointed may seem so large or so hopeful that we grow content with them. A movement such as the Brahmo Somaj may indicate the direction in which men look for fruit. It is unquestionably a si^n of the commotion and change that agitate the Hindoo mind, and of the higher aspirations and worthier thoughts that have been sown by the Gospel. Bnt it has no life in itself : it lives on what it borrows. It would be easy to exaggerate its importance, and to those who know it, it would be little surprise should it collapse. In a lecture which was hailed with applause in Bombay, the remarkable man who founded it pointed out in a passage of striking scorn, that the radical failure of all Hindoo reform lay in the neglect of each re- former to include himself; and when we were in Calcutta a schism rent the Soma/, and at a crowded meeting in the Town Hall I heard this very charge, and in the words of the Bombay lecture, hurled by one of his disciples against Chunder Sen himself. We are in a similar danger of counting too much on the influence of the help benevolently sent in time of famine. These Indian famines have been terrible ; the sight of the famine camps in Arcot and Madras, the starved skeletons by the roadside, the tales we heard from those who had been through the suffering, the knowledge of the vast multitudes that perished, were heart-rendino-. The charity that rose up at home to meet the need was magnificent, and it has left a deep mark upon the country. Though Gujarat was spared the severity of the trial, it could not escape the poverty caused by famine prices, and we saw with what wise forethought the missionaries husbanded the resources with which you furnished them in so generous a sympathy, to what advantage your gifts were used, and what a profound impression was produced by the un- 28 selfishness of this charity. In China, where the famine has been still more awful, where the loss of life may amount to twice the population of our island, where, within the stricken region, the utter desolation is indescribable, and where such horrors of ancient famine as had been thought scarcely credible are daily repro- duced, the charity that was poured in (though compared with India the stream has been slender), and the self-sacrifice of the mis- sionaries, have already wrought some change in the attitude of the people. But all these kindly feelings are only preparing the people to receive the Gospel. They will not effect any religious revolu- tion, or touch those moral sores that spread over the Entire body of th ;se heathen nations. It is only from the Gospel of Christ that we can hope for what these nations want ; the fight with the gigan- tic evils and superstitions that overspread them must be fought in the power of His Cross, and this, the true help we bring, we must bring speedily. It must not be supposed that because educated men are indiffer- ent to Hindooism, India is at once leaning toward Christ. There are infidel and destructive forces at work among all the younger and many of the older men. Indifference to Hindooism may be only the sign of a deadening indifference to Christianity, and to whatever is noble and inspiring ; and a reign of indifference would be no help to the Gospel. Enlightenment does not cast out idolatry. The manager of the most stately temple in Southern India is the most enlightened man in the town ; and able and thoughtful men like the First Prince of Travancore defend the idolatry of their countrymen. Remember, we have not only cus- tom and pride and the dislike of the conquered to fight as well as religion, and that caste goes with religion against us, but that we must meet the infidelity that has been introduced along with Western culture. Christianity is not the only influence under which men come who have been educated in the English schools : for among that class skepticism is at present the quickest growth. Bombay had not a complete Marathi Bible until 1847, but in 1843 it had ten anti-Christian papers. The commonest book that is offered in the Calcutta bazar is a cheap edition of Tom Paine. The publications of Mr. Holyoake may be found littering the counter of respectable booksellers. While the churches are sleep- ing there are those who are unsleeping. A missionary of long experience informed me that as soon as the young men whom he knew took their degree, they received a courteous and friendly letter from England, and along with it a packet of infidel publica- 29 tions. If such zeal should succeed, are not the Christian churches to blame, the churches which simply look on, the men who cry, What are Missions doing? and all the while will not lift a little finger themselves? The growth of modern India is unexampled. Bom- bay, Calcutta, and Madras, which are now its capitals, are larger cities than any we possess at home but London : yet two hundred years ago Bombay was spelled in public documents with a small " b," and only known as a place near Cochin, now an obscure port hundreds of miles to the south ; Madras was a fort garrisoned by ten men ; and Calcutta was a village in a pestiferous swamp. In these two centuries a new and brilliant empire has arisen. But where is the brilliancy of the kingdom of our Lord? Have we not been building so eagerly at the one that we have been losing sight of the other? We have lost time and lost opportunities to make up, and we must bring help swiftly ; but we have no reason to doubt or falter. Let none of us feel a sinking of the heart, but a bracing of our faith and courage, and gird ourselves up for a mighty work. The living, motive, mighty forces of Christ touch all the widening circle along which His kingdom moves. They do not lose one jot of energy by any seeming distance they have to traverse. Let us realize this as we hear Him say, Lo, I am in the midst of you ; I am with you ahcay, and with faces lovingly set toward all men that know no Saviour, let us carry forward the ark of God. It was impossible to attend the great religious fair at Hurdwar, on the Upper Ganges, as our friends of the American mission had planned; but we learned from them that a legend runs there, a legend that was freely quoted at the fair, according to which, at the close of this century, the Ganges is to lose its sacred character, which will be transferred to a river farther west, and that, as the time comes nearer, faith in the legend gathers strength. Is not that western river to which, in some dim way, the legend may be pointing, the river of the city of God the streams of which have already made glad the hearts of Christians through these nineteen centuries, the river of God's grace that flows from the Cross of Christ, and to which the millions of India will yet set out on pil- grimage that they may find the same joy ? Is it not westward that India must look ? And what response shall we make? Can we forget that we who belong to the great Presbyterian churches have a place to maintain in the work of missions ? If we may include the missions of the Basel, Rhenish, and Gossner Societies (which are entered in the Report of the First General Presbyterian 30 Council as semi-Presbyterian) their clergy are one-third of all the missionaries to the far East. It was delightful to find our fellow Presbyterians at almost every point we visited along the lines of the noble army of missionaries ; in Tokio and Yokohama ; reach- ing in China to the Amoor in the North, and Southward to Formosa and the region about Canton ; to open their first mission church in Peking ; to witness the baptism of the seven hundredth convert of their mission at Swatow ; to be welcomed by them in Hong Kong, and Singapore, and Ceylon ; to notice that the structures of their churches are prominent landmarks in the chief cities of India ; to stay with them at Arcot (and in that district, where there are thousands of native Christians, the missionaries are all members of one honored family) ; to travel with them through Gujarat and Kattiawar ; to rejoice with them in Raj poo- tana- ; to meet the young converts in whom the Canadian mission has found its first and brilliant success at Indore ; to find them firmly settled in the center of India at Allahabad, and to see their stations as far up as Lahore ; to hear of them farther still at Sealkote and Chamba, and, when taken to the highest point of the spurs of the Himalaya at Landour, to be told that it was the sani- tarium of a Presbyterian mission. It was delightful ; but does it not mean that we, here, can not lag behind? I confess I would like to see our Church a missionary Church. The mission was the ancient glory of our native land, and behind the dark days that followed we look back with joy to catch the old splendor. Let it be the splendor we shall have cast round the present, when, long after, men will be looking back to us. The perseverance of the English, Scottish steadfastness, and the Celtic fervor are mingled elements in our Ulster race, and they are precisely the elements that mingle best in mission work ; but we have used them little yet, for whatever we have done to fulfill our Lord's love to the heathen has been only the beginning from which we may go on to far greater things. Appeal after appeal was put in my hands as we passed from mission to mission. I feel their burthen as I speak. From that land of promise which we hold in Mantchooria, from all China, and from all India, I hear die voices of those who entreated me to plead with you that you would send them messengers of Christ. There are those who were of us who have died in Christ since our last meeting, and some of whom have been linked with this mission since almost it began ; and across the grave, and from the empty space that they have left beside us, I can fancy that there comes 3i the same appeal. There are the graves of our own Mission, lonely and sacred spots where I have often stopped to think cf you at home, and shall we not accept the legacy that the dead have bequeathed to us, to carry on the work beyond the spot where they fell, to drop the half-heartedness with which we have tried to meet a duty that we half- believed, and to fight with all the energy of faith and love the glorious battle for the truth of God ? There is no motive we can have so noble as that love to men that draws us into sympathy with the infinite love of our blessed Lord ; and yet, if you but knew the slender links that bind the people of India to our rule, the possibilities of discontent, and in a large class the certainty of disaffection, if you could see the broad, and, I fear, not narrowing gulf that divides the European from the native, if you could feel at how many points the influence and example of the missionary are a healing and softening force, and that without a force like this, culture may only intensify dislike and the righteousness of a powerful government may not avert revolt, you would recognize in Christian missions the power that will keep India loyal and make India great. Let us not delay; but let us rise above the old measure of our faith, and, like those who have been smitten by a new love, send out the flower of our men, and gifts that have the stamp of sacrifice upon them, into the great struggle. It is not more than two months since I watched the sun rise over the Himalayas, and, as the light gathered, the boundless plains of India grew visible, stretching for a hundred miles to the south, dim and still among the shadows ; but when the sun rose and smote the plains, the shadows fled away, and all the sounds of life stole up into the air ; and I longed, as you would have longed, for that day when Christ will rise in all His glory over the whole land, when the shadows of its night and the sleep of death will give place to the shining of the Sun of Righteousness and all the waking of a spiritual life ; and then I turned to see the mountain wall, height upon height of mighty mountain ranges, and behind them the endless peaks of snow, shining like some bright pathway out of this world into an- other, and I felt, in the clear glory of that sun, as if the great in- gathering of the heathen peoples was already come, and that 1 saw — " Ten thousand times ten thousand, In sparkling raiment bright ; The armies of the ransomed saints Throng up the steeps of light. 'Tis finished — all is finished! Their fight with death and sin : Fling open wide the golden gates And let the victors in." <34>' A SURVEY OF FIFTY YEARS' MISSION "WORK. 1825-1875. A SURVEY OF FIFTY YEARS' MISSION WORK. " Missions are a failure," is a cry that has oft been heard by every friend of the cause, and the faith of some has through this repeated statement at times been shaken in the work said to have been done. No doubt some have expected an easy victory over hoary superstitions and worn - out beliefs. They have anticipated a speedy triumph over the enemies of the truth, and not seeing their hopes realized, they have been affected by this periodic cry, and are almost ready to abandon the work. Others, fascinated with the grand successes, as they believe of Apostolic times, and chilled with the slowness and feebleness of modern missions, are ready to condemn present methods as inoperative or incapable of achieving the end in view, and are will- ing to fall back upon any theory that will absolve them from persevering and self-sacrificing toil. Now it is difficult to satisfy minds like these with any amount of preliminary effort, however essential it may be to future triumphs. Their faith must speedily terminate in sight ; or it will entirely disappear. Proofs are not wanting of decided progress ; but unwilling to accept them as real, they are more ready to complain than to hope ; more willing to doubt, than to hear the call for an onward movement. There has been, and is, another class who have never entered heartily into the work ; who have doubted its expediency when so much has to be accom- plished nearer home, and who feel that the time has not come for taking hold of it with vigor. These have been more willing to play missions than to work them thoroughly ; more anxious to be regarded as spectators than active par- ticipators. It is. therefore, easy for such to see failure, and to look upon every evidence of it, however partial or one-sided, as confirming their sagacity and position. Outside of these is another class in every community, w7ho are wholly scepti- cal on the subject of missions. They do nothing for them ; do not believe in them ; and are by no means averse to crediting any evil reports respecting their progress. These reports chime in with their preconceived ideas, and as such they must be true. A portion of this number hold that other appliances must first be used — as commerce, civilization, etc. — to precede the work of conversion ; and though this is an exploded theory, yet men are ever coming forward to plead it as the only feasible plan to win success. The influence of such views, and the presence and pcwer of those who maintain them, exert upon others a deleterious effect, and all the more if they are allied with God's people who are putting forth energetic efforts for the dif- fusion of the gospel in the earth. The cause at home has thus had to contend with indifference, opposition, and selfishness ; while abroad it has awakened every form of hostility, whose sole aim has been the overthrow of truth and righteousness. Satanic agency, coupled with human depravity, have in various forms been exerted to thwart the labors of missionaries and to drive them from their work. These influences have been strong, yet those against whom they were directed were enabled to hold their ground, meet attacks, and to win success. Their enemies oft became their friends, and movements that were mighty seemingly for evil, were overruled for the advancement of Christi- anity. Then the means at the disposal of the different missionary institutions have ever been small and inadequate to accomplish a great undertaking. When compared with the resources needed for human enterprises, they seem feeble indeed. To dislodge a few Modoc Indians from their retreat in the north- west, cost the Government ioo lives and $6,000,000 — nearly four times the amount expended by the whole Church of this country in that year in its foreign evangelistic work. The English war with its American Colonies cost that nation ^15 1,000,000. Our Government paid out from April, 186 1, to September, 1866, to officers and men simply as pay for their services during the war, $1,094,000,000, and from the beginning of the war to June, 1874, the Government paid in pensions over $246,000,000. The amount expended regu- larly for luxuries is vast when compared with the offerings of Christians for the luxury of doing good. But the work of the missionary in heathen and Mohammedan lands is to sow the seed, and this seed in the hands of the Spirit has a diffusive power. It has life. This work may seem to many to advance slowly, but it advances surely. Progress is not to be measured by outward success. Reverses are often triumphs, and when everything seems inauspicious, the cause may be prepared for glorious results. A writer, speaking of the condition of Christendom in the early part of the sixteenth century, says : " Everything was quiet, every heretic exterminated, and the whole Christian world supinely acquiesced in the enormous absurdi- ties of the Romish Church." When the Council of Lateran met soon after, the orator exclaimed, " Now no one opposes !" But a few months had only elapsed when the thunders of the Reformation disturbed and alarmed the Vatican. Great changes are not the work of a day or a year ; when they come they may appear sudden, but the causes that produced them have been in operation for a long time. So future triumphs for the Church are now going on slowly, perhaps, but surely ; and the preliminary work of to-day has an important bearing upon the successes of to-morrow. There is also much to encourage Christians in the present aspects of the work. It is no longer an experiment, but a fixed fact in the theology of the day and in the schemes of every Evangelical Church. It is gaining the respect of men and the favorable recognition of the public press. Governments are acknowledging its power, and opposing systems are dreading its progress. These things should be noted in any survey of the field now occupied by mis- sionaries and of the work already commenced. A RETROSPECT. It may be well, then, to look back fifty years and consider what has been done in the cause of Missions, and see whether the encouragements are suf- ficient to lead Christians to take a firmer grasp of it ; or whether the advance made is commensurate with the labor and means expended. To do this, we must know what had been achieved in 1825, and what at the close of 1875 is now the state of the enterprise. Fifty years ago the population of our country, with its twenty-one distinct States, was nearly 11,000,000. Then there were only four foreign mission- ary societies — the American Board, organized 18 10 ; the Baptist Board, in 18 14 ; the Methodist Board, in 1819; and that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in 182 1 — and only the first two had missionaries outside of the United States. There were also organizations for the evangelization of the Indians; with some of these and with the American Board, the Presbyterian Church co-operated. Of the other benevolent institutions, the American Bible Society had been in existence nine years ; the American Tract Society had just been formed, and also the Sunday-school Union ; the Colonization Society, the Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews, etc., had been recently established, but were unable then to take any commanding position in behalf of the causes for which they had been inaugurated. The different missionary organizations mentioned, had at this period 127 missionaries of all classes, laboring at 64 stations, and had under their care about 8,000 children in mission schools. These stations were among several Indian tribes — in Hayti, the Sandwich Islands, in Burmah, India, Ceylon, Syria, Malta, and Western Africa. The number of organized churches was small. The contributions of the churches for evangelistic purposes reached only about $100,000. The receipts of the American Bible Society in 1825 were $44,833 ; its issues of Bibles and Testaments for that year were 63,851, ?.nd the total of its issues had not reached 400,000 copies from the beginning. The amounts received by other benevolent societies were small. The condition of Mexico at this time was far from quiet. A republic had lately been proclaimed, and the country was wholly severed from Spanish rule. The only religion tolerated was that of Rome, and the Papal Church was allied with the State. In the West Indies and Guiana the gospel had been proclaimed with power, and in this region was the greatest ingathering into the Church. It was to one of the West India islands that the Moravian brethren sent their first mis- sionaries, but this had not been the exclusive work of this ncble band of Chris- tians ; Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists of Great Britain, all in time engaged in the religious instruction of the negroes and of others. At first every obstacle was thrown in their way, but courage and perseverance triumphed. The adaptation of the gospel to the enslaved was soon apparent, and thousands at this time had embraced it. All the South American Provinces, down to Patagonia, that had fallen under the sway of Rome, and that had been ruled over by Spain and Portugal, were at this period separated after bloody contests from their dominion. Some of these had, and others were framing constitutes, Organizing governments, and mak- ing treaties with foreign powers. In none of them was real liberty — the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience — recognized. In some a kind of toleration was proclaimed, but it was not that freedom afterwards guaranteed, and now enjoyed in the different republics. So that in none of them, except Guiana, was any direct evangelistic work attempted beyond the circulation of the Word of God. WHAT WAS DOING IN ASIA. Passing eastward, we come to the Sandwich Islands, where the people had overthrown idolatry, and were seemingly waiting for the heralds of the Cross. These, on their arrival soon after, were permitted to remain as teachers ; but they were soon appalled at the social and moral degradation of the natives, and asked each other, "Can these be human beings, and can they be Chris- tianized ?" In 1825 there was a response to this doubting inquiry, when ten principal chiefs were received into full communion with the Church, and when the government itself made a formal acknowledgment of the authority of Christianity. It was, however, a day of small things, but gave promise of better times. Then Japan was hermetically sealed, and the same was true of China. Dr. Morrison had entered it, but rather as the servant of the East India Company, than as the representative of the London Missionary Society; and as such he was permitted to remain, but he was unable openly to preach the Word. There was not another with him. Milne, who had gone out to be his associate, could remain but a short time, when he fell back upon Malacca, in the Indian Archipelago, where an Anglo-Chinese College was established, in the hope that it would in time tell upon China. Fifty years ago there were only three missionaries in the Indian Archipelago for the Chinese, under the care of the London Missionary Society, who were laboring at Singapore, Malacca, and Pinang. Burmah was at this period desolated by war. Judson and his devoted wife, and Dr. Price, were prisoners ; Mr. Wade and his wife had retired to Calcutta; and Mr. and Mrs. Hough to Serampore. Prior to this conflict with Great Britain, eighteen native converts had been formed into a Christian Society at Rangoon ; but to the Karens, among whom such suc- cesses were to be won, the gospel had not been proclaimed. To the Siamese no church had commissioned its representatives to declare the truth as it is in Jesus. India was traversed by many missionaries fifty years ago. In 1813 the East India Company was compelled by the force of public sentiment in En- gland, to allow missionaries to live and labor in their dominion. Lor a time a restrictive policy was followed. In 1816, an order was issued by the Gov- ernment " that missionaries were not to preach to the natives, or suffer the native converts to do so ... . nor to take any step, by conversion or other- wise, to persuade the natives to embrace Christianity." Up to 1828, when a missionary wished to leave his station and visit the out-stations of the Mission, he had to make a formal application to the Government for permission. This the Baptist missionaries of Serampore had to do till Sir William Bentinck became Governor-General. While on his Episcopal tour in the north-west in 1825, Bishop Heber was asked by the chaplain at Meerut, to baptize a native convert, " but in consequence," says the Bishop, " of the rule which I had laid down, not to become needlessly conspicuous in the pursuit of objects which are not my immediate concern, I declined. For the same reason, I have abstained from distributing tracts, or acting in any way which might excite the jealousy of those whom it is on all accounts desirable to conciliate. The work of conversion is, I think, silently going on ; but those who wish it best, will be most ready to say, Festina lente." In 1830 the Chaplain of Allaha- bad was forbidden, even if at their request, to explain Christianity to the Sepoys, or baptize them if they applied for it ; and an order was issued to all chaplains, which was in force not long ago, that they were not to speak at all to native soldiers on the subject of religion. The only American Missionary Society laboring in India and in Ceylon in 1825, was the American Board; and the Churches of Great Britain which had their representatives in the field were the Baptist ; the Episcopal ; the Independent, and Presbyterian, who co- operated in the London Missionary Society ; the Wesleyan ; and the Scottish Missionary Society. Then Christianity had made no abiding impression upon the habits and customs of the people, or upon the godless policy of the East India Company. Female education was being agitated. When Miss Cook arrived in India in 182 1, and made known the object of her mission, Europeans and natives declared that it was the most visionary scheme ever formed, and sure to fail. Her native teacher told her again and again, that she would never succeed — their women were beasts, and could not learn. The attempt, how- ever, was made by her and others, and in 1825 there were nearly 1,200 girls in Protestant schools. From India to Syria there was no missionary of the Cross. For a short time Henry Martyn had taken up his abode in Persia, and had sought to lead the people to Christ ; but no one till Justin Perkins entered it, in 1834, had gone to reside as a preacher of the gospel. In Syria and at Malta missionaries are found from our own country and from England — in the latter chiefly — as a centre of action and a secure asylum for preparing and diffusing truth around the Mediterranean. The Scottish and German Missionary Societies were at work at several points near the Caspian and Black Seas, but they were greatly interfered with in their operations by the Russian power, who claimed that according to an old law, no heathen could be baptized throughout the whole empire except by the Russian Greek clergy. A change in the attitude of Rus- 8 sia toward missionary operations and the circulation of the Bible was then tak- ing place. The authorities held that no translation of the Scriptures could be printed without the approbation of three archbishops ; that no tracts could be circulated without being submitted to the censorship of the empire, and that no schools were to be established. The National Bible Society was suspended, and the whole powers of the Government were directed to arrest the progress of knowledge and a pure Christianity. In consequence of this opposition, twelve missionaries belonging to the United Brethren, the London, and the Scottish Missionary Societies, were withdrawn. In Turkey, except at the points already indicated, there was no missionary to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ ; but at these places hostility was awakened against evangelistic labor. A decree from the Sultan had been promulgated warning all, by his anathema, against Christian books of whatever kind, and the Maronite Patriarch speaking against the Bible and the missionaries, sought to weaken their influence, and thus pre- pare the way for their removal. The conversion of Asaad Shidiak cheered the laborers in their toils and trials, but his sad fate soon after, showed the relent- less spirit with which they would have to contend. THE CONDITION OF EUROPE. Greece was at this period battling for her rights in a deadly contest with Turkey ; and whilst many sympathized with her in her struggles after liberty, none were on her shores announcing through Christ a freedom from spiritual tyranny. Papal Europe was wholly closed to Protestant aggression. In France, Prot- estantism was tolerated though hated, and various hindrances were thrown in the way on the part of the State for its propagation. Heathen and Moham- medan lands were more accessible to the truth than Papal countries. Spain ordered all books, pamphlets, or papers prohibited by the Church or Inquisi- tion, to be delivered up to the authorities, and whosoever disobeyed this decree should meet with the severest punishment. At this time Spain was politically and socially in a wretched condition, and Italy was little better. The Walden- ses were persecuted by her. No Vandois could possess any land beyond their narrow limits, and within these they were subject to a Council composed of Ro- man Catholics. They were excluded from all public offices. Whenever new Bi- bles were imported every pastor had to give a guarantee, in writing, that not a single copy should be sold or given to a Roman Catholic. He, on the contrary, could exert all his influence to convert the Waldenses to his faith. The Pope fulminated against all Bible societies, and admonished his followers to destroy all Bibles that came into their hands; declaring that the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the vulgar tongues of the nations, "gave just cause of fear that we shall find in them, instead of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of man, or rather, the gospel of the devil." The spiritual condition of Protestant nations on the Continent was low. Formalism characterized the masses ; and in several of the theological schools rationalism and bold infidelity were 9 taught. The majority of the clergy were infidels. Here and there was a movement toward a better state of things ; but life was feeble, and yet that little called forth in some provinces bitter persecution. In Germany there were some missionary efforts, but fifty years ago they were few, and far from vigorous. The Society that exhibited the most energy and power on the Con- tinent, was that of the United Brethren. They have, however, in a greater part of their history, received much aid from others who were not connected ecclesiastically with them. Great Britain was waging at this juncture a successful war with Burmah, which was overruled to the opening of that country more fully to the gospel and to the permanent establishment of the missionary enterprise. At home her population were suffering from commercial depression, and the nation was greatly agitated by Catholic emancipation, the slave trade, etc. The Churches were beginning to advance in missionary zeal and benevolence, and as a nec- essary result the tone of spiritual life was rising. Then, as now, Great Britain kept in the van in her loyalty to the missionary cause and in her support of the same. Her leading Societies contributed about $1,000,000 in 1825 ; not including in this the donations of the Bible Society to forward this department of work. Ireland was in a state of religious and political fermentation. The Roman Catholic population were open and violent in their opposition to the circulation of the Scriptures, and the peasantry were socially in a sad and im- poverished condition. AFRICA. Passing from Europe to the continent of Africa, we reach a land of dark- ness, and a people sitting in the region and shadow of death. As a country or a vast continent, much of it, especially in the interior, was unknown ; but at that time, great exertions were made by travelers and explorers to behold its wonders. Morally and socially, the state of the tribes was truly deplorable, and this was rendered worse by the conduct of Christian nations who by their cupidity were spreading misery, devastation, and death over all her coasts, and whose ministers of ruin stood in the way of the missionary of peace. Says one at that period : "The slave trade flourishes with as much horrible activity as at any former period. England is clear of the pollution, it is certain, but somebody must have nerves to declare the melancholy and mortifying truth — from which all Englishmen of all parties are too ready, if not to withhold their belief, at least to turn aside their attention — that the amount of African misery has not been reduced a single particle. If the flag of England be no longer employed to cover this abomination, there is scarcely another flag in Europe ; or, with the exception of the United States, out of Europe by which it is not masked from the researches of our men-of-war or shielded from their forcible interference. France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and Brazil, all have been, and are, appar- ently to this hour, disgraced by the subserviency of their national colors to. the IO avarice of dealers in Negro blood, and by the atrocious diligence of their sub- jects in the work of desolation throughout Africa." Another in speaking of the little done for the spiritual elevation of the people, said : " The ships of every civilized nation have, for two centuries, been seen upon the coast of this continent ; but the winds that wafted them have borne over that land the spirit of hostility, indescribable griefs, and the contagion of death. Not a spot is there on the whole coast, from the Senegal to the Congo, which has not been trodden by the minister of avarice and cruelty, while there is scarcely one which has been visited by the missionaries of the merciful Saviour. The sign of the cross has been to the wretched African a sign of woe ; the name of Christian, a word of terror ; and the profession of our holy faith has been rendered odious by deeds of iniquity and blood." Missions had been established on the western coast at Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast by the Church and VVesleyan Missionary Socie- ties, and in Liberia by the American Baptist Missionary Union, who had, at this time, two Africo-American missionaries. In Southern Africa, the London, the Church, the Wesleyan, -the United Brethren, the Glasgow, and the Gospel Propagation Societies were laboring among the Hottentots, the Caffrees, the Griquas, the Bechuanas, and the Namaquas, and in the African islands — Mauritius and Madagascar — the London Missionary Society was beginning to reap some fruit. The laborers, however, complain of the awful extent of infanticide in the latter island, and of the destructive and depopulating prac- tice of trial by poison. Returning to the South Sea Islands, the Church Missionary Society was rejoicing over its first convert in New Zealand, and at the same time fearing the warlike spirit of the people. The London Missionary Society was gather- ing in the first-fruits in the Georgian, Society, Friendly, and Hervey Islands, the assurance of the coming harvest which has been partially reaped. In Greenland and Labrador the Moravians were continuing to see the results of their self-denying labors, and among the Indians on Red River, etc., in the British Possessions the Church Missionary Society's laborers had baptized four Indian youths. RESULTS. Such is a rapid survey of the state of things in the year 1825, and of the countries where the different Missionary Societies had begun or were commenc- ing labor for the evangelization of their inhabitants, and massing together the sums contributed for direct missionary purposes, and the gathered results in communicants and in the numbers educated in schools, and we have the fol- lowing tabular view of Protestant missions, compiled from the London Mission Register for 1825 : Stations. Missionaries. Native Assistants. Pupils. Communicants. Western Africa 19 26 23 3,460 603 South " 27 5o 6 683 367 African Islands 3 7 x 245 II Stations. Missionaries. Native Assistants. Pupils. Communicants. Mediterranean 4 16 Black and Caspian Seas 3 14 Siberia 1 3 China 1 1 1 India beyond the Ganges.. . 5 n 1 150 100 India 56 120 240 22,240 495 Ceylon, 18 28 29 12,164 381 Indian Archipelago 15 21 250 Australasia and Polynesia. . 35 63 ;.... 93 7i586 2,000 South American States 1 2 Guiana and West India 59 104 3,322 33i68o North American Indians. . . 35 88 900 200 Labrador and Greenland.. .. 7 30 193 Some of these statistics are imperfect, but making allowance for this, and at the most we have only about 40,000 members gathered into churches as a conse-» quence of missionary labor, or leaving out of view those in Guiana and the West Indies, and we have not more than 6,000 converts to the truth in all other portions of the globe. In Africa about t,ooo ; in Asia scarcely any except in India and Ceylon ; in North America and Greenland not quite 1,000 ; and in the isles of the sea about 2,000. This does not take into consideration those who had embraced Christianity under the labors of Schwartz and others in South- ern India, many of whom were Christians only in name. They allowed caste to exist and to enter the Church, which acted on the Christian community like poison. From it sprang pride, distrust, and alienation, and few were found on the Church's roll in 1825. Several placed in this list as missionaries were not ministers of the gospel. The amounts contributed by the different mis- sionary societies was a little over $1,000,000, and of this the churches in our own country gave about one-ninth. The receipts of Missionary, Bible, Educa- tion and Tract Societies in 1825 were about $2,400,000. This includes also the sales of Bible and Tract organizations. Considerable had been done in the way of translations. Dr. Morrison had completed the translation of the Bible into Chinese, and was in 1825 in England endeavoring to awaken more interest among the people in behalf of China. The Serampore missionaries had sent out from their presses numerous translations in different tongues of the Word of God, so that one is astounded at their wonderful industry, bold- ness, and energy. Others, like them, were endeavoring to give the Bible to those among whom they were toiling. Up to this time the British and Foreign Bible Society had aided directly or indirectly in the printing or distributing of reprints in forty languages or dialects, five re-translations, and Bibles, or por- tions of them, in fifty-six new languages or dialects. They were also assisting in the translation of the Scriptures into other tongues. A GREAT ADVANCE. There has been a great advance in Protestant nations within the last half century in spiritual life, material wealth, philanthropic endeavor, and missionary effort. Population has also largely increased, and the position held by Prot- 12 estant powers in controlling nations is foremost. The number of com- municants in evangelical churches is much larger to-day in proportion to population, than at any time in their history. Our country has made wonder- ful strides in the development of her resources and in material and spiritual progress. The same may be said, though perhaps not to the same extent, of Great Britain, and also of Germany. These are the. three great missionary powers in the earth. In the first are to-day thirteen distinct ecclesiastical organizations, North and South ; in Great Britain there are twenty-four, and in Germany nine leading societies; of these, eleven only were in existence in 1825. Besides these, are many local and subsidiary institutions to aid the cause in some particular branch. Counting these and all that are found in other portions of Protestant Christendom, and there are 166 distinct mission- ary organizations, besides twenty leading Bible and educational societies aux- iliary in some form to this great movement. Beginning in our survey of the present condition of missions with Africa, we find that the northern portion is still untouched by the missionary, being wholly Mohammedan. This power is showing an aggressive spirit in Central Africa where it is making conquests to Islam. The western coast from Morocco to Senegal is inhabited by Moorish tribes. From Senegal to the coast of Guinea, three strong races, the Jaloofs, Manding- oes and Foulahs, are found. At Senegal, Missions begin and along the coast down to Liberia, we have a portion of country mainly under British protec- tion. In Gambia and at Sierra Leone, the Wesleyan, Church Missionary, and the native Church have established strong Missions, and here are found some 14,000 members, 7,500 scholars, and fifty-two ministers, native and foreign. These have not been gained without great sacrifice of life. Nobler self- devotion aud truer Christian heroism have not been displayed anywhere than on the western coast of Africa. All who went thither under the care of the Church Missionary Society for the first ten years were Germans; then came the English, and as one and another died from the fatal effects of the climate, others were ready to take their places. Thirty Europeans died in the first twelve years of this Mission. Out of seventeen missionaries sent out, the Basle Society lost ten in one year. In these latter days there is much less mortality among the new recruits. South of Sierra Leone we reach Liberia, where some 18,000 of Americo- LibL-rians are found, and a very large number of natives who are heathen, amounting to at least 300,000. With some of these the Government is at present in conflict, the issue of which, if war should continue, no man can fore- tell. In the colony there are about 4,000 communicants. Along the Gold Coast, and taking in the whole of northern Guinea, are interesting Missions of our own Church, the United Presbyterians of Scotland, the Wesleyans, the Church Missionary Society, the Basle, and the Baptist Societies. One of the Missions is wholly composed of native preachers under the superintendence of a native Bishop. There are over 7,000 communicants connected with the dif- 13 ferent churches, and in the schools are 4,000 children. The Bible has been translated in whole or in part into fifteen different languages. In South Africa the greatest conquests have been made ; much of this region is under the sway of Great Britain, and to it many of the British Societies have directed their attention. The population of South Africa, south of 18° south latitude is computed at 2,000,000. In Cape Colony, Kaffirland, Griqualand, Basutuland, Natal, Transvaal Region, among the Namaquas, the Matabele, and Bechnana tribes, are 450 foreign laborers, and ninety native ministers, with a large number of lay agents. There are about 40,000 communicants in the churches, and over 45,000 children in the schools. The mission to Abyssinia has been twice broken up. In Egypt the most prosperous mission belongs to the American United Presbyterian, whose labors are largely among the Copts. They have 8 stations ; 6 foreign, and 2 ordained native ministers; 596 communicants; and in the different schools, 1,170 children. The German Crishona Mission, which endeavored to plant twelve important stations along the Nile, called after the twelve apostles, has been abandoned. New fields in Africa are opening ; new attempts made to reach the interior, and more determined efforts to break up the nefarious slave trade which is carried on still in sections of the country. Marked changes have taken place in vast portions of Africa, the harbinger of still better days. Mr. Moffatt's labors covered a period of more than half a century. He said that for many years after beginning his work, he and his associates saw not the conversion of a single individual ; for years they had only one ; but now wherever they would go they would meet with companies of believers. Life at one time was not safe half a dozen miles from the station ; now men could travel anywhere without fear of molestation. Instead of a solitary station which he once occu- pied, he left a number of central stations, extending more than three hundred miles beyond the Kuruman ; and instead of a race of illiterate savages, found by him, there was a people appreciating and cultivating the arts and habits of civilized life, with a written language of their own, in which they could read the whole Bible. If such changes are worthy of mention, still more marked has been the religious revolution that has taken place in Madagascar. In P625 there were very few converts. The field then had been occupied only six years. After this came persecution, the expulsion of the missionaries, and martyrdom of certain Christians. Now the whole land is open to the missionary ; idolatry is overthrown ; and Christianity is proclaimed to be the religion of the people. In the churches gathered by the London Missionary Society according to the last report, are 63,896. The Propagation Society, the Norwegian Mission- ary Society, and the Society of Friends, are laboring at different centres. In the island of Mauritius, and principally among the coolies from Bengal and Southern India, the Episcopal Church of England is laboring through its two leading institutions ; the membership reported is 333. In these two islands H — Madagascar and Mauritius — are 65 missionaries; 292 native ministers; and 65,000 communicants. Respecting the state of things in Madagascar, the last report of the London Missionary Society says : " While the spirit of inquiry has spread so widely in the Central Provinces, and while even in these se- cluded districts the willing zeal of Christian converts helps both to maintain Christian life and to extend its influence, the Directors recognize with pleasure the power which the gospel exerts upon the upper classes of Malagasy society. It can never cease to be a matter for wonder and thankfulness, that in a country in which but fifteen years ago idolatry was master, in which the ruler, her chief ministers, and all her principal officers were earnest in main- taining idolatry, the idols and diviners should have wholly disappeared ; and that those who guide the public affairs of the little State should joyfully, but humbly, accept and follow the gospel for themselves." EUROPE. In 1825, the Pope, as we have seen, was thundering from the Vatican against Bible Societies and the wicked practices of Protestants in circulating tracts and religious literature in certain Catholic countries. Every portion of Eu- rope over which he had control was closed to all Protestant propagandism, and the "faithful" were warned against their wiles. The successor of the Head of the Church at that time, is following his example, but how different his position and the relations he sustains to different governments. Hear his wailings in September last : "In Italy the churches and religious communities have been despoiled, the bishops have been driven from their homes, and the license of the press has been more and more scandalous ; protection and power are assured to the apostates, the Catholic schools are closed, in order that the teachers may be replaced by persons selected by the Government to inculcate falsehood and error, in order that the sect may extend its sphere of action. After having robbed the convents, they now wish to put their hands on the funds of the charitable institutions — that is, on the property of the poor, the sick, and the infirm, and on the institutions established for the purposes of Christian educa- tion. They go further still, they drive the bishops from their homes under the pretext that they have not accomplished the requirements of the law, and whilst they are reduced to a terrible condition of misery, the small incomes which we pay them out of the funds furnished us by the faithful, are heavily taxed. Would to God that the Church could be assisted in this terrible state of affairs, but unfortunately, not one of the governments comes to our help. All abandon her under some pretext or other, and several join in the persecu- tion she receives from Italy. We behold a northern empire [Russia] study every possible means to destroy the Catholic religion. Another empire [Ger- many], more recently established, endeavors within the limits of its territory to annihilate the Church. All the world is aware of the persecution which is going on in several cantons of Switzerland. K we cross the seas we shall find 15 in America, States where Masonry is directing frightful blows against the Church of God, by imprisoning bishops and priests and religious of both sexes, by depriving them of their revenues, and even by exiling them." Then the Pope had unlimited sway in every Papal country, and especially in Italy ; now he is deprived of all secular power, and considers himself a prisoner in Rome. Then he was enabled to keep out the Word of God from all parts of his dominions ; now his eye rests upon a Bible Depository as he looks from the Vatican ; then his word was law in Austria, Italy, Belgium, Spain, etc. ; now he has no power to enforce his decrees, and they have no power upon the dif- ferent governments to change their policy or interfere with religious liberty. Every country then closed to Protestant effort is to-day opened to the same. The reaction in Spain is only momentary. True progress has been made everywhere in independence of thought and action and in the rights of con- science, and also in the enlightenment of the masses. It is true, however, that ignorance prevails to a fearful extent in certain kingdoms. Of the 26,801,154, the population of Italy, 19,553, 792 are unable to read and write. Praiseworthy efforts are now making to remove this stain, which has been increased by the annexation of the Two Sicilies. The treatment by the Gov- ernment of the Waldenses is very different from what it was in 1825. Then they were hemmed in their narrow valleys, now the whole of Italy is before them ; then they were persecuted, now they are free ; then they were a prey to the Romish Church, that sought to proselytize the young and the old, now they have sent forth their evangelists, who are laboring in different portions of the kingdom, and already their number is smaller in their ancient fastnesses than in their mission fields. The liberal policy of the Government in Austria towards Protestant efforts has made great advances ; the same was true of the Government in Spain, until the present dynasty. In Ireland, in 1825, the Protestant population stood to the Roman Catholic as three to thirteen ; now it is as one to three. In 1801 twenty-seven per cent, of the population of Great Britain and Ireland was Catholic ; now only fourteen per cent. In Belgium liberty of worship is guaranteed to all. Direct evangelistic work has been begun in each country that was formerly barred to Protestant effort. In Portugal and Spain, in Italy, Austria, and Bel- gium, various missionary bodies have their representatives. Some of whom are beginning to meet with decided success. The resistance of the Old Catholics to Papal Infallibility, etc., and their independent movement to maintain and diffuse a truer faith among the people, is worthy of notice. Though it has not aggregated anywhere a vast number, still the influence of its leaders and the readiness in places to respond to their call, show a dissatisfaction with Romanism as it is. A French writer, in con- trasting Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in their relation to the liberty and prosperity of nations, says : " The nations subject to Rome have no power of expansion. Their past is brilliant, but their present is dark and their future i6 disquieting Two centuries ago the supremacy belonged to the Catho- lics. To-day place on one side France, Austria, Spain, Italy, and South America, and on the other Russia, Germany, England, and North America, evidently the predominance has passed over to the heretics." Russia tolerates within her borders no foreign missionary. The Govern- ment is opposed to all evangelical and evangelistic labor. The Greek Church under it is as exclusive and antagonistic to Protestant effort as Rome has ever been. In this respect Russia has stood still in the last half century, and is the only European nation that has not made progress in true religious toleration. The feeling of Russia was expressed by one of her generals to an American missionary, who said, " If our Government should take possession of Turkey, every missionary would be sent out of the country, for Russia will not tolerate any proselytizing within her dominions." Turkey in Europe, Roumania and Greece contain a population of about 18,000,000 — composed mainly of Greeks, Mohammedans, Roman Catholics, Armenians, and Jews. Among these different sects missions have been estab- lished by the American Board and the American Methodist and Episcopal Churches ; the Church and Propagation Societies ; the London Society for the Jews, etc. The influence of the American Board for good has been the great- est, though the number of converts is comparatively small. We have not noticed in this survey the labors of the American Methodist and Baptist organizations in Protestant countries in Europe to revive spiritual- ity among the people and churches, that had lost their evangelical character. In this respect they have done a good work. Our aim has been rather to con- sider the progress made among the Roman Catholics in bringing them to a knowledge of a purer faith. In this we have not said much of the political changes in their bearings upon the work, but no one can measure the influence of Bismarck and of the German power in weakening Austria and France, and in aiding to enlarge and consolidate the Italian power, or of the same agents in curbing the Romish hierarchy within their dominions. Since the death of Cavour, Bismarck by his policy, and Gladstone by his writings, have dealt the heaviest blows to the Papacy. These are felt, and will aid powerfully the missionary work in the future. As yet no great harvest has been reaped in numerous conversions in the countries mentioned. The seed sown will not die, however. It has had thus far to encounter not simply Romanism as held by its numerous votaries, but scepticism and other evils allied to it, which have been created by this system, and found in all the countries subject to the See of Rome. Politically, the opponents to the Papacy are many ; but in their hatred to a system that has crushed their liberties, fostered superstition, and kept them in ignorance, they have not embraced with the heart that faith which can alone deliver them from spiritual tyranny, and make them free indeed. ASIA. This vast continent contains more than one- half of the population of the i7 globe. India and China together, have nearly 700,000,000 of souls. No Christian nation exists on its soil. Here and there are found a few corrupt sects of nominal Christians, but not one of them holding a pure faith or striv- ing for its extension. In these latter days some of their adherents have been vivified through the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit on missionary labor, so that they have returned to the doctrines once held by their fathers ; but with this exception, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, over all its broad domain, heathenism in varied forms, or Mohammedanism as embraced by the Shiites and Sunnites, hitherto hold its countless masses in the direst servitude. These have exerted a benumbing influence on mind and heart, debasing family relations, affecting injuriously social life, creating despotisms, political and religious, and crushing out true manliness, or independence of thought and effort. In 1825 the missionary was only in four distinct fields in Asia — in Syria, in India, and Ceylon and in the Indian Archipelago. The work in Bur m ah was arrested, and along the Black and Caspian Seas it was fettered and then de- stroyed. Turkey, Persia, North-western India, Siam, China, Japan, have all been opened, and in them hundreds of missionaries have been at work, and in each has the gospel shown its wondrous power. The first efforts in Turkey were directed to the corrupt Oriental churches. These churches had lost the great distinctive principles of Christianity, and were in doctrine and in morals no higher than the followers of the false prophet. To reach Mohammedans with the gospel, they must first see its superiority among those who professed it. Until this were done, it was believed that but little headway could be made among the dominant classes, who regarded the Koran as being not only better, but having displaced the religion of Jesus. Another obstacle in the way of their conversion to Christianity was the death-penalty. Apostasy among Moslems was death. First in Syria, then in other portions of Turkey, the missionary work was inaugurated. The ad- verse influences with which the early laborers had to contend were strong and active ; an absolute and intolerant power, a bigoted and unscrupulous hierarchy, an ignorant and priest-ridden people were leagued against them, each looking upon their presence as a menace and a wrong to the established order of things, and seeking their overthrow. However much many of the sects were opposed to each other, they were always friends when opposing a purer Christianity, and the efforts of its ambassadors. Steadily and prudently did the missionaries hold their ground and prosecute their work, and steadily have they advanced from one position to another, until they are found in all parts of the Turkish Empire. In due time they were permitted to witness a great religious movement among the Armenians, and to see barrier after barrier removed that stood in the way of the truth. The Janissaries, the great ene- mies to reform, were destroyed. Reforms of various kinds were introduced affecting social and political relations ; security to life and property have been guaranteed. The Christian, the Moslem, and the Jew, are placed on the iS same footing, as regards civil rights and law. The converts to an Evangelical faith have been constituted into a distinct community, and have the same privileges with all the other religious communities. The death penalty for apostasy from Islam has been abolished. Other changes, if not so marked as these, yet contrary to the genius and teachings of the Koran, have been intro- duced— all aiding in the diffusion of the gospel or opening up a way for it. In Western, Central, and Eastern Turkey, the American Board has strong and prosperous Missions. The Church Missionary Society is laboring in Palestine, the Jewish and some smaller British and Continental Societies are also at work at different points. In Syria, the Presbyterian Board, the American United Presbyterian Church, etc., are endeavoring to reach the people with the gos- pel. There are over 5,000 communicants gathered into churches, which are receiving steady accessions from the corrupt sects or from Mussulmans. From Turkey we pass over into Persia, and find a people akin to the Turks in their religion — though both are Mohammedans, the one are Sunis, the other Shias — of all the nations in the world, it is said that Persia is the only one that never worshipped graven images of any kind. Whilst the mass of the people are Mohammedans, there are also sects sprung from Islam — the Saris, the Daoodies, and the Babs. Besides these, there are the Fire Worshippers, and the Nesto- rians, with a small number of Jews and Armenians. There is more freedom of inquiry and discussion in Persia than in Turkey, but as the Koran is the law of the land, it tolerates no forsaking of its precepts or conversion to any other creed. Death to apostates is its penalty. A little more than forty years ago the American Board made the first attempt to reach the Nestorians with the gospel, for the same reasons as their Mission in Turkey was first directed to the Arme- nians. For a long time efforts were made to galvanize the dead Nestorian Church into spiritual life, but in vain. Then the laborers sought to organize a Church outside of it. In the endeavor to bring the people under the power of divine truth, the missionaries had to contend', not only with the opposition of the rulers and the priesthood, but also with the Jesuits, who by their intrigues had an order passed "that no native Christian should be proselytized from one Christian sect to another." The Government has, on different occasions, manifested hostile feelings, and desired to shut up the schools, or to interfere with the work, but these came to naught. To-day, the Mission is not only extending, but seems firmly rooted in Persian soil. It has outlived the old idea, as being only for the Nestorians. Evangelistic labor is now for Mohamme- dans, as for Nestorians, and Armenians. Among Moslems there is much unrest. Great numbers are sighing for religious liberty, and not a few are secretly reading the Bible. The Government is throwing no obstacles in the way, The people are everywhere accessible. The Moslems who have been baptized have not been molested by the authorities. Since the Mission began, the Nestorians have made great progress in religious knowledge and in material prosperity. They are now treated very differently by their rulers. Besides our own Mission, the Church Missionary Society has a laborer at Ispahan, who 19 has baptized several converts. Some of the churches have reached self-support. The number enrolled in the different organizations is over 800. India was one of the earliest mission fields of the Church. The presence and rule of a Christian nation in the land gave great protection at the outset to Christian teachers. The stability of the Government gave stability to evangelistic operations. They were not dependent upon the caprice of the rulers, but upon law and order; and these principles of action and guidance have come more and more into sympathy with religious truth. In no land has there been such a combination of agents and agencies to overthrow supersti- tion, and nowhere has the gospel encountered so much indifference or marked hostility. It has had to meet the most gigantic system of moral evil, " the grandest embodiment of Gentile error" the world has ever seen. But it has had not only to encounter Brahminism suited to every order of mind, to every desire of the fallen heart, and to every shade of belief; but Mohammedanism, which has been imbedded in the moral nature of millions, has been a political and religious power for centuries, and which hates Christianity with the utmost virulence. It has had to contend with caste — the master device of Satan — in tyrannizing over the weak, destroying social life, and whose ramifications are felt in every form of society, controlling law and usage. It has had to resist the wicked example and immoralities of a European civilization called Christian, and whose influence upon the native life has been evil. It has had to battle with infidelity, introduced or fostered by Governmental ideas of toleration, and a godless system of education among the educated classes. These and kindred obstacles, though varied, have been strong and bitter ; steadily, however, has the contest gone on, and to-day Christianity occupies a vantage ground never before possessed. We have seen its weakness in 1825. To-day the missionary work is carried on in India and Ceylon by 35 missionary societies, besides local agencies. In the different Presidencies are 500 ordained missionaries, occupying more than 400 stations and over 2,000 sub-stations, the latter chiefly manned by native laborers. Though this number is great, yet India proper contains 240,000,000, and the whole number, including all the dependencies, is over 280,000.000. There are many important towns and cities where no laborer is found, and many a place where the gospel has never been proclaimed. Besides the Brit- ish and Continental Societies, that are seeking the spiritual elevation of India, there are nine American organizations represented in that land. The statistical tables that have been prepared for each decade in the last thirty years, show some of the gathered fruits of the work. They exhibit only the number of the converts, however, at a given time, but make no mention of those who have died in the faith, or the large number of hidden ones who have not been baptized. These returns take in India, Ceylon, and Burmah, and are for the years 1852, 1862, 1872. Placing them together, we have the following : 20 Native Commu- Ch ristia ns. n icants. 1852 128,000 22,400 1862 213,182 49,688 1872 3^,363 78,494 These are decided gains, and show the permeating influence of the truth. They condemn the work of Abbe Dubois issued in 1823, who, after thirty-two years labors in India, confessed that he had failed in making one sincere convert, and who sought to prove that the conversion of the Hindoos is impracticable, and that their day is forever past. The successes the last year or two are pro- portionately much greater than those mentioned ; the additions to the Churches for 1874-75 were over 7,000, and the relative gains to Christianity is propor- tionately larger than to either Hindooism or Mohammedanism. Thus the growth in the Madras Presidency of the three great religions has been since 1856, Christians 51 per cent, increase, Mohammedans $$, Hindoos 37. Education in India has greatly improved. The Government is devoting more attention to it,, and is aiding it by grants to mission schools. In 1852 the scholars in these schools numbered 81,850, and in 1872, 142,952. The Hin- doos and Mussulmans are seeking instruction for their daughters, and in the different schools there are about 30,000 girls. Zenana schools are being established in different parts of the country, and zenanas are now open to the efforts of women that were formerly barred to all such endeavors. There has been a wonderful increase in the productions of the Press. In the first twenty-five years of this century very few works left the native press. As educational facilities were embraced by the people, the demand for books enlarged, so that in 1854 Calcutta alone had 46 printing offices engaged in printing Bengali works. The Mission printing presses issued, between 1852 and 1862, 1,634,940 copies of the Scriptures, and 8,604,033 tracts and books. From 1862 to 1872 they issued 3,410 new works in thirty languages ; circu- lated 1,315,503 copies of the Scriptures, 2,375,040 schools books, and 8,750,- 129 Christian books and tracts. These results of missionary labor are great and wonderful, but other changes through the pressure of Christian sentiment, and the power of truth, have taken place. In 1825 the Government abetted idolatry, and sought no alli- ance with Christianity. It husbanded the endowments of temples and mosques ; it supplied funds from its treasury for repairing temples and roads to sacred places ; it taxed pilgrims, and endowed schools for the teaching of error and superstition. Then infanticide abounded ; Suttees flourished ; bloody rites were practiced. Then no Christian convert could obtain his rights in regard to property. These and kindred evils existed. Now all is changed. Gov- ernment protects and aids missionary operations ; it has cut itself loose from all connection with idolatry ; infanticide is declared a criminal act ; Suttee is prohibited ; and cruel rites have been forbidden. The Koran and the Ganges water are banished from the courts of justice. Converts are protected in their rights, and the legal validity of widows re-marrying is proclaimed. Hindoo- 21 ism is losing its hold upon the many, and the idea is growing that it must dis- appear under the power of Christianity. There is an enlarging circle that has broken with Brahminism, though not yet yielding openly to the religion of Jesus. Signs of improvement — material, social, intellectual, and moral — fill the land. The natives are awakening from the sleep of ages ; the desire for sound knowledge is growing. Caste is relaxing. Stereotyped customs that have been more powerful than law, are disappearing. A knowledge of the Bible is spreading, and its precepts are becoming more influential, and the truth is working wonders among the aborigines, who never yielded to Hindoo or Mohammedan influence, but are now accepting joyfully the doctrines of the Cross. Christianity has obtained a firm footing. Its ambassadors are alive to the importance of its dissemination, and are increasing in numbers and skill. Na- tive churches have been planted all over the land, and these are becoming more potential for good. This is India of to-day. How different from India even of 1825. The statistics of Burmah have been given in the figures already presented. What a difference between that country half a century ago and at this time. Then Judson and his companion were imprisoned, and not a missionary in the country at liberty to preach. The few converts were scattered, and none to minister to them. Since that period, the jungles of Burmah have given to Christ thousands of precious souls. " A little one has become a thousand." It is literally true that for every convert then, there is more than a thousand to-day. The first attempts to reach the Siamese with the gospel accomplished but little. The Mission of the American Board before it was able to reap much fruit was transferred to China. The laborers of the Presbyterian Board had done but little when the king determined on an exclusive policy, and the mis- sionaries were unable to obtain any site for a building. The death of the monarch opened up a way for the continuance of the work. The only Board engaged in direct labor among the Siamese and the Laos is our own. The American Baptist Union continues its Mission to the Chinese, and like the Presbyterian Mission, has been meeting of late with greater encouragement. This field, owing to various influences, has not been a productive one ; the last year has been the richest in the ingathering of souls, more having been bap- tized than in the first fifteen or twenty years of the Mission. The bright pros- pects of the work among the Laos which marked its early history have been beclouded by persecution. The seed is, however, sown by faithful men, and will in due time repay the labors of the husbandmen. China, in 1825, was virtually locked against all approach by the Missionary as such, and at that time there was not a laborer on its soil. In 1830 Rev. E. C. Bridgman arrived at Canton as a missionary of the American Board. He first devoted his time to study. Mr. Gutzlaff, a Prussian in the service of the Netherlands Missionary Society, entered China in native costume, dis- 22 tributed Christian books, etc. Scattered efforts like his were made here and there along the coast until the opening of the five ports in 1842, when the dif- ferent Societies that had been engaged in evangelistic work for the Chinese in the European settlements nearest to her shores, moved most of their work and workers to China. These ports were increased in number by subsequent treaties, so that at present it may be said that China is fully open to the gospel, and that she has become wholly identified with the great family of nations in commercial relations, etc. When her ports were open to the heralds of salva- tion, the Church seemed to recognize her new responsibilities, and to be pre- pared to throw in a large force of laborers. Subsequent action has not justi- fied these large expectations. Still a goodly force of noble men and women is now found at many leading points who are seeking by the appliances at com- mand to advance the people in knowledge, civilization, and morals. For them much has been done in the way of translating the Scriptures, not only into the Mandarin, but into the colloquials of several sections. A religious literature is constantly increasing, several important works on scientific subjects, on history and law have been issued, also works purely educational. Day and boarding-schools have been established ; dispensaries and hospitals are main- tained at nearly all the ports, and the Scriptures have been circulated in fifteen of the eighteen Provinces. Here, as in other Mission fields, obstacles many and varied have been encountered, but there are some that are distinctive, arising from the fearful apathy of the Chinese to religious truth, their pride, prejudices and superciliousness, their aversion to change, and their love of the past, and the depraving and fearful ravages of opium, forced upon them by a Christian nation. The ratio of conversions is rapidly increasing — thus the native Christians in 1853 numbered 351; in 1863, 1,974; in 1868, 5,743, and in 1875, nearly 12,000. A recent list of missionaries, published in China, gives thirty different organizations at work, and almost 200 ordained evangelists, ninety-nine of whom are from the United States. In the Indian Archipelago and the Straits, in the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Malaccas, etc., and in the Straits settlements, the Dutch Societies, the Rhenish, Gossners, and the Propagation Society are principally engaged in Christian effort. These islands contain a population of nearly 25,000,000. It is difficult to find out the numbers connected with any of these organizations. In speaking of Celebes, Wallace in his Malay Archi- pelago says: "The missionaries (Netherlands Missionary Society) have much to be proud of in this country ; they have assisted the Government in changing a savage into a civilized community in a wonderfully short space of time. Forty years ago the country was a wilderness ; the people naked savages, garnishing their rude homes with human heads. Now it is a garden." In the Malaccas and Celebes, the Netherlands Missionary Society report 83,800 hear- ers, but gives no list of communicants. In the other fields 3,783 are reported, but the list is imperfect. The great revolution that has taken place in Japan is one of the marvels of 23 the day. Thirty years ago it was hermetically sealed. The only nation that had any commercial relations with its rulers was the Dutch, and they were con- fined to a few feet of ground. Since it came into the. brotherhood of nations, a constitutional form of government has been adopted, with great national im- provements, such as characterize the most advanced civilized nations. The people are ready to read the Holy Scriptures, to hear the preaching of the Word, to send their children to Mission schools. The truth is beginning to yield fruits in numerous converts, and those who embrace it are generally of a superior class. The spirit of inquiry and of progress in the nation is a help to the introduction of a Christian literature. The old edicts against Christi- anity are not formally repealed ; they are, however, practically set aside. We have not been able to gather up the statistics of Church membership. They number, however, 500 communicants. Eleven Missionary Societies have forty- four ordained and four medical missionaries. POLYNESIA. We pass by a great Colonial work of the British churches, as carried on in Australasia where a new Empire is springing up. In 1790 there was not a single civilized man on that continent or in the adjacent islands of Tasmania and New Zealand ; now there are 2,000,000, who are largely Protestant. In addition to work among the settlers in New Zealand, the Church Missionary and the Wesleyan Societies have interesting Missions among the natives. The former of these Societies, we have seen, was rejoicing over its first convert in 1825. It was nearly five years before another was baptized. Others, after this, soon followed, so that the number of natives under Christian instruction in 1838 was fully 2,000 ; in 1842 the number was over 30,000 who were attending upon the ministrations of the missionaries. The Wesleyans were also successful in their labors. In 1869 a war with the English took place, which was productive of great loss of life and much evil, so that for a time the Missions were nearly broken up. Better days are again dawning upon the work. Missions in Polynesia have been remarkably successful. With the excep- tion of a few centres or islands like New Guinea, the Marquesas, portion of Fiji, the people have been brought under the influence, if not power, of the truth. More than 300 islands of Southern and Eastern Polynesia have thrown away idolatry, and this within less than fifty years. The languages of the islands have been reduced to writing. In these tongues the Scriptures have been translated, dictionaries and grammars have been prepared and printed, besides other works for the enlightenment and education of the people. Much of the evangelistic work accomplished at various points has been done by native agents. Civilization kept pace with the spiritual training of the people, which not only created new wants, but produced articles for barter or trade ; so that as a consequence of Missionary labor commerce is reaping a rich har- vest. This has brought evil as well as good to the islanders. Already the 24 Sandwich Islands stand out as a Christian nation. In them, and in many groups, as large a proportion of the inhabitants is connected with the Christian Church as in our own or other lands. It is only a short time since the ruler of Hawaai was feted in our own land, and respect everywhere shown him and his retinue. What a change since the missionaries asked the question in view- ing the social and moral degradation of the Islanders — " Can these be human beings ?" As far as we have been able to gather up statistics from reports, etc., the membership borders on 70,000, with fully 300,000 adherents. AMERICA. The great Mission field of Protestants on this continent is Mexico and South America ; though much labor has been bestowed on some of the West India Islands by the churches in Great Britain, another field more limited as to numbers, is that occupied by the Aborigines in the United States and the British Possessions, and the Chinese found chiefly in California. More attention is given to the. Chinese in our country than formerly. For years the Presbyterian Board worked single-handed among them, but the Methodists, the Congregationalists, etc., are now laboring for their salvation. «The Church under our care is growing in numbers and in power. It is doubtful whether the churches are doing as much for the evangelization of the Indians as they did fifty years ago. The Government is, however, doing more for their civili- zation through its " Peace Policy." The number of communicants is much greater than in 1825, reaching to fully 10,000. Several Societies, British and Canadian, are at work among the Indians in the British Possessions, and some of them, especially the English Episcopal Societies, and the Wesleyans, have met with much encouragement. They are largely operating in the Hudson Bay Territory, in British Columbia, and Van- couver Island. The reports give 4,220 in the list of communicants. The population in Labrador and Greenland is small. The Moravian and the Danish Government have ministers and missionaries among them — Church membership may reach 1,500. The developments of the work in Mexico are very cheering. For several years the American and Foreign Christian Union had a mission in this repub- lic, beginning at Monterey, under Miss Rankin, in 1865, and then another in the City of Mexico. The work lacked consolidation. The Baptist Home Missionary Society sent a minister to Northern Mexico in 1870 ; the Presby- terian Board in 1872 ; and then the American Board and the Methodist Boards North and South. The work carried on in Mexico by Dr. Riley, and at other points, is wholly Episcopal. It will be — as it has already proved — a great blessing to Mexico that these different ecclesiastical organizations have com- menced operations, backed up as they are by a strong constituency. The efforts put forth have been resisted by the bigoted and priest-ridden Romanists at different places. A year ago the Church at Acapulco was scattered, and several of its members were killed j but the living went everywhere preaching 25 the Word, and now at twenty-eight different points in the State to which Acapulco belongs, there are 500 Protestants brought to a knowledge of the truth through these Christians. Already thousands are enrolled as com- municants by the different Societies. The abolition of slavery in most of the European Colonies in the West Indies, revolutionized the whole frame-work of society, and for a time spirit- ual decline followed. The decrease in the market value of the West Indian staples has occasioned much distress. The need of a thoroughly-trained native ministry is greatly felt in the churches, as they are largely dependent still for teachers upon the missionary organizations. The churches are, however, in a healthier state than they have been since emancipation ; all parties are alive to their responsibilities, and are anxious to remove the obstacles that still stand in the way. In the British West India Islands, and in British and Dutch Guiana, there are 105,000 communicants. In South America, missions are established in the United States of Colom- bia, in Brazil, in Uruguay, Patagonia, Argentine Confederation, and Chili. With the exception of Patagonia and the Falkland Isles, all the other fields are occupied by American Societies. The work in Brazil is full of encourage- ment. It is scarce fifty years since the door — closed to evangelical efforts in the south of the Empire, the hanging of the Presbyterian preacher (1567) and the expulsion from the north of the preachers of the Reformed Church of Holland (1654) — re-opened at the adoption of the present Constitution, which guaran- tees toleration of other forms of worship than the Romish. The discourage- ments attending the efforts of the Methodists in 1836, and subsequent missions of other evangelical bodies, led to their abandoning that field. But the pres- ent Presbyterian effort, dating from 1859, nas steadily grown in power. In 1862 it reaped its first fruits. In 1866 the Presbytery of Rio de Janeiro was formed. In 1872 it was incorporated by imperial decree to have and to hold in all the Empire, property for houses of worship, schools, hospitals, and resi- dence of pastors. Meantime a second Presbytery was organized. The work of the pulpit, the school, and the press is unrestrained, except by paucity of men and means. Conversions from all classes — the sensualist, the devotee, and the infidel — prove that the gospel is the power of God. Several priests have become obedient to the faith, one of whom having served well his generation, fell asleep. Of a large number of young men who have felt called to the ministry, three are now ordained pastors of seven flourishing churches widely scattered. Others are hastening their preparation to go to churches who are as flocks without shepherds. A religious paper, now in its eleventh year, is awakening attention in remote parts. Bibles are widely read. One colporteur sold last year in the Province of San Paulo 2,514 copies of the Scriptures, entire or in parts. Schools in which the Word is made prominent are multiplying and largely attended. The public favor the largest liberty, and the Government has restrained the vio- lence of adversaries. So we thank God, and take courage for enlarged effort. 26 Twenty churches have been organized, containing a membership of about 800, and more could be established if men and means could be furnished. In the Republics mentioned, the gospel has not taken as firm a hold upon the people as in Brazil; the cause is, however, prospering, especially in Chili. The field to be cultivjfted is large, but the laborers are few. This great work is opening before the American Churches, and they should go in and possess these lands for Christ. Whether they will advance in this day of the Lord's summons, or decline the call, will soon be seen. We have not referred to the great Colonial work done mainly by the British Churches, or their labors among the Jews. The former has required in its evangelistic bearings a great outlay of men and means. Some of these Colonies are becoming strong and important nations. The British Possessions to the north of us have a larger population than the United States had when they became independent of the mother-country, yet every year they have been greatly helped by the British Churches. Australasia is already an empire in itself, containing a population of 2,000,000. Ninety years ago the inhabitants were savages, and not a civilized man among them ; now this growing num- ber have nearly all sprung from a Christian people, and have been ministered to in their religious wants by Christians in Great Britain. Three-fourths of this number are Protestants, though the Spanish monarch was urged more than two hundred and fifty years ago to seize upon the new continent of New Holland, lest the Protestant heretics should sow " in this large part of the world the most pernicious poisons of their apostasy." In Southern Africa a new kingdom is rapidly rising, containing in its different Colonies 1,500.000 souls. A portion of these is native, but the foreign element is growing, and is already exerting a powerful influence upon the different tribes. These com- bined will yet do much for the evangelization of Africa. To this section Christian Churches and certain Missionary Societies have devoted much of their energies. We have endeavored to separate from these labors only that which is evangelistic, and enumerate this work simply in the survey ; but the other is dependent in some measure on it, and if estimated would largely swell the extent of the missionary enterprise. Besides the countries mentioned, much has been done in other lands for maintaining the ordinances of the sxos- pel and that belong to another department of church work. No reference has been made in this survey to the missions among the Jews carried on by the London Society, for promoting Christianity among them, by distinctive ecclesiastical organizations, etc., which have done a good work on the Continent and also in Great Britain. Both money and labor have been expended in reaching this class with the truth as it is in Jesus. The Jewish Intelligencer some time ago affirmed "that in London there are 30,000 Jews, of whom 2,000 have been baptized into the Church of Christ. In Berlin there are 18,000 Jews, of whom 4,000 have been converted; and in the L^niversity there are 28 professors who are converted Jews. In Europe there are over 27 25,000 who profess Christianity, and of these ioo are clergymen in the Church of England." It is difficult, however, to obtain statistics. There is also a large class called in some countries " Borderers," recipients of the truth, yet afraid for various reasons to come out openly to be baptized. These are found in or on the borders of every mission, waiting for more auspicious times before avouching publicly their interest in Christ. Akin to these is another class, who away from mission centres are cherishing secretly their faith in the Lord Jesus, and can only be recognized as God's hidden ones. Were all who confess to the missionary that they have given up their own systems, and have embraced Christianity as the only system of truth, and rely for salvation only on the Lord Jesus, to come out decidedly for Christ, the roll of communicants would be largely increased. Besides these, there is a still larger number who are thoroughly acquainted with the doctrines and principles of Christianity, and who .are ready to assert its benign and divine character, and yet stand aloof from a cordial reception of the same ; while others have ceased defending their own system, and who, if they are not ready openly to acknowledge that the religion of the Cross can alone save, yet have no confidence in their own tenets, and have abandoned all idolatrous rites. These are gains to the power of the gospel, and many of them will be found in the future on the side of Christ and among His devoted friends. In 1825 the number of copies of the Bible, or of portions of same, that was issued by the Bible Society, was a little over 4,000,000, in 1875, the number has reached nearly 130,000,000, of which the British and Foreign Bible Society has published 73,750,538. The number of versions, including the chief ver- sions issued, has been 296. Such is a rapid survey of the missionary work in its present dimensions and the progress it has made within the last half century. Much has been passed over, and many signs of advancement have just. been touched. Group- ing together the figures as already detailed, and we have the following approxi- mation to the present membership in the mission churches as collected from different sources, and is in no way an over-statement : Africa, including Madagascar 130,000 Europe, including Scandinavia and Germany 53, 500 Asia 120,000 Polynesia 70,000 America, North and South 21,500 West Indies 105,000 Total 500,000 The number of ordained missionaries in connection with these various mission- ary organizations is about 2,300 ; in 1825, the true number was not over 400. The greatest increase has been in native laborers ; but as there is no uniform- ity among the Societies in classifying the different workers, whether ordained or simply catechists or helpers, it would be difficult to give a fair exhibit of the ordained preachers. The membership has gone up from about 40,000 to 28 500,000 in fifty years. There is also a difficulty in stating positively the exact sum expended on missionary work. Thus the Wesleyans of England and the Propagation Society received last year $1,570,000, but a large amount of this was spent on colonial work in Europe, Australasia, Canada, Cape of Good Hope, etc. The average for the last few years of the Missionary Societies — British, Continental, and American — may be set down at $6,000,000. This is a great advance in the last fifteen years ; showing that the work is taking a deeper hold upon the hearts of God(s children. women's missionary societies. In the earlier history of missions there were many Women's Auxiliary Socie- ties organized ; these, in many cases, were gradually merged into what the local church was doing. Since zenanas and harems and homes of the women are open to the gospel as brought to them by their own sex, the women in our own and other Christian lands are uniting their efforts to reach them with the truth. It is all-important that heathen homes should be con- verted into Christian households ; and to accomplish this, the women must be brought under the power of the gospel, and this must be carried to them until the usages of society change, by women whose hearts are full of love and sym- pathy. The educating process of this movement upon our own families is good for sustaining the cause in the future. The interest in this department of work is growing. A great impulse was given to it by Mrs. Mullens, wife of Rev. Dr. Mullens, then of Calcutta, now Secretary of the London Missionary Society, who commenced the present form of zenana work, and who had, under her own personal care, zenanas and girl's schools, containing eighty native ladies and seventy girls. Her time of labor was short, but she lived long enough to raise up friends and to secure for it a fixed place among missionary agencies. Others soon entered into her labors. The Woman's Union Missionary Society, of New York, was the first, in an as- sociated capacity, in the United States, to take hold of this movement. Others followed, but in connection with their distinctive churches. Those co-operat- ing with the American Board, the Presbyterian Board, and the Methodist Church, are large and influential, and aiding greatly in the efforts to reach heathen and Mohammedan women with the Gospel. Other Churches have organized similar societies, and are beginning to bring the women, in connec- tion with them, into sympathy with this movement. The amount contributed by the women co-operating with the American Board, last year, was $70,419, and by the Presbyterian societies (women), $96,249. a comparison. In what is thus set forth in this review, we have endeavored to show the absurdity of the cry — Missions are a failure. But this objection assumes, some- times, another form that the relative gains to the cause are much smaller in the aggregate abroad than at home. This should be expected, when the diffi- 29 culties in the two fields are considered — the crushing effects of heathenism on the one hand upon the civil, social, and moral relations of the people, and the enlightening and elevating effects of the gospel, of law and order upon the masses in the other ; in the preparation of the people on the one hand to receive the truth, and the entire absence of it in the other ; in the one, man speaks to his fellow in their common language and country ; in the other, the preacher is a foreigner, ignorant at first of the language and people, and living oft in an unhealthy clime ; in the one, helps and appliances for work are abundant ; in the other, they have had to be made, and few, as yet, when com- pared with the number in the other. Without running the contrast farther, let us look at facts, and as we have statistics of our own (Presbyterian) Church for 1825, we will take it by way of comparison. According to the Minutes, there were 1,080 ordained ministers, and 169,000 communicants; in 1875, taking in the Southern Church as part of the body in 1825, and we have 5,700 ministers and 613,368 members, or a relative gain of the ministry in the mis- sion field and in our Church nearly the same ; in membership the increase to the foreign Mission churches over the home Church is as three and a half to one ; but allowing the native helpers as an offset to Sabbath-school workers and other Christian lay agents at home, and contrasting simply the ministry, and we have this large preponderance of communicants through the labors — taking the several years into account — of only about one-third the workers. But more than this, looking at the contributions of the Presbyterian Church for her own work in congregational and benevolent outlays for our own land, and the amount expended for these purposes alone, is double what has been disbursed by all churches for Foreign Missions ; but of the sum used in the foreign field, considerable has been spent on schools, dispensaries, translations of the Scriptures, books, theological training, orphanages, etc., for which there have been appropriations through other channels at home, or none have been required. We have, then, this remarkable fact, that taking the growth of the Presby- terian Church in the United States as a fair indication of the aggregate increase of the whole Evangelical Church in it, and we have the growth of the Mission churches three and a half times greater, with one-third of the ministerial force and at one-half the cost. In view, then, of these figures, who will say that Missions are a failure? Who will be discouraged in their prosecution, or affirm that nothing has been done ? Who will repeat the worn-out and baseless cry, " First civilize, then Christianize ; first commerce, then the missionary ; first the plough and the rail- way, then the Gospel ?" Who will continue to affirm that but little has been accomplished, when we have not even touched upon the vast preparatory work that has been done On every mission-field, and that stands in relation to future achievements of greater moment than the actual results that are massed in figures ; and when we have not alluded, except incidentally, to native churches ;o that are becoming self-reliant and aggressive, or to the rich spiritual benefits that the cause has conferred upon the home churches ? Considering the little interest in this cause among many in the Church, the little each, on an average, contributes to it, the feebleness of response to the most moving appeals for help from the Mission fields ; the unwillingness of a vast number to place it among the positive duties of a Christian life, or to consecrate their children to it, and then viewing the varied array of obstacles to its prosecution at home and abroad, and we stand amazed at the saccess that has attended this enterprise, and are assured that when Zion shall put on her beautiful garments and act for the glory of her Divine Head, and for the evangelization of the world as her great work, then shall the earth be vocal with the praises of God, and the nations that are groping in darkness shall see a great light. FOREIGN MISSIONARY STATISTICS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. We have endeavored in the following table to bring the work of the leading Missionary Societies into harmony, and make them cover the same operations and include the same class of agents. There is a great difference in the methods of making up statistical tables by different Societies, which prevents a fuller division of the native laborers into ordained and unordained. We tried to make a list of the wives of mis- sionaries and the unmarried ladies, but a large number of the Societies do not report them, and the table would be very imperfect by inserting only those that were known. Some of the Continental reports embrace only those that were issued in 1873, also a very few of the smaller British and American Societies. In one or two we had to approximate to the membership, as in the Netherlands Missionary Society in two of its missions. From the list of adherents, however, we have given only a small percentage of the same as communicants. The last report of the Propagation Society is very incomplete. We have thrown out its Colonial work, as also from the Wesleyan Society ; but in the former we had to take statistics of earlier reports to make the aggregate as presented in this table. Owing to these imperfections, this tabular stated ment is only an approximation to what is correct and true. We have not been able to obtain the amount expended by Local Societies, and have not included in the figures what has been expended by local contri- butions in different missions, or what the Bible and Tract Societies have used for their distinct operations abroad. The amount given for the specific cause of Foreign Missions does not vary much from $6,000,000 a year. A.D. 1810 ' 1814 1819 1832 I 1832 ! 1833 1837 ! 1845 i 1845 ! ^45 ! 1846 ' 1853 : 1859 1 Q s < c/> SOCIETIES. A M KR1C.A N SI >C I ETIES. American Board Baptist Missionary Union Methodist Episcopal Board Presbyterian Board Reformed Church Free- Will Baptists Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society Baptist Free Missions Southern Baptist Board Methodist Episcopal Church, South American Missionary Association United Brethren United Presbyterian Church Southern Presbyterian Church Nova Scotia and Reformed Presbyterian Church German Evangelical Church 1701 1792 1795 1800 i3r6 1817 1824 1840 1840 1843 1843 1844 1844 1847 1856 1856 1865 1865 1865 1865 1865 BRITISH SOCIETIES. Gospel Propagation Society Baptist Missionary Society London Missionary Society Church Missionary Society General Baptist Wesleyan Missionary Society Church of Scotland Irish Presbyterian Church Welsh Calvinistic Methodists .... ... Free Church of Scotland Primitive Methodist. , English Presbyterian Church South American Missionary Society . . . United Presbyterian Church United Methodist Free Church Methodist New Connection China Island Mission Isolated Missions (India) Assam and Cachar Missionary Society. Indian Home Missions Strict Baptists a 3 < ' O an o 2 x ; s. w a. 160 64 87 I40 15 4 8 4 20 16 9 4 13 19 200 94 155 201 7 213 11 12 6 28 3° IS 11 56 4 CONTINENTAL. 1732 1797 1816 1822 1828 1833 1836 1836 1836 1842 1850 1852 i860 i860 i860 i860 i860 Moravian Missionary Society Netherlands Missionary Society Basle Missionary Society Paris Evangelical Society Rhenish Missionary Society Berlin Missionary Society Gossner's Mission Leipsic Evangelical Lutheran Society North German Society Norwegian Society Berlin Union Society Hermansburgh Society Danish Missionary Society Utrecht Missionary' Society Waldenses Missionary Society Godavery Delta Mission Free Italian Church INDEPENDENT, OR LOCAL SOCIETIES. Sandwich Islands — Hawaiian Church Sierra Leone, Native Pastor Karen Home Mission Various Local Societies in Different Countries. SUMMARY OF THE American S< >cieties British " CON riN ENTAL v" Local iv ABOVE TABLE. i55 62 36 21 17 9 4 60 20 4 26 25 578 1,078 581 27 2,264 7 ! - w H X < O X CO 1,057 973 2,170 5" 128 40 3 56 5 24 94 3 70 .209 3,927 2,490 15 2,200 128 4i 10 230 10 • 56 14 286 tg ,523 46 210 69 136 12 87 102 7 12 27 14 82 7.175 284 251 224 566 61 2.210 50 22,283 8,000 4,148 2,229 6,193 3,580 7,592 9,291 IOI 355 3o 1,946 71 2,140 300 1,300 ",546 55,507 17,754 6,901 i,3°9 37i 737 2,416 2,800 55o 611 150 7«5 1,151 743 34 18,413 36,468 94,212 24,647 732 112,104 383 225 398 2,387 5,o44 2,049 3 » 23,000 15,357 61,925 47,396 1,200 140,000 4,244 1,389 836 11,303 1,241 10,580 275 137 458 52 14,850 5,938 14 3,000 2,148 57 2,468 ! 200 1,200 1 10,000 o 2 22,523 6,689 8,960 12,509 $468,620 241,970 300,000 456,718 1,275 645 54,250 14,996 2* ,000 2,673 10,000 52,000 329 27,424 2,707 21,616 6,000 2,589 67,467 450 42,234 2,000 18,000 400,000 206,050 517,770 879,180 48,000 500,000 50,000 40,000 14,525 149,570 14,525 5!,!24 68,640 ^2,305 10,075 10,000 20,000 2,000 14,866 90,008 13,037 3,218 2,046 40,000 156,468 25,000 3,951 60,000 150 1,465 1,684 50,000 22,500 49,500 23,500 939 19,500 1,400 62 62 3,000 37,735 7,5oo 12,500 2,000 4,700 5,201 10,652 2,354 323 103,487 307,883 69,609 21,518 18,530 I 502,497 63.349 318,328 45,475 18,086 1,809,295 3,173,764 601,911 445,734 I $5o84,97o &L V SKETCH OF THE iam Mission. THE SIAM MISSION. Siam is a country about which little has been written. Small in compari- son with the two great and powerful empires, lying to the west and the north — India and China— it has but little in itself to attract the traveler, and but little in its past records to stir and fascinate the reader. Trade with it is in- considerable. It is also somewhat inaccessible, not lying in the usual or pop- ular track of travel, so that few who take the trip "around the world," think of running up the peninsula from Singapore and then up the Gulf of Siam to Bangkok. For these and other reasons, less is known about Siam than of many smaller countries. It lies between Burmah and Cambodia, extending from 40 to 220 north and in its widest portion from 9S0 to 1050, east longitude. It is watered by sev- eral rivers. Some of these are intersected by canals, which form the great highways of travel. The seasons are two — the wet and the dry. The former ranges from May to November ; the latter embraces the remaining portion of the year. March and April are the hottest months ; the coolest are November, December, and January. Vegetation in a region so hot and moist is luxurious and fruitful, whilst the land under the rude cultivation bestowed upon it, yields a rich return. THE PEOPLE. In a survey like ours, it is with the people we have to do, as they constitute the great field for missionary effort and moral culture. The Siamese are of Mongolian origin. In the country are many Chinese, who have intermarried with the Siamese, and these two classes form a large portion of the population. Besides these, are Laos, Cambodians, Karens, etc. No census has been taken of the people. The number computed ranges from live to eight millions, the latter being the estimate of some of our missionaries. The complexion of the Siamese is of an olive hue, and their average height is about five feet three inches. Their dress is exceedingly simple. Formerly all classes among the males were accustomed to wear the waist-cloth, so generally worn by the poor in India. To this was added a scarf thrown over the shoulders in cool weather. We are told that the King formerly received foreigners dressed in this style. In these latter days there has been a change in dress as in some other customs, the result of contact with persons from foreign countries. These innovations have reached the court and are influencing the habits of the peo- 4 THE SIAM MISSION. pie. The home-life so characteristic of Christian nations is unknown among the heathen. This is true of Siam. Woman occupies an inferior position. Among the common people she is the drudge of the household. She has no need to attend school or acquire knowledge. This would rather injure than benefit her, and would in no way qualify her for the position she is to occupy in society. The boys are usually educated at the temples or monasteries, and are taught to read and write their own language, and are also instructed in the tenets of their religion. Some among the nobility have had their daughters taught to read, and the late King, who was a great admirer of the United States, made efforts to have the women of the palace taught English. Marriage is regarded chiefly as a civil contract, and in it the bride has little or no voice, as the whole matter is arranged by the parents. Divorce in such a state of things is easy. The consent of parties only is needed for the dissolution of the relation. Polygamy is common among the upper classes. The number of wives which a man has is according to his means and social position. It is a great evil where it is practiced and a barrier to the reception of the Gospel. The state of morals is low, and is no better than what the Apostle described it in his day, as prevalent among pagan nations. BUDDHISM. This is the religion of the mass of the people. In China and Japan Buddh- ism exists, but it has to contend with other systems or is modified by them. In India various religions are found, but in Siam the one faith of the country is Buddhism. This dominates over the whole social and moral life of the Siamese. Its hold upon them is considered greater than upon any other nation. They are not only wedded to this system, but they are indifferent to the claims of any other. It takes possession of every power and will not let go its grasp. What it is, and how it gains such an ascendancy, is thus described by the Rev. S. G. McFarland : " Buddhism knows no Creator. It quiets the minds of its followers by simply asserting that the world came into existence by some inherent power in itself — or by chance. It teaches that the souls of men are only our ancestors under a new form. All kinds of birds and beasts are supposed to be the abodes of the souls of departed relatives ; and the white elephant, above all animals, is held in great veneration, because it is thought to be animated by the spirit of some king or hero. " I ask a person where he expects to go when he dies. The answer is, ' I cannot tell whether in the next state I will be born a white ant or an ele- phant.' They expect their spirit will pass into the body of some animal. For this reason the Siamese pretend to be very particular not to violate the first precept of their decalogue, which forbids taking animal life. " All the males of the country are required to enter the priesthood for a time, and live a life of celibacy, devoting themselves entirely to study and the per- THE SIAM MISSION. 5 formance of meritorious acts. On entering the priesthood they shave the head and face, dress in yellow cloth, abstain from all intoxicating beverages, and also from taking any kind of food after the middle of the day. " A man makes merit when he leaves his wife and family to support them- selves, and enters the priesthood. The people make merit when they give their alms to the priests ; the man of wealth makes merit when he devotes his thousands to building and adorning temples and abodes for the priesthood, and in setting up and gilding idols. Men, women, and children make merit when they bow and raise their joined palms to a yellow-clad priest as he in- differently passes them, or bow down in worship before the image of Buddha. "Buddhism is a cold, heartless formality — a fearful, soul-destroying delusion. According to it this world is a dark enigma, where all is chance and uncertainty. A dark cloud hangs over the present state of existence, and an infinitely darker shrouds the future. It gives no comfort to its followers in the present life, affords no consolation in the hour of dissolution, and no bright hope for the eternal future. I once visited an aged priest in a temple on the banks of one of the most beautiful rivers in the country, and in conversation with him learned that he had been forty years in the priesthood ; and, according to his own assertion, had never knowingly violated a command of his religion. As I gazed upon his thin and wasted form, and listened to the rehearsal of his good works, I thought, if there is any comfort in Buddhism, this man has found it. I inquired of his hopes for the future. 'Where do you expect to go after this life is ended ?' His answer was very significant. *■ I know not. The future is all dark' I contrasted his condition with that of the true Christian, who, with trust in God, can say, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth.' " The following commandments compose the Buddhist decalogue : I. From the meanest insect up to man, thou shalt kill no animal whatever. II. Thou shalt not steal. III. Thou shalt not violate the wife of another, nor his concubine. IV. Thou shalt speak no word that is false. V. Thou shalt not drink wine nor anything that may intoxicate. VI. Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred, and bitter language. VII. Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk. VIII. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. IX. Thou shalt not harbor envy nor pride, nor malice nor revenge, nor the desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune. X. Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods. This is a bundle of negatives. It has nothing positive, whereby the soul is brought into union and communion with God. It has no gospel in it for a hungry, weary, and sin-laden soul ; no Saviour from sin and death, and no method of recovery for the perishing. It is wholly a system of merit, and as such it is suited to the depraved and selfish nature of its votaries. There is a 6 THE SIAM MISSION. <*reat similarity between Buddhism and Romanism. Dr. Nevius shows this in his " China and the Chinese." He says : " Both have a supreme and infallible head : the celibacy of the priesthood ; monasteries and nunneries ; prayers in an unknown tongue ; prayers to saints and intercessors ; also, prayers for the dead ; repetition of prayers with the use of the rosary ; works of merit and supererogation ; self-imposed austerities and bodily inflictions ; a formal daily service, consisting of chants, burning of candles, sprinkling of hoiy water, bow- ings, prostrations, marchings and counter-marchings. Both have, also, fast davs and feast days ; religious processions; images and pictures of fabulous legends, and revere and worship relics, real and pretended." It is estimated that it costs the people of Siam, annually, some S25. 000,000 to keep up the priesthood alone. The sacrifices required to sustain heathenism are much greater than those exacted by Christianity, and yet the latter is to be every- where proclaimed, because needed by all and suited to all, it is to be sent to every people under heaven. EVANGELIZATION OF THE PEOPLE. To the honor of Rome she sent forth her missionaries long before Protest- antism was ready to commission her sons and daughters. The Jesuits, however, gained no such success in Siam as in China and India. In the " Relation of the voyage to Siam performed by six Jesuits in 1685," we find complaints of the slow progress made in the spread of Christianity by the Romish priests, and suggesting that " if the esteem and affection of the people could be once gained by zeal, meekness, and learning it will be no difficult matter to dispose them to hearken to instruction." It was supposed that the monarch then upon the throne was " already half a Christian," and efforts were to be made for his entire conversion to the Christian faith, which if attempted accomplished nothing. b The first Protestant efforts for the evangelization of the people were of a de- sultory character, and but little impression was made by them upon the people. These attempts were mainly for the Chinese of that country, and were begun by Rev. Messrs. Gutzlaff and Tomlin in 1828. The Jesuits endeavored to have them removed by the government, but failed. In a few months, however, they both left the field, the former going to China to begin there an interest- ing, but in some respects an erratic work. The American Board then entered this field in 1834, and labored with but little success for several years, when their work was in part transferred to the American Missionary Association, who began their operations with some vigor, but which were not sustained, and gradually their interest declined until they have abandoned the field. The American Baptist Missionary Union transferred Rev. J. T. Jones from Burmah to Bangkok in 1833. Others followed him from the United States, among whom was Rev. W. Dean, who is still engaged in this labor at the capital. This mission embraced two departments, one for the Siamese and THE SIAM MISSION. 7 one for the Chinese. The former was in time given up, so that the Union is now concentrating all its energies upon the Chinese work. There are two missionaries, nine native laborers, and 270 communicants. The only society that has maintained its ground, and the only one that is laboring for the evangelization of the Siamese, is that of our own Church. Its first laborer was Rev. William P. Buell, who reached Bangkok in 1840. His stay was short, and he was compelled by Providential circumstances to leave his station in 1844, when fitted for enlarged usefulness. In 1847 Messrs. Mattoon and House arrived at Bangkok and began the study of the language. This language is monosyllabic, and owing to the tones is somewhat difficult to acquire. By the time the laborers were ready to use it, their way was beset with difficulties. The King, for some reason, was anxious to get rid of foreigners, and therefore in a quiet, but effective manner, prevented any one selling or leasing real estate to the missionaries. Unable to obtain houses to live in, our representatives were about leaving Siam, when the King was removed by death. His successor, who had been in part educated by one of the Baptist missionaries, had imbibed more liberal principles, and adopted at the commencement of his reign a policy of freedom and toleration. Mission premises were soon secured, and no hindrance has been thrown in the way of evangelistic work from that period to the present. The King until the day of his death was friendly to missionaries. Anxious that the women in the place should be educated, he requested the missionaries to furnish teachers for this purpose, and their wives embraced the opportunity of instructing them in both secular and religious truths. STATIONS. The work of the Board was for several years confined to Bangkok, the capital of the country. This is the largest city of the kingdom, and is situated on the river Meinam (Chow Phya), about twenty -five miles from its mouth. It contains about 400.000 inhabitants, and is called the Venice of the East, because much of the city is floating upon the river in the form of floating houses, which are moored on both sides of the river for a distance of some three miles. Bangkok is the seat of wealth, power, and culture. The King has his principal palace in it, and the nation greatly feels its influence, as the people come up from all quarters of the land to it as a great center. Here are some costly temples built as works of merit by kings, nobles, and the com- mon people. Idols abound. One of these, in a reclining position, is 180 feet long and 18 feet across the breast, and is overlaid with gold. The premises first occupied by the missionaries were at one end of the city, situated on the west bank of the river. This location, the best that could be secured at the time, was some distance from the center of population. On it have been erected two dwelling houses, a chapel, a school-house, and a place for the printing press. A few years ago a lot was obtained in a thickly-settled part of the city, about five miles above the former, and on the same side of 8 THE SIAM MISSION. the river. On this lot a building has been reared suited as a residence for the missionary and the girls' boarding-school, which has been located here. PETCHABURI is situated on the western side of the Gulf of Siam, about one hundred miles south-west from Bangkok, and on a river of the same name, and though it has a population of less than 20,000, it is the chief place of a district containing half a million of inhabitants. It was first occupied in 1861. The mission premises consist of two dwelling houses, a large mission chapel, and a school-room ; a building for the industrial school will soon be erected. Connected with this station are two outstations — one at Wangtako, a Laos village, four miles from Petchaburi, and the other at Bangk-boon, about fifteen miles distant. At each of these points is a chapel for preaching. Ayuthia, the former capital of the kingdom, and situated on the river Meinam, about one hundred miles above Bangkok, was occupied in 1872 as a station. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. For long and weary years the early laborers toiled and watched, waited and prayed. Qua-kieng, a Chinaman, was baptized in 1844, and was for several years in the employ of the mission as a teacher. He died in 1859. A short time before his death, Nai-Chune, the first Siamese convert, was baptized. Twelve years was a long time to wait to gather in the first fruits, but it stands not alone in the history of missions. For seventeen years the Danish and Moravian missionaries in Greenland saw no one coming to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus. Fifteen years the missionaries toiled at Tahiti, without a single convert, and while the parent Society were considering the advisability of abandoning the mission, the news was on its way to England that idolatry was overthrown En the island. Mr. Bruckner labored thirty years in Java before he was privileged to see any turning to the Lord, and it has been true in the history of several missions that ten years pass away before the first convert was baptized. The laborers at Bangkok, after the mission was resumed, toiled a little longer than this, when their hearts were gladdened by seeing one ready to come forward and openly declare that he was a Christian and was ready for baptism. This created no little stir, but he was able not only to avouch the Lord Jehovah to be his God, but from that time to this he has been enabled to hold on his way, and to witness a good profession. " Though frequently offered positions of honor, lucrative offices, and employment by the govern- ment, he refuses all and chooses to support himself by the practice of medi- cine, that he may the more readily carry the gospel message to the houses of the wealthy." In time, others were added, though the increase was slow. The first female baptized was some years after the baptism already mentioned. She is the wife of an elder in the church, and the two are exerting a good influence in the community by their Christian example. The number of women received THE SIAM MISSION. 9 into the church is much smaller than that of the men. As this class is, however, brought by education under the power of divine truth, this disparity will disap- pear. The last report of the church mentions an interesting fact connected with the family of Qua-kieng, the first convert, at Bangkok : "Among the cases of conversion reported this year, some have been of special interest. One who had grown old in every form of iniquity, and had hardened himself against the truth as revealed in the Christian Scriptures he had so often been employed to print and bind, at last was constrained to yield to the force of that truth and broke off his sins, wondering at the grace of God that had spared him so long and brought him to repentance. And he is a wonder to many. At one communion season were received the eldest and youngest sons of an old Chinese native assistant, Qua-kieng, who died in the faith in 1859. Though the home of the family has since been in the midst of the heathen in a remote country village, the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God to His faithful servant was strikingly manifest in bringing now these sons, as He had a sister the year before, to take on themselves the vows their good father had made for them when baptized in childhood. The younger one is desirous of studying for the sacred ministry, and will offer himself to Presby- tery this Fall as a candidate. At that same communion, too, a mother and son stood side by side and were baptized. It is an interesting fact that of the nine received into the Bangkok church during the year, four were then, or had some time been, connected with our mission schools." The church at Petchaburi was organized in May, 1863. The missionaries had not here to experience the weary watching and waiting which character-, ized the toilers at Bangkok. In less than two years from its occupancy as a. station, three hopeful converts were baptized. Others were afterwards received,. but like the church at the Capital, its growth has been slow. ' Its membership is, however, fully equal to the other. The last year was the most fruitful in results. Nine were added on profession of their faith to Bangkok church, and ten to that of Petchaburi, and the number received into each organization,, exclusive of those connected with the families of missionaries, has been 36, or 72 in all. Whilst no church has been organized at Ayutha, still the missiona- ries have been permitted to baptize six adults. Since the last report was sent seven more have been baptized, making 85 in all who have made a public pro- fession of their faith in Christ since 1859. The present membership is 62. This is, comparatively, a small number, but most of these have been gath- ered within a very few years, and forty of them in little more than two years. This is full of encouragement, as showing that the reaping time has begun. EDUCATION. The first school opened by the mission for the training of the young in sec- ular and religious knowledge was in 1852, when a boys' school was started in the vernacular and English languages. From that time to the present it has been 10 THE SIAM MISSION. maintained by the missionaries, and with it have been connected about one hundred and fifty youth. Some of these have stood up nobly for Christ, and have confessed Him before men, while others have been benefited by the truths learned, and if not open advocates for Christianity, are not to be ranked among its opposers. Teachers and preachers have been trained in it. Mr. McDonald says, " It has averaged during the year twenty-five 'pupils, about one-half of whom are boarders, and the remainder day-scholars. The boys have made com- mendable progress in their studies, viz., in reading, writing, arithmetic, geog- raphy, natural philosophy, and astronomy. They have also memorized a considerable portion of Scripture during the year. Every Sabbath morning, before regular preaching commenced, the boys, together with such others as could be gathered in, have met as a Sabbath-school, and I, with such native assistance as I could obtain amongst our native members, have taught them the Scriptures. One of the pupils of the school has connected with the church during the year, and several others have manifested a spirit of inquiry. The general deportment of the boys has been good." No attempt was made to open a girls' school till 1865, when " in Petchaburi, a missionary's wife went out one day to try to induce some of the ignorant, half-grown girls she saw idly loitering about, to come to her house, and she would teach them. ' What will you teach us ? ' said one. ' I will teach you to read and write and sew.' ' What ! ' said one, in astonishment, ' teach a girl to read ! ' and the idea seemed so ridiculous that the whole company burst into a roar of laughter. One, however, was induced to come and make the trial, and others watched the results. Seeing nothing serious happening to this one, others, in time, ventured to come. Such a thing as a girls' school was so new and novel, that it excited the jealousy of the neighbors. Struggling on against a multitude of enemies, the school gradually worked itself into favor with the people. From one pupil it increased to forty-five — the largest number the two female missionaries at the station (cumbered as they were with other cares) could receive. These were taught to read and write their own language. They had no school books, but oral instruction was given in the rudiments of geography, arithmetic, and astronomy. They were also taught plain and fancy needle-work. Much good has been accomplished in awakening thought, ele- vating the tone of morals, and in imparting a knowledge of the Gospel to those heathen women." This school has been under the care of Miss Coftman, who writes : " The pupils have read and had explained to them the four gospels ami are just now commencing Acts. Those who have been here from the fust have repeated the entire book of Matthew and part of John. They repeat a few verses each day, and on Sabbath re-repeat all that they learn during the week. They study arithmetic, geography, philosophy (juvenile), and write. We have a beautiful set of maps that were sent from home before I came. They are so large and plain that it is a pleasure to teach from them. The pupils have also read THE SIAM MISSION. II many religious tracts, printed by the mission. During the year two of the pupils were baptized. Two other women were baptized, who immediately entered the school. Another was baptized who met with the school on Sabbath to repeat verses. They have all given good attention to instruction, and I have seen tears in their eyes, as I have tried to speak to them of the love of Jesus. Thirty persons have, during the year, received instruction in connection with the school. The highest number at one time, nineteen — average attendance twelve." Miss Cort has also commenced a school at the same station for younger scholars — from six to twelve years of age. This is regarded as an important element of mission work — taking children from the great school of vice which surrounds them and bringing them under the influence of truth and proper cul- ture. This school now numbers twenty- seven. A female boarding-school was commenced three years ago, at Bangkok, under the management of Mrs. House, assisted by Miss A. Anderson. It is now under the care of Mrs. Van Dyke and Miss Grimstead. This school is at the upper station. It numbers seventeen boarding and two day-scholars. " In an audience the lady teachers of the Girls' Boarding School, in Bangkok, had with the enlightened young King of Siam — on his late birth-day — when they presented him with a choice specimen of their pupils' needle-work (a silk quilt), His Majesty expressed very earnestly his gratitude for the many bene- fits his country had received from the American missionaries in years gone by, and now for undertaking the work of female education in Siam. He asked many questions about the school, and manifested much interest in it." The influence of these schools is good. They are scattering indirectly seeds in the homes of the children that will surely bear fruit. " Their mothers and grandmothers sometimes come and see us," says Miss Coffman, " and repeat verses from the Bible and from the hymn-book that the little ones have repeat- ed at home." THE PRESS. This is a power for good. The New Testament and most of the Old have been printed at the expense of the American Bible Society, and scattered amongst the people. The whole Bible will soon be completed. A synopsis of Church History, and a translation of the Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism, the Pilgrim's Progress, Child's Book of the Soul, Bible Blessings, etc., have been made. Other books have been prepared by the missionaries, and also important tracts, such as the "Golden Balance" — a weighing of Buddh- ism and Christianity — " Killing Animals," controverting the Siamese teachings that it is wicked to take animal life, have been issued. There has been a felt want for school books on geography, arithmetic, astronomy, etc. This has been, in part, met by recent issues. Some who have been received into the fellowship of the church have been 12 THE SIAM MISSION. first awakened by reading the Scriptures and Christian books, and some have embraced the truth by means of the printed page. The work among the Siamese has hitherto been largely a work of faith, but the faith that has been maintained is what will conquer. Already the first fruits of the long-enduring patience and hope are coming in. As many have been received into the fellowship of the Church the last thirty months as in the pre- ceding thirty years. The laborers have ever been iaw, and now for the millions of Siam there are only five missionaries in the field, and six ladies. Besides these, three young men have been licensed to preach the Gospel, and three others are acting as teachers. This is the whole working force for some eight millions of souls. Suitable accommodations are not yet furnished for the schools. One station has no foreign laborer. The work there needs the presence and the guidance of a missionary. Help is called for, and a strong plea is presented for additional laborers, but where are the resources to respond to this appeal and take advantage of the Providential openings and the encouraging successes ? WORK AMONG THE LAOS. For some time the attention of the missionaries was called to the Laos peo- ple, who appeared to be physically and intellectually superior to the Siamese. Their country, lying north of Siam, was shut in by almost impassable moun- tains, beyond which neither Christianity nor civilization had attempted to pen- etrate. The ruler, whilst an independent and despotic monarch among his people, is tributary to the King of Siam, to whom he pays an annual tribute. Anxious to preach to the Laos, in their own land, the unsearchable riches of Christ, Messrs. McGilvary and Wilson, having obtained the sanction of the Board, were authorized to commence a mission, and in 1867 the former arrived at Chiengmai with his family, after a journey, by boat, of eighty-nine days. He was followed by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. These laborers were welcomed by the people, who came around them in crowds, to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. In time, impressions were made upon the hearts of several. " Nan Inta," says Rev. S. G. McFarland, "was the first-fruits of the Gospel. Being of an inquiring mind, and unsatisfied with Buddhism, which he had thoroughly studied, he, from curiosity, visited the missionaries on their ar- rival, and was pleased with the story of the Gospel, and particularly with the plan of salvation therein revealed, if true. But how shall he know that it is true?" " One week before that great solar eclipse which occurred on the i8tb of August, 1868— one of the most remarkable that has ever been witnessed — he visited the missionary, and was told that on a certain day there would be an eclipse of the sun. Their religious belief concerning an eclipse is, that it is caused by a huge monster in the air swallowing the sun or moon ; and the i dea that any one could foretell such an occurrence seemed wonderful. How nxiously did he wait to see the result ! The very day and hour predicted, THE SIAM MISSION. 1 3 the phenomenon occurred. Nan Inta seemed to be bewildered. The founda- tion of his trust in Buddhism was shaken. It had deceived him in things relating to this world, and could he trust it for the future ? This was doubtful. "But could he trust in the Christian's Saviour? He was so aroused to thought, and impressed with the ability of those who believe the Christian religion, that he began the study of the Gospel with eagerness, and was soon baptized. " The eclipse referred to was witnessed by the late King of Siam, his court- iers, and many of the European residents in the country, at a temporary ob- servatory erected on the western shore of the Gulf, in a dense jungle. It was while visiting this place to witness the eclipse that the king contracted the fever which ended his life. This eclipse was referred to in January last by Prof. Proctor, in a lecture in Association Hall, New York, as having set- tled the interesting fact of those solar prominences, which before that time were supposed by astronomers to belong to the atmosphere of the moon. By this eclipse they were proved to be on the sun. How interesting a fact, that while scientists were gazing upon this phenomenon, and settling great facts in astronomy, God was making use of it to bring a dark-minded hea- then into the glorious light of the Gospel ! " Noi Soonya, a man over forty years of age, a farmer and physician by pro- fession, came under the influence of the truth. On his first visit to the mis- sionary, he had 'a faithful and earnest appeal made to his judgment on the guilt and folly of idolatry, and a plain statement of the plan of salvation through Christ. The truth commended itself to his conscience. He prom- ised to renounce idolatry — to worship the only living and true God. He faithfully kept his promise. He soon applied for baptism ; and on the first Sabbath of May, 1869, a little less than two months from the time he first heard the Gospel, after a faithful examination before the Church Session, he was baptized.' Several others were soon baptized, and among them Nan Chai. The little church in Chiengmai now numbered seven. The peo- ple were interested. The truth was awakening in them a spirit of inquiry. The church there was apparently on the eve of a great ingathering. Sud- denly the wrath of the king burst upon them. Noi Soonya and Nan Chai were seized and dragged to a place of trial. A great crowd was assembled. The officers examined these two faithful Christians as to their having re- nounced Buddhism. Yes, they had, and could not go back to it again. Having found a true way, they could not return to the false. The death- yoke was then placed around their necks, indicating there was no appeal, and a small rope passed through a hole in their ears, thrown over a beam in the house, and drawn as tight as they could possibly bear. In this most painful and disgraceful position they passed their last night on earth. Next morning they were examined, and found to be steadfast. They were asked 14 THE SIAM MISSION. to pray. Nan Chai kneeled and led in prayer, and his last petition was, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' While engaged in prayer, he was kicked in the face by one who stood near. They were then led out into the re- tirement of the jungle, and clubbed to death. 'The executioner approaches with his club, Nan Chai receives a stroke on the front of his neck, and his body sinks to the ground a lifeless corpse. Noi Soonya receives five or six strokes on the front of his neck, but, as life is still not extinct, a spear is plunged into his heart. His body is bathed in blood, and his spirit joins that of his martyred brother ' in the presence of Jesus. " The people were in terror, the work so favorably commenced was checked, and for a time it was thought the mission would have to be abandoned. God interposed. The old king was soon removed by death, and his suc- cessor is more favorably disposed towards Christianity. Since the persecu- tion several have been baptized." Rev. D. McGilvary writes : "There have been some encouraging indications of good. One man, who had been under instruction at the station for six months, having come originally for medicine, had begun to give gratifying evidence that he was one of Christ's chosen flock, though his sudden death prevented his receiving baptism, as he desired. Nan Inta was ordained as the first ruling elder of the church in May, and most of the time since has conducted Sab- bath worship at his own house in the country. He has been gratified by the 'marked change in his wife and other members of his family towards the Gospel message. She gives evidence that she is a believer, and it is hoped that she will soon unite with the church by baptism. Nan Chai, Dr. Cheek's teacher, openly renounced Buddhism, and desires to be baptized. He is, at least, a nominal believer, and when he shall become a true Christian*, his zeal, added to his youth and literary attainments in his own language, give promise of much usefulness. Sai Kammon, the widow of one of the martyrs, is quite reg- ular in attending Sabbath worship, and in other ways clearing herself of the guilt of Buddhism. Mrs. McGilvary has had, since her return, two of her daughters, whom she is teaching to read, with a few others. " No opposition is made by the government to the preaching of the Gospel and administering to the sick, while some cases successfully treated by Dr. Cheek in the Viceroy's palace will doubtless much facilitate his work and influ- ence. A hospital building is absolutely essential to the success of this impor- tant department of our work, and we urge the importance of making an appro- priation for the purpose as soon as the funds of the Hoard will allow it. All that we could say in addition to these facts would be in anticipation of what we hope in the future. It will be probably wiser ami safer to let tin? future interpret its own prophecy, and we must ask the Church to do as we have to do, wait quietly, hopefully, prayerfully, for the salvation of God in this land." Since this letter was received, two women have been baptized — the first- fruits, among the Laos women, to Christ. One of them is a widow o( one of the martyrs. =2 7. MISSIONS IN SIAM. MISSIONS IN SIAM. Siam, the principal kingdom in Farther India, lies wholly within the tropics. Its greatest length is 1,350 miles, and greatest width 450 miles, though a con- siderable portion of it is very narrow. This region embraces an area of over 200,000 square miles, and within it are found a population estimated from five to six millions. The interest which gathers around a country like India is wholly lacking in Siam. It has but little to attract other nations, or to invite to it the traveler or the savant. Its commerce is limited, its people are far from enterprising. Much of its past history is obscure, and that which is known has little that is stirring or instructive. For these and other reasons few books have been written of the country and the people. If commerce depends upon the productions of the country and the wants of the people ; if the student is drawn to the one by the marked characteristics and records of the other ; if the traveler is attracted by what is novel, interesting, and gratifying to his tastes and desires, the missionary is moved by the moral condition of the inhabitants, having but one grand dominating idea — to arrest evil, and bring the degraded and immoral by the force and knowledge of the truth into harmony and love with it. His mission differs from all others. His work takes in man's moral and spiritual state in its bearings upon the future, and in its sweep it embraces the other world as well as this. He is not, there- fore, impelled by the beauty of the scenery, the richness of the land, the pro- ductions of the soil, the language to be mastered, the historic renown of the people, their government and their laws, but by their spiritual necessities, their social degradation, and their religious condition, and with these before him he has a field that can engage all his powers, that will demand all his efforts, and that can stimulate him to continuous earnest labor. In a region like Siam, that has scarcely been invaded by the Church, there is no danger of one laborer jostling another or standing in his way. The few that are there can have parishes as large as they wish, and sufficient work to employ all their faculties, and fill their hands and their hearts. The foreign invaders of Siam have not come from the West, but the East. The Chinese are found in large numbers in certain centers, and in some places they and their descendants constitute the larger part of the population. This is especially true of Bangkok. In the upper provinces the Chinese are not allowed to settle. The fertile soil of Siam, and their superiority to the Siamese in industry and enterprise, bring many annually from China into the capital and the surrounding country. Besides this class of foreigners, there are settlers from Cambodia, Malacca, Burmah, and other countries. 4 Missions in Siam, The climate is considered a healthy one for certain constitutions. The thermometer ranges from 64 to 97 degrees. The mean annual tempera- ture is 82 degrees. The hottest months are March and April, and the coldest month is January. The two seasons are the wet and the dry. The former extends from May to November. LANGUAGE. The Siamese language is written under the line from left to right, and is monosyllabic. The alphabet has forty-four consonants, with several vowel points. The language has seven tones. Some of the consonants are used with an aspirate, and in others it is withheld. To get a thorough knowledge of these, and be able to manage them correctly, is no easy task. Efficiency in labor will depend largely upon their mastery. The Siamese has been enriched from other tongues. " The language of court and of books is filled with en- tirely different terms. The common word for foot would be insulting applied to royalty." The words suited to the latter are taken from other languages. By the power of custom rather than of law, education is limited to boys ; and what is given by the priests, who are the educators of the young, is of a restricted kind. The schools are generally held in the temples or monasteries. On account of the inferior position held by women, few of them can read. Public sentiment has been against it. Custom, in this as in other things, has greater force than legislative enactments, and this stands as a barrier to the people considering the claims of a new religion, or recognizing a change of belief as possible. BUDDHISM. This is the religion of Siam. In China, India, and other Asiatic countries there are different religious beliefs in some degree in sympathy with each other, or in antagonism ; but no such creeds distract the Siamese. They are firm believers in Buddha and the system which bears his name. The late king aimed at some reform, especially in the tenets which came in conflict with modern science ; but the mass of the nation adhere to the faith that has come down from the past with all its traditionary sweep and power. It is not neces- sary to go into an analysis of this widespread religion, and which holds in sub- jection more than one-third of the race. It is a cold and heartless system, full of negations ; recognizing no all-wise and intelligent Creator ; calling forth no true devotion or affectionate interest on the part of its worshipers ; creating no bond of union in its influence upon the hearts of its devotees, as it dispenses with everything like collective or social worship. It has no place for an atoning sacrifice for sin, or a divine Mediator, but has much for merit, or for a self-righteousness that is pleasing to fallen nature ; and for the best develop- ment of this conscious, self-assumed power, and to bring man into active sym- pathy with his faith, it makes the construction of an idol and the erection of a temple as of paramount importance, and akin to this is the doctrine of feeding the priests. These acts are greatly meritorious. Another source of merit is Missions in Siam. 5 entering the priesthood. It is the ambition of the mother to have her sons in the priestly office, that they may make merit, not only for themselves, but for their parents. In Bangkok alone there are over ten thousand priests who are dependent upon the people for their daily food. It will be seen from this description that Buddhism must have a strong grasp on the individual and national life, and that any system that runs counter to their pride and self- righteousness and that destroys their hopes of future bliss, can get at first but a feeble hold of the moral nature of man. Nowhere are the living force and the deadening influence of Buddhism more felt than in Siam. MORALS OF THE PEOPLE. Buddhism inculcates some noble sentiments, and appeals at times to man's truest wants, but as a religion adapted to fallen humanity and its spiritual necessities, or suited to transform, to elevate, and to save, it has no power. It feeds the worst feelings of man's nature — pride, selfishness, and hypocrisy ; it does nothing to uproot evil in the heart, or to implant a new mainspring of action, and it links all religious thought and effort with idolatry, so that the unity of God is not recognized, His paternal character is never seen, and a ray of His divine love and unspotted holiness is never enjoyed. With such a system the moral tone must be low, and where the rights of men are largely ignored by government and law, vice must be prevalent, and social and moral evils abound. This is true of Siam. Says Mr. McDonald, of Bangkok, "The description which Paul gives of the heathen of old in the first chapter of Romans, is a complete description of the heathen of to-day. There is a rottenness about everything. Buddhism is eminently the offspring of Satan, as all its bearings and workings upon the heart and morals will abundantly show." This people need the Gospel, and whilst they recognize its superior- ity and claims, they are so wedded to their own, and so held fast by it in all their civil and social relations, in all their modes of thought, and in all their desires, that they deem it too severe for this life, and as one they can embrace in the next. OTHER OBSTACLES. Looking at the principles of the Gospel of Christ ; the beauty of its teach- ings ; their suitableness to man's fallen condition and to his noblest aspira- tions ; and to their quickening and rectifying power, we would say that when it is presented in its fullness and richness, the people would at once see its excellence, and embrace it. But this is far from being true. Everything is against its reception. The perversity of the heart, the darkness of the understanding, and the deadness of the conscience repel, rather than favor, its claims. Its exclusiveness tolerating no other system ; its condemnation of their practices as wrong; its sweeping away their most cherished ideas of right, and treating them as absurd and evil, tend to foster a resistance, rather than a compliance with its demands. Then their whole system is interwoven with the government of the country, and no civil office can be held by any one 6 Missions in Siam, who has not been in the priesthood ; it is interlinked with all social usages that exercise a controlling influence over life, and it anathematizes all who desert it as guilty of the greatest imaginable sin. Then the majority of the common people occupy a servile position, owing service a part of their time to their superiors, which gives them power over their persons and relations, and keeps them from embracing any faith that would interfere with these duties. These and other obstacles stand in the way of evangelistic labor, and neutral- ize much of the effort that is put forth for making the people acquainted with the doctrines of Christ. EARLIER MISSIONARY EFFORT. The Siamese first heard of Christianity through the Romish Church and not through Protestant effort. The Romish missionaries appeared about the mid- dle of the sixteenth century, but they have done little for the spiritual elevation of the people, and their influence has been slight. The first Protestant evan- gelists were Messrs. Gutzlaff and Tomlin, who landed August 23, 1828, at Bangkok, and received permission to labor among the Chinese. The Jesuits sought their expulsion, but were thwarted. Their visit was a short one, and but little was accomplished. In 1833 the Baptists (American) began mission work at Bangkok for both Siamese and Chinese, and for years this double work was continued ; the latter being more successful, gradually assumed the pre-eminence, and in time the other was abandoned, so that now the mission is wholly for the Chinese. The American Board entered the field in 1834, and after some years of toil they transferred their work to the American Missionary Association, and this organization has also given up the field. OUR MISSION. In 1838 the Rev. W. Orr visited Siam with special reference to the Chinese. The authorities received him kindly. After communicating with the Board, it was agreed that a station for the Chinese should be established at Bangkok, and in 1840 Rev. W. P. Buell and wife sailed for that city. They were fol- lowed by James C. Hepburn, M.D., and his wife, but they were detained at Singapore on their way thither, and from this point they were transferred to China. Rev. Richard Q. Way was sent to reinforce this mission in 1843, but when Mrs. Buell was stricken with paralysis, and her husband was obliged to return that year to the United States, Mr. Way joined the Ningpo Mission, and thus the first effort to gain a foothold in Siam failed. The mission was only suspended, and not abandoned. Its character was, however, changed ; China was open, and all labor for the Chinese could be expended in their own country. In March, 1847, Rev. Stephen Mattoon and his wife, and Samuel R. House, M.I)., a licentiate preacher, arrived at Bangkok, and commenced labor among the Siamese, and this may be re- garded as the beginning of that work, which has been maintained ever since. Missions in Siam, 7 It may be divided into two periods : the preparatory and the reaping. Yea, strictly speaking, all that has been accomplished and more that is yet to be done, must belong to that work that is to precede the harvest. This waiting time is ever the era of faith and hope ; the gathering period is that of sight. The first labor of the missionary in all foreign lands is the acquisition of the language, and the extent of this labor will depend, in some measure, upon his facility to acquire it, upon the nature of the language itself, and the appliances at his command. In some of our mission-fields an alphabet has had to be formed, grammar and dictionary made, before the Word of God could be trans- lated. If this were not the case in Siam, the missionaries found a people pos- sessed of but little literature, and much to be done in providing them with that which would elevate character and purify thought. Dr. House as a physician had soon much to do in attending to the sick. In the first eighteen months he prescribed for 3,117 patients. Soon after this the cholera broke out with fearful violence, and in a month over 30,000 of the people were swept away. Preaching in the chapel and on the highway, in the city and in villages was carried on by Mr. Mattoon, and the press was used for the issuing of a series of Scripture histories. There was for some time great difficulty in establishing schools, but a beginning was at last made, and four boys and two girls were found who were willing to be taught. Whilst the mission-work was moving"* forward with no serious obstacles in the way, it suddenly reached a crisis which threatened its very existence. The king had outwardly been friendly, but he became in time jealous of foreigners, and having absolute sway in his own dominions, his wish was law ; so that when the missionaries, who had been living in the houses belonging to the American Board, and which had been transferred to the American Missionary Association, and were needed for their own laborers, wished to find other quarters, they discovered that they were neither able to rent nor to purchase. The thought of abandoning the field, though painful, was cherished. Whilst debating the question the native teachers were arrested and thrown into prison ; the servants fled, and the people were unwilling to have any connec- tion with the foreigners. This added to their perplexity. Light was not seen from any quarter. Looking to God for deliverance, and resting in Him, they were surprised to hear one day that the king was attacked with an alarming disease, which soon proved fatal. His successor pursued a different policy. He was from the outset a friend of the missionaries, and showed them many marks of attention. They were invited to the palace, and whilst enjoying the royal favor, the missionaries wrote : " The princes and nobles now courted our society ; our teachers and servants returned to their places ; throngs came to our houses to receive books, to talk with us respecting their contents, and we were permitted to go where we chose, and to speak in the name of Jesus with the confidence that we should not be avoided, but obtain a respectful hearing." An eligible site for the requisite buildings was soon obtained, and the mission was established on a firm basis; and in the year 1852 they were 8 Missions in Si am. permitted to write: "We are not, as in former years, without any certain dwelling-place, but are established at last in a station and home of our own, and relieved from cares and distractions so unavoidable during preceding years." From that period to the present they have enjoyed the favor and protection of the king, and the way in which they are regarded is seen by the following statement, prepared by the authorities and having the sanction of the king : " Many years ago, when there were no white men in Siam, the American missionaries came here. They came before any other Europeans, and they taught the Siamese to speak and read the' English language. The American missionaries have always been just and upright men. They have never med- dled in the affairs of Government, nor created any difficulty with the Siamese. They have lived with the Siamese just as if they belonged to the nation. The Government of Siam has great love and respect for them, and has no fears whatever concerning them. When there has been a difficulty of any kind, the missionaries have many times rendered valuable assistance. For this reason the Siamese have loved and respected them for a long time. The Americans have also taught the Siamese many things." STATIONS. Bangkok is situated on the river -Meinam — "Mother of Waters" — about forty miles from its mouth. Where it empties into the sea it is very broad, but it narrows in its ascent, and is about half a mile wide at Bangkok. An extensive sand bar at the entrance of the river prevents large vessels from passing up. Those of any size that do ascend have first to be lightened by a partial discharge of their cargoes. After crossing the bar the river becomes crooked and deep. Its banks are lined with mangroves, palms, and other fruit-trees. As the city is approached, rice, sugar, and betel plantations and fruit-orchards appear, while the river itself is alive with boats. Bangkok is built on both sides of the river, and is said to have a population of about 400,000. A portion of the people live in floating houses, which are kept in place by large poles on each side driven into the muddy bottom. This city became the residence of the Siamese rulers in 1767. The name means "the City of Kings." It is the center of influence, and is to the nation what Paris is to France. Whatever is tolerated or recognized here is favored all over the land. The palaces and temples which abound here are built of stone and brick. Most of the buildings are of wood. This city was the first station occupied by our missionaries. In 1849 their number was increased by the arrival of Rev. Stephen Bush and his wife. The latter died in 185 1, and the former was obliged to return in 1853. In August, 1849, a church was organized, and a native Chinaman was received on certifi- cate as a member of the church. Just ten years afterward .the first Siamese convert openly abandoned the religion of his fathers, and made a public pro- fession of his faith in Christ. " Twelve long weary years of hope deferred " Missions in Siam. g came to an end, and with joy and desire for greater things, they received this new convert into the Church of God. Two more were received in 1861. It was some years after this before the missionaries were permitted to welcome to the Lord's table a single Siamese female. The first school that could be opened for the education of youth was in 1852, when a boys' school was established. It has been partly a boarding and partly a day-school. With it have been connected nearly 200 youth, some of whom have been led to a saving knowledge of Christ, and to an abandonment of Buddhism. From it have come both teachers and preachers. It is attended at the present time by $$ pupils. No boarding-school for girls was attempted till about four years ago, when mission premises were obtained more in the heart of the city, and nearer to the people. It was first under the care of Mrs. House and Miss Anderson, and it was growing steadily in favor with the people when they were obliged to leave Siam. It is now under the control of Mrs. Van Dyke and Miss Grimstead, and is somewhat reduced in numbers. As the teachers gain the confidence of the people the attendance will increase. Two of the older girls have recently been baptized. The translation of the Scriptures has occupied the attention of the mission- aries from the beginning. The whole Bible will soon be completed. Most of it is in the hands of the people. The printing of the different books has been done at the expense of the American Bible Society. A number of im- portant religious books have been issued, and scattered among the people. There is a growing demand for not only a religious literature, but for proper educational and scientific works. This station was reinforced by the arrival of Rev. Andrew B. Morse and his wife, in July, 1856. Their stay was short, owing to the failure of health of Mr. Morse. Their places were supplied by the arrival, in 1858, of Rev. D. McGilvary and Rev. Jonathan Wilson and his wife. They were followed by Rev. N. A. McDonald and S. G. McFarland, and their wives, in i860; by Rev. S. C. George and his wife, who reached Bangkok February 6, 1862. Mr. John F. Odell, then in Siam on business, united with the mission in 1863. His health was delicate, and on the following year he died, greatly regretted by his brethren. Rev. P. L. Carden and his wife joined this mission in 1866 ; Rev. John Carrington and his wife in 1869 ; Rev. J. N. Culbertson and Rev. Richard Arthur and his wife in 1872 ; Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap and wife in 1875 ; Miss Arabella Anderson in 1872, and Miss Susie D. Grimstead in Petchaburi. — This station lies eighty miles W. S. W. from Bangkok, on a river of the same name, and about twelve miles from its mouth. It is a pleas- ant and healthy town, with a population bordering on 20,000. It was first visited by Rev. Mr. Buell in 1843, wnen tne Governor treated him and his companion with indignity. The books and tracts they distributed were either returned by the people, or were seized and destroyed ; and several that received them were arrested, and would have been whipped bv the Governor of the io Missions in Siam. Province, had not a Buddhist head priest (the Prince, who was afterward king) been present at the time, and interceded for their release. In 1861, at the urgent request of the acting governor, Petchaburi was selected as a station, and his friendly aid rendered then and afterward did much to make the missionaries comfortable. Rev. Messrs. McGilvary and McFarland were trans- ferred from Bangkok to this place in June, 1861, and they were able with the knowledge of the language to begin evangelistic work at once. Preaching, teaching, and translating occupied their time. A church was organized in 1863. The long, weary waiting at Bangkok had not to be endured here. Three hopeful converts were baptized in 1863, and others seemed interested. An encouraging addition of four persons was made to the church in 1867. Others have been added, but the largest accessions are those that have been received within the last few months. Since October last 20 have been bap- tized, and among them a number of women. Of these, several were from the Industrial School. The present number of communicants is 44. This exceeds the aggregate in the whole mission in 1875, and is double the number that was received up to 1875 at Petchaburi. The schools have been a source of power at this station. In 1865 the first attempt to open a school for girls was tried. The proposal to teach them to read was met with ridicule. The thing seemed too preposterous. One only could be induced to come ; but as the school had been established it was kept up until it grew into favor, and now more are desirous of enjoying its benefits than can be accommodated. Work among the women at their homes has also been tried with encouraging success, and a class of native women is ready to act as Bible-readers and visitors. There are three outstations under the care of the missionary. At one are six members of the church, and others expect soon to make a public profession of their faith. Teachers and preachers are needed at all of the outstations. Early in 1869 Rev. James W. Van Dyke and his wife joined this station; Miss E. S. Dickey arrived in 1872 ; Miss Sarah Coffman in 1873 ■> an^ Miss Mary L. Cort in 1874. Ayuthia. — This city is situated on the river Meinam, some seventy miles by river from Bangkok. It was for centuries the capital of the country, and continued so till 1767, when it was transferred to Bangkok. Its population has dwindled. It is, however, regarded as an important center for evangelistic operations. Mr. Carrington moved thither in 1872, and remained here till his return home in 1875. Four persons were in 1874 baptized at a place a few miles from the city, and two in Ayuthia. Owing to the fewness of laborers in the mission this station has been temporarily abandoned. The mission-work was never so prosperous as at the present time. The friendly feeling of the rulers toward the missionaries, and their anxiety to be on good terms with the Government at Washington ; the great changes going on in the country ; the awakening of the faculties of the people and their desire of education, are all evidences of progress. Siam made great advances Missions in Siam. n under the late king. Commerce was enlarged, and many improvements introduced that will benefit the people. The present king, next to the Mikado of Japan, is the most progressive sovereign in Asia. He has not only intro- duced many remarkable reforms, but has adopted many usages of Western civilization. Among the imports of the country are kerosene oil, hats, and shoes. A few years ago the whole nation, including princes and nobles, were hatless and shoeless. The exports for 1876 amounted to $8,315,683, and the imports to $7,070,053. The export of rice alone amounted to $5,767,326. LAOS MISSION. The Laos people who inhabit the country north of Siam are tributary to the Siamese Government. Occupying an inland position, and shut in from neigh- boring countries by almost impassable mountains, they were regarded with great interest by those who came in contact with them, as a people more accessible, and less influenced by priestly authority and Buddhist teachings than the Siamese. The missionaries, anxious to extend the kingdom of Christ and to preach to the people in a new tongue, had been desirous of establishing a station at Chieng-mai, the capital. Receiving the sanction of the Board, and having also obtained permission from the king and from the Siamese Government, Messrs. McGilvary and Wilson were selected for this work. The former, with his family, left Bangkok in the early part of 1867, undertaking the journey by boats. Though the distance is only about five hundred miles by land, yet as there are no roads, and part of the way is through jungle and over mountains, it is easier to go by water, but the trip is very tedious, as it consumed nearly three months. The river has thirty- two rapids in it ; in coming to these the goods had to be taken from the boats and carried around, and the boats drawn up with ropes. On their arrival they were kindly re- ceived by the princes and people. The king manifested pleasure at their coming, and sought in various ways to show his appreciation of them. Mr. Wilson and family reached Chieng-mai in 1868, and their hearts were soon saddened by the death of their son. In the midst of their sorrows the laborers were cheered by witnessing the first fruits of their labors and sufferings. In less than two years from the time of their arrival the first convert to the faith was baptized. He had much to contend with in coming out from his people and abjuring Buddhism, of which he had been a priest; but he rose above all, and went forward in the path of duty. Every one, especially in the lower walks of life, must have a superior to look to for protection, on whom he is dependent and to whom he owes a certain kind of allegiance. When called upon to work by his master on the Lord's day, Nan Inta after his baptism refused, and he was enabled to gain his point. Others became interested in the truth, and soon two men were baptized ; others were received, and the number of 'disciples increased to seven, with cheering prospects of others coming forward for baptism. In the midst of their brightening hopes the missionaries were surprised to hear that their success had alarmed the authori- 12 Missions in Siam. ties. On September 15, 1869, all the natives who were in their employ left in alarm. They were then informed that orders of arrest of two native Chris- tians in a neighboring village had been given, but they could learn nothing sat- isfactorily from the princes. " It was not till Sabbath the 26th, just two weeks after the deed, that we learned the true fate of our brethren. They had been seized at their homes, on Sabbath the 12th, the day their families had reported them as coming in to us. The fatal yoke was placed round their necks. They were tied up with a cord, through the hole in their ears that all the natives here have, and passed over the beam of the house of the principal man of the village, and their hands tied very tightly behind their backs, in which painful position they passed the night. Next morning they were each asked to pray, after getting first the names of all who have become Christians. They knelt down and prayed*, commending their souls, as did the dying Stephen, to Jesus. During the prayer, it is said that one of the head-men who were engaged in the deed, turned round and wept. They then said, as to themselves and all the Christians, they were willing to die, but begged that those who had been servants of ours, and were not Christians, might not be molested. They were then cruelly beaten to death with clubs ! They died like martyrs, and, we hrave no doubt, have inherited the martyr's reward and the martyr's crown. The doctor is the one who was mentioned in a former letter, that had never rejected the Gospel offer. He promised me, the first time he called, never to worship another idol. He commenced family worship the day after his baptism in May, and never omitted it till the day of his death, and, what is unusual for a native Christian, even not only kept the Sabbath himself, but allowed none of his family to work on that day. Nan Chai, who was Bro. Wilson's teacher, had given up a position, as teacher of the natives, which exempted him from Gov- ernment work, when he became a Christian, and was enrolled as all others on the list. Their race was a short one. But they witnessed a good confession before many witnesses. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. We have had one anxious inquirer from the immediate village where these men lived, more anxious than ever to learn the truths of our religion." This sudden attack upon the little church, abetted by the king, was a great blow to the mission. For a time it was doubtful whether the work could be continued, but God interposed as He had done in Siam, by removing the king. His successor has in no way interfered with missionary labor. The fear created by this unexpected persecution had great power for a period upon the native mind. They kept away from religious influences ; this is now disappearing, and several are inquiring. A number have also been bap- tized. During last year to October, five women were baptized. Among these is the wife of the first convert, who has remained firm ; another is the widow of one of the converts, and two are her daughters. Since that, 'we learn from a letter just received, that five more had been baptized — four men, and one the daughter of the first convert, Nan Inta ; of the men, one had taken the Missions in Siam. 13 full degree, and two a partial course in the Buddhist priesthood. The attend- ance upon religious services continues good ; several who were not church members come regularly to them from the neighboring villages. Mr. McGilvary writes : " The king is now friendly to us, individually, as he always has been, with no more opposition to the Gospel than the natural heart usually offers. His wife, who may well be styled the queen — and we are proud to add that he has but one — who is the leading spirit, and a woman to be respected, freely confesses that there is no evading the arguments for Christi- anity, except by putting the question on other grounds than truth. She has been a patient of Dr. Cheek's, and is now under some personal obligation to the missionaries. Others of the princes freely confess that Christianity is true, and that Buddha can not last long. A brother of the king told him the other day not to be discouraged, that they had to hold on to the form a little longer — the shell — but that the life was all gone, and then Christianity will prevail. "A hospital, a temporary chapel, and a Sabbath-school have thus been all opened with encouragement during the year, with ten accessions to the church by baptism. A prince of high rank, by far the most intelligent man in the country, has been studying the subject in its geographical and astronomical relations. He has never before been willing to confess his disbelief in Mount Meru, on which, as on Mount Atlas, Jupiter's abode of old was placed, rests the Buddhist's heaven. He has been looking at the stars and moon through a small sea-glass of mine, and has finally given it up. Buddh or his disciples must be wrong." To the women of our church Mr. McGilvary makes the following appeal : " Will not our praying-band of sisters remember the queen and the Laos women, so far ahead of most all other heathen races, already in that position which the Gospel gives to woman ? What an influence the queen would have if only led herself to Christ." C. W. Vrooman, M.D., joined this mission in 1871. Whilst connected with it he did good service in his profession. M. A. Cheek, M.D., sailed in 1874 for Chieng-mai. His influence is already felt, as some of the recent converts have been brought by it to a knowledge of the truth. There is now an opening for work among the women and for schools, and laborers are needed for the same. The press is an important factor in mission labor. As yet the Laos alphabet is not completed. The missionaries are engaged in the translation of the New Testament into the Laos language, and it is hoped that some portions will be soon in the hands of the people. '•v 0 , SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN SIAM. BY REV. N. A. MC DONALD. In comparison with such vast mission fields as China and India and some others, the little kingdom of Siam, to most people, will appear insignificant. Even Japan almost quadruples Siam in population. Yet to those whose lot it has been to give the Gospel to Siam, there are few more interesting fields, and but few at present more encouraging. Isolated as it is, and distant from the regular route of tourists around the world, but few think of visiting it. Occa- sionally a stray naturalist or collector of curiosities makes his way thither, but even these are far between. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that we see so little concerning it in the public prints of the day, and even the few items which do find their way into print are oftentimes exaggerated, distorted, and unreliable. The Siamese are rather a conservative people, occupying in that respect perhaps a middle ground between the Chinese and Japanese. They are not unwilling to learn what they can from Western nations, and to adopt to some extent their civilization; still they receive with caution. In their adopting from other nations, and in their public improvements, they are careful not to go beyond their means, and, to their credit be it said, have thus far avoided involving their nation in debt. Up to the death of Pra Nang Klow in 185 1, and the accession of Pra Chaum Klow to the throne, the nation had decided upon an exclusive policy, refusing in a great measure to make treaties with Western nations. The death of Pra Nang Klow appeared to be providential and timely — just in time to prevent the country from being opened up by British gunpowder. Providence, in the meantime, was preparing another for the throne. During the usurped reign of his only brother, Pra Chaum Klow retired to a monastery. Whilst there he came in contact with the American missionaries. From them he acquired a knowledge of the English language and some of the sciences, especially astronomy. This led him to undertake to reform Buddhism, to discard from their sacred books, as unworthy of belief, all those portions relating to the structure of the universe. He also learned much concerning Western nations, so that when eventually brought to the throne he was ready to open up the country by treaties. Missionaries, therefore, take to themselves the credit of having opened up Siam to commerce. In proof of this, they have the testi- mony of the ex-regent, who, in conversation with an American visiting Siam, and in the presence of the writer, remarked that " Siam had not, like China, been opened up by British gunpowder, but by missionary effort." 2 Signs of Progress in Si am. There was but little marked progress, however, during the reign of Pra Chaum Klow. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, faithful to his friends, but in many respects tyrannical, moody, and passionate. In one of his fits of passion he whipped so severely a writer in the employ of the English consulate, for some petty offense, that he died from the effects. That created a difficulty between him and the consul. After his passion had passed off he was heartily sorry for what he had done. He then thought of his old friends the missionaries, and asked them to act as mediators between him and the consul, so that the difficulty was eventually smoothed over. It is to this that the Minister of Foreign Affairs probably refers in his recent letter to Rear-Ad- miral Reynolds, when he says, " When difficulties have arisen, the missionaries have rendered valuable services." His love of learning clung to him during life. He loved to be called learned. He employed some of the missionary ladies to teach the women of his harem, and eventually employed an English governess for that purpose. The first noticeable advance was in the matter of clothing. The climate is such that but little clothing is actually needed for comfort, and, except the waist-cloth reaching from the loins to the knees, but little was used even by princes and nobles. Pra Nang Klow would give audiences to Europeans, and ride out in state clad in the simple waist-cloth, the rest of his obese body being perfectly nude. A neat tight-fitting jacket was afterward adopted by all classes, covering the upper part of the body down to the waist-cloth. Steam was also introduced, and very soon the great river was navigated by numerous steamers, both for pleasure and mercantile purposes. The opening up of the country also brought into the market numerous articles of foreign manufac- ture, intended to administer both to the comfort and luxury of the people. His love of science never forsook Pra Chaum Klow, so that in 1868, the time of the total eclipse of the sun, the central line of which crossed the Gulf of Siam, and the French proposed to send a commission of observation there, he went into it with all his heart. He spared no expense in putting up buildings down the coast for the accommodation of the commissioners, and fed them upon every available luxury. He was there himself with all the royal family, but whilst there he contracted a fever which terminated his life. The accession of the present king to the throne marked a new era in the progress of the nation. The first five years of his reign was under a regent, but the boy was not idle. A visit to the Dutch colony in Java, and eventually one to British India, inspired him with new ideas, so that when he attained his majority he was full of ideas of progress. Still he found himself held to some extent in restraint. Formerly Siam was an absolute monarchy, but the lead- ing nobility thought the time had come to place some little restraint upon the absolute power of the sovereign. This, however, was done so delicately and quietly, that but little objection could be taken to it, even by him whose power had been thus curtailed. The first step toward reform which the young king had in contemplation was the abolition of slavery, In this, however, he met Stg/is of Progress in Siam. 3 with decided opposition. The next best thing to be done was to ameliorate the conditions of slavery, which has been done so that one born in slavery can, by thejtime he is twenty-one years old, be a freeman. He next adopted a new form of dress. The old waist-cloth is retained, but long stockings and European shoes cover the lower extremities, whilst the upper part of the body is habited in a regular European dress, including the latest fashions. At all public entertainments, the princes and nobles come out in dress-coats, white neckties, and white kids. This dress, though some- what hybrid in its form, is neat, and sits well upon the younger portion of the community ; but some of the older princes and nobles appear to be ill at ease in it. The next step was to abolish the crouching system. Formerly, the only way of approach to- a superior, from the king down, was upon "all fours." The whole court prostrated, and, crawling in this manner in the presence of their sovereign, presented rather a ridiculous appearance. After the king's return from India this custom was promptly abolished, so that the Siamese can now walk uprightly, like other men, even in the presence of their king ; and some of them can make a bow which any Frenchman might envy. These changes, together with the introduction of a new style of architecture in their public buildings, for which a European architect is employed, the establish- ing of the new mint, the contemplation of telegraphic communication with the outside world, the opening up of their gold mines, and the importation of European machinery and engineers for the purpose, and the display of im- proved taste in ornamenting of pleasure-grounds and parks, are the chief indi- cations of progress so far displayed. The change in the religious sentiment of the people is no less marked than the political changes which have taken place. When the missionaries first ar- rived in Siam, a nobleman high in rank playfully remarked to one of them, " Do you with your little chisel expect to remove this great mountain ? " referring, of course, to Buddhism. Amongst the earlier missionaries was the Rev. D. B. Bradley, M.D., a man of strong faith, wonderful energy, and indomitable will. He labored faithfully for over thirty years, and saw but little fruits of his labor so far as converts were concerned. Upon the day of his death, an- other nobleman remarked, " Dr. Bradley is gone, but he has undermined Buddhism in Siam." Whilst there have been no marked accessions to Chris- tianity, still the religious sentiment of the country has undergone a marked change. In this respect, as well as politically, it is in a transition state. There is a breaking away, to a great extent, from their ancient customs. " It is Siamese custom," was formerly sufficient reason for doing anything, how absurd soever it might be, but now we seldom hear that argument advanced. The late king granted free toleration to any of his subjects who might embrace Christianity, acknowledging at the same time, that he could control the il bodies, but not the hearts " of his people. The present king has granted the privilege of administering the Christian oath to converts to Christianity, who may be called upon to give testimony in their courts of justice. Many of the younger 4 Signs of Progress in Si am. princes and nobles appear to have lost confidence, to a great extent, in Buddhism, and do not look upon it with the same reverence as their fathers. Men now remain but a short time in the priesthood, and as a consequence it is very difficult to find a young man sufficiently versed in his own language to be a teacher, or one who knows anything at all about the sacred language. Ihis is a matter of regret. Such was not the case when men remained ten and twelve years in the priesthood. Native scholarship is lowering its stand- ard. There is also a spirit of inquiry amongst all classes on the matter of religion, and an increased demand for Christian books, and especially for com- plete copies of the Scriptuies and works on the evidences of Christianity. The higher classes are also beginning to appreciate the educational enterprise introduced by missionaries. It is perhaps the only non-Christian country whose king and chief nobles have been willing to contribute toward education in connection with Christian missions. The girls of one of our mission-schools made a nice quilt, and, through their teacher, presented it to the king on his birthday. He received it graciously, and in reply enumerated many things which the missionaries had done for the country, and now, said he, they are " teaching the women." He also intimated that if any assistance was needed to call upon him. A short time afterward an opportunity was given him to fulfill his promise, and he promptly contributed $1,000 for the purpose of erecting a building for a girls' school, which some of his chief ministers raised to $2,300. The first twenty years of missionary labor there was almost a blank, looking at it from a human stand-point. Eighteen years ago there was but one native Christian in connection with the mission church of our mission. He was a man who oftentimes manifested remarkable faith, still he was an Oriental, and traces of the old nature still remained, which led him him frequently to do things which could not be commended. The last service performed by the writer before leaving the country, was to attend the funeral of that man. He died in the faith, and on visiting him the evening before his death, he remarked to the writer : " I suppose I must go first, but I will be waiting near the door to welcome the rest of you when you come.'' For many years one convert a year was a matter of rejoicing, but during the last ecclesiastical year fifty-one were received into the different churches within the bounds of the Presbytery of Siam. Another encouraging feature is the fact that the native Christians are willing to work, and contribute liberally, according to their means, for the spread of the Gospel amongst their countrymen. Some of the members of the church at Bangkok are contributing nearly one-tenth of their monthly income for the purpose of supporting a native preacher at the old city of Ayuthia. And although there has been no very special religious interest, no very copious outpouring of the Spirit, still the Spirit has been present, and the Gospel is surely making its way into the hearts of the people, and we trust will continue to do so until the M great mountain " of Buddhism be removed, and Siam be a Christian nation. the PRESBYTERIAN BOARD IN MEXICO. The two structures here represented are from photographs of the Roman Catholic and Protest- ant churches at Cos, Mexico. The one is surrounded with graves ; the other, with living people. Perhaps nothing can better indicate the contrast between the old order of things and that which, we trust, is now to be realized — between Mexico of the past, and Mexico of the future : between a dead Papacy and a living Protestantism. The Roman Catholic church here shown is a fair, specimen of those found in the small villages of Mexico. The little Protestant chapel is solidly built of stone, with buttresses of the same. The front is simple and in good taste ; the interior well lighted and entirely plain. Benches are used for seats, and a platform slightly elevated at one end, with a table on it, serves as a pulpit. The Sabbath services are usually opened with a short prayer, a chapter of the Bible read, a hymn sung, and an address made by some member of the congregation ; another hymn and a final prayer. 21 The Presbyterian Board of Missions IN MEXICO. The great interest attaching to Mexico as a Mission field leads the Board to desire a general diffusion of knowledge respecting it, in order that the whole Church may join in the work there providentially opened. Whoever will first read, and then communicate, the facts here presented, will confer a benefit upon the cause. The earnest missionaries, who are at work in Mexico in the face of bitter persecution, are worthy of hearty support. HOW THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD WAS LED TO ENGAGE IN MISSION WORK IN MEXICO. For more than twenty years it had been the policy of one branch of the Presbyterian Church to do its work in Papal countries through its own Mission Board, and the General Assembly of 1851 pointed out the import- ance of missionary effort in Mexico and Central America. With the reunion came the question whether this should be the policy of the united Church, or whether it should follow the example of the late New School branch by working through an outside voluntary organization, in- volving a heavy expense for collecting agencies. It was plain that both methods could not long be pursued together. The solution of this question was precipitated in the Spring of 187 1, by the withdrawal of the Congregational churches from the American and Foreign Christian Union. It was now felt by all other denominations sup- porting that Union, that the time was near when they would be compelled to do missionary work in Papal lands through their own Boards ; and, accordingly, the General Assembly, which met about that time in Chicago, reiterated the recommendation that the Board turn its attention to the Papal countries of our own continent. To this action the Board responded by a circular issued in the following Autumn, declaring its intention to enter Mexico and the other countries named, as soon as means and men 4 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. could be found. In that circular the Board distinctly denned its intended policy with respect to the occupation of the Mexican capital, in the follow- ing words : That it is the purpose of the Board to respect the preoccupation of missionary fields by other evangelical organizations, according to the principles unanimously adopted by the Union Missionar)' Convention held in New York in May, 1854, by which, with the exception of great centres, such as the capitals of powerful kingdoms, any field which is efficiently worked is to be left in undisturbed possession. Some months later, the Board was requested by friends of the mission at Cos to assume its support, and this was done with consent of the American and Foreign Christian Union, which had undertaken it eight months before. Late in the year 1872, four missionaries, with their wives and one unmar- ried lady, were sent to Mexico for the occupation of Cos and San Luis Potosi, but without a decision as to the question of occupying the capital. On their arrival in the country, they found that a division had occurred m the Mexican Church on the subject of prelatism — a strong party having protested against the appointment of the late Father Aguas as Bishop. It was maintained by this party that the so-called " Church of Jesus " was purely an Episcopal Church ; and this view has been recently confirmed by an article from the Rev. Dr. J. C. Riley, published in the Register, an organ of the Episcopal Church. These events proved fatal to the united effort of the various denominations under such auspices. The anti-prelatists solicited the aid of the Presbyterian Board, as they had already affiliated with the Presbyterian Mission of Cos, and eight or ten other country congregations sympathizing with their views ; and it was, therefore, decided that Messrs. Phillips and Hutchinson should remain in the capital. The Methodist churches, North and South, immediately com- menced operations in the capital and elsewhere. The Episcopal Board, to which the work and Church property of the " Church of Jesus " is now fully assigned, has commenced vigorous operations, while the American Board has established a mission at Guadalajara, and assumed the work of Miss Rankin at Monterey. Between the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational missionaries, an evangelical union has been formed, for the promotion of harmonious and efficient cooperation in the great common cause. It is needless to add that the work thus undertaken by a strong force of men, backed by several vigorous and permanent Boards, has en- tered upon a careeer of solid and extensive conquest never known before. The Mexican movement now consists, not of a number of congregations having no distinction between attendants and church members, and without schools or a religious press, but of a thorough organization in all the various lines of evangelical work. If any doubt whether it be wise to enter Mex- ico thus strongly as denominations, it may be said that all together, with such funds and such force as they can command, are not equal to the de- mands of the work ; and their missionaries are probably outnumbered five Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. 5 to one, by the Jesuits, open or disguised, whom the Papacy is importing from other lands. The proportions and encouragement of the work in that sister Republic are such as to call forth the prayers and contributions, and thoroughly organized aid, of all Christian denominations in this country. THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED THUS FAR. The oldest and largest of the congregations connected with the Board is located at Cos, in the State of Zacatecas, 60 miles north-east of the State capital of that name. This is a mining town, of 4,000 inhabitants. The congregation, which owes very much in every way, to Dr. Prevost of Phila- delphia, formerly a resident in the place, numbers about 300, is thoroughly organized with a membership of from 150 to 170, of whom a hundred and fifty were actually present at a recent communion service. It is under the care of Sr. Amador, a well-tried layman, and has a Sabbath-school of one hundred and thirty pupils. It has a neat chapel, costing $2,000 ; a printing press furnished by friends in Philadelphia, from which is issued a well-con- ducted weekly religious newspaper; a boys' school of sixty pupils, and girls' school of forty-five. Thirty miles east of Cos, and over the State line of San Luis, is Salado, in which a small congregation was spontaneously formed over a year ago. It now numbers fifty persons. Thirty-five miles north of Zacatecas is Fresnillo, in which we have a flourishing congregation, of from eighty to one hundred persons, ministered to by a lay preacher, partly supported by the Board. There is a Sabbath-school of twenty-five members ; seventeen adults and several children were recently baptized. Ten miles from Zaca- tecas, is the small mining town of Tecoletes, where a small congregation meet regularly for worship, and are occasionally ministered to by Mr. Phillips of Zacatecas. At Jerez, twenty-five or thirty miles west of Zacatecas, a very vigorous congregation was established during the summer, but for the present its services are suppressed by the priests and the mob. In June nine adults and two children were baptized. The number of baptisms the last six months in all these out-stations of the Zacatecas field, have been forty-three adults, and twenty children. In Zacatecas, which must be re- garded as the central point, a church was organized on the 14th of Decem- ber, in a rented hall, for $240 per annum. The number present on that occasion were 250. The whole work in the State of Zacatecas, which has been occupied only about a year, may be considered as in a prosperous state, numbering six congregations. San Luis Potosi, the capital of the State of the same name, was occupied for the first time by Rev. H. C. Thompson in November, 1872. He applied himself vigorously to the study of the language and of the field, and with the 6 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. aid of a lay preacher, Sr. Vivero, began at once to form a congregation which has varied at different times under the pressure of bitter persecution, but is now reported as being prosperous and full of promise. Mr. Thompson has gained the confidence of many liberal friends, not only in San Luis, but in the surrounding towns, and believes that small congregations might be organized in four or five villages between that point and Zacatecas. The leading officials of San Luis are of the liberal party, and have thus far given prompt protection to the Protestant congregation. Mrs. Thompson has sustained a girls' school in her own house a part of the year. As to the city of Mexico, its occupation, as a station, at so early a day, was not contemplated until our missionaries, on their arrival in October, 1872, learned that an anti-prelatical party, embracing nine congregations, had been formed in opposition to the appointment of a bishop, with the sanction of Dr. Riley. These non-conformists of the Mexican Church at once sought, of their own accord, the moral and pecuniary support of our Board, which, after a very full hearing of their case, as represented by our missionaries, was, to a limited extent, granted. At that time there were two principal congregations in the city — the one above referred to, and another known as the Church of Jesus — having all the forms and observances of the Episcopal Church. In neither, as far as we can learn, was there any distinc- tion of Church membership. There had been preaching to popular assemblies, sometimes large ones, and the administration of the Sacraments ; but, with the exception of the congregation at Cos, there had been scarcely anything like an organization of the Protestant movement anywhere in the Republic. In many towns and hamlets, there were little voluntary conventicles, under the care of leaders chosen from their own number. So far as they had any form of ecclesiasticism, it was Congregational or Independent. They began at once the education of the native ministry from among the younger laymen. Thirteen were selected, who, in connection with their secular avocations, received theological instruction twice a week, and were em- ployed to preach on Sunday in the adjacent hamlets. Great attention has been given from the first to sacred music as a means of interesting and edifying the people. Mr. Hutchinson has prepared a popular musical publication, embracing eighty-six hymns and seventy-three tunes, thus supplying a great want in that country. This book has been adopted by all the Protestant missionary organizations in Mexico, except the Church of Jesus, and it will render good service in mission work in all countries using the Spanish tongue. Miss E. P. Allen has opened an English and Spanish girls' school for a higher grade of education than is common in Mexico, and especially for the training of teachers. Mr. Hutchinson, among other abundant labors, has carried on an evening school for young men ; number of pupils, twenty-five. Congregations looking to the capital as a centre are, 1st, that of Vera Cruz. Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. 7 This was organized eight months ago by Senor Quesada, formerly a pupil of Mr. Hutchinson, but now a clerk in a banking house. He has preached most of the time without compensation, and his congregation has increased from five to one hundred. They furnished the hall with desks and seats made with their own hands from dry-goods boxes. Another congregation is situated at Tisapan, a manufacturing village, ten miles from the capital. The people purchased a lot for a chapel by giving each one a few cents a week. The congregation numbers about one hun- dred. A little further on, at San Pedro, is an interesting congregation of Mexicans, entirely of Indian blood. They have mostly helped themselves, and are very exemplary. Across the lake, which lies near the city, is another Indian congregation, who have nearly completed, by their own labors, a little adobe chapel. At Contradero, 15 miles west of Mexico, is a garrison with a population of several hundred soldiers, and other citizens, and here a congregation and a school have been established. Still another congregation has been established at Rio Grande, a place for woolen manufactures, 24 miles west of Mexico, the proprietor of the factory giving the rent of the hall. At Morelos, southward from the capital, is a congregation not fully organ- ized, supplied by young men from the city. It is an interesting point, as being the centre of eight little hamlets, more or less influenced by the Protestant movement. Toluca, which is the capital of the State of Mexico (within which the federal district and the national capital are situated), is worthy of being considered as a fourth chief centre. It is a city of 30,000 inhabitants, situ- ated in a rich valley, and surrounded by many flourishing towns. About a year since, Mr. Phillips found at this place an English layman, Mr. James Pascoe, who, while pursuing his secular business, was accustomed to preach to a few of his neighbors on the Sabbath at his own house. Mr. Phillips was so deeply interested in the discourse and in the man, that he encoui- aged him to devote the greater portion of his time to the work in and around Toluca. The results of Mr. Pascoe's labors have certainly been remarkable. His letters show him to be a man of good education and of earnest spirit. The little handful that met in his house have, in eigh\ months, grown to a congregation of perhaps two hundred, with one hun- dred and twenty-five communicants. He has organized a church, with three elders and two deacons. Three months since, the priest, embittered by his successes, posted through the city a placard embellished with skull and bones, calling the people to a wholesale massacre of the Protestants. The outbreak was ex- pected on the occasion of an approaching festival of the Virgin. Mr. Pas- coe sent a private messenger to Mr. Hutchinson, forty-five miles distant, stating the facts. Mr. H., through our minister, Mr. Foster, laid the case before President Lerdo, who, within two hours, sent to Mr. H. a letter for 8 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. the Governor of Toluca, ordering him to suppress the mob and protect the Protestants at all hazards. This case will illustrate the importance of hav- ing our missionary work represented at the capital, and with the promptest means of access to our minister and the Government. The mob was sup- pressed at Toluca, but broke out in an adjoining town. Eighteen miles from Toluca is Capulhuac, which has already become a radiating centre of good to the surrounding hamlets. One member in par- ticular, a full-blooded Indian, is preaching regularly to his own people in an adjacent town. Still another congregation — an outgrowth of persecution — has been formed at Metepec. Briefly its history is this. In July last a Bi- ble-distributor was mobbed by the Catholics. A company of Protestant sympathizers led by Sr. Valero defended him, who was himself mobbed and nearly killed. These persecutions at Metepec, Toluca, and Capulhuac have only strengthened the congregations, and greatly increased the circulation of Bibles and religious books. REPORT ON THE MEXICAN MISSION. At a late meeting of the Board, a Special Committee, consisting of Messrs. E. M. Kingsley, William A. Booth, and William E. Dodge, was appointed to report on the Mexican Mission. It was felt that the result of that review was to deepen the conviction of the Committee and the Board, that no other mission under its care had met with greater success, or proved itself worthier of the support of the whole Church, than that of Mexico. The Report is as follows : The Committee appointed at the last meeting to consider the policy of our work in Mexico, have attended to that duty, and, as embodying their views, the following reso- lutions are submitted to the Board, and recommended for adoption : Resolved, That the Republic of Mexico, with its estimated population of nine mil- lions, until recently inaccessible to Protestant missionaries and the Protestant Bible, but now open and free to both ; intimately related to our own country by geographic contiguity, by political assimilation and growing commercial intercourse, has claims upon the Board second in importance to no other country of the same population on the globe. Resolved, That the entering into Mexico for mission work in 1872 by this Board, finds ample justification in the pressing demands incident to, and inseparable from, the conditions enumerated in the foregoing resolution, in the fact that the Presby- terian Church has been hitherto in virtual occupancy of the field under another form ; and in the repeated deliverances of General Assembly from 1851 onward, especially that of 1871. Resolved, That in entering Mexico this Board and the missionaries have studiously adhered to the terms of the compact with other denominations in convention of 1851, as touching the rights of each in their respective districts, and cannot allow the dis- cussion of minor questions pertaining thereto, to divert or hinder the work they have so deliberately inaugurated, and which has been so signally blessed of God. Resolved, That the mission work in Mexico is heartily commended to the prayers, and the confidence, and the most liberal support of the Presbyterian Church, as a work wherein results already ascertained, and the indications of future enlargement, are full of encouragement. E. M. KINGSLEY, Chairman Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. THE POLICY AND METHODS OF THE BOARD. It is the policy of the Board to encourage simple forms of worship, plain and inexpensive chapels, and in all things that strict economy which is suited to a poor people; to cultivate self-reliance and liberality on the part of the congregations themselves ; to train up a ministry from the young men of the land ; to qualify a corps of native teachers, male and female, for instruction in primary schools, etc. The whole work proceeds upon the principle that what Mexicans need is a Protestant church wholly their own, to be in the near future supported and extended by themselves. This line of effort has thus far proved eminently successful in gaining the confidence of the people, and in stimulating their own exertions. In the present financial embarrassment of the Board, its work has suf- fered from the want of plain and inexpensive structures. A chapel in the capital should at once be provided, which shall be a model and exponent of the Protestant cause in Mexico. For this, at least $10,000 should be provided. In smaller towns, cheap structures, simple, but attractive, are needed. The people everywhere will do something, in their poverty, to promote these objects. Meanwhile, the prayers of all who love the cause of a pure Christianity, should be offered on behalf both of the missionaries and of the truth-loving people who, in the face of persecution, are trying to maintain the standard of the Cross. It is, perhaps, best on the whole, that the Mexican church, in its infancy, is tried as were the Apostolic churches, by the fires of persecution. No less than seven of our little con- gregations have been beset by Catholic mobs, and in some cases deaths have followed. The stoning of worshipping congregations, the purchase and destruction of Bibles and religious books, are common occurrences. GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. The remarkable religious movement now advancing in Mexico dates from the overthrow of Maximilian. The great political reaction has been attended with a corresponding religious awakening. Many of the intelligent classes have felt that the real cause of the country's misfortunes lay in the long- continued tyranny of a grasping and besotted priesthood. The people are resolved to know the truth, and are ready to put their own interpretation upon the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps the chief reason why, after so long a chaos of revolutions, the Republic seems at last to have reached stability, lies in the moral earnestness which springs from this new aspiration for the truth. On the 25th of September, 1873, a decree was issued by the Presi- dent, declaring that, by a law of Congress, the Church and State are sepa- rated, and that Congress is precluded from passing any laws that shall either prohibit or establish any religion ; that marriage is a civil contract ; io Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. that no religious institution shall receive or acquire real estate except as provided in the Constitution, and that no one shall be obliged to work agair.st his will without just recompense for the same. The laws do not recognize monastic orders, nor is able to permit their establishment, etc. The Roman Catholic Church has thus lost control of the nation. The priesthood denounce such laws, and have excommunicated all who voted for them ; but ours is an age in which such weapons are harmless. The great advantage gained by separation of Church and State will appear in strong light, when it is remembered that the old Constitution declared that the Roman Catholic religion was, and ever should be, the religion of the country — that no other whatever should be tolerated. There are some who are not clear that Protestant missionary effort is needed in Mexico. For such the following description is quoted : " The Mexican Church, as a Church," says Lempriere, " fills no mission of virtue, no mission of morality, no mission of mercy, no mission of charity. Virtue cannot exist in its pestiferous atmosphere. The code of morality does not come within its practice. It knows no mercy, and no emotion of charity ever nerves the stony heart of the priesthood, which, with an avarice that has no limit, niches the last penny from the diseased and dying beggar ; plunders the widow and orphans of their substance as well as their virtue ; and casts such a horoscope of horrors around the death-bed of the dying millionaire, that the poor superstitious wretch is glad to purchase a chance for the safety of his soul, by making the Church the heir of his treasures." THE INDIAN TRIBES OF MEXICO — THEIR ACTUAL CONDITION— SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL. BY JAMES PASCOE. The Indians form three-fourths of the entire population of Mexico, and are divided into three distinct classes: ist, the subjugated tribes; 2d, the Pinto Indians of the Tierra Caliente; 3d, the untamed Comanches, Apaches and others. At present, I will speak only of the subjugated tribes as being most numerous, most important, and as those who are likely to be first brought under gospel influence. These Indians are the broken-down and despised remnants of the old Aztec, Texcucan, Tlascal- tecan and other nations who, only three hundred years ago, were the ruling powers in Mexico. Three centuries of the withering influence of Roman- ism have sufficed to degrade these noble tribes to the level of beasts of burden ; stamping out almost every spark of liberty or virtue, and steeping them in superstition, ignorance, and fanaticism of the grossest kind. These tribes still retain their ancient dialects, although, in many cases, corrupted and mixed with many Spanish words; but still they are so dis- tinct that an Indian of one tribe cannot understand the dialect of another ; and the gulf that separates the Spanish-speaking Mexican from the Mexican Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. 1 1 or Otomi, or Mazahua-speaking Indian, is as great as that which divides the English and Chinese. As a rule, the Indians have their towns apart from the Mexicans, and the lands belong to the whole community, each man having a right to cut firewood or boards, etc., and to sell them, or to till any part he pleases ; but no one can sell land without the consent of the whole town. Also, each man is obliged to render general services, gratuitously when required, and the expenses of religious festivals are defrayed from a general fund, to which all contribute. The Mexican Government has endeavored to break down this system of clanship ; but the Indians, generally, have been shrewd enough to evade the laws and remain in their old ways. These towns are not grouped in any order. Here will be a town of Indians, speaking Mazahua ; close by may be another of Spanish-speaking Mexicans ; a little further on a village of Otomies — this medley being seen in the neighborhood of all large cities, and each town preserves its dis- tinctive language and customs, and even style and color of dress — the women of one town adopting one uniform shape and color of garments. But, at a greater distance from the cities, we find large districts occupied wholly by Indians of one tribe or another. The Indian lives generally in a rude hut of shingles, or of sun-dried mud bricks, and roofed with shingles or grass according to the supply at hand ; but such huts are low- roofed, the bare earth the only carpet, and wind and rain finding free entry by a thousand openings in walls and roofs. The one room serves for every purpose, and often affords shelter to pigs and poultry, as well as to the family. The staple food is the maize cake (tortilla), the Indian very rarely tasting animal food — many not once a month, and thousands not once a year. Their costume is also simple. The men wear a simple shirt and a pair of cotton drawers ; the women, a thin chemise, 'and a colored enagra (skirt) rolled around their waist; and the children, as a rule, in unhampered freedom. A " petate" (rush mat) for a bed when obtainable, and a " zarape" (blanket) as overcoat by day and bed-clothes by night, complete the Indian's outfit. These Indians supply the towns with poultry, vegetables, pottery, eggs, mats, and other similar corn materials, which they carry for many leagues. For instance, an Indian starts from his home loaded with goods weighing, on an average, five arrobas (125 lbs.), and sometimes eight arrobas, and will travel a week, and often two or three weeks, before disposing of his wares. He calculates how many days the journey will last, and takes a stock of tortillas to last the whole time, allowing six tortillas a day, which he divides into three portions of two tortillas each, for morning, noon, and evening meal. And this is his only subsistence. So ignorant and stub- born are these Indians that they oftentimes refuse to sell their goods on the road. I have seen many carrying fowls, for instance, to sell in Mexico city ; I have met them a week's journey from Mexico, and have proposed 1 2 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. to buy the entire lot at the same price they hoped to realize at their journey's end ; but no, he was bound for the city, and all my arguments were vain ; not a chick would he sell. This has occurred on various occasions. Charcoal, plants, etc., are all supplied to the towns by the Indians, and it is astonishing to see their patient endurance. A man will spend, at least, four days in the mountains burning the charcoal ; then carries it on his back, a day's journey, sometimes more, and sells it for thirty-seven cents, thus realizing from six to seven cents a day. In the same way, the poor creature fares with all else. If he sells planks or " vigas," he has first to pay for liberty to fell timber, if he happens not to belong to a town rich in forests. Felling the tree and hewing out the log with his hatchet occupies a day. In four days he has four " vigas" ready. The whole family is then assembled, and the logs are dragged down to the plain and placed on two rude wheels — also the work of the hatchet. The donkey is now hitched on, and husband, wife, sons and daughters, each lending a hand, away they travel, one or two days' journey to the nearest city. On reaching it, they must pay an entrance-fee, generally only three cents on each log ; and, at length, they sell their logs at thirty-seven cents each, and oftentimes for less. The Mexican cannot do without the Indian. Farms would be deserted, lands untilled, cattle unattended, and the markets entirely deserted, were it not for the poor, patient, despised Indian. Worse still, the poor Indian is the staple food of the cannon, and without him the Mexican would be unable to sustain his revolutions. It may be asked, how is it that the Indians, being in such a great numer- ical majority, allow themselves to be down-trodden by the few Mexicans who rule them ? It is because Romanism has so effectually blighted and crushed out their old chivalry and love of liberty, and has steeped them in ?. degrading and profound ignorance. Excepting the few who, within the past few years, have become acquainted with God's word by means of Protestantism, we shall be safe in saying that not a single soul among them has ever read a line of the Bible. Very few of the men can read or write. National schools are found in some of the villages, but only for boys. Schools for girls are almost un- known. Perhaps a few are found in the cities ; but, in the smaller towns and villages, they are unheard of. Thus the Indian women are kept in profound ignorance ; a vast majority of the men are the same. This mighty engine of darkness, wielded by the skill and cunning of Romish priests, has produced the fearful uncleanliness of body and soul, the stupid superstition, and bloody fanaticism which now characterize the Indian of Mexico. Underlying this patient humility and subjection to their Mexican lords, the Indian nourishes a deep-seated and ever-augmenting hatred of his whiter countrymen. The Indian and the Mexican races do not Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico, 1 3 mingle, except in isolated and exceptional cases. The Indian, in his neces- sary intercourse with the Mexican, naturally acquires a knowledge of the Spanish language; but they jealously avoid speaking that tongue unless compelled by necessity. In their homes not a word of Spanish is heard ; the women scrupulously avoid learning it, and, of course, the children grow up without understanding a word. I have gone through whole villages and not found a single woman or child who could speak Spanish. I have also observed, on large haciendas, where hundreds of Indians are em- ployed, and where they daily hear Spanish spoken, many of the women, who come weekly to the pay-office to take up their husband's miserable salary, although understanding Spanish, nothing will induce them to speak it ; and some bailiff or head workman, an Indian also, always acts as in- terpreter. His aversion to speaking Spanish is also seen in religious mat- ters. The Indian refuses to confess to the priest except in his own native tongue. Very few priests understand those tongues ; and, to surmount the difficulty, the priest has a list of written questions and answers, which he learns to pronounce like a parrot. When the Indian presents himself, the priest reads question No. 1. If the Indian replies in accordance with the written answer, well and good ; but, if not, the priest reads again, until, by good luck, the right word is uttered and the hitch overcome. The priest who explained this ingenious mode of confessing, was somewhat perplexed, when I remarked : " But suppose the Indian confesses to some sin not down on the list, what then ?" The Indian is always treated as an inferior creature. The priest requires his Mexican parishioners to confess and receive the Sacrament very frequently ; but the Indian is not expected to confess oftener than once a year, and, as a rule, he receives the communion only at marriage and when about to die. Once in a life-time is considered enough for him. The march of liberalism has done much to alter this state of affairs ; but, not many years ago, the Indian might confess, but could not commune without a special license. So great is the chasm which separates the Mexican from the Indian, that the title of " gente de razon" or people of reason, is given to the former. Nothing is more common than the expression, " Is he an Indian ?" " No, he is ' de razon ;' " thus making the Mexican to be a reasonable being, in contradistinction to the poor, despised Indian, who ranks only with beasts of burden. The Mexican Indian is essentially religious ; his whole life seems devoted to the service of the priests and saints ; his earnings are all devoted to wax candles and rockets, to be burnt on feast days, and he seems to think of nothing but pro- cessions and pilgrimages to some distant shrine. Since the days of his Aztec forefathers, the only change which the Indian has undergone in religion is that of adoring a San Antonio instead of his ancient god " Huitzilopochtle ;" and with this slight change in the objects of his worship, he continues to adore on the same sacred spots, and with many of the ceremonies, and with all the ignorance and superstitious zeal as did his pagan forefathers. 14 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. The Roman Catholic priests, in days gone by, in order to divert the Indians from their Aztec idolatries, adopted the ingenious plan of going by night to some heathen temple, removing the old idol, and placing, in its stead, a crucifix or some Catholic saint. The next day the Indians were amaz- ed to find a new god instead of the old one, and at once accepted the change ; thiy continued their worship as before. Cannibalism and human sacrifices have died out ; but if we view the Indian's present religion from his own stand-point, we shall see that really he finds not one single point of differ- ence. In his old Aztec religion he had a water baptism ; confession to priests ; numerous gods to adore, and whose aid he invoked under various circumstances- He worshipped images of wood or stone ; employed flowers and fruits as offerings, and incense also, and offered fellow-beings in sacri- fice, whilst he also worshipped a goddess whom he styled " Our Mother ; " and, in his worship, dances and pantomimes took a prominent rank. In his new Roman Catholic religion, he finds baptism and confession ; a great host of saints to adore, saints for every circumstance or ill of life ; he finds images better made, and of richer materials than the old ones ; he again em- ploys fruits, and flowers and incense, worships another goddess as " Mother of God," and " Queen of Heaven," and " Our Lady." He is also taught to believe that not a mere fellow-being is sacrificed, but his Creator Himself — as the Romanists declare, in real and actual sacrifice, thousands of times every day ; and, as of old, the Indian still dances and performs pantomimes in his religious festivals. Where, then, is the difference ? As a proof of some of my assertions, I will mention a few facts- In the large town of " Yinacaaupec," distant about two leagues from Toluca, I visited the annual feast on various occasions. It draws an immense num- ber of spectators from all parts, and for several days bull-fights and cock- fights, and religious processions, hold sway. The procession is a very gorgeous affair, and issues from the church. Banners and wax candles, and images in great number; music by the band, and rockets whizzing; but the greatest feature of all consists of a number of Indians dressed in grotesque attires, with skins of animals, bull's horns, cow's tails, and some with their heads helmeted with the entire skin of game cocks — altogether forming a wildly fantastic mob, shouting and dancing around their priests and saints like so many imps from the lower regions. The famous church of " La Ville de Guadalupe," near the city of Mexico, is built on the site of an old Aztec temple, and the Roman Catholic priests adopted their usual plan of removing the old and replacing it with the new one, and by means of a pretended apparition have made " Our Lady of Guadalupe" be- come the patron saint of Mexico. The far-famed convent of " El Senor de Chalma," about fourteen leagues to the south of Toluca, is another instance. It is the favorite shrine of all the Indian tribes of the land. Formerly, before the convent was built, the place was occupied by an Aztec idol located in a cave. This idol Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. 1 5 existed long after Roman Catholic churches had been built in neighboring towns ; and the Indians, when they wished to have a child baptized, would first carry the infant to be blessed by their Aztec god, and from there would go to the Romish church and complete the ceremony. To make the most of this propensity, the Catholics, in their usual fashion, stole the idol from the cave and placed there the present " Lord of Chalma," which is a crucifix, the Saviour being painted copper color. This apparition gave rise to a convent being built ; and all the year round the Indians, whole families, and whole towns, make pilgrimages from all parts of the land to the said convent. The sales of candles and the popish requisites are enor- mous. A shop is attached to the convent, where the poor Indians buy their candles, which they carry to the priests, who remit them by a back door to the shop again, where they are sold and sold again many times over. But here, also, the chief feature of the Indian worship consists in dances inside the church, which is of great size. Eye-witnesses assure me that, at one time, can be seen as many as sixteen distinct groups of dancers, each group with its separate band of music, all playing different tunes at the same time, and the worshippers tripping it merrily in different dances, producing a Babel confusion and a grotesque pantomime, which baffles de- scription. These are of daily occurrence, and are a true and faithful specimen of the spiritual condition of the Mexican Indians of to-day. THE HACIENDA SYSTEM. [From a Letter of Rev. H. C. Thomson.] The owners of these haciendas, called " Haciendados," are despots and tyrants, and have more absolute power than any class of men in Mexico. And, as they are generally Spaniards, they are all fanatics. Indeed, I have not heard of any that were not. And they have more power to injure us in our work than all priests, bishops, and archbishops combined. The rea- son is this, that they are the proprietors of all the houses and lands on their large territories (sometimes containing more land than some whole Eastern States in the United States). And it seems the law and custom give them " the right of property " to remove any man or family, or set of men or families, that for any reason become obnoxious to them, within the bounds of their domain. They often imprison without any legal right whatever, and are, in one word, kings with unlimited authority, in their bounds. Im- agine a district as large as the State of Massachusetts or Connecticut, with large tracts of tillable land, which has only one town of 3,000 inhabitants, and the greater part of the land lying out wild and untilled, with a great number of men willing to work and able, who are not allowed to do so, because the owner is comfortably situated at one side of the tract, and does not wish to trouble himself to look after more laborers. This is the con> i6 Presbyterian Board of Missions in Mexico. dition here. I mention 3,000 inhabitants, for when a town on a hacienda has that number they may petition for the rights of a town, and the hacien- dado loses the whole place. So, when the number of inhabitants approaches 3,000, he begins to run off some of them to keep the number below the specific number for a town. These outlying tracts of tillable land, which are now desert, and which constitute the bulk of territory, must be placed under cultivation, and these poor starving men and women must have some means to gain an honest living, or the country will always be poor and full of robbers. Surely, many changes are needed in the social and political, as well as religious, condition of Mexico. The crosses on the map denote, without names, the various missionary stations and out-stations occupied by the Presbyterian Board. 30 MEXICO MISSION. MEXICO MISSION. The Republic of Mexico covers an area of 700,000 square miles, arid extends some seventeen degrees of north latitude and over thirty degrees of longitude. It is divided into twenty-three States, and its present population is said to be about 8,000,000. The earliest inhabitants of Mexico known to us were the Toltecs, who entered that country from the north in the seventh century. They are regarded as the true founders of the civilization which was enjoyed for a long period. After them came the Aztecs, who arrived in Mexico at the beginning of the thir- teenth century, and who were also from the north. They not only spread over a large territory, but, with the aid of some neighboring tribes, they extended their dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Whilst they acknowledged one Supreme Ruler, they worshiped many gods. Temples abounded and the priests were numerous. Human sacrifices mingled with their worship, and the number of victims annually offered to appease their gods were said to reach as high as 50,000. Cannibalism also existed, especially in connection with certain religious observances. To such a people the Spaniards came in 1 5 18, sword in hand, and with a determination to seize upon the country and enrich themselves with its fabled wealth. Their leader, Hernando Cortez, at once pushed into the interior, and stopped not until he had possession of the far-famed capital and its vast riches. For nearly 300 years the country was governed by Spanish viceroys, and not till 182 1 did the people throw off their allegiance to Spain, retaining, however, the Spanish language, customs, dress, etc. Many of the people intermarried with the conquerors, and about one- half of the population are of mixed blood ; nearly one-fourth are of pure European descent, and the others belong to the indigenous races. Whilst Mexico was contiguous to the United States, and its moral condition was more or less known, yet until recently it was, as a mission field, wholly inaccessible. All barriers have been, however, removed to Protestant effort by the Gov- ernment, and the country is open, as far as the authorities are concerned, to evangelistic labor. There are obstacles in the way to a hearty reception of the truth, and, in places, to a free declaration of the same, and these should be considered by the Church to influence work, prayer, and sympathy. Let us look at some of these. The first is ROMANISM. For 300 years Mexico was cursed with Spanish rule and Romish despotism. The two have gone hand in hand. The Spanish adventurer, however dissolute 4 Mexico Mission. in character, deemed himself a true, if not a heaven-inspired, propagandist of his creed, and he was generally accompanied by a priest, who considered all lands not under papal sway as belonging to the Romish See. Mexico was speedily converted to the Pope. Submission or death was held out to many. Whilst here, as in other portions of heathendom, the transition was not great from idolatry to image worship, and many were baptized into names of which they knew almost nothing, so that to this day in sections of Mexico are heathen rites mingling with, or attached to, Christian observances. Speaking of the conduct of Cortez, says a writer : " Having cast down and destroyed the altar in one of the Mexican temples, a new altar was erected, which was hung with rich mantles and adorned with flowers. Cortez then ordered four of the native priests to cut off their hair and to put on white robes, and, placing the cross upon the altar, he committed it to their charge. They were taught to make wax candles, and Cortez enjoined them to keep some of the candles always burning on the altar. A lame old soldier was left by Cortez to reside in the temple, to keep the native priests to their new duties. The church thus con- stituted was called the first Christian church in New Spain (Mexico)." The work begun thus in the capital reached, in time, the outlying provinces, and Dominican and Jesuit were busy in baptizing the people and rejoicing over their great conquest. The bloody Inquisition was soon in full operation, and many a victim was immured in the gloomy dungeon, or was burned in the fires kindled by it. Church and State were also united, and politically, as well as religiously, the people were enslaved. Churches were reared, convents established. Monastic institutions dotted the land, priests swarmed everywhere. Wealth and power fell into their hands, so that one-half of the real estate in the coun- try was said to be under their control, and " not only three-fifths of the cities were occupied with convents and churches, but there were convents which occupied a large part of the city." This great wealth, gathered together from various sources, became a means of corruption and a weakness to the Romish Church. So that we have the following description of it from the pen of Lempriere : " The Mexican Church, as a Church, fills no mission of virtue, no mission of morality, no mission of mercy, no mission of charity. Virtue can not exist in its pestiferous atmos- phere. The code of morality does not come within its practice. It knows no mercy, and no emotion of charity ever nerves the stony heart of the priest- hood, which, with an avarice that has no limit, filches the last penny from the diseased and dying beggar ; plunders the widow and orphans of their substance as well as their virtue ; and casts such a horoscope of horrors around the death- bed of the dying- millionaire, that the poor superstitious wretch is glad to pur- chase a chance for the safety of his soul by making the Church the heir of his treasures." This fearful arraignment is none too sweeping when the condition of Mexico and the past course and influence of the Romish Church in that land are considered. She has done but little, yea, nothing, for the moral and social elevation of the people. Mr. Pascoe, in referring to the condition of Mexico Mission. 5 the Indians, who were once the ruling power of that country, writes : " Three centuries of the withering influence of Romanism have sufficed to degrade these noble tribes to the level of beasts of burden, stamping out almost every spark of liberty or virtue, and steeping them in superstition and fanaticism of the grossest kind." Here is a power that has seized upon certain qualities of our nature, and in the name of Christ wields supremacy over them ; a power that is entrenched in the hearts of its votaries, and rules them at pleasure ; a power that is arrogant in its claims, compact and efficient in its organization, strong in its accumulations of wealth and lore, and that has skill to use all its resources, and a will to carry out its plans ; and a power that is ever vigilant, resolute, and united, is surely a most gigantic foe, and yet this power has to be encountered with simple truth in the hands of a few earnest laborers. IGNORANCE. There is more general knowledge among the Mexicans than among the Indians of the country, yet it is said that seven-eighths of the population can not read. The latter are regarded by the former as principally beasts of bur- den, and though bigoted Romanists, they are treated as low in the scale of humanity by the priesthood, who are indifferent to their spiritual wants. Few of them can read or write. The Indian women are kept in profound ignorance. It is, then, no wonder that this portion of the population is exceedirigly super- stitious. All the earnings they can possibly spare are devoted to wax candles and for rockets to be used on festival days ; while their time is freely ex- pended on processions and pilgrimages. The Bible, except as introduced by Protestants, they have never seen, and its leading doctrines they have never heard. Ignorance, if not to the same extent, yet as real of the cardinal truths of revelation, prevails among the ruling classes. Many have become free- thinkers or indifferent to religious sentiments. This blind superstition, at war with a manly Christianity, and this deep-seated ignorance or hatred of Divine things, will greatly interfere with the presentation of positive religious knowl- edge and with its acceptance, especially when it comes to them from those who have been maligned by the priests, and who are declared to retail the most pernicious errors at war with good morals and the real teachings of the Bible. In this light are all Protestant missionaries held up to the people, and their doctrines as vile and immoral. This is a great hindrance to the propagation of the Bible, and to this must be added GROSS IMMORALITIES, which abound in Mexico. The action and conduct of many of the priests in attending races,' cock-fighting, and balls, etc., their gambling, drinking, and loose habits exert an injurious effect upon the lives of many, as well as cast discredit upon the purity and power of the religion of Jesus. Many of the nunneries were hot-beds of vice, and Miss Rankin says, on the testimony of one who had become familiar with the character of the convents, that " scarcely 6 Mexico Mission. one out of twenty girls who enter them, emerge with purity of heart and char- acter." Before religious liberty was guaranteed to the people the marriage ceremony could only be performed by the priest. His charge for attending to this was so exorbitant that few could meet it, hence the mass of the people were living virtually in a state of concubinage. It is not necessary to dwell further upon this theme, yet it is a fearful hindrance to every attempt to bring the people into sympathy with holiness and in conformity to doctrines that are pure and transforming, especially when they see the teachers of Christian- ity so hostile to true Scriptural morality. . REVOLUTIONS. Instability of character and government seems a leading feature in the Mexican people and nation. Since the first declaration of independence there have been at least sixty revolutions. These have been attributed to the ambition of military leaders, to restlessness among the people, to a love of plunder, and to a lack of appreciation of the majesty of law and good order ; but the truth is, says one who knows the Mexican well, and who has lived a long time in the country, " These frequent wars are but outbreaks of unceas- ing struggle between sacerdotalism and the desire for liberal institutions." With some of these insurrections the priests have had much to do, as by them they hoped to regain their lost power and influence, and enjoy the property which had been wrested from them. Other revolutions have. been occasioned by disappointed political or military leaders, who have been willing to sacrifice the good of others to their own personal ambition ; but the real cause is the lack of true religious principle, in rulers and people, which principle gives fixedness to government and law. PERSECUTION. Religious fanaticism, when aroused, is ever dangerous, and especially among an ignorant and priest-ridden people. Knowing this, the priests have not been slow to foment disturbances and to arouse the prejudices of the votaries of the Church ; they have, therefore, ready allies in the poor, ignorant, and superstitious Indians. At first threats have been employed, then more active measures, such as blows, have been used, and in not a few cases life has been taken. The attack upon Mr. Hutchinson at Acapulco, was made mostly by Indians. Mr. Phillips was almost murdered by an infuriated mob whose only cry was " Death to the Protestants." Several Mexicans have been shot or in other ways killed in different places, for no other reason than that they have become adherents of Protestantism. Their lawlessness and fanaticism, that may burst forth on any occasion, is a serious hindrance to many to consider divine truth or to espouse it warmly. They must look carefully to the conse- quences of the step they take, as well as to the act itself. These are some of the obstacles to the successful prosecution of the work, and are worthv of the attention of all interested in it. Not a few overlook Mexico Mission. 7 them in their desire after results, while others imagine that the inculcation of better principles and the presentation of a purer Gospel, will speedily draw around the missionary large numbers eager to embrace them. There, as in other lands, a preparatory work must be done, and blessing from above gener- ally follows labor and very seldom precedes it. Whilst these tilings must be considered and which have their influence upon effort, prayer, and expectation, there are compensations that have weight, influences that are beneficial, and advantages that may counterbalance the evils named, and which, when properly viewed, may give new stimulus to aggressive measures and new power to evangelistic agencies ; and that this is so, is evi- dent from the numbers who are led to the purchase and reading of the Bible ; who are brought under the preaching of the Word ; who have come forward to embrace it, and who have been ready to die in its defense. Some have turned against Rome for political reasons, others from their hatred of the sys- tem which she inculcates, but many from a feeling of unrest, and a desire to find peace and salvation through a divine and loving Mediator. The very means employed to injure Protestantism have given it new life and power, and that which the Papacy sought to give her strength has proved a weakness. Her adherents have been the bitter opponents of religious liberty, so that those who have been the champions of civil freedom have heen ready to contend for the rights of conscience, and to resist Romish wiles and policy. What Rome can do for a nation and people is seen in Mexico. For more than three hundred years she has had full possession of the country. Political power was virtually in her hands. Church and State were thoroughly allied, and there was no one within her bounds to declare another gospel, or to seek to wrest power from her hands. The oppressive policy of Spain and the influence of the free institutions of the United States, at last aroused the people, and for eleven years the cry of independence was heard amidst the din of battle, and in 182 1 they were enabled to throw off the yoke of Spain, but that of Rome remained. The Catholic religion only was allowed and recog- nized. This continued till 1857, when a new issue was made — a war for con- stitutional liberty, just laws, and freedom of worship began. The parties were the "Church," wielding all its vast resources, and the Liberal party. In i860 the latter party triumphed. Mexico was thrown open, religious liberty was proclaimed, Protestant missionaries were invited to enter, and Church property reaching the vast sum of $200,000,000 was confiscated. Other reforms were, in time, inaugurated, and now the Church and State are wholly separated. Marriage is declared to be a civil contract. Monastic orders have been abol- ished, slavery is virtually destroyed, and the fearful abuse of large religious establishments is prevented by limiting the amount of property to be held by such. PROTESTANT EFFORTS. The Bible and the tract preceded the preacher. They could go where he could not find access. When the United States entered Mexico in 1847, army 8 Mexico Mission. it was accompanied by the Bible-agent, who sold and distributed large numbers of the Spanish Bible. After this, Bibles passed over the lines between the two countries. Then came agents of the British and American Bible Societies, who were welcomed by many! The truth began to operate upon some hearts and lives, and these again would speak of it or read it to others, and in this way not a few became interested in the divine oracles who had never seen a Protestant missionary. In 1866 Miss M. Rankin, who had been laboring on the borders of Mexico for some years in the desire to benefit the Mexicans, crossed over into their country and began more direct work among them. She was followed by the Rev. Henry C. Riley of the Episcopal Church, and who was sent by the American and Foreign Christian Union in 1869. Having spent several years in South America, he was well-acquainted with the Spanish language. On his arrival in the City of Mexico he found a number of professing Christians, who gladly welcomed him, and his presence gave a new stimulus to their efforts to spread abroad the truth as it is in Jesus. Full of zeal and courage, he threw himself into the work, and by his counsel, means, and labors, he was soon enabled to do much for the people. Francisco Aguilar, rejoicing in the discovery of the great truths of the Gospel, gathered in Mexico the first Protestant congregation for divine worship in the Spanish language. He soon, however, closed a life of great self-sacrifice and devotion to the good work, leaving a congregation of some seventy souls to be ministered to by others. These had increased when Mr. Riley came among them as their leader, and among those whom he was instrumental in leading to a saving knowledge of the Gospel, was a Dominican friar named Manuel Aguas, who ran a short, but brilliant career of usefulness. He was elected by the ''Church of Jesus" — the name given to the new Mexican Church — as its bishop, and expected to have come to this country for ordination, when he was cut down in the midst of his labors. This new organization, though supported at first by different denominations, we are told by Bishop Lee : " From the beginning the ideal in the minds of the leaders of this movement was a Church purified from Romish errors and corruptions, but retaining the primitive constitution of the Spanish ante-Nicene Church, and closely allied to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. The hope was cherished at the outset of obtaining the adhesion of one of the Mexican bishops, and thus perpetuating the ministry in the order which they desired, but the way was not then opened." This Church was in thorough sympathy, and is now in the closet relationship, with the Epis- copal Church of this country. Says the Rev. Mr. Riley: "At the earnest request of a Mexican gentleman, I accompanied him on his return to Mexico (in 1869), and have done what the Lord lias enabled me to do in behalf of our sister Episcopal Church in that neighboring republic." And in speaking of Manuel Aguas, he says he was enabled u to win over multitudes to the pure Gospel and to our sister Episcopal Church." Whilst Miss Rankin and those with her were at work in Northern Mexico, an interesting enterprise had been begun at Cos, a mining town in the State of Mexico Mission. 9 Zacatecas, and about fifty miles from the City of Zacatecas. This has been fostered and encouraged by the efforts and teachings of Dr. Prevost, a member of one of our churches in Philadelphia, who has been instrumental in accom- plishing much good in that region. This station was, for a short period, under the care of the American and Foreign Christian Union, but, having no laborer to send to it, it was soon transferred to our Board. PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS. The attention of the Presbyterian Church had been directed for a long time to Mexico, but the way was not open to enter it. The feeling, however, grew that as a Church we should no longer neglect so important a field, as it bor- dered upon our own country, and that if we did anything as a Church it should be given through that channel where it could accomplish the most effective good and in the most economical manner. These, with other reasons, led our General Assembly to take action in regard to Mexico, and as soon as men and means could be found they were sent thither by the Board. This act was con- demned by some, as if a feeble Society that had no ecclesiastical connections, could attend to the wants of eight millions ; and it was not approved by others because it was introducing denominationalism into the country, as if it were not already there in the " Church of Jesus " — an Episcopal church, though called by another name. Rev. Messrs. P. H. Pitkin, Henry C. Thomson, and Maxwell Phillips, and their wives, and Miss Ellen P. Allen, sailed Sept. 28, 1872, for Mexico. They were soon followed by the Rev. M. N. Hutchinson and his wife. Instead of finding, on their arrival, an harmonious body among the converts in full sym- pathy with the " Church of Jesus," they found a division in regard to prelacy ; a large congregation worshiping by itself in the City of Mexico, and that had sought relations with the church at Cos and others, so that nine of the village congregations had responded to their circular calling for a bond of union be- tween all churches that preferred a simple form of service and no bishops. They found, also, that no regular church had been organized and members properly received, but that any who wished could come to the Lord's table, even little children. In this state of things, Messrs. Hutchinson and Phillips remained at the capital, whilst Mr. Thomson commenced work at San Luis Potosi, and Mr. Pitkin at Zacatecas and Cos. STATIONS. Mexico. — This city is beautifully situated on a vast plain 7,500 feet above the level of the sea, and is enclosed by lofty mountains. It is built with regularity in the form of a square. The houses are generally of hewn stone, and the streets are well-paved. The most noted edifice is the great cathedral, 500 feet long and 420 feet wide, and stands on the site of the pyramidal temple of the Aztecs. The population of the capital is said to be over 200,000. In the peculiar state of the native Church, the missionaries had much to do io Mexico Mission. at first to become acquainted with the work and its demands ; to study the things that make for peace ; to be faithful to what were deemed truth and right- eousness ; to encourage and to restrain ; to weed out the noxious ; to give aid to the feeble and deserving, and in various ways to unify and develop the inter- ests of Christ's cause. When the first missionaries sailed, their location was to be determined after becoming acquainted with the state of things in the coun- try. Soon after their arrival in the capital, and finding a party already in sym- pathy with the principles of our Church, Mr. Phillips and Miss Allen remained, and they were soon joined by Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson, who took charge of this station ; so that Mr. P. was enabled to go to Zacatecas to meet the demands of the work in that region. Soon two schools were opened, one for each sex, also an English and Spanish girls' school for a higher grade of educa- tion, under Miss Allen. A popular Hymn and Tune-book, embracing eighty- six hymns and seventy-three tunes, was prepared by Mr. H. A supervision of the work in neighboring villages, preaching and teaching, occupied his attention. As soon as it could be done, a church was organized in a regular manner, and members received after instruction as to the qualifications, duties, and respon- sibilities of those who make a public profession of their faith. The custom having been to allow any who entered at the time of its celebration, to partake of the Lord's Supper. Sixty-three were received and organized into a church. This number has been greatly increased by constant additions. Near the close of the year 1874, a delegation arrived in Mexico from Aca- pulco, a town on the Pacific coast, who waited on Mr. Hutchinson, wishing him to visit that place and organize a church. This he did, after a weary journey of twelve days through mountain passes. He remained here some time, and organized a church of fifty-three members. One night the congregation was attacked by an angry mob, who had been incited by the priest. Several were killed and more were wounded, while others had to flee for their lives. God overruled its dispersion to the advancement of the truth as the people went throughout the province preaching the Word. There are now in connection with Mexico as a center, including Vera Cruz on the Gulf and extending to Acapulco, thirty-one congregations of believers, and at several of them are interesting churches. There are al^o employed fifteen native preachers and teachers. There is a great demand for new laborers to meet the wants of newly formed congregations. A number of young men have come forward anxious to study and carry forward the work. Some of the outposts have suf- fered much from mobs, and in all many have died in defense of the truth. Zacatecas. — This became the center of missionary operations in the province of the same name, and was occupied by Rev. P. H. Pitkin, who remained only a short time in this region, feeling constrained to return home. At Cos was a young, vigorous church under the care of a native pastor. A church was organ- ized in Dec, 1873, at Zacatecas. There were, also, interesting congregations at Salado, Fresnillo, Jerez. The number baptized in 1S73 was l4^ adults. Mr. Phillips was transferred from Mexico to this point. A newspaper that had Mexico Mission. II been in existence some time was taken hold of by the missionaries, and it has grown in influence and power. Schools have been established, and much has been accomplished for the diffusion of the truth in this section of the Republic. There are twelve congregations in connection with this station. San Luis Potosi. — Mr. Thomson began his labors in 1872 — the first Protest- ant who had engaged in evangelistic work in the city. He remained here, acquiring the language, and was able to organize a church. He was obliged to remove to Zacatecas to attend to the wants of that field, and to assist Mr. Phillips. He has been succeeded by Rev. D. J. Stewart. Desirous of beginning work at Queratro, Mr. Phillips left his post at Zacate- cas, and made a beginning, but he was soon set upon by a violent mob, who sought to kill him. He was severely wounded, and only escaped with his life through the interference of a prominent citizen of the place. He was obliged to return home for a few months. Since going back to Mexico, he is waiting for the developments of the present revolution and for peace, to determine his future station. The present force in Mexico is as follows : Mexico City, Rev. M. N. Hutch- inson and wife, and Miss M. E. Leason. Rev. Maxwell Phillips and his wife are also at the capital temporarily. Zacatecas, Rev. Henry C. Thomson. San Luis Potosi, Rev. D. J. Stewart. Statistics of the work in the Northern field, owing to the disturbed state of the country the past year, are very imperfectly given ; but it appears that be- fore the disturbances 9 adults and 5 children had been baptized, and 3 adults at Cos ; 1 1 adults and 7 children have been baptized at San Luis Potosi. The number of communicants is over 500. In the Southern Mission, whose center is the capital, under the general supervision of Rev. M. N. Hutchinson, the statistics for the year are as fol- lows : Native preachers and helpers, 13 ; native teachers, 6 ; number of churches, 10 ; whole number of outstations in which believers are found, and more or less effort put forth by the mission, 45 ; the number of accessions to the churches during the year has been 530; total membership, 1,857; total average attendance on the Sabbath, 1,400 ; pupils in Sabbath-schools, 400 ; boys' day-school, 155; girls' day-schools, 128. The little church at Tampico, on the coast of the Gulf, has been specially prospered, having received over 40 accessions on a single Sabbath. THE Gaboon and Coeisco Mission BY Rev. R. H. NASSAU, M. D. NEW YORK: . BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 23 CENTRE STREET. THE GABOON AND CORISCO MISSION. I. WORK OF THE MISSION. Name. The Gaboon Mission, established in 1842, by the A. B. C. F. M., and the Corisco Mission, in 1849, by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, working together side by side, and practically one, became one, on the oc- casion of the union of the two Presbyterian Bodies, in 1870. The New School brethren, who had been the principal supporters of the Gaboon, wished to retain a mission, whose memories were sacred to them ; and it was harmoniously handed by the A. B. C. F. M., to our Board. The united Mission, retaining the names of its two constituents, is known now as the Gaboon and Corisco Mission. Its history claims, in common, whatever was once singular and separate. Location. We may say, therefore, that the Gaboon and Corisco Mission was founded on the west coast of Africa, in the Gaboon River, among the Mpongwe tribe, at Baraka Station, 15 miles north of the Equator, and 12 miles up the river from Point Clara (the cape on the right bank of its mouth), by Revs. John Leighton Wilson and Benjamin Griswold, on their landing there, June 22d, 1842. They were immediately followed, on December 1, by Rev. William Walker and Mrs. A. E. Wilson. Reinforcements. From time to time were sent reinforcements of men and women, of vary- ing endowments of mind and spirit, and with different physical constitutions. In a land of narrow comfort and untried climate, some were cut down early. Others, for various reasons, returned, and are still living in America. In this hasty review — omitting to mention the names of arrivals too recent for his- tory, and of others whose lives, however beautiful, or residences, however useful, were painfully short — the list of those sent out since the original founders would include the names of Bushnell, Preston, Best, Mackey, Ford, Porter, McQueen, Pierce, Herrick, Clemens, De Heer, Adams, Loomis, Ogden, Clark, Nassau, Paull, Reutlinger. But the entire history of the Mission could be grouped around the names of a few whose lives cover, at its three principal stations, its entire exist- ence— At Baraka, Revs. J. L. Wilson, D. D. ; William Walker, and A. Bush- nell and their wives; on Corisco, Revs. J. L. Mackey, and C. De Heer, and their wives; and at Benita, Revs. George Paull, and R. H. Nassau, and Mrs. Nassau. Stations. Various attempts at enlargement were made : From the original Baraka Station, up the river to Ozyunga, 3 miles ; to Olendebenki, on the Ikai Creek, among the Bakele tribe, 25 miles ; to Nengenenge, 60 miles ; and two native sub-stations in the Orungu and Pangwe tribes ; the principal Corisco station, Evangasimba, among the Benga tribe, in 1849, north 40 miles — and thence Ugobi ; Alongo ; and five native sub-stations in the Benga, Mbiko, and Bapuku tribes ; Mbade at Benita, 90 miles north, among the Kombe tribe, in January, 1865 — thence Bolondo ; and four native sub- stations in the Kombe and Balengi tribes. These native stations have mostly been sustained, even in adverse times. But in some of the dark hours that were permitted to come, there have been reductions even of prin- cipal stations ; so that, at present, there are of the latter only Baraka, occu- pied by Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell and two unmarried ladies; Evangasimba, Mr. Gillespie, and three ladies; Alongo, Mr. and Mrs. De Heer; Mbade, Messrs. Kops and Murphy. Schools. Schools were gathered at almost every Mission-house, even of the native agents — the principal success being at the Baraka Boys' and Girls' Semi- nary, under the care successively of Revs. Messrs. Walker, Preston, Bush- nell, and their wives ; the Boys' School at Alongo, successively under the care of Revs. Messrs. Clemens, Clark, and De Heer and their wives; and the Girls' School at Evangasimba, under the care successively of Mrs. Mackey, Mrs. Ogden, and Mrs. Nassau. Parents were ready, from the first, to send boys to school ; for they recog- nized the pecuniary advantage accruing to them from their sons having an education which could be diverted to uses of trade. But they objected to their girls being educated — they needed their service too constantly in the numerous works that fill a Guinea woman's lot, as daughter or young wife (in either case, a servant and slave) ; and they did not wish women to obtain those civilized ideas of woman's right and dignity which would make them less sul missive servants. These are boarding-schools — the food and clothing provided by the Mis- sion being not only an inducement to parents to send, but a necessary part of our plan to separate the children as much as possible from the evil influ- ences of their heathen homes and villages. The exercises of the schools are not simply literary — they include industrial work. The literary are necessarily of a very rudimentary kind : First, the native Primer ; and when, in six months-, the pupils have read the Scriptures in their own tongue, they are permitted to take up English Spelling, Reading, Catechisms, Geography, History, Grammar, Arithmetic. The industrials are all such works as, in this country, we would call on our own children to do at table, in kitchen, and in bed-room. For the larger girls, there are sewing of their own dresses, and boys' pants and shirts, washing, ironing, and cooking their own food ; for the lads and young men, there are clearing of premises, carpentering, repairing of thatch, errands, boating. Churches. Church organizations were made at Baraka and Evangasimba at once on the location of the original missions there, and at Mbade, in December, 1865. Despite losses in localities, there has been through the field a steady in- crease in membership. The church at Evangasimba had, at one time, as many as seventy, from whom were set off about twenty, as the nucleus of the Benita church. Growth has come, not only from pupils of the schools, but from others not educated at all, who heard the Gospel in village visita- tions and itinerations. The members have been as consistent as charity would expect, when we consider the circumstances of their early depravity, the unbarred avenues to constant sources of temptation, and their limited means of grace. There have been seasons of revival and rejoicing, of declension and discipline. The saddest falls have been under the powerful temptations presented by foreign lust and rum at Gaboon. The foreign captain, who has left his white wife at home, has hired " an ebony wife or wives by the week or by the run in Africa;" and among these wretched women have been some of our school-children and church-members, sold by their own parents, husbands, or brothers. British and American Chris- tians have sent to the heathen hundreds of thousands of gallons " of liquid damnation." " The missionary works at the entrance of Gehenna." " But for the rum-trade, the native membership of the church would have been reckoned by hundreds instead of tens." Native Agents. Native aid has been sought and used to the limit of prudence. All who could be useful in any way as interpreters, teachers, monitors, catechists, exhorters, Bible-readers, elders, or ministerial candidates, being employed whenever they expressed the slightest desire for usefulness. In an often reduced state, the Mission could not have sustained the work at even its dying rate without these humble and, some of them, but slightly-educated agents. Placing a high standard before ministerial candidates, and keeping them on long probation, most of them wearied ; and, though still useful in other ways, laid aside expectations of the ministry ; so that, at Gaboon, only two became licentiates, and went no further. Of the candidates and licentiates made as early as i860, at Corisco, only one, Brother Ibiya, had the patience to persevere, and the purity to stand tests ; and has proved himself worthy of his ordination laid in 1870. The comparatively new ground at Benita has shown an unusual richness in candidates. 6 Work for Women. The simple existence of the foreign Christian lady in the Mission house- hold, ennobling it as wife and mother, was, independent of her word, or prayer, or exhortation, a standing example to native women of what their brutal homes might become. But, beyond this, direct attention to the ele- vation of heathen women was given by their sympathizing foreign visitors from the first — not only in the special work of girls' schools, but in efforts in what has since so prominently and importantly become itself a special work — /. e., visiting women in their villages. To this ever turned the eyes of brave missionary sisters — nameless in this narrative — unmarried ladies or women whose names and works are here included in their husbands'. It, of course, could be attended to but irregularly, and therefore without very patent results, while the missionary lady had her time occupied by household or school. Mrs. Griswold, at Gaboon, after her husband's death in 1849, " wholly devoted her life to the poor women and girls, teaching them dur- ing the day, visiting the women afterwards, and meeting them on the Sab- bath in their own villages, where the noisy women stopped their disputes, and gathered round her eagerly, catching every word that fell from her lips." Mrs. Clemens and Mrs. McQueen, on their respective returns to Corisco after the deaths of their husbands, and while connected with the girls' school, and Mrs. De Heer in connection with her husband's work at Alongo, did much of this same work. At Benita, Miss Nassau inaugurated for the Mission the systematic employment of Bible-women, educating for that ser- vice a Liberian assistant (Miss Sneed), and calling out the hidden worth of a native Benga woman, Matomba. Salient Historic Points. The Mission has had in its history critical periods — times when hope has been high ; other times when the greatest grace exercised was that of simple continuance. The seizure by the French of the Gaboon coast in 1843, threatened the destruction of the Mission only a year after its location ; then came that cloud of foreign vice and intemperance, and the inception of that " one, long conflict," than which " never was a more formidable struggle." Then the return of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. J. L. Wilson in 1852 to the United States, after eighteen years of service in Africa ; but continuing his service for Africa and Foreign Missions, as one of the Secretaries of our Board, for eight years, and still living in the same capacity in the Southern Pres- byterian Church. Then the short and brilliant lives of Rev. H. M. Adams, dying August 13, 1856, and Rev. H. P. Herrick, dying December 20, 1857; then, in i860 to 1862, a refreshing ingathering to the church. Then the long waiting, no male missionary being added during the ten years succeed- ing the returns to this country of Rev. A. D. Jack in 1859, and Rev. M. L. St. John, M. D., in 1861 ; and during all that decade Mr. Walker sometimes almost alone in waging that one long conflict — his companions, Messrs. Preston and Bushnell, alternating in association with him in care of Baraka and furlough to America. Then the revival of 1871. At Corisco, under the united rare judgment of Mr. Mackey, untiring zeal of Mr. Clemens, and skilful educating of Mr. McQueen, the early history was bright. The influence of Mr. Mackey was formative of the estimation held of the mission in the native mind. " Mackey '' became a synonym for "missionary;" so that newer brethren, whose names some natives had not learned,, are known to have been called " Mackey," just because it was un- derstood they were missionaries. And when they failed to embody the traditional idea connected with the name they soon were told of it. Under Mr. McQueen's formative influence, the pupils of his Ugobi school have since stood as the accurate English interpreters, teachers, and prominent young men of the mission, for almost all his successors. Then came ex- citements by Ukuku, (the native oracle), that frightened church-members and drove away pupils; then the agitations by the Spanish ; then, in 1865, the radical change in Corisco plan, that, no longer concentrating on the island (where the two expectations, of immunity from fever, and of raising up native agents whose travels should make itineration by us to distant parts entirely unnecessary, had failed), took, with no greater chances of fever, a wider sphere, and, with the necessity for superintendence of native agents, a shorter and less arduous path, by a division and transfer to the mainland at Benita ; and the merging of the Ugobi school for Benga boys into the Alongo, which thus lost its distinctive character as a school solely for mainland tribes, the diminution of tribal jealousy making a separation of pupils no longer necessary. At Benita the short labor of Mr. Paull in 1865, apostolic in its success, planted a vineyard whose fruit his two immediate successors have gathered and pressed as a wine that has gladdened many hearts. Then came the last sad crisis in March 1871, when, after successive bereavements through the entire field by death, and returns to America, the old Gaboon Mission about to be entirely vacant, — Mr. and Miss Nassau, the sole representatives of the old Corisco Mission, temporarily closed the stricken Benita home, confiding the property to the hands of a few honest natives, and went to Gaboon to occupy and preserve from threatened French Jesuit spoliation the Baraka station, in the interval of a few months between Mr. Walker's departure and Mr. Bushnell's return. The Mission was at its lowest ebb, then began a day of brighter things. The rising tide of sympathy in the church, sent precious aid, that arrived in June 187 1, to conserve the fruit of the labors of the past, and to enlarge the contracted borders. Silver Linings. Where just two years ago, there were only one male and one female white missionary, are now five male and seven female missionaries. The presence 8 of a Mission yacht, the sloop Elfe, has done away, for the ladies entirely, and to a large extent for the gentlemen, with the necessity for traveling the ocean in little open sail-boats. Regular monthly trips of British mail steamers stopping at Gaboon, bring the mission in access to America a month nearer; and a wise disposition of present force (still insufficient to man even the stations of the past), in companies rather than in single isolation, gives a little of that social life and companionship, the lack of whose aid has too slightly entered into the account of former ill-health. 2. RESULTS. i. Church-members. — There are in the three churches a total membership of 150; a number which gives cause for gratitude, to those who are aware of (few in this country can be made to properly appreciate) the intense influ- ences that prevent coming to, and that drive away from Christ. 2. Civilization. — The physical aspect of the people is much changed by the civilization of those who have not been able to leave off evil customs so far as to unite with the church, and yet in regard to whose salvation we are not hopeless, even if they should never enter our communion. 1. Dress is becoming civilized. Instead of the four or five yards of calico cloth, the common dress of men and women, wrapped about the loins, and the uni- form nakedness of the children, most men now add a shirt to the cloth, or have substituted for it shirt and pants. And on Sabbath, women come to church, their bodies covered entirely by cloths or by a frock. This they do not wear constantly during the week days, for while they still have to do so much of work in the forests, the skirts would be in the way of the thorns and branches. 2. Houses are still built of bamboo, but it makes a sufficient- ly comfortable building if used with skill. Instead of their huts, with a single room on the ground, they now imitate our varied-roomed and post- elevated dwellings. 3. Marriages. — No marriage contract and scarcely any ceremony former- ly existed. Woman, when still a child, was bought as an ox would be. The Mission ceased to recognize the native relation as a marriage, and re- quired all men and women who had been living together previous to their becoming Christians, if they wished to retain the same relation, to be mar- ried by Christian ceremony. A few of the more enlightened heathen liking our mode, have sought to have it performed for them also. 4. Change of Customs. — Customs are everywhere clung to just because they have been customs. In them are tied up its superstitions — the religion of the country. 1. Witchcraft murders, consequent on every death, had their foundation in the belief in spirits, and the power of those spirits, to act destructively through persons in voluntary conjunction with them, who thus made themselves, in heart, murderers. Immediately, therefore, after any death, investigation was made as to who the murderer was ; and some one was fixed on by the sorcerer-doctor and put to death often with tortures. These executions no longer occur in the vicinity of the Mission, when we can hear of the death in time to interfere. 2. The funeral rites, which were insincere, burdensome, and superstitious, and which gave occasion for wild gossip,riot- ous eating and drinking, and licentiousness, have been protested against, particularly at Benita, and are discarded by most of the church-members. 5. Desire for Education. — A desire for education is becoming general, so that many have learned to read in their own homes, independent of the Mission, eagerly seeking the unpaid aid of our pupils and other readers on their visits home and on trade journeys. At all the stations day-schools are in operation, where children and young men come voluntarily and without reward, and diligently learn to read and write. 6. Liberality. — Though poor, and not appreciating, as we may, the duty of sustaining the gospel, they have given to the support of the Mission work. At Gaboon, some natives provide all the clothing and much of the food for their children ; and all the time churches have been built largely by native aid and contribution. 7. Literature. — Besides the two grammars and several reading books, the entire New Testament in Benga and Mpongwe, with parts of the Old Testament, have been printed. A collection of some two hundred hymns, one fourth of them translations by Miss- Nassau, is passing through the press at this writing. In their manuscript form many of them have already been sung by the musical natives as songs in their villages, and have been carried by the wandering youth back to the mountains where our own feet have not trod. 3. WHAT OF THE NIGHT? Under the attention excited by Stanley's story of Livingstone, and with the interest with which the civilized world now turns to Africa, the imme- diate future is full of hope. That interest, on the Western coast, concen- trates on our own field ; British, French, and German exploring parties at this present time investigating that region with reference to penetrating, and thus to supplement from the west, Livingstone's researches from the east. 1. Mackey Memorial Girti School. — The Evangasimba girls' school, left vacant in October 1865, was abandoned after an ineffectual attempt to sustain it. Now, at the end of seven years, it is to be re-established with a new building (the appropriate designation by the Board of a legacy of $1,000, the one-fourth of the little home-property on which Mrs. Mackey was sup- ported in this country during the last years of her life) and three ladies, Mrs. Reutlinger, Mrs. Hendricks, and Miss White, have been appointed to conduct it. 2. Training School. — A school is authorised by the Mission and located at Baraka for the especial instruction of teachers and ministerial candidates. For years there has been a standing objection by those who were urged to de- 10 vote themselves to Mission service, and by the ministerial candidates, a complaint, that each missionary was so busy with the various and secular business of his station that they could not give the special instruction they needed. And when attempt was made to remedy this difficulty, it was found that missionaries at three or four different places were spending time and labor in doing for a small class of two at each of those places, what one teacher could better do for the entire six or eight, and for more who would come if they were gathered at one place. That work Mr. Bushnell is trying to do by the proposed Training School. But it has not yet obtained the needed in- structor. For the teacher of that young theological school we ask the church in America. 3. Sanitarium. — Investigations are being made, at the Kamaroons, Mt. Peak, 240 miles north of Gaboon, and at another point, about the same distance south, to find an altitude above the line of fever and yet readily accessible to in- valids, where a Health Retreat may be built. When these investigations shall have been so complete that the way is open for locating at whichever point may be proved most desirable, we shall ask for a House from the church in America. 4. Industrial Education. — Unlike the natives of India, China, and other countries, the natives of Guinea have no business, or interchange of arts. So that when they become Christians they still have nothing to call them from their natural idleness. And in indolence they readily fall into evil. But they have very generally a taste for carpentering and black-smithing (using rude tools of their own make), which only needs encouragement to make it useful. Moreover, among the many works the missionary has to do, are secularities which occupy time, and which his ignorance ill fit him to perform. Dr. Loomis in i860, and Messrs Reutlinger and Menaul in 186^, sought to have mechanical arts introduced, but the inability of any one missionary to devote himself to the project, with other causes, prevented success. An earnest Christian layman, a carpenter or other mechanic, could do the house-build- ing and boat-mending our hands now have to do, and could at the same time assist in religious work. For those Christian missionary laymen, in default of, or in addition to the ministers, we ask the church in America. 5. Medical Missionaries. — There are in this United States, at this present time, at least six families (as many adult members as are now in our field) who are in good health and diligently working here, who returned from Africa and remained solely on account of their children ; a state of things which would not exist if there had been proper medical attendance. Since the foun- dation of the Mission, there has been but one resident physician, Dr. H. A. Ford, from 1850-1858, and in all those hundreds of miles of coast there has been no practising physician, except the French doctor at the Gaboon Naval Depot, and he is not available unless you go to him. Missionaries have been constrained to be their own doctors by taking, just before going out, a hasty medical education in addition to their theological, or by attending, on their 11 furloughs in this country, irregular courses of medical lectures, and getting a little skill by sad experience in Africa. This frightful state of things suffi- ciently accounts for some on our list of deaths, without speaking of African fever or blaming African malaria. A true Christian physician like Dr. Ford can teach books as well as, and cure diseases better than, the minister, leaving to the latter the proper care of the churches. Here, in sickness, the husband or father flies on car or horse for the doctor, distant only a few squares or at most a few miles. Our Mission sends in boats, against adverse winds ; and our territory covers 200 miles in length, with only one physician in it. For those Christian medical men we ask the church in America. 6. The Interior. — The sparse population on the coast would not warrant, in the presence of the calls from more populous countries, even the few mission- aries now there, much less permit this prayer for more, if the work begun there were to end there. We have even looked to the populous and more healthy (because more elevated) interior, but never have had the extra men who, leaving the coast stations fully manned as a base, could go forward and investigate. So we have painfully and tantalisingly been hanging only on the borders, without entering our wider and true field. Our natural line of growth is toward the east and south. No one now in the field can leave his post to pioneer a new station. Give us new men to release these for that eastward step. For new men we ask the church in America. 32 / MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. x The term Western Africa is given to that portion of the continent that extends from the Great Desert on the north, to a region considerably south of the equator. In this space the coast having stretched out far to the westward, recedes about twenty-five degrees east, and then proceeds in a south-easterly direction. From Morocco to Senegal the coast is settled by Moorish tribes — then to the coast of Guinea the Jaloofs, Mandingoes and Foulahs are the dominating races. In Upper and Lower Guinea are various tribes, among whom the principal evangelistic work in Western Africa is carried on. The English Churches have done much in Sierra Leone, and in this colony alone are over 12,000 communicants. Then comes Liberia, where some 3,000 com- municants are found, almost wholly among the Americo-Liberians. The Wesleyans have a flourishing mission in the Gold Coast territory, also the Basle Missionary Society. The former, with the Church Missionary Society, have an encouraging field in the Yoruba country. The United Presbyterians of Scotland have been for many years in Calabar, and this brings us in the survey to our own mission in Corisco and Gaboon. In this territory, begin- ning with the French Settlement in Senegal, and running down to the Gaboon Mission, there are about 90 laborers, over 24,000 church members, and 12,500 pupils in the schools. These may be designated as Coast Missions. The interior has not been entered, but the time is approaching when the work must be carried into the heart of Africa, and away from the fearful evils that prevail in the region now occupied. The Scriptures in whole or in part have been issued in Mandingo, Timmane, Bullom, Mandi, Fanti, Yoruba, Dualla, Efic, M'pongwe, Grebo, and Benga. It is impossible to tell the exact population found in this region. Almost every estimate is guesswork. The numbers on the lowest basis are far beyond the Church's ability to reach with the Gospel. Their condition is deplorable. Their land is a land of darkness and of death. If the low moral state of the people is to be taken into account, as influencing the Church's action, then no portion of the globe needs the missionary and the word of life more than Western Africa. Their state may repel rather than attract the la- borer, but it does not close the compassionate heart of Jesus to their necessi- ties, or turn away His eye from their ruined condition. These are before Him and He wishes that they should stand open to the vision of all His people. The difficulties that environ the missionary in his efforts to reach the peo- ple with the truth are many, and these should be apparent to those who send 4 Missions in Western Africa, as well as to those who are sent. Nowhere in the mission field do they assume greater proportions. The first of these is THE SLAVE TRADE. This for hundreds of years has been the bane of this portion of Africa. Beginning among Christian nations with the Portuguese, who discovered the western coast, it has prevailed to a greater or less extent to the present time. There is no necessity to recount its horrors, or tell of its fearful, devastating effects. Men arose who " claimed a right over the destinies of a continent, and who proceeded to the daring impiety of extracting a revenue from the death and agonies of annually slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants." It is impossible to tell the number who were regularly captured and sold. Ac- cording to the calculations of Sir Fowell Buxton, in 1840, he declared that half a million were dragged away that year from the shores of Africa. The Governor of Cape Coast Castle says : " In the year 1834, I have every reason to believe that the number of slaves carried off from the Bights of Benin and Biafra, amounted to 140,000." This horrid traffic has been almost stopped, but its evil effects are apparent throughout the whole of this region, and these were produced by men who bore the Christian name, but who manifested no higher traits of character than what were seen by those who were employed to capture and to enslave. With this were OTHER EVILS. To entrap the unwary, to pander to avarice, to satisfy greed, to gratify pas- sion, to pamper selfishness, and to stifle the moral sense, ornaments, luxuries, and intoxicating drinks were introduced by those engaged in the traffic. These enkindled strifes, engendered wars, and brought woe into many a home. The sad effects of rum on the native population are indescribable. The favorite intoxicant was formerly palm wine, but this is too mild and gentle for those whe can procure the fire-water of the white man. This vice has inter- fered greatly with the spread of the Gospel, while trade has drawn away tne young men from all thoughts of mission employ into business pursuits con- nected with the trading posts on the coast. Unless divine grace restrains, education prepares the youth for such places where temptations abound, or where they are liable to be ensnared. FETISHISM. There is no grand, elaborate system of pagan worship found in Africa, such as is encountered in portions of Asia. Superstition, dark and bloody, however, prevails, which binds almost every one and brings its votaries under the bond- age of fear. If he has no dread of a holy God, the African has much fear of the devil ; if he has no conception of pure spiritual influences, he has a vivid idea of powerful evil spirits who are ready to injure and destroy ; if he has no understanding of what true worship is, he has a high regard for endless rites and ceremonies ; if he has no knowledge of a Saviour, he has of a de- Missions in Western Africa. 5 stroyer, who under various forms can take life, and who has omnipotent power over the souls and bodies of men. If he is not acquainted with a Supreme Being, he is with gods many and lords many, as he is ready to reverence idols, or pay homage to stones, mountains, rivers, beasts, birds, and reptiles. To protect himself against danger or witchcraft, he has his amulets or charms made of anything that is consecrated by the priest, and that has all power to defend him from harm. Thus situated, he knows nothing of divine love, heavenly pity, or all-moving compassion, but much of sorrow, darkness, suf fering, and fear ; but these do not fit him to respond to heavenly truth, or in his degradation and sensuality to covet a home of unspotted holiness or a life akin to the divine. POLYGAMY. This is practiced both by Mohammedans and pagans. Marriage as under- stood in a Christian sense is unknown. A man's position is recognized by the number of wives he has purchased. They are his slaves, to work for him and to wait upon him. The effects of this system are pernicious, and the thing itself is at war with the teachings of Christ. But as social standing is measured by it, and a man's importance is regulated by the number of his wives, it is evident that this must stand as a barrier to the reception of divine truth, and especially when it revolutionizes the whole ideas that prevail as to man's importance and woman's inferiority and duties. TRIBAL RELATIONS. The selfishness and jealousy of the different tribes form a barrier to the extension of the truth. These tribes are not only ready to oppress each other, but to stand in the way of the social and moral elevation of any. Supposing that the trader will follow the missionary, or that the interior tribes will in some way derive an advantage over them if the missionary is allowed to enter, they are always ready to bar his entrance into regions beyond, or if he passes into them, to throw as many obstacles in his way as possible. This makes approach to the interior very difficult, and keeps the people under the power of avarice and selfishness. CLIMATE. This portion of the continent has been called " the land of death," and "the white man's grave," from the number who have died along its coast. Says an English writer : "Like all tropical lowlands, the sea-coasts are in- jurious to European constitutions, and are rendered much more so by the neglect of every reasonable precaution of a sanitary nature. All our settle- ments seem as if specially located as nurseries for fever, dysentery, and all other tropical diseases. At Bathurst, on the Gambia, a swamp which would pay for drainage is a source of disease. At Cape Coast, the natives are allowed to bury their dead in their houses (thus tainting the water which percolates through the soil), and commit every imaginable nuisance with impunity. The 6 Missions in Western Africa. sanitary condition of Sierra Leone is equally disgraceful." The utter want of industry and intelligence on the. part of the natives keeps things as they are. They are too few to subdue the earth, and too indifferent to undertake sanitary measures for the removal of malarious influences. In the first twelve years of the Church Missionary Society's operations in Sierra Leone, thirty Europeans died, and the Basle Missionary Society lost in one year ten of its laborers. In later years there has been no such mortality. The missionaries are better acquainted with the laws of health, and by observing these, they are enabled by occasional returns home to recruit, to live longer, and do more effective work. Much has been said about lives thrown away on this Western Coast — of useless sacrifices of men and means. Much has been written against the white man consecrating himself to such a service in such & place. But little is said by this class of the sums expended and the lives that have been lost in the attempt to discover the sources of the Niger, or that have been laid upon the altar to trade and commerce. Traders are found all along this coast. Commerce has its agents where the mission enterprise has none. When the trader dies, hundreds stand ready in Britain to take his place. When the missionary lays down his life or has to retire from the field, few, very few, are found to be baptized for the dead or to take the vacant place. Appeals the most urgent have been made for men to undertake the work, but not a single response has come from any institution in our land, and unless help comes, the missions will be seriously crippled and injured. OUR MISSIONS. These are two, Gaboon and Corisco and Liberia. The former is composed of two missions, Gaboon formerly under the care of the American Board, xnd received at the time of the re-union of the two branches of the Presby- terian Church; the other, Corisco, established by the Board in 1849. These were contiguous to each other, and when the former was transferred, the two were united under the present name. Work began at Gaboon by the removal of the laborers from Cape Palmas in 1842. These were Rev. Messrs. J. Leighton Wilson, William Walker, and Benjamin Griswold, with Mrs. J. L. Wilson and Mrs. Mary H. Wilson. These laborers, welcomed by the people and the rulers, were favorably impressed with the degree of civilization and thrift they found. The station selected was named Baraka, as it was estab- lished upon the ruins of an old slave barracoon where for generations slaves had been bought and sold. " It is beautifully situated," writes Rev. A. Bush- nell, " on an eminence a quarter of a mile from the north side of the river Gaboon, twelve miles from its mouth, overlooking the native towns on the beach, and presenting a magnificent view of river and ocean scenery." Three languages were spoken in the territory occupied. The Messongwe, " remarkable for its beauty, flexibility, and philosophical structure, was early reduced to writing and has been the principal medium of communication Missions in Western Africa. y with the people." The Bakele language was also reduced to writing, but has not been required to any great extent, as the number speaking it is limited. An attempt was also made to reduce the Pangwe to a written form. This tribe coming from the interior is more and more connected with the Messong- wes by marriage and commercial relations, so that this language may occupy an important place in the future. In 1844, control of this region passed from the hands of four chiefs to that of the French. This was obtained by means far from creditable to the French nation. The sovereignty thus ceded to Louis Philippe, has been held ever since, and the river has become an important naval station. A large French Jesuit mission under government patronage was soon established, and remains in full operation about three miles from Baraka. With this insidious agency, as well as with the adverse foreign influences that have been intro- duced in later years, the mission has had to contend. On January 1, 1844, Rev. A. Bushnell and Rev. John M. Campbell sailed for this mission. Whilst waiting for an opportunity to proceed from Cape Palmas to Gaboon, where they landed March 9, Mr. Campbell was stricken down with fever, and died April 19. Mr. Bushnell, recovering from a similar attack, was enabled to proceed to Gaboon. In July, 1843, a church was organized, consisting of fifteen members, of whom seven were natives, most of them from Cape Palmas. A second station was commenced at Ozyunga, and was occupied by Mr. Bushnell. So sudden and great are the changes among the laborers on this coast, that in 1847, only Mr. Walker and his wife were on the ground. The others were chiefly absent on account of health. At that time only two natives who had given satisfactory evidence of conver- sion had been received into the church. The schools that had been organized were reduced in number, and an appeal was made by the Board for new laborers, on the ground of the hopefulness of the field, and that altogether too little had been attempted for Western Africa. The Rev. I. M. Preston and Rev. William T. Wheeler were sent out in 1848 ; the latter after a few months' trial was obliged to return home. Six natives were baptized in 1849. This arrested attention, and aroused opposition among the enemies of the Cross. One young man was confined in irons, and others were threatened with violence in case they rejected heathenish practices. The second station already mentioned was given up, and a new one at Olandebenk, about twenty- five miles above Baraka, was established. The mission was reinforced by Rev. Jacob Best, and Henry A. Ford, M.D. Among the evils to be encoun- tered, is the mention in 1850 of the " late free introduction of American rum, which has exerted a most pernicious influence along the coast." The follow- ing striking appeal was made to Rev. A. Bushnell for a missionary. He says : "While on a visit to a town up the Gaboon River, a few days since, after conversing some time with the old head-man, he expressed a desire to have a missionary come and reside in his town, and promised to build him a house, and give him plaintains to eat, and plenty of children to instruct. I told him 8 Missions in Western Africa. we were only a few missionaries, and no one could be spared to come to his town. 'But,' said he, 'why don't you make a book and send to America for more missionaries ; I think plenty live there.' I told him, ' Yes, there are many there, and we have often invited them to come and help us ; but their country is a cold country, and this is a hot country. If they come, perhaps they will be sick, and some might die.' The old chief hesitated a little, and then replied : ' Frenchman's country be cold country too ! Plenty French- men come here. Why don't they fear? Englishman's country be cold coun- try. And yet many Englishmen come here to make trade. They no fear to be sick and die. Why do missionaries fear to come ? ' " This question has never been satisfactorily answered. It has always been difficult to keep up a good working corps of laborers on this coast. Experience has shown that if the missionary remains at his post a few years, the relaxing and malarious influences of the climate are such that he must leave for a season to recruit in a colder and healthier climate. By doing this, life has been prolonged. Rev. Dr. Wilson returned home in 1852, after eighteen years' service, and has been since in another relation with the missionary cause. In 1853, Rev. Messrs. Pierce and Herrick sailed for Gaboon, and in 1854, Rev. H. M. Adams, who died in 1856, and Mr. Her- rick in 1857. In 1857, Rev. A. D. Jack and Miss Jane A. Van Allen sailed for Gaboon. Some others labored in this mission for a while, but for ten years no male missionary was sent out. Sometimes one only of these was in active service, and at other times two. For years Messrs. Walker, Bushnell, and Preston were the only representatives of the Church in the field. The name of Mrs. Preston disappears from the list, and at the time of the re- union in 1870, Mr. Walker and his wife were alone at their station, and Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell, the other laborers, were in the United States. The church had grown in numbers, but the allurements of trade, and the numerous en- ticements to evil had been injurious to its solid growth, so that at one time in 1868, seventeen members were publicly cut off as dead branches. When the mission was transferred, the American Board said : " It is to be regretted, that after so many years of faithful labor no more has been accomplished in this field. But it must be remembered, that this mission has encountered from the first, a peculiar obstacle in addition to that of heathenism, for which Christian countries are responsible. But our own and the P^nglish mission- aries distinctly charge upon the trade in rum, so long and so freely carried on from this country and Great Britain, their want of greater success. And it must be said to the everlasting reproach of these countries, that they have ex- ported to this part of Africa more heathenism than Christianity, and done more to destroy the natives than to save them." Since the re-union a gracious revival has taken place in the church ; and the outstation, Nengenenge, has been occupied by a licentiate preacher. The membership of the church is 93. In the schools are 50 boys and 51 girls, of whom 30 boys and 40 girls are boarding scholars. The present force is Missions in Western Africa, 9 greatly reduced. Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell and Miss Dewsnap are alone at Gaboon. Mr. and Mrs. Reading and Miss Jones are in the United States. CORISCO. This name, so well known in connection with Africa, is a small island some twenty miles from the mainland, and fifty-five miles north of the Equator. In 1849, Rev. James L. Mackey, Rev. George W. Simpson, and their wives, sailed for their new field, and arrived at Gaboon in January, 1850. The first thing which required their attention was the choice of a station. After visiting various places along the coast, they selected Corisco, in the hope that it would be more healthy than the mainland, but future experience has not fully justified this early belief. These laborers passed safely through the acclimating fever, but on the nth of March Mrs. Mackey was removed by death. Her disease was not, however, peculiar to the climate. The following year a heavier calamity befell the mission. Whilst Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were at sea the vessel was struck by a typhoon, and all on board perished, with the exception of a native sailor. The removal of these devoted laborers was greatly felt, and was a heavy blow to the work. Mr. Mackey, however, planned for enlarged opera- tions, and soon opened a second station, not far from the first, called Evan- gasimba, that he might be nearer the native population. A school was started, and soon forty-eight boys were in regular attendance. This was followed by a boarding-school. In 185 1 the mission was reinforced by Miss I. Sweeney, who was afterward married to Mr. Mackey. The next year the Rev. George McQueen arrived, and in 1853 the Rev. Messrs. Edwin T. Williams and Wil. Ham Clemens and their wives, joined the mission, and in 1854, Miss G. M. Bliss, who was afterward married to Mr. McQueen. On the 3d of April, 1854, a disastrous fire occurred on the island, which consumed all the mission build- ings. This called out much sympathy, both in Corisco and among the churches at home. Rev. Mr. and Mrs. DeHeer, and Miss Kaufman, accompanied the Mackeys, who had been on a visit to the United States, and arrived in 1855. This year two young men applied for baptism. The first attention of the laborers was turned to the acquisition of the Benga language. It was unwrit- ten. The people had no books. No helps such as grammars and dictionaries were to be had, and even no interpreter who had any knowledge of the struc- ture of the language. In 1855 the missionaries were able to say : " We have succeeded in writing the language of the people, and have now, besides a grammar, one book printed, which contains much Scripture truth." At this time there were three places of preaching where the people met regularly to hear the Word of God. Soon after this three stations were established — the original one, Evangasimba, on the western side, Ugobi on the southern end of the island, and Alongo on the northern end. The second station named was two miles from Evangasimba, and the third was three miles. A church was organized in October, 1856, when two native converts were received. Several excursions had been made among the tribes on the mainland, who welcomed io Missions in Western Africa, the missionary among them. One of these tours was 150 miles into the inte- rior. In 1857 the first death occurred in the field, among the missionaries, since the establishment of the mission. Mrs. DeHeer died in April from a violent attack of malignant fever. Rev. Thomas S. Ogden and wife joined the mission in 1858, and were followed by Miss M. M. Jackson, who after- ward married Rev. W. H. Clark. Corisco was under Spanish rule when occupied by our laborers. At one time the authorities threatened to interfere with the work, and went so far as to issue a proclamation. They were not disturbed, and for many years they have felt entirely secure under Spanish protection. Dr. C. L. Loomis arrived in Corisco in 1859 to fill the vacancy made by the death of Mr. McQueen. The report of this year speaks of an increased interest among the people on the subject of religion. It says : " In the catechumen class there are now about fifty who are candidates for baptism. Among these are several men with their wives. The converts are, however, chiefly among the young, and of such as have been educated at our different stations." Of these, thirty- eight were afterward received on profession of their faith. A presbytery was organized, and three young men were taken under its care as candidates for the ministry, and one of them afterward licensed and ordained. The influence of the mission upon the people is mentioned by Rev. J. L. Mackey, in t86i, as follows : " Since the commencement of our missionary work among the Bengas, there has been an extraordinary advance in civilization. They build better houses ; many of them are respectably clothed ; on Sabbath we have respectably-dressed congregations at three separate places of worship. Though there is still a large majority of the inhabitants of Corisco who cling to their heathenish customs, yet all have been elevated, and, in some degree, civilized, through the influence of the mission." In i860 Miss Mary C. Latta joined the mission, and also Rev. Robert H. Nassau in the following year. They were subsequently married. With the exception of occasional touring on the mainland, evangelistic labor had been confined to Corisco, which contained a population of three or four thousand. The missionaries had been anxious for some time to begin opera- tions on the mainland. Some of their number made a voyage to Benita, fifty-four miles to the north, which resulted in its occupancy in the early part of 1865 by Rev. George Paul, who had reached Corisco in 1863. We can not even sketch his brief, but remarkable career, as he was from the first cheered by hearing many asking what they should do to be saved. In the midst of an awakening of great interest he was suddenly cut down, leaving behind him the fragrance of thorough consecration to his work. Besides the names already mentioned, the following have labored in connec- tion with the mission : Rev. S. Reutlinger and his wife arrived, 1S66 ; Rev. John Menaul and wife, and Miss I. A. Nassau, in 1868 ; Rev. J. C. DeB. Kops and his wife, Rev. S. H. Murphy and his wife, Rev. S. L. Gillespie, Miss Sarah J. Boughton, 1871 ; and in 1872, Miss Lydia Jones, Miss Sarah E. Hen- Missions hi Western Africa. 1 1 dricks, Miss Martha B. White, Rev. W. Schorsch, G. W. Taylor, M.D.; and Miss Lush, in 1873 J and m 1875, Mr. Joseph H. Reading and his wife, and Miss S. Dewsnap. It is a painful thought that, from one cause or another, so many of those who have been sent out to this mission within the last few years have returned. This is discouraging. Tried men and women are greatly needed who can stand the climate, and are ready to stand in their lot. Those now on the ground are entitled to the name of veterans. The three ministers have been there respectively, nineteen, twenty-two, and thirty-three years, and two of them greatly need a change ; but if they return, who is to take their places ? The objective point of the mission has been the interior. The laborers have looked to the populous and more healthy regions that are inland, and away from certain deleterious influences that abound on the coast. Dr. Nas- sau has, therefore, made the attempt, and after considerable reconnoitering and prospecting, has established a station at Kangwe, on the Ogowe river, 120 miles from the coast, and has placed a native assistant at a substation 150 miles from "the coast. The work is among the Galwas, who seem anxious to know about the truth. Some difficulties have been experienced by an attack of a tribe living nearer the coast. On the island, Mr. DeHeer and wife and Mrs. Louise Reutlinger are at work. The church at Alongo has a membership of 118, of whom 29 were added during the year. There were 23 boys in school under the care of Mr. and Mrs. DeHeer, and 23 girls under Mrs. Reutlinger's instruction. To the church at Benita 28 were added during the year, making a total of 103 on the communion roll. This church has been under the care of Rev. Ibia J'Ikenje, a native minister. At Benita, Miss Nassau is toiling on, hoping for aid, preaching to many at home a lesson of self-sacrificing devotion. The following is a summary of missionary operations : Three missionaries, one native minister, one licentiate, one layman, who has charge of the sloop Hudson, five ladies, of whom two are married, eighteen native assistants, 314 communicants, and 217 scholars in the schools. LIBERIA. Liberia extends along the western coast from lat. 70, 25/ N. and long. 120, 34/ W., down to 40, 44' N. and long. 6°, 37/ VV. The length of its sea-coast is about 520 miles. It was first settled by free blacks, January 7, 182 1, who sailed from New York in 1820, 89 in number. After some disappointments and difficulties they were able to land. Others followed from time to time, until the number who have gone out as colonists with the re-captured slaves has been over 20,000. The small territory purchased at first has been greatly enlarged, until it embraces the portion already described. The first mission- ary to this region was Lot Cary, who had been a slave, and had purchased him- self and family. He went out under Baptist auspices in 1821, and labored till his death in 1828. In 1825, Mr. Ashmun, then Governor of the Colony, is- 12 Missions in Western Africa. sued an earnest appeal for missionaries not only for the natives, but as neces- sary to keep the colonists from lapsing into barbarism. In answer to this ap- peal several Swiss missionaries from the Basle Society went out. From one cause or another the mission dwindled, and the last of the number left for Sierra Leone. Whilst it continued, this mission exerted a beneficial influence on the people. The population of this Republic is made up of two distinct classes — the Aborigines, or native Africans, composed of different tribes, and found on the territory purchased for the colonists. The number is estimated as high as 300,000. These are heathen, though scattered among them is a number of Mohammedans. The second class is composed of some liberated slaves, and mainly of those who had been slaves in the Southern States, with a portion of free colored people living at the north. Power, political and religious, was put into the hands of this second class, and in order to dissociate civil affairs and political administration of the government from foreign interference and influ- ence, no white man can hold office in the country. It is a government wholly of blacks, and the experiment is going on — whether a people thus situated are capable of self-government, and can rise to the character and dignity of a nation. Much may be said in their behalf. Few of them had any experience in national affairs or political life. The many had been reared in servitude and in a state of dependence. As a growing community by the steady arrival of colonists, they were poor and ignorant. Their climate was unhealthy, they were thrown, a little band, among an ignorant and depraved population wholly pa^an. Class distinctions arose. The Americo-Liberians assumed superior- ity, and in one way or another tyrannized over the natives and antagonisms were produced. No effort to raise them from social and moral degradation has been put forth, and as a consequence their influence upon the rising generation has been bad. Nearly all evangelistic work had to be done for the colonists, in the hope that they would make aggressive movements upon the heathenism around them. This has not been the case, and the churches are less able to stand alone than they were fifteen or twenty years ago. Education is sadly neglected. There is not a common school in the Republic, and the college is but a high-school except in name. The mission to Liberia was commenced when Rev. John B. Finney arrived at Monrovia, in February, 1833. His first effort was to know the state of things in the country, the condition of the people, and the needs of the mis- sion. Obtaining this information, he returned home to confer with the com- mittee and to urge upon the Church the sending of more men to Africa. The accounts he gave of the great debasement of the people and their low condi- tion, morally and intellectually, prompted the Board to appoint Rev. Messrs. Laird and Cloud, with Mr. James Temple, a young colored man, who sailed in company with Mr. Finney, and who arrived in Liberia on the last day of the year 1833. Within a few months after their arrival, Messrs. Cloud, Laird and Mrs. Laird were in their graves. Mr. Temple came back to the United Missions in Western Africa. 13 States, and Mr. Pinney was left alone. In September, 1834, he was joined by Mr. J. F. C. Finley, and the two remained till the following year, when ex- hausted by disease and no longer able to prosecute their labors, they embarked for the United States, and this terminated the first attempt to reach the natives of Africa with the Gospel. The object of this mission was for the Aborigines, and only incidentally for the colonists. The decision of the Board in relation to Western Africa was " to send those only who may offer themselves for that specific service. As the responsibility of choosing and going to the field is thus, in the first instance, assumed by the missionary himself, it has been deemed proper that he should have the liberty of returning, if in his judgment his health should require his doing so for a longer or shorter time." Mr. Pinney, accompanied by Rev. Oren K. Canfield and Mr. Jonathan P. Alward, reached Monrovia in 1839, an<^ a^ter exploring the coast for 150 miles, they settled among the Kroo people, who live about halfway between Monrovia and Cape Palmas. Sickness again compelled Mr. Pinney's return, and while the others were looking forward to doing much for souls and for Christ, they were both called to their rest, Mr. Alward in 1841, and Mr. Canfield the following year. The latter was joined by Rev. Robert W. Sawyer and his wife, in December, 1841, tut he was called to his heavenly home in 1843. These frequent deaths led the Board to send out, as they offered, colored ministers, so that in 1842 we find the names of three — Rev. Messrs. Eden, Priest, and Wilson. Three stations were then occupied — Settra Kroo, Sinoe, and Monrovia. Much attention was given to education at the first of these stations, which was occupied till 1850, when Mr. Connolly, who had labored here from his arrival in 1844, was obliged from failure of health to return to the United States, and since that period no ordained laborer has been stationed among the Kroos. These Kroos have never been engaged in the slave-trade, nor have they suffered their people to be enslaved. They are more intelli- gent and energetic than other tribes, but they are proud and sensual. More than two hundred of the boys, and some of the girls, were taught to read, and much precious seed was sown, but when the missionary left, not a soul had ap- peared interested in the truths of the Gospel or espoused the cause of Christ. In the year 1847 the Rev. H. W. Ellis, a learned slave in Alabama, whose freedom and that of his family had been purchased, reached Liberia. After the death of Mr. Eden, Mr. Ellis took charge of the church at Monrovia, and Mr. Priest moved to Greenville. The Presbytery of Western Africa was consti- tuted in December, 1848, and two members of the Monrovia church were taken under the care of the Presbytery. The Alexander High School went into operation the following year, with encouraging prospects of usefulness. It has been the means of accomplishing much for the Republic, and especially under the administration of Rev. D. A. Wilson; but it has not been as effective an educational agency as was expected when first instituted. The great want of Liberia all along its history has been primary schools, and a sufficient num- 14 Missions in Western Africa. ber of educated men to take an interest in the cause of education. The re- port for 1852 mentions that the church at Monrovia had 32 communicants, that at Kentucky had 5$ — to this church 14 were added that year. The Sinoe church had 45 members. Mr. James, who had united with the mission some years before, was carrying on a successful school at the capital. It was felt by the Board that if Liberia was ever to rise to respectability and importance as a nation it must be brought more under a thorough relig- ious and educational influence, and to do this the people must, for a time, be dependent on the aid given by American churches. This idea became gen- eral among different denominations, and for years they were liberal in extend- ing help, but this instead of producing strong and active Christians who were ready, by the constant emigration received from the States, to assume their own church support, they became dependent on others, and they have never put forth any active or vigorous measures for their own sustentation, or for the welfare of the heathen in the Republic, and now, as the various Boards have been compelled to withdraw means that had been given, the feebleness of the churches is manifest, and it is doubtful what the future of Liberia is to be. Rev. Amos Herring, formerly of the Methodist Church, became connected with the mission in 1854, and took charge of the church at Monrovia. A new colonial settlement, called Harrisburgh, was formed on the St. Paul, about 30 miles from the sea coast, and a church was organized, which was placed under the supervision of Mr. Simon Harrison, a licentiate of the Presbytery. The frequent collisions between the Liberians and the aborigines interfered with evangelistic work. Animosities were fostered and evils produced that impoverished the people and wrought alienations. From necessity and the peculiarities of the case, the missionaries gave themselves to labor among the Liberians, and the consequence has been that the heathens among whom they live are heathens still. The year 1857 was blessed to many. 12 were received into the church at Monrovia, making the total of communicants 56 ; to the church at Kentucky 18 were added, and several to the others. In 1859 Rev- Messrs. Amos and Miller, who were trained at the Ashmun Institute, reinforced this mission. With the exception of Rev. Edwin Williams, who had been stationed for a time at Corisco, and the ordination of Rev. Edward W. Blyden, a graduate of the Alexander High School, no new laborers had been sent to this mission. In virtue of this reinforcement two new stations were opened. Mr. Amos died in 1864 and Mr. Miller in the early part of 1865. Rev. Edward Boek- len, a native of Germany, went out in 1866 to take charge of the Alexander High School, but he died of the African fever in 1868. With the exception of some teachers trained up in the field, and some ministers educated on the ground, no new laborers have been sent for many years. Liberia needs, at this time, the infusion of new blood. She demands new workers fitted for the peculiar condition of things in the Republic and adapted to the climate. There is a great work to be done, not only in Liberia proper, but in the re- Missions in Western Africa, 15 gions beyond. Mohammedanism is active in the interior, and Christianity- should be there to meet and stay its inroads. The natives will be more difficult to be reached with the Gospel as Mohammedans than as heathens. At pres- ent there are five ministers and three teachers in connection with the mission. There are 10 churches, with a membership of 250. The population of Americo-Liberians is decreasing. The financial state of the country continues bad. The government, modelled after our own, is too expensive. The most energetic and intelligent of the young men are trained away from home, and are scattered through the interior for trading purposes. More enterprise is manifested by the people, and the exportation of coffee is gradually increasing. Drunkenness does not decrease. This, as far as we can gather, is a faithful portraiture of Liberia. Whilst some of our people have taken an interest in Liberia, our govern- ment has done nothing for her. The English colonists receive different treat- ment from England, and as she has expensive dependencies in Western Africa, it is a question whether Liberia would not do better to be attached to England as a colony. -•«•* ***» £22 ..' ft ar ■ , *f U11H 1 5 \994 GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S A. >.■& y